Birthday Boy!

Jack celebrated his 6th birthday this weekend!

Well, it's today, the 23th but it feels like we've been partying for days!!!

As it should be ;)

We had a little Lego party with friends, because, quite frankly, he's obsessed!!!

But it was a fun colorful theme to do.

 Just a little excited me thinks.

 Bold primary colors for decor.

 Goodie bags that I glued circles on to create the lego "look".

Cute little stripey straws and a big bowl of m&m's.

 These might be a little creepy looking....but they are supposed to be Lego heads.  

Basically, marshmallows dipped in yellow candy melts with black frosting for the faces.

 Good ol' donut game....ALWAYS good for a laugh and one of my kids faves.

I like to use the little gem donuts (powdered)  they are just the right size for little ones and actually less messy than the typical glaze.

 Tennis ball in the nylon game.  Knock over the water bottles.

This was a hoot!!! And let me just say the kids got quite carried away playing this one!

                     Made a little lego skeeball game...the girls kicked the boys but in this one. 
                                          The boys just couldn't pull themselves together!

They were way to busy doing things like this!!!

Little outta control me thinks!!!

He's ready to blow!!! 6 big candles!!!

I can't believe it.

It's gone by in a flash.

He is the cherry on top for this family.

Each and everyone of us is so grateful for him!!!!

He is our miracle baby and we are so lucky that we got to keep him ;)

We love all his crazy antics and the things that come out of his mouth...hysterical!!!

He keeps us all laughing...and is the sweetest thing to boot.

We LOVE him to bits and pieces.

Happy Birthday Jack!!!

Project Life...I'm really doing it!

So Im really doing this.
And I'm proud of myself I tell ya!

It's been really fun and I feel like I'm starting to get into a groove of how I want to work it.

First and foremost....when I introduced the plan to my family on New Years and showed it all to them, Samantha just huffed at me and said, I quote "ya, this isn't gonna last!!!!"   Sadly, she knows me well.  But this has just inspired me to keep up that much more!  I can't let her be right!!!

I started with the "D" style pages, with the large vertical slots and small horizontal ones, and immediately decided I didn't like it.  Almost all the journal cards that come in the kits don't sit right in the slots.  Everything was sideways.  Good thing I scored me some "A" designs immediately following the first week.  So I think I'll mostly be using those ones, mixing in the "D" when the supplies suite me.

I've used a mix of project life kit cards, online digital ones that I print, and my own.  What I've been doing is sitting down and choosing a set for each week.  Keeping the same style/theme each week. 

This is turning out to be a great use of leftover supplies from kits and things I don't always use on my layouts.  It feels good using my stash ;)

I had loads of fun creating my title page and laugh at our posed family portrait.  I wanted it to be casual and easy, I got half and half!!!!  Self timer shots are interesting with 6 people and a dog!!  It totally cracks me up!!!

I used October Afternoon's Boarding Pass Collection with a few additional embellishments.

 Here's my first week.  Not sure if I'm completely sold on the date square.  But I do want to have the dates on here, so this will probably be what it is. 

I started out with just big pictures and than small journaling, but that looked SO boring to me, that I'm working on mixing that up a bit.

One thing we've decided to include, based upon something we did during December, was to include a weekly gratitude spot.  We are each listing something we were grateful for during the week.  Kristen asked me the first week we did it  "does it have to be something spiritual or like our family???"  Ha!!!!  No.....it's whatever you want it to be!!!  If your grateful for a candy bar, than be grateful for that ;)   Just want them to be aware of all that they have!

Week two is a little funner.....I think as time goes on it will get less formal and more crazy...which is good to me ;)

This yellow chevron is an envelope that fits perfectly!  I've included a spotlight sheet that was filled out for Kristen at a church event.

My goal is to try and work on my pictures through out the week as I take them.  Have them all ordered Sunday night on-line and pick them up Monday morning to fill in the pages.

I made myself a little chart where I can fill in each day the things I want to document and the little conversations that I hear.  So putting it all together isn't too hard.

Jan Sketch at Get Picky

We've got a fun new sketch for you girls over at Get Picky.

There's even a prize up for grabs so be sure to check it out!

I went a bit out of my comfort zone with this one and did a bit of hand drawing.  

Well, circles anyways.  That's a big step for me ;)

 

 

 I like how it turned out though....this here's Jack, figure I'm off to a good start working on him, right!! ;)   These are pictures of him playing with an elmo boat that Nathan got for his 2nd birthday!  It's gone through all the kids and has always been a big hit!  It's one of those good toys that didn't go bad and gross in the water. 

 I like using the negatives from my border punches and these ones fit perfect with my water theme ;)

This here is a mix of October Afternoons RocketAge and BoardingPass lines.

Is it lame???

To be so excited about a sixteen dollar tool box???
Too bad if it is, cause I am excited!!!!!!

The organizer hiding deep within me looooooves this thing and had SO much fun deciding what to put in each compartment.  Everything I like to have at my fingertips is in there.  Not in piles or bowls on my desk, not in the shelves I have to get up and go over to....right here ;)  Cleaned off my desk BIG TIME!

I'm such a nerd.....but you can get one for yourself at your local hardware store ;)

It's such a great size..not too big, fits perfectly on my desk and holds a lot!
Journaling cards
washi tape
chipboard shapes
chalk
specialty buttons that I sort by manufacturer
tags & ephemera
all the leftover bits and pieces I don't want to get rid of ;)

I could probably fill several of these.  But I put in the things I'm always grabbing for or things that don't really have a home.

While I was taking pictures of this I thought I would share with you also the way I store my twine ;)

Found these little wooden pins at the craft store and i just wrap my twine around them and keep them in this cute little bowl.  I have a few new ones that haven't made it on to a pin yet ;)

I have these display shelves above my desk as well that I pile my layouts on until they start falling off because there are too many and then I put them in my albums.  I've started stacking my mists up there ;)

So there you go ....a few organizing ideas to get you going on 2012!!!

I've been working on my project life and will be sharing that next ;)
Happy Friday the 13th!!!!

Phew........

 after posting my top 11 for 2011 I felt kinda bad.....like a baaaaad mom ;(
I didn't have any boy layouts in there. 
So to prove that I do have TWO boys......here are my top 11 boy layouts.
I do have more than 11 boy layouts......a few more ;)

Though I don't feel completely bad about not scrapping a lot of Nathan.....
numba 1:  he does not like me taking his picture
numba 2:  he was my main subject for quite a few years and he has a stash of albums already!
I do need to work on Jack more though.
That will be a goal for me....focus more on Jack ;)

Thanks for looking!!!
One of these days I'm gonna get up the energy to sort through Christmas and share that ;)

Get Picky Dec. Inspiration

Our New Years inspiration post is up at Get Picky

The challenge this month is to think about what we might resolve to do in the coming New Year.

We've got some inspiring words up on the blog to gleam your inspiration from.

I chose the words from the poem that say "Every day of your life"

I wrote a note to my kids about some things that I hope for them, and things I want them to remember.

 

I hope you'll hop on over and have a go at it!!!