Smile...

I placed an order for photo printing today and wanted to share some pictures from this month that make me smile...

I was a little behind in getting the chalkboard calendar in the utility room changed over from April. One day as I was walking through, I caught Kevin standing on a barstool and changing it over for me. I love how he added the smiley faces on each side of May. :) Have you ever heard me call Kevin "Weirdo"??? This is why...
We were enjoying a night at the Bats baseball game in Louisville.

I'm not sure if this next picture makes me smile or cry. This is Blake - my NINE year old - showing off his new pair of shoes. They are a size SEVEN in Men's!!!!! He's already taller than my shoulder. At least it makes him smile!

We enjoyed a day trip to visit my mother-in-law. The boys love the lake in her backyard. We had a great afternoon of fishing. Kevin caught three and Tom tried to get him to kiss the first one. Blake caught a fish, too. I would have smiled like this if I had caught one. I just had a turtle chasing my bobber around!
We tagged along for Kevin's kindergarten field trip to the zoo. We wisely invested a quarter in the massage chairs toward the end of our "hike". Kevin loved it. I wish we had more quarters...I would have done it, too!
Finally, here's a self-portrait of me and Blake. I'm happy he isn't making a crazy face in this one. I guess I can look at this and smile since it's likely a peek into the future. Once he bypasses me in height, I'm sure he'll continue to bend down for me!
I love having two boys!

After everyone else is in bed...

I am often asked when I find the time to scrapbook. Well, the answer is whenever I get a chance, but that's usually after everyone else in the house is in bed. This past week I had many late nights in my scrapbook area.

One of my favorite recent layouts is for Kevin's album. It tells the story about his Rosary, Pappa's Rosary. I made this layout with some pictures from last fall. I was happy to answer the doorbell to find a love note on the sidewalk and two happy boys with their artwork. I used papers from Paper Trunk that were in my Personal Scrapper May add-on.
This next layout just makes me smile. Kevin loves to help in the kitchen and I captured him helping make Sunday morning breakfast one weekend. He loves to flip the pancakes! Oh...and don't you love the apron?? I grabbed that on clearance at Old Navy after Halloween. It's my favorite! For the layout, I used my May Personal Scrapper kit for this (new Chatterbox papers). You can't tell in the picture, but the flowers are cut out of paper and the centers are raised up with pop dots. I used my new favorite tool - a Martha Stewart border punch - to make the scalloped edge on the striped paper.

I made another layout with the May PS kit with pictures of my visit at my parents' house with my aunt Sandy and cousin Tiffany.
This next layout was inspired by a conversation I had with my sister, Adriane. One night over dinner she asked how long I'd had my UNC sweatshirt. Tada...a layout was born. I found pics from the weekend I purchased the shirt...in NC!...and mixed them with a current self-portrait. I used Crate Paper papers for this one.
Kevin picked up some Build-A-Bear Workshop stickers when our local scrapbook store went out of business earlier this year. He wanted to make a page for our trip to make his new friend, Bark E. (he already had a bear named Roar E. Pinecone - he came up with the names himself!). We finally made those pages this week. He was soooo proud of them! (I was too!)
Finally, I sat up one night and used the mini album from the Personal Scrapper May add-on to make a little book all about me. It's 4.5" square. It makes me happy.
Now this week I have a request from Tom to PLEASE finish our St. Lucia album. I had good intentions to finish it by the end of March, but I got sidetracked. The housework is caught up now, so my goal is to see how much I can get finished tomorrow while the boys are in school. ;)

1 Year Ago

One year ago today, my grandfather lost his battle with cancer. I miss him.

Catching up...

With baseball season starting up, it's been a CRAZY time in our house! Opening weekend was a busy time for us. We had great weather for our walk through on opening night, but our boys didn't have games. Then that Saturday, Kevin won two games and Blake was 2-2 in the COLD, FREEZING rain! We were at the ballpark from 9 a.m. until nearly 8 p.m. With Blake's team out of the tournament, he was able to watch Kevin's team play FOUR games in a row on Sunday to win 2nd place. Luckily we had beautiful weather that day!

I participated in an online crop at http://personalscrapper.com for National Scrapbook Day. I was able to finish all 18 of their challenges for the weekend. I'm posting some of my favorites below.
This "Play Ball" layout was based on a sketch. Instead of using one large enlargement, I used 6 smaller photos of Kevin during the opening weekend tournament. When I lifted a DT member, I selected photos of me with my aunt Sandy and cousin Tiffany. Tiffany was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme (stage 4 brain cancer) in July. She's had a long fight trying to "Kill Ted" (the tumor). I'm so proud of them both. I think they are the strongest two people I know.
Here is another opening weekend layout, "18 Wheelers". Both boys use the number 18. This page is for Blake's album. I used the April kit from Personal Scrapper for this one.
This photo of Blake in "Stop!" just cracks me up. Sometimes I know they get tired of me taking so many pictures, but for the most part, I think they really appreciate that I do so much and I know they love their scrapbooks!
"Messy" was a quick under 30 minute page. I lifted this idea from the new Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine. This is Blake goofing off after one of the ballgames last summer.

For the ribbon challenge, I used a self-portrait of me and Kevin. This is another lift from SBE's latest issue. It's one of my favorite pages from the weekend. I used my new sewing machine to sew the ribbons on.
Talk about feeling old, my baby sister went to Prom a few weeks ago. I realized at her graduation later this month, I will be one year younger than Mom was sitting at mine! Here is a shot of us together before she left for prom. A classmate of hers said we looked just alike. We don't! But, it sure was flattering! Oh, and I lifted this from SBE, too.
We had a "no adhesive" challenge, so I only used staple and brads to adhere everything to this "happy" layout. There is hidden journaling on the tag inserted behind the photo.
Aside from scrapbooking, we went to the zoo with Kevin's kindergarten class. That was fun! We celebrated Mother's Day in Evansville with Grandma Rosemary a week early. The boys got to go fishing there. Everyone caught a fish but me! I just had a turtle chasing my bobber! Blake took a field trip to Bernheim, but it was the day after a huge rain, so I skipped that one. Tom and the boys spoiled me for Mother's Day. They sent me for a "La Stone" massage, manicure, and pedicure. While I was at it, I also chopped my hair off...short. I love it!

The school year is wrapping up. The boys will have field day and awards ceremonies next week. I'm really looking forward to having them home for summer break!