My Graduation Day

I did this page for another template challenge over at Scrap Matters. My mom and I wrote the poem together while she was out here for my graduation. It reads:

Just before I turned 28,
from college I did graduate.
It took ten years and lots of work,
at times I thought I’d go berserk.
I had four kids along the way.
And in conclusion, let’s just say . . .
The last 10 years had ups and downs
but it was all worthwhile, I have found.

For credits, click here.

And while I'm here, let me just say thanks to everyone who has supported me throughout this LONG journey...I couldn't have done it by myself.

A Dad and his Girls

I made this page for another templage challenge, this time at a different site. Dani Mogstad is a designer I love (I've bought tons of her stuff) and she has a blog that I visit. There are challenges every now and then, including a template challenge every month. I usually get the template, but don't bother to enter the challenge since I never win anything. Since I just won that last challenge, I figured why not enter this one as well? So here's my entry. And even if I don't win, I'm really happy with how this page turned out.

For credits, click here.

pirate girl

Amya has been watching my scrapbook lately and wanted to do a page of her own. She picked out the colors, the papers, the pictures and where we put them, everything. I just helped her use the program, but she did it.

the haircut

I participated in a speed scrap this morning. It was pretty fun. Over the course of an hour, someone gave us instructions on what to include in our page every 10 minutes. At the end of the hour, we had one more hour to get everything finished up and then post the layout. Here's what I came up with from the instructions given me...

I'm pretty pleased with it (the page, not the subject). Look at all that hair gone! Argh!

Here's a link for credits: the haircut

i won!!!

I am so excited!! My scrapbook page A Day at the Farm won a contest!! The designer of the template had a contest for using the template. You had a week to use it and at the end of the week she would choose two winners - one was drawn randomly and the other was her favorite use of the template. And I won!! For her favorite use! I wasn't the random winner, she liked my page the best. And there were over 30 people who entered. Sorry, I keep going on about this, but I'm just so excited. :)

Here's a link to my layout at that site (click here) . The credits are listed there as well. And the name of the website is Scrap Matters.

A Day at the Farm

Click here for credits.

Journaling reads: Dad needed to go do some work at the farm and we decided to tag along. You girls have so much fun playing at the farm. You look for eggs, feed the goats, help weed the garden, moo at the cows, play on the swing set, chase chickens, visit the peacocks, play in the barn, run all over the place, and have an awesome tme. Whenever Dad says, “Who wants to go to the farm?” there is an immediate chorus of “Me!” from all four of you. You come home dirty, muddy, stinky, and tired, but there’s no denying the joy in your eyes. You girls sure LOVE to play at the farm.

this is me

Here's my third page for the class. It's an all-about-me page. Never done one before. Kinda fun. and embarassing. Hope you like it!

before & after

I'll let the pictures do the talking. I'm still too upset.

(This is the second layout for my advanced class.)

(Don't worry, I'll do one for Téa too, as she was unable to escape Elena's scissor escapade.)

hawaii pics

Remember how I told you we took over 1000 pictures while we were in Hawaii? That's a lot to go through. And a lot to choose from. But I've narrowed it down to 67 pictures and you can see them here. Let me know if you have any problems with the link or viewing the pictures. Enjoy! (Oh and keep in mind that I had no time to edit any of these pics. So they're all straight out of the camera shots, no photoshop fixes yet.)

And here's one of my favorites. We got very good at taking self-portraits.

General Conference 08

I had signed up to take the 'expert' scrapbooking class from Jessica Sprague back at the end of April, but I never did any of the assignments. It was nearing the end of school and I had so much going on that I was never able to get around to doing them. I finally sat down today and completed the first page. It took forever! There were so many intricate things she taught us to do on this one. I am loving learning more and more about digital scrapbooking. Hope you like the page!
Funny from today - I made dinner for Keith and the girls, and I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I kinda made my own recipe by combining a couple other ones. And it was a hit! All the girls and Keith loved it. After dinner Elena was talking about how glad she was that I had made dinner and how much she liked it. Then she said, "That dinner made me feel SO good! It made me feel like I have lots of friends!" So silly. Then later she was dancing and singing and asked me, "Mom, aren't you glad you have a daughter like me who loves to dance and sing?" She is so cute!

Happy Father's Day!

These girls sure do love their daddy! And does he ever spoil them! Keith picked out these dresses for them in Hawaii and was excited to see his girls wear their new dresses. Keith is such a great father. I'm really grateful to have him in our lives. I couldn't have been a teacher this past year without his help. I love you Keith!

And Happy Father's Day to my dad as well. I love him. And my girls love their Papa. They love for him to "shake" them and "check their teeth" and all the other things he would do to me and my sisters when we were young. He's a great dad and a great papa and we all love him a lot.

we're back!

So we got back from Hawaii on Tuesday and it was AWESOME!! We had such a great time. We left on May 31 and got back on June 10. We stayed on the island of Oahu and let me tell you, we explored that whole island. We put 835 miles on our rental car! I think eventually I'll do a big recap, but for now I'll just give you the highlights. We hiked Diamondhead (a volcanic crater), we snorkelled, we rented scooters, we went to the Hawaii temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center, we ate out, we went to the Dole Plantation and other museums, we snorkelled some more, we saw sea turtles, we watched the sun set, we went on an ATV tour and saw where movies have been filmed, we relaxed at the beach, we shopped, we celebrated my birthday, we slept in, we went to Pearl Harbor, we went to Chinatown, and I think maybe that covers it. We had so much fun. We definitely want to go back. And I would recommend it to anyone. Such a cool place. We took over 1000 pictures while we were there. Whoa. I don't think you want me to post them all (and I don't think Blogger will let me). But here's the June desktop I made with two of the pictures from our trip.


By the way, I got the desktop here.