30 down, 10 to go

At the beginning of this pregnancy I had this plan of posting a picture of how big the baby is and how much it weighs every week. As you can see, I haven't done that at all yet. But I figure better late than never.....so here's the info on what this baby looks like at 30 weeks (according to BabyCenter.com).

"Your baby rivals a good-size cabbage in weight, tipping the scales this week at 3 pounds. (Length: about 15 3/4 inches, head to heel.)"

And once again, instead of the plan of taking a pic of me every week to watch my belly grow, we've taken a total of 2 pictures. Two. I'll try to get Keith to take one of me this week, but I always hate the pictures he takes.......but if you're wondering, my belly is measuring 4 weeks bigger than I really am so yes, I'm huge.

Project 365

So I jumped on the Project 365 bandwagon. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can go here for more detailed information. But basically, you take a photo every day for a whole year and then at the end of the year you have this year-long photo album that shows everything you did for the last year. I was kind of waffling around about it, cause I know what a big procrastinator I am and was afraid to commit and then not take pictures. So I've been taking the pictures, but not saying that was why I was taking them. (I did actually miss a day already, but I'm not going to stress about it.) The other part that I'm adding to it is that I'll be making a 2 page scrapbook layout for each week, hopefully at the end of each week, showcasing that week's photos. This way I'll have every picture recorded and journaled soon after it's taken, before I can forget what we were doing that day or why I took the photo. So far, a lot of my pictures have been taken later on in the day, as I've realized "Oh crap, it's 7:00 and I haven't taken a picture yet". Hopefully I'll get better at remembering to snap those photos earlier in the day as this continues on.

Last night I finally sat down to make my first layout. It took me over three hours. But that's more because I was trying to decide how I wanted the page format to look, as I'm going to use the same format for each 2 page spread - that way the finished album will be more consistant and it'll be easier for to scrap every week, as I'll have a specific format to follow. And I kept it pretty simple, so the photos would be the focus of the layout, not the extra embellishments. After I finished it, I called Keith over to come see it. He said, "This is so cool. You know what would be neat? If you did a page like this for every week this year - then we'd have this super cool album at the end of the year." I was all, "Um, honey, that's the point. That's what I'm planning on doing." (I hadn't even told him I was going to be doing this, I was that afraid of failing.)

Well, after that long explanation I better show you my page. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to start a new blog for just the pictures and post them each day, or if I'll just post the weekly layout here. I don't know. ** I went ahead and made a new blog just for the pictures. You can find it here and I'll put a link on the side. ** But for now, here is my Project 365 Week 1.



Amya's upset with me for not having a picture of her on this page, but for some reason, she really wasn't in any pictures I took that first week. So now I have to be more aware of who I'm taking the pictures of and try to keep it so that everyone is seen in equal amounts.

And here are the pages separately, so you can see them more close up.


Finally, for credits you can click here.

A New Creative Team!!

Just a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across a new blog that I thought was SO cool....it's called The Hybrid Kid and it's a website that was started by a mom who had an idea one day. She said in her opening post: "This blog will be dedicated to using digital art in the everyday things we do. I hope to pair teachers and digital designers to create printable activities that serve three purposes...educational value, together time, and to look pretty". She's already come up with some really cool projects like The Color Book and The Popcorn Word pack. Just recently, she asked for people who would be willing to try out her projects, use them with their kids, take pictures of them in use, and provide feedback so that she can better showcase and promote her projects. I replied and was one of the moms (and therefore my kids as well) chosen to try out her things. I'm so excited about this!! Elena and Téa both are working on learning to recognize their letters and numbers and are so in to anything that has to do with learning and also art. These projects are perfect for them!! So you'll probably be seeing me showcasing some of these projects as we put them to good use.

Night Owls

Keith totally surprised me with my Christmas present. While out in WV over Thanksgiving break, I was looking at all the Black Friday ads to see if there was anything worth waking up for. The only thing I really wanted to get was a laptop and there were some good deals, but since Keith had just surprised me with all of them joining me in WV, there wasn't any money for a laptop. When he asked me what I wanted for my Christmas present, I said a laptop, knowing he wouldn't get me one. Do you see where this is going? I don't know what I did to get the husband I have, cause he totally went above and beyond on this one. He got it from Costco, where it was on sale and then even more on sale as the display model was the only one left, so he got an even bigger discount. I don't know how he does it. This was the best picture I could find of my lovely gift and it doesn't even do my laptop justice - this thing is beautiful and I LOVE it.

We have definitely been putting this baby to good use. We installed Skype and used it to talk to my uncle in Germany. That was way cool. I've scrapbooked on it and it's AMAZING. And every night, Keith and I have been laying in bed, watching episodes of The Office, trying to get caught up. (And when I say trying to get caught up, I mean we jsut started watching it and now have 4 seasons to watch). This is one of the coolest things he's ever gotten me....I love my husband!!

And I love him even more right now cause he just went out and bought me a package of Oreos to eat while I'm watching. What an awesome husband I have!

Scrapbook Catch-up

Be prepared....this could get long. I realized that it's been FOREVER since I've posted a scrapbook page on here and, even though I didn't creat any new pages while my computer was broken, there are a lot of pages you guys haven't seen. So, in no particular order, here they are.....

Keith made some cakes for a cake walk at our ward Halloween party. They were definitely the most talked about cakes of the night. We were really proud of his work! (I have no idea why it's cutting off the side of this one. Sorry!)

I made this page for a speed scrap 2 nights ago. It's my sisters, Amya, my mom, and my uncle Eric and aunt Kusi playing Apples to Apples while I was home in WV.

I made this page for a speed scrap I hosted on Monday. It's a picture of our tree this year, right after I'd finished wrapping the presents and getting them set up. The red presents in the tree and right in front of it were the ones from Santa. Amya saw me scrapping this picture and said "Mom, those are the Santa presents. I thought Santa came after you went to sleep. How'd you take a picture of that? Maybe you're Santa..." To which I so cunningly replied "Or maybe I woke up in the middle of the night to take a picture after he left". I don't think we can fool her much longer. :)

These pics were taken on the 4th of July. Elena and Téa were trying to see who could make the biggest splash.

These are our Halloween pics from this year. This was the fastest I've ever scrapped something after it happened....I think I did this just the day after Halloween.

There's a group of ducks that waddle all around the farm and Maricela LOVES to chase them around. As soon as she sees them, she's after them. Luckily for the ducks, they're faster runners than she is.

We went for a drive in the mountains in the fall to take pictures of the changing leaves. We went a little too late though, and I didn't get the kind of pictures I wanted, but I thought these turned out pretty good.

And here's my new January desktop. Again, I got this from The Shabby Princess. I love her stuff! I took these pictures the other day. Keith borrowed his brother's 4-wheelers and tied the sleds to the back of them to pull the girls around on. They've been having a ton of fun on them. I got on two days ago - I didn't have as much fun. Keith had to help me off......

The credits for all these pages can be found in my Scrap Matters gallery. Thanks for sticking with me through this long post!!