Warning: Fairly Hefty Post

Aaron's family is coming to town on Sunday and are staying for the week to help up put in our yard (thank goodness!). I will be so glad to have something other than dirt to look at while eating breakfast--it's not exactly an inspiring way to start your day. So while I'm extremely glad and grateful that they're coming, it's been fairly stressful trying to get things ready so that we can get some real work done while they're here. I have a list a mile long of things to do, but whenever I have a bunch to get done, I do the same thing: get overwhelmed, eat some chocolate, take a bubble bath, and not do much of anything. So although I have a million things yet to be crossed off of my list, I have found time to scrap several pages! I haven't been nearly as good the last few weeks about updating my blog, so this is going to be photo-rich. This afternoon (during naptime) I finished this page. The photo was taken last summer, just after we moved to ABQ. Connie and Kerry came down to visit us and we took them to Old Town to check out the shops and the free entertainment. While there, Kerry had Katie put on this darling pink cowboy hat. Fortunately we had our camera with us, so while the hat stayed put, we were able to bring the photo home. The quote reads "Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. --Alex Haley." Full Credits HERE This next one is a photo that I've been wanting to scrap for quite some time. I love the face Katie is making here! I kept trying to make a page with it, but nothing seemed quite right, so I left it alone. Then I saw these "Beautymarks" (the glittery, swirly bits) by Two Sisters and I knew they would go perfectly. On Wednesday, I printed this page out (can't beat Costco--12x18 prints for $2.99!) and the texturing on the ribbon was amazing! It looks gorgeous! Full Credits HERE I realized that so far there isn't a single page that I've done with Aaron and me (probably because there are so few pictures of the two of us, and even fewer that I like), so I thought this one would make a fun page. The journaling on the tabs reads: "This picture seems very sweet and tender until you realize both of us are about to crack up. That makes it even more perfect. At Matt and Meg's wedding; Chelsey is 8 mos pregnant with Katie." Full Credits HERE Only 2 more! You're more than halfway done with the marathon post! I was playing around with the continuous mode on our new camera, and I managed to get Katie doing all the motions of "Popcorn Popping." She's so smart--she can do them all without help. The tags say the different lines of the song to identify the actions (a lot of them look the same to the untrained eye!). Full Credits HERE I love these photos that Connie took of Katie. The goggles are so funny, but my favorite is the expression on her face. Who would think a baby would be able to look that unimpressed? Full Credits HERE I'll be posting this week with some before and after pictures of our yard (hopefully we'll be able to make some difference!) and I should be posting soon with pictures of Katie's room. We're all finished painting; I just have to hang the curtains and hang the pictures.

Master Paul and a prize!!

I was able to get a scrapping fix for the first time in a month!! I definitely went through withdrawals...kinda scary. I started this page before I left to Utah, so it was waiting for me when I returned. There was something not quite right about it, so I wound up changing it quite a bit before I could pronounce it finished. Full Credits HERE Aaron and I also got a new prize for our trip to Scotland this summer: a new Canon Powershot S3! Isn't it beautiful? Not quite a DSLR, but as close as we could get on a whim. I can't wait to start playing around with it. It has features that I can't even pronounce; definitely will be reading the instruction manual for this one.