Gingerbread Houses + Dinner

I'm really enjoying the process of my December Daily album. The project encourages me to pull my camera out and document some of the everyday things that sometimes go unmentioned.

For day 5 of the album, it was all about decorating gingerbread houses with my parents. The kids really look forward to doing this every year.

It was fun watching each of the kids decoarte with their own style. Max "went to town" (as he said) and threw frosting in the house so that it would look like a blizzard had hit and the people in the house were all snowed in.  The girls were much more neat and careful with their designs. I think they all turned out great! Now we get to enjoy them in our kitchen for the rest of the month.

I took a bunch of photos during the gingerbread house decorating, but didn't fit them all in the album. Here's a look at a few of my other favorite photos.

 My story for yesterday was about eating dinner together as a family. We have been pretty busy lately and it's been hard to have everyone home for dinner at the same time. Last night we ate together and I took pictures to celebrate the moment. If it wan't for this album, these pictures wouldn't have been taken.

It's nice to have a little extra motivation to pull out the camera.

I'm slowing checking off my lists this week. Most of the kids' gifts were ordered online this morning. Got to love online shopping! Just need to pick up a few other things and all of my gift shopping will be complete. Making a little progress everyday.

Celebrating New Year's Eve + Card Ideas

With 2011 coming to a close, I thought it was time that I use my New Years Eve photos from the beginning of this year.

With the cool blue color in the Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer line, I thought it would be perfect for this wintertime/New Years layout.

The colors on this line seem so crisp and cool.

Today I'd also like to share two cards that I made using the Glitz Designs Dance in Sunshine line.  I'm thinking these would be great New Year messages to share with friends.

On the first card I used one of the Glitz Designs Peek a Boo frames. The frame was a bit too tall for my card, so I cut the frame where I knew it would be hidden by embellishments and then shrunk the frame down by overlapping the cut edges. Now the frame fits perfectly!

On the second card, the focus is the quote from the Glitz Designs Whatnots. I really like that so many of the Glitz product have easy to use quotes.

Thanks for the visit today!

Hello 2011 Supplies
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Patterned Paper: Polka, Stripe, Houndstooth, Toile
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Title Stickers
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs Teeny White Type Alpha

Live the Life Card Supplies
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Polka, Raindrops
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Trim
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Glitzers

You are Just Right Card Supplies
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Raindrops, Polka
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Journaling Sticker
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Trim
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Whatnots

Surprise Photos

Don't you love it when you upload photos to your computer and find fun shots that were taken by someone else? Today I loaded up photos and found these cute ones of my eleven year old.

She was playing with my phone before we left for the city lights parade on Saturday while she was talking to me in my scrapbook room. She must have snapped these fun photos.

Her fun head wrap is from Chinatown in NYC. We only bought two when we were there last year and now I'm wishing that we had more.  Maybe I will have to hunt down some others on Etsy. Have you seen any cute one out there?

I've also finished up my December Daily page from yesterday. We had a relaxing morning, afternoon church and then friends came over for dinner. Perfect day for recharging and getting set for a new week.

My parents have invited us over tonight to decorate gingerbread houses. Looking forward to that fun holiday tradition!

Soccer, Parade and Parties

We've been busy enjoying time together this weekend and celebrating December.

Friday night my husband and I hosted a Christmas party for some of the people who do work for his company. It was a great evening with lots of talking and good food. I didn't do very well getting photos taken today, but I has a few from my phone that could at least be used on this page.

Yesterday was a full day fun. We started off in the morning with the last soccer games for our two kids who are playing soccer. Both games were so exciting and close. Max's team won (he soccer two goals!) and Hannah's team tied. I love cheering on my kids at their sporting events.

We also went to the Chandler Light Parade where our girls were singing on the Chandler Children's Choir float. The float looked fantastic and they sounded great. It was so cold (at least it 45 degrees seems cold to us) and started to rain at the end of the parade, but it was fun to bundle up and drink hot chocolate to stay warm.

I've finished up all of the base pages of my December album and thought I'd share the last of them with you.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

December Daily 2011: Day 1

One day is complete on my December Daily album.

Yesterday I chose to focus on the fun my kids had after school with their friends. It was a half day (which is rare for us) and they took full advantage of the beautiful weather by playing outside for hours.

The favorite book among my daughter and her 6th grade friends right now is the Hunger Games. They got all of the younger kids involved in a Hunger Games adventure. They had a great fun building forts and chasing each other up and down the street.

This is certainly not a Christmas event, but I want to focus on sharing all sorts of things that we are doing this month, not just focus on Christmas celebrations.

December Daily 2011: The Beginning

This year I've decided in the December Daily album concept that Ali Edwards started a few years ago.

Although this is such a  busy time of year and it would be easy to not do a daily album in December, these are a few of the reasons I'm doing it:

1. Encourages me to get the camera out and use it
2. Helps me notice more little moments and record them
3. Get to play with fun Christmas products
4. Love looking back on the project when it is finished
5. Encourages us to get out and participate in fun activities

I have the base of the first 14 days of pages finished. My goal is to keep it the design simple and focus on the words & stories.

I'll pulled my camera out today when it probably would have sat on the counter, so the project is starting off well. I'm excited to fill up these pages with our December stories.

Are you doing a December Daily album?


Album Supplies
Scrapbook Circle Jingle All the Way Kit
Elle's Studio 'Tis the Season Kit
Maya Road Kraft Envelopes
Jillibean Soup File Folders
Scrapbook Circle Free Giving is Good Printable

Time is Flying

Tonight I'm going to a surprise baby shower for a friend who is having her third boy.  I love the idea of having the shower be a surprise! Hopefully she hasn't figured out that she is having a party thrown for her tonight.

Here's a look at the card that I put together for her.

I know about 6 people who are pregnant right now. Wow. Something must be in the water!

A couple of days ago I was sorting through photos and saw a photo that is one of my favorites of my three kids standing in the doorway ready to go out on trick or treating.

 
One of my favorite things about this photo is seeing how much younger my kids are since this was taken five years ago. I think in would be so fun to go back in time for a day and enjoy snuggling these younger versions of my ever growing kids. My little baby in that photo is now in first grade. Time is such an interesting thing. I'm always excited for time to pass so we can attend our next exciting event, but when I stop and pause, I see how quickly time is moving along.

Can you believe that it's going to be December tomorrow? Wow, now time is really flying!


Cards supplies are from the Fancy Pants Designs Baby Mine collection and the Trick or Treat Layout supplies are from the Fancy Pants Designs Oct. 31st line.