Our comings and goings . . .

Holiday Magic

The new kits are up for sale at Citrus Tree Studio.  I got the pleasure of working with the Holiday Magic kit. 

Last year for Christmas Eve we presented my inlaws with these six boxes as our Christmas present to them ( we did the same thing for my grandparents).  In each box was a clue . . . they were clueless until they opened the last box where I had placed a family picture of the three of us with a +1 off to the side.  Underneath the picture was written "estimated due date 8/16/2011.  It went over better than I could have imagined and such a fun way to tell the family I was pregnant. 

Here is my layout with the picture of boxes and a couple of pictures of my inlaws opening them.  Next to the larger photo I typed up the clues that were in each box. 

Pictures from last years Creamer Family Christmas party.

This kit comes with white cards/envelopes and I love the unique size of them. 

I'll be back later for a December Daily share and a peek at the ornaments I'm making for my nieces and nephews for Christmas. 

December Daily: Days 1-4

I love this project and really glad that I'm doing it this year.  However I wish my album was a little larger - it measures 4.25 x 5 inches.  Something I will have to look at next year.

Day 1:

The first page is a bokeh picture of our Christmas tree I got a week ago when our Christmas tree went up on the 28th.  Around the edges I put some small MM phrase stickers and rubon.  The next page includes screen shots I took on the computer of our local weather report on the first.  We had crazy winds that did a lot of damage and were what everyone was talking about all day.   

Day 2:

A quick photo of my boys that morning.  I included our typical morning things under the photo.  Second photo is a baseball card holder with doiley rubons and a label sticker.  In the pocket I placed a Jenni Bowlin December bingo card. 

On the second there were still a lot of people in our area without power.  We had a party planned with friends of our, but their power was still out.  We got together anyway and the result was better than we could have hoped for.  Pictures from the event didn't turn out great, but the memories will last a lifetime.  Top picture is a blurry Wesley doing charades by flashlight.  Bottom is our dinner of grilled pizza. 

This album is perfect for the little odds and ends of stickers I've had in my stash forever.  I used really old 7gypsies stickers between the two pictures. 

I handwrote the journaling about our night on the back.

Day 3:

The morning of the third we had a Christmas Breakfast with my dad and his wife.

I didn't plan to include all the pictures from that morning, but after going through them I couldn't leave any of them out and ended up printing 2 4x6 pictures trimming them and gluing them back to back to a piece of chipboard.  After punching holes it became my extra page.

Day 4:

Brandon, Thomas, and I were asked to stand in Relief Society as Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus.  It ended up being so special and Thomas slept through the whole lesson.  It was a special reminder of what this season really means.  I found this picture pinned on Pinterest and decided to print it off and use it for yesterdays entry. 

It's looking like Christmas

The tree is up.

The garlands are hung.

Presents wrapped and under the tree.

A few white flakes even fell from the sky this afternoon.

Tomorrow starts December and the start of my December Daily album.  Looking through it I think I'm going to have to change the binding since I know it's not going to fit in the album I made, but that can be worked out as I work on the pages. 

The Citrus Tree Studio sneaks are up.  Here are my contributions for the month.

There is a lot of red, green, and glitter in this one. 

 

I think he could pass for a Beatle

December Daily 2011 and a much needed date

Last year I was so excited about starting this album and documenting our December.  Unforseen was me getting pregnant and laying around being tired and sick most of the month.  So . . . I've decided to put my album from last year to use and tackle the project this year. 

First thing is making over the cover since it's clearly not 2010.

The piece of paper I put the letter stickers on I embossed with several layers of UTEE and isn't going anywhere so I pulled the whole thing off and am rehashing on what to do now. . .

Over the weekend Brandon and I went on a date.  It has been well over a year since that happened and it was really nice to be together without the boys.  As we walked from the parking lot to the movie Brandon even commented on how we hadn't stopped talking to each other all night and that even after all these years together it's still like our first date when we talked until 3 in the morning.  Love my guy! 

Before the boys were picked up by my little sister, Wesley took this picture. 

Looks like I'm going to need to teach him how to focus the camera again.  Oh, well a perfectly, imperfect picture.

 

 

  

Eleven on 11.11.11

Now I know everyone is celebrating 11.11.11 .It really is cool . . .  but I have one more eleven to add to the date.  It's our eleventh anniversary today on 11.11.11! 

Eleven years ago my best friend and I entered the Salt Lake Temple and were sealed for time and all eternity.  I'm one lucky girl!  Life since then has been crazy (especially this past summer), but we've ridden the storms together and have only become stronger for it. 

Love you Brandon James Stark!

 

Nov color challenge and the pictures I didn't take.

I finished the above layout for the color challenge over at Citrus Tree Studio. After getting it all scanned into the computer and put together I realized I didn't take ANY of the photos.  Brandon and one of the sweet NICU nurses took them.  I was once again reminded of how amazing my hubby is and how he knew how much I would want all those first moments of our little guys life recorded.  I wasn't able or even in the right mind set to make sure the camera had been found or that pictures were being taken.  He even captured those sweet little baby feet.  

The color scheme I chose for November has been showing up a lot in the layouts I've started for Thomas' baby book.  I like that they aren't too pastel, but yet still on the softer side.     

Come join us over on the CTS boards and see the rest of the great November challenges by the Design Team! 

October catch-up and CTS November kit

Epic fail on this poor blog.  I have lots of great reasons though and the first one would be the cutest reason of all.

(He's already growing so fast!) 

All of October was very busy for our family.  Every weekend we were off enjoying some kind of Halloween/fall related activity.  It's my favorite time of year and Brandon's favorite holiday and it never fails to get packed to overflowing.  This year was so crazy that our pumpkins are still sitting out on our stoop looking something like this:

Wondering what I do now with four uncarved pumpkins?

A few favorites from the month:

Now with Halloween over and our Anniversary this week I just keep chugging along trying to stay on top of everything.  Seriously adding another member to our family, it's rediculous how much more laundry there is to do!   

During October I did manage to squeeze in time during the afternoons to scrapbook.  I've begun DT work again over at Citrus Tree Studio.  It's always a nice treat to work with kits Cindy puts together.  This month she has two kit options - Autumn Sunshine and A Heartfelt Christmas.

Here is my contribution using Autumn Sunshine:

One final picture from October. 

 

All about the hair.

I remember hearing "look at the hair" comments when Wes was born (he had just as much as Thomas does), but I don't remember the random stranger petting (yes, people I don't know really do come up to me and start petting his hair) or all the crazy questions people ask. 

For instance:

• "Will it all fall out?"
• "Is it a wig?"
• "Did he have that much when he was born?"
• "It will change to blonde won't it?"

And that's just the few I can remember.  He does stop traffic when we go places and it's funny to see people realize that yes, it is real and a newborn can have that much hair.

My little sister suggested that he looked like a Monchhichi and I didn't even know what that was.  After looking it up on the internet I had to think yes, maybe he does look a little like one. 

The other day I was out with a friend and we stopped by her moms house.  She found her Monchhichi and we layed it next to mine.

 

 

Back to School and an overgown garden

Yesterday Wes started school.  He is a big 4th grader this year and with another year older came more independence.  He will be walking to and from school without me.  A little scary on my part since I seem to hover just a tad . . . ;)  We met his teacher last night and she is very fun and energetic.  It looks like it's going to be a great year. 

My bad momma moment though was not getting any photos before he left for school.  Thomas decided he needed to eat again 30 minutes before we needed to leave and I totally forgot.

Speaking of Thomas I have just two more pictures I thought I would share from last week.  We have an overgrown garden plot.  It's been growing lots and lots of weeds and morning glory.  What it did lack in an actual garden it did make a beautiful backdrop for one little baby.