{Mother's Day}

I had a wonderful Mother's Day with my family.  My husband and daughter even went shopping for me at my favorite antique store!

An old camera, some old spice containers and a Fiestware pitcher in a cool color!

My brother came and the boys BBQ'd lunch for us.  We sat around visiting and eating all afternoon.

One of my Mother's Day requests was a picture of me and my kids, cause on Mother's Day you get whatever you want, right?! And I do not have enough photos of me and my kidos since I am usually  on the other side of the camera (and much happier there I might add).  Seems like a pretty simple request though, it's not like they are 3 year olds that don't understand the concept of sitting still to take a nice photo . . . some days I do think it was easier taking their picture when they were 3!!

My brother, Mom and Me!  Just missing Gina!

And I was hopeful for a nice family photo too . . .

So, while this wasn't exactly the vision I had in my head of how the photos would turn out, this is a perfect representation of my family right now, my life right now, so really, these are the perfect photos!

{Mustard Weeds - 2014}

Anyone that knows me knows that my favorite thing is when the Mustard Weeds come out.  It has become a tradition of sorts to take the girls out and photograph them in the mustards, luckily the cousins, as Meghan lovingly refers to her cousins, usually make a springtime visit and if all goes well there will be mustards and no rain for at least one afternoon.  We have been doing this for a few years (2012, 2011, 2009 I apoligize in advance for the over done vignetting in 2009) and its 's fun to look back and see how these little girlies have grown-up (and how my photography skills have hopefully improved over the years too!)

 The good thing about them getting older is that they are slightly easier to contain

 Silly faces . . . this one was not working with me on this day

 And this girl makes the funniest faces!

Mimi with the girls

 The girls gather the mustards while I follow them around, they are their "Wedding Flowers".  Once we are done they finally get to throw them up in the air, focus is a bit off but I love it anyway!

 My Sister

And there we go, the Mustard Photoshoot 2014.  Can't wait for next year!

{Project Life} Calendar

This is for those of you that asked about this . . . this is a new product from Becky Higgins that goes in line with Project Life.  I found it at Michaels and I believe that this is the only place to find it.  I had been thinking about going back to a paper calendar this year, this is kinda a big deal for those of you that know me and my love all having all things electronic.  But I found that I while having everything at your finger tips on my phone, iPad, computer, it wasn't really in front of me, like open on my desk staring at me, reminding me of upcoming events, things to do . . . yes, I set reminders on all of the electronic devices, but the reminder pops up, you have to dismiss it in order to continue what you are doing and then it disappears and, well, most of the time disappearing out of my memory too!

Anyway, when I walked into Michaels and saw this lovely colorful package of goodness I was soooooo excited.  It fits into a really cute 6 x 8 binder. I wanted it.  But I really am trying to NOT add  things that I will not use to my collection of stuff.  I left Michaels without the calendar.  Mind you there is also a journaling kit and a recipe kit.  Of course I wanted ALL of them!  But I left with none of them, I was proud of myself.  Over the next few days while I was deciding on my word for 2014 and thinking about things I need to do in order to simplify and make my life easier, I decided it was time to give a paper planner another shot.  I went quickly back to Michaels where I was happy to find that both the planner and binder were unmarked, but 40% off, I'd say it was meant to be, lol!

I brought it home and put it all in the binder and didn't write in it right away . . . I guess I wanted to be sure that I thought this was really something that I was going to use this year, I don't need more unused stuff (my husband would call it crap) on my desk.  But I finally gave it and started writing in all of the dates for 2014.  Now, I am really liking having the paper in front of me, I can see the week easily and make lists and have it all visible.  Is it the "perfect" calendar, no, there would be a few things I would change, BUT, it's cute, that counts for a lot in my book, it's colorful, and I love colors, and if Michaels ever gets the 6 x 8 page protectors in I can add a few of those throughout and I think at the end of the year will sort of make itself it's own little mini scrapbook. So that makes it just perfect for me right now!

Bright colorful dividers

Each month is a different color, one week is on one side of the page

There is a part at the top for "things to-do/places to go/people to see"

And each month has a fund 2 page spread of different things each month, DIY projects/Wish List/Skills to Learn/For the Garden/Camping List, etc.  kinda fun!

 This is from a digital kit I purchased from the Sweet Shoppe, this helps put Project Life in front of me on a daily bases, to remind me to take photos and start thinking about how I want that week to look.  This is a very cool downloadable calendar and all of the PL templates are included, so you can add whatever layout you will be using that week to the page before you print.  I have decided to follow Ali's lead and just use Layout A pocket pages this year.  I think this will help me know what I need to do each week, what kind of photos I need and it will keep it simple and help get it DOne!  

I'm hoping that this combination is going to help me be successful  DOing the things things I want to this year, and at the top of that list is to have a complete album at the end of 2014.

**Note: I bought the teal binder and have been using it for the last 2 weeks.  It's heavy, I took out June - December for now.  Yesterday I found a "simple stories" album that feels a little bit lighter and less bulky, so I'm trying that out for now.  I think the album, whatever brand is going to get a bit used looking if you carry it around.  So I figure I can save the nicer one to put a final project in vs wearing it out all year.  

{Weeks 1 & 2} We Made it to Friday!

It was a long week!  Seems the first few weeks of January always are, after a month of celebrations, time off from work and then all of a sudden you are thrown right back in to reality.  And while I was happy to have gotten to the end of the week, it really still wasn't my normal reality. . . ASL 2 class starts on Tuesday night and Singing Hands starts on Thursday night.  So last week I got to be home every single night, that so rarely happens, so this week is really really back to reality!

It was a good week and I practiced putting my word into use, DOing lots of little things that were on my to-do list.  I have gone back to using a paper calendar after many years of being electronic.  I'm hoping this will help me stay focused on the tasks that need DOing week to week, and it helps that it is a Project Life calendar, so it is super cute.  I was completely shocked when I walked into Michaels and found it last week, like seriously surprised, this kinda stuff doesn't usually get by me.  I actually went back through every post in 2013 on Becky's Blog to find where I missed it.  I didn't miss it, whew!  I knew I wouldn't forget seeing that was coming.  Becky didn't actually announce it until after it showed up in the store. I'm getting used to using a pen and writing things down and crossing them off, I really like crossing things off part!

I also came across this cute Project Life planner, since I can't carry around 2 planners (I barely remember to carry around one, and one day I even had to go back into work to get it off my desk) I figured out that I can print out the pages and insert them in to my PL planner.  I think it will work and I can try to keep all my thoughts together week to week for PL.  So we'll see, it's only the 2nd week of the month!  I'm hoping that by making a few little changes can help me have a more productive 2014.

I worked on my One Little Word project today, made some progress and I'm liking how it looks ~ a few more prompts to finish up and January will be complete!

This year I WILL I WILL I WILL keep up with Project Life.  No excuses, just DOing it and getting it done and moving on to the next week.  So I am happy to say that it is the end of Week 2 and I am current!!!!  Hopefully once the rest of life kicks in I can remain caught up!  

{Week 1} 

These are not perfect, but they are DOne, and that is what I am focusing on this year, letting go of perfection for DOne!

and {Week 2}

Feeling good about getting some creative stuff done, makes me happy!

{Hello 2014}

One of the things on my list of things to accomplish this year is to dust off this ol' blog.  To say I was sad when I logged on and saw that I had ONE, just one, blog post for 2013, was an understatement.  I want this blog to be another way to document our everyday life and when I read through all of the old posts I love love love going back and reliving the stories and looking at the photos.  So why is it I can't keep it up?!  But this is a new year, a time to set new goals and have a fresh start. I'm totally just going to jump in where we are now and start documenting our life and quit thinking about it and making it more difficult than it really is!

This goes hand in hand with my Word for this year, which is DO, as in quit procrastinating, quit over thinking it, thinking it all has to be perfect, and just DO it!  So I'm taking baby steps to work on the things that I want to DO this year . . . blogging, being more creative, doing Project Life and actively working more on my photography business.  I think I'm feeling more capable of DOing these these things since I recently changed jobs, still working at the hospital, just in a different, much less stressful, department.  I seriously feel like a new person, I didn't realize until I was out of the old job how stressed it was making me

So I'm hopeful that now that I'm not bringing that stress home with me everyday I can focus more on the things I want to do for me and my family.

Just a little recap of 2013, for the sake of documentation! 2013 was a good year!  Trevor finished up 10th grade and started 11th, Meghan finished 3rd grade and is in 4th grade, they both are doing great in school.  Trevor got his drivers license!  Kinda was scary but I'm actually really enjoying having an errand boy!  He is very into his airsofting and video games, some things never change!  I can't believe he will be 17 in a few weeks.  Meghan is still in to many many things, Monster High Dolls, American Girl Dolls, Rainbow Loomb, One Direction . . . . and I could go on.  She makes us laugh and makes us frustrated all at the same time.  We work daily on trying to keep her and her "stuff" neat and tidy, losing the battle most days.

I'm sad that I don't have a currently photo of all of us . . . we never found a time to get out and get that done this fall, I'm still hoping to go out and get one of all of us together, soon!

{The Mustard Weeds Are Here}

My most favorite thing ever to photograph, cute girlies in the Mustard Weeds!  They seemed to have made an early appearance this year so we went out on a beautiful afternoon last weekend and played, the girls in the weeds and the moms with our cameras!  I've been experimenting with shooting into the sun, liked how some of these turned out but anxious to get back out there and keep playing! 

 My Favorite