Happy New Year 2009

I took a few steps back in my scrapping this week to catch up with some older pictures. I did get one more Christmas layout in too.

I posted a few pictures from Thanksgiving this year earlier, here is the layout for our scrapbook

journaling: We’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving with the Nortons for many years now, and it is something we all look forward to. The kids spend the afternoon playing with each other, the adults look through the newspaper ads and decide which sales they must attend the next day while chatting, and of course we all eat! Marta thoughtfully smoked the turkey for us this year- The pan the turkey was in was a bit small, and the drippings started overflowing near the end of the baking time. Old and new friends joined us this year- Kristen brought her new beau, Kevin, Marta’s friends Sam and Trisha with their kids, and Melinda’s mom, Linda joined us for the annual dinner. We had 13 kids and 8 adults for dinner this year!
credits: Bless-ful by Krystal Hartley at funkyplaygrounddesigns; LO template 52 by Yin Designs;
fonts: Natural Script

I did this layout back in November for a Crew assignment. It turns out it was for inclusion in the 2008 Studio Crew book, which is a collection of layouts done by everyone so that we can get to know each other better. Maya even gave us all some cash so that we could have it turned into a bound book. I got mine from MyPicTales the day after Christmas and it is wonderful to have a beautiful book I can actually sit down and read. I think I will always prefer to have something I can hold in my hand when it comes to books and magazines.

credits: Autumn Glory by Flergs and Birgit Kerr, Worn Overlays by Manuela Zimmerman, journaling strips from Funky Junky by Michelle Godin, Kate Hadfield and Rachael Young, A fine Mess of Grids by Birgit Kerr, Melody of Your Heart by Bluebell Design, Strung Out Tags by Traci Sims; fonts: Typewriter and CK Becky

I had fun making this 'art room' the other night to showcase a few of the art pieces that Brenna has brought home from school this fall. Brenna asked what room this was when she first saw it on the computer screen ;) I used the fabulous Impressions of Imagination collab that is being released at scrapbookgraphics tomorrow.

credits: at Scrapbookgraphics.com: Impressions of Imagination by scrapbookgraphics Designers (coming Jan 1), View It Room Templates by Wendyzine, Personal Stash- Frame Frenzy by Maya, paperclip by Dana Frantz- IO Fatherhood, tapes by Flergs Gumnut Gully and IO Fatherhood) and Michelle Godin, scissors, eraser and pencils by Helene Douchet from Pack to School; Get Framed by Sophia Sarducci; white crumpled tape by Amy Hutchinson from Crystal Cranberry; paint box and paint brushes by me; fonts: LB Chelsea

a layout documenting the Littlest Pet Shop craze that all four of our girls have right now.

journaling: The Littlest Pet Shop craze hit our house a bout a year ago. All four girls have their own ‘littest’ collection. Sometimes they build big towns in the family room floor and play with them all together.
credits: Little Pet Store by Saxon Holt at scrapbook-elements; LO template 14 by Yin Designs; fonts: gigi and CK Jolly Elf

and a layout that I did for this week's Digidare to scrap about your Christmas tree and some of the ornaments on it.

journaling: Our tree again sported lots of handmade ornaments this year in order to minimize the possible breakage from little hands that liked to play with the ornaments. The new ornaments that we added to the collection to represent our travels were a toy top that we made at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in July, a painted slate roof tile from Rainbow Row and a magnolia blossom tile from the Magnolia Plantation, both in Charleston, North Carolina from Mark and Melinda’s trip to Savannah, Georgia in September.
credits: Holiday Shimmer by Phuong and Microferk at scrapbookgraphics; worn overlays by Manuela Zimmerman at scrapbookgraphics; Worn Overlays 2 by Something Blue Studios at catscrap; Homemade Kissmas by Paint the Moon (Annie Manning) at oscrap; Christina Renee: Color Theory Gold (beads, stitching), Miniatures; Ribbon Bin Velvet by Amber Clegg at Scrapartist; gold alpha from Holiday Spirit by Dani Mogstad at SweetShoppeDesigns; fonts: CK Heritage

and it only took me a year to get these photos scrapped about the New Year's Eve party we attended at a neighbor's house last year to ring in 2008.

journaling: We rang in 2008 with our friends and neighbors the Parrishes at their house with the Holcombes. We enjoyed cake to celebrate Evan’s first birthday and then spent the rest of the evening talking, playing games, watching movies and enjoying everyone’s company. When the kids started to get rowdy about 11:30 we decided to break out the bubbly a few minutes early so that we could get them into bed. Sarah even lasted the whole party and only fell asleep when we finally got her home about midnight.
credits: Countdown by Dani Mogstad; LO template 61 by Yin Designs fonts: CK Constitution

We're playing it low-key this year and hanging out at home. We are passing around this bug that Carissa brought home before Christmas and I'm the latest person to catch it. With that I'll say Happy New Year- see you in 2009.

Christmas Recap - Holiday Baking, the ER trip, and Christmas Eve

For quite a few years now, I've been making cookies during the holidays to send to Dale to enjoy with his evening coffee. The girls helped make quite a few batches this year. Carissa started off the baking at the end of November with a new recipe for Buttermilk cookies, and of course we had to have some extra 'helpers' too.

journaling: Carissa helped me begin the holiday cookie baking this year. Our first batch of cookies
was a new recipe, Buttermilk Cookies. They look and taste a lot like snickerdoocles, but don’t have quite as strong of a ‘tang.’
credits: Saxon's Holiday Kitchen, Kitchen Accidents, by Saxon Holt at Scrapbook-elements; Little Brush Alpha by Cinnamon Designs (blog freebie); Recipe card from Funky Junky Home for the Holidays by Michelle Godin, Rachel Young and Kate Hadfield; Date Stamps 2 by Trish Jones; fonts: Typewriter

Here is the final list of cookies that we made this year:

journaling: We continued our annual cookie baking tradition so that we could send a box of cookies to Dale to enjoy with his coffee before bed at night. Here are the cookies that we made this year- some old and some new: 1. Eggnog Cookies, 2. Peppermint Bark, 3. Jammy Fantasias, 4. Spritz, 5. Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, 6. Buttermilk Cookies, 7. Peanut butter Blossoms, 8. Merry Christmas Cookies, 9. Dounle Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake, 10. Chocolate Chip Cookies
credits: Holiday Spirit by Dani Mogstad at SweetShoppeDesigns; stitch by Dianne Rigdon from Life Is a Bistro; Pencil Lines 115 template by Michelle Filo; fonts: TXT Santa Font, Times New Roman

We went to my mom's house after lunch on the 23rd to bake and decorate cookies and put together the gingerbread house. Brenna was the first one out of the van and ran immediately for the door. Her foot caught the electrical cord that wasn't quite tucked under the edge of the deck and she went face first into the deck boards. She was crying, but I didn't see any blood so I picked her up and put her in the house while we finished unloading everybody and everything. She wouldn't stop crying and there was some blood on her hand, so I took her into my mom's bathroom to figure out what was going on and get her cleaned up. I get out a tissue and start dabbing at the blood on the bottom of her chin and notice right away that the gash is deep and big and that there is no way that is healing without stitches. So, off to the ER we go after a temporary patch up with a regular bandaid. Thankfully they were not busy at all and we were taken back right away. We spent more time sitting and waiting for the topical anesthetic to work than anything. Brenna now sports 8 stitches on the bottom of her chin. Here's hoping that we can stay out of doctor's offices (Carissa was very sick with a sinus infection and bronchitis) and the ER (except for the trip back to the hospital in 5 days to have the stitches taken out) for the rest of the holiday vacation. We were only gone for about an hour and a half, so they were still baking cookies and Brenna was able to join in the fun right away. The stitches haven't seemed to bother her all that much the last few days and it seems to be healing well.

journaling: What an event this afternoon turned out to be. Brenna was so excited to be going to Grandmama’s house to bake and decorate cookies and put together the gingerbread house that she ran for the door and tripped over an electrical cord that wasn’t quite tucked under the deck. She split her chin open and Mama had to take her to the emergency room to have it stitched together. Luckily, the ER wasn’t busy that day and after an hour and a half we were back and ready to join in the fun of creating edible masterpieces.
credits: Sweet Cupcake and Candy Coated Christmas by Dani Mogstad at SweetShoppeDesigns; Cookie Template by Jenny Jorgensen, SweetShoppeDesigns; Collaged Date Tags by Robin Carlton at SweetShoppeDesigns; fonts: CK Becky

and on Christmas Eve we attended the service at my mom's church in the evening, Mark brought home a pretty holiday centerpiece for the table, we started a 500 piece nativity scene puzzle that my mom brought over, opened the new pajamas, left out milk and cookies for Santa, and Mama enjoyed the Christmas glow in the peace and quiet after everyone was asleep and she had put out all of the Santa gifts.

credits: {Christ}mas by Rachel Young and Jaque Larsen at scrapartist; 7 Things template by Kristin Tilley from DST Insider
fonts: TXT Delicate Script, Vintage Typewriter

Dance! layout

journaling: The final holiday show of 2008 was in the Moose Lodge Pavilion at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We all enjoyed watching the many styles of dance showcased by The Dance Center.
credits: Christmas Morning by Birgit Kerr at scrapbookgraphics; LO Template 55 by Yin Designs; fonts: TXT Annesia

Christmas Don't Be Late- the layouts

and here they all are, finally!

journaling: Ms. Toni came up with a very cute dance for the kids to do for the annual holiday shows- they danced to “Christmas Don’t Be Late” by the Chipmunks, the rock DeeTown OG mix from the 2007 version of the movie. It was a great choice, and Beth and Carissa had fun learning to hula hoop as part of the dance.
credits: Christmas Morning by Birgit Kerr at scrapbookgraphics; Matties Curlers by Corina Nielsen at funkyplaygrounddesigns; fonts: Pink Flamingo, TXT Annesia

credits: Christmas Morning by Birgit Kerr at scrapbookgraphics; LO Template 30 (modified) by Yin Designs; fonts: TXT Annesia

It was a fun evening at the zoo getting to see everyone dance. I had seen quite a few of the dances, but there were a lot that were new to me too. I have a double-page layout I'm working on with the same kit, but my computer decided last night that it needed to be cleaned out and that it wasn't going to work any more until I took care of that. So, I will have to wait to share that layout as today was spent cooking for tomorrow's big dinner, cleaning, and then enjoying our Christmas Eve traditions.

Winter Wildland at the zoo

Goodness, December is flying by! I can't believe that Christmas is only 2 days away now, but I'm positive that is really the case as the kids have been diligently keeping track of the passage of the days on the advent calendars in the kitchen. We have been spending lots of time at dance classes and performances the last two weeks. Between the holiday performances the twins' group had to do and then the parties and final classes before break where we could go sit in the room and watch them work, it seemed like I was not doing much else.

Carissa has been sick for almost a week now, missing the last two days of school and the holiday festivities because of it. A trip to the doctor first thing this morning confirmed my suspicions of a sinus infection, and she has a touch of bronchitis too. Hopefully she will be on the mend now that we have some antibiotics to help her heal. She was a trouper last night and danced at the final performance at the zoo even though she didn't feel well. I was finally able to get a picture of the whole group together in their outfits with the hula loops- I'll show that off a bit later, but first I'm going to show pictures from our trip on Friday night to the zoo to see the lights. We knew we wouldn't have time to see the lights when we went for the dance performances, so when the weather forecasts said it would be pretty warm Friday we decided to go then. We were glad we did because it was COLD last night, certainly not temperatures you want to be outside for long in. Here are my favorite pictures from Winter Wildland at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo this year and a couple of layouts too.

a nice view of the city down at the bottom of the mountain.
After I took the pictures of the girls with Santa, Carissa had to tell me about an idea she had for a layout with both pictures of them with the Grinch and Santa. I think I will have to ask for her help in scrapping those particular pictures.

I liked the blue, white and red color theme of the new Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit area this year. These were all new decorations this year. That's my mom in the picture below, not me- I'm taking the picture.

Journaling: They had all new lights for the Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit area at the zoo this year in the colors blue, white and red. It was very festive.
credits: Jingle Bell Blues by Marcie Reckinger at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; Ice Storm Alpha by Flergs, DST Gold Member kit; Circle Date Stamps Mini 2 by Christy Lyle (click-a-sig freebie); LO template by Yin Designs (heavily modified); fonts: Note This

And a layout with some of our favorite holiday light spots here in the Springs. Several of the houses in our neighborhood go all out at this time of year, the Nazarene college does a big drive-through light display that focuses on the biblical Christmas story as well as showing non-religious holiday themes, the Broadmoor, and 3 pictures from the zoo- which is always my favorite each year.

journaling: One of my favorite things about Christmas is the glow of Christmas lights that decorate the neighborhoods. The holidays just wouldn’t be the same without them.
credits: Fantastical and Foiled Again Alpha by Dianne Rigdon at scrapartist; Bright Lights by Dani Brath; fonts: CK Becky

2008 Christmas Newsletter and a freebie or two

I took this to the copy shop today to have it printed, along with my usual huge order of scrapbook pages to print for our albums and the gift albums that I give each year. Some of you reading this will get an actual one in the mail (hopefully late next week), but I thought I would post it here too for everyone. For the first time in years I didn't have a set of Christmas stationary stashed away waiting to be used, so I just designed one myself using one of the gorgeous holiday kits I've collected so far this year. The photo was taken during our evening at the Broadmoor (see previous post), and all of the letters you see us standing in between are carved ice. Pretty cool, huh?

credits: Dream About Christmas by Natali Design at scrapbookgraphics.com; fonts: Arial

and since I usually make a template when I start scrapping something like this, I thought I would package it up and offer it to those of you who haven't gotten your holiday newsletters started yet. It's pretty basic, so tweak it to make it work for you. This template is only in psd format as that is the only way to keep the text columns editable.
Download the template HERE.

And if you send out photo cards to family and friends, I have a set of cards available in The Daily Scrapper's special holiday issue this month. You can find them and two other sets of free cards on this page. There are all sorts of tutorials and articles to read along with freebies, and discounts galore so take a few minutes and check it out!

Holiday Evening Fun

I love Christmas lights, especially when there are a lot of them and the glow lights up the room or the sky. We've done two holiday events so far that involve lots of lights. First we went to the annual lighting ceremony at the Broadmoor Hotel on November 29. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the evening. We spent some time waiting to see Santa and there was a gorgeous Christmas tree in the room just before we got our turn. I sat the kids down for a picture.

and here are a few closeups of the tree... aren't those decorations gorgeous?

and all of the kids took a turn sitting on Santa's lap and telling them what they wanted for Christmas. This was the first year that Sarah was willing to get close to Santa. She told him she wanted a My Little Pony Pinkie Pie doll... I'm sure that Santa will fill her request ;)

journaling: We attended the lighting ceremony at the Broadmoor hotel, and after Santa turned on the lights for everyone he was available for the children to visit with. We were entertained by Mrs. Claus while we waited in line with singing Christmas songs and letting the kids dance. I wasn’t sure if Sarah was going to sit on Santa’s lap this year, as she hasn’t wanted anything to do with him in previous years, but she watched her older sisters visit with him and then sat right down on his lap and whispered in his ear that she wanted a My Little Pony Pinkie Pie doll.
credits: Christmas in Your Heart by Dianne Rigdon at scrapartist.com; Postage Stamp Template by Amber Clegg at scrapartist.com; Templates With Attitude Trios 1 by Tracy Blankenship at funkyplaygrounddesigns.com; Covered Stamp Sheets 2 by Meredith Fenwick; Santa postcard by Christina Renee; Destroyed Papers templates by ScrapIdea-Timkova; glitter alpha from Holiday Spirit by Dani Mogstad; fonts: Arial Narrow, CK Becky

after we finished visiting with Santa we went back outside to walk to the main hotel, which is across the lake. I just loved this big beautiful tree .

Inside the main hotel lobby is where the gingerbread house display is. They had a town made of lots of different buildings this year- not all of them are even in this photo as there were too many people in the way for me to get a clear shot of the whole thing at once.
and this tree graced the fireplace area across from the gingerbread town.
The view of the hotel as you drive down the road towards it after the lights were turned on. I love going to the zoo in the evening this time of year as you drive right by the Broadmoor and get to enjoy their lights too on the way.
and my favorite tree on the corner across from the hotel- it's a weeping willow and they cover it with twinkle lights that hang down among the branches and it looks like a cascading waterfall - so gorgeous! The kids are tucked underneath the tree, if you look carefully ;)
The next lights event took place this past Saturday, December 6- that was the Festival of Lights parade in downtown and the Horizon Marching Band participated in the parade again. Here are the kids all lined up for the annual picture in the gym before they get on the buses to head downtown. Bryce is in the 5th column from the right, third row back from the front.
and here he is outside during their run through of the music one last time.
and here they come down the street in the parade. Unfortunately we happened to be at a spot along the parade route where they were resting, so we didn't get to actually here them play this time. They started playing again just as they got past us.

We will go to the zoo to see their big lights display probably next week. This weekend there are dance performances and church musicals and other things to do this weekend!

Two Christmas 2007 layouts & trying to get organized

It's been a really busy week with school, dance, band practices, doctor and orthodontist appointments and Mark has been out of town for several days too. Here are the two layouts I managed this week- they are both from Christmas last year. I need to get layouts ready to take to the copy shop next week, so I've been trying to fill in a few more holes in the timeline.
credits: All by Birgit Kerr at scrapbookgraphics: December Morning, Frosted Alpha, Heavenly Doodles, and Paper Borders- Christmas; fonts: Vivaldi

journaling: It’s become one of our holiday traditions to visit Santa Claus and his reindeer-in-training, Carrots and Mittens, when we go to the Electric Safari at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. There is usually a line to wait in to see Santa, but we have fun singing carols with each other to pass the time. Other people will sometimes join in the singing with us too. Each visit with Santa ends with getting a candy cane to enjoy during the rest of the tour around the zoo.
credits:Merry and Bright by Kate Hadfield and Kate Winecki at The-LilyPad; template collection 26 by Jen Caputo at scrapbookgraphics; frame by Nancy Comelab; fonts: TXT Monkeyshine

I've also been really busy with some hybrid projects, one of which I can't show off until January. while I was out looking for supplies for the first project I saw this 4x6 binder made with 4x6 index cards and thought it would make a cute little organizer for keeping in the car.
It turned into this:

digital credits: Melody of Your Heart by BlueBell Designs; Dusk to Dawn : The Alpha by Flergs
staple from Autumn Glory by Flergs and Birgit Kerr; 4x6 Index Card Binder Templates by Melinda Staley at Scrapdish; font: CK Becky
paper credits: 4x6 2 Ring index Card Binder by Office Max, fibers by Lion, charms by Creative Beginnings

and I just put these in my store at Scrapdish.

Ok, off to finish up that secret project before I have to go get Brenna from school. Tomorrow is the Christmas Lights parade downtown, so thankfully all of the marching band practices will be done after that. The twins have several holiday dance performances to do yet, but thankfully none are this weekend while we are doing all of the band stuff.