I Can't Explain It & Adoption Update

Artsy Journal Templates 4 by Scrapping with Liz
He's One Year Older by Tracie Stroud

This past Wednesday was Matthew's 5th birthday. He spent it in the orphanage, hopefully with his buddies.

I know they don't celebrate birthdays in the orphanage. I know he probably didn't even know what he was missing, but it was hard on his mommy. I can't explain it, but I love him so much already. He's my little boy, and he sat in an orphanage on his birthday.

I scrapped the page above so that he could look back when he is older and know that even though he wasn't with us on his 5th birthday, we were thinking of him and praying for him. We even bought him a few birthday presents for him to open when he comes home.

Adoption Update: I don't have much of an update. I think the last time I updated you we thought we were waiting on our LOA (letter of approval). It turns out that our dossier did not get logged in until the end of February, just a few days after my last adoption post. We thought it had been logged in around mid-January. Needless to say, we were very disappointed. We were about 6 weeks behind where we thought we were. So...now we are about a month into our LOA wait. It seems like the average time to get your LOA is between 60-90 days. So, most likely, we have at least another month before we hear anything. I'm sure you'll hear me screaming it from the rooftops when we get our LOA!

That's all for now. I just wanted to share my page and a little update. Hoping the next adoption update will have some good news!
-Liz

Week 12: Play, Learning....and Frozen!

Daily Life Templates 3 by Scrapping with Liz
Everyday Life: It's a Girl Thing Collection by Megan Turnidge Designs and Tickled Pink Studio

I love scrapping these pages each week. I hope you don't mind seeing them each week!

It gives me a time of reflection. A time to look back at what God has given me but also a time to look forward. It's a time to realize that these moments are so short, and they go by so fast. I need to embrace every moment...

Photo Tip: Ctrl + M! I use it a lot for a quick photo edit. I tend to do it more on the photos taken with a phone (can you guess which one it is in this week's page?).

Scrapping Tip: Enjoy it! Turn up some music and scrap your heart out. That's what I did this weekend!

Journaling: In no particular order...The first pic above was us trying to record the girls singing Happy Birthday for Nana. It was a little crazy. One afternoon my niece came over to play, and I snapped a pic of the three little girls going down the slide. Peas in a pod! I snapped a pic of dinner one night. Lots of memories made around that table. Journaling continued on the next page.....

Journaling: Frozen came out this week. I’m not usually a sucker for Disney movies, but this one got me. The music and the sisters pulled me in. We got the movie and sheet music. We had to jam out one evening (or lots) to “Let it Go!”  I peeked in the girls' room one evening and found them having a tea party. So sweet! I had to snap a picture. Then the pics here on the right page show a little bit of the extra learning (you know, besides reading, writing, and math) we do throughout the week. Geography practice. Kyla is naming the 7 continents for me. Then we’ve been practicing our sign language every afternoon. Kyla is signing bath. Every Monday afternoon we have sewing classes. Right now we are in the process of making a quilt.

I hope you don't mind reading my ramblings on my scrapbook page. I tend to just jot down a little bit of each picture.....in a long, nonsensical paragraph.

Now for this week's Journal Card Freebie. Just click on the image to download. 

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-Liz

Daily Life Week 11 (Thanks to Daddy!)

Daily Life Templates 3 by Scrapping with Liz
Everyday Snippets Issue #3 by Createwings Designs

Thanks to my hubby I had enough photos for my page this week. He finally gave in and bought a smart phone. I think he's having too much fun taking photos with it, and for some reason I just didn't take that many photos with my DSLR this week. It all worked out for me.

Photo Tip: Ask others in your family if you can use photos they have taken during the week. In my case I was able to use a couple of photos I wouldn't have been able to take myself.

Scrapping Tip: Try out a new designer! I saw Createwings Everyday Snippets #3 in the market and I knew I wanted to use it for my Daily Life page. I've never scrapped with her kits. It was a lot of fun! I can't wait to use the kit some more.

Journaling: This week we had Homeschool P.E. Day on Tuesday. We all wore our Macon G.E.M.S. shirts to represent. On Wednesday Daddy took Ashlyn out to lunch (she turned in her Valentine’s coupon). She picked Asian King. Thankfully Daddy snapped a photo for me with his phone. On Saturday we went on a family bike ride on the Greenway. It was too beautiful outside not to. Then the picture on the bottom right was taken one night at home after Ashlyn and Emmie had done their little sisters’ hair.

Journaling: These are just random pictures that I snapped throughout our week. This is really what our daily life looks like. We are always doing school work (usually with at least a couple kids in PJ’s) at a table filled with puzzles, crayons, and horses. And there always seems to be a cup of coffee for Mommy somewhere!

And here's your Daily Life Journal Card 11. All the rest are still available! Make sure you go back through my Daily Life posts to grab them all.

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Have a great weekend! See you Monday for a sneak peek and giveaway!

-Liz

Week 10: Dancing, Dress Up & Food (always food!)

Daily Life Templates 3 by Scrapping with Liz
Where the Heart is Bundle by Megan Turnidge and Tickled Pink Studio

This week we were gone over the weekend on a little family getaway. That meant no scrapping on Saturday night (my normal scrapping night). Which I was okay with because I really needed the break from my computer.  Since I was a little behind on work, I thought about pushing the page aside to another time when I had more time, but I knew I would regret it. The first thing I did Monday night was work on my page. I'm so glad I completed it.  Now to scrap those hundreds of photos I took on our trip to Chattanooga.

Photo Tip of the week: Leave your camera on your counter ready to go. It will make it easier to remember to take those daily photos. In my case, it makes it easier to always take a picture of the food I'm either creating or eating. I think all of my pages, so far, have some sort of food in them.

Scrapping Tip of the week: Scrap! If you set goals at the beginning of the year try to set aside time to work on them. Don't keep pushing it aside.

Journaling: Every night we do a family Bible Study or “worship” time. One night this week Daddy decided to pull out his Ukulele. The girls all started dancing around praising the Lord!   The girls had been begging me to make crepes, for breakfast, something I’ve only done a handful of times. The girls loved them, and I’m afraid they will ask for them weekly.   Kyla always likes to leave sweet notes for her sisters when she’s done with her spelling lesson. Today’s note said, “I love Mommy, Daddy, Ashlyn, Lydia, and Emmie. They all are my best friends.”

Journaling:   One afternoon the girls put on a “fashion show” for me. It consisted of all of our leotards, dress-up outfits, ribbons and miscellaneous items that they put together to make their own outfits. On Friday we headed out to Chattanooga for a weekend away. Our first stop was a picnic on the side of the road by the Ocoee River. 

And here's your Daily Life Journal Card for the week. I hope you guys are getting some use out of these. Just click on the image to download.

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-Liz

Advent Journal Cards: Finished Product

You may or may not remember the Advent countdown that I made with these journal cards. I finally set aside some time to put them all together. It really only took me a few minutes. It was just a matter of doing it. I thought I would show you the finished product.

I gathered some different ricrac, punched a hole in the corner of each card, and then threaded them through with a safety pin.

Then I tied them together.

I also wrote the date on the very first journal card just so I could remember what year this was from. Because I know that even though I think I'll remember the year these were from...I most likely won't.

Now we can easily flip through them all and they'll stay together.

This is what the back of them look like. Each day during the month of December each of the girls wrote what they were thankful for. I know we are going to love pulling this off the shelf each Christmas and reading through it.

-Liz

Week 9: Friends, Gym, Food, #

Daily Life Templates 3 by Scrapping with Liz
Celebrate Everything by Bella Gypsy and Tickled Pink Studio

This week's page only took about 30 minutes to complete. I'm getting faster! I did have to add a photo spot. 9 spots were just not enough to capture all that went on this week. I do like that this template had two journaling spots. I had a lot to journal this week. It was all normal stuff but things that I wanted to remember. I also took a little fun twist on my journaling by adding hashtags. I know hashtags won't be around forever, but I think it will be fun to look back at them. I can picture my kids saying while pointing to the hashtags, "What are those?" I also think it adds a little more to the story.

Scrapping Tip of the week: Go ahead and add something that is faddish on your page. Something that will show that it's the 2010's. What are we calling them anyway? Maybe the 20 teens? I don't know. I suppose I could go google it, but then I would get sidetracked and never finish my blog post. Back on track. It will be fun to look back on those pages and see what was trendy.

Photo Tip of the week: Don't be afraid to change a photo to black and white. It can add some visual appeal. Plus, if you have a photo that's not in the greatest of lighting it can help it look a little better. The photo of my girls eating popcorn in their bed and watching a movie was not the best lighting. As a result, the photo didn't turn out all that great...but it looks pretty good in black and white.

Journaling: Let’s see, how can I summarize this week? Maybe I’ll use some hashtags. Lydia was found doing “Bible Study” with her ball and blankie. They each had a Bible laying out in front of them while she “read” from the Bible. #adorable Ashlyn had a friend over to spend the night, and Emmie went to a friends' house. So Lydia and Kyla watched a movie on the kindle while laying in bed and eating popcorn. #itsthelife Lydia and Kyla helped make some cornbread muffins to go with dinner. #yum

Journaling: I often try new recipes on the weekend because I have a little more time to experiment. I made Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken with Asparagus. #delicious  Our homeschool co-op hosted homeschool gymnastics day. We all went to the gym and had a bunch of fun. We ate lunch outside on Sunday. It was just too beautiful not to.  We finished a 750 puzzle.  #crazy Once we finished it we got rid of it because there is no way we are going to do that one again. Kyla snuck out one morning in her PJs to snuggle with Lucy Moon....she often does that. #shelovesherkitty

Now that I'm done showing you my page and rambling on about trends, here's your free journal card for this week. Hope you enjoy! Just click the image to download.

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-Liz

My February Pages: Okay

Besides my Daily Life pages, I didn't really scrap a whole lot in February. I don't know what happened. I think maybe I'm just trying to get all of my scrapping work caught up so I won't have to work as much when Matthew comes home. I am glad to be staying caught up with my Daily Life pages...although I wish I could get caught up on my older albums. Oh well, it is what it is. Let's move on to the pages I scrapped in February.

I have a random assortment of pages this month. I had been trying to get caught up on my 2012 album, but I kind of strayed from that.

This first page I did at a live crop over at Scrap Orchard. We were supposed to use our new releases. I found some photos to scrap that I thought went well with the You Rock theme. I realized after the fact that I put the wrong date on this one. It's supposed to say 2013...I still have the .psd so I can fix it before printing.

Paper Piecing Templates by Scrapping with Liz
You Rock by Bella Gypsy
You Rock by Ziggle Designs

I made this one because I wanted to try out my new Paper Piecing Templates. I knew I wanted to use a lot of photos that went together. I rummaged through my non-scrapped photos to find something that would work. These close-ups of my girls were perfect. At least I have another 2013 page done.

Paper Piecing Templates by Scrapping with Liz
My Girl by Megan Turnidge

Every year since 2007 we have taken a family photo at Christmas. I decided to find all of the pictures and scrap them. It's fun to see how our families have changed and grown.

Template: March Scrapping with Liz Facebook Freebie
Festival of Lights by Ziggle Designs

I scrapped this page for a challenge on my SwL Group page. The challenge was to scrap a food that we LOVE. You can read more about this page here

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Chinese Takeout by mle Card Designs
Cooking Time by Kristin Aagard Designs

Then I was feeling a little emotional about Matthew, and I scrapped this page.

Template Coming Soon!
Across the Miles by Tracie Stroud and Amber Shaw

Only 5 pages this month...but if you include each of my double Daily Life pages that makes 13. I'm okay with that.
-Liz