Daily Life Week 21: Free Food, Free Time and Lots of Kids

Daily Life Templates 6 by Scrapping with Liz
Life's a Beautiful Ride by Tickled Pink Studio
Week 21 of 2014, what can I say? It was filled with kids, lots of 'em. It was a busy week that flew by, which I'm glad for. I'm still counting down the weeks until we get our son, and it's nice to have a week that goes by fast. You can read more about Week 21 below in the journaling from my page.

Photography Tip: Be like my husband. Notice the two pictures on the right of my page that are taken from above and show lots of people (kids to be exact) in the picture? My hubby took those with his phone. He always takes pictures from interesting angles, angles I wouldn't necessarily think of trying. I'm more about the close up. It's just easier for me. I don't have to go stand on top of chairs or tables. I chose to use those two photos this week because it really captured our week. There were kids everywhere. I'm still recovering.

Scrapbook Tip: I've shared these before, but they are good to remember, and I used them this week. Add some journaling to the top of your photos if you want a little more detail and make sure to include photos of yourself. I'm not sure that that bowling photo is the most flattering but I know Lydia will enjoy seeing it when she's older.

Daily Life Templates 6 by Scrapping with Liz
Life's a Beautiful Ride by Tickled Pink Studio
Journaling: This week started out great and ended even greater. After church we went out for lunch. When we went to pay we found out that someone had already paid for our meal! We asked our server, and she said it was an elderly couple. We figured it was the couple who stopped by and told us our family was beautiful. What a blessing.    Since we are doing “summer school” we have a little more free time. We’ve been going up to the greenway for a walk/run every morning. We’ve discovered a family of geese. The goslings are so cute. I told the girls we could come up every couple of days during the summer and watch them grow. We invited their cousin to come one morning. We’ve also been doing some more baking and of course more rainbow looming! Thursday through Saturday we took on 3 extra kids. Kyla had fun playing with her friend at the park. She enjoyed having a little 2 year old to do everything with.
Daily Life Templates 6 by Scrapping with Liz
Life's a Beautiful Ride by Tickled Pink Studio
Journaling: We invited the cousins over on Friday night. What’s a few more kids, right? We had pizza, played games and watched a movie. On Saturday we took everyone bowling. It was Lydia’s first time bowling. Ashlyn loved having another little girl around. She’s going to make a great mommy one day! It was fun having extra kids in the house (including a couple of boys), but I’m glad to be back to our small family of 6.....although I really can’t wait until we are a family of 7.

And last but not least here is your Daily Life Journal Card for the week. Just click on the image to download.

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-Liz

May Page Review

Here's a little recap of my May scrapping. First off, I finished my 2012 Album!!! I cranked out the pages, along with a friend's help. I ordered a Blurb book, and I'll be sharing it with you soon. The first pages you'll see here are the 2012 pages I finished up along with my cover page. I also scrapped one last page to put in my 2010 album (finally!), a page for Matthew and a Mother's Day 2014 page. I'm pretty happy with my scrapping this month. Take a look:


Title Page Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Everyday Snippets #3 by Createwings Designs

Journal That Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Family Matters by WMSquared

Remember That Templates 3 by Scrapping with Liz
#soselfie Art Papers by Meredith Cardall
#soselfie Mini-Kit by Meredith Cardall
#soselfie Mini-Kit by Kristin Aagard

Recyclables 30 by Scrapping with Liz
Unconditional Elements by Bella Gypsy
Unconditional Papers by Bella Gypsy

Photo Show Templates by Scrapping with Liz
#soselfie Art Papers by Meredith Cardall
#soselfie Mini-Kit by Meredith Cardall
#soselfie Mini-Kit by Kristin Aagard

Photo Show Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Christmas Jammies by Down This Road Designs

Photo Show Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Christmas Jammies by Down This Road Designs

Journal That Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Silent Night by Kristin Aagard

Artsy Journal Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
Incredible You by Megan Turnidge Designs

Artsy Journal Templates by Scrapping with Liz
I Heart Mom by Dream Big Designs and AH Designs
-Liz

Daily Life Week 20: Not Normal


Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
#inspiredlife {Kit} by Createwings Designs
Everyday Snippets Issue #3 by Createwings Designs
This week wasn't a normal week. We had family visit so we took a little break from school and enjoyed time with family. Most of the pics on my Week 20 page are of our fun activities with just a few normal things thrown in. Sometimes it's nice to do a little something different. You can read more about it below.

Photography Tip: I think I'll just remind you of a tip I posted before...seeing as how I fall back on this tip each week. Don't feel like you have to add perfect photos. That photo of me up top isn't really that great of a photo, but it shows what I do (the family picture taker). That photo at the bottom of all the girls sleeping in the tent was a pretty bad photo. It was taken with a phone in a dark room. I converted it to black and white and it looks halfway decent. It's okay to add not-so-good photos. I promise your kids won't notice.

Scrapbook Tip: The last two weeks you'll notice that I've used the same kits from Creatwings Designs. I've been really drawn to those kits. I think it's because the bright colors always go with my photos....plus it's a gorgeous kit. I've found that my scrapping goes quicker when I scrap with a kit I've used several times. I know just what is in the kit and I tend to already know what I want to use on the page. It makes my scrapping a breeze. If you've found that perfect kit make sure you use it over and over again. It'll make everything a lot easier.

Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
#inspiredlife {Kit} by Createwings Designs
Everyday Snippets Issue #3 by Createwings Designs
Journaling: Uncle CJ and Aunt Shannon came for a visit this week. On Sunday we took them on a drive up to Highlands. We saw all the beautiful waterfalls and then hiked Whiteside Mountain in Cashiers.

Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
#inspiredlife {Kit} by Createwings Designs
Everyday Snippets Issue #3 by Createwings Designs
Journaling: On Monday we went to Cherokee and played in the water and the bamboo forest. Shawn also captured a pic of me with my camera...I thought I should include it in this week’s page because it’s what I do!

I captured this pic of Emmie reading in Matthew’s room. It’s her favorite place to stow away and read. On Friday night we let the girls camp out downstairs under their tent. I don’t know how they all fit in there to sleep! And we had more fun playing in the sprinkler.

And as usual, here's your free Daily Life Journal Card this week. It's perfect for clipping a photo to and adding a little journaling about the photo. Just click on the photo to download.

*download expired*


-Liz

My Mother's Day and a Look Back

Artsy Journal Templates by Scrapping with Liz
I Heart Mom by Big Dream Designs and AH Designs

It seems to be a tradition for me to scrap about my Mother's Day almost immediately after it happens. I'm not sure why that is since there are many photos that wait for years to be scrapped. Maybe because on Mother's Day I'm reminded of how blessed I am, and I want to remember that always.

This year was like most others except that we had company from out of town. I still got a whole handful of homemade cards, and we still went on a family hike. You can read about it on the page above.

We hiked a trail we've hiked many times before, Whiteside Mountain in Cashiers, NC. It's a 2 mile, beautiful round trip hike that is totally doable with our kids' ages. I'll admit that some of the cliff edges make me nervous, but there is a rope fence near the really steep sides. I'm pretty sure I said stay away from the edge a gazillion times.

We took a picture of the girls on the same rock they stood on 2 years ago. I vividly remember hiking this trail in 2012 and thinking about how we would have to come back when Lydia was home so that she could hike it with us. Two years and we finally got back! And this time I said, "Next time we come, Matthew will be in the picture!"

And here's a picture of the girls and I. I love to see how the girls have grown over the last two years. We've had lots of growth spurts around here. I also thought it was funny that I was wearing the same blue tank top. What can I say? That blue tank top has been with me everywhere. I still like my 2012 hair better than my 2014 hair...but it's slowly growing back. Enough about me. I also can't wait to see a little boy in with all of those girls! By the way both of the pictures on the left were taken with my phone. It looked like rain, and I didn't want to chance taking my dslr.


And just for fun I found some of my older Mother's Day pages.

2013

2012
Hey Girl by Laura Banasiak
Recyclables 10

2011


Read more about these pages here.
Next year will be even better!
-Liz


Week 19: A Lot of Fun

Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
#inspiredlife {Kit} by Createwings Designs
Everyday Snippets Issue #3 by Createwings Designs
Week 19 was a lot of fun. We had some fun homeschool events, lots of playing outside, reading (always reading), and fort making. I'll let you read more below.

Scrapping Tip: We had family come to visit this week, and that means I'm running a little behind on my scrapping work. In order to get this page done, I had to scrap it really fast. So, I just have one tip for you this week. Just do it! Sit down for 30 minutes at your computer and scrap your page. Don't worry about playing with the shadows or adding a bunch of fancy elements. Put your photos on the template, add your paper, add a couple elements and some journaling and you are done. I'm so happy to say, that even after a super busy week, that I have Week 19 done! There will be a time to sit down, relax and scrap, but that was not this week.

Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
#inspiredlife {Kit} by Createwings Designs
Everyday Snippets Issue #3 by Createwings Designs
 Journaling: We’ll start with the picture to the left. Kyla wrote a book, and Daddy read it one night to the girls. It got a lot of laughs! I love these people. To the top left, you’ll see a tent the girls made in the dining room on a very rainy Saturday afternoon. At the top, you’ll see the girls and Katie dancing to addition songs. To the right, you’ll see pics from co-op activities. We had our first spelling bee and all the kids did great. Ashlyn got 1st place! She’d been studying very hard. We were all proud of her. Then we ran a 5K to support our local Pregnancy Care Center. We had been practicing for the last couple of months. The kids worked hard and they did great. Ashlyn beat her last 5K time by 4 minutes, and it was Kyla’s first 5K.  I love my runners. 


Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
#inspiredlife {Kit} by Createwings Designs
Everyday Snippets Issue #3 by Createwings Designs
 Journaling: This was the first week we got the sprinkler out. The girls played for hours outside. Emmie has been reading to Lydia at night. It’s so sweet. I had to capture it!

Don't forget your Daily Life Journal Card 19!

Here's to hoping next week is a little more relaxing...although I really enjoyed having family here.
-Liz

Looking Back: My Kids and I Pick Our Fave Pages


My kids and I frequently pull out my scrapbooks and look through them. Not only is it fun to look at the pages and reflect on our memories, but I think it's also good for me to look back, as the scrapper of the family, and pick out the pages I really like. It helps me to really pinpoint the style that I like and ultimately reminds me of why I scrap.  It's not about all the fancy elements, or the pretty pages (that does make it more fun), but it's about preserving the memories my family and I make.

I pulled out our scrapbooks this past week and started looking through them. I was really drawn to the big photo pages. I love that about digital scrapbooking. You can easily put a big photo on a page, no special pre-printing required.


I really love this page. I think it was the journaling on top of the photo that really made it stand out to me....plus it's a fun picture.


I also liked the pages with a block style to them. I like seeing all those photos cleanly blocked on the page.




The ones with neutral or dark background papers also stood out to me. I think maybe it helped the photos stand out more. I need to remember that for future pages.


I'm usually a pretty simple scrapper, but I occasionally scrap a more artsy page. I loved coming across those in my scrapbooks because it really brought back the emotions I was feeling when I made the page.


Here's another block style layout with a neutral background that I really liked.


Just for fun I asked my kids to each pick out their favorite page and tell me why it was their favorite.


My oldest picked out this page. It's actually one of my very first pages. Can you tell? There are no shadows. *gasp* She said it was her favorite because she and her best friend are in it. This was from over 6 years ago and they are still best friends. Goes to show you that your kids don't really care if you forget shadows.


Emmie had a hard time picking her favorite.


She ultimately picked this one...and it's about her. I think she liked it because I put her nickname as the title.


This little girl took her job very seriously.


And ultimately picked this page:


She said it was her favorite because it was Lydia's first time in the pool. She wasn't even there for that moment. We were on the other side of the world. I love that we can use these scrapbooks to share moments of our lives where we were apart. P.S. Don't ask me about the headband.


And this little one. She just loves to look at all the scrapbooks. She would look at them all day long.


This is what I came away with this week while looking through our scrapbooks:

1. I like big photo pages.
2. I like block style pages.
3. I like neutral backgrounds.
4. I like the occasional art/journal page.
4. My kids don't care about shadows.
5. My kids like pages about themselves.
6. My kids just like to see our family memories.

I challenge you to go take a look through your pages and pinpoint a few things you really like about them. Maybe even have some of your family members pick out their favorite pages too.

-Liz

Mom's Superhero

The last update I posted was letting you all know we got our LOA. Since then we've been anxiously waiting for a letter in the mail with our provisional I-800 approval. Shortly after receiving the provisional approval we would get an e-mail with a number we would use to fill out some on-line immigration paperwork for Matthew. Let's just say that checking our mail and e-mail these past couple of weeks have been filled with hopefulness, disappointment, excitement, impatience, etc... We finally got the all-important e-mail on Wednesday morning. We were able to fill out the online form and get everything sent to our agency....but not before spending several hours trying to get immigration to fix Matthew's name on the online form. There's always some kind of drama! It makes life interesting, right? But really, I could do without interesting. I'm just glad to say we are done with paperwork, and now we just wait. About two weeks from now we'll officially be waiting for Matthew's travel approval, which can take anywhere from 1-3 weeks from that point. After we get travel approval we'll be able to make travel arrangements and bring him home! Praise the Lord! I'm sure these next 4-6  weeks of waiting are going to do me in. I suppose I'll pass the time by finishing up some templates for you all, finishing up school with my girls...and doing a little shopping for Matthew. I think that should pass the time fairly quickly.

Oh, and scrapping photos of Matthew too!
Artsy Journal Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
Incredible You by Megan Turnidge Designs

-Liz

Week 18: All Over the Place

Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
Snapshots by Tickled Pink Studio

Week 18 is done and scrapped! You can read more about our week below in the journaling from the pages...it was sort of all over the place.

Photography Tip: Let your kids take photos. Sometimes they'll capture things you wouldn't think about photographing. Emmie took a photo of a shirt I bought for Matthew. I didn't think it was that significant at the time, but apparently, she did. When I was scrolling through my photos at the end of the week, I was so happy to see it. I'm so glad he'll be a part of this week's Daily Life page. We'll be bringing him home soon, and he'll be in every single one of our weekly pages. You better believe it!

Scrapbook Tip: Pick one or two elements on your page and play with the shadow a bit. It will give it a nice little extra touch.  I like to play with the shadows of the ribbons on my pages.  On the left-hand page below I played with the ribbon and the corner of one of my photos. 

Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
Snapshots by Tickled Pink Studio
 Journaling: This week’s page is all over the place. On Sunday afternoon the girls enjoyed freezer pops and playing with sidewalk chalk. On Saturday, Shawn and I hiked Pinnacle Park. Saturday night we played games. It was funny listening to the stories they made with the Tell Tale game.


Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
Snapshots by Tickled Pink Studio
Journaling: Tuesday night we were feeling restless so we went for a walk on the Greenway. On Thursday I bought a shirt for Matthew. It was a rough week of waiting for our I800 approval and this cheered me up a  bit.  On Friday night we went out with friends and then had a mad game of Rummikub. These other two pictures were taken one day while we were doing school work. It was a nice day, so we did as much as we could on the porch.

And last but not least, here is your Daily Life Journal Card 18:

-Liz
© Scrapping with Liz
Maira Gall