second cousins

I'm not a big social media person. I mean, yes, I blog. (Every now and then.) But I don't consider that too much social media. In fact, its really me just posting stuff up for the benefit of my own family without being too social about it.

Facebook. Eh. I'm on every once in a great while. (Never mind that I check out Becky Higgins on Facebook every day.) Twitter. Nope. No tweets from me.

But Instagram. Yes. I'm on Instagram lots. I post almost every day. Sometimes not. But I check it SEVERAL times a day. (Just ask my husband who totally doesn't get it.) And I go through withdrawals when I can't check it, like when we go camping or somewhere else without much signal.

Through Instagram I have reconnected with my cousin Christina, and because of it, our kids have connected. It's pretty darn awesome.

They met a couple years ago at a family reunion, but I think they were all a little shy then and there were LOTS of unfamiliar faces so the situation was probably not ideal for making new friends. The second time they met was in June at a graduation party near their house. Both sets of kids hit it off.



The girls are two days apart, but her daughter is one grade higher than Emma. The boys are one year and one grade apart.

This next pic was taken yesterday when they came out for a visit. Pictured are all five kids, including my cousin's oldest daughter. We saw a movie and hung out for most of the day.



But so fun for these two girls. They have become pen pals and email pals. Emma emails her almost every day.




We don't live close so there won't be lots of visiting happening. But I think we can make it work a couple times a year.

Just so fun to re-connect and newly connect.

And I think we have Instagram to thank for it.

seven

This evening my boy alerted me to the fact that this year is going by really fast. For a kid to acknowledge that, well, think about how I feel kiddo.

My baby boy just turned seven.

Yes, time is going by really fast. Too fast.





His birthday day was very busy. My niece and sister were with us for a few days. We had swim in the morning and then that afternoon we had a Cub Scout outing at Angels Radio station.





Afterwards we headed down to celebrate at Farrell's in Brea. The kids (or Daniel) had no idea what it was about, but my sister and I had fond memories as a child and we were excited to go.







This is my very favorite picture of the day:




Ethan had a good time and asked if we can go back again next year for his birthday.

The jet pack helped.


And a couple days later we did a little more celebrating.





Such a fun birthday weekend!

I adore this little seven year old boy of mine.

Project Life 2013 {week four}

Week 4 of 2013:



Left side:


Right side:


And this is where I started to break the "rules" I had set up for myself. I originally thought that I wanted each week to be like a sandwich - The sides would be the main spread, the bread, and anything extra I wanted to include for that week would be in between, sandwiched within the week. And those inserts had to be smaller than the outside pages. Can we say OCD?! I mean really? Why make things so difficult on myself?

This week I had lots of Girl Scout pics. I didn't want to make them teeny tiny in little collages. I wanted to enjoy them as somewhat regular sized photos. Why not just make a second two page spread with all those Girl Scout pics.

And that's what I did:








Slowly I am finding what works for me. And its hard. Mostly because I make it hard. Just like going digital. I love it. And I hate it. I take too much time figuring it all out. Sometimes I wish I could just accept my handwriting. Buy the physical kit. Write directly on the journal cards. Slip it all in and go. That's how this system was meant to work. But that's hard for me too.

I'll figure it out. Every week I learn something new.

The best part is that I'm actually getting our pictures in a book.

I LOVE that.

Project Life is a memory keeping system created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. Her products can be found on Amazon, as well as at several other retailers across the country. I am using the Seafoam edition (digital version) as my main core kit for 2013.

Project Life 2013 {week three}

Week 3 of 2013 looks like this:



It has one insert, Becky Higgins' photo pocket page design G.







I want to go back to all the inserts and add little tabs to differentiate the layers. I've watched people look through my albums and they don't always see that there is a page to turn in between the main ones.

Fun things I did this week:
Included stickers and tags from the kids clothes that we bought this week, telling us their current sizes.
Added text directly onto photos in Photoshop and this week I used a lot of hashtags because its a sign of the times.
I scanned some of Emma's art and scaled it down for one of the 3x4 pockets.
I cut up a flyer from the Girl Scout Cookie Rally to title one side of the insert.

Project Life is a memory keeping system created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. Her products can be found on Amazon, as well as at several other retailers across the country. I am using the Seafoam edition (digital version) as my main core kit for 2013.

Project Life 2013 {week two}

Week 2 of 2013 was much simpler.



Left side of the main spread:



Right side of the main spread:



One 8.5x11 insert houses art and writing from Ethan. Not sure if it will stay in this book or be moved to his later, but for now its in the family book. I can always scan it to include it in his or vice versa.




And that is all she wrote for week 2!

Project Life is a memory keeping system created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. Her products can be found on Amazon, as well as at several other retailers across the country. I am using the Seafoam edition (digital version) as my main core kit for 2013.

Project Life 2013 {week one}

I am sorely behind on my Project Life pages for this year. BUT, I am doing better than last year! I think last year I accomplished maybe 3 weeks worth for the whole year. This year I am at a whopping 7 weeks. Woo-hoo! But I hope to do some serious catch up this summer.

This is week one of 2013:


Left side of the main spread:


Right side of the main spread:


There were three inserts sandwiched between the main pages. The first holds a baby announcement that fit perfectly in a Becky Higgins 5x7 page protector. You can see it in the first image above, though I blurred out the info. And below you can see part of the backside where I tucked in the picture they sent with the announcement.

You can also see the second insert which holds three 4x6 photos. I was cleaning out our garage that week and that's where I detailed my progress.

Here's the backside of the second insert. We were doing a big furniture swap.


The last insert is 8x8. A single photo in front and a collage on the back.




And that's week one! This is my first try at using all digital files. For now I'm going with the idea that I will still print and put them in a physical book and in the end this book will be the family book or the book that stays with us (mom and dad). I like having slip pockets to store memorabilia. Because my creative process involves doing it digitally on the computer first, I'm saving those files so I can print out digital books for the kids, probably through Blurb. The digital version may not be as comprehensive as the physical book, but I'm still working on that idea. :)

Project Life is a memory keeping system created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. Her products can be found on Amazon here, as well as at several other retailers across the country. I am using the Seafoam edition (digital version) as my main core kit for 2013.

first day of swim lessons

Just jumping in... Been a long time. Not making any promises to keep up, but I'm here now and I'm going with it. Edited the jpgs on my laptop with minimal adjustments. May not look their very best, but I'm trying to teach myself that it is really okay to let it go, very best or not.

These were taken today on the first day of swim.


Emma, age 9. On her fifth round of level 2, which I am really hoping she will pass this time. I truly thought she would have passed maybe 2 sessions ago. Emma is already a far better swimmer than I ever was. That's not saying much, but man, I love that.
 


Ethan, age 6 (7 in 10 days-ish). Level 1, which is pretty much where he should be. Last year he ended the summer on the verge of swimming. But he has more fears than Emma and that definitely holds him back. Progress every year is all I ask for.
 






And with that I'll just tell you that the lesson went well. No great pictures to show for it (short lens and a fence to contend with), but the kids did great! Emma had great form and I would say made it across the pool the strongest in her group. Wow, I can still remember the time when she would flounder and stay in one place. Ethan, despite being extremely nervous about starting up again, was brave and did well with putting his face in the water and jumping into the pool. So proud of both my kids.









Can't wait to watch their progress. Watching them learn to swim is one of my greatest joys.