Another Bodega Bay Page

I'm really having a good time with this tutorial. If you can get the image big enough, there's some text around the picture.

Digital Scrapbooking

I've been wanting to try my hand at digital scrapbooking for a while now. I've been hesitant for a couple of reasons. One is that I already have a TON of paper items, so it doesn't really seem reasonable to spend money on a different kind of scrapbooking. Also, I just really like playing with the paper, adhesive, ribbons, and my Cricut.

Jeni makes digital pages and posts them on her blog, which I think are really cute. I decided to try the website she has linked to hers, FreeDigitalScrapbooking.com. It has lots of cool free stuff, so that takes care of my excuse about spending money. And I think having pages on my blog would be cool, especially if I ever steal my friend Holly's idea about making a book out of blog posts from Blurb.com. I had actually planned on doing it for Mother's Day or something, but I'm still too far behind on my posts. Maybe I'll do something for Christmas this year.

Anyway, the other roadblock to digital scrapbooking was I had NO IDEA what to do. However, my Photoshop Elements software came with a how to CD, complete with a template (shown above), papers, and embellishments. I still don't think this has quite the same feeling as real paper and adhesive, but it makes for a cute post I think. So I know I said yesterday that I was going to scrapbook Christmas day of last year, but I want to do some digital pages and I haven't found free paper for it yet. If anyone knows of some websites where I can get free stuff, feel free to comment.

These pictures are from April Conference weekend when Mom, Dad, and KC came to visit. Mom, Dad, and I went with the kids to Bodega Bay. It was a really long car ride, but the kids had fun on the hike we took and they liked collecting shells. We also saw some deer, which was neat. There were a lot of really cool looking old farms on the ride town. I love this picture of Becca that my mom took, she looks so happy.

Catching up – Christmas Eve

Since we are 7 months away from Christmas, I thought it would be a good idea to post pictures from last Christmas. I am definitely looking forward to finishing the Associates degree program. I think when I start the Bachelor’s in September that I am going to take a week off between classes. I need time for myself and my hobbies. The kids would probably enjoy some time to play with me too. =)

This is proof that I can and do cook. I made Christmas Eve dinner over at Grandma Musser’s house. We had chicken fried steak. I even managed to make a decent gravy.

Here are the kids in front of the tree. You see the 49ers sweater JD is wearing? He LOVES that thing. He wears it, even when it’s hot. He plays in it, sleeps in it. It is starting to get too small. We need to find him another.

Making cookies for Santa. The kids have fun doing this every year. Thanks Aunti Jeni and Nana!

I love this pic of Grace. She attacked the pinata for Christmas Eve. See JD there in the background looking kind of bummed? He had his turn but he wasn’t sure what to do. He figured it out after his turn was over and wasn’t too happy when he saw everyone else having fun.

The pinata fell apart before everyone had a turn, so they had to do a quick repair job. At least the tape was red like the boot.

It didn’t last much longer after that.

We had a nice talent show and Nativity. Sariah played Jolly Old St Nicholas and Becca sang some songs. JD didn’t really feel like being a shepherd though. He got tired.

Last but not least, the kids and I opened up our Christmas Eve pajamas. Next time I’ll post pics from Christmas day and work my way through everything else that I’ve missed over the last several months. It’s been a busy year.

The End is Near

I am 18 weeks away from getting an Associates Degree. I’m very excited. Part of the reason I am so excited is the Bachelor’s program has a break every five weeks, which means I might be able to get back to blogging. In the mean time, I thought I might try out posting from Windows Live and see if I like it any better than through the Blogger editor. So far so good since this format is similar to Word. I haven’t taken a whole lot of time to see what Blogger can do.

Anyway, I’m sure everyone would like to see some pictures. This is of Sariah in April 2005

Isn’t she cute? This is of Sariah when we were at Disneyland in March.

It just blows me away how she went from a sweet chubby cheeked little girl to a girl that in a few short years will be a young woman. I showed her the photo from 2005 and she embarrassed. Too funny.

This one is Becca from 2005, the same trip to Santa Cruz as the one of Sariah.

  

This is Becca at Disneyland in March

My girls are growing up!