Daybreak Scraps Designs went live today at Ginger Scraps!  I finished up two new layouts for the opening I'd like to share.  The kit was fun to play with!  It had lots of cute embellishments to work with, and isn't that little BIRD so cute!!  As you all know, I like to use BIRDS on my Bird family layouts--and even my Bissell family layout got a bird this time!!  It was just too cute to pass up.

The top layout is from when Dad and I were in Colorado to visit with Abby and Micah!  We took Molly with us, and God blessed us with a delightful snowstorm!!  We all had a lot of fun playing in the snow--and even Molly got into the action.  She got so cold she was shaking!!  The second layout is from when Amy and Scott took the boys to the mountains just before Christmas.  They were staying with the "Bird" grandparents and they got the opportunity to play in the snow also!  Give a kid some snow and a sled of some sort, and just watch the smiles!!  What fun.  Thank you God for the blessings and fun of SNOW!!

This cute digital kit can be found here:  http://store.gingerscraps.net/Winter-Chill.html

Daybreak Scraps, one of the CT teams I'm on, is opening up a new store with Ginger Scraps tomorrow!!  You can find it here:
http://store.gingerscraps.net/Daybreak-Scraps  
(it goes live tomorrow!)
also, we're doing a speed scrap Saturday night at 9 pm Central time!  I hope some of you can join us!!  I'm looking forward to being there.  I'll have a couple of layouts to share tomorrow!!  She has some really cute kits!!  :)

I've got a few layouts to share, but not much time, so there won't be much chatter!  I'm involved in an online challenge game for the month of December, and it has motivated me to scrap, and that is always fun!  The first layout encompasses little snippets of fun from the Bird's house on Christmas morning.  I can just hear the squeals of delight!  But please don't mess with breakfast time for Noah!!  Such a creature of habit!!  :)

The Second layout shows the fun we had when the boys opened the presents from grandpa and grandma!  We set up the tents in the small living room, and there wasn't much room for much else!!  :)  The third layout shows the boys saying good-bye to Disneyland on their last visit.  Their annual pass has now expired, but they will remember all the fun trips they had this past year.

The next layout shows the girls and grandma and grandpa on the beach at LaJolla on a cold and blustery day.  But it's ok, the water was beautiful, and the company was great!

Christmas 2009 shows a few more photos of the Bird's Christmas morning.  The boys were so cute with their stick horses and cowboy hats.  I remember when our little Adam got those for Christmas too!!  Such a cute time.  The last layout is baby Jacob who is still struggling at times with his health!!  We pray he outgrows his problems soon.  Poor little guy is not going to know what it is to feel good. 

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I had a lunch date with my church ladies today.  We had a great time together, as always!  There were only five of us there today, so it was pretty cozy.   It was so good to see everybody!   I look forward to our morning out all month. 

I have another layout to share today.  It is all about my husband.  He's a real cutie.  I appreciate him so much. The journaling says:  Have I told you guys that I love this man?  You probably figured it out by now since we’ve been married forever. 
            I’m not sure I ever told you why I love him though.  This is him.  He’s real.  There is no pretext to him.  He sees things like they are.   He doesn’t put on airs.  He’s a Godly man and always gives God his best.  He’s not ashamed to stand up for what is right, nor for his God.  I love that in him.  I love his gentle spirit.  I love that he loves his family--all of it--I especially love that he loves me in return .  I rely on that love.

I found a new kit today and just couldn't wait to get it made up into a layout.  I used a blog freebie template from Erin Fazz, and the kit from Sweet Blossom Designs is called What a Hoot.  It fit my little Bird family to a "T" of course!!  :)

The boys loved their special trips to Disneyland this past year, but now it's time to find another interest.   I can't wait to see what that will be. 

I'm in the groove for the year so far!  I've done 13 layouts in 8 days.  I doubt I can keep up that pace, but it IS fun to have more pages done than days gone in the year.  The layout I'll share first is one I did today for the Flashback Friday challenge on the pub.  I'm sure I've scrapped this photo before, but it is so sweet, I just couldn't resist.  It is my mother and father in law on their honeymoon. 

I took Hazel's old ledger that she kept ALL her information in, and came up with the dates here.  That ledger is an amazing old book!  She wrote down EVERYTHING in it--the kids school grades, their doctor visits, their job records, and everything they bought, when they bought it, how much it cost, and what it was for!  I'll have to do a layout on it someday.  It is truly amazing.  She was so organized!!

My next layout is another Christmas ornament layout.  Amy informed me that my last one didn't include any of the ones from her, or ones that she had made, so this one took care of that!  :)  Gotta love that kid!  I didn't have room on the layout to explain all the ornaments, but five of them are ones that Amy either made for us or the one is a First Christmas one from the year she was born!!  One looks like Molly, one of them is from Debbie and her little flakes, and the last one is one from my tree when I was growing up.
The year we were married, my mother had gotten married that year also.  So, my mom supplied us with a lot of ornaments from our home tree because Bill had "enough" to fill up a few trees!  With her combining households with Bill, Earl and I picked up a lot of good stuff!

The last layout I have to share, the photos were from Amy and Scott's trip up to the mountains before Christmas.  The kids had a great time playing in the snow, and Amy and Scott were able to snap some good photos!  :) 
That's about all for now!  Back to scrapping--have a great day.

Well, I've been busy!  I'm ready to post a few more layouts though!

My Bird boys sure are cute aren't they?  The photos were taken the day we went to Amy's house and gave the boys their Christmas presents!  Jonah's photo was taken while he was IN one of the tents we gave them.  We took Noah a TRAIN tent and Jonah a space shuttle tent.   Noah was happier to see US than the presents!!  He really isn't into presents much.   And Jacob was just happy--I think that is his perpetual state!   Even when he's sick he's happy.  Who can complain with a baby like that??

In the next layout, the photo was taken the day after Thanksgiving.  Jacob was so sweet.  He really loves to cuddle!!  And what grandma worth her salt could resist a little cuddle now and then??  They stay small for such a short time!

I have one more layout to share.  The photos were taken on Thanksgiving day.  We all were outside waiting for the turkey to finish baking, and the leaves had just fallen off the three, so they were still nice and fluffy--the best kind of leaves for a leaf fight!
I used a fun kit from Jen Martakis called Nuts for You  for all three of these layouts--she is currently having a 25% off sale at 2 peas if you are interested!  The snowmen, staples and bling on the first layout came from a different kit that I don't have the name of offhand.  Sorry!!

This brings my scrapping for today to a close.  It is now time to make dinner for my dear husband (left-overs again!)  Poor guy.  I got so used to cooking for a big family when the kids were home, that I find it very difficult NOW that it's just the two of us here!  I've got to learn how to adjust the ingredients for recipes to only feed us once!!  So, I cook once and we eat it for several days.

I guess I'm a follower!  I saw several people post their favorite 10 layouts on their blogs, so I thought, "Oh, I should do that too--even though most of them are already here.  I tried to limit it to the top 5, but I liked too many of them! 

My first one would be one I just finished in the last few days.  It's What Is Under Your Tree.  I had taken a series of photos of the boys when they were here for Thanksgiving, and loved them all, so to only pick one photo for the layout was a difficult task!! 

Number 2 would be a layout I made for Drew's first birthday.  It is called I'm ONE!  I was able to capture a great expression.  That, by itself, is a great accomplishment!!  He is always moving!!  And very hard to get a good photo of!!   But look at that cute little face!!  Isn't he just adorable??

Then comes LaJolla! Besides being one of my favorite layouts, it is also one of my favorite places to visit!  The beach is absolutely one of the most beautiful places God made here on earth!  And of course, some of the grandchildren live nearby too, so we get to play in the waves with them.  Talk about adorable children!! 

This one is one I'd planned on doing for several years. so felt quite good about finally taking the photos and getting it done!  I used a template from Renee Pearson for it, and really love how it turned out.  I think I'll eventually make this a double page spread because I still have a lot of ornaments I'd like to get down on paper! 

 

Some of my layouts have double meanings for me.  This one of Hopie, for instance, reminds me of me when I was a little girl.  Hannah took this photo of Hopie when they were playing dress up together.  Hopie is quite the poser!!  I remember, as a child, playing with my older sister.  I didn't ever know we were playing though.  She would be brushing my long hair--and I'd be waiting to PLAY.  She'd get done brushing and think we already DID play!!  We didn't get that misunderstanding taken care of until we were adults!!  :)

Another favorite is this layout of Andrew!  I took the photos in September at Hopie's 4th birthday party.  He was sitting in his high chair, really giving that whistle a work over!  And the next layout, all the photos were taken that same day--The birthday girl!  She was so excited to finally be "BIG."  Why do they want to grow up so fast?? 

Another favorite layout is of Jonah.  He has such an expressive face!  You always know where you stand with Jonah.  Just love that boy!!  I can't believe that Santa brought him a two wheel bike for Christmas this year!!  How did he get old enough for that??
Besides this being one of my favorite photos of Abby, it's also one of the first layouts I did for my first creative team!  I think that is probably why I like it so much!!

And this one of the three boys will round out my favorite 10 layouts.  Amy gave me the photos from one of her photo shoots!  I love how it shows how much the boys love their new baby brother.  They are so cute with Jacob!!  He's such a little dear!

Besides posting their top ten layouts, some of the scrappers have also picked a word for the year.  So, being the follower I am, I too picked a word!  I chose CONSISTENT to be my word.  I need this word for several areas of my life besides scrapping!  :) 

I wish you all a Happy New Year, and may the grace of God be with you all in this new year we've just started!!

For the new year, I gave my blog a face lift!  I think I like the new look!  But don't get too used to it because I figured out how to do it, and it wasn't that hard.  :)  As the saying goes, if "I" can do it--ANYBODY can do it!!!  I've been taking part in some challenges on the yahoo lists I belong to, and doing some layouts for the CT's I'm on, so I have things to post again.  Now that things have settled down from the holidays, I'll probably have time to post the stored layouts! 

This layout is from Halloween!  I'm a little behind.  Noah was such a cute little pirate this year, when I saw this kit at Digi-licious Designs, I thought it would make the perfect kit for this photo!  The kit's name is Shiver Me Timbers--isn't that just perfect??  Don't you just want to pick this little guy up and give him a  big hug??  I'm afraid that is what I do every time I see him! 

The next layout is also from this same kit, and again, from Halloween!  But I included all the little gremlins that went trick-or-treating together in San Diego!!  It is so neat when the cousins can spend time together and enjoy each other.  It happens so few times a year.  I had to take advantage of the time and fill my camera with photos to last the whole year!

Moving right along to Christmas Eve, I finished up a layout from our visit with my son's family.  Gina is one of the best cooks I know, and she made a delicious dinner for us!  Then we opened presents and played a bit.  After that, Chuck and the kids set up the new wii and played some of the new games.  They were so happy with their presents!!  We enjoyed our evening together.  One thing we forgot was to have time to have Hannah play some songs on the piano!  She always does such a fantastic job with her music!! 
This kit was from Bella Gypsy and is called Christmas Past.  I love their things!   I also used a blog freebie template.  I love those things also!  Yeah for templates.