Pictures of kids

My very sweet neighbor, Emily is an excellent photographer and I needed Brynn's 9 month pictures done and she volunteered. We were doing Brynn's pictures and she asked if she could do Jaxon's too, I said of course, so here are the amazing results! I didn't have time to figure out the whole slide show thing, so these are going to be posted in a bunch of separate posts! Thanks Emily!

More pictures of kids

More pictures of kids

More pictures of kids

More pictures of kids

Bye-Bye Binkie, Hello Marble Tower!

So, I have been thinking of taking Jaxon's binkie away (don't worry, he only uses it when he sleeps!) well, around Christmas I was talking to one of my friends, Chelsea and she was telling me how she took her little boy's binkie away. I thought it was a good idea, so I thought we would try it on Jaxon.

The whole concept is that the child buys a new toy with his binkie and has a new toy, but doesn't have a binkie anymore. I had asked Jaxon a couple of times if he wanted to do this and he always said no, so I didn't want to push it too much! Well, we were at our friends house on Sunday and Jaxon was playing with his friend Lily and she has a cool marble tower that he LOVED! Well, when we came home I asked Jaxon if he would like to buy a marble tower with his binkie and he decided that would be pretty cool.

So, on Monday after Jason came home from work, we started our search for a marble tower. We went to Target and they didn't have one, so we headed to the mall. Luckily, they had one! So, Jaxon paid the cashier (who had NO personality!) and was so excited to go home and play with his marble tower.

We let him stay up for awhile and he played with the marble tower the whole time! Finally it was time to go to bed. We started our whole routine, pj's, brush and floss teeth, get blanket (and usually binkie), read book, sing, and go to sleep. Well, when it came time to get his binkie he was less than pleased that he left it at the store. I guess you could say he had some buyer's regret. But we put him to bed and he cried for about 40 minutes. Finally I broke down and went in there and explained that we didn't have his binkie anymore and that was how he bought his marble tower. I talked to him for about five minutes and left and he was asleep in about five minutes.

He had a hard time a couple more times, but now he's totally fine! It is such a relief to get rid of that binkie! Anyway, this turned into a really long story, but there it is!

Chocolate Doughnuts and Mickey Suckers!

A couple of weeks ago Jason got a chocolate doughnut and was eating it after dinner, well Brynn was sitting there looking at him longingly, so of course Jason gave in and gave her a little bit, well, she was in heaven! She loved it! She was quite upset when we wouldn't give her anymore.

My parents came up a couple of weeks ago and my mom had been to Disneyland for a conference and brought Jaxon some Mickey suckers. He was so excited! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, we can't wait to go to Disneyland with you in a week!

2/28/08

Here is a page for today. I really liked the concept, but I'm not sure if I absolutely love the finished product, but I think it's cute.

2/27/08 - I'm Back!

I am finally done with that boring stuff I had to help Jason with! To be honest, I finished it on Monday, but yesterday I was organizing my digital scrapbook stuff, so I didn't have time to do a page, but here is one for today. I think it turned out pretty well, but I know I used these papers for a different page, I hope it's not too similar, but oh well if it is!

No Page!

Well, I probably won't get a page done until at least Monday if not Tuesday. I have been doing some work stuff that they need done pretty quickly and since I have quick fingers on the keyboard, Jason recruited me to help! So, that's what I am going to spend all my spare time doing. Fun huh? Believe me, I wish I was doing scrapbook stuff instead!

2/20/08

Well, here is my page for today. Sorry I didn't get a page done yesterday, but we had quite a day yesterday...let's just say, I was very happy when it was bedtime for the kids (and me too!) Anyway, here is my page, once again, I don't love it, but oh well! I say that about too many pages.

2/18/08

I actually got a page done today! I didn't think I was going to, but Jason is at our neighbor's house, so instead of watching TV, I decided to scrapbook! I am done with Disneyland pictures, yay! I thought I had a lot more pictures than I did, but I'm glad I'm done with them. I finished with the Disneyland pictures just in time to go to Disneyland again...we are going to Disneyland on March 9th and are very excited! That's twice for Brynn before her first birthday...what a lucky girl! Now it's on to Halloween pictures...

Digital Scrapbooking Info

So, I don't think I am going to get a page done today...I have been cleaning and doing laundry (YUCK!) and getting the bills paid (YUCK again!) and getting our tax stuff together...so for that reason, I'm not sure I'm going to get one done today, but I am going to try to answer some of your questions.

Jessica - the page I did with Brynn in the Mickey ears is actually a template in .psd format. I don't know if you use Photoshop, but if you do, I will email the file to you so you can use it. Let me know.

Aubrey and Emily - Here's the lowdown on digital scrap booking (this might be long, so be prepared!).

When we moved last year, my neighbor introduced me to digital scrap booking (Thanks Annelise!)
I use Photoshop Elements 5.0 and download most of my papers, elements, alphas pretty much everything for free off the internet. Although, on Saturday I did pay $10 for 10 digital kits which is a really good deal, but I hardly ever buy stuff, just download it for free. Some good sites to go to are:

Free downloads:
cgessentials
The Digi Chick
Digital Freebies
Digital Scrapbook Previews
Scrap Artist I
Scrap Artists II
Scrap Outside the Box
Shabby Princess
Simple Scrapbooks
Simply Clean
Something Blue
tkwhimsy
Two Peas in a Bucket
Adobe Studio Exchange
Peppermint Creative
Scrapping Digi Creations
Oscraps
Lara-Peyton
Jessica Go My Designs
Designs by Selena
Ikea Goddess
Digital Scrapbooking Freebies
Snap and Scrap

http://augustdesigns.blogspot.com

http://digifree.blogspot.com/

http://cp.c-ij.com/english/scrapbook/index.html

Fonts:

Kevin and Amanda I
Kevin and Amanda II

Miscellaneous
The Perfect Title
Action Central
Sprague Lab
Creating Keepsakes Challenges

Comparisons of different programs

Tutorials:
Digital Scrapbook Place - basic layout
Scrapbook Bytes tutorials
Adobe Studio
Jen-jen
Graphic Designs

Printing sites:
Two Peas in a Bucket
sbtoshare
Sam's Club
Costco
Digital Scrapbook Place
Scrapquick

Quotes:

Annabelle
Brainy Quotes
Inspiration Peak
TeriMartin
Writing on the Wall

I just copied this from one of the message boards I look at sometimes. There are a lot of sites that have tutorials for digital scrap booking and what not.

As far as finished products, I use shutterfly.com to print my books. With shutterfly you can use their templates and just drag and drop your pictures and they have predesigned backgrounds you can choose from. I don't do this because I like to design my own pages. So, I make the pages in Photoshop then upload them to shutterfly and in the end I get a 12x12 hardbound books with all of my pages. Sorry if this is confusing, it's hard to explain without actually showing it in person! Anyway...Jaxon's last book was about 80 pages and I did get it for about $60. That's only because I had a lot of coupon codes that I was able to stack. That's what I do, once the book is ready to print, I wait until a good sale comes, then I order it. It's just a matter of waiting for a good sale. That included everything, like I said, you upload the pictures to shutterfly and they print it and it comes in a hardbound book and it looks awesome! You can also print the pages at places like CostCo or the FedEx store, but I like the convenience of just having it sent to me totally bound and finished!

Well, I hope I answered some of your questions. Sorry if this was super confusing, but it's kind of hard to explain in writing, it's a lot easier when I can show you. If you ever want me to show you anything or help you, let me know and I would be more than happy to help.

I better go because Brynn is waking up, so it's looking like there's not going to be a new page today!

2/15/08

Here is mine for today. I really like the concept of the page, but I'm not sure I love all of the papers I chose. Let me know what you think and what I could do to make it better. I think it's ok, but it's not really my favorite. What do you think?

2/14/08

Happy Valentine's Day! I didn't think I would get a page done today, but Brynn was awesome and slept for almost three hours! So, here it is!

2/13/08

Here's on for today. I have to warn you, I have a TON of pictures from our Disneyland trip, so there will probably be a lot of Disney pages in the next few days! I love Disneyland and I can't wait to go back next month! Wahoo!

2/12/08

Here is another one. I barely got this one done again today, but at least it's done!

2/11/08

I barely got one finished today! It was a crazy day...I took meals to two families in my ward who had babies...in the last week and a half we have had six babies born in my ward. Anyway, on top of that, I got a workout in, took Jaxon to a playgroup, went grocery shopping, cleaned the house, and did some laundry. Needless to say, when I could finally relax a bit and try to get a page done, it was nice. However, when I finally sat down at the computer, I decided to start downloading more papers and kits instead of finish my page, but I finally finished it and here it is. I was just trying to hurry and finish it, so it's not that great, but it's ok!

2/8/08

Here is one for today.

Another One!

I actually got two pages done today! I really wanted to make this a double page layout, but I thought I would try to get as many pictures on one page as I could, so there you have it! I have to hurry because Brynn is waking up, but here you go!

2/7/08

Ok, ok, I know that I have been slacking the last two days and have not gotten any pages done, but believe me, I wanted to! I was crazy busy the last couple of days with cleaning, taking care of the kids, and all that other fun stuff like arranging meals for two of my neighbors who just had babies (congrats Cami & Annelise!). I finally got to sit down today at my computer and I have gotten one page done so far, hopefully there will be more to follow.

2/4/08

I bet most of you thought I wouldn't get a page done today huh? Well, honestly, I didn't think I would either, but Jason is watching Lost and I'm not into that show, so I am doing this instead!

SNOW!

Yesterday morning we woke up and ate breakfast and all that fun stuff and when I went to let our dog outside and opened the door, I saw how much snow we got! It was crazy! The dog took one look at all of the snow and decided it wasn't worth it to go outside and ran back into the bedroom!

Well, Jason was getting ready to go outside and shovel (he was REALLY wishing our snowblower wasn't in storage!) and Jaxon really wanted to help. So, Jason got him all bundled up and opened the garage door and he realized just how much snow there was! While Jason and Jaxon were out shoveling, one of our neighbors knocked on the door to tell us that church was canceled because of the snow. I thought it was interesting that church was canceled over some snow, but it was a lot of snow and a lot of the roads had not been plowed yet. Our alley (if you have been to our house, you know what I'm talking about) had been plowed once during the night, but there was still a lot of snow. Jason only had to shovel a small area between our garage and the alley and that took him a hour and a half! I know all of this snow is good for the drought, but I am kind of getting sick of it!

2/1/08

So, I don't think I am going to get a page done today. I was cleaning like crazy because my office was a disaster! Then I added some new pictures to the blog also, so I am going to start a page, but I don't think I will be able to finish it! If I do, I will post it though!

Just kidding! I didn't think I would be able to get anything done, but my kids are taking great naps and I realized I need to add these pictures to Brynn's book, so they were already done for Jaxon's book, but I changed a lot of the pictures, so I did spend like 1/2 hour on them! I decided I really need to fit more pictures on my pages because Brynn's book is already 50 pages and I'm barely to October! Yikes!

Twins?

Today I was watching our neighbor, Danny. When Annelise brought him over she took off his coat to reveal that he and Jaxon were wearing almost the same exact sweaters. They are not exactly the same, but pretty darn close! Jaxon had a great time playing with Danny. Thanks for bringing him over Annelise!

Bouncing!

The other night Jason was bouncing Jaxon on the big exercise ball and Brynn wanted to try it too! Yes, those are earphones on Jaxon's ears, Jason was letting him play with his MP3 player, Jaxon thought it was great!

Campout in the Basement!

A couple of weeks ago, Jason decided that he and Jaxon should have a "campout" in the basement. So, he went to the store and bought a bunch of junk food...Jaxon was excited for that too!

When we came home, Jason set up the tent (which Jaxon called and still calls a temple) and Jaxon thought it was so great! Then they got the blankets and pillows and all that stuff then they went upstairs to make smores, because what's a campout without smores?! Jaxon loved them!

Then they watched a movie. I think Jason figured Jaxon would fall asleep while watching the movie and everything would be great. Well, first of all, Jaxon doesn't fall asleep while watching movies, and second of all, he had just loaded the kid up with a ton of sugar! Needless to say, he didn't fall asleep during the movie, so Jason tried to make him go to sleep after the movie. Jaxon was having no part of falling asleep, the tent was way too cool, he didn't want to waste his time sleeping.

So, after about an hour of trying to get Jaxon to sleep, Jason gave up and took him upstairs to his room! Even though Jaxon didn't sleep in the tent, he still had a great time on his campout. Thanks Jason for making our little boy so happy!

The picture of Brynn at the end of the other pictures is just because she is so darn cute!