My Good King

I had a few minutes to "play" as we were leaving the Grove, so I took a few shots. I like the way these came out. I don't have enough expertise to really capture the urban feel the way I wanted to (and anyway, I forgot to bring my tripod--big no no with night photography), but little by little I'll get there.

These are a few layouts I've done over the past two weeks. This is my favorite: This is about Ashley and her cousin. They're very close, but they have such opposite personalities. It's really a trip for me. And this is Carlos showing off for me last summer. I LOVE the innocence and exuberance in this photo. He spent several minutes trying to accomplish this feat and was bursting with pride when he finally was able to sit with no hands.

I found this photo of Carlos I took last summer (man, has he changed in a few months!). Can you see his milk mustache? ;) Apparently Ashley has decided to start saving up for this. Very lofty dreams for a thirteen-year-old, but I say the more power to her if she's able to do it! I'm not a Mac person myself (Hi to all you Mac users--apparently Ashley will be joining you soon!), but I'll be very happy for her if she gets it. She'll be saving for a L-O-N-G time, though, lol! We went to The Grove last Saturday to spend some time out and about. We went to the Barnes and Noble and enjoyed looking at books. I love this photo of Carlos. It's so typical of him (and me, lol!) when he is at a bookstore. I totally LOVE (and am extremely grateful for) the fact that both my kids enjoy books tremendously. I myself could spend literally hours in a bookstore (sans kids, that is!), so I enjoy that they share my passion for books. On a little side note, growing up, books were my entir...

I just needed a word from God, and He gave me a song this time. I absolutely LOVE this song, so I copied the two verses that speak the most to my heart, and on a separate page I journaled the significance of this song in my life. I got the picture from the internet (from Flickr). This is what I journaled about this song: These lyrics are a soothing balm to my soul when I need God’s touch. They comfort me like little else can when I’m struggling on some level. These words are truth, they are life, and they bring an immediate peace to my spirit. When everything else seems to be falling apart around me, He is the solid ground upon which I know I can stand firm. Nothing can destroy me because He is stronger than anything I face. And I know that with God on my side, all will be well, whether I understand how or not. I am so very grateful for His constant presence in my life. I am so thankful that He brought me to the place of total surrender several years ago. and for using each dif...

These are the breakfast pictures I wanted to share. Friday evening, all of a sudden, Ashley's like, "Can we have banana and chocolate chip pancakes sometime?" We did. Saturday morning, and her "experiment" was a winner. We combined her idea with chocolate-covered strawberries, and enjoyed a decadent, healthy breakfast (well, we put lots of bananas in the pancake batter and the strawberries are healthy, right?! ). And the pancakes are heart-shaped so that means they're healthy for our hearts, right?! ;) The heart shape was EXTREMELY difficult to make, so I drew the heart outline on the photos to help you "see" the hearts, lol!

Okay, so I got motivated when we went to my in-law's and the kids were playing. I took a bunch of pics and threw these two layouts together. It doesn't get any more simple than this, lol! I wish you could see the expressions on their faces!!

This is the last one I'm going to get done for today, but I'm going to cut myself some slack because I took extra time to make some of the stuff. This is Carlos' Valentine's Day layout: a

I have a ton of pictures I want to share (all of breakfast this morning, lol!--I had a sudden "itch" to use my camera), but I have to upload them later. For now, I've finished LOAD #3 for the week. Enjoy! I have started doing a layout for each of the kids on Valentine's Day, so this is Ashley's for this year. I did hers first because girl layouts are funner than boy layouts, lol! :)

So, I'm seriously behind in my LOAD layouts. I just finished number 2 of the week (only five more to go and it's Saturday. Hmmm ...). Thought I'd share. Just something simple but it took a long time because I created the "vellum" and the pebbles, digitally, of course! I have two more layouts in the works, but the journaling is going to take time. I probaby won't post till Monday. We have a V-E-R-Y busy Sunday planned, and I'm sewing something for Ashley's room. I'll share in another layout.

These are just a few ideas from Martha Stewart's website that I thought I'd share: Aren't these paper flowers cute? And I LOVE these translucent crayon hearts ! This stitched card is so neat, too! Is that getting your Valentine's Day creative juice flowing?! What are you doing for Valentine's Day? I'd love you to share!

Okay, so I'm a weirdo and one of my private joys every morning is to run to my little plants and see what has happened in the past 24 hours (although I have had many sad moments because most of the plants have died, so I'm starting on my second batch now). So anyway, I go outside like I do every morning, and I find our first blossom. I was so excited!! I planted this last year, not realizing that it's actually a perennial. It will bloom continuously from now till the end of summer. Yeah! so here it is: see the other buds just waiting to blossom? :) And here's the second page of the January layout of my "Year in Review" Album:

Just a quick post to show the rest of my LOAD layouts for this week. More layouts of Big Bear :) (Although I'm sure you're getting bored of them, lol!): My first page of the "Year in Review" Album I want to do.

I started catching up on my "blog reading," and, boy, I've missed A LOT! I decided to take up Samantha's L.O.A.D. challenge (one layout per day). Luckily, I've done three this week. Tonight makes number four. That means I have to whip up three layouts tomorrow. I could do a layout about my attempts (emphasis on attempts ) at gardening, my latest quilting project, our cat's injury ... and I still have to finish our vacation last weekend. I'd better get busy! I also am very intrigued by Ronalyn's "Year . in . Review" Album, so I think I will do it. What a great way to recap all the big and little events in a very easy format. I think I'm finally recovering from the holidays and all the construction mayhem. I feel like myself now (as opposed to a very apathetic robot, which is how I've felt for several weeks). This is the layout I created tonight. Basically, more of the same. It's just so much faster when I stick to the same format...

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged! Sorry! We went to Big Bear last weekend to get our fill of winter. It was SOOOOO fun! We actually rented a teeny, run-down cabin, kicked back on Friday evening, went skiing on Saturday (it was Carlos' first time!!), and we were blessed with snow actually falling while we were there. The kids woke up on Sunday to see snow falling. They raced outside and played in the snow for a couple of hours. Then we packed up and went on a hunt for chains. By the time we left (around 1:00 p.m.), the kids were beginning to realize that snow is not just fun and games, lol! They were complaining about the cold and wind--and, frankly, they were just a bit scared that the car would crash. Here's just a few pics to share: This is us (minus the "photographer", lol!) at the ski resort grabbing a bite of breakfast before the L-O-N-G process of buying tickets (that included lessons!), and getting skis, poles, and boots in time ...