Living The Dream

Wordless Wednesday: Surrounded

They love him so very much. If he's awake, they are constantly near him. They love to make him smile and laugh. He's one lucky baby to have such awesome big brothers. <3

Studio Calico, Project Life & Father's Day Giveaway!

Studio Calico is celebrating Father's Day all week with some help from a few of the Studio Calico Dads.  Be sure to follow Studio Calico on Facebook and Twitter to hear from more of the SC Dads with their thoughts on Project Life.

I don't know about your husbands, but mine has been amazing in remembering to save ticket stubs and other ephemera, take photos when I'm not around and has just been, in general, better about grabbing the camera himself to capture a moment since I started doing Project Life. Tom LOVES Project Life. He loves looking at the albums and knows how important it is to us to document all these little memories. Here's what Tom has to say about the project....

Project Life has proven to be a valuable way to preserve many memories of our lives.  It was even more apparent, how important it was, when Kelly was on bed rest while pregnant with Sawyer.  It allowed and reminded me to be engaged in capturing images while we were making memories.  It also kept Kelly connected since all my pictures were sent to her for use in the albulm. She could enjoy those memories as well even though she couldn't participate at the time.

There are very few accounts of my childhood in photo albums when I visit my mom and dads house.  I sometimes think about how fun it would be for my boys to see pictures of their dad playing baseball, bike racing, playing basketball, etc.  Although I had a great childhood, most of the memories weren't caught on film.  Consequently, I have to be reminded about some of the memories. Something as simple as a movie ticket stub can be a reminder of a good time had. This past weekend, I took Jackson to see the new Man of Steel Superman movie (this year's big summer blockbuster). As I put the ticket stubs in my pocket (knowing that Kelly would want them for this week's spread), I thought about how neat it would be to look back on other big blockbuster movie ticket stubs from my parent's younger days...Jaws, Star Wars, etc. For these reasons, I'm a huge supporter and active participant in the project. The boys and I love going through our PL albums and I know we will for years to come. 

 P.S. It's 1/2 way through the year and if you're anything like me, you're in need of a serious restock on Project Life supplies....there are lots of page protectors and albums still in stock at Studio Calico! Stock up now while you can! 

Now onto the GIVEAWAY!!! One of you lucky commenters is going to win June's Cumberland Gap Project Life Add-on kit!!! 

 To enter, just comment here with your favorite thing about Project Life. I'll take comments until Friday at midnight EST and will draw a winner and post on Monday. GOOD LUCK!!

Catch Up Monday...

I'm a horrible blogger. Just downright terrible. Sigh. Things are busy. Things are very good, but very busy. I'm totally looking for suggestions on finding a good balance. ;) Here's the latest, in a nutshell...

- The big boys are finished w/3rd grade and Kindergarten and are home for the summer. Sawyer and I LOVE having them around, they are a big help, but we sometimes miss our quiet days ;) 

- Sawyer is a HAPPY baby!! He's super smiley and chatty. And he started laughing recently, which just makes my heart want to burst everytime he does it. Love him to pieces!

- I'm back out in the working world again w/my photogrpahy business. I've been busy, which is awesome, especially after such a long hiatus. I missed it and am a happy photographer again. :)

- We're getting ready for a road trip to Indiana in less than 2 weeks. We are totally crazy driving 16 hours with 2 boys and a 3-month old, but we're calling it an "adventure". ;)

- I'm totally behind on Project Life AND I've been horrible about keeping notes. Luckily, I've still been taking plenty of photos. Hoping to get caught up this month with my Studio Calico PL kit!

- Speaking of Studio Calico, July's kit sneak peeks are up! This is fun kit! I've only played a little bit so far, but I can tell I"m going to love it!

(uses add-on 1 ---- Todd)

(uses add-on 3 ---- Elizabeth)

Thanks for stopping by!! Happy Monday! :)

Studio Calico Roundabout Kit Reveal

I'm still here. May is always such a crazy month. I feel like I'm just treading water over here trying to stay afloat. Sigh. With the spring baseball season and the school year coming to an end over the next couple of weeks, I am really looking forward to some downtime. Anyway, wanted to pop in today to share what I made with this month's Studio Calico kit, Roundabout. The main kit and several of the add-ons are still available, so be sure to grab them while you still can!!

Up first are my Project Life kit layouts...this first one uses just the PL main kit...

Week 19 uses the PL kit, PL addon kit and bits and pieces from the scrapbook kits as well....

And a few layouts made w/the scrapbook kits...

Menu Monday is back!

So, before I got pregnant, I was pretty good about consistently posting our menu for the week here on the blog. When we found out we were having a baby, things got crazy and then of course I was on bedrest and there was no menu planning to be had. Now that things are settling down and we're back into some sort of routine, I'm back to menu planning and I'm hoping to do more sharing here too. SO, despite having the wekend off from baseball, we still managed to fill it up good. Lots of family time, which was awesome. Now it's Monday and I was able to (thanks to a sleepy baby) get through the grocery store with everything on my list. ;) Here's what's cooking this week:

Monday - Belated Cinco de Mayo meal (we were out and about last night, so we're pretending today is the 5th;)...Tacos, Yellow Rice and a special dessert-----> Fried Ice Cream from Skinny Taste

Tuesday - Baked 4 cheese Ziti...found this one on Pinterest and they say it tastes just like a meal from Olive Garden. We'll see, but it looks good...how can it not be with all that cheese?! ;)

Wednesday - Baseball Practice...something quick and easy for the boys

Thursday - SkinnyTaste's Sloppy Joes and Annie's Baked French Fries (if you haven't tried these fries, you need to....so good!)

And for my scrapbooking friends....did you have a great NSD? I, sadly, didn't scrap a single thing over the weekend. Studio Calico has a bunch of challenges up on the blog and they continue throughout the week. Here's a layout I did for the button challenge...

BasicGrey also has some great challenges on their blog...I've got a grid challenge going on over there, which is open until the 10th. Would love it if you played along! 

That's it for today....happy Monday! :)

Back on track (and a giveaway!)...

Whew. I feel like the past 2 months have been such a whirlwind. It seems as if we are finally getting into some sort of a routine and the nap gods are finally being kind to me (for now at least!) ;) The big boys have been so amazing and have handled the transition so amazingly well. They absolutely adore their little brother and really just can't get enough of him. They are even more smitten w/him now that he's super smiley and more interactive. They love seeing who can get him to smile first. (I took this photo weeks ago, but forgot to post it)...

I've started back to work officially as of this week....having your own photography business is really nice at times like these when you can ease yourself back into working w/out overwhelming yourself too soon. I'm excited to get back out there for sure though. :) I've been busy scrapping when I can...the past few days have been nice, since Sawyer is napping better and I have a tiny bit of free time. I'm mixing up the Planetarium kits w/the Atlantic collection and I'm loving the results. Here's a layout that I did for the SC blog...

And a special offer to tell you about. BasicGrey's Knee Highs & Bow Ties album kits are currently on sale for $25...this is an amazing deal for all the product you get! The deal is good through May 12th and you can order via BasicGrey's website. I'm also giving away an album kit to one LUCKY winner! Leave me a comment here and I'll draw a winner next Monday. Thanks for stopping by...Happy Tuesday!! :)

Still here! (Studio Calico's Planetarium Reveal)

I'm still here. Little Sawyer has decided he's not much of a napper, which leaves me almost no time for much of anything. ;) Thank goodness, he's still a great nighttime sleeper. Anyhow, just popping in on SC reveal day to share what I made w/the kits. Planetarium was a really fun one...

The Project Life kit is, once again, outstanding! I can't tell you how much more I love PL now that I'm using the SC kits...they make it SO easy! Here's a spread using ONLY the PL kit and Geralyn's printables...

 

I had quite a bit of photos for this week, so I added a style H insert and cut it down to fit my needs. I love that I was able to include more photos this way.

Two more PL spreads....

Aaaaand, if you're still with me ;), a few layouts with the scrapbook kit....the first is made w/the main kit only.

The next two use a mix of the kits, but this one uses mostly Orion...

Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT weekend!! We're off to the baseball field for the entire day! :)

One Month!

Ack! How did that happen already?! Sawyer officially turned one month old on the 5th. We're nearing the 6 week mark next week and I'm blown away with how fast it's flying by. Even having been through this twice before, it still amazes me how quickly the days pass by and how big they get so quickly. I'm trying hard to soak it all in...this is my last baby and I don't want to take a minute of it for granted. Here's little man at one month old:

• He is soooo close to being a regular smiler :) He stares and stares when you talk to him and has flashed a few smiles here and there, especially to Brady (who he loves!). We are waiting for them to make more regular appearances soon though. 
• He weighs 8lbs 14oz. He gained well over a pound since his two week appointment and is nursing well. 
• He loves to be swaddled at night and has been sleeping pretty great for the most part. He sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hour stretches at night, which only has me getting up once to feed him, so I can't complain one bit!
• He fights sleep BIG time during the day. (see yesterday's post) He loves his car seat and likes to be on the go, but is hard to get to sleep when we're just hanging out at home. 
• He's starting to coo just a little bit here and there, usually when he's tired midday.
• He's lost most of the hair on the top of his head and it's already starting to grow back a little bit already. We love his little receding hair line ;) 
• He's in constant motion when he's awake...always kicking and moving his arms all around. He's going to be an active boy I think ;) 

He is truly such an adorable baby and we feel blessed beyond belief that we've been given another beautiful little boy to take care of. <3 Happy Friday...have a great weekend! 

Little One...

It's been a rough week with the little guy. He's having a hard time sleeping for any length of time during the day, which makes for one overtired baby and one worn out Mama by the end of the day. :P I remember Jackson being like this too at this age, so I'm trying to remember that he will fall into a good nap routine soon enough. It sure does make it hard to get anything done though. ;) I'm popping in for a sec to share a layout I made for BasicGrey using their Hey You, Hello and Hey Boy collections. I really can't get enough of these lines and I love how they coordinate so well together too! You can read more about it here on the BG blog :) 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Thursday! :)

Spencer's layouts...

I only managed to make three layouts with Studio Calico's April kits, but considering I also made 3 Project Life spreads, I'm considering that a success with a newborn baby in the house! :) The main kit, Spencer's, is still available by the way (hint hint ;) 

P.S. I've also got a couple of BasicGrey Hipster layouts over on the BasicGrey blog today. Hipster was my very favorite BG release from CHA. Be sure to check it out! Thanks for stopping by! :)