Flashback Friday 2

Okay, I couldn't resist! I should save this for another Friday, but I absolutely love how this layout turned out! I can't believe how big my kids have grown in a little less than four years! This is Melany Violette's Sweet Christmas kit http://www.simplycleandigiscraps.com/. The swirl in the background was done by Kim De Smet http://www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com/index.html.

Flashback Friday

I haven't done a flashback friday in awhile. Having all the Matthews' here wore me out! Here's my sweet little Emily at two months old! So beautiful! This is Susan Darter's fabulous Vintage Baby kit http://raspberryroaddesigns.blogspot.com/, and one of Silvia Albert's many wonderful templates http://freebies-by-pippi.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default. And sadly Sarah, I am nowhere close to being caught up, let this be a lesson to everyone to stay on top of your scrapbooking!

Back to School

Alright, I finally got it finished. Here are our back to school pictures. Ryan and Julia were so excited they wouldn't even let me walk with them (thank goodness the school is literally right across the street or I would have had a heart-attack!). Ben and Emily were so stoked that they were running up and down the street. Crazy kids! All day long Ben asked, "Where's Ryan?"
The papers are from Shabby Princesses http://shabbyprincess.com/default.asp Festival kit, and this awesome template was designed by Janeal http://janealscorner.blogspot.com/.

Baby Julia

Here is my first beautiful baby girl! You can tell that my dad really loves his "grandbabies" he's usually the one holding them in these new baby pictures! I used a template by Lindsay Jane http://lindsayjanedesigns.blogspot.com/. The papers are by Corina http://www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=1, the pack is called My Princess. The beautiful cross-stitched alphabet was designed by princesspamela.typepad.com.

Sweet success!

It feels so good to have completed this LO! It was almost more trouble than it was worth. I bought a paper curling template from Traci Murphy at Funky Playground Designs http://www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com/index.html, and couldn't for the life of me get it installed (I am not the most computer savvy person!). Thanks to Traci and her Job-like patience, we got the actions put into Adobe Photoshop Elements! This is what I came up with for my first attempt. The arrow was done by Simply Sarah http://simplysarahdesigns.blogspot.com/. The font is Wilbur, also purchased from Funky Playground Designs. The triple cardboard frame is from Scrapladies http://scrapladies.eu/mainpage/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77&Itemid=59, and the beautiful paper was done by Isabelle Cyr a.k.a Zazou http://www.scrapartist.com/index.html. Thanks everybody!

Baby Benjamin

I love Picasa! I think I've figured out a way to post my LOs to my blog even if my Adobe PSE is acting up! Here's three LOs I did of baby Ben. I used Kay Miller's http://kaymillerdesigns.com/shoppe/Little Boy Joy page kit for all three. For this layout I used a template by Carla Phillips @ one of a kind scraps.
These two layouts I did myself. I think they turned out alright. It was fun remembering baby Ben, and looking forward to baby #5 coming home!

Utterly Frustrated!

Aaaaahhhhhh!!!!!! I can't get my adobe photoshop elements program to save my scrapbooking layouts as jpgs anymore. I don't know what went wrong, and if I can't get this figured out, I won't be able to print out any of my pages. Does anyone out there have any good ideas of how to get my stinky program to save my layouts as jpgs? I'm in serious need of some help!

Sugar and Spice!

My husband thinks I'm losing my mind because the baby isn't coming for another three months, but I'm SO excited to have some things for her to wear! We went with our friends the Anways to Grapevine Mills Mall and found these adorable outfits at the Carter outlet for $6 each! I was a happy camper! Little girls are SO fun to dress!

For Kristie

My friend Kristie asked me to post some pictures of my big fat tummy. Julia took this first picture. Other than cutting off some of my head, I'd say she did a great job!
I was experimenting with the timer on the camera, it's a little out of focus, but the big belly is hard to miss!

The Matthews Family Reunion

We had the first ever Matthews Family Reunion in Texas. The official dates were the 15th-19th of August, but we had family coming and going as their schedules allowed. It was sure fun to see everyone and spend some time together. We ended up with six of the eight Matthews' brothers all together, not bad. Hopefully, everyone can come to the next one. We missed Brian and his family and Brad. We packed a lot into a short period of time. Rangers game, Six Flags, Zoo, Burger's Lake, the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History, soccer and more. The following are some pictures of the festivities!

The Ft. Worth Zoo

I didn't know, but the Ft. Worth Zoo is ranked among the top five in the nation, that's pretty cool! It was super nice of Grandpa Matthews to pay for everybody who came. While the brothers and Aunt Linda went to Six Flags, the rest of the Aunts and cousins all headed to the zoo.
Aunt Natalie and Cousin Abbigail were not used to the humidity. But they were troopers!
This picture got all blurry, but you can see the gorilla in the background.
Here's Aunt Laura and Cousin Lyvia looking at the Mandrills.

The Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History

At the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History they had a Star Wars exhibit. The kids loved all the costumes. Behind them in this picture is the speeder Luke and Obi-Wan drive in episode IV.
Here are the costumes worn by Mace Windu and Yoda.
These are some of the Wookie costumes from. . .well, I don't remember which episode.
Here are the costumes worn by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobe in episode II.

Riding on air!

Everyone but Ben was brave enough to give this exhibit a try. It was a tractor kind of thing which rode on air. They all loved it!

Still more museum

There were a lot of hands on activities for the kids at the museum. This was Ben's favorite. You were supposed to build a "robot" that could stand.
Emily got into building her robot too.
Here's Grandma Matthews with daddy, Julia and Ben.
Ryan was trying to figure out another of the hands on exhibits.

After the museum

We should have skipped the museum (for which we paid $60) because they had a lot more fun afterward! They loved sitting on this sculputre of a Galapagos Island Turtle.
We were headed to the Cowgirl museum across the street but got waylaid by the fountain. We never made it inside the Cowgirl museum. You can see cousin Lyvia, Aunt Laura holding cousin Ally. Ryan, Julia, Benjamin (if you look hard) and then Aunt Natalie holding cousin Abbey.
They were running, screaming and every kid who passed by looked insanely jealous.
Here's Ryan, Lyvia, Uncle Todd, Aunt Laura and baby Ally.

Dinner on Saturday

More pictures from the Matthews Family Reunion. This is our lovely dinner of Mr. Jim's pizza on Saturday. The brothers and some of the boy cousins spent all morning playing soccer. Here is Uncle Todd with Julia and Emily.
In this picture you can also see Ryan, Grandpa Matthews and cousin Alan.
Here is cousin Alan holding new baby Ally.

girl cousins!

Here is Julia playing telephone with shoes with her cousin Abbigail. It was so fun to see cousin Abbigail! We hadn't seen her since she was a brand new baby!
Here is Emily and Abbey playing.