Halloween costumes

I'm glad I decided to take these pictures when I did. They had a fall party at the elementary school and they could wear costumes. Of course they wanted to wear their costumes, so I let them. While at the party they painted baby pumpkins and now their costumes are dotted with black paint :( Here is Ryan as Captain Jack Sparrow--loving it! Emily picked Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Here's Julia as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I bought Benjamin a firefighter costume because he loves fire trucks so much. After much talking, he let me put it on, but he HATED it. He wouldn't even keep it on long enough for me to get a picture :( We'll have to think of something else for him to be for Halloween!

Newest Layout

I decided I would do my first competition. It's called Stand Up and Scrap. I've had fun doing layouts in terms of their ideas and challenges, it's just turning into a more graphic design thing than scrapbooking, and I have no chance of winning, so I decided I would just post my layouts for the remaining challenges on my blog. This is challenge #4, you were supposed to use color to portray a feeling. I wanted to do something happy, I remember watching Ryan as a little 18 month old boy playing basketball like a superstar. I associate those memories with the color orange, a warm and bursting color.
For this layout I used Digital Divas Designs orange safari paper, Shabby Princess' Vintage Floral paper, Lindsay Jane Designs summer heat paper and Tracy Blakenships bball court paper.

Digi Dare #3

This was a great challenge for me. The challenge was to simplify your layout. That's hard for me to do, I just keep adding more and more things until there's no empty space. Sometimes the empty space can do a lot for a layout. Here are Ben with his cousin Lyvia and then with his cousin Ally. For this layout I used Ronna Penner's Express Yourself from Shabby Princess. I also used Ellie Lash's Tied Up Frames. I used Bren Boone's glitter pen from Summer Afternoon and altered the color.

The girls

Since Ben was having a photo session, the girls decided they wanted one too. Emily and Julia love being sisters. They have these little cheers that they do together. It is really quite cute. They walk around calling each other "girlfriend" and "girl". What are we going to do with them.
A similar pose of sisters who are also (usually) the best of friends.
Julia decided she needed a shot of her all by herself.
And then of course Emily thought she needed a solo too!

Picture session

One of Ben's favorite things these days is to have his picture taken. He absolutely adores posing for the camera. I told him to go upstairs and get some clothes. He came back downstairs with Ryan's clothes, but he was so proud of himself I couldn't bring myself to make him go back upstairs and try again. Amazingly, they really aren't all that big on him. He is in 4T's and these are 7T's.
Ben wanted a picture with mommy. I'm so very attractive from this perspective, I know, but please try not to be jealous of my stunning beauty!
Ben decided on this pose himself. He is a cute little menace.
This was his second attempt at a fabulous pose. The open cabinet door definitely adds interest to the photo.

Sadness

This was my view Wednesday morning after Scott left to go and meet with his clients in Salt Lake City for work. He got back late Saturday night and we are, Oh, SO glad, to have him home!

Ben and Cousins

Here is Benjamin holding cousin Lyvia. They look SO cute. Poor Ally is rightfully afraid that she's going to be dropped. The girls and their mom and dad came up Friday night and stayed all of Saturday to help me while Scott was in SLC.
These last few months Ben and Lyvia have become fast friends. They absolutely love to play together! It's the cutest ever!

Digi Dare #2

I thought I'd try this again. Even though there are a lot of people who enter, and I'm just a beginner, I enjoy the digi dares because they make me think. And I get a chance to do a layout about myself, instead of the usual stuff about my wonderful kids. This challenge was to scrap with black and white square pictures the five things you think are the most beautiful in the world.
Claudia Campbell did the acrylic alphabet. The blue, green and tan papers are from Kay Miller's Mixed Veggies kit. The plaid is one of Shabby Miss Jenn's contributions to the Stand Up and Scrap Kit. The swirls were done by Karla's Kaleidoscope Designs.

Emily's first day of preschool

Okay, I've been lazy. I've been waiting for more pictures before I downloaded, but I just haven't been taking pictures. We went to the park on Saturday, and how I wish I had brought my camera! Scott was playing soccer with all four of our kiddos and it was SO cute!
Above is Emily with her friend Allison, and Ben. Allison and Ben kept insisting on being in all the pictures. Finally I got one with Em's alone! She absolutely loves preschool and wants to go every day. Monday and Wednesday she comes home absolutely exhausted!

BYU vs. Tulsa

Scott and I drove up with one of Scott's buddies to Tulsa, OK to watch the Cougars play the Golden Hurricanes with faith in our hearts that there was NO way the Cougars could blow this game. Were we ever wrong! We couldn't play defense to save our lives and to top that off we thought we'd be Christian and spot them about 24 pts. (interceptions & lack of defense) and see if we could still win. Not an excellent plan! We also found great fun in chalking up the penalties: personal fouls and false starts GALORE, even a token pass interference as the offense! It was a nail-bitter--neck and neck the entire game.
Despite the dismal turnout of the game: Tulsa 55 BYU 47, we had a fun trip. It probably wasn't the best idea for my legs to walk around that much and sit on bleachers for 3 1/2 hrs. not to mention the 10 hours total travel time in the car, the colder weather with no jackets and the 2:30 a.m. bedtime. But we got to meet an awesome family in Oklahoma City (in-laws of Scott's buddy Ben who drove us up and back in his car) who graciously provided a bed for me to sleep in!
It was also very healing for my spirit. Our kids stayed at home with a wonderful couple whom they ADORE! They enjoyed every minute of their time with them, and tried to convince us to leave when they came home from church and saw us home already! I had an entire day filled with tantalizing adult conversation and no child responsibilities! It was glorious!

Digi Dares Competition

Okay, I'm finished. I put a lot more thought into this layout than I have into any other. It took me all afternoon. I think I'm satisfied with the way it turned out. I used Casual Friday and Twinkle Toes kits from Miss Mint : http://peppermintcreative.com/index.php?main_page=home. The yellow paper was done by Angela Niehaus: http://www.digitalcandy.ca/. It was fun to scrap a page about me, I've only done pages about my kids so far. The theme was what I wish I had known when I was 20 years old. You get bonus points for including a picture of yourself, and you have to include a border and three circles. Lots of fun! I hope I have time to do it again next week. Here's the link if you want to try: http://www.thedigidares.com/.

Flashback Friday

These are scrapbook pages I made for Scott before the digital scrapbooking days. These are obviously of his mission days. I love the picture at the MTC when they all tried to act like they were escaping. And I think the Seoul, Korea temple is just beautiful. He had several opportunities to go to the temple during his mission with several different companions. Lucky boy, the temple was in his mission. I certainly appreciate the sacrifice youth of the church make to serve missions, and I love how it usually has a huge impact on their development, their faith and their integrity.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Grandparents Day!

Grandma and Grandpa Oliver,
We love you! Thanks for all you do for us. I used my new digital scrapbooking addiction to make a couple pages with pictures of you and your grandkids over the years. You are the best!

Wordless Wednesday (one day late!)

The Latest Drama

Well, I had another Dr. appointment yesterday. After talking with my friend, who is also a patient of my OB/GYN I decided to show him the horrendous vein in my leg once again. He totally freaked out! He wrote me a prescription for Jobst hose (very intense compression hose that are close to impossible to put on, are itchy and hot!) and told me I had to go get them that very day, put them on and leave them on until the baby was born. He told me that I would have to get surgery on the vein after the baby was born, and that I should NOT have any more children! I also have to go in every two weeks from now on instead of every four so that he can keep an eye on my horrendous superficial vericosity! Suddenly I'm a high risk pregnancy.

It was a sad day for me! I love kids, and I love my kids even more. I guess I just had my little heart set on six. I guess it's just like anything else hard in life, I'll work through the grieving process and then I can move forward into the next stage of life. No more babies.

Scott was kind of excited. The first thing he said to me when I told him what the Dr. had said (actually he said he was sorry first) was, "I think it's an answer to your prayers." We now know what to do. He told me it was all for the best because I had been, "On the edge" this whole pregnancy. And he's right, I have pretty much been psychotic. It's been interesting. It's funny how the Lord leads and guides us. It's never quite how we think it should be, but it's always for the best!

Daniela Peuss' Diva kit

I loved how this double page layout turned out! I love how the dune grass brush lets the black from the background peek through, and I like how the black works with the other colors. I am quite pleased. I have been wanting to do a page with Emily and Julia doing their girly diva poses! Daniela Peuss' work is available at: http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2886&cat=540.

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!