Father's Day weekend

I've had the special guys in my life on my mind a lot lately, because of this upcoming holiday - so it was no big surprise they ended up in several of my recent layouts.  

We had an amazing week at my parent's house and even though my Dad had to work constantly, it was nice spending what time we could with him and Mom.  This picture was taken at their house - the kids were trying to be patient waiting to take turns riding in the baler with Grandpa and decided to try to tackle their Dad - didn't work too well.

 I can't believe Brodyn will be starting kindergarten soon - not sure how I'm going to do with that.  It has been nice having the kids home though.

It's been nice having a break from dance - it was crazy in May - but so worth it!  Very proud of all that the girls accomplished.  Aubrei danced with a stress fracture for several weeks, but it is healing nicely, and she is eager to get her boot off in a week.

Now, if only we can get our gardens to bounce back from these crazy hailstorms.  We had a lot of damage to our siding and deck as well as our garden getting beat.  

Hope you all have a Happy Father's Day!

iNSD

Happy interNational Scrapbook Day!  

There are some amazing things going on at P&Co.  Hopefully you took advantage of the Designer Blog hop and got the free More Or Less kit  - if not, what are you waiting for? 

Now on to the Creative Team’s blog hop.  We’ve all contributed journaling cards that we made with the free kit.  Here is a sneak peek:

In order to get these goodies you need to figure out the coupon code by collecting the letters from each of our blogs.  Start at the P&Co blog, then hop to each link along the way.  When you’ve got all the letters, head to the shop and enter the coupon code at checkout to get it for free!

And just in case you get lost, here is the list of creative team member’s blogs 
in the correct order:

P&Co Blog

Sarah Hemmert 
Katherine Hansen
Mandi Buchanan <------------> That's Me!
Kate Christensen
Rachel Alles
Anna Drozd
Jan Fortier
Carey Bridges
Emilie Stevenson
Ronnie Crowley
Amy Kingsford
Jennifer Hignite
Celeste Smith
Melanie Ritchie
Aria Andrus
Jennifer Evangelista
Linda Roos
Christy Carlson
Barbara Unzen
Mary Rogers
Arielle Gordon
Jeryn Carlise
Indah Permata Sari
Melanie Call
Jen Papadimitriou
Erin Taylor
Kelly Mobley
Kim Hammond
Wendy Bretz

Before you take off I’d like to share 4 of my recent faves from the shop and my layouts that were created with them.  Hope you enjoy!

Wild Blueberry ink's Love Story and my layout 7 years

Dawn by Design's Almost Done templates and my layout Solo Stress

Robyn Meierotto's Go and my layout Growing Fast

Creashen's Head Over Heels and my layout Messy Baker

 And finally, here is your letter...

Head to Kate’s blog next!

My digi home . . .

Shame on me for not posting sooner about the opening of an amazing new digi scrapbook store and my new digi home.  I am very blessed to be a part of the Creative Team at Pixels and Company.  We've got a great group and some amazing designers.

There are some great giveaways and fun challenges going on for our Grand Opening - I hope you'll go check things out!

I've got several projects to share - hope you enjoy them!

I created this page with the amazing collaboration you can get for free, just by signing up for the newsletter!

I love this page with Ainsli showing off her awesome boots she got from Grandma & Grandpa for Christmas!

This is my cover page for Project Life - and it's also about my One Little Word for this year, become.

I've been loving my "old" photos lately - maybe I'm sad that my kids are getting so grown up, but I love  remembering - this photo is SO Ainsli.

This is our "Christmas" photo this year - showing off the cute clothes Grandma gave them!  

The Twelve Days of Christmas

   One of our favorite traditions during the Christmas season is to take gifts to a family or two for each of the twelve days of Christmas.  Its been a couple of years since we did this and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be.
   I made up some tags using Gennifer Bursett's frame and cute present from her Here Comes Santa collab.
   We change things up a little each time, depending on the goodies we can find and this year has been the best by far.  Here is what we are doing:

1. Partridges and Pears  (we gave cornish hens and fresh pears)
2. Turtle Doves ( I made turtle puppets out of fabric and felt, then put boxes of dove soap in each one) - they turned out so cute!
3. We always give Hershey's Kisses for this one (french hens :)
4. There was a sale on Angry Bird's block game so we reworked this one to fit. 
5. For golden rings - gold bangle bracelets and gold $ coins.
6. The geese laid Silly Putty eggs this year.
7. Schwan's ice cream is our typical this day.
8. My favorite - The milk maids slept in so we found a bunch of "milk duds"
9. We have a surplus of ballet shoes, so we're doing that instead of music this year.
10. The lords are leaping after they finish off their plate of homemade candy.
11. For pipers piping we will be giving little flutes
12. On the last day we gift a drum and a big "Merry Christmas"

   Here are a few of the photos I've snapped and an example of our tags.  

(I used Karla Dudley's Framed frames)

(Gennifer Bursett's Here Comes Santa collab)

I'd love to hear what you guys think, or what your traditions are that you do together as families!  Merry Christmas!

Crisis adverted

   Not only have things been crazy busy lately, but we've had our fair share of drama as well.  Last Saturday Aubrei realized that the camera she had checked out for her publications class wasn't here at home.  Yeah, can you say "tense weekend"?
   Well, Monday rolled around and I took Brei to the high school that morning with specific instructions to find that camera!  (She thought she had left it on some tables where she was with some friends after school Friday).  That afternoon she comes home with a price quote from her teacher for the Canon camera and bag for $1,300.  

   Having given her a chance to fix this, her Dad and I are now "highly motivated" from the thought of paying that much for a camera that we will never be able to use!  We promptly enlisted the help of the principal and the janitors.

   The next morning Aubrei checked in the principal's office and was shown the missing camera that had been found.  

   Needless to say, we are very thankful that the camera was found and for the help received.  I've been working on tags for our 12 day of Christmas (I'll be posting soon) so I whipped up a note, picked up some lifesavers from the store and sent these goodies to the high school with Brei.

Here is how they turned out:

(frame and present element by Gennifer Bursett, part of the Here Comes Santa collab.)

Things have been a little crazy around here lately, with all the sicknesses making their rounds.  I'm optimistic that this week will be much better! :)

I've been scrappin' a lot and forgetting to share, sorry.  I'm hoping to get to our Halloween pics this week - we got some great pictures!

This is Ainsli's first day of 3rd grade:

You can see credits here.

This page was for a challenge and it definitely took me out of my comfort zone, but I love it and how it showcases my love for these special guys so well.

See credits here.

 This page was for one of our retiring designers.  The picture is of the contents of just one of the dance supply boxes that we've been receiving thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Priest's support.  Dance has become quite a commitment (Aubrei requires a lot of expensive shoes, etc.) and we sure appreciate their help.

Credits are here.

I did this page for this week's 4play challenge at DHD.  The picture is of my sweet boy relaxin' this summer with Grandpa Priest's new kitty.  I love that I captured this!

See credits here.

Despite our colds, things are going well for us and I'm constantly reminded of how extremely blessed I am to be living this life with those I love.  Our kids are amazing (I'm not biased) and I have a wonderful husband to share this all with.  Heavenly Father has blessed me far more than I deserve, but I'm not complaining - just trying to pay it forward. :)

Digital Scrapbooking Day -

It's time for Digital Scrapbooking Day and as part of the celebration at Design House Digital, the designers have an awesome collaboration kit called Daydream Believer.

Here’s the kicker - Its free!  FREE!  And, to make it even easier, you don’t have to download pieces at a bunch of different blogs!  It’s all right here in the shop at DHD.  All you have to do is follow along on the blog hop to grab the letters that make up the coupon code, and then download the kit at your convenience. 

My letter for the code is:

Next in the blog hop is Mye.  If you run into problems along the way, head back to the DHD blog post.

Wait!!  That's not all!  

I also created a quickpage for you to download.  I'd love to see how it turns out if you use it!  (Click here or on the image to download).

And here is my original layout of my sweet daughter . . .

Don’t forget to grab your letter for the code to get the amazing Daydream Believer kit for free and have fun scrapping this weekend!!!