A project life week preview

I was working on week 11 here and there but just ran out of time to completely finish it before leaving this weekend. But I just wanted to give you a little sneak peak, actually a big sneak peak. There are pictures(although not cropped and straight out of the camera to save time), bad lighting and all, and no description. I will go into detail next week and also will finish the week off. I have a few extras that I need to do.

So have a wonderful weekend everyone. We leave tomorrow morning for California to go and buy us a house !! Wish us luck and I will share pictures of our weekends adventure next week.

Week 11 Side 1

Week 11 Side 2

P.S. Katelyn and Maddie are on this cowgirl kick. They wear their cowgirl hats, cowgirl shirts, and their boots around all day. Riding their stick horses, lasso's in hand(a robe tie), most of the time rounding up the cattle and wild horses. It is has been so fun to watch them this past week. Here is a picture of Katelyn in her hat and wearing her cowgirl shirt. I still need to get one of her and Maddie on their horses.

Scrapbook Expo Weekend

This weekend was the semi-annual Scrapbook Expo. This is one of those events that you look forward to all year. Two days of all day scrapbooking, shopping for scrapbook supplies at amazing prices, a girls weekend, and two days of no kids. So basically it is heaven. I had a wonderful time, even brought the girls over for a few hours and they loved it !! I did lots of shopping. Lots of scrapbooking. Lots of girl chatting.

Here is a few layouts that I did over the weekend. This is an Ali Edwards scraplift that I just loved and wanted to do  myself. I did put my little twist on it and might add something in the bottom right corner but just haven't found the right thing now. And I now realize I have to add the date on there.

Here is the other layout I did over the weekend. It is one of Noah's pictures from a photo shoot we did a while ago.

I also got a lot of work done on my project life book, will be working on that this week. We will see how that goes.

P.S. Does anyone know an easy way of straitening out a photo in photoshop. I guess I will have to do some googleing later  !! Thanks for looking.

Project Life Week 10

Since I am now doing a weekly layout I had to re-number the weeks. So we are now on Week 10. This week I really had fun, looked through my supplies, and stamped on the journaling cards. It was so fun and I really enjoyed it, although it took more time.

Here is Side 1

It has a picture of Noah eating his cereal at the "BIG" table. He kept wanting to sit at the table with the girls so I finally put away the highchair. He has also discovered cereal with milk in a bowl and loves it. If I ever forget to get him some milk he will let me know !

The next picture is of some new pillows I bought for the couch. I also included a picture of the bathroom, which I bought all new items for.

Maddie loves her Toy Story toys and wanted a picture with them all. So I told her that she had to write on the journaling card for the scrapbook. She was more than happy to help me out. So I got a journaling card out for her and she wrote on it by herself. I wrote down what she wanted to say and then she copied it on the card, she is a great copier !

Here is some pictures that I wanted to include of Maddie and Noah playing with his new train set. I went to target the day before and got him his first Geo Track set. He loves it, of course. He is such a train kid.

Here is Side 2 of this week. Not much extra happened this week. I was really busy with trying to keep Noah happy, he is getting some new teeth.

The first picture is of me and Noah outside that I took with my phone. The color was horrible so I turned it black and white. I created a white box, turned down the opacity in Photoshop on the box layer, so that is was kind of see through. Then I wrote my text on top of the box. I need to try to remember to get me in the box more often. Mental note !! 

The next picture is of Katelyn all decked out in pirate gear for a friends birthday party. The invitation warned that if you don't come dressed in pirate attire you had to walk the plank. Katelyn took it very literally so we had to go to the party store and get her a hat, and eye patch. She sure had fun at the party. 

We got girl scout cookies that week. 

The next picture is of the two girls on their bikes. The weather is starting to turn a little warmer so they were begging me to let them out on their bikes around the circle.

The next picture is of Noah on his car outside in the backyard. He loves cars and was so excited when he found this hidden underneath the deck. He sat on it for quite a while and tried to go around the patio. 

That is it for Week 10. I really need to go call the Realtor now about finding us a house, we are going House Hunting next weekend !!

California here we come !!

Patrick received an email about ten o'clock last night from one of the companies he has been applying with. We were expecting it next week, but were very excited that it was a job offer in California !!

So we are off to California. Calls were placed to Mortgage companies, Real Estate agents, and so forth. This is really happening. I am beyond excited at this opportunity but very saddened by the fact that we have to pick up and move from the only state that I have ever lived in, the only town that I have ever lived in. Thirty years of memories, the countless trips to Wheeler Farm, lake visits, riding horses, kids being born. You get the idea. It is a little scary. So I wanted to take a few minutes and look back on the things and the memories that I will dearly miss about my hometown.
                                               
                      Moments like this - Hikes with grandpa

Views out the front window

Some first steps at Thanksgiving Point

Picking pumpkins at our favorite Patch

Attending our annual neighborhood Fourth of July Parade

 Visits to the lake

 Our current backyard. Especially the garden boxes. 

 And the best and most important thing that we will miss is this : 

and this 

 Oh I really could go on and on. I spent some time today thinking about all the things that I will miss.

But I know that we will find some new favorite places, make some new memories, and discover a new town. I am excited about our new adventure. Stay tuned for more Project Life.

Project Life Week 7

Followup from the previous post. Patrick is back home and although we were hoping to find out where he was offered the job or not, we have to wait another two weeks. He was told that we would hear one way or the other in about two weeks. So the waiting game begins, AGAIN! Oh well. Life goes on. 

Another week over with, another week done.

I have decided to change my approach with project life. I am doing a weekly layout now and so far it has been great. I wanted to include more things. More of a week in review style. Sometimes I just want to include a sentence about the picture, not a whole journaling card. So I just journal directly on the picture. See Monday's picture below.

This weeks pictures start out with a picture of the school pick up line and the school itself. From the line I can see her classroom door and watch her come out. Every day I drive to school and wait in the pick up line for Katelyn to come. Katelyn loves that I wait in the line to come pick her up. I think she feels so grown up, even though she is only in kindergarten.

The next picture is of Maddie at the dinosaur museum. Patrick took them down there on her birthday because I still wasn't feeling well.

The next picture is of all of us having a tea party. I had found this cute tea set for Maddie's birthday that the cups change colors when you poor cold water in it. The girls LOVE it and call it the Magic tea set. We have been having non stop tea parties since.

Also include was a picture from Maddie's birthday breakfast, and a picture of Katelyn at the dinosaur museum.

Patrick and I have been using our phones more to capture pictures when we don't have an actual camera right there and so far the pictures have turned out great. See above picture of Patrick and Maddie at her birthday breakfast.

Maddie turned 4 this week and we had her birthday party on Saturday. She loves Pink and the book Pinkalicious so she picked Pinkalicious as her birthday theme. Her birthday party pictures were put in a page protector. The first one is of the Pinkalicious cupcakes that I made based on the book. The second pic is of the party guests and their wands that I hid for them to find. The next picture is of Maddie's birthday cake in the shape of a giant cupcake. 

 

 Some more pictures of Maddie's party. Each of the girls were given a flower to take home and Maddie kept smelling it so I snapped a picture. We played a musical chairs type game with the girls. The next picture is of Maddie when we were singing to her. She was acting really shy when we were singing, she sat really far down in her chair so that no one could see her, but we coaxed her up so she could blow out her candles. Silly girl.

This next page is of the regular week side 2. Included: Another cute picture of the tea set. This is another reason why I choose to do the weekly layout. So that I could include the pictures that I wanted, like this one of the tea set. 

The next picture is of the email that we got about the second interview for Patrick. I took a screenshot of the actual email.

A cute picture of Katelyn with her flower in her hair. So cute. 

The next picture is part of our dinner on Saturday. Thanks Ali for the tostada idea, they were a huge hit and will be added to the regular dinner rotation And can I say easy !!

Also included was a picture that Patrick took in the app from his phone called Instagram. We love it, we share pictures back and forth a lot. The picture is of Noah when they both wen outside to explore. The weather is getting nicer here and so lots of outside exploration is happening.

Also included, a tag from some clothing bought recently and one of Patrick's Deer Valley business cards.

 And that is a wrap on this week in our lives. Take care everyone.

Saying goodbye to Daddy

Patrick headed out about nine this morning for his second interview with Halliburton. The kids were sad to see him go for such a long time, especially Noah ! (See picture below). He has to drive to their field office in WY and stay for two days. So we all have our fingers crossed that he will get a job offer. It will be a great opportunity for our family. 

We miss you daddy !! Have a great time and we will see you in a few days.

Project Life 6

Well I have been waiting for Patrick to write his journaling for one the pages this week. It took him five days to get it to me !! And that was after constantly bugging him about it. But it is done now so I can share it with you. This is the Side 1 of Week 6. The first picture is of Katelyn and Patrick at her birthday breakfast. It is a Niebuhr tradition to go out to breakfast on all birthday mornings. We got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa who are over in Greece using our new iphones and skype. Isn't technology fantastic. The next picture is of Patrick the day he went in for his first "Real" job interview with Halliburton. The next picture is of my cold medicine. I got really, really sick for about two weeks.

 

These are some pictures from Katelyn's birthday party. The girls are both into Toy Story right now and so that is what she choose. She asked for a cake with all of her little toy story characters on it and so we found something online that she liked and I made it. It turned out pretty cute. 

This is the other side of the page protector. More pictures from the party. Playing games and the blowing out of the candles. I copied Ali Edwards and used some of Katie Pertiet. http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/8462. These are perfect. I have been in need of something like these for putting journaling on photos. I love these. 

This is a collage I did of some pics from when we went out and flew Katelyn's kite. She got it from her birthday party and the next day it was really windy. It was perfect flying weather and we all had fun. 

Patrick has been working at Deer Valley plus his other job at night this week. It might be his last time working at Deer Valley, you just never know. I wanted him to get some pictures for me and then write about his week, what he does up there, ect. While it took a while to get it out of him, I am so glad that he did. I love having his writing, journaling, pictures in our family project life book. I want to try and more of the family involved. **Mental note **  Patrick took a few pics with his cell phone, got to love our new iphones and then I put the Deer Valley logo in the background and copy and pasted his journaling on top. It was really easy to do and I think it turned out great.

This is Week 6 Side 2. The first picture is of Maddie cleaning up all the water that Noah had put on the floor of the kitchen !! I was laying down in the bedroom for about 5 minutes, came in to see what was going on. Found him on top of the chair, in front of the fridge pushing the water lever down. There was water all over the floor !! It was great, especially since I was sick that week. At least Maddie helped me clean it up. Thanks sweety. The next picture is of Patrick and Maddie playing the Wii. It is the newest "BIG" thing in our house right now. And since I was sick that week it was great to have something that the girls could do. Of course Daddy had to join in too! The next picture is from the Jazz game that they had won. Also on the journaling card I included what was happening with the team. I am a big sports fan !! The next picture is from the charity crop that I attended that Saturday. It is so fun, they have games, a raffle, a page contest (that I won first place - three years in a row now) not to brag or anything, of course friends, and an all day crop. I still wasn't feeling well and did leave early but the main attraction was that Stacy Julian was there !! Yes, the Stacy Julian of big picture classes. I was so excited to meet her and get a chance to talk to her. She was also one of the judges for the contest. She is amazing. It was a great day.

Well that is it for the week. Thanks for looking. Take care everyone.

Maddie's Pinkalicious 4th Birthday Party

Maddie actually turned 4 back on the 1st of March but we celebrated her birthday this past Saturday. We had a small party with "Just Girls" as Maddie kept telling everyone. The theme came from the book "Pinkalicious." It is a darling book about a girl named pinkalicious that ate so many pink cupcakes that she turned pink. It is one of Maddie's favorites that I decided to have that be the theme for her party. The above picture was the decorated table. Nothing real fancy, but everything pink. Pink flowers, pink plates, pink dipped strawberries, pink chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick, the actual pinkalicious book, the pink cupcakes(decorated just like the book), pink cookies, and of course goldilicous(pinkalicious's pet unicorn).  All the party guests were asked to dress in pink attire and I love how all the girls looked so pretty in pink !!

The pink cupcakes

Pink marshmallows

 Maddie's cake. I couldn't really figure out a way to make a huge cupcake. They have cupcake tins at the party stores but they were $30.00 and I wasn't about to spend that much one something that I would only use once. But I think it turned out great and Maddie loved it. "My cake" she cried out when it was decorated. 

 The first activity we did was to color a page of their favorite "PINK" things. The girls loved it and after they were done we put them up on the wall. 

In the book, pinkalicious has a magic wand. A few weeks back I had boughten some cute wands at target for the girls for the party. I hid them all around the room and told them that they needed to find them. It was a huge hit! And then we proceeded to dance around the room, skipping, twirling, and running. So fun. 

Maddie's wand. 

The next activity we did was to do musical chairs. I read them the pinkalicious book and they had to walk around while I was reading it. Every time I read the word PINK they had to sit down. At the end of the book, whoever was sitting on the chair with the cupcake on the bottom was the winner. The girls really had fun, but found it hard to keep walking as they wanted to look at the pictures in the book. Oh well, it was still fun. 

 Here they are walking around the chairs. And that is me in the corner. 

This is Maddie and her cake. This was her at the beginning of the happy birthday song. 

This was her towards the end of the song. I don't know if she just didn't like all the attention, she is my shy child. Or maybe she didn't like our singing, I don't know. But we she did finally surface to make a wish and blow out her candles. Katelyn showed her how to close her eyes to make a wish and then blow out her candles!! Such a good big sister.

After cake we had a great little tea party. Just like in the book. I had found this cute play tea set right before Maddie's birthday and it is so neat. The girls call it MAGIC because when you pore the water, punch, whatever you have( as long as it is cold) the cups turn dark pink. All the girls loved the cups, each one requesting cup full after cup full of tea, which was pink lemonade.

The cupcakes were handed out along with the strawberries, marshmallows, cookies, and it was so much fun. Some of the girls asked things like, "If we eat all this pink stuff will we turn pink too?" Amelia kept going back and forth on whether she wanted to be pink or not. Maddie, Katelyn, and Adelaide all kept saying that they wanted to turn pink. The rest were undecided ! It was really cute to hear the PINK conversation all throughout the tea party. 

All in all, it was a great party and I just can't believe that my little Maddie girl is four. Time sure does fly by. 

 All the girls were sent home with their own pink flower along with some other party favors. But Katelyn and Maddie wanted their picture taken with their flower in their hair so we quickly went outside for a picture. 

Maddie changed her mind and all she wanted to do was smell it and then show it to me so that is all I got from her. 

Until next time folks. I hope to get my next week of project life up tomorrow or Thursday so stay tuned. Thanks for looking.

Project Life Week 5

Things around our household are still not great. Kids now sick, me still not feeling well at all. I am so sick of feeling sick. I have been working on my project life book a few minutes here and there in between being a couch potato and trying to sleep. So I thought I would quickly share my next week. So I really thought I was all done with the next week but then I realize i was not !! It must be the sickness. Oh well. Here is one page from week 4 that  I needed to add to the book. I posted about Maddie's photo shoot earlier but I wanted to tell the story about her love for skirts and leggings. So i made a page for my project life book.

This page talks about her love for skirts and leggings and how she won't wear pants.

Other side. Some cute pictures of my sweet Maddie girl. 

This is Week 5. The first picture is of the kids and Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr. They were leaving the next morning for their LDS mission to Cyprus, Greece. We sure will miss them, especially Noah. He loves him grandma and grandpa. He calls grandpa PAPA. So cute. The next pictures is of our brand new t.v. and entertainment center that we bought. It is a 50 inch plasma, HD t.v. and we all love it. I don't know how we lived without it!! The next picture is of Katelyn in her own room. We were busy moving her stuff in her new room and she loves her new found space. It is all her own !! On one of the journaling card I wrote about Maddie's quote to her daddy. She always says, "Daddy, I love you the last number. " Love it and it had to go in the book.

This little insert is from the day that Patrick and his brother, Tyler went Skiing together at Park City Ski resort. They had so much fun together.

 

The second side. Pics of Patrick and Tyler skiing. Also Patrick's Skiing tag and journaling. 

 

Patrick took the two littlest ones down to the farm. On Wednesdays they have activities for them to do. That day they milked the cow, made butter, visited the animals, and Maddie rode the ponies while Noah cried when Patrick tried to get him on the pony!! Maybe next time buddy. They had so much fun that I wanted to make a collage of their adventure. 

 

This is a collage page of some pics from our Valentines day. Noah tried to help by cracking the eggs all by himself in the morning while Patrick was making french toast! Katelyn and Maddie went to grandmas house to decorate cupcakes. Maddie got her beloved Goldilicous unicorn(pinkalicious's unicorn from the book goldilicous. We also had heart shaped french toast for breakfast. 

 

Week 5 Side 2. This page talks about Noah sabotaging Movie night by dumping all the popcorn out of the bowl and putting the bowl on his head even before I could get the movie started. He then did it two more times that night!! It was quite a mess. We had preordered our iphones from Verizon the week before and they finally came. We were so excited. I love my iphone now and am addicted. The girls put their valentines together that week. I really thought that I was done with this week before taking pictures of the pages. I realize now that I wanted to add a picture from my iphone to one of the journaling spots. Also missing from this week is Patrick's journaling card from his trip down to the farm. Oh well I will finish it later and add his card in to the book. I really feel it essential to have Patrick participate in the project life process too. It will be neat to his journaling in the book and I look forward to having more opportunities for him to get involved. So I really need to go and get some rest now. Take care everyone. Until next time.