Our Family Reunion

Hello vacation. How I love you so.

Today I wanted to share with you some photos from our family reunion.

We traveled to Utah and this was the typical scene for the whole 700 mile drive. Thank goodness for electronics and having an assortment of them. It was basically musical devices the whole way.

And this was a very familiar scene for the grown-ups.  2 drinks in the cupholders.

Our first stop was to spend a few days with my parents.

The kids spent most of their time outdoors in the backyard, that the kids have named "The forest."
They especially love to climb the "Big Rock" in the middle of the backyard, they think it's a lookout spot.

They found secret trails, and picked current berries, and played steam roller on the tramp with grandpa.

One of the favorite things to do at grandma's house is to make cookies. They love it, and of course grandma's cookies are the absolute best.

On Tuesday we packed the car again and headed down to the family reunion site, in a little town in Utah. The town does not have any street lights folks.

We had rented some cabins for all 25 family members(grandma and grandpa, siblings and their kids) to stay in. It was so nice to see everyone again. Patrick has 7 siblings in his family and 6 were able to make it. All seven of them are scattered all over the country. So you can see why it is hard to see each other.

The scenery surrounding the town was so pretty. A lot of green fields. Gorgeous. 

Some of the activities included Rhino, four wheeler, motorcycle rides, and bike rides.

Patrick and Noah

And the boys spent one afternoon at target practice.

All of the kids spent a lot of time outside on the swings and play house at the main cabin. They played with each other, it was so nice to see them spending time as cousins.

In Utah July 24th is celebrated as Pioneer Day, so it is just as big as the 24th. In the morning we watched the parade, the kids loved gathering candy and getting sprayed by some old fire trucks. That night we all went to the local Demolition Derby. It was so fun !! And they had fireworks !! Oh and it was Grandma Niebuhr's birthday.

This one was everyone's favorite part. The pink car pushed the white car upside down. He was just fine by the way.

The next day some people went up to the lake to go fishing. We took the kids up to see if they wanted to fish and to also let them swim in the water.

Patrick and Noah throwing rocks in the lake.

The reunion ended and everyone said goodbye on Friday. We cleaned up from the weeks activities and drove back to my parents house.

On Saturday my parents took the kids on a hike. They loved it. That afternoon we headed for home, staying over night in St. George.

It was so nice to getaway and spend some quality family time. It was rejuvenating.

I am working on my next PL week. Waiting for some more ink to come !! Have a great rest of your weekend everybody.

I will be back to share some photos from our trip to the Beach here in a few days.

Project Life Week 14

Hello everyone ! I'm so sorry I have been missing in action. We just got back from a 9 day vacation/family reunion in Utah. It was so great to get to visit with some family we have not seen in years.

I wanted to pop in today and quickly share my week 14.

We are packing up to go down for a quick couple day stay in San Pedro, by the beach. I just had enough time to unpack the car, wash a gazillion loads of laundry and pack our suitcases again before we leave in a few hours.

Both pages.

Technically Easter was in week 13. But I didn't have enough room to include Easter in week 13. I also had just a few photos for week 14. It seemed like the perfect solution to put the two together.

Easter page. 

Title. Used washi tape, some stickers from my stash and the chicks from SC.

Photo of Noah's basket.

Brush from Ali Edwards Spring brush set.

Noah on the move, looking for eggs.

Used an old Heidi Swapp stamp on this photo.

This first journaling card is a filler card from the seafoam kit. Added some embellishments from my stash.

The second journaling card is also from the seafoam kit. Added a banner and a photo of Katelyn.

More journaling cards.

The second page. Includes photos of week 14.

Brush from Karla Dudley. Instagram photo.

I used a journaling card from the SC kit and added it onto my photo. Stars and the stamp at the bottom are also from the SC kit.

Used the week stamp from the SC kit on this banner sticker.

We had our patio poured this week.

Journaling cards. Dance class and our patio is dry.

Journaling cards. Patio journaling and new pillows.

That is the end of week 14.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions about anything. I was a little short on time this week. Gotta run, the beach is calling !! Have a great week everyone.

Project Life Week 13

Hello Project Life. Hello Spring Break. Hello Trip to the Zoo.

For week 13 I decided to fill the whole layout with pictures and stories from our trip to the zoo. I really didn't have enough regular photos to fill up a whole week anyways.

Here is the two pages put together.

For some reason this week was really, really hard to start and get going. But once I did, it just flew by and put itself together. 

Here is a look at the first page.

A friend and her kids came with us for a day of fun. We drove up to the Fresno zoo. The kids had such a great time looking at all the animals. I just noticed a mistake, Ha Ha. Katelyn pointed out that I spelled Ouch wrong, oops. I was going back and forth with oops and ouch and I guess I got a combination of the two words !

Checking out the bears.

Brush found here.

These 2 seals were the hit of the day, the favorite. The kids sat and watched them swim for the longest time. There was an area that had clear glass that allowed you to see them swimming underwater and so I snapped a picture.

I used one of Al Edwards Memory Lifelines on this photo. Found here. Then created a circle in photoshop and reduced the opacity to make it fade. Also added the word favorite from Ali Edwards new I heart travel brush set.

This first journaling card is from the Studio Calico kit. Used the wood @ symbol from SC as well.

The journaling card is from the midnight core kit. My poor Maddie girl got her hand stuck in the in gate coming into the park. Noah was playing around with the door and slammed her hand in the gate. We had to find the first aid station and get some ice because it turned colors and swelled up.  Good news though, she was fine by the end of the day.

The hello sunshine square is from a SC kit.

Here is the second page.

All the kids had fun pretending to be eaten by the hippo.

Brush is from here.

Added some journaling on the side of this photo of the cute monkey.

Added a brush and then the arrow from the stamp set from the SC kit.

They have a great petting zoo right in the middle of the zoo.

On the way home from the zoo we stopped for dinner at this little store/restaurant. They had so many fun things there. A treehouse, lots of antiques, lots of old toys, a boardwalk walkway all around the place.

I used on the of the SC project life kit journaling cards to one side and an instagram photo on the other.  

I love this stamp/frame from the SC PL kit. I sized a photo of Katelyn and put in the frame.

Maddie looking at the map, picking where we were going to go next.

The first journaling card is from the SC kit. Added the letters from the kit also to the banner.

The second card is from the seafoam kit. Added some washi and some stickers.

That is it for week 13. Working hard on week 14. I'm halfway done, yeah !! Feels good to get some weeks in the album. Although I am so far behind I am not to worried, and just enjoying this process of documenting our lives.

Day In The Life June

I really did have good intentions of doing A Day In The Life this month. Although, it started out late. I realized it was the day to do it a little before 9 am. So I started from there and took some photos.

The day started at 6:45 am. Noah has been getting up super early lately. Like 6 am on the dot early. In desperation I ordered him his very own alarm clock/wake up clock. This was the second day of use and he stayed in his room until 6: 45 !! It glows green when it is time to get up.

I took a shot of his clock on his dresser.

Only in Katelyn's room where dinosaurs and my little ponies co exist !! She was playing at 9 : 14 am.

12: 45. Lunch. Included a salad and a peanut butter shake for me. Chicken nuggets, fruit for the kids.

1:21 p.m. Sidewalk chalk on the front porch. Maddie's 3D glasses.

Noah playing with the stencil.

3:45 pm. 6 loads of laundry. All folded and put away.

3: 52. Swimming at the gym pool.

5:45 pm. The electronics duo on the stairs. I make dinner. Pork chops, butternut squash, carrots, rice.

Did anyone else play along this month ? I want to try harder next month to do it better.  Here is to hoping and wishing that I can make it happen.

One last thing. I have been a fan and a blog reader of Autumn from simplyautumn.com for a while now. She posted her day in the life photos on her blog. I love them. WOW !! Go check it out.  I just loved the photo of her son sitting in his chair watching the garbage truck. It is something Noah would love to do, no luck here. They come at 6 am !!

Here is the link :

Simply Autumn blog

Have a good day everyone.

Noah's Beach Themed Birthday Party

Last week we celebrated Noah turning 4. I decided to go with a fun beach theme this year. It really turned out fun and the kids had a great time playing in the water.

I wanted to share some photos with you today.


We did a few activites before I let the kids play in the water. The first one was to "dig" in the sand for little treasures. I had filled up storage containers with play sand and then buried some little toys. It was a hit !

Here is Noah's Birthday cake. The kids really had a blast helping me decorate it.

Another shot of the cake

Making a wish/blowing out the candles.

I put together these "Goodie Bags" for all the party guests to take home. Inside : Shovel, sunglasses, goldfish, a candy bracelet, and a squirt gun. I also made them a jello bag of goldfish. I didn't get a picture of them. They looked so neat, and now I am so sad that I didn't get a pic. They were blue jello in a clear back with a goldfish in the jello. So it looked like a real live goldfish. Very cool.

I handmade these tags, including a thank you on the back.

A squirt gun activity before I let the kids have their squirt guns to take home. I made targets and they each got a turn to try and hit a bulls-eye. 

I decorated mostly outside with these flags that had beach themed items on them. I also hung beach balls around and balloons.

I wrote the beach report on the kids's chalk board and put it on the porch.

Had some drinks on ice for the party guests.

When the activities were over with, the gifts were given, and the cake was served the kids were allowed to go and play in the water. I had set up two pools and the slip n slide. It was hot and all the kids loved playing in the water until their parents came to get them.

Have a great weekend everybody. Stay cool, our high today was 108 !! EEEEK !!

P.S. Stay tuned for a day in the life update. I did manage to play along with Ali Edwards this month. Didn't take a whole bunch of photos but got enough. I will share soon. Also working on another layout of PL. This next one is of our trip to the zoo during spring break. Hope to have that done next week sometime and then I will share.