Remember that Project for Imaginisce?

Just to mix things up a little, and give you something else to look at besides the endless pictures of the Family Photo Shoot, I thought that I'd show you all the projects I made for Imaginisce a couple of months ago. One of the best things about my work is getting to see the new product lines months before the come on the market. The downside is, I can't post any projects I've done with them until they're released. These lines have officially been released now, so I can finally put them here on my blog!

These projects were for "Fairest of Them All" - a darling Princess line. This is a gift bag, princess wand, and purse. I also made a cute "princess ball" invitation, but I finished literally seconds before I had to ship everything off, so I didn't get a chance to photograph it.

Here's one layout, also using the "Fairest" line. Click on any pictures to see a larger version with more detail.

The next few projects are from "Snowy Jo," the upcoming Christmas line. They asked me to work on neighbor gift ideas with this line as well as scrapbook pages. It was a little funny to be working on Christmas neighbor gifts in May!

This is a little neighbor gift idea. The jar has hot cocoa in it. (I have to admit, that I probably wouldn't ever put this much work into neighbor gifts. I'm lucky if we give out any neighbor gifts at all! I guess I should do better this year and get it all done in August - ha ha ha! Like that's going to happen!) The little snowman is made up of a series of stickers. I think he's pretty adorable.
Sorry, this picture is a bit overexposed, so Bekah is kind of washed out. The paper is really cute, though!

I wish that I'd had time to photograph all of the pages from this little recipe album. They turned out SO cute! The album has 8 Christmas recipes inside, and each recipe has a cute little rubon on it. The gingerbread man is a stamp.
I thought this Christmas Journal/Wishbook turned out well, too. The Christmas tree is a build-a-sticker page, so it was very easy and quick to make.

These last projects are cards using Snowy Jo, Fairest, and Hallowhimsy, another new Imaginisce line. The cards were supposed to be simple - I'm always good at being simple.

Uncle Peter

While I was snapping away at the family photo shoot, the kiddos got a little restless.


I guess that I wasn't tossing out the fruitsnacks fast enough, because they attacked Uncle Peter.



Somehow, Uncle Pete ends up in the middle of everything. Don't let that terrified look in his face fool you - he's loving every minute of this.




It's just a good thing he can hold his own against five stir-crazy children... hope his future wife likes kids!

Aren't kids hilarious?

I've been working more on the family photo shoot, and even though the following five shots were all the same pose, I had to edit them all, because they are so funny! I love the expressions on the kids faces!

Family Pictures

Here are some pictures of the whole family that I took when we were home in June. It was the first time that we'd all been together for a year, and we haven't had a good family picture of everyone taken since Becky got married, so I asserted my power as oldest daughter and wielder of the expensive camera, and organized the shoot.

This was my first time setting up a photo shoot like this, since I got my new camera. I learned quite a few things. I set up the shots, then we had my brother's friend take the pictures for us, and I think in the future, I'm going to want a tripod. Even though the shot looked right for me, the friend taking the pictures is taller, and so there are some things that I would have changed if I'd been behind the lens. I'm thankful that my family was willing to be the guinea pig - they're getting a family photo for free, so they can't complain!

Sadly, this is the best I could do with the kids. I even swapped out heads from other shots.




This one's a little better of the kids, but Opa's not smiling. Unfortunately, I couldn't even swap heads, because all the photos with him smiling were out of focus (also a frustrating problem about not being behind the lens - not that we weren't really thankful for Peter's friend - he hadn't ever used my camera before, so he didn't know.)

Here are some better ones with the kids. Aren't they cute?


So, all in all, even though they didn't turn out perfectly, I'm glad we did it. It's good to have a family picture of everyone - except, wait - it's already outdated! Joanna gave birth a week or so later to Eli. We'll have to try again, next summer!

So Many Things to Blog About...

I wouldn't be surprised if I have totally lost my readers. Even though my readers are mostly my family, and they kinda just read my blog cause they love me. And they want to see cute pictures of my kids. So, sorry that I haven't blogged before this. I promise to do better.

So, some random thoughts.

I really miss singing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, still. It's been more than a year now, but it still surprises me how pained I feel when I remember. Of course, there is so much joy in the memory, too. I really wonder if I'll ever get to have musical experiences like that again. Hopefully I'll get to sing in Heavenly Choirs in the next life, huh? I have been teaching a lot of singing and piano lessons lately, though, and it does feel so satisfying to feel that I'm passing on that knowledge and joy to others. There are few things that give me greater pleasure than watching a student figure out a technique that opens and changes their voice in a beautiful and dramatic way. I love watching their faces, and see the surprise and joy at finding a new voice, refining that very personal part of themselves. I don't think that I'll ever get tired of that.

Do you ever think about the person you were as a teenager or young adult, and sometimes feel like you've lost important parts of who you were? Most of the important things, I think I've retained. But sometimes, I wonder if I've lost some elusive part of me - my zest for life, my intensity and drive. Maybe I'm just tired, because I'm the mother of four young children, and I haven't slept through the night in over a year, and I'm feeling a little melancholy tonight. But, part of me keeps hoping that I'll find it again.

And, onto yet another subject - Ben was called into the bishopric on Sunday - first counselor. The appointment with the Stake President was at 10 a.m., and by 11:15, he'd been sustained and was sitting on the stand. And I was sitting alone with our four children. Needless to say, it was all just a bit overwhelming. Can I just say, that I feel too young to be married to a member of the bishopric? I don't feel nearly wise enough, or together enough in my life to be here. I also want to say, though, that I still can't believe that I'm married to such an incredibly wonderful man. He grows on me everyday, and I liked him a lot to begin with. He really is my better half. I'm so thankful to be married to someone who loves the Lord so much, and is willing to give up his very small amount of free time to serve and to build the Kingdom of God. Not to mention, he's really, really good looking, and a great kisser. Oh, sorry...

And to round off this totally random post, I'm going to add some totally random pictures.

In the Strength of the Lord

Today is the day - Day 1 of a new 21-Day Challenge.

This morning, as I walked from 6-6:30am, I listened to Elder David A. Bednar's talk "In the Strength of the Lord." He gave this talk several times - the first time was at BYU-Provo, and that was the version I listened to. He gave a modified, much shorter version of this talk in his first General Conference address when he was sustained an apostle. If you have never heard the full talk, I highly encourage you to go to the link above and read it. Even better, you can go to BYU Broadcasting, do a search and listen to the talk. This one talk has changed my understanding and perspective on the Atonement and it's ability to help us to change for the better more than any one single thing. I believe I have listened to it at least 15-20 times.

In honor of our new challenge, I've created a little inspirational thought from this talk, and I hope to do several more, which I will continue to post over the next few days. Hope you enjoy it!

I truly have a testimony of the power and ability of the Atonement of Christ to enable us to "change from bad to good, from good to better, and to have our very natures changed." I felt it this morning as I walked, keeping my promise to myself to make a small change for good. I am so thankful for this enabling power, and for how I feel when I am working on becoming the woman that I know Heavenly Father wants me to become.

I hope you can feel that today, too - the power for good we have when we rely on the strength of the Lord.

Another 21-Day Challenge!

Dear, dear readers, I give my humblest apologies. I have been missing-in-action, I know. We were in Utah, visiting family for two weeks, and then we came home. And I kept thinking that I needed to have some stellar photos to show you of our trip before I posted. And I haven't done ANY photo editing since I've been back, namely because I have about 800 photos to edit, and it's overwhelming, and I'm procrastinating. Sorry Mom. I'll get those family photos done soon.

While we're waiting, I wanted to announce the beginning of another 21-day Challenge. We'll start on Friday, since y'all have probably stopped checking my blog, since I haven't posted for 3 weeks. Here's my new goal - to get up early (5:30 or 6), and exercise everyday, except Sundays. Along with this goes going to be by 9:30 or 10, since I really need my beauty sleep, phew... I look like a tired 31-year old mom of 4 without my beauty sleep.

By the way, how did your last 21-day challenge go? I made it through my no-sugar pact, faithfully, then fell of the bandwagon on vacation. But I'm back on it, now. That's what we do when we goof up, right, we get right back on that horse. It's so easy to stay off - horses aren't very comfy. Or maybe they are - I don't know, since I've only been horse-back riding once, and it was with a guy I was dating, and I was rather focused on him, not the horse. Point is, it gets more comfy going back to our old, familiar habits. But I'm doing great again - I hope you are, too.
Who's with me for another 21-Day Challenge?

Ballet Recital

Sometimes, I stand in awe of my children. Today, that happened. Our 9-year old and 5-year old danced in a ballet recital, and all I can say is, they must have inheritated the light-footed, flexiblity and grace of my better half, because they certainly didn't get it from me! They were BEAUTIFUL, and our oldest in particular is an amazing ballerina already. They began taking lessons at the beginning of the school year, and she's just a natural. All my life, I've secretly wanted to be a ballerina, and I guess I'm living vicariously through my daughters.





On an interesting side-note, this is the first time the girls have ever worn a sleeve-less anything. I'm a big stickler on modesty, and when these costumes were first presented, as lovely as they are, I felt a bit apprehensive. So we sat down and had a long chat about modesty, and dance. We decided that because ballet is "of good report and praiseworthy" and because the BYU ballet classes perform in similar costumes, that it was okay in this ONE instance. I was proud of the girls - they told me "after the recital, Mom, we'll wear them for dress-ups with a t-shirt."

Philmont Scout Ranch

I'm still not finished with my Imaginisce assignment, but since I haven't blogged for a week, I suppose it's time!

I just went through my pictures from attending a Family Fun Weekend Event at Philmont Scout Ranch. It was the first weekend in May, and we had a blast! We went with some of our great friends - the "H" family and the "N" family - friends from way back when we lived in Chicago to do medical school.

Philmont was donated to the Boy Scouts back in 1938 by an oil tycoon named Waite Phillips and it's amazing! It's 144,000 acres, and has the most amazing villa on it, built by Mr. Phillips only 15 years before he donated it to the scouts. He and his wife built it based on villas in Italy and Spain, and it's beautiful - so many cool details. The estimated worth for the villa is over 5 million dollars today.

Below I've included some of my favorite pictures of the villa, and of our kids.