Leaving NYC

We headed south to Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay & Nassau from New York City. It was great - we drove to the city, parked right at the pier, and boarded. It was great not having to fly to catch the boat, especially with two little guys and assorted toys in tow.

Another perk of leaving from NY was sailing past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Those are two places I had never been to, and claimed a spot at the deck railing to have optimal photo opportunities. These are the best I could do. (Hint: I got much better pictures on the way back into NYC. Stay tuned!)

Zach was much more interested in running once we sprung him from the stroller. Dave ended up running after him. I had built up the Statute of Liberty to Caleb, so he wanted to stay with me at the railing. We were on our way South and we were having fun!

Scrapbooking Tip - Letter Stickers:

One area of my supplies I have simplified are my letter stickers. I found a brand I LOVE - Doodlebug Design. I have all sorts of styles and colors from this company and I mix and match. It stretches my supply saving me money, and precious time - everything looks good together so I don't spend forever picking out "the perfect" letters.

Cruise Album!

I've decided to show a vacation album from the first page to the last, and this was one memorable vacation. 

We cruised to the Bahamas on the Norwegian Gem, and it was our only experience with Norwegian Cruise Lines. We had mixed feelings.

Do you remember the swine flu epidemic? Shortly before we left on vacation there was even a cruise ship where most of the passengers ended up with this dreaded flu and the ship was quarantined. We were scheduled to leave on a Saturday and on the Thursday night before Caleb was up all night vomiting. Saturday morning as we were getting in the car to leave for NYC, Dave asked me where we kept the Pepto Bismo. Not a good sign . . . . he reassured me he was fine . . . . he was coming off of night shifts and his stomach was a little off.

While we were waiting in line to board the ship, we were asked to fill out a health survey asking questions like, have we been sick with stomach / intestinal issues, or been in contact with anyone who has. Dave took my survey and filled them both out. He looked at me and pointedly said, "Caleb wasn't really all that sick the other night . . . ."

That night Dave did not want to go to the dining room to eat. That should have been my first clue. Then he said we should all go to bed early and "rest up". He never did that the first night of a cruise - he loved to explore the ship. So far we had not left the cabin. Did I see that red flag? Nope . . . 

In the middle of the night, I woke up alone in bed. Poor Dave was horribly sick with the stomach bug . . . on a swaying cruise ship. I felt so bad for him! But at the same time I had to go into survival mode. I squeezed around Zach's portable crib and climbed into Caleb's twin side bed with him. We didn't need both adults sick. 

Fortunately, by the next morning, Dave felt 100% better. We ate a huge breakfast at the buffet and headed out to explore the ship. The boys we none the wiser, and Dave warned me to "tell no one." There were warning sign all over the ship about swine flu and staff stationed at the doors of the dining room to pump hand sanitizer into your hands before heading to the buffet. We kept our secret and went on with our vacation . . . but that was a memorable first night on board.

Scrapbooking Tips:

Because I do no scrap chronologically, my albums do not have a cohesive theme. When I finish my layouts I put them in albums according to chronological order. However, when I do vacation albums, I do scrap in order and tend to settle on a theme or certain look. There are a couple of reasons I do this. It helps me get the album done faster, and it gives me a couple albums with a cohesive look and theme. 

As I post the album pages (in order!) you'll notice a couple of things:

• I use the same template over for certain pages. Each time I scrapped a layout about the various Port of Calls, I used the same look. This saves a lot of time. I also like how it defines each of the different stops we made.
• I try to limit the paper lines I use. I like purchasing paper and embellishments in packs. I love it when the guess work is taken out of the paper picking. I tend to find 1-3 paper lines I like and leave them out for the duration of the vacation album scrapping. Seeing some of the same patterns over multiple times, helps achieve a cohesive look.
• I love having multiple photos on each layout! I take way too many pictures not to fill the layouts up with photos. I usually do a minimum of 6 photos for a two page spread - there are exceptions, but not too many. I want the photos to stay the focus of my scrapbooking.

I hope you enjoy seeing an album from start to finish. As I look back, I can't believe how little the boys were. Sometimes I thought we were crazy to travel with such little kids, one with a major disability, but I am so glad we did. Every moment is precious and it was worth all the sacrifices we made. I would not go back and change one thing. The boys will be able to look back and see how much Daddy liked to travel and find adventures, and how much he wanted to give them the world!

Happy July 4th!

It's been a long time since my last post . . . the reason, plain and simple - grief. I have not scrapbooked since the first week of May. The last time I tried I broke down in tears at pictures of Dave smiling back at me. I have not really pulled out the pictures since then, or even wanted to look at any. It has been too painful. 

But, the desire to get my paper, scissors and photos out is beginning to return. It's like I can hear Dave's voice in my head, telling me to, "Go scrap it out." That's what he used to say to me when I was stressed . . . "Go scrap it out." 

So, I've dusted off the scrapbooks and started reliving some of the good memories . . . and July 4th, 2008 was one of them. Caleb and I spent the day at Minerva Lake. Dave was working and I was very pregnant with Zachary, who was born that August. Caleb was all smiles and so happy to be in the water and playing in the dirt. 

I had so many cute pictures of Caleb that I wanted to put on this layout. The best way to do that was group them all together. I needed just a few embellishments to create a true patriotic layout! I used all paper scraps to put these pages together. I used my Creative Memories trimmer to create the wavy red strips and a star punch with white paper to create the stars. 

Scrapbooking Tips:

Instead of journaling, I used photo captions. For a while I was typing my journaling out because I thought I liked it better than my handwriting. But, I've found it's faster to use my handwriting, and it leaves a little personal touch of me in the family albums. Here I typed them out, cut them into small squares and inked the edges red to keep with the patriotic theme.

It's hard to tell, but I added some dimensional glaze and white glitter to the stars. I wanted them to stand out a little, but not too much to take away from the pictures. I also didn't want them in a strait line. I find that perfection takes too much time, and I like the more casual look it gives my pages.

(This picture of Caleb reminds me so much of Dave at that age - it's all in the eyes and smile!)

Thatcher Park

It was spring and we had cabin fever! I had spent December 23rd-February 6th on bed rest due to problems with my pregnancy with Zach. When I finally was allowed to get up, I still was pretty restricted. It wasn't until early April that most of the restrictions were lifted. The very next day it was one of the first beautiful Spring days. Dave packed a picnic lunch and we headed out to Thatcher Park. 

I remember when I first showed Dave this finished layout he said, "I just love that picture," referring to the picture of Caleb all alone in the swing. Caleb was entertained just watching his shadow. When we tried to get him on the slide he was too scared, so Daddy rode down it with him. It was just a great day - not a care in the world!

Scrapbooking Tip:

I did not want to crop these photos down too much, so the best way to fit them all on the layout was to butt them right up next to each other. A couple strips of pattern paper, a few stickers and a little journaling completed the pages - and in record time.

Easter Baskets

With Dave's crazy schedule as a trooper we had to get a little creative when it came to holiday celebrations and traditions. Easter was especially tricky because if Dave wasn't working, there was a good chance that he was playing on the worship team at church which meant he would be up and out of the house before the boys woke up. So revealing the Easter baskets was different every year.

One time I had the boys' baskets in Dave's truck and when he got home on Easter Sunday he brought them into the house and said that the Easter Bunny left them at his station. Caleb figured out at three years old that there was no Easter Bunny, so we had to change tactics. 

These pictures were taken the night before Easter 2012. Dave was scheduled to play on the worship team, so after he got home from the Saturday evening service we told the boys to cover their eyes and then brought out the baskets. This way Daddy could be in on the fun!

Scrapbooking Tip:
My favorite scrapbooker is Allison Davis (allisondavissg.typepad.com). One technique I've seen her do over and over is to place a large shape behind her photo arrangements. That's where I got the idea to use a large circle. Using a large shape is a great way to keep the page relatively simple, but also create visual interest and incorporate another color or pattern paper. I love layouts that are simple but also colorful!

Happy Easter - 2008

This layout is from Easter 2008, the only time (in my lifetime) that Easter fell on my birthday, and I was 18 weeks pregnant with Zachary - so it was an extra special holiday! It was Caleb's second Easter, but his very first Easter basket. I don't know about Caleb, but I had so much fun filling plastic eggs with Teddy Grahams, and arranging the basket with little toys and a Bible story book. (I also had fun dressing up Caleb in his little sweater vest.)

One of the things that I absolutely loved about Dave was how much he enjoyed being a daddy. He got excited about the little things like showing Caleb his Easter basket. He opened up the eggs and would pretend to eat the Teddy Grahams. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do to get a smile and laugh out of Caleb - and Caleb had the best baby belly laughs!

The family picture on this layout is one of my favorites of Dave, Caleb & me. Dave set the timer on the camera then ran into the shot. I love how natural our smiles are. I look back and remember how simple our life was then. These pictures bring back such precious memories.

Popcorn!

I couldn't help myself - I had to do a layout about Zachary and his love of Popcorn, and after our Popcorny incident, I didn't go too far from him whenever I gave him his favorite snack food. I also had to record how Zach would call popcorn "pa corn". 

Scrapbooking Tip:

Being a mommy to boys, I don't often get to use hearts. But Zach LOVES popcorn, so I "justified" the use of a focal point heart. One of my favorite embellishments are buttons.The colors of the buttons matched the striped paper so I included it. I thought they would stand out better then mimicking popcorn like I did on the Popcorny page. To make sure the title didn't blend in with the pattern paper, I traced the letters in a dark pen.