being creative at home!

Recently I discovered that I’ve missed using the blog as a memory keeping source. And lately I’ve had a couple of moments occur that I don’t want to forget! See the photo in the banner – yes our little guy is wearing cowboy boots lately. He loves them. He did discover though that they were hand-me-downs from his girl cousin. So he has requested true boy cowboy boots now! Another example of something I don’t want to forget occurred today. I was at the doctor having some blood work done. I asked Jameson if he would hold my hand and he said “mom I can’t look, but if you want me to help you when they’re done with that needle, I’ll do that.” The nurses at the lab were laughing at him – love that his little sense of humor makes others laugh! And for the mothers & friends that I haven’t spoken with yet, I had some levels checked to see if they can figure out what is causing the tingles in my cheek/lip area. I would appreciate prayers for answers from these test or any others that might be needed in the future.

The photo above speaks to me so much. At first glance you might just seeing a photo of a cute boy being silly. For me it reminds me that Jameson has a bit of a chapped spot by his lower lip from over licking when he has been outside on these cooler days, that he needs a hair cut (hair is touching his ear), he needs to remember to wipe his nose better – some minor crusties on there – yuck, grape in his mouth – love that he so enjoys eating fruit every.single.day and it also reminds me that his little blue eyes will not be little forever, he seems to be growing up right before our very eyes. I measured him yesterday and he is already over 42 inches tall, he can ride big boy rides at Disney and go snowtubing, etc. He is no longer our baby. Overall he is loved and I love having the ability to free snippets of time with our camera and words. And I especially appreciate the fact that because my husband works so hard, I am able to be with this little boy so much! **Thank you James!**

In other news, I’ve recently had a burst of creativity come through me – for anyone that is counting I think I completed only about 6 12×12 layouts in 2009…much lower than any other year since 1999. Right now I’m back in the phase of wanting to scrapbook all.the.time. Now we all know that can’t happen but I would if I could. One things I’m doing to help keep pushing me to scrapbook is to participate in a round of scrap whispers. Basically it is an adult form of telephone. One person starts out with a layout and then they create their own version of it and on down the line it goes. I just received a picture of the layout I get to scraplift. I’m excited to see how closely it is to the original one. I’ll post a link once this round is completed. Here are the completed layouts from the last round I participated in from August (I was in the 6th group). I’ve mentioned to some people about the topics of the albums that our families completed layouts go into. The class I took a few years ago is offered through Big Picture Scrapbooking - go sign up and be guilt-free about preserving your families memories! I’m truly a mix of paper, digital and hybrid artist when it comes to recording our memories. One of the digital shops that I follow is having a major sale. All of her products are $1 each! Check out Designs by Sine if you’re looking for some fun templates. For anyone that is jumping on the 365 Project bandwagon this year there are some great digital products here: TheDigiChick or for a fully paper options, Becky Higgins Project Life seems awesome! {my dear friend Sarah Higgins just got hers yesterday!}

A few recent crafty projects around our house included making a snowman out of buttons. He is sitting on the window ledge in the kitchen reminding us of our Ohio family & friends. Jameson was so excited to be able to help with this project, especially since it involved pins, aka mini swords to this BOY! Another day he painted little cars that he was calling love bugs! That might have been inspired by all the talk of Valentine’s Day at our house?!