Year in Review

What a year! It was a very BUSY year, a year that was filled with big blessings and little ones. Another year of big changes for our family. Our daughter graduating from college and landing her first job. A son who survived and thrived in his first year of college. A move to a new home for the first time in 17 years. We have had huge blessings and our share of sadness. Our nephew lost his valiant fight with cancer. His battle was an inspiration to our entire family.

Change can be tough, but our lives are moving in a wonderful new direction. As I look back, I can't help but be very proud of our kids. This is what they are supposed to be doing. As a mother, there is a part of me that would like just a bit more time with them being 'in the nest'. Thankfully, they both live within 2 1/2 hours of us and we see them often. As I said... HUGE blessings!

Looking back on the year of scrapbooking, I did not accomplish anywhere near what I planned to get done! Does anyone ever do it all? Well, if they do, I wish that they would come a schedule my time! lol We are all settled in our home now, the kids are happy and I have big plans for next year. Of course, if it doesn't get done, I'll just enjoy the journey.

I have seen so many people share their top ten for the year. I decided to do it, too. These are mine. They aren't necessarily my 'best' but they all have something I loved. Mostly, I would say that these were chosen because of the way they make me feel. My favorites usually come down to the pictures and the memories that they envoke. So here goes...





















I also NEED to share the new kits at My Creative Scrapbook!! Here is my January kit work. Loving these kits!!! LOTS and LOTS of fun things to play with!

The Main Kit this month features Lily Bee papers! Oh so yummy!!





The Limited Edition Kit features GCD Studios!! Check out these FANTASTIC embellishments!!







Thanks for hanging out with me through this incredible long post!!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Isn't Christmas just the best Holiday? The ONLY thing that I don't love about Christmas is the cooking! BUT... I'll even do that to have everyone I love best surrounding me. This year was especially wonderful being in our new home and having my brother here for a week! An entire week!!! Because he is in the military, it is very rare for us to get to spend that much time with him. I'm so thankful for what he and our other service men and women do for this country. I just wish that we had him here more. Anyone who knows me, knows that I always want more time with my family. It might sound a bit selfish, but I'm ok with that! lol For me, there is nothing better than having those I love with me as much as possible. Perfection would have been having Kelly's family here, too.

Here are a few pictures of our family at Christmas. I'm even in one of them! VERY unusual as I'm usually the one holding the camera. I'm actually going to share it even though I really need to fix my hair! lol Oh well... Would you believe that we actually took pictures of the whole family but they are ALL on my brother's camera. Not a single one on mine? Judging from the one my mom posted on her facebook, that might be a blessing in disguise... I never like pictures of myself!


The kids


Kelly


My brother, Jamie


The parents


The kids and I.

I also got my copies of Scrapbooking and Beyond recently. This is the final issue of the Flourish series. This month we all used cardstock flourishes. I cut mine with my Wishblade. To give them some stability and dimension, I glued 3 flourishes directly on top of each other. I really like to do this to achieve the look of chipboard. Simple. This is me when I was a little girl with Santa...



Thanks for stopping by and sharing my memories with me!