Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours!

Greg and I have been very blessed this year in so many ways.

We have been blessed with good health and the opportunity to spend time with our children, grandchildren, extended family and friends that we are fortunate to call family. We have reconnected with old friends and made some new ones too. We've been on a few trips, including a wonderful trip to Disney World where we saw it anew through the eyes of our grandsons. Spending time with them is something that we love dearly and are thankful for beyond words.

We've put together a few of our favorite memories to share with you and hope you enjoy viewing them as much as we enjoyed making them! Just click to play and click on the arrow at the bottom to flip through the pages. You can click on the photos to enlarge them if you wish.

We pray that the New Year is good to you and yours. God Bless!
Betty and Greg

Free scrapbook created with Smilebox

Flying By!

Thanksgiving is almost here! Where did this month go - or last month for that matter? It's hard to believe that almost two months have passed since our Disney trip. It took me a while to get started but I am finally making some progress on the photo scrapbook that will hopefully capture some of the great memories made during our trip.

There are so many reasons that I love making the photo books but one of the best reasons is that my grandsons love them! It is not unusual for them to pick up one of their birthday books or a trip book and sit down and look through it or bring it to me and strike up a conversation about something. Just the other night Dylan was looking at the sea glass that Greg and I found on a Martha's Vineyard beach during our 18th anniversary trip. I was able to pull out the trip book and share photos of finding the glass. It is also that particular book that prompted him to ask "when can we go to Martha's Vineyard?"

The Disney book is a big project since we have lots of photos that tell the story of so many special moments. For now the Disney memories are still vivid and bright. Dylan often asks "when can we go back to Disney World" or will say something like "let's go ride Pirates of the Caribbean" and Patrick carries Mickey around the house like they are best friends. Hopefully the photo book will help keep those memories safe long after they begin to fade. The pages that I finished last night tell the story of Dylan's very first Disney ride. He knew that Dumbo would be given that special honor and we headed there as soon as we got into the park. Patrick wasn't so sure about the flying elephants so he and I kept our feet on solid ground while everyone else boarded for a magical flight over Fantasyland. For a brief moment I was a little sad to miss out on the first ride but in the end it was perfect. If I had been on the ride I would have missed the big picture - spending time with sweet Patrick and seeing the joy on the faces of  people that I love...flying by.

Through Their Eyes



My daughter took a series of photos of my grandsons looking out the window while they were waiting to board the plane for our Disney trip. I love this photo because it allows me to see what they were seeing even though I wasn't there. I can tell from the photo that the boys loved watching the planes out on the tarmac and were excited about getting on the plane. Their Mom told me they were excited to see "Lone Star One", the Southwest plane painted with the Texas state flag and that the pilot of their plane waved to them through the cockpit window right before boarding started.

Every week there is a different challenge on the MyMemories Blog and the challenge this week only had one rule - the photos used on the page could not include faces.The challenges are great because they help me learn new digital scrapbook techniques and spark ideas for designs. I wanted to document Dylan and Patrick's first flight for the Disney photo book I am making and thought this photo was perfect for the challenge. 

For readers who may be interested in lifting this design idea, here's what I used to make this page: 

- The background is "Ocean Floor" from the kit "Some Beach Somewhere"

- On top of that I stretched a map that I found online across the entire page and turned the opacity down to 25% to allow the blue ocean to show through. 

- The font I used for "Flying" is called "Lemonchicken" and the other type is "Walt Disney Script".

- I used just a little of the Fish Eye effect on the photo to give it a little depth.

- Embelishments: The dotted line is curved stitching, the star is made using the shape feature in the program, Micky Mouse is made from three circle shapes and the plane is a png file I found online at clker.com - a free clip art site.

To Tell The Truth

          

I want to honest up front...Not all of the photos I post here will be my own. I will always do my best to give credit to the photographer but my daughter shares many of her photo files with me and I often can't remember who took which photo once they are on my computer. My husband loves to take photos as well. As a family we have a ton of photos! During our recent trip to Disney World we collectively took 2,119 photos - that's right - more than two thousand pictures in seven days! It's hard to believe, but it's a true story. It's just what happens when there are two adorable little boys and a million sweet smiles to capture through the shutter. My grandsons even got in the act and were snapping a few of their own photos. I'd say they come by it honestly!

I Made A Blog Banner!

Tonight I decided that my seldom used blog needed a makeover so that I might actually post things more often. I started playing around with all of the options offered in the Blogger program and after moving things around for a while I realized that I could create my own banner by using my awesome MyMemories digital scrapbook software! If you start following my blog you will hear about MyMemories a lot and will also see a lot of the projects I make. I love using the software to turn photographs into stories.

The website to learn more about the MyMemories program is http://www.mymemories.com/software. If you decide you want to try your hand at digital scrapbooking you can use my discount code (STMMMS42150) to save $10 on the software and get a $10 credit to spend on downloads. The program comes with lots of cool stuff and you can buy downloads to make just about any kind of page you can imagine! It's easy to use and there are "Speed Scraps" on Facebook on Sundays where you can learn new techniques. There are also video tutiorials and lots of help from people on the MyMemories blog and Facebook page. You can visit the Facebook page to see lots of samples of what the software can do at http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593. You can also visit the MyMemories blog at http://www.mymemoriesblog.com/. Thanks to my friend Mary Jill for taking the photo used in my blog header during our "Sista' Trip" to Key West last year. Taking a photo that I am willing to post is quite an accomplishment!!

Lesson Plan for Life

This is not one of my photos but I wanted to share it because there is nothing more true than the fact that life is short. I know I am not promised a tomorrow because I lived through what could have been my last day and one day my mother was here and then next, she wasn't.

This Kenny Chesney song says it so well...

Life is short, so don't blink.

I turned on the evening news

Saw an old man being interviewed
Turning a hundred and two today
Asked him what's the secret to life
He looked up from his old pipe
Laughed and said "All I can say is ."

Don't Blink
just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and ya'
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't Blink
just might miss your babies growin' like mine did
Turning into moms and dads; next thing you know your better half
of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think
So Don't Blink

I was glued to my tv when it looked like he looked at me and said
"Best start putting first things first."
Cause when your hour glass runs out of sand
You can't flip it over and start again
Take every breath God gives you for what it's worth

Don't Blink
just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
just might miss your babies growin' like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your better half
of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

So I've been tryin' to slow it down
I've been tryin' to take it in
In this here today, gone tomorrow world we're livin' in

Don't Blink
just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and ya'
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't Blink
just might miss your babies growin' like mine did
Turning into moms and dads; next thing you know your better half
of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think
So Don't Blink

No, don't blink

don't blink
life goes faster than you think
so don't blink
don't blink
life goes faster than you think
don't blink
life goes faster than you think           

I made this with the awesome My Memory Suite digital scrapbook software: http://www.mymemories.com/ and used elements from the kit 'Some Beach Somewhere' http://www.mymemories.com/store/display_product_page?id=ETFT-DTO-0906-0311.

The photo is my friend's granddaughter .