Raising Cubs in a Campground

I will forever be grateful that I found Tiff's post over at A Day In My Life. If it weren't for her post about the photo book she made as an alternative to a traditional baby book, I can pretty much guarantee that all the photos I took of Elsa over the past year on the 1st of each month would STILL be stuck on my computer waiting for me to catch up on 6 years of blog books .  Instead I was motivated to get 223 of my favorite images into a book for me to publish using my favorite bookmaking site . When Elsa turned one I was at a loss as to how to keep recording her milestones in a way that didn't require a lot of effort. I knew I would have plenty of photos, but I didn't know how to tie all the text together or even what exactly I would be able to blend together into a cohesive book.  I searched for a 'prompt' so to speak, and what I landed on is so simple yet so full of information about Elsa each month of her second year. All I have to do is complete sentenc...

The first day of school is just around the corner for us so I've been trying to brainstorm ideas for making the transition to a more structured routine & busier schedules as smooth as possible. One area that needs to be addressed is breakfasts. I find that making lunches the morning of makes them taste better so I don't have the luxury of time when it comes to making breakfasts - even if I do get up at 5 or 5:30 most school mornings! I needed something that didn't require me to stand over a stovetop so I Googled Best Zucchini Muffins ever and found this recipe . Then I went to work making some adjustments to cut sugar & increase nutritional value. While not as low sugar as this recipe , the taste is better & there is more zucchini. The reason I chose this particular recipe is that it has three cups of Zucchini for 14 muffins which is a cup more than my old recipe. Nice! I baked up a batch for the kids the other day and the declared they were stuffed aft...

As most of you know I have been designing book for other people for a while now. When time permits I also make books for my own family. Sometimes it's a photobook from a vacation (that I used as a pregnancy announcement!) Other times it's a book from our Summer Series . (I can't believe we're on our SIXTH summer here already!) But my passion, when it comes to photos books, are Alphabitty Moment books. Don't know what an Alphabitty Moment is? Let me explain...I'm sure we all agree that the big events of childhood - the firsts we all photograph and document are important, but Alphabitty Moments are about the ordinary moments that fill in the gaps. Using the alphabet to tie those things together weaves a story unique to each child. They are the little moments that might go unnoticed until they are no longer part of our daily life. I wrote in the front of Elsa's book the following reminder to myself.... Don't let milestones overshadow the fl...

In a couple months when I'm knee deep in book design, homework, soccer, piano, & karate I'm going to kick myself for not being a better blogger during the summer months, but the truth is we're busy all.the.time. It is my goal to punch out a couple more personal photo books before the end of the year - potential Christmas gifts for the kids perhaps? We're trying to downsize significantly so we don't have so much STUFF. I was able to finish one for Elsa in time for her 2nd birthday party which we held on the 3rd of August. Now that I have that project under my belt I don't have any excuse to not post an Alphabitty Moment on Thursdays!  I had been posting on Instagram for a while, but I've gone back through old posts to find where I left off on the dusty 'ol blog. It looks like the letter 'm' was next. For us, "M" means McDonald's playland. I get a large coffee with five creams, the kids get to play & burn off some extra energy...

*disclaimer* I am not an expert on this subject. I'm just a mom who's on her third time down the potty training road who wants to record the journeys for those moments when I'm parenting teenagers and want to laugh at myself for thinking this was hard. I am also not telling you what YOU should do with your own children. Every child/family is different and what is right for my family might not be right for yours. Please don't take this post the wrong way. Moving on....  According to the experts Elsa was not ready to potty train. She showed no signs of readiness. She was a poster child for diaper companies - she would cry and cry when I didn't put a diaper on after I changed her diaper in the morning. The girl loved her diapers! I don't  blame her! It's all she's known! Where else was she going to go? And that was our launching point for potty training.  I spent the past week teaching her that the best place to go is on the potty. Why train her bef...

If it weren't for these photo dump/ journal entries I wouldn't have much of a blog book for 2013! I had to triple check these photos to make sure they were actually APRIL photos since there are SO many that were of snow storms!  It's hard to imagine snow as it is 89 degrees today! Summer is in full swing and we are busy as ever! I hope you are all having a wonderful summer so far! p.s.   Esther , remember this photo from my previous post? YOU are the winner! Let me know what you'd like your necklace to look like (all pink beads, 1 pink/2 white, or 2 baby blue/1 pink????) It's up to you! Congrats! ...