Project Life 2012 - DONE!

I ended up using two albums to hold all of my project life pages for this year. After finishing up the pages for week 52, I went back and worked on my first & last page for each album. I used some of my 12x12 Cobalt paper, a few of the 3x4 inserts that I hadn't used and I ended up with one 6x4 picture on each layout.



I also really like the 6x4 calendar that I printed to include on the intro page of the first album. I have one printed for 2013 already so that I can include it as soon as I get my supplies from Amazon.

I ended up doing week 52 a little different. Since we had so many pictures from Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, I made those two days a layout with an insert. The first page and the front of the insert are all from Christmas Eve. The back of the insert and the second page are all from Christmas Day. Then my final "week" is December 26 - December 31 even though the messes up my start/end dates for the week AND it's not a fully week it's ok. Doing it this way handles the insane number of pictures I took those two days AND it deals with the fact that the 31st should actually be it's own week or included in the 2013 album. In these pictures, the journaling wasn't done. It is done now, but it's dark and crappy picture taking light.

Christmas Eve



Christmas Day



Week 52 (December 26-31)



Week 52 (December 26-31)



So excited to continue this project in to 2013!

Project Life: Week 47

Week 47: November 19 - 25

This was going to be a really super busy week. It included Thanksgiving and was going to include a little bit of our Christmas traditions that I was going to do while we had Anaya. Then I got sick on Friday and took a total of 67 pictures over the weekend...and 59 of those were family Christmas pictures for my mom of our entire family and for my sister-in-law of their little family + dogs. So as far as pictures go, this week ended on Friday.

The first page is from earlier in the week. I took Wednesday off work and we had Anaya so we did a little running around - went to Hallmark and bought our annual ornaments.



After we got home, we had to rake up some leaves in the backyard. But before you can rake up the leaves you have to PLAY in the leaves. Claire was sad when we finally did start raking and she pouted under the trampoline.

Anaya and her friend request some pictures by the Christmas lights, but they didn't understand the concept of don't move so much! Then it was Thanksgiving day & Claire woke up not feeling great and we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!



On Thursday we spent Thanksgiving with my family.

On Friday, we went to see Justin's family.



The last page has the 3 pictures that I took between Friday last afternoon & Sunday evening that weren't family portraits. Then I went ahead and included the family pictures with notes about deciding to take them ourselves instead of hiring someone to do it.

The end of week 47. Only 5 more weeks (+ one day) until the end of the year!!!



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Project Life: Week 46

Week 46: November 12-18

Justin & I celebrated our 7 yr anniversary with Chinese take-out, so that no one had to cook or wash dishes. We don't really do much to celebrate, the picture of us is from our family pictures in October, but it works well here since I didn't feel like taking a crappy indoor picture of us.



I have 2 inserts this week. The front of the first insert is just a 6x8 picture of Claire that I really liked. Unfortunately some of my pictures this week have a little bit of red streaked across the bottom of them. Not sure what is going on with that, but I'll probably reorder this picture (possibly as one larger picture) and switch it out eventually.

The back of the first insert is of Claire at the park. We took Kwazii (named after the cat in the Octonauts) this time.



The front of the second insert is about my mom's fall party. She hosts a come-and-go party about every couple of years (although she had one last year AND this year). Every year she picks a food theme and this year it was Bundt cakes. She made 8 bundt cakes as well as many appetizers and it was all delicious.

The back of the second insert is of Claire playing in the leaves. We ended up calling our mowers and canceling our last scheduled mowing so that Claire could finally play in some leaves this fall. We'll probably get out there again next week to actually rake them all up and put them in lawn bags. The leaves that you see there are actually the same leaves that I took a picture of last week with the "Hello Fall" written on it, but then sometime during the week they all fell on the ground.



The last page is just more around the house pictures + some decorating for Christmas. Since we had decent weather my brother & dad came over to help with hanging Christmas lights. I don't have a tall enough ladder to do it myself.



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Project Life: Week 45

Week 45: November 5 - 11

The first page is mostly just everyday shots around the house + a few of our dinners for the week. I love having the two views of Justin tickling Claire, particularly since they are in pretty much the same position in both pictures even though that was not planned when taking the pictures. Our evening activities are changing now that it is cooler & we've had the time change. It's mostly dark by the time I get home from work, so we spend the evenings in the living room playing instead of going outside.



I had one insert this week. The front is of board game night at my brother's house + the baby! I love the picture of the board game where the focus was on the pieces in front of me and the board + my parents are out of focus.

The back of the insert has pictures of Claire playing outside on Saturday. It was REALLY windy, but we had to make use of the nice weather. We went to a nearby park and then she wanted to take Kitty for a walk around the block in her baby doll's stroller - so cute!



A few more around the house shots, not sure what the deal is with Claire & laundry baskets, but she loves to sit in them. This time she loaded it up with some of her favorite stuffed animals before climbing in with the iPad. I really like taking pictures where things take up the entire print with words on top of them (such as the leaves on the tree & the cookies). This was election week, so I made up a little graphic on my computer about voting & who won. I meant to get a newspaper on Wednesday to include, but this works well.



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Project Life: Week 44

Week 44: October 29 - November 4

My nephew was FINALLY born this week. Almost an entire week late! So lots and lots of pictures of my adorable nephew...and a few of my brother & sister-in-law. My grandma was in town as well, so I got the standard picture of all 4 generations.



An insert all about Halloween! I took Wednesday (Halloween) morning off work to go to Claire's Halloween party at school. They had a fun little parade through the building and then had a little party in the room.

The back of the insert is about Halloween night. Anaya was at her mom's house, but I had her text me a picture of her costume since I forgot to take one before she went home last weekend. Claire had so much fun Trick or Treating.



More pictures of the baby! And Claire got a new car seat for my car. I didn't really plan it, but love the fact that I have Claire in her carseat next to Hudson in his carseat - seriously how was she ever that small! Claire & Justin played with Anaya's micro-machines & a racetrack. I love the picture of Claire reading to her care bear that is sitting in Hudson's bouncer. So far, she seems to have liked the idea of a baby more than she is liking the reality of it!



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Project Life: Week 43

Week 43: October 22 - 28

Love love love love Project Life. So many pictures off of my computer and into albums. Also, Claire asked (almost) daily to look at Picture Books as she calls the scrapbooks. I need to finish up 2008's digital book & 2009's physical book.

This week started out pretty low-key: the food we had, Claire setting the table, Claire playing with her new Tinkerbell music box, Anaya & Claire playing with play-doh, and Claire's blanket fort.



One insert this week, the front is pictures from the Fall Festival at Claire's preschool. Since she started in December last year, we hadn't been to their Fall Festival, but it was very similar to the ones they had when Anaya was in elementary school - although this was obviously for younger kids. Claire did the cake walk forever, she didn't exactly know what the cake walk was, but it was in her classroom and that's all she cared about...until she won a plate of cupcakes.

The back of the insert is mostly about Anaya's surprise trip to the Justin Bieber concert. Along with a bit of the story about getting tickets. She was so excited to be able to go. Also included a few pictures from my weekend baking: Apple Cider Donuts & Pumpkin Spice Donuts.



The last page is just more weekend pictures. It was the weekend before Halloween so we were doing some last minute costuming. Anaya decided to be a fairy, so we got a bunch of tulle together and made a tutu. I got the white tulle from my mom, she had it from decorating for my brother's wedding - 8 YEARS ago. Anaya also wanted to bake Halloween cookies, so we made the batter & she baked the cookies on Saturday. Then on Sunday afternoon, I made the icing and she decorated cookies while I worked on her tutu.



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Project Life: Week 42

Week 42: October 15-21

I ordered three weeks worth of pictures last week, so I'll probably end up finishing the Week 43 layout later this week. It's hard to believe that this year is almost over!

The first part of this week is just a little bit of around the house and LOTS of playing outside while the weather was still nice. I also spent a couple of evenings putting together a fun little wreath using pages from a book - specifically Vanity Fair.



The first insert is about a work even we had going on Tuesday & Wednesday. It was in downtown Kansas City, which I don't go there very often, so I included a few downtown pictures - not very good since they are from my phone.

The front of the second insert has pictures of both kids doing "homework". Claire is drawing faces. We had her parent teacher conference that week, so I included a few notes about how she is doing in preschool. The bottom picture is of Anaya doing some actual homework. Her parent teacher conference wasn't until the following week, but I did include a little bit of information about how she is doing.



The back of the second insert has pictures of us celebrating Justin's birthday. A couple of his friends come out to Olathe and we went out to lunch at Red Robin. I, of course, only took pictures of the kids. And a picture of Justin with his two birthday Legos!



The last page is about lunch on Sunday at my mom's house. Pictures of my very pregnant sister-in-law.

I have maybe 2 more inserts that I ought to make for this week. I still haven't done anything for Project Real Life. I'm not sure if I even particularly care to continue making the layouts as Becky suggests, or if I'm better off holding on to those suggestions for another time when I am in need of some photo ideas. I also realized as I was taking pictures of this week, that Claire had a field trip to the pumpkin patch that my mom went on with her, but I didn't get the pictures for it. I have them now, I just haven't ordered them yet. I also dragged my family out to a park on Saturday and took professional-ish pictures of us all. But I'm not sure if I even want to include them here or not. So this week is done...kind of.



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Project Life: Week 41

Week 41: October 8 - 14

I really love this project so much. The first page is just some around the house pictures. I just realized how few of the journaling cards I actually use. I like them, but I have so many pictures that I want to include and I don't end up using the journaling cards for journaling, I just type on the pictures usually.



The first insert is about a train ride that we went on. It's just a little hour long ride purely for fun. Claire, Anaya & I got off the train while they moved to locomotive to the other end of the train so that we could go the other way. While we were standing there (with most of the other passengers), it started sprinkling and I said that we should get back on the train. Anaya made a comment about us not melting (which is usually my line). Then it starting raining. Then it started pouring. By the time we got back on the train, we were all soaked.



The second insert is my Project Real Life layout. I'm not entirely sure that I like this stuffed in with all of the other stuff. It seems like it needs a little more explanation about what it is since it doesn't really go with the rest of the spread.



The last page is mostly about our weekend. We had Anaya, she had a friend spend the night one night and they made Nutella Rice Krispie Treats. Her friend had one of the "Wreck this Journal" books and Anaya really wanted one. While we were at Target Saturday night, we picked one up for her and by Sunday...she had wrecked it.



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Project Life: Week 40

Week 40: October 1 - 7

I'm slowly falling behind again. Here it is the end of the month and I just finished up the spread for the first week. Oh well. I've been exploring different print options so that has kind of messed up my schedule. The prints from Target have gone down in quality...a lot...since their remodel. They changed out the printing machine. So I tried Costco, but that required my brother's help since I didn't want to buy a membership just to see if I liked their picture quality. It was also slower because it required my brother's help and well, yeah. But here's week 40 and I have the pictures for week 41 sitting on my desk (ordered from HyVee this time).

A couple of pictures of Claire playing with her toys on the table. This week Claire had to take in snack for her class - GoGoSqueeze Applesauce. My mom & I went to the American Royal BBQ competition thanks to free tickets from work.



Two inserts this week, the first one is about going to a pumpkin patch on Saturday morning. It was 45 degrees, not my preferred weather, but Claire and I went to Deanna Rose Farmstead's pumpkin patch anyways. Claire loved the haybale slide and luckily we got there at a pretty good time and left just as a big group that was having a birthday party showed up.



The second insert is just a couple of 4x6 pictures from hanging out at my mom's house on Sunday afternoon. A couple of pictures of my brother and sister-in-law. And of Claire riding her tricycle and chasing grandma on it.



I also did a lot of baking on Saturday & Sunday. I made two kinds of donuts: Apple Cider and Chocolate. Then I baked Gingersnaps on Sunday evening while Justin was carving a Tinkerbell pumpkin.



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Project Life: Week 39

Week 39: Sept 24 - 30

This week was busier than last week. A lot of just fun pictures from around the house/backyard for the main 2-page spread. Claire has been wanting to sleep in my bed recently so I included a picture of her taking up most of the bed in the morning.


The first insert is about Anaya's last softball game this year. I finally got a decent picture of her batting. Then I got a picture of Claire & Justin watching the game.

Later on Saturday we went to Hobby Lobby and stopped by the "pumpkin patch" in their parking lot. I have real pumpkin patch plans, but by the time we go, the good pumpkins might be gone and this place had some REALLY nice pumpkins.



On Sunday we weren't having lunch with my parents, so we went to RenFest.



I took this picture of me laying in bed reading and since I do this almost every night before bed, I decided to include it. I also took Friday afternoon off work and got a pedicure...I went with a Halloween theme! Claire loves Disney princesses, she had picked out these wall stickers earlier so Anaya helped her put them up on her wall.



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Project Life: Week 38

Week 38: Sept 17-23

I barely took any pictures this week. Not sure why exactly, but most of my pictures where of the foods we ate for dinner. So no inserts, nothing terribly special, just a nice little 2-pg spread. All of the pictures on the right were taken on Sunday. This is the weekend when I bought Claire the playhouse, so I wrote a little bit about getting it for her and how much she loves it.



I think as it is getting darker earlier, I'm going to have to experiment more with photoshop before ordering pictures. I really ought to at least start running the "auto color" adjustment on ones taken inside in the evening. Not that any of these pictures are orangy, but the picture of the layout was VERY orange originally.

So excited to be almost caught up! I have the pictures printed for Week 39, I just need to get them all put in, so I'll probably post it later this week and then I really will be all caught up! Also, I really love this project. So many more pictures off of my computer since I started it.



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Project Life: Week 37

Week 37: Sept 10-16

How awesome is it that it is October 3, and I already have most of the year's memories in a book? It seriously makes me so happy to be able to look back at pictures of things we did earlier this year and not just by sitting at my computer clicking through files, but actually sit down and look at them.

We're getting into our normal school year routine around here again. And it is already getting dark so much earlier that I notice I am not taking as many pictures during the week. One night this week, Claire and I made cookies...and ate cookies. Lots of cookies. Since Claire was enthused with Anaya's batting helmet, we saw one at Target that was on clearance for $3 so we went ahead and got it for it. It's BRIGHT pink, reminds me of a hard hat that I used to have! We also got her a toddler size baseball glove since she's always trying to shove her hand in one of the big gloves.



Only one insert this week, entirely about Anaya's second weekend of softball. She's loving it so much. So excited that she finally got the opportunity to play a sport. And she's doing pretty good (for having no experience), she's hit the ball a couple of times, not great at catching yet, but that's more lack of paying attention to the ball than skill.



My sister-in-law is so cute pregnant. At this point, she was about 36 weeks I think. That baby is coming soon and I can't wait! I finally get to be an aunt and buy all the really annoying toys! On Sunday night, I went to check on Claire and she wasn't in her bed, finally found her sleeping in her pile of stuff animals.



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Project Life: Week 36

Week 36: Sept 3 - 9

This was another busy busy week. Anaya had her first softball game this week. We went to the Old Settlers Day festival/carnival in Olathe. We went Apple Picking. And all of that actually happened within about 26 hours. Wow.

I had a little fun with getting a new phone this week. I was going to get an iPhone, but then (after getting it) figuring out some limitations the iPhone 4S has on the Sprint network - ended up returning it and getting an HTC EVO 3G LTE. The Monday here, was actually Labor Day, but I wasn't feeling well so we mostly hung out at home playing with our respective electronic devices (Claire: iPad, Anaya: Computer, Justin: Cell Phone, Jenni: Cell Phone).



I ended up with two inserts this week. The front of the first insert is about Anaya's first softball games. There is journaling on the picture of the three girls running away from the camera, but since it had team information I blurred it out.

The back of the first insert has pictures from Olathe's Old Settler's Days festival. After Anaya's softball game, she asked if we could go. I was going to say no, but then I said okay for a little while, and then since the ride lines were so long, I ended up taking Anaya back up there after Claire went to bed. Then I stood around and watched Anaya to make sure nothing bad happened - because crazy things have been known to happen at festivals, even in KS. And I ate a giant piece of Chocolate Covered Cheesecake on a Stick all by myself and it was delicious.



The front of the second insert is about our Sunday morning trip to the Apple Orchard to pick apples. I didn't really include much text, just a few of my favorite pictures.

The back of the second insert if just some pictures from playing in the backyard on Sunday afternoon. I love the picture of the hot air balloon flying overhead. I had my dad's telephoto zoom lens so I could get that really awesome close-up of it. Claire loves hot air balloons, so we spent a lot of time running around the house looking at them (there were actually a few flying around that night).



The rest of the layout is just random pictures. Claire's first dentist appointment was on Saturday morning. Also, Saturday was a wee bit busy 1) Claire's dentist appointment, 2) go to Sprint Store to exchange phone, 3) Anaya's softball game (5 HOURS including driving there & back), 4) Old Settler's Days, 5) Dinner & put Claire to bed, 6) More Old Settler's Days (until 11pm!).



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Project Life: Week 35

Week 35: Aug 27 - Sept 2

This was Labor Weekend. We ended up having Anaya for the long weekend, and even though it is something that her and her mom usually do, we went to her favorite festival, Santa-Cali-Gon. We spent a couple of hours there on Sunday, we even met up with her mom & her friends for a little while. Justin isn't a big "festival" person, so he stayed home. However, I did have a moment of selective photo taking. I decided this is my project life and documenting going to Santa-Gali-Con is fine, but I didn't need to include pictures of anyone besides me and the girls.



We did not RIDE the Ferris Wheel, but it adds something just to have a picture of it in the album. It's just a fairly classic carnival picture.



I really like what I ended up doing for my date card. I ended up with one more 6x4 than I could fit on my layout. Not sure how exactly I did that since I've started drawing a sketch to figure out where everything should go, but I did. I trimmed on of the Mon, Tues, Wed... text is a Cobalt journaling card. Then I used my date stamp to stamp the appropriate date for each day.





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