Summer List 2015

Over the past few weeks, I've seen a number of summer manifestos online and in magazines. I liked this creative one by blogger Elise Blaha Cripe and this simple one from Ali Edwards. I always enjoy seeing other people's lists as well as creating my own summer list.

In fact, it's becoming a tradition of sorts; this is my fourth year making a list and posting it here on my blog. Here's a look at my previous summer lists: 2012, 2013, 2014.

Just like last year, I've written activities on our list that I think I'd like, Noah would like, and perhaps, Brian would like.

However, there's nothing that says all of us have to do every. single. activity. together.

And even though Noah is nearly a 3-1/2-year-old, (what?) there are a few "firsts" on the list -- like seeing a movie in the theater and taking private swim lessons.

This was the first year that Noah had a suggestion for our summer list. Here's the back story: A few weeks ago, he and I watched as a group of kids tossed water balloons back and forth at the park. He turned to me and said he really wanted to try it. I promised him we'd do it this summer, and as you'll see below, I added it to our summer list.  

In the past, I often felt like if I placed an item on the list, I HAD to check it off by Labor Day. That's not the case anymore. I just brainstorm a bunch of ideas, narrow the list down to 15 or less, and then go with it. If we don't get to one or two of the activities this summer, we can always do it in the fall, winter or even next summer.

Here's a look at our 2015 summer list:

Visit our local splash pad ✅ 

Take private swim lessons ✅

See a movie in the theater

Attend storytime at the library ✅ 

Participate in the library's summer reading program

Work on potty training

Attend Brian's cousin's wedding

Spend time with Noah's cousins

Go tent camping for the first time as a family

Play catch with water balloons

Attend a 4-week gymnastics class

Sell our rental home
Attend our county fair
Listen to some live music 
Finish decorating the nursery 

Your turn: What's on your summer list?

AE Story Kit | Gatherings Layout

The day after Christmas, I signed up for Ali Edwards' Story Kit subscription, intent on making at least one scrapbook layout a month this year.

In January/February, I made two layouts using Ali Edwards' "Firsts" kit.

This month, I created a Christmas tree page using the second story kit. It features papers/chipboard stickers/thread from the "gatherings" kit. (Exceptions: The star is from the am/pm kit, and the red ribbon with pom-poms is from my stash.)


At my dad's family's Christmas gathering last year, I hung a simple photo backdrop outside (thanks, Preston, for your help with the streamers!), and set out some paper props on a nearby table.

Brian helped encourage everyone to get in front of the camera. Even my dad posed for a picture!

As you likely guessed, I was behind the lens for most of the photos, but I couldn't pass up the chance to pose with a few of my favorite female family members, even if I did look like Rudolph in a few of them.


From the beginning, I knew I wanted to include both a TON of pictures and A LOT of journaling in this layout. To do so, I glued all of the photos to a piece of red 12x12 card stock and then trimmed it down. From there, I adhered the red card stock tree to the kraft card stock, but only at the top.

That allowed me to flip the tree up, where I added word art cards and journaling.

Journaling:
For the past 25+ years, we've gathered either in the Sacramento area or the Bay area to celebrate Christmas together. What started as the "Sabel" Family Christmas now includes the Keys, Kovarik, Harless, and Meredith families. We generally gather the Saturday before Christmas, but this year (2014), we celebrated at my parents' house two days after Christmas. No matter when or where we gather, we have a great time! There's always food, presents, picture-taking, and lots of chatting and hugs! I SO LOVE these gatherings!

At many of the Christmas gatherings in the past, we've taken a group photo of everyone in attendance.  This past year was no exception. On this layout, in the area under the tree (on the kraft-colored card stock), I'm planning to display a group photo from 2014, along with any others I can find on my computer or obtain from family. (Mom & Aunts: If you have access to any group Christmas photos from the past, will you please send them my way?  Thank you!)

What gatherings have you documented lately?

Road Trip to Oregon

This past summer, Brian, Noah, Zoey and I traveled to Bandon, Oregon to spend a few days with Brian's family. 

It was a fun trip, filled with laughter and beach play and picnics and animal park adventures and deep breaths and hugs and jelly beadz and fresh seafood and warm sand and boat rides and more deep breaths and bubbles and chats about traveling in France, essential oils, and the joys and challenges of raising young kiddos.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip. (All photos were taken with my Canon 5D Mark III.)

Riding on a seesaw for the first time

Noah liked it.

And so did Zoey.

The merry-go-round was also a hit.

But it's way more fun when cousins jump aboard.

This is, perhaps, my favorite shot. Zoey's reaction is priceless!

Playing with depth-of-field. (Thanks for being a very patient model, Hailey!)

Brian and his sister, Lori

Brian and his mom

Visiting the West Coast Game Park Safari

A total hands-on experience, unlike any other animal park we've visited.

 
Thanks for looking!

Currently

 
loving this photo of my nearly 2-year-old niece, Zoey. (I'm slowly learning how to shoot with my Canon 5D Mark III!)

delighting in the colors of the fall leaves. 

enjoying family days spent at two pumpkin patches.

riding a train at Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in the animal car. Noah's favorite part?  Going through the tunnel.

cleaning out our kitchen junk drawer. 

touring an apple orchard in Auburn. 

drinking water...and more water. (After months of trying, I've nearly eliminated all soda from my diet.)

running on the treadmill 2-3 times a week.

considering creating a capsule wardrobe, either this fall or next spring.  

discovering how exhausting and gratifying it can be to care for two toddlers.
 
singing "Jingle Bells" during bath time last night.  (I know, I know, it's only October.  But I'm already excited for Christmas!)

snapping lots of photos with my iPhone and very few with my big camera. 

reading JoJo Moyes' The Girl You Left Behind. (I read Me Before You first and really enjoyed it.) I'm about 70% in, and I'm curious as to how Ms. Moyes is going to weave together all of the elements of the story as well as produce a satisfying ending.

praying more than I have in a long time. 

planning to spend this Sunday at Apple Hill, continuing on a tradition we started years ago, with our good friends, the Liotines. (Here's a look at past years: 2012, 2011, 2009, 2008.)  

editing photos from our trip to Oregon in July.  Yes, you read that right: July! I'm just a wee bit behind... 

struggling to go to bed any earlier than 11:30 pm most nights.  

looking forward to spending a weekend away with my husband at the end of the month. 

What's {currently} happening with you?

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Oh Happy Day Postcard Poster

My mom celebrated a BIG birthday in May!

Leading up to her special day, I wanted to shower her with "snail mail" love from family and friends, so I coordinated a postcard project. (I first learned about this idea here.)

For this project, I contacted 25 of our family members and my mom's friends (Facebook was awesome for that!), and asked them if they'd be willing to print one postcard, write a special message to my mom and mail it to her prior to her birthday.

I was particularly excited to coordinate this postcard project for my mom because she LOVES puzzles.

Each postcard has a unique design on the back. When all the postcards are placed in the appropriate spots, they form a birthday poster that says, "I'm so glad you were born."

Most people wrote a few sentences on the back of their postcard, addressed it, and mailed it off.  

A few friends included a picture with their postcard (great idea!). 

Some people printed out their postcard, wrote a special message, and enclosed it in a birthday card for my mom. (No extra postage needed!)

I love that my mom received so much mail in the 10-day period leading up to her birthday.

Who doesn't love getting good old-fashioned mail?!

In case you're interested, here's a little bit more about my process for this project.

1 | About a month before my mom's birthday, I wrote out a list of 30 people I thought would be willing to help out. (It's always good to jot down a few extra people in case someone can't participate.)

2 | Of those 30 people, I selected 25 friends and family members.  I gathered some of the addresses in Outlook, and emailed my mom's friends on Facebook for their contact information.

3 | Next, I sent out an email to each person with a specific attachment.  (Yes, that's 25 emails in total!) Person #1 on my list received Postcard Attachment #1, Person #2 received Postcard Attachment #2 and so on.  

4 | If a person replied saying they couldn't participate (one person didn't have access to a printer), then I just pulled a name off the "extras" list and sent out an email with the correct postcard number.

5 | I also sent out an email to all participants about a week before my mom's birthday, reminding them to mail their postcards if they hadn't already done so.   

This is the second time I've done this project. When my aunt Susie turned 50, I completed my first postcard project. My aunt was surprised, elated, and appreciative.

I had so much fun doing it then that I knew I'd want to do it again in the future for someone near and dear to my heart.


Each time, I coordinate this project, I learn something new. I also think about how I might do things differently next time. 

Thoughts for Next Time

1 | Mention to participants that if card stock is an issue (I always have some on hand for scrapbooking, but many people do not), just print the postcard on copy paper and back it with construction paper or place it in an envelope and mail it. 

2 | Share how large the postcard should be when printed. (For instance, in this case the cards should have been 4x6, but some were smaller or larger than that.)

3 | If I want the cards to look uniform (all the same color with the writing on the blank side), consider printing them myself and then mailing one to each person.  I could also add postage, so that all the recipient would have to do is write a message and place the postcard in a mailbox.  

4 | Take a picture of a sample postcard--printed, cut out, written on and stamped. Shoot photos of both the front and the back. Make sure to point out that the side with the design should NOT be written on; it's part of the completed puzzle. 

5 | Tell participants that if their card is blank (all of the corners of the puzzle are blank), they can write on either side.

6 | Although I love this birthday postcard poster, I also love the idea of taking a childhood photo of the birthday person to Kinko's, Staples or Costco and having the photo blown up. Then, you could cut the photo up into 4x6 postcards, stamp them, and mail them out to family and friends in envelopes. (The number of people involved would depend upon the size of the poster. The bigger, the better, I say!)

This is one of those projects that puts a HUGE grin on my face.  It's such a joy helping to make people feel loved and appreciated on their special day! I think I enjoy it *almost* as much as the person receiving the postcards.

It's a team effort, though. I couldn't have done it without the help of our family and my mom's friends.

A BIG THANKS to all of you (you know who you are) for printing, writing, and mailing postcards to my mom! (She LOVED reading all of your sweet messages!)

I know you'll agree with me when I say that I'm so glad she was born!

On Display: A Collection of Family Photographs

We've lived in our current home for three years now and ever since we moved in, I've known I wanted to showcase a collection of photographs along the long wall that stretches from the living room into the family room.

I also knew I wanted them to be primarily photographs I had taken.    

But I had the hardest time deciding how I wanted to display them.  

I considered two options, frames and canvasses, for a year or more.

I bounced back and forth between the two, hemming and hawing.  Oh, how I can be terribly indecisive sometimes.

Finally, in late July, just as the Aaron Brothers' penny sale was winding down, I made up my mind for good: Frames it was.  

Once I had the frames in hand, I ordered a batch of my favorite photos from mpix.com.  I chose photos of Noah by himself, photos of Brian and Noah together, and a few with all three of us. 

I love walking by these images every day.  I'm reminded of so many special moments over the past 19 months.  And, I think it's pretty darn cool that I shot most of them.   

Noah loves gazing up at the photos, too.  He says, "Mama!" and "Dada!"  And once he masters his own name, I'm sure I'll be hearing "Noah!" too.

Or maybe, we'll hear "Me! Me!"  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.  

P.S. A big thank you to my hubby who hung all of the frames on the wall. 

Then and Now

May 4, 2010
OBSERVATIONS: Our family of four out for a walk in our new neighborhood.  I find it funny that I'm wearing a long-sleeved shirt, vest, and jeans--while Brian is wearing a t-shirt and shorts.  (It's still that way--generally, I'm cold and he's hot.)  Photo taken with my Nikon D90.  

April 14, 2013
OBSERVATIONS: Nearly three years later.  Our family of five (Noah is 15 months old) out for a stroll before dinner.  Noah loves "driving" his blue car, honking the horn, and dropping the steering wheel out of the car.  This time, Brian, Noah and I were all on the same page, wearing short-sleeved shirts and blue jeans.  Photo taken with my Nikon D700.   

I'm looking forward to snapping more family photos--in this same place, at the same time of year--in the years to come. 

Easter 2013

This year, we enjoyed Easter festivities on both Saturday and Sunday. 

On Saturday, my family--my grandfather, my parents, my sister, and her two daughters--joined us for lunch, an Easter egg hunt, family photos, and a birthday celebration for 10-year-old (soon-to-be 11-year-old) McKayla.

On Sunday, Brian, Noah and I attended Mass at 8:00 am, followed by more family pictures before nap time.  (All three of us napped!)  In the afternoon, we drove down to Brian's parents' house for fun with the Harless clan.

Here is what I want to remember...


I want to remember how much fun I had creating this super simple Easter egg wreath--the inspiration for which came from Pinterest.  I know I will enjoy this wreath for years to come...and it only cost me $7.00 to make.


I want to remember holding these two precious little ones, Noah (15 months) and Zoey (5 months), who won't be little much longer.  

I want to remember how Zoey fell asleep in my arms.  There is nothing better than cradling a sleeping baby.

I want to remember the excitement on McKayla's face as she searched for Easter eggs in our yard.  Her bucket was loaded down with plastic eggs and chocolate; one egg--the prized golden one--even had money inside it.

I want to remember how Noah "dug" for his eggs in the sandbox.  It was Noah's first time playing in sand, and as you would expect, sand ended up everywhere...on the ground, in Noah's hair--even in Noah's mouth.  Eventually, Noah found his eggs and was rewarded with cereal and a bracelet.     


I want to remember how Noah rocked his "Chicks Dig Me" shirt.  Drool splotches and all.  (I think more molars are coming in!) 


I want to remember how McKayla smashed her face into her Irish flag birthday cake.  (McKayla loves the band, One Direction, and her favorite member is from Ireland.)

I want to remember how much I loved the Cool Whip frosting on McKayla's One Direction cupcakes.   
I want to remember McKayla saying, "I feel old!" as she gazed at her sister, Zoey, and cousin, Noah, lying on the floor.  

I want to remember receiving a sweet voice mail from my friend, Linda, wishing me a Happy Easter.  I miss seeing her on a regular basis.

I want to remember how the baby room at church was packed with families just like ours.  Moms and dads and little boys.  Interestingly, there weren't any little girls in the room.  And all of the boys--who were around Noah's age--carried their own "snack" bag with Cheerios or goldfish or raisins around the room as they played.  It was so cute!     


I want to remember how after church I took six shots of our little family using a tripod and my Nikon D90's self-timer.

I want to remember how I made four batches of Jello Jiggler eggs, but instead of taking all 24 eggs to our family get-together, I saved a few for our family.  I'm glad I did; turns out, Noah loves jello!

I want to remember how Noah found his blue egg in grandma and grandpa's backyard.  Inside, we found a Scratcher and some chocolate.  Noah didn't want anything to do with the chocolate or the Scratcher; he just wanted to hold the plastic egg.  More for Brian and me!

I want to remember how much I loved eating my first Buckeye.  And my second...and my third.  Those peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate are oh. so. good. And oh. so. addicting.  (Thanks, Leah & Alan!)

Hope you and your family had a beautiful Easter. 

December Daily: Days 18-26

Woohoo!

I just finished my 2012 December Daily album.

Before I share the remaining pages of my album, here's a look at the title page: 


This photo, taken at Picture People last week, works perfectly as the first page in my album.  I just pulled the photo into Photoshop Elements, added a few words, and printed it at Costco.  (Yes, we had our holiday photos taken AFTER Christmas!  Initially, I was just going to get Noah's first birthday photos taken, but then thought, Why not do holiday photos, too?)

And now, here are days 18-26:

December 18: I made grasshopper mint chocolate bark for the first time, and it was SO easy and SO delicious!  Here's the recipe, in case you're interested in whipping up a batch. 

December 19: We're lucky to have a persimmon tree in our front yard, which produces fruit every December.  This year, Brian picked 20 persimmons off the tree!

December 20: The three of us drove to Nevada City for the day.  There, we browsed some shops, bought three Christmas books for Noah, and feasted on a slice of pizza and a calzone at Pete's Pizza.  Noah ate a bit of the pizza AND some of the calzone, too!

December 21: Our cousin, Christa, treated us to lunch at her place.  It's always fun spending time with her, and her enchiladas were awesome.  Even Noah thought so!  

December 22: We celebrated Christmas today with my dad's side of the family.  Noah loved playing with all of his cousins!

December 23: I actually took this picture on another day, but wanted to include it in my album.  Although they are rare--especially during the holiday season--low-key days, where we stay in our pajamas, play with toys, read books, and listen to Christmas music, are so much fun.   

December 24:We celebrated with Brian's family on Christmas Eve, exchanging gifts, eating, chatting, and just enjoying being together.    

December 25: After 8:00 am mass, we drove down to my parents' house where we opened presents and ate brunch before my dad left for work.


I just love this picture of McKayla in her Santa hat.  Can't believe she's in the fifth grade!  

Unfortunately, Katie and Preston couldn't be with us this Christmas.  We wanted to let them know we were thinking of them, though, so we snapped the picture above and sent it to them via text message.

Later on that day, we opened gifts with Brian's family and then headed home for dinner and more present opening!  Noah loved ripping open his gifts--once he got the hang of it.  And now, he loves ripping paper of any kind.  

December 26: Although I started brainstorming ideas for Noah's birthday party early on in December, I kicked my planning into high gear the day after Christmas.  I found so many cool ideas for the party on --where else?-- Pinterest.  There, I created a "secret" board, where I pinned my finds.  I'm planning to write a separate blog post on Noah's party soon.

I'm really happy with this super simple album.  I love that it's small.  I love that it contains lots of photos and some journaling.  I love that it documents our December days as well as Noah's first Christmas.

Here's hoping you had a magical December, and that your new year is off to a wonderful start!