Same Life, Just Better Looking

My camera has been driving me crazy. It was generously given to us last year after Owen threw ours against the wall, and it has been great. But I've been really frustrated with blurry shots and not getting the clear pictures of my kids that I want. Looking at Brooke's kindergarten pictures kind of made me freak out, when I thought about how quickly she is growing up and all I'm going to have is unfocused pictures. So I bought a new camera. And I love it! I still haven't figured everything out but I really like the pictures I've gotten so far. I was joking with Reid that I look at other people's blogs and their lives, kids, homes, etc. all look way better than mine but it's probably just that they have a better camera :). So here are a few pictures with the new camera, again I'm still getting the hang of it.

Copycat

I love to look at blogs and copy different ideas I see, I love trying new ideas I just can't come up with any cool ideas on my own. So I thought it would be fun to show some of my copycat projects.  This family tree is something I made recently. 

I saw this on 71 toes and thought the family tree would be an easy project and a great birthday gift for my mother in law.  So I went to Hobby Lobby got some scrapbook paper, borrowed a leaf punch from a very nice scrapbooker I know and was ready to get started. 
Except then I remembered that the point of the family tree was having our genealogy written down.  So I had to try and track down all of the family names, our family history had been done it was just getting it all together that took time.  That was definitely the most time consuming part of this project for me. 

I used the picture from 71 toes as a guide and just started cutting the brown paper.  It took me 3 tries but I got the tree looking the way I wanted to.  Then I punched out all the leaves.  I decided to use blue for the female names and green for the male names because I couldn't find two colors of green that contrasted well.  Then I did one main branch at a time, writing the names out , placing them and then gluing them. 

It was a simple project, and I love having it on our wall to remind me of all the people that went before us and are a part of our family.

Kindergarten

It happened! My little baby girl started school! Brooke had her first day of kindergarten yesterday, and of course, she loved it! She kept telling me it was even better than she had dreamed.

This has been a really weird time for me.  Of course I'm so excited for her to have this new experience and make new friends and try new things, but I'm also really scared.  This is my little girl, what if people aren't nice to her, what if they don't get her sense of humor, what if she forgets to button her jeans and they fall down, what if she gets lost, there seem to be a lot of bad things that I think can happen if I'm not right there with her.  It's hard for me to let go and realize this is an opportunity for both of us to grow. 

One funny story, a few weeks ago Brooke was getting her backpack ready for school and she came downstairs to talk to me.  "Mom, in all the books I've been reading about kids going to kindergarten, the kids are all scared.  I'm not scared at all, but I thought because the kids in the books are that I would put a picture our family in my backpack, just in case I do get nervous."

Last weekend Reid took Brooke out for  ice cream so he could have a little one on one time to talk to her about school, and just to hang out with her.  She was so excited, she just loves that dad of hers!

Dollywood

We took the kids to Dollywood last week.  They got kicked off the ducky ride for fighting.  The ride attendant seriously had to stop the ride, ans said"mother, you better come get these kids".  So I had to walk the walk of shame as I went in to get them and put one in each arm and got out of there.  Other than that fun memory, we had a great time it was a fun end of summer hurrah.  I can't believe school starts next week.