ABC Picture Project

So glad I saw @corina_sorensen's ABC project on instagram! I followed her lead! Just made the letter/frames kind of clear, using one of my favorite photo editing apps Afterlight. It was fun taking most of the photos along the way, and grabbing a few from the recent past that worked perfectly with certain letters. Now to get these into a book for the kids! I hope they like it. :) Then maybe put together a photo gallery wall, we'll see...

A is for apple crisp.

B is for balloons...and Brooks and bare buns.

C is for chocolate chips.

D is for Dad.

E is for eternal family...and evergreen trees (we started ours in the Salt Lake Temple, but the Portland Oregon Temple, surrounded by evergreen trees, has a special place in my heart. You can go here if you want to learn more about temples)

F is for family.

G is for gratitude.

H is for happy.

I is for ice cream.

J is for jump!

K is for kiss.

L is for leaves.

M is for missionaries.

N is for naps.

O is for ostrich.

P is for the pond our the beautiful Liberty Park.

Q is for quilt.

R is for reading.

S is for siblings.

T is for tea party.

U for 'Up' one of our favorite movies.

V is for vacation.

W is for walking and wearing Ava.

X is for "xoxo"...never too early to teach my prince charming to write love.

Y is for yaawwwn.

Z is for zest.

Guest Post: DIY Paper Fan Photo Ornaments

I shared a Christmas-y post over at Whipperberry! Anyone still doing Christmas crafting? I think I'll be doing it all month and I'm okay with that. :) Go here to see how I made our Paper Fan Photo Ornaments. I'm excited to make a few more each year and collect cherished, winter memories.xo

Life Lately

Dear Brooks,

It's your favorite day of the week: Daddy's day off. And while I was making us lunch I heard you two laughing in the dining room. Couldn't help but sneak in and snap a few pictures while you guys were being silly with Photo Booth...now wishing I would have filmed you too laughing and making those funny faces. :) I did get a pretty cute video yesterday of your epic bed bead after your nap. And I thought you had bad bed head way back when...you've perfected it now. I love how you model it for me in the video...and at the end when you say, "What is so funny?" I about die of cuteness.

I love you sweet boy! Thanks for always making us laugh.

Love,

Mom

Christmas Card Photos: Take 2

Last week while making the photo booth props for Adam's work Christmas party that's happening this Wednesday, I couldn't help but want to try them out with Adam and the kids. And then I realized we'd probably get better smiles out of Brooks and Ava at home than we did at the Christmas tree farm...so Sunday morning we had a second little photo shoot for our Christmas card. :) Brooks loved watching the camera's timer count down and then snap pictures of Adam and me with our silly probs. And Adam and I had some good laughs while trying to get Ava to wear a pair of paper Ray Bans, and Brooks to be a reindeer (he couldn't decide if he wanted to be Rudolph or Comet)...below are some of the outtakes. Haha! Now to create and send off our cards...

Merry Christmas, EVERY-ONE! :)

Magic

Early today we woke up to sunshine was coming through the windows, and a light blanket of snow that covered the ground. Then more snow started to fall...from a clear sky. It was like magic.

Watching Adam with our little Ava also felt like magic. :)

Reminded me of similar photos I took last year of Adam and Brooks.

Happy Halloween from Mr. Green!

I grew up playing Clue with my two younger sisters, and I still love the game. :) So it was a blast bringing it to life this year with my little family! The question is...who did it, with what, and where??

Was it the dashing Colonel Mustard with the revolver in the study?

Seemingly sweet Mrs. White with the rope in the kitchen?

Miss Scarlet with the candlestick in the library?

Or the guilty looking Mr. Green with the knife in the ballroom???

My guess is Mr. Green...his weapon is no where to be seen, and he can never resist good dance music so of course he'd have done it in the ballroom. ;)

4 Silhouettes + 4 Spiders

It's pretty awesome what you can do with photos, rope, painted dollar store candle holders, and a few pipe-cleaner spiders.  I'm pretty happy with the monochromatic Halloween display on our mantel. :)

I got the inspiration for the photo banner from here...just gathered a few old photos of fall and Halloweens gone by, turned them black and white using this app, ordered them as 5x7"s, cut off the corners, glued them onto some black card stock for a clean look, then strung it up!

And my favorite part, two brand new silhouettes of our Littles! This year I used a different method than last year...I just took profile shots of the children, ordered 8x10"s of each, cut them out and painted them black, then put the silhouettes on the canvases. Just a few steps, and makes such a statement. I love them. :)

As you can see, Brooks really enjoys looking at the photos on the banner...his favorite is of him and his cousin Samson at the pumpkin patch last year, he practically pulled it off the rope he was so excited! ;) All of the photos just ooze with Halloween-goodness and sweet memories of fall time.

I'm sharing this over at Whipperberry...go check out other fantastic projects, recipes, and creations people are sharing! :)