Digital Layouts | November Edition

Happy Friday! We had a l-a-z-y afternoon here. The boys watched Monsters University and A Bugs Life (oh how we love Pixar movies on our house!), while I did some scrapbooking. We can be so busy that sometimes it's nice to just relax and watch a good movie (or two!).

I have been busy creating layouts for the designers at Pixels and Co., Karla Dudley, and Scotty Girl Designs. It's been a while since I've posted layouts, and I have quite a few to share today. You've been warned... this is a photo heavy post!

Our sweet kitty, Lilly, is making a couple of appearances today. She is just so darn cute, and has a habit of being underfoot (or on the table, or in the cabinet, or on the couch, or wherever else I am. All. Day. Long.). She is a very social cat and manages to be photographed often. We have another sweet kitty, Gabby, who is skittish and anxious, so I only have only a few photographs of her... and non in the presence of our kids! They tend to overwhelm her. Gabby's favorite spot is sleeping behind the couch in the master bathroom closet (Mark's "man cave"). It's hard to photograph a cat who sleeps in the most secluded part of the house all day!

Anyway, when Lilly was just a kitten, she followed Jack around the play room, fell into the toy box, and was very mischievous. Jack adores her.

Up next is a layout featuring Evan and Jack, and their friend, Nick. Getting three boys, ages 6 and under, to sit still and smile at the camera is nearly impossible. But I actually like the goofy shots... these photos show the true personalities of all three kids. And I'm shocked that Evan is the one kid smiling at the camera in all three photos... with his good smile! Not his "I would rather be eating worms than smile for one more freaking photo, MOM!" look that I have been getting a lot lately. Sigh. But for now, I get these three adorable, and completely goofy, shots of Evan, Jack, and Nick.

Bikes! Our weekends now include lots and lots of bike riding. Evan and Mark riding to the school and back (9+ miles round trip!). Jack and Mark riding to the park (.5 miles round trip!). Jack falling and scraping his knee twice while walking his bike across the street. Oh yes. The tears. The wailing. The sheer agony my poor, wounded child was in. Yes, it was very sad and I'm sure his knee hurt. He was bleeding some and required neosporin and a band-aid or two, but his carrying on was something for the record books. Jack is a wee bit on the dramatic side (which is one of the things I love about him the most).

Flashback to Jack, circa 2011. Baby cheeks! Chubby hands! Curly, blond mop of hair! Man these kids grow up way too fast. And I love, love, love this photo of Jack. So much so that I might get it blown up and framed. He loves digging in the sand with his beach toys. And only wearing swim trunks. And in this photo, he is so excited the by bird/boat/plane he has spotted in the distance. I miss Jack @ 2 years old. But Jack @ 4 is pretty cool, too.

Now we are going w-a-y back in time. Specifically, 2006. I remember this day vividly. Mark and I really wanted a family photo for our first family-of-three Christmas card. We drove onto the WSU campus (which was 2 miles away), set up the camera on a tripod, and took 100+ photos to get the perfect shot. Which never actually happened. Evan was too distracted by the grass! And the people! And the shiny object to our right! to actually look at the camera. But it was a really fun afternoon. (And this photo makes me miss Pullman like crazy.)

Is there anything better for a kid than baking Christmas cookies with Grandma? According to my kids, the answer is no. And Jack is very fond of sprinkles. :)

The photo template is, well, perfection. I used 7 seriously silly photos of Jack with a few anecdotes about my favorite 4 year old.  

And we are back to cat photos. When I work in my office, Lilly likes to sit on my computer. Or in my box of inks. Or, even more helpful, on my printer. So finding her resting on the spare desk is a welcome change to her usual (obnoxious) ways.

The final layout I have to share features a trio of Jack photos, all adorable (if I do say so myself). In the center photo he has his favorite accessory of the year... his very first mohawk. It's actually a faux-hawk, but he was damn proud of it. And had no problem telling the stylist at Super Cuts when he walked in the door that he wanted "a blue mohawk" after his hair cut. And she sure delivered! Jack sported the look for two days and was devastated when we finally had to wash his hair.

If you've made it this far, thanks for looking! So many wonderful memories captured on these pages. 

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!