following my bliss

Project Life 2012

It's January and I'm feeling optimistic and full of promise. I fell off of the Project Life wagon in 2011 and picked it back up a little for November & December. But, I'm recharged and ready dive into the new year!

I chose the Cobalt Edition because I really loved the deeper colors. I think the Clementine Edition is really pretty, but with a little boy and another on the way, I thought it may look too feminine. I'm planning on using paper and products from my stash too. 

Here's my title page. The blank spot is going to have a picture of Jeff and myself, we just need to take it! 

I'm taking the weekly approach instead of daily. I work full time and don't always have time to take a daily picture. I don't want to take random photos at the end of the day just so I'll have a photo for the day's pocket. I like pulling the photos of the week together on Sunday afternoon. I'm taking Lisa Truesdell's advice and collecting stuff from our week to add the week's layout. 

This is Week 1. I included 2 of Teagen's paintings from Monday and now I don't feel bad that I threw out the others. I love that I have a place to save his art, but I don't have to save every single piece. I also added the front page of Sunday's Houston Chronicle showing the Texan's 1st Finals win.

Here's a close up of the left side. ( I love the pics of my sister and I with our pregnant bellies! )

And the right side. Most of these photos are from my Mom's birthday. I love documenting my family's events so easily.

I'm determined to keep up with Project Life this year. We have a baby due in May and I can't wait to document our growing family!

Sophia & Maggie

I love watching Teagen and Sophia together. They play so well and I like to spy on them. Sometimes they boss each other around and it's so cute! Here they started out reading to each other, but by the time I got my camera, they were reading their own books. And I almost forgot, when they were telling each other bye, they almost started making out! It's way too soon for that!

 

And then there's Maggie, Sophia's little sister. She is something else! She goes head first into everything. She's a jump first and think about it later kind of girl, I just love her! The other day at our house, Teagen and Sophia got carried away throwing plastic cups in the air and Maggie made her way around their table and ate their lunch! It was hilarious!

I love having them over! They bring even more excitement to our house :)

Summer Is Over

and the new school year has started. We are back to regular schedules: waking up early, checking the calendar every morning, set bedtimes. 

I can't believe I'm actually grateful that our temperatures are back to normal, high 92 degrees! The daily 100+ temps were just too crazy! And I'm in an office all day.

This summer I really slacked off on a few things: blogging, photography, project life. I think I got my motivation back though. At least I'm going to give my blog one last try, more regular posts and photos. I have high hopes. I also have high hopes for Project LIfe getting caught up.

And of couse, I have to leave with a photo

 

 

Brazos Bend State Park

I love Brazos Bend State Park. It's about a 20 minute drive from where I grew up and my family went often. My little Christian school would have an annual walk-a-thon there with everyone from PreK to 6th grade (that's all the school at that time). 

It's a gorgeous park with all kinds of animals and trails and lakes. And bugs and spiders, lots of bugs and spiders. One of my favorite memories of BBSP is the millions of caterpillars that would cover the bike racks during our walk-a-thons. What I would give to see that again with my camera in hand!

My Mom and I went the other evening with our cameras in tow to see what we could find. I hadn't been in a while and I was really excited. We saw a lot of alligators, a lot of different birds, spiders and deer. We have plans to go back soon. When it finally cools off, we plan to spend the entire day there. 

This was the largest alligator we saw, and probably the largest alligator I've ever seen at BBSP. It was pretty awesome to be that close to such a large creature. He (or she) was pretty calm and stayed completely still the whole time we were there.

These black ants had to be the largest ants I've ever seen in my life!

a few more summer pics