Birthday layouts...

Woohoo! Today is my birthday! :) Many thanks to all who helped me celebrate yesterday at The Treasure Box (ladies, you all rock!) and to those who have sent birthday wishes via mail, email and Facebook. I feel so loved. :)

As I sit here this morning, thinking about years past, I thought I'd share a few layouts I've done about or around my birthday:

I think this is one of the first layouts I did about my own present life. (2006 was the year I finally started making layouts that included me and not just family stuff, lol.) I still love the techniques used here. And those things still make me happy. :)

The following year, my birthday gift was going to CKU-Anaheim, so we didn't really do anything special to celebrate. I did, though, take a lot of pictures right around then and have made a number of layouts from that weekend. Here's one (and, yes, I only recently finished this one that had been in my to do pile for ages, lol):

And last year was a good one:

I already have some plans for this year's birthday layout but probably won't finish that for a week or so (have some other assignments that need to get tackled first). As for the day itself, Nathan has something up his sleeve but I haven't been able to tickle it out of the boys yet. ;) So, I'll have to report back later...

In case you were wondering...

...summer is off to a lovely start. :) Noah and Asher started swim lessons this week and are loving it (I need to do better about getting them more pool time beyond swim lessons). Here's Asher:

You can't tell from this picture, but he's the only boy in his class...three other little girls. No wonder he smiles the whole time, LOL! Noah, on the other hand, is considerably less interested in the others in his class and more interested in the new slide the gym installed:

Not the greatest picture (using my purse camera instead of my DSLR) but you get the idea. ;) Micah refused to contemplate swim lessons this summer (still working on him for next session, though) so sits with me. Yesterday, I ended up entertaining him by taking pictures of our shadows:

Yup. Lazy summer days. :)

Now I really have to go print some pictures for the crop I'm going to tomorrow! ;)

Ha!

Remember at the end of my last post when I said I'd get right on that last Lists of Me layout? Well, I actually *did*! Woohoo!

This layout, obviously, was written this past weekend (end of May). There's hidden journaling if you fold out that center part with the names on it. This particular layout truly illustrates how it can be easier to write a simple list rather than to tackle a bigger project full-on. I'm so glad that I have this little record of my thoughts on these people (in that hidden journaling part) and am now stoked to write more in depth thoughts about each individual. Try it!

Lists of Me

Yes. I'm still doing this. Yes, I've been behind. But, with the insanity of May safely behind us, I finally managed to finish these and photograph them. (And I still really love this project!) So, without further ado, here are the layouts from the past five weeks:

Whew. For any diehards who have *really* been keeping track, yes, this leaves me a week behind still. I'll get right on that. :)

Also...

Just wanted also to say thanks for all the thoughts in response to my post last week! I truly appreciate all of the comments!! (and am hoping to work through the book ideas over the summer!)

And, completely randomly, can anyone tell me why they don't make dividers for minivans? (You know, like the ones in limos and some taxis and such that divide the front seat from the passengers.) Let's think about it for a minute, eh? Not saying that I don't get a kick out of listening to some of the odd conversations the boys have or their unharmonious songs but methinks the option of raising a divider in minivans would be a huge selling point... ;)