Gracie Turns One!

I think the photos will speak for themselves. A small gathering, lots of happy, warm hearts, and one face chocked FULL of frosting!

A few minor details...

The Birthday Princess

And frosting in between our fingers!



Happy Birthday, Baby!

{oh, and I just LOVE this shot! Can you say SUGAR HIGH??!!}



{scrapbook word art credits: Scrapaholics Oh, BABY! wordart}
click here!

My Favorite Pics of 2009

I had originally thought of posting a "Year in Review" blog, but that is mentally and physically exhausting, so here are my favorite pictures of the year!

More to come later this weekend! :-)

Project: CREATE!

It never really occurred to me that I'm a creative person. Other people have told me that I am, but I've never felt creative. I mean, I do my graphic design/scrapbooking stuff, but that's all cut and paste and drag and drop. I'm not hands on crafty. Until now! Turns out, I am creative!! (did you know?)

Now, here is where my A.D.D and my creativity make an UGLY union, and nothing ever gets done. For instance, here is a list of things (CREATIVE, crafty things) I want to do right now.

-make wooden signs. Sounds lame right? I could SO do this! And how cute are they? yeah, Ill let ya know when I make it to the LUMBER store...HA!

-make hand stamped jewelry. (I own this necklace. The Vintage Pearl is AMAZING! So simple and classy. My jewelry hero. Check Erin out!) Its surprisingly simple! I want to open up my own hand stamped jewelry store on Etsy, targeting mainly military spouses and families. GREAT project...and I am slowly collecting the supplies I will need...

-making my annual fall wreath. I love fall. A lot. I love the colors. I love the smells. I love the cooler weather. This will be happening sooner than later!!

-painting the coffee table. Its AWFUL!! I think its actually been chewed on! (Not sure by who or what, but it looks like it has tooth marks, I swear!) I have a great plan to prime it and either paint it DEEP chocolate brown or black. Then I have this image of either decoupaging or lacquering a damask pattern on top, almost like a table runner. Wouldn't that look cool? (I don't think Piper is sold, stay tuned) I'm hoping for this to actually happen next week, we shall see.

-Re staining the CUTE little end table I just acquired (read:STOLE!!) from the 2nd hand store down the road for a mere $15!! Should I strip and stain it or do it up to match the coffee table? (thoughts?)

Anyway, on top of this is my Cathy Zielske workshop, during which, for the next month, I will be creating a scrapbook all about ME (YAY!! I LOVE ME!!!) Ill post progress.

I've always had this feeling. This feeling I cant exactly explain, but basically, I know that I could build my own Mini Empire sitting right here in this spot on my couch. I know I could. So I'm exploring all the ways I could possibly make that happen. Right now, my thoughts drift towards the aforementioned craftiness and my love for graphic design. And now, as the winter months close in, I figure if I can keep myself (and the kids) busy with projects and creativity, we will ALL be happy!

Lets see where it takes me!
XOXO

BUSY Week At The Piper House!

We have all been VERY busy this week!! We will go alphabetically, hows that sound?

Ashlynn has been going to Vacation Bible School for the first time. The theme is "Fear Not!"' and she is really enjoying learning more about faith. Shes been asking me for weeks to tell her stories about Jesus, and asking me about prayer and God...she has such a good heart! And today, at VBS, she accepted Jesus into her heart. Had me in tears! SO SWEET!! She is such a better person than me already...

She has also been learning to ride her bike! One of the father/daughter rights of passage, right? Watching this was adorable! She is a very lucky girl to have such a great daddy!!

Gracie Pie, well, she is on the move! Ok, not quite LITERALLY but close! She is doing a kind of Army crawl maneuver while trying to get up on her knees to crawl. She gets SO frustrated when she isn't quite strong enough...its hilarious and tragic all rolled into one. I have a feeling she will be crawling in September. Dad says walking by Christmas, and I do not doubt it! So its time for me to start thinking about baby gates and baby proofing again! Our days are DEFIANTLY numbered!

In other Gracie news, she has been eating rice cereal for dinner every night for the last few weeks, and really enjoying it. So last night, I got out the food processor, set up my make shift veggie steamer, and made her some green beans. I froze them in the ice cube tray so they are already split into 1 Tbsp servings (thank you, Maegan! GENIUS!!) They made their debut tonight: BIG HIT!! Its so entertaining!! And I don't think its any coincidence that she also began raspberrying with her tongue this last weekend...so funny!

I am really not up to much, just playing soccer mom and happy house wife. And loving every second of it! I never would have imagined in a million years that I would love the day to day like I do!! I'm working on a few small projects here and there, still enjoying my scrapbooking, and beginning a baby book for my best friend, Katie, who is due in early October. I'm really enjoying capturing all these moments with my new camera! It brings everything to the next level, that's for sure!

Patrick took over his field flight this week, and has been working hard. He is a great leader, these guys are lucky to have him. And I know he is thrilled to be getting back into the field, and really getting back to what he loves about his job. He goes to "the woods" for the first time next week, and, even though I know he will miss us, he is SO EXCITED to get out in the field again. Its really what job is about.

More soon! The baby is fussing and I've got laundry to fold! Ah, the glamorous life....

Hello. My name is Emily...and Im a Scrapaholic!

NOTE: I cant take credit for the cute title. My friend, Maegan, actually has a scrapping business CALLED Scrapaholics, I just think its DARLING!

On our trip to Seattle last week, I got the chance to work on a bunch of unfinished layouts I had created over the last 3 or 4 months...and completed a BUNCH!! I have updated the links under "Scrapbook Pages" so that it will actually take you to all of said layouts. They are categorized by Library of Memories albums. Its pretty self explanatory. I will begin posting credits now, too, so you can see where I'm getting my supplies from.

I am also in the process of organizing and backing up every photo I have taken since 2005, tagging them, and filing all the pics I want to (eventually) scrap. Busy Busy!!

Anyway, Enjoy! And check back! I will be posting new layouts as I create!!

3 Months Old...

Ok. ok. So she is closer to 4 months old, but come on! We are a busy family!! Ashy and I took Gracie to get her 3 months pictures done today. When Ash was 3 months old, we took her to Penney's and got the CUTEST Anne Geddes style pics done with this ADORABLE rose blanket they have. So I thought, HEY!! Lets do the same with Grace!! How CUTE to see them side by side, right? MAN was I right!! Of course, I ordered more than I intended (you're welcome, grandparents) so here's a preview...


She is getting so big, so quick!! Weighing in at 16lbs, 12oz, 26 inches long...suffering from what we believe to be reflux, but now taking Zantac twice daily to help. It seems to be helping a bit...Im hoping time will show more improvement. Dad and I get a LITTLE tired of screaming baby every evening. Still eating like crazy (although now I am more careful to keep feedings at 2-3 hour intervals so as not to upset her reflux) Im not worried about her wasting away any time soon. Although another trip to Other Mothers for some bigger (9-12 month) clothes is right around the corner...

June ins and outs

June is a BUSY month for the family Piper!! It began with Evans graduation, as I'd mentioned before. Followed promptly with my 29th (really) birthday. Ev and I shared the celebration with a dinner at Nicks Restaurant at Waitts Lake. What a beautiful day! And I was surprised by some BEAUTIFUL gerbera daisies from my handsome husband!! (thank you, honey!)

Now we are staring down the barrel of Fathers Day, Ashy's 4th birthday party, followed closely by both her actual birthday and Patrick's departure for 3 weeks to Jump Master school at Ft Benning, Ga. Needless to say, I am going to have my hands full! But I have great aspirations of spending lots of quality time with my girls and catching up on some scrapbooking.

Im getting closer and closer to my goal of saving up enough money for my NEW CAMERA, to help support my scrapbooking hobby! I cant wait!!! But, you know how that goes. Things like gifts for children keep coming up... ;-)

Also, Im adding links to the blog where you SHOULD be able to click and see pics of the girls, as well as some of the scrapbook pages I've made!

My Newest Passion...

This year, just before the arrival of our Gracie Pie (aka Fatty Farts-a-Lot...classy, Dad!) I began a new journey in the world of crafty Momminess...digital scrapbooking!! I had been playing with Photoshop since back in '07 when Piper deployed to Djibouti for 4 months, and it NEVER OCCURRED to me to use it to scrapbook! Paper scrapping is just not practical for me. I SUCK at being creative hand-to-paper...but give me elements and fonts to copy and paste? JACKPOT! I've since started taking photography more seriously, enjoying the editing of pictures, and creating not just photographs, but memories for my family and friends to share!

I just started reading Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian. Its an introduction into making your scrapbooks into a Library Of Memories. Its a FANTASTIC reference into organizing and creating memorable and BEAUTIFUL scrapbooks! As much as I've enjoyed and learned from my classes from Jessica Sprague, I had NO IDEA how I was going to sort thru all these beautiful layouts (if I do say so myself!) I recommend this book to ANYONE who has any desire to make their scrapbooks, digital or paper, mementos for our childrens children to cherish!!

ANYWAY, Im about to jump feet first into reorganizing THOUSANDS of pictures (2005-now), meanwhile saving up for my new camera! WOO HOO!!