My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software and Giveaway

I am so excited to share this with you all! When I was given the opportunity to try out and review this digital scrapbook software from MyMemories.com, I jumped at the chance. The truth is I love the idea of scrapbooking and have even gone as far as collecting the necessary materials and sitting down to start a book. But that is usually about as far as I get. The main reason I don't get around to it isn't the job itself but the work of pulling out all the materials and putting them away. In a perfect world I would have a craft room the size of Texas with a separate work station for each of my craft projects so that I could jump from area to area whenever I had a free moment. Unfortunately that room just doesn't exist in my house, so when you add the time for prep and clean up to the actual page creating, I can never seem to find a block of time that big.

This is where the brilliance of digital scrapbooking comes in. The Memory Suite Scrapbook Software allows me to work on my scrapbook in my time, whenever and wherever I am at. If I have 10 spare minutes between one obligation and the next I can open up my computer and get back to work where I last left off. And when I am ready to be done it is as simple as hitting the save button and I can move right on with my life. No more running to the craft store looking for the paper that is just the right color or the embellishments that will add that special something to my almost perfect page. With this software, all of those things are right at my fingertips!

Not only that but My Memories Suite allows me a wider range of options for sharing my creations. I can print at home, have my albums professionally printed or turned into a custom calendar, or even use a range of multimedia outputs to give my work a wider audience.

I have had so much fun playing with this software. Want to see a little something I made to honor my son's first day of Kindergarten? There are lots of designer templates to choose from but I decided to start from scratch and build my own. I think it's pretty darn cute!

Are you excited yet? You should be because MyMemories.com has been kind enough to give one of my followers the chance to win the My Memories Suite v2.0 software (an almost $40 value)! Entry is simple:
Mandatory Entry - Visit www.MyMemories.com and have a good look around. Come back and leave a comment on my blog telling me something you liked, be it a page, a theme, a layout or whatever else catches your eye. Once you've done that use the handy dandy Rafflecopter widget below to let me know you have followed directions:)
Bonus Entries - For those of you who like extra credit (or in this case extra chances to win) you can do any or all of these to get an extra entry. Make sure you let me know you have done this on the Rafflecopter widget below:
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Lunch Ideas - Jello

I realize that there is absolutely nothing revolutionary about Jello. But the other day as I was browsing Easylunchboxes Facebook page (check it out - even if you don't own the lunch boxes you will love all the great ideas!) I saw an idea for making Jello right in the lunch container. How brilliant!

Now the recipe they shared was all homemade and organic. The one I did is all cheap out of a box. I am hoping to try it the other way sometime but for now I am using what I already have. Here's what I did:

Make up your Jello (following whatever recipe you have):

Add fruit to your container (this is optional). I sliced up some bananas:

Pour desired amount of Jello on top of the fruit:

Put the lid on and refrigerate. Easy as that!

I love the idea that it is all set in the container and ready to go. And I am confident my Kindergarten kid will love it too!

Out of the Mouths of Babes - September 11th

This morning as we remember the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, I thought I would share with my kids what today was about and what happened on that day. Granted, my oldest two are 5 and almost 4 so I kept the explanation very basic. After a few questions from my 5 year old he simply stated, "I'm going to pray about it."

Hands clasped, eyes closed, and head bowed Nathan (age 5) prayed:

"Dear God,

please help those bad guys not to be bad anymore.

Thank you for all the good guys that were there.

Help them not to be hurt anymore.

In Jesus Name,

Amen."

First Day of School

The time has come - My first born started school today. All day Kindergarten to be exact. To be honest I am kind of glad it is all said and done. I have been anxious about this day and spent a lot of time thinking about it so it feels good to have jumped this hurdle. It has been such a mix of emotions as we celebrate this milestone as well as say goodbye to the stage in our life where all of our kids are home with us everyday. I know that this is just the beginning of these types of days as our kids continue to grow and take on new things and it makes me want to hit the pause button. It's all going too fast!

That being said I am completely confident in Nathan. He has been ready for this day for sometime and was nothing but excited. In fact, he was up and ready by 6:15 all on his own! He was very concerned about being late for his first day and kept asking when he could leave. He also told Jordan that he would make sure to find every red thing (Jordan's favorite color is red) in his class so he could tell him all about it when he got back. So cute:)

Last night we got everything ready, including lunch. Sunday night I made ahead his sandwiches for the week and froze them so that made things even easier. I did a special dinosaur shaped sandwich to match the lunch box note I made him. Hope it brightens his day!

We of course had to do the obligatory first day of school pictures before heading out. Jordan just had to be in one with him! And I got the idea for the K sign here (they have free printable card which is way easy and cute!).

When we arrived at the school we prayed with Nathan about his day and then I let Jeremy take him to play on the playground while he waited to line up outside of his classroom. Poor Jordan burst into tears as soon as Nathan got ready to get out of the car. It was so hard to wait and watch from afar but I'm glad I stayed in the car because I probably would have embarrassed him! Jeremy said he did great and lined right up when the bell rang. I'm so proud of my little man. Counting down the hours until I get to hear all about his day:)

Lunch box note - Dinosaur/Crocodile

Yesterday I saw a Hallmark product called Lunchbox Notes. I didn't really look at the cards themselves but the package they came in was part of a decorated brown paper bag. This give me a great idea for creating a cute note out of the bag itself. My sons are really into dinosaurs and crocodiles so I thought a note that looked like one of those would be a hit.

Here's what I did:

First I cut down the bag so just the flap and the back section of the bag were left. I then cut the length of the bag so that about 2 inches were left below the flap:

I then cut a head that was slightly longer then the flap so that it hung over on each side. I used a glue stick to attach it (make sure not to glue the flap shut!):

Time to give this guy a face. First I did the teeth which I glued underneath the face so they would be hanging out of his mouth:

The eyes and nostrils were easy, I just used "circle"ish shapes from black and white:

This guy is really starting to come together! Now for the inside of the bag. I added a green strip that would cover up the brown bag showing when the card was closed. The remainder of the brown bag became the mouth which I made all black:

Last it was time for a tongue. I measured a strip of red that would fit inside the mouth with a flap at the end to glue it on. I wanted the tongue to stick up when he opened it so I only glued the flap. Finally, I wrote a note right on the tongue:

And there you have it!! A cute and easy lunch box card sure to make any boy (or dinosaur loving girl!) excited to eat lunch at school. I am looking forward to my son's reaction when he sees this on his first day of Kindergarten this week:)

I am thinking about doing this once a week and sharing what I make so I would love to hear feedback on whether or not this would be of interest to you as an ongoing post. I would also love to hear theme ideas or specific materials you want to see used. Thanks!

Turning 5 in Robot Style

Our oldest son turned 5 on Monday. To celebrate we did the usual small party consisting of close family. Long before the planned date arrived Nathan was already making big plans...all centered around robots. So robots it was!

I have mentioned before that my parents are missionaries in Mexico. If you know anything about Mexican birthday parties you know they aren't a proper party without a pinata, so my parents had some good friends of theirs make him a robot pinata. Wow, was this thing amazing! And S.T.U.R.D.Y. I am talking dozens of whacks with a bat sturdy. I am talking our middle son is still wearing bits of the pinata as a costume sturdy. Unfortunately this will not be a yearly occurrence because despite the fact my mom was smart and just sent money so that I could fill it, the thing still cost an arm and a leg to ship. Oh well, it was definitely memorable!

We decided to have the party at my brother's house since all of our family who attended lives within minutes of his house. That and we love to do an outdoor party seeing as his birthday falls at the end of August and our own lawn has been completely neglected seen better days. Not only was my brother kind enough to offer up his pad for the party but my sister-in-law agreed to make the watermelon robot I had found here. She even went a step further and added a cantaloupe friend. Aren't they awesome looking?

And then there was the cake. Oh, the cake. Let me tell you that up until the day of the party I thought I had gotten off easy. Everything had gone smoothly up to that point and I would even venture to say that I was not the least bit stressed. As far as my kids parties go, I really made this one easy for myself and was feeling good about everything. I should have known I wouldn't get off that easy!

To ensure that I wasn't running around like a chicken with my head cut off the day of the party, I had baked the cake the night before. I did a double batch of rice crispy treats to use as the base of the robot and used my 8-cup glass Pyrex measuring cup to bake the head. I left it cooling on a rack on the counter and was going to wait to frost and decorate it until we arrived at the party location so there would be no travel mishaps. I woke up bright and early the next morning to find my two oldest up and watching cartoons, the typical start to my day. I walked into the kitchen to get breakfast going to find that one side of my cake was mangled and a trail of crumbs was all over the kitchen floor.

My brain literally could not process this information. I couldn't begin to fathom what had happened. Did the cats jump up on the counter and do this? Would I find them in a chocolate coma somewhere? No, as I was thinking this they were both doing their usual morning thing. So I ask the kids who did it. "Not me, not me!" I heard over and over.  Wanting to believe my sweet little angels I again examined the cake, the crumbs, even eye-balled the cats once more. I then began listening to my kids and could tell that Nathan had not done it  so I excused him from the crime scene. And I don't know how this brilliant idea came to me, probably all these years of crime television paying off, but I decided to look inside Jordan's mouth. And what do you know...chocolate cake in his molars. He instantly started crying and apologizing. Turns out he got up before anyone else, saw the cake and decided to have an early breakfast. Can I tell you something? I wasn't even mad. The whole thing was so crazy and unbelievable I couldn't even be mad about it. Of course Jordan knows better then to touch anything on the counter without permission and we wanted him to realize that he had not only put a damper on his brother's birthday but created more work for mommy so his punishment was no cake at the party. After all, he did already have his fair share of cake for the day!

Having solved the mystery (oh no, now the theme song to Busytown is stuck in my head!), it was time to solve the cake problem. I tried making a second one but it stuck to the bottom of the Pyrex and was almost worse then the original. So I took both mess-ups with me and decided we would work it out at the party site. Luckily I had my clever sister-in-law to team up with because as we began putting it together and frosting it one side completely crumbled and instead of being stumped she instantly came up with a plan. All in all, I think it turned out okay. Nathan liked it so I guess that is all that really matters. And if nothing else we have a story to tell for all of time!

Rest

It has been way too long since I linked up with The Gypsy Mama for 5 Minute Fridays and after a timely prompt from a friend I have decided this is the perfect week to get back to that. For those of you who forgot or are new to this, this is the time where we take five minutes to just write. No interruptions, to edits, just write.

This week's topic: Rest. Ready? Go!

Can I tell you honestly that when I hear the word rest I just want to laugh. Maybe laugh isn't the right word...snort, roll my eyes, chuckle all at once might be a more appropriate description. As a mom of 3 boys ages 5 and under I really have to wonder if I remember what true rest is. Between staying up too late to hold onto every second of my "alone" time to being woken up by someone with a need in the middle of the night on more occasions then not to being woken up at some ridiculous hour in the morning, if I had to take a guess I would say I average about 5 hours of sleep a night. Not all of that is because of my kids but I do attribute my overall tired state to them.

As you can see I instantly connect the word rest with sleep. That isn't the only kind of rest I am missing. There is a rest that comes when you are at peace. When your soul is at rest if you will. I have to be honest and say that it has been awhile since I have had a truly rested soul. Not because I don't know how to get it and not because it isn't readily available for the taking, but because I choose the other path. I choose to worry, to overload my plate, to focus on the tasks instead of the outcomes. To make it about me when it really isn't.

And then Matthew 11:28 resonates in my mind - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Yes Lord, I hear you. Yes Lord, I want that kind of rest. Help me stop and refocus on you so that everything else falls into place.

And DONE.

Want to join us? Head over to The Gypsy Mama and link up: