May Comes to a Close

School is out and life is a changing as usual.  I have made so many pages this month, I want to just quickly to a catch up for everyone:

Something magical happens when my daughter gets behind the camera. She has a way to make the boys just play and not pose! I love the action she captures!
Emily Merritt's Thumbs Way Up
Salin Studio's down the lane(ephema)
Gone Squirrely elements by Little Butterfly Wings
along with her Papers too
Amy Wolff's Vintage Sunshine elements
Uppity Bubbles by Amy Martin
Jenn Barrette's Woodland Wonder Elements
and
CD's Mini Miss Mess

as soon as I saw that cute block with the W from 
Jenn Barrette's Woodland Wonder Elements
on it, I knew my boy was gonna have a page.
I added some more BYOC for May
including
Fiesta Florals
Kim's Blooming Fiesta Flowers
and more, egads...lots and lots! lol

Seize the Camera!! lol play on words from the word challenge! 
Just an everyday moment, and my sweetie honey captured it! 
I started with Sara Gleasons freebie template from the Parade Blog hop That's Life
and used a ton of the 
BYOC for May
but mostly
Fiesta Florals
CD's Mini Miss Mess
Take A Walk alpha by Rachel Young

I love to read, I love to take pictures and I love my kids, getting photos of them reading is a joy!!!
Thank you for the 
Magnificent Bundle of Goodies from Michelle Godin, I'd rather be reading

my 14 year old eats, gets up from the table and is like 3 inches taller! what is the deal?
Growing Pains Elements
and
Papers by Pink Reptile Designs
is perfect for those well ridiculous growth spurts!

One more reader:

He so struggled with his words, but now loves to snuggle in his bed, with his light on and a book on his chest. 
Once Upon a Story by Micheline Martin & Studio Basic

hittitng the sand dunes at white sands! not often you get a shot of all 5 in one place! but if they are all together, our friend siah is usually right there
Get Your Craft on by Lauren Grier, Micheline Martin & Valorie Wibbens

A huge wow to scraplift a dear friend and woman I love her pages!!
You know her as the Mrs Peel, and Cynthia!! 
This is the page I lifted:

For my page I used:
Pink Reptile:
Musings
Owl My Love
Scraparazzi
Noted
Talk Geeky to Me
Lucky in Love
I am not Perfect
It's a Date
I Believe in Miracles

Val Wibbens
-Roses are Red
Get your Craft on

Little Butterfly Wings
I am a Prince
Brother and Sister
Be Brave
A for Awesome
New Start
In My Life

Amy Wolff
Vintage Sunshine

Laurie Anne HGD
-Happy Camper

oh my goodness, these templates are too easy!
Lynn-Marie's Press Play #05
I also added some of her fun papers from the Feb BYOC! Just perfection.
I love capturing my baby's firsts! This is a big one! lol!

and finally one of the girls:

my girls are a joy to my life, they seriously get along so well. They laugh and just enjoy each other.
I found these silly shirts and they loved them so much!
I was just playing with cropping the photo and loved stacking it with the frames and playing with
Good Stuff(add on) by Allison Pennington
and
Kinda sketchy -hand drawn scribbles by Splendid Fiins
all at the lily pad

Hope to be back tomorrow with more, but don't hold ya'lls breathe, cause life moves so darn fast here!

May 1st-recapation!

RECAPAtion! I like that word.  I know it probably isn't a word, but it fits life for me on this blog! I am gonna do a recapAtion of the past 2 weeks! woot I like to use the pages I make for the precious designers that give me such gorgeous kits to rearrange into memory catchers for me.
I will begin with:
Pickle Juice-Our Littles have been blessed with the ability to lie, when a lie needs not to be said.  They each have been doing it, and it is complete craziness.  We have been reading this book called The Connected Child:

Guesting as a Polly has a big perk, forcing myself to scrap with Paislee Press' designs. I buy them, I do, but I open the kit and touch everything and cant bring myself to grunge it up. It is so lovely and clean.....but I did it...I did a clean layout with the beautiful 
On My Desk

Karyn Purvis, and she has so helped both Tony and I with being a bit calmer, patient and able to redirect the littles to help them help themselves.  She doesn't teach about Pickle Juice, we kind of brain stormed it, in a few seconds of helplessness.

helping our kids cope with a lifestyle where lying just was, has been a big struggle, we try anything, and everything. Today, we happened upon, the word pickle juice. it is a word of surrender and grace. if in the middle of a lie, or right after it is said, when they know, they know the lie is coming out, pickle juice gives grace...there are still consequences to the action that they are covering with the lie, but the lie is erased, and truth is helped to come to the surface. This is a huge and very tough life lesson. They are all excited about it. We practiced to sparkles in their eyes. lol
Thank you Michele Godin you make things that make me journal my heart....
and I am so sad that 
Build Your Wings Collab
is retiring. Get it now while it is on sale, cause it is going away forever....sniff sniff

My momma blessed my socks off with the most spectacular necklace, I mean it is so me! I was blown away.  They are called origami owl living lockets.. 

My mom out of the blue,ask if I would like an origmai necklace. They were new to me, but I love it, and we talked about what I liked, and my mom snuck in the heart that says family...very sweet gift.
Musing by Pink Reptile Designs

Spring time is here in New Mexico, and that means headed up! UP! yep, up a mountain somewhere!

Getting it all on the page was fun! Thank you for the challenge Miss HeatherB. Our hike up the mountain. 
Mixed Bag Alpha by CD
and
Happy Camper by Laurie Ann
and a new font by Darcy Baldwin
Please Explain

There was good news, as Whitley finally got good behavior for 10 days in a row!! This is huge for the kid! He is more bossy than me! lol

my boy was so funny at lunch togetehr. We had mcd's for him making it 10 days in a row good behavior! 
Silly Girl collab with Valorie Wibbens and Jenn Barrette

I love these photos of my Tony and me.  Just love this man so much!

when I saw this word art in the collaborative project by Little Butterfly Wings and Pink Reptile Designs called Lean On Me I knew my best friend and Hubby would be on a page!
These photos are from a date night on Valentines day...we laughed and laughed taking the shots, and boy howdy, they match the kit perfect!

Life when you are active in an outreaching church is a blast.  The girls and I went to Deming for outreach and  got adventure along with it:

I went of a church outreach to a town 2 hours away, and on the way back, the van broke down! 13 people laughing and my hubs drove to pick us up, and others fixed it. It was just a great time, no one mad, just laughing! hilarious memory!
You can pick up this FREE template also HERE
on Pink Reptiles Blog and win!
Everything on the page is from
PINK REPTILE DESIGNs
including the new collab...woo hoo
Lean on Me

A trip to Las Cruces means hitting this $1 store that is makeup and jewelry only! Way cool! I got some real hair fake eyelashes! hysterical!

Since Reeces put peanut butter with chocolate, a winning combination; such is the same with 
Michele Godin and Mirjam of Pink Reptile Designs. 
What a Wonderful Day
The green grasses made me think of the weekend prior where I did fake eyelashes on me for church. I loved them, but boy were my eyes tired, those things are heavy! lol

Springtime in New Mexico, also brings dust storms, huge massive rolling, billowing dust storms.

My hubby took this photo as we were driving, I was driving he was snapping pics. It is a huge dust storm covering our town. This is normal for spring in New Mexico.
Thank you to the lovely 
Leah of Mommyish for her delightful kit Sweetest Spring
and font is Darcy Baldwins Room Mother script

I have two very tall boys! I mean they are now both taller than me! Crazy to see, I am gonna be the tiny lady with a ton of gigantic children.

My boys are growing up...wait, have grown up so fast. it is rare to get a photo, and one of them laughing together...score!
thank you to River Rose's Dream It Do It at Scrap Matters

Last one for the night, makes my heart smile every time I look at it!

I found a new setting on my camera, where I hold down the button and it takes about a million shots...so many were blurry, but the one where my 8 year old nestles his head in my hand was worth them all!
Thank you
Allison Pennington for your kit Not Pictured
this is a great kit also for those moments, you didn't get a shot, but want to remember the moment

Thank you for reading til the end! I so enjoy the process of making these pages, and hope you enjoy the end results!

~never lose your joy
anne of alamo