Getting back into life...and scrapbooking

I think pretty much all my readers (all 3?) are aware that our family experienced a death a couple weeks ago. I plan to blog about that when I can get my thoughts together.

In the meantime...

This week I burned thru my Hobby Lobby gift cards from Christmas! I was able to complete six pages for Connor's baby book and just last night, two for Mia's. I am overjoyed to be able to finally utilize all the little doodads I've been saving from the hospital (am I nuts for keeping the kids' cord clamps? Maybe. Am I nuts for keeping Mia's little dried umbilical stump in a Ziploc bag? Probably. Gross. Oh well. It's goin' in there.).

Enjoy the layouts. Click the images to enlarge.

With my newly reclaimed spare time...

I have been indulging in some creative pursuits. I didn't properly document the colors/styles of paper and accessories I used to create these, but I wanted to share them anyway. Just 'cause I'm proud. Wasn't it yesterday they were both this small? Oh, my heart. I should mention this kind of pastime tends to send me into throes of nostalgia, and it does nothing to distract me from the "belly envy" I'm experiencing due to the recent impregnation of half the women I know. Thanks a lot, girls. I'm going to sit in my son's room now and stare at him until I remember that I haven't had a full night's sleep in three and a half years. That ought to nip it in the bud.

Smell that? It's accomplishment.

This week I have been seized with a desire to scrapbook like nobody's business. And since I've been putting off starting the kids' baby scrapbooks (good gravy, I'm swiftly approaching four years' worth of material to archive!), I figured now's as good a time as any.

Never mind the mountains of laundry beginning to compost in my utility room floor.

Never mind the two Halloween costumes that beg to be completed by this Friday's Harvest Party at Connor's preschool.

Never mind that we're expecting company this weekend and our house looks like someone held it upside down and shook it like a snow globe.

This is loads more fun. I already finished Connor's four-page Infant Baptism spread, and I'm starting on Mia's.

Nine tenths of a century...

My Poppie's ninetieth birthday is coming up in a month. He is so dear to our family, and we all have such fond memories of growing up with him in our lives. He's such an unforgettable individual. I feel especially blessed to be able to watch my children, his great-grandchildren, developing a warm relationship with Poppie that reminds me of my own tender years with him. My project for him has been an 8x8 memory book, complete with sentiments from every generation descending from him. I completed the first two pages tonight, one for each of my children: