{Mother's Day} I love my kiddos

I am so grateful for these two kiddos. My life is so much richer because of them. They are the two halves of my heart. I laugh more because of them. My life has more adventure because of them. I have so much more joy because of them. They fill me up in a way I never thought possible.

I can't say I'm a big Mother's Day fan. I think mothers should be loved and honored all year long. I'm not sure I (or other mothers) really need a day. But, I also loved all the love and attention my two little monkeys showered on me.

Shelby made me the coolest present ever:

It's a newspaper page with Shelby's own artwork. How perfect is that for me, her newspaper working mama? It's really the best school-made Mother's Day present of all time.

We celebrated Mother's Day with all the Kalil moms with a brunch on Saturday since I had to catch a flight Sunday around noon. My favorite part of brunch? Watching Shelby and Cooper play with Andrew. I grew up seeing my cousins all the time. They were my favorite playmates. I love that my kids live just a 10 minute drive from their cousin. And Andrew is such a fun, smiley phase ... so it's a joy to be around him.

Coop and Andrew

Shelby and Andrew 

Finally, I have to brag a little. Shelby is super artistic and talented. I'm her mom, so of course you'd expect me to say that, but it's the truth. She made me a pop-up Mother's Day card all on her own. She figured out how to make the heart pop up and executed her idea ... without any help from anyone.  It was awesome and she was so proud of herself. I'm quite proud of her too, she's a good one!

{New Layout} Meeting the Mice

Hello there. Happy Monday. Did you celebrate National Scrapbooking Day this weekend? I did some shopping and tried to catch up on Project Life. I didn't get too far with my catch up, but every little bit helps, right?

I have some new layouts to share. I’ll start with one I created for The Daily Digi using the May Digi Files:

Credits

It’s the first layout I’ve done using some photos from our January trip to Disneyland. I keep telling myself I’m going to get started and create a Disneyland 2013 album and then life gets in the way. Totally love this page and the memories it captures. One page is better than no pages, right?

Journaling reads:
We spent a lot of time this trip looking for characters & getting their autographs. Shelby was a little obsessed!

{Project Life} Holy. Moly. I did some pages

I'm still behind with my Project Life pages, but I'm happy to say I sat down and tackled Week 13. The more behind I've gotten, the harder it's been for me to sit down and get back at it. It's honestly felt daunting. But I'm so glad I made myself start again, because I love this set of pages and I'm excited again. Maybe I just needed a break? Truthfully, I haven't scrapped at all over the last month, no Project Life pages and no traditional pages. I've been pretty burned out on scrapbooking. But I'm ready to ease back into it.

Here are the pages I made for Week 13 (March 23-30), which covered the kids' spring break:

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Are you doing Project Life in 2013? What do you love most about it? What’s the hardest part of the project for you? This week I linked up with The Mom Creative, a site filled with great Project Life inspiration. If you have any questions about the supplies I use on my pages, please send me an email. I’ll gladly give you a list of credits.

{Capturing Magic} Magical Disney Music

Hello there. Happy hump day. Just wanted to pop in and let you know I'm blogging over at Capturing Magic today. Come on over and read about how I use Spotify to keep the Disney Magic going between trips to the parks. Read about it here.

{OLW} Being brave and bold

Last month I got a new tattoo.

I have a friend who has fabulous handwriting, so I asked her to write two meaningful worlds for me: brave and bold. She graciously agreed to do it and then I combined the words to create 
a tattoo for me wrist.

On a date night in March, we celebrated our wedding anniversary with a trip to the tattoo parlor. Seriously, does my husband rock or what?

Be brave. Be bold. Each time I look at my wrist I see the words "brave" and "bold" and I am reminded that it takes bravery and boldness to embrace all that comes my way. And it reminds me that I can choose to be brave. I can decide to be bold. I can embrace life.  

I haven't talked a lot about my One Little Word for 2013. I chose the word embrace to help motivate me to embrace the good; embrace the bad; and find joy in everything in between. Leaning into life (and embracing it all) doesn't come naturally to me. I like to manage my life. I like to control my experiences. I don't leave a lot to chance. By being this way, I also miss out on spontaneous moments of joy. I miss out on the chance to fully live. I fail to embrace a lot of opportunities because they don't fit into my plan.

I don't want to be this way. I want to embrace life and live it to the fullest. This desire has motivated me a great deal the last four months. It's motivated me to make all sorts of changes in my life. We've cut out gluten. I've started acupuncture. I've been seeing a therapist (yikes). I've been reading, a lot. I've been focusing on making and cultivating connection. I took  few creative leaps and my bravery was rewarded. I still have a long way to go, but I've be enjoying the experiences that have come with embracing who I am and my life. I'm most grateful for the increased joy my entire family has felt thanks to this journey. We're laughing more. We're snuggling more. We're making priceless memories.

I used to think I wanted to be brave and bold.  I'm learning that I have to be be brave and bold… by doing so, my life is exponentially better.