Digital Scrapbooking...Taking the Plunge!

Ok so I did it, I tried my hand at digital scrapbooking. Wow! What a ton of work! It's really amazing though! I know I won't abandon traditional scrapbooking anytime soon, but this was really fun to try. I've never really done much in Photoshop, especially with the layers tool, but I'm pretty happy with my progress so far. I'll show you my second and third attempts, the first was just practice. I'll go back and change that later, but at least it taught me what to do and what not to do!

I had been debating even trying digital scrapbooking up until this last weekend. I never saw the appeal. I thought there was no way I would sit in front of a computer to make a scrapbook page! I was proven wrong...

The digital scrapbook my Aunt Teresa made was just so fantastic that it made me want to give it a try. Like most things I do, I researched it all day Sunday (lol from my "crack berry" on the way home from Vegas!) and then gave it a shot last night.

Here are the two layouts I completed:






I think this could end up being a new addiction. I want to have them printed at the place recommended by the site I downloaded the free kits from. If I like the result, I may do both traditional and digital in the kids' books. It might end up being a time saver, as well as a cost saver depending on the price of printing. It still did take me a while to do, and I still had to tap into my creative juices to make them. It was certainly not as easy as I thought it would be! There is still so much to learn, but at least it's fun so far!

I'll tell you though, I felt like a huge idiot trying to figure out how to crop the paper to fit behind my photos, and I was so proud of myself when I realized I could rotate the little ribbons (DUH!) and when I got the journaling just right on those strips in the second photo. *pats self on back* Again, it's a learning process, but I'm pretty excited by it all. It's just weird not actually feeling the ribbons, or laying the page out by hand.

All free digital products used (and amazing tutorials!) can be found at Shabby Princess. The first layout I used the Sweet Sprinkles kit, and the second one is from the Harvest Spice kit. There are also a few more out there, they are just a "Google" away! Shabby Princess is the first one that pulled up for me, and I was really pleased with their free selection.

SURPRISE ROAD TRIP!!

Have you ever done something spur of the moment? What about a road trip? Well that is what we did Friday morning! We came up with our little plan Thursday afternoon, came home and packed, and then left Friday at 6 am. Wanna know where we went? :) Vegas Baby!

(Gwynie did a pretty good job taking this didn't she!)

But, there was a reason for our impromptu trip...Grandma and Grandpa Merritt. This weekend marked their 50th Wedding Anniversary!!


On Saturday night we watched a DVD and looked at a scrapbook Teresa had put together with all the kids/grandkids/greatgrandkids in it. It was awesome! To top off the night the kids (meaning the original kids!), and Grandma's sister Carol, came up with reasons why they had stayed married so long. Now, just a disclaimer, I don't remember all the reasons, and I'm not sure we ever hit 10 (we were all laughing too hard!). So if this list isn't perfect I apologize, but I know it's pretty close! Plus, I have writer's liberties at this point, and added at least one of my own. :)

TOP 10 REASONS WHY RICHARD AND LANETTA STAYED MARRIED FOR 50 YEARS

10. Grandma married Grandpa for his money, and he married her for her body. They both got jipped on that deal, so they stay married out of spite.

9. Grandma wanted to go to heaven and she knew if she put up with Grandpa for so long, well that was an instant ticket into those pearly gates. ~St. LaNetta

8. It's much too expensive to live apart!

7. Their marriage survived because of Grandma's patience, and Grandpa's work ethic.

6. They had to make it last to get the good stuff....the grandkids and great grandkids.

5. They are both too stubbon. Everyone said it wouldn't last more than a year...

4. Murder is a punishable crime.

3. You can't beat FREE nookie for 50 years...yet we all know it's never FREE!

2. They really, truly, madly, deeply love each other.

And the number one reason, as submitted by GRANDPA! The REAL reason why these two have stayed together for 50 years:

1. Grandpa loves her with all his heart, and he married the dumbest girl he could find!

So here's how we happened to be there and how this all came about:

There was a plan in place...Rick and Jody, who were celebrating their upcoming anniversary, were to meet Gram and Gramps in Vegas on Saturday and stay at Rick and Jody's timeshare. Grandpa was in on the plan though. All their kids, Mick, my Dad, and Keri (and spouses of course!) were all meeting there! We decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Mom and Dad, and the rest of the family, since we are only about 5.5 hours away.

We met up with Mom, Dad, Keri and Tom Friday about 11 and then headed out to Hoover Dam. That was were Grandpa, tugging a reluctant Grandma, was to meet up with them. Little did they know we would send the kids to them saying they were lost! :) Grandma bawled of course, but it was an amazing surprise for her. :)

We were going to take the DAM tour, but the DAM elevator was broken (hehe), so we ended up doing the power plant tour. The kids loved it! We had seen the new bridge they are building on a History Channel or Modern Marvel special, so it was impressive to see it up close and personal!



Saturday was spent seeing M&M's World, and a few other places. We have a lot of other pictures, but my bed is calling my name! I'll leave you with this one...the whole fam damily, and some of just the original family.

L to R:
Mom, Dad, Me, Jake, Keri, Tom, Teresa, Mick, Jody, Rick
Brady, Grandpa, Grandma, Gwynie

For My Husband

Wednesday was Jake's birthday, and since today is Valentine's Day I thought I would make a "special" post for him. (Hehe, if you got the special bit...yay for you! Fun family joke!)

So, here are 10 random facts about my hubby!

For My Husband

1. Jake's Mom's due date was actually Valentine's day. His Aunt told his Mom if he was born on V-day then they should name him Valentino. Good thing he was born on the 11th!

2. Jake wrestled for 15 years! He started at 5 and ended his season at Western at the age of 20, after undergoing knee surgery. He had his knee scoped and that ended his career. While in High School Jake went to Regionals twice, once to Pennsylvania, and once to North Carolina. He's really excited for Brady to start wrestling next month!

3. Jake has no middle name. I tell him his middle name is "Mine" to which he just says, "Yes Dear."

4. Jake is a true sports man. He can recall obscure facts about any sport (well maybe not hockey...but then again who does?) and rattle them off at any given point. He can also tell you the stats of almost every player.

5. Jake is a horrible speller. I think all the sports info blocks that part of his brain. :)

6. His Mom and my Mom are the only ones who call him Jacob. I do occasionally, mostly when I'm mad at him. But then it's Jaaaccoooobbb, because I'm whining at him.

7. In my Anatomy and Physiology class in high school I named my fetal pig Jake. Coincidence?

8. Jake HATES tomatoes. It's all about the texture. He says I've poisoned the kids because they love tomatoes. He will eat things with tomatoes in them, but never a slice or a cherry tomato itself.

9. Jake is a sleepwalker. His Mom tells us about the time when he took out the garbage in his sleep. Why can't he do that now??

10. Jake is an amazing cook. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't eat...or we would eat cereal a lot!


I saw this on my cousin Melissa's blog awhile back, so here it is!

1. What is his name? Jacob "Mine" Phillips
2. Who eats more? He does
3. Who said "I love you" first? Totally Him
4. Who is taller? About even, but him by an inch
5. Who is smarter? Of course me... duh
6. Who is more sensitive? Me for sure but he is a caring guy
7. Who does the laundry? Me - he ruins clothes so I won't let him, that or he's a sneaky bastard and knows how to get out of it
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? That would be me
9. Who pays the bills? Hmm... he does all the bill paying online, but I'm the one to remind him that they're due
10. Who cooks more?Actually, Definitely, HIM!
11. What meals do you cook together? None? I'll help every now and then if he's lucky
12. Who is more stubborn? That would be neck in neck if it were a race
13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? I'm never wrong so this question doesn't pertain to me! :) So I'd say him...but we both hate to admit it.
14. Who has more siblings? Me
15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? He wears them, I just pick out which ones he wears, oh and I control the zipper
16. What do you like to do together? Just about anything
17. Who eats more sweets? Sixes, we both like sweets and are addicted to Twizzlers
18. His guilty pleasures? Guns, Poker, Rum and Coke...He's a modern day Captn Jack ;)
19. How did you meet? Lol, his roomate in college who was my boyfriend at the time...long, long story...
20. Who asked who out first? He did, but we were friends first and shopped a lot together
21. Who proposed? Him of course
22. Who kissed who first? It was def. him
23. His best features? His eyes and his smile
24. His greatest quality? He loves me and the kids so much. He would do anything for us, so I would say it's his caring heart, oh and his ability to put up with me.
25. Tag: Anyone with hubbies or significant others that wants to!

I LOVE YOU JAKE!!!

Jake, Nick and George...good friends and good times!

My sweet, cute hubby!

It's All in the Family

I think I'm posted out...ok kidding, but really after posting all the pics (or a large portion of them!) from our trip to Florida, I really didn't want to post anything! Also, we took so many pics, I don't think I've recovered from picture shock. I'm sure the kids haven't! But, I did want to pop in and post something that makes me happy!

While we were down in Florida I helped my Momma setup a blog (yay!) and Jake made the mistake of showing Dad the wonders of torrents, and then sent him a 250 gig hard drive full of music. Long story short, Dad accidentally copied all the music from the portable hard drive onto their computer and almost killed it! Kyle stepped in and fixed everything up, but I'm sure they were kinda scarred about the state of their computer until it was back up! So, with those computer problems, and Dad hogging the computer, Mom is finally able to post again, lol! :)

I love blogs just for the fact that it's a good way to keep up with everyone. I know my Mom and Dad love looking at everything we post, and seeing all of our pictures. It's a fun little hobby too I guess!

Nothing new here, just still recovering from our vacation. The kids go back to school tomorrow after being off track for 3 weeks, and they seem pretty excited to see their teachers and friends. We had Brady's friend birthday party last Saturday and that was lots of fun. He had his last Jr. Jazz Basketball game yesterday, but never fear, we'll be busy enough again now that he can wrestle! So, it will be T-ball and Wrestling for him, and Tumbling and Softball for Gwynie. I love that my kids like to be active and have fun doing it!

Well, it's off to get the laundry finished up, and ready for the week! I dread Monday's, but I do like getting a good start to the week!