New Year's Resolutions (and why this year will be different!)

I waffled back and forth about even thinking about New Year's resolutions, but in the end I decided that since my family and I were making changes anyway (the timing just happened to coincide with the new year), I may as well make it official. Here's two pages I scrapped about some of my 2012 resolutions (click each image for full credits):

(Created with Mscraps January 2012 store collab New Year's Resolutions)

(Created with Journal Your (he)Art Out 3: The Basics by Nancie Rowe Janitz and Fiddlette Designs - I love this page because I experimented with another of my 2012 resolutions - learning art journaling!)

What are your 2012 resolutions? Have you made any?

December Daily: The Final Post, Finally!!

Even though it's a few days late, I'm so proud of myself for actually finishing my December Daily! I have a pattern of getting super excited about a new project and letting it fizzle when I don't "feel" the same passion a few days later. I definitely hit that dry spell, but this time I pushed myself through it and continued to document our stories this month, even when I forgot to take pictures. Having most of the pages done in advance certainly helped! I'm considering using this format for other projects (baby album?) - setting up a bunch of coordinated pages using a template album ahead of time. Hmm... wheels are turning...

But for now, here's my final five December Daily pages! Thank you to those who have followed me on this blog journey (my family better still be reading these posts!), and I hope we'll have lots more fun journeys through writing and scrapbooking together in this new year. Have a happy and blessed 2012!

December Daily: The Blues Hit

It was bound to happen - the December/Christmas blues. When all the decorations are down, the parties over, presents unwrapped, and reality sneaks back in. This year the blues hit me especially hard because my parents are moving across the country in a month. My dad landed a huge promotion and will be Dual Director of Engineering for two Marriott properties in Washington D.C. I'm beyond proud of him, but my heart aches just thinking of living so far from my family for the first time in my life. All that to say, I let my December Daily pages and posts slide a bit, but I am committed to finishing. Even more now I want to document this month with my family, since I have no idea what next December will bring.`I'm still waiting to collect photos for a couple pages, but I wanted to go ahead and share what I have. Look for the rest of the month soon!

December Daily Days 14-16

Weekdays when Josh is at work are pretty hum-drum around here. Wednesday the boys found the Play-do stash and remembered how much they loved squishing and playing with it, especially Cai! I love it when they find something creative to do instead of just begging to watch TV. Some days I'm tempted to toss the TV off our balcony! That might cause a problem in my marriage, though... Josh does love his movies, and Cai certainly inherited his daddy and grandpa's passion for the screen!

Thursday I forgot, again, to take any pictures. Cai talked about Santa a lot, he doesn't understand that Christmas is still days away! He thinks, when he hears a song or see Santa on TV, that he's coming NOW! Silly boy!

Friday I took the boys to a fellow Mops' mom's house for a Jesus Birthday party. We had a blast! I wish our group had been able to get together more this fall. 

December Daily Days 9-13: Catching Up

Well, I knew it would happen eventually. Life took over, I even forgot to take pictures a few days, and now I'm playing catch-up. Oh well, the pages are done, memories recorded, and all is well. I'm determined not to stress about this project!! With no further ado, here are my pages for December 9-13.

December Daily Day 8: The Good Day

Although it often seems that life with three little boys produces more stressful days than good ones, I truly treasure the happy, relatively peaceful days. Today all three boys slept at the same time in the afternoon, allowing mommy to sneak in a little nap, too, which hugely contributed to my happy feelings about the day! I also enjoyed snapping some (okay, a lot of) photos of Riah, he is so cute and photogenic! I love his happy smiles, they always brighten my day.

I wish I could create a (paper/hybrid) December Daily album like some of the ones I see linked up to Ali Edwards' blog posts, that are so incredibly creative and beautiful. Totally works of art. One year I will, I promise myself! This year, though, I'll be happy just to take my photos and tell a little story in my simple digital album - I'm proud of myself for just doing it!

December Daily Days 6-7, or, The Humdrum Days

The days when Josh is gone to work from 4am to 7:45pm tend to drag on and on and blur together. The boys act up worse when daddy's gone, and you can't even imagine the number of diapers I change every day. It's hard to find something "special" to journal about on these days, but I'm trying to remember that December Daily isn't about finding something special every day, it's about capturing what really happened - boring bits and all! So here's days six and seven!