Digital Scrapbooking

My Aunt Andrea owns a digital scrapbooking website scrapmatters.com. Last year while I was on maternity leave she came to my house to show my sister and I how to digi scrap. I had to go back to work so I only was able to complete a few pages. Now that I am home more I have been able to work on some more pages and I love it!! I still need to add some text to the pages but here are some of the ones I am working on...

Baby G

Kaylee gave birth to the most beautiful little girl on April 7th. During the last 9 months Kaylee had gone back and forth with what kind of life to give this little baby girl (I called her baby G or G). She thought about the life the baby would have if she kept her. Kaylee would be a single mother going to school and working. She knew in her heart that this baby deserved a family and a mother who could stay home with her during the day.
No one is quite sure how Kaylee found the family she did but we are all so thankful that the power of faith and prayer worked. The family that she chose has 3 children (all adopted). The oldest is 11 and the others are 8 and 6. They are all VERY excited to have a sibling and Baby G is going to have a wonderful life with siblings who love her and will protect her. Another thing Kaylee wanted was a family who would be open to Baby G knowing Kaylee. They will be sending pictures, letters and Kaylee (and the rest of our family) will be able to see her when we are in California. They will also hopefully be making trips up to Washington.
The past few weeks have been hard on the whole family (especially me). There have been a lot of tears. I just wanted what was best for Kaylee and told her I would support her 100% whatever decision she made. The adopted parents were wonderful. I met them last Saturday and it had already felt like they were Baby G's parents. Kaylee is an amazing, selfless, strong woman.
Here are some pictures I took...

Spring Break at the lake

Last week Kaiya had Spring Break so Steph, her kids, Ella, Kaiya and I went to Lake Wilderness. It was a nice sunny day (which is rare) and the kids had a blast playing in the water and on the beach. One thing interesting to me was Ella hated the sand and ocean in California. She would scream every single time we would put her down. At Lake Wilderness she loved the beach and the water and screamed every time I would take her back up the other grass area. Funny how kids change even within a few months. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Cute Little Gracie...

Easter

Last Friday we made the long drive to Spokane to visit Cirdan's family. The kids were good in the car and Ella slept most of the way. That night Cirdan's family had planned a birthday party for Ella. We ate pizza, visited, opened presents and ate cake. It was nice to see everyone and be at Cirdan's parents house especially since it has been about a year and a half since we were last there!





Ella got some really cute gifts! She loves the clothes, baby, baby stroller and squeaky shoes she got.


By the time we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake Ella was exhausted. So we gave her a binkie which stopped the tears for a bit while we sang.




On Saturday morning we woke up and had baking class with Cirdan's dad. He showed us how to make his delicious rolls. I am now anxious to buy a Kitchen Aid so that we can try to make our own!




While we waited for the rolls to rise it was Easter egg decorating time.



After decorating eggs, Kaiya and Sue watched Mary Poppins since Kaiya had said she had never seen it but loves the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song.

Richard, Cirdan, Ella and I went for a walk in the park next to their house. One of my favorite things about going to Spokane is Manito Park. We let Ella out of her stroller and she was loving running down the hills and playing peek a boo with Grandpa. She doesn't usually get to play outside since it is always wet and raining but she loves the outdoors.







On Sunday we woke up and went to church with Cirdan's parents. It was really nice to go and listen to why we celebrate Easter. One of my favorite parts was the Primary children singing a song accompanied by a 6 year old little boy playing the violin. When we got back we took a family picture.

I tried to get a nice picture of Kaiya and Ella in their matching Easter dresses but it didn't go well.


Ella is getting to the age where she doesn't want to always cooperate. We then went inside for Ella to take a nap and I filled the Easter eggs with candy. Then Cirdan hid the eggs outside since it was cold but nice enough to do an egg hunt outside.
This was Ella's 1st Easter. Last year Easter came right before she was born. It was fun to celebrate her 1st with her walking around finding eggs.







The rest of the family started showing up as soon as we were done so we went inside and started helping with dinner. The weather had shown that it was supposed to be rain/snow mix on Sunday with it turning to snow later that night. Cirdan and I got nervous and thought it would be best to leave at 3:00 after dinner to drive through the pass when it was still light out. We were really sad to leave since it didn't feel like we were there very long.


We had an extremely delicious dinner. Ham, super yummy potatoes, mashed cauliflower, deviled eggs, frog eye salad, warm fresh rolls and fresh fruit. Sue had decorated the table really cute with pastel table cloths, napkin holders with flowers on them and on the kids table they had some of the Easter eggs that we had colored.


In the Imbler family they have a tradition that every Easter Richard comes up with clues for an Easter basket hunt. They have been doing this since around the time Cirdan was a teenager. We were there for the kids hunt but had to leave for the adult hunt.

This clue says...'This next clue takes some teamwork. You'll have to be a team to do well. So spread out, and listen, and find the source of the sound when you ring the door bell!'

The kids had to pick one person who rang the door bell while the rest went and found where the chime was coming from. That is where they found the next clue...

At the end of all the clues it brought the kids to the fireplace where they each got their own bag of fun toys!

We tried to get a picture of the adults and the kids were behind the camera. Between the little kids running in and out of the picture and the kids behind the camera cutting people out the picture the this was the best we got.

After pictures it was time to leave. Kaiya was sad to leave and cried most of the way home. We all had a fun time in Spokane and are looking forward to going back soon!

When we got home we unpacked the car and then someone rang the door bell! It was the Easter bunny who dropped off an Easter basket of candy and Hannah Montana stuff.