Some Scrapbook Pages - It's Been a While!

My mom mentioned that it has been a while since I posted any scrapbook layouts. When I looked back to see the latest pages I had shared, I realized that it has been quite a while! Here are some pages from the last couple months.
This first one is about Drew's new Thomas bed - a birthday gift from His Aunt Sharon and Uncle Larry. (Edited to add: I just noticed that I have already shared this page. Oops!)
These are some pictures from a family visit to the city water park last summer. It feels warm enough here this week to start going there again!

This layout was for a challenge about traditions. Drew celebrates his birthday each year with his cousin Brandon and a family friend, named Sherry. These pictures are from Drew's birthday this year.

I made this layout for a "Then and Now" challenge. I used some of Drew's very early pictures and some more recent ones as well and talked about how much I enjoy being his mother.

Jim picked up this Mater teeth sucker for Drew at the movie rental store. Drew looked so funny with the sucker in his mouth!

This layout is about our Easter Egg Hunt at Jim's sister and brother-in-law's house this year.

I made this page for a challenge to use a book page on a scrapbook page. I used a page from a nursery rhyme book on this page about my role as Mother Goose in a second grade program.

This last page was for a challenge to make a page with no pictures on it. I scrapped some of Drew's funny phrases and confusions.

I made all of these pages using sketches from Let's Scrap.

Spring - Shoulder Season - Rainy Season

In the golf business, Spring and Fall are called, "Shoulder Seasons." We are nearing the end of the spring shoulder season now (finally!), and it has been a busy one for Jim. During the spring shoulder season, golf courses don't have their full staff yet, and the management team must put in a lot of hours - both running day-to-day operations and preparing for the summer.
This Spring/shoulder season has been a very rainy season here in Michigan! A couple weekends ago, our street was covered with water. I walked down to take a few pictures. A crew from the city was out working to drain the water.

Drew and I have been keeping busy during Jim's long days at work. We've been playing with cars and trains, and running errands. I've been doing some coupon shopping again recently after having slowed down on it for a while (in an effort to use up a bit of our stockpile). This was my haul this week. I shopped at CVS, Aldi, and Meijer. I spent about $60, got $5 back in reward coupons, and saved about 50%, so I was pretty excited.

Jim has been working long days, and it seems that the nights that he can get away a little early seem to always be rainy or full of church or family activities. He has had trouble keeping up with the lawn this Spring, and last night, he ended up having to stay at work until almost 9, so I decided to surprise him by hiring one of my former 1st graders (who is now finishing 11th grade - how did he get so old?!) to cut our grass. Alex and his dad came and cut our grass. They did a great job, and Drew had fun following Alex around the yard with his little mower. Drew followed him the entire time! Drew's allergies are giving him some trouble today as a result of all the time in the grass, but he had fun, and Jim was thrilled to have this task taken care of for the week!

It ended up being a good thing that the grass got cut yesterday, because it has rained all day today, and it looks like the next few days will be rainy as well! This was the view out my back window this evening.

We are looking forward to getting through the end of this busy, wet season, and on to all the fun of the summer!

Learning to Ride

Drew has started learning how to ride a real little bike! He's getting too big too quickly! We were at a friend's birthday party last weekend, and he tried to ride one of their bikes. He struggled with the pedals, but he really wanted to ride. We came home from the party and tried out his little bike that an older cousin passed down to him.

Big guy!

I had a feeling that this would be coming soon, so I bought him this Lightning McQueen helmet a few weeks ago. I guess I got it just in time!

He can't seem to get the hang of the pedals, but I'm sure it will come.

Drew is extremely cautious (just like his mother!), but I hope he will catch on to bike riding much more quickly than I did when I was a child. I had training wheels for way too long . . . We'll see!

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day this year! It started with chocolate french toast and turkey bacon that Jim made. It was very good! We spent the morning at church, and then we went home for lunch. Jim snapped this picture of Drew and me before he started grilling chicken for our lunch. Jim's mom came over for lunch.

Drew has been practicing his smile (this is really how he smiles for pictures these days) and saying "cheese" because he and Jim bought me a new camera for Mother's Day!

I am now the owner of a Canon Rebel, and I love it! I've been waiting and saving for this camera for a while, and I'm having fun learning how to use it!

I made myself a camera strap slipcover (you can see it a little in this picture), and this time, I used this tutorial. It includes a lens cap pocket, and it is a little longer than the cover I made for Kristen a few weeks ago.

My boys really spoiled me this year, and I'm so thankful to be a wife and mother!

Pretty Spring Wreath

Several months ago, I found a tutorial for rolled fabric flowers, and I've been wanting to try them ever since. I decided to make my mother-in-law a wreath for Mother's Day, and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to make some rolled fabric flowers!
Here is the wreath I made. The flowers were pretty simple to make. My fingers did get quite glue-covered (I can't stand to have stuff on my hands!), but I persevered and was quite happy with the way the flowers turned out.

I used a hot glue gun to attach the flowers and berries to the wreath.

My mother-in-law really liked her wreath, and now I think I might need to make one for myself!