The happy scraper.

I love to scrapbook! When I was young I had my own photo album with the sticky pages and I would save photos and stuff in it. I made sure the pages we organized and all the pictures were arranged in pretty yet symmetrical ways. So now go forward at least 25 years and I have at least 30 albums documenting the lives of my family. Yes it takes forever, yes the eco-friendly girl is wasting paper (I do use all my scraps) no I am not caught up on all my photos, no I never will be. Why do I like it? I love photos, and I love telling a story with them. I can't write worth much so I tell my life story through crapbooks. It is also a great creative outlet for me. Plus I have always loved shopping for pens and paper. (I am on a first name basis with all the staff at Staples, and they have given me a personal shopper who calls me about once a month to check in on me.) I guess Scrapbooking is just the logical choice for me.

I am preparing for a 12 hour "Crop" and while going through what is done and what needs to be done Ryana brings me her baby album and asks why there are only 3 pages in her book. There are more pictures in her dance album then her baby book, and she has only done two dance recitals. I realized the problem, I have almost no pictures of her before age 1. I am sure I took them, just don't know where they are.

In 12 hours I should be able to finish 12/2 page layouts with no trouble. It has taken weeks of prep to get ready so the crop is more like a 36 hour crop once you count all the organizing, shopping and photo printing in adition to the actuall finishing fo the pages. I will up date this after the crop to let you know how much I got done and how many of them will go into Ryana's baby book.

Thats not a Milk Mustache!

I know most of my friends have teenagers and have had them for a few years, but this is new to me my oldest just turned 12. Yes I know 12 is not quite teenager but when Bryn has a had a mustache for over a year now, and stinky arm pits since 3rd grade I think it counts. Yes that's right Bryn could start shaving if he wanted. Is it wrong that I want to wax his lip? My mom doesn't see anything wrong with the idea in fact she told me there are Junior Highs with a no facial hair rule. Is it wrong that I have issue with Junior Highs telling my son he has to shave or wax? Do they tell girls when it is time to shave? This really bothers me. Its one thing for me as his parent to decide when it is time for him to shave but this does not seem like an issue for schools to get involved in. Does the mustache make him a wild child? If the Bishop is not saying Bryn has to shave to pass the sacrament (we did cut his hair) then I see no reason for a Junior High to get involved. I guess I am lucky we don't live wherever that JH is. Or is it the JH is lucky I am not one of the parents in their boundaries.

Spin me Right round, Baby!

Willow Park, Logan Utah (I think July 2006.) The Bills family reunion always happens at Willow Park and this year we were there for Logan Days. Several activities were going on all over the park, but we were watching Randall's Brother Keith and his band preform. When there is music Ryana MUST dance, she is unable to keep still. we watched her for 3 songs before I thought, "hey maybe I should record this. So I did. In the video you see her unique dancing style, but also you see several times where she realizes she is tired and maybe a little dizzy but her body will not let her stop moving.

Swinging In The Rain.

Family room Furniture typically consists of a couch, a chair or two, TV, some sort of table, maybe even a bookcase. But, ours is not your typical family room. We have 2 swings hanging from the ceiling one for Ryana and one for Kenyon, as well as the couch, TV, and book shelves. Right now Kenyon is in his swing asleep, but pushing his swing by himself to keep it going. Kenyon spent the first 3 years of his life sleeping in a standard Graco swing. Now much to big for a Graco we have worked hard to help him get comfortable in a bed at night but he still spends most of his awake time in his swing. Now for the real fun. Since he needs sensory input even while asleep, with no swinging he needs it from somewhere else. We do not have an amazing Vibro bed from a sleazy hotel room but body contact works, so Kenyon sleeps with either Randall or I each night. There are two huge problems with this solution: Randall and I rearely get to sleep in the same bed and we are now going to have to explain to Kenyon's college roommate why they have to share a bed, or we have to find a big enough swing that he can sleep in and then explain that to his room mates.