Mountains to Climb

Good Times Kit by Veronica Peralta,

Word Art from Shelly Greninger

Selfish Font from www.Dafont.com

Weee

The kit is a July Freebie by Anne Langpap (2 Peas)

Daddy is Maia's Favorite Hairdresser

Paper: from a sample by Amy Teets, Paradise (recolored a little)

Doodle border: mary lauda (recolored)

doodle elements: Girly Girl by Christina Dudley (recolored)

title buttons: I made them myself woooohoooo!

1st Birthday

DoodleBug kit created by and (c) Maria LaFrance

Stitched Words by Amy Martin (Freebie)

Stretch

Paper and all elements are from a freebie Splendid by Shabby Princess

My Favorite Color

Kit: Navy Fall by Amy Tanabe

Why I Scrap

Tag from: Your Love is Better Than Chocolate(c) 2005 Ams Digi Scraps

Kit: this kit was called Sweet and it didn't have a TOU or anything, HELP????

This was an All About Me Challenge. The subject was to answer the question, "Why do you scrap?"

In short, I scrap because someday I can share it with Maia. My mom didn't take a lot of photos of me as a kid. I have oodles of photos of Maia now and I cherish them all. Scrapbooking is a way to preserve them and to tell the stories behind the photos. This way we will always have our memories together.

How We Met

Vintage Remnants Mini Kit by LaWanna Desjardin
This was a About Me challenge. The challenge was to tell the story of how I met my husband. There wasn't supposed to be a photo, just a lot of journalling.

John and I have a pretty good beginning.

For Dad

Homemade By Me

One thing that made my dad most special is that he was really a "Stepdad"... but he didn't often remind us of that. He was always just Dad. He didn't care that we weren't "His Own". For 19 years, he was the only dad we ever knew.

This is a photo of the headstone on his gravesite in St. George. We will all miss him dearly. I think about him almost every day.

My Mother's Garden

Hopefully, I will find the credits for this too!

The journalling says it all... well, most of it. I am a lousy gardener. My mom, however, can get almost anything to grow. And she has some beautiful roses. I hope to someday have my own roses to keep up the "family line".

My Niece, Brittany

URBAN BABY Mini Kit © 2006 by Lisa Whitney
I loved this outing. My sister, my niece, Maia, and me... all went to the Bellydancing festival at Liberty Park. It was a gorgeous summer day. I got to spend a lot of girl time with them, and we got to watch the bellydancing performers and shop at a bunch of booths with bellydancing clothes and such. We ate gyros and hung out in the grassy areas and just enjoyed ourselves for a day without Daddy. It made being sick not so terrible :)

My Sister, Lisa

Help, the sketch I used didn't have a read me file!

And a bunch of homemade elements and word art.

My sister, Lisa, is one of those true "Survivors". And I don't mean in the Reality TV sense. She has not had an easy life, but she always somehow manages to keep going. Sometimes she is an inspiration to me, but don't tell her I said so :) I made this page for her at a time that I thought she was at a lower point. I hope it cheered her up and that she realized that she really has made a positive impact on my life... now and then.

My Brother, My Friend

Word Art: K Pertiet

Papers and Embellishments: Me and some brushes.
I made this when I was thinking about Robert, my baby brother. He's not a baby anymore. Growing up, we were pretty close. I like to think we still are, but we have grown up a lot and our lives keep us too busy to spend a whole lot of time together. He is engaged to the gal in the photos, and has been with her a looong time. It is great that he has found someone who can really appreciate him for who he is, for he is especially unique.

The word art is especially fitting I think for how I feel about him. He is a gadget and toy guy, he always has cool things and likes to look really good.. he spends a lot of time on his hair and buys the name brand jeans and all that... but underneath it all, I love my brother for who he is. Period.

I loved making this layout, it is one of my favorites ever. I was so inspired and really like how it turned out.

My Favorite Things 2006

Background from "Butterfly Kisses", by Jeanelle Paige,

Word Art from "Blue Lavender," set by Miss Mint,

Cuddlebug embellishment part of "A Boy's Life," by Amanda Roberts

More a collage of me... one photo of my husband and daughter, one of Seattle's Market, and one of my favorite ice cream... This was an entry for an All About Me challenge at Digital Freebies I think.

In Your Eyes

No Kit, just a great photo and my journalling.

Sleeping Beauty

Papers: Brenda Miller

Doodles: Angie Briggs & some homemade

Template/Sketch: Heather Heinzer

Princess Happy Pants

Butterfly Kisses Kit by Jeanelle Paige

I don't know if Maia will ever know this nickname. She outgrew it later on, but while she was a baby we called her Little Miss Princess Happy Pants. Grandma came up with it, but it stuck. There's even a little song I used to sing to her...

"Princess, Happy PANTS... she's the best princess in all the land.

She's got style, She's got grace, She's got the most AMAZING face.

She's Princess Happy PANTS."

My Little Star

Paper by me

Stars are all by Karen Hunt

Daddy and Maia

Paper by me

Love Doodle by Angie Briggs

Still looking for the word art... it will come to me

Daddy and Maia have always had a special relationship. She is a Daddy's Girl for sure. They have been inseparable since she was born. She likes to play with his whiskers, He liked to tickle her cheeks with them when he gave her "Mooches"

Maia in Dress

Kit: To Dream by Tracy Blankenship

This was an entry I made for a doodle challenge. The photo was Maia in her first Christmas dress. It was red and satin. Gosh it is nice to have a little girl to play dress up with :)

First Christmas

All elements homemade and available on my digital freebie blog.

Maia got spoiled rotten for her first Christmas. Everyone would sit and watch while she would tear the papers off of her gifts. She was a natural. This was the year of the talking book and the ball that wiggled itself across the floor. Toys! Lots of them.

Curious Spirit

All elements homemade...

To make this awesome photo collage, I used the Big Picture Action from Panos.

Maia had a habit of getting right up close and personal when I got the camera out.

Maia's Smile

Paper: Sakura Kit by Herika
Smile Word Art by K Pertiet

Diamonds by Kim Higueria

Still finding the rest

Daddy and I had a small obsession for little kimono type outfits for Maia. They weren't practical, but she sure looked adorable in them. She looked adorable in just about anything. She wasn't much of a smiley photo baby, so I was surprised to catch a smile in this one.

Possibilities

The paper was part of a set by Stacy Carlson at GottaPixel.

The little slide element is part of Your Love is Better Than Chocolate from Ams Digi Scraps.

The word art is from Tabatha Reed's New Beginnings.

I never imagined I would be blessed with such a beautiful daughter. Maia wasn't unwanted, just unplanned. She was a wonderful surprise in our lives and we were so excited from the day we found out I was pregnant.

I wonder what she will be... what she will love... what she will learn in life. I wonder if she will be as close with her mama as I am with mine. I wonder if she will always be the center of her Daddy's universe like she is now.

Fingers and Toes

Paper by me

Doodles by Lisa West

Our Princess

Credits to Come

Maia was so beautiful when she was just a newborn and sleeping. Look how she curled up and snuggled right in. She had such teensy little parts.

The Day You Were Born

Credits to Come

This is a picture of Maia while we were still at the hospital on the day she was born. She started out life beautiful.