Another Christmas page.

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52 Blessings: Week 14

My blessing this week is my family. With my brother's return from his LDS mission to Paris, France we were ALL together. All 27 of us! It was awesome. We couldn't remember the last time we were all together...and sadly we don't know when it will happen again.

I absolutely love my family. Always have. Always will. Even though it was just a few hours, I loved that we were all together again. I love that we are all back in the same country. I love that EJ brings out the best in all of us. I love my parents for loving each other and teaching us to love. And for raising us to be friends. I love that my sisters have all married amazing men. I love my nieces and nephews and the wonderful cousins they are to my little HD. I really am blessed to be part of such an amazing family!

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Christmas Angel.

I just had to scrap this picture of HD. Her little grin captures so much of her personality. And of course I had to use Breeza's awesome kit (Candied Christmas) again!

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52 Blesssings: Week 13

I know it's Tuesday, but I just got this one done. I'm still trying to decide what I think of it. But I really do think it's a blessing to have a tree. I have loved seeing HD's excitement at the lights and bows. And the smell is divine. It's a simple tree and we love it that way!{credits}

52 Blessings: Week 11

I'm catching up with last week. I thought about doing pictures of my 30 November Blessings, but decided just to do the list. I liked the simplicity of the page.

I really believe that gratitude is a blessing. The opportunity to step back and recognize what we have in our lives blesses us and those around us. I loved keeping track during November and seeing how blessed I really am....even in the little things.

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New Kit: Candied Christmas

Bree just released her new Christmas kit, "Candied Christmas". Such fun colors.

I scrapped this page this afternoon...and have more in mind. Thanks for another great kit, Bree!

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52 Blessings: Week 12

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I know, I skipped Week 11. I have the blessing in mind...just trying to figure out how to scrap it. But I really wanted to do this page because it's been on my mind so much in the last little while. I am so grateful to our troops and their sacrifices. For their willingness to leave their families to serve our country, all the while putting themselves in harm's way.

I have a friend whose husband will return from his deployment next week. He has kept a blog going while he's been in Iraq and the other day, while reading his post about being thankful, I just started to cry. His words seemed to echo what I can imagine so many other soldiers are thinking at this time. During the holidays, these soldiers are missing out on so much, and yet, they volunteered their time to do it. We all owe them so much - whether we agree with the war or not. Our soldiers need our love and our support. Now more than ever.

52 Blessings: Weeks 9 and 10

I haven't done a lot of scrapping in the past couple of weeks. And the only pages I've really done, I can't show here because they are part of my gift for my secret sibling Christmas gift. But I've had my blessings project on my mind a lot. It seems right now I have so many blessings - big and small - that it's almost overwhelming to choose which ones to scrap. Not a bad place to be. So this week, I narrowed my blessings down to two that I wanted to scrap....this is what I came up with.

Week 9: Young Women

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I work with the teenage girls in my congregation (to learn more click here and here). It's not the easiest thing I've ever done and the last couple of weeks were particularly difficult. But now, looking back, I learned so much during this particularly stressful time. And I have a greater appreciation for my girls and their struggles. I really am grateful for all of "my" girls and the opportunity to work with them and to be a part of their lives.

Week 10: Christmas Music

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I love Christmas music and anxiously await the day it's "allowed" in our house - the day after my birthday. It just makes everything feel right. This year I am listening to Josh Groban's Noel a lot. It's my favorite - now two years in a row. He has such an amazing voice!

Leaf Pages.

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Another new kit by Breeza.

Breeza just whipped out this beauty last week. So much fun. I love how much there is going on with this kit. I can't wait to use it again and again.

I really wanted to scrap this picture and this kit was perfect.

And then I thought it went well with leaf pictures from Saturday...

52 Blessings: Week 8

After reading the Declaration of Independence again this week, I truly am grateful for the most important and inspired document of our nation's history. And I'm grateful for our forefather and their sacrifices. Our right to vote wouldn't exist without them.

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Scrap'It Designs QP Blog Train

Welcome to your last stop on the 'Scrap'it QP freebie Blog Train'. Hopefully you've visted everyone else, but in case you missed someone (quite a few time zones involved), here's the list:

All the stops:
1. Bree's Blog ------> First stop!!
2. Melissa's Blog
3. Sharon's Blog
4. Cristina's Blog
5. Rachel's Blog ------> You are here!!

To celebrate Brianna's release of her beautiful kit, Lavender Mint-berry Cream, available at Snap and Scrap and Scrapmatters, I too have created a couple of Quick Pages.

If you hurry you can grab it at Snap and Scrap for 30% off until Friday!!!

And here are my pages!

Hope you enjoy using them as much as I enjoyed making them!

Lavender Mint-berry Cream and Glinda.

Breeza just designed this awesome new kit...
...available at ScrapMatters & Snap and Scrap.

And so I created this page...

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I am really pleased with how it turned out. I used Pioneer Woman's Soft and Faded action to get the photo just right. I can't wait to do a few more pages. This kit goes perfectly with HD's costume.

And check back here on Wednesday for a QP blog train!

Trick-or-Treat

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52 Blessings: Week 7

So it seems this is turning into a Monday instead of a Sunday project. It just seems like I can't ever get a page completed and uploaded on a Sunday. I'll keep trying though.

Anyway, it's finally starting to feel like fall here and I've been so happy. I love the fall! So, my greatest blessing this week is my favorite season.

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A Halloween Page.

In honor of the day...

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52 Blessings: Week 6

I'm grateful for HD's little friends. Although she is still kind of into playing by herself, slowing she is learning to play more and more with other kids. They are all so fun and take good care of her at playgroup - pushing her on the swing, helping her up the jungle gym and down the slide. It's so fun. Plus they can make her laugh - especially GB - which I love! And as an added bonus, I get to "play" with my friends while she plays with hers. What would we do without little friends?

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52 Blessings: Week 5

Yesterday I ran a 5K that was set up to raise money for Stephanie Nielson's recovery. It was a really fun race with lots of kids and happy people! And for the first time, I actually took HD with me for a race. I loved having her with me and listening to excitement as people cheered us on.
As I ran I thought about how much of a blessing running is. It helps me stay in shape. It gets me outside (except when it's freezing cold). It allows me to spend time with family members when we run races. I get cool t-shirts. It's a good hour of time with HD. The reasons go on and on. I'm so grateful for running...and that it's a hobby that I really do enjoy.

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Three weeks worth of pages...

From a Speed Scrap about three weeks ago at SM.
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Tuesday Template challenge at SM. Love this kit by Britt-ish Designs. Seriously so fun!
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For a scrap challenge hosted by onehm at Tangie Baxter's Loft.
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These two were to fulfill my CT responsibilities with Breeza.

For a scraplift challenge at SM.
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Tuesday Template challenge at SM.

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52 Blessings: Week 4

My little brother, serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris, France is my blessing this week. He turned 21 on Saturday so I've been thinking a lot about him. He is such a good example to me. I love reading his emails and letters and getting pictures. Only two months and he'll be home!

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Fairies.

Bree from Scrap'it Designs just released the coolest kit. You can get it at ScrapMatters and soon at Snap and Scrap.
It really is beautiful and has so many possibilities.

This is the LO I did with this kit.

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So much fun...and so many other ideas floating around.

52 Blessings: Week 3

With it being General Conference, all I could think about is how grateful I am for living prophets and for continued revelation. It is always so nice to listen to the prophet's counsel and to know that his words are the words of our Father in Heaven. I really love listening to President Monson speak. He is so kind and uplifting...and he tells the best stories!

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{If you'd like, you can learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Saints by clicking here and more about living prophets by clicking here.}

Big Week in my Scrapping World

First off, two weeks ago I submitted this page to Scrap It by Breeza's Creative Team call. (The page had to use 75% of her designs.) Then on Wednesday - Friday she displayed my LO (along with 8 others) on her blog and asked her blog readers to vote on their favorite. The top two LOs with most votes would be on her creative team and guess what, I was one of those! So I'm on a creative team! Yahoo! I am so excited and I can't wait to get to "work"!

Then, I got a few more pages done last week. I realized that I still have a lot of Italy pictures to scrap so I started using challenges at ScrapMatters to do some of those pages. I really like how they are turning out. I think my creative juices must have been flowing. These are the three I finished:{credits}

Cortina was a page I did as part of a Telephone Challenge at SM.

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Slovenia was done for a Speed Scrap.

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I entered Vajont Dam into a template challenge over at Tangie Baxter's Loft and I won! I was so excited. It's always fun to be recognized and especially for a page I really love and can't wait to print.

I also scrapped this page for a Tuesday Template challenge. Looks a lot like this one, huh? Kind of fun to be able to do that since these two pages will go in two different albums - HD's and my 52 Blessings book.

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Oh, and when I have weeks like this, when I do a lot of pages, I get asked a lot how I have the time to do it all...in all honesty, I just do. It's one of my favorite pasttimes, so if I can find the time, I'm going to scrap. And these pages really just flowed. None of them took much longer than an hour and all were done during nap time or after HD was asleep. Oh, and Matt has been studying a lot this week and was out of town on Thursday and Friday, so I can spend my evenings and nights in front of the computer without feeling guilty!

52 Blessings: Week 2

I took this picture of HD while up at Sundance visiting a friend's cabin last week. It's just got a little glimpse into her personality (and of course her best friend). This is a blessing I am reminded of on a daily basis when I get her out of her crib, spend my whole day with her and then kiss her goodnight. Love this girl! This is the same LO/template I used for a template challenge, so I revamped it and used it again. Love when I can do that.

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52 Blessings: Week 1

I have been inspired by fellow scrappers/bloggers to create a page counting my blessings for the next year. Once I'm done, hopefully I'll have a nice album full of all my blessings.

Challenges.

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Saturday Special - We had to scrap a wedding photo. Almost makes me want to go back and do all my wedding photos. Almost...

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Tuesday Template Challenge - I LOVE these pictures of HD. Seriously that little face just kills me.

I did these pages this week for challenges at ScrapMatters. It was fun to work with reds, browns and blacks. A little different from my norm.

Recent Pages

Saturday Special. Instructions: "your title has to be clever".
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For a Speed Scrap.
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Tuesday Template Challenge. Instructions: Scrap about someone special to you.
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Tuesday Template Challenge.
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Laurel Binders

My sweet laurels reminded me yesterday that I still hadn't done their binders. Wow. I felt so bad. In all honesty, this summer was SO busy that I completely forgot about their binders. Anyway, after the reminder I spent quite a bit of time getting everything together and ready to print. These are some of the "fun" pages that I did. I'd post the others but they have the girls' names all over them.
I used Sprite by E-Zane and Britt-ish Designs.

Disneyland Pages

I have SO many Disneyland pictures to scrap that it's a little intimidating/overwhelming to sit down and scrap them all. So instead I just do one or two at a time. Brittney, of Britt-ish Designs, does quite a few Disney-themed kits and I love them all!

This I did for a Tuesday Template Challenge at ScrapMatters last week. Credits.

And this one was for this week's Saturday Special at SM. I am really pleased how this turned out. I especially like the black and white photo with the recolored castle. Credits.