InstaFriday

Happy Friday! 

It is cool and rainy here today, a nice break from the 100 degree heat index yesterday. Whew! I knew I wasn't crazy when I made chicken casserole for dinner last night with pumpkin cake for dessert. I am ready for fall! 

I got my 12x12 prints for Michael's scrapbook in the mail this week. yay! I put together the collages in google's Picasa program and then I upload them to persnicketyprints.com. The 12x12 prints are only $1.99 and are excellent quality. I like printing them this way because the pages are thinner and it is super quick to put together a collage- just a few minutes if I am feeling lazy/uncreative. 

I don't have a lot of tips but here is what works for me:

-  highlighting major events of the year (usually trips, birthdays, holidays, weddings) that I want to put on a page

-go through each month and pick the favorites for each month for a page

-sometimes even minor events will get a whole page if there are lots of cute photos- I try and do a page of Michael's yearly portraits as well as family portraits

-I always put the month and year on each page (helps immensely when assembling the book!)

-I try and write a few blurbs about what was going on to jog my memory. Sometimes I will go back to my blog for refreshers and even cut and paste text. 

The biggest source of inspiration is this website: Memories on Clover Lane. She has some great tutorials! 

I do enjoy doing shutterfly books for special events like a trip or Christmas but it is hard for me to wrap my head around doing one for Michael's whole childhood. I like doing the pages because I can work on it here and there and keep adding to the scrapbook when I get them printed. I also originally started doing this when Trace was little so I could do two pages at once- one for each boy. I am not quite sure what the future holds in terms of scrapbooking with the twins on the way but at least Michael has a good start on his childhood scrapbook! 

In other news, we've been trying to keep busy this week but doing projects and watching some movies. Michael has been dreaming up all these projects he tells me about in detail and I am happy to indulge him! I have loads of random craft supplies on hand so if it is worth a few minutes of entertainment...I am in! 

And in baby news...

I've had a weird week with feeling very anxious about my blood pressure and the baby girls arrival. I have dealt with anxiety in the past and the symptoms I was feeling were pretty consistent with that but it was worrying me that maybe something else was wrong. Luckily at my appointment yesterday, my doctor was happy with my blood pressure and told me to hang tight until Wednesday, when the girls are scheduled to arrive via c-section. I was so surprised to hear this- I even had my hospital bag in the car, ready to be sent to the hospital and deliver the babies right away. I know, I think I am losing it! The next five days seems like an eternity but I know I just need to get out of my own head and relax until the day arrives. I have a facial scheduled, will get a pedicure next week, my mom is coming a few days early to help, and I have a final NST/BPP scheduled on Monday for peace of mind. I think I can make it! I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers and it just seems so unreal and surreal to me that it is all actually happening!