through the lens - Father's Day Weekend

I've kind of started something with this "through the lens" series on my blog.  I've been taking so many pictures lately and I love to share them so I'm thinking this will be a weekly thing.  Right now it's easier for me to share my creativity through my photos than with scrapbook supplies, so I'm going with the flow.  I'm aching to get into my craft room and scrap, but it's been way harder than I ever imagined since the kids got out of school for summer break.

We did a lot of celebrating this weekend.  My Dad's birthday was Friday and (of course) Father's Day was Sunday.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the weekend...

 Hamming it up at dinner with Grandpa on Friday night.

 Not the best pic, but I love the kids' faces in this one!

 Grandpa and Maria :)

Hangin' at the Lodge in Giant City on Saturday.

 My hard workin' hubby :)

 Swimming on Saturday night.

 Love this pic!

One day I hope to have a family picture where everyone is looking at the camera :0)

 Can't go fishing without her pearls!

 Boys on a boat.

 Bessie

 I caught a fish for him for Father's Day :)

Blackberries we found growing in the field.  

We've really become weekend warriors lately...it's finally getting easier to do more things since the kids are getting older...finally!

I used my iphone for all of these photos and I posted most of them on Instagram.  You can follow me on there @adriennealvis.  

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a fabulous Father's Day!  TFL!

through the lens - the big one-oh

We celebrated my son's birthday (he's 10 today!) over the weekend with a small gathering of his friends and family.

The theme for the party was Angry Birds...

 I used a few circle punches and some cardstock to make the pig face on the chip bucket.

 I found a few photos online of different ways to decorate the 

cupcakes and used what I had at home to work with.

The birthday boy :)

Water balloon fight.

Garrison and his buddies.

Opening gifts.

Me and my boy.

Jubal tearing up the boxes from the Angry Bird game.

Jubal, Garrison, and my dad in their Angry Bird gear!

He had a great party and everyone had fun...can't believe my baby is 10...

Hope you had a great weekend! 

through the lens - Sunday

I've been estranged from my DSLR recently, so I decided a fishing trip with the hubs and the kiddos would be a perfect time to get to know each other again.

Here's a few of my favorite pics from yesterday...

 Our froggy friend

 Jubal's truck

Love these colors!

 The "dino egg" we found...only it was just a perfectly round

 rock that the kids rolled down the hill all afternoon.

He's always digging something up.

 It was pure luck that I caught this pose :)

 Sissy's "fuf-fly"

 We didn't have a lot of luck fishing yesterday.

He may be holding it, but I caught it!!!  This was definitely 

the biggest fish I've ever caught and then I caught another one!

Hope you had a great weekend!  Happy Monday!

April's Twelve

Here's my Daily Dozen from Elizabeth Kartchner's photo challenge...

I recently stumbled upon my latest app obsession, Labelbox, the other day.  That's how I got the adorable "washi tape" labels on my pictures.  The app is free, super easy to use, and very addicting :) This app is going to be a very useful tool for my Project Life photos as well!

Here's the rundown on the photos above...

1.  Jubal woke up and was wanting to take some pictures of his room with my phone so I let him and this was my favorite one.  He's not half bad!

2.  I changed my blog look a bit...still trying to keep it free and more "me".

3.  Avery's been eating pb&j a lot lately...I don't blame her, though :)

4.  Avery and I played dress-up with all her plastic jewelry after Jubal went to Pre-K in the afternoon.

5.  I got me some new SC goodies in the mail today...always a plus!

6.  Avery always goes nuts when the boys come home from school.  She can't wait to greet them at the door and then proceeds to drive them absolutely crazy the rest of the day!

7.  Garrison got in a bit of trouble the other day, so I told him he had to spend a few after-school hours in his room this week.  Because of this, he found a long lost activity book that's become his latest obsession.  He's been having a lot of fun with it and I like to join in and help him out when he's stumped...some of those puzzles are really hard!

8.  I also like to check his homework, that is, when he brings it home.

9.  Jubal received his yearbook today and spent over an hour looking at it and pointing out all the kids he knew.  He showed me his "girlfriend" and told me... "She won't let me date her."  I replied, "Smart girl."

10.  & 11.  The boys always enjoy a little TV time after supper and baths.  Tonight, they stayed upstairs and watched Spongebob...not my favorite show, but I enjoyed them being around me while I was cleaning up in the kitchen :)

12.  Avery was wound up all evening.  She made an obstacle course out of all the couch pillows and wouldn't let anyone sit down on it!  I hate it when the upstairs living room is destroyed, but I let her have her fun...oh, that girl...


If you joined in on this photo challenge, you can link it up here www.elizabethkartchner.com and share your 12 on 12 photos.  TFL and TGIF!

good eggs

 Here's my take on this week's Sunday Sketch at Studio Calico...

I couldn't wait to scrap the pictures of the kids dyeing Easter eggs!  They were so well-behaved and careful not to stain every surface within a 15 foot radius!  Jubal really went to town hand-drawing pictures of EVERY family member on his eggs...he's my little artist :)

I used my City of Lights kit for this layout and some Mister Huey's Calico White for the paint splotches.

Happy Hump Day and thanks for looking ;)

Project Life Week 2

Originally, I wasn't going to number my weeks for Project Life since I began this project in mid-March, but for posting purposes it makes sense.  So this is Week 2, unofficially :)

As you can tell, it was another crazy week!  I feel like I've been living at the doctors' office!  It's only been two weeks in, but I must say that I'm really loving this Project Life thing.  My method has gotten more efficient and if I pre-plan a little over the weekend I only spend a few minutes (yes, minutes!) a day journaling and printing off pictures.  I highly recommend this type of scrapbooking...it's fast, efficient, and you get soooooo many great memories recorded.  I've also found that if you Google or get on Pinterest, you can find tons of free downloads and printables for Project Life, so it's also very affordable :)

Happy Tuesday!

three of a kind

It's been quite a week...funny how having the hubs around on sick leave changes the dynamic of EVERYTHING!  This week hasn't been very productive, I've had to sleep on the couch every night because of the horrible snoring (doctor says this will go away soon...it better or I might not make it!), and the kids have been extra hyped up because daddy's been home.  

Anyway, I barely got a chance to do a Sunday Sketch this week, but I squeezed it in...

I took the sketch and turned it upside down.  I used a really big photo (which I rarely do) as the focal point.  All the products I used are from Studio Calico's March Kit, Story Hour.  Just a little FIY on this photo - the kids are actually standing behind a dead coyote that my husband had shot during his "coyote season".  I just cropped it out because I loved their facial expressions so much in this picture!  Yeah, welcome to my world...lol!

my happy book

I just finished my Happy Little Moments book that I made via this class by Maggie Holmes.  I got to use lots of paint, punches, sewing techniques for this project, which I love!  This book is all about those happy, little, everyday moments that I want to remember...

Confetti is HUGE is scrapbooking right now...

 this was my first attempt at using it on one of my projects :)

I made about five more pages with my book and it turned out super chunky, which I love!  

Thanks for taking a look :)