Outtakes

Aly has been taking Zoe's pictures for years, and I always love the way they turn out. 

I always ask for her to include some outtakes because I love to have some of the silly pictures as well as the sweet ones.

Her smile can go from sweet to crazy in just a matter of seconds.

I got the idea of making the Basic Grey canvas flowers into bows from Stephanie's layout here.

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This is just a bunch of silly faces from our Easter photo shoot before we left Idaho.

My favorite is the one on the left. 

 Totally Zoe.

I take and save lots of photos that aren't necessarily "scrapbook worthy," but life isn't always perfect right?

Plus, looking back through the scrapbooks, the funny pictures are always the favorites :)

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Easter in Pictures

Hope you enjoyed your Easter holiday too!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Monochromatic....Kinda

Happy Monday! 

Just a quick post for today. 

I wanted to focus on the picture in this layout so I kept the colors muted, and who doesn't love an excuse to use a "Q" :)

::a little bit of hidden journaling::

I'm working on editing our Easter pictures, I took a lot!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Thanksgiving Point - Farm Country

What a lovely sight in the morning.

We took a trip to Thanksgiving Point this morning.

The majority of Utah County was attending the Egg Extravaganza,

 but we decided to go visit the Farm County exhibit. 

It was the perfect day to go, nearly empty.

Zoe got to go one 3 pony rides. I'm sure that was her favorite part.

We also go to meet lots of different animals.

We didn't go over to the Tulip Festival,

 but there were plenty of tulips on the grounds to take pretty pictures by.

 We've had a nice relaxing Easter weekend and we'll be celebrating tomorrow with lots of family!

 Whatever your faith, I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Sketchy Thursdays 4-14 edition

After my very productive crafty weekend, I was kinda slumping this week.

I turned to one of my favorite blogs for inspiration, Sketchy Thursdays.

Here is the Sketch for this week.

and here is my interpretation...

I used my Studio Calico April kit + white Zing for these layouts.



I'm sure the title seems kinda weird for a 2..almost 3 year old, but when I was looking at these pictures I just kept thinking about how she still looks like herself. From the time she was a baby until now.



I told you, lots of scrappy posts this week :)



XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Twine Tuesday

Twine is such a versatile item. I love it. 

This is my most recent adventure in twine.

But here are some other past layouts with twine.

I have some of this colorful twine, on it's way to me now :)

Just more colors to add to my stash.

My supply also comes in handy when Ryan gets the urge to make cinnamon rolls.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Monday ends with Sun

Whew, lots to share today!

I worked out pretty hard on Saturday, and the effects dribbling over into yesterday and today. I was feeling pretty crummy this morning and I was pretty sure I was getting sick.

However, things have definitely turned around today.

In no particular order,

*Ryan's books for this semester are under $200! 

*Got 2 e-mails from Elder Humbert

*Sonic Happy Hour

*Funny new phrase from Zoe Bug, "Oh, Goody Goody!"

*My Grandparents are coming for Dinner

*I'm planning this fun Easter activity/lesson for Zoe.

*  I love the way this page turned out.

* I'm pretty sure we're having ice cream for dessert :)

Happy Monday!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Enjoying the Spring

Today we definitely enjoyed the warm spring air.



Highland/American fork has a bunch of parks, so we grabbed some lunch and headed to the park for an impromptu picnic.

Zoe wasn't exactly dressed for park play, but she made the best of it, and emptied sand our of her shoes about 50 times.



Yesterday, Ryan & I got to go on a date for the first time since my birthday.

We went down to Orem to enjoy dinner at Carrabba's.

Seriously, we LOVE this place.

Coincidentally, our last date, for my birthday was also at Carrabba's.

Yes, we love it that much :)



Then we decided to walk off some of the calories in the mall across the street.

We picked up Easter dresses for Zoe & me.

Thankfully, Ryan already has a matching tie.

I'm hoping for at least one family photo this year, with all of us in our Easter best.



I'm excited for this week.

There will be a lot of scrappy posts.

I have 3 layouts and 1 mini album to share already!



That giant order of photos from Snapfish is keeping me crafting.

I would definitely recommend ordering new photos if you need motivation :)



XOXO,

Holly & Co.

My Loves

* Past post pictures are still unavailable. I'm in that .25% of users, whose stuff is still not working.





Ryan and Zoe have been spending lots of time together since he's on break in between semesters.

Today, Zoe was trying everything should could think of to get Ryan to wear her crown. She pointed out that it was sparkley, and pink and even beautiful.....she has the promise of a good saleswoman. :)

These two spent lots of time just hanging out in that chair today.

Snacking on cereal, singing the Peanut Butter & Jelly song, and snuggling.



I really love these two. They are my world.



I can't wait until we add more to our Team Humbert someday. (That's what I refer to our trifecta as...)



I love our inside jokes and our one line quotes that stem from Zoe phrases, like " Two-five minutes."



I love the mix of personalities we have.



I love the awkwardly long kisses we all give each other, just to be silly.



I love that after Ryan's toughest semester so far, we are all still smiling  and laughing :)



XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Technical Difficulties

Sorry the blog is all funky right now, photobucket is having some technical problems, but it should be resolved later today.

a little more technique

I've been trying to add a little more to my scrapping lately, a little technique or depth, 

whichever seems to work best with the page.

I worked on this layout last night. I combined masking and embossing for my title work.

Here is a detail shot.

First, I softly adhered some Pink Paislee Hometown Summer alpha stickers. 

Then, I coated the page with some MayaRoad Bubblegum mist and waited for it to dry.

After I made sure it was dry, I carefully pulled off the letters.

I used my new Zig embossing pen, to color in the negative image and then I covered it with white Zing embossing powder.

I used my heat gun that my sweet Mother-in-law let me borrow to set it.

Voila!

I really love the way it turned out.

I changed my blog layout to hopefully allow for bigger pictures.

I always feel like you can't see the detail in the photos when I make them fit inside the margins.

So I changed the margins :)

I'm currently typing as I sit next to an ornery toddler who is refusing to eat her dinner.

We've been here for 45 minutes.

Thank goodness for laptops.

Well I'm off to bake some well deserved cookies for me, myself, and I.

XOXO,

Holly & CO.

Buzy as Bees

Well, we said goodbye to Idaho this weekend.

Everything packed and moved.

We're settling in here in Utah. It's nice to be closer to the city.

Yesterday, we went to lunch at JCW's, in Highland.

We were impressed.

 It reminded Ryan and I of Stan's, the little burger joint in Provo where we had our first date.

I also got to break into my Studio Calico April Kit, and I'm in love.

After I started working with our wedding photos for my Polka Dot Whimst, April kit, I can't seem to stop.

Originally, I had wanted to do my wedding album in one color scheme throughout the whole thing,

But I think I'm really liking the "one page at a time" version.

I'm just going to put all the wedding layouts into one album together.

I really loved the mix of embellishments in this kits, especially the exclusive Cosmo Cricket Labels. :)

I'm still having so much fun with embossing. I love that white zing.

This layout, the original version, I ripped the pictures off and threw it away.

It was just not turning out.

Thank goodness I threw away that first version, this one is much better.

Happy Sunday!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Our Last Cupcake Trip {for awhile anyway...}

Yesterday we visited The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Shop one last time.



It was our friend Connor's birthday last week and we missed his party.

So what better way to celebrate than with cupcakes?!



There were 7 flavors I hadn't tried yet, but we only bought 6, and I only tasted 5 of them.



First up, my favorite of the day, Caramel Apple Pie.

It was like Thanksgiving in a cupcake, a mix between pumpkin and apple pie, with caramel mixed in. Yum!



Next up, Ultimate Brownie.

You can't even see all the goodness in this one. The bottom layer is a brownie mixture, with cheesecake on top of that, marshmallows stuffed in the middle, covered in sweetened condensed milk, topped with chocolate frosting. It's not for the faint of heart, definitely rich.

Then comes, Red Velvet.

Usually Red Velvet is really rich, especially the cream cheese frosting, but this rendition was surprisingly light :)

Not too rich, just enough sweet and topped with a chocolate covered strawberry.



Next up, Chocolate Malt.

This is chocolate, chocolate, then more chocolate. The cupcake is more of a dark chocolate flavor, topped with chocolate ganache and then chocolate frosting. Very Rich, would be great after a savory meal.



Last up, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup.

I've learned that their peanut butter frosting is way too much peanut butter flavor for me. Even in small doses it's overwhelming for my palate. The cupcake was good, and if you love peanut butter, you would love this. I guess I'm just not a huge peanut butter fan.



The one I didn't taste, was saved for our sweet babysitter, Karli. It's Lucious Lemon Raspberry.

Ain't it pretty ?

I think it has a lemon pudding type layer in the middle.

 I'm guessing it was close to the Lemon Blueberry cupcake.

This will be the last of the cupcakes for awhile.

 But I'm excited to make a mini book out of all of these pretty cupcakes. 

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

I love this girl!

When I saw this photo I laughed for a long time...Aly can witness.

This is just typical Zoe, always keeps up laughing.

Yesterday I had a tough day. I didn't feel well, on top of the stress of getting things ready, etc, it was just a tough day.

And out of frustration, I snapped at Zoe, and made her cry.

I felt to terrible. She wasn't doing anything wrong, she was just trying to play and I was trying to work on things, and she got in my way.

Ryan took her to McDonald's and let me get some stuff done and have some alone time.

When they came back, we got her ready for bed, and as I was about to tuck her in, she asked me to sing to her in the rocking chair.



As we sat down in the chair, I looked at her and apologized for yelling at her.

 I started to tear up and she took my face in her hands, and she said,

"It's OK mommy, please don't cry, it's OK."



I asked her to forgive me and then she said,"

"Yes, I do mommy, let's be a happy girl!"



Then I asked is she was still my friend and she said,

"Yes Mommy, You are my friend forever."

I love the capacity of little children to teach us.

After I put her to bed, I said a silent prayer of repentance for my actions and gratitude, for this special little girl who came into our family. Who keeps us laughing, reminds us to love unconditionally and forgive openly.

I challenge you today, to make time to say "thank you" and "I love you" to those around you.



{Photos all by Aly Willis, Although I took creative liberties in LR 3 with the editing}





XOXO,

Holly & Co.