I actually scrapbooked a page!

I haven't scrapped a single page since April. April! Can you believe that? Life gets just too busy. I will tell you that I was going through withdrawal. I have decided that scrapbooking is in my blood - I have to do it. I sat down at the computer to do something else and I decided to set everything else aside and do a page. Doris Castle just created this adorable kit called Stars and Stripes for Scrap Wow. This is a quickpage along with the alpha from the set. Isn't it fun?

I went digging through last year's 4th of July photos and dicovered these gems that I had never scrapped. I love the story that they tell. First you see these 3 with their pyro-loot planning. The next shot is of the 3 watching their show from the sidelines.

If you are interested, the journaling reads:

"What would a 4th of July celebration be without the traditional fireworks?
Several years ago, the tradition started in the Richhart family to have our own
personal fireworks display. Not surprisingly, this was fuelled mostly by the men
in the family. I think there must be a little boy in every man that longs to
play with fire! So each year, Barry and Mark take a little shopping trip for
explosives and plan a little show for us all. The draw of the fire has even
proven too strong for Elizabeth who is now old enough to help with the bigger
pyrotechnics. July 2, 2006 "

I gotta go feed the kids quick because I am off to book club tonight. Have a great evening!

Baby Milestones

I am back with a photo! I got Photoshop reinstalled on my new hard drive and have updated my Camera Raw software so that I can now process my photos. This is good because my memory card was full!

I am sharing a photo of my baby girl again. She is just a week shy of being 9 months old and has been passing some baby milestones. Just this afternoon, I went to get her up from her nap and she was STANDING in her crib. Actually she was hanging onto the crib rail for dear life. I think she got herself up and couldn't figure out how to get back down which would explain why she was screaming. She has been trying to pull up quite a bit lately, but she generally only makes it up to her knees. This was the first time I have ever caught her standing in her crib like this. Another milestone she has conquered is eating Cheerios all BY HERSELF. Just last week she was struggling. She would manage to grab a Cheerio in her chubby fist and take her hand to her mouth but could not figure out how to get the silly thing actually into her mouth. It was hilarious to watch. Today she was picking them up perfectly between her thumb and index finger and depositing them into her mouth like a pro. Oh - my little girl is growing up! This photo is from our camping trip last week. She loved nibbling on an actual apple. By the way...her hands are NOT that big - teehee. I laugh every time I see this. That is actually Daddy's hand.

Photos of Faith and back online

Well, I am back online on my own computer. Hopefully, I am back and running for good now. I had to replace my hard drive and I am starting from scratch which means I have to reload everything.

Lots of other thing have been happening, too, but I will just share this one thing. My girls and I made the paper: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/community/17331133.htm?source=rss&channel=newssentinel_community The paper messed up and put Anna's photo in, but used the description for Elizabeth's. It's kinda cool though!

MIA

Perhaps I should have titled this "Death of a Computer." I have been offline for about a week now because my hard drive has crashed. I am still not up and running because we just returned from a family camping trip. My mother-in-law let me borrow her computer so I could take care of a few things. Say a prayer that I can get my computer fixed operable very soon. I feel so lost without it!

I find it hard to believe, but my baby girl is already 8 months old. Where did that 8 months go? It feels like I have merely blinked. She is crawling and into everything, eating tons of solid food and has even said "Mama." She was playing in the living room the other evening and was totally bathed by the setting sun, so I grabbed my camera. So here is Rachel chewing on my lens cap - is that the true sign of a photographers daughter?

Life has been incredibly busy lately. Right now I have too much on my plate. But I have been working hard and getting projects checked off my list. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon. I haven't had a moment to scrapbook in weeks and I miss it.

Today the kids and I are going to the zoo with Grams and Gramps. We decided to go in the morning to avoid the 90 degree heat that has been forecasted. Hopefully we will not run into every school group in the county on a field trip. I am spoiled with homeschooling because we have the freedom to do things when kids are in school and avoid the crowds. My kids are so excited about going that I am sure we will have fun no matter what.