No, this is NOT Minnesota...

I just had to share these great pictures of my brother's horses and sleigh.

This was yesterday in New Jersey...

don't I wish I had been there too!

What a great winter for sleigh riding at Mortonhouse farm!

Amazing adoption story

I posted the story of my dad's adoption on one of my family history blogs.

You might enjoy reading it.

www.cratercorner.blogspot.com

We love our birds and deer...

We love the wildlife outside our windows. Today I took a few quick pictures (yes, with my new camera!!) of a cardinal, a nuthatch, a chickadee and a junco.

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We have a group of deer that come out almost every evening at about the same time, walk out from the woods that we see in the distance and then through our backyard and up around the side of our home to the cracked corn that hubby puts out each evening.
We just love seeing them come and we are happy to make them supper!
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Seriously, I love winter.

Digital scrapbooking

Hello blog readers! I just thought today I would tell you a little about my interest in things...

as if you didn't know already some of my interests... but today I thought I'd share a little about digital scrapbooking from Creative Memories.

I love pictures, photography, family history and being organized. Ask my sons, they grew up with a big fat album (just photographs then, nothing special) for each year. I had to put pictures in chronological order and started a new album every year. It was a good idea, but when I went to a digital camera (around 2003) I didn't do that anymore.

I made a few great traditional scrapbooking albums using Creative Memory products (my close friend and neighbor is one terrific CM consultant!). I loved the end result but all of the albums I made were gifts for someone (my mother on her 80th birthday, for instance) and after all that work I didn't have the album to look at!

And then there is my genealogy addiction..... and my need to document and record the old pictures, census records, etc. that I have found through my research....

Digital albums were just the perfect match for me. My pictures and my genealogy were already in my computer and instead of printing them out I could make digital albums.

And since I loved Creative Memories and the quality of their products, it was an obvious fit to transition into their albums.

One of the things I like about Creative Memory digital albums is that you download their software into your computer for making the albums, instead of uploading your pictures to an on-line website. CM has free software, which is a nice easy "drag and drop" type of digital album and a good selection of themes from which to choose. They also have a more sophisticated software that one purchases and you can really tweak each picture and page the exact way you want. I have used both the free and the $ software. ( I usually go overboard on stuff, so the $ software was something I really enjoyed. I could change everything on the page; different backgrounds, etc. to make it just the way I wanted.)

Would you like a little peek into some of the albums I made?

Oh, here's the other really SWEET feature of making digital albums.... you can order as many as you want of the album you design! No more giving away all your hard work without a copy...

you'll see what I mean as I show you some of my albums, many of which were gifts..

This album was a family history album for my husband and his siblings. (There were 8 children in his family.) We had an old photo album from his sister who died and I thought how everyone else would also want those pictures. I scanned them into my computer and got busy with an album. It was a big project, I did more then just those pictures but included other family history pictures and documents. It is a treasure as far as I am concerned.

After I showed it to his siblings they each wanted to buy one and most of them also purchased copies for their adult children (great Christmas presents). So I made ONE album and eventually ordered another 20! How sweet was that?
Here are a few more pages:


The family went to Norway in 1947 for a year.

Growing up on the farm - great memories!

Great old pictures from the days gone by!

Here is an album I made for myself of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska.

When I look through this album I feel like I am taking the trip all over again!

After taking all those digital pictures.... I am so pleased with this!

(yes, you should go to Alaska!)

In 2008 my mom came and stayed with us for 3 months.

We had a great time and I captured many of our precious moments together; whether it was having a cup of tea by the fireplace or her meeting a new great grandchild for the first time..

I gave her the album and she loved it.

I ordered one for me as well, and I love it. It brings back such good memories.

Here are a few pictures of her just relaxing in our home.

(We did lots of relaxing too!)

And pictures of my mom with some of her many great grandchildren!

A year ago my Aunt celebrated her 90th birthday.

It was a special event for her (and for the rest of us, of course) - my Aunt is a widow with no children and my siblings and I are so loved by her. It was a honor for us to honor her for her 90th birthday.

And, as you can obviously imagine, this digital scrapbook was a wonderful way for her to remember the weekend.

I made one for me too. Did I mention how I like that I can do that?

My oldest brother had a special birthday and I was unable to be there since I live in Minnesota and he lives in New Jersey. It just didn't work to travel to his party and I felt awful that I couldn't be there!

But I made an album of some of the many things we've done together (we've done some fun vacation together, rode horses in the North Dakota badlands, went to Yellowstone Park, etc.) and I had it ready and at his party as a special gift.

Pictures from his farm in New Jersey.

And I ordered a copy for me too. :)

Creative memories has different size albums; most of the ones I do are hard-covered 9" x 11". If you look at the first picture of this post you will also see a few small albums; they are soft cover and are about 6" x 8". I am presently working on a large 12" x 12" hard-covered album of just some of my favorite photographs. I think it will be great.

Now just don't get me started on talking about genealogy or I'll never finish this post...

Happy baby

Oh such fun to have a happy baby in the morning!

This was yesterday - Grandpa and Mattea with a big smile.

Isn't this cute?

Faces. Cute ones.

7 of 10 grandchildren were in our home yesterday.

I took pictures.

Surprised?

How lucky...

How lucky I am - I had overnight company and a new camera.....

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Someone special to photograph! Little Mattea Kate!

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The road conditions were not good, too much blowing snow reducing visibility, so Andrea and the three youngest decided to come here this afternoon instead of continuing their travels to Wisconsin. They are staying overnight. Good decision!

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I had some fun with my new camera.

More pictures tomorrow!

Literary enrichment at grandma's

We added a little bookcase to our reading area.

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I seem to have more children's books then the tall case at the end of the hallway can hold.
Our grandchildren have enjoyed sitting on the carpet by that bookcase pulling out the books that their daddy's had once read.
(yes, I saved their books and their toys and am SO thankful I did!)
But now that some of our grandchildren are independent readers, I thought I could put some of those books into a smaller bookcase.


I don't have them according to the dewey decimal system yet, but I have this sweet library check-out system that I got for Christmas. (I already showed that once on this blog.)

Perhaps some of these were your favorites once too.

I keep adding books to my collection.

There is also a book basket in the family room with some favorite read-aloud books too.

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A good reader is a good thinker.

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(p.s. These pictures were taken with my new camera. Just in case you wanted to know!)

Thursday report

Yesterday was our last day with Josiah as he went to visit his other grandparents.

He was such a happy little boy and we enjoyed his company very much!

He started his morning with some yogurt and some dinosaurs to keep him company!

His next buddy was Taffy, our realistic stuffed kitty.

Then it was time to make himself some pizza...

He sliced the bread...

and sliced some watermelon.

It was time to line up the monster trucks and see if we could get them to ride over the blanket.

(We could!)

Then it was time for a good-bye kiss!

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Another perfectly lovely ordinary day...

Three little boys

Today I was reminded of my life many years ago when I was a young mom raising three little boys. I had a "grandma day" with three grandsons...

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It called for a special effort for lunch..

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Peanut butter and jelly train sandwiches!

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And, just like years ago, it proved difficult to take a decent picture of three boys...
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Play-doh time was lots of fun....

and sharing didn't seem to be a problem then..
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Despite a few sharing issues, there were moments of true and genuine sharing..

I grabbed my camera to remember...

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They say the kids will sleep well tonight... well, I think this grandma will too!