Personality Bears

This week marked the end of my youth group for this semester. We take a break for the summer. I have had so much fun with my small group of girls this year, and I wanted to give them something that they could hold onto for the summer. Something that would remind them that someone cares about them. I put a heart on each one to remind them to keep God in their hearts. I tried to make each bear a little different, complete with the personality of the girls. They were a huge hit and very loved right away.


This has nothing to do with scrapbooking, but just an idea of something you might be able to use in the future. I can't make an album for every kid who comes into my life for a season, but I can try to make sure that they feel loved, special and unique.

Scrap Happy!

Perspective

I had been scrapbooking some over the weekend, and then had stopped to organize a rolling cart I keep under my desk. I ended up piling things on my desk as I cleaned, and happened to glance at the mess. A photo of my daughter caught my eye. It looks like she just can't take the mess on my desk doesn't it?! I thought that was so funny that I had to share it.

It was great to work on my daughter's album. I am going to squeeze one more page into this one and I'll be done with her 21st album.

Here is a photo of my daughter and son having a snack. But that wasn't really what I was trying to take a picture of. It doesn't tell enough of the story. By my coming down a little, and making sure that the blanket shows a little in the photo, you can see that they are actually under a tent! Our living room has at least one child-constructed tent in it at a time lately.

I love that my girl isn't too big to play with her little brother. She waited and waited, wanting a sibling for so many years. Now she has one, and she appreciates having him. She helps him ride a tricycle, helped him learn to walk, keeps him off of the stairs, and taught him how to scream! That was one thing he didn't need to learn, in my opinion.

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Scavenger Hunt

It's spring! The kids are enjoying the nice weather and I am loving the brilliant colors of the flowers and scents of the trees as they blossom!

A tree God gave me, right by the deck. It just appeared in our yard one year and has grown into a beautiful sight.

I was actually just checking to see if my camera was still working since I had dropped it! That's why I took the pics without my kids in them.

I don't actually have any pictures of the scavenger hunt because I used a new memory card and my computer won't even work if it's in it! Weird!

I think it's important for parents and kids to have fun one on one. Especially if there are other siblings. I also like to do fun things for my daughter and I have a heart for kids her age. As she grows, I like each new age so much! This is why it might seem like I am always planning an activity, class or party. It seems like that because I am!

A few Sundays ago, I arranged a hunt for kids and parents. It was in my little town and the "hunters" had to be from here as well. It was only for specific 1st and 2nd graders, whom I invited.(My daughter's friends) The teams were 1 parent and one kiddo. We started the hunt at my house. I made a list of places or things to find. All of them were in town. The goal was to find as many of them as you could in 2 hours and take a picture of each place or item on the list. I also was specific sometimes, saying that certain things neede to be in the picture. One of the people on your team had to be in the picture, unless the rules made an exception. 2 of the pictures had to have both of your team members in it. You could earn bonus points for certain things, such as if you were eating a dessert in a certain photo.

It ended up being a rainy and chilly day. But I think that both the kids and their parents had a good time. Thankfully, I had a clear winner. The first team to check in had all of the pictures they needed, except one extra credit picture. They were at the finish line so much earlier than all the other teams, that when the rain let up, I encouraged them to go out and try to get that last picture, which they could get from my yard! They did, and it gave them the points they needed to be unbeatable! My husband and daughter came in 2nd. They couldn't find the elusive purple rock!

As teams came in, I went through their pictures on the digital cameras with my list beside me and made tally marks. It was fun to see the different things people had found, some were different than the one I had seen, but still correct!

This was an easy thing to put together. I just kept my eyes peeled for unusual things or things that might only be known by people who live here. Then I made a list on the computer, invited everyone by phone, and sent them on their way. I only wish I could have been there, too! I keep asking my daughter how they found this thing, or which one of you knew that it was in the window?

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Easter pics and tips

I mentioned to my friend that I wished I could borrow her new bunny to take to the studio when I get my kids pictures taken. She suggested I just take the pictures myself. So that's just what I did!

I love how this one shows the difference in size between the 2 of them! There isn't much that's green yet in my yard for the background, that's why I stood looking down on them for the picture to get the grass as the background. A sheet on the ground protected their Easter clothes from grass stains.

I knew that for the proper lighting, I should take the pictures while the light was soft in the morning, or in the late afternoon, when the sun is heading down. I took the pictures too late n the day, so some really great ones suffered from too much light and were bleached out.

But I was still able to get several pictures that I love.

Now moving on to dying eggs. My son was only a couple months old last Easter, so this is all new to him. He was positively AMAZED when we dropped an egg into the cup of dye. He stared into it until we lifted it out, now a whole new color!

My daughter liked that this egg came out dyed differently than she expected it to.

We did egg dying on the nook. I like taking pictures here, because my daughter can be on the other side and higher than I am. Plus, there is a light directly above us, so the flash isn't always needed.

Here are her precious dyed hands and our year egg. This year, we bought 36 eggs to dye. We can never eat that many hard boiled eggs, so I only boiled some of them. Leading up to Easter, if we needed to use an egg, I emptied it by poking a dime sized hole in the bottom of it. When we died these hollow eggs, we just had to take extra care to fill it with the dyed water when dying it, so that it wouldn't float. Taking it out was also tricky as we didn't want to dump the dye from the hole outside of the cup. We also used eggs that had been neither emptied nor boiled! We were careful with handling them and didn't break a one! We also made sure to keep them seperate. They worked just fine.

The Easter egg hunt: When concealing eggs, I sometimes hid them in a way that my girl would be walking towards me, finding the eggs in one plant after another so that I can be sure to catch her finding one. Knowing where they are hidden is an advantage, too. It is such a challenge to get good pictures of the kids hunting for eggs because they move so fast!

What a sweetheart! She was so happy to find Razzle candy/gum in her egg.

"OH!" So there's something in these things!"

On Easter Sunday, I let my little man eat his chocolate bunny in his good clothes! Look how serious he is! He ate almost the whole thing in one sitting and freaked out when we cut him off!

And then this is my loving daughter, wanting me to take her picture with her white chocolate cross. How could I refuse?

Camera Shy

There comes an age where your child gets tired of mugging for the camera, and starts to avoid it. We are testing the waters of this age right now. It depends on the day or time, just as when I offer food. Sometimes she likes it, and sometimes she won't even try it. I am talking of the same food. It can vary that much from day to day. This is the way it is with pictures. I pull out the camera and hold my breath a little. "Will today be a day that she'll let me take a picture?" Someday, I can see myself explaining to her why there are more pictures of her brother than of her when she was 7. He doesn't mind the camera yet! Until this phase passes, and I'm sure it will, I will content myself with the photos that I can get. The little glimpses into life as a 7 year old. Without pictures, I'll be sure to journal in her album of this time. I'll tell her how thankful I am that I can trust her to play nicely with her baby brother so that I can get a shower or make dinner. I'll remind her of the girl who won't play in her room when it's clean because she doesn't want it to get messy again. My collecter who hoards TV tickets for a week and then uses them all in one day. A little lady who gives herself a shower and brushes her own hair, and smooths the bumps out with water because she wants to look her best. My grown up daughter who made heart cookies in her Easy Bake Oven all by herself after breakfast. Lastly, a beautiful little girl who still picks a huge handful of daffodils for her mama.

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Celebrating one!

Celebrating one for me means my little boy's birthday! All year, I took his picture once a month in his crib. I made sure to have the same sheet on the bed, and put his little beanie baby next to him. It really helps to show how much he grew in a year! (photo above)

I also had his picture taken once a month and ordered wallets of his professional photos. (as well as the 4 months I took his monthday pictures myself) I knew I wanted to do some kind of page layout that showcased all of his months. Here is the finished product. It's amazing how much they change in one year, isn't it?! (below) I was rusty from only scrapbooking digitally, but once I did a page or two, I was back! It was fun doing these page layouts for my son's birthday photos.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

This one is so fun! The photographer made him mad when she put his hand in the icing and then put it to his mouth, She was frozen when he started crying, but I yelled, "Take a picture! Take a picture!" Above was the result. I used a 8x10 paper for the mat/background and used just a few party embellishments. I really wanted the title to stand out, so I used white letters and went around each one with a pen. I cut out the paper from beind the photo, since you won't see it anyway, and punched out squares to finish off the page.

Birthday Boy

This page is very much like a page I could do online in a digital album. I love it because it's crisp and clean. All I used were letter stickers of various sizes and a paper background. I just layered the "Birthday" on top of the lighter colored "Boy" letters.

One

I love this page, too! It's so simple. A simple yellow background matched the yellow in his shirt. I used 2 sizes of circle punches to make the open circles and put letter stickers inside. There is one cupcake sticker under the O. This page changed as I designed it, as so often happens. I like the way the word "one" is here because it goes with the jersey look of the shirt he's wearing. This just shows you that you don't need a whole lot to make a page. You just want it to all go together. The less you put on a page, the more likely it is that that will happen.

Happy Birthday puzzle.

This page was born out of my desire to mat these pictures in blue. However, I don't have any more blue paper, so I used the green and kind of made a puzzle mat. That's when I realized that I had a puzzle punch that I had never used! When using a new punch, know that the first couple of punches will have oil on the edges. Do some practice punches that you can toss. Once again, all I have on this page is a small amount of paper, some letter stickers and one party diecut. I want everyone to notice the photos, another reason to keep it simple.

Just for fun: I put a number one or the word one on each page of my son's birthday pages. I started doing this for my daughter a few years ago, and she and others who look at the album, really have fun looking for the birthday numbers.

I'm currently working on my daughter's album when I can sneak away for a few minutes. I am enjoying scrapbooking and trying not to get caught up on the fact that I am so far behind. It's a hobby for crying out loud! If I was all caught up, what would I do with my time? Ha Ha! That's a joke, I always have at least one event being planned, project ideas I want to try, and a room or 2 that need cleaned. Not to mention...the laundry!



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I normally hate computers, but.....

I am about to tell you why I love digital scrapbooking! Yes, this is me, the one who said that nothing could ever replace the feel of the paper and stickers in my hands. Take my words into consideration, put them in the back of your mind, because you may someday decide to make a digital album, too. The pictures I have chosen today are a bit odd, I admit. However, I took them to use as backgrounds and cut outs for my son's digital album. Everything matches the photos! I love his little clothes, and this is a way for me to still "keep" them digitally, once he outgrows them.

Just imagine these with photos over top of them in a Christmas layout. I can use them as borders, backgrounds, mats, "stickers", really you can do so much more than you can with a traditional album as far as coordinating your embellishments on a page.

Find the bib odd? Well, it looked great as a background for Christmas!

I have to say that when I ordered my son's album yesterday and it was nearly $250. after shipping and tax, I gulped big time! It was a 12x12. Here is a tip, if you do an album, just order an 11x8.5 .It isn't that much smaller, but the price difference is phenomenal! I have always made that size, and now I plan on going back to it. Example, I ordered this size a few weeks ago and it cost me around $150. And the smaller and cheaper size even had 8 more pages in it!

So, I figured out how much I would have spent on a traditional album with nearly the same amount of pages. (You can only fit 80 in a traditional album compared to topping out at 100 in a digital.) The price was considerably lower for a 12x12 album using the original materials, (album, pages, protectors) however I didn't add the price of paper, stickers, adhesives and photo processing. I'm thinking that would have changed things!

So here is where we are with my insane hobby. I am working on my son's first birthday pages in a brand new book. That means I'm one month behind for him. He has 2 digital albums already ordered and a 12x12 traditional album with his professional pictures and little mementos (like hair clippings) in it. This album is 52 pages. Sadly, in my daughter's album, I am working on her birthday, which is in May. I went to a scrapbooking night and was only able to do maybe 2 pages because I have gotten so used to working with the digital albums that I found it hard to do the traditional! Uh OH! Have no fear, I'm not giving traditional scrapbooking up! It is completely different, so it's a challenge. But I like a challenge!

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Bunny and Kitty get Married!

The bride was beautiful in her flowing pink gown with purple and gold embroidered flowers. The groom, lovingly dressed in black pants and a tie that matched his nose, gazed adoringly at his bride. Bunny and Kitty, friends and the most loved "pets" of my daughter for 5 years, finally tied the knot last week. My daughter took these photos to commemorate the special event.

The bride and groom, locked in a loving embrace.

I didn't know what my daughter was doing when she asked to borrow my camera. I gave her instructions on keeping the band around her wrist, and sent her on her way. Would I have done this if I didn't feel that the camera has been dropped too many times to matter? Maybe not. But looking at these pictures, I am so glad that I let her have her fun. Maybe someday she'll be a wedding photographer and I can pull out these pictures and remember the first wedding she shot!

I never thought of giving her photography lessons. After all, I never had them, I just mostly learned by experience. But she has potential! Maybe we can add a photography class taught by mommy in 3rd grade. I'm sure she would be showing me things I never learned about my camera by the end of the school year. :)
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Happy B Day!

This is my son, heady with a sugar rush that can only come from eating a chocolate cupcake all by yourself on your birthday!
I have ordered his first online album. I squeezed 100 pages into it and when it would hold no more, I had to fine tune it and have it ordered. Cost...gulp over $150 dollars. Still, when you think about it that way, that is just over a dollar a page and when you add up the cost of printing photos, buying cute embellishments and paper, pages and the album, it comes out to a lot more than $1 a page. Cm's pages alone are over $1 and that is before adding the fun stuff, not to mention a protector. I think the fact that you pay for scrapbook pages a little here and a little there, makes it easier than when you plop down the whole lump sum at once.

I am caught up on his professional album as well, but I forgot to have it out at his party. Man! I worked so hard on that book just so it would be done in time for his party. I like having both books. I was able to do a couple of pages on his haircut in the scrapbook album and include things like his absolutely adorable curls, and his little certificate, stickers that they used to amuse him and even the receipt. Yes, in this case, I saved the receipt. In my defense, it says, "First haircut" on it and has the price...OK, I debated on whether or not to save it and I chose to. I couldn't toss it!

On to another topic: My camera. Well, my camera sustained at least one blunt force trauma on our latest vacation. It isn't doing well. The dents and scratches on the outside are fine. But it's the fact that the flash is askew that disturbs me to no end. Especially in the winter when I have no choice but to take pictures indoors. I need a good flash. This puts more than a little sport into my picture taking! I now am challenged to take pictures that are decent, with the crippled camera that I have. I love a good challenge! Have you ever tried to take a picture of a one year old boy, indoors, in the winter, without a flash. This should be an Olympic sport! Not only do you have to hold extra still as you click , but your subject needs to be holding extremely still as well. I was disappointed not to find a camera under the tree, because I was a pretty good girl this year, and I had really hinted and hinted to my husband that I wanted one. :( But for now, I have to make do with my little canon. Like I said before, I love a good challenge!

Ideas for Birthday pictures:

A picture of the party site all decorated

close up of signs or decorations,
themed plates,
favors,
food set out

the cake

the birthday boy or girl blowing out the candles
( This is tricky! But you can get this shot! Be very aware of the birthday song, and click the second it ends.)

the cake and the birthday person

pictures of everyone who attends
I like to have the person who is giving the present come up and stand or sit beside my child as they open the gift. This serves several purposes. 1. The person is guaranteed a good view! 2. The child knows who the gift is from 3. The child is able to thank them immediately and comment on the gift. (if they can speak!) 4. I can get a picture of them with the birthday girl or boy.
pictures of games being played

make sure to get a picture of the person behind the camera
(we get a family shot usually taken by the last guest departing)

make sure to get a photo of the birthday honoree by themselves!

photos of the gifts before and after opening

Everyone singing happy birthday

The kids faces as the cake is carried out

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The Christmas Ball

I was on vacation and I dropped my camera! It was enough to dent it and enough for my camera to start fading away to retirement. At this point, I have barely used my camera in the last month. If I use the flash, it usually washes my pictures out. I'm asking for a camera for Christmas! Here are some pictures from the Royal Christmas Ball I gave last weekend. It was for my princesses from Princess Camp and their daddies.
God blessed me big time with a professional photographer that was there throughout the whole event taking both posed and candid photos.

It was such a fun time, in spite of the snow. Actually, the snow went perfectly with our theme!

Right now, I'm trying to get my son's online album ready for printing. It is at it's maximum 100 pages already. I'm just finishing that up. My son's first birthday is just weeks away and I want to have his other album with the professional pics in it done to show at his party.

I am also making a paper album for my cousin for Christmas. You can buy paper albums from Creative Memories. It's great for gifts. I started this one just yesterday, ordering pictures at home to pick up at Sam's Club in one hour, and then spending time scrapbooking it after the kids went to bed last night.

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Fall back into scrapbooking

Once you put scrapbooking at the bottom of your list, it can be so hard to get back into it!

Here is my advice: Don't overwhelm yourself by thinking you need to sit down and start a big project. Start with an achievable goal. Take those envelopes full of pictures out when you are watching TV one night and try to put them into order. The next step is to bring out a tray table and your cutting tools and crop some photos. This could be a different day entirely. Just doing this will get your feet going in the right direction, and you'll be back creating amazing pages in no time!

I like to pull out some of the books I've made and look through them. This often will give me a craving for scrapbooking!

Now, I'm not bragging, but I have been scrapbooking. I am working on my daughter's science and art fair pages from last spring. I'm doing all of my scrapbooking at night, when the kids are asleep. I had laid these pages out months ago and it feels so great to be down to the last few pages I have laid out! WAIT! Before you think that means I'll be caught up........(OH! Sorry, I had to catch my breathe as I was laughing so hard I nearly passed out!) Yeah, I have a long, long way to go until I'm caught up! When I get done with these pages I have laid out, I am going to lay out more pictures on more pages. I'll fill this power layout box up twice more before I am caught up with the pictures I have printed out right now.

That said, I know I take too many pictures, but the other day my 7 year old sat for HOURS and looked through the albums I have made for her. I know that seeing pictures of herself lovingly displayed gives her a sense of how much I love her.

Scrap Happy!

They Don't Make Stickers for That

After I put my kids to bed at night, I often sneak into the schoolroom, where my desk is so covered with scrapbooking supplies all within easy reach. Some nights, I only get 2 pages done, because I'm not inspired or I'm making them far too detailed! But other nights, I can get 5 pages done. There's nothing like an upcoming vacation to make me dedicated to completing my kid's albums!
You just can't find stickers for some of the things I scrapbook! For instance, these pages I have posted are ones that I did in my recent ongoing scrapbooking marathon. Early last spring, we had some bad weather, which blew over one of the 2 massive pine trees in our back yard. We needed to have it taken out and decided to have the other one taken out as well, because if it were to fall over, it probably would have fallen on our house. It was leaning that way already. It was so much fun to watch the men take the trees out with their huge equipment. We even called our friends/ neighbors to come over and watch. The kids loved running from window to window to watch the crane take the huge hunks of pine branches over the house! My daughter even took notes. She also named each of the men names such as "the pirate". The pages above actually go after the pages below.
I used a picture she had drawn of the Pirate climbing the tree. I scanned it onto acid free paper before placing the copy in her album. I also included the note she wrote and taped to the window for them not to take the wood. I thought that was pretty cute. Thankfully, they did take the wood! I had to go through my Christmas stuff to find the pine stickers and for the stand of pine trees. I cut the group of pine trees out of a journaling block. I used the pink gingham to mat the picture of my daughter because A. it's checks reminded me of lumberjacks! B. The pink matched my daughter's shirt. Above: I included the paper my daughter wrote on the experience from her point of view.

Below:
Punches often save me when it comes to embellishing pages that don't have stickers to go with them. In this case, I used the paisley punch (Maker from Creative memories) and made half of pine trees. Since the paisley pines take up more of the page than a usual border, I found that I didn't have enough room to journal. I didn't want to completely give up any of my pictures and that's why I chose to put a piece of vellum over the one photo. I titled it with letter stickers and I will write on the vellum at a later time.

Here is a close up of the paisley tree, which I made just by punching a whole bunch of paisleys and overlapping them, cutting the edges straight and adhering them to the page with the Creative Memories glue pen. Notice my journaling block?

I can hardly believe I took enough pictures for 2 two page spreads, but it was a big day for us! I actually took a lot more pictures, but didn't get them all printed. I had taken pictures of my daughter with each tree before it was cut down, and that's why I wanted to end the story with the picture of her and her friend standing on top of the logs. Be creative! Use that paper! And Scrap Happy!

Everybody loves school pictures!

Actually, I am embarrassed by most of my school pictures. But my daughter's school pics so far have been so cute! I haven't gotten to scrap this year's yet. We had fun bringing props! She wanted her pink poodle and it ended up being an adorable addition.

I bring props for several reasons. The ones that the studio provides are often worn and tacky. I'm sure they're covered in germs as well. Yuck! But really, I like my props to be realistic. Bring things they like, such as their favorite pen or pencil. I always bring my daughter's bookbag, and the books she really uses that year. Another plus to bringing your own props is that you can compliment what your kid is wearing.

As always when bringing props, remember that you are there to get pictures of your kiddo, so don't get hung up on having to order a picture just because it has that prop you lugged in. I brought a manger scene and Christmas cookies along with a mug (among other things) to my daughter's Christmas pictures last year. But I just wasn't loving the pictures that they were in, so I opted not to get them. I'll bring them again this year.

Kindergarten was the first year I could add school pictures to the list of professional pictures I get taken throughout the year. Since we homeschool, my daughter isn't getting her picture taken at school, so I can take her anywhere. I was so happy with these pictures, that I had to buy most of the poses! When it came time to design the pages for these precious photos, I chose a soft pink backround. As you know, I'm a think outside the box person, or I try to be, so this backround paper is actually from a baby girl kit . It's the back of pages with prompts on them for journalling baby's first year. I bought the paper pack because I use a lot of pink, and I liked the colors in this pack. I have also bought the "I Do" paper pack for the same reason, I knew the pastels would look good in my daughter's book, and I figured I'd eventually find a use for the stickers. I actually have already used some of them on my cruise pages. But... I digress!

I want a memory of how she writes her name each year, so I have her write her name on a tag to include with her school pictures. ( I had her do this before I stuck the tag in the book in order to be sure she didn't accidently write on the page!) My mom did this with me when I was little, and it is amazing to watch handwriting change from year to year. Be sure to include the name of their school and their grade. You might also want to add their age. I also used letter stickers to personalize a tag sticker with the school year. The close up of my daughter's hands clasped in front of her was taken by me in the parking lot as soon as we left the studio. The photographer had taken this shot, and I loved it, but no way was I going to pay for a sheet of this picture. I bought them by the sheet, so I had to figure out how many wallets and other sizes I needed to send to all the relatives and I couldn't think of anyone but myself that would want a picture of a close up of my daughter's hands!

Scrap happy!

Busy Living

I tired without any success to get an appointment for my son, and ended up taking his 8 month pictures myself. I have no regrets. They turn out so cute! It cannot be easier. I simply wait for the right time, when he is rested and has a full tummy. I also make sure the lighting is agreeable. I took these pics during the day, but in the shade. It was overcast.

Here is proof that I am taking pictures of life as it happens. This is my daughter literally pulling out her second loose tooth.

I have had the chance to get all caught up on ordering my pictures. Lately, I wait until Snapfish has a sale (this time it was free shipping) and make it my goal to order all my photos by that date. It is so easy to let your pictures sit on the computer or on your memory card forever. I need to motivate myself to get the pictures printed and sales work for me!

I feel so far behind in my scrapbooking. I know that I need to focus on my kids right now since they won't be little forever, but lets face it. I have a limited memory store. The reason I remember so much about my little girl's baby years is because I have it written down. I don't want to scrapbook these pictures years from now, I want to scrap them now! I am scrapbooking February for my daughter, am caught up on my son's professional album where I proudly displayed the photos I took the last 2 months on his "monthday", and I haven't looked at his online album in awhile, but I'm probably only a few months behind. You don't understand how much it kills me to not be caught up!

I bought some cool plastic-drawers-on-wheels and organized my scrapbooking supplies. I have my own desk, and now I have my wheeled drawer thing that scoots in under it, very organized! Yet somehow, I feel like I don't have enough room on my desk to scrap comfortably. So I still need to fix that. It isn't conducive to scrapping.

Beach Days

When going on a vacation, I often have a mental list of shots that I want to get. Pictures of my daughter's footprints in the sand, Her hands with the surf in the background,

My son playing on the beach for the very first time,

the ocean in the sunset ( and I am really into shooting pictures of people's backs right now),

and my little girl's face the second she sees the ocean when we first get to the beach.

Especially on vacation, I like to get candid shots as well as posed. I like candids because they show life. I also like not having to make my kids stop what they are doing and look at the camera. I don't want to pause that moment unnaturally, I want to capture it happening! When I show my photos, there are probably about 150 that you'll see. But I have taken so many more. I usually take at least 2 of the same shot, sometimes more if I can. Some cameras have settings that will automatically take more than one shot. I'm going to play with mine and have it set to do that.

TIP! At the beach, we made sure to have a shade umbrella everyday. My camera was in a gallon ziplock bag, in a pocket of the backpack (we leave it in the same pocket so that it's quick to get to) under the shade umbrella. It's hard to keep sand and moisture out of your camera, so be sure to have it out as little as possible. If sand gets on the zoom lense, carefully wipe it off. I took several tissues to the beach for cleaning my glasses, camera and my little boy's runny nose (not all with the same tissue)! I usually went through 4 tissues a day.

I took some shots in the surf, making sure the camera band was around my wrist and that I kept the camera high enough to stay out of the water.

I know that I had mentioned taking my scrapbooking supplies on vacation to get some scrapping done at night, but I ended up not doing that. It was a lot to travel with, and by the end of the day, I could barely stay awake long enough to jot down the day's events. Also, we took my husband's truck and I don't trust that my supplies would stay completely dry in the back, if it rained.

We had a nice, relaxing vacation. I was able to get most of the shots I wanted, and really made an effort this trip to read less and play with my kiddos more. The more years we go to Ocean City, the more treasures we find! With going to the beach every day but one, (the day we go outlet shopping) eating at all of our favorite restaurants, playing at the world's greatest park, walking the boardwalk and the marsh boardwalk, playing at the coolest putt putt course we know of, and driving through Assateague to see the horses, we are tired at the end of the day!

Scrap Happy!