Blog-to-book

So like many of you, I am using my blog as my family journal. In the past couple of weeks I have been researching different programs that can print out myblog. I have come across 3 that I have played with (spent many hours with- actually)

blog2print.com
blurb.com
scrapbookblogger.com

On all 3 of them you enter in your blog url and it is uploaded. So Scrapbookblogger is the most user friendly- mine ended up being 68 pages and $38.00. Blog2print includes all the comments that were left so mine was 125 pages with comments and $62 for a hard cover $52 for soft. I decided if I used this program I wouldn't print the comments so deleting them took it down to 70 pages making it $42.45. You can also print an electronic ebook for $3. My favorite program and the one that I think I am going to use it Blurb. I am still playing with it and don't know the page # or cost. (None of these programs include the pictures from slide shows or SmileBoxes which kinda stinks.)

I hope this helps anyone that has been thinking about doing this. If anyone knows of any other program they have used will you please let me know. Doing this is very time consuming- but I think definately worth it.

I love my girls!

Poor Gracie had a rough day on Friday. We recently started getting the Rosehill Dairy milk (they deliver it to your house), Friday it came and Brooklyn was so excited to get it and went running into the kitchen to put it in the fridge. Of course Gracie went running right behind her and somehow managed to trip and smack the corner of our lamp/magazine rack. It made the loudest sound and I knew she was going to be bad. Sure enough when I got to her there was blood coming out of her top lip and there was the gash just below her bottom lip. Needless-to-say I have never heard her cry as hard as she did. But after about 5 minutes she was back to herself. Than a couple hours later I was doing Brooklyn's hair and she was sitting on a stool and Gracie tripped and hit her head on it. Poor thing! Then to top it off- I had to get gas and got a carwash because our car was disgustingly dirty and the carwash totally traumatized her. She screamed through the whole thing. I am curious if it will scare her everytime or if everything just added up and she had had it. (As a side note- aren't babies so cute in their jammies? I love it!)

Still smiling- I might add that this smile melts my heart!

Brooklyn is OBSESSED with gum. She is crazy. Sean had some in his pocket and she walked by him and then came back and smelled his pocket and said. "I smell gum!" We looked at each other like what the heck. So along with chewing it she is quite proud of herself when she blows a bubble!

(At one point of this day she did have a shirt on under this shirt- but of course she had to take it off.)

I love this picture with her looking cross-eyed at the bubble

Happy (late) Birthday Mom!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and we had a great day! We had a delicious birthday lunch at my aunt's courtesy of my sister. Thanks Nat! And then we had a scrumptious birthday dinner at one of our families favorite places- Fredrico's. While at Freddy's we learned that my sister-in-law Chelsea got accepted into the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at USU. We are so happy for her and ourselves that her and Brett will be around for at least 2 more years!

The birthday girl

My cute mom and me wore the same sweater

Getting ready to blow out the candles

Not to get all sappy- but I really love my mom!! I don't know how I got so blessed to have her as my mom. She is such a great example to all of us. She is a very hard worker and has been her whole life. My sister mentioned on her blog about what a big sacrifice my mom has made for us. And she really has. She is such a hard worker that she is the teacher of the year at Wellsville Elementary. (She loves that we keep bringing this up :)) She is such a great grandma to my kids. Gracie just adores her and would rather have her over me. Brooklyn loves her too and loves spending time with her. Happy Late Birthday Mom! We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us!

My first quilt

About 5 years ago when I graduated from college my parents gave me a sewing machine- which has been sitting in the box this whole time until last week. My sister has been doing quite a bit a sewing and making some way cute stuff so I decided it was time I put my machine to use. My friend is having a baby and so I decided that instead of buying an outfit I would make her a rag quilt. Nat helped me learn how to use my sewing machine, cut the squares, layout the design, and sew some of the x's. I have got to say I became hooked. I did this whole thing- my first project in 1 day. The cutting took some more time and I washed it last night and it looks great. I am excited to give this to her. I am excited to have a new hobby!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun Times and Random Pictures

For every holiday there is that one special treat that you look forward to. For me at Valentine's I LOVE JuJu hearts. (The red chewy ones that aren't hot) A couple years ago they started making them covered in chocolate! To die for! I had bought some this week and Brooklyn, Sean, and I had been enjoying them. Apparently, Gracie wanted in on the action. I was at the table blogging and Sean and Brooklyn were playing Rock Band and Sean yells out, "Um, Em come here." So I come running in and here Gracie going, "YUMMM YUMMM!" Her mouth was full I think she had 2 in each hand and you can see the chocolate dripping down her face. She was pretty ticked when we took them away from her and cleaned her up. (On the second picture down you will notice on Gracie birdie finger the burn she got when she touched my curling iron. The tough girl didn't even bawl. And yes I felt like such a great mom!)

The other night Brooklyn found a bunch of hats and put them all on and wanted her picture taken with them on. Silly girl!

Today Brooklyn wanted to go outsie with Sean and let Sandy (our dog) out and play in the snow. The past couple of years Sean has tied the sled to Sandy and had him pull Brooklyn. She wanted to try it again today. (Pay attention to Sean's laugh in the background)

*disclaimer- Brooklyn was not injured in these fall- she got up laughing

I just love my sweet family- I am sure glad I have them to keep me entertained!

St. George

Last weekend we headed down to warm, sunny St. George. Me and the gals hopped in with my parents and met Nat, Greg, and Garrett down there and the Andies and Pauline also joined us. One of the highlights of the trip besides seeing MaryAnn and her family, the WARM weather, and being crammed into a hotel room was the night Brooklyn lost Blacky. (Let me preface this story. When Brooklyn has a bath and little floaties like lint are in the tub she gathers them and sets them on the side of the tub and they become her friends.) So she was having a bath and found a "friend" and named him Blacky. She set him on the nightstand while she was getting her jammies on and somehow he got lost. This is where the meltdown begins. Ric is searching everywhere for him- I am on my hands and knees with a flashlight trying to find him- Paula is searching- everyone else is trying to find a black piece of lint that could pass off as "Blacky" but she wouldn't fall for. In the process we find all these other "friends" and put them is a cup so they won't get lost. We cannot find Blacky anywhere so we come up with the story that he must have run away to be with his family. Yes- we are talking about a piece of lint. She finally falls for it and decides that he is with his family. All day she had kinda complained that her ear was bothering her, but she had been outside so I thought it was from that. Well she just starts bawling that her ear hurts and she is thrashing all over the place obviously in pain. So she finally gets to sleep and wakes up awhile later and is just screaming saying her ear hurts- it is about midnight by now and Paula and Marlee decide they will go to Walgreen's to get some Tylenol and ear drops. I am dying because we are in a hotel and I am just waiting to get the call that we need to quiet down. The good thing is we had 2 rooms that were shared and one of them was on the end so that is were we had her. Anyways she finally fell asleep. At 3 am she wakes up again bawling and all loud and manages to wake up Gracie and Garrett. Garrett went back to sleep but Gracie thought it was playtime and was as hyper and happy as could be. I think she was up for about 2 hours and finally fell asleep- needless-to-say it was not the best night of sleep I have every gotten. On Tuesday Brooklyn had an appointment with the Allergist and when he looked in her ear he was like, "Wow! That is really red- does she have a history of ear infections?" So she really did have something wrong with her and is on an antibiotic.

The meltdown begins

Me looking for "Blacky"

Total devastation

It was 60 degrees and warm. I called Sean one night and he said to enjoy it because Cache Valley was inverted and it had been 12 degrees that day.

Gracie and Garrett sat there and emptied out Jan's bag. The 2 of them together is trouble.

One of Brooklyn's favorite things to do in St. George is to go to the Temple and Visitor's Center. We went 2 different times and spent a couple hours there and she was thrilled. This temple really is gorgeous.

Getting ready to come home. The sad thing is is that all of this luggage is just me and Nat's.

Grace just chillin in the rocking chair.

I am so blessed and lucky to have such a great support system in my life. I don't know what I would do without Paula and her family to help with the gals. My gals adore and love all of them. Thank you for your help and love Andies. And Nat- I don't know how I got so lucky to have Nat as my sister. She is not only my sister but my bestfriend. She loves my gals like they are her own and they love her that much back. Thanks sisto for all your help. And my parents- I don't even know what to say. They spent the whole weekend driving back and forth from Mary Ann's to the hotel to drive me and the gals around and trying to make us all happy. Thank you so much for all you do for us- it doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated. We love you!