Every month I get to scrap with some of the most gorgeous kits from various designers in the digi community. I love being a part of The Daily Digi Team – and most of the pages I do for them ends up becomming some of my all time favorites. Below is a look at one I did for the May edition of The Digi Files, using a kit from Vicki Stegall.

Credits: papers and elements from Butterfly Kisses by Vicki Stegall, part of The Daily Digi for the month of May 2012; template by Janet Phillips; font: appelberry

I love that face! Have you been snapping or scrapping something lately of someone or something that you really love?

Talk and food when he came home from school. He was in such a good mood.

Even homework and math were easy to plow through today. I love any day like this, fighting over homework are not my favorite way to spend an afternoon.

After the food and the homework came the one thing he was the most happy about. Plugging in the Wii and getting to play. With some good help from me, he got it all ready and was super excited when he could turn it on and put the CD in the console.

Everything worked. And he even figured how to hold the control(s). Eventually.

‘This is so much more fun than Playstation’, he said. To be honest I liked what I saw myself and I am not a game player.

A little leftover 9 from Sunday. I intended to make a card to my kid for his birthday, but I never got around to it. Think this number will end up on a scrapbook page instead. Or maybe in the Project Life album?!

Love the orange and blue together!

So how was your day?
I was so sure I would have only a few photos, but am pleased to see that this project inspires me to pick up my camera and shoot a few frames when something is happening. I’m so glad about that, because my dslr camera have been collecting dust the last months – and I really do want to capture more of our everyday stuff. Like everyday..! And not all the photos have to be instagram, even though they are a fun and easy way to capture life.

If you want more Week In The Life inspiration, jump over to Ali Edwards‘ blog. Here you can see her photos from Monday.

Hope to see you tomorrow, for Day #3 of Week In The Life.
Already I can tell you there are less photos… Ahem.

On his treasure hunt around the house the goal was to gather letters.

Sometimes he had to climb to get high enough.

Other times he spent precious time searching for things (like a book) in the wrong place, only to suddenly remember where he had seen it and run like crazy to find it. Giving his mama plenty of trouble documenting all the seven stops. Lots of blurry photos. Lots of happiness and laughter.

After he had found all seven of the letters. He got to find his first gift. He was so eager to rip it apart and see what it was inside. I think he never would have guessed this one, although he had a pretty good guess on the big gift.

I can draw on this one? Is it a Wii game? …but I don’t have a Wii…..

About time he got to work on the letters, and rather quickly (with a little bit of help from me saying it was one word and that one word was two words put together) – he found that the big gift was hidden in the: BATHTUB!

And a few minutes later he was the very proud owner of his very own BLUE Wii.

The sad news was that it came from England and we needed an adapter before we could hook it up. He was not so happy with this. But the joy of the blue box (and knowing it would be fixed soon) and the anticipation of his guests arriving in only a few short hours kept him pretty pumped up still.

And a little cake batter helped sweeten things up a little as well.

After his uncle, aunt, cousins and grandparents came we gathered around the table in the kitchen and ate dinner. The plan was to BBQ outside (nothing fancy, just some hot dogs), but the rainy weather made for a change of plans.

But the rainy weather did not stop MT for wanting to get some help getting a few things down that was stuck on the roof top. His uncle was kind enough to head out in the not so nice condition and rescued not only one ball but four. MT was even more happy than before. THANK YOU UNCLE O!

In the afternoon it was finally time for cake and for some birthday candles. MT got to blow them out (and yes he did blow them all out in one intake of breath) and we all sang Happy Birthday To You so he almost got embarrassed. Almost.

MT wanted jello for his birthday party, and I think he was the single one person that ate the most of it at the party. He was also the one that finished the leftovers today (Monday). The yellow citrus one being his favorite.

And then, in the evening, after all the guests left and MT got ready for bed, we did what we do most nights. We gathered in the sofa, MT found himself something to draw on and I started reading from our book. Right now we’re a bit longer than half way in Harry Potter #4. It was the perfect ending to a very nice day. And what we needed to find our quiet together. This is one of my most favorite things we do together. Reading books. I hope it’s still a few more years before he gets to old to be read for by his mama. I hope he never stops drawing either, I love this creative side of him – and he is really really good at it too.

This was our Day #1 of Week In The Life of 2012. I love having his birthday be the first day of this year’s project. Gave me lots of reason to capture gems from a special day. You can find a few more words about the day here.

How was your day? I wish it had something sweet, something quiet and something fun in it – I think all Sundays should have at least that!

Thanks for reading. Have a GREAT week! And I try to update about day #2 tomorrow.

A day filled with celebrations is over. My kid is tucked to bed hours ago. He was tired – and happy. It  has been a good day. Spent together the two of us and spend with our closest family; my brother and his wife and kids and my parents. 

MT have gone treasure hunting for his gift, he have gotten sweet gifts from his visitors and then we spent hours together. An easy dinner, some coffee and tea, a few cakes and MT’s wish of jello as dessert.

In the evening a friend called to congratulate him, throughout the day (and earlier this weekend) a few SMS’s ticked in too. Nice to know we have friends that care and make an effort to reach out. I only wish some of them lived closer so we could invite them over more often.

I’ve taken a bunch of photos. More, I think, than all of February…. I’m going to share a few with you, but not today – tonight all I have is a few instagrams, since those already were online.

This is just a few words summing up our day, before I head to bed as well.

I can hardly believe my sweet little boy is 9 years old. How did he grow so fast? I see a lot of changes in him these days, he’s so much more grown up, he takes care of things, he can be left alone for a while without him getting himself into too much trouble and we have conversations about the earth around us, the animals, the dinosaurs, the solar system, how different people can feel and act, our faith and more -or less – everything (even girls and feeling, but don’t tell anyone I said that!).

And as much as I love that sweet little boy, I’m starting to be very found of this growing and changing boy as well. Most of all because he still is sweet and funny and serious and kind and curious and creative (and more!). I can not wait to see what the days and years ahead will give of good and happy memories. And then I pray for wisdom and patience in the difficult times that I’m sure is bound to come as well.

MT has been my treasure ever since I met him. He’s named after my Grandfather on my mothers side, and his name is so true = Gods gift.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BIG BOY! May there be many more years to celebrate life with you!

This weekend is mostly work for me, so it was so nice that MT could spend some hours at his uncle and aunt’s place instead of tagging along with me.

We had a special remembrance service at church where we invited the families, that had lost a dear one the last year, to come and be together for an hour of song, prayers, lighting of candles and hope. It was a good service, but not something MT would have had so much use for. He was better off playing with his cousins.

When I got to their house to pick him up and stepped out of the car I looked down on my phone only to find a message from my brother:

Are you coming soon? Dinner is ready!

It was such a sweet and nice surprise. Tasty as well. Thank you so much guys!!

—————————–> What are you thankful for today?

…………………….
This is the fifth post in a series of Thankful post for the month of November 2011. I use the prompts from Katrina Kennedy’s November Photo Idea List as a starting off point and find at least one thing I am grateful for each and every day. If you want to play along please share your thoughts in the comments or link us up to your blog.

Hello November! You came warm, wet and foggy!

Yesterday and today we have been in a kind of Halloween mode around here. Not that we celebrate the holiday much, but even here in Norway you should work hard not to notice it when the date drawing close; with the toy stores crammed with all kinds of spooky and creepy costumes – and lots of candy everywhere. I have said for a while that I wish the holiday we should adopt from the US was the Thanksgiving holiday, not the Halloween one. I know we do not have the history for these holidays anyway, but the stores most certainly do not let that stop the assortment overload of scary masks and buckets for candy now have it?! So why not also adopt Thanksgiving and give it our own little homey twist?

I can think of a million things we can be thankful for, both as a nation and for me personally – I have off course not the time or energy to write down or say out loud all the millions of things I am thinking of (!) BUT I really would love and like to write down one (or a few) things I am thankful for each and every day of this month. So maybe we haven’t adopted this holiday of Giving Thanks in our country just yet, but that will not stop me from having my own little thanksgiving party in my life, now does it.

There even might be a turkey at the end of the road.

And, with me I am taking the Thankful Prompt Katrina Kennedy have gathered together for the month. You can find it here at her site Capture Your 365 (you should become a member and start sharing your thankful photos as well! I’d love to see you there!). I love all the thankful prompts and will try to fill each and every day with a photo of something I am thankful for as well as the words.

For November 1st I will use the prompt and just state the obvious.
This is the person that I am the most thankful for:

I guess it was no surprise, at least not if you have been following this blog for the last 6 years. But it is also so very true! There is no one else on this earth of ours that I am more thankful for than my sweet and happy kid. No matter if the day have been filled with grumpiness and unhappy words and faces (like this afternoon. Sigh. Mine as well as his). Love you big boy!

Now, the really fun thing would be to hear what you are thankful for as well. Please share some words or thoughts or link us up to your blog or photo in the comments. Thanks!

He loves to lay down on the floor with a sheet of blank paper in front of him having a movie playing on the screen. He looks at the movie and he draws, sometimes more into the movie, sometimes more into the drawing. Tonight he drew a new kind of house.

It is the house we are going to live in in the future, he told me.

And then we looked at the drawing together, deciding which part he is going to occupy, which part I am going to living in and what everything else are going to be. I love how he fills our house with his drawings, even when I get a bit tired of finding half drawn sheets of paper all over the floor most mornings. I am so grateful to see that he expresses himself through creative ways. I hope he never forgets to imagine, to dream, to make, to create, to not accept that ‘it can not be done’ as good enough answer when it comes to thinking or dreaming up new creative ways to do or live life.

It might seem like a waste of time to dream or make art. But I do not think that it ever is. I think it is one of the most important things in our life; to believe we were created with this wonderful ability to imagine and make, that we can do as the Master Creator does: create things of beauty. Not only because they are practical and useful things – but because they make us HAPPY.

And beauty is so much, we can only take a look around us: people, plants, animals, flowers, houses, the shapes and the colors of things surrounding us all have something beautiful in them. Even my orange crocks and my tea mug got chosen because of their color (crocks) and shape (mug) that I found to be beautiful. I am sure if you look around in your own living room you can find something that makes you smile with delight. And if not, give room for your creative side. Make something or find something other have made and celebrate the beauty you see.

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
(Eccl. 3:11-13)

I’m spending it all alone since MT is at his Grandparents, but I’ve used the time good and written down The Long Tale About Bringing Him Home. So here it goes:

6 years ago right about now, I guess I were still on the plane. I was so tired, had been awake all night. So much had happened. The long waiting at the air port in Addis Abeba. The flight in the middle of the night. The uneasy sleep of my little 2,5 year old. The no sleep for me. The early, early morning landing in Frankfurt in Germany. The hours spent at the Mac Donald, eating, playing and talking. Then we had to say farewell to my good friend that had been with us for over a week, I cried and MT screamed, we almost lost it there for a while.

But then he got to meet his Grandparents and got treated with a pizza. He started to smile again and being his goofy self; charming his Grandparents from the very first moment they met. After some hours of talking and getting to know each other, we had to say goodbye again. Not easy, but easier. He had not been with them as long and i think he understood that he would see them again, soon. When they would come to visit us by the fjord were I lived and he soon should live as well.

There where some more waiting, it seemed like for ever. I was so tired and was really relieved when we finally could board the plane. MT decided that he wanted to sit right next to the rotor blade, he found it funny to watch. I felt they might be a bit to noisy for my liking, but hey, it is only one hour flight. I could take that.

It took some more hours to get home. There were fog at the air port, we got rerouted to the main city. When we landed i almost cried again, I was so very tired and kind of emotional; being a new mom and all. My kid was sleeping next to me safely tucked in the belt that i had to bribe him with candy to fasten without too much crying an hour earlier. It was something new to him, they didn’t use belt much in his country. Not that he had flown an air plane before either.

They told me that every one had to leave the plane and go wait inside in the waiting hall. It was too much for me and I almost cried. The stewardess understood me, she was an adoptive mom as well, she said she could eat her lunch in the plane and stay with me. I haven’t words enough to describe how happy that made me, how understood i felt, how thankful I was for that my kid got to sleep and i got to just sit there talking about my boy, about adoption with someone that understood and knew.

After a while we got to take off again, the fog had cleared. We headed for our final destination this day, finally. When I walked out of the plane, with my kid next to me – he woke up when we got there – I cried again. Happy tears this time. Because another good friend stood there waiting for us. Waiting for us to come of the plane, waiting to give each of us a good hug and a welcome home, waiting to drive us home.

And while we drove we got to talk a little, my friend and I, while my kid slept some more. And our day was finally almost over. Finally home, me and my kid, ready for our new life together.

..

Thanks for reading! This really is a special day for me. If you want to you can read more about the journey to Ethiopia here. But now it is time for bed for me I guess. Looking forward to see MT again tomorrow. I miss him when he’s not here. The house is so empty and quiet.

Last Friday (September 25th) MT got invited to a costume party. He prepared well and borrowed the costume from his friend – but the head gear he made himself. They had so much fun at the party and this is a little snipped from our conversation as we walked back home. It made me smile big listening to him. It also made me realize how much he’s grown lately. This is me savoring the moment:

Me: Was it fun at the party!
MT: Oh, YES! It was the best!
I ate so much candy that my heart hurt.

Me: What was the most fun?
MT: The girl-war. I hid and scared them.

..hope he didn’t scare them too much. LOL.

I’m so proud of him for going the creative route and making this helmet himself. He’s the designer, I only helped him with gluing together the big parts as well as letting him use one of my cardboard boxes.

I love the details of it and how he found it funny leaving the post stamps on. I love the details, here is even a microphone in case he needs to talk to his friends during a mission.

Way to go for making your own statement my boy.

And for not demanding to buy something when you didn’t have what you imagined. Making it yourself is sooo much cooler anyway You thought me a lesson there.

I’ve really been into scrapping with real paper and glue this month. Not because I don’t like digi scrapping any more (because I DO!) – but because I found a bunch of photos from when MT first entered my life and it’s been so inspiring and fun adding a few stories to paper and putting them to good use as a scrapbook page. It doesn’t hurt that I have some beautiful papers to use either

This photo I nearly put in the bin, but then I remembered the first weeks we had together. How the weather were nice, but a little chilly. How we were stuck in our little town because my car didn’t have the back seat put up, neither did we have a safe stool for MT to sit. How we had to use what we could find. Like this scarf around his neck to keep it warm while we went walking along the fjord side.

You came to Norway in October.
I should have thought about it being fall.
You had both jacket and hat -
but I hadn’t found a scarf for you.
So you had to borrow mine.
It was a little to big, but you didn’t care.
Thankfully.

Here we are out walking together with Grandma and Grandpa. It was their first time visiting us . It was so nice having them for a week. One get to know each other well that way.

22. October 2005

Made with Shimelle’s Starting Point.