Men In Kilts

 

Yes, it was our annual trip to the Celtic Classic! Men in kilts, parades of bagpipes, roasted corn and turkey legs, cigar smoke in the air, caber tossing, pushing through crowds to secure a seat for the Glengharry Bhoys under an unbearably warm tent and late night shopping under brightly lit stalls for the perfect color claddagh ring for little girls' fingers. Later, we head back to the car (all 18 of us) where we stopped for pizza and claimed the entire restaurant to ourselves! Good times!

And the winner is...

Hooray to Kristie! Are you watching? You just won a download of

amazing software from MyMemories.com! Lucky lady!

Thanks again to all who participated in the giveaway!

Half Birthday

This sweet faced baby turned 6 months old today! Evangeline sits up without support now, is starting to get into a crawling position (Madelyn and I saw her take one forward motion the other day!), and she continues to show off her toothless smile!

She also loves to clap which she learned because she has such a big audience at home encouraging her to crawl. She is such a good girl, and funny too! I find it amazing how tiny people develop a sense of humor. She will blow raspberries and then wait for her sisters to laugh. We also play peek a boo or make silly faces with her and she will just giggle like crazy!

While Daddy stood behind me trying to make her smile for the camera, she was kicking her feet and scooting around in the rocking chair so fast. I am surprised the photos were not all a blurry mess!

 

* Don't forget the My Memories Scrapbooking Software Giveaway ends Wednesday night
@ midnight! I am surprised there are not more entries!
Any digital scrapbook fans out there? Enter HERE!

Fun Fall Giveaway! *closed to entries*

To celebrate some super Autumnal temperatures today, I think it is a perfect day for a GIVEAWAY!

My Memories wants to give a copy of their My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook Software to you! A $40 value!

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to explore scrapbooking. I got myself a nice big red album. I picked out endless amounts of pretty papers and bought stickers and embellishments galore. I selected and printed photos, bought glue dots and other adhesives, searched for paper punches of shapes and decorative edges.

You get the idea... it started getting more and more expensive with each glorious page I produced.

When My Memories contacted me, I was excited to try their software. It was a quick download (system requirements:Windows XP / 7, Mac OS X) and I jumped right in creating pages.  

They have a ton of free content that you can download and install right into your program!

I picked out some free beach themed downloads, Sea Memories and Sea Breeze Frame and went to work creating some memories from our recent trip to Ocean City this summer.

I put some pages together fairly quickly once I played around with all the features. This software has definitely sparked a renewed interest in scrapbooking for me!

Check them out! 

Oh! They also have so many kits to download that can be used for whatever designs your heart can dream of.  The best part? They can be used over and over again for just a small cost. 

Certainly not like buying one tiny pack of stickers that is gone after one page!

Here are some favorites I picked: 

Autumn Days

Back to School

Forest Whispers

Birthday Bash

If you get super addicted to your digital designing, you can even join their monthly Design Club and get loads of perks. A great deal if you plan on creating a lot of memories! 

I could go on about this software forever. I was truly impressed but you will have to go explore their digital scrapbooking site for yourself!!

My Memories is also offering all of my readers a great deal!! A $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store!

 A $20 total value by entering the code: STMMMS12701

So are you ready to win your own copy of 

My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook Software? 

• Please visit their site and leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite Scrapbooking Kit.

• The giveaway will close at midnight on Wednesday, September 21.

• The winner will be picked by random.org and announced Thursday morning.

• This giveaway is for a download of their software, so remember the system requirements are for Windows XP / 7, Mac OS X only!

* * *  Good Luck * * *

Now go outside this weekend and make some memories!

Find More My Memories @
Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/MyMemoriesSuite

I remember

Photo credit

I remember waking up that morning at the same time we did most mornings, around 7:30. Daddy was already off to work. Madelyn was seven months old. We had been living in our home for barely three of those.

I remember we started that day like we did most every day. Pulling up the blinds, we would lay in bed backwards, watching the leaves sway from the tree outside the window.

I remember eating breakfast, feeding Madelyn, then putting her on the floor with toys. She was crawling by then.

I remember turning on the news like I do every morning. I remember watching video of a plane hitting one tower of the World Trade Towers. My husband called to ask if I had heard the news. What a terrible accident, we thought.

I remember the fifteen minutes in between, watching the reports, speculating. I remember still watching when the second plane hit. How my heart sunk.

I remember the terror I felt like I had never before. I remember calling my husband and telling him he should be home with us now. I remember holding Madelyn while I watched the TV, rocking her back and forth. Holding her tight.

I remember calling my Mom to talk about the horror unfolding. I remember telling her to call my father and brothers and get them out of the city. I remember wanting them all home so they would be safer.

I remember watching those two towers fall in less than a minute.

I remember all day fearfully watching the news, the uncertainty, the tears, and wondering what the future would hold.

I remember the police officers and firefighters and paramedics and kind citizens that helped that day and far beyond. 

I remember that nearly 2,819 people died that day in a terrorist attack that should not have. I know that the families of those people must live with that sadness forever.

I remember all of this, 10 years later.

I remember.

Reflections of Summer Days

Today the girls are back to school again. Sophia starts Kindergarten this year. She is excited! It seems like it took forever for Sophia to get to this stage. I always think there is this grand expanse of time that the little ones will be home with me but then school flies upon us faster than the beating of my heart.

We had a fantastic summer! People tell me it went by too fast; that they wish it could linger just a bit longer before Autumn settles in.

Some told me they could not wait to get the kids back to school and the routine and rhythm that it brings.

I feel I get tugged in a bit of both directions.

I love the Summer days at home with all our girls! No alarm to wake us, no routines, and our devil-may-care attitude! We had the pleasures of sleeping in, making three different breakfasts for twice as many kids, biking and playing outside until the sun went down, reading in bed until all hours, and spontaneous day-trips with Daddy on the weekends.

This past Sunday, we packed the car full of towels and jackets, filled our water bottles, grabbed some books and a change of clothes and headed to the shore.

I hope the girls remember that Mom and Dad were kinda cool (and maybe a little bit crazy) to pack six kids in the car and take off on one last summer adventure!

We had one last hurrah building sandcastles on the beach, the girls jumping in ocean waves with their Dad while I soaked in the sunshine with Evangeline! Met up with my brother and his sweet babies. Ate a crazy delicious pizza dinner from Mack and Manco’s while sitting on a bench huddling together from the sea breeze. Raced to the car to get our jackets afterwards, then arcade games with the little girls giggling and stuffing their pockets full of candy and caramel popcorn!

Plus a mandatory search for mood rings before our trip home again! Of course! 

Mike even found his way out of Ocean City in record time! Bonus!

These are the days we are unlikely to forget. The days from the ordinary that we tuck in a back pocket of our heart to reflect on and remember in years to come. We are counting down the days until we meet our old friend, Summer, once again.

Until then we are looking forward to the splendid days of Autumn and all the goodness that this season brings!