PB&J's for The Wedding reception!

It would be impossible to find two more selfless and wonderful people on this planet. Look. I dare you to prove me wrong!

Will Nicholson, one of my husbands best friends and his fiance Leah Bogen who recently got engaged, have begun planning their June wedding. Where most couples would be penny pinching to make it the best day possible and not willing to sacrifice anything for their big day, Will and Leah have decided to donate 25% of their budget, which was for their reception - to the crisis in Haiti. Even stating they will be serving PB&J instead of the traditional meal choice to make this donation work for them.

The Pioneer Press had this to say about Leah & Will and their conversation about making this choice:

"She totally blew me away," said Nicholson, a University of Minnesota Duluth graduate. "I'm still in awe. I was very impressed. How do you say anything but yes to that? It's such a selfless and thoughtful thing. It's hard to get excited about planning a wedding when other people are having such a terrible time.

She [Leah] made a decision right then and there to donate the money they planned to spend on the reception dinner — 25 percent of their wedding budget — to people in Haiti. Her fiance didn't need any convincing."

To read the full store please CLICK HERE

I am so proud to call these people my friends, and will gladly help them make PB&J's for their wedding reception! As a mom, I have mad skills in that department!

To make your donation to Partners in Health, the orginization chosen by Will & Leah, CLICK HERE even if you can only spare a dollar, every little bit helps!

Photo by Kari Layland www.kariphotography.com

Scrappin' Away!

Initially, when I thought about scrap booking for Ellison I was turned off at the idea of doing it digitally. There was just something about it that wasn't "right" to me. I put hundreds, even thousands into Paige's scrap book. It's so big it barely closes, each little element chosen for each page sepreatly....it was a labor of love.

As Ellie's 7th month approached I realized soon I was going to be totally out of time to catch up on her pages, and money being tight as it is dove into my files and folders filled with digi-scrap items and started on her scrap book, still with a bad taste in my mouth about the manner in which it was coming to be.

After the first page however, I was pumped! It looked AWESOME! I started whipping out pages left and right. This is so much faster, and it's still just as personal. Each Paige is color coordinated to "flow" through out the book and has a simple layout that focuses on the photos and not the scrap elements. Here's the first 3 pages! Let me know what you think!

I'll post some more of them over the next few days :0) They are really looking good, in my opinion anyway. And soon my first printed 12x12 page will arrive so I can check color and quality. I'm trying 2 different places for printing www.mpix.com and Creative Memories, as my aunt has an account with them.

Updates.

Things have been crazy busy around here, I let the blog slip entirely. We are all alive and well so no worries on that end! Here's what's new from us.

Ellie is now 7 months old, almost crawling and just your general very happy little girl. She's eating baby food, but not liking some of it, and prefers her Farley's Rusk that Nanny got her from England. Here's a few shots of Ellison over the past few weeks:

Paige has also been doing well, loving school and Girl Scouts and Gymnastics. She's looking forward to turning 6 in April and asked for a Wizard of Oz birthday party.

Over the next few days I'll post the scrapbooking pages I have made for Ellie so far and get up some more photos! :0)