Scrapbooking- Daddy Tickle Fest

There's something so special about wrestling/tickling fun between a Dad and his son. I love any time I hear laughter between Ben and Lucas. It makes my heart happy. 

Journaling: Who gives the best tickle fests ever? Daddy! Who loves it but can’t take it? Lucas! Let the fun begin!

digital goodies used:

I didn't actually make this page. It is another ready-made page. I dropped in my photos, added text and a couple of extras to make it mine. I don't even remember where I got it though! oops!

Scrapbooking- Embke Family Reunion

I actually didn't make this scrapbook page. It was a ready-made page and I just added my photos and journaling. However I did add some extra photos. I always seem to have more photos than spaces provided. Sometimes it's just nice to make a page really quick with pages like this. tada!

Journaling:
June 14-20. 2013
The Embke family reunion was so much fun! We had a great time  playing games, hanging out together, going on a picnic, bowling, and catching up on the last few years since we’ve seen each other. It was neat to have 6 of the 14 cousins together, and to see Mom with her siblings and parents together too, and with Grandpa on Father’s Day!

Scrapbooking- Lucas' Baptism

Journaling:

Lucas was saved almost a year before he was baptized but we waited because we wanted to be sure that he truly understood and believed. He was so thrilled to show everyone that he was choosing to follow Christ! We were so proud of him as he took this step of obedience in His walk with the Lord. Afterward he went around giving “high fives” and saying, “brother in Christ!” It cracked us up.

Digital Template used:
Layout 047 by Marisa Lerin (www.pixelscrapper.com)

Scrapbooking- Whooo's Grandma's Helper?

Journaling: 

Alenna is a great little helper! She loves to be involved with what’s going on, and offers to help whenever she can. During our family reunion Great-Grandma Embke was always busy serving us, and Alenna wanted to help Grandma dry the dishes and re-make the beds. It was so sweet to see her servant’s heart and watch her help the best way she could with her adorable little four-year-old hands.

Digital goodies used:

Kit: Free kit "sunny days" by JustJaimee

Template: "tuesday template 62" by Mturnidge 

Scrapbooking- Bowling- Family Reunion 2013

Bowling Time!

What's more fun than going bowling with your whole family for really, really cheap? Not much! We had so much fun!

Journaling: 

The bowling alley in Neillsville had $1 bowling during our family reunion! We had so much fun for so little money! And Grandpa bowled his first spare! How awesome is that! 

Digital kit used: 

"Shiny Happy People" a free collab kit by the "Heartistic Project"

Scrapbooking- 12 Year Anniversary

This is How Much I Love You

12 Years of marriage. It keeps getting sweeter...

Journaling: 

12 reasons why I love you more after 12 years:

1.  You still hug me every chance you get.

2. You still kiss me every chance you get.

3. You make me draw closer to God.

4.  I love to pray with you

5. You play with our children

6. You always listen to me

7. Your wink...

8. We can complete each others sentences

9. I love to sing with you

10. You try to make me laugh all the time

11. Your smile makes my knees weak

12. You’re my best friend

Digital kit used: "you make me smile" be elle designs

Scrapbooking- 30 Days of Thanksgiving

I really like doing a post per day on Facebook during the month of November detailing what I'm thankful for. So, when I saw this picture on pinterest: 

It gave me the idea to make one from my Facebook posts this year. So, here's my take on it....

Journaling:

Day 1: I am thankful for my eyes

Day 2: I'm thankful that during this crazy life we live right now I was able to take off for a short ladies' retreat with my favorite ladies from Cherry Street!

Day 3: I'm thankful for Gabe and Amy Metzger Fry : for the fun time we had last night together, and their willingness to take us to and from the airport this week! Love you guys!

Day 4: I am thankful for my God, who loves me when I don't deserve it (which is always), and gave Himself for me so that I will be with Him forever! 

Day 5: I am thankful for my daddy and mommy who were and are great examples to me of what a loving marriage, and Godly parents should be. I love you both! 

Day 6: I'm thankful I have the freedom to worship God and read His Word openly!

Day 7: I'm thankful for fellow missionaries! We had a great time encouraging each other this week during the communication workshop! And pretty much every other time we are with other missionaries it's a huge blessing also! I thank God for you all!

Day 8: I thank God for our supporters. God has blessed us with wonderful churches and individuals who are uplifting us in prayer, and I am so very thankful for all you do for us! We couldn't make it without you!

Day 9: I am thankful I am back home with kiddos. I missed them so very much!

Day 10: Today I'm thankful for my sweet oldest child, Natalie Anne! She is one of Gods huge blessings in my life and I'm so thankful for her intelligent, sweet, caring, funny little self. Nat, you brighten my days with your smiles, ideas and hugs!

Day 11: today I'm thankful for my bubby, Lucas. He lights up my life with his smiles, goofy laughter, funny sense of humor, his witty mind, and his sweet (when he wants to be!) heart. I love you, Lucas!

Day 12: today I'm thankful for my sweet Alenna Rachelle who turns 5 today! Happy birthday, sweetheart! You are such a blessing from God. I love your beautiful smile, your hugs, kisses, sweet singing, beautiful art work, and helping hands.

Day 13: today I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters! I love you all! 

Day 14: I saved being thankful for my hubby until his birthday! So, happy birthday, Ben! I'm so thankful to God for you! You're the second biggest blessing besides salvation. I love you! 

Day 15: today I'm thankful for a warm house. It's chilly out there! And I will definitely miss the central heat and air when we go to Argentina!

Day 16: I'm thankful for our mini home away from home- our van! It has been faithfully getting us from point A to points B, C, D and even all the way to X. I hope it continues through deputation!

Day 17 of thankfulness: I'm thankful for my brother and sister in laws! Especially for Katie Metzger and Horacio Brancatelli who have birthdays this month!

Day 18: today (as we travel once again) I am thankful for the small variety we have in fast food while on the road (believe me, it's a big deal). We ate hamburgers, chicken, soup and today tacos all from fast food this weekend. It's the small things, folks!

Day 19: Today I'm thankful for friends! We get to hang out with some this evening, and more later with week! Our friends are blessing no matter where we/they are!

Day 20: Today I'm thankful for our sending church! We get to go there on Wednesdays for the next month, and it's wonderful to take a "break" and be with people we've known for years. Sometimes we need that little break.

Day 21:Today i'm thankful for Thanksgiving Day which gives me the excuse to buy yummy food to make a yummy meal! I know, it's all about my stomach today!

Day 22: I'm thankful for my nieces and nephews. I have three of each (boys: Hunter, caiden, Maddox. Girls: Rosalia, Mikaela, Eliana!), which is cool! today is the birthday of my niece, Mikaela, in Argentina! Happy birthday, Mika! And I hope to have many more nieces and nephews in the future!

Day 23: I'm thankful for being able to laugh. We had a great time enjoying laughter on Saturday night and the Tim Hawkins show.

Day 24: I'm thankful we could be at our home church on Sunday morning with our church family. We miss them when we are gone!

Day 25: I'm thankful for my iPad that I won in a contest. It is a huge multi-tasker me and helps me with thank you notes, setting up times to stay and missions houses, entering email addresses, skyping with my family in Argentina, etc.

Day 26: I'm also thankful for my kindle app on my iPad. It saves me space with all my books and I LOVE to read, so it's awesome to have! Thank you, God, for technology 

Day 27: I'm thankful for being able to homeschool my kiddos. Some days it's pretty rough, but there's nothing like seeing your kids' eyes wide with wonder when they learn how to read, count to 100, or add, subtract, multiply, etc. and I know I helped them learn that! Whoo hoo! My just-turned-5-year-old is reading! 

Day 29: I'm thankful for games. I love playing them with family and friends and we had so much fun playing games this week! 

Day 30: I am thankful for our marriage. Today (dec 1st) is our 12 anniversary (of our first wedding, lol!) and I'm so grateful to be married to the love of my life!

Digital kit used: "thanks for giving" by Summer Driggs

Scrapbooking- Friends and Family- The Workmans!

We always have a blast when we go to the Workmans. Here's some photos from our time there in August of this year.

Journaling:

The Workman family has always been special friends to my family. They were adoptive grandparents and uncle (Doug) and aunt (Beth) since I was little, so I’m so happy that they are that to my kids now that I have a family of my own! We are friends by birth, but family by spiritual birth! We always have fun playing games (Monopoly deal and D-scribe) when we are there! 

Digital kit used: http://www.shabbyprincess.com/index.php/happy-go-lucky/

Scrapbooking- Dream...

Dream

Journaling:

While you sleep.... Before I sleep.... I come in your room to re-tuck you in..... kiss you once more....and pray for you... to dream big dreams... love God will all your heart.. and become who He wants....

Digital kit: "twinkle" by JBillingsley

Template: by Scrapping with Liz @ www.scraporchard.com

Scrapbooking- Thanksgiving- 2013- "Thankful For"

Thankful For...

This year, on the day before Thanksgiving we walked through the "Festival of Lights" with the kiddos, then came back to drink hot chocolate. Over our hot chocolate we listed things we were thankful for with categories like "something beautiful we're thankful for", "something that happened this year that we're thankful for", "something silly we're thankful for", and more. It was so much fun. Of course, I couldn't remember most of it, so I only was able to list a few of the things. 

Journaling:

Thankful around

the table:

Ben: our reliable van

Rachelle

seeing family this year

Rachelle: Ipad for reading

white, puffy clouds

My hubby

Natalie: God

Grandma and Grandpa

books

Lucas: Sandy

saved and baptized

Captain Underpants book

flowers

Alenna: going to the fair

Rainbows

jokes

Digital kit: "capturing fall" collab by the Lilypad

Template: "Tuesday Template 4" by mturnidge

Scrapbooking- Seeing Mike!!!!!

I was so excited to see my brother, Mike after 4 years! So, here's my scrapbook page about it....

Journaling:

Oh, how I had missed my brother, Mike! It had been four years since I had seen him when we visited Argentina. So, when I heard he was coming to the U.S. to work for a few months I couldn’t wait to see him. Since we were on deputation, we traveled close to where he was  staying on two different occasions! Yay!

We had a lot of fun together, and the kids claimed “Uncle Mike” as one of their regular tickle/wrestle buddies. We went a few fun places in Charlotte, NC with Mike when we visited, like a special learning library and a Discovery Center. We also hung out at Aunt Robin’s house and ate and played games. I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with Mike and having a few good chats. I’m so glad it worked out to see him again, and on more than one occasion!

Digital kit used:

"more or less" collaboration for INSD (International Scrapbooking Day). It was a freebie kit in a blog hop (you get multiple mini kits from each blog to form one large kit) on that day. You can google it, but I'm not sure it is still available.

Digital Template: found at http://meaganscreations.com

Scrapbooking- Lucas' 7th Birthday!

July 3rd, 2013- Hoppy Birthday, Lucas!

I know the logical thing is to scrapbook life in order, but I'm not logical, so I scrapbook in a very random way. Sometimes I scrapbook photos that I love, sometimes stories that I can't wait to get into a layout, sometimes I do a page for one of my kids that wants a new page done about them, and- yes- sometimes I actually go chronologically! So, I felt like doing Lucas' most recent Birthday photos taken last month. Here they are!

Digital Kit used: 

"hoppy birthday" by www.the-lilypad.com

Digital Template:

by http://elle-designs.weebly.com/