Family Traditions.

Each year my family and my uncle's family go on a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks.

We stay at Tan-tar-a in pretty much the same room every year.

We even have t-shirts made.  Dorky, I know, but I LOVE it!

There are 22 of us at last count.

We swim, eat, water slide, play golf (boys), and go to the spa (girls), and just hang out with each other.

Our dads farm together and I grew up really close to these cousins.  We basically still live pretty close to each other.  But, as time goes by we see each other less and less.

I absolutely LOVE that we spend one long weekend a year catching up, reconnecting, and having a little bit of fun with each other.  We do see each other at birthdays and holidays. . . but those are usually chaotic times with a lot of people crammed into a small space.  It is nice to just hang out with each other!!!

Anyway, my point is. . . I have created a scrapbook completely about this trip.  Each year I add a layout or two highlighting that year's trip to the album.  I LOVE that this is an ongoing project. . . it will hopefully never be finished.  If I fill the album up, I will just start a new one!  I love to look back and see how much the kids have changed and how our family has changed each year!

I know I have posted about this before . . . and I still get a lot of questions about it.  I gave up scrapping chronologically a long time ago.  I now do a lot of albums just like this. I have a Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Birthday, Fall,  School, Family, etc albums.  This system works for me, because I don't feel overwhelmed.  I do a few pages from each of these events and then I can add it to the appropriate album.  There is absolutely no way I am going to scrapbook every picture I have ever taken.  I am now focused on the memories I want to preserve. . . . not just the photos.

I still feel overwhelmed at times. . . because it seems to be harder and harder to fit scrapbooking into my schedule.  I keep thinking. . .maybe things will slow down in a little bit.  The truth is, things will probably never slow down.  They are only going to get crazier and crazier.  So, I am just going to have to make the time.

Enough for today.  I just wanted to share a little bit about scrapbooking and how much I love my family and our traditions!

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend.  As much as I love Fall. . . I am very sad to see summer end.

Baby Album

All Supplies CTMH unless otherwise noted. . . I used Animal Cookies Paper Pack, Animal Cookies Stickease, white daisy ric rac, buttons, white daisy embellishment assortment, assorted buttons, natural hemp, and a 9x9 Memory Show case accordion album.



I started this little accordion album for my cousin Sara's little boy Connor. He was born in June and I am just now getting it finished! It really was easy to do. . . just finding the time to do it seemed to be the problem. These accordion albums make great gifts!!

Album Organization. . .

FINALLY. . . I believe I have figured out a system for storing my finished scrapbook pages!!!! I have been a student of Stacy Julian's Library of Memories Class for the past few weeks. I have followed along pretty good, but it is hard to keep up when there is so much going on!! The class ends next week and I will no longer have access to the lessons! I really wish they would give us a couple of extra weeks to get caught up! But, I guess it would probably NEVER be enough time!!!

Anyway, through her class (as I have discussed in previous blogs). . .she has taught us how to set up a system for organizing, storing, sorting, and scrapbooking all of our photos. . . and also housing all of the layouts!

So, today I moved some of my older layouts around and labeled all of the albums I have. . . the label holders are CTMH and are wonderful!!!!!!!

This is how I have my Albums Labeled. . . Places, Family, Seasons, Fall, Halloween, Christmas, Holidays, Brady's Birthday, Celebrations, Brady, and Easter. . . whew. . .that seems like A LOT of albums!! And the thing is. . .I am ready to place a BIG order for more albums, so I can have my Library completely set up!!! Do I need more albums right now? Probably not yet. . .but I know I will need some more in the future and I am not a very patient person!!! 97% of my albums are Close to My Heart. . .and for the ones that are not CTMH, I plan on switching them over. I have been lured into the good sells Hobby Lobby has had on Albums in the past. . .the problem is I can definitely tell the difference in quality!!!!! Now, maybe it is just the brand I picked out and not all are like this. . .and maybe it is just because I have them side-by-side to my CTMH albums. . . BUT I can tell a difference!!! Most of my albums are linen. . .which I really like!! I love the variety of colors. BUT if you want to splurge a little, the CTMH Leather albums are wonderful!! I have the English Leather and the Black. . .both are so beautiful and rich looking!!! They would look great sitting on a coffee table. . .full of your favorite or most recent layouts (an album I plan on adding very soon!)

Here is a breakdown of the kind of layouts I have in each Album (this is different than Stacy Julian, but I did base my organization off of the ideas that she taught!) Click on the picture above to see it larger!

My Places Album: RIght now it has pictures of us at the Park, at a Water Park, and an Amusement Park. It also has layouts from Family Vacations we have taken recently. I plan on having a special Vacation Album one of these days. I will also put layouts about our home or my Parent's home (etc...) in here.

My Family Album: This is an Album I know will be divided up soon. Right now it has layouts about Myself and Brady, Dad and Brady, Cousins, Family. . .any layout I have done that shows a family relationship. I pulled one of my Grandfather at Easter stealing candy before the Easer Egg Hunt had even began. Believe me, I had plenty of Easter Layouts. . .I decided I wanted this one to go under a Grandpa Tracy section in my Family Album. I also have the birth of my nephew in here and special relationships Brady has with his cousins. . . just to mention a few.

My Seasons Album. . . RIght now it has layouts that are specific to a certain season. . . winter, spring, and summer. . . I am sure one of these days that each season will probably have its very own album. . .like I have done for Fall. We tend to have A LOT of Fall pictures with the pumpkins and everything going on. . .so I went ahead and gave it its very own album!

Holidays. . . here I will keep layouts of special holidays we celebrate. . . I have Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day in here so far. Easter, Halloween, and Christmas each have their own album. We have a huge Easter celebration and hunt each year at my Aunt's house, of course there are endless celebrations and traditions with Christmas, and I love the idea of having a special Halloween Album (something Stacy Julian has) and since Halloween is such a big deal to us with Brady's birthday and all of the pumpkins we grow!!!

Celebrations. . .my side of the family loves to celebrate. . .anything and everything!! My husband thinks we have a party for everything. . isn't he funny?? But we do like to get together!!!! This album will house layouts documenting those get togethers. . .from birthday parties, to family dinners, to weddings, and other special occasions. . . both with family and friends!

This fall I will be adding a School of Life Album since Brady will be starting Pre-school. . . each year I plan on doing 3-4 pages on that school year's activities and adding it to the album. Hopefully this will be a nice and easy way to showcase his educational experience!!!

I also plan on adding a Things we Do album. . . for sport's pictures, Mizzou games, life on the farm, around the house, and other things we enjoy to do!!!

Obviously, a lot of these layouts could overlap in which album they could be placed in. Sort of like the Easter picture of my Grandpa Tracy. I could have left it in the Easter album and that would have been just fine. It was taken at Easter and he is eating Easter Candy in it. BUT. . . I wrote about how he has such a big sweet tooth, as did his Mother, his son (my Dad), and myself. And it described a bit of his personality. . . .SO that is why I decided to move it to the Family Album.

This has been a bit of a journey for me. . . one that I am still on. I believe I have the frame work in place for a system I am going to LOVE!!! I just can't wait to fill my albums up with pages. . . I kept thinking OH. . .I can put a page about this here and a page about that there!!! Before. . .I would some times stick my pages on TOP of my albums, because I just didn't know where to put them!!!! And I must confess. . .at one time I had over 50 layouts in a pile in my cabinet, because I just didn't know where to put them!!!!!

Year by year scrapbooks aren't for me. . . I know some people love them. . . and I like them on a mini-scale. . .but not for the majority of my books. In the event I have another child, I think this system would work well for incorporating them into it. I don't plan on duplicating every event for scrapbooks for both of my children. . .I know people who like to do this, but this just seems like a big chore to me!! I don't want scrapbooking to seem like work! I want it to be FUN!!!! They will have an album all about them (or two or three!) and a school album! The rest of the layouts go in the designated albums.

I know some of you have been interested in how I organize my albums. . . I am sure I will tweak this a bit from time to time as I see how it could work better! I am sure my Library will expand and I will add new Albums to the mix. I really like the Theme Albums. . .I like that the colors usually coordinate (but not always!), that I can see change over time, relationships are present, and that I am not searching through piles of scrapbooks looking for a particular layout or picture. If I want to see a Christmas picture. . .I just open the Christmas Album. . .if I don't remember what year we went on a particular trip. . .it doesn't matter. . .I just open my Vacation album!!!!

Please let me know if you have any questions about this. . . I am happy to share!!!