15 months

It dawned on me recently that I have a toddler.
An almost 15-month-old toddler.
I can't believe she was ever a teeny tiny baby.

Anyway, this is what 15 months looks like around here.

Taking ice cubes out of the ice cube and putting them into cups.

and playing with pasta. [this is one of our go-to activities while i make dinner. she likes to be in the kitchen near me, and this usually keeps her entertained for a while. when she loses interest, i pause and have her help me clean it all up... which sometimes perks her interest again. totally worth the 5 minutes of clean up.]

we tried playdough. she didn't really get it. 

she does get fabric though. i keep a small drawer of fabric scraps she is allowed to open and play with whenever. she LOVES to play with fabric. just like her mommy :) 

she really loves reading lately. she used to only love turning the pages, but now, she'll wait and listen to the whole page... well, at least 50% of the time :) we have such a great collection of board books - most have been gifts. and the more she likes reading, the more i'd like to start collecting some more non-board books. i might start a book of the month budget where we get to get one new book per month. 

we went through a brief transition from two naps to one. i accidentally discovered one day that if i woke her after 30 minutes in the morning, she'd nap for 2 hours or more in the afternoon. bam!! it was hard every day. it breaks the oldest rule in the book, never wake a sleeping baby. but, it worked for us. she's down to one longer afternoon one now. hallelujah! 

she loves going 'bye-bye.' when we come home, she mostly walks on her own from the car (street parking) to the door. she gets very excited to be walking outside. and i'm pretty sure the only thing that prevents a tantrum every time we pass by the swings is that she gets to go up the stairs by herself... fun for all 3 flights. haha. this preggo momma can't carry her as much anymore.

the trash is a 'no' unless i ask her to throw something away for me. while this is somewhat confusing & took a while to learn, she seems to understand the difference now.

sometimes we have friends over to play.

one of her other favorite thing to do lately is put these cylinder blocks (from a different toy) into an old wipes box. seriously, mommas, if you do not have a wipes box to play with, save the next one. she will do this over and over and over. and sometimes i'll pull out something else small (dried pasta, tiny pieces of playdough, alphabet blocks, etc...) and she'll drop those in. 

first she opens it by pressing the button. (when she figured that out, it was open and close open and close for many many many minutes... many times a day.)

then she picks up a cylinder block and pushes it in. then she closes the top and repeats until all 4 or 5 cylinder blocks are in. she then brings the container to me and signs 'please' for me to open it and get all the blocks out. and she does it over again. once she did this for 30 minutes. seriously. 

she realized how fun stickers are. we got a mailer with a small sheet of smiley stickers in it. she peeled each one off and (clearly) stuck it on her jammies. when the sheet was gone, there were tears. disappointment and good things sometimes coming to an end - life lessons learned young. 

occasionally, i'm nostalgic for moments like these. it seems like a distant, fuzzy memory, even though it was only 15 months ago. 

but, my little 15 month old toddler is fun. busy, and sometimes often tiring, but fun. 

i love my sweet Adelyn Joy & i love my [growing] family. 

p.s. here's a flashback to 6 months, 8 months and 10 months. 

I used to be a public school teacher

Today, it occurred to me that I used to be a public school teacher. I know it seems like a hard thing to forget, and it's not like it was that long ago. But in some ways, I feel like it was a whole different life.

Anyway, as I glanced over my to-do list with this mug in hand, I couldn't help but flashback to some teaching memories that came to mind. I didn't really blog the year I taught elementary school music, at 2 different schools, pregnant the first half of the school year, then on maternity leave, then back to work with a newborn at home. [Gee, I wonder why?]

But, I did write intermittently that year I taught high school. Looking back on some posts I wrote, and thinking back to that 'different life,' I felt nostalgic. Some things I learned then have stuck with me... so whether you're a teacher, or a parent, or have no regular interaction with kids whatsoever, here's 5 things I learned from my first year teaching high school music in a public school: 

1. Teenagers are teenagers. There are a lot of factors that influence a high school student. However, the "teen" part - hormones, facebook, life threatening attachment to cell phone, thinking high school drama is equivalent in importance to war, mood swings - all that stuff is the same across the board. Regardless of where you came from or who your mom is, teenagers are teenagers. 

2. Although teenagers are teenagers, where you come from does make a difference. What happens at your house, who supports you, how many jobs you work, how much money you have, it all makes a difference in your education. Some kids have to overcome a lot more obstacles than others to get that 23 on the ACT. 

3. Don't box kids in - try new things. You might be surprised by what they enjoy. I took 20 students to the opera my first year teaching. They talked about it the rest of the year and begged to go back. When I announced I would not be returning the following year, a few students asked if the new teacher would be taking them to the opera too. 

4. Greet students (and all people) by name. It makes them feel important. It communicates that you care. And if you're a teacher, your smiling face greeting them at the door every day of the week as they walk into your classroom (however slow moving, eye rolling and gloomy they may appear) might be the only consistent thing for them that day. 

5. Pray for your students. I can name 3 instances from that first year where a child's behavior and learning in my classroom took a 180 degree turn for the better after I prayed for them by name. 

And a bonus personal lesson - I learned I wasn't crazy (at least from the kids' perspective.)  

Sometimes it's good to look back. And it's always good to look forward. 
Happy Friday :)

comparison

I read an article on Ann Voskamp's Blog, titled "How the Hidden Dangers of Comparison are Killing Us... {and Our Daughters}: The Measuring Stick Principle."

Here's a glimpse of what she wrote:

Scales always lie. They don’t make a scale that ever told the truth about value, about worth, about significance.

And the thing about meausuring sticks, girl? Measuring sticks try to rank some people as big and some people as small — but we aren’t sizes. We are souls.  There are no better people or worse people — there are only God-made souls. There is no point trying to size people up, no point trying to compare – because souls defy measuring.

You can’t measure souls.

And the moment you try to measure souls — you try to usurp God. And ain’t nobody needs reminding of who it was that tried to usurp God. Measuring people is alwaysdevilish work – and carrying around a measuring stick is a bit like carrying around a pitchfork.

Hope squeezes my hand tight.

I whisper it to her like a heart’s battle cry, like it could rally a generation of daughters and women and sisters:

Girls rival each other. Women revive each other. 
Girls empale each other. Women empower each other. 
Girls compare each other. Women champion each other.

And Hope, she smiles and she stands.

She stands.

Read the rest here :) 

Lord, please help me to model this principle well for my daughters... not to rival, empale & compare. But to revive, empower, and champion. 15 months old may be about putting away toys, listening & obeying mommy, and not banging our sippy cup on the table. But, every so often, through a friend or article or whatever, I get a glimpse into this business of raising girls. It keeps me on my knees. 

A chicago visit & a daddy phase

Addie & I went to Chicago for a little visit. On the way there, someone traded with me and gave me their aisle seat with the one next to them open. I am still grateful to that stranger. We had fun with our friends and family but missed 'daddy.' 

Addie played with Grandma Cathy - "GC"

She practiced stacking blocks with GC.

She loves to pretend to knock them down and then say "no no no." And then giggle and knock them down for real. 

the pace of the trip was fairly relaxed which was nice for some extra morning snuggles. 

When we got home, there were lots of kisses for dad.

and snuggles

Adelyn is in a 'daddy' phase. It is so precious. She gets SO excited to see him when he comes home or comes into a room. She points to his picture in the house a lot and says "daddy bye bye" when he's at school. If he is working at home and has the bedroom door closed, she'll sometimes sign 'please' by the door and knock. [These are the things that regularly bring me to tears, people. Hashtag-pregnancy-hormones.] She loves to play games with him & have me read her all the 'daddy' board books in the house. Like this one and this one which are two of our favorites.

Nothing melts my heart more than seeing my husband and his sweet girl together.

You know you're baking impulsively when...

...you have to borrow the chocolate chips from your neighbor.
Hey, I'm pregnant and I shared some with friends. Don't judge.

Anyway, I made these from my pinterest 'recipes to try' board, and let's just say, they quickly moved over to the 'recipes I use' board. 

I made them exactly as the recipe is from all recipes.com

Here's the original recipe but I also spelled it out below in case that makes your life easier. 

source

One bowl + one pan + 10 minutes prep = delicious 

Ingredients

2/3 cup shortening

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla 

3 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 & grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, cream shortening, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. Slowly blend in flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips, walnuts, and coconut. Spread evenly into prepared pan. 

3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes & let it cool before cutting into bars. [I pulled it out after about 17 minutes when the edges were brown and the center made a toothpick barely gooey. They were perfect!]

Next time, and there will be a next time, I'm going to swap out butterscotch chips for half of the chocolate chips.

I'm going to go eat one. Make them so you can too :)

4 major life events in 3 weeks

The other day, my wonderful husband and I were having a talk about various tasks that needed to be accomplished in the next couple days. Which led to a conversation about the next couple weeks and months. Which led to extreme panic. Just kidding. Kinda. (More on that another time.)

Anyway, in order to get our thoughts and tasks organized, we decided to categorize the major things that need to be done instead of getting bogged down by all the smaller to-do's. Ben summarized it well...
"Renee, these are the things that have to be done by the beginning of June:
1. Finish school (May 16)
2. Get a job (ASAP)
3. Move to Nebraska (May 17)
4. Have a baby (June 6 ish)
Could we have picked any more major life events to squeeze into a time period of 3 weeks?" [No, the answer is no we could have not.]
In an effort to divide and conquer, I said, "Okay, but you don't have to think about all those things. I mean, who is having the baby?"
Ben: "Wellllllll...."

i must have given him a look for the books because we both burst out laughing, and he quickly corrected course: "You. You are having the baby."
Me: "Well, it's a team effort."
Ben: "yeah exactly."
Me: "No it is not!!" (I know, it is. kinda.)
[more and more laughter.]

It's a good thing we can laugh about these things, because really, sometimes, what else is there to do?

I'm certain I couldn't put into words the difference between what I expected back then and what life is now, but I definitely am glad I said "yes" 5 years ago. And sometimes, like when you are trying to tackle 4 major life events in the span of 3 weeks, choosing to be thankful & excited that we're doing it all together is a really good thing.

a few links

Goodbye entitled children. This article is worth a read if you have any interaction with children... ever. 

Excited to be starting this up with some momma-friends next week. 

My go-to marinara recipe these days. (and for that matter, it's one of my go-to blogs for ANY recipe lately.) 

Dinner tonight.

A song I'm enjoying lately.

A video Addie is enjoying lately. (She always says 'hi' as everyone enters the screen.) 

happy monday :)

Pork Lettuce Wraps

A friend made these for us once and they were AHHH-mazing. I've made them a few times since. Ben loves them. Everyone I've shared the recipe with so far has loved them too, so I figured I'd post it on the world wide web. The prep takes less than 10 minutes and it can be done at the last minute or 8 hours ahead of time. It takes about 5 minutes to cook when you're ready to go. Basically, it's fast, easy, healthy, and delicious! What's not to love!?

Pork Lettuce Wraps 

Marinade Ingredients
2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp. dry sherry (I used red wine sherry)
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce (I used low sodium)
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp dark sesame oil
1 Tbsp asian chile sauce (I use 1 tsp. since I don't like things very spicy. 1 tsp is basically no spice at all.)
3 cloves garlic finely minced
2 green onions

Other Ingredients
1 lb. fresh pork (I buy a 1-2lb pork tenderloin)
1/3 cup pine nuts (peanuts work well too; I omit them entirely)
1 head iceberg lettuce
peanut oil (or olive oil)

Instructions
Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Cut the pork into bite size pieces. Coat pork evenly with marinade. Refrigerate at least 10 minutes, up to 8 hours. [Optional: toast pine nuts (or peanuts) in oven at 325 for 8 minutes, or until golden brown.] Separate lettuce leaves to use as cups.

When ready to eat, place wok or large sautee pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, heat peanut or olive oil. Add pork to the pan and cook until it loses its pink color (3-5 minutes). Stir in nuts if adding them.

Serve the pork in lettuce leaves. We add rice to the lettuce leaves, but it would be good on the side too. I also serve with a steamed veggie or a fruit.  

I forgot to take a pic, but this is what they looked like :) Here's the source. It links to a different recipe though. 

Enjoy & as always, let me know if you try it! :)

28 weeks

Oh, hello third trimester.
I am 28 weeks today. Phew. Just these last few days, the extent to which I 'feel' pregnant has really stepped it up a notch. Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to record what this pregnancy has been like so far. (Wait, you weren't wondering? Feel free to just 'x' right out of this post.) But I'm often trying to remember what I experienced while pregnant with Addie-girl compared to this time around... and if I'm ever 28 weeks pregnant again, I think it might be fun to look back and compare. So, I found these little prompts about what to record while pregnant. Here it goes.

Total weight gain: approx. 20 lbs at 28 weeks. I'm really hoping to gain less overall compared to pregnancy #1. Considering I gained 45-50 total with the first, I'm optimistic about the probability of not gaining an additional 25-30 pounds these next 12 weeks. It was rather uncomfortable to carry around all that extra weight. We'll see. must.keep.exercising.
Maternity clothes: my pants were tight very early on, but overall, I've done with fewer maternity clothes this pregnancy. Perhaps because the novelty has worn off? And rather than being very eager to look pregnant, I have been very eager to look the least amount of pregnant possible. Also, most of my maternity wardrobe was professional clothes because I was teaching full time when pregnant with my first. This time around, there are many more days of leggings, yoga pants, and comfy tees & cardigans. There is a lot of rubber-banding my regular pants this time around. Just today, it was uncomfortable to sit down with my regular pants rubber-banded. Guess it's officially time to move into maternity (aka: 'toddler') pants full-time. Gotta love an elastic waistband. Shirts can go either way. Some of my non-maternity shirts still look cute, some are less than flattering. A couple of plain maternity t-shirts and tank tops are going a long way.
Sleep: I had a few stretches of sleepless nights early in the 2nd trimester. Waking up at 2 or 3 am and not being able to get back to sleep. But, thankfully, I sleep decently most nights now. There is almost always at least 1 trip to the bathroom, but I'm generally able to remain in a sleepy stupor long enough to fall back asleep quickly.
Best moments so far: Telling Ben we were pregnant again. (You can relive that moment here.)
Finding out we were having another girl.
Deciding on her name. (We'll announce when she's born.)
My bump is not far from Addie's eye level when she's in the grocery cart, so she occasionally leans forward to kiss the baby while we're grocery shopping. She does this at home too... always when prompted, and sometimes just on her own. It's very sweet.
Baby movement: I could feel bubbles (aka: "quickening") pretty early this time- around 11 or 12 weeks. I can't remember when those little bubbles turned into kicks that Ben could feel. Now, she is movin and shakin in full force. We can sometimes see big waves across my tummy. She especially likes to kick when I sit down to relax. For the first time last night, she woke me up from so much kicking. I told her to settle down, but it didn't help. Guess we'll have to work on that whole 'listening and obeying' thing when she's on this side of the womb :)
Mommy movement: I've been slowing down the past couple days, but up until then, was totally normal! I have been able to exercise regularly this pregnancy compared to last time, and it has made a world of a difference. In the last week, I've slowed down from some pelvic joint pain and general largeness, but I'm hoping to still hit the gym regularly... even if it just means walking on a treadmill. You might catch me waddling towards the end of the day. Although, it's more likely you'll catch me sitting with my feet up, a heating pad on my back, eating a girl scout cookie.
Food cravings: Pizza pizza pizza. I could eat pizza any day, any time with this pregnancy. But I like pizza as a non-pregnant lady. A lot. So, I don't know if that counts as a craving. I described my baking urges already, but other than that, no weird food stuff. [Again, this could be a side affect of trying not to gain quite as much weight as with the first... when we lived up the street from Culver's... and had a lot of impulsive emergency-concrete-mixer trips.]
Labor signs: No labor signs yet, thank goodness. I have been having Braxton hicks contractions for a while now, but they don't really count as 'labor signs.' They have picked up, in frequency and intensity, the last couple days. It's a good workout. And also a little annoying.
Mood: These 2 situations describe my mood well.
1. A couple at our church is in the process of adopting their first child - a 3 1/2 year old. They already know his name and have met him once. She comes to our play group each week, and every week we sing to him during the 'hello' and 'goodbye' songs. And every week, I tear up just a little. She told me a little bit about their first trip to visit their son, although they couldn't bring him home just yet. As I relayed their stories to Ben, the tears filled my eyes. Well, a few days later I ran into her at the gym. And told her we were praying for her, and that my husband and I were both very teary as we talked about their story. As I told her about us being emotional, I felt teary. I tried to hold it together. Then I told my mom all this. And was again, you guessed it, a little bit teary-eyed.

2. We went to Chicago last week, and that was probably the latest I could fly with sweet Addie by myself. Hard to bend over and pick up all the dropped cheerios with her on my lap... in the middle seat. God bless the people on either side of us - they were so nice. Actually, I started to say 'thank you for being so accommodating' on our way off the plane & the tears filled my eyes. I pulled it together though. Until another nice stranger at baggage claim offered to get my bag off the belt. And then another nice stranger offered to walk my bag where ever I was going since I was also pushing the stroller. So by the time I met up with Ben (who raced from his class to pick us up), I gave him a hug, got in the car, and burst into tears. Happy to be home, happy to be with Ben, so appreciative of the nice strangers, so tired and not feeling well, and in so much pelvic joint pain. Talk about a range of emotions.

3. Bonus situation: I was heading to meet a friend for dinner during the aforementioned Chicago trip and had a conversation on the way there that had a very small amount of tension in it. Meaning, a very very small problem that would definitely be resolved with very little issue. Of course, I burst into tears over it, and just couldn't pull it together. So, I walked into the jam-packed Cheesecake Factory, trying to pretend I hadn't been doing the ugly cry in the car (over nothing) and as my dear friend smiled, hugged, and said "hey, how are you?" I once again, burst into tears.

So, would you accurately describe my mood as emotional? Good gracious.

Looking forward to: a stay-in movie date night with my main squeeze.
Having all the details of our move worked out.
Addie being able to efficiently get DOWN the stairs by herself (she's goes up on her own).
My mom coming to Cambridge in May.
Temperatures above 40 degrees & walking outside.

Well, people. That about sums it up. Even I'm tired of writing about my own pregnancy now, so that's probably a good place to end. Happy Friday & have a great weekend.


  

"smile!"

Recently, Addie figured out what it means when I say "smile" while holding a camera. (Do you think it's because I take a few pictures of her once in a while?) 

This is the face she makes... 

She loves to ham it up!! 

beans beans

my kid loves black beans.
cold, luke warm, or hot.
breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

it's kinda weird. but a convenient "go-to" & it makes for a very cute beard :)

love my girl & her goofy affection for black beans :)

build each other up

i've had this thing on my mind lately, and then i read it on another blog. the exact things i'd been thinking (almost). build each other up. your words matter. use them for good. read the rest over here....

sugar resolution fail

In case you hadn't noticed, I'd been on a bit of a baking kick. Well, that's fine and dandy if I'm bringing the tray of sugar cookie bars somewhere else. But if the sweet treat is staying at my house, as in the infamous case of the banana chocolate chip coffee cake, it becomes dangerous business. On one hand, I exercise regularly... on the other hand, 3 pieces of coffee cake a day is just bad for you no matter how much you drag your preggo self to the gym. Sugar is kind of  definitely an addicting substance. Inspired by a friend who commented that if I stopped eating it for 5 days, I wouldn't want it as much anymore, I resolved to cut sugar for a week. Cold turkey. Enough was enough. For two days, I resisted all the urges. I went back to my healthy snacks (fruit, veggies, hummus, almonds, etc...) and I was feeling pretty darn good about it.

Well, date night rolled around (woot woot) & we were venturing down to the North End for some Italian. No problem. Easy to avoid dessert when the dinner portion is enough food to last me a week. We headed down to catch the T at Harvard Square and there they were.
Girl scouts.
With their shiny faces and ridiculous vests and amazing cookies.

I love girl scout cookies.

You see, a few weeks ago, people started bombarding social media with their excitement as those little boxes of cookies got dropped off on their door steps. Well the girl scouts don't come to your door in an apartment complex in Cambridge. So, I mourned this year's loss and figured next year would come around. And that maybe, just maybe, a generous friend who ordered cookies would share just one caramel delight with me.

Imagine the extreme wave of emotion that overcame me as I walked down into that subway stop and there they were. The girl scouts & their cookies. [Insert chorus of angels singing in perfect harmony.]
And we had cash. We never have cash on us.
It was meant to be.
So, we bought a box... I mean, 3. And I thought limiting it to 3 was pretty good self-control.
I've been savoring them all week.
They are just as delicious as I remembered.
Goodbye sugar resolution, hello Girl Scout cookies. [Although, I will say, by calling it quits on the twice-weekly baked goods, our sugar intake is down quite a bit.]

Oh. one more thing. I feel it is my social responsibility to share this with you. Last night, as I browsed the interwebs while eating a girl scout cookie or 2, I stumbled on this...

source

It explains so much. Two bakeries. (one. the other.)
It's also very confusing. I mean, one sells tagalongs (the peanut butter ones) & do-si-dos, but the other sells the lemonade ones. They both sell a caramel-delite-type cookie. So, do all the girl scouts sell cookies from both bakeries? Or does it depend on the troop? Honestly, I feel a little cheated. I'm not sure what to feel. [Nothing. The answer is- this should not impact my life in any way. at all.]

(Side note: the rest of that article has 16 other 'shocking food facts.')

Okay, so do you or do you not girl-scout cookie?? (that's a verb, right?) What is your favorite? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most disappointed you've ever been in your entire life, how disappointed are you that there are 2 different cookie companies?

Blurb!

So, I finished our first Blurb book. Yay!

You might remember me agonizing over photo album decisions here and on facebook. Well, I went digital, and i'm SO happy I did. So far, here are the 'pros' I can see of doing a digital versus traditional scrapbook album:

No setup/ clean up. Because all it requires is opening my computer, I can work on the album even if I only have 30 minutes. No more pulling all those scrapbooking supplies out and cleaning it all up.

Less space. The supplies (your computer) for a digital book take up less space than all that scrapbooking stuff. paper cutters, punches, and stickers, oh my. [yes, that was supposed to sound like the wizard of oz.] and the albums. let's not forget the albums. they are SO large. so pretty. and so fun. but so large. if you know me well, you know i HATE clutter. so the idea of tossing all my scrapbooking stuff in exchange for a thin, hardcover photo book that has way more pages anyway... well, let's just say to call that exciting would be an understatement.

Trial and error. You can arrange and rearrange your pages and photos as you go. For this first book I did, I started making a 2013 book at the very end of 2013. Once I had already done most of it, I stumbled across a photo folder that I had accidentally forgotten about. It was so easy to go back and insert those photos in and rearrange other ones accordingly. No can do in traditional scrapbooking.

Multiple copies. I'm sure no one else will want my gigantic 2013 family photo album copied. But, I could make a more reasonably sized (aka: less than 130 pages) photo album of family vacation and gift it to everyone who was on the trip. Or gift a mini album of our girls (i love saying that... our girls... it melts my heart to mush) to all the grandparents.

Price. Blurb is a more expensive company than some. I was willing to pay for the customization and quality. But even still, I think it's probably cheaper at the end of the day than printing all the photos & buying all the supplies for a traditional photo album. And once you get the hang of it, it's definitely faster. Plus, there are a ton of other cheaper digital photo book companies that do a great job for less moola. I've used shutterfly, and friends have used mixbook. (Here's a super detailed review of a bunch of photobook companies, including those 2.) They are always running 70% off specials or something crazy like that. I did an 8 1/2 x 11 shutterfly book for $15 recently and it turned out great!

Organization. I think it's easier (and obviously takes up less space) to organize photos digitally than printed. You have to print all those photos for a scrapbook and then keep track of them until you are actually ready to make a page. I consider myself a fairly organized person and it was still hard for me to figure out how to organize printed photos. I would always end up losing some of the first ones I printed, reprinting them, and then stumbling on the first ones later. Ugh.

Trips to walgreens. Speaking of printing photos, doing a digital album saves you a trip to walgreens! Or multiple trips if you are like me and would go to the wrong walgreens. [Gotta love that photo-department employee who looks at you like you are nuts as you insist you ordered photos 2 hours ago... and they would be correct. because you ordered them at one of the other 27 walgreens in this town. ay ay ay. Am I the only one?!!?!?] Although, I will say, you can order photos to be printed now online and have them delivered, if you plan ahead, which I do not.

There are more, but nap-time is over and duty (aka: Addie) is calling! "mama! mama? uhoh." (not sure why uh oh.)

As far as cons go.... the only one I can think of is that some people prefer the hard printed photo. I can totally relate. I love flipping through a stack of photos hot off the press. Or staring at all the pretty ones in frames on your wall. Seriously. But, I really think thumbing through a digital book is equally as fun. The fun part is the pictures! They're all printed somehow anyway. Actually, a lot of people are starting to scan old photos and album pages and have them printed digtially anyway. Better long-term preservation and a major space saver. (Like this!)

So, have I convinced you? When I order mine, I'll snap some photos and share the beauty. (Waiting to order until after our impending cross country move.) But in the meantime, here are some other ones to give you the gist.

see more of this book here

see more of this book here

and the book/blog post that convinced me to go with Blurb...

And a few screenshots of some layouts from my book. (Not printed, just on the computer as I was creating them...)

You'll notice no text in these screen shots. I decided to just do photos and hand-write in captions once it's printed. That was mostly a time-saver because I was trying to finish 2013 asap. I'm going to put the text in our 2014 album as I go. 

the left side here is a bunch of instagram pictures - i like being able to incorporate those in an album easily! in traditional scrapbooking, i would have to have those little square photos printed at a special instagram printing company.  

So there you have it. I'm officially pro-digital. Neither my formerly-loved scrapbooking stuff nor my never-been-used-project-life-album will not be making the 1500 mile trek back to Nebraska with us.

Happy book-making!

p.s. there was kind of a learning curve for me with the Blurb software. It was definitely worth learning, but I plan to do a mini tutorial sometime in case you want to make one :) but today, is not the day. and thank goodness, because this post got loooooong.