Boys Will Be Boys

Brett with some of his cousins on Kyle's side of the family. They look like they had been playing hard!

A Boy And His Dog

Our grandnephew, Brett, with his dog, Choxie. She is a devoted nanny dog and has been wonderful with him. I did this digital scrapbook page to honor the relationship that Brett has with his dog, Choxie!

Brett Swings Low

Our precious Brett on the swings the week before Easter. I did this digital layout of Brett on the swings.

Brett On The Slide

Our Grandnephew, Brett, enjoyed sliding on the slides at the playground. This was back early last Spring, just before Easter, and we went to visit Jenny & Kyle at their home on the base in Charleston, SC. I'm just now getting to scrapping those playground pictures. I did these digital scrapbook page layouts of Brett on the slides.

Brett Crawling Through The Doggy Door

Our little grandnephew, Brett, was caught crawling through the doggy door. He was raised around dogs and has his own Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Choxie. So it's not surprising. I did this digital scrapbook page of Brett and the doggy door.

Brett and Joseph

Our grandnephew, Brett, with one of his cousins on Kyle's side of the family, Joseph!

Brett's Sweeping Moment

Little Brett gets his Granddaddy's dust mop and starts sweeping. He's just like his Pickles!

Fantasy Digital Scrapbooking

My sister got a photo of her grandson, my grand nephew, Brett looking out the glass door. It turned into a silhouette. Some might have thought that was a lost photo but I loved it. Anyway, I was reading about fantasy digital scrapbooking where you make your scrapbooking page into something like a fairy story or anything else in your imagination. I remembered that silhouette photo and decided to try to use it. I digitally extracted his silhouette and made this digital layout. My goal was to make it look like something in his imagination.

Moving Away

Jenny (our niece), Kyle and Brett moved away. I did this scrapbook page about their moving away. They moved 16 hours away, close to his parents but too far away from us. Boo Hoo! I used the cloud and rain to indicate our sadness to see them go.

Hershey Kisses

Melinda made Brett a chocolate teddy bear to take with him when they moved to Illinois. Her handmade teddy bear was a hit! I wanted to scrapbook the moment she gave him his teddy bear. She named the teddy bear Hershey. So I used Hershey Kisses as my theme. I chose a chocolate colored paper and silver metallic matting or frames. I added a teddy bear element and some stitching and silver brads as embellishments. I used a label and a funny font for a caption. But I used a Photoshop brush to add some lines for Melinda to do her own journaling about the bear. I cut one photo of Brett and his bear into a heart and matted it with the silver metallic and gave it a shadow to make it look raised. I thought it symbolized the love she showed him in making him his special bear.

July 4th 2010 Scrapbook Pages

July 4th 2010

Stan's family always has a big cookout and party for the family on the 4th. This is the first time our nephew, Luke, has ever missed it and he would have loved to be here this time too. But he is in the Air Force and is serving in Iraq. But, Elaine brought her laptop and video cam in order to Skype with him. Here she is working on getting the connection.


Now, we have him online and he is sitting on the floor with his back up against his bunk as he holds his laptop with a builtin cam. Elaine twisted the video cam around so we could all get in and wave and talk to him.


Everyone crowded into the living room to participate and see Luke. It was so amazing to know he was around the world in Iraq. He moved his laptop around so we could see his tiny quarters that he shares with 2 other men.














It is so good to see him, alive and well, and talk to him. But it's so hard to hang up. Jenny, Luke and Lee are like my own children. They grew up next door and we were so close to them. So it's been as difficult for Stan and I as it has been for Elaine and Ronnie, for Jenny to be living away from home and for Luke to be in Iraq. When we see them, it's like an unseen umbilical cord attaches and our love goes back and forth. Then, when they drive away or we hang up the phone (or the Skype) it's a little painful to detach the umbilical cord. I've been pretty depressed the last couple of months and I'm sure there are 2 subconscious reasons... one is Jenny, Kyle and Brett are being transferred to Illinois and the other is Luke being in Iraq. I know they are all grown up now and don't need us. And I know they love us. But it's hard letting them go.

We had tons of food as usual. Stan made his hash but Eddie always grills hamburgers and hot dogs.







we had hash, hotdogs, hamburgers
cole slaw
potato salad
macaroni salad
baked beans
pickles galore
banana pudding
peach pie
blackberry cobbler
brownies
homemade chocolate ice cream



Kathi and Eddie have a great swimming pool. Since the gym was closed we went early enough for me to get in the pool and do my exercises. Our nephew, Logan, was a good buddy to little Brett and we all had our eyes on them.



























Katie was showing us the photos of her wedding dress. Kathi and Eddie took her to New York to buy a dress. It's lovely!


















Logan, Stan and Brett get back in the swimming pool








Brett is 1 1/2 yrs old and he's already ready to jump in!


















Jenny and Kyle were playing around and Brett just started laughing at them!




He was just squealing in laughter!