Baptism, blog book, blues & browns, Busath

Alright, maybe I was trying too hard for the alliteration on that title.

We went to Parker's baptism (and Logan's blessing—way to consolidate, Cara & Rob!). Ellie has two Riley cousins born the same year she was, and it was fun for her to get to experience their baptisms before her own. The blog post about Ian's baptism is actually the second most-viewed post on my blog (right after Tex-Mex Egg Rolls). Probably people searching for prom pictures, since those are words in the title—I bet they're disappointed when they see it's really just a couple of kids, all dressed up. I wanted a similar photo of Ellie and Parker, and thought it turned out cute.

I looked through my photos, and have found that although there are 1,324 photos taken since this one, I really only have about a dozen things I want to blog about, so I'm practically caught-up! My plan is to not take one more photo until then, so I really need to be done before Joey's birthday in nine days. I'm feeling pretty motivated to blog after finally completing this:

Supervising From the Couch by Michelle Marsh | Make Your Own Book

All along, my purpose for this blog was a printed family "scrapbook" of not just the big events in our lives, but the day-to-day memories. I do like keeping in touch with the few people who read it online, but really envisioned a book that my kids could thumb through. I purchased a groupon for two Blurb books a few months ago, and found myself scrambling when I realized that the deadline was August 3rd. I finished Robbie's book first, on July 25th, and spent the next week madly working on the first year of my blog. Luckily I posted less frequently then, and I managed to finish and order on August 3rd! Rob told me that should be a lesson to wait and order the groupon AFTER my book is finished, but I'm pretty sure that without a deadline it just wouldn't happen. So it's time to order another one and get working on 2009.

One resource I found while working on Robbie's book that I wanted to share is Kuler. I've always loved colors, and it's been way too long since I played with oils or watercolors. This site allows you to browse or create great combinations. I used this photo of Robbie:

And it automatically generated this palette:

I tweaked it a bit to make the lighter colors readable:

Then I imported the colors into InDesign and used them for the text on the cover of Robbie's book.
I ended up not even using the photo, but love playing on and exploring this site. I recommend viewing the demo to see all the cool features if you're into that sort of thing.

One last thing. I got our Busath photos back from the frame shop early in July, and finally got them hung by the end of July. I love them.

These pictures capture a stage of life that I love—our family is complete, we have no babies (not that I didn't love that!) and no teenagers (I hope that will be great too...). All the kids can buckle themselves in, shower, get dressed and fix themselves something to eat. But they're not yet embarrassed to be seen with their parents, and like to hang out with the family. We love to play games, have family movie nights and travel together. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of bickering and chaos too, but this is the stage I think I'll miss the most when they're grown.

Still winning

Joey went on to win an award of merit at the district level for his reflections entry and tonight was the awards ceremony, so this has to be my photo of the day. We're proud of you Joey! And I won another blog giveaway in December! My friend Mandy has the greatest preschool blog, Not Just Cute, and I won a copy of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. If Melissa ever gets around to deciding what to give away on her blog, I think my chances are pretty good. Do I need to add a tag for prizes? :)

Ve haf a vinner!

I've been meaning to post this exciting news all week—Joey took first place in literature for Reflections. This kid thrives on positive reinforcement. He just lights up—I wish I could have caught his face when they announced it. But he's still pretty happy here:
I do feel a little bad that what is getting reinforced is a first draft, "this is due tomorrow so I'd better get it done"entry. Here's what he wrote:

Beautiful People
By Joey Marsh

Some people think that beauty is fancy clothes or make up, but I think beauty is happiness, kindness, and treating others the way you want to be treated. I think that someone beautiful would be helpful. For example my grandparents are beautiful. They may look old, and have wrinkles and white hair, but they are nice and happy and they treat others kindly and they are helpful. I think everyone on Earth can be beautiful if they are kind to each other.

Awww.

AND, guess who won these brownies?!

Yes, this might be an unprecedented two-winner week in the Marsh family. Hopefully our luck will extend to our teams tomorrow. Too bad we're not still living in Idaho, we could give the lottery a try. :) Thank you, Stacy Julian, the only person I know of who loves brownies as much as I do. If you haven't checked out her blog, go and be inspired.

I don't think I've ever won ANYTHING before, and it was so fun to see my name listed (although a little embarrassing because I left a pretty lame comment—couldn't I win when I had something witty to say? Um, don't answer that.)

Since I'm feeling the love, and I think all three of you reading this would agree that if I had an area of expertise, it would be brownies, I too am going to give away some homemade brownies. Just leave a comment, preferably a lame one. I'll draw one of them at random on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. You can even pick which recipe you'd like: St. George Brownies, Mint Brownies, Brownie Cake or Ultimate Brownies (which I haven't posted yet, but will if you pick them).

Bonus

When I started this blog it was mostly to relieve my guilt for not scrapbooking or keeping a journal. I've found since then that it's also a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, and even meet people. But I recently discovered yet another benefit of blogging: incentive for my kids. While we were swimming at Ralph & Judy's on the 4th, Robbie was trying to land a flip off the diving board, but couldn't quite make it around before hitting the water. I suggested that I could film him and he could post in on his blog, and here's the result:

Think of the possibilities. I'm envisioning the following post titles by my kids: "I vacuumed the whole house by myself!" and ""Today I didn't whine ONCE!" Or, as long as I'm fantasizing, how about "My full-ride scholarship to Harvard!" 

The salad that launched a blog

This really doesn't qualify as a recipe, unless your name is photo scrooge, but it belongs in our family favorites book, especially after Robbie wanted to start his own blog just to post this. I was hesitant to let the boys start a blog (I can't even keep up with my own!) but Rob encouraged them, and helped set it up, and now I'm looking forward to getting more of the boys perspective on our family doings. Credit goes to Anne for introducing us to this yummy combination at Bear Lake. And speaking of Anne, congratulations to you and Matt! We can't wait to meet little Clara!