Happy Anniversary!

Three years ago, my sweet brother Adrien married his bride Janet.

Since they live in California, that is where the ceremony took place.

At the time, we were living in a temporary apartment on the west side of Charlotte while our house in Colorado sat (& sat & sat!) on the market. It didn't seem possible that we could travel to California to the wedding. The kids would have had to miss at least a week of school, and travel is expensive. But, in the end, I realized that this was too important to miss. So I flew across the country with Zachary, Abbie & Jacob! Jacob was just 3 at the time, Abbie was 7, and Zac was 9.

It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony! And it was wonderful to see my family all together again.

Last summer my brother was in Charlotte on business, so we enjoyed a brief visit with him. I told him to bring his wedding photos with him. I knew that they hadn't yet done anything with their pictures of their special day. So I made him and Janet a 34-page StoryBook, which was printed as a hardcover book and sent to them for their anniversary!

When we were on vacation in June, I worked on these pages in the evenings while the kids chilled in front of the tv in the condo. Once the book was done, I uploaded it and ordered the copy for my brother. I was also able to send a link to my mom so she could see the pages. She ordered her own copy and has been showing it off ever since!

I used Creative Memories StoryBook Creator software, which is my favorite, favorite, favorite thing to use for any type of design project!!! All these backgrounds were actually from "Vanilla Dreams", a FREE downloadable theme from Creative Memories. (There are 40 free themes to choose from in various book or page sizes... each with 30 different page designs!) I just added the pictures and journaling. So easy!!

This StoryBook is 8"x8", which is a nice gift book size. I use 12"x12" pages for my family albums. So I will be having some of the 34 pages printed as individual 12" page prints and adding them to my family album. I LOVE the ease and flexibility of digital scrapbooking!!!

These pictures of Jacob crack me up! He took over the dance floor and surprised us all with his creative dancing! Who knew he had this in him!!! These were some of the pictures my brother insisted on having in the book. My brother gave me several hundred photos, which I narrowed down to about 150 to be included in this book. It was a fun project to work on!

Happy 3rd Anniversary, Adrien & Janet!!!