family

  so noah and jonathan came with deb and i to go see our grandma in hong kong a couple of weeks ago. david and david came along too. it is never easy dragging 2 kiddos through a dozen time zones and on a plane for 14 hours straight. a typical trip from texas to asia including layovers takes up to 27 hours. but we have learned our lesson and we try to stop in california to see deb and her family before we head off to asia. it is a nice break to our trip and the kids get to spend time together.

sometimes the thoughts of 14 hours on a plane with a 2 year old is overwhelming but so is the thought that we don't know how much longer my grandma will be around to see her great grand children. she has 5 of them now but all of them are scattered all over the world.  she is tired and her days consist of a lot of eating and sleeping.

it is amazing though how she lit up when she saw her great grand babies though. sometimes it was hard with 2 kids at the table and my grandma too - all 3 of them would resist eating saying "i am full" and we would have to beg, bribe and cajole each of them to eat. all 3 would push food away. all 3 would sometimes say i am done before they started. it has been a while since i have seen my grandma smile. there are times she remembers who we are and times she doesn't but she doesn't seem to forget her great grand babies.

here is a photo of my grandma and noah. noah is going up to her to call her "tai-paw nay ho" which means "great grandma, i hope you are well". i love that she is smiling at noah.

 

and this photo too:

 

we noticed that my grandma smiled more, ate more and slept a lot less when the boys were around. even though they were running around at 100 mph and loud and crazy, she seemed to love that they were there. and as hard as it was to take them, it was worth it. we don't know how many more years we will have with her. to see her smile when the great grandbabies are around is worth it enough.

i just got these photos downloaded but i will make an album of this trip soon so noah can remember.

but in the meantime, i want to share with you some simple steps on how you can create this album here:

what you will need:

maya road round tab window album (i only used 4 pages)

4 photos printed on transparencies (each of my photos was 5" x 7") printed in black and white

acrylic paint of your choice

jonathan chipboard letters

bird chipboard, number chipboard and flower chipboard (choose some from your stash if you desire)

patterned papers

journaling tags

black pen

sander

various embellishments

scissors

ruler stamp

punches (i used a scallop edge for the patterned paper pages)

 

check this link for the rest of the album with info.

instructions:

step 1: paint the pages of the chipboard album with 1 -2 layers of acrylic paint depending on the look you want. allow to dry for 30 mins. our chipboard is fairly absorbent so it will dry pretty quickly.

step 2. sand the edges of the album. i tore some edges of the album for a different vintage look to expose the chipboard layers.

step 3. choose the lettering and chipboard accents you want and paint as desired.

step 4. next, decide on how you want to lay your photos so they show in the window of the album. the beauty of the photos on transparencies is that you can flip them if you need to get the right image in the window. i choose photos that had high contrast since i printed them in black and white. i wanted to be able to see the journaling behind the photos. since the album is about 6" , i trimmed off the extra inch from the 5" x 7" photo and rotated as needed to get the photo to fit. figure this out for all the pages.

step 5. pick out your papers for the journaling. i kept mine fairly neutral since the album was so bright in color.

step 6. doodle lines on the chipboard pages of your album as i did and add the letters, embellishments.

step 7. assemble your album, journal and enjoy!

have a great rest of the weekend!

Comments

[cass]

these are the reasons we scrapbook
i know you all cherish this time, it will pass all too soon
hugs

[slammie]

what precious pictures!

[jcbintexas]

Great grandchildren have always proven to be the best medicine for aging great grandparents. I cherish the same memories you just shared with your family. My sister and I have boys 18 mos.apart and always made the effort together to have them know their great grandmother, who they loved very much. I praise you and Deb. Scrapbooking is the golden thread of memories.