I started Project Life Tuesday in 2010 because:

• I needed to keep myself accountable and on top of my photos each week.
• My family loved being able to count on a weekly post with pics of the kids.
• I thought others might want to keep themselves accountable too.

It was a huge blessing and so I am excited to be kicking off my third year of this series.

Each Tuesday, I will share my spread from the previous week, as well as host a linky for readers to link up their pictures/layouts. This year, Epson is sponsoring Project Life Tuesday, and they provided me with their Epson Stylus R2880 Large Format Photo Printer (C11CA16201) for many of my album’s photos. Printing photos at home is hopefully going to help keep me on track!

Since we are still recouping from our week out of town, I only did Week 18 this week. I am hoping to tackle Weeks 19 and 20 next week. Some of you have already asked how I am going to handle all the beach photos we took – I am making a Shutterfly book of our trip, so I plan to keep things pretty simple for my Project Life album.

This week I used Design A + a coin protector page for all of our instagrams (there were A LOT this week). + a trimmed Design B insert.

Spread one is mostly photos from my family’s visit.

The Design A insert is divided in half – half of photos of my mom and sister from Monday, before they left town and half of photos of Elias who was home sick Tuesday – Thursday. I used Martha Stewart labels for journaling on the photos and an epoxy sticker for a little pop on the date card.

The Design B insert is all photos from Sunday. I love the title extending across the top two photos. I added a bit of journaling to the bottom left slot. The photos in the middle are cropped to 4×3 and the photos at the bottom are 2×3.

The back of the Design B insert is more photos from Sunday. I embellished a 4×6 journaling card to share about our time visiting the Parthenon Sunday evening. I used the same stickers on the bottom 4×3 grid journaling card.

I love the instagram insert this week. I inserted a Hambly transparency across the top of the insert. The front side is all picture from Sunday – Friday. I used 7 Gypsies stickers to add words to most of the photos.

The back of the insert is photos from our road trip to Hilton Head. I used some travel stickers on a few of those photos.

The other Design A page is just some ordinary, every day photos from our week. I used a variety of stickers for journaling on the photos, as well as a few journaling cards.

Your turn!

Our only regret from our Hilton Head beach trip is that we didn’t film more video.

Thankfully, Matthew did get a few minutes of footage (mostly on our last day), which he put together into this adorable, happy video.

I think you will get a kick out of it.

Enjoy!

Disclosure: ResortQuest® by Wyndham Vacation Rentals generously provided the accommodations at our amazing Sea Pines condo and inspired this Hilton Head vacation series. All beach adventures and opinions are my own!

This past week was our first family vacation in more than four years.

The last time we took a vacation, it was just Matthew and me.

Things are a little different this time around because now I am a mom.

When you are a mom at the beach…

You don’t sunbathe and relax on the beach. Instead, you are constantly worrying about reapplying sunscreen to little faces and bodies.

Instead of reading a new book on the beach, you leave it on the coffee table at the condo, because you know there won’t be time to read.

Your purse is full of sippy cups, snacks and sunhats.

You rock a one-piece instead of a cute bikini.

You always have a camera in your hands and don’t mind getting sand all over you to get the perfect shot.

You build sand castles and look for seashells.

But the experiences that you have are so much better.

You get wetter, laugh harder and smile bigger because your kids’ joy is contagious.

I’m so thankful to be a mom. It is one of the greatest blessings God has bestowed upon my life.

And if you are a mom, I hope you are able to celebrate your loved ones today.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Disclosure: ResortQuest® by Wyndham Vacation Rentals generously provided the accommodations at our amazing Sea Pines condo and inspired this week’s Hilton Head vacation series. All beach adventures and opinions are my own!

Today was our last full day in Hilton Head, and we enjoyed every minute.

We spent hours on the beach, went shopping at the Tanger Outlets ($80 Loft dress for $5 and $10 Stride Rite shoes!), ate dinner at Harbour Town and took hundreds of pictures at sunset.

In fact, Alyson took more than 100 family photos and there were only TWO where everyone was looking at the camera.

So thankful she was willing to take so many to get this gem.

Of course the bloopers are pretty hysterical…. this is our life. Unedited.

I love our crazy little family. I know these photos will be treasured for generations.

I think I am going to make a canvas of the first one!

Saturday morning we may go for one more quick bike ride on the beach (it has been one of Elias’s favorite things to do), then get our things packed up, be sure our ResortQuest condo is tidy and head back to Nashville.

It took us about 11 hours to get down here (we had to make several stops and they all seemed to be long.) We are praying for a smooth, easy trip home. The kids did GREAT on the way down!

Question for you: It is challenging to get a perfect family photo! Do you have any stories in your attempts to get a good one?

Disclosure: ResortQuest® by Wyndham Vacation Rentals generously provided the accommodations at our amazing Sea Pines condo and inspired this week’s Hilton Head vacation series. Peddling Pelican Bike Rentals provided our bikes and pack n’ play. All sight-seeing adventures and opinions are my own!

Our ResortQuest condo is spacious and sleeps eight, so we invited our dear friends the Costners (who moved a little less than a year ago to North Carolina) to join us for the second half of the week. Hubby Matt couldn’t come, but sweet Alyson and baby Max arrived last night.

We are so thrilled to have them here.

{That’s another great thing about vacation rentals – often they are spacious enough to vacation with family or friends.}

This morning we hit the beach bright and early with all the kids and a lot of gear in tow.

We stayed for more than two hours and had an absolute blast playing and enjoying the beautiful Hilton Head weather. I can’t say enough about this place. It is magical, picturesque and serene – everything you would hope for a beach vacation.

It is so fun to watch little kids play and discover, isn’t it?

Elias loves running in the ocean waves and building sandcastles. He is joyous over every tiny sea creature we find.

Max had never been to the beach before today and he LOVED the sand. He crawled and explored to his heart’s content.

And Adeline, oh Adeline. She thinks she is as big as her brother and loved playing in the water.

But her nap time hit and she slept in our little beach tent, snoring to the sounds of the waves.

This afternoon we went to Coligny Plaza and let the kids play in the fountains. Elias and Max were hesitant at first, while Adeline was fearless.

She would stick her finger in the hole that the water sprayed from, get sprayed in the face, shake her head, laugh and do it again.It was hilarious and I think they were all sad to come back to the condo to nap. Granted, the babies both fell asleep in the car, so they were definitely ready!

We are really enjoying watching them form little friendships. What a special blessing.

Tonight we are going on a dolphin tour and are really looking forward to getting on the water.

Have you ever vacationed with friends?

Disclosure: ResortQuest® by Wyndham Vacation Rentals generously provided the accommodations at our amazing Sea Pines condo and inspired this week’s Hilton Head vacation series. All sight-seeing adventures and opinions are my own!

Today we took a day trip to Savannah, Georgia and had a really lovely time. It was everything you would expect and more.

Adeline seems to be cutting teeth and was up A LOT last night, so this morning we left about an hour and a half later than we originally planned. But, the theme of this vacation is go with the flow so that is what we did. Savannah is just an hour car ride from Hilton Head.  Adeline took her morning nap in the car and Elias read his Big Book of Berenstain Bears stories and snoozed a bit too.

After doing a bunch of research, we determined that the best thing to do was to take a trolley ride through the historic district. We knew we probably wouldn’t be able to spend even a full day in the city, so the tour offered us an opportunity to see and learn about the beautiful history of Savannah in a compressed amount of time.

We selected Old Town Trolley Tours (you get a discount if you buy the tickets online). What was great about the trolley tours is that you can get off at any of the stops, then get back on again. It is nice to not have to worry about your car!

Because we knew we had limited time before the kids would crash and need afternoon naps + an impending rain storm, we didn’t get off at many stops. (Had we left on time, we definitely would have stopped more!)

We did stop at the beautiful Forsyth Park to see the fountain that is in the center. I’m so glad we did. It was stunning.

Elias loved throwing pennies into the fountain.

I had high hopes of getting a really good family photo in front of the fountain, but of course, in typical three-year-old fashion, Elias did not want to take a picture. {sigh} We somehow talked him into it and a kind lady said she would be happy to take one for us.

Are you ready for this?

I died laughing when I saw it because it is SO the stage we are in these days.

Come on Elias!

Thankfully, she took a few more, and after that last shot, I guess I will take the tongue.

We also got off at The Pirates House for lunch, which Elias was really excited about because he LOVES pirates.  The kids’ menu included a pirate hat, mustache, earring and gold coins. He happily put the gear right on.

The restaurant is the oldest building in Georgia and was full of history and pirate folklore. Check out the history here.

All in all we really enjoyed the trolley tour and all the different guides. It was definitely the right decision and I would recommend that any first-time visitor to Savannah do a trolley tour. Each guide had a different style and way of storytelling. We learned and saw so much history and fun trivia – like we saw the spot that Forrest Gump sat in the movie, a town square that George Washington spoke in and the hotel that Matt Damon loves to stay in when he comes to town!

By the end of the tour, the kids were exhausted and it was starting to rain, so we headed back to Hilton Head. We didn’t get to go in a single shop, which I was disappointed about since my friend Stephanie sent me a list of must-visit shops, but I didn’t NEED anything anyway. There’s always next time!

Tonight we are looking forward to one of my best friends coming to town with her one-year-old son to stay with us for the last two days of our vacation, having a spaghetti dinner and relaxing in our ResortQuest condo! We have a lot we hope to cram into the next two days.

Disclosure: ResortQuest® by Wyndham Vacation Rentals generously provided the accommodations at our amazing Sea Pines condo and inspired this week’s Hilton Head vacation series. All sight-seeing adventures and opinions are my own!

The kids are napping now, so I am finally getting a chance to write! We are having to be creative as we plan our days here on Hilton Head. Adeline is still on a two nap schedule and Elias still takes one long nap a day. If that afternoon nap is missed – or even late, we have very grumpy kids on our hands.

Thankfully the island has a lot to offer, so we have selected some fun activities that don’t take long to get to and are fun for Elias (almost 4). Adeline (10 months) just goes with the flow. I thought I would share our two big hits of yesterday and today.

Adventure #1: Lawton Stables

Yesterday we went to Lawton Stables, a small horse farm in Sea Pines, a community within Hilton Head. Sea Pines is also the area that our Resort Quest by Wyndham Vacation Rentals condo is in, so it was a quick five-minute ride. Big plus, as we only heard one “are we there yet” from Elias.

Lawton Stables offers tons of cool activities for people of all ages, but we went specifically for the pony rides. For $10 you get to ride a Shetland pony around a gated oval pathway. Elias thought he was so cool riding “Romeo” the pony.

They also have a few animals that you can get close to and feed/pet, and the horses were incredibly friendly. Elias loved it.

Adventure #2: Coastal Discover Museum

Today we went to the Coastal Discovery Museum. It was about a 20 minute drive from our condo, but we went shortly after breakfast when the kids had a lot of energy and wouldn’t fall asleep in the car.

The non-profit museum was simply enchanting. It was established almost 30 years ago and teaches about the history of Lowcountry and the plant and wildlife of the region. It is also super reasonable – free! (Of course, they do accept donations, which we happily gave to.)

The museum has an adorable kids’ room with big baskets of shells, paintings, turtles and so much more. Elias went from station to station, totally mesmerized.

They offer a self-guided tour of the grounds with lots of different ares to explore and learn. Our favorite was the Butterfly Garden. Elias wanted desperately for a butterfly to land on his hand, but one never did, though they got close!

He still had a great time trying to encourage one over, looking through the “telescopes” and checking out the wildlife. We all had a lot of fun.

So if you come to Hilton Head with little ones (or big kids!) I definitely recommend these two mini adventures.

I’m going to go read a book on our deck for awhile and enjoy the peace of the afternoon while the little ones sleep… goodness knows, it won’t last long!

When they wake up, we are going on a bike ride with our bikes provided by Peddling Pelican Bike Rentals . (Oh, and speaking of naps and little ones, Peddling Pelican also offer tons of baby stuff and provided us with a pack n play for Adeline! Thank goodness because we definitely couldn’t have fit ours in our car.)

Isn’t she so sweet when she sleeps? Love this arms spread wide like eagle wings.

Now I want to know – what are YOUR tricks for sight-seeing/vacationing/managing vacation plans/schedules with little ones?

Disclosure: ResortQuest® by Wyndham Vacation Rentals generously provided the accommodations at our amazing Sea Pines condo and inspired this week’s Hilton Head vacation series. Peddling Pelican Bike Rentals provided our bikes and pack n’ play. All sight-seeing adventures and opinions are my own!

Hey everyone – I didn’t have time to work on Project Life this past week, so I am THRILLED to have THE MaryAnn Perry (yes, of Becky Higgins’ Project Life creative team! YEOW!) guesting this week. I love, love, love MaryAnn’s sweet personality and her style. Thank you MaryAnn for helping me out this week.

Photo Pocket Pages – Big Pack of Design A (60 Pages)

                                   Front of the Insert                                                       Back of the Insert

 Insert is Becky Higgins Photo Pocket Design C trimmed in half. All photos corner rounded.

Close up of the second part of the week.

Title card: I hand wrote the date and used American Craft thickers

American Crafts – Amy Tangerine Collection – Thickers – Printed Chipboard Alphabet Stickers – Goodness – Slate

Journaling Cards: I like to include my handwriting and when I can get my husband to add a story usually have handwrite it as well. At first I hated my handwriting…but I found the more I practiced it the better I it started to look….Supplies

Quote Tag:

BananaFishStudio Type Tags

Clementine PaperProject Life Cardstock – Clementine Collection

American Craft Thickers Studio Calico Notarized

For this photo I used a couple of instagram pics and movie tickets from our anniversary date night. The background paper is actually a postcard that was in the gift that my husband gave to my on our anniversary.

I used a bi-fold journaling card, but still had more to say so I used another 3×4 journaling card and just stuck it in between the bi-fold card.

I love the new line of Martha Stewart Labels at Staples. The colors are fun and compliment all of the Project Life Collections. Adding a label gives me a little bit more room to tell another piece of the story!

So that’s it… week Seventeen. Thank you Jessica for having me and I will leave you all with this thought….Project Life is designed to SIMPLIFY the memory keeping process… don’t over think it. You make the rules….it’s your album….there are no Project Life Album Police. Make it work for you, so you can be successful!

Okay so that was several thoughts…. Come over to my blog and visit me at CherishEverydayNow it’s your turn to link up:

We made it to Hilton Head. It has been a whirlwind 48 hours and I am thankful to finally have enough energy to write.

You see, I have strep throat.

UGH.

Let me start at the beginning.

Friday morning I woke up and said, gosh my throat hurts a little. I took some ibuprofen and moved on.

Mama doesn’t have time to be sick where there is packing to do and a roadtrip to go on.

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to get on the road and my throat was on fire. We left at 7:30 am and shortly after, I looked at my throat in the mirror, saw how inflamed it was and said, I think I have strep throat.

By mid-day I was really not feeling great, so we stopped at a Wal-Mart to get me some cough drops and more ibuprofen.

We got to our condo provided by ResortQuest by Wyndham Vacation Rentals at 7 pm, with groceries and tired kids in tow. With as awful as I was feeling, I was so thankful to be in such a beautiful condo, with separate rooms for the kids to sleep and a big bed for me to crash in. I can’t imagine if we had been in a hotel – on top of one another, with me really not feeling like my normal self. The condo was already such a gift.

I went to bed shortly after the kids, with plans to go to The Minute Clinic the next day.

We woke up Sunday feeling refreshed after our long drive – though my throat was still really bothing me. Since the clinic didn’t open until 10, we decided to go to the beach first thing, then go into town for lunch and to visit the clinic. We had a leisurely morning in the condo, enjoying cheerios for breakfast and Doc McStuffins on Disney. Then we lathered on some sunscreen and off we went to the beach. Elias was sooo excited.

It was a perfect first morning in Hilton Head. Not a lot of people were at the beach, the ocean water was warm and the sun was hot. We had a blast. I was even able to forget about the pain of swallowing for a bit. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

We came back to the condo to get cleaned up, Adeline took a little nap and then we headed to town. We had lunch at a local restaurant, Captain Woody’s, which had lots of great reviews, but we thought was a bit overrated.

We then headed to The Minute Clinic where I was diagnosed with strep throat (just like I thought!). We filled my prescription for penicillin, I took one immediately and we headed back to the condo for naps. I was again so thankful to be staying in a condo where we could really spread out and be comfortable. I went back to the bedroom to sleep and Matthew took care of putting the kids to bed.

At dinner that night, my legs started itching. At first I thought they were some bug bites, but on further inspection we realized they were hives. I seemed to be having an allergic reaction to the medicine. I called my mom and she said that she is allergic to penicillin, and so was her mom.

Are you kidding me??

We left the restaurant and headed back to the condo. Matthew left to go get me some Benadryl and cortisone, and I nursed Adeline and got both kids ready for bed. I went to bed with the chills at 8:30.

Today I am hive free and ready to start feeling better. My throat is still killing me, but I am headed back to The Minute Clinic when they open at 8:30. I’m sure with some new antibiotics I will be well on my way to enjoying the rest of our vacation!

Have you ever been sick on vacation? What did you do?

 Disclosure: ResortQuest® by Wyndham Vacation Rentals generously provided the accommodations at our amazing Sea Pines condo and inspired this week’s Hilton Head vacation series.All sight-seeing adventures, opinions and cases of strep throat are my own!

Tomorrow we are headed to the beach, so I have been packing, cleaning and generally running around like a crazy person all week.

Amidst the chaos, I’m proud to say that I did manage to carve out some time to create custom cards for our moms and my grandma  for Mother’s Day.

Awesome, right?

Don’t worry. If you haven’t gotten your Mother’s Day cards made/bought, I’ve gotcha covered.

Today through Sunday, Cardstore.com is offering all customers 1 FREE Mom Card + FREE Shipping with the code LUVMOM. You must use the links provided in order to receive the free card bonus.

One Free Card redemption per Cardstore.com account.

Shipping Cutoff  for Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 6th, which is also when this promo ends, so don’t miss it.

Cardstore.com has a huge selection of cards – from modern to funny to sentimental – and their site is really user friendly.

I love creating custom cards with the kids photos because they are:

1. so personal – our parents love to receive photos of the kids!
2. easy – the cards are super easy to make + they can be shipped directly to the recipient.
3. affordable – they are the same price as Hallmark cards, and often times cheaper (like FREE – hello!)

So go make a card. It takes less than 5 minutes and your mom/grandma/sister/friend/etc. will thank you.

Then go use that Paper Coterie credit you go for subscribing to The Mom Creative. It is only good until Monday. (And if you haven’t subscribed, what are you waiting for!?!)

Disclosure: compensated affiliate links used