Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday.  When thinking about a gift to purchase I always look for unique Mother’s Day gifts.  The standard flowers and card seem nice yet over played.  YesVideo’s transfer service offers the ability to preserve your old memories for future generations.

My mom was always the photographer in our family.  A total amateur but her passion behind the camera made most photos look professional.  She captured photos from every family event even if we were just walking around the Botanical Gardens.  She has albums and albums of photographs that are sitting on a shelf or in a box not being viewed by anyone.  The photos are starting to fade away and some of the memories can not be replaced since several family members have since passed away.  She also has VHS tapes with very little labeling on them from my childhood.  I can only imagine what all is on those videos.  I know years worth of my dance recitals that I’m not sure I even want to see, could be embarrassing…

When thinking of my favorite mom moments I started to browse through digital photos I had on my own computer.  The above photo was taken at the Yanni Voices concert I took my mom to for her birthday one year.  We had a great time and one of the perks from blogging is we were able to meet the performers backstage for a meet and greet with photos and autographs.  She truly loved the concert and it was a nice break away from work for the two of us alone.

My mom also attended the Disney Social Media Moms event with me and my kids in 2011.  I was given the chance to make some lasting memories with my own children as well as with my mom.  That’s three generations together on a vacation.  It was nice.

YesVideo has launched a new service for album transfers.  You ship in your full photo album, untouched, and they will capture all your old photos and digitize them on a DVD for you.  Without touching your actual photos and without removing them from the photo album.  None of their competitors offer this service.  Once your photos have been preserved in a digital format, YesVideo will ship your album back to you in the exact condition it arrived in.  This service is perfect for my mom since some of her photos are stuck within the albums and we know if we remove them they may fall apart.

Since Mother’s Day is just a few days away there is still plenty of time to purchase a gift certificate for your mom from YesVideo and preserve her old memories.  I bet some of those old home movies haven’t been watched in years!  It’s like giving the gift of time…

Don’t forget to follow YesVideo on their social networks to keep up to date with the new services and special offers.

• YesVideo on Twitter
• YesVideo on Facebook
• YesVideo on Pinterest
• YesVideo’s Blog
• YesVideo on Google+

Full Disclosure: This post is part of a Mother’s Day campaign for YesVideo.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Post originally written on April 28, 2012 while on a Disney Dream cruise.

We had such a great time at the pirate party. I think I had just as much fun dressing the kids up as they had being dressed up. The two of them looked adorable.

The evening started out with the Villains broadway style show, then a mini pirate party on top deck for 20 minutes to get the kids excited, dinner at Enchanted Garden and the final Pirate in the Caribbean party with a fireworks show over the ocean with dance party. Jack Sparrow and his crew made an appearance as well. It was amazing. The kids danced and sung along to pirate songs with smiles on their faces. None of us wanted the fun to end so I let them stay up later than usual. After all, it’s a vacation.

Do you save your kids’ Halloween costumes each year? Have you ever had a need to reuse them?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This past weekend the kids and I attended a weekend camp with the local children’s hospital for Gabby.  It’s our annual camp and each year they surprise us with new crafts.

We each made a stained glass window out of a glass photo frame.  Not only was it a lot of fun, it was fairly simple.  This was one project I can’t wait to try again over the summer.

Supplies:

• Photo Frame with Glass Front
• Acrylic Paints in Various Colors
• Design Template Printed on Paper
• Paint Brush
• Cup of Water for Cleaning Brush

Step One

Gather all the needed supplies for your craft.  The size of the photo frame does not matter.  We created 8×10 stained glass, however 4×6 and 5×7 sizes may be more ideal for little ones to create just for fun.  If you want to make one large stained glass together as a family you could even purchase 16×20 and let everyone take part with their own section.

They offered us numerous designs to select from that were printed on regular paper.  You can print a design to use for your stained glass or freehand a picture.  A creative option is letting the kids add their hand prints out of paint.  You can put their hands in the design of a flower or just get creative with finger painting.

After gathering your supplies make sure your workspace is clean and ready for you to paint on.  I suggest laying down newspaper if you are working at the kitchen table.  Kids may spill paint and you don’t want anything ruined.  It’s also smart to wear play clothes during craft time.

Step Two

Carefully lay the glass on top of your printed design template.  When we created our stained glass we took the glass out of the photo frame.  I think the next time we do it we will leave the glass in the frame and turn it upside down and paint it.  This way is much safer and you aren’t handling the glass.  One of the camp counselors cut her finger and one of the pieces of glass actually got broken when placing back inside the frame.

Remember when using a template you will want to paint everything backwards.  You want the paint to be on the inside of the photo frame therefore if you paint letters or numbers you need to mirror the image using the flip option on your printer.  This option is available for printing t-shirt transfers.

Step Three

Start painting!  Acrylic paints do not dry immediately so if you make a mistake no worries, you can easily wipe off with a damp paper towel.  Make sure the glass is completely clean before painting again.  Have fun with it.  The paint will wash off hands so let the kids get messy and add some finger painting to your stained glass.  Noah used a paint brush to create his cross and then added multiple colored finger prints to give more color to the glass.  The finger prints looked like dots and turned out better than trying to make dots with a paint brush.
  

Always buy an extra photo frame or two for mess ups or in case a child drops one and it breaks.  You don’t want anyone to be left out when doing a fun family craft.  I suggest trying the Dollar Store to get less expensive frames.  You will throw the back away and only use the frame and glass.

Step Four

Once the painting is complete lay the glass somewhere safe and flat to dry.  This is another time that having the glass still in the frame will be more useful when moving from the work table.  Picking up a sheet of glass off a table is not the easiest thing to do.  Make sure the kids know not to move the glass and always let an adult move things around.  While you are laying out the stained glass to dry let the kids play in the sink washing paint brushes.

Step Five

Once your stained glass is completely dry you are ready to set it out.  I put ours up in my office window so it shines through while I work.  It’s really that simple and the kids had a blast painting them.  They make perfect gifts for Mother’s Day or even for their teacher during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Have you ever made stained glass before?   What’s your favorite DIY family craft you’ve done?

I am one proud momma!  My teen daughter is the Commander for the female Color Guard team in Junior Cadet Corps for her school.  Last month they made it to Nationals which is an honor.  Just being at Nationals competing against schools from multiple states is quite an accomplishment and an extra challenge for T’s school.  This year she started at a new middle school that was just built, starting fresh with a brand new team.  The school did not expect to make it to Nationals during their first year let alone bring home four trophies!

This is T’s second year in Junior Cadet Corps and she plans to continue next year in high school as part of JROTC.  Her future goal is to join the military and complete medical school.

Last Fall I discovered my love of baking cakepops. For Halloween the kids helped me with the sprinkles and decorating.  Then for T’s Breaking Dawn party I baked red velvet with cream cheese icing cakepops for our candy bar, which turned out delicious.  The kids enjoy helping me with the baking, although I know they are just in the kitchen waiting for their favorite part, to eat them…

For my niece’s Sweet 16 she asked me to bake her cakepops.  The only thing she told me was that her favorite colors were metallic blue and black.  In the past I wrapped each cakepop individually when handing them out but this time I wanted to display them on a stand in resemblance of a cake.  All the cakepop stands I found at stores only held a few or weren’t very fancy.  My good friend found an idea on Pinterest of using Styrofoam as a base and building your own.  So, that’s what I did…

How to Make a Cakepop Stand:

1. Gather supplies.  I decided to go with a four tier stand for my cakepops therefore I had to purchase four slightly different sizes of Styrofoam.  You’ll also need a hot glue gun and glue sticks, spray paint of your choice and trim for around the Styrofoam to make it decorative.

   

2. You’ll want to spray paint your Styrofoam outside so you don’t get paint on everything.  Make sure you hold the paint can away from the Styrofoam when spraying the paint because it doesn’t take too much and it’ll be extremely wet.  Spraying in small bursts works best.  I added a light finishing coat of glitter to add some sparkle to the blue paint.  That gave it the metallic look.  I went with Diamond Dust color.
3. After you have the Styrofoam painted and it dries, you’ll want to add the trim.  I suggest adding trim to each layer before hot gluing the tiers together.  This way it’s easier to maneuver in your hand.  Measure your trim or ribbon around each layer and then cut before attempting to hot glue around.  It’s much easier to work with the exact size of trim than trying to glue while it’s still attached to the spool. I used silver ribbon from the fabric section of Hobby Lobby for two layers and black tissue paper for the other layers.  The tissue paper actually worked surprisingly well to offset the sparkle.  I felt four layers of glittery ribbon was too much and gave it a disco look.  The black dull tissue paper helped tone it down.      
4. Once you get all the trim set in place, you can start hot gluing each tier on top.  Once all four tiers are glued together you can add finishing touches.  I went in and added some silver glitter glue on two layers.
5. Now your cakepop stand is ready to be filled.  I suggest counting out how many cakepops you want to fit on the stand before pressing the sticks into the Styrofoam.  Once you make a hole it’s not easy to hide.  Push each cakepop stick down at least an inch and a half into the Styrofoam to make sure they don’t fall over.  I suggest even further down if the tops are heavy.  You can use sticks to pre-press holes before putting your cakepops on the stand.  If you try pushing the actual cakepops into the stand without making holes in the Styrofoam first, you run the chance of knocking the cakepop off the stick.  So be very careful.

Last week I took part in Music Monday and then learned about Tuesday Tunes from my good friend, Amanda.  This week I’m sharing a song we sung in Church last Sunday as part of the worship service.  After we got home Gabby and Noah started playing in his room.  I could hear them singing this song while I was working in my office.  It was the cutest thing and a memory I will never forget.  At one point Noah was singing and mixed up the words Wonderful and Marvelous and sung ‘How Wondrous‘.  I wish I would have captured it on video before they stopped but missed it.

Do your kids sing songs out loud in the house when they think no one is listening? What’s their favorite song to sing?

I babysat my great-niece this week and had such a great time with her. I love kids and she was pure sweetness.

Today Ragu posted the question… Do you think kids are better behaved when holiday guests are visiting?

My answer: No!

At least not with my extended family.  My kids are great at restaurants.  I’d say we’ve eaten out a lot in their lives, especially with traveling and visiting family in another state.  They grew up going out in public and learned to act right at a young age.  My tolerance isn’t very high, I’ll admit.  I’ve never had complaints when they visit others in their homes either.  We often have guests over to grill out during the summer and sometimes have our friends from church over for dinner.  My children are pretty well behaved then too.  Usually just excited to see our friends.

But… get our large family together and it’s like we’re at a zoo.  My nephews are pretty hyper and if my sister reads this post she’ll know it’s true, nothing bad, just facts.  All the kids get excited to be somewhere new and around their family that they bounce off the walls.  Maybe it’s because we are family and not strangers that the kids feel more comfortable.  Either way, during the holidays when our family gets together it’s loud and crazy.  Adults included.  Except me, of course…

Do your children make good dinnertime guests?  When your family gets together for the holidays is it total chaos?

The holidays have always been important to me.  I love Christmas and the magic that comes with it.  It’s the largest holiday of the year where all the family comes together to spend quality time in celebration.  To me it’s the most important holiday.  Every holiday we have together as a family I consider a blessing.

When I was growing up Christmas was filled with excitement of my childhood wishes.  After I had kids it became about seeing the excitement in my children’s eyes when they witnessed Christmas magic.

In 2007 the way I viewed things changed.  I think I started to cherish it more.  Gabby went in for her Hemispherectomy the first week of November 2007 and unfortunately we stayed in the hospital through all the major holidays and well into the new year.  Spending Christmas in a children’s hospital was not ideal for anyone.  Saying money was tight that year is an understatement.  Gabby was unexpectedly kept in the hospital for four months, meaning I was in the hospital for four months.  Not much work can be done when you are taking care of your child whose life was still in question.

There were times I wondered if we were going to have a Christmas.  Silly, isn’t it?  Christmas isn’t about the gift giving.  It’s about embracing life, family and truly being appreciative for what you have at that very moment, no matter how tough it is.  2007 is the year I witnessed a miracle.  Christmas time is when Gabby was able to move to the rehabilitation floor and learned to walk on her own again.  December of 2007 is the month we knew Gabby was going to live.

Spending Christmas in the hospital wasn’t so bad.  The girls were given the chance to take part in some fun holiday activities.  Gabby was healthy enough to take out of her room in a wheelchair or wagon to see the hospital Christmas tree and we were able to decorate her hospital room.  They even allowed her big sister, T, to spend Christmas Eve with us in the hospital so Santa could drop off their presents that night.

Those are the memories that are priceless.  Those memories are still fresh in my mind and capturing them to share with Gabby is worth everything to me.

YesVideo helps you preserve your memories by transferring your old home movies to DVD and digitizing your photos for you to share on a slideshow.  I love that you have the option of simply transferring your old media then editing online before ordering a DVD.  I have so many VHS tapes from when my oldest was little and several 8mm tapes from when I was younger that I wouldn’t know where to start ordering DVDs.  Being able to transfer the media first, then edit and arrange before ordering my DVDs is perfect.

YesVideo also offer the option to share your home movies with friends and relatives out of state through MemorySafe online storage.  This year I plan to capture as many home movies during the holidays on my HD video camera to transfer to BluRay.  While we are spending time together with my parents over the holidays we are going to gather all our old media to send in as a family and order copies of DVDs together.  My mom is excited about this.

Right now YesVideo is offering 15% off your entire order.  Use code: TRANSFER15 during checkout on their website to qualify.  YesVideo features various giveaways on their Facebook Page regularly so I suggest liking them to keep up to date.  You can follow YesVideo on Twitter where they also share photography tips and other specials.

What is your favorite holiday memory?  Do you have VHS tapes collecting dust on your shelves?  How often do you watch home movies with your children?

Full Disclosure: I was compensated for my time sharing the information about YesVideo with you.  The story and opinions are 100% mine.

~Cherish today, for you never know what tomorrow brings.

Last night kicked off ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas programming.  Our family loves Christmas movies.  I mean LOVES them.  As in we’ve already watched about six Christmas movies and it’s only December 2nd.  We also love having a fire in the fireplace, the Christmas tree lite up and drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows.  I can’t get enough of the Christmas season.  That’s one thing great about ABC Family, you know every single night there will be a movie to watch counting down the days until Christmas.

You can view the full schedule of movies on ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas website to see which of your favorites you don’t want to miss.  Also if you want to show some holiday spirit on Facebook you can deck out your profile photo by using the app on ABC Family’s Facebook Page.  A fun option of adding a Christmas frame around your photo.  I love it!

So tell me - which is your favorite Christmas movie to watch each year?  What’s your family’s favorite treat during movie night?  Popcorn, candy canes, hot cocoa?