Alphabitty Moments - The letter A

Welcome to round two of Alphabitty Moments! I created this carnival as a way to record the little things my kids do. The special ocassions get enough attention in photographs, blog posts, and storytelling. These keepsake book pages are meant to take a closer look at the ordinary and every day moments of childhood. Some day we will look back on all the little things and realize they were really the big things.

For more information on the roots of Alphabitty Moments click here. As far as participating, it's pretty simple: Each week (usually Thursdays) post a word that begins with the letter of the week and a corresponding photograph. (creating scrapbook pages is optional. I used Blurb.com for the last book, but would like to try mixbook.com in the future. Their software looks so easy to use and the backgrounds are stunning!

Need more inspiration? This link will take you through all my posts from our previous trip through the alphabet.

Silly me was uploading pictures for a post about all the coloring that was going on in our house lately when it hit me. A is for Artwork! As usual I hadn't thought ahead to what I was going to do for my pages this week. (If you are ever stumped simply scroll through your photo archives and you'll be surprised at what might inspire you!)

Up until a week ago there wasn't a coloring book to be had in BearCountry. We've always given the kids construction paper and crayons and let them go to town. (They are also big fans of watercolors.) I was amazed to see the time and effort Julia (who won't turn three for another month) put into her coloring. Talk about a work of art! She's colored a bunch more since this first one, but this is by far my favorite.

(click on images to view them larger)

Sam colors at least five times faster than his sister so it's a good thing we splurged on the $7 coloring book or we would have run out of pages after one day. He also drew his first people this past week. (see top photo) The bottom picture is of our dog Conor.
They are simple stick figures, but they represent creativity and imagination. What I remember most about those first couple of days when the kids colored from morning until night was how quiet it was in the house (no fighting!) and the joy on their faces when they watched me hang their pictures on our front door for everyone to see.


Now it's YOUR turn! Add a link to your own Alphabitty Moments post and you'll be entered to win an alphabet themed prize from yours truly. (I'm not going to pick a specific prize out until the winner has been selected. I want to be able to offer a prize that is letter specific to your family.) For fun this week you are eligible for a second entry in the drawing if you tweet about Alphabitty Moments. (Please add a hashtag like this #AlphabittyMoments so I can add your extra entry.) Good luck and thanks in advance for playing along!

Alphabitty Moments - The letter E

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments where we share the little things of childhood one letter at a time! Click on the tab above for more Alphabitty Moments posts and the instructions for how to create your own Alphabitty Moments book. Picaboo wasn't cooperating for me so I'm just going to keep it simple this week and post the picture I will be adding to Sam's book.

E is for Easter Bunny.

Why?

Because look at Sammy. He looks so grown up in this picture that I fear our days of visiting the Easter Bunny are numbered. We've come a long way from this memorable experience. He got the hang of it by last year but didn't look nearly as grown up as he does this year. Some day we'll walk past that silly bunny and remember fondly the times we took little ones to the mall for the traditional Easter Bunny Pics.

Alphabitty Moments - The letter P

Surprise! Alphabitty Moments is up and running and it's not even 7:30am! Shocker huh? It's another busy day in BearCountry and if I don't get this posted now, it will be late tonight before I have a free moment. That's been a trend lately - my 'me' time doesn't start until 11pm. Today that won't be the case. I'm meeting girlfriends for dinner at my favorite place - Panera.

This week I chose Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the letter P. I love that this carnival gives me permission to use the pictures that wouldn't otherwise get printed. Julia with jelly on her face? Not usually printable material, but for Alphabitty Moments it's perfect! It's the little things that I want to remember and "I want a peanut butter jelly sammich" is most definitely a staple phrase around here...for now. If that ever changes, we'll have these pictures to remind of us sticky faces & simple pleasures.

What P word did you chose this week?

Remember you do not have to do a scrapbook page to participate in Alphabitty Moments.

Alphabitty Moments - the letter E

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Welcome to 5th installment of Alphabitty Moments! If this is your first time participating you can read the inspiration behind this carnival here. Each Thursday a new Mr. Linky will be added so we can be inspired by the creativity of page layouts, the photographs, and the stories behind the pictures that others have to offer.

The code box above is a trial run...Please let me know if it is successful or not. Thanks!

And now for the good stuff... The Letter 'E'

(left page)*

(clicking on images will make them easier to read)

(right page)


Without spending a penny, this is what I came up with for Halloween costumes this past Fall. They won't always let me dress them up in soft, cuddly, and coordinated costumes. It will be fun while it lasts!

*I use Blurb's Booksmart for my page layouts, but feel free to post pictures like normal or use your favorite bookmaking software.

Now it's your turn!

Alphabitty Moments - The letter I

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! For more information on the roots of the carnival and how you can participate, click here. I've had Alphabitty Moments on the brain more than usual this week because #1, Sam's book arrived and I've been able to share it with friends and family and #2, I'm in the process of preparing to teach a bookmaking class in two weeks and I want a Mixbook printed in time to share with the class. That means I've got 17 pages to finish all at once. I'm getting there, but I still need to take a few more photos to fill in some gaps.

The third reason I've got Alphabitty Moments on the brain is that the blurb Best Book Contest is about to wrap up and I've been distracted by watching my book jump all over in the standings. I haven't been tweeting as much about it because I don't want to drive everyone nuts with asking for votes, but if even half my readers voted I would make it to the finals. As with so many contests these days it is a popularity contest, but at least in the final round there is a reputable panel picking the winners. $3,000 is a lot of money and while I'm not saying I have a shot at that prize, second place wins $1,000 and the others in the top 15 get $50 gift cards towards Blurb books. There is some controversy about how the leaders are being displayed but my book has been as high as 6th place so it would mean the world to me if you'd take the time to vote here. (vote once by November 9th)

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming....The letter I.
I would have thought a first born would be more apt to be the independent one, but in our family it's the baby in the family that insists on getting herself dressed, washing her own hands, and getting on the toilet herself. She may have to stand on her tippy toes to reach the faucet, but she can do it. I love that she knows to put her shoes and coat away when we come in from outside.

Independence will mean bigger things one day, say driving for instance....but for now we'll stick to the little things. A few mismatched or backwards outfits I can handle.

What did you chose for the letter I this week?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter H

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! I created this carnival as a way to record the little things my kids do. The special occasions get enough attention in photographs, blog posts, and storytelling. These keepsake book pages are meant to take a closer look at the ordinary and every day moments of childhood. Some day we will look back on all the little things and realize they were really the big things.

This is the second time through the alphabet for me and some of my readers and
I can't tell you how exciting it is to have a completed Alphabitty Moments book under my belt! This project is a labor of love and so much more than a blog carnival. I put the final touches on Sam's book just in time for the Blurb.com Best Book contest.

Even if you were following along the last time and saw all of my pages each week, you'll still want to go here and view the book in it's entirety. I added extra pages to the beginning and the end. The forward explains the meaning and purpose of the book and includes one of the pictures from the original little things post that inspired the project in the first place. At the end of the book I added a section called "the itty bitty details". As the author I know why I picked each word and photograph for the book, but years from now I want Sam to know the reasons.

If you would take the time to vote for my book in the contest I would be SO grateful! I am hovering in the top 20-25 (out of 1,400+ entries!) and even one vote makes all the difference and shoots me to 17-19the place. (Ultimately I need to get to the top 15 to make it to the final round where I will be eligible for the $3,000 prize)

All you have to do is click on the badge below and register with Blurb if you don't already have an account. It takes one minute to enter your email, pick a unique username, and a password. Click on the little box to avoid getting emails from blurb and then you are eligible to vote for my book. (You can only vote for my book one time.)

Vote for my book in the
Best Blurb Books Contest!

Voting ends Nov. 9 View other entries »

With one book down I am even more motivated to complete the others and have the final copies in our home to enjoy. (Sam's will arrive tomorrow via FedEx - YEAH!!!!!!) This round I am focusing on Julia's Mixbook.com book and I chose Holding Hands for the letter H. Already she is showing her desire to do things herself and doesn't like to hold my hand as often so I'm really glad I took this picture of us walking to the park two Springs ago. Is there anything better than a chubby little hand tucked safely in your hand?

Now it's your turn to share an Alphabitty Moment from your kid(s), either in a scrapbook page or by posting photographs to your blog.....

Alphabitty Moments - the Letter G

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! If you are new to my carnival please click on the tab on my nav bar for more info on how to participate.

This week's page is brought to you by the letter G. That might not be the letter you are on and that's OK! We'll get back on the same page eventually. All that matters is that you are preserving memories one letter at a time right? Right. G is for Games at our house. We play a lot of games. Every day the kids pull something out of the cupboard where we store the kids games. We have so many adult games that we have a whole other closet for those. I love that Sam and Julia can enjoy the same games I played with as a kid. Enchanted Forest, Candy Land, Sorry..... This is the first year that Sam is able to understand the rules and that makes it lots more fun. His favorites right now are Camp and Uno. What are your kids' favorite games?

Switching gears now:
If you follow me on twitter (4mamabear) you saw my tweet earlier about how to make the process of making a book a little easier. It was hard to explain myself very well in 140 characters so let me try again here: Months ago I made a list of words that were potential Alphabitty Moment words. I really should post it somewhere so I can add to it as I think of new possibilities but for now it's tucked into a notebook. Now when I have my camera out I have all those words in the back of my mind so I can take advantage of photo opps as they come up. No forced photos or dark ones because I didn't plan ahead. Part of the beauty of Alphabitty Moments is capturing the moments of childhood as they happen. Sure we might be on the letter D when you're child goes out to catch lightening bugs, but knowing that you want to record that experience in your book will help you remember to snap a couple of photobook worthy photos and be set when we get to the appropriate letter.

Alphabitty Moments - The Letter B

Welcome to round two of Alphabitty Moments! I created this carnival as a way to record the little things my kids do. The special occasions get enough attention in photographs, blog posts, and storytelling. These keepsake book pages are meant to take a closer look at the ordinary and every day moments of childhood. Some day we will look back on all the little things and realize they were really the big things.

For more information on the roots of Alphabitty Moments click here. As far as participating, it's pretty simple: Each week (usually Thursdays) post a word that begins with the letter of the week and a corresponding photograph. (creating scrapbook pages is optional. I used Blurb.com for the last book, but am using mixbook.com for this round.

Need more inspiration? This link will take you through all my posts from our previous trip through the alphabet. One thing I'm going to do differently with my mixbook is to do one letter on one page instead of a two page spread. It will save me money and it will encourage me to create pages that are a bit more cohesive.

Julia's page:
This week, B is for Beauty shop. When Julia says it it's more like bouy shop, but that makes it all that much cuter. I sit on the floor with a towel wrapped around my shoulders and she works her magic with bows, a squirt bottle and a (sharp) comb. It brings back memories of combing my dad's hair when I was a kid with a little black comb that I would stick in the a cup of water to get wet. I wonder how many times I stabbed him over the years! Getting poked with the comb every once in a while is WAY better than getting water sprayed in my ears. Not that I would know.

Today was the first day of school for Sam and therefore the first day of mother/daughter bonding time. I can't think of any other way that I'd like to spend the morning with my daughter.

Sam's page:
Off and on for the past three years Brianna has been coming to our house while her parents were at work and/or school. She is a huge part of Sam and Julia's childhood. I know this book is about the little things, but I can't help but record this very special friendship Sam shares with his friend Bea. I want Sam to be able to look back years from now and see how little he was when his friendship with Brianna began.
Now it's your turn...What little moment do you want to remember for the letter B?



And now for the winner of the prize from last week.....the random number generator chose one of the tweets that went out mentioning #alphabittymoments. Congratulations go out to Mommy Bear over at the Bear Bunch. Rather fitting don't ya think? Mommy Bear would you leave me comment telling me which letters would be appropriate for you family so I can send you a special alphabet related prize?

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Alphabitty Moments - The letter R

We're already on the downhill slide for this round of Alphabitty Moments! It goes so fast! By the end of the alphabet this time both my kids will have two books of every day moments to look back at. The beauty of this carnival is that you can do it over and over again because interests and ability change.

I don't know if Sam is going to outgrow is love of racing any time soon but I came across this picture* in my archives and new I had to incorporate it into alphabitty moments somehow.
Running, Racing, Romping....it all applies to my rough and tumble boy. He LOVES to race. He races his own teammates to the ball in soccer even after the whistle blows. We're working on that.

* I love how this picture shows the perspective how close we are to where we work. There is no doubt we live in the park. (That's our home behind the barn where the campground office is located. I stood in a campsite to take the photo of Sam racing across the island on a beautiful November day last year. The weather is just as nice today so I think I'll take the kids down to the pond for some frog catching. Fun times.

Alphabitty Moments - the letter B

There were so many options for the letter B this week. But I decided that BUILDING was the best fit for Sam's Alphabitty Moment. Why? Because for years he's been building with something or another. I don't think he's going to outgrow it anytime soon, but it's been a big part of his playtime for a while now. I also want to be more intentional about the photos I use this time around. (Often times I just use something from my archives)

He builds with childhood toys of mine and some of PapaBears. He also has a set of alphabet blocks that have provided hours and hours of fun. He also gravitates towards the building activities when we go to the local museums.



I love watching his creativity come out in what he builds. And the look on his face when he makes a tower with all the blocks? Priceless!

If you are new to Alphabitty Moments (there's still time to jump on board!) click here to read about how to participate or click on the tab above to read all the Alphabitty Moments posts.

Now it's your turn...what B moment do you want to remember this week?

Alphabitty Moments - the letter N

It's time for Alphabitty Moments! This week is brought to you by the letter N...


I knew almost instantly that I wanted to use Nursery for my N word this week. It fits the theme of Alphabitty Moments perfectly IMO. As an added bonus it allows me to show the kids what their first home looked like - or at least their first ever bedrooms in our old house. Want to see more of our last house? Click here for a tour.PapaBear picked out the bedding for Sam's nursery. I still love it. In fact we painted his room at this house the same color and use the same curtains. It's a Noah's Ark theme, but you'd have to look really close at the quilt to notice.

A few other observations from Sam's room:
* This is the room we were in when I told PapaBear I was pregnant with Julia
* The toy box under the window was built by my parents/grandparents for me when I was a kid.
* The doll on the toy box is similar to the one I talk about in this post*. Sam doesn't care for it, but I love it dearly. He actually said to me once, "I don't like that dead guy in my room." Poor Andy sits out in the hall all night.

And then there's Julia's nursery:

Her room used to be painted an aweful faux leather color that we decided to paint a nice neutral color for use as an office. I'm sure there aren't many people who decide to keep the red room red, use it as a nursery, and paint the other room in anticipation of a baby. But that's exactly what we did. Then when we were expecting #2, we chose bedding that matched the existing curtains and walls. No easy task even if they were considered nuetral. At a garage sale I found a leapard print set that would suffice. We really only use the crib skirt and the sheet anyway... The quilt rack held a special blanket my mom gave Julia instead of the one from the bedding set.

Now it's your turn to share your alphabitty Moment for the week...

Since Mr. Linky was being so troublesome last week, go ahead and leave the general url to your site so we can all catch up on last week's post at the same time....


* I tweeted earlier about a new blog I put together this morning. It relates to this post from up above and this post about a book I found. I've just started getting things set up for the new blog, but I'll give you a preview today... It's called You Don't Say! and can be found at www.theperfectquote.blogspot.com

Alphabitty Moments - my letter R (with a prize)

Thursday snuck up on my again, but rather than make everyone wait until I get my post up I thought I'd throw Mr. Linky up quick before I rush off to Worship Team rehearsal. My other thought was to offer a prize this week... I don't get to the post office all that often, but I'll be sending out photo orders as well as new blog book within the next two weeks so this is the perfect time.

To enter, post your Alphabitty Moments post to your blog that includes a link back here and then come back and add your name to the Mr. Linky. That's all there is to it! I have a stash of Alphabet related items...Ribbon with Letters, notepads with a letter on top, notecards...It's not a big prize, but who doesn't like getting a little something in the mail every once in a while right?

So get your posts up (Remember they don't have to be scrapbook pages - photo(s) with the story behind them are good too!) If this is your first time participating click here for all the Alphabitty Moments information. I'll draw a name before the next Mr. Linky goes up.

R is for...ROCK CLIMBING....

Both of the kids LOVE to climb on the rocks in the park. For some reason Sam always sings London Bridges while he goes from rock to rock. It's been almost a year since these pictures were taken and they are still just as enamored with the simple pleasure of climbing on the rocks as they were last year. I wonder how many years it will last?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter G

Welcome back to Alphabitty Moments! I have been hosting this carnival since the end of February without a week off, until I took a break last week. I've finished 3 books week so we could go on vacation after the campground closed on the 18th, but bronchitis took up residence in our home and we had to stay home. We're on the mend now and I'm getting a little more caught up with my blogging. I was able to publish my first Alphabitty Moments book in time to enter the Best Blurb Book contest that I'll post more about tomorrow when the voting begins. It felt so good to finish a book that I'd been working on for so long! Wanna sneak peak? Click here to see it online in my bookstore (You can now see the WHOLE thing thanks to Blurb.com's upgrade)

Now back to the new book and the new software from mixbook.com... I chose gingerbread house for the letter G. It's a fun family project that we look forward to every year. I try not to make sure it's perfect, but that the kids have fun. (It's hard though!) I love that they like to help - they may not always be up for it since it's a long process. We keep ours up until the snow melts so we have months and months to look at it up on the bookcase. Do you make a gingerbread house at your house?




OH! I have one more question before I go back to counting pages for three new blog book projects....Does anyone know how to make pictures bigger in blogger? I know how to do it using photobucket, but I can't take the time to do an outside hosting site and it makes turning my blog into a book a HUGE pain. Huge. I would have to go into photobucket and get each picture for the posts rather than have them embedded when I import my blog to booksmart. I am hoping that someone knows what to change the numbers in the code after I've uploaded the pictures to blogger. Thanks in advance!

Alphabitty Moments - the letter Z

We did it ladies! We made it all the way through the alphabet! When I started Alphabitty Moments back in February I had no idea how attached I would become to this very special memory book. Sure, come Wednesday night as I often scrambled to find the perfect word to go with the letter of the week, I might have questioned what in the world I was thinking, but I knew it was worth it and I'm more than ready to get started all over again!

Thank you to those who have participated over the past year - one week or every week, you have inspired me to keep looking for the little things - to savor them, to photograph them, and to take the time to record them here on my blog.

Don't forget that next week we'll be posting our cover designs for those who eventually will be turning their pages into an album. There was some discussion in my Forest Forum about using the Alphabitty Moments button for a book cover option so leave me a comment if you want me to email that to you. You are welcome to edit it however you see fit to make it work with your book - if that's the route you decide to take.

And now on to the final letter.....I feel like we should have a drum roll, but since it is almost 1am, I doubt PapaBear would appreciate it as much as I would.

This time around Z is for.....

The kids were able to enjoy more of the county fair this year thanks to a certain aunt of theirs. (THANK YOU!!!!!!) Some day they won't be excited to putter around in a circle or enjoy the simple pleasure of a giant slide so while they are little we'll make the most of the little kid rides that zoom around in circles just fast enough to make my stomack churn.

My goal was to insert the 4 images as circles like this next picture but I couldn't figure out how to crop the image correctly in photoshop. The background is transparent, but it imports into Booksmart with white around the edges. Any thoughts on how to crop to circles? If I don't figure it out before I print the book I'll have to come up with a different design. The squares over circles just aren't going to cut it.

Alphabitty Moments - the letter G

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! If you are new to this carnival please click on the Alphabitty Moments button in the upper left hand side of my blog. I am typing this at 12:30 in the morning and just don't have the oompf to type out all the instructions this week. I've been working like a mad woman to get 4 photo books to the printer by Friday. Taking a break to make these pages was a fun distraction. The story behind these goggle pictures can be found here.
(left page)

(right page)

For the past few months Julia has been sleeping with her puppy as a pillow. I found her curled up like this one night and did my best to get some pictures of her sleeping. They are a bit blurry, but you get the point.

I really wanted to use Grandma and Grandpa as our G words this week, but I didn't plan ahead well enough. I did schedule a photo session with Grandma, Grandpa, and Sharon for this Saturday so our family can have some of the same type of portraits I do for my clients. Next time through the alphabet I can use those for the letter G....



The winner of last weeks drawing for these notecards is Secret Mom Thoughts. Congrats! If you'd be so kind as to email me your address I will get the cards off to you soon. (4theloveoffamily(at)gmail.com)

I will be making my rounds to visit the links from Mr. Linky just as soon as I get a few hours of sleep, get Sam to and from school, and take the kids to see their Great Grandma...
See you next week for the letter H. I already know what I'm doing for Sam's pages, but Julia's is still a toss up.

Alphabitty Moments - The letter A

Welcome to round three of Alphabitty Moments! A little over a year ago I came up with the idea to share a picture a week that corresponded to a letter of the alphabet. The idea is to record the every day moments of childhood that right now might seem like no big deal but before we know it, we'll look back on those moments and realize they were in fact the very essence of childhood. Sometimes I'll create a scrapbook page to go with the letter of the week and other times I'll only post a photo. How elaborate you make this meme is completely up to you, but I gotta tell ya if you can be disciplined enough to do the scrapbook page the end result is well worth it. Need a little inspiration? Check out the first book I made out of this little project here.

This time around I'm going to give Picaboo a try. I found a theme that I think I can make work for pretty much any word/photo combo. I really like the colorful yet simple layouts. (click on the image to see it bigger) Speaking of colorful...this was a pretty memorable painting experience. Normally we use paper, but this was one of those times of discovery; of letting them be little.



There are plenty of opportunities for teaching them the 'right' thing to do, but it was SO worth the mess to let them paint each other.

Now it's your turn...what "A" moment do YOU want to remember?

Alphabitty Moments - The letter M

My blogging time is limited as I am swamped with work & preparations for the Minnesota Blogger Conference next weekend so I'm combining posts today.

I'm on the letter M for Alphabitty Moments so it works out quite well actually to post these Monarch photos. If you missed the first and/or the second editions of Birth of a Butterfly you can click on the links and be directed to the other posts that show the Monarch before it emerges from its chrysalis and it's first moments of life.

Go ahead and link up YOUR alphabitty moment for the week, regardless of what letter you are on:

Alphabitty Moments

"It's the Little Things" was Originally posted in December of 2008:

Everyone says that childhood flies by. In an attempt to freeze time or at least capture a slice of time, I spent a few days in January 2008 photographing the things associated with my kids' lives at this stage that won't always be that way. Before I know it, it will be a real bus that takes them to school, not just Sam's toy bus that he's been obsessed with lately....
For the complete post, click here.

I'm always looking for creative ways to blog about the 'little things' and the photographer in me is always looking for something to do with the 1000 pictures I take each month.

Put the two together and what do you get? A new blog carnival called Alphabitty Moments!



Here's how it works:
The carnival starts, Thursday, February 26th with the letter 'A' . Then for the next 25 weeks we'll all work our way through the alphabet, photographing "a little thing" that begins with the letter of the week. Feel free to work ahead if you want. I know I like to be able to write when I can and then use the schedule post option to spread out the frequency of my entries.

Simply post your photo of the week and then stop back here to add your name to the Mr. Linky. I'm really looking forward to seeing the variety of things people can come up with for each letter!

Using bookmaking software like, Blurb.com's Booksmart is optional. (I create screen shots of my computer screen so I can display my photo like this. Click here for more sample pages)


But you can keep it as simple as posting a picture and the letter of the week. Writing the significance of the photo is optional. My Alphabitty Moment: My kids were so proud of their gingerbread house and are always pointing out which parts they worked on. They will love seeing their masterpiece in a book one day.

The suggestions that have come in so far have been fabulous. From Esther's idea to make an inexpensive book by printing out the words/pictures and stick them in an album to Jenney's idea for the carnival name...

The other idea I have is to print the pictures to make personalized flashcards.
If you have more than one child, you can post pictures for each of them. I plan to start back over at the beginning of the alphabet after we get to Z so you have the option to do a second series then or post mulitple pictures each week. Won't it be fun to see how each child's alphabet changes from cycle to cycle?

Hope to see you on Thursday for the first installment of Alphabitty Moments!