Nephew's Birthdays

We're back! We just spent 2 weeks in Oregon visiting Chris' side of the family. We had a blast! I love my husband's family so much. And it doesn't hurt that both of his brothers also have little boys just a few months older than Tanner. My little nephews are too cute! The oldest nephew, Paul, turned 1 while we were there and we got to celebrate with them. Chase is only two weeks younger and will turn 1 next week.
I can safely post pictures of their birthday presents now, because they opened them together while we were there. So here is what I did- I asked each sister-in-law for 26 pictures. Each picture corresponded with a letter in the alphabet. Oh and let me tell you, it wasn't easy to think of a cute picture for every letter...if you need help let me know and I'll email you my ABC list.
My sister-in-law Stephanie sent me all the pictures I asked for and that worked out great. But my sister-in-law Natalie works full-time and just couldn't make it happen. So I got about 16 pictures from her and decided that instead of doing an alphabet book I would make hers into a story book about Paul.
So Chase got an "All about Chase ABC coloring book" with a picture of him on each page. I did things like M is for Mommy, J is for John Deere Tractor, X is for xylophone- and used a picture of him on the tractor,with his mommy, or playing a xylophone.


While Paul got an "All about Paul Coloring Storybook" that told about him and his family.


Then I made "Chunky" crayons for both of them. I made them each a set of six. The link for the instructions of this are on the side bar of my blog under "Future projects" I used a star shaped mold because I thought it would be easy for them to hold. The crayon boxes are old priority mail boxes- the smallest size. I just covered them with cute scrapbooking paper.

And while its safe to say the chunky crayons will eventually get to be used, I'm not sure the boys will get to actually color in their coloring books. My sisters-in-law loved the coloring books and wanted to keep them as keepsakes.


If you would also like to make a coloring book you can go to this website and use the code PRMZCV3X to print. However, if you close the webpage before you finish your book, the code expires. You have to keep the website open until your done with all your printing. Anyways, I did all my pictures on that website then I printed them off and pasted them to the "ABC" pages I had printed and copied them. Then I made the covers, laminated them and had them bound at a local print shop.
All of the pictures I used were from the first year of their lives so it was kind of a scrapbook of them they could color. It was a fun way to preserve the pictures and memories. Good luck if you decide to try one!