My entire family came to visit a few weeks ago and we celebrated an early Thanksgiving together. This is a new tradition we established a few years ago and I love having our gathering in October instead of the usual Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve always thought the Canadians had the right idea by celebrating in October and now we do that too. It’s less expensive for those who want to fly because it’s not peak travel time. It’s less crowded on the roads, and the weather is usually much better than late November. I also like that it puts more space between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I posted a reel of our Thanksgiving table and shared a few details here. (turn the sound on for the music)

I finally got my September roundup done! I usually do this no later than the first week of the following month, but I got behind due to our early Thanksgiving celebration + a tiny bit of laziness. I was determined to keep up my long-standing habit (haven't missed a month since January of 2006!) and I'm so glad I took the time to get this done!
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You don't have to do your roundup in layout form, but that's how I love to do mine. I love combining the memories, news, photos, and moments of the past month into a page that can go in our family photo books.

I love this time of year for many reasons, and the annual release of a new Adobe Photoshop Elements program is right up there on the list! I’m always excited when I get my invite to the press unveiling of the new release and it’s always hard to wait until release day to share the details with all of you. This year, the unveiling took place on October 7th - right in the middle of our family’s early Thanksgiving celebration (more on that in Wednesday’s post) so I’m a little late in posting. So let me get straight to sharing the cool stuff with you!

Want to learn more about how to use digital embellishments like flowers and washi tape? I put together a brand new tutorial to celebrate the release of my Color Stories embellishments and it’s available to watch now here in this post or on my YouTube channel.

With Digital Scrapbook Day on Saturday and my new releases, I almost forgot that today was the last day of the month! I’m so glad that the roundup habit is such a part of my life, that I literally can’t forget it. I love jotting down our memories and taking some time to close out the month before I move on to the next one. So let’s roundup September and get ready for a great October!

I know some scrappers like to get together in person or virtually on Digi Scrap Day (the first Saturday in October) so I think it’s helpful to get your supplies purchased and downloaded to prepare for some fun creative time.

I have some new and exciting designs this time - they are a little different than anything I’ve done before and I’m really excited about them!

My daughter and her husband adopted a cute little golden doodle last year and named her Piper. This dog is so very loved! She has brought so much joy into their lives and my daughter couldn’t wait to throw a dog party for Piper and all of her dog park friends.

Not to alarm anybody, but as of today there are only 100 days left in the year! That means if you have certain projects you want to accomplish this year, now is the time to get going on them. It’s also a great time to start your holiday shopping a little early this year as experts are projecting that there will be shortages of many items, including toys.

For me, this is a great reminder to check in on my creative projects and goals and evaluate what I want the rest of the year to look like for me and my family.

Jeff, Alex, and I all went on a RZR riding adventure this past weekend in Marysvale, Utah. I have lived in Utah most of my life and I had never heard or Marysvale or been anywhere around the area. It was so cool to find new and beautiful places right in my own state. We rode on the Paiute Trail, visited Fremont Indian State Park, saw old mining settlements, and the most beautiful scenery. We had picnic lunches on the trails and went on small hikes. We listened to a lot of music and talked to each other over our intercom system headphones. We also enjoyed the company of 3 other couples who we have been friends with for a long time. It was a lot of fun!