Mom and Baby Portraits

I took these pictures of my beautiful sister Betsy and her beyond adorable newborn baby Beckham while I was out visiting them. They turned out amazing, mostly because the subjects were so amazing and photogenic :) Thanks Bets, and family for such a wonderful visit!!

Portrait of Carter

Sweet Carter-bear turned six years old this summer. Here are 5 awesome things about Carter:

When he was a baby people commented that he had a sparkle in his eye-and he still does.

Carter is funny without trying to be-he's a natural at making people laugh.

He is someone that everyone likes to be around and a very good friend.

Carter is a fun big brother. He loves his brother and sister even a little too much sometimes. :)

He is goofy and silly, rough and tumble, but really has a sweet, soft side. He loves to cuddle.

Happy Birthday Carter-Bear!!

I miss you, Blog World!

There's apparently been some cuts made in my life and my blog didn't make it! At least for right now, I have been so busy and I haven't found the time to get on and post. Hopefully that will change soon but I'm not too sure. I definitely miss blogging, though. I hope you all are doing well out there in blog world. :)

Welcome back technology!!

Our computer and answering machine were blown out in a recent electrical storm. In a way it was nice to have no messages, no e-mails and nothing to look at on the internet. But it was also weird how tied up we are in technology. I'm glad my little friend hard drive is back up again and I am relieved beyond belief that my pictures survived- whew!!!

Portrait of Grant

My sweet little Grant turned 11 this March. What in the world?! Why does the time fly so fast? They always said it would. I always believed them. But it still shocks me how fast it really does go. There's nothing I would trade about the 11 year old Grant. The message is this, moms. Make sure you live in the moment. Cherish every little stage, because they zip past and they don't come back.

Like I said though, I wouldn't trade the 11 year old Grant for anything. Here are ten things about my little guy. (I just have to call him my little guy while I can!)

1. When it comes to math and sports, he has a memory like a trap.

2. When it comes to where he put his shoes, there is no memory involved whatsoever-what shoes?

3. Introspective and Thoughtful of other people's feelings.

4. Competetive to the core. Very often contemplates cheating to win. Usually just contemplates.

5. So sweet to his little brother and sisters, but still worries that he doesn't play with them enough because he's growing up.

6. Loves to read, most nights he stays up until the wee hours reading a book in his closet.

7. Willing to help mom out. Most common answer when I ask him to do something?-"yep"

8. Always does what he's asked-unless he forgets.

9. Addicted to fantasy baseball.

10. Still loves hugs, and talking in bed late at night.

We love you Grant! (Grant-E-Loo, as Elise calls him)

Whatever...

For some reason my new post about spring projects won't show up unless I make another post after it. Why? I do not know, but whatever works!

A Spring full of Projects...

We have had a busy project filled March and April. This post is in reverse chronological order. Or maybe that would be like retrological order, hmm? I don't know, anyway this earth day we planted our second year of square foot gardening. It really is a great way to garden especially if you are busy and overwhelmed. A lot of people have asked me about it and you can learn all about it at squarefootgardening.com.


Some friends and I sewed this these adorable aprons. It turned out really cute. The straps cross in the back, loop through the sides and then tie in the back-very complicated (: lol.

I bought a little bit of extra fabric so I could make Elise a dress with the left overs-It looks adorable on her, even though I combined two dress patterns to make it work. (Thanks, Joan for all the sewing tutorials:) I plan to make some red and white ones for both my girls to wear to our reunion this summer.

I bought this pillow to use as inspiration for the kids to do some paintings for the basement.Here are my little Monet, Rembrandt and Picasso.

We made stepping stones at Grandma's

Carter was reading about the solar system so we bought some foam balls and made one :)

Elise even painted a couple planets :)

Lauryn made the earth and it turned out really cute with little clouds and a moon.
Its now hanging from our kitchen chandelier.

Crushing up broken plates to make a future project-a mosaic...

We had a freak late March snow and so we got to build a snowman! :)

Quilting-

Grant finished up a quilt made of all his special t-shirts.

As a bonus-mainly because its a picture that I'm actually in, here are the kids and I on a field trip to the fire station.