So my baby turned 2 last month, sigh… Now I have no babies.  I remember talking to my niece when Titus was this age, thinking he was still a cross between a baby and a big boy, Elayne wanted to know how old he was and I replied, ‘he’s two’.  Then she proceeded to tell me that he wasn’t a baby, he was a toddler.  How true! I have been needing to get Quinn’s 2 yr pics and some of Titus, so since Stephen was doing other things, I took the boys and we had a morning filled with frustration and then fun. :)  Its so hard to do kids when you don’t have an extra hand, but finally I just gave up trying to get a grin and we went to feed the ducks and turtles and had a blast, thus the smiles at the end…  Enjoy the pics! (I have about 50 more that are awesome, but I don’t know how to do the slideshow and Stephen is out taking pictures for real and so I am winging it).

We got the chance to take a family vacation with some good friends of ours, The Landins, and stay in their family beach home on South Padre Island.  Now, I have been to Galveston and to Corpus Christi, so I must say I was alittle worried that this beach may not live up to its name proclaiming an island getaway.  Well, I was so happy to see the long stretches of clean sand, combined with a clear blue sea, and a warm sunny (well most of the time) sky that I may have cried out in joy.  The water was great, and the kids all went crazy.  Having our two boys, coupled with Sadie and Meagan on the beach was so precious.  We build sand castles that Quinten smashed as soon as they were up, spa baths with flowing channels in between, we collected sea shells and played in the surf, went to the sea life resource center, saw a pirate ship, ate sea food and lots of other really yummy food we made ourselves, and just really had a great time!  We are already looking at the calendar to see when we can go back.

So recently I have been sewing more.  I have made several dresses that are adorable, but given them away without photographing my work…  I will have to get some later when their girls get big enough to actually wear them…

But, here is one I made for Autumn’s second birthday party.

It was a horse themed party and oh so fun for our kiddos!  I loved getting to try out a new pattern and having such a cute model and event to sew for!  Someday maybe I’ll get a girl and get to make things with ribbons and bows, but for now, I am getting a sweet feeling sewing for my girlfriends daughters.  So, here is the dress, I’ll probably put the pattern on here later if anyone wants it and some sweet pics from Autums big day!

There are many more pics from the event, so comment if you’d like to see them and I will get the pics to you!

So, I have wanted to post some of these for awhile now, but I needed a day when i could actually put my pictures in and have just now gotten around to it.  So, sorry there are a bunch of posts from today!!!

Another thing I have been wanting to do forever is a family portrait.

Now, we moved into this huge, rambling, 1904 home and as much as I love the history and character of it, I want to add our touches to the mix.  So, I got this idea to meld a contemporary design with a classic.  This was the result and I am sooooo pleased!  My sweet hubby helped me print these out on canvas and then stretched them on frames and used the nail gun (which by the way is super harder to use then I thought it would be) to anchor them to the stretcher frame.  I then went to Hobby lobby where I found 1/2 off frames and got these.  I just am in LOVE with the way it turned out and it really was a simple at home project that you could do yourself.  You may not have access to a canvas printer, but you can certainly use a regular glossy print and put it under glass for a fun look too.  Just make sure to take your picture somewhere like in front of a window with a light fabric, so that you are back-lit, and that will create a natural silhouette effect.

I have been feeling the creative, crafty itch again… I started sewing more, making hair accessories, but Wednesday I felt like making something extra sweet.  What better then cookie mix in a jar?  I had a birthday lunch to go to and I thought this would be a great gift!  I was suprised by how easy it was, how festive it looked, and of course how scrumptous it was…  So, I am passing it on to you, I will probably repeat this at the Holidays and try things like Spiced Ciders, Extravagant Hot cocoas and Brownie mixes too.

Here are the 3 recipes I tried, have fun and enjoy.  Feel free to vary it up and rename them…

Cowboy Cookie Mix in a Jar (thanks to allrecipes.com )

Ingredients

1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking pwdr, 1 1/3 cup flour, 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1 1/3 cups rolled oats.

Layer indgredients in order given, press firmly in jar.  Include a card with the following directions (make it look pretty and feel free to change the wordage), then make sure to add a pretty fabric and some ribbon:

Preheat oven to 350*, grease coolie sheet, mix together 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1 egg, and 1 tsp of vanilla, stir in entire contents of the jar and mix it good, shape into heaping spoonfuls, place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet, and bake for 11-13 minutes, cool slightly and enjoy tremendously!

Kiss Me Cranberry (thanks to allrecipes.com )

Ingredients

5/8 cup flour, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1/3 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1/2 cup chopped pecans.

Layer indgredients in order given, press firmly in jar.  Include a card with the following directions (make it look pretty and feel free to change the wordage), then make sure to add a pretty fabric and some ribbon:

Use the same baking guidelines above but bake for 8-10 minutes instead!

Butterscotch Delight (thanks to allrecipes.com )

Ingredients

1 1/8 cups flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking pwdr, 1/2 cup backed brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 cup flaked coconut, 1 cup high protein crisp rice and wheat cereal, 3/4 cup butterscotch chips, 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Layer ingredients in order given, press firmly in jar.  Include a card with the following directions (make it look pretty and feel free to change the wordage), then make sure to add a pretty fabric and some ribbon:

Bake like above for 8-10 minutes.

Can you say Moo?

Well, we can!  Today our family celebrated the 5th annual Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A.  Warm nuggets, cool milkshakes, savory sauces, waffle fries, and fresh squeezed lemonade… ahhh…. what more can a family of cow dressed wanna bees ask for?

Seriously, we got on our computer and went to www.cowappreciationday.com and found the tools we needed to transform into cows.  We printed out ears, a nose, black spots, a Chick-Fil-A sign and completed our outfit with a wicked tail!  We taped and bobby pinned our new found appendages on and loaded up the car.  On the way I was a little nervous that I looked a little like a sad cardboard cow, but then we pulled up next to a bunch of high school girls who were decked out as well and I could have cared less.

Now, what do you get if you dress up in full regala you wonder?

nuggets with dipping sauce… waffle fries… milk… soda…

how about a wrap? fruit… Club Chicken…

The honor of being a true cow is that you get any combo meal on the menu.  So hurry up, its only today… Lots of fun and free food and foolishness…  Yeah for Chick-fil-A!  I am already looking forward to next year!

We went to the Bluebell icecream factory on Friday… we watched hundreds of production workers sort, shuffle, and box our most beloved BlueBell.  Bars, gallons, quarts… millions of mouth watering, slightly addictive, but oh so good on a hot summer day love.  The tour was brief, the MC was flat, but the ice cream at the end was worth it.  Groomscake for me, Dutch chocolate for Ti, and strawberry for Quinn. Titus and Quinten got in free, and I was just 3 dollars!  For three ice creams, 3 cool paper hats, a half and hour - hour event for the boys, coupled with a cool old delivery truck and cow sculptures for great photo ops you really can’t beat it.

Included in our unruley crew was Julie, Rachel, Sadie, Maegan, Amanda, Luke, Garrett, Titus, Quinten, and myself.  Seeing how the adults were outnumbered it was a fun but exhausting day as we buckled kids into back seat car seats, juggled strollers, and snacks and continued on towards the Blue Bell Acquatic center.  Then we put on our suits, our sunblock, our kiddos swim diapers, hats, goggles, floaties… and waddled to the water.  It was HOT, crowded, and a little loud, but it was FUN.  They have big slides, little slides, a giant mushroom that sprays water, and several different pools to try.  I am sitting home now reliving the glory and wondering when I will be mad enough to try again…

Have you been to Brenham lately, its lovely…

Well, here are some recent photos of the boys that we took while out in Independence area.  We love this time of year when all the bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush come out.   Its beautiful everywhere, even just driving around town!

Our Amazing, Kick Booty, Time Consuming, Frusterating, Hopefully Rewarding, Tear Jerker, Simply Beautiful…

Bridal Show Booth!

Stephen made the walls, with some loving help from his dad.  Then he learned how to do Crown Molding… watch out my house may be next!  And painted it and trimmed it out.  I came up with the design concept on the inside and was a snob about what went in and definitely did the bargain hunting thing!  We made our back wall of pictures with a little money, maybe $25.00 and a lot of hard work.  It was a hairpulling, all nighter for the couple days before, but this was our reward…  We LOVED it!  Everything was just what we were wanting.  We loved the look of the booth and all our new album designs and handouts look stunning. We had a great turnout for the bridal show and are now gunning through wedding season.

Good job honey!  I love our work!

Thanks Candace and Mom for all your help at the show and at home!

This is so exciting!  Stephen sat down with me tonight and made me a new design for my blog.  Although we still have some work to do on it, I can blog, and its way easier than it was!  Yeah.

Sew…  Some of you may know that we are going to be having a sewing group this coming weekend.  Yep, Saturday the 7th.  It is going to be ’shear’ delight.  Heehee.  Liz Amy and I decided to combine forces and so we will all get to meet at my house, lets say at 12:30.  If you want to bring something to eat, go for it, we can have some munchies and get started.   Take a look at what we are going to make…

How cute are these?

No really, keep looking… you’ll definitely want one!

sew perfect!

Some of us may be brave and try a pocket or a ruffle

Doesn’t this make you super excited and wanting to come try this out?  I’m gonna try and make a sample one tomorrow to see how long it really takes…

See, it looks easy! Liz and I will help you!

Anyways, Things you need to bring with you…

1) sewing machine

2) fabric: you will need 2 yards all together- 1 yard of one kind, and 1 yard of something else.  You need to wash the material so it will be preshrunk.

3) Some corresponding thread- one kind that matches both will work great.

4) Miscellaneous: if you see a cute button, or ruffle you want, bring it and will see if we can use it.

5) a good attitude, sewing is fun, but it can realistically be a challenge in the beginning.  Hey, its hard to mess up an apron, cute fabric will cover over a multitude of mistakes.

I’m excited, I know that several people have said they will be here.  If you aren’t one of them and want to come, let me know, we can squeeze a couple more in.  Just be prepared to stay for a few minutes at the end to help me right my house cause were having a BDay for Titus on Sunday!!!