My big grown up 2nd grader

I can't believe I have a 2nd grader. I really hate that school starts in the middle of the summer. Bri was very excited to start school.

She is getting so big and grown up.

I'm glad she let us keep walking her to the first day of school

I'm not sure who will miss her more, Me or Carly.

She is such a sweet girl and I know she will do great.

Summer Fun

I know there is a lot more summer left, but since we are on a year-round school schedule and Bri starts back Monday , I feel like summer is over. We have had lots and lots of fun this summer.

We've gone swimming.

Played with our cousins

Watched a parade. (The horse parade, of course)

Played with our Cousins.

Painted faces.

Hiked a few trails.

More swimming.

Played with the cousins some more.

The summer seemed to fly by this year. I don't think I'm ready to send Bri back to school quite yet. Hopefully we will find time to do more fun things.

Photos

So I'm kind of a freak when it comes to pictures of my girls. I have spent thousands of dollars over the years on pictures of them. I get their pictures taken at least twice a year once for their birthday and then again around Christmas time. This year Bri broke her nose a few days after her birthday and then once we got her nose looking back to normal Carly decided to giver herself a hair cut. So we are a little late with the pictures this year but we finally got them done. I ususally get them done in a studio but this year we tried something different. What do you think?

Some recent projects

Lately I've been neglecting my house work in favor of sewing some dresses for my girls.

I've been seeing dresses like these in the stores this season but hadn't seen any that really looked my my girls, so I made these. I plan in getting their pictures done in them.

I wanted to mix in some different textures on these dresses. I'm so happy with how they turned out.

My sweet niece had a birthday this weekend and since I was already on a roll with the dresses I made one for her to. It turned out super cute.

This is a quilt I did back in May. My sister in law's mom got married and I made her this quilt as a wedding gift. I really love how it turned out. The quilt below is a baby gift for my best friend's little sister who just had her first baby. I picked out the fabrics for both these projects at the same time. I kind of got stuck in blue and brown mode, but I love how these 2 projects look totally different even thought they are the same color.

This quilt turned out so cute, and I had enough stuff left over that I decided to make a second one. Time for the shameless plug. If any one is interested in purchasing this quilt I'm offering it for $35. It is 42X42 inches. Leave a comment if you are interested. I also do custom sewing for pretty much any occasion, quilts dresses alterations.

Yellowstone pictures part 2 Subtitle; family vacations are like childbirth

So today as I climbed several mountains of laundry, remnats of our trip, it got me thinking about the reality of family vacations. As I downloaded more pictures (we took hundreds) I realized that all our pictures are of us happy and smiling, and though over all our trip was really great, I think that with vacations and childbirth we only remember the good.

Carly's birth was one of the most magical times of my life, a truly life changing experience to which I would do again in a heartbeat. (I truly mean that) Now if we had video footage of the experience (thank heaves we don't) you would see that I was a screaming freaked out panicking wreck. I choose not to remember that part of the experience, and instead remember the sweet baby I got out of it.

So even though our trip was great, I choose to forget all the crap I had to deal with (literally, bathrooms aren't always convienent in Yellowstone), I forget how I spent 7 straight days in a van or motor home with my kids husband and in-laws and started to go a bit crazy by the end, or that we were almost eaten alive by mosquitoes to the extent that Carly's eye swelled shut for 2 days. See photo below.

Instead I will remember this.

And this. My girls got along exceptionally well the whole trip.

And My little Jr. Rangers.

And most of all this.

This is my favorite picture from this trip. We have taken a picture in this same spot every time we have visited here. So I will remember the good and forget about all the bad and this way we will have many more years of great family vacation.

Yellowstone

One of our very favorite places to visit is Yellowstone NP. The first time Jon and I went there together was before we were married We have since visited many times this is Brianna's 3 trip there. We took hundreds of pictures. I'll only bore you all with the best ones.


Jon's parents spend every 4th of July there.

We saw more animals this year than ever. We saw 8 bears total. 4 Grizzly bears, and 4 black bears. This is my favorite picture of the bears. I think it looks like a post card. Jon took this one.

I really love this picture. The girls were so cute and got along so well the whole trip. We found this beautiful meadow of flower. So I did a little impromptu photo shoot.

We took dozens of family photos. I really hope my girls will have good memories of all the trips we take them on. I love being with my little family.