swing set

The girls went all last summer with out a swing set? How did they survive? Well, they did no problem. But Bart and I did still want them to have a swing set in their own backyard. We don't mind them playing at friends houses sometimes but we also feel it's really important to have them in our own yard where we can see what's going on. And to have friends and neighbors feel comfortable and want to be at our house and in our backyard.

So we found this one at Costco and the kids LOVE it. I'm sure it'll get a lot of wear and tear this summer. Bart did an awesome job putting it together by himself. (yes, he's that kind of guy that would rather do things himself than ask for help.) And since he didn't break anything doing it I really don't care.

It was cold and drizzely yesterday but that didn't stop the kids from inviting our neighbors over and playing on the new swingset.

River rock

That is the new color of my bedroom. I love it. It is calming, peaceful, tranquil and pretty.

Lemonade stand

The family across the street from us have 3 girls just like us. Two of which are the same ages as Kenzie and Summer. They have all become great little buddies.

Mackenzie and Elle had been planning to do a Lemonade stand all week last week. They were finally able to do it on Friday. It was a bit cloudy out and a little late in the day so they didn't have a ton of customers but that didn't matter one bit to them.

Elle, Kenzie and Reese

They made cute signs for it and felt proud of their entrepreneuring skills. They are keeping their signs and plan to open shop again later this summer. Come by and visit later this summer and bring your nickles!

A customer!

One year

1 year ago today we moved in.

I love our house, and I love our neighborhood.

I love the lake, the paths, the pool and the parks.

I love our neighbors.

Really good choice for us.

I am happy.

Ainsley's birthday

I have a 9 year old now. How did that happen? Amazing what can happen in a decade. 10 years ago I was living in a small student housing apartment complex, working as a travel agent and had 0 kids. Now, I'm in my 2nd home, I don't get paid for my job (well, not monetarely, only in eternal blessings)and I have THREE kids - the oldest one is 9!


Which brings me back to the reason on this blog post....Ainsley. I love this gal. She is such a hoot, so beautiful, talented and fun to be with. She loves to sing, has a wonderful imagination, loves Tink and all her fairy friends, loves to read and is a fabulous older sister to Kenz & Summy.

We let Ainsley invite 3 friends out to dinner this year to celebrate her birthday. She had a lot of fun. And so did her friends. (Do kids get louder as they get older??) She had a hard time just picking 3 friends. She is such a social girl and very friendly to everyone so picking three was hard for her. But she did and they were a fun group. Here are some pictures from that night.

Double header

As many of you know, Summer and Grandpa (my dad) share the same birthday. I think that is a really special connection they have with each other. The past few years we have combined their birthday parties. This year Summer wanted another Dora party with lots of friends and I decided to throw a surprise party for my dad. So, on Saturday we did this....

There were 9 kids there (including my own.) We colored Dora pictures, played Dora Bingo, Dora Dora Swiper (duck, duck, gray duck... or if your not from MN that would be duck, duck, goose), had a pinata, played pin the tail on the donkey and jumped in the jumpy house. It was a lot of fun. Summer has some wonderful friends and I'm glad they were able to share her special day with her.

THEN...on Sunday evening we invited a bunch of my dad's friends over that he hasn't been able to see in a really long time due to our lovely Minnesota winters and his broken leg. He was really surprised and had a wonderful time visiting with all of the people that came. He has some wonderful friends who love him and care deeply about him.

I only took one picture from that night this is my 3 girls with grandpa, my mom's cousin Therese, her husband Van, and Clara who is my great aunt so she is a great-great-aunt to my daughters.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD & SUMMER!!

I won! I won! I won!

I just won a prize for the heart tee-shirt I made for Summer! ( Look below to see the shirt) I am SO excited! I won two free rolls of more heat transfer! YEA!!

You can check it out at http://silhouettemachine.blogspot.com/

Winning is SO much fun!

More in love

Okay, so maybe I should use that title for my 12th anniversary which happens to be tomorrow...but, I'm going to use it today to describe my Silhouette Machine.


I'm sure I've expressed my love of it before. I use it for scrapping, giftbags, vinyling on the walls, tiles, glass and NOW I can use it to make tee-shirts or bags, or pillows or whatever! The possibities are ENDLESS!


They just came out with this new heat transfer material that you use with your Silhouette machine. I ordered just two colors to try it out with first (pink & red). And I got one in smooth texture and one that is flocked (kinda soft to the touch and thicker.)

I got the shapes and words from the Silhouette online store and viola... here is what I created yesterday.

Cute models. They were each so excited to wear them today.

Black and white

What is it about black and white photos? I love them. Here are some photos I took of the girls. Actually some of the ones of Mackenzie were taken my friend Amy Steeves. I may have posted these pictures before in color. But I love the black and white effect on them.

Webkinz Party #2

Ainsley had a Webkinz party when she turned 7 in 2008 and Mackenzie just turned 7 years old on Feb. 26. She also wanted a Webkinz party. Luckily, I forsaw that 2 years ago and I saved all the stuff from Ainsley's party.

It was a lot of fun! Kenzie invited 7 friends over and we played Webkinz Bingo, Guess the Webkinz on your back, Pin the W on the Webkinz, we did Webkinz word scrambles and mazes, a gem hunt, and Freeze dance with your Webkinz. I made the cake again this year and I was really please with how it all turned out. Here are a few pictures from Kenzie's fun party.

I'm so proud of Mackenzie and all the growth she's made in the last few years. She's reading so well now, she's doing well at piano, swimming and gymnastics. She has made wonderful friends at school and at church. She still has the most contageous laugh and I love it! She is a very smiley, happy child. She wears her emotions on her sleeve (which are sometimes difficult to deal with) but fun to see her visible excitement when she's doing things she loves.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

We all love you!

Utah

We went to Utah over President's day weekend. We went to a U of U gymnastics meet, went ice-skating at the Olympic oval, Bart went to U of U basketball game with his brothers and we hung out with family the whole time. It was really alot of fun. I had a blast and I'm so grateful for the awesome family I married into. Here are some fun pictures from the trip.Bart and the kids with his brother Brian who unfortunately couldn't skate due to his broken foot.

Cicely & Summer

Amber, Aubrey, Ains & Kenz

Sister-in-laws Amy & Lisa with cutie James.

Brynn, Kenz & Kiersten

Grandma Sue & Kemry

Me & my sister-in-law Nat.

Gross! She really licked me!

Thanks Davis Family for a much needed vacation!

(I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of everybody. There are lots of wonderful family members not represented here.)

The project I almost gave up on

Don't worry folks... this is not turning into a craft blog. I am far too uncrafty for that. I would however like to share with you my latest vinyl project. I love this quote by Henry Ford and I often say it to my kids when they are at the piano telling, crying, whining or screaming at me that they just can't do it! And I tell them, you're right! You will never be able to do it if you think you can't.

So I decided to make this tile and put it up on the piano for them. As you can tell from the unevenness of the lettering I am obviously no expert at this! I am just figuring it out as I go along. Well, after much wasted vinyl and many fonts later I finally did it.

The ironic thing is, is that I had just about convinced myself that I didn't know how make this tile. I seriously almost gave up. But I thought how could I tell my kids they can do anything they put their minds to but turn around and give up on something I wanted to accomplish.

Now, this tile has an added meaning for me too that I will take to heart.

vinyl

I've had a Silhouette craft cutting maching for about 3 years now. I am just now getting myself out of a crafting slump that I've coincidently been in for about the past 3 years now. This cutting machine has been my new best friend and it feels like Christmas all over again when I learn something new I can do with it.

My latest facination has been with vinyl. I've done a couple of small vinyl projects like Chirstmas ornaments, some cute jars for my friends and I helped one friend finish up her Family Home Evening board. Tonight I did my first on-the-wall vinyl project. Here it is....

What do you think?


It's one of my favorite scriptures Matt. 6:21.

My girls are such a treasure to me and my heart is so often overflowing with love for them. I get impatient and frustrated with them alot but I'm really working on showing my love for them more and being kinder to them. Maybe this reminder will help :)

Pregnant pictures

I feel like I've been quite a slacker in the blogging world lately. I think my creativity has been zapped out of my brain because I just can't think of anything to blog about lately. So, here is my fall back post. The much anticipated and much awaited for (drum roll please) dadaddaddda ......pregnancy photos!! Yay! I know you are all super excited and can't wait to scroll down to see the fabulous pictures and be done reading my mindless ramblings.


Let me explain first....NO this is NOT an announcement! Far from it. This is for my friends ...Rochelle, Mindy, Tamara etc. and who ever else I've only known in the past 3 years who have never seen yours truely prego. I know you all WANT to see me prego in real life and I know Ande prays for it nightly but it is really just not going to happen and you're all just going to have to be happy with feasting your eyes upon the following pictures.

This 1st picture is of me shortly before I had Ainsley so April 2001.

The 2nd picture is a few days before I had Mackenzie Feb. 2003. And the last picture was right before I had Summer in March of 2006. You can see I got bigger each time. So I hope you enjoyed looking at my big belly.

Those of you who wanted to see this better leave me some real nice comments!