Maybe it's because I adore my friend, Alisa. (the photographer)

And maybe it's because I adore my little family. (love them)

But I'm pretty positive these are the best photos. 

Like, ever.

I would post all 94 of them just so you could see every single possible face Harper made that day, but I'll hold back a bit. She was kind of a stinker that day, but Alisa still managed to get some beautiful shots of both kids!

This family one is my absolute favorite.

No, this one is my absolute favorite. We probably won't be getting family photos done again for a few years. And we certainly won't be wearing clothes this matchy again for a long time. So I really wanted a family portrait to be more of a piece of art. Something that would last years and not look dated. 

Enter: this photo below:

Alisa, you did it perfectly.

This one will make me cry in a few years.

Or maybe it already does.

I love this. I love how Henry has his eyes covered and Harper is all curled up.

And then there's my RJ.

My boy!

Sweet, baby girl.

Funny.

Classic.

And sweet.

Thanks, Alisa. They are a treasure!

Fall Vacation '11

I've got a super sweet and content baby hanging out at our house today (he's the best, Julie!) and he's taking a nap right now, so here we go!

So we went out with RJ's parents to see RJ's brother and his cute family.  There is a family that offers 2 (of their 3) lake houses for free to the staff at the Moody flight school where his brother works. Pretty sweet. 

This was our view every day right off of Lake Coeur d' Alene.

The boys took the kids out on the canoe. It was in the 40s most of the week so kind of chilly, but still nice enough to play outside. The leaves had just started to turn brilliant colors so it was absolutely beautiful!

We didn't have a tv and basically had no Internet connection the whole time so there was tons of game playing and puzzle putting-togtherness going on. We did have a little dvd player so the kids got to watch a cartoon here and there. I didn't miss the tv, but I have to admit I missed the Internet a bit. However, I ended up being so thankful it worked out that way. So refreshing!!

Here's a shot straight from the deck on a beautiful evening.

Here is the adorable cabin the families with kids stayed in.

And the red cabin is where the grandparents got to stay...so they could escape some of the noise and early mornings. :)

Harper and her cousin Simon had so much fun together. They are just a couple of weeks apart.

The caretaker told us they had seen a "baby" moose around and one morning we got to see it! RJ took the camera and got some shots at a safe distance, of course.

Another beautiful morning. Just couldn't get enough of that view!

A shot looking down at our cabin.

We did tons of hiking and walking. The hills were crazy steep.

The 3 little cousins.

Sorry, RJ, but I love this picture...

Such a cute cabin, eh?

(sorry for the random order of these)

Harper with her grandpa looking up at me on the deck.

We (the men) built a few fires down by the water.

And we ate marshmallows.

And s'mores.

Since we were there for Halloween, we let the kids dress up and we just did a little trick-or-treating at the cabin.

We just sat in chairs and they went around to each of us. They had a blast.

This little costume is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. I got it for $2 last year at Target. 

I want to frame it.

More time out on the canoe.

Somehow Henry has gone his entire little life without bowling. He had so much fun and it was so cute to watch how animated he was with it.

Henry and Sophia were best buds the whole time.

A little dvd break.

All the kids together. The leaves were amazing!

And that was our trip. It was so much fun. Definitely ranks up there with my favorite vacations.

We flew back to Minneapolis and spent a couple of days with RJ's aunt and uncle. We got to sneak away for a little lunch date and go on a double date with RJ's cousin and girlfriend. Then Saturday was time to see my family. My cousin Elyse got married that night in a beautiful, old church in St. Paul and then the rehearsal was at the Minnesota History Center.  I didn't have much space left on my camera for more pictures, but this is the dance floor with the capital in the background. 

It was a beauty of a night, for sure.

It was so fun ending the week seeing my mom's lovely family. We rarely get together anymore so there is lots to catch up on when we do. 

And that's all. If you made it all the way through, congratulations! 

Now it's back to normal life. It feels good to be home. :)

I really want to blog about our last couple of weeks and upload a boat-load of pictures, but that will have to wait. We left for Minneapolis last Wednesday morning, to Spokane, WA Thursday morning via airplane, drove an hour east to Coeur d' Alene, ID and spent the entire week in a crazy beautiful cabin on a lake, came back to Minneapolis at midnight Thursday, spent a couple of days with RJ's aunt, spent some time with my family and then went to my cousin's crazy beautiful wedding on Saturday in St. Paul, and FINALLY came home today. That was a l-o-n-g time to be gone. It was awesome! Yet I am so glad to be home. 

And since I don't have time to do much else, here are a couple of photos from my amazingly talented friend, Alisa. The rest are on their way to my house and I can not wait to see them. She seriously made my family picture dreams come true! And considering we don't get our family photos taken often (aka: every 3 years or so) my hopes were high and of course she went beyond what I was hoping for. 

And I've only seen about 4 pictures.

Craft show this weekend. Probably won't sleep much, but that's fun every now and then, right? 

Right!!

Button Hole

Another of my recent projects are some little girl dresses. They are apron knot dresses and I got the pattern off of Etsy from Little Lizard King. I made a dress for Harper last Spring so already had the pattern and have loads of scrap fabric and vintage dresses, so....

This first one has the bodice from an old table cloth of mine, the skirt is from a skirt of mine I got at a consignment store in Maine but I hated the way it fit me, and apron has an applique that is made up of old and new fabrics.

This dress:

bodice again from the table cloth, the skirt is from a vintage girls dress, and the pocket is from a vintage "house coat".

The straps will go through button holes in the front and then you tie a knot.

The problem I have is that I can not for the life of me figure out my button hole attachment, so if you have a sewing machine I'll probably be bugging you for help.

Hoping to make about 5 or 6 of these dresses for the craft show.

And if they don't sell......lucky Harper!

My kids have been eating grilled cheese sandwiches like crazy for lunch lately. Pretty much every day. Not because they love them, but because sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. But finally! Yesterday was the day to go grocery shopping. Big time Costco grocery shopping, to be exact. I thought I'd try something fun and healthy for the kids for their lunch instead of "grilled cheese, again?!!?" sandwiches. Henry loved it...Harper...well, we'll work on it. 

A yogurt, flax seed, frozen berries, and spinach smoothie.

I had to add a little milk too, or you could add juice if you have some.

  

It was tasty!

I just started a "challenge" at Farrell's on Monday and it's 8 weeks long. It's similar to when I did my first 10 week challenge, but it's based on points. All different ways to get points throughout the 8 weeks and the winner gets money! And maybe a new pants size!!

You get 6 points per week for nutrition. If you mess up once, you get zero points. And you can't eat out. Ever. Not even at Subway. 

Brutal!

But I still will have my Fun Day. Oh, thank you, Fun Day.

Anyways, here is my latest project:

I got a little stack of these hoops at a garage sale so I'm going to make a few of these thingies for a craft show I'm doing in Nov.

Thoughts? Too weird? Not weird enough? Not cute enough? Too cutesy?

I still need to paint the frame. 

I need your help because my poor husband gets a little burned out when I force him to critique my work all the time.

Well regardless, it was fun to do and I can't wait to do a few more!

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

What a wonderful weekend!

Friday we got a Hot N' Ready and went to Raccoon River park and ran around, played, gathered sticks and leaves, and enjoyed the crazy beautiful weather.

I'm not liking how old my children are looking....

I was so proud of my Henry-boy. My (overly) cautious first born is getting more and more brave and daring.

On Saturday after waiting for RJ to get home from working, we went over to the Art Center area and ran around and walked. Of course we had to dodge the 8 (kid you not) photographers and their subjects. It's that time of year, I suppose.

I always thought those were antlers on top of them there deer, but apparently they are small dogs. Who knew?

Our beauty of an art center. Folks, we may not live in a big city, but we've got some pretty great art!

Then there is this beauty:

I went to some garage sales on Friday and they were crazy Pinterest inspiring sales. I had to try really really hard not to go crazy, but I did walk away with this beautifully tacky owl for $1. She's about 10" tall and I can't decide if I should leave her gold (I have a strange love for tacky, tacky things) or spray paint it a solid color. What a tough decision, eh?

And bless my sweet husband...Henry has been talking about making a "paper oven" for a few days now and had this big idea of how to do it and what he wanted to do with it when he was done, so RJ helped him make his dreams come true.

 

It was just a lovely, family weekend. This weather is top-notch!

The kids have been so fun lately, and I seem to have snapped out of my 2 month long bad mood. Don't tell me you didn't notice. :)

Hope you all have a gorgeous Monday!