July with Anne

While I was at Anne's home I finally got to see one of the "blooming teas"! It was beautiful...and tasted very good. I still think it looks a bit like a spider though! ;)

Jenny at the hotel, all ready to go out!

Anthony really took to Anne... but that's not the point of this picture. ;) See the different colors of his feet? No, his circulation is fine... the left foot is after we washed it, and the right is before. :-O Dirty feet and that purple hotel carpet! Gross, huh?

:-)

:-)

The last night we were at the hotel in CA we were determined to be packed by 7 or 8pm so that we could be in bed at a good hour. Instead we simply dumped everything we had with us onto the bed and sat up talking until 3:00. I think that there were more than two chocolate runs to the vending machines. :-D

I had allot of fun cooking when we got home...it was so good to have "real" food after two weeks away! The very first day I made macaroni and cheese...it tasted SO good! This was a few nights later...I had made Sommer's House Chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. Anthony LOVED it! This is his first time using a spoon!!

We had SO MUCH FUN tie dying!! We each made several shirts, plus several onesies for Anthony and a few t-shirts for Jenny. When we were done we still had tons of die left, so I grabbed some white fabric and we went to work! I know in a picture it sort of just looks like a crazy hodge-podge of color, but in person, (and especially to us!) there is lots of special meaning in every part. This piece really ties together allot of our talks, feelings, thoughts and dreams. I *think* the plan is to cut it in half (it's a double layer) and make two very special quilts with it. But we haven't quite decided yet!

the other half...

Then the last night she was here (the real last night, lol) we were doing some heavy duty knitting and movie watching. We were such bums that day! We slept through the morning Masses, and ended up staying in our pajamas until we had to get ready for 5:00pm Mass. As soon as we got home we were back in our pj's and knitting again! Anthony came to nurse for a while and wound up snuggled up under my shawl while we....kept knitting. :) Oh, and that's one of my newly tie dyed shirts! Like the last night at the hotel, we had many better things to do than be tidy... *ahem*

the coffee table...

the sofa between us...

a very small bit of the results! I'm working on this pattern...the only hold up is that I'm making it up as I go! We saw these really delightful fingerless gloves at our local yarn shop, but the book the pattern was in was $20.00, and was filled with really, truly dreadful patterns. So I took a look at the stitch pattern for the spiral and well...we'll see where I get! I'm really hoping to make up a working pattern. It will probably take a few gloves to get it right, but I'm taking notes so we'll see!

Then the rest of these are just recent pictures that I had to share. :)

Anthony <3

My Jenny-loo <3

Her wonderful braids... <3

This is a little quiet spot I made for Joe on his desk. There are lots of electronics and all sorts of visual busy-ness so I wanted to make a calm, peaceful sort of spot for him. :) The flash makes everything really jump out, but in the actual lighting in our room all the colors are darker and softer and it really is a nice grouping of things.

Summer Adventures

My goodness, is it really a week into August already?? July was wonderful, but happened way to fast. So fast that I have only a few pictures to show for it. :)

On the 2nd, we left for Washington state for my mother-in-law's family reunion. They have a lovely spot on the "beach", in the middle of no-where about an h

our outside of Seattle. It's sooo pretty! We got to spend lots of time visiting and playing, and Jenny even got to go on her very first boat ride!

photo taken by my sil Bitty

She sat in the very front and ate her cheese the whole time. :) They went very fast...or at least that's how it looked to the Mama standing on the shore watching! ;) She also got to go on lots of airplanes... by the time the trip was all said and done, we had been on

6 in 9 days. She learned that when we were next in line at the securtity checkpoints (which

were actually super-super easy, even with two kids, two car seats, an umbrella stroller and all of our shoes and toiletries) she would get out of the stroller and hand

me her shoes. :) She was amazing! Anthony was too, but it will be really nice when he can hold a hand and walk!!

on the airplane :)

After Washington, we flew down to CA to pick up my very bestest friend Anne. We spend two short nights in Mt. Shasta with her family and then we were on our way again! We spent a few days in Hayward, CA, and while there got to meet my childhood friend

Christen's sweet family. We were just in time to meet Matthew, their newest! I got to hold him at just three days hold...he is such a cutie! Unfortunately...I forgot my camera. :( While we stayed in Hayward, we had the use of Christen's car (thank you!!). This let us brave the traffic and construction (gulp) and navigate our way down to my friend Sommer's house. We had so much fun! Her youngest, Rowan is the rolly-polliest tiny baby I've ever seen. Much like holding a drooling marshmellow. :) It was so much fun to finally meet her children too. Jenny and Anthony had a blast playing with them! It was good for them to get some realy kid play time after all those hours in airports/airplanes/hotels. The funniest thing is that the picture of us makes me look like a giant for the very first time in my life. At 5'2" I'm not the tallest of people, so when I got home and looked at how much taller this picture makes me look it really made me laugh. :)

Anne and I had a wonderful visit while she was here in VA...including the time in CA, we had almost three entire weeks together! Ofcourse, it wasn't nearly enough, but it was so, so good for both of us! We did so many fun things....knitting, shopping, tie dying, talking, tea drinking, talking, movie watching, (did I say talking?), sewing and on and on. I also finally got to take her to the Blackfriar playhouse to see a play (The Merry Wives of Windsor) which was really a blast! My first adventure with a parking garage. :-D We got quite a few aprons cut out, but unfortunatly only got one each sewn, so over the next few weeks/months I will be sewing them up and mailing her to her in care packages at college. :) So prepare for many, many, many apron pictures! I even got to have Anne here when I celebrated my 22nd birthday. :) My mama made me the very best coconut cake and they made the yummiest dinner for me! The decorations were, as always very, very pink. :) When I was little I would always want pink baloons, pink streamers, pink plates and napkins...with a pink cake and frosting. lol I have no clue why...it's just what I do on my birthday! They even had roses like the ones I remember!

More pictures to come in a seperate post...blogger is giving me fits with this one.

As for the next few weeks, we will be in a bit of a flurry around here as we get the upstairs room painted and ready for my sil Bitty to move into. I'm so excited to have her here! She's going to school at our local Community College, and will be living with us for the next 12-18 months! I'm hoping to obtain the use of her fantasticly amazing camera from time to time. ;)