Girls' Weekend

My Mom's best friend had a daughter the month after I turned 1.  Sarah Katherine, who goes by Katie, and I were inseparable.  We saw each other almost every day because we lived right around the corner from each other.  As tiny girls we spent long hours in each other's back yards, deep in our own imaginative worlds.  We climbed trees, decorated our bikes and had parades down the street, had countless slumber parties, vacationed together, and promised to be each other's maid of honor and name our daughters after each other.  Even after Katie's family moved to Portland when we were still very young, our friendship remained.  We were lucky that our parents were best friends because family vacations basically revolved around visiting each other.  And those were the best times of each year.  Better than Christmas.  One of our families favorite spots to vacation together was "the beach house."  It was a huge house on  Muscle Shoals.  The basement was full of countless beds and all the kids bunked down there together.  Our days were spent in the ocean. 

I turned 33 on 3/3 (pretty cool huh?) and today, Katie turns 32.  We wanted to do something special for our birthdays so we decided to have our own little trip to Muscle Shoals.  "Our" old beach house is way too expensive to rent these days but Katie found a cute little quirky place just across the highway.  So off we went for a girls' weekend away...Katie, Felicity Katherine, Arrow, and I (nursling boys get to join in on girls' weekend).  :)

On Saturday, we headed down to the beach.  We decided there was no better place to "park it" but right in front of "our" old beach house, where our families made about a million memories together.

 Arrow was a HUGE fan of the sand.

 

 My Katherines at "our" beach.

 

 It sure was fun to watch my daughter play here in this magical place, just like Katie and I had when we were her age.

 

 His first feel of the Pacific.

 

 You can't see it in this picture, but those windows look out across the highway and over the ocean.  The couches in this living room faced away from these windows, and towards the TV on the back wall.  Um..........?!  So, Katie did a bit of rearranging and faced the couches so we could sit and watch the sun set over the waves.

Here, Felicity is talking to her brothers on the phone.  All three of them thought it was so much fun.  They talked forever!  It was so sweet to see how they missed each other and then it dawned on me that they are rarely ever apart.  In fact, this may have been the first time they've talked to each other on the phone.  It was really cute.

 

 Before leaving on Sunday, we drove into Santa Barbara to walk through the botanical gardens.

 

 Lissy wanted a picture of her and Katie "holding up" this boulder, which I thought was funny because she's never seen photos where people do this. 

 

We had a wonderful time creating memories for a third generation at "the beach house."

Happy birthday Tatie!

The First Weekend of Summer

 A solar system was made...........

 ..........new bike hooks were installed (just like Daddy's).........

............ house paint was tested out and decided upon.........

 ......and we spent a WONDERFUL evening with my high school Ag teacher and her family, where I FINALLY got to meet her new little one (and she got to meet the belly).  I gave her newest little boy a quilt I'd made while pregnant with Felicity.  I brought all the fabric home from Maui on one of our pre kid days adventures.  It has sat on my shelf for years needing the perfect home.  I'm happy its finally getting some love!

At 24 weeks today, the children felt their baby sibling kick for the first time!

And the new season was embraced by bringing touches of Summer inside, and doing a few Summer crafts.

And I slept.

A lot!

:)

Visiting Friends

Summer and I have a love/hate relationship.

I hate the burning sun, but love taking the kids to the pool and beach.

I hate the heat, but love how it grows our garden.

One thing I do love about Summer is that people visit.  And this week we had a WONDERFUL visit from my friend Harmony and her 3 kids.

Harmony and her husband lived in the same town as we did while I attended college.  We quickly became friends as I think its impossible to not love Harmony upon first meeting her.  She has one of the easiest laughs and is always full of joy.

We often talked about wanting to have kids at the same time so they could be buddies.  We knew this probably wouldn't happen as Zac and I never intended on staying in that college town once I graduated.

Well, Zac and I did move away.

And Harmony and I remained friends.

And we DID have babies at the same time.....3 TIMES!

This week we got to spend one wonderful day with my dear friend and her beautiful kids.

Here are our 6 beautiful kids!

The boys are not quite 2 months apart in age.

The girls are 4 months apart.

And the babies are only 2 DAYS apart!

SO fun!

I love how they're so joyful with each other, even though this is only the 2nd or 3rd time they've ever played together in their lives.  They were fast friends (as they were on our last visit right before the babies were born).  The boys ran off to play "jail" and fight dragons, while the girls bonded over Lissy's dress up collection.  And the babes just walked around being all cute and chunky together.  Double the baby goodness.....it was hard not to pinch them too much.

Goofs!

And here's Harmony and I.

This is the first picture Logan's taken with my camera.  :)

And here's my sweet Lissy as she watched them drive away.

"My friend is gone!  I'm sad!"

I know the feeling poor girl.

Handmade Holiday 2010 and a "Mama's Christmas"

As this posts, I'm out with two amazing women on a "Mama's Christmas."  We are heading to SLO for shop wondering, food, and whatever else we feel led to at the moment.  A time out just the three of us to celebrate friendship and Christmas.  I am so blessed to have these ladies in my life.  I spent a little time crafting for them over the last few days, which was SOOO fun.  I have so many little ones in my life, most of my crafting has been for them.  Not only was it nice to switch gears, but I KNOW they will like these gifts because they too craft and sew.  I sometimes worry about giving people handmade gifts because I wonder if they'll think it's lame.  No worries with these ladies in that area.  I'm also excited because THEY inspired their gifts.  Elisa wanted a whole L wall.  L, for her last name.  So I made monograms to get her started on her L wall.  Cheri inspired the wrist pin cushion when she explained to me her chaotic pin situation.  Hers comes complete with pins because she NEEDS more pins.  Elisa also got a bundle of fabric blocks for a quilt she's working on for her daughter.  No two blocks are the same so I went through all my scraps and cut her a bunch of blocks.  Elisa inspired the wrapping... drawstring bags.  She dreams of a playroom organized with bunches of drawstring bags.  My wonderful baker husband, Zac, made his famous chocolate covered Ritz peanut butter crackers the other night so each bag contains a small bag of chocolate goodness as well.

Here's some pictures of their goodies;

I am so blessed to have these women in my life who pray for me, comfort me, uplift me, support me, speak truth to me, am patient with my venting, and love and care for my kids.  The three of us have traveled many major life roads together in the last few years.  I have been blessed to have them come alongside me and insist on taking some of my burdens off my back and onto their own.  And I have been HONORED to carry their burdens alongside them.  Thank you Jesus for Cheri and Elisa, and thank you for Your birth which gives me an excuse to craft for them.