With Joy: wednesday's walk

Need a smile?

Renn!

1st Christmas - 2008.

This picture ALWAYS makes me SMILE!!!

I am excited to celebrate our

1st Christmas with Avery!
- soooo I missed the memo on switching to Lazy blogging. So this is my form of being Lazy - not changing the post I wrote last night. :)
If you would be so kind and enter the giveaway I have going on
- I WOULD LOVE IT!!!!

only a few more days for the giveaway craze!

daddy

time.
We celebrated my father in-laws 60th birthday last month. As a part of the festivities family pictures were gathered and a movie was made from them. (It helps to have a film maker in the family!)
After we watched it the first time we watched it again and again hitting the pause button often. It was fun to listen to the family talk about each picture and the memories that surround them.
A few of the fun pictures we contributed.

little Eric Bailey.

baby Eric at his baptism.

glad we didn't meet during the facial hair phase.

EB and his grandpa Bailey.

Eric and his sissy!

join the walk...

Halloween

of yester years.

With Halloween approaching I thought I would walk down memory lane with two of my favorite childhood costumes.

1978. A fabulous butterfly with an amazing pose for a 5 year old.

1980. Pippy Longstocking. Skates, monkey and mismatched sock!!!

Renn is going to be Mickey Mouse. We have been practicing since he wasn't a fan of his costume last year.

He is thrilled, can you tell?
Who thinks he will make it longer than 3 minutes?

Avery will be Minnie. And a double score is that I was able to make her costume for FREE!

join the walk...

sewing

imperfectly.

My mom is a fabo seamstress. While I didn't

appreciate it at the time she always made me adorable ensembles.

Here are two of my favorites:

this dress has cute little scotti dogs on it.

these are both jr. high times. (1987ish)

p.s.those bangs took me HOURS!

I can sew. And I want to be able to show my kids the same care my mom showed me. But what I have come to realize is that there is a certain precision about sewing full outfits that you can't escape if you want it to actually fit. I may be a perfectionist but I am not a precision person. I more enjoy the "art" of tweaking things. Therefore embellishing and I get along great!

A few fun creations as of late.

for my little pumpkins

for my little acorns

my little man

What I enjoy the most is that I can call the off stitches part of "the look". But, the part that makes my heart happy is how excited Renn gets when I show him I made shirt just for him. Seriously, he thinks it is super special. I need to cherish it as I can guarantee it won't be happening when he is in 8th grade. Sewing imperfectly, so fun!

take a walk...

a very blonde

me.

For my birthday last week a college bestie decide to post on facebook a "good ole day" picture (this is the original from my scrapbook). And boy did it bring back memories.
Andrea and I had only known each other a few weeks here (Sept. 1992). We are on our way to our first formal fraternity party with boys we had only known for days but of course we thought they were the love of our life!I honestly don't remember many details from that night but I remember it being fun. Dinner out with a large group of new friends, feeling independent, dancing the night away and I am certain there was some drama.
There are so many memories packed into those four years of college. It is hard to believe that 18 years have passed since this picture. We are both married (not to the boys from the above event) with two kiddos that are of course cuties.
I am thankful for the past. The things it has taught me, the ways it has pushed me and the memories it provides. Back then I never imagined the life I have now but I can without a shadow of doubt say I am thankful. Very, very, thankful!

join the walk...

two

gets a bad rap.

Why do they call it the terrible twos? Aren't we just giving two year olds permission to be terrible if we say that?

I mean look how cute I was at two (1975)?

How could that face be terrible?

It continues to be crafting week at my house so not much time for blogging. I am helping a friend style her soon be TERRIFIC two year olds November birthday party. We are doing a teddy bear picnic.I just love the idea of a bunch of little people lunching and playing with their stuffed friends.

This week I managed to complete the door wreath.

You don't EVEN know how bad I wish my front door

was a different color in these pictures.

After about $6.00 (with coupons) we have a door wreath. The "E" was pink, it was white, it was pink with white dots and in the end it became white again. Made the ribbon pop the most, I think.

I might add a teddy bear element to it or just let it be. Thoughts?

THE GIVEAWAY IS COMING TO A CLOSE.

DON'T MISS THE CHANCE FOR FUN HAIR CANDY!

My grandpa

was called Opa.

he called me little-bit

he always bought me an ice cream cone

he built me a tree house

he smoked a pipe

he taught me to fish

he went to Germany
he brought me 40 pounds of fresh gummy bears

he was patient

he was kind

he was a good daddy to my mommy

he had a super uber cool secret spy job
he liked camping
he was a good grandpa

giveaway ends Friday. details here.

An Anniversary.

The Proposal
Four years ago this past week I was asked the best question ever!
WILL YOU MARRY ME?

Our Story

We were headed to San Diego for the weekend. I will admit I was hoping the proposal was coming. But, as he told me about our plans for the weekend I was thinking this was going to be a big fat "NOT". He said Saturday we were going to Sea World with his sister and her then boyfriend(now husband). Didn't exactly picture Sea World as the "right spot".

He said after Sea World we were going to go hang out at the cliffs and get sandwiches from his favorite spot. Ooo..ooo that provided a glimmer of hope but again sister & co. were joining us."Really?!?" is what I was thinking.Despite feeling at bit disappointed the sunset definitely was beautiful.