safety first

Always my cautious little girl - ever since she got this package of knee pads, elbow pads, and fingerless gloves she doesn't get on any of her moving playthings without them.



Hopefully this will continue well into her adult years!

when i grow up

Here we are in 2010, I'm now almost 40 and I still don't know what I want to be "when I grow up." And it seems that at the beginning of every year, I struggle with the thought that I'll never find my passion. The beginning of this year was no different, until my husband had enough of hearing the same speech. He said something to me that made me realize that I've known about my passion all along, but just haven't had the ability or confidence to do anything about it.

Crafting. Creating. Planning.

Over the years, I've done some crafting here and there, I've also been very diligent about researching and planning out the little details of things that interest me - like party planning. Since Dylann was born in 2005, and since I've been a stay-at-home mom, I think that I've been able to do a bit more of that and I really enjoy it.

Here are a few of the creations I've put together in the past few years:

Pettiskirt

Flower Hair Clips

Tutus

Fruit Flower Bouquets

Barnyard Party

Little Bo Peep and her Sheep

Now, if I could just figure out a way to market myself and start making some money!

little lovie

so, i think everyone knows that dylann carries a security blanket around, right? if not, she does and has been since she was about 6 months old. she named it "pink" and it goes everywhere with us. EVERYWHERE!

since logan is now 6 months old, i thought i would go out a purchase one for him, but i just couldn't find one that i liked. so i made one.

went to fabric towne usa last night and found this cute flannel print

pinned it together with a soft yellow flannel and some wide satin ribbon

and ta-dah!

a small, security blanket for logan - we'll see if he gets just as attached as dylann did to hers. wonder what he'll name it?

princess for a day

dylann was invited to maxine's 4th birthday party this past weekend.

what an event! it was held at olivia's tea house in ventura. if you haven't seen the place, it's a bright pink little house on main street, near downtown.

as all of the little princesses arrived, each got to pick out their gown of choice - there must have been 100 different outfits and shoes to choose from!

after picking out their gowns, accessories, and shoes each little girl was pampered with an updo, nail polish, and lip gloss.

here is dylann checking her "look" in the mirror - i think she is a bit stunned.

after all the little ladies were coifed to perfection, lunch was served. each setting included a tiny little teacup and teapot filled, of course, with pink lemonade.

here is the guest of honor, queen maxine, picking from her own tower of tea sandwiches, mini pizzas, and hotdogs.

here are all the girls at the giant heart shaped table surrounded by dolls and all sorts of girly, over-the-top art.
and for dessert - cotton candy, tiny cakes, chocolates and gummy bears. what else would a princess want?

fair fun

the ventura county fair is in town - and wednesday was $1 day (meaning admission was only $1 as opposed to the normal $10 fee).

i was a little hesitant about taking this day on without the help of ray as i would be carrying logan while making sure dylann didn't get lost in the mass crowd of people.

i explained to dylann that she would need to be my big helper if she wanted to go to the fair and she obliged. we packed her little, pink, hello kitty backpack with water, my camera, and a bottle for logan and we were on our way.

this year she was able to get on a lot of the rides by herself because she had reached the height requirements; that, and she is a self proclaimed "big girl" now.

here she is all proud of herself controlling the helicopter ride all by herself

and riding the racecar
and on the jumpin' star
she then asked if we could go on the ferris wheel together. i really didn't want to go on it because of my fear of heights, but i just couldn't say no to her. she kept pointing things out in the distance and rocking our seat and asking me, "this is so fun, right mommy?" to which i would answer, "yes, it's fantastic" with my quivering voice.

what a great day we had together! i think we may go again next wednesday!

can we play now?

although we purchased our home nearly 1 year ago now, we rarely spent any time in our back yard. probably because it used to look like this:

for the past month now, we've been working on removing the old, cracked concrete and the dead, fox tail-ridden yard.

first thing we did was rent a kaboda. ray used this thing for an entire weekend, ripping out the concrete and then removing the dead grass, rototilling and then leveling the yard.

the following couple of weeks were spent leveling and grading the yard some more and then installing irrigation.

then, because we are infested with gophers and moles, we decided to roll out some rodent wire before laying our sod. there will NOT be any dirt hills in our yard - may god help those poor suckers if they manage their way through.

lastly, instant grass! oh how i love sod!

now we just have to wait 10 days until dylann can invite her friends over to run and play in our new back yard - but she asks every day, "can we play now?"

deja vu

although logan is only 4 months old, he loves to stand upright (with help, of course). so yesterday i thought i would prop him up in his crib and take a picture:



after looking at this photo, it occurred to me that i had taken the same shot of dylann when she was a baby. after looking through my digital files i found it. and get this, it was taken at exactly the same age - 4 months, 10 days old



i just love how they both have the same crazy hair veering off to the right.