family ties

i went out to the local state park with my sister's family to get some fall family pics for them. the sunshine and leaves were amazing this weekend. my sister is one of the most amazing people i know. she graciously and humorously handles every curve ball that life seems to throw. she inspires me to be a better person.

this is her family.

this is my nephew aaron (check out the link to his blog). he is a precious soul burdened and blessed by autism. while taking their pics he was doing his own thing part of the time. i kept the shutter going and caught this peek into how it must feel for someone locked into the world of autism. i am so lucky to love someone in that world.

this is my beautiful sister who will very likely be asking me to delete this.

fabulous fall

today we took a drive along the scenic cascade loop highway. we didn't make it all the way around the loop, but we're hoping to before the leaves are all off the trees. it was the most perfect day. we stopped at a bunch of pull outs, parks and vistas along the way. we made one last stop for dinner at this little place called the eatery along the way. there was this cute little tiny chapel right across from the restaurant. it's an actual little church. i couldn't help but shake the feeling as the girls walked up of the witch in hansel and gretel and her gingerbread house.

but it was such a sweet little chapel inside. the food was great, the little cabins were cute and the history was cool. it was originally opened by a lady named matilda in 1888. we've got plans to head up there again on stan's next free day. hopefully we'll get another amazing day like we did today. we'd actually like to get some serious hiking in. there's some amazing trails in the area! maybe we can even get one more camping weekend in before the weather really gets cold.

pumpkin patching

it was a funny season this year. cooler than normal, almost all of the summer crops were out a little later than normal. i enjoyed my very favorite summer fruit (rainier cherries) all the way into august this year. (they're usually only around for a couple of weeks in june.) not that any of this has much to do with anything... but the pumpkins are a little late too. most were still on the vines. which meant the girls got to walk the patch with these little saws and cut their chosen pumpkins off the vine. they were feeling quite grown up with toting their mini saws through the field.

i've been a bad blogger lately. we've had lots of company, and an intermitten internet connection. so i've been feeling a little behind on it all. i promise to try to get back on track in the next few weeks. :D

torrey working out at the pumpkin patch

how is it that my kids can always find the dirtiest pumpkin in the patch? i love it!

i wanted to share a fun link for a cool site that jessica sprague shared called hostess with the mostess. with the holidays on their way it's a fun site with recipe, hosting and party ideas. i've already made several of the little project ideas from the site... i hope you enjoy it, too.

now that i've finished one of the most random posts ever... i should get to cleaning my house! :)

the new house blik & picture day

the new house blik
and picture day

the walls & end tables in the living room are all painted, and we put up our new blik this week. we mapped it all out and put it up. i'm not sure what it is about stan and i that makes us figure we need to start these projects at 11pm... but it goes up fast and looks so cool when it's all done.

my handsome handyman helping blik it up

the finished project. well, the living room isn't entirely finished, but the wall is put together anyway. now for drapes... anyone have any suggestions of cool drape selling places?


the girls on picture day... or after it. i wanted to get a shot of them after school, but before the daddy/daughter wrestling match started.

right after the cute little poses... they turned into kung fu ninja fighters... hiding behind very small trees and making goofy faces.

kung fu torrey showing me her fierce warrior face. i'm thinking it's more like shots for the boyfriends later on...

see glitz on hsn

see some glitz layouts & products on hsn

so i'm going to be on tv for the first time. well, not me exactly... well, not me at all actually! but laura from glitz designs will be featuring some of their awesome products on hsn (home shopping network)... and i got to make a few of the projects they'll be featuring. how fun is that?

so if you're up late, and find you're dieing to see some super cool scrappin' deals... check out laura and her cool glitzy stuff. Oct 8th at 11pm PST and Oct 9th at 12am & 4am PST. if you're tv-less like me you can tune in HERE to watch it online. these are a few of the projects that'll be on the show. :)