It takes more than surgery...

To keep me from crafting! My girlfriend, Tami, came to the house a week after surgery and brought a craft for me...that's a true friend! There is now outdoor ModPodge and that is what she brought (along with paper and shoes) to decorate these shoes for Ava!

I've done some decoupage projects before, but never on a pair of shoes! I love how these turned out!

I had to put a little mama/daughter piece on this one...

And a little statement on this one!!! Both Ava and I love how they turned out and I'm excited for her to wear them.

Next, came this project. If you are an avid blog reader (of my blog), you may recognize this bottom fabric as some of the stuff I ordered from Holland. I have been holding on to it for a long time...just waiting for the perfect project. And this is it! Melissa had the idea of adding the fabric in a wave instead of just along the bottom and I LOVE how it turned out. I went to the fabric store on Wednesday (the first day I could drive) and bought the red for the ruffle...and off I went!

Here's the back...

And a close up of all the fabrics...so, so happy!

And last, but not least, today at church Jaime was telling me about a project she saw where you turn a t-shirt into a skirt. You take a t-shirt, cut it off the length that you want and use the bottom of the t-shirt as the bottom hem of the skirt. Then you cut additional strips, ruffle them and add them to the skirt. Lastly, you just add an elastic waist and you're done!

When we got home from church, Ava didn't want to take her skirt off and was even willing to "not play" since I told her it wasn't a play skirt. Then, I thought...I guess it's time to make a t-shirt skirt. This is an old tie-dyed shirt and it only took about 45 minutes. Presto! A play skirt.

You can't get much more of play clothes than making something out of a 5 year old t-shirt! But, oh so cute!

So, I'm 2 1/2 weeks out of surgery and feeling very ready to project...I think Melissa and I are going to do some skinny leggings (don't worry - for Ava - not me) and some ruffle pants this week...I'm feeling better already!

The Sunset Rainbow

The other night it had rained and then the sun came out...so...rainbow. However, it was happening right during the sunset. It made for such a unique, beautiful sky! It only lasted for just a few minutes, but luckily Greg captured the moment!

More flowers!

We put down rolls of flower seeds with my parents this summer and nothing happened! Finally, some flowers came up and we have been really enjoying the "wild flower" look in the bed.

I know this might not be exciting for anyone else, but I am so excited that this plant is doing well. I love the blue flowers and am so happy that this made it through it's first winter and grew so much this summer!

And the rest of the lillies...I love them! They are blooming all along the front beds!

I love the rich, vibrant colors - they make me so happy! I didn't know how much I would enjoy the flowers, but I really do!

Tyler and Laura's Wedding

The first weekend in August we went to Tyler and Laura's wedding (Tyler is Greg's nephew). They got married near Bemidji, Mn and that is where we stayed for the weekend. There is a great, old fashioned resort there called Rutgers. They have a kids program during the day, have a restaurant on site and are literally right on the lake. It was the perfect place for everyone!

I chose this picture of Tyler and Laura because it was the one where you could see Laura's boots the best. She got the boots especially for the wedding - and they were so, so cute! I have never really wanted boots before, but now I do!!!

I had to post this picture because Ava was completely enthralled by the picture of the crusifiction. She had never seen such a "traditional" crusifiction picture and she had all kinds of questions and comments and later explanations about it! She talked about it for weeks!

Here is the cute couple! They are such a good fit for each other...Laura is a great addition to the family!

Tyler and Laura got married on Friday night. Here's a picture of the church...I just loved it. A little church out in the country...it was a great setting.

The reception wasn't until Saturday, which made for a really nice weekend. We arrived on Thursday night, had all day Friday to be at the resort, the wedding was Friday evening and then there was a dinner at Laura's parent's house. Then we had Saturday at the resort and the reception was Saturday night. We chose to stay later on Sunday (most people were gone by noon) and had a great time with Marisa and her boys.

This is Ava getting ready for the reception and dance. She chose this dress because it is good for twirling! A girl after my own heart!!

Greg took this picture of us on our way out of the resort.

Oh how I love this picture!! Alison, Cortney and Marisa...some of my nieces by marriage! I had a great time with these girls. We have that wierd age thing in Greg's family and so I am the "auntie" even though I am only about 5 years older than this trio!

We stayed up until 4 in the morning, laughed, told stories, laughed more, got into the lake and tried to climb (stress the word "tried") the inflatable iceberg and literally had to be hushed by the hotel staff. I haven't laughed that hard for that long in so, so long. Good times. Very good times.

I had to share this picture because of the brilliant idea of it. Laura had gone to the dollar store and gotten all kinds of kids stuff and made a kid's table for the reception. The kids were completely entertained and happy. So smart.

See? Doesn't he look happy and entertained??

Andrew and Mark buddied around all weekend. Mark is Ken's son - Ken is Greg's brother. They and about a year apart and get along great!

Let the dancing begin!! We wouldn't want that dress to go to waste!

How cute is this picture??!!

Tyler took dance lessons (Laura loves to dance and is very, very good) so that they could have a perfect first dance. They were very cute.

It was a really fun reception and dance - I have to admit that at one time I was dancing so wildly with Jodi that we literally cleared the dance floor - that's even a little crazy for us!! It was so much fun and a wonderful wedding weekend!

Palisade Head

We were driving on the North Shore and Greg wanted to stop at Palisade Head. He had been up there before and loved the view...as you can see, it's pretty amazing! The sun was shining right on Ava when Greg took this picture. I wasn't sure if it would turn out, but I ended up LOVING it. Greg and I have looked at it over and over...we just love how the sun caught her...our beautiful, little Ava.

Finally getting back to Thunder Bay

We went to Thunder Bay, Canada in late July for their ward conference and I just havn't gotten around to posting pictures. Greg has a few great ones on his phone and so I may even post some more later this weekend.

We spent most of the Saturday we were in Thunder Bay at Fort William. It is a huge Fort where they did fur trapping in the early 1800's. It was a really fun place and I was super impressed with how well everyone stays in character - no matter what you say! My favorite example of this was when we were in the apothocary shop and they assistant to the doctor was telling us abou the herbs and medicines and I said, "I wonder if any of these really work" and he said, "Oh, the doctor assures me that they work very well". So fun.

Here are the boys in the Fort's jail...

And our little jail bird Ava!

I loved this picture of Ava and Zach sitting in the window of this old house...

We really loved the farm area of the fort. Andrew was a little nervous around the loose chickens, but he eventually got warmed up and let this little chicken get really close.

We watched these piglets forever! They were all with their mama eating and then one by one they came and started to lay down. It was so cute to watch all of the others fill up and then snuggle in with their siblings. The last few piglets just jumped right on top of the others and kind of wiggled their way into the group. You can see here that there are the last 2 piglets trying to work their way in too, but they are really just on top...they were so cute!

We all tried ax throwing (except Ava) - and it was so much fun. I landed my first ax right into the log...oh yeah, I am total ax throwing natural! Here is Zach in full motion!

Andrew and Zach both shot the musket too...they loved it!

And this was a really interesting part of the visit. We watched them shear this sheep with the old fashioned shears. I guess they sit the sheep down like this so that it's back legs fall asleep and then they stay still while you shear them...isn't there some application of this that would apply to my children?

We had a wonderful time in Thunder Bay and are excited to go back next year!

How much is that doggy in the window??

Let's make that "froggy on the window"!!!

Real live ones!!

Last night I was on the phone with my friend, Kelly, and Ava came into the room to announce to me that there was a rainbow outside. She was really excited and I kind of gave her the, "oh that's great" type of comment and she quickly responded that I come because this was a "real live one". How could I resist after that? I got up and saw the real live rainbow...and it really was beautiful!

For the love of raspberries!

It's probably hard to tell in this picture, but Andrew and I are soaked to the bone here! When I realized I was going to have surgery, I had a million little things pop into my head that would be effected...one of those things was raspberries. I love making homemade raspberry jam and I have for years. On Monday morning I came to the sad conclusion that if I didn't pick raspberries on Monday or Tuesday, they wouldn't be around when I could go back in a few weeks.

So...I called our friend Glen and asked if we could pick. He generously said, "yes" and that night I went with the kids. It had just started to rain when we got there and so Zach and Ava went back to the car almost immediately. I really wanted to keep picking...and I figured I was already wet...and so I did! Andrew hung in tight with me and picked until the lightning started. That's when we decided it was time to call it quits for the night (to be completely honest, Glen came outside and said, "isn't that lightning?" That's when I really decided...after a prompting from a more responsible, less raspberry crazed adult). The berries in this picture were picked in the POURING rain. We went back in the morning and picked enough to almost filled these two bowls!

We made Andrew's favorite cupcakes with homemade raspberry cream cheese frosting (his one request for helping) and I got enough raspberries cleaned, smashed and frozen that I will be able to do 3 batches of jam when I am ready. Ahhhh...the love of raspberries!

Where the wild thing is!

Zach found this old Halloween costume and decided he needed to put it on...this is where the Wild Thing is!!

He is wild...

56 Hours and holding...

I went in on Wednesday for a hysterectomy and had so many concerns and questions about the recovery. You hear every terrible story (just like before you have a baby), but I am happy to say that things are going as well as I could have ever hoped for. I am feeling well (for what was done) and am happy to be home.

Everyone was great at the hospital and I just love my doctor...here's hoping that this will solve the problems I have been having and here's hoping that the recovery will go as well as it has this first 56 hours.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped take care of me and my family...I feel very loved and cared for.

And Bears Oh My!!!

SERIOUSLY??? Where do I live?? This is my neighbor's back porch. Um, hello? We are in the suburbs...are you lost? Back to the woods!!!

Here is the "little guy" under their deck...just settling in for a little nippity nap. Yowzers!! It has caused quite a little stir in the neighborhood. I guess there are actually 30 bears that come into this area of homes around Duluth...someone is tracking them. Uh...call me way to suburb-ish, but I don't want them tracked, I want them back in the woods. Greg laughs...he grew up on 80 acres and saw bears all the time. Me - only at the zoo. So, I have not seen the bear yet, but if I do, you'll probably hear me screaming from where ever you are! Wait, will that get me eaten??