feeling creative

I love it when I get creative. The holidays seem to do that to me.

Andrew and I agree that we both want to do more homemade Christmas gifts this year.

We say that every year but we're actually doing it this year.

I have already started on some projects.

Here are some homemade things from this weekend.

The baking was Saturday and the paper signs were today.

How have you been spending your Halloween?

Tonight I'm taking the kids trick-or-treating for the first time.

They've done trunk-or-treating, but that's different.

Do you have any cool ideas of crafts for the holidays?

Please share!

sister photo shoot

A few weeks ago some of my sisters and sister-in-laws did a fashion photo shoot just for fun.

Emily and Louise were the only absent. Kristy, Nora, Sara, Ruth, Julie, and I all had a lot of fun!

It was all Kristy's idea and she got the inspiration from this vogue cover shoot.

Our pictures aren't as dramatic or extreme but I think they turned out well.

What do you think? I'm glad I had a little belly to show off in a couple of the pictures.

I have such a beautiful family!

photos by Jana Miller

week review

Looking back I've had a nice week.

I worked out 6 times and feel better for it.

I got some fall decorations up and let the kids pick all the pumpkins.

I got these beautiful flowers for my front door.

I made this yummy pizza and put all the veggies and mushrooms I wanted on my half.

Andrew and I got to see baby #3! Do you see those cute little feet?

(p.s. We're not finding out the gender until baby's birthday. We already have at least one boy name we like but are stumped for girl's names. We're a little picky but do you have any suggestions for interesting names?)

Today I didn't even have to cook because Andrew little up a fire and cooked hot dogs for the kids while I had left over homemade chili from last night.

I even got to do some clothes shopping for the kids and me today.

So fun, but would have been better without the kids there!

I was a little impatient :)

So how was your week?

Camp Geronimo

We went camping at Camp Geronimo with my brother's stake and had a blast.

All these pictures are kind of random but they show a lot of what we did.

In the picture above Elliot is collecting wood for camp fires. Every where we hiked he picked up sticks. Andrew is wearing a silly hat from one of the classes we went to about having fun with kids.

Andrew slept both nights in his hammock while the kids and I share the tent and air mattress. We all slept well.

Avery turned every stick into lip gloss so I finally gave her one to keep.

You can't have a camp fire without smores!

I'm not sure if Avery ate her smore or her smore ate her!

Archery was another class we went to. Here's Andrew and me shooting arrows with Chris.

I'm pretty impressed that my first shot was a bulls eye!

Julie, James, and Josie came and fun with us too!

Josie such a cutie!

This was our last night out by the camp fire and we are so dirty!

I'm glad we got to go camping but I am so grateful to be home to my own bed and shower!

dirt between my toes

Today we got back from camping as a family for the first time.

It's amazing how dirty you can get in just a couple days.

We made lots of good memories

and we're definitely camping again . . . sometime.

Now I just need a couple days to recover.

(Lots of laundry and sore muscles.)

I'll post some more photos later.

shirt remake

The other day I saw Elizabeth from here wear this cute yellow dress as a top.

It reminded me of a simple project I never got around to a while ago.

These pictures don't do justice but I simply pinned a lace collar to a shirt and hand stitched it on.

I wore it today and loved it.

Tonight after orchestra a girl told me she loved my shirt and wanted to know where I got it.

She was disappointed to find she couldn't buy one in her size, bless her.

It made me realize I need to stop sewing dresses for Avery - she has too many - and I need to do some more sewing projects for me. Heaven knows my closet needs some help!

inspiration board: pillow case dress

I got this cute floral pillow case at goodwill for fifty cents with a dress in mind for Avery.

My goal was to keep the dress simple but make it so that it didn't look like it used to be a pillow.

Mission accomplished!

It's amazing how much fabric one little pillow case has.

Thank goodness because I made lots of mistakes!

I just had to share these pictures of Avery with grandpa.

They are like two peas in a pod.

a fashion show

I'm not sure what's going on in this picture but I love it!

My kids have so much energy and personality.

At Avery's 2 year check up earlier this year she was 3 percentile weight.

She turned 2 in April and I'm finally able to put away most of her 18 month clothes and get out her 24 month clothes. Yea! Tonight I dug through her closet to see what fits.

She enjoyed this much more than I anticipated.

As you see, what started out as simply shifting and organizing clothes turned into a Miss Avery fashion show. We might have to make this a regular thing.

Elliot, on the other hand, enjoyed helping daddy photograph our model with the new iPad.

This picture of Elliot reminds me of a conversation Andrew told me about yesterday.

Andrew: Avery, are you a girl or a boy?

Avery: Umm . . . a girl.

Andrew: So what's Elliot?

Avery: BATMAN!

He's my little super hero.

I'm glad a little organizing turned into such a fun family project.

Check out Avery's bed! Andrew and I just put it together Monday night and Avery loves it. She looks so little in her big girl bed. Yea for no more cribs!