Planting a garden

Yes, this is a dog Dash. He is just one of the reasons we haven't had a garden the last couple years. He likes to dig things up. Another reason is we live in the middle of a forest and have ALOT of tree roots in the ground and the soil isn't so great.It is somewhat ironic that living on an acre we haven't be able to find a decent place to grow a garden. It's not because we haven't tried. Some years are more successful than others. But this year it all changes!
See those huge pots surrounding the twins? Those are the brainchild of my Landscape company owner husband. He plants ALOT of trees and has an excess of large pots so what a better to reuse them than to plant a garden in them?

In between rain stoms we went out to plant squash, cucumber, strawberry's, tomoatos, green beans, watermelon, zucchini and more. Hopefully the dog and the racoons will stay away from our "garden" and we'll have a banner year.

We had fun planting until the kids started complaining about their hands being dirty and cold. Then it started to rain hard so we all went inside and let Nate finish himself. Aw such wonderful family memories were making!

Kelsey turns 11!

For Kelsey's birthday she wanted a monkey cake. This is the best I could d without the help of my mom who in the past has helped my construct some amazing cakes! Kelsey was happy and thats the important thing.
We went bowling with a bunch of her friends. These two boys are both in the 4th grade..crazy huh. The big one is her cousin who happened to be up at my inlaws cabin so we brought him along.
The cutie in the braids beat everyone and they all had a great time! After one gamesome played again while other played air hockey. We had pizza and cake and Kelsey opened her gifts!

Kelsey's skirt takes me back to when I was in 6th grade it was the late 80's and Madonna was the coolest thing ever!

The rest of the family was at Noah's baseball game so when we all got home and all the kids were dropped off Kelsey opened the rest of her presents, which were all clothes!

She's such a special girl, I often wonder how I got so lucky. She smart and kind, so helpful and loving. I can't believe she's 11!

Special Delievery

Some people get bills in the mail, or clothes, even DVD's but I get quilt tops. Courtesy of my wonderful, beautiful, and talented, sister with help from my wonderful, beautiful, and talented grandma!Some time after the twins were born my mother dug out these pretty butterfly squares that my now 92 year old grandma had sewn. These are just a small sampling of the many amazing things she has hand stiched over the years.
I'm not sure who came up with the idea my mom or my sister but I'm just grateful someone did to make quilts for my girls using the squares! Luckily in the recent years my sister has become quite the accomplished quilter!

As you can see the result are these beautiful quilts that my daughters will keep on their beds at least until they get married. As you can also see my sister has a creative mind and a wonderful attention to detail that the pictures don't quite do justice.

I'm so grateful to her for all her hard work and the many hours she put in all her spare time between working and being a single mom! And I'm so thankful my girls will always have a piece of their great grandma to keep them warm.

As I mentioned its just the top so now my mom and I get to shop for the backs, and figure out the border or borders. Then comes some more hand sewing! I'm excited to get them done and get them on the girls beds I know they will love them as much as I do!