My latest project has been practicing making the pansies that go on the toes of my aunt Lore's bebe shooz(click bebe shooz for link, so cute). She is so talented and I am fortunate enough to be her little flower maker. Are they good enough Lore?

Better late than never. Right?

Not the cutest family picture ever but it just so happens to be our only family picture.

I am not really 12 months pregnant by the way.

Olivia liked the candy at this house so much that she sat on the front step and helped herself. Convenient that it was Grandma and Grandpa Hoy's house.

Does your child ever make a face and you wonder what in the world is going on in that little head? This was one of those moments for me.


Eliza loved her 1st Halloween. Riding aroud in a decked out storller looking like a big fluffy pumpkin with her favorite drink in hand. You'd like it too.

Ryan, Livi, and Li-li (pronounced lie-lie) at the Armstrong Halloween party.

Fall is my favorite... and Winter, but we'll save that for another day.

I love fall for lots of different reasons, the colors, the clothes,the parties, the pumpkins and the apple desserts. We had a really good shephards pie last night and to top it off we had sauted apples with a brown sugar glaze served a la mode toped with whiped cream. Not at all healthy but oh so good!

I also love Fall because of all of the fun things that happen, My moms bithday seems to kick things off every year in the middle of October. Here Shenda and Rainn are dancing on my lawn at my moms birthday party. Yes it really is that much fun!

My mother, and some of her nine children and most of her 16 grandchildren celebrated her 48th bithday. . . for the sixth time.

( I lost track of how many time she turned 47).

Little Jonny was very helpful when it came time to blow out the candles.

I worked on Olivia's Halloween costume this week. I bought it in late September and it was just a tish snug and when we went to try it on her two weeks later... dang thing busted at the seams!
So I got the best fabric I could find to add three inches to the body and ended up doing a verry shotty repair job. Good thing for me you can't tell just how bad from this picture.
So I made a few fabulous silk ribbon flowers and placed them over my horrible sewing job.
I think it turned out super cute and am just a little pleased with my self.
I love the head band.


We went to Ben and Erins new place for family home evening this past monday. She made a super delicious brocoli and cheese soup served in sourdough bread bowls and then we painted pumpkins that Shane grew in our garden. We figured carving was a bad idea for two year olds.

Olivia and Ryan kept saying "Oh so bewtifullllll!"
They had a lot of fun. However I'm not sure how Olivia didn't end up with paint on her face too.

I can't wait for the weekend! Church party and trunk or treat on friday. Ryan, Jenn and Baden Armstrongs Annual Halloween Dinner Party and trick or treating on saturday!
Like I said. . . Fall is my favorite!

I know, I know... too many pictures...but too cute, right!?!?

I love pumpkin time! We took our girlies to Bates Nut Farm this past week and took 1,000 pictures. Olivia had a cold and was less agreeable than Eliza, but we still got some good pictures in anyway.

I love my babies. If you look at the end you will see a picture of me kissing Olivia

in a very similar top when Eliza was in my tummy.






Yes, Eliza is eating dirt. And straw.

We were trying to get Livi to be cute and she wanted to be silly.

This was the compromise.

Here we see Olivia being a good sport

while Eliza picks on her...

Here we see Oliva getting a little irritated

when Eliza gets a bit more aggressive...

And very shortly after that Olivia reached her limit...

Pretty sure Eliza wanted the pumpkins to herself.

Seriously...

I'm pretty sure that was her plan.

This girl's got a thing for dirt and straw.

Olivia would Rather be with her dad anyway.

Or in a wheel barrow.

It is so fun for me to see my little girls grow up.

Here are the past threee years with Olivia at Bates.

3 months old

15 months old

2 years old

Cold and Cozy

Little Eliza all nice and cozy.

She is a perfect mixture of my nephew Jacob and my neice Tuesday.

I got myself and my girls all bundled up and went with Shane up to Lake Quyamaca on Monday morning. He took the day off, it was our anniversary day observed since we couldn't do anything the preveious Wednesday. It was 45 degrees and so super windy up there and for the first hour or so you could only see 15 feet infront of you it was so foggy on the lake.

Olivia was so excited to go fishing with daddy and had been for a few days.

Once she figured out what fishing was she was less excited.

But she loves her daddy and had fun anyway.

She gatherd a ton of pine cones to feed the squirls but they didn't come to eat them.

It doesn't look cold.

It was.

She was afraid of the bear.

The wooden bear.

I was too when I first saw it. I thought it was real!

It scared the heck out of me!

Three Years of Marital Bliss (mostly)

Happy Anniversary to us!!!

Maybe its a little silly but I figured I would show you all some of my fabulous wedding memories. The quality isn't so great because these are actually pictures of pictures because I can't figure out how to get a photo from my scanner to my computer to my blog and make it look half way decent. Actually I can't figure out how to get it from the computer to the blog.
I loved my cake (it looked better than this).

Me (obviously).

I loved that I didnt have to help with my own flowers but I did do Shanes boutonniere.