Pigs And Dogs
4 days ago
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
09 August 2011
Okay, in an attempt to eek in the rest of my final favorite vacation photos all into one post, I'm afraid things may be a bit disjointed and long. Hm.
I'll see what I can do to make it interesting for you.
To begin, a Faires Family photo shoot. Far from perfect, but very honest. Four out of six have shirts on, and five out of six are wearing pants. We definitely call that a success! There may even be three sets of eyes on the camera!
A fleet of jellyfish arrived overnight to make our final beach day a bit less comfortable than all the days before it. Most of them were very small and their stings were hardly noticeable, but during our evening swim Ryan spotted a pretty good-sized one and caught it for us to examine more closely. (I'll be honest, I didn't go back in the water after seeing this guy. And neither did my child, thankyouverymuch!)
If you've never touched a jellyfish, it's really nothing like you would expect. Much firmer and less squishy than you might think - sort of like a gel bike seat cover, with the texture of a dolphin's skin. Very solid. Pretty cool and a little scary.
Proof that Mom was on the trip (I realized the final night we were there that I hadn't gotten any photos of her so I snapped a quick on of her and Bea in the sand. She is such a fabulous Grandma to our babies!):
Hazel was padding around in the sand with Oliver one afternoon and I just thought her little footprints were the cutest things. Had to capture that sweet baby moment.
The four oldest kids were having some down time after lunch on Thursday after Ginny read them a book and did a craft with them. They wanted another story, so she gave a book to her oldest (Micah) and everyone circled around while he read aloud to them. They were so sweet all huddled together.
One day we found ourselves listening to good, old school beach music in the main room of the house and none of us could resist jumping up for an impromptu dance party with the kids. (You can see in the picture on the right that Oliver had just accidentally wriggled his way right out of his pants.)
And of course, Audrey and Lizzie took such good care of all nine children all week. They served as extra sets of eyes at the beach, extra arms when the littlest two needed rocking, and were so sweet when the kids woke up with the sun and Moms and Dads weren't quite ready to begin the day yet. They even tackled bedtime for all nine kids alone one night so we could go out as a group of just adults for dinner. They are brave souls.
It doesn't hurt that our children adore them, either.
We try our best to reward them however they will allow us. We know for sure that they speak the language of dark chocolate and Jones Soda. :)
Also, I have a very fun and very special secret about our Audrey. And I get to tell you very soon!
(next week, I think!)
Okay, all out of my system. Even if it was a bit disjointed. Beach photos over and now back to normal life.
(Which, in my little corner of bloggy land, means a fun post tomorrow about our play room!)
Happy Tuesday, friends! Blessings!
30 May 2011
29 May 2011
If the camera adds 10 pounds, then the graduation robe adds 50!
Ah well.
No, I did not receive any new degrees yesterday. But I did get to don my Alma Mater's colors at the graduation ceremony for the classical high school where I teach my homemaking class. And I had the privilege of being on stage for a front row view as one very special nanny extraordinaire (and friend, might I add!) crossed the stage and received her diploma.
We had a lovely day celebrating the accomplishments of some well-loved, hard-working young people. And more, we celebrated the evidence of the grace of God upon their young lives.
Congratulations to the class of 2011!
(and to Hazel, for looking like a kid in these pictures!)
21 May 2011
18 May 2011
We had a happy house-full this weekend! My friend Keight Dukes (from Putapuredukes) packed up all her sewing tools and fabrics and family members and blessed us with their company for four whole days!
We spent a weekend together in March (she only brought Layla that time) and called it Hardcore Sewing Delight Weekend (shortly thereafter dubbed HSD 1.0) and knocked out all sorts of lovely projects despite my near-deathbed health status.
This time, no one was sick. Praise Jesus! Plus, we added a day. But somehow, I think we may have accomplished less actual clothing construction this time around. There was just too much fun to be had with the kids and husbands, it was hard to pull ourselves away.
We began the weekend diligently and tackled one of the hardest patterns either of us has done to date: the oliver + s Bubble Dress.
By the end of day 1 we only had completed bodices to show for our efforts. For shame. (we did learn some cool new techniques with the bodices though!)
On day two we hit a few garage sales in the morning (I bought a chair to reupholster!) and completed the dresses (can't wait to show you what I learned here!), then called it a day and enjoyed each other's company. The pattern was tough, but really worth pushing through because we learned a lot and turned out some of the best quality dresses we've ever made. (The girls totally wore them to church the next day. They were famous in the nursery.)
We also swapped fabric and knocked out coordinating ruffle bottom bloomers to go with the dresses (or without the dresses).
Then we just played and ate and ate and played. There was lots of bacon involved. And bleu cheese. And berries!
But enough about food. Can we talk about the beauty of her children? Melt me. Judah's brown eyes and ample cheeks - I just wanted to snuggle him all weekend, but he didn't have the same desire. Ah well, I took photos instead to document his cute.
Also, I'm pretty sure Layla made her first forward crawling motions on the first day she was here. I like to think it was the new carpet. I'm probably wrong.
Oliver was in love with Layla and Judah made Hazel cry a few times.
But mostly, Oliver just tried to hijack the Dukes' iPad all weekend (they had new games!). On Sunday afternoon I actually found him playing with ours and theirs simultaneously. We may have a problem on our hands. (Seriously though, I'd love to hear: Are your kids as technology obsessed as my guy? If so, how do you handle it??)
On Sunday while the Dukes family took a Sabbath nap, I holed away in the sewing room and knocked out an Everyday Dress by ManiMinia on Etsy (I made mine tunic-length).
Seriously, whatever time we spent making the O+S dresses, I made up for with the Everyday Dress. 45 minutes and done! I made another one the next day. In fact, I may make another one each day this week. So fast, so easy, so perfectly cute.
(Oh, and see the jeans I made to go with them? I used the garage sale jeans I bought a few weeks ago and the Good Looking Pants tutorial from Sewing in No Mans Land and love how they turned out!)
Apart from all the sewing and playing and eating, some of the best stuff happened after the kids went to bed and the sewing machines were tucked under their respective dust covers for the evening. There was a fair share of laughter, yes. But there were also very encouraging conversations in which we were all pointed to Christ; where we were able to testify to the truth of the Gospel and hope together in the promises we have been given. So cool to be able to sit down with brothers and sisters in Christ (one that we'd never met before) and share such common ground.
God has been good to give us the Dukes. A friendship out of blogland that has very much done us right.
Thanks for a fantastic weekend, y'all!
ps - tomorrow is giveaway day!!!
14 May 2011
(photo credit: Jesse Dukes)
Don't judge us. We think we're pretty funny. Keight's "finding her feet" and I'm "putting up my dukes". We had just consumed large bowls of fro-yo and were feeling fine!
Lots of sewing going on this weekend. Okay, a decent amount of sewing and a whole lot of happy. Ryan and Jesse are getting along swimmingly and the kids are making just the right amount of mess in the play room.
Contented sigh.
19 April 2011
Would you believe that that squishy, teeny baby girl is now six months old!?
She and her family came to dinner tonight and I couldn't help but run inside and grab my camera while she snuggled her Mama and rolled around on the sofa outside.
I mentioned yesterday that I photographed some friends this weekend as a Christmas gift for their Mom. (Yes, it's April, but it was the only time we could get the stars to align.)
As I was photographing Lizzie (known to our family as co-nanny-extraordinaire) for her individual shots she was doing a great job but I noticed that she was tilting her entire face up toward the camera.
Now as you can see, Lizzie could look amazing in a paper bag, so this wasn't really a huge problem, but I suggested that she drop her chin just a little and just like that her photos went from good to amazing with just the tilt of a chin.
Beautiful girl.
So, that's my handy and humble little photo tip of the week. Drop your chin (not too low!), lock eyes with the camera, and make your Mama happy!
04 April 2011
At about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon an enormous RV rolled it's way into our quiet neighborhood, complete with an ice-house-turned-dog-house hitched behind it.
Ryan and I were rocking in chairs on the front porch, Hazel was napping upstairs and Oliver was playing Balaam's Donkey in the front yard with a stick ("Balaam, why are you beating me?" Goofy kid.)
When the enormous beast of a vehicle came to a stop it slowly began to release it's inhabitants, one by one. First Papa bear and baby bear. Then a few brother bears, a sister bear, and finally, a Mama Bear with puppy in tow. All looking incredibly sunned and tired and (and I don't think she'll mind me saying this!) all in need of baths! :)
We had the very fun pleasure this weekend of hosting my friend Jennifer (MckMama as she's known in the blogging world) and her family as they are touring around the Midwest and South for the months of March and April in a very fun, very large RV. We offered them hot baths, laundry, supper and lots of room to play and run with Oliver in the backyard. What a lovely time!
And, since I have dinner to make and faces to wipe, I'll wrap this up with a few photos from our afternoon together:
Have a lovely Monday, friends! And if you're in Middle Tennessee, stay dry and away from the windows - the wind, she's a blowin'! :)
{Also, in case you may ask, I didn't make Hazel's dress. I got it here.}
22 March 2011
A little over a month ago I contacted my bloggy friend Keight (of Putapuredukes) about a real-life meet-up in the form of a weekend of sewing fun at my house. Until this point, we had only been readers of each others' blogs and had exchanged emails for several months about sewing projects and such. We clicked so well by correspondence that we decided to throw our friendship into the deep end to see if it could really swim for what was later named HSD (hardcore sewing delight) Weekend.
I had been planning for Keight's arrival for weeks. Making sure my sewing room was well-stocked with fabric and notions and anything we might need. I had delicious meals planned, I converted Ryan's office into a guest room complete with an elevated air mattress, fresh hydrangeas and a bedside carafe.
And then, it happened. Two nights before Keight was due to arrive I started getting hot and cold and achey. And I don't think it was because I was nervous (though I was!). I totally had a fever. The next day I ran around town finishing up errands and stocking up on every type of cold/cough/fever medicine I could find. I emailed her to tell her that I was getting sick and thought I would be better soon, but to come at her own risk.
And thus marked the beginnings of all the "hardcore" that would be HSD Weekend.
She arrived early Friday afternoon and it was crazy to actually see her in person! She promptly informed me that I was a lot shorter in person than she imagined and I knew we were going to get along great.
I showed her around (which was really weird to do because she'd already my house in photos on my blog) and then we settled in to my sewing room to make a game plan. We'd been listing for weeks all the projects we wanted to tackle while she was here and so we figured out where to begin and got to it.
Then the fever came back. My skin started to ache and I got SO tired. I was not about to let this dumb fever get the better of my long-awaited weekend of sewing fun. More ibuprofen, a bowl of corn chowder and back to it. I wanted to make a good impression, I did NOT want Keight to feel bad about me being sick and I did NOT want her to go home.
We had a good first night, but only produced one pair of ruffle bloomers each. I'm pretty sure I bailed by 10:30 and told her she was welcome to stay up and sew as long as she liked.
The next day my voice was completely gone and I was speaking only in whispers (which gave a mysterious air to everything I said!), but I was feeling better and we transformed the most amazing pair of WalMart sweatpants into two sweatshirts for our little boys using a favorite Heidi & Finn pattern.
We took a break to enjoy a killer Caesar Sandwich made by Ryan (recipe coming later this week!) and made a run to WalMart and to Chick-fil-a for some lemonade for my throat.
We also knocked out some pinafores for our gals and while Keight was on a tear, blasting through project after project, I was feeling a severe need to put on the brakes. I hated to do it, but I excused myself for "just a minute" and ended up falling asleep on my bed for over an hour!
I woke up feeling slightly guilty but MUCH better and returned to our projects with more vigor than I'd had all weekend. (Keight said later that she had wondered up until that point if she had overestimated our compatibility personality-wise, but as soon as I started feeling like myself for the first time all weekend she knew she had been right on.)
We laughed and worked and hung out Saturday night until well, WELL past midnight. She now lovingly refers to my Saturday rest as my "crack nap" because I was suddenly feeling so much better I was doing everything at lightning speed - catching up to her on the things she had been doing while I was asleep.
Apart from the fact that my voice was ENTIRELY gone, I was definitely on the mend. Except that the next morning I woke up and my eyes were killing me. They were puffy and watering and Ryan and Keight kept telling me it was allergies but I knew something bad was happening. Something really, really bad. We stayed home from church since the kids and I were still not yet 24 hours fever-free, and by lunch time my eyes were so ouchy that I knew I must have gotten viral conjunctivitis from my upper-respiratory yuck. Pink Eye. Awesome. Keight's really going to like me now!
Keight made a few felt headbands for Layla (her 4-month-old daughter), but we mostly laid low on Sunday, playing with the kids and enjoying our last few hours of Keight's visit. She had brought gifts for Oliver and Hazel including a Where's Waldo Ulitmate Travel Book and a pack of temporary tattoo mustaches, and an orange elephant bank to add to their eclectic collection. I think the mustaches were intended to be applied to your index finger for on-and-off disguising, but we were feeling brave so we decided to apply them straight on the upper lips of our unsuspecting offspring.
The Where's Waldo book was the hit of the day.
I'm pretty sure Keight was homeschooling my children in Where's Waldo. She feels strongly about finding that elusive little man.
Even Layla got in on the finding action. (FTR: Layla was definitely being closely monitored in her Bumbo seat on the table - no worries!) :)
Isn't she a cutie? I couldn't resist snapping a few photos of her with her Mama in their makeshift guest room.
It was almost time for Keight and Layla to head back home when we realized we still hadn't managed a photo of the two of us together. But seriously y'all, I was in NO shape to be photographed. So, at the risk of looking like a total diva, and with the gracious permission of Keight, I agreed to a photo if I could wear enormous sunglasses to hide the hideousness that was my poor ocular area.
So, here it is. Our one photographic proof that we really did hang out together for the weekend:
As Ryan, Keight and I were chatting and laughing and testifying to God's goodness in our lives after dinner Saturday evening Ryan said, "You know girls, meeting each other definitely didn't happen by chance." He's right. God brings us friends in unexpected places all the time. Most commonly they're local (and should be!), but sometimes he gives us a relationship worth having in an unexpected way. God gave me a sister in Christ that makes me laugh and challenges me to put the Gospel into action (and to use coordinating thread, even when it means a few extra steps).
Thanking the Lord for a new friend (and some prescription eye drops!) today.
Thanks for visiting, Keight! Come back again when I'm fever-free and we'll really make that serger tired!
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