We blessed Cami today at church.  I can't believe she's almost 3 months old!  We are so glad she's a part of our family!

Cami and her Great Grandma's hands

It's Great to Be Eight!

Haley is going to be baptized next Saturday.  I can't believe she is EIGHT!  The years go by so fast.  Haley is such a special part of our family as the oldest daughter.  She is such a big help to me and her sisters.  She has such a beautiful smile and a fun personality.  Happy Birthday, Haley--we love you!

California Vacation

We had such a great time for a week in a beach house that was right on the sand in Newport Beach, California on the Balboa Peninsula.  The kids had a blast playing at the beach and going to Disneyland.  It was so much fun just being all together.

I still can't believe we got a good picture from a camera on a tripod and a timer with this many little kids!  Wow!

Oh how I wish baby Cash was looking at the camera.  In all of my dozens of shots of this picture, not one of them had Cash's face.  Cute kids!   (cropped to 8x10)

For the first time in 3 years all the grand kids were together!  They had a blast!

(cropped to 5x7)

American Girl Doll Clothes Patterns

I found this web site that has official clothes patterns for Amrerican Girl Dolls clothes that they no longer make.  Here is the link: http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html

This coat I made from the Rain Slicker pattern and just made a couple of adjustments to it.  Now I have to make one for Haley's doll.  She said she wants more of a spring time jacket, so we'll see.  This is a good basic pattern that could even be used for a robe or a dress (use the open side for the back with a zipper).

Family

I wish I could freeze her at this age forever!

This was at Brenda and Adam's wedding reception.  I can't believe after all the work I went through making these three dresses--this is basically the only picture of them in them.  I guess I could still take more pictures, except now there's snow outside.  And two out of the three headbands have come up missing.  Arrgh!  All in all, it was worth it though.

All 37 of us!

 Alyssa and Grandpa

Haley and Kaya

Skirts!

I haven't posted for awhile, and this is what I've been up to (besides re-painting the whole main area of my house).  I wish I could take credit for these DARLING skirts, but Megan Searle made them.  I've been making headbands, flowers and other hair "things".  Megan is selling these skirts and she has a WHOLE bunch of other fabrics/colors and even sizes for Alyssa (18 months).  If you are interested in a skirt you can  email Megan at alldolledupgirl@gmail.com or see her blog at alldolledupgirl.blogspot.com. 

Haley loves getting her picture taken and these pictures make her look like a TEENAGER!  She is growing up too fast!

Brenda's Bridal Photo Shoot

I was lucky enough to take Brenda's bridal photos today (Nate's little sis).  I'll post some here for the family near and far to look at--I'm assuming Adam doesn't look at this blog, hopefully we're okay.  What a beautiful bride she is!

Birthday Carnival!

Since Haley and Raegan only have two days between their birthdays, and since they have pretty much the same friends, we decided to do a joint birthday bash.  It was a ton of fun.  We had about 35 kids, 48 hot dogs, lots of messy (BLUE!) cotton candy, 1 giant bounce castle, 48 cupcakes, 2 watermelons, 4 gallons of lemonade, way too many nice presents, and a LOT of sunshine!

We had a ticket booth so when the kids came in we could stamp their hand and give them tickets to use at the carnival and then go through the balloon gate.  It was surprising to me how literal the kids used the tickets.  When they ran out they would come and asked me for more tickets so they could play something else.  They loved the tickets a lot more than I ever expected.  They also had fun pretending to "work" at the different booths that we made.  We had the ticket booth, hot dog stand, sweet shoppe, and they also took turns being in charge of running the games. We also had a CD playing in the background of carnival type music I put together.  Haley and Raegan agreed that the blow up bounce castle was their favorite.

A combination of ages, boys/girls, and interests... the "carnival" theme seemed like a good option for everyone to have fun.  We played Tic, Tac, Toss where they had to toss coins to get three in a row.  Then we had the standard bean bag throw as well as a ring toss.  I decided to put points on each of the tops of the bottles and a "Leader Board" to keep track of the score to award the Blue Ribbon winner.