Oh My Darlin'

Oh my Darlin', Oh my Darlin'

Oh my Darlin' Kyla Rayne...

A simple refashion turned into an impromptu photo shoot last week as my sweet 6 yr old stated that she wanted her pictures taken like the ladies in the magazines. So a high fashion shoot it became. Later that evening I began to question where she got the notion of fashion and photography. I can honestly say that I've never done any fashion photography. We don't get fashion magazines, cooking light and Rangefinder are more my speed. We do get an occasional travel magazine and the quarterly local community college brochure, but I think its safe to say that she didn't get the idea from any of those. Where ever the idea came from, it was interesting and entertaining to watch her come up with her own poses and facial expressions. So here's my fashion girl!

During our intense modeling session, Kyla's serious face turned brilliant with laughter as she spied her little brother fresh from his nap partaking in the great outdoors with us. I'm not sure what he has against clothing, but at least he protected his feet from the elements:)

Now for the refashion from which this whole thing stemmed from. We were gifted a fun summer dress that was a bit on the short side for our girl. I chopped off the bodice section, added a waistband, threaded the elastic and finished it up by ironing it. It was a super quick change that will got tons of use this summer!

Life is changing as our two little ones grow and change. What a unremarkable life we would lead without their ideas and laughter to brighten our days!

Getting Older

Here's a fact for you... Everyone gets older. Whether we like it or not:)

Yesterday was the day to celebrate another year of my life and we did it with quiet dignity:) As a kid, I remember wanting a huge party, with all my friends, and with pretty little me in the spot light. Now that I have a few decades of seasoning under my belt, my birthday wishes have changed, gotten a bit calmer, a bit less spotlightish:)

So my special day, a day to think back on all that I've experienced and learned, all I've enjoyed and done, was full of my family. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate that frustrating aspect of life called aging!

NEXT!

I'm a regular machine this week! I'm crossing things off my sewing list and miraculously changing my kiddos from naked to clothed:) Ahhhh, the sweet scent of success!

Up on the chopping block was another pair of hand-me-down pj's. Dinosaur pj's to be exact. Now if you are a mother of a boy, you know that all boys seem to go through this faze, where the dinosaur is oh so neat so these pj's were a complete hit even before I tweaked them to fit.

After a bit of time and some scissor and sewing machine work, we have a pair of dinosaur pj's ready for summer. Please take note that after I spent the time, sweated with the effort, and used up the last of my coveted blue thread, my boy decided to add the arms back on. That's right, back on! I'm sure he'll get bored soon with his new look and all will be well:)

I hope...

My list, my long, long list

I have a list of sewing projects that may just rival the world record of longest list ever:) This week, I set up my sewing machine, organized my supplies and started chipping away at things on that mountainous list. If I can just sneak in a couple of minutes here and there during my day, I may just get some work done. First up was refashioning some pajamas for Gav. He's growing like mad and has no summer pj's to speak of. I found some workable pieces of bedtime attire and started working.

Now as I sew, Gav keeps himself busy. Most of the time this works out well and no one and nothing is hurt in the process. Today, he decided to use the scraps to make himself a super boy outfit.

I took a onsie (can't put my potty trained boy in that if I want to stay sane) and quickly turned into a shirt. Some easy cuts at the knees for the too short pants and then quick hems all around, and things were looking good. Just for fun, I added some of the coordinating pant fabric to the shirt and presto...New and cool tiger pjs:)

I think he likes them...What do you think? Sure, they aren't as cool as the outfit that he made himself, but I'll actually let him wear these around the house. I can't honestly say that about his outfit:)

Birthday Shirts

We have some amazing little men in our life that are having birthdays this month and I wanted to make them a little something special for their special day. What is cooler than a shirt that announces their age? Nothing that I can think of, well, perhaps a toy or two:)

I found these t-shirts a while back on a great sale and picked them up for just this purpose, gifts for the special boys in our life. The small details changed a bit as time passed, but the overall project was the same. It turned out to be a pretty simple and quick project; some scrap jersey material, a new font from the all providing internet, and the time it took to run a veggie tales movie. I love how they turned out and I can hardly wait to see our two and three yr old buddies sporty their new threads!

Oh Boy!

Gav and I were outside today when he did the boy thing. You all know what I mean, right? That's right, he pulled down his pants and peed outside on a bush for all the world to see! Our world is fairly small here in Lafayette and since he did all this in the back yard, I think the only ones able to appreciate this male genetic disorder was myself and some unlucky birds. Your welcome world, I'll take one for the team.

I just happen to have my camera handy and had to document this peculiar habit. There's a story behind this need, it has to do with my dad and my first real boyfriend, but we'll save that for another post:)

A helicopter flew overhead and he got a bit side tracked as he followed it across the sky.


Back on track.


Almost ready to play.


And we are good to:)


And by go I mean play time!
What else were you thinking?

Getting Ready for Summer

We are getting the outside ready for summer here at the Riddle house. We had a large get together for our Financial Peace University small group this afternoon an we've been working hard to get the yard ready for company. We created a "mock deck" a couple of years ago in lieu of a real deck. The cost of a wooden deck was a tad prohibitive as we were striving to become debt free and we didn't know exactly what we wanted deck wise anyway. So we created our mock deck out of lumber we had around, dirt left over from other projects and some cedar chips. Too spruce it up for this summer, we got a fresh load of cedar chips. Quick and easy and done:)

Man, is he cute or what?

I planted some flowers...

I made this amazing flower shelf that I found in a window box book and filled it with beautiful and hardy flowers. By "I" I mean that Chad had to help me a bit but the bulk of the work was done by yours truly:)

I laid some seed in another wood project that I recently competed. Man, I sure do love a nice chop saw:) And I really do mean "I" on this one:) Hopefully we'll have some sunny and bright climbing black eyed susans decorating the back deck.

Chad got my lovely fountain up and running. It's oh so peaceful.


And Ta Da!! A pretty deck area for the summer!


No we are ready to go and enjoy all our hard work, want to come and enjoy it with us?

Turn on the Water...And they will come!

Earlier this week I mentioned how our house has become the place to be for the neighborhood kids. Well yesterday during our little heat wave (that would be the mid 70's to you non-Oregonians) I turned on the sprinkler for Kyla and within 10 minutes we had 8 kids in our back yard soaking wet and loving it!

Some of the kids we knew, some we didn't.


By the end of the afternoon though, we knew them all:)

Sometimes I'm not so successful

I love taking pictures, I love taking pictures of my children most of all.

But sometimes, it just doesn't come together.

On an impromptu trip to the park this week, I decided that I needed an updated portrait of the kiddos together. The whole plan was doomed to fail from the start for three major reasons. First, I had my point and shoot camera, not my amazing Nikon DSLR. Second, we had just gotten to the park. The kids could see the play structure, but they hadn't experienced it yet, the anticipation proved to be to great for them to hold still. Thirdly, It may be near impossible to take an amazingly, breathtaking portrait of a girl who's missing most of her front teeth and a boy who loves to make funny faces, Sighhhhhhh.

So here they are, in all their glory including snaggle tooth grins, half closed eyes, random faces, and just plain weirdness:)

Oh, snaggle tooth and sleeping, nice:)
What is this???

Better...
...
Hmmm
Okay, here it is, the best of the lot! Now those are real smiles people! Of course, Gav's eyes are closed and his temporary tattoo if the focal point, but look at those smiles! For today, it's the winner in my book:)