Sweet Girl

Kyla has started to read this summer and is really enjoying spreading her reading wings. Last night, she was reading to me and I couldn't resist grabbing my camera for a couple of shots to capture the moment. What a momentous step in her life.

To the Beach We Go

On Tuesday, we had an impromptu adventure to the Oregon Coast. I received an email from my s-n-l up north stating that they would be down and we should do something together. After numerous emails back and forth and a couple of phone calls, 7 cousins, 3 aunts and 1 German foreign exchange student piled into two smashed full vehicles and headed west to the ocean.

The weather was on the cool side but it was quite refreshing in comparison to all our recent wildly hot days. We drove into Neskowin Beach, north of Lincon City, crawled out of the cars, and ran to the ocean. What a day!

Bethany and I

Tamarah, Beth and I Fun times!

What to do, What to do?

Over the last two years, we've had feral cats take over our little neighborhood. They live under our house and our neighboors' houses as well. No one feeds them to my knowledge, but they somehow survive. I've called the humane society, Yamhill Animal Control, and Lafayette City Hall to no avail. No one can do anything about it. We can trap them and run them to Portland and get them fixed for free through the Feral Cats Coalition, but by doing that, we make the commitment to feed them for life (that's what the web site says). We don't need 20 cats! I don't want to FEED 20 cats let alone one!


Yesterday evening, a kitten crawled into the garage as Chad was working in there, melting his little mushy heart:) The male kitten has fleas and it as skinny as I have every seen a cat. Chad petted it and gave is some attention and now that same kitten is curled up on our front porch whining for all its worth. I feel like the meanest person to grace the earth. I don't want to feed it...he's not ours and I don't want him to think that he is.

What should we do? People have told me to hire a trapper to come and get them all, yeah I bet that's cheap:) Or we can take each one to Portland but then we feed them for the rest of forever. I've thought of putting them up on craigslist as barn cats? Is that too cruel? I'm at a loss, any other thoughts or opinions would be much welcomed!

What a weekend!

We had two opportunities to hang out with family and friends this weekend and we loved every second of it!

On Saturday, our friend Donny was on leave from the Navy and he and his fiance' were visiting in Portland. We had a great BBQ at his mom's house and visited until the kids started drooping:) His fiance', Jen, is in the Navy as well and is a wonderful gal.


On Sunday, we headed to my parent's and spent time with Josh, Randi, and Gabe and Donny and Jen. Well, my parents were there too:) It was a great opportunity to watch Gabe walk about the house and visit more with Jen and Donny.

Check out Gabe's red, red hair and his four teeth!

Surviving the Heat Wave

We are having record highs here in OR and we are striving to survive it. We have the house all closed up and both air conditions going full blast in a vain effort to keep the house cool. The kids and I were outside by 7:30 this morning watering the garden, feeding the chickens, picking fruit and green beans, and playing in the water:) (it was already in the 80's by the time we came in.


The kids are stripped down to their underwear, which is very convenient since Gavin is still potty training and that my friends is a whole other story. I'll probably tell you all about it later, when it's funny, when we aren't living it out every blessed day:)



Wish us luck!

The Sewing Continues

I've started working on school clothes for Miss Kyla. She prefers dresses so my goal is to make her a couple of dresses for the upcoming year. My first success is refashioned from a shirt that I had purchased for myself a couple of years ago and then never wore. We picked up some contrasting knit at Joanns last week and I whipped up this cute t-shirt dress yesterday as the kids watched a movie in the air conditioned studio:)


She of course had to run around the yard to make sure it was play worthy:) I used one of her dresses that fit her well in the torso as a pattern to follow, tracing it right on the t-shirt. The ruffle idea came from a web site that randomly found and now can't seem to find again:) Kyla and I are both pleased with the end result, on to the next project:)

Garden Bounty

When we left for Indiana back in June, my garden was doing respectably well. Since we've been back, it has exploded!

Check out my cherry tom. plant and those sunflowers! (Kyla is around 44 inches tall and the beds are 12" tall)


We've been enjoying beets and butterleaf lettuce for the last couple of weeks and I was able to pick green beans for dinner this morning! I picked a a couple of handfuls of blueberries and about a cup of blackberries yesterday. How exciting!! Here is our bounty from this morning:) The beets are bigger than my fist!


I have realized that I over planted this year. When we did seeds, it looked so empty so I added more:) Now everything is vying for space. Learning more each time we do it:) Our little chicks are doing well and Big Mama is settling in to her new home. Now we wait patiently for her to start laying again. In about three months our babies will be laying too:)