Summer Hummers

Yesterday was kind of a rainy afternoon and the hummingbirds in our yard were going crazy! There were at least 4 or 5 that I could count, fighting over the two feeders on our patio.

One of our feeders is right by the breakfast room window. We all have so much fun watching them while we eat meals. Bitty Baby gets so excited and loud when one comes by to visit, that she usually scares them away :)

Here are some pictures of our new little friends. I think this might be the same hummingbird, the one who kept winning the fight for the feeder. It's hard to tell because they move so fast. Plus, none of them had the red-throats even though they are all ruby-throated hummingbirds.

Coming in for a landing ...

My little hummingbird scout enjoying her snack

Time for seconds. And, thirds. And, fourths!

After we finished watching the hummingbirds, Sister played in the rain. For once, it wasn't thundering, so she was able to play for awhile with her umbrella. She didn't even mind being dive bombed by hummingbirds!

Maui Madness

One of my favorite trips was to Maui, Hawaii. Of course, this was in our pre-K(pre-kids) years :)

I remember that when I got these pictures back, I thought they didn't do justice to how pretty Maui really is ...but, pulling these out now just makes me want to go back!

Guess these were taken before our digital days ... I don't think I realized until the end of our trip that the date setting was turned on!

Here is the pool and the view at the resort where we stayed ...

One of Maui's famous sunsets

View of Lahaina before dinner one night

The flowers are so beautiful in Hawaii. Here's a bird of paradise at our hotel.

And, a beautiful flower we saw on the Road to Hana

One of my favorite things we did was go to a Luau. The food was so good and the entertainment was even better. I can't remember the name of the Luau, but it was awesome. I even saw it featured on the Travel Channel one time.

We also went to Molakini to snorkel, which was amazing!

I got a little sea sick once we were out there, but it was fun all the same. This is the only time I've snorkeled and it was harder than I thought it would be.

But, definitely worth seeing some of the beautiful things hidden underwater. This is one of the protected sea turtles that we saw while snorkeling. It came right up to us and hung around for awhile!



There are so many beautiful parts of Maui and all are so different ... the Hawaii Blue water, the Road to Hana, volcanic craters, and the mountains. This was our view back to the island from Molakini.

I hope we can go back one day, or get the chance to see another island. Also, on the wish list : Disney with the girls, the Greek Isles, and Italy. But, right about now, a good old trip to Sonic sounds pretty good to me!

Bitty Baby at 15 months

Sweet Bitty Baby - you're 15 months old now!

Look how much you've grown ... here's what you're up to these days ...

*You and Sister are starting to play together more and more

*No one makes you laugh like Sister

*You love to play dress up, especially wearing crowns on your head

*You love to play in all of our drawers and cabinets - you're favorite thing to do

is pulling everything out

*This is you're new favorite face

*You took two car trips this month and did great! You went to New Orleans and the annual family reunion for the first time

*You're pulling up and cruising everywhere - thank you, God!

*Your favorite song is "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and you sing it all the time!

*Tiger is still your lovie and your best friend

*You don't want to be held much anymore because you are always on the go

*You let me rock and sing to you before putting you down at night

*You love bananas and are starting to use a spoon

*You're still a Daddy's girl :)

*You make sweet eyes at people and "show" your teeth, too - so cute!

You are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Psalm 139:14

Yay for Bow Holders!

I've been working on a bow holder for Bitty Baby's room and it's finally finished! It really was a quick project. I just had to work on it when I could ... you know, 15 minutes here, 5 minutes there.

I started with a plain monogram from Hobby Lobby and decided to do an argyle or harlequin pattern in pink and green.

I finished the diamond pattern - it became a lot easier when I realized that diamonds are two triangles flipped on top of each other. I know I mentioned earlier that geometry is not my friend. Ha!

I got the idea to add "beading" to the diamond patterns, just to add a little texture.

Instead of using a paintbrush, I used the tip of the handle, which worked really well.

I ended up painting two coats of beads to get a raised texture. Here's the finished painted monogram.

Once this dried, I went to work turning this "E" in to a bow holder by adding grosgrain ribbon. I used 7/8 " white grosgrain ribbon. Each piece was cut to 5/8 yards length.

I decided to use hot glue instead of something like gorilla glue, in case I would ever need to replace the ribbon. Hot glue makes for a sturdy hold, but could easily be peeled off if needed.

I folded the ends of the ribbon over once before gluing. I glued on the wood and then in between the two layers of ribbon.

And, it's done. It's definitely not perfect, but I had fun making this!

I only have one problem ... Bitty Baby is not feeling love for the bow. Hopefully, hopefully I can sway her to the other side :).

Here's a picture I took superfast before she pulled out this pink cuteness. I gave her a blue bow to trick her into thinking she had already taken it out. It didn't work ... the bow was out in 5 seconds. Smart cookie :)

Show Us Your Life - Reception & Honeymoon

Can I just tell you how much it rained on our wedding day? It rained ... and rained ... and rained ... from dawn to dusk! We had so many sweet people tell us that rain on your wedding day is good luck because it's blessings from Heaven! I love that!

Here we are going up the steps to the reception. My sweet husband did a great job with the umbrella and I didn't get any rain on my dress :)

Our first dance

Here's our wedding cake. I found the idea in a Martha Stewart wedding magazine and loved the roses in between the layers. It was raspberry and white chocolate - yummy!

Our cake had fleur de lis piped around each layer. French influence is huge where we live, so fleur de lis are really popular here - can you guess what state we're from? :)

Cutting the cake

The groom's cake

Our sweet niece, who was 2 at the time, serenaded us with the "ABC" song. Doesn't she look so cute and tiny singing with the band? We loved it and this is one of our favorite memories.





Here's my throw-away bouquet. It's was a fortune bouquet, so when I threw it, it broke into 5 smaller bouquets, each with a special prediction. In the pic, you can see "you will marry Prince Charming." :) It was fun to everyone's faces when they realized there were five bouquets to catch, rather than one!



I've always loved this picture of my parents on their wedding day in 1960 ...

So, we had a picture taken just like it ... 31 years later! So special!

We left the reception in an antique car - that was so much fun! For our first Christmas together, our sweet friend gave us a Christmas ornament of this car - it's one of our favorites to put on the tree every year.

We headed to the Smokey Mountains for our honeymoon. It was Fall, so the leaves were changing and it was beautiful! We don't really have a Fall season where we live, so we loved seeing all of the leaves changing color. (These pics were before our digital camera days, so they're not the best quality. I can hardly remember life before digital :) )

I love this picture of this little country church. God's presence was so awesome in such beautiful, still & simple surroundings!