Sew Cute!

Every time I'm working on a sewing project, Maclaine is infatuated with the sewing machine. She wants to help or she just plain wants to make something. So, I put on my patience hat and gave her a quick lesson in sewing. It was so funny because she would get that thing going on full speed and actually have a fairly straight line sewn. She wanted her first project to be a cloth checkerboard game. I recommended she just do a little practicing first.



I have so many scraps of fabric so I handed her a stack and pretty much left her alone. I was quite impressed when I saw the finished product. I did help her sew the strap on the "shirt" and she wanted me to connect it to a tank top, so I helped with that.


Not bad for her first project!

Karate Kid

Maclaine had her Karate belt exam on Saturday. She was testing for her orange belt which is the third belt. We were so incredibly proud of her because this was something she was very nervous about and she just went out there and did it!



Whew...Thank goodness that's over...I'm sweatin'!



Proud Daddy!



Proud Mama!

Honor Roll

We are super proud of our girly!

She received an award for being on the Honor Roll for the entire year....WAY TO GO!!!

Mother's Day Weekend

We had quite the Mother's Day weekend. It was a weekend full of lots of family time. Friday night my Dad and Lin came up to spend the night before they headed to Prescott on Saturday. They volunteered to hang-out with Maclaine so that Ty and I could go on a much needed date. We forget sometimes how important those are. I feel pretty blessed that I still really enjoy spending time with my husband.

Here's some pictures I took Saturday morning before my Dad and Lin hit the road to Prescott.

Papa Fred (my Dad)and Maclaine



Grammie Lin and Maclaine



Saturday morning Maclaine and I met my older sister DeAyn at our younger sister Jamie's house to pick-up Ellie for the annual Mother's Day Tea in Casa Grande. My Granny's sorority has been having these teas since I was a kid. It ended up being a warm day but it was nice to hang out with all the girls.

Here's some pictures from the Tea

Granny and the grandkids



Me, Granny, and my sister DeAyn at the Mother's Day Tea. Jamie had to work, we missed her though.



G (my mom) and the Grandkids



Here we all are!



Mother's Day morning I woke up to the gift that I had requested. I really wanted Maclaine to make me something with her hands this year. She and Ty had a date a couple weekends ago and apparently they went and painted pottery on that day. I love my new pottery! I got a beautiful card from Ty that of course got me a little choked-up. He always knows just what to say.




We met Ty's mom Paulette and John at Crackers and Co. for breakfast...it was super yummy!

Maclaine and I Mother's Day morning



Maclaine and Grandma Paulette at the restaurant


Grandpa John, Grandma Paulette and Maclaine



Grandma teasing Maclaine with the flower...Grandma likes to be silly!



The day ended with Ty making me a yummy dinner of Steak, potatoes, and asparagus. I went to bed that night with a VERY full tummy and feeling VERY loved!

He's a keeper!

What can I say...we love this little guy!




Back in March, we had a scare with our 15 year old dog Harley. One morning her face kind of twisted up on one side and her eye was extremely red. I had blamed myself because she had been licking her feet and I kept telling her to STOP but since she's partially deaf I had to walk over and actually move her mouth from her foot. I wasn't sure if I had poked her eye or if I had startled her and she poked her own eye but whatever happened it really shook us up.

Maclaine was crying before school thinking that this was the end of Harley's days. I got home from the gym that morning and looked at her and just sat on the floor with her in my lap crying. Then, I looked up and saw that Ty had tears in his eyes as well. We just thought that the time was coming that we had been dreading. Could it really be time to make that decision? We just didn't know.

We had been talking for awhile that we should probably think about getting another dog so that sweet Harley could train any new dog we brought home and so that it would lessen the blow when it was Harley's time to go.

So, that night we decided to go to Petsmart to ask when they do their adoptions and we also decided to get Harley an eye patch because it seemed like it was really painful to keep the one eye open. We thought we would start calling her "AAR-ly the pirate dog." We got home that night and low and behold Harley looked healed. We think she probably had a stroke.

We still decided to check out Petsmart that Saturday morning. I had been praying all night and morning that God would bring us the "right" dog for our family. I really never in a million years thought we would find a dog that same day. As soon as I saw this cute curly-haired black dog my heart started doing that "thing." You know, that heart-swelling, beating fast kind of thing. The lady in charge told us to take him for a walk to see what we thought and as soon as we got outside I looked at Ty and said, "I think he's the one." We both shared with each other that we had been praying about this and we decided right there that he was going to be ours.

Here's our cute Barnaby.

It was love at first sight I tell ya!




Harley wasn't in love at first



I think he's grown on Harley now



Barnaby is all about making friends!



I'm embarrassed to say I've never loved a dog like I love our Barnaby.

Best Buds!

Maclaine and Delani have been buds since they were babies. Her family is one of the few families, including us, that have been in our neighborhood since the beginning (9years).

The girls don't go to school together so when I pick Maclaine up from school the first thing she says when she gets in the car is "can Delani come over?" We try to get them together a couple times a week otherwise I hear, "I miss Delani SO much."

Here's some pictures of them through the years.

February 2005


April 2005


July 2005


October 2006


October 2007


November 2007


April 2008


February 2009


March 2009


April 2009

Easter Fun!

Every year I look forward to coloring Easter eggs. I'm not sure what it actually has to do with Easter, but we still have fun doing it. Ty and I are always the last to leave the table because Maclaine gets bored after a few but we (Ty and I) take it very serious :) I think it's some of my dad coming out in me because I always remember him sitting at the table with us when we were kids and he would make some of the coolest looking eggs. I'm always trying to replicate his striped Easter eggs he used to make.


At this point, Maclaine is dying to get started!



Here's Maclaine appeasing me, because she really wants to be climbing the tree out back.



Here's one of my masterpieces!



Here's a couple of Ty's!





Grandma and Grandpa (Ty's parents) always come over Easter morning to bring Maclaine some goodies and then they go to church with us. Usually, Ty's playing in the church band on those Sundays so we have to meet him there.



Here's Maclaine with some of her goodies!



This is the only picture I got of Maclaine and I in our Easter dresses...oops!



I love this picture of Paulette and Maclaine! They're playing with the bubble wand Maclaine got in her Easter basket. They look like they're having so much fun. If you click on the picture it will enlarge.



We went down to Casa Grande to celebrate Easter with all of my family in the afternoon. Here's a picture of the kiddos.



Here they are being silly!