How Cute is This?

This was made by Crystal over at Little Bit Funky.

You have a chance to win one, but in a GIRL version! I love it! She is so creative and is *always* coming up with something new and refreshing. It's made out of felt...love it!!

Go visit her here and YOU may be the lucky winner! But, hopefully it will be me. :)

Have a great day!

~Linda

Can I Do It?

All of the sudden I am wanting to quilt! Not that I have the time to quilt.....but for some reason I'm thinking that I can make this:



















It doesn't look too hard, simple pattern, squares, etc. But I have never actually FINISHED a quilt. Starting is the easy part. :)

I stumbled across it at P.S. I Quilt - and she even has a great tutorial here:

(click on picture for link).


There is not much cutting when you buy the kit (using Moda "jelly rolls" etc.). Hmmmmmmm should I do it?? Do I need another project...that may end up unfinished? OR, is this the project I will really complete?

I'm thinking........
Have a great night!
~Linda

OH NO...Not AGAIN!

Okay, I'll try not to have any more 'zoo' posts after this. We had a free day (and our zoo pass!) so we headed up with Grandma Jeaneen (mom). She hadn't been up there since I was in school (I'm thinking it must have been kindergarten). I guess she was a helper and was in charge of 5 kids - and one (Jeff King, for those of you who went to grade, jr or high school with me) was a nightmare to keep track of. Anyway, I think she had a good time. :)

Here we are eating a little picnic lunch while waiting for the bird show. Then they announced that all food should be put away so the birds didn't stray from the show to eat people food. About 10 minutes later some vulture strayed from the flight path to gobble some left over elephant ears that were not thrown away. It was exciting to see the bird have to be wrangled away from the food by the handlers - while people were about 1 ft away.

This is pretty much what I break up about a million times a day. Malia has to have her hands on someone at all times. Hoping it's a phase she will soon grow out of. How many days until school starts??????

Malia's highlight of the zoo trip was seeing the polar bear poop. Oh to be 5 years old.

Have a great weekend~
Linda

Random Shots of Summer Fun

Greetings!

We are enjoying a much slower-paced August and I'm loving it! July got completely out of hand with craziness. We have been managing to keep busy, but on our own terms. :O) I think we are almost ready for school with supplies and clothes. I have 1 box of Crayola markers to get - needed 2, Target only had 1 (after I had to return the first boxes because they weren't "washable" ---aren't ALL Crayolas "washable"??).......and hand sanitizer.

I thought I'd post a few random Summer pictures just for fun.

Have a great night. I'm off to watch Big Brother (please don't judge me!!). ;)

Sibling Dance Class:

A potato bug on the nose....why not??

The "spirited" child:

~Linda

Two Trips - One Week

Hello & Happy Friday!!
Last week was so abnormally hot here in Oregon (about 105 degrees for several days), and we DO NOT HAVE A/C! I decided to take the kids to the beach for a couple of the worst days. The weather there the first day was warm, sunny & beautiful! The next couple of days were cool and by the time we left, misty. I LOVED IT!! I felt guilty for not being hot, knowing how miserable it was back home.


Here are a few pictures from the beach. My sister and niece Kelli were there, along with my niece Kim, her husband Brandon and their son Carson, and my Step-Mom Jan.





Carson is about 3 weeks older than Ella. Alex really had fun playing with him. I think he was happy to get some "guy time". :)









Thanks to Dad/Jan and Kathy for letting us stay at your homes!

The kids and I came home for a quick pit stop. I repacked and we headed out the next day for Riffle Ranch in Madras. It's my brother in law's boss's place (I'm not sure if that's grammatically correct). I was so tired from the first trip, so I wasn't sure about hitting the road again. I'm so glad we did! It was lots of fun, and like a family reunion. The only missing people were my Dad & Jan and my niece Toni.

We had lots of fun, played games, had a bbq, went in the river, talked, laughed and enjoyed the peace and quiet. No tv!





A view from the covered deck/patio (looking out at the Deschutes River).

Alex, Malia, Niece Tara, Carson, and Niece Kim -- Sitting by the sprinkler.

Lots of family in the river. So cold and fun!!

Nephew Kevin fly fishing.

Some of the yurt/tents. Fully equipped inside with real beds!! I think there were 8 all together. We slept in the house, but most of the others slept in these. Maybe next time we can try them. They overlooked the river.

The "barn", which is really a super cool house that looks like a barn on the outside. It even had A/C. Thank goodness!

A family shot - right during the thunder and lightening storms that moved in.

Sunset on the "rocks"(!? not sure of the correct term - canyon?)

One on the many pics I took, trying to catch lightening on camera. No luck. Pretty though.

On the way home we stopped and took pictures by the tee pee. It was hot. No one was in the mood.

Okay, this should have been 2 posts. Maybe more pics later.

Have a great weekend.
Linda

(not sure why all of the white space is showing up between the pictures. I have tried forever to get it right. URGH!)