Coloring

 Sometimes when we're making dinner the Heidi-bug just can't handle waiting to eat...we don't want her to eat too much before dinner so we're glad we've discovered that she likes to color at the table (just as long as she doesn't eat the crayons!!)

You can tell she's just killing time here....no smiles until she gets some food!

Heidi's First Pedicure

 This past Saturday Jodi & I had scheduled to take the big girls to get pedicures (Allison has been asking for one for a few months now!).  Claire was going to watch Heidi but a stomach bug hit their house so we decided to bring Heidi along.  She sat in my lap through my entire pedicure (we did have to pull out my phone eventually to keep her occupied).  Then she even got her own toe nails painted for the first time.  I'm not sure she was a fan but I love her bright little toes!

 Allison got 'Beaver' colored fingers....and...

 Gold toes!

 I was trying to get a picture of Heidi's toes and she kept playing peek-a-boo (or peek-a-bee with me) around the corner, I loved it!

18 Months

 Our Heidi-bug is 18 months old today!  This girl is such a character!  She has her opinions about things and is not afraid to let them be known.  She also is a great snuggler.  She is a great sleeper and a great eater.  Although she doesn't have very many words she definitely understands what we say.  And for now the way she says 'no' is about the cutest thing ever.  She loves playing in the water (bath tub or pool).  We've made some progress on her being a total Mommy's girl and she's enjoyed Daddy's attention more recently.  She loves going to school and church to play with her friends.

 She does love books!  She'll get them out one right after the other over and over again.

 Allison is one of her favorite people, too.  She wants to do anything Allison does!

 I'm always amazed at how well kids at this age can squat while they play!

 And Heidi's future BFF came over this weekend so we got pictures of these two turning 18 months.  Can you tell they like each other?  They actually weren't laughing at each other, they were playing Peek-a-boo (or Peek-a-bee) with me - they did try to play it with each other for awhile and it was awfully cute!

And I tried my hand at making a slide show with some pictures of Heidi collecting her next book.

Blueberry Picking

 The girls earned 1 free pound of U-pick Blueberries through their summer library reading program and Allison had been asking to use her coupon ever since she got it.  I finally decided we'd try on Saturday morning while leaving Mark at home to work on painting.  It worked out better than I expected.  We only picked for about 45 minutes.  Heidi held her bucket but stood in front of the bushes and ate every ripe blueberry she could get her hands on (thankfully she generally left the green ones alone).  Every so often she'd put one in her bucket and then immediately take it out and eat it.  Then a very kind gentlemen noticed her and her empty bucket and put a handful in it....you can imagine where this is going, right?  That is when she figured out what the buckets were for and became obsessed with mine! We wrapped up shortly after :)

Allison did a great job picking and nearly picked a full pound herself.  I only used her coupon - I figured Heidi ate her free pound while we were picking :)

Summer Heat!

 The last week or so has been just plain hot around here!  Mark & I are always looking for ways to beat the heat so last night he picked up the girls and brought the into Corvallis where we had dinner at Panera (and Allison got a flip-flop cookie to share!).  Then the girls when to play at the fountain park..

 I love Allison trying to be a helpful big sister and 'help' Heidi in the fountains.  Heidi wasn't so keen on the 'help' :).

Snapshots

 It was time to download pictures from my phone - here are some favorites.  Heidi in her hat, my favorite!

 This girl LOVES being like her big sister - helmet, scooter, water bottle and all!

 Allison has been working hard on her Cinderella Lego Castle.  

 The Heidi-bug cracks me up!

 Mark's grill was on it's last legs so he went ahead and bought a Traeger.  And I am not complaining.  He's been making some fabulous food of late including these ribs.

 Our church had a picnic after church a few weeks ago - Heidi was a trooper but was ready for a nap and would lay her head down on the table.

Allison took this picture of Mark herself :).

Finished in 2014 No.5 or 6?

I finished another quilt... and I've totally lost track of what number it is :).

This quilt was sent off to Alaska to another friend expecting a baby boy any day now!  Anita & I had quite the time trying to figure out what to do for a quilt for her - and after I sent her a bunch of example pictures we settled on a color palette of green & blue/cobalt.  And then I through some lime in there because it pulled in the backing fabric which is some of my favorite, ever.

 I originally tried to make this quilt a double herringbone but it was just to busy, so chevrons it was.  I tried to make up for the simple pattern with some high contrast quilting.  I found a variegated thread that was the perfect match for the colors in the quilt.  I was really nervous quilting it as the first few seams I did were really bold (they had high contrast on both the white & color parts!).  When it was all said and done I think it worked out pretty well.  It is hard to see the colors in the pictures.

 This picture does not do the backing justice but it is the best I've got.  The back has a bunch of race case with scribbles after them.  I loved the colors & the fabric.

All ready for Alaska....can't wait to meet it's future owner SOON!

Quilt Show 2014

I finally downloaded the pictures from our trip to Sisters on my phone.  We certainly had a fun time in Sisters for the quilt show.  Here are some of our favorite things

 Leslie's Mom managed to get us the last hotel rooms available in Sisters this year.  Allison loved the fancy tub, especially after swimming in the pool in the evenings.

 This is Allison showing us what she thought was her favorite quilt (until she found the 'Berenstain Bears' one).  This one looked like a teacher with students.

 These were the 'Employee Challenge' quilts, and some of our favorites.

 Allison actually enjoyed looking at all the quilts....and....

 we had to keep her fed with lots of cold treats - shaved ice & gelato!

 Allison loved being wrapped up in her beach wrap after swimming.

 Some selfies with the Sisters in the background!

 We found this Cinderella carriage in the middle of Sisters.  Allison had to make sure Aunt Pam saw it, too on Sunday!

 Sunday meant even more treats, including this fancy hot chocolate for Allison!

 This was Allison's favorite quilt of the entire show - the Bernstein Bears quilt.  We saw it on Sunday and it was much closer, much to Allison's delight!