Random Brighton and Mason

I'm condensing a few days into just a few pictures. My littlest sister, Kassie, took these the first few days she was here- purely for memories.

We went and had a picnic lunch at a park and Brighton ate a granola bar. It was a hot day (don't let B's jacket fool you- we couldn't get her to take it off!) and she has chocolate all over her face.

Kassie just loved going in and waking Mason up from his nap because he sleeps like this.

Eating strawberries from our garden- we had so many this year!

And Mason, hanging out with Brighton's magnetic letters. He's getting a head start I guess.

And here Kassie is terrorizing my son and just watching him cry. He's such a faker.

Jungle Animals Baby Shower

I know, it's been forever! But I've still been busy with crafts, and we're still alive, I promise. I've been excited to share this stuff with you- and literally, this post has been a month in the making. Where has all the time gone?

I threw a baby shower for a friend that I used to work with at the groom shop. She's due in December, so we didn't even know what she was having yet! (It's a girl, we know now.) She's decorating the nursery in a jungle animals theme, so we threw a jungle party!

I worked on this diaper cake for a few weeks! Have you seen how ridiculously expensive these things are? I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I loved going shopping for animal print stuff the whole month before the party.

I used (I think, if I remember right) one box of diapers for the cake. I didn't roll them all up separately with rubber bands like some I've seen, but more like a fabric jelly roll (you can kinda see it in another picture). I covered the bottom layer with some receiving blankets I found at Target. The second layer is some bibs.

Embellished a little with ribbon and paper and animal toys.

I made these burp cloths with the extra receiving blankets and cloth diapers.

And this tag blanket for the little one to play with. These topped the cake.

You can see how the diapers were rolled together here. And the tag blanket tucked inside. I put a circle piece of card board between the layers, with a hole in the middle. In the hole I put toilet paper cardboard tubes to hold the layers together (each layer of diapers had a hole for the tube to go in).

And then, of course, there's my ACTUAL gift for the mom-to-be. I made this pacifier clip with a suspender clip. Isn't that a cute pacifier?

Sorry about this picture, I cannot get it to flip the right way! But I dyed this onesie and painted the bananas on. I thought about putting "this $h!t is bananas" on the butt, but wasn't sure if that'd go over well. Dale talked me out of it, really. I should have done it...

And then I made this blanket with the receiving blankets and fleece.

Found some animal type cards, books, toys, q-tips, more diapers, shoes, etc., and put it all in this cute animal print tote.

The shower turned out really cute, we decorated with stuffed animals, rope, and streamers and ate yummy food! Thanks for letting me throw your shower Sarah!

Chair Makeover

My first paying reupholster job:

A friend of ours is updating their "new to them" practice, using some of the old pieces. These chairs needed a face lift.

There were four of them, and Dale and I worked all weekend to get them back to the office by Monday.

Really, who would want to sit in these?

And here's the after:

We painted them a nice espresso color and reupholstered in a chocolate vinyl.

Then we did up the backs a little bit. I think they turned out pretty good!

Thanks for letting us work on your chairs, Heather. I hope they're working out well!

Dale's Friend Comes for a Visit

Dale's best friend from BYU came for a visit 4th of July weekend. We haven't seen him since we moved from Utah (4 years ago), so it was so great to have him around! He was always our third wheel, it was nice to have him back in place, seriously!

Here's Derek, Dale, and Brighton, trying to act like they're tough. We took Derek to see the Space Needle and Pike's Place Market- two "must sees" in Seattle.

Brighton and Dale, looking as cute as ever.

Derek and Dale. Thanks for a fun visit Derek, we've missed you!

Strawberry Jam

Brighton: Mom, what's that?

Me: That's jam, Brighton.

Brighton: Did you make that mommy?

Me: Yes, I did, from the strawberries in our garden.

Brighton: I'm so proud of you!

If that doesn't boost your self-esteem, I don't know what will.

Brighton's First Ride On A Motorcycle

Ok, so she didn't actually ride it, but she got to sit on it, which was way cool for her. For some reason, she's always loved motorcycles. When they would drive past our house when she was smaller, she would run to the window to see them drive by and yell "motorcycle!" It was one of her first words.

I took a picture very similar to this when I was about Brighton's age. Remember Dad?

Jeff is a friend of ours, who came over for some random reason. We went out to say bye, and Brighton was so excited to see the bike. Jeff let her sit on it, and he even let her hold on to the handlebars.

Here's Jeff telling Brighton all about motorcycles.

Then she got to wear the helmet. As a hat aficionado, Brighton was in HEAVEN!

It was even cooler (if that's possible) with the visor down.

Then Jeff let Brighton sit on the motorcycle while he started it so she could hear how loud it was. If she could, she would say, "Best. Day. Ever."

Rainier to Runston Relay

On June 5th, I ran in my VERY FIRST RACE! It was the Rainier to Ruston Relay. I had such a blast- I really hope all of us get together to do it again next year.

We each ran 3 of the 12 legs that covered the 50 miles from the base of the mountain to a cute little park on the water.

Dale brought the kiddos to meet up with us at the end. Brighton went for a run too.

Here's our team (well, some are missing) "Movefasta." There were 16 of us, so we ran in groups of four on each leg.

One of our drivers took this- amazing! I can't believe we ran that far! You can see Mt. Rainier, where we started, in the background.

Here's my race stats (I'm pretty proud of myself, for my very first race!):

Leg 1- 4.8 miles in 38 minutes

Leg 5- 4.6 miles in 39 minutes 16 seconds

Leg 9- 3.7 miles in 33 minutes 26 seconds

Total: 13.1 miles; 1 hour 50 minutes and 42 seconds

I've become a crazy runner. I love it. My next race is Ragnar, in just a few weeks!

Brighton's Nap Time

Brighton has started getting out of her bed and loading it up with her babies and all the books she has. Here's what it looked like one random afternoon when Dale went to get her up.

Port Townsend

A few weeks ago we went on a day trip to Port Townsend just to check it out and take pictures. Here's a random sampler of some pictures. You can see the rest here (beware, there are A LOT of stupid ones of me).

Brighton and Dale went for a walk while Mason and I sat in the warm car, waiting for the ferry. It was a miserably cold day.

The sun did peek out while we had a picnic lunch on the the boardwalk.

A passing stranger was kind enough to take a family photo- we NEVER get one of all of us!

My two handsome boys, watching the sail boats.The lighthouse.

And then Dale finally got one of me that I don't hate too much.

Mason's 9 Months

So this was from a month ago. I'm horrible! My poor neglected 2nd child doesn't get a monthly posting. I'll try to be better from here on out.

The reason I'm sharing this picture is that a few days before Mason turned 9 months, he finally had a tooth break through! Isn't it so cute?!

We've had a fun time the past few weeks as he's had two more come in, and I think the fourth will be here soon. We'll see if it decides to come out or sneaks back into hiding.