Dinner Menu

Menu : Shrimp linguine Barefoot Contessa style with lots of fresh parsley from the garden.

Extra parsley picked hangs here to dry, crush and use in future recipes.

Sweets for book group : Low fat mini chocolate muffins made with pumpkin puree...and yes, they are delicious, just ask the book group who gathered at my house

last night to discuss THIS book!

Presenting...

Brinley's birthday invitation and Brinley's new favorite hair-do!

Stampin' Up for Down Syndrome

My friend Mary Elliott has a darling daughter named Leah who was born with Down Syndrome. Mary has been an example of unconditional love as she has embraced her role as a mother to Leah and her older son Greg. Not only is she an involved at home Mom and resident wife, she is also a Stampin' Up demonstrator who has sacrificed her time and talents to uplift and bless others lives.

The earnings from this upcoming event will be donated to the

Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio.

I have RSVP'd to attend and if you live around here I hope you can come too! Details below.

Stamp-A-Stack"For Love of Leah"

Come stamp a stack of 12 cards (4 designs, 3 of each design). All material are pre-cut and we'll be using some product and stamps from the new Fall-Winter '08 Catalog

(envelopes included; bring your own adhesive)!

Saturday, July 19, 2008 8am-4pm in Dublin, OH

Come at your convenience.

Allow 2 hours to complete all 12 cards.

RSVP by Monday, June 30Th

Light refreshments will be provided. Door prizes!

Class fee: $20.

50% of the class fee will be donated to the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio

in Leah Elliott's name.

Contact Mary: (614) 801-1621 or maryloves2stamp@yahoo.com

Fruits of our Labor

Whether it's fresh from another garden or from our own

We absolutely LOVE fresh fruits and veggies in our home!

Last week we enjoyed picking strawberries with our Doctors Hospital playgroup.

Bright and early Wednesday morning I went out into our garden and cut lots of fresh herbs to make a delicious pesto for fresh pasta that night. I also froze an extra baggie to make turkey pesto and cranberry sandwiches this week.

My lunch : Inspired by our garden.


These are the enchiladas I made for Father's Day using lots of

fresh flat leaf parsley from the garden.

Tonight we enjoyed broccoli cheddar soup. I made it using our first two fully grown heads of broccoli ...we will have 5 more heads ready to harvest in the next few days!

Go Crazy

I found this wonderful hair-do blog via my great friend Tovi's blog and I LOVE IT!

Go crazy with some fun hair-do's HERE.
Soon I will have 4 heads of girl hair to do in the morning instead of 3. Wish me luck!

Our Daddy Day

After getting up at the crack of dawn to finish preparing for his Sunday school lesson Daddy joined us for crepes with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and syrup to start off the day.Then Brinley proudly presented Daddy with the pseudo candy bar poster we made together using healthy snack foods in place of candy bars to compliment Dad's current no sugar goal.

After church and lunch it was off to nap time for both the girls and Dad since he is now working nights. After naps I made a new chicken enchilada recipe using fresh herbs from our garden and we quickly ate outside to allow for a little swinging time before Dad needed to depart for work at 5:30pm.

As we waved good-bye we all agreed that our Daddy is the best in the world!

Little Lucy

This is Lucy.

She was born to loving parents Vic and Molly on June 11Th 2 years ago.

She returned to Heaven on May 22ND 2008.

Eight years ago we meet her Daddy Vic at our singles church ward in Los Angeles and both Cody and I became good friends with him. Almost seven years ago we were privileged to have Vic as the Best Man at our wedding.

While I was in New York during my Mom's surgery Cody called and told me that our dear friends daughter Lucy was about to return to Heaven. Words can not describe the tremendous heartache we have felt on Vic and Molly's behalf since that time.

Lucy was the sun, moon and stars to her parents and

all those she came in contact with.

She has left quite a legacy and we have come to find that her life has

positively affected the lives of so many others.

Through it all we have been so profoundly touched by Vic and Molly's example of faith, acceptance and courage. This is why I asked permission to share their blog with you.

I know we can all learn a lesson to apply to our lives from Molly, Vic and Lucy.

Go HERE to read more.

Make sure to read the touching letter her Mommy wrote for Lucy on her birthday.

Our Yard

Flowers = Blooming

Garden = Growing

My 86-Year Old Grandma

Here is what my Grandma does almost every day of the week!

Go HERE to read the most recent news article written about her.

On Saturday after teaching Urban Iron I attended a half day "Triple Fit" certification to teach this new Urban Active branded class. Triple Fit is a class that combines 4 minutes of cardio with 3 minutes of lower body and 2 minutes of upper body repeated 6 times without breaks. It's intense and AWESOME, I can't wait to start teaching it.

In the beginning of the certification as the master instructor had us participate in a full length class I found myself holding my pregnant belly tight with my hands during the more intense jumping cardio drills. It's at times like those (like after coming up from an Urban Iron chest track and feeling like surely my sacrum will crack due to whatever happens down in that region during pregnancy) that I think of my 86-Year old grandma teaching her multiple Group X classes every week and even doing some personal training on the side.

If she can do it so can we...and if you want to be healthy when you are her age then you will!

Pink, Pink, Pink

This morning we found out that...

It's a GIRL!

June Stamp Club

Last night was the final club night for the January - June club. A new 6 month club series will begin on July 15Th!

Last night we made these simple yet adorable baby onsies and also the dress shown below. For the technique I made this Rhino card using our watercolor crayons and aqua painters.

Here was a going away gift I made themed with this months club project.

I sent each of my clubies home with one.

I just added one of our rub-ons to the rear of each piggy bank, added a ribbon and walla!

Here is another cute spin off of the onsie and dress template:

Gymnastics Olympics

On Saturday Brinley (along with about 40 other kids her age) participated in a

Gymnastics Olympics event at the gym where she has been

attending classes for 12 weeks.

Each of the children took turns showing off some of the skills they have leaned in this past session of gymnastics...meanwhile Avery practiced falling off the bleachers onto her head, falling off a smaller bench onto her head, crying very loud to accompany the background music and turning the drinking fountain area into a little pond playground.

Here is a picture of what Avery did one week after her first black eye...

another black eye, this time even worse. She got whacked by a

metal swing square in the eye.

To celebrate this new addition to her face I bought a big box of

band aids and let the girls do this to their dolls and themselves: