wilderness hike

 those of you wondering about my "the girls" tab, i am diligently working on it, or at the very least constantly thinking of ideas for it. i'm doing a photoshoot, like this one with kirsten, for each girl and creating a profile and profile picture for each girl... it's a lot of work and i want it to be well made and very creative. i want each girl to be precisely represented so you guys can get a clear picture of who they are and what they mean to me. sooooo... thank you for patiently waiting, trust me, it's going to be worth the wait... good things come when you wait!

mean while enjoy some beautiful photos of my precious kirsten in the woods. one of these photos will be her profile picture. i just can't decide which one represents her spirit and personality best, what do you think?

kirsten and i went on a wilderness hike yesterday. it was so good to spend some one-on-one time with her. kirsten and i have been through a lot together. she is my comforter when i'm sad-- she gives the best warm hugs and is always there for me! one time she got a broken leg and had to be sent away to the hospital! i was young and it was very heartbreaking for me to be apart from her. i was worried sick until she came back and was so relieved to have her back in my arms with a well healed leg! kirsten has the most loving and gentle spirit so i really cherished this peaceful and therapeutic walk in the woods. we don't get to spend enough quality time together in this way; i wish i had more time for it.

  

 can you see the waterfall in the background? it was so pretty and peaceful.

 these little purple wild pansies were everywhere!

 kirsten said she wants a bed made out of a field of wild pansies hehehe :)

stay tuned... my "the girls" tab will be completed soon-- so excited to share all that i've been working on with you!

making a scrapbook

felicity and i made a mini scrapbook of her florida trip it was really easy-- only 12 simple steps! also it didn't cost anything  to make because all you need is paper, glue, scissors, and your pictures, all of which we had already!!

here's how you make it:

step 1: organize you materials-- decide what color scheme you want, put your photos in order, and collect anything you want for embellishments.

 step 2: cut your paper into strips the size you want the pages of your book to be. mine are 3 inches by 8.5 inches, perfect for the wallet sized photos i have. fold each strip in half.

 step 3: design and create two separate pages (or strips). important: only add your photos to the front side of your strip, the back will be glued to the next page. i like to mount each photo on contrasting paper to make it pop. we added some beachy die-cut embellishments to make it even  more creative!

step 4: while each strip is folded in half (photos on the inside) glue the right back side of your first strip to the left back side of your second strip (basically back to front if they are folded closed). now our first two strips are attached to each other. at this point you should technically have 4 pages total. 

step 5: make another page (or strip) fold and glue the left back side of it to right back side of the second page, like before. you will continue in this way until each page (or strip) is attached to the one before. i used 3 different colors of paper for my strips and alternated between them creating an "abc" pattern-- this makes it visually pleasing :)

you will keep adding your pages (or strips) in this way until they are all glued together and it will look like this when it is fanned open: 

it's like gluing birthday cards together back to front. this is what the spine looks like. you can see all the folded edges of your strips: 

step 6: now it's time to make the front cover, binding, and back cover which are all one piece of paper. cut a strip of paper the same width as your pages but a little longer than them. it's fun to use a patterned paper for this part. the paper we picked has beach themed words on it and matches our color scheme of course.

step 7: start by gluing the outside-cover strip on the front of your book and wrap it around the spine. i used a little hot glue on the spine to make it sturdy, but that's optional.

step 8: measure, mark, and trim off the extra bit extending past the length of your book. 

step 9: glue the rest of the outside-cover strip to the back of the book. 

step 10: the fun part-- add captions to your photos and personalize each page.

step 11: lastly, design your cover. we added some seashells we found on the beach with a hot glue gun.

felicity is terrified of the hot glue gun because of a mishap we had a few months ago-- she fell on it and it burned her hair, it was very sad and scary! so she stepped back and let me, the adult (but really i'm more like a big kid lol), do this part... as all kids should do-- hot glue guns are dangerous kids :) 

step 12: (my favorite step) be proud and show it off to all your friends and family, they will love it! 

here are some of our favorite pages: 

thanks for reading, i hope this has inspired you to be creative!

if you have a question about this craft project leave me a comment below and i'd be happy to help!  

i know felicity will keep her scrapbook forever and look at it a trillion times.

do you have an old scrapbook or album from years ago that you still love to look at?  

p.s. we love making little books. if you do too your should check out our endangered animal book by clicking here :)

BFF adventures: in the dark of the night!

 well the girls have had a pretty severe case of spring fever and were feeling quite rambunctious! they stretched and took a long walk in my mom's neighborhood, but still were feeling silly and wild. the sun had even gone down but they didn't feel the least bit tired.

then molly had a great idea: hide and seek in the dark!

molly was "it" first, while she counted deedee and emily bolted wildly trying to spot the best hiding places.

deedee was quickly found first. that was too easy deedee!

deedee counted then cautiously peeked around every dark corner until she heard a giggle behind the chimenea...

hehe it was emily... deedee was so close to her she couldn't help but let out a little laugh!

molly started laughing then too because it was so silly that emily gave away her hiding spot especially because molly was sure she would be found first since the only spot she could find was just under the patio table... kinda obvious molly!

after emily counted she couldn't find either girl. she searched and searched, but they were evidently getting better at finding well hidden spots! emily even crept out into the cold wet grass, it was creepy out in the yard so late in the evening (and she was worried about stepping in dog poopoo lol)!

just then she heard a low, gargley, and angry moaning! she froze terrified out in the dark yard alone.

at that same moment molly popped out from behind the bird bath and whispered to emily, "psst, emily did you hear that?"

emily was still frozen with fear, and then there it was again but even louder! both girls screamed and went running inside! chasing after them was a mean and vicious deedee monster moaning and hollering until she busted out hysterical laughing at her scaredy cat friends!!

emily and molly felt a little silly; how could they not know it was their trickster friend deedee... of course! don't worry they got her back with a wild tickle fight later!

have any of your friends pulled a prank on you? next sunday is april fools day, any plans to trick someone?

bff adventures: spring is in the air

the weather has been so nice that the girls insisted on playing outdoors. it had been 2 weeks since molly had visited emily and deedee so hugs went all around then they bolted to the backdoor but were taken aback when they stepped out and got a look at the gorgeous tree in my mom's backyard. it is covered in little white flowers; it almost looks like snow!

 hold on tight and don't look down!

climbing trees is so much fun!!

wow deedee is tricky!! no hands!

 by golly miss molly 

 blue eyed emily

 darling deedee

what are you and your friends doing now that it's getting warm and pretty outside?

florida or bust!!

we hit the road last sunday evening and made a very long journey to orlando, florida. felicity's favorite part of the road trip was all the fast food stops lol!

the bad part was we drove and drove and drove so by the time we got to the hotel we all needed sleep!

felicity and i have matching pillow pets and ugly dolls hehehe

the next day we were lazy by the pool

 it was warm outside but the pool water was chilly so we just dipped our feet in like ladies

...burrrrrrr cold water!

and then, oh dear, felicity's beach ball blew into the water! we thought we were going to need to get in the water to get it but it blew back over to us so we could reach in and pull it out without getting wet!

like me, felicity loves the palm trees! can you find her? we were playing hide and seek.

after chillen' poolside and soaking up some hot floridian sun rays we got cleaned up for dinner at my aunt karen's house. 

aunt karen has a beautiful home in orlando, lucky! i was so excited to see my aunt and my cousins and their kids and they were very pleased to meet felicity. we had pizza then walked to their neighborhood's downtown area for frozen yogurt and we ate it on the pier. it was so nice!

this is where my mom sleeps when she stays with aunt karen

here is the living room, sorry blurry photo :( but you can still see how pretty it is.

the next day we got back in the car and headed to panama city

once we got in town we hit the beach straight away! we were too excited to wait!

it was felicity's first time at the beach and she was amazed at how beautiful and big it was!

we got there just in time for sunset!

at first she was a little timid and just watched the waves roll in and out

see her lil foot prints hehehe

but then she couldn't take it anymore! she wanted to get in and play! she wasn't in her swimsuit, but she didn't care! she just went for it! the water wasn't too bad actually. it was definitely warmer than the pool! she liked how the sand squished between her toes as the water rushed back out.

we collected a bunch of seashells and made a little sand castle with shell decorations.

we saved a few to give to the girls when we got home. some had holes in them so we can make necklaces with them!

felicity decided then that she could totally become a beach bum!

during our trip in panama city we spent everyday on the beach but then it was time to drive back home. it was very sad to say good bye. we really didn't want to leave the sun, palm trees, sea shells, ocean, and sand. for a minute felicity and i even considered running away to become beach bums and never coming back, but then we would miss our friends and family and they would be sad without us. so slowly we piled back into the car, waved good bye to the beach, and made the long trip back home. tear.

when we got home yesterday morning felicity was so excited to tell the other girls all about the trip and the beach and my aunt and cousins, and everything! she showed her souvenirs and gave each girl their own sea shell to keep! 

we love you florida!!!!!!!!