In Case You Were Wondering...

In case you were wondering if Isabella wears the nappy hair extension she keeps in her Rapunzel purse....yup....she does:

It's her "Tangled feather".  You can say that again...that thing is ratty!  Shane's friend, Ryan, jokes that if you saw it laying around you'd want to beat it to death.  She wanted to wear it to school one morning so she attached it to one of her pigtails. Phew Unfortunately, she didn't actually wear it to school. We had to suggest she leave it at home so it wouldn't get lost at school.

Walla Walla

Our hobbies lead us to Walla Walla on Saturday.  Shane found a fantastic hardwood store there called Jensen Hardwoods. They had a ton of selection and great prices.  I think we'll back for more when we (I say "we" but I really mean when "he") gets ready to build our next project. 

I also found the cutesiest, most inspiring quilt store on Main Street.  It's called Stash and had the most beautiful quilts on display - very inspiring.  I found my next project there which is a lot cheaper than making a quilt and looks fun.  I'm going to attempt to sew a purse - sorta like the Vera Bradley ones I love so much.

They had the best fabric selection there - I could have spent hours in there - yes, Nicole - HOURS!  I loved this fabric below but couldn't think of a project it would work for me in.  It's by Valori Wells and she has a whole line of "birdie looking fabric" - super cute!

I have been working on a few projects to give as Christmas gifts from a new collection of fabrics.  One of the fabrics in the collection has a bunch of small towns printed on it to look like newspaper print.  I thought it was pretty awesome Walla Walla made it on here:

We ate at a Vietnamese place on our way out of town and had Pho and spring rolls.  I love the name of this place - it cracks me up:

Pumpkin - Oh How I Love Thee

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I always think that until it's been winter for awhile and then come March it's spring and everything is turning green, flowers are budding and the sun is out.  Then I say spring is my favorite time of year.  I love living in a place that has 4 seasons so that just as I'm getting ready for a change of scenery, a new season comes along.

So...things I fall for in the fall: soup, warm sweater weather, and pumpkin abundance!  I think I do my very best to tire myself of pumpkin just in time to put them aside and start making Christmas goodies.

Let's start off with my very favorite fall drink - Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.  Never mind that the nutrition facts I found online at Starbucks say my version of the drink (grande, nonfat, no whip) has 260 calories, 50 g carbs and 48 g sugars. Ouch...that just almost takes the fun out drinking it - but not quite.

Since my wallet and my hips can't afford Starbucks everyday, I get the Keurig Pumpkin spice cups for most mornings:

with a lil dash of this:

And for occasions that call for a lil more there's one of my favorite seasonal beers (Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale):

I have pumpkin candles and Debbie bought me Pumpkin Handsoap from Bath & Body Works - yummy!

I've been making pumpkin this-or-that for the past few weekends.  I'm going to make Shane sick of pumpkin if I'm not careful!  I've been turning these:

into pumpkin loaf, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin tart and his favorite:

I am loving fall!

Christmas Quilts

I made Kennedy and Isabella quilts for Christmas this year.  Debbie and I ventured to the quilt store in Hermiston to check it out a few weekends ago and she helped me pick out the cutest fabrics for the girls.  I used a super easy pattern and stitched them right up.  I thought I was going to have to wait a few months to get them quilted but one of the quilt stores in Richland finished them in about 3 days!  Ah-maze-ing!  So Friday and Saturday I plopped myself on the couch and finished the binding.

Tara would be so proud - two quilts start-to-finished in about one month!  Quite a change from the first one she helped me do that seriously took me over 2 years to complete.  :) 

They turned out cute I think and hopefully the girls will like snuggling up with them this winter.

Here's the top of Kennedy's:

  The back of Kennedy's is a two tone flannel:

 Here's Isabella's:

 She'll like this fabric I think - it has little princess crowns in it!  Debbie and I couldn't resist when we saw it.

 Here's the back of hers - a pink flowery flannel.

Next project - a Thanksgiving tablecloth. 

Nightstand Evolution

Shane is making us nightstands and he finished mine last week.  Here is the evolution of my nightstand:

 1)

2)

3)

Isn't it beautiful?!  He is finishing one for his side this fall.  He is really talented and I can't believe he can make stuff like this just out in the garage.  I love it!

RDMS in da house!

Shane passed his physics and Abdominal boards last weekend and is now RDMS (Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer) !!

He's super official - check out all these letters behind his name: Shane Bruce, BS, RVT, RDCS, RDMS

Oh-la-la!  He passed the physics test in about 30 minutes - good grief man!  That's so quick.  He's a smartie pants!

Shots & Mobiles

Kennedy spent the night Friday with her friend, Laney Lacey.  Laney Lacey (isn't that the funnest name) and Kennedy are classmates and have become really good friends in the past couple of weeks at school.  They went to an orchard and picked apples and peaches, swam at Tri-City Court Club, went to the park with their American Girl dolls, and styled their Barbie mannequin heads.  She was supposed to be back early Saturday morning but was having so much fun, she called and wanted to stay until later that afternoon.  Can you blame her?  Wow! That is alot of fun stuff!

So it left a unique opportunity to spend time with just Isabella.  I saw a picture of a really cute hanging mobile last week and thought it would be a fun project to work on with her. 

Shane cut the perfect branch, she picked out all the leaves, and helped me string on the maple and oak leaves with fishing line.  She is a little sketchy with these big scissors - I always forget to pull out the kiddo scissors until I look back at our pictures - eek.

We couldn't really find a great place to hang this beautiful crabapple branch so it's the centerpiece on our mantle:

Isabella was a little under the weather Friday night - she had four shots that day at the doctor.  Here are her 4 band-aids (oh, and her vampire teeth made a comeback Friday night too - it's been awhile since she dug those out of her purse):

Guns up!

After we finished the mobile, and many MANY bandage changes, we watched a little "Tangled", read a couple books, and went to bed.

Shane likes reading with us too and snuggles in with us.  He adds in his own funny rhymes the girls think are funny. 

The next morning we met Debbie at Toys R' Us to find Mason a birthday gift - he turned 10 this past week.  Same age as Kennedy now!  Isabella really accessorized:

Head to toe: headband, 2 bang clips, ponytail holder, earrings, 4 band-aids, 4 silly bandz bracelets (2 on each wrist), and Barbie stiletos.

What can I say?  A girl can't pull off Barbie stiletos for very long in her life - rock it while you can!  I did pack regular flip-flops in my purse for when she wanted a shoe change but surprisingly she made it all the way through Toys R' Us without twisting her ankle.