Saturday

This is what we've been talking about all week. Any guesses? D brother?



And how I spend my Friday nights:




Playing with the dogs, yes, but please tell me you noticed Bella's creative haircut! She is fully shaved now, but sported a fauxhawk like her mom did for just a little while.




*Posted from my mobile phone

LittleC's Quilt

My C and I returned on Sunday from a fantastic weekend with our friends N&A. They moved back to the heartland at the beginning of the year, so we were able to see their new house and definitely follow up with their son, LittleC. He's crawling all over that house and he is such a smiley baby!

I had promised A a baby quilt at her baby shower (approximately a year ago!) and made the last push to finish LittleC's quilt this weekend. [In the meantime, my dear friend M had her baby C about eleven weeks early and one quilt trumped the other.] Apologies for the following cell phone pictures.

I was definitely not done hand stitching the orange binding to the back of the quilt in these first few pictures!

I designed the bar-graph-looking top just for LittleC and quite like how it turned out.

Pretty typical back for a modern quilt.

Close-up of the back of the quilt.

I do not have a sewing machine that actually "quilts" (or a walking foot, for that matter), so I just quilted in straight, easy lines. They are definitely not perfect, but they are getting better and I know the babies won't notice any time soon.

See, it's going to look great wrapped around LittleC!

The front porch of N&A's new house! And slightly better light.

LittleC's daddy, N, holding up his son's quilt.

And the back, again. I really loved this quilt - the lines, the bright colors. But, I've loved each one I've made and I know that the babies will love them and that their parents appreciate them. The next one is already super complicated, so we'll see how it goes!

The Three Bs

These photographs (all taken by the lovely and talented KV of OrangePeelPhotography last October) will not post in the order of my choosing. I completely forgot that I never showed y'all some of the great shots K took of my family!

While we were attempting to get some great shots of C and I with the old military Dodge in the setting sun, the dogs were waiting patiently in the truck. Boris and Bailey.

Boris loves the ride of an open truck with the sun on his face. He's a happy dog.

Bailey and Bella eager to go wherever it is that we are going! Loadin' up!

Pre-parenting the three Bs: look at the camera, be good, smile big, don't be in a bad mood . . .

Oh, how I love my big girl, Bella. She has my heart.

Bella smiling. Such a beautiful girl.

Bailey's half smile.

Not sure if Boris is smiling, but he sure is attentive!

I'm sure C is trying to get Boris NOT to lick him in the mouth. No worries, that comes later in the session. I'll try and post more of these as I remember - K took so many thoughtful photos that truly capture what our life is about right now.

While these three dogs are our family, we recently lost two dogs that lived with C's parents out at the farm. Read the post below. We've been holding our dogs tighter and enduring more kisses in the wake of their loss.

They are Deeply Missed

If you know C at all, you have heard stories about Bubba and Loki. Bubba is a black lab, rottweiler, basset hound mix that C got as a puppy when he was in high school. Loki was one of a litter of nine or ten (depends who is telling the story) that Radar had and she was C's brother J's good pal (Radar was a dirty white Corgi-looking dog that apparently had an affair with a blue heeler, as Loki looks pure blue heeler).

In the last month and a half, we've lost both of these dear members of the family. C has lots of stories to share about both dogs, as do his parents, brothers, and aunt & uncles. I can really only share mine, but I'll ask you all to talk to the R family about these dogs because they were family.

This is Bubba. He was the sweetest dog I've met. He's also one of the funniest looking. Upon seeing Bubba for the first time, my dad said he thought he was looking at a black lab (Bubba was laying in the back of a truck), but when the dog stood on his basset hound legs, the lack of height was startling. Everyone loved Bubba, and as C found out in high school and college (so I hear), Bubba especially loved the ladies and they loved him.

No funny camera work, Bubba was short. He made an excellent pillow for me multiple times. And he just made you feel good about yourself; he was a happy dog, content to sit at your feet and wag his tail. He always seemed happy that you were there.

This is Loki. She is the reason we have Boris, our own blue heeler. That, and there was no finding another Bubba. She was alpha female and pack leader. C has always told me that Loki used to growl at other girls he would hang out with at the house and he found it surprising that she never growled at me. He says that because she and Bubba responded to me so well, he paid closer attention to keeping me around. I guess that means that I can thank Bubba, Loki, and Radar for my husband.

I love these dogs. They represent home to me just as much as C's parents and his home do. I miss them so much. They lived fantastic lives and were adventurous and spoiled and rough and soft and loving and vicious (okay, I never saw Bubba be vicious) and so very loved. That's about all I can say about them without crying. I am glad that one doesn't have to be without the other for Bubba and Loki were dear friends.

Love.