for the birds

Yep, I was at it again last night...and after sewing the bottom brown stripe on wrong, and pinning the sleeves on wrong, I called it a night. So I finished the dress while Maria napped today and she models it for you. So my two retired shirts became this dress. Now I need to focus on some summer wear for next year. I realized she doesn't have much in 2T warm weather...so my project list just grew.

She decided she wanted to sit down to pose.


This is a close-up of the felt bird I stitched on to the front to give it a bit of character.


We have plenty to praise God for; naptime to get things done!

So you really think you can dance?

We think we have found their next competitor.

We have plenty to praise God for; our energetic daughter.

artsy fartsy

That's what my sister says I am...well, I guess I would have to plead guilty. Last night I decided to try out a tutorial for swiffer duster covers that I had bookmarked. You make them out of microfiber cloths, and then you can rewash them instead of buying the disposable ones. Then this morning I decided to change a too small t-shirt of mine into a dress for Maria. I was pretty happy with the results. I have a whole pile of things I am going to try to reconstruct.

We have plenty to praise God for; talents He blesses us with.

On Location

My sister and her husband were in Jamaica for the last week, for his son's wedding. So I was on location in Greencastle to watch my nephew, Trey. He is in school so he needed to be there at home. It was a nice getaway for me. The front porch view from the swing...ah, the life!
Maria just adored Trey and had a great time playing with him. Trey gave Maria a ride on the big wheel...she did like it despite her rather bored look.
Trey at football...he is the kid to the right of the coach. Saturday morning we got up pretty early to take Trey to his football game. This is the first year he has been able to tackle. The team lost, but he did have a hand in tackling a guy.
Maria liked the look of Trey's cowboy hat...I even taught her to say YeeHaw!

Maria decided to give Trey a wagon ride...he had already given her one. Slave labor, that's what we decided it was.

We have plenty to praise God for; fun times with cousins!

Destination: Camping

Maria and Joshua chatting by the cooler!
Maria helping Joshua put on a hat...even if he doesn't really want it.
Aunt Emily and cousin Joshua on the teeter-totter.
Maria "helping" fold up the tarp.

Uncle Justin and cousin Joshua on the beach.
Grandma Saunders and Maria
Dunes
Larry, Jessica and Maria
Story Hour with Aunt Emily

Part of the washed away beachEmily with Joshua and Larry with Maria
More Dunes
The parking lot-well, what used to be the parking lot

Lake Michigan- look closely and you can see Chicago across the way.

Maria and Joshua had a ball playing with the cooler, especially the handles.

We took off after church on Sunday to head up to NW Indiana to the Indiana Dunes State Park...unfortunately we encountered a bit of flooding near Valparaiso, so after a couple of detours, we made it. Check out Jen's post with some local pictures and here is her link to pictures of the flooding in Munster area. I even heard about the Munster, Indiana flooding on The Weather Channel yesterday. To make things even crazier one of the parking lots of the State Park, the one by the bathhouse, collapsed due to high water from the Dunes Creek. We met up with Larry's parents, and sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Luckily the rain had mostly stopped. It did sprinkle a few showers on us during the night, but daytime was pretty nice and clear....albeit a bit cold, but we packed many layers for all.

Unfortunately we also dealt with our share of sickness. Maria and I were, and still are getting over a cold we got from a lovely sharing mom and child at the library story hour, gotta love that! To top off the cold, Maria and Larry both caught the flu bug that our nephew had been dealing with recently. So, it made for a long, interesting, messy night in the tent, and one episode on the ride home....needless to say the car seat cover hit the washer soon after we made it home. I thought she was pretty much done with it, but yesterday, the sicko bug made it appearance, ah, parenthood, poop and puke, who knew it would be so glamorous.

We enjoyed campfires, hikes, s'mores, pudgie pies(for all those ex-Girl Scouts who know what those are), and sand...it was everywhere, hence the dunes name! This was our first official family camping trip, and Maria did really well. We broke in our new tent, sleeping mats, and my sleeping bag, all courtesy of Larry's parents, two Christmas's ago.

We have plenty to praise God for; the rains let up and we were able to enjoy some great quality family time.

like it?

and it wasn't even on purpose...it just happened to look like that after washing her hair!

We have plenty to praise God for; fun bathtimes!

Road Trip and a birthday shout out!

Katie the first summer I watched her...about 10 years ago!

Katie, Maria and I last summer-2007

One of my best friends, Mindy, always tries to take a road trip to visit at least once a year. She used to bring my little "sister" Katie, whose birthday is today by the way, Happy Birthday Katie, 17! I can't believe it. But since Katie is in school she couldn't come.

Mindy with Zane, Laura and I...Maria was taking the picture ;) I mean napping!

Laura and I then-2001

Anyway, this time Mindy brought Laura, who is her niece now, by marriage. But Mindy and I knew her back when she was just a girl we knew from the Harlan Christian Youth Center, where we volunteered and spent practically all our lives, until we met boys, and then had babies! So, it was good to see them both. Laura is getting married in a month, and I just kept thinking about the shy girl who hardly talked at all when I would give her and her sisters rides to the center...she's getting married, yippee for her, Richard is one lucky guy.


Some of these pictures are my attempt at showing you pre-digital stuff, by taking a digital pic of a photo...sorry it's not the best quality.


We have plenty to praise God for; a best friend that makes road trips to see her lonely friend and brings along babies and other friends.

Boiler Up!

Bistro 501

This weekend we were able to get away and go on an actual date, which hasn't happened in a while, due to moving, etc. We went to Lafayette, so Maria could stay with grandparents while we went out. We ate at Bistro 501, it was excellent. It is a French cuisine restaurant. We both had a fish dish, mine was so wonderful...Pecan Crusted Trout, yummy. It had a great sauce on it that made it almost taste like dessert! Larry had the Halibut special, which he enjoyed. After dinner we just walked around downtown; since the weather was so nice, had a sweet treat at a chocolate shop, and then headed home. We should have taken a picture since it has been so long since we went out, but oops, too late.

We were also in Lafayette because on Saturday we met up with some friends and went to the Purdue/N. Colorado game. It was a sunny day, and we got a bit too much sun, but otherwise we had fun. These were friends from the church back in Fort Wayne that Larry served at. We were in a small group Bible study with them. Three couples came, although on of the husbands was a wee bit busy during the game being one of the officials for the game, (that's how we all got the free tickets!..Thanks Brian!). We enjoyed seeing them and catching up on their lives.

look closely, our friend is the referee with the striped shirt on, ;) No seriously he has on a black hat and he is in the center of the picture.

We have plenty to praise God for; good friends who still keep in touch after three years being gone.

same blog time, same blog channel

Yep, you are still at the same blog channel...just fine tuned a bit...I got tired of looking at the pink, maybe you did too!!

We have plenty to praise God for; free pictures for the blog.

Happy Blogging Anniversary

Yep, it's been a year that you have been thrilled and delighted by the everyday chronicles of the Saunders family...I know you just can't imagine how you ever survived without it! Hey leave us a comment to know you are out there, we are curious who checks in with whats going on here. Just click on comments and if you don't have an account just post as anonymous and tell us who you are in the comment.

Hope the next year is just as thrilling!

We have plenty to praise God for; faithful friends(suckers) who read about our ohsoexciting lives!

Thomas in real life

It's not really Larry's birthday yet (not till the 14th), but we wanted to take him on a special trip and today was the day. In North Judson, Indiana there is the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum where you can take a trip on a train and tour some trains they have there. Since Larry has always been fascinated by trains and had a model set as a kid we thought this would be a great present. Maria liked the ride, but was a little unsure of the whistle, but we did teach her to say "choo, choo". Don't you like her engineer overalls, she fit right in.

We have plenty to praise God for; another birthday to celebrate for mi querido.