New Venture!

In the event you are not my "friend" on Facebook, you may not have heard about the launch of my new business! Custom Climbers was born from a desire to see modern, kid-friendly furniture that not only empowers children, but gets their adults grinning too. 

Search "Custom Climbers" on FB or visit www.customclimbers.etsy.com to check it out!

I love photoshop

In four years of college, hands-down the most useful class I took was a semester of Intro to Graphic Design. 1/3 of the course was an overview of Adobe Photoshop. ~ Best. Program. Ever. ~  Now if I could only find a job where people paid me to beautify their pics!

Before: Pretty normal. Red-eyes, stroller in the corner, nothing fancy.

After: Cropped. No vampire eyes. Remove stroller. Gorgeous color effects.

'Tis the Season

Thanksgiving, San Diego Style

Afternoon began with a 6 mile bike ride around Mission Bay.

 The Pettit Family graciously hosted us for dinner. Avery really likes those sweet hawaiian rolls!

Jerry snoozed with Jack while the turkey cooked...

Dinner divas!

Avery LOVED Jack, their Shitzu! 

Big Kid

She's memorized a few facts about herself....




And is officially ready for a big girl bed...

Professional Mom, Part-Time Artist

That's what I usually say when people ask me "what I do." This week I've had the pleasure of living in the second role for awhile...

The Lowe family found my website online and hired me to do some handpainted verses in both their newborn's nursery and the playroom.

Last year I painted these hand mirrors for a client to give to her nieces for Christmas.

This year, she had me put together matching hairbrushes... fun!

Turning 29

As I enter the last year of my "20's," I feel incredibly blessed to be at this point in my life. A wife, a mother, an artist and a child of Christ. It was the first birthday that Matt has been home since I turned 23 and spending the day with him was fabulous!

I woke up to fresh flowers and beautiful cards. Matt made blueberry pancakes before we all headed to church.

The weather was San-Diego-Famous-Gorgeous, so we dropped Avery with a friend and walked around Balboa Park. Spent a couple hours laughing at Matt's commentary in the art museum.

Finished the evening with dinner downtown - lobster bisque, mandarin martini and chocolate cake!

Happy Haunting!

So, the original plan was to trick or treat with Avery's best friend, Cheyenne, as Milk and an Oreo. I made the Milk costume for Avery, but Cheyenne REFUSED to wear the Oreo. I have to admit, it turned out a bit stiff and bulky. Even Avery wasn't entirely pleased posing in it...

 We ditched the Oreo and went as Milk and Cowgirl.

She actually loved the costume. I reveled in the humorous irony that Avery is actually allergic to milk in real life. :)

Dad helped her get the goods... (from a busty Snow White, apparently)

Such a great Daddy!

Pretty proud of her sweet stash!

The Un-Happiest Place on Earth

Matt's work kindly provided us a 3 day / 2 night stay at Disneyland as a post-deployment retreat. We spent the mornings in sessions learning about family reintegration. Then, the afternoons were free to explore the parks. I think we greatly overestimated Avery's ability to handle mass sensory overload...

* Blog editor wishes to point out that 3/5 of these smiles were carousel-induced. Teacups weren't bad, unless we spun too fast. Avery would have had more fun riding the Seaport Village carousel 200 times, than going to Disneyland. 

Upon returning home, Matt flopped on the couch, exhausted, and said, "I'm more glad to be home after this weekend than after my entire deployment." And I agreed. It was one for the books, but I'm glad we could laugh in the moment, knowing what great times we'll have re-telling these tales!

Julian Apple Days

This weekend we drove the curvy swervy roads up to Julian to enjoy their annual Apple Festival. I remembered going to this event several times as a kid and was talking it up to Matt the entire drive. Well, as an adult, to describe the "fair" as po-dunk would be kind. I guess some things really ARE cooler when you're little. Oh well... at least it got us out of the house for the day.

Expert archery lesson from dad

REAL PONIES!!!

This was the highlight of Avery's day...

...before she refused to wear her shoes, refused to listen to anything we said, refused to eat her dinner and was generally in a sassy mood. After this one bite, she even refused the apple pie. Now that's just un-American!