Glutton for Giving

I think I may have a problem with giving gifts. It has recently become evident to me that I just don't know when good enough is good enough. I just love to make things and giving a gift (or two, or three, or...ten) is a great excuse to do so. The latest crafty, gift-giving incident occurred last weekend at my friend Alex's baby shower. I'm pretty sure everyone in the room was convinced I am nuts, but it's what I do. I am obsessed with package presentation and fun, colorful, girly crafts these days and if anyone would appreciate it, I knew it would be Alex! Just wanted to share some of the creations, so here they are!

Above: Matching tutus for both their 3-year-old and their new baby; wipes case; soft blocks; fun mary janes

Above: Hair flowers galore; pacifier clips; packaging detail

Above: Burp cloths; the gift bag; a girl can never have too many shoes!

Below: Photos from the shower. Loved the clothing line!

This Moment, Two Years Ago Today...

The absolute best thing that has EVER happened to us was brought into this world! HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY Little Miss Sunshine! It's officially Quincy's birthday and I can not believe it's been two years already. She has grown so fast and changed so much. Everyday she evolves, learning, talking, laughing, loving. My favorite saying of hers right now is "I did it!" and my favorite thing is her hug. When she comes up to you with arms open wide, there is no explaining the warm fuzzies you get. Quincy... promise you'll always hug your momma! Your Mommy & Daddy love you so very much little girl!

Two years ago...



And then she was two...

The Newest Mini Cooper

This post is for you Alex! I couldn't wait to show you the photos we took this weekend of your beautiful family!

I went over to the Cooper home this past weekend to get some more photography practice and hopefully get them some photos to remember their second pregnancy. It was HOT and Alex was a trooper. I had a ton of fun and love the photos. Hope you like 'em!

Big Lake 09!

Oh, how I miss the cool mountain air. We had so much fun at Big Lake this year. I don't know if I could even begin to tell you how much Quincy LOVES her cousin Tessi. It is pretty evident in the photos. There was fishing, chatting, game-playing, napping, hammocking (not a word, I know) and lots of eating as usual. Mostly, it was just enjoying quality time with the fam. Overall, the trip was pretty non-eventful, which is good. I think Q only had one bad spill, so my heart leaping out of my chest only once this trip was enough for me. Here are the photos finally. I had to choose my favorites to post and throw the rest in a slide show. Enjoy!

P.S. Thanks to the Greeners for letting us crash their trip and for sharing their toys. The word "Rhino" has been banned from our house in hopes Q forgets all about it.



Below: Watching the storm roll in from our camp site. Gorgeous!



Of course, I had to pull Tess aside for a mini photo shoot. Once again, she's a natural! Look out!








And here are the rest...

Birthday Pre-Treat

As part of the Wood Family traditions, there is always a pre-treat before the actual holiday. In this case, we decided it was time to start getting Q some more advanced "big kid" toys. Seems like all of the sudden, she's too old for all her toddler toys. Since this kitchen is a little hard to hide, we figured we'd give it to her as a pre-treat :). Here's the little helper cookin' up a storm! Soup anyone?


And, speaking of birthdays... Here's how her party invitation poster turned out! I had so much fun making the invitation. Unfortunately, I have a way of painting the picture of this grand, glamorous party by going overboard with the invite. In reality, the party is just going to be pretty low-key. It's the old bate & switch to get our guests to show up! ;)

There's a bottle-neck... and it's me!

I don't know how it happens, but the summertime always seems to get so busy. I am so behind on everything because we've been on the go non-stop and I don't see that changing for a few months! This July has been so fun so far, and there's lots to do still. We spent last week at Big Lake for our annual camping trip (although we've missed the last two years so I can't exactly claim we go every year)! That was so much fun and so nice to get out of town. Of course, I have a lot of photos to capture the memories, but I am not quite done prepping them to post yet, so hang tight! This weekend was a BBQ at Uncle Mike's house. It was so much fun. I've never seen such a serious water-balloon fight in my life. The funny thing was, the "men" were more into it that the kids! Coming up in a two weeks is Quincy's 2nd Birthday! Time Flies! She's growing way too fast. So, that sort of explains life in the past few weeks. I'm keeping it short and sweet so I can begin to catch-up....

The Heat is On

Well, another 4th of July has come and gone. It was a fun, relaxing weekend. We mainly tried to stay out of the HEAT. Yuck. Why do we live in a desert again? Let's see, the weekend began early with Friday being a day to run errands, clean house and hang out at home. Marshal spent most of the weekend in the garage burning money hmmm, hmmm, I mean working on his latest project. :) Only took 15 hours to tear out an engine... let's see how long it takes to put it back together!

By Friday evening, the skies got dark and the thunder started to rumble so we headed out front to see if our first monsoon was going to roll in. We LOVE the monsoons, just so long as they don't knock out our power, freak out the dogs too bad, strike our home with lightning, knock a tree on our house... why did I say we love the monsoons? Oh, right, the excitement of it all, the smell of rain, the tiny relief from the blazing heat... Oh yeah. But, we didn't get so lucky this time. A sprinkle here and there, but nothing too exciting. It did leave us a cute little rainbow though!

(Above: just waiting for the rain)


(Ahhh, the "look". She's begun passing out dirty looks to every friendly cashier we come across. Here's a little taste. We're practicing giving nice faces...unless of course they are truly creepy. Little stinker.)


Saturday we headed over to a friend's house for a fun day of swimming and eating. Unfortunately, Quincy can only last so long so we headed home by 7:30. I wanted her to see fireworks so badly. She would have loved them in person. We caught them on TV and she watched with amazement. The next morning the first thing she did was go to the TV and say "Where Fireworks Go?" I hated to tell her they went bye, bye for a whole year! Ahhhhh, poor thing :(



(Quincy being silly with the Walters kiddos)

Tonight, she had me cracking up every five minutes. Everyday she is talking more and more. It's amazing what she actually catches on to that I never would realize. So, without going into too much detail, I was changing out of my work clothes this evening when I began to feel a pinch on my bootie. A little hand was reaching up pinching me! I guess I'd better stop with the "squish tush" at bathtime! It's so fun though because she has such a cute little behind! I just never thought she'd return the favor! Anyhow, I turned around and said "Don't pinch me! I'll pinch you!" To that she grabbed her own behind and said "Right here!" as in, "Go ahead mommy, it's right here!" I just have to keep laughing at the feeling of this little hand reaching up when I least suspected it!

The other thing she did tonight was just as cute, although the incident wasn't... Let's just say she had a "moment" in the bath-tub that caused me to remove her immediately and deal with something I would prefer not to think about! As I was frantically "fishing", she said "uh, oh.... EEEWWWW!" It was just such a funny remark. She was right. Ewwww! Things mommies have to deal with.

Happy 4th of July!

Another 4th is here again. We got a head start this year when Q and I went out one morning a few weeks ago to catch the sunrise. We had fun running around some random field by our house. She loved waving the flag! We just want to wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July. Stay cool!