Portland, OR - Artist blogs review

I decided today that I would compile a little list of Portland, OR blogs of other artists that I admire. The city of full of talent -

Photographers:
http://hulaseventy.blogspot.com/ abstract/artistic/polaroid
http://laurasantosphotography.com/blog-3/ family portraits

Graphic designers:
http://blog.cre8tivegirl.com/
http://www.abeilledesign.com/ designer/photographer
http://www.designlocally.com/
http://www.nectargraphics.com/ McMinnville based print and web design
http://www.pineboxstudio.com/ web design

Painter:
http://terrencegasca.com/home.html

- Enjoy -

free printable valentines card

Please print these free cards to show your love - they work great from a parent to child and vice versa. They are also great for a baby shower! Leave me a comment and let me know what you are using them for. Enjoy!

The weekend.

We had a great Weekend - it actually felt like spring was in the air. We spent most of the weekend at the beach, I got a room at the Salishan for T's Birthday and we spent plenty of time in the pool and on the beach. All this combined with sunshine and a fancy dinner completed the weekend perfectly. Today we even got some family time in, going to my mom's for a Super Bowl party. Here are just a few photos from the beach - I can't wait for another weekend with this much fun and beautiful weather! I am already ready for summer and it is only February... uh-oh.

First Day, Second Grade.

And, oh, SO excited.
I LOVE this girl.

August: Family, friends, food, fun and..... surgery??

Here we are at the end of AUGUST! Yikes. I can't believe how this summer has flown by. Maybe it was the lack of summer that came with it, or the busy days, but for whatever reason, I am not ready for Sophia to be back to school and the end of my sunny days to be in sight. This month has brought a lot of fun and positivity, along with a lot of emotion and stress.

Sophia and I spent a weekend flying to California for a family (bittersweet) memorial. We mourned the loss of Grandparents, while spending some wonderful time with family. We crammed some great quality time in two days for instance:

Nature walks to the skinny dippin' hole

Time with Brother John and his beautiful wife and baby.

The Fasana Posse dinner.

And some much needed, dirty play time with the Loosh.

On the way out, we flew out of a tiny airport in Santa Rosa. Good thing we got there two hours early to sit in the one room airport with the other 20 people. hmmm. Lucky for us, it was the Charles M. Schultz airport, so we had some friends to visit/pose with while waiting in the sunshine!

Charlie Brown, Linus and Sophia!

So, following a weekend in California, we returned to spend 2 days in the hospital. We had a planned procedure, Sophia had a minor surgery and we had to spend the night. She is great, healthy, healing up wonderfully, but it brought a lot of stress for parents! Yikes. Of course, in Sophia's social way, she made a great new friend. We shared a room with another little girl that had the exact same procedure done about an hour prior to Sophia. She was 5 and the two girls had a great time together... considering they were each bound to a gurney.

This is right as we were released to head home - Sophia and Kirsten.

To top it all off, Trav and I celebrated our 1st (married) anniversary yesterday. We hit the beach for breakfast, brought Sophia home and then went back to the beach for shopping, dreaming of lake houses and Thai food dinner. Happy 1st, we made it.

The Dexters

Well, I spent the weekend helping one of my dearest friends to start a new chapter in her life! Congratulations to the most beautiful bride EVER, and her husband: Albert and Vanessa - Now they are off to Antigua. I wasn't sure what this looked like, so I had to check out some Google images, I am so jealous. I hope you guys enjoy your honeymoon and many years to follow!

birthday wedding birthday

We had an eventful and fun weekend, however, I am so glad I took today off to recuperate! My mom had a beautiful bbq on Friday for the July/August Birthdays. We celebrated about 5 birthdays in one night, it was quite the celebration. Because of all the events this weekend, we got an extra special treat of family in town. My brother John and his wife and daughter came up from Reno. Skylar is about 20 months old and pretty dang cute. She is such a little person, with more attitude than I would think could fit in her little body. But she is SO darn cute! I am horrible about taking pictures, so here is the one I got of her, with my phone:

She is handing me a plastic pizza cutter :) so. so. cute.

We also had a beautiful wedding on Saturday - Lydia, my step-sister got married. What a beautiful wedding, at a gorgeous setting. They held a small wedding at the groom's parents house. Lydia looked amazing and was glowing with happiness, which was wonderful to see.
Congrats Joe and Lydia - love you guys!

Sunday morning we woke up and began the big birthday for Sophia, she is officially 7 today. Wow, where did that time go. We had a great birthday at the park, it was hot and the fountains were much appreciated by the kiddos! She is growing into quite the young lady. Sometimes I catch her being a kiddo, sometimes she seems more like she's 17, and I am not ready for that! We had 3 girls sleep over last night, plenty of giggling filled the house until I had to crack down and quiet them. Finally, we all slept and there was peace in the house.

Happy Birthday to my sweetest gift ever - I love you Sophia! Here's to another great year with you --