Newborn

Here is a picture of Dresden when she was only 1 week old. I can't believe that she was once this little. They grow like weeds!

First Day of School

The boys started their first day of school the end of July. Connor is now in 2nd grade and Trevor started Kindergarten. They both love school.

Trevor loves his sister

Trevor (well both boys) are in love with Dresie. They can't get enough of her. Trevor always wants a picture with her.

My cute girl

She is getting big. She is pushing 7 months in a few more days. She crawls all over the place. Her brothers are in love with her and so are mom and dad!

Connor's 7th Birthday

Connor celebrated his 7th birthday. He wanted to celebrate once again at Aunt Julie and Uncle Philip's house. He loves going to their house to swim, run around on their property, dig in the sand in the volleyball court and play with their dogs Toby and Jada. Since he loves going over there what better way to celebrate his birthday. Thanks Julie and Philip for letting us celebrate at your house!

Connor blowing out his candles.

His camo cake that I made. I think this is about the 5th camo cake I have made. I made 1 for him I think when he turned 5 and I made one each for his cousins Taylor and Logan.

Opening presents. He got some pretty cool stuff.

Opa (my dad) hanging out by the pool. I think this is the only pool picture I got.

An all time favorite activity at Aunt Julie's house is water balloon sling shot.

Kerri (my sister) and Dresden watching the action.

One of the things the kids love doing is trying to catch the water balloons. This is cousin Ben after he caught a water balloon without it breaking. We were all shocked!

Waiting for their turns.

Give me back my ice cream!

Dresden enjoying an ice cream cone.

She had a death grip on it and would not let go.

Every time we took it away she wanted it back!

Yummy Yummy!

And every time she dropped it or we took it away she would scream!

I have no shoes!

Dustin doesn't have much time off before the kids go back to school...in fact he starts 11 straight days starting tomorrow morning. So we decided last minute to take the kids to Lawrence Hall of Science in Oakland on Saturday. The boys had fun. Not a ton of stuff to do but they enjoyed it. Oh, and older kids than mine would think it was lame. Anyhow, we were about half way there and Trevor says "I have no shoes!" What!?!? Yeah, no shoes! He said they were in the car when we left but I guess he never actually checked...which by the way the boys sit all the way in the very back of the car so it is this black hole back there were everything disappears. So, we pull off the freeway and now I am on a mission to find this kid some shoes. Mind you this is a last minute trip out to Oakland. They close at 5pm and at this point it is already almost 2pm. So after a few stops we found some flip flops. I just hope that he doesn't pull that again on purpose so I have to buy him new shoes again. Connor keeps saying how he needs some flip flops like Trevor's so I would not be surprised if he tired it too. Anyhow, we finally made it there and the kids had a blast. They can't wait to go back.

Trevor climbing on the huge whale.

Connor lookin cute!

Dresden and daddy. Can you tell who she looks like?

My cute kids!

I took several pictures but of course there was

not one were they were all looking at the camera.

4th of July

We had a busy 4th of July. We started out the morning with breakfast at Contra Loma with family. My cousin Jennifer is good at organizing it every year...although I don't think we went the last year or two. My brother and his wife and their new son Arie even showed up. It was nice to hang out.

I had bought Dresden this really cute onesie that says "Daddy's little sparkler" on it. We get to Contra Loma and I pull her out of her car seat and of course she has pooped all over. So I had to strip her down and clean off her clothes with water and baby wipes. So she was my cute nakie girl for a while until her clothes dried. Oh, and of course the day before I had used the "extra" clothes that usually live in the diaper bag that I forgot to replace. That's why she was naked for a while.

After breakfast we headed to Aunt Julie's (Dustin's sisters) to swim and have pizza. Unfortunately Dustin had to work graveyards so he had to leave his sisters house early. Once we were all swimmed out we headed to my Aunt Sylvia's house to enjoy some food, LOTS of yummy rice crispy treats, and a fireworks show put on by Thomas (my cousin) and Nathan (my cousin Jennifer's husband). The kids had fun watching the show and playing with sparklers. It was a long fun day that finally came to a close at about 10:15pm at which time Nathan and Thomas tried to light my car on fire...just kidding. I guess a glowing ember from the fireworks landed on the roof of my car and burned it a bit. Oh, well my car is so tall no one sees up there anyhow. After the fun day the kids crashed when we got home.

Nakie Dresden and Uncle Kris (my brother)

Kris and his son Arie

Arie, Cassie, & Kris
And than of course my cute patriotic kids!

5 Months Old!

I can't believe my baby is 5 months old already! Where does the time go?

Jewelry

I finally posted some jewelry in my etsy store.
Go check it out.

4 Month Old!

Dresden is 4 month old. She laughs and smiles all the time. Just last week she figured out how to roll over. Now she rolls all over the floor. She is just so cute and looks just like her daddy!

Jewelry

I have been playing around with jewelry making for several years now and in the past year gotten more into it. Talking to my long lost childhood friend Joanna, who makes jewelry and teaches classes on jewelry making, encouraged me to go for it. She gave me a bunch of her resources and I finally found a style that I really love and enjoy making. Most of my pieces are brass with a vintage patina on it. I have also made some stuff with freshwater pearls and even sterling silver.

This last week my sister-in-law Melissa, who does vinyl lettering, and I decided to have a jewelry and vinyl lettering open house. It was a big success and I sold a lot of pieces. Here are a few of the things that I made - even though I think they look way better in person!

I also have an etsy store were you will be able to buy my jewelry. I don't have anything listed at the moment but will so check back soon!

Baby Arie

My brother Kris and his wife had their baby boy this morning.

Arient Payter

May 17

7:19am

8lb 7.6oz

22.5"

He is so cute!

He swallowed some meconium and has fluid in his lungs so he is having a hard time breathing so they have him in the NICU.

I think little Arie looks like his mommy!

I can't believe my little brother is a daddy!!!

Dresden's Blessing Dress

Dresden was blessed back in March. I did not get any pictures of her by herself. So I put her back in her dress before it did not fit her anymore and got a few pictures. A couple of you said you wanted to see the detail of the dress. My mom made the dress. I wanted something that looked vintage. The dress was a really light cream color. With lace at the bottom and across the waist. It had little flowers sewn onto the fabric. It also had a separate slip. I absolutely love the dress and hope that Dresden can pass it on to her daughter. Thanks mom for your hard work!

Geniel & Rick's Wedding

In March I went to Utah for 2 reasons...for a reunion with some of my high school girlfriends and because my Aunt Geniel (my dad's sister) got married. Here are the pictures I took at the wedding.