Late last year I came across a gem of a company via Facebook – The Organic Bloom.  I loved the look of their boutique frames & it was a HUGE draw for me that they were from my home state of Oklahoma!  They offer a wide variety of frame types and colors & impeccable customer service.  A former bride of mine recently lost her grandfather & I wanted to give a gift to her parents to remember him by.  I contacted Rachel, with The Organic Bloom, to see if they had any ready to ship frames in black.  She got me one super quick so I was able to drop by the framed print yesterday.  What a wonderful feeling to help a family daily see a fond memory of their loved one on their walls.

Yes, I was at one point in my life a cheerleader.  Although, it was only for the kindergarten Halloween parade.  My mommy made me this outfit with her own two hands.  The W stands for Weatherford – the land of my birth.  I’ll have to dig up that photo so you can awww at my pig-tailed cuteness.

Josh and I quickly made friends with a young couple who joined our church several years ago.  Evan & Kristena were just the kind of fun, young, and genuine friends we were hoping for & when they arrived we were so excited.  And, as equally as excited as we were to know them, we were just as saddened as when they moved to Oklahoma.

I have been able to keep up with Kristena little by little on Facebook and on her blog, Thimbly Things.  Kristena is amazingly talented in creating masterpieces out of what others might consider useless or junk.  I asked her if she would be able to create a non-traditional family tree for me to give to my dad & his new wife for their wedding.  Well, I’m happy to say it has arrived!  I am so excited to share more of it with you a little later, but for now, here is a quick shot of the lower half.  Thank you so much Kristena…I LOVE it!

Oh, and for those of you on Etsy, go check out Kristena’s store.  There’s even more amazing treasures in there!

Once, my husband Josh, showed Emma the little Reese’s Pieces trick that Elliott did to E.T.  But, we’ve never shown it to Brooke.  However, as Brooke is always marching to the beat of her own drummer, she seemed to come up with the idea on her own.  Instead she was Elliott, dog food was the Reese’s, and Ruby was E.T.

Ruby is our 8-month old PomChi puppy (that means she’s Pomeranian + Chihuahua).  She gets ignored from time to time, but when the girls pay attention to her she usually eats it up!  Sometimes she gets a little over excited & causes them to run away.  It was the reverse today.  Brooke decided she needed to eat more (isn’t 4 pounds big enough?!?!?) and began placing her dog food in a little line all around the kitchen & dining room.  Emma soon joined in.  I made them contain their genius idea to the kitchen & was able to catch them all in the act.  It’s rare that I have a photo of Ruby, though, because she is always under my feet.  She literally follows me EVERYWHERE I go – no joke.  It gets annoying at times, especially when I trip on her, but it’s nice to have someone look up to you that much.  Ahhh, such responsibilities in raising my dog the right way!

Photos I’ve been looking at: The Pioneer Woman.  Besides being overwhelmingly hilarious, talented, a great mother, a super duper wife, Ree is an awesome self-taught photographer.  I love her work (she also lives in my home state of Oklahoma).  I love her stories.  I like to think we are best friends who’ve never met.  I live in her world when I read her blogs.  I laugh with her, I cry with her, I get frustrated with her.  She’s just so personable & transparent.  It’s no wonder she gets a gazillion comments ALL THE TIME on her blog.  She’s someone I look up to like my little doggie Ruby looks up to me.  *sigh*  Thanks for all you share, Ree.