SIX years!!!!

Dear Josie,

On March 16, 2008, you became our daughter.

We want you to know that we've  been blessed beyond measure on the day that you came into our family.

You've given us the joy of a lifetime.   

You've made our family complete.   

We can't imagine our family without our two amazing daughters.

 Happy six years together!  Happy Family Annivesary!

March 16, 2008

March 16, 2014

  

Saying goodbye to the backyard rink...

We've had our backyard ice rink operational since the weekend after Thanksgiving.

 It's gone through several enhancements this winter including"festive" lighting.

Although the snow piles are still lingering, the quality of the ice is hard to maintain now.

 Unless something drastically changes with the weather, I think we're officially done as of March 13, 2014.

Here's a very very short video of both girls shot this past Sunday.

 In this video, you'll see that Emma has mastered the waltz jump.  Pretty cool.

 You've been a great rink (thank you Chris) and now we're ready to start enjoying outdoor spring activities.    

Goodbye snow!

You're welcome to leave now!
  

Is any bunny home?

I started working on another miniature project while I was home recovering.

It's a little yellow cottage filled with Easter surprises. 

 I'm not ready for the full reveal yet, but I wanted to share a sneak peek.

Happy spring dreaming!
 

My Shamrocks & Shirley Tree

My package arrived on Friday from my Secret Leprechaun! Isn't this Leprechaun box wonderful? 

Shirley (from Zetta's Aprons) really outdid herself.

My darling box was just filled with all sorts of lovely little packages.

A gorgeous tag, mischievous Leprechauns, chocolate candies and fun tag bunting.

I've never decorated my year-round tree for St. Patrick's before and it's now full of shamrocks, Shirley's special gifts and other things that I put together in my craft room.

My tree topper is an Irish hat.

Shirley's Leprechauns look right at home.

I purchased the pin and miniature Leprechaun on Etsy.

Thank you Shirley!  I love it all!  Whenever I look at my St. Patty's tree, I'll be thinking of YOU!

Thank you for hosting such a fun secret swap, Viv!

Finally...an estate sale!

Chris and I finally attended an estate sale last weekend.

 It's been months since I've attended any decent estate sales.

 With the extreme winter weather, there just haven't been many in our area.

This one was held in a farm house and all the items were half off.

I always gravitate to the toys and holiday items.  

We've been on the hunt for wooden folding chairs to use in our potting shed structure under the tree house.  These chairs will hang on the walls of the potting shed, when they aren't in use.

These framed pictures were one of my favorite finds.

I've already hung the beach print in our beach-themed bath/laundry room.  I think we're all dreaming of playing in warm sand right now. 

Of course, a knee-hugger witch and a few Halloween floral picks also needed to be rescued.

My second favorite find were the hard cover books.

I remember reading the Funny Bunny and the Golden Egg book.

Although blogger has decided to turn the pictures sideways, the graphics are absolutely wonderful and perfect for Easter spring-time crafting!

The Easter candy is scary old, but I might use the bunnies for crafting.  Aren't the egg cups fun?

We're almost through the end of the work week. I did ease back into my job from medical leave working partial days this week.  A few tests results came back that explain why I haven't been feeling super duper. I'm used to running 100 miles an hour (with energy to spare) and I'm just not there yet. A couple more tests are scheduled and then hopefully, I can be done with doctors for a while.  I will say, it's been good to be back at work thinking about different things.   Happy soon-to-be weekend!