See these beautiful children? 
I love them all (of course especially the ones on the far right!). 
And I love them because I love their mommies. 
Big time. 
The ladies that instruct and guide these little ones to help them become all they can be,
have encouraged me.
The ladies that listen to the same stories over and over again,
have truly listened to me.
The ladies that wipe tears from the eyes of these little ones,
have comforted me. 
The ladies that say bedtime prayers each night with these little ones,
have prayed for me.
I see the mommies in each one of these children and that is why I love them so.

Thanks for a wonderful weekend friends- looking forward to having the other two three kiddos join us next time!

Valley Crafters

This is where we spent a good bit of time at the Walking Lazy M. Not so easy to sew with a baby in your arms, but we made it happen. Leighton looks like I'm giving her a lesson, like any second she's going to say, "I think I got it Mom, let me give her a try." (Please note my hair is not black, just greasy, I hadn't showered at this point. Also please note the amazing decor of Steph's throwback kitchen- I love it!))

We even got the big girls involved with a little embroidery. We just let them draw a picture with a transfer pen (the rainbow was a great starter with only 6 lines) and then taught the back-stitch and the were sewing like pros.

Our biggest project was saved for after hours when the kiddos were all asleep. Improv pillow case dresses I like to call them. Super easy and fun. We tried to follow a cheesy tutorial but the internet connection was so slow we ended up watching it after we were done to make sure we did it right. I have to saay ours turned out better- french seams and all.

Wooby

This weekend the girls and I drove up to Encinitas to meet up with Mandy and Ruby. I love getting together with my old friends and seeing them with their kids. It is so unreal to think that enough time has gone by in our lives that we have kids that are starting school. I wish we could see each other more often and that our kids could become as good of friends as we are. Its weird to think that we are leading such similar lives all over the country...getting up with crying babies, spending days at the park, washing piles of laundry, playing games, making lunches, kissing little faces... if only we were closer...

Auntie Mandy

So Mandy was the first of the aunties to meet little Leighton. Every time I'm with her I'm reminded of how much I love that girl! One of my favorite Mandy quirks was in full effect when I put Leighton in a velour jacket and Mandy had to create a "barrier" for her skin with her sweatshirt on behalf of her dislike of all things velour/velvet/velevteen.