Red, white, and blue skewers!

We recently made these fruit and marshmallow skewers and they were such a fun treat and PERFECT for this time of year!

 Always have my helper with me!

 She made about fifteen and then she was ready to just sit with the marshmallow bag...❤︎

We have already made these, or some variation of these, a few times and they are always a favorite!

(Pineapple, bananas, and blackberries are also very fun!)

YAY!

We are in Shaver Lake for our family vacation!  

Long live summer!

Grandma Pierce

On June 17, 2016, our Grandma Pierce went home to be with Jesus.  

I have been looking through pictures and couldn't help sharing my absolute favorites!

We always stopped by to see them on our way to Santa Maria:

Meeting Ryder:

 Meeting Eden:

And celebrating special birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries together were always huge highlights:

These were two of our most recent pictures that we had and I just loved them so much:

We recently came together as a family and celebrated her life and the legacy that she had left behind...

 Kit read scripture and and then shared about who Grandma was to him...

 Kit was so excited to get a few images of her bible.  For as long as he could remember, it was out and open on their dining table...

 With grandpa...

My parents came to help us celebrate her life...

It was sweet to have them there...

A few days later we met at the graveside:

 It was my kid's first graveside experience...

 Kit lead a time of scripture reading and time of remembrance...

 Then we went to one of her favorite spots for lunch... 

I have said this before, but though Kit was the one that could claim her as his biological grandmother, she always treated me as one of her own.   I never felt like I "married in." So for 17 years, she was my grandma too and that, in addition to her love for her Savior, is what makes her legacy so incredible: She loved people well and deep and true.  We will miss her terribly, but we are so thankful that she is home with her Jesus.  However, we will still be homesick for her and every time we go to Santa Barbara and we pass their turn off, I will wish that we could stop for a visit, that begins with juice and cookies and ends with an ice cream drumstick, and is filled with amazing conversation and love.  I will be homesick for her, but am so thankful that we can rest in the joy that we will see her again.

our first day of summer vacation...

Well, our first day of summer really felt like summer because it hit 105 degrees!  Kit headed out for a staff retreat, so knowing that it would be that warm, we made many INDOOR plans that lead to a really FUN day!

Special cinnamon roll waffles:

 They were really tasty!

 Then I pulled up some lego projects for Ryder on Pinterest like this one!

 He LOVED it!

 Nailed it!❤︎

 We had a lunch playdate with his buddy from school and it was so fun to sit and talk in the airconditioning while the kiddos ran around and played!

 After naps we headed to dinner at In-N-Out

And finished the night with a movie showing of Meet the Robinsons, snuggled up with chocolate covered berries.  Summer, we are pretty excited you are here!

in a pickle...

Our garden has been growing like crazy!  One of our favorite things has been our pickling cucumbers:

 I ALWAYS have a helper when this kid is around...

 

We have been playing with recipes for pickles!

We are having so much fun experimenting and though we have tried a few recipes, we are still having fun coming up with the perfect pickle recipe for our family.

Fashion according to Eden: Accessories

This little girl can hang with the boys and is as tough as nails, but she is also as girly as can be and loves to wear necklaces, bracelets, purses, rings... Pretty much anything that she thinks could "enhance" an outfit...

Since she has a little jewelry collection going, I decided to make an organizer for her to use so that she could access them easily and they wouldn't get tangled.

I had this frame from a garage sale: 

 I used this metal sheet from Home Depot and cut it to size: 

 And sprayed it with my favorite yellow spray paint that I had on hand: 

And reused the frame wire and nails from the frame to keep it in place:

And then used magnet hooks that I had gotten when I made my first magnet board for Ryder.

We hung it in her room, low enough so that she could easily get to it:

She is SO excited about it and has the best time playing with her little treasures...❤︎