MY COUSIN AND HER DAUGHTER WROTE TWO CHILDREN BOOKS

and they are having a giveaway on the Make It and Love It blog.

photo credit make it and take it

These darling books are colorful, large text and fun.  Ashley is in elementary school and loves to write stories and Kim is an artist.  They combined their talents and wrote and illustrated these two books.

Enter the giveaway - (here) at Make it and Take It

Purchase If I Only Knew How To Read - (here) at Amazon or (here) at Barnes & Noble

Purchase If I Only Knew How To Tell Time - (here) at Amazon or (here) at Barnes & Noble

ST. PATRICK'S DAY WEDDING

My beautiful cousin, Kristina, is getting married today to her love, Randy. Can you imagine anything more fun on St. Patrick's Day than going to a wedding? Unfortunately, we can't make it to Utah this weekend to share in their joy, but we're sending lots of love, hugs and kisses from Oregon to the lovebirds.

Speaking of love, I'm in love with their groomal photos by Lindsey Shaun Photography.

IT'S A WONDERFUL DAY TO

celebrate Kim's birthday. Kim is incredibly talented, kind, loving, beautiful inside and out, thoughtful, interesting, interested, is so much fun, has the best sense of humor and if she was in a contest for remembering one-liners and movie quotes she'd win it, hands down.

PS - Do you remember when we found out we were cousins?

VANILLA ICE CREAM COVERED

with chocolate, dripping down arms and legs because it just can't be eaten fast enough in the summer heat.... These boys were completely oblivious to me while I was listening to their conversation about needing to put naughty stuffed animals in jail and that they needed to be the prison wardens because some of them had escape plans...

A SLEEP OVER WITH SEVEN COUSINS

is what happened at our humble abode and they had a blast!
We made chocolate balloon bowls (note - if you don't have air conditioning and your house is hot, put the balloons in the fridge before you pop them)...They were delicious!

Then it was a smorgasbord of water fights, food, movies, games, the ds, laughter, trampoline....

I may have had them lined up on the floor eating lunch while watching a movie.

This photo cracked me up...

THE COUNTDOWN HAS ENDED

and today is the day for Toy Story 3.
We were awake at the crack of dawn to mark off the arrival day by our beyond excited little one and were off for one of the first showings....
Our wee-est one liked sitting on the floor and watching the movie over the shoulders of two strangers...

These two cousins walked out of the theater holding hands while singing, "You've got a friend in me."
Seriously too cute!
I love that they are the best of buds and growing up together.

Fun morning!

WHEN YOU GO TO IOWA,

make sure you save time to go to the Bridges of Madison County...

While you're there you can visit the home of John Wayne.

P.S. Aren't my cousins beautiful...

CARTWHEELS

and other shenanigans may have been happening in the living room...

I'm just sayin' I have a lot of practice to do before June....

CORDOVA PARK OBSERVATION TOWER

is ginormous!
Lots and lots of stairs but a lot of fun and wow, what a beautiful view....

THE TALLEST WORKING WINDMILL IN THE

United States is in downtown Pella.
The Vermeer Windmill was made in Holland and reassembled in Pella.
It's craftsmanship is beautiful and it grinds wheat into flour using the only wind power...

There is a quaint village courtyard behind it and the restored boyhood home of Wyatt Earp is found there....

CLARK TOWER

nestled in Winterset City Park was one of my favorite spots on my awesome Iowa trip...

It's a beautiful view and a super fun city park with a hedge maze, a great playground and gorgeous hiking trails.

Do we have any towers like this in Oregon?

FORGET COUSINS,

We are sisters from another mister.....

I have the most amazingly beautiful family members in Iowa and I had a blast getting to know them.

I felt like I have known them forever and we had the best time!

I have loads of photos, I'll be posting them soon....