A dress made by Nana

So, apparently reitrement suits Nana-she has time to not only make a dress for Linden, but to color a drawing of her in the dress! This beautiful dress came in the mail today from Nana- take a look at the special note that was with it! A drawing of Linden in the dress! Pretty cute stuff from Nana! Thanks for the lovely dress- it's beautiful!

Linden playing mailman

popcicle

This is after Brett had to take the popcicle away and give it back to her......

I asked Linden to "smile" and this is the new face I get!

She loves her some popcicles!

two-two

I can honestly say that two is wonderful. And whoever started saying "oh, those terrible twos" must have had a terror for a child! Linden has so much fun these days and is smiling 99% of the time, it' such a joy to see her so happy.
I was making this "tu-tu", I mean "two-two' for a friend of mine and tried it on Linden, not knowing that I can now never take it off! Brett had to catch her in the yard and peel it off her.

Quinlan

Quinlan, originally uploaded by lhphotostyle.

Here's a photograph of Quinlan I took yesterday while MB and I were hanging out.

Dinner with Quinn

We grabbed dinner at The Counter with the Pederson's last night- they are finally back from all their travels! Linden was giving hugs and kisses to Quinn. He's really walking around now- it was great to see the kids together!

roadtrip with Bajoon

We were hanging out yesterday waiting for Tira to come over and Linden decided to take a little roadtrip with Bajoon. Don't worry- they wore their seatbelts....

Kara's baby shower in Walnut Creek

The burp-cloths that I made matched Kara's dress to a tee! I need to make her some more to match her other burping outfits!

Kara and her lovely Mom!

Kara's Mom hosted a beautiful baby shower for Kara in Walnut Creek on Saturday. We had a wonderful lunch and the company was great! Kara is due with her 2nd girl on Linden's Birthday (Aug 26) and I could not be more excited to meet another wonderful Casey girl! Avery and Linden have become great freinds and now they will have a little baby to take care of too!
Kara is my dearest friend here, in California and our friendship means the world to me. I love chatting with her on the phone for hours when the girls are asleep, getting together whenever we can and sharing wonderful memories with our daughters. I am looking forward to Kara being on Maternity leave- she better not have her early! (Avery was 2 weeks early!)

Getting a little "artistic"

Here are some pics with some textures over them.....

afro

afro, originally uploaded by lhphotostyle.

here's a pic of Bajoon's ever growing afro!

Uncle Mike comes to town! ( from Wisconsin)

Walking to the Island with the boys!

With Grace- Gigi's sis at The Island

Reading the paper in the am with "Papa's bruder"

Uncle Mike came in on Wednesday and we got to go out for dinner and hang out and he crashed- litterally- at our place for the nite. He called me around 5 pm on Wednesday and said "Hey! I am at Left Bank having a beer!" I said, "do you want to come over and have a beer with us???????" It's such a Salerno thing to do- bar hop while on "vacation". He came over and we went to Nola's in Palo Alto for dinner- thanks Uncle Mike! Linden got some beads.
Then I was hosting "popcicle night" in our neighborhood- at "The Island" ( a circle island down the street). So he got to meet some neighbors and we headed home to finish off two bottles of wine and chat about old times and all things Wisconsin!
It was so lovely to have him here- a peice of home, at our home.

Playdate with Gigi

I have been working pretty much for the past 5 weeks or so- which feels like forever for a "freelancer" and Linden has been saying "gigi's house?" for a while now. So we fit in babyswap since I only worked Wednesday and Thursday this week. It was lovely to see the girls together again. Gigi noticed Lindy-loo's ponytail and she had to have one of her own too! And we had a chance to slide into the pool- watch the video!

Martha Martha Martha

So I have had my eye on this Martha Stewart Chair at Macy's for a while and I've seen it in magazines and I just LOVE it! We're planning on putting it in Linden's "Big Girl Room" once she moves downstairs. It's simply lovely.

A gift from Tira

Tira painted this portrait of Linden and it's simply stunning. We love that it embodies Linden perfectly! It's actually from a photograph that I took, too! Thank you so very much- it's a beautiful painting and we'll cherish it forever.
Check out her site @ www.tirahightower.com

Swinging at the Hardware store

Everytime we go to the hardware store Linden likes to sit on this very swing. If the swing wasn't soo ugly, we would have to get it- Linden loves it soo much. For some reason it reminds me of Deliverance or something creepy from the South.....

Linden's New Trike

We got a new pedal trike for Linden- she's learning how to get around on her own now! BIG girl!

Happy Birthday America

We headed downtown Menlo Park for the 4th of July parade and celebration. It was so much fun and we got to be in out first parade! There was a bounce house and face painting- Linden sat so still when she got the stars on her face.
Then we had The Smith's over for an "adult-dinner"- with no kids! I baked the American Flag cake and Linden got to taste the frosting- she LOVED it!