Instagram!

I just found the most amazing photography app on my iPhone: "Instagram".  They have several beautiful (pretty exaggerated, but still pretty) filters that make any ol' photo look like a work of art.  Here is an example:

Before

After

So fun!  I can't wait to try it on all the darling photos of the kids!

Unexpected Beauty

A few weeks ago I was pulling weeds in the dirt patch (soon to be a beautiful oasis) in front of our house. I started on one end and worked my way towards the other. As I was about to cut down my final weed I stopped myself.  This one looked different.  There was a sweet fat leaf in the middle of some low vine thing.  I left it thinking it would be pretty for a while till it got all big and scraggly like most weeds do.  Good thing I left it because THIS is what it turned into:

This is the beautiful flower that greeted me this morning on what I almost ripped out as a weed!

The flower starts out as a long tube.  It's empty and looks like like a rolled up leaf.  As time goes by the tube starts filling up until it finally blooms.

This was taken on my iPhone before any flowers bloomed.  I just couldn't believe how big and beautiful my little weed was getting! Now I wish I had taken pictures from day 1.

This is the vine thing that is growing under the shade of the huge leaves.  It grows like crab grass but has these pretty little leaves that almost look like succulents.  I thought this one would get long and scraggly too but as it grows in diameter it also grows in fullness.

So, obviously this is not a weed at all but a big beautiful plant!  I can't wait to see if some sort of vegetable starts growing from the flower.  Does anyone recognize it? Another thing to mention is that  I haven't watered it yet at all.  I put a hose to it this morning and am just hoping that it doesn't kill it!  Who has ever heard of a leafy, flowery plant that doesn't need water?  I will keep you posted on the progress of the flower!

Some NeoGrandma Style

I thought I should post something on my family blog about how I've decided to move "Steph's Stitches" to a blog all its own.  Please welcome,

www.NeoGrandma.com

Along with a pretty blog (getting there at least) all it's own, I've also opened a shop on Etsy.com!  Check out the cool custom button I made...ALL BY MYSELF!

I'm having trouble making the image a link so click HERE to go to the shop.

Go ahead and look around, but don't forget to check back soon cause I'll be making improvements and adding items often!

Unplanned Vacation

 A few weeks ago MarMar decided to take the kids on a special kids only beach vacation.  So we packed them up for a weeks worth of fun and off they went to Pismo. 

Will and I were excited as well because that meant that we got a week to spend together, just the two of us.  Little did we know how soon and how much we would miss our little ones.  It wasn't until the 2nd day that we were planning our own little road trip down to Pismo to say "Hi", have dinner with them and head home. Well, as you may have guessed, what was meant to be a snapshot, ended up as a movie. 

We stayed the night with the kids, Marlene, and her little helper Lily (whom I almost forgot to mention...sweet, sweet daughter of Marlene's friend, loves the kids and the kids love her, and is such a helper without even having to ask...just darling).  The next morning, Marlene and Lily packed up and left Will, the kids, and me to have a spur-of-the-moment family vacation!

The weather was to die for (thanks to Molly's prayers, below), the beach was super sparkly clean, the water was perfect, and there weren't very many people there at all.  Our recipe for fun!  Oh, by the way, all of these pictures were taken on my precious iPhone 4!  I mean really, can you believe it?!

Molly's Recital

My little ballerina just had her very first dance recital!  Last Saturday she skipped onto stage as a sweet little lamb.  Unfortunately, about two minutes before we had to leave I realized that our good camera was out of batteries!  In a panic I tore through the house looking for the charger.  As it usually goes in situations where you need something the most, I couldn't find it.  I did find a charger kit that Will bought a while back that had multiple adapters with it.  So, I stuffed them all in my purse and packed the kids in the truck right on time.  I plugged the random charger in to our adapter (best thing ever!) in the truck and found one that kind of fit.  I had to hold the battery on the whole way there but it charged just enough to give me a few photos.

It's almost time to go in!!

Changing into her ballet shoes

Being a silly little lamb

Molly and one of the other lambs were checking out the "Blue Birds".  After the show I asked Molly what it was like being behind stage the whole time and all she said was "the blue birds were so LOUD!"

 Molly is so excited to start her next dance class in August where she will get to learn the next level of ballet and TAP!  I can't wait to hear those little tap shoes all around the house scratching up our floors.  So worth it!