Black&White

 

Double Black&White Themed Bridal Shower

for two upcoming weddings from our Bible Study group

Hannah & Autumn

 

A joyous time together with conversation, prayer, games, gifts, treats, and pretty little details :)

Such beautiful friends inside and out to share life with!

 

 

 

 

Having some fun with pics of the brides-to-be: one wedding in May and one in August.

~Eliza

thankful

Everyday we're surrounded by blessings that we often take for granted.

Setting aside a day of Thanksgiving helps refocus on what really matters and to remember to thank God daily for what he has given us and to ask how we can be a blessing to others.

 

...

 

Four batches of our family traditional lefse has been prepared and taste-tested last weekend,

a giant turkey has been thawing for days,

a pumpkin cheesecake is chilling in the fridge tonight,

the house is almost clean and ready,

family members are making preparations to travel

and

the family feast tomorrow can't come soon enough :)

 

 

 

end of June

 

 

Summer's flying by so far.

But then again, so is life lately.

 

We are loving the moments we spend together in this busy season and I'm once again reminded of how much I love my family :)

Time spent with grandparents and celebrating birthdays have filled our past few weekends.  My camera hasn't been out of its case much lately, but this picture captures life and memories at Grandma & Grandpa's pretty well.  Good food, the best of company, and sun shining in through the windows.  Grandpa Tingy and Grandma Shirley spent some time visiting last weekend and we enjoyed time together eating birthday cake, just being together, and watching old home videos of when we were little.

 

 

 

Our garden, grown entirely from seed this year, is finally filling out with the rain and sun these past few days.  We even ate our first few snap peas tonight.   These pictures were from awhile ago, and everything's much bigger now, with the exception of our now non-existent cucumber crop.  Oh well, not everything will be perfect.  Checking on its progress is a pretty regular occurrence at our house... maybe that's why it's taking so long to grow? ;)

 

 

Eliza

 

This morning's Brunch

I started this post yesterday and almost didn't post it becuase it seems to focus on the food and decorations, when the best part of the brunch was the lovely group of friends :)
Then, I decided to post it anyway with a note of thanks for these wonderful people in my life.
It's truly a blessing to know each and every one of you!

 

{ fruit & granola yogurt parfaits - ribbon bacon - mini quiche - cinnamon roll cake - breakfast punch - inspiration for some of the menu here - verse on chalkboard: Psalm 63:3 }

 

Amy and I had been wanting to host a little party in honor of a few friends

who are getting married this summer...

so we decided on combining our creative instincts to put together a brunch where we could come together for a time of good food, fellowship, and prayer.



 

 

 

{ the food table - minus the bacon and quiche, still in the oven }

 

 



 

 

~Eliza

Celebrate Summer!

{finally got the formatting of this post to work - written early in July!}

 

This year I thought it would be fun to throw a party to celebrate summer with our Bible Study friends.  It's such a blessing to have a group of friends who love the Lord and desire to seek Him more and more!

We had a great time eating as much as we could, walking and talking by the river, then enjoying a movie together.

fruit sailboat - inspiration: bhg.com magazine

Yes, the kabobs are on fire.

When I opened the grill and saw the sticks were burning - which, by the way, I was warned of since I had not known to soak the sticks for hours before - first thing I did was grab the camera ;)  I figured they're already burning...might as well let them finish cooking, right?

To top it off, we ate Strawberry Shortcake (recipe here) for dessert! 

~Eliza

Welcome to the family Drew!

A family wedding and getaway weekend.  It was so much fun!  We will definitely remember this time together for years to come...

It was the first cousin to be married and that makes one-fourth of the cousins' weddings over and done.  Yes, we know - small family!  But it certainly makes for a close-knit one.

~Eliza

Feeling like Spring!

We were blessed with a beautiful, warm and sunny morning for our

Spring Party!

 Our Spring Party Treats:

{recipe here}

 It's always so much fun to spend time together with such great friends!

~Eliza

In Grandma's Kitchen

Lefse Day

A day I look forward to every year. 

And each year, it seems to get harder to fit in between our ever increasingly busy schedules.  It is truly a blessing to spend these hours with Grandma, talking and laughing together and making delicious treats for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We keep Grandma busy cleaning up after us as we mix and roll, making a mess of flour.  As for Grandpa, we often keep him busy running uptown for missing ingredients!  We all love it and hope to continue it for many more years.

 

At the end of the afternoon, we had made 3 1/2 batches (70 lefse)!  We managed to whip up a batch of flatbread again this year too, even with our short timeline.  Makes Mom happy...it's one of her favorites along with a cup of coffee!

 

~Eliza