Sunday, September 14, 2008

Aubrey Rose's dedication

Our sweet little Aubrey Rose was dedicated to the Lord this past Sunday morning. It was such a special day. Wonderful friends and family were there to help celebrate with us. Thank you to everyone who helped make our memories of this special day such a blessing. We are so thankful for Aubrey Rose and for the joy she already has been. Our prayer is that she will continue to let her little light shine and that some day, hopefully at a young, young age, she will make Jesus her Lord and personal Savior. We are so thankful for you Aubrey Rose! You make us smile every day!




We almost make the rainbow in this Smittcamp family picture! Love it!!





Here is a picture of the Penner family. We missed my sister's husband, Aaron, at the celebration. He had a study course out of town this weekend for a HUGE engineering test he is taking in October. He is almost done! Hang in there, Aaron! We are so proud of you!



Aubrey Rose loves her Opa! Opa shared some special words about Aubrey Rose and what this day means to us and to her. These moments are precious memories for me because Aubrey Rose kept looking over at Opa and smiling. (It sure helped that she had just woke up from her nap.) She was definitely all smiles!



These were our table decorations. Linda (Blake's mom) made the flower centerpieces. She is so good at it! She was such a huge help for this party! Thank you so much, Linda, for all you did to help this day be so special!! We could not have done it without you and Bill!



She even made this centerpiece!!! I know...she should be a professional! If peaches ever disappear maybe we will have to open up a floral shop. :-)

Avery Ruth is born!

God brought a new little girl into this world on Friday, Sept. 12. Her name is Avery Ruth Scalzo. Her parents, Dave and Katie, are wonderful friends of ours that we have been friends with for many years. Katie and I met in high school our freshman year. She is such a special friend to me. I would be lost without her!Congratulations to Dave, Katie and Avery's big sister, Grace!




Here is a better picture of Avery's sweet face.

Memories in the peach orchards...

A last minute idea turned out to create such wonderful memories. The other night Blake and I took Aubrey Rose into the peach orchards to snap some pictures of our little sunshine. They turned out so cute. I asked my brother's wife, Allie, if she could come take some pictures for us. I told her she should start a new business. Thanks Allie for taking these awesome shots!!










Happy Birthday Auntie Allie!

We celebrated Auntie Allie's birthday this past week. We are so very thankful for her! We are so fortunate and blessed to have her be such a wonderful friend and also to be family! Allie we hope you know how special you are to us. We love you soooooooooo much!!






This was Jesse's "do I have to be in the picture" smile. I still think the picture is so cute!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Go DOGS!!

Our Fresno State football team had their season opener this past weekend. It was an away game in New Jersey. We beat Rutgers! My family came over to help with the patio, and then we watched the game at home. Blake had to go into the office for awhile but he got to catch the 4th quarter at home, so then I had to get a shot with him and his cheerleader. A special thanks to Auntie Blair for the Fresno State outfit!




My mom looked so cute in the picture, I had to add this one too!


Busy and productive weekend!

Blake has been building a patio for our backyard. He has done a phenomenal job on it. I love it!! Every day when I am in the kitchen, either washing dishes or just looking out my backyard window, I am soooo very thankful God blessed me with a husband that is so talented and so incredibly wonderful. Blake could definitely go into the construction business with how professional this patio is turning out to be. But peaches are oh so yummy, so we will stick to farming. This past weekend he worked on the ceiling, adding the tongue and groove to finish off the look beautifully. It was such a blessing to have help as well! My dad, my brother and Paco (pretty much Blake's 2nd dad who is their #1 guy at Wawona) were so sweet to come out and help Blake make the process a little quicker. Thank you so much for all your help guys! Let me know if anyone is up for a painting party, once it is all complete! :-)

Here are a few pictures. I realized later that I didn't get any pictures of my dad. But it sure was nice of him to be helping as well. Thanks again! And just a side note....it appears, in the pictures, as though my brother was helping....yeah he made sure I waited to take the picture until he picked up the nail gun and stood up on the ladder, to make it appear as though he had been sweating. Thanks to all of them for working so hard to make our new patio look so good!





Blake added 2 skylights, 6 recessed lights, a fan, and flood lights on the ends that light up our backyard as though it is daytime! I am sooooooo proud of him!

Here is Blake and Paco working hard.


Birthdays are so fun!

Birthdays are a perfect excuse to get together...family, friends, you name it, it is so fun. This past weekend Jesse and Allie invited our extended family over to celebrate some birthdays. It started with celebrating my brother Jesse and my cousin Chelsey's birthday, but by the time we got together we just decided this party was for everyone's birthday over the summer. I love my family! There is definitely a lot of laughter when we get together. I realized I didn't take enough pictures. None of the birthday boy, which I probably will get razzled for later (if he even looks on our blog ever), but I did get one with Chels. Aubrey Rose also got to take some more pictures with Christopher, who is my cousins little boy. He was born 10 days before Aubrey Rose. It is so fun to see them together. It gets me so excited to watch our family grow and do life together. We are truly blessed!

Here is Chelsey, the birthday girl! She is so good to my little girl. Thanks for being so wonderful Chels!!



Here is my cousin Luke with Aubrey Rose. Luke, next time we are going to have to work on a smile from Aubrey. But, I think she was trying to tell him that she looooooves him thisssssss much!



Here is Christopher and Aubrey Rose.



I had to add this one! Look at the grip he has on her ear! Hilarious! She is a tough cookie....no crying from her. Just a confused look. :-)



We tried a little photo shoot at home earlier in the day....yeah didn't work out so much this time. But I still thought this picture was worth adding to the blog. The look just says it all! It makes me a little worried about what her personality will be like as she grows up.