RAINING ASH!!!

This is what it looks like at my house. It is literally raining ash. There is a fire in Concow and Yankee Hill areas. For some reason we are getting all the ash.

I took this picture looking straight up from my front yard

Our lemon tree is covered.

As well as Charli's play structure.

The skys were just starting to clear up this last week and now we are back to where we started. I actually think it is worse, than when all the fires started. I just hope it all clears soon and we can go out and play. It is summer, you know and we are supposed to be out in the sun, swimming and enoying the long days. Instead we are all cooped up inside like it is winter.

4TH OF JULY IN PORTERVILLE

We spent the 4th in Porterville at the Plumlee's house.

We had such a great time and I don't think any of us wanted to go home.

The kids decided to have a race in Caitlin's grandma's backyard.

Todd lined them all up and layed down the rules and then they took off!!!

Charli, Renton and Keegan eating lunch in the Plumlee's backyard

Charli and Daddy splashing in the pool

Todd and I took a lovely picture of ourselves.

Josh and Tammy were so kind to invite The McGregor's and us to spend the 4th at their house. We took them up on it and had a great time. The Plumlee's have a half acre lot and their backyard was such a great place for the kids to all run around. We never left the house the whole weekend. We pretty much swam, bbqed, played the Wii, napped and watched fireworks from their backyard. It was such a relaxing weekend that I think we all needed. Caitlin was a blast to have as a playmate and sweet Allison was so cute, she turned a month old Sunday. She for sure confirmed that I am ready for another little one! Chad lived in Porterville for a while and we hadn't been back for at least 5 years. Thanks again Plumlee's!!!

"T" FOR TIRED DOGS

Look at how smart Zilba and Leia are!!!

They know how to spell the letter T.

If you haven't heard of William Wegman

check him out

he has the greatest pics of his Weimaraners.

You might have seen his dogs on Sesame Street.

HERE ARE SOME PICS TO GO WITH THE LAST ENRTY

Here is the smoke starting to billow up behind our house.

Chad stood on the roof of our addition to take this picture.

Charli and I getting our makeup done at Gottschalks

for Brooke's wedding

Me getting my hair done for the wedding!!!

Charli getting her hair done for the wedding

My Charli'z booth at Green Baby Expo.

I had Bib'z hanging on a clothes line to the left

Softi'z and Taggi'z hanging on the right side.

I had a clearance basket on the front table and then my crayon roll ups got up out after the sun left my table. It was so hot that I was afraid the crayons would melt if in the sun.

BALLET * EVACUATION * WEDDING * GREEN BABY EXPO

I finally can take a breath!!! This upcoming weekend is my first weekend that I don't have any plans. We have been going non stop this month. I am really looking forward to doing nothing for a while. So here it goes: June 7th was Charli's ballet performance. Her class was ladybugs and it was a great performance. She was such a pro this time around because she went through this last year. So this year it all came back to her and she did an amazing job.
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Thursday June 12th at 4:00pm we were evacuated from Paradise, along with half our town, due to the Humboldt Fire that took out over 23,000 acres. There were around 80 homes lost. I do not know anyone personally that lost a home but I do know of people that lost homes. We evacuated at 4:00pm and got into Chico at 7:50pm. it was the longest drive to Chico that i have ever made and I never want to do it again. The only way to get to Chico at that time was to take Pentz Rd, get on 70 to 149 and then to 99. They had closed Durham Pentz Rd because the fire was starting to surround Butte College. It was quite the ordeal, when we were leaving the fire was about 2 to 3 miles from our house but in order for it to reach our house a lot of homes would be burned. So we felt confident that our house was fine. The wind that day was not good and the firefighters actually considered the fire "out of control". We finally were able to go home on Sunday. I felt like we were on an unwanted vacation, the whole weekend was strange. But I am glad that we had Brooke and Jake's wedding to focus, that was planned for that Saturday.
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June 14th was Brooke Svalberg and Jake Well's wedding, Or as we call them "The Svell's". Long story but these two had a bit of bad wedding luck. Over all everything turned out amazing. They got married at a church in Chico. Their original reception site double booked on them. So this last February we all scrambled to find a new reception site that would hold 300 guests. Tuscan Ridge Golf course seemed do-able. So they booked the place. Needless to say Tuscan became surrounded by flames and we had to find another site. Last minute we found a beautiful site in Durham. It was a private home with a lake and beautifully landscaped. Charli and I were honored to be a part of the wedding party, that included 9 bridesmaids and 9 groomsmen, 5 flowergirls and 3 ring bearers.
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June 21st was The Green Baby Expo!!! I was a part of that day and it really turned out great. This was my first time having a craft booth with my Charli'z products. About 4000 people attended and I received a great response from people about my products. There are plans for a second expo next year and I am very interested to be a part of that. I sewed for the last couple months to build up my stock and was very pleased with what I was able to accomplish. If you are interested you can check out my Etsy store where I sell my products. www.charliz.etsy.com
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My computer is being funky so I can't post any pictures but hopefully soon I will post some on here of the Expo.

NEW FABRIC!!!

I bought some new fabric today!!!

I snuck into the quilt store while Charli was at her first preschool class.

Green camo for my boy Softiz and Taggiz

These two coordinating green I plan to use to cover my table at

Green Baby Expo, just to give my table some added color.

I have been eyeing this Volkswagen Van fabric for quite some time now

The quilt store had these two fabrics and the green ones,

on sale for 50% off.

It was like buy one get one free!!!

Couldn't pass that up.

"IN THE FOREST"

Charli and her ballet class, The Ladybugs!!!

All the kids after the performance

Look at that big group!!!

Kinetic's Academy of Dance, put on another great performance

The theme this year was "In the Forest"

All the kids were so cute and did such a great job.

This was Charli's second time around and she was so much more confident this go round.