"one"derful!

Today marks a year when in the wee hours of the morning our sweet boy was born. He was laid in my arms and for the third time in my life I thought I'd never seen anything more precious. To think, after our miscarriages we decided to try just once more. And look at what God's gracious hand gave us. We know he is a gift. He belongs to God, as do our other kids. He is not ours to selfishly hold on to, but it raise up to bring glory to Him. I'm just so incredibly grateful that He chose us, in His perfect plan, to have such precious gift. Thank you, Lord.

Ethan, you are:

• My sweet rascal. You are laid back, yet determined. I don't know how those two character traits coexist, but you pull it off! Curious should be your middle name.
  
• You are a jokster. You tease me already in your own little way.
  
• I love it when you smile and crinkle your nose. Oh, it warms my heart!
• You love the outdoors more than any other place! Absolute glee exudes from you when we step outside to play.
  
• You are quite the conversationalist. I love your jibber-jabber.
• I cherish our snuggle time. Your silky hair on my cheek is good medicine.
• ...and your laugh is music.

Happiest of birthdays to you! We love you!

11 Months...And So It Begins.

It really all started yesterday. First, two separate attemps at four steps each, then nine. He still prefers crawling, but occasionally I catch him taking a few careful steps on his own. I'm excited, proud... and maybe just a tiny bit sad. How can my baby be almost a year old? I'm so grateful for him. What a sweet addition to our family!

Five

On Sunday, Lydia turned five. Oh my! How time just scoots along.
We had a simple family celebration earlier in the day and then with our house church
family in the evening.

Upon waking, she donned the purple crown I made her last year and did not remove it until bedtime. She requested spaghetti for dinner and a chocolate cake with light purple frosting. Overall, I would say her day was a success!

Our sweet babysitter, M, brought Lydia an Aurora Princess Baby.
She's in love.

Some of your favorite things:

Color- purple
Food- spaghetti, oatmeal and french fries
Activity- swinging, twirling, racing your "car" down the driveway
Theme- princesses, fairies

Lydia,

My precious daughter.
You are a great blessing and it is an honor to be your mom. It's been a joy to watch you grow the past five years. My heart melts at your tenderheartedness, yet you have spunk! I love your silly moments... and there are many. You are my sweet girl and I am so thankful you were chosen by Him to be a part of our family. I pray that He will enable me to be a mom who will show you what it is to love Jesus and to love others.

yours forever,

momma

A Robot, Fairy and a Kiss

Last night the kids had such a great time! There was a major countdown going on
here until the moment we stepped out the door.The fairy and the robot, all ready to go.

And of the course, my Hershey kiss who was forced to come along the big event.
He was quite a trooper.

And the only thing he's guilty of melting is my heart.

On a side note, I wanted to share this fun frosting recipe. It's very sweet, so it would
best be paired with a dark chocolate cookie or a cookie that's not overly sweet itself.

Spiderweb Icing:

3 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp corn syrup (I would like to try honey or brown rice syrup next time)
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp + 4 tsp milk (separated)
2 Tbsp cocoa, sifted (Trust me, it's worth the effort)

Blend sugar , corn syrup, vanilla and 3 Tbsp milk plus 2 tsp milk until smooth. Remove 1/3 cup icing and stir in cocoa and remaining 2 tsp milk. Transfer chocolate frosting to a baggie. Snip the corner. Ice cookies with vanilla icing. Beginning at the center, pipe a spiral of chocolate icing onto the cookie. With a knife tip or a toothpick, drag through the spiral to create a web pattern. Let stand until set.

10 Months

Do not let this mellow look fool you!

There is a spunky, very curious, active little boy emerging with each new day.
Still as precious as ever though.

Summer Favorites: Silly

The kids making their scariest faces two weeks ago.
Pretty cute villains, huh?!

Lydia's drawings named: Scary Cat and Mean Dog. I'll say!

These are pictures from a night when we all just randomly started
making funny faces at each other during dinner.
I'm not sure how much food we actually ate.

As Ethan was learning to crawl, one of my favorite things he would do is strike
random "yoga" poses and just hold them. Gotta admire his strength!

These pictures bring a smile to my face every time I see them. I love random, silly moments of
life. They help bring perspective to the more stressful side of life!

Summer Favorites: Faces

There were so many things I wanted to blog about this summer and somehow it never happened. So I wanted to take the next few posts to share my favorite pictures from the past few months.

A rare close-up of the man who leads us along.

Hard at work, black knee highs and all!

Sweet little face peeking out.

Pure joy.

Really Mom? Could you lay off the photo shoots?

This was an outfit Lucas proudly picked out for himself one morning. I'm not sure what I like more, the tie or the shirt tucked into his shorts.

Oh, I could melt into those sweet baby blues.

Double sweetness.

Projects from the Summer

(Please pardon Blogger's weird spacing of my photos and such...not sure what's going on.)

This summer has been full of projects for friends and family who were having babies.  I made three nursing covers...

This is the cover I made for my SIL, Katie:












The green one I ended up keeping for myself:

Here is my favorite one.

 My SIL, Katie, hired me to make a cover for one of her friends.  She wanted something neutral so I chose linen with a few of my favorite neutral quilting fabrics.

























These are my replication of some fabulous burp cloths my sister, Katie made for me when Ethan was born.  I have loved them so much I asked her if I could make a few to give as gifts.  If you are looking for a great gift to give at a baby shower you should check out Katie's burp cloth sets.  They are incredibly soft!

 

My favorites.  I love a fancy embellishment.

And these fabric cubes take the cake.  Katie (my SIL) hired me to make these also.  I was so pleased with how they turned out.  I love the fabric color combination.  I hope the momma and baby who received these loved them too!
Thanks to my family, I also had the opportunity and blessing to make jam and can peaches, salsa and tomatoes. I was also able to put some corn in the freezer for the coming winter. It's a lot of work, but there is so much satisfaction that comes along with it, especially when you can taste summer in the middle of winter :)

(Just love the color of these peaches and jam)

So, that sums up most of my craftiness this summer.  This winter I REALLY want to focus on quilts for the kids rooms.  I've been talking about it and thinking about since I was pregnant with Lucas.  Think it's time I did something about it?  I hope I have some progress to share before the year is out.

9 Months

I promise this blog isn't all about Ethan!  Although, in my opinion he is cute enough to have a blog all about him ;)  It's just been so crazy the past few months I haven't taken the time to blog about anything else!

Bub-Bubs, as I like to call him, hit the 9 month mark today and it blows me away how quickly time has passed!  My sweet boy is crawling like a mad man, following me everywhere.  He's pulling up and has a mouth full of precious little teeth... and the pediatrician told me yesterday he is getting his one year molars already.  Code for high alert for biting, for this momma!  Everyday, I'm am reminded of what a precious gift and addition he is for our family.  I am so, so thankful for him.

In other news, we have finally kicked off our first official year of homeschooling.  We are doing a mix of Classical Conversations through a local coop and Sonlight.  I know a lot of moms turn the CC work into full time curriculum, but I decided to put emphasis on Sonlight and we are really enjoying it so far.  We are also incorporating Math-U-See and Explode the Code.  Since I'm kind of a newbie I may find that we are taking on too much, but that's the beauty of it all. We can tweek things as we go.

In other great news, I recently put my notice into work to change my hours to per diem.  For now I will work every Monday, but I'm so excited to grab my Fridays' back for my family.  This has been a goal for us since Lucas was born 6 years ago and we were now finally approved for an individual insurance policy.  I can't believe we are finally to this point!  Eventually we may get to the point where I can work even less.

I miss blogging so much!  I'm hoping I'll be able to post more frequently soon.  I have a few posts that are partially finished just to show some of the things that went on around here the past couple months.

A Delicious 7 Months...

Couldn't you just eat him up?

A Mistake with a Sweet Ending

Lately, Lydia has been asking to have her hair cut. We decided last night that today was the day. I offered to take her somewhere to have it cut, but she insisted that she wanted me to do it... and, I'm sure you can figure out where this is going.

She said she wanted her hair to look like her friend H's hair. I convinced her we should try shoulder length first and then cut it shorter if we decided we wanted to. Right after I reminded myself to make sure she didn't have her head tilted I made my first cut. And, well, her head was tilted. So much for shoulder length! So, I tried to fix it, but I kept making it worse. (Are you laughing yet, Jenn? It sounds oddly familiar, doesn't it? Sorry again about your 8th grade bangs!). Needless to say, I made an emergency appointment with a local salon and they swooped in and saved the day. I was pleased to find she didn't have to do too much trimming to even out my mistakes. BUT, I learned my lesson. I will not be cutting her hair at home again.

She looks sweet. And the style complements her tiny little face, so overall it turned out to be a good mistake!

Before: (OK, so I do miss her long hair a little bit.)

After:

(my haircut)

(salon haircut)

Because It Is That Good...

(Just a random favorite spot in my flower garden)

My sweet friend, Amber, posted a link to this article. It was so timely and so convicted
my heart. It may not be as effective for you, but this mom is guilty of putting "important"
things ahead of my children. Really, what is more important than
investing in the very precious blessings the Lord has graciously given me?!
I wanted to post the link on my blog as well because as I said, it is THAT good!

A Few of My Favorites...

Vintage Princess

My Favorite Boys

Best of Friends

Generations (my dad... love you!)

The Light in His Eyes