Brothers On Maps
6 days ago
31 January 2011
28 January 2011
We've been so busy soaking up our time with Groovy (whose plane landed safely in Nashville, by the way!) right now that there just hasn't been time for much else.
Well, except getting to flit around in my sewing room without the responsibility of caring for small children! Who wants to play with Mommy when Groovy is here?! (Hazel does. She's a Mama's girl. But to Oliver, Groovy is the sun and the moon!)
While Oliver was at school this morning and Hazel was napping, I enjoyed getting my own special time with Groovy while she helped me re-fold and sort by color all my messy stacks of fabric. I think we could have spent all morning in there with all the pretty colors. We're kindred spirits like that. (Note to self: share photos - it's so pretty now!!)
Since I don't have much to offer today in the photo department, I offer you a bit of video footage from lunch yesterday: Hazel learning to clap!
Have you every seen a smarter or cuter baby girl? :) (All you Mamas of little girls out there are saying, "YES!! My baby girl!" That's okay, it's our job to dote on our littles!)
Have a lovely weekend, Friends! I'll work on getting some photos of my progress in the sewing room and you can also look forward to some really great giveaways next week!
26 January 2011
We woke up this morning to yet another snowy scene. Looks like we're going to take our day slow and cozy inside with lots and lots of hot chocolate.
(And I'll take all my photos from bed because it's the warmest place to be!)
We're happy with another snow day just as long as the roads clear up in time for us to pick up Groovy from the airport tonight! Yes, we get Ryan's Mom all to ourselves for five whole days!!! Come soon and safely, Groovy!
Happy snowy day, friends!
(The Little Town Boutique giveaway will close at noon today and a winner will be announced shortly thereafter. You still have time to enter!)
24 January 2011
Comments closed - the winner of the Little Town Boutique item of your choice is:
Don't forget that the 10% "findingmyfeet" discount is still good through midnight tonight (Wednesday) so be sure to use it at their shop today if you plan to!
Hello friends!
I have a fun Monday surprise for you this morning - I get to host a giveaway for my favorite headband shop! Do y'all remember Little Town Boutique? I've posted about them here, here and here. And if you don't remember that, you're likely to be familiar with their work if you've seen any photos of Hazel in the past ten months. They're our favorite bald-baby-head solution!
What's up for grabs: Pick any 1 item from their shop for free!
A winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday and this time you get two different ways to enter (this means you can enter up to two times!)
Here's what to do:
1. Check out their shop and take a look around. Come back here and tell me what you like!
2. Visit and "like" their Facebook page. (And I mean that in the Facebook sense, not the mild affinity sense.)
Be sure to leave a SEPARATE comment for EACH entry!
Please include a way for me to contact you in case you win!
And a discount code: While you're browsing around at their shop, feel free to use the discount code "findingmyfeet" for 10% off your entire order - good through Wednesday as well.
Enjoy this fun Monday giveaway and have a lovely week, friends!
23 January 2011
Today is an important day.
It's an important day to many people because it is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, but it carries special meaning for our family because it is also the third anniversary of the day our lives changed forever.
We know that God creates each of our children with a purpose. And we know that that purpose is to bring Him glory and to enjoy Him forever. Three years ago today (I cannot believe it's been three years already!) we arrived at our ultrasound appointment, 20 weeks pregnant and hoping to catch a glimpse of our sweet baby. But we got more than that. Our sovereign God gave us the first small glimpse of what he was going to do in our lives - of how he was working out His plan in our daughter's life, and in her death.
We learned that the baby I carried in my womb was not going to be what we expected. We learned that God had lovingly made her heart with only two chambers. She only needed two chambers to do what he made her to do. We learned that her life would be short. We learned to love hard and fast and like every day was a gift.
A year after Evie's diagnosis I shared the video footage of the ultrasound from that day. On that first anniversary we chose not to focus on death, but on the precious life that was still somersaulting inside of me just one year ago. I love to watch that video and remember her alive and kicking - she was a feisty one!
What a lovely day to observe, as a nation, the Sanctity of Human Life, and to give thanks to the One Who shapes each of us as He sees fit to carry out His perfect will.
Thanks be to God for the life that he gives!
In an effort to observe this day and what it stands for, I would love for you all to share your little lives-to-be-celebrated here with me. If you or someone you love has lost a child through miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion or infant loss, I want to invite you to name that child here (write anonymously if you'd like). They are a part of the Plan, and their lives - however brief they may have been - give glory to our Maker.
They LIVED, friends! And because of the hope of the cross, we can one day worship our Creator alongside these little ones that we love and miss.
20 January 2011
Some of y'all had some questions for me in the comments of my last post. You'll be glad to know that I try to respond to your questions whenever I can. Your best bet is to have an email address connected to whatever account you use to comment (I can just respond directly to you nice and tidy-like!). But if I can't respond to you by email, I try to respond to your questions by leaving a comment also and addressing it to you.
Y'all were asking today about how we got Hazel to sleep through the night and if I could make and sell those darling ruffle bloomers in my Etsy shop. The answer to the former question can be found in the comments section of my last post and to the latter the answer is: Yes! I checked with the copyright stipulations of the pattern and I am allowed to make them for sale in my Etsy shop. Yay! So, if you want a pair for your daughter/niece/granddaughter or for a gift, just contact me through my Etsy shop and I'll be so happy to work with you!
And since I hate to write a post without pictures, AND since I have so many darling photos to share, I'll close with another shot of this 10-month-old girl I'm rather fond of.
Have a lovely Friday, friends!
Ten months old already!
In the past month, our dear Hazel, you have:
- become a pickier eater! You now don't like cauliflower, broccoli or applesauce. So funny since you used to eat just about anything. But I suppose you were bound to start developing food preferences eventually.
- been very content just to crawl wherever you want to go and like learning to walk just about as much as you like cauliflower.
- demonstrated an enormous interest in babies and dolls. You could spend hours in the doll aisle at Target if we let you.
And the very best thing you have accomplished in the past 30 days?
Dear daughter, you are FINALLY sleeping through the night!
That's right. 7pm to 7am, then a quick moment of nursing and back in bed until breakfast at 8. Oh, how I love my REM sleep! It has been a long ten months and I am so thrilled to be finally sleeping through the night right along with you!
Love you baby girl! We are so proud of you!
and since you'll ask...
Headband by Little Town Boutique
Shirt from Target
Bloomers made by me, sewing pattern by TieDyeDivas
Boots from Hoolie Hoo
19 January 2011
15 January 2011
I feel like I should write a whole series of posts about what we do while we're waiting for dinner to arrive. (Or more specifically, what we do when we've exhausted our ideas in the playroom and there's still another 30 minutes left before Daddy's done working for the day.)
Yesterday around 4:30 the natives really started getting restless and while I had some things I wanted/needed to get done in my sewing room, I knew that trying to do so would only frustrate all of us.
So, I dug out one of the blank t-shirts I'd picked up on our last visit to H&M (they have great fitting kids blanks for $3-5 in good colors!) and asked Oliver what kind of a shirt he wanted it to be.
The problem here is that I'm admittedly (and sort of ashamedly) a bit of a control freak when it comes to doing projects with my kids. I'm working on it, but letting him go buck wild with a t-shirt and fabric paint just isn't in my blood. I might stop breathing.
I remembered a technique I learned on the Made blog that involves using freezer paper as a stencil for painting fabric. (So glad she created the tutorial already, because that means I just get to link to it!) Thanks, Dana!
I had seen a cute kids shirt on Etsy a couple of weeks ago with a mustache appliqued on the sleeve of a shirt. I thought it was absolutely adorable, so I decided to do a version of that myself based on an old t-shirt my Dad had in college.
Oliver and I worked together to type the words on the computer (he is getting SO into making words out of letters!) and to find just the right mustache in our Google image search (I just searched "mustache stencil" and liked this one:)
We cut a piece of freezer paper to 8.5"x11" and sent it through the printer. Then, he and Hazel entertained themselves with a pile of scrap fabric while I x-actoed the letters and image out. Oliver helped me line them up on the shirt and I ironed them in place.
Then, wildly relaxed not-at-all-type-A Mama that I am, I let him sponge the paint on the stencil. I know, I'm so cool and laid back like that.
Anyway, we let it dry, set the paint with the iron and turned out a pretty cute shirt which he is proudly sporting at Monkey Joes today.
It was so fun and easy! And a great, quick way to spend that last looong thirty minutes of the day. (Plus, it makes me think of waaay back when Oliver had his first mustache.)
13 January 2011
This afternoon while we were waiting for dinner to arrive I noticed that the lighting in the living room was just so pretty. So, I slid the chair in front of the window and propped the camera up on the coffee table. I whispered my wishes to the shutter timer and actually managed some sweet pictures of me with my babe-a-roos.
Today I am thankful for pretty afternoon light and sweet, cuddly little people. And for yummy supper made by my big sister, delivered hot to my door.
And that the kids are asleep in their beds right now. That too. :)
12 January 2011
Today Oliver grabbed his bucket of small angry men and asked me to play war with him.
I don't know a whole lot about war, but I do know how much he loves the story of David and Goliath, so I went with that and it was a big hit.
First, we chose sides. He wanted to be silver so I took the black guys. And although it made good fun sense for him to be "Golias", "Davis" is his hero, so he picked a little guy with a mace-type weapon and dubbed him the littlest Israelite. He wanted to be in charge of Davis.
But, we still needed a Golias.
How about Hazel?!
Nothing says giant angry Philistine like a little girl with a lobster belt tied around her head.
But luckily, she was willing to cooperate. Mostly.
And so, the battle ensued.
And what do you know, that Giant came tumbling down! (Which I definitely did not manage to photograph since I was focusing all of my efforts on protecting my sweet little giant from small "pebbles" catapulting at her squishy forehead.)
We all danced around and celebrated the Israelites victory, "The battle is the Lord's! The battle is the Lord's!!"
Then we took a short break because Golias needed to be laid down for her morning nap.
We cleaned up our small angry men and began our work on building a Tower of Babel to Heaven. (Except that every time the tower's structure failed and toppled, Oliver shouted at God for making it fall over. We took a moment to re-tell the story and things went better from there.)
And remember, the battle is the Lord's!
You think they were sending home homework for him to match the tree to it's type or are we paying too much for his education? ;)
I doubt the latter is true because that boy can point to each of the trees, tell me what type it is and what that means. And since he can't read, he doesn't know the paper is wrong, so we're all good!
10 January 2011
Since my last snow post was mostly photos of me and the kids, this post is a little more hardcore.
While Oliver made snow angels and piled snow on the slide to make his snow pants whiz down it and Bea sat cutely by sucking on her fingers, I grabbed the camera and captured a few shots of the men being boys.
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