Sew Fun

I recently saw an idea for a child-friendly sewing kit on Pinterest and immediately decided I was going to gather the items and do this for Gracie. She spends MANY hours sitting/waiting at guitar practices, Tae Kwon Do practices, soccer practices, etc. She has always done so well sitting by me and being a good girl; we keep an activity bag stocked and bring it with us wherever we go. But coloring, drawing and stickers have kind if gotten old to her. She's been drug to all these events since she was just a few days old, you know!

I knew she would LOVE this!

I bought this plastic embroidery hoop at Hobby Lobby for a few dollars.
We're using shelf liner from the dollar tree. The holes are bigger and better for beginners and it's super cheap! I used a silver sharpie to draw out her design of choice.






Working hard! We are using the biggest, most blunt tipped needle we could find and are sewing with embroidery floss. I got a huge bag if different colors for about $5.





After working on it during her down time for a couple of days, here is her finished project!!





Until she learns, I'm threading the needle for her, helping her switch thread and get started with each new color that she chooses. I don't mind doing it at all, but it means she has to stay close to me so I can help her frequently.

Here's the box we made to hold all of her sewing stuff. It was a joint effort in decorating the box :)





Guess who's jealous of all the creative fun??












That's right! These sweet boys aren't gonna be outdone in anything. Even sewing :)

Trying to keep all their knots tied and needles threaded is a full time job for this Mamma! I better go! :)

Daddy wears hot pink shoes

This is the year that Daddy and Sissy get to participate in the Daddy/Daughter dance at the recital.
She's been talking about this for almost 3 years; she is so very excited!
Their "dress code" is white shirts/black bottoms & the brightest shoes you can find.
We opted for cheap since the budget is small and because Daddy will probably never wear his again :)
They decided they wanted matching shoes, and Gracie picked hot pink for the color. Big surprise, I know!
We got Daddy's shoes at Dollar General for $8 and Sissy's at Wally World for $5. Add in a can of spray paint and voila!



I had never done this before, so I was winging it.
I used painter's tape that I had on hand to tape off the rubber bottoms.



It helps to have an adorable assistant tearing your tape for you.



Brightest pink I could find :)


Hot Pink Shoes!!!


After 2 coats of paint, they looked fab.

Here they are on picture day :) (they look kinda orange here, but they're not.)



We went out to eat after pictures and Daddy didn't mind wearing his pink shoes in public one bit. And of course, Sissy thought it was awesome.

LOVE.

Can't wait to see their dance at the recital!!

Birthday Party

Rhett chose to go to Modern Mission for his birthday party. It's outdoor laser tag with military objectives. It is a blast and we love going there!
Here's the boys, all geared up and ready to play!



The grown ups had just as much fun as the kids!


PaPa and Gracie are ready to play!!


Grandma looks like she means business!


Mamma and Gracie putting our game faces on!


After 2 hours of Missions, we were ready for some cake and snacks in the party room.
I picked a guitar cake for my little future rock-star.


Make a wish!!


I didn't get a picture of MeMe :(, but she was there too!

Happy Birthday, again, Rhett!!

9 years old!!

Sweet Rhett is 9 years old today! It's so hard to believe how he's growing up. He's the "baby brother".... I know he's a big brother too, but I've always thought of him as the "baby boy".



He is growing up and maturing. He's independent and not afraid of anything.
He's sweet, handsome and funny.



He's my boy that will run to me and give me hugs even at school in front of his friends.
He will hold my hand in public if I ask.
And that smile... I've always had a hard time with that smile and those big, brown eyes. And those eyelashes. Hard to say no or stay frustrated with him :)



He's blazing his own trail in this world and I love him for it.
He is his own person and doesn't care what others think.
Because of him, I've spent hours pondering what it means to be a good Mom and how to be intentional in showing my love and support to my children. And I'm better for it.
He makes me want to be better!
He makes me proud.



When I was pregnant with him, I thought I wanted a girl. But I can't tell you how glad I am that God gave me Rhett on that special day! We didn't know if he was a boy or a girl until he was born. A true surprise in a world of few surprises.



What a blessing he is to our family.



Happy 9th birthday Rhettster!



We love you SOOOO very much!!

How could we forget? 16 years!

It's kinda sad. Last weekend I was driving down the road all by myself. After a while, I turned the radio off and was just enjoying the silence. Trying to clear my head and pray. And a thought popped into my head. We forgot!
It was 10 days earlier, that was the 16 year anniversary of Jason and I being a couple.
We are sentimental and sappy. We don't forget things like that. Well, my sweet husband sometimes needs reminders, but I certainly don't forget those things.
Wow.
We forgot.
As if celebrating 16 years isn't SUPER important?!?!
It is! We think it's a huge accomplishment and are so thankful for our life together.
I picked up to call him right away.
He couldn't believe we forgot either, but wished me a happy 16 years and 10 days anniversary. And then I was ok with forgetting.
Because really..... the "16 years and 10 days" day is just as important as that one day that marked approximately 5,840 days of being in love. And the number just keeps going up.
And I'm so thankful.
Here's the sweet little story that I posted a year ago about how "smooth" we were and how we officially came to be a couple. Give us a break... we were teenagers :)

But seriously, I think it's probably time for us to take some time out and focus on each other. We've been too busy and focused on surviving, raising kids and trying to succeed in business. We're constantly being told by that if we're not going on an alone date at least once a month that we're making a huge mistake that we will later regret. For the past couple years, on average, we go on a date about once every 3 months or so.
How many of you really "date" often? I really want to know, so comment! I know it's important, but how many of you with kids actually take the time out to do it regularly? I keep thinking that more people in our generation are like us, than those who really go out all the time. Am I wrong??

PS: Those people who used to always smile at us when we were young and tell us to enjoy life because it passes by so fast... they were right.
Hardly seems possible that it's been 16 years. We've been together more years than we've been apart. I don't even care to think about where I'd be right now without him. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

He's the cheese to my macaroni.

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend. It started the way almost all of our Spring weekends do. With soccer!
We woke up early and hit the road for Little Rock. Yes, we drove over 6 hrs round-trip for 1 soccer game. Welcome to the world of youth club soccer! But for a boy who dreams of playing collegiate and professional soccer one day-- we gotta do what we gotta do :)

Hanging out and watching movies on the road. LOVE our awesome road-trip approved van. So thankful for it!!





When we got there, I realized I forgot the camera and video camera :( so much for the days awesomeness to go on his year-end highlight video :(
Here's my little stud-muffin after the game. He allowed 0 in goal and scored 2!!!!!




After the game, we hopped in the car and headed straight for MeMe and PaPas house to spend the night. It added an extra hour to our drive, but it was worth it!

Getting ready to hunt eggs with the cousins!



Fishing on the dock











We always hate to head home. It's so relaxing out at the lake.





Thankful for a fun, family filled weekend!

Update: weigh in

The scale finally moved again! The closer you get to the goal weight, the slower the scale moves. Mine's been going down very slowly the past few weeks. Partly my own fault as I've been a little more lenient on myself with the food. But, I've continued to track my points. Even if it is a bad day and I've consumed way too many of my plus points, I track it. I've never ended a week having gone over my points. The past few weeks, I've eaten all or almost all of them!
In addition, I hurt my neck and the 90 minute/4 times per week work outs have turned into twice a week/60 min walking fairly slow (only about 3 mph) on the treadmill.
So, it's no surprise that the weight loss slowed some.
I woke up on Monday morning and decided it was time to get back to it and quit consuming so many of my plus points. (Hide the Easter candy!!!)
The total lost is:
22.4 lbs
With a goal of losing 32 lbs, I'm now officially less than 10 lbs away!!
I can do it!!

20 Months

Been on the wait list for 20 months as of today.

Maybe I'll answer a question that we've been getting lately.

"Are y'all still adopting?"

The answer is yes.

I guess that's about all I can really say about this topic, as there aren't really updates to share.

The one thing I do know is that we are about 5.5 weeks behind the longest waiting family (waiting for a single child).

The past several months there's been anywhere from 1-3 families who have gotten their referrals per month.

While I hope it's tomorrow, realistically I am prepared to wait several more months.

Beyond that, if we are still waiting, you might find me in a straight jacket somewhere :)

New and improved Pantry

I've been pinning pantry ideas like a mad woman for over a week. One day last week, I woke up and decided it was the day to get started.

I knew I wouldn't be able to 100% reproduce any of my favorite ideas- Mainly due to my limited budget.

So, I headed to the Dollar Tree first to see what they had to offer. To my delight, they had all kinds of bins and buckets to chose from. At $1 each!

I worked in this project in spurts and it took me 3 days.

Before:



And this was after I'd already cleaned off the 2nd shelf- which was the worst one! I couldn't find anything in there!

After:



I love it! Like products are grouped into separate bins. Canned goods are grouped together by type.

The pantry is really deep- I can hardly touch the back wall when I reach in- there are bins all the way back.

I have a large kitchen island with cabinets and drawers that were also so cluttered that I couldn't find anything.

I saw an idea to free up drawer space by putting the aluminum foil, Saran wrap, etc into the pantry. They are all in one of the little yellow buckets on the floor. I was able to reorganize all of my island drawers after that!

I stored all if my cake decorating supplies in the island cabinets. Since I'm not making cakes much (hardly at all) anymore, I decided to stow away those items. There are 2 large bins at the back of my top pantry shelf that are now holding the decorating supplies and the specialty baking pans.

Here is my island cabinets now:




I did keep a few baking items within reach. Springform pans. 8" non stick pans, loaf pans and all 7 cupcake pans in all of the different sizes. In the bin to the left are my good cookie cutters (not the plastic ones) and cupcake liners.
I also got my cookbooks out of a drawer and into the back of this cabinet.

When Jason can find the time, he's going to build me another shelf at the top of the pantry (it goes all the way up to the ceiling- it's at least another 4 feet!) I want to put the rest of my baking pans as well as some other rarely used kitchen items up there.

Right now those items are being stored in my linen closet and I don't have room for linen storage! :)

I've already totally cleaned out, re-arranged and organized the boys' rooms. I'm working on closets and Sissy's room now. I think I'm nesting. Apparently no surface in my house is safe from being organized. Or painted. Look out! :)