Pettiskirt

Oh my, it's been a long time since I've updated this thing!!!  Sorry!

So this year for Easter I committed crazy.  That's correct...C.R.A.Z.Y.  I decided that I was going to make Hannah and Ava's(my niece) Easter dresses.  But they weren't going to be just any dress.  Oh no.  That just wouldn't do.  I decided to make pettiskirts.  Who can resist those big balls of soft ruffles?!  There were two blogs that got me through, Little bits of Bliss and Make It and Love It. Without these two blogs, I would have thrown my sewing machine and fabric out of the window.  I used Little bits of Bliss to help me figure out how much fabric to use and I used Make It and Love It for practically everything else.  The diagrams on Little bits of Bliss saved my life.  I know that sounds extreme, but unless you have ever made one of these suckers, you can't understand.  Also a huge help was borrowing my sis-in-law's ruffler foot.  I'm pretty sure that little contraption is worth it's weight in gold.  I worked on the skirts for about 2 full days and then pulled an all-nighter the Friday before Easter.  I was exhausted!  But every minute of lost sleep became worth it when I saw this...

And this....

And of course this...

It made it all worth it!!!

Sweater Dress for Hannah

I have 2 boys.  I LOVE them dearly!!!  I would have been completely satisfied and fulfilled if the Lord would have chosen to give me 3 boys.  But, He didn't.  =)  He decided to give me a little baby doll girl this time.  I have had so much fun dressing her up since she was born.  I have always wanted to make cutsie clothes for my kids, but the boys wouldn't appreciate that much.  So when Hannah was born, I was determined to make some cutsie clothes for her.  Well, I was online the other day and saw this tutorial at Naptime Crafters for upcycling an adult sweater and making a sweater dress for a baby.  Genius!  It says to use a cable-nit sweater, but i didn't have one.  But, I did have a ribbed cotton turtle neck in my closet that was never going to be worn again.  I'm not sure why I was holding on to it, but I'm glad I did!

My turtle neck before the project

Step 1.

Cut off the sleeves  and the bottom half of the shirt

Step 2.

Cut off the middle section of the shirt.  *Note* This is an important step.  This will define where the waistline is on the dress for you baby.  Be sure you are comparing with your child.

Step 3.

Trim down the sides of the top section to fit the width of your baby.  Turn the top wrong side out and sew up the sides to the arm holes.  *Note* The arm holes in this picture are too big.  I had to cut them down some more.

Step 4. 

Cut the top of the sleeves off to the correct length for your baby

Step 5.

Turn the bottom portion of the sleeves wrong side out and sew along the seam to make the sleeve skinnier, and trim off the excess.

Step 6.

Turn the sleeves right side out.  Leave the top portion wrong side out.  Slide the sleeves inside the top until  it is even with the hole.

Step 7.

Pin the sleeves to the arm hole and sew together.  Be careful not to sew the arm hole shut!

Step 8.

Take the bottom portion of the shirt and gather it to make pleats and baste.

Step 9.

Pin right sides of the bottom portion to the top portion and sew together.  Trim excess.

Step 10.

Turn dress right side out and cut down the side of the neck along the seam.  Re-enforce the  seam with a horizontal stitch on the collar so that the slit on the neck does not go down further with continued use.

Excuse the blurry picture...she was excited and couldn't be still. =)

Linked up at these fun parties:

Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

Look What I Made! @ Creations by Kara

Making the World Cuter Monday @ Making the World Cuter

Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Hannah & Cereal

You know, once you muscle your way past the gag reflex, all kinds of possibilities open up. (Emile - Ratatouille)

I'm back!!!

Oh my!  I knew that it had been a while since I updated this blog...but 2 months?!  I had no idea it had been that long.  There have been so many things that have happened since I posted last!  My Nathan turned 4 in October. Wow!!!  I can't believe he is already so old.

My birthday boy! =)

He is such a fun part of my life.  I love how his whole body smiles when he is happy.  For those of you that don't personally know him, when he smiles, his whole body wiggles.  He can't even help it.  He radiates joy.

Today Hannah is 6 months old!  It has gone by so fast already!  I can't believe that in just 6 short months that she will be 1!!  If the next 6 months go by as quickly as the last, it will be too fast.  She is so fun and has such a sweet personality.  She is rolling all over the place.  When you lay her down in one place, you never know where you are going to find her when you check on her next.  

Hannah eating her first bite of cereal.  Can't you see how much she loved it?

Joseph is still enjoying the 1st grade.  He is so smart!  A little too smart for his own good if you ask me. =)  He loves being the biggest brother so much.  He's getting so tall and is growing up before my very eyes.  He is turning into such a sweet Godly young man and I can't wait to see what He has in store for Joseph's life.

Joseph holding Hannah

This photo captures my children PERFECTLY!!!

C.V. Pickett

  5 days after Nathan's birthday, my grandfather went to be with the Lord.  He was a wonderful man and will be missed greatly.  For my prayer warrior friends, please pray for peace and comfort for my grandmother as she learns to live life without her husband.











James is doing great!  He is working a lot, which is nothing new.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband that works so hard to take care of all of us.  He is my knight in shining armor. xoxo

James and me at Nathan's party

Anyway, that's us lately.  I'm gonna try a little harder to make sure I keep up with this thing in the future!  Blessings!

A time to celebrate

A Time for Everything

 ¹ For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.
 ² A time to be born and a time to die.
      A time to plant and a time to harvest.
 ³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
      A time to tear down and a time to build up.
 ⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
      A time to grieve and a time to dance.
 ⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
      A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
 ⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
      A time to keep and a time to throw away.
 ⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
      A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
 ⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
      A time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 

What a great weekend of celebration!  Saturday, August, 21 was Faith Lynn's 8th birthday in heaven!  It's such a bittersweet day.  It is a reminder of her life, her death, and her eternal life with our Father.  The celebration started out on Friday when my grandparents came to town and stayed in a local hotel.  We went to visit, had fried catfish, swam, and just had a whole lot of fun!  The lighting was AWFUL at the pool, so I only have this one pitiful looking picture to share. =(

Of course I had to get one of Hannah enjoying the pool too...

Can't you see her excitement?

Saturday morning was a little difficult for me.  I was sitting there with Hannah, looked at the clock, then realized at that exact same time 8 years prior I was holding Faith.  Even though it was a tough moment, I'm so grateful for God's gift of memories.  We went back to the hotel and had a yummy waffle breakfast with my grandparents.  Hmmm...didn't think to take any pictures.

After breakfast, we caravaned to the cemetery where we met my brother and sister-in-law, their 2 girls, and my dad for Faith's birthday party.  For some people that might be weird...but it's a wonderful celebration of Faith's brief life here on Earth.

After we had our cupcakes, we headed over to our traditional restaurant and met my mom, sister, and niece for lunch.  Here's the whole crew:

Hannah

Ava, Joseph, Emma, Jill, Claire, & Brian

James & PaPa

Mom, Dad, & Nathan

Grandmaw & Lindy

Me, Grandmaw, Lindy, & Mom

All in all, it was a great day remembering our sweet Faith.  

James & Faith

Faith,

We love and miss you so much!!!  Eat some of heaven's special cake for us!  We can't wait until we get to see and hug you again.  Thank you for being our special baby girl.

XOXO,

Mommy, Daddy, Joseph, Nathan, & Hannah

  

Summer's Coming To An End

This is the last week before Joseph goes to school and is an official 1st grader.  *wiping a small tear*  I can't believe how fast the summer has gone.  I know several moms that are doing the countdown to when school starts back.  They are ready for the kids to be back.  Maybe I'm weird.  I don't want him to go back.  I enjoy him being at home.  He and Nathan have had so much fun together.  Don't get me wrong, they have had their fair share of arguments; and I have had my fair share of being totally frustrated with them.  But in all, we've had a great time.  Tonight we go to meet Joseph's teacher.  I have been earnestly praying about who he will have for this school year.  I pray that he will have someone that will love him almost as much as I do, that he/she will be able to teach him well, and that he/she is someone that he will have fun with.  We'll see tonight!

Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago.  We had a whole Saturday at home to just be together as a family.  It was so nice!

Joseph being pushed down the slip-n-slide

Nathan being pushed down the slip-n-slide

Do you get the feeling that Dad is having more fun?

Me going down the slip-n-slide

Me trying to remember why I thought that was a good idea

Nathan making me feel better

Joseph and James having fun

Nathan getting ready to take a ride

What can I say?  They love their daddy.

God's artwork for us while we ate our dinner outside

And of course, Hannah after her nap

Big Brothers Rock

My sis-in-law, Angela...the Moda Home Mom, made the cutest shirts for Joseph and Nathan to wear at the hospital when Hannah was born.  Check out her blog, she has an easy to follow tutorial on how to make these cutsie shirts as well as many other tutorials on how to make various fabric crafts!

Hannah Leann!!!

My life has been a little crazy over the last few weeks.  As I'm sure you have guessed...I'm no longer pregnant. =)  At 40 weeks and 5 days Hannah decided to make her grand entrance into the world!!

Early on Sunday, May 2, I thought I was having some back labor and decided to stay home from church again.  The thought of going into labor at church was not appealing. ;-)  By early afternoon everything had stopped.  Big fat bummer.  So that afternoon we decided to take the kids to a local park so that they could ride their bikes around the lake there and we could walk with them.  It was really a nice time.  We tried to throw bread to the ducks in the lake, but apparently previous visitors had stuffed them full.  They totally rejected our bread offerings.  The more I think about it...the more funny it becomes.  I was completely exhausted when we were done.  By the time we left, I couldn't remember why I wanted to go in the first place. :-/  We went home and James' mom agreed to take Nathan home with her because I had three different appointments with my midwife's office the following day.  We went to bed that night...still no labor.

Monday, May 3 I woke up at 4am with a contraction.  About 15 mins later I had another one.  I continued to have contractions and when James' alarm went off at 4:40 I very flippantly said, "I've been having contractions."  He said, "Are they good ones?"  To which I replied, "Eh.  They're ok."  By 5am I decided that I was definitely in labor and decided to call my midwife.  James asked me if it was ok for him to take a shower.  I told him that if he was gonna do it, he better get moving. =)  My midwife called me back about 5:15 and I told her that my contractions were 6 to 8 minutes apart and about 60 seconds long.  She said, "Go to the hospital."  I was a little surprised that she wanted me to go already.  She knew that our plans were to labor at home as long as we could and my contractions weren't even that painful.  I told James what she said and he was as surprised as I was.  Anyway, so he got in the shower and I started calling our parents and our photographer.  By the time James got out of the shower I could no longer speak.  My contractions were so intense that I was afraid we were going to have an unplanned home delivery.  Talk about taking me for a surprise!  We grabbed Joseph and went to the car as soon as we could.  We were trying to explain to him that I was in pain, but it was going to be good because his baby sister was going to come out as a result.

When we were about 5 minutes from the hospital, I told James I needed to push.  He requested that I didn't push and began to push the accelerator a little closer to the floor. ;-) At 6:30, we finally made it to the hospital, waited for my current contraction to stop and literally ran to the hospital door.  We raced to L&D where they grabbed me a wheel chair and rushed me into a room.  My midwife was already there and ready to go.  They checked me and found that I was complete and ready to push, although I could have told them that!  Thankfully, my midwife told the nursing staff to not bother me with paper work and said I didn't need an IV.  I was thrilled!  I HATE IVs.  I started to push...and push...and push.  Nothing was happening.  This was my 4th delivery, it should have been a breeze.  My midwife told me that Hannah was posterior and that I needed to try some different positions to get her to turn.  So I tried some new positions and sure enough, she started to descend.  At 7:29am, my midwife told me to reach down and grab my baby.  I reached down and with her and James' help, Hannah made her grand entrance!   She was 7lbs 1oz and 20" long.  She was absolutely perfect.   After she was born we found out that she had 2 true knots in her umbilical cord!  The realization set in that we could have lost her a long time ago.  She is a miracle!  We are so grateful that the Lord took care of her during the time that I was pregnant.  While they were bathing her, they brought me the paperwork to sign.  It was quite comical to sign the waiver that I did not want an epidural for my delivery after the baby was born.  You do what you've got to do. =)

Since we have been home, we have had such a good time with the newest member of our family.  The boys simply adore her and are such big helpers.  We are such a blessed family!

We were so fortunate to have Amy with Aim Photography at Hannah's delivery.  Check out her website and you can see a slide show of the delivery. =)

40 weeks!

Ok baby girl....come out and play!!!  I'm 40 weeks today and ready to have a baby!  I've been having false labor off and on for about 3 weeks.  She has been a bit of a tease.  I'm hoping that the full moon will help trigger something.  I've tried all sorts of natural ways to start labor.  I've been doing lots of walking.  On Saturday I walked so much that I didn't even get up for church the next morning.  Those that know me know that missing church is pretty rare.  I've been taking Evening Primrose Oil.  TMI...I know...and I'm sorry but, we've tried intimacy.  I'm about ready to break out the raspberry tea.  A friend recommended Indian food.  Please leave me a comment if you know of anything else!!!

Not my timing, but His!

I feel like I have to control every aspect of my life all the time.  Being a housewife, I control how my home is run, what we eat, who my kids hang out with, our calendar, etc.  I think you get the picture.  At this point I am 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant with my daughter.  I am tired and moody.  I am over being pregnant and want her to be out here where we can all enjoy her.  I have been having all sorts of signs that labor is coming soon.  But in my opinion...not soon enough!  It seems that everyone I know is due to have babies about the same time as me...and they are having them!  My sis-in-law is in L&D right now awaiting the arrival of her precious daughter.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm totally excited for all of these women, but I'm jealous.  I'm ready to meet my little one!  I have to keep reminding myself that she will come in the Lord's timing and not mine.  I need to sit back and enjoy these last few days when I can feel her move inside of me.  I need to enjoy my last few nights of silence!  I need to enjoy my time with my boys and my wonderful husband.  I am such a blessed woman and just need to slow down a little bit. 

Isaiah 40:31 - But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Lord, please help me hide that scripture in my heart.

It's ME!

Soooo, I've decided to jump on the blog bandwagon.  Everyone is constantly telling me that I should write a book with the funny things my kids say.  So this blog will be a big part of that and a few things about my life here and there. =)

I guess first, I've been married to my best friend, James, for 10 years.  We have two handsome boys, Joseph(age 5) & Nathan(age 3).  We have a daughter in heaven, Faith, who would be 7 if she were here with us.  And I'm currently expecting a baby girl due in late April.  Sorry folks...no name for her yet.  She won't officially have one until she's born.

I'm pretty sure that my boys are the funniest kids ever created.  Just an example:  Last night at church we were playing a variation of "Duck, Duck, Goose" to help the kids learn the Gospels.  Instead of "Duck", they were saying, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John".  When they wanted to say, "Goose", they said, "Gospels"  So Nathan being the youngest kid in the class, he wasn't exactly playing by the rules.  Every time someone was picked, he'd get up and run around the circle with them.  Finally, one of the other kids picked him.  He was so excited.  He walked around the circle repeating several times, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John".  Then he couldn't wait any longer and picked someone and instead of "Gospels!", he so very proudly yelled, "Goofballs!"  It was classic.

Anyway, so there's my first installment.  Thanks for wasting 10 mins of your time learning a little more about us and maybe you'll do it again sometime!