The BIG One

We are just one week from celebrating miss Annalea's

1st BIRTHDAY!

My head is a whirl this evening as I try to process

just how amazingly quick and wonderful this past year has been.

My baby girl is growing up,

I see it in the little things she does each day

and boy howdy is she a  little spit-fire.

She's a happy baby, but only if things are going 100% her way.

Lord help us, I can't even begin to imagine what her terrible two's

will be like. This girl is a screamer, has been sense day one.

As you can see I had to stop at 9 months with the monthly picture,

as little stinker just wouldn't sit still any longer - not even for a second!

A few fun facts:

Baby girl LOVES Sesame Street!!!

She will be as busy as can be but the second she hear's 

Murray's voice she parks her little butt.

She was in Premie clothing her first two months

and has been wearing 18m the past two months

Still NO teeth!

She can hold her own with her "big" brother"

She will not take a nap!!

It's pretty much been that way from the start.

(did I mention she is stubborn?!)

She is a daddy's girl

she especially loves to Facetime with daddy

when he is out of town

She loves animals and outdoors.

As much as I hate to admit it

she may just turn out to be a tom boy.

I never got around to posting some of our easter pictures.

Can you believe this sweet dress was made by my grandmother?

It is seriously gorgeous and sewn to perfection. 

Most of the dresses she made I completely wore out as a child

but I'm lucky to have a handful of these beauties.

I made the easter backdrop earlier this year using vintage coloring pages.

If anyone is interested in the details, just let me know

and I can put together a little tutorial 

and of coarse my little fella is growing up

quicker than I would like too. 

He is so so hard to take pictures of,

but I was lucky this time to get a few

sweet smiles with no blurring.

Well it's late, I best be off to get some much needed sleep.

Keep an eye out, my next post should be the

birthday party!!!

April Showers

Earlier this month we celebrated 

the arrival of a sweet baby girl into our family.

My sister and her little one flew in from Texas 

so that we could all meet her little one

and shower them with gifts and love.

I was so excited to put this shower together for my sister.

She has thrown me two gorgeous showers

and I was thrilled to return the kindness.

The center piece of the table was this three tiered paper cake

I used styrofoam as the structure and attached

all the paper and trims with sewing pins. 

I wish I had more detail shots

but the guest were arriving just as I was taking pictures.

We got a lot of compliments on these little white cakes.

They kinda look like pinafore style cakes 

but are actually Fancy Cakes

by Little Debbie. 

We attached paper butterflies (found here)

with a bit of sugar icing. 

The same paper butterflies were attached to the paper straws.

My baby girl was in the hospital a couple weeks before the shower

with pneumonia so I was a bit stressed 

that I wouldn't be able to complete all my projects in time.

But luckily a few late nights and I was able to accomplish all but one.

It was also in April of last year that my baby shower took place.

I delivered just a couple weeks later

and I never did get around to posting these.

As you can see my sister and family really made my day so very special

and I was thrilled as I said earlier to do the same for her. 

Let's Ketchup

As a blogger it's always been really hard not to share

all our special moments as foster parents,

but now that this "small Fry" is ALL MINE

it's time to dish out the sweet stuff.

Pete's 1st party was pretty much pulled together at the very last minute. 

It was hard to face celebrating an entire year of this sweet baby boys life

knowing he could be taken away from us at any time.

But although he wasn't ours legally, 

he was MY baby boy.

So we went forward with throwing a over-the-top 

1st birthday party, so that my husband and I

along with our friends and family could celebrate

this special little man who had brought us all

so much joy and fun the last past year.

Pete LOVES french fries, and especially Ketchup

so it just seemed so fitting to run with the theme.

I could not believe my luck 

when I spotted these mustard and ketchup bottles

at the dollar store. The packaging said they were paint bottles

but the entire pack all red and yellow!!!

I love the idea of smash cakes,

but we were on a pretty tight budget

so I thought we would try a bowl full of ketchup instead

and boy was it fun!!!

It took a bit before he really got into it...

but once he got the idea

boy did he go for it!

I'm so glad we decided to make Pete's birthday just as special

as if he had been our baby boy all along.

I would have forever regretted it,

and felt pretty crummy about going all out for baby girl's birthday

which will be here in just one short month. 

After throwing Pete's party I was kinda stuck on the idea

of ketchup and mustard, 

and so began a series of sketches of anthropomorphic fast food friends.

It took 7 months but I finally turned those rough ideas

into a series of 7 embroidery patterns

which is now available in my 

Kitschy Digital Shop.

I'm a novice at embroidery but I'm pretty happy with how 

these two tops turned out

and must confess that I think I caught the embroidery bug

it's kinda relaxing... and a great road trip activity.

Photo-shoot with two charming young men

is in the forecast for these two tops.

Can't hardly wait!! 

P.S. You can now follow silly ol' me on instagram 

for "behind the scenes" of current projects

and life at home with my kiddos. 

My Sweet Petey Pie

My goodness is my heart just pounding

with joy and excitement

in sharing that our little family is in every way complete.

As of the the 13th of March

our little boy is officially ours

and we are his!

Our Peter came to us through Health and Welfare when he was just 5 days old.

When we received the call we were NOT on the list to take

any new foster placements.

We were also at that moment in the car driving to the IVF clinic 

to find out whether or not I was pregnant. 

Panic and confusion quickly surfaced

I couldn't help but think

"Great, this is God giving me a baby but not the one I want."

I know that sounds terrible, but I was already in a terrible state

wanting so badly for this round of IVF to bring us 

the miracle we so desperately wanted to come to fruition.  

With no time to process what this placement would mean,

we said "yes", knowing all to well that H&W 

would have no trouble placing a newborn baby. 

While waiting for results of my blood work,

we picked up this tiny 5 lb. cutie

and headed to K-mart for diapers and such.

And that is where we were when we got the call,

the call that changed our lives forever.

We were PREGNANT.

Little did we know then that the call just hours earlier

was just as much a life changer!!!

If you've followed my blog these last 18 months

you know that my pregnancy was a nightmare from

start to finish. Not exactly an ideal situation for caring 

for a newborn baby (and two other foster kiddos!).

I was SO sick, and I can't even say just how many times

I asked my husband to let us send our Peter to another home.

There was little possibility of the case going to adoption,

that it didn't always seem logical to me to keep him.

I just wanted to sleep, and not toss my cookies 

every time he soiled his britches. 

But hubby just kept insisting that we make it work.

He even stepped up to the "changing table"

 and took care of all the stinky britches

whenever he was home! 

Then again after the birth of our daughter I was so ill from

the ordeal my body endured during my delivery 

that I questioned why we weren't sending him to another home.

I was unable to even pick him up for over a month,

how could I not think he would be better cared for by another foster momma?

H&W was still very adamant that his case

 would not result in an outside adoption. 

Again my husband was the one that stepped up and took care of Pete

when I could not and thank goodness he did!

At 14 months we were preparing for our little guy to be sent to his new home

when we got the call that was most unexpected -

we were chosen to be Peter's adopted family!

I think I had them repeat themselves two or three times

just to make sure I understood them right.

My babies are just over 7 months apart.

They are quickly becoming the best of friends,

and I can't hardly wait to watch the two of them grow up together.

Peter is such a little fellow that I call him

Annalea's big "little" brother. 

Baby girl already outweighs him by 4lbs.

On March 13th we legally became a family. 

But the way I see it

we came to be a family back in 2012

in a K-mart checkout line.