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 


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.