thanksgiving

Last week was busy with several Thanksgiving activities.

We made turkey cards for the parents and grandparents...and somehow I never got a picture of the finished product. My baby takes his crafts very seriously...most of the time anyways. :)

Then we made a Thanksgiving tree, which was an idea I got from another friend's blog. My kids named all the things they are thankful for and wrote them on leaves and we made a tree trunk out of brown paper and stuck the leaves on the top like a tree.

It was fun to hear the things they came up with to be thankful for. Of course there was the typical "mommy and daddy", "kiki", "my brother", etc. But then my oldest wrote, on the yellow leaf on the bottom left, "lemins" (lemons). ! Not quite sure where that came from, but sure, ok! :) Can you see which one was my favorite? I don't know why, but I just got so tickled when my baby listed some of the "usual" things...followed by the one on the red leaf on the right..."my socks." :) I'm glad he is thankful for his socks! Some kids don't have any....

Thanksgiving at my parents house was quiet this year and I totally forgot to take my camera. However, the day after Thanksgiving was my dad's 60th birthday and Mom planned a surprise party for him. I got to decorate, which is my job of choice on any party! :) I went to Party City in search of ideas and decided that I just did not like all the sad, black, "over the hill", old person with a walking cane, sad to be 60 theme! This was supposed to be a celebration! Then, as I wandered around a different part of the store, I saw the 50's theme which had a lot of old records and classic cars...and even a necklace that said "clearly a classic"! So I went with a "classic" theme...which seemed much more positive and happy!

I have decided that streamers are one of the cheapest and easiest ways to decorate a room for a party.

We had our friends, the Bunn's over for dinner. We used to go to Pastor Chris's church when I was in middleschool/highschool and that is where I met my best friend, Shannon. :) We are still good friends with the Bunns but so rarely get to visit with just them, so it was a lot of fun getting them to ourselves for dinner.

After dinner we were supposed to have about 30 minutes to clean up and get ready for the rest of the surprise group to come...however, just then there was a knock at the door and one couple was standing there when Dad answered, saying, "Happy Birthday, John!!" Haha! They were half an hour early!! It sort of ruined the surprise, however dad didn't know exactly who else was coming (and neither did I, it turned out!)

While the men visited, Mom, Robin, and I cleared and reset the table with party food. (Not that we were that hungry after a delicious steak dinner!) :)

The three little cars in the middle of the table were my favorite decorations. I needed something for the middle of the table and was wishing I had some old toy classic cars when I remembered that Steak & Shake serves their kids' meals in little paper cars! I simply went by S&S and asked if I could have a few (gotta love free decorations!). They were the perfect thing for holding munchy foods like M&Ms.

There were quite a few friends who came to surprise Dad - several couples from their Sunday school class, some neighbors down the street, friends from here who Mom knew in college, and friends from OR who I literally hadn't seen in at least ten years!!

It was so much fun getting to catch up with everyone as we watched Dad open his presents.

My brother and I gave him a gift card to one of his favorite stores...Home Depot. Of course. However, a gift card is so small and I did not want to just put it in a card. So I found ten gift bags. Heehee! See the big red one in the bottom left corner? That's what we handed him. In this picture above, he is about half way through the bags, trying to see if there is any gift in them at all!

There was! And it was in this little tiny bag! :)

Mom made TWO cakes for the occasion - Dad's favorite, carrot cake, and also a Most Delicious red velvet cake - YUUUM!!! (Leah, Mom later wished that we had asked you to make one of the cakes for us! :) Oh well...maybe another time!)

I couldn't resist these fun candles - the super tall "60" ones and the shorter colorful ones that sparked like a sparkler as they burned! :)

Dad saw the two layers of candles and came out prepared...can you see the fire extinguisher in the corner?? :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!! :)

too... YEAH RIGHT!

$26,550!!!!

In 8 days!

Praise the Lord Who provides beyond our wildest dreams! :)

too.

What would your usual excuse be?

Too tired...

Too busy...

Too overwhelmed...

Too inexperienced...

(It costs) Too much money...

Too old...

Too young...

So often we put limitations on what we can do. So often we are actually putting our limitations on what we think GOD can do.

"I could do this...if I wasn't too ____."

The words that fill in that blank can be endless.

Let me try to blow all of your "too's" out of the water for a little bit.

I'm coming back to one of my favorite topics. I have said on my blog before that I am adopted. I belonged to my parents from the minute I was born - and came home from the hospital to them just a few days later. I was never an orphan for one minute. But there are SO. MANY. orphans in our world. Not only that but there are SO. MANY. children with special needs, like Down Syndrome, who need "forever families" just as much, if not more so, than other children.

In our country, if a child is born with Down Syndrome, they are given the best care possible, raised in families who love on them and take care of them, and often when they are older, can even sometimes live on their own and have their own jobs.

In other countries it is not like this. Babies with Down Syndrome are placed in a crib in an orphanage. And left there. No one picks them up. No one hugs them or covers their sweet cheeks with kisses. No one loves on them. No one cares. They are hidden away from the world. At the age of four, they are sent to mental institutions. For life. Which often doesn't last a whole year once they are in the institution.

Think of the crazy children running around you today. The one that spilled the milk at dinner tonight. :) Think of your grandchildren. Now picture them living their life in a cold metal crib, no smile on their face because no one ever took the time to smile at them. No life in those energetic legs because no one cared to take them out of that crib and teach them to crawl...walk...or run. All just because they have been created a little differently.

But they have been created just the same. By the same God Who created the children in your life. And He loves them just the same. And I have to think that it saddens His heart so much to see His beautiful children being uncared for like that.

I know you are jumping ahead to what you think I am going to say. Are the "too's" already there in your mind?

"Yes, how sad that is. Someone needs to adopt those poor sweet children and give them a chance at life! I would love to... but..."

And that's where all those "too's" come flooding in.

The cost is too much.

It would be too hard to have a special needs child.

I am too old.

(I just have to interject at this one... Remember how old Sarah was? 90. So just knock that one off the list right there!)

I am too young.

Can God not provide all your needs?

"Oh, of course He can!"

The next thought that follows is...

"But would He?? If I was crazy enough to step out in faith and follow His calling to care for orphans...would He show up just where I need Him?"

Meet Lydia.

Lydia is 11 years old and a homeschooler out in the Nashville area. Lydia's parents have five children -2 are adopted and the youngest two have Down Syndrome. They are two of the cutest children ever! :)

As a family, they were rasing money for Reece's Rainbow, a ministry for international children with Down Syndrome. There are pictures of so many children who need a home on their site. Lydia fell in love with one of them. Her name is Darya and you can find her picture here about half way down the page.

Lydia started thinking that it would be too cool if her family could adopt Darya and bring her home to be loved on instead of being in that old crib all the time. So she asked her mom...last Tuesday. The deal is that if God provides the money needed for the adoption by Thanksgiving...2 days from now! then they will absolutely adopt Darya.

What's the catch? In Lydia's mind...nothing. In our grown-up minds with all those "too's" running around? The cost.

$20,000.

In 8 days.

Too much?

Lydia says remember the verse about faith the size of the mustard seed moving mountains? She has that faith. She believes without a doubt that God will provide every single penny of that $20,000 that will bring Darya from life and death in a cold crib to life being loved to the fullest with her family.

The first day she raised $800!

As of tonight, they hit the $10,000 mark!!

Too?

Whatever!

Our God is Too Big. He cares Too Much. He loves Lydia and her sweet, steady faith. And He loves Darya. Every ounce of her.

There is $10,000 to go and about 24 more hours to raise it. $10,000 in one week sounds like a lot...but $10,000 in one day?? I don't doubt it after reading her family's blog. Not one bit. I'm just excited to see how He will accomplish this goal!

Will you help? I'm not asking you to adopt a child. (Although if God puts that on your heart, I will joyfully pray you through the process!) I'm simply asking you to help save Darya's little life - and give Lydia a faith that will move even more mountains! If you can't give financially, will you tell someone who can? Or pray? I will give you the links you need to shower His love on this little sister in Christ. Imagine how strong her faith will be after this! It would be hard to doubt God if you could look back and say "He provided $20,000 in 9 days one time for me!"

Here is the link to Lydia's mom's blog and specifically the blog post that Lydia wrote that began the whole project:

http://the30dayjourneyforhope.blogspot.com/2009/11/hi-blogger-worldits-lydia.html

READ IT!! And go and read some of the posts between last Tuesday and today. If you don't have tears in your eyes and a smile on your face...well...just go read it! :)

At the very top (below the family picture - so cute!), there is a "Darya Project Donation" button where you can donate through paypal.

OR...

You can go to this site if you have a little girl...or know someone who has a little girl. This is a mom who makes the cutest little dresses called Poppy Dips. She and her family have adopted before and are going through their third adoption from Ethiopia. She is taking a little detour in their fund raising and between now and Thanksgiving (I know, it's close!) is donating all the proceeds from whatever dresses she sells to Lydia and Darya! She has the absolute cutest fabric choices and you would know your money is going to something so special! She even makes American Girl Doll sized dresses - they would make a great Christmas present! :)

Here's the blog part of her site where she tells about Lydia:

http://itspoppydipblog.blogspot.com/

Here's the home page to her site and her dresses:

http://itspoppydip.blogspot.com/

I just bought one for my middle child in this fabric:

TOO cute!! ;)

There is a news station that is going to interview Lydia on Thanksgiving to see how much money she has raised. I'm sure the results will be on their blog...and I will put an update on here as well.

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

1 Timothy 4:12

i'm still alive! :)

I have been MIA on here for the past week or so. I was focused on surviving while I was sick. And keeping up with three sick kiddos as well. And trying to do school. Well. Part of the time. Part of the time all I could do was sit on the couch and let them do their school pages and bring them to me to be checked. I think I may have had a mild case of the "regular" flu. Possibly. I'm not sure. All I know is that I am glad to be feeling better again! I still don't quite have all my energy back, but for the most part I feel human once more! :) This is a good thing...!

The Saturday before I decided to get sick however, I got to go celebrate with Catrina, Lauren, and Reegan at Catrina's baby shower for baby Maddox, who should be here anytime! Catrina was loving her lack of baby-belly this time around! :)

The birthmother has had some health complications and has been in the hospital quite a bit in the last couple weeks, but so far baby Maddox is doing just fine. We're just praying he gets here safely at just the right time and everything goes smoothly with the adoption.

Leah made this cake for the shower. SO CUTE! It matched the shower invitations and napkins, etc. Check out the close up:

It was red velvet cake on the inside and was, of course, delicious! I'm always happy when I not only get to admire Leah's cakes in person but get to taste them too! :)

Oh. And that little purple stripey zebra is my absolute favorite! ;)

On another note... A couple posts ago I introduced you to London-Jack, a new online shop that is coming soon (check the count-down clock to the right!). I also mentioned in that post that there might be something you recognize on their site when it opens. Well, they are working hard to get London-Jack ready for the grand opening and have even started their own blog about it. Go check out their blog here - and read the blog post at the very top and see if it sounds like something familiar! :) Too cool!

sunshine at the sunsphere

Last weekend I stayed with my kids while their parents were out of town. Lauren came and helped me out for a couple days and on Friday we decided to go explore downtown...and use the gorgeous sunshiny day to grab a few fall pictures. :) Lauren took some of these and I'll try to mark the ones she did.

*by Lauren

*by Lauren

*by Lauren

*by Lauren

hush little baby

Sometimes my blog might make it seem like our day is always perfect and I do fun, creative activities every single day...I wish! To prove that I have crazy days just like everyone else, here's a (rather long) run down of my day:

~ Greet my beautiful kiddos while they show me the treasures mommy and daddy brought them from CA.

~ Get breakfast.

~ Go upstairs, make beds, get dressed, etc.

~ While getting dressed, doorbell rings...cleaning lady is here.

~ Start school.

~ Try to help girls with math with a not-feeling-so-good 2 year old on my lap...then on the couch...then on my lap again.

~ 11 am put baby on the couch again with a sheet for a blanket...he wraps himself up in it like a cocoon...like this... (I pulled it back so I could see his face in the pic...)

~ He whimpers while he tries to sleep.

~ Makes me feel like crying! :}

~ He stirs so I pick him up, unsuccessfully try to find the thermometer, give him Tylenol anyways because it is obvious he has a fever, take him upstairs and put him in his own bed.

~ Gather together the parts of school we can read together to take upstairs as we begin the process of playing musical rooms so the cleaning lady can clean the play/school room.

~ Grab hotdogs (with no ketchup!), cheese sticks, milk, etc. for the girls and we eat in their room as a "special treat"...since cleaning lady is in the kitchen and playroom area.

~ Let girls play for just a couple minutes while I prepare a lesson on compound words that Lauren still remembers from being in my 3rd grade class. ;)

~ Girls love compound word lesson...

(Can you figure out what compound word this would be: J ?)

~ Baby is coughing in his not very restful sleep.

~ Daddy comes out of his room (he's sick with a cold) to give a different medicine.

~ Baby is now awake and cleaning lady is gone so we head back downstairs.

~ Let meds try to kick in for a few minutes and finally get baby to eat a hot dog and some milk around 2:15.

~ 2:45...all food in baby's stomach reappears... on the couch and floor. GREEEAAAT.

~ Baby looks at me with a tear running down each cheek and watery eyes making me feel like crying again! :-p

~ Get him cleaned up.

~ Get couch cleaned up.

~ Make a "sick bed" on the other half of the couch and tell him that's what my mommy used to do for me when I was sick. He liked that.

~ Girls are giggling in the playroom while they put away their school papers. :)

~ Give up on getting anymore school done and put on the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (Veggie Tales). Justification: it's a rainy day...the only day we really ever watch any tv anyways....

~ Find the thermometer. Temp is 103.4.

~ Give more Tylenol around 5.

~ Movie is over so girls decide to color "get better" cards for baby...and end up coloring pics of mermaids... :)

~ Take temp one more time (I just like to know the number...what can I say?) at 5:30... is up to 104! :(

~ Mommy gets home to take over sick baby duty.

~ Forget to call my mom back...she had called sometime during the afternoon...and missed going to eat a yummy dinner at her house...oh well...will go on Friday.

~ Eat dinner at my house.

~ Go mail an Etsy order...stop at Walmart to pick up juice in hopes it will entice baby to drink something.

~ Get home and write a rather long blog post! :)

Dear Father, Please help that fever to go down so my baby can sleep well tonight!

introducing...

I have a new website to tell you about! It isn't quite up and running yet, but you're going to want to check it out when it is! It is called London-Jack.com. It will be an online store offering "Cool Clothes for Cool Kids". The goal is to provide unique clothing and accessory items for children from smaller manufacturers across the country that might not be so well known. Items that you wouldn't be able to just pick up at Target or the mall.

London-Jack is being started by Paul and Ginger Cookson, who are friends of and go to church with my friend Rebekah. I asked Rebekah to describe them and she said they are "really sweet and very caring. They are great business minded people, extremely creative and always willing to help other people."

Ginger and I have been emailing back and forth a bit and I've enjoyed getting to know her just a little. I asked her how they decided on the name London-Jack and this is an excerpt from what she told me (Hope you don't mind me sharing this, Ginger!):

"As far as the name goes, Paul was thinking of names for a possible T-shirt company and came up with it. I told him to see if there was anything online with that name, but there wasn't. He bought the domain name this summer but didn't do anything with it. Then one day, we talked to a friend of ours [about his former internet business]. It was almost like someone (the holy spirit ;)) grabbed my shoulders and got in my face and said, "You need to do this!" .... A few months later and here we are :) .... I really feel like it is what God wants us to do. Not sure where it will go, but I'm excited to find out!"

I love that Ginger and Paul are a sister and brother in Christ. I am excited to see what different items they will have on their site when it's open! I have set up a countdown clock on the right of my page - the grand opening is on December 5th, so be sure to check it out! You might even see an item you recognize....! ;) But more about that later.

In the meantime, here is the link to their website: http://www.london-jack.com . And here is the link to their London-Jack blog for more information: http://london-jack.blogspot.com/ Or you can even find their page on Facebook and become their friend/fan! Just type in London-Jack... or check my page to find them.

halloween recap 3...the last one! :)

The Friday night a week before Halloween I took the kids to Boo at the Zoo. Usually mommy and daddy are out of town this weekend so it has become our tradition to bring Lauren with us and meet Shannon, Dave, and Jonathan there. This year we still went even though mommy and daddy were home. We also took Lauren's sister Reegan with us.

He does have a costume...but it was really warm that evening so we didn't put it on until we got to the zoo. He wore space pjs underneath his costume, which Lauren realized were perfect for matching his costume. He loves his Lala! :)

We had Belle, a hippie, Cinderella, Buzz Lightyear, and a pirate!

And a WAY CUTE doctor! ;)

I love Boo at the Zoo because you simply walk along the path and every so often there are booths like this. You walk by and they put candy in your bag. Can't beat that!

I love this next pic...

This little cutie of a Nemo belonged to some friends of Dave who we ran into on our way through the zoo. She evidently thought my Belle was simply wonderful and wanted to hold her hand while she walked. :)

Dave's mom was ever so sweet and paid for all the kiddos to ride the merry-go-round. Buzz loved it but was glad to have Lala beside him (although you can't see her in this pic). My almost-nephew in the middle pic decided the whole thing was just a bit to overwhelming and did not ride...oh well, maybe next year! :)

The big girls rode too and patiently waited and extra round so they could find three animals right next to each other - with Reegan in the middle of course. :) Can you tell from this second picture what was different about the merry-go-round that night?? Pay attention to the light and how it's whizzing by....

Do you see?

Just for Halloween, they made the merry-go-round go backwards!

I thought this was a fun idea and was happy my kiddos got the chance to ride...until juust before the girls' turn started when I remembered that my Belle gets carsick rather easily!! Gulp! I said a quick prayer that she would be able to enjoy the ride and wouldn't get sick. Thankfully she had a blast and said her tummy just felt a tiny bit funny.... Whew! :}

Aaand that concludes this year's Halloween! We had a lot of fun doing so many different activities...and now we're headed right into the holiday season so I'm sure there will be many more fun activities to come!

I have more to write about...but that will have to wait for another night... :)

halloween recap 2

Last week (ish) we did several arts and crafts... Starting with these circle paintings. I got the idea here.

I enjoyed preparing this art project. The night before I dipped a cup in black paint to put the circles all over the paper so it would be dry by the time we were ready to add all the color. It was rather relaxing. :)

Showing which one is hers.... The one thing you can't tell from these pictures is that there are sparkles in our paint. It looks pretty neat up close. All three kids loved painting and watching the colors blend together. I am tempted to frame these and hang them in a grouping on my wall - they're just so cheerful and happy!

Then, on Friday, mommy had bought a gingerbread house to decorate so we did it before she left for work.

That is BLACK icing! Yikes! Made me nervous...! :}

Even Mommy helped with this one...especially since I had for some reason decided to wear pale pink pants and a white shirt that day!

Sometimes balloons are more fun than decorating when you're two.

They did all three enjoy adding the candy pieces to the house...and not too much ended up in their mouths...! :)

Ta Da!

After Mommy left I had my own art project for the day....and I totally forgot to take pictures of the whole process...oops. Anyways, here's the end result:

I got this idea here.

**Pictures of the kids in their costumes coming next...!**

halloween recap

We've had a busy week or so having fun doing halloween-ish activities! I'll go backwards in the events so watch for another post or two coming soon.

If you are on Facebook then you may have already seen the pictures in this post. :)

Last night, my friend Leah had a Halloween party at her house. She is a Most Excellent Hostess and knows how to throw a great party! We all had so much fun! Here is a little of how it went...

We had some great costumes! Ben the vampire, Leah the princess/Ben's victim, Aiden the adorable baby lion, Nell Anne (Leah's mom) the beautiful cat, Tiffany as "facebook"!, Whitney as Recycle girl, me and Chuck (Leah's dad) as pirates!

There were funny eyes to try, a pirate/cop fight (the cop totally won! lol), oh, and a midnight fairy and the mad hatter from the new Alice and Wonderland movie that is coming out in the near future!

Piratey stuff. LOTS of food. All homeade. Every bite delicious! And eyes peeking out everywhere. :}

We played the white elephant gift game...where this ugly not-so-little rat was the most popular gift!

Prizes for the best costume, more games, limerick writing, balderdash (do you know what a zobo is??), more food, lots of laughing, new friends, old friends... a little bit of everything! It was a lot of fun...and Leah...it's going to be an annual thing...riiight??? ;)

**Halloween art coming next...**