5 Things I love

Handmade Gifts are just the best. They are always made with so much love. Nothing says 'I love you' or that 'I'm thinking of you' more than a gift made from someone's hands. Here are our favorites:

A bag that a friend just made for me for my birthday of my current favorite fabric! She is my sewing buddy and we have so much fun together. Such a practical gift too.

A blanket that my mother knitted for Joseph. It is GORGEOUS. It was her first big knitting project and she did such an amazing job. She chose a two toned green blanket. It goes perfectly in their new room. I'm so excited for Fall, so that we can put it to good use.


My wedding rings. I just love them. We had a designer from Richmond do both of ours. Such beautiful one-of-a-kind artwork! And I get to wear them every day for the rest of my life! How lucky am I :)

My birthday necklace from last year. A local jeweler made it. It makes me so happy with all of those beautiful colors.

And last, but definitely not least, a new pair of earring I just received for my birthday from a wonderful blogging friend, Lora. They came so beautiful wrapped in this vintage fabric behind them. I bet they are pink because she just said she thinks it's my color. She has an awesome site on Etsy. Go check it out. She is also the one who got me into these '5 things I love' lists. Aren't they great?!

Another gift that we have that I cannot post is a welcome sign that Andy's 89 year young grandmother just cross stitched for us for our new home. It is gorgeous. It says Welcome and then our new address with some beautiful hearts and a home stitched in it. We are so excited to hang it by our front door.

I'm so encouraged to see I have some friends and family out there that enjoy my posts about crafting and cooking. I love to document what's going on in 'my world' just as much as I enjoy sharing things about the boys, so it was an encouragement to see you guys are interested in that stuff too. (But just not quite as much as the boys).

I definitely apologize that there hasn't been any of those sorts of posts in a long time. I do hope, though, to have lots of fun things to share soon since the unpacking is almost done and now it's time to make this house a home with some wonderful homemade touches. Stay tuned.

Do you have any favorite handmade gifts?

Birthday Recap

Andy surprised me the night before my birthday by telling me he was taking me away to one of the places where we went on our honeymoon, a mountain bed and breakfast in the Blue Ridge mountains called the Sugar Tree Inn. It's literally our favorite place on earth.

He told me by serving us ice cream in our Sugar Tree coffee mugs that we have from there and saying he thought we could have some ice cream, but specifically ice cream in our mugs because that's where we're heading the next day.

So Andy took off a half of day on my birthday, which was already a huge surprise, since he had so much going on at work. (I thought it would be a plus if we were able to fit in a dinner out). He had his mom come down to stay with the boys and she brought me an ice cream cake and they sang to me before we left.


We got there and it was gorgeous as usual. Over the course of our three trips there, we have gotten very friendly with the inn keepers and when they saw us, they said it felt like their kids were coming home to visit. We just love them.

The first thing we wanted to do was go on a hike before dinner. So, we set off and were having a great time, and then... we stepped on a yellow jackets nest, which are in the ground. Andy got stung first and about 15 seconds later, I got stung. We continued to head back down the mountain but at a quicker pass. Well, Andy was perfectly fine, but I ended up having a HORRIBLE reaction to it. I got bumps all over my body and was burning like fire. They eventually all swelled up and I was one big swollen itchy ball of flame.

It took quite a while to get it all under control, but eventually we did. We talked of going to the hospital, but since my breathing never got too difficult, I decided to wait it out. I'm glad we didn't.

So, no dinner at the Inn, but we did get it brought to us after things calmed down. I spent the entire night in bed with my loyal husband by my side nursing my wounds.


By the next morning everywhere but my hand, which was where I got stung, was almost better, so we decided to change plans and instead of going hiking we went to see Wade's Mill and the Frontier Cultural Museum before heading home.

Despite the unexpected, we had such a fabulous time together. We commented that even though it was far from ideal, God used the situation to grow us probably closer together than we would have if I hadn't gotten stung.

What a blessing our time away was. To be away and to know our kids were being so well taken care of was a huge plus. We're so excited to do it again. Even, though it had been exactly 2 years since we'd been away without any kiddos, we were ready to get back home. We loved our time away, but we're the happiest when we're all together.

Thankful Thursday

Not much time to blog, but one thing I am thankful for is pictures with my boys. I am always the one behind the camera, so I don't have many with them. So, here's one, even though it is blurry:

A Mother's Purse

When I'm out without the kids, it's really hard to forget I'm a mother to boys when I look in my purse and this is what I see.

Out of sight, out of mind... I think not.

Thankful Thursday

This week has been such a great week. Nothing super exciting going on, but we feel very blessed.

~ The house is really coming along. It really feels like home now. Of course there is a ton more we'd love to do, but we're in a good place to relax and enjoy it.
~ Andy's job is going really well.
~ I'm learning how to sew my first dress.
~ I got two crafting books I've really been wanting. Handmade Home and The Creative Family. I simply cannot wait to get my sewing area up and working so I can start on some of the projects in these books, and my dress of course.
~ Andy and I are reading a fabulous book, Hope Lives. If you're up to be challenged, I highly recommend this book. It has given us many opportunities to see into the heart of God for orphans and to know His will in a deeper way.
~ We finally got to meet our friends, Caleb and Eden from Ethiopia. They are seriously the worlds cutest children. I thought, I had them, but I was wrong! Words cannot express the emotion I felt when I saw them in their parents arms. What a beautiful example of how the Lord rescues us.
~ The weather this week has been gorgeous. We are finally excited about fall. Especially the idea of no mosquitoes. And pumpkins. And apples.
~ And to top it all off, my birthday is tomorrow. WOOHOO!

Congrats from Papa Bear

Congratulations to Joseph's formal acceptance as a Boy-Cadet (herinafter BC) in the Man-Candidacy Program. We are pleased that Joseph has met the rigid requirements of attaining 1 1/2 years of age, and having the requisite amount of hair.
Please consider this as notification to BC Joseph of the training requirement to be conducted at the Williamsburg Man-Candidacy Camp. These requirements include: #1 approaching to within three (3) feet of screaming parrot's cage without crying (brother Samuel still working on this requirement). #2 walking or running across fifty (50) feet of parade ground without tripping, while carrying an obvious imbalanced weight load (belly and head). #3 Limiting the distribution/spread of food detritus while in the mess hall to a six (6) foot radius around chair, and (4) belly crawling up staircase obstacle six (6) times in a ten (10) minute period.

It is mandatory that BC Joseph complete these requirements in order to acheive the first level, Man-Candidacy Pink Belt (hereinafter MCPB). Failure to complete any level of the Man-Candidacy Program will result in the filing of a court order to change BC Joseph's middle name from "Andrew" to "Phil".

Signed

Papa Bear, AMCDI
Assistant Man-Candidacy Drill Instructor

I just had to share this email we got from Andy's dad. It is just too funny not to.