A New Nursing Cover

Yesterday's project was a new nursing cover for Jen. The other one I made was lost at a restaurant--well, found by someone. When Jen went back to get it, it was already gone. So I hope it's being put to good use and not just tossed out! Jen chose some really cute fabrics for this new one.

Beautiful Gifts

Our gracious God has given us an endless supply of beautiful gifts. I can look in the faces of each of my children and grandchildren and my husband and my friends and immediately see His beauty, His love for us, that He would entrust me with such wondrous gifts. (Tears are in my eyes even thinking about it!)
 I also see His beauty whenever I look around and am drawn to designs and colors and shapes. I am blessed with being able to look out my window, as I sit here at the computer, and see our pond with it's waterfall (a blessing of sound, too!) and many beautiful plants and flowers. Of course, I should also say that I'm blessed with a husband who struggles daily, sometimes hourly, with keeping the pond looking good. That algae loves the summer heat!
What I'm realizing is that not everyone sees things the same way. My eyes will trace and retrace designs and colors over and over and there is a feeling of "fullness" and wanting more that just makes me smile. This is the beauty of our Lord. I want Jesus to fill me and I want more and more of Him! His beauty is everywhere, but I'm sure we've only seen a taste of what is yet to come! Thank You, Jesus!!

Random Posts

So many times I'll take a picture and intend to place it in a post and then not get to it for awhile. Before I know it, more events have occurred and pictures taken and I'm not sure which ones to begin with. So today's post is just random posts.

One day last week Steve invited us over for a delicious Indian dinner that he had spent the day preparing. It was great! I'll have to ask him the names of the dishes again. After dinner we enjoyed their backyard.

A new swing,

a kid-powered car,

and a playhouse. (With a tired chef sitting in it)

Cade and Amelia were playing well together until Amelia decided to pour sand in Cade's lap.

My babies watching their babies

Another day.....ready for pool fun!!

A baby named Cash

I had fun this week finding a fabric and then making 2 bibs and a burp cloth for a baby named Cash. Cash is due on Aug 16, the same day as Baby V Maybe Sydney is due.

Back to Sewing!

It feels good to get back to sewing after such a long time. My inspiration has been that Isa will be starting Kindergarten. I've made 2 dresses for her so far and this 2nd one was especially fun. The more I like the print on a fabric, the more I enjoy sewing on it! I missed taking a picture of the first one before Isa wanted to take it home, but I'll try to get a picture of her wearing it and add it to this post later. I also missed taking a picture of her when she wore this 2nd dress yesterday. Guess I'll add that one later also.
(I stopped for a few minutes to look for a picture of Jill and Jen wearing matching dresses that I made when they were 1 1/2 and 3 1/2. As they got older, it seems I was always making some sort of costume! And that would be a cute post--to collect pictures of their costumes as they grew up. But that will have to be a future project. The last time I went looking for a certain photo, I ended up with a huge mess of boxes all pulled from the closet. This next photo of them in their cute little green and white sailor dresses I only had to look in my scan file.)
I'm also going to get back to making hairbows. Well, that idea has been a good excuse for starting to collect ribbons! What is it about fabric and ribbons that can get me so excited?! I just adore buying them even if I don't make something for months (years??) later!  Today Jen and I went looking at scrapbook papers for making invitations for Jill's shower. JoAnn's was having such a great sale. So we kept ourselves focused (ok, her, more than I) to get everything we needed for the invitations and then treated ourselves to finding papers for making pages for the kids. So...I learned a whole new perspective. Jen actually buys ONLY the papers she needs for her next project!! That mode will take some serious focus and practice on my part!!

Update:

This is the first dress I made for Isa.

An Ending and a Beginning

Wow, Small Wonders Preschool graduation! There are a lot of emotions attached to Isa's graduation from preschool. It's an ending of a more protected phase of her life since she has been surrounded by teachers and staff who love the Lord, and a beginning of a more worldly environment in a public school. But we serve a perfect and mighty God who knows exactly what He wants for us, so I am already praying for Isa in her new environment and for her Kindergarten teacher.

The graduation was fun to watch. Such a cute age! The kids sang 2 songs; one lively and the other more serious. Isa had been warning us that we were going to cry when we heard it. Well, 2 lines into it and I knew that she was going to be right. It was all about "remember me while I am small"--very touching.

Here's our graduate!

Isa is in the center-right, front row with hands clasped in front of her.

Singing a song with signing

My eyes brimmed on this one...

Isa with her buddy, Brasen

Our Kindergarten girl!!

Cade's Birthday and more....

So much has been happening during the past few weeks! Each time I've sat down to make a new post, something else has come up. So I think I'll begin with Cade's 2nd birthday. Our little future golfer had a golf theme for his party last Saturday. Jill and Marcus did a great job of making a golfball pinata and planning all sorts of backyard activities for the kids to do. Here are pictures of some of the highlights:

The Pinata

The Birthday Boy in his hat, golf shirt, and knickers! (And the golfclub that Grandpa cut down to size and regripped for Cade)

Grandpa made a cool hole with a flag on the green!

Check out the grip, straight arm, and the feet placement!

The Sand Trap

The Water Trap 

Hitting the pinata

Isa made the first break and Brasen finished opening it.

Gathering the goodies

Time for cake! Elly Garcia did such a special job of making the cake and cupcakes. Delicious!

Cade blew out the candles and was clapping even before we finished singing.

This last picture is from 2 days later on Cade's actual birthday. Everytime Jill would move her hand, Cade would start blowing instead of waiting til we were finished singing. He just couldn't wait to do the blowing!! Hilarious!