Five Beautiful Blessings Between Heaven & Earth

Did you know that Oct is Infant Loss Awareness Month?  No?  It's ok I never did either,  until we lost our own Infant.  I think it's one of those things that you don't think about much.  Oh sure you hear those awful stories about families that have lost infants,  or toddlers.  You've read their stories on their blogs and you've shed tears for them.  You think "oh my goodness I don't know how they survived that they must be so strong.  but that will never happen to us."  Then you close your computer and go on about your day.  At last that is what I always did and then one day it happened to us.  You know, that thing that only happens to other people?  On January 24th 2010 Our  3rd child Colette Eliza was born into our family.  It was an uneventful pregnancy with no signs that anything was out of the ordinary.  Certainly no sign or warning that we would do anything other than take home another beautiful baby ...

Do you ever start a project only to have it sit there just waiting to be finished?  For some reason the last few steps of a project are usually my least favorite to do but it always feels so good to have it done and be able to cross it off the list!  So I took a day and decided to finish up a few sewing projects.  The first one was a decoration and I got to put it out as soon as it was done.  Here it is! Isn't it cute?  I love pumpkins and happy scarecrows this time of year.   I don't know if you can see it or not but I quilted it on my sewing machine so it's all puffy and cute.  and now it sits in the couch were I can see it often.   And this one has been all sewn up waiting to be machine quilted for a while now,  but I decided while I had my special foot on the machine with the first one to just get this one done too.  so it's quilted around the snowman to make him look puffy and 3dis.  It's darling I love it.  As much as ...

It's that time of year again!  And so the haggling begins over who get's to be what for Halloween.  Remember the good old days where I used to pick the costume and it didn't even occur to Aaron that he had a say?  Yes those days have been gone for a few years now.  So the Drama begins.  This year Aaron has his heart set on being Darth Vader  but I kept telling him that we could not afford to pay 30$  for something he's only going to wear once!  So I kept telling him to think of something else.  But then thanks to a friend pointing me in the right directions we did find a cheaper version of the Darth Vader costume on Walmart.com  for only $12.00  so we did it!  He is so excited and happy with it.  I love it when I can make my boy happy for less than 15.00!  (Pictures to come at a later date) Now for Bridgett I was kind of stumped.  Then I went to the store and I found this.   cute huh?  Then i also ...

Nannie and Papa came by to visit the other day and they brought me a present!  They had been to Kencraft candy store and they found some things for me,  Nannie thought that I could use these to decorate cakes and cupcakes with.  They were on sale for only a quarter a box and there are 6 of each of the big toppers in each box.  Here I"ll show you what I'm talking about.     Aren't they fun?  Anyone need a cake made for a party anytime soon?  I can't wait to try these out and see how they look.  Oh and the little ones that i didn't take a photo of  were little tiny ghosts and pumpkins and balloons,  perfect for cupcake toppers too!

Friday was the annual Pumpkin picking afternoon.  Grandma Smith has some friends who have a farm and grow pumpkins and let her and all the grand kids come pick pumpkins.  We did it last year and the kids had a great time.  Sadly this year it was a little last min due to weather and I was unable to go since I was making dinner for my friends who were celebrating their 5 year anniversary.  But Dusty went with the kids and took some awesome photos for me to blog with. Here they are walking down the road to the pumpkin patch.  At this point I think Bridgett was not really sure what exactly they were doing.  Remember last year?  Same time of year 1 year ago except here it's warm and sunny and last year they were all bundled up in their heavy winder jackets with hats and gloves! Look Bridgett finally figured out what they are doing!  Now to find the perfect pumpkin!   Pumpkins amaze me,  the plant grows forever all summer long before ...

So today has been an interesting day.   I had just gotten back from the gym and went to start the laundry when the phone rang.  Imagine my surprise when I realized that it was Aaron's school!  Yes it's finally happened,  our tender hearted Aaron was in his first fight.  And it was a doodle!   Sadly.......the tree won.  :( The conversation with Aaron's school went something like this.  words out of ""'s are my own thoughts. "hello?" "Is this Julia?" "yes"   great another telemarketer "this is Mrs ****** from ****** Elementary,  I have Aaron in the office here." "yes"  oh no did he throw up?  He didn't seem sick.... "Aaron was outside playing during lunch recess and well... he ran into a tree." "Uh...."   lunch recess?  GOOD GRIEF what time do these kids eat lunch?  10:00am?  wait he ran into a what??????  Gosh I wish I could say he got that from his dad's side of the famil...

These were Bridgett's cupcakes for her Birthday,  quite simple but she loved them!  she is so into colors right now and LOVES the round sprinkles.  Bridgett's Birthday started really early with having lost more cupcakes to frost for the Bake sale AND for her Birthday but as you can see I had plenty of help!  We decided to decorate her Birthday with Polka Dots,  Here she is waiting to blow out her little candle! And here she is enjoying her feast of Cheese and homemade rolls! This seems to be her favorite toy that she got for her Birthday,  Poor Aaron has yet to even be allowed to play with it.  She loves to hear it sing her the alphabet and she's getting really good at singing along! We have discovered that Bridgett is not really into opening presents,  or perhaps she is but not in the usual rip everything apart and move on to the next present way that most kids do.  Bridgett likes to take her time and when I say take her...