The Handmade Dress

On the way to church we got the news that Ben's Grandfather passed away a few minutes before in his sleep. We will be with family for the next few days so I probably won't be here much. My mother-in-law, Martha, could really use your prayers (as well as her brother and sister). I've never lost a parent but I can imagine this is going to be very hard for her.... Please keep us in your prayers for the next few days. See you soon. Love, Samantha

I had some extra kids over yesterday and it was so hot outside that they had to come up with an indoor activity....we decided on open mic. They used the hearth as a stage and we put chairs around for the audience. Oh I love Summer games! They took turns singing, dancing, and acting goofy while I got to sit back and enjoy the show. I think I enjoyed the audience as much as I enjoyed the actors! Do you see Maddie to the right there?? Princess PJ's, sunglasses, a bottle of grape Kool Aid, and a thumb in her mouth. LOL! I should really start a category just for Maddie's fashion sense, it really is the highlight of my day a lot of the time. By the way, she specifically asked that her Kool Aid (which is a special treat around here) be put in a bottle....and when a girl in sunglasses and princess PJ's asks for a bottle with her special grape Kool Aid....you give the kid a bottle....nuff said. LOL! This little guy was one of my favorites! This is Molly's best friend in the w...

We have just started, in the last two weeks, getting good veggies from the garden. It has mostly been squash and peppers so far but today we got a mess of green beans and cucumbers. We were all pretty excited about our first fresh green beans. A little while later I was yapping on the phone with Dawn and I went downstairs to find Molly sitting in the floor with two pots popping beans and I found sliced cucumbers on the counter. When she finished popping the beans I offered her a bullion cube (that's how we season our beans here) and she filled the pot with water and started cooking. When they were done she ate 3 plates FULL! I thought it was the cutest thing! The girl wanted beans so she cooked some beans! LOL! I went back for seconds too. I told her now that I know she can cook beans that will be her job from now on. I just need to teach her to get the strings and the end pieces off, but I gotta say, she didn't do bad at all for her first mess of beans! From the seed to ou...

Ben is at the fire station today, along with a few other daddies, but we still wanted them all to feel special today. Happy Fathers Day guys! We will be there soon to visit! Here are a few of our favorite Daddy moments. The kids all agree that they have the best Daddy in the world! He's got my vote too! I can't wait to have our other children in these pictures! Happy Fathers Day to all the daddies out there!!!

Maddie "needed" a dress made from this fairy fabric last weekend. You know how girls just need things from time to time....ya, that's how she needed this. So I made her this little dress that was inspired by this one from Chasing Fireflies .... I just LOVE their stuff, but it's usually a little too fruffy for my girls (and yes, fruffy is a word here and it means frilly or gaudy in case you didn't know. LOL!). It's kinda funny because these fruffy dresses look great on the girls in the catalogue, but on my girls they look way too over-the-top. I really do like how our version came out, it's girly and a little frilly but still has that simplicity that I love. My camera wasn't liking all this hot humid air so it kept fogging up on me....fun.....but when I saw the pictures I thought the fog made it look a little more fairyish (another great word that I may or may not have just made up). Maddie was a little grumpy this morning too, which was just one mo...

He finally came last night, and he is just beautiful! Mama and baby are happy and healthy. He weighed 8lbs and 5 oz and was 20 1/2" long. It always amazes me how you can love someone instantly! Little Abe had me at the first glance! I can't wait to take him on adventures and tell him stories! I love being an aunt! I think Lily and Iris are in love too. They were just saying "ooooooooooohhhh baaaaaaby" over and over when they saw him, it was so sweet. They even cried when we had to step out of the room. I just had to add this picture of Abe's head FULL of hair. See how they had to part it! It reminds me of Timothy! The nurses got such a kick out of fixing Tim's hair in the NICU because they said they never got babies with hair. I hope to get some better pictures today when I visit. Last night it was just too crazy for picture taking. . I also wanted to thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging words about our decision to adopt! We are just so hap...

I can't hold it in any longer! I haven't been able to write in weeks because my heart has been preoccupied with something that I couldn't talk about yet, but now I can!!!! God has opened our hearts to ADOPTION!!!!! YES!! Ben and I are going to adopt!!! I am crying just typing this! We are so beyond excited about this decision! God has opened and closed every door in His perfect time and now we are ready to start the long hard process of bringing other children into our home to love and cherish for FOREVER! I feel like my heart has grown two sizes in the last months as we have researched and prayed about adopting. God has replaced that hopeless feeling that was beginning to drag Ben and I down with an overwhelming sense of hope and love! It's almost unbelievable at times because of the changes that have been made in our hearts. . I could sit here an gush all day about how excited we are (really I could!) but I'm sure you want to know some of the details we have worke...

It has been well over a week since I have been in my loft and I have really missed it! Of course things are a little behind, there are lots of emails to answer and work that needs to be done (ahem...Miss Iris!) but it feels good to be working at it again, and in a clean house to boot! Ben and I started cleaning on Sunday night and I finally finished up last night. Clean houses make me happy. Our Spring cleaning was a little late this year, but at least it finally happened! We threw away/ gave away so much junk! It is amazing how much "stuff" you accumulate in just one year. Where does it come from? Anyhow, back to the loft. I am looking forward to a full day of work so I started it out right with a cup of my favorite flavored coffee, and a sweet little girl to keep me company. I did have to bribe her to stay with me though. What? Did you think I was above bribing my children to stay with me instead of going outside to play? Well I'm not, I assure you! The big kids we...

Hello friends! There are so many things going on here at the moment, which is why I haven't been here much for the last week or so... . My baby sister, Rae, is due any day now (she was 4 cm dilated on Wednesday when at the doctor!), and we have been in a mad rush to get her settled into her new house. I was at her house until 1 AM Saturday morning doing the last of the cleaning and unpacking. Poor baby! Her little feet were so swollen they looked like puffy marshmallows. In fact, I kept telling her when she would try to get up to work "Sit down marshmallow feet!" and "Get out of here and go put your fat feet up!" LOL! She would just giggle at me and head back to her spot on the couch. We really have had a good time all working together the last few days, that usually happens when we are all deliriously tired and sore. We just get ridiculously silly after about 8 hours of work. You know how that goes. . Besides all that.... Ben and I have been occupied with so...

We had such a busy week from Thursday to Sunday. WOW. Thursday and Friday I was cooking and cleaning for my sister Rae's baby shower on Saturday. We had the baby shower at 10am and when it was over Ben and I headed to a wedding two hours away and we didn't get home until after 2am. Sunday was the usual, teaching my boy's Sunday school class (seriously, those are the coolest little guys on the planet), church, eat, and spend the day with the in-laws. After such a busy week it was time for some playing! So Sunday I borrowed a couple of extra kids from my mother-in-law (this time it was the two younger girls) and yesterday we got up, packed a bag with food and water, and went on an adventure in the forest! We were a group of doctors and nurses hiking through an African jungle trying to find an ancient tribe that no white man had ever seen before. We were sent to help with a terrible plague that had come through killing many people in the tribe. Along the way we collected m...