Sombrero...

This kid looks awfully cute in a sombrero!! :)

Dancing in the Arms of God...

This morning after doing a little quiet time, I picked up my copy of Dancing in the Arms of God that's been in my collection of books for more than 10 years. I haven't read it yet, but thought it looked good. I opened the cover and found this note written by my mom back when I was in the midst of my "dark days" -

"Dear Jessica,

How I love you! This book is for you to read when you are ready. Before you do, read Matthew 13 and evaluate where you might fit in the parables.

You are a gift from God and we love you with that everlasting love that never changes and is unconditional. As Abraham was asked to put Isaac on the alter before God, so He has asked us to do that with you. You are His to do with as He sees best remembering that He is the provider and is full of goodness no matter what the circumstances.

No, I am not pushing - I am letting go...I trust in Him for your best.

In His love,

Mom

1/19/2000"

With tear-stained cheeks and puffy eyes, I turned to the first chapter in this book this morning and began reading. The author, Connie Neal, describes a picture of herself as a young girl. She's all dressed up with a beautiful dress, perfect blonde hair in pig tails with bows, sitting in an alley amongst several garbage cans. She related it to how in life, our circumstances can look like big piles of garbage and that anyone else looking at this picture might only see that - the garbage - BUT our God loves us and sees US, not just our garbage. He sees His beautiful creation and longs to scoop us out of our circumstances and into a meaningful and deep relationship with Him.

I am so thankful that back in 2000 my mom saw past my "garbage" and focused in on the little girl who wanted so badly to be free, but just didn't know how. She prayed diligently and sought the Lord on my behalf for many years before I finally decided that I wanted better for my life and asked for better from God Himself.

As much as I pray against this kind of journey for my own kids, should they ever need to walk their own way for God to truly get a hold of their hearts I only hope I have the wisdom to spend more time on my knees in prayer for them than anywhere else. And I pray that I will always see them like God does...like my mom saw me...

One Year Old!!!

Owen is 1!

How can they go from this...

...to this in one year?

Our sweet Owen Garrett is so perfectly suited for our family. The other night Hailey asked me, "Mom, did you pick Owen and me?" I told her that God picked them for us because they knew they were the perfect ones for us. :)

Here are a few fun facts about the birthday boy -

*Words - Although he can say "Mama", he prefers "Dada", "Nana", "Baba" or "Rara". Sometimes I feel a little sorry for myself, but the "Mama"s I do get are just more sweet.

*Food - He's eating all people food now...well, people food without wheat in it, that is. His favorites are bananas (he eats a whole one by himself every morning!), Trader Joe's gluten-free toaster waffles, and his newly discovered favorite - peanut butter! Oh, and he practically eats his own weight in Kix daily. :)

*Sleep - He takes 2 really good naps each day. One in the morning from about 9-11 and one in the afternoon from about 1-4. He sleeps at night from 7 pm-7:30 am most mornings. Thankfully he's over this before 6 am wake up habit he had last week!

*Play - He's loving several of his new toys that he got for his birthday. Currently, his faves are his Sounders soccer ball, this little workbench that makes sounds, and his Little People parking garage. The parking garage, however, gets pushed around for practice walking more than driven on.

*Movin' around - Todd was very determined to get Owen walking by his 1st B-day, but one thing we're learning about Owen is that you can't make him do ANYTHING he doesn't want to! (Wait...where would he get that from?? ;) He crawls faster than Hailey ever did and is perfectly content with that for now. He did take a few steps the other day, though. I think the walking is coming.

*Babyproofing - When Hailey became mobile, we put those cabinet protectors under the sink in the kitchen (since we store cleaning supplies and stuff under there) and put outlet covers on less than half of the outlets in our house. We said "no touch" once to her and she pretty much didn't think anything about it. Her brother, on the other hand, is into EVERYTHING! Must be a boy thing... :)

*How big? - His one year appointment isn't until next week, so I don't have any official stats, but I think he weighs just under 20 pounds and is probably about 30 inches. He's still kind of little for his age, but look at his sister. She's never been out of the 10th percentile for weight!

You're so special to us, Owen Garrett! We love you so much and thank God daily for picking you for our family! Happy Birthday!

We sure love this kid...

I am overwhelmed at the love there is for my son. We celebrated his first birthday today with lots of our family and a few friends and there was no shortage of joy in our home.

The most joy-filled one of all was this boy...Here are a few pics of the party...thanks for taking these, Christy! You're the best. :)

Here he is! All naked and ready for his CAKE! :)

After making Owen a special wheat-free cake, all he ate was the frosting. ;)

This is my favorite picture of the whole day. You can actually hear him yelling! This, of course, came about 15 minutes after the cake eating started...right as the sugar kicked in.

This boy was SPOILED when it came to the birthday gift portion of the day! Everyone was so generous...I was in shock.

I hope you always know how loved you are, my sweet boy.

Birthday Banner!

Here are some instructions for a do-it-yourself birthday banner! Firstly, you need a paper cutter, a bunch of letter size cardstock, a ruler, a utility knife and cutting board, ribbon, and those little sticky things that people use for scrapbooking. ;)First off, you cut all of the paper in half width-wise. Then, using a ruler, find the center of the paper and mark it at one end, like so...
Then you line up one corner and the center point on your paper cutter and make a perfect triangle shape...

Once you've done this with all of the paper, you can mix and match and decide what paper will be layered with what. I'd advise that the smaller triangles be some sort of cute print, but I wasn't thinking straight at the paper store, so I made due...

I then cut off about 2 inches of the tops of all of my small triangle pieces.

Then I used those little sticky scrapbooking squares I mentioned earlier to attach the pieces...

Next, you use that trusty utility knife (very carefully, of course) and cut a slit just a bit longer than the width of your ribbon. You may also want to score the back side of the paper just so it's easier to slide the ribbon through...

Then, slide the ribbon through like so. Keep in mind that you will want to decide at this step how you want your banner to look - one long banner or several smaller ones tied together like mine.

When cutting the ends of the ribbon, I made sure I left it extra long since I wasn't sure how each one would hang on the wall. I then picked my favorite font and typed the message I wanted on the banner in Word and printed it. Then I just cut the letters out and, again, used my sticky scrapbooking squares to attach them like so...

When hanging the banner, I laid it out on the table and tied all 3 strings together at one end and hung it on the wall. Then I messed with the letters and slid them around on the ribbon so they'd be positioned how I wanted them and then tied the other end.

Voila! There's my birthday banner tutorial!

Or birthday "bammer" as Hailey's been calling it... :)

Okay, summer...we're ready!!

Target, you've sucked us in once again...how could we resist this cute suit and pool towel??

Now anytime these monsoon rain storms want to stop, we're ready to lay out in the SUN and not the living room... :)

Spring Spruce-Up...the Final Chapter!

Here is my collection of newly covered pillows! I wish I could say that I made them myself, but alas...I don't sew...yet.

My dear sweet Mrs. Howard made them for me for $2/each and I got the fabric 35% off, so it was quite the deal. The best part? All of these pillow covers have zippers and are washable.

I love how these new modern fabrics made it feel so bright and comfy in our family room. :)