Grandma Lesta

Trevor's grandma, Lesta Chase, passed away suddenly on Thursday afternoon. At age 82, she was such a beautiful lady with a love for crafting and all things glitzy! Of course, we are all grieving, but it is certainly a comfort knowing that she is with Jesus.

Grandma "Shorty" holding Camden, Christmas 2008.

http://www.legacy.com/joplinglobe/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=140090686

Birthday Backpack

Yesterday was our friend, Aubrey Peterson's, second birthday. I wanted to make her something for her birthday and when she was at our house not too long ago, she was carrying around a bag with all sorts of little treasures that she'd found in the kids' rooms. So, I decided that she needed her own bag to pack her treasures and carry around her house. She is so into Mickey Mouse, and I found this super cute and very subtle Mickey Mouse material at Hobby Lobby (my fav!). I had no pattern or tutorial, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Aubrey's mama, Lisa, says she loves her "pack-pack" and she's ready to "Go a Kohl's!"

Happy Valentines/Chinese New Year Day

What a fun weekend! We started out Friday evening by having our friends', the Petersons, kiddos over so that they could go out for V-day. We exchange date nights with them, so it was our turn to watch them...actually, my turn...Trev was coaching his last game of the season, so it was just me and the 5 kids. Sticking with the theme of the weekend, we made heart-shaped tortilla pizzas that the kids topped themselves (this added an extra element of messiness, but the bonus fun was totally worth it!). They played and played and then we vegged out and watched Madagascar 2, a classic around here. We had tons of fun as we always do with those 3...love them!!

Yesterday, we slept in *YEA* and then I got out of the house for a little while to get some shopping done, including a trip to my FAV store, Hob Lob. It is dangerous for me to go in there by myself, like an abyss of lovely things, all calling out for me to buy them and make something wonderful...ahh. Anyway, I picked up some $.49 flip flops and ribbon to decorate and hopefully sell to make some money towards the adoption process (more on that later). I also bought material for a bag for Miss Aubrey's birthday (of the Peterson Clan as mentioned above) and material for a large project for my nephew's 1st birthday next month. Can't post much about that one just in case my SIL makes a stop by here...I want it to be a surprise! And some material for who knows what, just because it was so cute and in the bargain bin and I thought I needed it. Then, yesterday evening, hubs and I went out for dinner at a new place and we were TOTALLY disappointed! GAG! Honestly, the best part of the dinner was the hot fudge sundae from McD's afterword. What a bummer! But, the kids had an amazing time at the circus with their Nana and Papa, so, again, we'll live vicariously through our children...at least they had a good time!

Today we started by giving the kids their Valentines (handmade card, balloons, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs DVD, headbands for Sis and a Zhu Zhu pet for Bub) and then on to an awesome service at church (as always!), then home for lunch, and then small group at our house. Both sets of parents stopped by to wish the kids (and us) Happy V-Day. So, we got to see/hang out with lots of people that we love on Valentine's Day. :)

**Side note: Notice M and C's shirts that I made using the freezer paper stencil technique shown here: http://www.neitherhipnorfunky.com/?p=106 and here: http://www.craftster.org/blog/?p=94. I also used it on Melia's "5" shirt in my last post and several others I've done for both kiddos. It's my absolute favorite technique and I am hoping to try it on some curtains sometime in the near future (ok, probably this summer!).

Also, did you know today is Chinese New Year? I've never really given it a thought before, but knowing that the biological mother of our next baby is probably celebrating today gives it a whole new meaning...I'm praying for her this evening!

Melia's Birthday Festivities

Our sweet baby girl turned 5 on January 29th. Even though that was a couple of weeks ago, I'm a new blogger (as you know), so I thought I should do a retroactive post to talk about how we celebrated! Her birthday was on a Friday and so I planned to take the day off. But, when we woke up that morning, there was a beautiful blanket of snow and it continued to accumulate throughout the day. It reminded me so much of the day that she was born and of our wedding day, which made for a pretty awesome memory! Since it was snowy, everyone got the day off for her birthday! We started with our newest birthday tradition, the birthday waffle, complete with five pink candles.

We had planned to get her 5 year old pictures taken with Becca from Journeys with Barefeet, so we started at 10:30 in Webb City and two hours later, we were done! Her pics can be seen at http://journeyswithbarefeet.com/; scroll down to Miss Melia and type in chase. They are too cute! Here is the shoot on Becca's blog: http://journeyswithbarefeet.blogspot.com/2010/02/little-miss-melia.html

That evening, we went with my parents (Nana and Papa), my sister, and Trevor's parents (Granny and Poppy) to Logan's. This is Melia's new favorite restaurant; she's such a clean freak, but the idea that she has permission to throw peanut shells on the floor is still appealing. :)

The next day was her Princess Tea Party/Brunch. We had 16 little princesses and their Mommies (and some Daddies! :)) over for her birthday party in the morning. They were all so cute! We transformed our dining room into a tulle tent, ate cupcakes, donuts, pop tarts, and breakfast casserole, opened presents, and played Princess Bingo. (I just made this in MS Word...if you want it to print your own, E-mail me and I'll send it to you!)

Saturday evening, we had Melia's family birthday party with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. She got all sorts of fun stuff, including her first real sewing machine! It's a Pixie by Singer and it's purple...too cute! Her first project is featured in my last post "Love is in the Air"...the heart garland. She thought it was funny to sew paper, but it was a good first project. :)

We wrapped up her birthday festivities on Monday (yes, it was more like a birth-weekend!) at her pre-school. We brought cupcakes and milk for everyone in her class. They sang Happy Birthday and she said the prayer for their snacks.

Love is in the Air

After a couple of days of EVERY ONE of us sporting a NASTY stomach bug, I think we are on the upswing. Whew! Melia and I stayed home today and I made some yummy homemade chicken noodle soup...it was the first thing most of us had eaten in 2 days, so I'm not sure if it was really yummy or I just didn't remember what real food tasted like! ;)

We took a nap, played Chutes and Ladders, played "Spelling Bee" (her intellect never ceases to amaze me!), and took another nap! Then, as I looked around at our valentine's day decor,

I realized our time to prepare for their pre-school parties is dwindling quickly. So, we pulled out her valentine's cards from downstairs (I bought them for 10 cents at a garage sale this Fall!!) and spent some quality time this evening labeling and stickering them.

So, now all I have left to do is buy/do Camden's cards, make a dozen sugar cookies, and pick up whatever it is I signed up to bring to Melia's party. I guess we'll do all that before church tomorrow evening. :)

About Our Team

Hello! This is our first post, so I'm just testing to see if it works. :) My name is Jen and my husband, Trevor and I have been married almost 10 years (March 11). We are high school sweethearts and are both turning 30 in March...YIKES! We have two beautiful children: Melia, who just turned 5 and Camden, who is 2 1/2. We are Christians and love God more than anything. We recently have been feeling God's calling in our lives to adopt 2 children internationally. After much prayer, research, and conversation, we truly believe that our baby/babies are from Taiwan and as of last Thursday, February 4th, 2010, we are on a waiting list at His Hands Taiwan, Inc. We are obviously praying hard about this process, our finances, the ministry of His Hands, the mother(s) who will bear our baby/babies, and (of course) our babies. We are so excited to see how this process has already begun to change us and how it will continue to do so!