My First Quilt

My sister and brother-in-law, who I'm so proud of, opened their home to their first foster kiddos today. Due to confidentiality sake, I won't say much about the kids except to say that they are precious and we are very blessed to be a part of their little lives. Melia and Camden took right to them and they recipricated their friendship immediately. It is so awesome to see how little kids let their guards down so quickly...oh, to be in that place where we are so vulnerable and freely make ourselves available to other people. I should be so much more like that!

Anyway, Lindsey (my sis) sort of "commissioned" me to make a quilt for them that reflects their obsession, er, uh, love for their MU Tigers. So, here is the final product...

I am thrilled with how it turned out! :) I thought about posting a tutorial and even took a bunch of pictures along the way, but then I decided that others had done it so much better, so I just thought I would give credit where credit is due and post their links.

This is where I learned about doing a patchwork quilt:

http://cloud9fabrics.blogspot.com/2010/01/quilt-in-day-tutorial.html

And this is the post I used for the "binding" and some other general quilting tips:

http://cicadadaydream.blogspot.com/2009/06/simple-tied-quilt-tutorial.html

Hope my new foster niece/nephew love it! :)

Mealtime With a Three Year Old

Every bite is his own personal victory!

Little Graduate

Miss Melia is officially a preschool graduate! Her graduation ceremony was May 17th, 2010. She was the cutest little graduate I've ever seen (yeah, yeah, I know I'm biased!). I think the pictures/video speak for themselves...

When I grow up, I wanna be a....

It was Camden's program, too. Check out this handsome little man!

The weekend before, we went to my SIL, Amy's graduation from MU. She graduated with her master's in education. :)

Camden thought he should get a turn, too...soon, Buddy!


Congratulations, Melia. We love you and are very proud of you!

SuperHero Party!

I love party planning. I really do. I think I should have like a hundred kids so that I can plan parties year round. OK, maybe that's going a little overboard...I do want to show you the super-simple SuperHero party that we just did for my 3 year old, though.

Camden is so into SuperHeros right now! I knew I had no choice in the matter when we came back from Spring Break and my parents told us that he talked about his SuperHero party every day we were gone. So, the party planning began. I had seen some super cute SuperHero stuff on the web and my friend, Amanda, from http://www.isewdoyou.blogspot.com/ told me how to make her super easy (and WAY cute) capes. I found a FREE pattern for masks on this website: http://www.ambrosiagirl.com/blog/dax-and-kais-superhero-party/ and also got some other decorating ideas (i.e., use stars everywhere!) Since we only do "family" parties until the kids turn 4, I decided to make 6 cape and mask sets...one for C, one for M, and one for each of their 4 cousins. I am THRILLED at how they turned out:


I mean, seriously...couldn't you just eat those six up?! They are SO cute!!

Anyway, the rest of the decorating was pretty simple...we stuck with stars and the Dollar Tree was my best friend. We got balloons, plates, napkins, cups, star-shaped candy holders, Spiderman water squirters (Spiderman ball for the little one), and a Spiderman coloring book for decorations. Daddy and Granny made ice cream cakes, Nana provided the M&Ms, and we had SuperHero punch (aka Strawberry Lemonade) for treats. It was super low stress (once I got the capes done!) and SO much fun!

Mr. Camden Is 3!!

Well, my baby is now officially 3 years old. His birthday was May 6th and, as we tend to do, we totally went overboard with celebrations!

I was fortunate to be able to take his birthday off so we could spend the whole day together with Sis. We woke up to Daddy's special "birthday waffle" complete with three candles that Mr. Camden had a bit of trouble blowing out!


Once breakfast was over, the kids played together until 8:30 when we left to take cupcakes to preschool so that he could celebrate with his buddies. In keeping with the SuperHero birthday theme, we brought SuperMan cupcakes and juice boxes. It was so cute to see him interact with his little buddies. He was so proud it was his birthday!

Camden with his "best buddies," Cade and Kenna

Camden's class
When we left preschool, we had a little bit of running around to do so that we could get a few things for his party and then we went to the doctor's office for his 3 year check-up. (I know, I know, it's mean to make him get shots on his birthday, but I actually had the day off, so I had to get it done when I had the chance!) He weighed in at a mere 28.8 lbs. (20th percentile) and measured 37" (30-40th percentile). What a little peanut!! We also found out that his hearing is horrible, which is a little crazy because of his extensive vocabulary and the fact that he can perfectly match pitches! We are going to aggressively go after his allergies in hopes that we will clear up the fluid and maybe avoid tubes.

After the doctor's visit, we met Gigi for a delicious, nutritious picnic lunch from McDonalds at a local park. Melia and Camden had so much fun playing in the dirt on the playground and really enjoyed getting to hang out with Gigi for a little while!

We went home for a nap and then, when Daddy got home, we went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. It was fun, but Camden was a little confused because all the birthdays he has been to at CEC have been big events with tons of friends, presents, cake, etc. Once he got past the confusion, he had a good time playing the games and collecting tickets with his sister. On the way home, we stopped at Braum's for some ice cream...yum, yum!


Saturday, May 8th, was his SuperHero birthday party. I'm going to do a seperate post for that one! :)

Burned Face, Full Heart

Those of you that know me probably know how much I LOVE my job. It's really not about the money (honestly, it's education!), but it is just that I really feel like I am doing what God created me to do. Carl Junction Junior High is my mission field and counseling students is my mission. Beyond that, it is a job that combines my strengths and forgives my weaknesses. Sometimes I mess up in my job, but I always have the opportunity to take those mess-ups as learning experiences and strive to do better and better.

Although I truly love every day in my job (yes, even state testing days), some days are more rewarding than others and today was one of those days. I guess the funny thing about this is that Special Olympics really is not in my job description, but just one of those side things that I get the opportunity to help with a couple of times a year. I have gotten to help with SO Bowling in the Fall the last three years, but this was the first year that I wrapped up my test coordinator responsibilities in time to get to go to track and field.

Honestly, Special Olympics Track and Field was as amazing of an experience as I imagined. The kids were so excited to be there and they competed their little hearts out! The forecast was for rain last night into today, but one of our SO sponsors had E-mailed our entire staff to pray for sun...and sun there was (hence my "burned face").

My absolute favorite moment of the day was as follows:

One of my favorite little junior high girls (she is PRECIOUS!) was really nervous to run the 100 meter dash. Her parents, brother, nephew, teacher, teacher's aides, and myself were along the sidelines and finish lines to cheer her on, but, when they sounded the starter pistol, she froze. Really, I thought she was going to cry. But, one of the volunteers grabbed her hand and walked, then jogged with her to get her started (of course, by this time, the other athletes had already passed the finish line). Then, she gained her confidence, let go of the volunteer's hand, and ran the rest of the way to the end of the race. She got last place, but the ginormous smile on her face would not have given that away. She hugged all of us who were there to cheer her on and went to watch the "medal ceremony."

Thank you, Jesus, for my awesome job and for little miracles. May I take note of little victories every day!

An "Oops" Moment

I have stooped to a new low! In my attempt to save a dollar, I had what my hubs lovingly referred to as an "oops" moment. First of all, in my defense, let me just say that Camden's hair grows like a bunch of little weeds on his head. That boy SERIOUSLY needs a haircut like every four weeks or less. So, I thought "How hard could it be?!" and took notes the last time we were at the beauty shop. (I bet you know where this is going!)

It started out just fine:

Easy Cheesy, right?

But then, it happened!

Daddy tried to fix it...

but, ultimately, it was Granny to the rescue!

So, tell me...do I attempt it again or go for the long-standing 45 minute appointment every 4 weeks? After all, it is just ten bucks!