Keller: 9 months

Keller turned 9 months old this past weekend.  I don't hold these major photo shoots with him, but I do try to steal a few minutes away with him to capture his changes that month.  And you will see we are ALL about eating leaves these days.

 I love photography.
I think a picture truly can speak a thousand words. 

Son,  

I've been really sick this past weekend and whenever I'm sick it always makes me get on my knees.  I thanked God for my blessings last night, something I haven't been able to do in a long time.  I thought about my life and all the things I want to teach you.  All the things I hope to say and do to get the message across to you.  

How do I sum up the most important thing I want to teach you?  
LOVE Jesus, son!  
That is the message I hope to speak to you every single day I am blessed to be your mother.  Love Jesus over sex, over people pleasing, over power and control, over money, over knowledge.  

Love Him with all you heart, mind, and soul.  

The crazy events surrounding your birth and the unspeakable grace of God in moving us here and working out the details, has caused me to always believe God has something special in store for your life.  Don't waste it, son!  Don't waste your life pleasing yourself or trying to please others.  Seek God.  Ask for wisdom.  "It is the principle thing."  Even if you get ridiculed.  Even if fellow christians say that you don't make sense.  Even if your life doesn't seem perfect compared to everybody else's.  Even if you don't understand yourself why He leads you where He leads you.  Seek Him anyway.  Seek Him first.

I've prayed for your future wife from the first month you were born.  One of the best and worst decisions you can make is who you marry.  And I want yours to be the best.  Look for someone who just exudes her love for the Lord.  Did you know you can tell someone is a Christian even without asking?  You should be able to see that in your girl.  She should love and breathe Jesus, son.  

She should respect those in authority.  She should be a servant.  She should smile.   She should wisely consider her decisions before acting upon them.  She should be humble.  She should be attractive to you.  


She should just love Jesus.

 Your daddy and I love you unconditionally, Keller.  Don't you ever forget that.  Even if you think you've messed up so bad you can't come back.  Come back.  We'll be here standing with open arms.

I know you'll probably go through a time where you think you know everything and that we're your enemies.  But we're not.  We don't need an award or recognition for sacrificing and giving our time to try to raise you to be the man you should be.  But it will hurt when you go through that stage.  So try really really hard not to go through it. :-)

Thank you for being such a snuggler and crawling at my feet all day like a little puppy.  Thank you for having blue eyes so I feel like I had something to do with your genetic makeup.  Thank you for always sticking your index finger in my mouth to suck on...like you're giving me a pacifier.  Thank you for being a smiley baby.  Thank you for hugging me when I needed a hug.  Thank you for being born after we got to the hospital and not in the car.  Thank you for always trying to get the toilet plugs...because it makes me laugh.  Thank you for saying "mama" first and clear as day, even if I haven't heard it again since.  Thank you for still letting me nurse you in the mornings, even though you could care less about trading that for a bottle.  And thank you for all the fake crying this year.  Because even though I complain about it.  It really does make me smile to think you must love me A WHOLE LOT to keep up that act for so long.

I love you so much Keller Reagan it hurts.  

You are one of God's greatest gifts to me. 

 And I mean that with my whole heart.


Love,
Mom

Just Life & Some Cookies To Go With It

Life.
It happens.
Every single day.

Whether we're ready for it or not, it keeps coming at us one day at a time.

The clocks keep ticking, second after second, until another day is done.

And before you know it, October of 2011 is here and it just hits like a ton of bricks.  Life will NOT slow down.

For us, October has entailed getting this 2-yr-old potty trained...

...and although we're not quite there yet, it feels like the jet is finally lifting off the runway with this little family of ours.

 And I sigh a sigh of bliss at night whenever I think of the new stages we're entering.

This little guy has gotten 2 teeth in and went from not crawling until the end of his seventh month to pulling up on anything and everything and getting into waaay too much trouble with his newfound abilities...all in one week.

To say this mamma underestimated him, would be...well...an understatement.

His favorite pastime is crawling at my feet all day and whining until I pick him up, as if he hasn't been held ALL morning.  But seriously, how can you resist this?

If there was an award for mastering the most household activities one-handed, I would win.  No question.  Steven says I spoil him, and I am officially at the point where I agree with him.


Anybody know how to wean an 8-month-old off of being held all day?  If you say, "cry it out", I will invite you over to hear his version of "crying-it-out" and let you be the judge of whether a mother could stay sane after a day of hearing that.  But really, any advice would be appreciated.

We also had an out-of-town guest this weekend...

He is {so far} the only one from SC who will brave Oklahoma to come see us.  Will you be next??? :-)

We had a beautiful drizzly evening one night to dine outside at PF Changs...

While friends graciously watched our girls so we could enjoy some adult conversation with the little king.

Thanks so much for coming out here to see us Troy!  We missed you Jenny!  We'll all meet up in Seattle next. :-)

And because the motivation of an out-of-town-guest gets my nesting juices going again...

There's a little sneak peak {if you will} of the room I've been working on, with a little help from my Emma girl. :-)

And, not that I should be, but I've been baking like a wild banshee again.  I like how my friend says, "Fall is my chubby season."  I'm thinking I'll adopt that motto.  There's just too many creamy soup recipes and pumpkin desserts out there, not to.

These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are the perfect all-around cookie for fall.  They're light.  They're a crowd pleaser.  They freeze well.  They are fun to roll with your kiddos.  And...you probably have all the ingredients already on hand.  

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

For the cookies...

2 sticks butter (1 cup), at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the Rolling sugar...

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar and pumpkin puree and beat well. Mix in egg and vanilla, scraping down sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon. Beat flour mixture into liquid mixture a little at a time until incorporated.

Cover dough with plastic and chill at least an hour, or until dough becomes slightly firm.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray with nonstick spray). Mix rolling sugar in a small bowl. Use a small or medium cookie scoop (1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp.) to scoop out dough and roll into balls. Use your hands to roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar and make sure they’re coated really well. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Use a glass with a flat bottom to dip in sugar and flatten the balls.

Bake at 350°F. for 10 to 14 minutes, or until they are slightly firm to the touch. Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes or so, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen small cookies.

And now, I must get back into cleaning mode.  Too much baking and crafting...not enough cleaning will lead to a Monday of trying desperately to get back into the swing of things.  That's me today.  Boring laundry here I come!

pink & gray

Pink and gray: my favorite color combo these days. I am a gray fanatic, but pair it with pink and it is just oh so lovely.

These burp cloths were made with love for some sweet friends who just had little girls.

And I just had to throw this picture in...

Guess whose little hand is swiping that burp cloth???

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Just for fun, I browsed the web yesterday morning while the girls slept in {rare treat!} and found all these lovely pinks and grays everywhere!

~ Clicking on the pictures will take you to the source. Although, I had trouble with finding the link for the kitchen. My apologies. ~

mini boden and boden

home sweet home

Southern Accents, styled by Jane Packer

arturo fine staionery

EmersonMade

j crew

decor pad

Love it ALL!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Sweet Baby Things: A Little Handmade Love

Lots of new babies being born these days, which means lots of happy crafting for me. :-) It has been such a blessing to me to pour out my creative itch on all the little ones joining our world. I adore babies - have you noticed? So, they are my favorite people to create for. I've been playing around/experimenting with different fabrics for burp cloths.

These were made from combinations of linen, terry cloth, minky, matelasse, and flannel.

Found some white minky in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby.

Spring/Summer is here so I've traded the wool I have traditionally used for flowers into knits and chiffon...

I put Shiloh to work modeling one of the headbands for me. Awww....not really. She was playing and would give me sweet looks now and then.
The lighting was right and she was in a good mood...so I got some good ones.

Nice sweet potato leftovers from dinner on her cheeks.

What a face! She's so ornery!

Ahhh...how I do love this crazy girl!

And a little something for me!
I added this rosette I made of chiffon {leftover from my wedding dress alterations} to a J. Crew necklace I bought for $10 at the outlets in MO. It could use a couple more, but this'll do for now.

P.S. In case you're wondering, I do not normally have time to sit around a play with my camera like this. Nap time went unusually long today and I ran out of glue sticks in the middle of my allotted crafting time, so I decided to get some still life photographs of stuff I've gotten done in the past few weeks. So fun! {And much easier than getting shots of fast-moving children.}

Happy crafting ladies!