Opening the first present

New Jobs!

I'm a little late with this regarding Jeff's new job. He started 3 weeks ago! He is now the Warehouse Coordinator with Cameron and works about 55 hours a week and almost NO weekends. Yay! WE love this new job!
My new job starts Monday! It happened really fast, I just got the offer last Wednesday and my last day was yesterday, so 2 days notice did not make me the most popular person... but it was an offer I just couldn't refuse! I get to work for 1 week and then get 2 weeks of paid vacation for Christmas!
I'm going back to my old High School! I still can't really believe it. I will be working with Communities in Schools at King High School. I was sad to leave my old job, I really enjoyed the work I was doing, but I am super pumped about getting 9 weeks of paid vacation to spend with my little boy! That was really the motivating factor behind getting a new job. So, that's what's new with us. What is new with H? How about 6 teeth!? He is doubling his current teeth and is not thrilled about it.


Look what a happy guy he is!

Haircut!

H got his first haircut today! He did pretty good. He wasn't happy about it, but there was no crying so I count it a success!


here's the before




The After Shot!


What a handsome little man!

And here's my after shot

H's first birthday!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating H's first birthday! Aunt Elyse and Papa Bill came to the party and couldn't believe how big our 'baby' is. I think he is now toddler material....woah! Here are some pics of the weekend!


Opening presents! He was so excited about this toy - Thanks Agi!


The morning of his party - this kid cracks me up!


H's "ice cream" cakes

Here's a close up of one of them



H eating his cupcake... ummm.. he wasn't that interested...


H's friend B, pushing him around on his new Thomas the Train toy! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!! These boys sure had fun playing together, it was so cute!


Thanks for coming to see me Aunt Elyse, I love you!


Thanks for coming to see me Papa Bill and thank you for my birthday presents Jo Jo & Papa Bill!

It was a really fun weekend celebrating our 1 year old blessing!

Internet!!!

We finally got internet at our house, so I will try to be more in the loop now. H had a great first Halloween, he was a little lamb and we went to our church's Noah's Ark Party.




Isn't that the sweetest lamb you've ever seen?!

I can't believe my little H is almost 1 year old! Friday is his first birthday and I'm so excited because my dad and sister are coming to help us celebrate! H is getting pretty good at walking (even though his nickname at day care is 'clumsy'). He has also started to point at things and knows where things go. Yesterday, he was pulling clothes off of his shelves and putting them in the dirty clothes basket. He also took a bath tonight while drinking from his his sippy cup the entire time - he is so funny! It has been such an amazing year and I feel so blessed to get to be H's mom. He is pretty incredible. Enjoy the video below of him playing with Daddy last night. It is pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen.

He's Walking!

you can see for yourself here

still here

Well... I'd love to post some pictures of the excitement that has been going down - but, I seem to have misplaced my camera cord in the move. So, more motivation to finish unpacking...

We finally moved a couple weeks ago. Pictures to come (hopefully). Jeff has had 1 day off in the last month. We have taken H to the doctor 8 times in the last 6 weeks - looks like we might be doing that again tomorrow. H is now 11 months old... where does the time go? He is taking about 4 steps at a time now and standing by himself for brief periods. He has also mastered 'ma ma', 'da da', 'ba ba' and 'eesh' ... I don't know what essh is though?

We also don't have internet yet... but hopefully before his birthday we will be back up and running! Happy Saturday!

Happy Grandparents Day!

Sunday is Grandparent's Day and I wanted to take a minute to say how AMAZING Haydn's grandparents are. I mean seriously, this kid is so lucky to have such wonderful, loving, fun, involved grandparents. Jeff & I are so grateful for the ways you love H and the special things each of you do and will do with him.


Grandpa, thank you for always playing with me and letting me cuddle with you! I am always so happy when I see you! I love you.


Agi, thank you for singing to me and letting me jump all over you! You take such good care of me and I love you lots.


Papa Bill & JoJo are the coolest! JoJo, thank you for always thinking of me when you go shopping and for making special time for me. PaPa Bill, thank you for coming to see me and for letting me get you really dirty! I love you both and can't wait to see you again!


Grandma, thank you for always being willing to entertain me and play fun games with me! I love to go to your house and play with all of your toys! You are so special, I love you.

Happy Grandparents Day to the most amazing Grandparents around. You are such a blessing to our family

clothes!

I've started making some clothes...I still have pretty much no idea what I am doing. Here are my first few attempts




I made this cute skirt for Sofia for her birthday out of a bandanna and made a matching flower for the top.



Here's a close up of the flower



It was really easy to make and I hear she looks pretty adorable in it!



This is the first item I made for myself... it was supposed to be a dress, now it is a long shirt.



I used one of the left over bandannas to sew onto one of H's onsies. This isn't the best picture of it, but it looks super cute on him!

Funny Hunny

Here's some pictures of H we took this weekend. He's developing such a fun personality! He is so funny to watch. He loves to examine things and figure out how to take them apart. He also loves to climb on people (and other children) and cuddle. He loves being chased and playing outside.







And here's a video I took tonight of him playing and talking. I sure love my funny hunny

my little jumping bean

H has learned how to cruise from one piece of furniture to another, taking a a couple steps in between....everyone keeps telling me he is going to be walking in no time - yikes! His new favorite thing to do however, is jump! He can't keep his balance yet, but with me supporting his weight he can jump and jump and jump, until my arms get tired! Below is a video of the action.


H has been sick for the last couple weeks. He is finally on the up and up - after 2 doctor's appointments and finally a prescription, he seems to be mostly back to normal. He will be starting a new day care tomorrow, so please pray for him and his transition! Jeff has been enjoying his job, just working lots of long hours and not getting too many days off.

I'm getting adjusted to working full time and really enjoying my job. It has been really amazing and humbling to have the opportunity to work with dozens of homeless individuals in the community. I have heard so many stories from grieving husbands, young mothers, children who ran away from home and never got back on their feet, people who were injured and lost their jobs and on and on. So many people who never thought they would find themselves in this place and feel so defeated and unable to get out of it. I'm helping move some clients into an apartment this week and I'm so excited about it! I really love my job and love the work I'm doing.

I will try to take some more recent pictures of H. I've totally started slacking on my mom picture taking duty.

crawling in the dishwasher

not only has H managed to crawl ALL the way up the stairs by himself (don't worry he was being closely supervised) but he is now crawling his way onto and into the furniture and appliances! Here's a video from this weekend of H crawling into the dishwasher. The angle is way too close on this one, but I was trying to take the video and hold on to him at the same time. He hasn't learned yet not to dive head first off of things.

New Video!

I hear you, I hear you. You want more videos of the cutest baby ever. So, here you go. Here is H playing with the camera. He even shows you a glimpse of his new teeth! He is crawling all over the place and has even started crawling up the stairs... time to get a gate!



I'll try to get some more pics up this week. Jeff starts his job tomorrow and H starts daycare in the mornings! Yikes! I'm sure he will do great, I'll be the one crying all the way to work.

Praise the Lord!

Sorry for the posting delay... things have been pretty crazy since I started working.

H started spending the days with his Grandmas - he is doing GREAT! His Grandmas are taking such great care of him!

I spent last week in all sorts of trainings: CPR, First aid, suicide & homicide detection/prevention, Intellectual/developmental delays, Prevention and management of aggressive behaviors, crisis intervention, documentation, deaf/hard of hearing services, a day and a half of computer classes... I can't remember what else.

I've started meeting with clients and visiting shelters and hospitals so it has been nice to get to interact with clients and see more of the community we are working with.

H got 3 teeth in the course of about 5 days - yikes! I think he is still teething and expect to see some more pop through any day now.

We went to San Antonio for a wedding last weekend and got to spend some time with Elyse & Stephen which was sooooo fun!

And I saved the BEST FOR LAST.... Jeff got offered a job today!!! Yay! I am so proud of him and we are both very grateful. He will be working for Cameron in their shop and starts in 2 weeks. Due to the current ban on drilling the hours are pretty out of control right now - like 80 hours a week! So, you can be praying for us as we make that big transition to Jeff being gone and working so much.

I have a ton of pictures and videos that need uploading... but, this is all I've got energy for now. I'll try again later this week!

Yay Jeff! Praise the Lord for his faithfulness and provision for us!

Hilarious video

we got this great video of H laughing hysterically at a ball rolling back and forth. I could watch this 1000 times. It will totally cheer you up, check it out

Playful Day

We took some cute pics of H playing today. He has been really playful lately and it is so fun to watch him have so much fun. I will post a video soon of him laughing hysterically at a ball rolling back and forth. haha!


H in his new big boy shoes! I can't believe how big his feet are! These are 5.5 and they are NOT too big... oh my.


Eating his new favorite snack. They are called Crunchies. They make him smell like cheetos.



Playing in his saucer. He LOVES it so much right now. Thanks Aunt Elyse & Uncle Stephen!


Can you believe how cute these jammies are?

It was a great day with my boys before I start my new job tomorrow. Praying for a smooth transition this week!

sew ruffles!

I found this great tutorial (of course) over at Bramblewood Fashion and decided to try my first sewing project with clothing. I went to Goodwill and found a couple long sleeve shirts that I liked in coordinating colors because I wanted to mix it up a bit. Here is the first ruffle shirt



This one is so easy (even for me)! All you do is fold the shirt in half so the seams match up, cut the sleeves off around the elbow (about 13 inches for me) then I opened up the seams on one of the sleeves I cut off. I cut that into strips, sewed down the middle of each strip and pulled on the ends of the string to make my ruffle. Tip: don't use cheap thread. It will break when you pull on it for your ruffle....that was annoying. Check out Bramblewood's link for the complete tutorial.

Here's a close up of the ruffles



On the next shirt I decided to mix it up a bit. This one had a little more of a scoop neck to begin with so I measured 1 inch around the neck in the front and cut it to make it a little lower, then I attached my ruffles around the collar instead of in rows.



And I used my left over pink sleeve to make a flower!!



I cut the open sleeve in half long ways then cut it in half. Then I folded the cut section in half again long ways and sewed it along the open seams. Then I cut out little petal patterns along the fold. Then I layered them on top of each other and hand stitched them together until I had a flower. Then I hand sewed the flower to the shirt. It sounds more complicated than it actually was, this shirt took longer, but not that much longer than the first.


forgive the blurry (bad) photos... maybe photography should be my next hobby!

I can't wait to go ruffle some more things! Think Jeff would notice if I ruffled H's clothes? Hummmm...

Painting and news...

I finished my weathered bird silhouette painting and I'm so excited! Rarely, do I picture something in my head, try to create it, and have it come out exactly like I pictured it. Initially, I was just going to leave it black and white, but then I came across this tutorial at Lil Blue Boo (major blog love for her) and decided to try out this weathering technique. I wanted the picture to look like it was painted on old wood. Here's the painting before the sanding and embellishments



And here it is after



I just cut out cardboard circles and fabric covered them and then found some old buttons I had and glued them on when I was done painting.



A close up of one of the branches. I don't know where I'm going to hang this yet, but it probably won't be too long before we get a house because... I GOT A JOB!

I just accepted an offer today for a job in Corpus with MHMR working with the homeless population here. I start Tuesday so I'm a little overwhelmed with getting ready to go back to work and trying to find a day care we feel comfortable with. Luckily, our moms have the summer off and can watch H until August, so we have a few weeks to find somewhere. It has been quite an adventure to get to this place, but Jeff & I feel good about where we are right now and are now praying for all of our transitions as we go back to work and H starts going to day care. Please pray with us that we would find a place that has room for him and is a good fit for our family. Thank you all for your support and encouragement during this difficult transition.

He Crawls!

Here is a video I took today of H crawling! He is quite the mover these days. Today he crawled under the dining room table, over to my make up bag where he dumped it out, and then he crawled over to his bag of dirty diapers and tried to take them out ... ewww. It is fun to see how determined he is and how much he loves to be able to get what it is that he wants.



Enjoy Papa Bill & JoJo and Aunt Elyse & Uncle Stephen. Notice H is wearing his Aunt shirt and his red shorts for you both. Aunt Amy, H is sleeping with this spot dog every night now - he loves it!

Recent Projects

Here are my latest sewing creations. I'm going a little craft crazy right now. Currently, these are the projects I have in the works:

- refinishing a coffee table
- painting a weathered looking silhouette/fabric picture
- knitting a scarf
- making fabric flowers
- Christmas place mats with matching napkins
- Christmas bows for our tree
- aprons made out of kitchen towels
- beach bag
- new pincushion

That's all I have materials for right now. The project list in my head (and in my bookmarks on the computer) is endless!

After I made those cute beanbags for my friend's daughter, I decided to make some for H.





They turned out really cute and H really likes to chew on them. Maybe someday they will help with spelling... and maybe I'll get around the rest of the alphabet.

I also started making some reusable grocery bags. I was inspired by all of the crafty blogs I read where people go to Goodwill and find hum drum things and make them into awesome new things! So, a couple weeks ago I went and got some sheets, pillowcases and a kitchen valance and took the seams out to turn them into fabric for grocery bags! Here are the first two I made.





This bag is made out of a kitchen valance


This bag is made out of a sheet and a pillowcase.

I used this tutorial to make the bags. The directions were a little murky and I didn't follow them exactly, but I really like that this is basically a regular grocery bag but fabric instead of plastic.

I'll post the rest of my creations as I finish them. Happy crafting!

And we're back

After two trips to Austin and one to Waco we are back to Corpus just in time for Jeff to have 2 more job interviews! So, the job update is that we are most likely going to be staying in Corpus. Jeff has a pretty promising lead on a job and had a good interview yesterday so we'll see. I LOVE the job I interviewed for in Austin, it is basically my dream job - but, I think if Jeff gets this job in Corpus that saying here will be the best move for our family - in which case I will probably not go back to work right now.

Here are some pics of late:


H had so much fun with his favorite Sissy. As soon as he saw her he reached out of my arms for her! Thanks for playing with H Sissy, H loves you and I love this picture of you.


It was so fun to see Megan and meet baby Clara. I think H must be very empathetic because he cries anytime other babies are crying. I know it has only been 7 months, but I could hardly remember what it was like to have a baby that little sleeping on you.


H got behind the wheel with me on our road trip and LOVED it!


Here was our Father's Day celebration. The DAD banner was my first sewing project!



Here is a close up of the bunting. It is made out of 3 deconstructed ties from Goodwill. I found this project over at my new favorite blog - Dollar Store Crafts.

That's what we've been up to lately!