Giveaway #1

I'm doing my first giveaway. I've been taking a sewing class every Tuesday and I made a super cute drawstring bag. Mind you, this is my first real 'project' so I'm sure if you know how to sew you'll find some mistakes but overall I'm real proud of it.

To enter this giveaway you must post what you'll use the bag for. I was thinking of using it for my sewing stuff but I already have a bag for that. Anyhow, here's the bag...oh one more thing, it's reversible...dang I'm good.

Good luck, a winner will be picked at random. Please enter by Saturday.

We are family....

Monday I took the girls to meet their sister...Allie. She is adorable and I'm so glad that her dad and stepmother keep her in touch with all her siblings. If we do in fact adopt to the girls, I'm going to make sure they have a relationship with all 6 siblings! Allie's stepmother Holly (who is absolutely wonderful) and I exchanged emails and I have since received pictures of all the kids. I seriously can't believe how beautiful they are....I'll try to get permission to post them here soon. I would have to ask their mom and dad...whom I have never met but might in June. Here's the breakdown...Allie lives with her father and Holly (stepmother). The next 5 children where by another man, they have all been adopted by the same family. I don't know their parents names yet but like I mentioned we might meet them in June. And then of course we have the last two, SR and SM who were by yet another man. So there are 3 baby daddy's.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around meeting so many new extended family. As I sit here and think about it my potential children have a lot of brothers and sisters. And brothers and sisters that they will have relationships with...this could mean big...I mean huge birthday parties...oy! Ok, I need to stop getting ahead of myself, anyhow...we've already been invited to Allie's 12th birthday party in June. Holly also told me that she is inviting the other 5, so if they go we will meet their parents too. All I can say is "WOW, who would have thought..." :):)

Bargrain hunter...

extrodinaire...I love shopping! And shopping for a bargrain is even better. Spring time is a great time to get out and to garage sales. But I also like hitting up G.oodwill and The S.alvation A.rmy. This past Saturday A watched the kids and let me go hunting and boy did I find a couple of great pieces at G.oodwill.
It's crazy because sometimes the second hand stores will have things overpriced and then sometimes you get lucky and find things that are completely underpriced. I felt like I robbed them Saturday...lol. I found a wooden rocking chair for $5 and a nightstand/side table for $7 but the bonus was they were having a 50% off furniture sale. So I spent a whapping $6.36. I took a picture of the rocking chair to share with you. I'll post before and after pictures of the side table. I'm hoping to sand it and paint it pink for the girls room this weekend, if I can find the time.:)

Update on the girls....

I have to be careful of what I say still but I wanted to let you all know that adoption may be more possible than we thought. We have had them in our home for 4 months and we are totally in love. I feel like we've been pretty patient waiting for things to fall into place and it may actually be happening. But that's all I'm going to say because I hate to get so excited only to have my heartbreak....

There is also something else in the works....the girls are going to have a sibling visit at B.ethany C.hristian S.ervices with their oldest sister. I'm not sure of her name yet and even if I did know it I couldn't share it. But anyhow, I'm getting more and more excited to meet her and her stepmom. She is only 10 and keeps in contact with all her 5 siblings who have been adopted by another family.
Of course my main objective is to protect the girls but the SW and I both feel there is nothing to fear in this case. So Monday it is!!! I'll let you all know how it goes for sure!

Here's a picture of the girls feet. It's funny because although they are fraternal their hands and feet look identical.



This is G and SM....he is truly an awesome big brother.

What day is it???

We've been having so much fun lately, it's hard to get online or should I say it's hard to post. The weather was really nice last week, all I heard was "mommy outside!" How can you deny such a cutie fun times outside.
I've also been working on a rocker glider that I bought used. I'm recovering the cushions, it's a lot of work but it's slowly coming along. I actually bought a used sewing machine and totally love it. I wish I would have bought one years ago.
Let's see what else...oh, G and I were sick for Easter, so no egg hunt for us. G has had a fever on and off for the past few days. He also has a running nose and horrible cough. We're thinking it's he molar causing all the problems. I feel sorry for him...my sweetie.
Since we didn't go anywhere we didn't take any pictures. I'm hoping to get some professional pics of all the kids next month. Just thinking about it makes me have a panic attack...it was hard enough getting pictures taken with just G. Some how, some way!
A couple weekends ago we went to the children's museum, that was a good time. G and Daddy played, it was very cute to watch.
So overall, I'm tired! But I enjoy blogging and reading other blogs so I need to make time for it!

If you are just stumbling upon my blog, the two little girls in this video are my nieces. We were their legal guardians from May 08 - May 09. They are the reason we are licensed foster parents. They are attached to G and he is to them, they always have fun together!

I'm an artist....

Ok, first I want to let you all know that I'm an aunt again....YAY! My niece B was born about two hours after my last post. She is a cutie! We took the twins to visit her, I thought they would look like triplets but they look nothing alike...lol. She has tons of light brown hair, my girls are bald...ok SR has a mohawk but SM is definitely bald. Anyhow I'm hoping to visit them tomorrow, I'll take my camera so I can snap a pic of her to post for your enjoyment.

Now on to my new career...I'm going to start painting murals, ok that's funny. But really I actually painted a mural on the girls bedroom wall. First I had to paint the room since it was totally boy blue. Can't have that...so I painted two walls brown, it's called Antiqued Earth and the other two walls were painted Porcelain. Then I went online and found this



I love everything about this room. I even love the wall color but G's room is a green/blue and if you remember I just redid my dinning room and the color is a blue/green. I can't have every room painted the same color...so I had to switch things up a bit.

Here is the room before I painted....and from when K and T were living here obviously they didn't like to clean. Anyhow you can see the blue walls...not the greatest picture but you get the idea.



This is the Antique Earth...



This is the Porcelain...




And this is my masterpiece...lol. I should have taken more pics from the beginning but you can still see the transformation.



Everything is done except the bird on the third branch. A is going to finish that...I would probably make it look like a frog or a monkey. ;)





If you are wondering how I did this...it was easy....kinda. A is an artist, so he made a drawing of the branch on a piece of copy paper (real fancy) then he put in it his trusty old projector and projected it onto the wall. I was the lucky one who got to trace it and basically painted by number...does this make me an artist???
My mom and dad asked me what I'm going to paint on G's wall....oh goodness, here we go again.

No baby yet...

So my SIL is still pg. They scraped her membranes (whatever that means, sounds gross though) a few days ago and still nothing. Hopefully soon!

As for us, we've been busy getting the girls bedroom together. Well, I've been busy. A basically did everything in G's room so it's only fair that I paint and decorate the girls room. It's so hard picking out wall colors and bedding. I decided to go with neutral colors on the walls and more girlie colors in the bedding and wall art. We only bought one crib thus far, it's still unknown if the girls are our forever daughters. We figure they can share for a few more months. But last night was interesting, the girls are just over three months and they are starting to move all over, even trying to roll. Anyhow, A got up about 1am to change and feed them, he said they were in a figure seven...with SM (the older and bigger twin) kicking SR in the head, could it be sibling rivalry already (wink,wink)? The crib is definitely much bigger than the pack and play they were sleeping in. We'll just have to put each girl at each end instead of side by side. BTW, if you can't already tell, I'm in love. The girls are beautiful and I'm attached big time. I just look at them in awe, they are such miracles.

As for G, he is doing awesome! He is getting so big and talking up a storm. I'm truly amazed at his ability to express himself verbally. This past Saturday was his first Sports Sampler class at the YMCA. He will learn about basketball, soccer and bowling....which is right up his alley (no pun intended). He absolutely loves bowling. He bowls on the Wii and he also has the F.isher P.rice bowling set that he can't get enough of. A, myself, the twins and G all trekked down to the Y on Saturday to watch G meet his coach and all of his new friends. G was a little shy but he did really well. No meltdowns, except near the end...he did not want to turn in the basketball or leave. But overall he did great! A and I decided that we'll keep him in some sort of class at the Y just to get him accustom to social interaction. Here are some pictures Daddy took Saturday. G wanted me to play with him, A was a little sad about it but he understands that G is a Mama's boy...lol.

G and I practicing passing the ball...



G going for a shot...



G loved the hoop, he couldn't make the shot but he kept trying. G's cousin N has an old hoop just like this one, we are going to clean it up and bring it home. Practice makes perfect...lol.



G runs non-stop, he has so much energy. I wish we could bottle it.



A group picture...if you notice the lady standing up with the blue t-shirt on, she fosters too. It's so nice to meet other foster parents, who truly understand. I'm sure we'll be talking in the weeks to come.



G when he realized the class was over...so sad.