a new little brother

We've had a wonderful Christmas, and I'd love to share more about it, but mostly I'm just so excited to introduce you to my new little brother, Jamie.  My parents have recently felt very strongly that this little boy needs to be a part of our family.  The adoption process has been speeding along and although it'll still be many months before he's here in Spokane with my family, we feel so grateful to know that it's not "if" but "when".   And that is the best Christmas present we all could have asked for.

two years

 {pictures by Matt Shumate}

And although we're not together today, I know I have an eternity of  

anniversaries with this wonderful man of my dreams.

we're doing the bang thing again

and so far I love 'em

so big

Well we made it to Spokane after a long day of traveling.  Last Saturday we woke up at about 4:00am (Eastern Time) and landed at 5:00pm (Pacific Time) and finally went to bed around 11:00pm.  It was a seventeen hour day.  {We're so glad we don't have to do it again for another month}  But we survived and we're oh so happy to be here.  Jeremy is still in Baltimore and will be for another week and a half... :(  Stinkin' finals.   We miss you babe!

Madeline is absolutely loving all the attention she's getting from Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and cousins.  And if you don't believe me just watch the video:

{SO BIG! from Sarah Wells on Vimeo}

{Big Thanks to my dad for catching it on video}

Happy Tuesday everybody!

a cute way to announce your pregnancy

Thank you everyone for you sweet words of comfort in response to yesterday's post.  It's true that we had another miscarriage this week.  I was a lot farther a long this time.  Less than 24hours away from our first doctor appointment where I was supposed to be listening to a sweet heartbeat for the first time. Life is just really hard sometimes, ya know?  Why is it that people willing go through abortions every day and yet there's so many women who struggle with infertility or who have miscarriages?  

We really wanted this baby.  The baby's due date would have been Jeremy's birthday.  We were going to miss two family reunions, and we were sad about that, but you just can't be too sad about having a baby.  No matter when it comes.  

I had so many fun plans to tell our family at Christmas.  We'd started talking about different names and I was brainstorming ideas for a nursery/toddler room.  It's amazing how something so real can vanish right before your eyes. 

I promise I won't drag out the whole "I had a miscarriage, wah wah wah".  I'll always be sad about this baby, but several ugly cry sessions have made me feel quite a bit better and I keep reminding myself that Madeline was worth waiting for.  I did, however, want to show you the super cute picture I made to tell Jeremy that we were expecting.  Pretty cute, right?! I don't know how I'll top that with the next pregnancy....  I just had to write 'JULY' instead of 'Baby #2' so we can't use it again.  Oh well...

Precious Life

A tiny life created by love,

A beautiful miracle designed by God.

Your time with us was short, sweet spirit,

Too quickly you returned to Heaven above.

Great was the joy you brought to our lives

When we learned of your little existence.

We planned for your birth and dreamed of your life,

As a child of God in our home.

Such pain was heard though our midnight cries

As we watched your perfect body float lifeless.

We wanted you, we needed you,

And yet here we live on, without you.

Your tiny heart beat as hummingbird wings,

From deep within my frame.

And I learned what a special sweet spirit you are

As only a mother can.

Where are you now, my cherished, my baby?

Why have you left my arms empty?

What more could I have done to keep you here with me?

Why was your time here cut short?

Will I see you again? Will I hold you someday?

How I long to be your mother.

To cradle you, baby, to help you love life

And to look at your beautiful face.

Til we meet again in a more perfect world

Where our family again is complete,

I will think of you often, sweet child, my baby,

I will think of your precious life.

by Sarah Wells

we celebrated

     

          

We started Madeline's special day with a chorus of Happy Birthday.   She enjoyed waking up to both of her parents singing just for her as music is one of her favorite things these days.  I think she knew something was up when she saw the streamers hung in the living room and her breakfast all ready sitting on her tray.  Usually she has to beg for half an hour to get some morning grub.  And it's never been waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  Yum.

After that we cleaned the house, packed our bags and headed out on a road trip that ended up taking an extra three hours thanks to DC holiday traffic.  Nothing says happy first birthday like being strapped in a car-seat for eight hours. 

Finally we made it to my Aunt and Uncles house where we shared in all the Thanksgiving festivities.  My cousin made the cutest little cake for Madeline and they had some presents all wrapped for her.  They really outdid themselves in more ways that one.  It was the perfect way to help her go to bed feeling loved.  

Happy Birthday sweet girl.  We love you so much! 

one

Happy Birthday to my beautiful little girl.  Hard to believe a year has come and gone, and yet I can't believe I haven't had your face etched in my memory forever.  You are such a blessing to our family, Madeline.  I love spending my days with you and even after long days I miss you while you sleep.  You are such a special daughter of God.  I can't wait to help you enjoy all of your birthdays still to come.   But here's to being one.  Here's to twenty-four hours of precious time dedicated as a celebration of your wonderful little life.  I love you sweet girl.

Love,

Mommy

I sure love her little voice

{uh-oh from Sarah Wells on Vimeo}

We finally caught a little verbalization on video.  

Wish we could share all the fun things she's learning and doing.

sneak peek into Santa's workshop

I feel the need to talk about how Christmas is so much more fun when you have a child who can actually get into it.  Sure she has no idea what's coming, who Santa is or why we'll wake her up good and early Christmas morning to open her stocking, but she'll enjoy it while it's happening a little bit more than this:

"Really, Mom?"

The past few weeks I've been giddy with sewing projects and home made gifts.  I've got some sort of sewing bug and it has made me SO HAPPY! Here's my latest project.... 

 Madeline standing next to the pattern :)

 I'll let you guess what it's going to be.... but I bet you can't even imagine how CUTE it's going to be!!!!

And lastly I leave you with a picture of the cutest little Christmas baby you ever did see. Why do they grow up so fast!? Baby fever? Yes. Pregnant? No. Hopefully in the next couple months :)

dirty socks

Sorry to have been so MIA lately.  We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy around here.  After the flooding we had during Sandy our storage closet had to be cleaned out so all that stuff we've been trying to hide from ourselves is not-so-neatly stacked in our living room.  On top of that it's that time again to go through all of Madeline's clothes because the ones that are out are getting too small which means we should have ones that fit in big tubs that are unfortunately mixed together with all her little teeny baby clothes... Anyone know how to organize kids clothes?  It's so hard! If you have a system or method please share. 

Mostly I haven't been around because of the nasty-est cold that you ever did hear of.  Achey, chills, feverish-feeling, stuffy-runny nose, sore throat, cough, constant head ache nasty nasty nasty miserable cold.  I've got it the worst but I'm convinced Madeline doesn't feel great, either.  It's been almost a week since it set in on us.  No improvement.  blah.   Poor baby bumped her head before nap time and is teething with a cold.  She doesn't want to take a nap and even though I gave her tylenol just won't stop crying.  It's been that kind of a week.  {Can we acknowledge how great it is that this is the first time I've given her tylenol in a long time!?} Thankfully Jeremy hasn't caught it {yet} and hopefully it'll stay that way.  Bless his heart for putting up with us grumpy, sick girls.  I just sobbed on his shoulder when he got home from school yesterday.  

So other than cleaning and organizing and blowing and crying it's been your average week.

I'm guessing by this point your wondering why the heck I named this post ''dirty socks''.  I will explain. Lately everybody seems to be listing what they are grateful for, it being the wonderful month of November where we realize we've been greedy ungrateful people and decide to count our blessings. haha... just kidding... kind of.  Anyway, ever since we've been married the single most thing that has bothered me about Jeremy is he leaves his dirty socks EVERYWHERE! Just this morning I found a pair stuffed into the couch.  What the heck?  I find them sitting a foot from the dirty clothes basket, under the couch, under the table. everywhere.  It used to bother me a lot. 

A few weeks ago as I came upon yet another pair sitting on the floor one morning,  I realized that these wonderful smelly socks mean that there is someone in my life I get to pick up after.  I have a husband.  A wonderful husband who does almost everything perfect.  Sure he doesn't put his socks away, but that's ok.  Each time a I've found a pair since then a smile crosses my face because it reminds me how lucky I am to be married.  How grateful I am to have a loving husband.  I love that guy so much and I will pick up a million pairs of socks if it means I get to be married to him forever.

p.s. What do you think of my stocking inspiration?  I can't wait for Christmas!  It's possible that I broke out the Christmas music on Halloween... bad, I know.

halloween

It's been kind of a funky halloween season.  I'm always more than excited for this spooky holiday and this year was no different.  I had big plans for pumpkin carving and apple picking, costume designs that could rival store brands - It was going to be a more than awesome celebration for Madeline's first halloween.  

But... today is Halloween and it feels like any other day.  I don't know if it's the fact that I overworked myself on costumes or maybe the hype about the storm completely drained me of all my energy. Maybe I'm growing up. I hope not...

We did manage to squeeze in a trip to a local cider mill.  We went for a little hayride and stuffed our bellies full of cider slushies and doughnuts.  mmmm.....

{Someone is growing up}

 We dressed up for our church's Trunk or Treat and it was really fun.  We were all pretty tired that night so we didn't stay long.  Hard to believe we forgot to take a picture!?  So we hopped back in our costumes and snapped a few.

 Happy Halloween!

love, 

The Scarecrow, The Tin-man and The Cowardly Lion

little kisses

Few things in life beat having two little lips take a break from playing to plant an intentional wet one on you.  Happy mom.

heirloom or junk: I need your help!

I recently started up a book club and at our last meeting, as we discussed our book, a friend of mine made the comment that often times when someone we love passes on we make the mistake of thinking if we hang on to their stuff it's like they are still with us.  I realize this isn't the case with everything, but as soon as she made that comment my mind flew to our bedroom where we are housing an unfinished dresser I got after my great grandmother passed away.

In my head it was going to be a fun project for Jeremy and I to work on. We'd sand it down perfectly and stain it a rich color to match Madeline's room and she'd grow up with it and pass it down to her oldest daughter who'd pass it on and on and on etc, etc, etc. 

Reality: It's in pretty bad shape.  It doesn't just need to be sanded down and stained.  It needs to be sanded and have the veneer stripped off.  The drawers are completely falling apart and the back has some good sized holes that would both require partial reconstruction.  We started sanding it and staining it is out of the question at this point because of the glue from the veneer and the cheap wood underneath.  So we'd have to paint it, but do I really want to paint it?

I'm so in the mood to clean out all the junk we have before the holidays (where we will undoubtably buy each other more junk).  But is this another piece of junk?  I know we don't NEED it right now, but we will someday, right?  Plus it was the dresser I used when I lived with this grandma that I really loved.

In the name of giving you all the details, I will also say we paid a small fortune to ship it across the country (along with two couches that don't match anything we own and a washer we ended up not needing... gah sometimes I just want to kick myself!) so for that reason Jeremy says we need to make the most of it.  But in my head it's just more $$$ and more TIME that quite frankly we just don't have.  

So I turn it over to you, dear friends.  Is this another piece of junk or is it a special heirloom? 

  

P.S. The Wednesday Letters is the book we read if anybody is interested.  I quite enjoyed it.

Happy Monday

   

 

We are loving all the wonderful things October brings.  Cool weather, fall leaves, apple cider, warm soup and pumpkins, just to name a few.  We went for a Sunday walk yesterday.  Madeline enjoyed her first encounter with crunchy, colorful leaves.  She loved it.  

We were enjoying fall treats, too, but after a very painful (for me... Jeremy and Madeline seemed to sleep quite soundly) night of food poisoning last week after eating pumpkin pancakes two nights in a row followed by pumpkin doughnuts the second night, I'm not sure if I want to partake in any more autumn sweets.  HA.  Not likely.  I'll be making some pumpkin chocolate chip bread this week. mmm.....

I would write a long emotional essay about how Madeline will be one in less than a month, but I feel like I've done that already.... so I'll just let you know I'm thinking about it.  I have some great birthday plans in the works though :)

Happy Monday!