Get out there and GO SHOPPING!!

I have been blogging lately about Cora Paige, the precious little girl who recently lost her battle with cancer. I have been so moved by her story and by her parents' faith and have joined the etsy community to craft for Cora!! Even Camille has gotten involved!!

I've already sold several things and I just listed a few more! I am so excited to be crafting and donating to this awesome cause & can't wait to see how much money is raised for Cora's Playground - a memorial to that sweet little baby!

Here are some things we've made & you can check me out at http://thiscraftychick.etsy.com.

Oh I Could Totally Do That

Yes, I've said it many times. In the midst of awesome craftiness, with the effort to save money, because I take off more than I can chew.....I seem to have the belief that I can do anything ;) Rather than buy a handmade something (candle, soap, earrings, canvas painting, whatever) or a pricey something (custom curtains, personalized outfits for the girls, high-end stuff), I usually just marvel to myself how completely capable I am of doing that myself.

I do kinda love that about me. (Note to self: Could that same optimism please make its way over to the losing weight areas of my psyche?!?!)

Well, yesterday, I just had to chuckle at myself. Brandon has been cutting his hair in a buzz-cut or whatever you call it. Just a No. 2 blade on the shaver all over. I kinda wanted him to have like messy-boy hair. I'm certain this is what Paul Mitchell calls it. Messy boy hair. He had been growing it out a bit and finally got on me to do something with his hair this weekend.

So.....a few YouTube videos later. Yes, YouTube. I watched some hairstyling tutorials! Oh the internet is a marvelous thing! Anyway, I managed to cut his hair into what I think is a pretty darn good style. It was pretty stress-free. If I absolutely wrecked his head, we could always just shave it all off as he had been doing, and no harm. So, I got to play barbershop with him, and my Valentine is looking pretty good! Proof? You want pics? Yeah, I didn't take any of those unfortunately. (bad blogger)

Happy Sunday! Enjoy your sweet families and Praise God for the many blessings in your lives. I am grieving today with the McClenahans. Sweet Cora went to heaven one week ago today. Pray for this precious family.

The Party Girl

Camille has been spreading the love all around and has had two Valentine parties in the last two days. The weird thing is - - she went by herself to both of these parties! Sadly, I have no pictures of all the shin-digs (although Kate & Cheri should have those coming). Since Baby Lil's been sick, Camille rode along with friends to both the ToT Town bash and the Valentine Party at the Thompsons'. I know she had a great time!!

It was a wee bit strange though, sending my gal off to have fun on her own. I missed getting to see her enjoy herself. But, I must admit...it was lovely to spend the afternoon having some very rare time alone.

I've been blogging about Baby Cora and how her story moved me. I cannot get that precious child nor her grieving parents out of my mind. There is a group of Etsy-ians pulling together to craft for Cora - - donating their proceeds to Cora's Playground.

Click here to check out current offerings on Etsy - - but check back come Monday when most gals will begin their sales.



I am hoping to take part in this effort and make some things this weekend to help raise some money for this awesome cause!

Precious Lil

Our sweet baby has not been feeling like herself the last two days. She's had a low-grade fever and runny nose. I think her fever was breaking tonight, so I'm praying that the Lord is healing her little body. I sure do hate it when she isn't feeling well. I'm so anxious that her ear infection might be returning. It's likely teething, but it's just so hard when you don't know for sure.

Bless her, she still smiles and tries to be happy even when she doesn't feel well. My goodness how I love that little one.

I have been so moved by Cora's story and the loss that her parents are experiencing. It makes me cherish Lily and Camille all the more. They are precious gifts and I praise God that he has entrusted them to us.

My Heart Just Aches

I've been visiting several home decor blogs recently and getting lots of inspiration. Tonight I hopped onto Thrifty Decor Chick and read her post about a little girl who died today.

I followed the link to The Macs. Their precious Cora, a lovely girl not quite a year old, went to Heaven today after a brief, but fierce battle with cancer. Just two weeks ago they were oblivious to the challenges that lay ahead and were happily living their lives with their sweet baby. Two weeks.

I have cried so much tonight thinking about this family. In the last two weeks I have celebrated my daughter's birthday, spent time with my mom, picked up a new craft, watched my youngest scoot around the house....we've just been living life. All the while, these folks have had their lives turned upside down, dealt with the most vicious of diseases, and have no doubt cried rivers.

Oh, my heart aches. I will be praying for this young couple and hope that you will join me. They are strong in their faith and love the Lord with all their hearts. I pray that He would continue to uplift them and give them peace. I pray that the Lord would use this situation to His glory.

Hug your little ones a little tighter, and praise God for the amazing gift we have been given.

Too Long, My Friends....Too Long

I can't believe this much time has passed already since I've last blogged. I meant to do better. I wanted to blog, really. I'm sure I've had something intelligible to say in the last three weeks, but alas....I've been too busy (er, lazy) to do any blogging.

Enough in the mud - - let's recap:

The Lilster

*Lily had her 6 month checkup - - she was 19.6 lbs and 28.5 inches. Yes, that was almost a month ago, she's surely grown since then

* Our little chubba chunk eats NON-STOP. She has been happily devouring any solid food we've thrown her way, and we can hardly get it in her mouth fast enough.

* So far she's had: rice cereal, oatmeal, barley, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, pears, apples, mangos, hawaiian delight (pineapple & banana), bananas, avocado, biter biscuits, banana fruit puffs. The only thing she hasn't liked thus far are the fruit puffs. They kinda stick to her lips and she's not having that.

* She has two teeth. Is sitting pretty well on her own, and is starting to scoot around on the floor. She'll push with her toes and get herself around - - it's not long, folks! I've got to finish babyproofing!!

* This past Friday, I left Lily in the nursery for the first time at MOPS. It was the first time I'd left her with anyone but Brandon. Sigh. She did exceptionally well, though. (of course ;)

The Monkey

* Our little one turned 5 last week. Oh, my. I hardly know where the time has gone

* We had a perfectly awesome Winter Wonderland party for her! It was so much fun, and although I went a little over-the-top, as I'm known to often do, it was a blast. Camille had such a great time that she's already requesting we do another Winter Wonderland party when she turns six! Well, atleast we'd save money on decorations, right? ;)

* I am just loving being at home with my girls and wouldn't trade it for anything. I have so cherished working with Camille with preschool stuff, and it's awesome to see how much she's learning. I can't believe the questions she asks - - she's so incredibly curious about the world around her, and I love being able to share in that fascination.

* Camille is also on a mission to get her Nana to move to Texas it would seem! We had such a great visit with Mom when she came for Camille's birthday, and we've missed her now that she's back home!! Oh, living far away is so difficult :(

Other stuff

* I've been having some fun crafting lately - some Valentine goodies (the plaque was featured on The Daily Digi - woo hoo!).

* Mom taught me to crochet while she was here, and I've really picked that up. I think I'm getting addicted! I've already made two scarves (well, they were little baby-doll scarves), and I'm working on a third - this time a people-scarf.

That's all I got for now - - I feel a project coming on!

Jesus the Chef

So, last night was Brandon's radio show night & that means that I do bedtime stories with Camille - usually it's Daddy's time with her. She picked out what she wanted to read - - her children's Bible. *awww*

We were reading about miracles - healing the blind, making the lame walk, and the miracle of the fish and loaves. We read that last one and Camille was a little confused. I started explaining about how he multiplied this small meal of fish & bread into one that would feed the many people there, like if he took her colby jack cheese, crackers, and juice and multiplied that into a meal that would feed every person in our church and then some.

She was starting to get just how awesome that was. So I said, "Jesus took the fish and the bread, and he made..." All of a sudden she shouted out, "Sandwiches!! Jesus made sandwiches, Mom. You know, like tuna fish sandwiches!"

Oh, dear. It would seem that Camille is not as excited about our Lord's provision as she is with his assumed sandwich-making skills! I was absolutely rolling!! It's just hilarious to me the things she comes up with! What joyful, blessed days we have!

Lily's New Tooth

Okay, this really isn't a great video....I'm new at this whole thing, but I had to share a short clip w/ Mom. Hi, Mom!!

And One More Makes TWO!

Sweet Baby Lilikins got her second tooth today! YAY! The last few days had been so rough on her that I knew that tooth would be poking through any day. She's looking like such a big girl!

We're still working hard on getting her to go down at night. It's been so hard! She's quite the stubborn little thing, and we've had to resort to letting her cry it out. OHMYGOSH! This is the hardest thing - - especially with Little Miss Iron Will! She seemingly has no problem crying for 1 1/2 hours nightly. Naps are going well, and I pray that it's not much longer before she is soothing easier at night.

Speaking of my little love, she is calling me. She's squealing and grunting as if to say, "Get off the computer, woman! And, give me some lovin'!" so- - off I must go :)

I am a Bad Mommy, but a Rockin' Crafter!

What fun we had today - - it was a MOPS day & Camille and I both enjoyed ourselves hanging with our respective friends today. We donated some stuff to Goodwill (read cleared some more crap out of the garage) - - woo hoo!! Did a quick Dollar Tree trip (which resulted in some Valentine goodies & some new plastic trays for my bathroom drawer) - - YAY!

I got home & unloaded my crew and the spoils of my shopping venture from the car. After getting everyone and everything inside, I went to get Lily from her carrier. Funny, I thought....her straps are unbuckled. Hmm....when did I unbuckle her? Just now...nope. In the car...nope. Ah, it was all the way back at MOPS when I nursed her at 10:00 this morning!! EEEK! So, my poor child went from MOPS to car to Goodwill to Dollar Tree to car to home in her carrier UNBUCKLED!! I said a prayer right there thanking the good Lord for his infinite provision and made a quick promise to myself to be more careful about this next time! The coulda-beens just throw my brain for loops!

So...onto the craftiness! I scored this cute frame at a garage sale for 10 cents. See how it's missing a little something in the lower left corner? Likely an embellishment of some sort.

So, I took some ribbon from my stash, some vintage buttons (that came from my grandmother's old sewing things that she passed down to me), some embroidery floss (to thread the buttons because unthreaded buttons aren't cute), and my trusy hot glue gun.

A few minutes later, I had this adorable frame that will look oh-so-precious in Lil's room - all for 10 cents and some things I had on hand! Now, I just need to get a little picture of my darlin' in there!

Do I *Really* Need a Onesie?

The mountains of baby clothes were slowly beginning to take over Lily's room. For some reason, I just didn't want to get rid of them! I mean, I think we're done having kiddos. Brandon's a little more sure than I am. I don't really need to keep all these clothes, but so many memories were attached to each little piece of clothing. The pink outfit that Camille wore when she first met my grandparents; the blue dress she wore at her dedication; the Carter's onesie set that Lily wore over and over again in her first month. Oh, my.....how can I just send these things down the river? Perhaps I think that by holding onto these things I keep a little piece of their infant days....I don't know. But seriously, do I really need a onesie?!?! How in the world can I keep *everything*??

I've done well and have already sent one box to consign at Wiggles & Giggles. I went in there the other day to take a bunch of maternity clothes and had this ridiculous sadness come over me when I saw my baby's stuff hanging on the racks. I actually took one thing off the rack and brought it back home! HA! I do have an excuse for that one though - - it was a Valentine's outfit of Camille's that she really wanted for "Curly" her teddy bear.

So, today I went through two boxes of things in preparation for consigning at a spring sale. I kept a few things back, though. I think I may make each girl a kind of crazy quilt using some of their more special outfits. I just can't get rid of all of these things - - not yet :)

I've been busy!

Thought I'd share a few recent scrapbook pages :)

How you like them apples??

Lily has her first fruit! mmmm....apples!

Sweet Apples Kit by Kristin Aagard

Lily plays in sweet Kohen's gym - - new digs are fun!

New Years kit - Sweet Genevieve at Oscraps

My precious & beautiful Camille - how I love you!

First Kiss of Spring kit - SugarPlum Paperie @ The Digichick

Lily "finds" her legs! She has the best time checking out her chunky little legs!

Denim Gal kit by Mari K @ The Digichick


Thanks for looking!!

Hey Cheri! How's the scrapping coming along, my friend??
Can't wait to see some of your new LOs!

Lots to share....

Oh, the last week has been such a whirlwind! So much has happened!

Lily got her first tooth on December 23rd! Yay, Lil!

Christmas was fantastic! The girls had such a great time & enjoyed all their gifts. Even though the Lilster was sick, she still had a good time. She was especially fond of her Baby Elmo doll!

Camille's favorite toy was likely the VTech Learn to Write toy - - she's played with that thing non-stop. It's SO crazy-loud, though - - I'm not quite certain why toy manufacturers seek to deafen our children with these absurdly high volumes on toys! Perhaps they're in kahoots with the hearing aid folks. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.

Okay, I digress...

On Christmas Eve, Lily's ear infection had returned with fever and the like, and so I took her to the NextCare urgent clinic. Started her on antibiotics and although she was feeling better, she broke out with a terrible rash a few days later. The pedi couldn't see her, and because her hands and feet were swelling, they asked me to take her to the urgent care center again. Well, the urgent care center doc wouldn't see her. Said I had to take her to the emergency center because of her age. Ugh.... So, a few hundred dollars later, we learned that she was either suffering from a viral infection or a reaction to the amoxicillin. Either way, we needed to give her Benadryl and just wait for it to clear up.

Our poor little honey looked SO bad! I'm posting pics so my mom can see - - apologies to anyone else for subjecting you to this ;)

Today was the Texas Tech / Ole Miss Cotton Bowl. Ya know....at the end of a tiresome "vacation" week, Brandon was sure looking forward to a good game. It sure would've boosted his spirits to see his favorite team play a winning bowl game. Sadly, not in the cards :( Tech lost to those dang Rebels! Oh well, it was a great season, and we'll be looking forward to next year :)