A Gender Reveal Party !! ?what?

Have you every heard of a gender reveal party? Me either. My youngest sister, Katy, is a number of years younger than me and these parties are the thing to do now!! I have to say, I didn't really get the why until the actual reveal.

Here are some of the pictures.  The party was held at my younger sister Melody's house.

It was a house full of friends, family and little ones!!

After everyone got there, Melody had everyone go out to the back yard to take a picture of the "sides".. you know, the who thinks it's a boy vs the who thinks it's a girl.

Then a big box was brought out for Katy and Kyle to open.

 It was empty.

 Then, the lights on all of the trees turned PINK!!!!!!

Don't you LOVE everyone's faces!!!

Aren't they sooo cute :) 

So now that I've been to a Gender Reveal party, I totally get it.  It was fun for our family to be a part of the finding out. Next to waiting to find out the gender at the birth, this has to be the way to do it!!

The Growth Chart.. so worth it!

Don’t you love it when you order something over the internet and it comes better than expected?? Well, this is so true for the Growth Chart!! Yippee!!

In fact, I love that I got a scheduled delivery notice, that the packaging was so great and most importantly, the piece itself was better than I expected.

Here is how it looks on Kylie’s wall. I apologize for the weird shadows, but there is a skylight in Kylie’s room and so we end up with a very bright spot on her wall during the day.  But in real life, the colors are vibrant without being over the top.

So if you are in the market for kids bedding, accessories or anything kid, I would highly suggest this site.

Enjoy… and don’t you just love Maddie’s red hair :)

A Toothy Grin

Yep, there is no two ways about it.. she’s adorable!  With TWO, yes, that’s TWO teeth, Kylie is finally feeling better and back to her sweet self.

I am really hoping that the next round of teething isn’t accompanied by RSV and an ear infection that lingers through two antibiotics!

Can you believe that she’s just 5 months! I am amazed at how big (19 pounds) she is and how many things she’s doing.  One of her favorite pastimes is playing with her toes.. it’s kind of hard to believe that she can reach her toes given the size of her belly :)

Well, there you have it.. an update on my sweet Kylie Faith!

ABC’s for a baby shower

So remember the family that got the baby boy to adopt and then it looked like they might not get to keep him… well, they have him and everything looks like they are his forever family!! So we are having a baby shower for them tomorrow at my house.  I wanted to do something fun and special, so I made this set of ABC’s.

The mom, Amy is an elementary teacher, so I figure she will appreciate the letters and can come up with something to do with them :)

Each letter is on it’s own piece of 6”x6” chipboard and I thought would be great as a wall hanging or clipped together with rings or something.  The backside of each letter is covered with paper as well.  They come together as a great mix and match album type thing. 

Originally I was going to have all the guests sign each letter and use it for a sign in sheet at the shower, but after all the work and since they are just so cute a friend and I decided that they were too cute for people to mess up! So now I still have to make the sign in page.. oh well.

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Materials are mostly from CTMH’s Animal Cookies line.  I LOVE these papers!!  I did add in a couple of other papers as I needed more pages. The alphabet is your standard teacher pop-out letters.

See and you all thought I was just taking it easy not doing anything!  I have decided that crafting with a 4 week old, a 4 year old and a 9 year old is really hard and will probably happen only in the middle of the night for quite a while.  

I do have lots of in-progress items that I am hoping to finish soon, but man am I tired! I have to remind myself to take it easy and enjoy these precious moments with baby Kylie because in the blink of an eye she will be 4 years old and not need me to hold her all the time.

And just in case you all needed a sweet Kylie Faith fix… here she is at 4 weeks.

Kylie’s Birth Announcement

 

Today I addressed envelopes for Kylie’s announcements.  It’s a really good thing that I started making them back in July as she is three weeks already and I’ve only had a few minutes at a time to glue on the pictures! 

I really like how the announcement turned out!  The template is from CTMH Originals book.  I adapted  it to fit a standard sized envelope.  All of the supplies are C TMH as well.  I just love the Emporium papers!!

These are pretty stout little cards, but surprisingly they mail with just one stamp!

I made 40 and am all out.. next batch mat half to just be computer printed cards.. :(  Oh well, we can only do so much..

Next week I am going to start crafting again, I am having withdrawal symptoms!  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my new stamps will be here next week…

Have a great weekend.

Emily

Thankful Thursday: Growing Children and Families

I have so much to be thankful for!  I don’t post very often, but with so  much wonderful in life, I need to remember to be thankful each and every day!

I can’t believe Kylie is 3 weeks old!  She weighs 10 pounds and is adorable! Her sister’s still hover unmercifully, but I know that will end sooner or later.

Our  house is also finally getting well!  Last week everyone but me was on breathing treatments, 2 are currently on steroids and their 2nd round of antibiotics, and then we even had a bought of stomach virus mixed in for good measure. But as of today, I think we might just survive!

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And then there is Hudson to be thankful for!  My sister Libby, her husband Mike and their daughter Abby arrived home with new son Hudson just last night!!

Here they are in a park in Korea.

Isn’t he precious!

Wow, so much for which we have to be thankful!

Mommy and Baby pictures.. help me decide which ones to order!!

Yesterday Kylie  and I got our pictures taken at DP Studios.  I love the pictures!!  These are all unedited proofs, so the ordered pictures will of course be clear and all that jazz.

I can’t order all of them, so please help me out.. which ones do you like best?

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Emily

Our Greatest Treasure

While I must admit that baby Kylie at one week old seems to be our greatest treasure.. I have to say that seeing her with my Grandparents, her Great Grandparents HAS to be our GREATEST Treasure!!

 

My Grandparents, Hoyt and Lynn are in their nineties and are absolutely incredible people.  They love with their whole hearts and have always made each grandchild and now each great grandchild feel like he/she was the MOST special, the favorite!  What an incredible gift they have been in our lives and what an incredible gift of love they have shown our entire family.

Yesterday, my sister Libby graciously took the day and brought my grandparents down to Stephenville for the day.  Thankfully, they don’t attempt to drive the hour from Fort Worth to Stephenville alone any longer!  They arrived at my house ready to see the baby and oh how special it was to be able to introduce them to Kylie.

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We then all went to eat at a local mexican food restaurant.  My grandad decided about a year ago that he liked this restaurant and that’s where we would eat lunch when they came down!  So we do :)  We had a great time, a mini reunion in the middle of the week!  In the pictures are my grandparents, my mom and dad, my sister Libby, my sister Melody and her baby Sissy, Doug, Kylie in her carseat and me.

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These moments with family are truly our greatest treasure in life!

Introducing Kylie Faith McLemore

Kylie was born on Thursday afternoon, August 20th.  She weighed 8 lbs and 14 ounces.  She was 20 inches long.  Yep, she is a a big girl!!

Life here at home is interesting :)  One would think that the newborn was the most work, but in reality the 9 year old is a hovercraft and the 4 1/2 year old is driving us insane with regression and then wanting to be the big girl.  Thankfully the girls went back to school today and we had some peace during the day!

Here are a few more pictures from the last few days.

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I am hoping to get to complete Kylie’s announcements soon!

Baby #3 will be here soon!!

Just wanted to let you know that I am being induced tonight, August 19th, so posts may be limited for a while :)

I did create a couple more things recently, but we will have to wait on those!

I can't wait to post pictures.. Yippee!

Emily

Journaling for baby #3 with a twist

As much as I’d like to think, believe or even wish, I know that no matter my intention, with baby #3 I will have absolutely no time to reflect on how grateful we are that she is here. 

When Madalyn was born, I wrote in a journal on the date of her birth every month for more than 2 years.  I love looking back at the journal and seeing what was going on in our lives and what amazing feats she was doing.  Then Lexi came along and I was able to get most of the 15th’s during the first year and hit a few during the second, but the quality and quantity of writing was just not there.

So now, here we go with #3 and I know going into it that life is not going to afford me the pleasure of writing sweet nothings to my baby. If I’m lucky, I may remember to write things down like the date of her sleeping through the night, her first tooth and other milestones.  In order to help me record some of my thoughts and feelings, I have created a little journal of the months for the first year.  I have included places for pictures and the pages are small with only a couple for each month.  Already I don’t feel so overwhelmed as I don’t have this empty journal with 200 pages to fill!

Here is what I created today.

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And here are a few pictures of the back side of the month tabs.

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I am guessing I don’t have to say how ready I am to get to use this journal!

Supplies are Basic Grey Papers, Creative Cafe book, CTMH stamps and inks and a variety of suppliers of embellishments.

An amazing adoption story!

Some friends of mine have been in the process of waiting on an adoption for a while.  Last summer, they turned in their “book” and have been waiting to be chosen by a birth mom.  They expected once they were chosen to have a couple of months to get ready. Amy has been incredible in all of this, she truly has rested in the fact that God is in control and that at some point she would be holding a child to call her own.

Well, yesterday the agency called and asked if they would like to come and pick up their 8 day old son!  Can you imagine!! No warning, no preparation, no supplies, no shower, no anything.. except of course A BABY!!!!

So with great pleasure, welcome Ryan! What a wonderful surprise and blessing!! Here are the pictures of the family that I stole off Facebook :)

Isn’t he wonderful!!!!!!!!!

A Book for Baby

Over Lexi’s first year, I made her a Monday book.  It was an idea that I saw from a fellow scrapper and loved.  Every Monday, I took a picture of her and chronicled in pictures her first year.  We love looking at this book and in fact, it’s the only scrapbook Lexi currently has, so I am very glad I made it.

Here are a few pictures from Lexi’s book.

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Knowing that life is going to be even MORE CRAZY with baby #3, I decided to create the “monday book” ahead of time.  NO, I haven’t put dates in it!! However, I have already put in the weeks as those are a given :)

Here are few pictures from this baby’s book.  I can’t wait (well, yes I can..) to add all of the details!

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Happy crafting!

No baby name yet, but I have chosen nursery colors!

It seems like I get asked at least once a day about a name for baby girl and also about nursery colors. Well, we still haven't decided on a name, but I have chosen nursery colors! All of you scrapbookers out there will appreciate that the colors and patterns are from Close To My Heart Emporium papers :) Here is a close up of my favorite pattern. The colors are Cocoa, Sweet Leaf, Twilight, and Vineyard Berry.

Here they are in the catalog..

So here's my plan, I am going to take my pieces of paper with me to a fabric store and get everything I need to make the baby's nursery stuff. I am also going to paint our hand-me-down dark brown wood crib the vineyard red color. I am so thankful to have the crib! What a huge savings that was!!

Also, if our house doesn't sell, Lexi's bedroom will become Lexi and baby's room and guess what? The color of the walls matches PERFECTLY!! I will paint Lexi's bed the same red and we will bring in the large bookshelf from the den that just happens to already be the correct color :) It doesn't look so hot in the picture below, but you can see where I am going..

And that's all folks. I am feeling much better now that I have a good idea as to where I am going with the room situation. Now, yes, the goal is to sell the house, but I have to plan.. I am a planner. Everyone that knows me would attest to that!

That's why a name is so hard. I have to plan the sound, the look and the feel of the name.