Because this smile would make anyone's day....

I'm posting it here...

So for any of you who are feeling down....

   Under the weather....

        Burdened by life.....

             Overwhelmed by finances, relationships in turmoil, or some other stressful event.....

Just take a look at this face.  And have your smile for the day.  God has good things in store for you!

"A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed."

Proverbs 15:13

Friday Quick Takes #8

1.  Number One is that I'm wayyyy over due for a blog post here!  There are lots of reasons.  Little time, too lazy, and it's been hard to come up with some "real" subject matter.  Oh pictures of the kids is "real enough", but I've just been lacking in the meaty-post-writing department lately.

2.  We've I've started cloth diapering.  I'm kinda dragging my husband along into it....which is why I scratched out the "we've".  I have to say I'm a bit giddy about it...it's actually awesome.  How can cloth diapering be fun?  Why am I looking forward to putting a new diaper on Ian at changing time??  Is it the snaps on those cute little cloth diapers??  Is it the bright colors??  I have no idea, but I love it!  I've gotten alot of help from around the blogworld (MoreLikeMaryMoreLikeMe and Andrew and Julie's Adoption Story) as well as from my IRL friend, Emily!  What a huge help!!

3.  Ian has a tooth (actually I think it's 2 teeth) coming in at 3 months!  I'm shocked....sort of.  He's been gnawing on his fists since around 6 weeks, but the pediatrician told me it was not likely to be due to his teeth.  I didn't really believe her.  Sure enough yesterday was a bit of a nightmare  (see pic below).  Poor little guy was just a mess with his sore little gums!  I held him umm....all day?  Okay, a good portion of the day. I don't know if you can really see in the bottom pic those two little white dots on his gums (bottom 2 front teeth), but I promise you they are there!  Iz didn't cut a tooth until 7 months..this is just crazy!  And of course it hasn't really cut through the gums yet...I think he'll feel much better once they do.

4.  Monday was mine and Rob's 8 year wedding anniversary!  Eight years has both flown by and yet it seems like we've always been together :)  What a blessing God has given me in him!

5.  My garden has been more of a failure than a success this year.  Overrun with weeds...(I didn't want to use weed killer for fear it would get my vegetables, and I don't really like weed killer/pesticides/etc.) but it seems like the weeds got the better of me.  I'm not going to show you a picture because it's too embarrassing!  But out of the lettuce, corn, squash, sweet peas, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers and green beans I planted.  We have eaten a few sweet peas, lettuce (although it's turned bitter), 1 squash before the squash bugs got it, a handful of green beans (but thankfully there are more), the watermelons are starting to rot on the bottom before they get big enough to eat (??), and the tomatoes are just now FINALLY starting to turn yellow.  All of these things were from seed...oh and the corn, it grew into stalks, just never produced any cobs.  Go figure. 

6.  It's been killer hot here.  100 degrees feeling like 110.  This is not the NC weather I grew up with.  Today is much more pleasant...we even got to have the screen door open because it was soooo cool!  Happy for cooler (high 88) weather yesterday and today!

7.  I thought this article about Corapi was excellent.  It put all the thoughts I've been having about his situation into the right perspective...I'm glad she wrote it.

Look what I won!

I've been out of town and when I got home Friday, I had received this in the mail:

Isn't it just gorgeous???  Courtesy of Pray, Hope, Don't worry.  I was sooooo thrilled to have been chosen as the winner during her recent giveaway!  And little did she know that the colors she chose for this birthdate print (mounted on canvas) are the same colors in Ian's nursery!!  Amazing! 

It looks so good, I may just have to order one for Isabel too! ;)

Here's a closer look:  I got his name, date of birth, weight and length, the meaning of his name and even a St. Gerard "pray for us" card on there!  She did such a beautiful job.

She sells these prints on Etsy.com as well as personalized onesies, and wedding date prints so go check it out:  Rae's Gifts for baby and home on Etsy.

Ian's Baptism

Here are a couple pictures from Ian's baptism on Saturday, June 11th, 2011.  There were 5 babies total baptized that day.  I was so nervous that Ian would be screaming, but the deacon totally calmed my nerves when he said, "Now sometimes it makes parents anxious when their babies cry, but I love crying babies...do not worry!"  WHEW!  But I didn't need to worry anyway, because he slept through the entire thing!

Above is a picture of Isabel holding the baptism picture frame she created for Ian.  It's so cute...we talked about what she might put on it (I suggested a dove, cross, etc.) and she just took the ideas and ran with it!  There is Jesus on the very top (with black hair), two doves, two angels holding tablets (can't remember what she said they said), sheep, baby Jesus in a manger, and Mary and Joseph praying in front of Jesus in the tabernacle!  Love little kid creations!  How precious!

Name That Baby: Baptism Edition! *ANSWER*

So Ian was baptized today, and I will post some pictures soon....but just couldn't believe when we slipped him into the baptismal gown how much he resembled Isabel....so here is Round Two of Name That Baby!

Give me your guesses! 

I promise each pic is of a different baby ;)

ANSWER:  You are all right!  Ian is in the top picture and Isabel is in the bottom picture!  Good job!

Better than a Bumbo

Ummm....we have a real bumbo seat by the way...but this is Daddy's makeshift version:

Disclaimer:  Ian was not left alone at any point in these pillows!

No, not even then!

Daddy thought he was so clever creating this pillow seat that he had to take a picture:

I of course, took a picture of him taking the picture.  ;)

Quick Takes #7

1.  The heat here is just zapping my energy!  Today it is only 86, but for some reason it feels worse than the 95 we had yesterday!  We installed the thermal window film on several of our west facing windows and it has made a HUGE difference in the temperature inside our home...or at least a huge difference on how hard our poor AC unit has to work!  I'm almost giddy to see the electric bill next month to calculate our savings!

2.  My husband surprised me with a new camera for my birthday....okay, it's not my birthday until the 20th, but to get this one, he had to sell my SLR and I kind of couldn't go without a camera for Ian's baptism which is a week from tomorrow!  So I got it early!  It's an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and it's awesome.  I'm in love with it.  I went from an Olympus E-500 to the Pen.

3.  Last night our german shepherd killed a giant rabbit that somehow entered our fenced in backyard.  I was really surprised since Greta does nothing but gently play and herd our cat.  I guess she thought the rabbit was an intruder.  I was kind of upset about it until Rob reminded me that if it had been a fox or coyote, we would have wanted her to get it out of there....still...

4.  My garden is growing really well!  I have tomato plants, corn, zucchini, cucumber, watermelon and sweet peas, oh and lettuce and pepper plants this year.  The only problem I'm having is massive weeds!!!  Not sure how to get rid of them....I'm pulling like crazy, but the more I water, the more they come back.

5.  We are having grilled chicken (marinated in greek dressing) and an orzo tomato pasta salad for dinner tonight and I'm starving.  It's 6:01pm.

6.  Ian is teething.  Did I mention that last week?  Well it's for sure!  He gnaws his fist and has given himself a hickie on his arm from chewing...poor baby can't hold up a teething ring or anything really to chew on yet!  He goes for his 2 month visit on Monday...and gets shots :(

7.  Finally, Isabel and I were watching A Baby Story the other day and the mother-to-be had been adopted when she was a baby...so I said to Iz, "She was adopted."  Isabel replied, "From where?....the purgatory?"  I then cracked up....she meant "the orphanage" but Lord knows how she confused "purgatory" with "orphanage"....it was too funny!