New Skirt

I have been sewing for a few years now but had never attempted anything clothing related for myself. I had heard from many people that it's super hard to find your actual size on a pattern and because of that I stayed away. Up until about a month ago.

A blog I follow was doing a "sew along" for this adorable skirt! So I gave in. My sister came over for a few days so she brought her sewing machine and we set out to tackly the skirt. Easy right? Well just like everyone warned me finding my size was hard. According to the pattern I was a size 16... gulp!! I knew that couldn't be right so I had to make a sample waist band to figure out what size I really was. Well a long story short, the size I came up with was still to big so after almost completing the skirt and realizing it was too big I ended up taking the ENTIRE thing apart and re sizing it. So about 12 hours of work later it's complete and I LOVE it. The fabirc I found was exactly what I wanted and happened to be on sale!

Here is it! My favorite part....

The pockets!

White as Snow

Wow, I am feeling so blessed today! Waking up to a 3 inch blanket of fluffy white snow is amazing!

What is even more amazing is seeing the delight on Cades face this morning when I lifted him up to the window and showed him what happened over night.

That boy is SO Tylers son!

It was like Christmas morning, he was laughing and running around so giddy! Probably because when he thinks of snow he associates it with Christmas so all morning he was saying "It snowed! It's almost Christmas!... After Thanksgiving though!" By 7am he was dressed and traipsing around in the backyard.

But even more amazing than my childs delight by the snow is the amazing reminder it brings of the power of forgiveness! After I got Cade buckled into the neighbors car I was overcome with how powerful and significant snow is to my salvation. Take my yard for example. The cold and wind has blown away all the beautiful leaves, stripped the flowers of color and turned our grass a nasty burnt brown color, much resembling the ugly sinful state of man. But over night a fresh new layer emerged and covered the ugly and made is something beautiful and amazing!

Isaiah 1:8

"Though your sins are as scarlet,

They will be as white as snow"

Today I am so grateful for my salvation and the incredible sacrifice that was made for me to be white as snow!

Real Life Pinning #2

Shaving cream bath paints

What you need:

Muffin tin

Shaving cream

Food coloring

Paint brush

Bathtub/walls

(shaving cream expands a lot! You only need about 2 Tbs in each muffin hole)

Todays pin comes from here

My Pick of the Patch

Blake 5.5 months; Cade 3 years old

Real Life Pinning

I'm sure everyone out there has either heard or is signed up for Pinterest.

IT IS ADDICTING!

I found this hilarious definition of it from a fellow blogger

pin-ter-est (n): A fun reminder of the clothes I will never afford/fit into, the home decor I will never afford/fit into our small home, the recipes and crafts I am too lazy to ever make, the sayings I wasn’t clever enough to think of on my own, the photos I wish I had taken but didn’t.

Well to not become that "pinner" I am going to start posting some of my "real life pins"

Real Life Pin # 1

The 5min Brimmed Beanie

The original post come from here : http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/2010/12/five-minute-brimmed-beanie.html

God is for you moms!

I follow a blog designed for moms with boys, it's called Warrior Prayers. It is such an amazing blog and has been a great tool for me in learning how to pray for my boys. Here is a snip it from a recent post, such a great and humbling reminder!

When your son takes his first steps and you realize for the first time that your baby is growing up…God is for you.

When you give it your all and his heart doesn’t change…God is for you.

When you wake up and he’s five and you realize there are already so many moments you’ve missed and will never get back…God is for you.

When you realize the home life you desperately wanted to provide for him isn’t going to happen…God is for you.

When you realize how your own sinful choices have affected him…God is for you.

When you’re defeated and ready to quit…God is for you.

When you see the desires of his heart and realize that they’re not always good…God is for you.

When your son gets hurt or that thing you always wanted to protect him from happens…God is for you.

When his heart doesn’t belong to just you anymore…God is for you.

When he makes choices that hurt you, no, devastate you…God is for you.

When the threads of your carpet are worn bare from the praying, begging, hoping in God to complete the work He started…God is for you.

And His heart for you is good.

Beaver Football Season is Upon us

You know how I know?

Evenings & mornings are filled with Beaver Youtube videos.

We keep talking tale gate food.

I was lucky enough to get a new AWESOME Beaver sweatshirt this year.

Cade keeps asking to look at our tickets, then proceeds to repeatably ask "is that guy (player on the ticket) fast? What about that one?"

Tyler keeps telling me how many hours till kick off.

Cade is very concerned & keeps asking if he will get to watch the game with Grandpa Don while mommy and daddy watch it at Reser.

When you ask Cade who his favorite Beaver football player is he says James Rodgers.

Thats how I know!!

:)

Wordless Wednesday

Prayer

"Come overwhelmed with life. Come with a wandering mind. Come messy."

~Paul E. Miller

Wordless Wednesday

A Boy & His Bike/Helmet

If a child could have an object as his best friend, Cades would hands down be his bike & helmet!

Tyler & I got Cade his "push" bike (no peddles) for his 2nd birthday.

At the time it was too big for him so it wasn't until this year that he really got to try it out, and boy did he fall in L-O-V-E!

He would spend all day long cruisin around on it if he could. He rides it on the deck, on the patio, in the grass, through the bark dust, the rocks, the dirt... literally EVERYWHERE! And when he is done riding his bike his helmet usually stays on :)

Encouragement for today

Be this...

From A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul E. Miller

"“Underneath her obedient life is a sense of helplessness. It has become part of her very nature … almost like breathing. Why? Because she is weak. She can feel her restless heart, her tendency to compare herself with others. She is shocked at how jealousy can well up in her. She notices how easily the world gets its hooks into her. In short, she distrusts herself. When she looks at other people, she sees the same struggles. The world, the flesh, and the Devil are too much for her. The result? Her heart cries out to God in prayer. She needs Jesus.”

I subscribe to a blog called Warrior Prayers and a while back she shared this post. I found it again today and it couldn't have come at a better time! I am feeling defeated and run down when it comes to being Cades mom. After a morning filled with an abundance of "no's", hitting, pushing and just down right disobedience I totally needed this reminder that I can't do it on my own and I need to turn it over to God in prayer.

Blake 2 months

Wow 2 months now with this little cuttie pie!

The first few weeks with Blake were a little hard. He was a hard cookie to figure out. The boy didn't like his swing or the bouncy seat which we would always put him in to try to get him to go to sleep, but he wasn't having it! After a few rough days I decided to just put him in his crib when he appeared tired, low and behold.... he slept like a rock! I guess with a wild and crazy 2 year old running around the house poor baby couldn't sleep in peace :)

He is growing like a little weed! It was like over night he grew out of his new born size clothes! We had his 2 month doctors appointment on Tues and he weighs 12 lbs and is 23 inches long.

We are getting lots of smiles and they are absolutely adorable! He is also starting to coo and make those fun baby noises. He is now enjoying his swing and bouncy seat, the animals and toys hanging from them keep him entertained for a good 20-30 min, it's fun to watch him stare at them then smile and try to "talk" to them. I was telling Tyler the other day that Blake was talking to his animal friends, Cade heard me say this and got all excited and said "really mom what did he say!?" too cute!

Lots of Blake smiles

"Talking" to his elephant friend

Good Friday 2011

39 weeks 5 days

Good Friday started out like a typical Friday along with a bonus, Tyler had the day off!! We decided to do something fun as a family. It was a nice morning so we headed out to the park to soak in some sun and then made our way to Bouncing Off the Walls; heaven on earth for Cade! About an hour into playing Tyler & I decided to do a little volleying back and for with a ball, no harm right?! Well being 9 months prego my balance was not at it's finest. The ball bounced I walked over to get it, tripped on my own feet and fell! Ya embarrassing I know! I ended up falling with the biggest impact on my arm, leaving a nice rug burn across my right forearm however I did hit a bit on the side of my stomach. I got up and actually felt fine so we kept playing for about 30 more min, Blake was still kicking away in my tummy so I didn't really think much of it. It wasn't until about 2 hours later that I started feeling nauseous and like my lunch was in my throat. I called the Dr. and she wanted me to head over to the hospital to be monitored. 4 hours of monitoring later and no sign of distress to Blake they were preparing to let me leave when the nurse decided to check my dilation just in case... Good thing because I was dilated to a 5! With that important info they obviously decided I wasn't going anywhere and checked me into my room (5:30pm)

Since I hadn't really felt too many contractions Tyler and I decided to walk the halls and get things moving. After a couple laps, phone calls galore and an attempt to play cribbage later I was at a 7 and the Dr. decided to break my water (9:30pm). Ok so now things are really picking up contractions are WAY strong and WAY fast; stronger and faster than I remember with Cade!! I even asked the nurse if it was too late for an epidural!! (Those of you that know me would know what a big deal this is hehehe) Luckily it was too late and 3 contractions later I was checked again and fully dilated and ready to push! PTL!! 3 pushes later and our amazingly handsome Blake Asher entered the world! (10:19pm)April 22 2011
7lbs 10oz & 21in long

Spring/summer wish list

So I have some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket! I'm saving it for shopping once Blake is born & my body is a little bit back to normal. It's a good thing I loaned it to my sister for a few months because I think if I had it in my possession I would have a hard time resisting the urge to purchase one... or all of the following items!!

(love this entire outfit)!!

Bedding for sale

2 coordinating upholstery fabrics were used for the bedding

Bumper is in 4 peices (2 long sides, 2 short sides)

Valance included

As well as bed skirt

contact me at mmackeson@gmail.com if interested or have any questions

37 weeks

At 37 weeks I am...

* SUPER anxious for labor/delivery & meeting our son

* Preparing myself for no sleep by waking up every 2-3 hours to pee

* Craving Diet Pepsi something fierce!!

* Still working out 2-3 times a week

* Loving that we enrolled Cade in pre school 2 x's a week

* Loving my freshly painted toes

* SUPER anal about keeping the house picked up & clean

* Spending lots of time with Tyler & Cade

* Reading a really good book!

* Looking like this:

Boys, Boys & more Boys

Can't believe we are going to adding more testosterone to the family in a few short weeks!

These boys are so blessed to be such good buddies.

Nothing to Something

We have a corner in our living room that to put it bluntly, SUCKS!

It has a weird pop out for the bathroom that resides on the other side of it and is just super choppy.

I have always hated it and we usually have our armoire possitioned in the corner to mask/hid the weirdness. But with our growing family, toys & soon to be baby things ie. bouncy seat, jumparoo, and car seat, we decided to move the armoire and open up this corner. Doing so made the living room seem way more spacious but it opened up the weird corner and it's even wirder walls.

So without spending money I went searching around the house for something to "help" the walls out.

Here is what I came up with...

I don't have a good before picture so the one with our Christmas tree will have to do.

Before:

After:

Maternity Photos w/ Dornbusch Photography

We had the honor or doing a maternity session with Dornbusch Photography when i was 33 weeks pregnant. David & kim are local photographers here in Bend and are a lot of fun to work with. There studio is set up at there home which made for a very comfortable and accommodating place to take pictures, especially with a 2 year old! The session was a lot of fun and totally different than the photos we had taken when I was pregnant with Cade. It is nice to have 2 totally different styles to show case my 2 pregnancies.

Here are a few of the photos:

Cade's New Room (finally)

I was finally able to snap some pictures of Cade's new room. He LOVES his room and at night when we ask him what he wants to pray for he ALWAYS says "to thank Jesus for Grandpa Don coming to paint my new room"! It is the perfect boys bedroom, big enough to keep his train sets out or his car rug open and all his insturments out! His room "theme" (if you can call it that) is a cross between travel & trucks.

Check it out:

Art wall
Music "studio"
Fun wall decor

Shelf decor

more shelf decor

Still crafty

So as a mom of soon to be 2 boys... 7 weeks and counting!

I was feeling a bit sad that I won't be making the hair clips, tu tus, embellished shirts/onzies etc.

But as a mom who loves to sew and craft it up having 2 boys wasn't going to stop me from doing the things I love.

In comes craft/sewing blogs from moms with boys!

I totally stumbled on all of these blogs by total accident and one blog leads to another and my total excitement to started on some projects for these little rascals!

If you want to be inspired by all things boys check these out:

http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/

http://www.made-by-rae.com/

http://www.dana-made-it.com/

The Perfect Pizza

This weekend when my parents were here we took them to one of our favorite places to have dinner as a family.. Flat Bread Pizza! So Yummy!! Cade did the honors of showing them how it was done, and suprised everyone by eating almost his entire pizza, this has NEVER happened before!!

:)

I had a little someone sneak into bed with me this morning.

It's a good thing he is so cute!

BOYS

This quote will be printed out, framed and hung in Blake's room for sure!

"Little boys come in all shapes and sizes,

Shy and adventurous, full of surprises,

With misshapen halos and

mischievous grins,

Small dirty faces, and sweet, sticky chins.

They'll keep you so busy, and yet all the while

Nothing can brighten the world like

their smile.

And no greater treasure has brought homes more joy,

Thank a curious, active lovable boy!"

-Author unknown

Sneek Peek

Here is a sneek peek of what will be Blake's world....

More to come, just hold tight!

Full Speed

What have I been busy doing?

Washing, washing & more washing!!

I took a trip to the store for some Dreft & have started the washing/sorting/organizing process.

It has been so fun to dig out all of Cade's teeny tiny baby clothes and reminisce of when/where he wore it.

I also pulled apart & washed the carrier, swing, bouncy seat & am currently working on the rocking chair cover.

Gotta get crackin, I only have 10 weeks you know!!!

I am still waiting for the "nesting" stage to kick in. So far I have been feeling very unmotivated to do anything.