Christmas Crafting

One of my husbands biggest complaints is that my project list is too big, I over do myself just a little:)  And I tend to try and doing them all during the season which has seemed to work out in the past but with a little one running around they have started to pile up.  The problem is I see things that I want to make or try, but between work, Gracie and classes my time is rather limit especially during the season.  Since we made it thru the Thanksgiving Holiday I have put a lot of time a side for working on photos.  I made a scrapbook for my sister-in-law Kristen of pictures from her baby shower, I made Gracie's 1st Birthday Scrapbook, I did an online scrapbook of her professional 6 month and 1 year photos and I am in the middle of making her 1 month.  I have put so much time into scrapbooking in the past that I felt that I needed to do the same for each of my kids.  I thought there was no way to do the whole year since I have about 2500 pictures and once other kids come into play I doubt I will have the time.  So each kids will get a 1 month handmade scrapbook and the rest will be digital scrapbooks.  

Even though I love working on scrapbooking, I also like to make time for some other crafts.  This year we received an abundance of Christmas cards and I wanted a fun way to display them.  A friend of mine suggested checking out Martha Stewart for ideas.  It was a simple little project that did not take much time and was really cute.  I do not even have them all hung yet but I think it looks so cute.

I mod podged(awesome glue) old 

wrapping paper to some clothing pins

And found a good place to dangle some ribbon and

hung up some of my christmas cards for display, I love it!

If you click on the Martha Stewart name to see some more ideas you can try, have fun!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Last year I was told about this Christmas Tree farm that a friend of mine went to and I have been so excited to go. So, once Thanksgiving was over it was a must to go. I knew Gracie would love the trees and since we do not have to travel very far we will be able to enjoy it so much longer so it was a sure thing for me.  A couple weeks ago after church Troy, Gracie and myself headed to the Christmas Tree farm. It was so fun but we were serious lookers, for the perfect Christmas Tree.  I want just the right kinda.  It seemed that there were families that come early and pick there favorite tree and tag it and let it continue to grow until they are ready to take it home.  And did you know there is a Christmas Tree that smells like oranges, yes seriously.  Well I loved and we picked out a little tree.  Nothing to big I was restricted a little on how tall and wide.  We had a lot of fun.

Gracie and her Daddy

Gracie with her Mommy, she was ready for a nap

what a trooper

we found a tree lets go mom

A Shower for LG

As most of you know in prior post I have talked about the Baby Shower I was going to be throwing for my sister-in-law Kristen. I am very happy to say that once everything was set up and I went over my list I had not forgotten anything, not a thing. I was so happy. I was afraid of the idea I would have to scrabble for things once in the middle of Kansas with no Walmart insight as a back up.  Needless to say it went very well and I think everyone had a great time.  Enjoy the pictures.

The Invitations

were in book form

 

 

 

 

The Decorations

The Cake Table & Mrs. Kristen

The Present Table

The Cake

Kristen loves the number idea so I had numbers cut out in her

colors, orange, tan and blue.  And the numbers were 0, 1

& 2.  For he due date 1/22/2010.  There were also empty

baby food jars that we put little tea lights in.

The sign I made, and I love it not too, brag but I think it is so cute.

The Guests

to be: Grandma Schenk, Great Grandma Schenk,

the Mommy, Grandma Rush, Great Grandma Tache

The Schenk's & The Lambert's/Fish's

Me with my little cutie Gracie

Mommy to Be with a very tired Gracie

The Schenk Girls

Candace, Kristen & Audra

Oh, LG stands for Little Guy.

And if you want to see cute pregnant pictures of Kristen, click on the link Candace Lynn Photography, enjoy.

Post Surgery

Sorry about the late update.  Yesterday, we got up early to go to Mercy Hospital for Gracie's surgery at 7:30 am.  We changed her into her hospital pajamas, meet all the different nurses and doctors.  Gracie went very easily to the nurse, so she carried her down.  Once there, they gave her a gas mask and an iv.  She was done around 7:45 to 8 am.  The doctor said everything went well.  A lot of times when they do this surgery they will wait if the child has a bad infection or cold but she had no fever so she was fine.  But the doctor said her ears and the stuff in it was like peanut butter and her adenoids were very big, poor thing was so backed up.  When we went to see Gracie obviously she was not very happy.  She was having a very hard time breathing because of all of the mucus and swelling.  Here breathing is considered good when it is about 92 and anything below means her oxygen level is not good.  She of course did the opposite of most kids and her O2 level was fine while sleeping but then she would start coughing and wake up and not be breathing.  We would then have too put the O2 mask over her face to get her O2 levels back up.  At one point the nurse mentioned keeping her over night to keep an eye on her.  They ended up giving her a breathing treatment to loosen all the mucus in her chest and reduce the swelling in her throat, that helped a great deal.  Usually in PACU they only allow one person but thankfully they let us both stay and trade off holding and rocking her, while the other held up the O2 mask.  By 10:30 we were moved to a different recovery area since her breathing had become stable.  And, we were home about 11:15.  Yesterday, was a long day of fussing and crying for Gracie.  She finally fell off to sleep last night and slept thru most of the night.  She did have a good morning and seemed to be more herself.  I am hoping for a fast turn around and that she will feel like a whole new person.

I did take just a couple of pictures, just because I have similar photos of myself when I was little and so I can show her when she is older.

My baby girl all ready to go

Gracie & Mommy Before in her little bed

Daddy rocking Gracie in recovery

Gracie's Surgery

Saying that Gracie has had a lot of ear infections is an understatement. The poor thing has endured at least eight ear infections since late summer. If she was teething or would get a little runny noise this would cause drainage and then give her ear infections. She has been on a prescription at least 8 times and has had to have double shots given while on antibiotics just too finally get ride of one. As of now another is already starting. The pediatrician’s office said at this point we need to seriously consider tubes. So, Troy and I went to see a specialist last Thursday where they looked at her ears, performed a few test, including a hearing test. The result, she needs tubes. The average kid gets 8 colds a year and that is a normal health kid. Gracie would spend most of the year with infections or on antibiotics if we did not do tubes and this can cause some serous hearing damage, not mentioning what it can do to her speech or her balance. The choice was clear. Tomorrow we are going early in the morning to have tubes put in and they will also be taking at her adenoids. this should make her life so much better. We are praying for her safety and speedy recovery.

Here is a few pictures of what will be happening.

Pictures provided by WebMD

Birthday Round 2

While we were in Kansas we celebrated Gracie’s Birthday with the Schenk Family. We included any other Birthday’s that happened in November including my sister-in-law Kristen and brother-in-law Jake. At this point Gracie is a pro at eating a cake. She did not waste anytime grabbing at the cake, she dug right in. It was a lot of fun for the family to be able to take part in celebrating her 1st Birthday. Gracie even open a few gifts with the help of her Grandma.  Enjoy the pictures!

Gracie and her uncle Jake

ready to celebrate

the November Birthday's

Aunt Audi had this made for uncle Jake

ready to eat

yum, yum

I wonder if she knows she won't get to do this again for another year?

The Birthday Girl!

How I spent my Thanksgiving Holiday

For our Thanksgiving we went to see Troy’s family in Kansas. But first we had to get there. We opted for the long 16 hour drive because it was much cheaper then to fly. This also meant Gracie had to be in her car seat for a long time. Which most know is near to impossible with a child that has just recently become mobile. We decided the best option would be to drive thru the night so she could sleep. We left about 4pm and we got to Kansas about 8:30am, with stops that is pretty good.

We spent Wednesday recouping and hanging out with family. Thursday was very busy spending the day with the family at Grandma’s. There were a lot of people, it was very busy. We also celebrated all the November birthdays and had a baby shower for my sister-in-law but I will save that for another post this week. I also was able to take pictures of my friend Jodi and her beautiful daughter Culley. I also managed to get a few shots of Kyle and Kristen. Needless to say there was a lot of people to see, things to do and not enough time. We left Sunday about noon, Gracie slept all the way into Missouri which is about 5 hours. It is obvious to say that she was beyond tired. We got home Monday about 5:15am. I took Gracie to daycare after she got up around 8:30. She was very happy to see all her friends. I think she missed having kids around.

Gracie with Great Grandma Schenk

Gracie and Grandma

Our attempt at a family picture

Gracie and Daddy                     The Tire

Gracie with Grandpa in the Tractor

The little girl and boy are Troy's second cousins, Lucas

and Olivia.  We thought this was a funny picture.  Us with 3 kids...

If you want to check out pictures I took over the Holiday I will be putting them up on CandaceLynnPhotography, just click on the name to check them out!

Gracie Lynn Who & Melting My Heart

Do you remember Cindy Lou Who from the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas?  Do you remember how her hair was a little on the wacky side?  Well, I decided to have a little fun with Gracie's hair since it has gotten so long and it is so hard to get out of her face.  I just thought it would be fun to do.   Although I accomplished putting her hair into pig tails, it did not go with out a fight and the some big tears.  She hated it.  She usually does not ming mer messing with her hair, usually she just sits in my lap.  Now she cries everytime I get near her head.  The little rubber bands I have seem to be pulling her hair and I am on the look out for ones that are not so hurtfull.  I was unable to get a picture of little Gracie Lynn Who.  I thought you would Even though I have no  but I have one of Cindy Lou Who.

Cindy Lou Who

On a side note. 

Troy and I have been working on different things with our little Gracie.  I will not disclose now due to the close timing in our travel to Kansas for Thanksgiving and it will be fun having them see it first hand.  Anyway, Friday we were showing her how to blow kisses.  This morning when I dropped her off at daycare, I waived at her and blew her a kiss and she did it back.  Not only once but twice and of course I was so excited and her teacher started clapping and telling Gracie what a good job, which made her stop.  But I loved it!  And will try to keep pushing that one for all the time.  What a way to melt your mommy's heart!

The Big Transition

Gracie has been going to daycare at Wonder World since she was 3 months. Those ladies have made me feel so comfortable with leaving Gracie there. They love her to pieces, have given me great at advice and love on her when she has not felt good. Now that Gracie is one she will be leaving those ladies that I love and will be gone into a new room. I am sure Gracie is very happy about that all of her friends have been moved over in the last couple of months. She stands at the little door and yells over at them. Miss Natalie went over last month and Lo goes over next week. Gracie will be the oldest in her class and it seems a lot of new infants have come in and she has been on the move. Monday will be her first transition day. This means she will go over to the other class room for maybe an hour in the afternoon to play and then will come back over. This will continue until the end of November. Each time she will stay for a little bit longer to get use to the teachers and to get familiar with everything, so that they are no over whelmed. I think I will have a harder time then she will. Dodie, Nancy, Brandy, Marie and Barb are the ladies that have cared for her and loved her and I love them. The have been such a blessing, and I will miss having them with her everyday.

This picture is really old, all those trees are much taller now but isn't it cute!

Gracie's 1st Birthday Bash

I made Gracie's invitaion, it is much cuter in person.

My parents came in on Thursday and Friday to help with Gracie’s party. It was a busy couple of days but we got it all done. Saturday night we hung all the decorations. When I came down stairs Sunday morning Gracie was sitting in the dinning room and she pointed to the flowers hanging from the ceiling, she seemed too love them.

Gracie’s Birthday was a blast. It was a color them of pink, aqua and purple with a candy bar full of the same colors. I am not really big into character parties and she does not really know any so I just did colors, I am sure this may change as she get older. With bouquets of chocolate covered pretzels, rock candy, candy apples, sugar cookies, m&m’s, chocolate covered marshmallows, jelly bellies, cake and much more. There were plenty of goodies to go around.

Sugar cookies cut into 1's, G's & S's, I hung
a ribbon of pictures from 1 month thru 12 months,
and all different items on the candy bar.

Gracie had just gotten up from her nape when some of the guest had arrived and I got her dressed and ready. To my surprise she did not move much at all. She pretty much sat there looking at everyone. It was a lot for her to take in. There were a handful of people she did go to comfortably but other wise she was pretty shy. And, if you know my Gracie she is usually very out going and will go to anyone, but not on her birthday. Besides that we had beautiful weather it was in the 70’s which was nice for Troy who was doing all the grilling which is where most of the guys seemed to congregate.

Gracie in her Birthday outfit. 

I made the tutu and her Auntie Kristen gave her the shirt.

Gracie had a smash cake which she seemed to poke at and picked of the little pink sprinkles. Everyone suggested putting her hand in it to show her what to do so I did. Nothing, she seemed a little disgusted at the idea. We finally fed her a little piece and she was good to go. Her face was covered in chocolate even though she did not really put much of a dent into the little cake I had made her.

Gift time was most interesting and embarrassing, well at least for me. Gracie did not seem to like all the people she just could not get over it. I was helping her open some of her gifts and at some point she crawled away and was completely uninterested leaving me to open her gifts for her which was so awkward. We tried to get her back but she had found some she liked to holder her instead so she could watch. Oh, well it was her first and she did not understand completely what was going on.

The Proud Parents

Once everyone left she was all over the peoples. She was putting them in the little doll house/bookshelf. She loves it! It is so funny to watch her play with her toys and get so excited about them. It is quit apparent that the little toys we had were pretty boring to her.

Chocolate Cake Face

Earlier this week I wanted to take some more pictures of Grace with just her in a diaper and a cake. She did pretty well, she seemed to go straight for the icing and cake but she was not as messy. She actually got some on her foot and she just kept holding it up in the air. She does not seem to like being dirty too much. She even tried to shake some of the icing off her hands at times but then went back to eating.

Over all it was a great party and I think everyone had a good time. Lucky for Gracie she gets to celebrate her birthday again at the end of the month when we go to Smith Center to see Troy’s parents. I would like to say cake is off limits for the next year but I do not think that will happen yet.

Gracie playing with her little book case

which we consider a little doll house

Party bags to fill with candy to go

I will try and add all the pictures to

facebook here in the next couple of days.