My nephew...

is officially precious. Look at those eyes!

I can't wait to meet baby Noah for the first time on our road trip at the end of the month.

The fruit of my Momma's hands

Yesterday my Momma and I organized and cleaned out some of her old maternity clothes and my baby clothes. I am so excited to know that when I am ready to put them to use, she saved lots of things for me! From little tees to lace trimmed shirts and a green silk dress, most of the maternity clothes she made will be happily worn by me, Lord willing! :)
I am so amazed at my her sewing skills, I had to share my little dresses she saved. She made all of these- and the details are breathtaking. Pictures just won't do them justice. All the insides are finished to perfection- bound with soft fabrics for sweet baby skin, trimmed with hand sewn cotton lace, and all smocked or embroidered by my Momma's sweet hands. I pray the Lord blesses us with a daughter so that these may all be worn again!

So here for your viewing enjoyment, is a sampling of her work. Nothing is store bought- everything is hand made. I'm hoping to learn how to smock sometime soon so that I can make things as lovely as these!

Thank you so much, Momma, for loving me so much and putting so much love into my clothes!!

A beautiful Christmas dress in red velvet, trimmed with lace and a deep ruffle at the bottom, covered by a smocked pinafore with little Christmas trees.



These are some of my favorites. Little rompers... I just love the sheep. And I love the unique touch of the little black sheep :)



A closeup of those cute little sheep :)



Hand painted little tulips over a seersucker jumper.



My "Little House on the Prairie" dress. And my flower girl dress, made with one of my Mema's handkerchiefs for a collar, with pretty little pintucks. Too bad I wouldn't actually walk down the aisle in it... :) Guess I was a little too scared at the last minute!



Little painted farm animals on my denim jumper.



Lovely summer dresses!



My Easter dress. Apparently I sat down the first time I wore it and picked off all the little bunny tails. Momma had to make new ones!



A closeup of the bunnies!




More summer dresses!


And last, a gingham dress with my initials.

Girls Really Living

This weekend I had the wonderful blessing of helping out with a new 12-13 year olds bible study. It was so much fun- first we learned about how our God is a Jealous God for us and wants to be first in our hearts, minds, and souls. Then we learned about how to spend time with the Lord and enrich our daily walk with Him. And of course, this was followed by some lovely fellowship and craft time! Everyone made a journal (including myself) :) to take home and use for journaling during quiet times. I was so inspired by these young ladies, and so blessed to be involved in the day. Here are some fun pictures of our group at "work"!

Explaining the craft...

Alright everyone, let's get started!

Carefully trace the journal shape onto the scrapbook paper, cut, and glue away!

One of our lovely hostesses, and another sweet helper.

Putting on the finishing touches.

Everybody hold up your journal and smile!

An All Picture Post

This is what I can only describe as a truly ridiculous caramel apple from the Riverwalk. Yum.


Me and my sweet friend Rita on the Riverwalk.

Hiking last Saturday on Enchanted Rock... if you can't tell, there were hurricane force winds on top of the mountain! That bandanna was originally holding my hair in place, until poor hubby's ears got too cold... and we got creative.

A sweet Christmas craft from Rita!

What I've been up to lately...

And today I was blessed to have the sweet Lavin girls over for lunch. Here is our best work with the camera timer!

The Nutcracker

My momma and I enjoyed a very fun "girls night out" where we went to dinner on the Riverwalk- yum! And then headed over to the Nutcracker. Definitely a night that my daddy and my husband didn't mind missing out on. The Riverwalk is SO beautiful this time of year- so many lights! If you are ever in San Antonio for Christmas, it's a must see. The Nutcracker was truly enjoyable. We even happened to run into some sweet friends there- an unexpected blessing!
Here is a shot of the Riverwalk as the sun was going down and the lights were coming on!

Ah, 24...

What a great birthday! I had so much fun... from my sweet hubby making me breakfast in the morning to eating dinner on the riverwalk with my parents- turning 24 was great! :) Colin even put a pink bow on the kitty... Tee hee. Wish I had a picture of that.


Here we are on a bridge over the river- a wonderful friend made me the skirt I'm wearing as a gift. And... I am now the proud owner of Pride and Prejudice. Yay!!
I felt so loved by family and friends- the Lord has blessed us very much.

Over the weekend we went to see some of our family in Abilene, Texas. It was so much fun! On my aunt and uncle's farm they have about 25 guinea fowl, which are the loudest birds in the whole world I think. My Aunt Mici asked me to try and "herd" them into their pen for the night... and this is a video of this city girl trying to move guineas by feeding them millet.
(My momma is narrating)


Allright, I've finally got the hang of it! :)


And now they are safe and sound in their cage!

Tagged!

Sweet Heather tagged me in a fun little game:

''Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.''

Hmmm, I'm trying to think of seven random things.

1. I have a strawberry shaped birthmark on my tummy tum tum.
2. Pink is my ridiculously favorite top color of the world... and I once had a room painted entirely pink. With furniture I painted pink and yellow. Yep, it was a little over the top :)
3. If I could wear Regency dresses every day, I absolutely would.
4. I love babies. (Okay, thats not too original, but they absolutely light up my world when I get to swaddle and rock them)
5. Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday, with Christmas following closely at its heels.
6. I named our apartment Cherry Arbor. Tee hee. You see... I have this thing about naming houses.... I was inspired by Jane Austen. Cherry because I've decorated our kitchen and breakfast room that way, and Arbor because we live on the third floor, amongst quite a few trees!
7. I love Shakespeare's plays, and I'm pretty sure I have A Midsummer Night's Dream memorized from beginning to end! I have a huge old book with all of them together.

I tag (if you would like to play, of course) :

Rachel

Tilly

Sommer

Jenny

Serena

And anyone else who would like to play! This is just all my tired mind can come up with late at night! :)

Back from the Beach!

We have returned. It was a wonderful trip! I am very thankful we were able to go, even though my husband had to come back early to work. We saw tons of teeny tiny frogs, several dolphins, and even a big storm on the beach. Tragically, I didn't take any pictures! This is one of TWO I took with us in it- and it's terribly unflattering. Well, I still put it up :) I was able to get alot of knitting done- I'm almost there! Just one more skein to go! (On a side note... how is that word pronounced??) Also, I learned it is possible to climb a ladder- on a moving boat- at night- in an ankle length skirt. Tee hee.

Happy 27th Anniversary, Momma and Daddy!

As I was trying to pick out a picture for this post, I realized something tragic. I don't have one of their wedding pictures on this computer... or any computer... because 27 years ago, there wasn't any digital film. Hmph. Then I began to look for just ANY good, cutesy, romantic picture of them. I don't have one. This is terrible, I begin to think! But what I have realized is that, like all other loving parents who dote on their children, one of them is always *behind* the camera! So in this happy anniversary post, I shall do my best to paint a mental picture instead.
Picture this man in a brown tux, with a totally 80's mustache, and the biggest smile possible on his face: (Yes, in this picture, he is pretending to eat the rose Momma was trying to convince him to pose with)


And this lovely lady:


In this dress:


Lol. Allright, someday I'll see if I can dig a real one up and scan it in, so you can compare it to my "mental picture" I'm trying for :)

In a nutshell, my parents are amazing. They love the Lord, love each other, and very sacrificially love their two grateful children. One of the biggest reasons I was looking forward to marriage was the example they gave of loving throughout the years. My father has worked unfathomably hard to support us all and allow my momma to stay home and raise us. No words could express what his sacrifice meant to us all. So happy anniversary, and may there be many, many more!

From Mama Didn't Raise No Fool... such a great name for a blog! ;)

More Video...

More Video!

Scene: I have a handful of fish food, and I am giving them to the fishies one at a time. My husband comes up, and tosses my whole pile at once into the water. Hilarious.

Fort Worth Koi

Video!

I tried to embed the video, but alas... I am not technologically gifted.

This weekend we visited one of my best friends, Rachel, and her sweet husband, Bret. Bret is a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend, filled with the many blessings of fellowship. I'll share various pictures of our fun weekend- but firstly I had to put up a funny video we took at the Japanese Gardens. Needless to say, there were a LOT of Koi fish, and we had a blast feeding them. When my husband took this video, Rachel and I had decided the fish were so frenzied, they might just eat out of our hands. Then we got very girly and chickened out :)

A beautiful Post.

This post truly touched my heart. How beautiful.