Homemade Hair Bows

One day our pediatrician was telling Kim about how you can make your own homemade hair bows.  So, Kim googled it and figured out how and made some nice ones for Elise.

You roll up the ribbon on little dowel rods first and bake them in the oven

 The ribbon is stuck like that forever now

 Then, you cut them into little sections

 Last step is tying them together and hot gluing them onto the hair clip

Homemade Valentine's Day Gift

This Valentine's Day I decided to try to and do something a little more homemade than usual.  I know how much Kim loves picture frames so I made her one with some tweaks to what she likes.  

 Here is the core part of the frame before any other modification.  I won't even show you a picture of the back because it's pretty hideous...But, it did come together nicely for what will be seen.

 After paint

 I ended up buying some cheap frames and just taking the glass out for my frame.  The four corners have 4x6 pictures and the middle has an 8x10.  I've got me and Kim in one, Elise in one, Gracie in one, and Sammie in one.  After we have another kid, I'll put Sammie and Gracie in one slot then our other kid in one.

I was awful surprised at the finished product to be quite honest.  It turned out better than I expected, but that's mostly due to Mel Quillen's awesome artwork.  Kim really likes the whole "Faith, Hope, and Love" theme on pretty much anything so I thought I would utilize that along with Family for my empty slots.  So, I cut pieces of wood to fit the slots, then ran the edges on the table saw at the opposite thickness of the frame portion and they fit snug and flush with the frame.  I sanded them down and gave them to Mel.  She painted them white and added the artwork which I think was perfect for the frame.  Simple, but really cool.  All in all, it turned out really nice I think!  Mad props to Mel for her part in the process!

Valentine's Day

 Here's Elise with her Valentine's Day outfit

 She loves her binky..Notice the red bow too.  Kim made that.  Check out the other post on hair bows.

 There she is playing in her room.

 My cheap gift for Kim.  Cheap you say?  But, it looks so nice..Yep.  It's originally a $50 item at Rite Aid.  But, they had it 50% off which knocked it down to $25.  Then, we've been getting these $10 off coupons ALL the time on our rewards card.  Don't ask me how, but they pretty much take $10 off every time we buy something there.  Only this time they took two $10 rewards off knocking down my price to $5!!  Pretty awesome.

 It's a glass bird bath.  But, don't think this "cheap gift" was her only gift..Check out the post about my homemade one.

Christmas and New Years

Late with these pics too, but here are Christmas and New Years!

Family portrait...There are always like 5 shots and we try to choose the best one :) 

Without the pups

Elise by herself.  There were about 12 of these before she finally smiled.  But, well worth the wait! 

 Playing with mommy's hoodie strings

 She had more fun with the gift bag than she did anything else!

Sharon, Kim, and Elise 

 Christmas morning, feeling good after a bottle with mommy

 Tearing into gifts

 Her basketball hoop!  She loves that thing

 She liked rolling in the wrapper

 She liked playing with her socks

 Helping her open a gift

 Baby girl with her Leapfrog "Violet."  Violet says Elise's name, and has the same favorite foods, songs, and colors.

 Gracie snooping around the gifts

 Mom and pup

It looks like she's sticking out her tongue at ya

 Sammie chillin with her mom

Elise listening to some guitar playing

 She was teaching me a song she wrote...

 New Years Day Onesie!  She was a happy girl in this pic

Thanksgiving

A little late, but Thanksgiving pics!

Sammie chillin with Elise 

 Mommie and baby

First Thanksgiving 

At Kevin and Alicia's house

A Spiritual Lesson From My Wife

The last few days, I've been a little under the weather.  It started with a mild soreness in my throat and some sinus congestion.  Saturday was bad, Sunday I lost my voice and my throat was more sore than ever, and Monday I went to urgent care in Athens to make sure it wasn't strep.  I don't have strep, it's a viral thing, so the doctor said I just have to wait for it to go away.  Today has been a little better as far as my sore throat, but it's definitely the worst I've felt.  So, I'm hoping this is the peak and it will start to dissolve from here.

Since yesterday, I haven't held Elise much.  We've been trying to keep her from getting sick.  It's definitely tough on me because I love to hold her and rock her to sleep, but it's rough on Kim having to do pretty much everything for Elise with little help.  She's great about it though.  She still stays on top of things.  But, that's her personality.  She is super disciplined whereas I am a little more slobbish (if I can use that as a word).  I even noticed when she was taking care of laundry, she was talking to Elise and mentioned ironing one of my shirts.

Kim irons a lot of the stuff I wear to church or anything that gets crazy wrinkled.  I've tried to tell her certain things will be fine without ironing, but she always comes back with something to the effect of this statement: "I can't let you walk out of the house with that shirt/those pants not ironed.  People will think that I don't take care of you."  Basically, she implies that what I look like is a reflection of her and what kind of wife she is.  That made me think of trying to live my life as representing Christ.

So often I try to make excuses of what I can do or don't have to do as a Christian because it may not be that big of a deal.  After all, we have freedom and liberty in Christ.  But, I think of wearing the shirt that wasn't ironed.  What if I told Kim that I just wasn't going to let her iron anymore of my clothes?  I could tell her that it doesn't even matter in the long run and I don't care what anyone else thinks so leave my clothes alone.  First, this would hurt her because she wants to do it with the intention that ironing my clothes is one of the small things that identifies us as being together.  If someone suggests that my clothes look superb and neatly pressed, I could use that opportunity to brag up my wife.  Second, Kim uses ironing my clothes as an attempt to make me the best I can be.  So, by turning down the ironing, I'm essentially saying that I'm content where I am with no desire to be better.

As awkward an illustration as that is, it really did make me think of how Christ works in us.  When the Holy Spirit is working in us, even in small ways, it is what helps me identify with God and His kingdom.  By taking an outward examination of my life and seeing where I came from to where I am now spiritually, I can see it was the Spirit who did this and I can make much of Him.  Then, I recognize His working in me as an attempt to make me better.  This is the Spirit bringing my heart towards holiness.  I have to indulge this rather than stay content where I am.  It's then that I can see just how much more I need to grow.

After that whole illustration though, I would hate to leave it as though Kim only inadvertently gives spiritual lessons.  She far surpasses that.  Her dedication and discipline with the things of God give me encouragement and motivation all the time.  One of my favorite things she does (and I'll end the brag session on the ole wifey with this) is that she prays with Elise before every baby food meal.  It's obviously something that Elise doesn't understand the logic of now, but it will be something that we can explain as she grows.  And not just as a legalistic thing, but as something with meaning.
   

Youth Blog Revisited

Our youth blog is now at www.racineyouth.com.  We bought the domain name because our old one was a little bulky and not too friendly on the memory as well as having the .blogspot with it.  I've updated a few things and I am going to make an extra effort to keep things current.  The goal is to bring in some student and parent traffic to spark some interest in the youth group as well as inform and encourage.  So, go check it out sometime and share the link with someone you know to bring some traffic to the site!

Halloween

These pics are a little late, but here is Halloween (well, trick or treat night for Racine).

We were a little late on our fall decorations, but last year, we got them up early and by Halloween, they looked all run down.  So, this year we put them up just before trick or treat night.

Here's PawPaw Mike with Ellie the Elephant.  

Here's the baby girl again.

Elise with her mommy

The spread of goodies

Our pumpkin carvings were probably the most difficult we've done so far.  I was actually too intimidated to take on this one, but the Frankenstein template I chose instead was too big, so I had to go back to this one.  But, it didn't turn out too bad

This is Kim's pumpkin.  The curves, eyes, and spots where you have to leave just a notch of pumpkin on the edge are hard to accomplish.  Kudos to Kim.

After the festivities

 

Sammie wanted in on the love

Grace had her Halloween toy out

6 Months Old and Teeth Already!

It's unreal that Elise is 6 months old already.  Here are a few pics.

 Here she is on October 10th, 6 months old.  Sitting up pretty good!

Here is her basketball binky that we bought before she was even born I think.  But, they were for 6 months old.  Well, she finally gets it!

Here are her two teeth coming in on the bottom.

Here is Elise and Kim when we went to get some pumpkins in Vicki's pumpkin patch.  It was getting dark and all I had was the cell phone so the pic is a little fuzzy.

Me and the baby girl

Kimmie and Ellie