Today one of my favorite online vendors, The Vintage Pearl, is doing an awesome giveaway! 3 Winners get $75 to spend on their incredible products. I have one of these necklaces and have purchased a few others and have been VERY happy with them! Hope you enjoy!
www.thevintagepearl.com/blog
chris
ps - will be updating blog with more pics soon!
Well we have survived the intial shock of having our third child! Hudson Timothy was born on February 12th at 2:45pm. It was my easiest labor and with only 1.5 pushes Hudson entered our world. He is a great baby and we love him so much already. Marshall and Reagan are adjusting fabulously and my biggest job right now is to protect Hudson from their reckless love of their baby brother:) "Just one more kiss" is the phrase I hear the most often from Marshall.
Matt has been a complete champ getting up with the kids in the morning to allow me to get in a few more minutes of shut eye before entering my reality of keeping 3 children alive throughout the day.:)
I ventured out to Costco when Hudson was 5 days old...with all three kids. Some might think I'm crazy but I felt pretty good and I figured I was going to have to figure out how to take them all places sooner or later:) Costco is the best place to start thanks to their gigantic carts. It was easy to strap them all in. Hudson sleeps all the time so he's pretty easy to drag along.
My mom has also been down here and there and that has allowed Matt and I to have a couple dates as well as me to have a little bit of alone time at Nordstrom or more often the grocery store:)
One thing has been on my mind lately is how amazing our friends, family and support system are. I literally did not have to cook for 3 weeks! 3 weeks...that was amazing thanks to my wonderful friends from church who stocked us with food, for my mom who came over and made us dinner one night and brought some costco meals, and a few extra special people who brought a meal as well. My friends have been visiting me at a great pace bringing me chai, gifts and just coming to get their baby fix:) I also have sweet friends who have taken pics of Hudson and my very special friend Britney who was the first to watch all 3 kids! I am so thankful for these amazing people that God has truly blessed us with.
I got to have a special one on one date with Marshall yesterday and we went to lunch, a movie and Starbucks. Such a special little time with him. He is going to be 4 years old in 3 short weeks. I cannot even believe he's that old already. Reagan is such a little charmer but definitely knows how to get under her big brothers skin. Her favorite thing to do is steal his toys and start running away...Lord help me and her mostly:)
Thanks for those of you who not only read my blog but have prayed for us and loved us along our journey. We are so thankful for you! Off to make dinner for the fam...:)
So 3 months w/o a blog post is better than 4 so here we go! We had an absolutely amazing Christmas season. Matt had a couple weeks off so we got to relax and do a bunch of things with our family! We took the kids on a train ride in Portland, attended a FABULOUS wedding of one of our old buddies kid free (thanks mom and dad!), hung out with some great friends and had lots of time with family!
Two days after Christmas I had all my decor put away, the garage cleaned and all the kids clothes organized for the next season...I think I might be doing a little bit of 'nesting':) Speaking of nesting baby #3 is due to arrive here in the next 4.5 weeks or so! This pregnancy has gone by so fast...my kids obviously keep me pretty busy! We're still undecided on a name:( Hopefully we'll pick one before we get to the hospital. Life is about to change again but I am excited to see what this next season holds. My theme for this year is to simplify things. In all areas of my life...not entirely sure what that will look like but I am excited to see what God has to teach my family and I as we transition from the Porter 4 to the Porter 5!
Thanks to all my friends who look at my blog and allow me to look at theirs even when I'm slacking on mine!
My favorite pic of the Christmas season! Marshall picked out his sweater:)
Lots of love going around here.
Reagan loved presents! Marshall did too but it was fun to see Reagan open them. Sorry about my feet being in the pic:(
LOVE Matt's expression in this pic:)
Oh how I love her smile:)
Finally had a chance to make a nursing cover for me!!
So here is the before picture of a huge project I finally decided to try! My mother in law gave me this queen anne chair a couple years ago and I have been wanting to recover it ever since. I was a little scared because I had never done something like this before but really wanted to use this chair once the baby gets here. So I decided to just go for it. With a little help and a lot of encouragement from my hubby here's the final outcome....
I am seriously in love with this chair! It's so comfortable and now looks beautiful in my living room! I bought the fabric on clearance a couple years ago and I think I only spent about $20 total in fabric and upholstery nails:)
Just a couple of accent pins:) Happy Sunday everyone!I find it ironic that my last blog post was titled, "We're back!", following which I took a leisurely 4 month hiatus from blogging. I feel like I'm cheating the blog world when I look at other peoples blogs but don't have the decency to update my own. So if I haven't commented on your blog it's because I don't want you to think that I am just lazily not attending to my own:)
In all truth this has been one crazy summer and we are already into yet another busy season. I keep saying I have 'busy seasons' in my life but I think the truth is we are just always busy. Not in a bad way just busy. My computer tanked a few weeks ago and I have been waiting until I can get all my pictures on Matt's computer as to write a big comeback blog with lots of pictures but I decided that was just actually helping me procrastinate updating the blog further. So here we are with just a few pictures and a little update...I'll ease in slowly:)
Our big news is that we found out we were pregnant again this summer. I am sure most people know this by now but I'm about 22 weeks and we are having our 2nd boy in February! I am really excited to have another boy. Love my Reagan but excited for Marshall to have a brother.
The church is growing and we are so thankful always for the ways God is allowing our family to serve Him.
We are absolutely loving the stage of life that our kids are in. Marshall is so funny and Reagan is so quick to follow the lead of her brother and has a shining personality to match his!
Life continues to be full and I am going to try to continue to be a little more faithful to this blog...we'll see:)
Oh my she wants to dress herself already:)
Reagan's first pumpkin
Uncle Timmy turned 30! (We did invite adults to the party...we just made him watch the kids for a bit:0)
We LOVE Tim and Holly!
Just a normal cheesy smile from Marshall
Yes Matt does look a little scary in the morning:)
We had spiderman visit us...
Marshall ran the Awesome 3000!
Family pic
Matt ran the Awesome 3000 too:)
Miss Reagan turned one!
She also learned to climb...
and got her first baby doll. I'm so used to Buzz Lightyear and words like 'bamming' and 'smashing' I don't know what to do with sweet baby play!:)
Hope everyone is well! Take care:)Just warning you that this is a very picture heavy post! My sweet friend Kesha brought her magnificent camera with her and snapped shots of our party! We had a great time! Marshall had six of his little friends over for a "Tool Party". I love parties...it was a party for him but I had a lot of fun putting it together! All that said here is a glimpse of our day!
The construction hats...
The decor...Matt never knew his tools were stylish:)
Clean hands before cookie decorating...
Focusing...
We used lots and we mean LOTS of sprinkles...
More decor...:)
Cupcake toppers...loved them.
Trying not to light anyone on fire...
Marshall shoving most of the cupcake into his mouth...
Cowboy gear!
Fighting face...
Don't forget about Reagan!
The crew!
I own a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. I did not say that I bought them, because I did not, rather a wonderful generous woman who has been used by the Lord to bless us in numerous ways gave them to me. I could have gone my whole life without owning an expensive pair of shoes but now that I have them, I really like them:) Once my husband found out how expensive they are he wanted to sell them on ebay...I said, "get behind me satan."
I'm not a big name brand person but I do like quality things. I love my Jimmy Choo's. I am not, however, one of those people who only bring them out for special occasions. I wear them often and in many situations. I wore them out in the backyard playing with the kids the other day. I think about my shoes sometimes the way I think about life. Follow me here...many of us have been blessed by the Lord with possesions, spirtual gifts or any number of things you could imagine. If we don't use what we have then why should we have been given them in the first place? I'm a perfectionist but I want to live my life to the fullest and most times that means things are going to be messy. Both in my house and in our lives:) We must learn what it means to live fully and use what God has given us...even if it's messy:) Thanks for listening to my random thought for the day!
Marshall presenting me with a few dandelions...
I did remove this leaf from her mouth just after I took the pic:)
My Jimmy Choo's. In the the tractors and the mud:)
I've had yet another project idea swirling around in my head for the last few weeks and finally had the time to do it. This one didn't take as much time as the bumper but it was figuring out when to make it as Reagan is just motoring all around my house now:) She is almost as busy as Marshall...perfect. I was hoping for a cuddler...not the case, oh well maybe my next child:)
Anywho...on to the project. So I found this alphabet fabric a few months ago with my dear friend Sandy at this fabulous shop in McMinville. Seriously I walked into this fabric store and didn't know which way to go there was so much to look at. I knew I would use this in Marshall's room but just wasn't sure where. I've been a little in love with burlap lately and I wanted to back each of the letters with burlap and fabric that matches the blanket I made him for his bed. I LOVE how it turned out and Marshall is loving talking about all the letters:) So fun.
I also put up a couple pics of our wonderful trip to Silver Creek Falls today! It was beautiful out there and we had quite the hike. It was definitely a bit of work with two kiddos but it was so fun. Both my kids were in bed at 6:30 tonight...ahhhhh! Have a great week!
Post cutting....
All laid out. I used Jute webbing to hang the letters together.
Marshall wanted to be in the picture but I wouldn't let him on the bed:)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pic of Reagan and daddy!
Thanks sweet hiker girls who took this picture. Unfortunately my kids do not like to smile for strangers:)I'm sure that many of you, well I'm actually not sure but hoping that some of you get caught up 'blog surfing' like I do:) I wanted to share with you some of my favorite blogs in case you're interested!
My absolute favorite blogger is Lindsey of the Pleated Poppy! She is a very creative and talented stay at home/work from home mama and I LOVE her stuff. Here she is http://www.lindseycheney.blogspot.com/
She just recently posted some of her favorite blogs including Joy's Hope, which has quickly become one of my new favorites. This gal is so funny...you have got to check out this post about her local freecycle, it had me in tears www.joyshope.com/2009/08/freakcycle.html
One that I have recently begun following is Lisa Leonard. Someday I'll be able to affored the beautiful jewelry she makes and I love her photography. www.lisaleonardonline.com/blog
Well those are just a couple of my favs...hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
And no sweet pics of my kids this time...don't worry I'm sure you won't have to wait long:)
Last weekend Sharon and I took the kids to the beach for a few hours on Saturday! It was so fun! Went to Mo's for lunch, fed the seagulls, played on the beach for about 10 minutes:) and then headed to the outlet mall!
Marshall had a fabulous time feeding the seagulls!
Happily feeding the seagulls the rest of his cheeseburger!
Proof that I was there:) Love what the beach does to my hair and of course my kids are still looking at the seagulls.
Not sure what he's getting ready for...
Sandy hands...
Reagan wearing the headband her mama just made for her! I've been thinking about this idea for a while and finally had some time yesterday to do it while she was sleeping! Yay for naps:)
