a new little one to love

My sister, Erin and her husband Ryan have a miraculous story to share.  Read all the details here!  After a lot of disappointment, changes of plans, and prayers they were prepared to adopt a baby to start their family.  The same week they were officially entered into the book of waiting families I got a phone call from Erin that I'll never forget.  It went something like this...

her:  So...I have some news.

me:  Yeees? (excited and expecting to hear that I have a new niece or nephew waiting for me!)

her:  Turns out I'm pregnant!

me:  (silence)  (for awhile)  Wait.  What?

Yeah it was a HUGE surprise!  It took me about 0.0004 seconds to go from shocked to excited!

Then, a few weeks later I got this text.  The one I'd been waiting for.

Baby H has a perfect heartbeat and is growing like a weed!

Now I can't wait for a few more weeks when we find out if it's a he or a she.  We love you little baby and are so excited for you to join our family!

hadley fern {eleven months}

Hadley Fern, you are ELEVEN months old!

Wait.  No.  Only one month until your birthday?  That can't be right.  Luckily there's no time for this mama to get sappy because you keep me running!  Oh sweet girl, this month has been amazing with you!  You are our little firecracker and are constantly into messes.  In fact your new nickname this month has been Miss Mess.

My favorite is when you're crawling towards something you shouldn't have - I call your name and you look up at me, giggle, then crawl faster, like you'll outrun me.  Love you silly girl!

You still army crawl for the most part, but have been getting up on your knees to pull up on things lately.  I caught you standing in your crib a few times and your favorite is climbing up Asher's legs when he's sitting in his PBK chair to get at whatever snack he has stored in his lap.  This is probably his least favorite.  Naturally.

Hadley, you're the BEST eater!  You have yet to meet a food you don't like.  While you still put away the purees happily I'm pretty sure you just get through them to get to the good stuff - table food.  I haven't given you any dairy yet (we'll try that this month) you have had a wide range of foods and have enjoyed everything, even meats and spices.  You still have only had mama's milk and nurse 4x a day.  I'm in no hurry to end that part of our relationship and I hope you aren't either!

Lovely, you are still our Happy Hadley - you have the cheeriest disposition!  Everyone comments on how happy you are, even the stylist at Asher's haircut today.  You light up every room you come into and compel people to come closer - what a gift you've been given.

(although, to be fair I do have to add that you've recently discovered you have a powerful voice.  There are times when I don't get dinner to you quite fast enough or when Asher refuses to share his book that you try to grab away and we all know that you aren't happy about it.  Unhappy Hadley was destined to appear eventually - ha!)

Guess what?  You finally have more teeth!  Woot!  Two more popped through just this week and you handled it like a champ.  Seriously, if I didn't see them poking through the gum I would never have known anything happened.  Let's do the rest like these, ok?

Haddie, you sleep so well - usually a morning nap around 9 and an afternoon nap around 1, then in bed for the night by 7 and up again in the morning around 6:30.  It's been a little tough for us to adjust your schedule to accommodate Asher's school drop-off and pick-up but in classic Hadley fashion you roll with it with nary a complaint.

At 11 months, Hadley...

wears size 9 mo pants + onesies; size 12 mo pajamas
wears size 3 diapers
got her 1st pair of shoes...size 3-6 months, ha!  Tiny foot!
loves any kind of food and mama's milk
has 4 teeth
sleeps 12 hours at night and takes 2 naps/day
loves to climb on Asher, chase Asher, do anything with or around Asher
adores BATHS and has started putting her whole face in the water.  Mommy isn't a fan of this.
has discovered that she can voice displeasure and does so.  Loudly.

Hadley Fern, it's 11 months since you joined us and I can't believe how fast it's flown by.  Wasn't I just washing newborn clothes and picking our your coming home outfit?  Now you are moving around on your own and eating dinner with the family.  We love you so much my dear, thanks for being our girl.

from the sewing room

I've been keeping my sewing and embroidery machines running hot lately!  I made 2 onesies as gifts for Drew's cousin who is expecting baby Ashton in a few weeks.

I also gussied up a little dress for Hadley!

I made Hadley a little Halloween ensemble, but in all my wisdom patterned the pants off a pair that fit her great now, but will inevitably be too small by the end of October.  oops.  Hoping they fit but prepared to make another pair!  I'm chalking it up as good practice.  :-)

On Friday I was waiting for an appliance delivery and decided that was the perfect time to whip up 2 burp cloths for my cousin who's expecting a little girl in February.  My mom and I went to her baby shower a few weeks ago and these made such a cute add-on to her gift.

I also made my kiddos some football shirts to start the season!  I was a week late, but hey, I got them done before the Super Bowl, so that's a W for mommy.

Our friend (who is also a Hadley) needed a football shirt as well!  She's a Notre Dame fan and I love how these team colors worked on her shirt.  Let me tell you, it was super strange to embroider "Hadley" on something then mail it off - ha!

Finally, I whipped up some burp cloths for a friend who's giving them to baby Etta on the way.  I love that name and these turned out so sweet!

We are having beautiful weather here today so I'm turning off the sewing machine and the kids and I are spending every extra minute outside.  Hope you are enjoying fall as well!

weekend doings

This weekend felt like it rushed by in a blur.  On Saturday there was a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandfather.  80!  Wow!

This was Hadley's first time meeting her great-grandfather and, naturally, she immediately won him over.  She does this to most people she meets.  :-)

It was so nice to be there for the party, but within an hour of getting home H was sick.  Somehow a cold set in on the drive home, great.  She was up from 12:30-4 and mama was seriously tired on Sunday.  We haven't been up like that at night in a looooong time.  I'm way out of practice.

She still has a runny nose and now Asher is starting to get it as well.  Hurray!

Last night Asher went to Cubbies at AWANA for the first time.  He already learned one verse and is excited to go back next week.  I have to get a picture of him in his little vest - he is really too cute.  I'm the co-leader in his room and Asher loves "going to class with Mommy".  :-)

Happy Monday, friends!

everyday hustlin'

Don't bother with gates for this lady - they only slow her down a little.

She squeezed through a gap between the couch and the side table yesterday and was off.

I love her spunk, but dislike her penchant for eating our shoes.  If you can't find Hadley, check the mud room - she'll probably be there licking shoe bottoms (gag, bleh).  Asher was the same exact way.  I'm not sure if it's because we don't wear shoes in the house so they are a novelty?  Either way I stop her from doing this allllll the time.  I stand firm in pulling her away from our shoes, but it's not easy when she gives me this look.

Maybe she can have a pony instead?  Oh, ok.  (why do I feel like she's pulling a fast one on us?...)

This sweet girl is moving, moving, moving.  She has a really awkward land crawl, but this movement translates to torpedo speed in water.  Baths have become very interesting.  Poor Asher can't get far enough away to escape her!  ha!  Swim lessons here we come!

Hadley has started pulling up but is happy to crawl her way around her kingdom for now.

Asher meanwhile leaves the house entirely for some peace.  Yay for cool fall mornings and breakfast al fresco!

Happy Thursday, friends!

lately...

We've been busy!  Happily busy!

Roll back with me a few weeks.  Drew's parents came to visit over Labor Day weekend and we celebrated Poppa Gene's birthday with a little cake.  Asher loves blowing out candles and already has big plans for helping Hadley on her birthday.

Speaking of Hadley's birthday, I've been working on her party!  Yay!  I'm so excited!  (Hadley is too.)

For awhile we weren't sure if we'd do an actual party or not since we don't live near many of our family and are still making friends here but Drew and I decided to go for it.  She only turns one once - and hopefully some people will come.  ha!

I've been doing some birthday projects myself and buying some.  Hopefully it all comes together in a cohesive way.  Once I have more things put together I'll share all the details!

This weekend Mom and I went to my cousin's baby shower.  I made her a few burp cloths as an add-on to our main gift.

She and her husband are NC State fans so this one was a hit.

H grudgingly agreed to try on hats for me.  Fall is coming and we need to be ready.  Luckily all of her 0-3 month hats that were huge last fall fit great now!

I don't know if you've heard, but Asher is "strong like Samson."  Check out those big muscles.  Wowzer.

These 2 have started fighting over my morning lap space.  (I not-so-secretly love it)

Asher outgrew his Britax Marathon so we got him the Britax Frontier 90 booster seat and he loves it!  Every time we get in the car he asks if he gets to ride in his new seat and when I say yes he replies with "Oh thank you Mommy!  I love my new seat!"  melt me.  Since Asher got a new seat I tried Hadley in his Marathon.  Seconds after taking this picture I removed the seat and put little miss back in her infant carrier.  I'm not ready.

Hadley continues to be happy Hadley.

and Asher decided out of the blue that he likes pizza.  Go figure.

Love them!

Happy Monday, friends!