New Site in the making!

So please bare with me! I am in the process of creating a new site to replace this blog! Through recent conversation with my Aunts, I was told about a site called Weebly.com. It's AMAZING!! I am so excited to switch over, but I will still keep this blog up, due to the fact that I have a lot of past posts on here :) We have been super busy over here...mostly with having guests over! It has been lots of fun having friends over each night, but it sure keeps you busy :) A "busy" I am ok with!! My baby Ayden recently developed a few bumps on his sweet body, and we are unsure whether or not it is the evil chicken pox or not!! I am praying it isn't, because we are to be heading out to PA in less than two weeks!! But as of right now, I had to cancel some play dates just to be safe! I'll keep you posted with how this turns out!

Last week my Mom arranged a Family (plus DJ lol) Picnic in the park! We went to Spring Grove park! It was BEAUTIFUL!! The park has a natural Spring that comes up from the ground and flows through the park! The water was crystal clear! The garden was beautiful! We had a ton of fun hanging out with my family and grilling out!

No pictures = Great time!

Yes it's true, I forgot to snap photos of our Neighborhood party! I have had quite a few of you asking me how it went! I wanted to thank you all who remembered to pray for our time! It was a huge blessing!
   The party went super awesome! We didn't have as big of a turn out as we had expected, but the neighbors who showed up, were totally God ordained! I was able to really connect with the other women who lived near me, which I was so excited about. One of the coolest parts was how Ben was able to connect with some boys (ages 8-17) who don't have father figures in their lives! They thought Ben was the coolest thing, and now BEG to come hang out with him daily...lol. Ben is so excited to take that place of a Godly and manly influence in their lives! One of my neighbors in particular, is a single mom of an 8 year old, and the Lord really seemed to open a door for a relationship between her and I. My desire was to start REAL friendships...not just the "hey I know your name, so when you are outside I can flash a fake smile and say hi.." I wanted depth! And I was so floored to watch that get planted the other night! I could really tell that each one of them felt relaxed and comfortable while they were over. We had a great time getting to know each other and sharing silly stories. What floored me the most (in a good way) was when we had some of our friends over the next day, and we were sitting out by our fire, and up walks our neighbor with her son! I was sososo excited and blessed that she knew she was welcomed in our home! She sat down and joined us by the fire and we talked and cooked smores! I want my word to be taken seriously, so when I say "come over anytime" they know I mean it!! So that is why it truly blessed me! I am so excited to see what God has in store for our neighborhood!! God is so good!

Browning, freezing and cleaning!

   Today I have been SUPER busy! My to do list from the week, was way behind! So today is my "catch up" day! I had to brown and season 6 pounds of ground beef..5 pounds of it being rock solid frozen..But I know it will be well worth my time, as it is for our Neighborhood party Ben and I are throwing tomorrow!! I am really excited to see how it turns out! We handed out our invites the other day, and for some reason I was so nervous...I am not really that shy of a person, but going door to door felt awkward at first. Only because at first sight, people think you are either a Jehovah Witness or a sales person....I am neither..haha. The responses we got were very encouraging! One neighbor was so floored, she began to tell us how for the longest time none of her neighbors had put any interest in getting to know each other. Another neighbor, we found out, had just moved to the area herself, and was excited to get to know everyone! Thanks to my Hubby, who is very outgoing, this party is taking place! I have so much to learn, when it comes to opening up my home to those around me that I may not know but may need Jesus! So now that I was able to see such delight in my neighbors faces, I am anticipating tomorrow! The challenge I have given myself this year, is to be more outgoing to those I don't know! It's easy to chat it up for hours, with my friends, but it's obviously a different story with those I don't know. By God's Grace, I will be a blessing tomorrow :) Apart from that, I have been freezing some produce that I bought extras of this week. I have never frozen Avocados...but thought it was worth a try! I pureed it and then added some lemon juice, then stuck it in the freezer! So we will see how it turns out!! Lastly, Ben and I are headed out to South Haven tonight! I think I have been there once before..I think... But I have a high commission secret shop to do out there (and yes it is well worth my time), so Ben and I wanted to make a night out of it while we were out there.  If you think of it, keep us in your prayers tomorrow!!

Sorry it's taken SEW long...

Ok..Yes, the title is cheesy...BUT it has taken quite a while for me to get this post up! Two weeks ago, my Sweet sister Julie, came over for a "sewing" day. I was sosos excited, because the last time I can remember sewing something, was when I was 13!! Ya that was OVER 10 years ago...Yikes, that is weird to say..

Here is the sewing wiz herself! 

So she brought with her my little sister Laura (Thanks Laura) to watch the boys, while we sewed all day! It was a PERFECT day to do so, as it was raining...and I had coffee brewing...coffee makes any occasion perfect!! Julie also, brought her little guy along, to play with Ayden! So, we got started around noon. We both had a pile of fabric that we had purchased at a tent sale. I had no idea where to begin! I am learning (thanks to Julie), to look at fabric, and not see fabric..but to look at it and see..a DRESS...or the perfect pillow in my living room...or a scarf. She is really good at it! So we weeded out a few pieces and came up with ideas! I didn't realize that the longest part was going to be the cutting out of the patterns! But after that long process was done...onto the sewing...

I soon discovered that one of the most difficult things for a beginner to sew, is a zipper! At least for me it was!! Especially since I ended up seem ripping my whole dress TWICE (to get it the right size), and had to redo the zipper as well! I was so happy when I finally finished this dress a day later than expected! But the feeling of getting something accomplished, is AMAZING!! 

So what did I sew??? Well the first thing I did was this dress! It has two layers to it, one being a satin "teal-ish" bottom, and then the top being a vintage lace! I Love the vintage style!! Before I wear my dress out in public, I do need to fix the hem! Other than that, it's almost "wear" ready!! 

Here it is!!! As you can see it is a "tank top" style on top, and the bottom (as you can't see) runs just above the knee. To the left is how I might wear the dress :) Everything is better with a scarf...right??

 Next up is a shirt I created. Not really sure what the name of this "type" of shirt is called...But ya, I made it out of a heavier lacey like material. I made this without a pattern, but copied a shirt I already had, similar to this. The right is a cheesy pose. I dislike taking pictures of myself, but I don't mind others taking them for me...thus the cheesy shot haha :)

o

Thirdly, I made a SCARF!! If you know me, you know I LOVE  a cute scarf!! My favorite outfit in the fall, winter and spring is a cute pair of skinnys, flats (or boots), a cardigan and scarf!! I saw this fabric...and it screamed SCARF to me!!  This was super easy to make! And to my surprise, my Husband LOVES it! He keeps telling me to make more and sell them..lol.

Alright, my last project was pillows for the boys room! I wanted to have a "reading" corner in their bedroom! I want lots of pillows that are all shapes and sizes! So I took these ugly ones...and covered them up :)

After..

I still want to add quite a few more pillows! 

Then I need to rearrange the letters that spell "READ".

This was the most amazing salad EvEr!!
A White Bean And Goat cheese Salad,
 with a Tuscan Vinaigrette! 

Then...as if I didn't have enough fun that day...My other sweet sister Hannah (I have 9 of them to be exact..haha), told me she wanted to come over and watch the boys that evening, so that Ben and I could go out on a date! Of course, I wasn't going to say NO!! So, we headed out to a new place near by called "Houlihans", and it was AMAZING! They we browsed Anthropology...how I appreciate that store! At least their sales racks..haha..Then we headed off to the only coffee shop open past 10pm, Starbucks inside of Barnes and Nobles! We had a refreshing night! To top it all off, Hannah had cleaned the house, did the dishes and I came home to this!!

Auntie Hannah, putting Little Ayden to bed...too sweet!