Wednesday, April 29, 2009

SCRAP TIME!!!!

Last Friday, Caroline, Jonny and I headed to Griffeth (sp?), Ind. It is very near Chicago. We went to Caroline's Dad and Step-mom's house. " Pap-pap" kept Jonny and we girls headed out to a Scrapbook event. There were several ladies there and after enjoying some pizza we got down to scrapping. I had so much fun. About midnight we headed back to the house and fell into bed about 1:30 a.m.
The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast, prepared by Carol (Carolines mom) She made Beligum Waffles with fruit and cream! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! Then we headed out again to the Church....and went scrapping again. I got about 17 pgs done...not as many as I would have liked, but that is ok. I met some really nice ladies and we all had a common thing...we love to scrap!!!We finshed up about 4:30. Then after a good supper, (Thanks Carol and Steve Lopez you were great hosts to me. I look forward to maybe doing this again next year!!!) we headed home.
Here are some pictures of our weekend and some of the pages I got done.

























































Tuesday, April 21, 2009

This is what 34 weeks looks like

34 weeks!!! Approx 6 weeks left! We are so excited and so ready for Katelynn to get here.
Her room is almost ready for her to come!
I am thanking the Lord for this blessing and very a good pregnancy thus far.
NOW, if I could only sleep! LOL




My co-workers are great!!!

My team at work suprised me with a baby shower. They are great people, yeah we have our differences but overall...I have a great team.
(Sorry this picture will not turn right...I tried 3 times and its late so I gave up. I just wanted you to see it.)
My pretty and tasty cake.



Some of my gifts.
The pink jumper is from a very elegant lady (in the office)...kind of remindes me a Jackie O'Nassis of 2009.....it is a designer dress. A Lily Pultizer (or something like that...I didn't know it was a designer.) It is made very well..all of it is lined and the smocking on the front is very detailed. I LOVE IT!!!


Some more outfits from some of the girls in the office





Even more outfits!


The Boppy is from some girls that I did alot of court runs for when I was the court runner. (as where most of the clothes too.)
The Bumbo seat is from a older guy on MY team, with Pitney Bowes, he and his wife bought that and 2 little pairs of socks for me. And my Pitney team game me a $75 Wal-mart Card!!!!
I felt very blessed! I never expected them to do something so special for me. I guess it pays to take extra time with those around you.


My Baby shower April 11

Getting ready for the shower




Maddie enjoying time with the big girls!


All my wonderful gifts



My wonderful mother and I





The beautiful food table. The food was very good. Some of the highlights were little sausage and cheese party bread...and frozen fruit cups




2 of the greatest friends ever!! They put on a wonderful shower for me. I am so blessed to have these girls in my life. Love ya Jenn and Leah!!! Thanks for such a special and wonderful shower.



My favorite sister-in-law and my brothers girlfriend Heather.

Love you guys too!!


Playing a game where they had to cut a piece of thread to what they thought would fit around my belly.

NO, Becky I am not 2x your size. LOL


A homemade quilt from Katelynn's Great-grandma Hilligoss




Another special homade baby blanket made by Hope Welbaum.


A cute summer dress with little white sweater from Jennifer



I got a little distracted trying to fit a card back into a little envelope that I forgot EVERYONE was watching me. Until I overheard someone saying something to the fact that I had no clue anyone was watching. Let's just say I turned VERY red!



TOO CUTE headbands that my sister-in-law Tasha made for me. Thank you Tasha I LOVE THEM. I have 2 of them in the diaper bag ready to go to the hospital so I can put one on her when she comes home.


A VERY SPECIAL quilt handmade by my cousin Regi. (not to mention the only gift that caused tears to come to my eyes.) Very special on SO many levels. Those who know me and her...know that we were due to have our babies 2 days apart, but God choose to take her little one on to Heaven in November. I know that in making this quilt it was a BIG thing for her. She named it "Wishful Thinking"...knowing it had been my dream to have a little one for awhile and it is her dream to have one too! Regi, I can't tell you how impressed and blessed I am to be the recepient of this LOVELY quilt. The treasure of it will go beyond the threads and fabric. Thank you so much.



An adorable hooded sheep towel and washclothes with little animals, blocks, and girly things sewed on to them. A gift from Heather (Brandon's girlfriend) and her mother made them.



One of Daddy's favorite gifts. Thank you Becky and Heather!





Katelynn's bedding from Nana and papaw Hilligoss


Sunday, April 12, 2009

Outlook Makeover 2009

Ready for the girls to register.

Our "worship team" leading the girls in songs
THis year was pretty small...but we all had a good time. And thankfully the weather really coperated with us. We had about 15 girls and our theme was "Answer the Call".
Our first speaker, Sarah Wolf Fry, speaking on "The Call to Love"
Fun and excitement as te night kick off with skits.
Goldilocks and the 3 Bears


Cinderella



Twas' the night before Christmas


"Twas the night before Christmas..."




Outlook Makeovers Fashion Show
Our wonderful models!!!






Our team singing a special song. "Dream on"

Our girls


Speaker #2- Scott Clemons- "the Call to Greatness"

Our guys helping serve the girls brunch.
(it is nice to have SOME man power at this retreat....since it is a GIRLS retreat we try to limit the male appearence on the grounds of the retreat. But our lovely husbands get roped into helping. And I think they do enjoy being used...but they do their best to stay in the background so the girls can really be relaxed and just be themselves.)




One of our teams and their mentor.



Our Suitcase Relay...was so funny. I don't think you have ever seen a girl "dress" so fast!!!






Some of the board member girls went up against some of our helpers...we board members won..but not with out a lot of laughs! I think the girls had a lot of fun cheering us on.



One of our new games was (what I called) "Leading the Blind"- their mentor was at one end and their team was at the other end. The team member was blindfolded, spun around and then had to listen for their mentor and walk to them. Also our judges who where with the mentors could change the line up at will. (so the girls really had to listen instead of just walking in a straight line) It was a fun game, but got a bit chaotic. And we had to have extra helpers due to our limited space and make sure our girls were not killing themselves by running into tables and such..

Our last speaker Elizabeth Edwards Bell "The Call to Service" She was really good...she also has been a speaker before and had told us "her love story" and this year she had a new Chapter to catch us up on. Since she had found love again and gotten married. She even brought pictures to share. Since alot of the girls had been there before it was neat to catch up on this new chapter in her life.



Our Outlook Makeover team!!!
Please keep us in your prayers as we endevor to help show girls that living a life for Christ is not all about rules and regulations but it is about a personal walk. And that it can be fun. We all know there are hardships along the road and Christian Teenage girls are put under a lot of pressure in todays world. We just want to give them an outlet to come to and provide them with tools and guidance to help them in their walk with Jesus. And if they haven't began that walk to help them see the importance of "walking with Jesus"
The girls of our board


This year we had a mystrey dinner for the girls.
It was done "country style" And we had dressed the part and had told the girls too.
Our Cook Donna is getting into it with this Troublesome Phil. She is defending her "Kitchen" no doubt.

The good sheriff and his wife
(my question is why is he standing there when there is a Troublesome Phil to arrest???)


The "bad guy" still manages to snag himself a pretty Cowgirl!!!


2 of our girls had performed a skit for the ACE convention and won. So since they were going to be there we decided to have them put the skit on for us. (A western twist to the Prodigal son or in this case Calamity Jane)


Our last game was kind of a RIDE'EM Cowgirl!!! In place of Stick horses we used brooms but it was quite funny. Some of the girls I held my breath praying they would not fall as they tried to run in their boots.


ALL in ALL God was faithful to our small little. He never ceases to amaze us. This was our 3rd year and even though it was our smallest group we felt God was still there. We are trusting him for bigger and better things in "Outlook Makeovers" future.