Wooden growth chart

My mom has always been crafty.  When I was growing up she would always make our Valentines or May Day baskets.  She would sew my Halloween costumes and everyone would rave about her craftiness. My mom has always worked full-time as she had to work.  My parents divorced when I was three years old and she needed to support two young daughters.  My mom built her financial planning business and in 2009 retired to become a full-time grandma and hand over the business to the rest of our family.

Since retiring she has taken her love for crafting and creating to a whole new level.  First up was my brother's wedding where she planned a beautiful rehearsal dinner at the Pabst tasting room in Milwaukee.  She made every table covering, every centerpiece and place card for the evening.  Not to mention welcomed here grand children in the same year.

Next up was my little sister's wedding this past October in Boston.
She made everything for the big day.  Seriously everything.
 After this event we dubbed her Martha Stewart.  

When our family got together to celebrate Christmas this year she wrote each of us girls a note in our stockings telling us there was a present for us in the basement.  We all headed to the basement and there was a handmade gift for each of us.  For my little sister was two shelves made from pallets for her bathroom.  She made my sister-in-law jewelry holders on wood planks with doorknobs and for my older sister and I, wooden growth charts.  I was over the moon.  I've wanted one for our home for a long time but the ones I've looked at have always been so expensive.  This piece is beautiful and will be in our home forever.  I also love that when we move we can take it with us.  

We brought it home and decided to hang it in our entry way.  We measured each of our kiddos and thankfully Kate made it on the chart!  My mom used a 1x10 piece of wood and free hand painted the numbers.  

I hung a frame next to the growth chart with a picture of each of the kids when they were just babes and a current picture.  My thought is to keep changing the current picture of the children.  I love having pieces in our home that are handmade by people that we love.  I still look back at my grandma's pictures frames and Santa's or the hall tree my grandpa built and smile just knowing that a part of them is in our home. 

I'm so envious of the gift of craftiness my mom was blessed with.  I would love to be able to create and sew as she can.  I am bound to one day learn to at least sew on a button.  

2012 a year in review

2012 was an amazing year and our family was so blessed with a new addition, some awesome travel and lots of fun time as a family of four. Let's take a look back at our year. In January we got ready to transition from one to two kiddos.  I also entered my third trimester of being pregnant with Kate whom I had dubbed "peanut" while pregnant with her.  We didn't know that she in fact was a girl while I was pregnant.

In February I started planning Drew's Sesame Street birthday party.

We also moved Drew to his big boy bed and he did amazingly well through the transition! We took full advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and spent time outside in February, in IOWA!

March brought some nursery progress, our Barbados travel review and our sweet Drew turned two years old.

photo credit

April had huge changes in our family as we welcomed Katherine Ellen into our family.

photo credit

In June I chatted about introducing Kate to Drew and how our transition at home had been going.  We took Drew on his first train ride and it was a huge hit!

In July I finally got around to sharing pictures of Drew's Sesame Street birthday party....Slacker alert!

Kate had already hit the 2 month mark!

We also spent the majority of the month of July in our backyard enjoying the awesome weather.

In August Brendan and I traveled to Puerto Rico and I returned to work. 

photo credit

September we were quite busy with family birthdays and my little brother got married!

photo credit

In October we visited the pumpkin patch, and I gave everyone an update as to what Drew was up to these days and Kate hit the 5 month mark.

November brought on Thanksgiving and a need to help me decorate.  We are nearly finished with our basement renovation and I couldn't be happier!

December was all about Christmas in our house! We even had a white Christmas this year with a snow day coming just one week before the big day.  I know I shared our Christmas card late this year but it's still our 2012 Christmas card. 

2012 was a great year!  We were so blessed with health and happiness, we are looking forward to all that 2013 has in store for our family.

 

Blessings

Today I am going to dedicate this post to blessings... 

A few things I feel so blessed to be able to have. 

1. A wonderful relationship with my grandparents.  Not all people get to know them for as long or as well as I have, and I know someday they won't be here with me, nothing can every replace the wonderful memories I have of them.

2. A great job!  I absolutely love my job and the people I work with.  Honestly, no complaints..How many people can say that?

3. Four parents that love me unconditionally.

4. A husband who helps cook, clean, do laundry, iron, etc.  He cleans the bathrooms better than I do!

5. My little sister coming to visit today, for 10 whole days!! 

So here's a question to my readers....How are you blessed??

I will leave you with a cute picture of my baby.....

Blessings

Today as I was driving along for no apparent reason I started thinking how blessed I truly am. I know sometimes we all tend to focus on what isn't going prefectly in our life, but today I am going to take a minute and list 5 reasons I am so blessed.....I would like to make this a weekly gig, but who knows if I will remember!! We shall see.....

1. My amazing family.....we laugh, we cry, we support each other, doesn't get any better than that!

2. My sweet puppy! We have now had her for over a year and I can't imagine our lives without her!

3. Our good health, we haven't had to deal with any major illnesses and I am so thankful!

4. A great job! In a time like this I am so blessed to have a stable job that I love!

5. Wonderful friends. What would I do without these amazing women!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!