{embrace} the camera and the giveaway winner!

And the winner of the Sammy Jayne's Headband is.............

Katie from "In This Moment!"  See her beautiful triplets?  Aren't they

just adorable?! :)  Katie email me so I can give ya the deets about getting your headband!  Congrats!

Stick around because I have another giveaway coming up next week! 

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And now I'm linking up again with Emily for {embrace} the camera!  This week we're embracing the lovely snow that we had yesterday.  Doesn't the snow know that it's Spring and it's not welcome anymore?  Anyway, we thought we'd make the best of it and Lincoln of course LOVED trying to catch the big snowflakes.  We were at the ENT yesterday and Lincoln was looking out the window while we were waiting for the doc and all he kept saying was "caw (car)!" and "no! (snow)!"  I couldn't believe it was really snowing again!  Spring we are anxiously awaiting your arrival and hopefully this will be the last "embrace the camera Thursday" that we are embracing the snow :)

Oh my boy, I just can't get enough of you

 We had just gotten back from finishing our taxes (phew!) so glad those are done!
And you can't see but I had on flats with no socks because earlier that day it wasn't THAT cold and I'm just so wanting to wear all my cute flats that I did, and my feet froze.....oh well :)

We were pretty busy all day but the time we did have at home was spent having a little dance party inside instead of playing outside like we did last week, come back warm weather!

Sorry for the grainy pictures but I had to post them, we were having a blast!

So, we decided after yesterdays ENT appointment that we're gonna go ahead with tubes and even do a couple visits with a Chiropractor (I happen to know a great one :)  Hoping those two combined will solve all these issues.  

Head on over to Emily's blog and check out her embrace the camera photo today!  It's her with her newest daughter and she is just presh.  Oh my, yep I cried with I saw that picture.  

AND I'm super excited for this afternoon, I get to watch a certain little boy!  ;) ;)  AND to top it off he lives right next to a sonic, this momma couldn't have a better day!  Toodles!

DIY Pottery Barn Moss Letter

You have until Midnight tonight to enter the GIVEAWAY for a little girl headband from Sammy Jayne's Boutique! Click HERE to go enter!

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Ok so let me just say, I LOVE so many things from Pottery Barn but it's just so darn expensive that I can't bring myself to buy any of it (and we just don't have the budget to support a pottery barn addiction!)  So when I saw this tutorial for their moss letters I was sold.  I saw them in their magazine and oh. my.  It's real moss and they sell for $79 EACH and it's just a one season thing.  So I did what Amanda over at "Be Sweet" did and "diy-ed" it :)

So here are pottery barns moss letters....

Supplies:

Letter: mine was one that I had gotten to use for something else but never got around to it

ribbon

Instant Green Moss from Joanns (I got mine for 75% off cause one of our stores is closing, score!)

Scissors

Glue gun

Newspaper (it makes a huge mess but with newspaper I just wadded it up and threw it away and clean up took all of 30 seconds)

I found it easiest to just lay the letter backwards on the moss....

trace around it....

and cut it out so I knew I had the right size and shape

then I just glued away!  I cut in, a little bit so the pieces would fold up nicely along the edges

My moss "R" :)

Add some ribbon and your done!  I love how it turned out and how it looks against our greenish/bluish door!  So remember how theirs cost $79?  I paid $2 for this since I already had the letter and ribbon so I only paid for the moss!  Score!

This was one of the easiest projects I've ever done.  I kid you not, it took like 10 minutes and thank goodness because Lincoln woke up from his nap right as I was throwing away the newspaper!  I have some other projects that I've got lines up and am just itchin' to get started.  Remember that yarn wreath I did a month or two ago?  I made another one and have a really cute color combo that I'm excited to try for another one.  I REALLY can't wait for it to warm up enough for me to refinish my kitchen table!  eeeeek! (that is an excited "eeeeek" and a I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm gonna try it "eeeek" ) 

See you tomorrow for "embrace the camera!" 

dup-dee

Have you entered the GIVEAWAY going on right now?  If not click HERE to go enter!!  Hurry it ends Wednesday March 30th!  Winner will be announced Thursday March 31st!!

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"Dup-dee" is the best we could get out of Lincoln in trying to say Aunt Kelsey's name.  Pretty close huh?  Dup-dee is so much cooler than Kelsey right? Ha, just kidding Kelsey.  I'm sure she loved the new nickname!

Kelsey came to see us over her spring break last week and we felt so bad that Lincoln was sick while she was here.  We were able to get out and do a couple things over the weekend but for the most part we stayed put and just hung out at home.  We decided to keep all the REALLY fun things until her next visit - that way she'll come visit us again soon! :) 

We checked out the Lake Erie Science Center

On our way back to the car, Lincoln just HAD to walk on all those parking stopper thingy's (I have no idea what they are called) I'm pretty sure there were over 15 of them, or at least it seemed like it,
it took him a long time! 

We journeyed down to the beach.....took a picture of downtown....look really close I promise it's there!

CanNOT wait to come down here this summer and play on the beach all day!!

We took her to get some GREAT Bar-B-Que.  

Bubba's Q was started by a former NFL player.  It was yummo.

Tyler and his awesome sister.....can you tell they're related? :)

me and my little man enjoying some bar-b-que

[well Lincoln's just enjoying his milk, what else is new?]

Kelsey, next time you come visit us, I promise we'll be more exciting!  As long as we don't have a sick boy again! 

Now for all of you who have NOT come to visit us, I promise I'm not bitter...hehe, look at how much fun we can have!  This city is the BEST destination if you want a vacation (for those of you who actually know where we live you can insert a laugh or two after that comment!)  But really, we'll show you around and we promise to make it a fun trip for ya! If nothing else we'll play Farkle and go to the beach, how's that sound?

thoughts on a Sunday

"Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."
- Corrie Ten Bloom


This quote by Corrie Ten Bloom was used by our pastor in church today and in a lot of ways we've been able to see firsthand a little of what God is doing and how he is using certain people at certain times in our lives.  There is a reason why we were placed in this city, perhaps to get our second son!  Even in the time leading up to before hearing about Baby J, we were approached about possibly adopting a baby to be born in June.  We did a lot of praying and decided to put our "yes" on the table and come to find out, it wasn't meant to be.  Again almost the same thing happened (not kidding you, like 2 weeks apart), we put our "yes" out there and it didn't work out again.  Now that's a lot to handle in such a short time span.  Especially on my heart.  It was almost as if I had, had two more miscarriages.  You go through all the shock and questions of, "could we do this?  are we ready?  is this the baby God has for us?,"  and after praying about it we felt like it is so we say yes.  We go through all the emotions of "could this really be happening?  could we have another baby in just a couple shorts months?"  I truly believe God used those two instances to see if we were really serious.  If we were actually willing to blindly follow him into the unknown.  To TRUST.

Here is the quote again and a couple other quotes of hers that I liked:

 "Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."
- Corrie Ten Bloom

"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."
-Corrie Ten Bloom

"Some knowledge is too heavy...you cannot bear it...your Father will carry it until you are able."
 - Corrie Ten Bloom


We started our LONG set of classes yesterday.  Oh boy, it has been a long time since I last sat in a classroom for that long.  6 hours.  It surprisingly went faster than I expected.  We've already learned a lot.   Only 10 classes to go (or 30 hours, but whose counting, right?)  :) 

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Oh and to end on a funny note, this weekend has been quite the weekend of frustrating things happening that when you step back and look at it, you just have to laugh.
First Friday morning I had gotten out some nail polish to paint my, ever-so needing of a pedicure, toes and I had set it on the bathroom counter.  While getting ready, Lincoln grabbed it and in less than half a second, had dropped it onto the bathroom floor.  I was surprised to look down to see it had shattered the bottle of bright pink nail polish!  All over the floor, cabinets and Lincoln's jeans (his nicest pair, mind you).  I just stood there for a second trying to decide what to do.  I had no idea how to get nail polish off of any of that so I quickly took off Lincoln jeans and got us out of the bathroom so he wouldn't step in it.  Now after the traumatic week of antibiotic shots, Lincoln screams bloody murder every time I take off his jeans.  So I have a screaming boy and a huge mess in the bathroom.  He wouldn't let me put him down to clean it up so I had to do it all while holding him and trying to keep him out of it.  Oh it was a sight to see, that's for sure.  I just had to stop and laugh it off.

Then just this morning Tyler was getting Lincoln ready for a bath while I was getting ready for church and he was in bathroom taking off Lincoln's clothes and his diaper and found Lincoln had a poopy diaper and he needed some wipes.  So I went to get wipes quickly for him, came back and stubbed my toes on a sippy cup full of milk (which doesn't sound that bad, but man it hurt SO stinkin' bad).  I threw the wipes to Tyler and just laid on our bed holding my toes and trying not to cry.  Saying to myself, "I am tough, I will not cry" over and over again.  Meanwhile, Lincoln wasn't done with his business and while standing naked in the bathroom proceeds to pee all over our scale.  Tyler looks up to ask me for help and he can't find me (remember I'm trying not to cry on our bed).  He stand up, calls my name for me to come help, sees me on the bed, and after asking if I'm ok, just starts laughing.  It was just another scene that if I couldn't been a fly on the wall observing it all, I would've laughed so hard.

And if you were wondering, I kept myself from crying but my toe still hurts and we got it all cleaned up and got Lincoln in the tub and went on with the rest of our morning. 

Oh and I wore a new necklace that I made, to church today.  I'll be posting pictures of it soon!  DEF. going to be making this one in lots more colors!

ready or not, here we come

Tomorrow we are officially starting on this new adventure!  We are taking 2 of the 12 classes that are required of us.  They are 3 hours each (ouch!) so Tyler and I get a 6 hour date tomorrow, haha!  I really wish I had access to a Vanilla Dr. Pepper to keep me alert that whole time!  We are lucky enough to have great friends here and Lincoln is going to be well taken care of while we are gone all day.  He gets to play with his friend Lucas. 

Lincoln is feeling TONS better and is on one more antibiotic and breathing treatments until his cough is pretty much gone.  He only coughed a handful of times today so I really do think we're on the last leg of this. 

Please pray for us as we start this journey.  Like I've said before, there are NO GUARANTEES that the court will pick us to be this little boy's family but we can do everything in our control to try!  We will definitely keep you all updated as we know more! 

That's about all I've got for tonight.....off to watch a netflix with my handsome hubby :)

{embracing} a nebulizer?!

Unfortunately this week for embracing the camera, we're also embracing sickness at our house :( Poor Lincoln has been battling a double ear infection, bronchitis and now pneumonia for the past 5+ days now and finally seems to be on the mend. We've gotten to be best buddies with his new nebulizer and doing breathing treatments now every 4 hours. It's so hard for an active 20 month old to sit still for 10 minutes for a breathing treatment but he's gotten better. I let him watch cartoons while we do it and that seems to keep him still for the most part (yes, I know I win "mother of the year" with that one).

During one of his breathing treatments

I hate it when he's sick.

He does seem to be feeling better this morning so we'll see what the doctor has to say when we go!  Hopefully all good news and NO MORE SHOTS! 

Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY going on!!

Click on over to Emily's blog and 

join us in {embracing} the camera!

cough....cough....throw up on the doctor

 sick, sick, sick

(yes Lincoln coughed so much he threw up on the doctor this morning....and I lost count how many times after that he threw up....)

my baby is peacefully sleeping after a tough morning at the doctor and I'm sitting here waiting for a phone call from the doctor to tell me the results of his chest x-ray.  Please no pneumonia.  He's on (from what I gathered) one of the highest antiobiotics right now.  It's what they use to treat meningitis (which he doesn't have, so don't freak out).  But I have all these thoughts going through my head.....

.....he's not responding to any antiobiotics yet
.....what do we do if these shots don't work?
.....what if he doesn't get better?
.....what if....
.....what if....

and the list goes on and on.  I'm just being real.  I know my son isn't THAT sick and I know he's going to get better but it's a thought that goes through every mom's mind when her child is laying lethargic in your arms.  I'm brought back to when he was just born and so tiny and helpless.  And I felt so helpless myself because there wasn't anything I could do for him.  And then it's all brought around full circle and I just have to give it all to God.  God's always in control. Period.  That's all, I just needed to get all that out of me and now I can just let go and let God do His thang. :)

Update********
Lincoln has pneumonia in his left lung.  So far he is fine here at home, no hospitalization needed.  He got a shot of antibiotics this morning and just doing breathing treatments every 4 hours through the night and then we'll go back to the Dr. in the morning before she leaves town to see what she thinks.  Please pray for a quick recovery!  



Oh and if you haven't entered the GIVEAWAY go enter.....hurry!

"Sammy Jayne's" Giveaway!

I am so excited to be able to offer you all another giveaway!  Samantha over at "Sammy Jayne's - This and That" has lots of cute handmade headbands, clips, pacifier hooks, totes, scarves etc. and is graciously giving away one of her adorable infant/toddler headbands.  The winner gets to choose which one they want!  This girl has got some great talent and so many cute creations in her Etsy shop!

I met Samantha back when Tyler and I were dating.  I was going to college at Hastings and he was down in Wichita at college.  She went to college with Tyler and they all hung out with the same group of friends.  I've enjoyed keeping up with her family from their blog and facebook.  She has three really cute boys that I'm sure keep her really busy!  Somehow she finds time here and there to make some great things!

"Who says being spit up on can't be glamorous? Do it in style with a terry cloth

backed burp rag from Sammy Jayne's!"

{her burp rags were featured in an Etsy Treasury awhile back, doesn't surprise me, they are super cute!}

{another reason why I think I need a little girl :) }

Now you don't have to have a little girl to enter this giveaway, this headband could make a great shower/birthday gift or if you have a niece/cousin/friend ANYONE who you think would look adorable in this, go ahead and enter!  

You can get up to 4 entries for this giveaway!  Here's how:

-Follow my blog and leave a comment  at the end of this post, letting me know you follow
-Visit Sammy Jayne's Etsy Shop and leave a comment telling me what your favorite item is
-Become a follower of Sammy Jayne's Blog and leave a comment telling me you are a follower
-Like "Sammy Jayne's Etsy Boutique" on Facebook and let me know about it

Now go enter!! :)  This giveaway will be open for a week (until next Wednesday) and I'll announce the winner on Thursday (March 31st)  In honor of my friend, Shannon's Birthday - how about that :)  So make sure you check back next Thursday to see if you've won!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!

loads of questions.....

So I'm sure you've got lots of questions about our announcement that I posted last week and then left to go on a trip and haven't said anything else about it.  We are pursuing this adoption but there are no guarantees with it.  There are a lot of things that need to go in our favor for this all to work out but God's got a plan and I'm not worried at all about how things will pan out.  I know that HIS plan will prevail and that this little boy will end up where he is supposed to - of course we hope and pray that he is supposed to end up with us! :) 

I always thought we would adopt internationally, and we still probably will someday.  I know a lot about the process and everything that goes with it from some close friends who have been through the process and filled us in along the way, and I know a little bit about domestic adoption.  Not as much but a little bit.  But I knew NOTHING about adopting through the foster system.  Really I had never considered it much.  Thankfully we've been able to meet with this little boy's foster parents and get the lo down on the foster system, how adopting through it works, what we need to do, etc.

From what we know so far, our requirements include taking 12, 3 hour sessions (36 hours total) of training, an application, home study and approval.  From there, we've done all we can and it's up to the state to decide the best fit family for him.  We are hoping to start the classes soon and get the application submitted as soon as we can so the home study can get started.  I've read that the home study can take up to 4-6 months so we need to get on that.

This little boy won't be available for adoption until he turns a year old.  His birthday is in July (almost exactly 1 year younger than Lincoln) :)  So that's kind of the timeline we're looking at with it all. 

I'm sure there are lots of other questions you all might have and if so feel free to leave them in the comments section and I'll answer them as they come.  Or you can shoot me an email thelincbetweenus @ gmail (.) com.


Also, on a completely different side note, I'm super excited to tell you that I am hosting another giveaway on my blog starting tomorrow! Be sure to check back during the day and enter it! 

Lincoln's Aunt Kelsey left this morning to head back to Nebraska and we are sad :(  We had a great time with her, even though Lincoln was sick for most of it.  Hope she comes back again soon to visit!

road trip!

Apparently I like to travel alone with my 1 1/2 year old a lot...(remember those 4 trips to DC last summer? Those were all flying though but I'm still not sure which way is easier).....I think I'm crazy but it always ends up working out pretty well.  I'm glad he's such a good traveler.  I got lucky that he doesn't mind his car seat.  I'm thankful :)  So about our road trip to Maryland....

Lincoln and I took our first "longer" road trip by ourselves this past week.  We went to Maryland to visit some great friends of ours and we had such a great time.  The drive was 6 hours (including stops....we made great time surprisingly enough!)  It was almost ALL toll road the whole way there, which equals LOTS of mula.  I think it cost $40+ just in tolls plus gas but it was OH so worth it!  Besides the slight freak out episode Lincoln had in response to the toilet flushing in the rest stop bathrooms, we had a pretty uneventful trip there.  They had the automatic flushing toilets and it flushed as we walked in to the stall and he totally freaked out and so was wanting me to hold him the whole time, while still crying.  Oh boy it was quite the funny experience to say the least. But we both made it there in one piece :)

 Lincoln tried to join Allie in the bathroom while 

she was getting ready one morning

He could open all their doors - they had the "easy" door handles :)

 Our fun "crafternoon!"  It got kinda messy.  We messed around trying to figure out the perfect way to make "rolled flowers" for necklaces and finally figured it out.  I made another pom pom necklace like the grey one I made HERE and then a purdy mustard yellow rolled flower necklace that I still need to find a chain for.  CAN'T wait to wear it! :)  Oh crafting, how I love my new hobby!

Yes, you are seeing correctly, there are TWO Dr. Pepper cans and yes, they are BOTH mine.....hehe

 Precious little Haley (2 mos.)  All that crafting wore her out!

I couldn't get over how much this little girl has changed since I last saw her in August!

She is just so sweet!

she looks ornery and up to something in this one (see next picture)

when she got ahold of Lincoln, she wasn't letting go anytime soon!  

He wasn't so sure, what to think about that!

Bath time!  They are gonna hate us when their older!  

 he was fascinated with the bubble bath Allie had

Elise's classic "lip look"  I love it!

We took a walk and let Lincoln play in a little courtyard - 

conveniently located directly across a starbucks :)

 It was so nice to get out and get some sun!  Elise sure thought so!  Lincoln tried, and eventually succeeded in pushing her around in her stroller (while being closely monitored by both mommies) :)

He was occupied for a good 10 minutes just by pushing our stroller around - sans Elise.

chewing on her giraffe

this girl is gonna be walking before long!  

my sweet little boy

Our trip home was the complete opposite as our trip there.  First of all I couldn't get the key to turn on my car.  It just wouldn't budge.  I called Tyler and we figured out I had to turn the steering wheel a little and the key turned right away.  So away we went!  It wasn't 10 minutes into the drive that Lincoln started crying and pulling on his ears.  He had been up a lot of the night before crying (from what I later figured out was pain from his ears) and continued crying while I was on the phone with our Dr (which apparently it's a new law in MD that you can't talk on your phone while driving....oops!)  I got an appt. set up for the next day but then had to deal with the here and now.  I called Tyler and told him I needed to stop somewhere to buy some children's advil for the poor boy so he googled the next town and found me a nice quaint pharmacy.  It reminded me of small town Aurora, actually.  They all were super nice, got Lincoln his Advil and a huge snickers for my sanity.  The medicine started to kick in after a 1/2 hour or so and Lincoln quickly fell asleep.  After waking up though, he was back to crying :(  That was THE hardest drive ever.  I couldn't do anything to help soothe him while I was driving so I just prayed and prayed that his ears would stop hurting and that the rest of the drive would go quickly.  Thankfully it did.

Next morning we were in the Dr.'s office for almost 3 hours figuring out what to do for him.  He has a double ear infection and broncitis :(  Poor little guy.  We've got an appointment made with the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to discuss tubes and he's on breathing treatments 3x/day right now.  He seems to be feeling a little better but I think it's gonna take a little while to fully get this crud out of his system.



Aunt Kelsey is here this weekend and we are having a blast!

Happy Birthday.......

........to Grandma Hunni!  This post is a little late in the day because Lincoln's been a little under the weather.  We spent ALL morning (not joking) at the doctor's office, picked up some groceries and then it was time to go pick up Aunt Kelsey at the airport!  So I am just now getting around to taking/posting this!  We didn't forget though, and want to wish my mom aka. Grandma Hunni, a VERY happy birthday.  We hope you had a great day and can't wait to see you soon!

Lincoln sure loves his Grandma Hunni

Love this picture of them together!

Lincoln wanted to say "Happy Birthday" himself but can't quite get the right words out so we stuck with writing it :)  

Here is the best I could get....

And here are all the out takes - our neighbors were outside and so Lincoln
was a little distracted and didn't want to look at the camera...