FFF And A Fun Giveaway!!!

This is a picture of my nephew, Bobby.  Isn’t he handsome??!!  He’s serving in Afghanistan right now.  When this picture arrived via email, we told our kids that Bobby just bought his first house…this was all he could afford on his soldier salary!  My kids all felt so bad for him for living in such a sad little stone home! 

It’s nice to see that our military men and women can have a little fun despite the situation they are in right now!

And now on to the giveaway.  In honor of our Peter’s second Forever Family Day(yesterday), I am giving away the following items from my Etsy shop to one lucky follower!

Your choice of a crocheted beanie hat in red(fits toddlers to teens) or white(fits 6-18 months) with an adorable Valentine’s Day hair bow clip…your choice of two hair clips.

PLUS, your choice of a flower hair clip which can be worn in the hat or worn alone in the hair.  Flower clips are approximately 4” wide and attached to an alligator clip.

PLUS your choice of a pair of Valentine’s Day ruffle socks.  I have several kinds to choose from in my shop! Here are just two of the choices…

Plus, I wouldn’t want to forget the mommy of the little girl that will get these prizes!  You’ll also receive one of these cute cupcake dessert plates I found while shopping at Mall of America yesterday.

I’ve filled the plates with yummy gourmet chocolates and caramels and wrapped them up in cellophane for the lucky winning mommy!!

Okay, here’s all you have to do to enter:

1. Become a follower of my blog if you aren’t already. Leave  a comment letting me know that plus your email so I can reach you if you win!!....one chance to win

2. Go to my Etsy shop and look around…come back here and let me know what your FAVORITE item is…one chance to win

For every comment I receive, I will donate $.50 to a charity in Guatemala…the country that gave me my sweet little man, Peter!

Peter will draw the winning name on Monday, Feb. 1st!!  Good luck!

To see more Friday Favorite Fotos, go to Hannah’s blog!

Finally, would you lift up our military men and women in prayer today??

A Very Special Day…

It was 2 years ago today that Peter became an “official” member of our family!  Let’s take a stroll down memory lane…

Our first time we met Peter, he was just 2 1/2 months old.  Rich and I flew to Guatemala City to spend a few days with him. When he first arrived at the hotel, he was dressed in 4 layers of clothing and was not very clean…notice the greasy-looking hair!

He did clean up nicely though!

 

I was blessed to be able to visit Peter 5 times in Guatemala…the final time was the pick up trip exactly 2 years ago…where does the time go!

On trip #2, I brought my 2 oldest daughters to meet their brother. Taylor, Hannah and I had a wonderful time there in August! We had some serious RED EYE going on in this picture…cheap camera!!!

By this time, Peter was on Foster Mom #2.  The first one was VERY OLD and couldn’t care for him so he was sent to an equally VERY OLD foster mom.

On my next visit, I brought my mom so she could meet her newest grandson.  We were horrified when we arrived to find a lethargic, dirty, weak little boy who didn’t smile anymore and could hardly hold his head up at 6 months of age.  I didn’t even recognize him in the hotel lobby…he was covered with at least 200 bug bites over his entire body!

I knew he hadn’t been getting any stimulation and was laid on his back for most of each day so on that trip, I hauled an exersaucer all the way down there for him!! 

Again, he cleaned up well and after a few days with his new grandma and mommy, he was smiling again!  He got medicine for the poor baby who was so itchy and miserable.  He was such a little trouper despite his discomfort,  Before we left, we met his 3rd (and final!) very wonderful foster mom, Brenda!  We LOVED her from the moment we met her and so did Peter!

 

(Mary M., if you read this, please email me…I can’t get on your blog anymore!)

My 4th trip to Guatemala two months later was again with Rich and this time we took our oldest, Taylor.  Unfortunately, I can’t find pictures from that trip.

FINALLY the day came to pick up Peter and bring him home to his forever family!!  This trip we brought Hannah.  What a great experience for her to see the process of going to the US Embassy and all that it took to make it complete!

Peter TOTALLY rejected me on this trip.  There were very few times that I could hold him without him screaming at the top of his lungs!  All he wanted was his blonde-haired sister, Hannah!!  To this day, he still adores her but he is Mommy’s boy too!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Peter and I…he actually let me hold him and love him! 

Last year on this special anniversary we celebrated with gifts, a cake, and going out to dinner.  This was taken a year ago…

This year we will do the same.  Here’s my little man this morning! We love you Peter!!!  What a blessing you have been to your family!

In honor of this very special day, I will be doing a giveaway tomorrow.  Please stop back and enter for a chance to win some great prizes from my Etsy shop!!!

Birthday Party and A Giveaway!!!

On Saturday, we finally got around to celebrating Greta’s birthday with friends.  When your birthday is 3 days after Christmas, it’s difficult to try to plan a party!  I like to wait until the holiday busy-ness has ended and it gives my twins something to look forward to!

She wanted to have her party at the movie theater so we saw the movie “Tooth Fairy.”  It was really cute and the kids enjoyed it!!  They got a tour of the film booths and Greta got to start a movie!  I love when my kids birthday parties are somewhere other than our home…it’s just so much easier!!  I will say that I have done some amazing theme parties at home when my older girls were little however.  Now that I have 5 children it’s not quite so easy being creative!

This picture is dark because we were in the film projection room.  The huge metal trays hold the movie film.  He told the kids that for every one hour that a movie runs, the length of film is ONE MILE!  The new movie “Avatar” is 3 hours long and  that film is 3 MILES LONG!!

Now, on to the giveaway…my sweet 13-year old would like to offer a few giveaway prizes from her Etsy shop.  Angie, from Seven Clown Circus, is hosting this giveaway.  Please stop over there to register for a chance to win.  Here is what Hannah is giving away…

This adorable fleece hat that fits American Girl dolls and Bitty Babies!

And your choice of 4 cute Tuxedo bow Hair Clippies.

Please show Hannah some love and stop over to her Etsy shop after you enter the giveaway.  Remember when you were 13???  How many kids today are motivated enough to want to start their own business at that age!!??  We are really proud of her!!

FFF-Favorite Animals

This week’s theme for Friday’s Favorite Foto is animals.  The only animal we have is a sweet little cat named Molly.  She lives at our lake home with my parents.  We have tried having cats at our home in the past but they get out of the house and end up dying at the hands of other animals or by terrible neighbor boys target practicing with pellet guns.

I posted this picture last summer but it’s so cute!  Molly is the darker kitten.

We also have lots of favorite stuffed animals!  This is one of Peter’s favorites…the Build-A-Bear that Ricky made him for Christmas!

We are having freezing rain here today.  My sidewalk and driveway look like a skating rink!  I am dreaming of summer and warm weather but I know it will be a LONG time before we see that here in Minnesota!

Tomorrow we are finally having a birthday party for Greta with her friends.  We are having it at the theater and seeing the movie “Tooth Fairy.”  Our theater does a nice job with parties.  They get to start the movie after touring the film booth.  Then they have a party room for cake afterwards!

To see more FFF, go to Hannah’s blog!

Wordful Wednesday-Good Bye

 

We’ve had the privilege of knowing an amazing man over the past year.  His name is Keanne and he spends his life volunteering his time to make the lives of kids like my Ricky even better!  He has taught hundreds of children with special needs (and their siblings) how to swim.  He has been Ricky’s coach and friend and accomplished things with Ricky that we were not able to in the past 7 years of his life!  Keanne earned Ricky’s trust almost as soon as they met and then taught my little man how to swim…something we had tried unsuccessfully to do since he was little.  Now that Ricky is 8 years old, the world of Special Olympics is open to him!  We would have loved to have  Keanne and Ricky to be together for the competitions in the future.

Just seeing Ricky smiling in the water versus screaming with fear is still amazing to us!

But like the saying goes, “All good things must come to an end.”  Our friend Keanne has left the frozen tundra of Minnesota and moved to Hawaii where he is excited to start a Special Olympics program there where there currently is none!  How can you blame the guy for wanting to leave cold winters in MN and move to HAWAII!!!???

Before Keanne left, he was honored with a very special award at the 24th Annual Distinguished Service Awards Ceremony for Special Olympics Minnesota!!  The ceremony was so much fun and Keanne even received a standing ovation for the tireless work he has done with so many special athletes.

When interviewed for the local newspaper, he stated that “every morning I wake up and pray that I will make a difference in someone’s life.”  He sure has made a difference…we love him and will miss him but we wish him the best as he begins a new life on Maui!  We hope to visit him this year!!! This picture was taken last Saturday…our last day of practice with Keanne…

With so many people taking winter vacations, I have to show you my line of Disney wear…click HERE to see more….

 

I LOVE custom orders and can make any kind of ruffle socks you may want!  Team colors are fun!  Football socks?  Princess socks?  Big and Little Sister socks?  A favorite animal socks?  Any ribbon you like can also be made into adorable hair clippies or hair bows to wear alone or in the cute crocheted beanies I carry!

Coming soon to my animal line of socks and hair bow…monkeys, puppies, kittens and ponies.  Anything else you’d like to see, just ask!!!

Also, with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I have marked down ALL Valentines’ merchandise!!!  Socks, beanie hats and hair bows….ON SALE NOW!!!

And finally….check out Hannah’s shop for the cute new hair bow clippies she sells….

Made from recycled Guatemalan fabric…with or without a worry doll attached!

My sweet 13-year old would LOVE your business!  She has put everything she has into her Etsy shop and has had no customers since before Christmas.  If you are looking for cute, inexpensive hair clippies or fleece hats for girls and American Girl dolls, please visit her shop and make this little lady happy!!

My apologies for such a long post of pictures!  To see more Wordful Wednesday posts, stop over to Angie’s blog!