Eli's Birthday Party

Last Saturday, we celebrated Eli's first birthday with family and friends. We held the party at a local spray park. Unfortunately, after we arrived we realized that lightning had struck the spray ground and all the water features were not working! Bummer! The main reason we chose this park was for the spray ground but someone ran home and got a sprinkler so we made do....not as cool as the real water features but the kids all ended up having a blast!


Mommy made my snorkle cake. it was a big hit with all my friends! They all wanted a piece with "the hair".I tuckered out pretty quick. After my nap, it was time for cake!! My great grandma is the best! I love it when she holds me. She turned 89 this week!!!


Faithy couldn't (and didn't) wait till it was officially cake time.
I LOVED my cake!!


I also love Cheetos!

Time for play! These Tidy Cat buckets were VERY CLEAN!! I loved to splash the water!



In lieu of gifts, Eli collected art supplies for The Julian Center's summer art program. The Julian Center is a very special shelter that helps victims of domestic violence. They were THRILLED with all the supplies we brought.

Eli's year in reviewl!!

We can hardly believe that a year has passed since this precious little smiler entered our world! We love you so much, Eli Burkhalter Sanderson! You have brought us so much joy! Here's a very quick recap of Eli's first year!!

(side note, I'm a little embarrassed to notice the rice krispie treat in my hand!! I had gestational diabetes with Eli's pregnancy and was placed on a strict diet...a very cruel thing to do to a pregnant woman!! I CRAVED rice krispie treats like crazy. I tried to figure out how to make them sugar free and never could. My dear friend, Katherine, brought me a large batch of the 'real' thing the first night we came home from the hospital. I guess I was too enthralled with them to even set it down for the picture!)

Happy Birthday, Eli!! We love you so very much!!

Daddy, Mommy & Faithy

Our little preschooler

Our precious preschooler had her first program last week. It was the SWEETEST thing ever!! Faith joined our church's preschool in January. She went 2 mornings a week and L-O-V-E-D it!! When she would wake up on a school morning, I would tell her, "You get to go to school today, Faith." She would immediately say, "Bye Mom. School Daddy!!!" (Murray drove her since he works at our church). She LOVES her teachers and we are so thankful that this was such a wonderful experience for her!! Here's the recap of her program....

First up, each child got to do "show and tell". Faith brought her Elmo phone. She said her name, what she brought and answered some questions about it. So cute!!

Next up, it was time for the 2 year old class to perform their song. There are only 3 of them. She and her friends Alexa and Tucker sang, The Itsy Bitsy Spider. (Tucker is a little afraid of girls).
After the 3 year olds and 4 year olds did their numbers, the whole school (12 kids total) sang a couple songs. Faith is on the far left.
Here's some of Faith's artwork...
And her cheering section...
NayNay brought Faithy some flowers....

Her WONDERFUL teachers; Ms. Marcy, Ms. Tiffy, Ms. SharonHer teachers gave her a basket full of gifts. It was so nice and Faith loved getting to open all her treats!


Here are 2 super cute (and super quick) videos of Faith's performances.....

She is on the far left and is a tad bit shy on this first number...

She warmed up a bit for the second song...

First Haircut!

It was finally time to take Eli to get his haircut! We tried to put it off till his 1 year b-day but his hair kept getting in his eyes. So here are pics from one of his big "firsts"....


Before pic (notice the kid in the background, he thought we were nuts with our camera, video and all the other crazy attention we were putting on this event)

First comes the spray bottle!
All ready for the cut to begin...
This is fun!....
I want to move around a bit....
All done!
Mommy and Daddy say I look like SUCH A BIG BOY now!!

Thank you Ms. Elizabeth! I love my new haircut!!

Quilting

Quilting is one of my FAVORITE hobbies. Here are some pictures of my most recent quilts!


This is the one I made for Faith's room. It's a farm theme. I made some curtains to coordinate with this quilt. They are red gingham with cow print on the trim. The cow print fabric in this picture will be on the back and will also be the binding. It will hopefully be finished soon!!! I'll post pics of her room once everything is complete!

My sister, Kim, and I made this queen-size (my largest quilt) for my mom. Mom and I picked out the fabrics when I was 5 days away from having Faith (she's almost 2 1/2 now). Kim and I finished the piecing just before Christmas and sent if off to be quilted shortly after that. Mom FINALLY got her finished quilt about 3 weeks ago!!

This quilt is very special to me for several reasons. Most importantly, it is a memory quilt made in honor of my dear friend, Jill, who passed away during my sophomore year in college. She was an amazing athlete and played all sports well! Softball was her passion. Her mom gave me these t-shirts that go all the way back to Jill's little league days. It was so fun to put this together and give it to her mom on her 60th birthday! Jill's picture is in the center of the quilt. All the sports she played are represented with the emphasis on softball. The border I used is a softball print fabric. I've never made a t-shirt quilt before. I took a 3 hour class and completed it shortly after the class. It was very easy and fun to make.

This is another special quilt. I made it for my cousin's baby, Evan. He was born 8 weeks early and had a lot of significant medical complications that arose shortly after his birth. He went home to be with Jesus last week on May 1st. When I made this quilt, I knew he wouldn't live long but I wanted to give something special to my cousin, Katy, to help her remember her precious baby boy. I hand embroidered his name. (I had an embroidery machine but sold my half to my friend (she was the co-owner) when we moved from Virginia.) I really enjoy hand embroidery and think it's my new favorite hobby! It gave me extra time to pray for baby Evan and endeared me to him all the more!

This quilt is for our dear friends Ben & Katherine's new baby boy, Grant. I enjoyed making Evan's quilt so much that I wanted to make another one. Katherine made an adorable nursing cover for me when I had Eli so I had to make something by hand for her. This is one of my favorites! I LOVE the fabrics!! I embroidered Grant's name on our road trip to Texas last month. I just mailed it to Grant last week. I hope he likes it!!!

I just got an email from Katherine with this picture attached. Looks like Grant is happy with his new quilt!!

Thanks for letting me show off some of my work. It's so fun to quilt and even more fun to share my work with others!

Birthday Girl, Big Girl Shoes & PJs

Faith got a special treat last week. She got to be the birthday girl at school. She goes to our church's preschool 2 days a week. It's for 2-5 yr. olds. Since she already had her birthday before she started (in January), Mrs. Sharon asked if they could celebrate her big day last week. She was more than happy to say, "YES!!". Especially if cupcakes are involved!Faith loves cupcakes so much! One time we were at our friend's house and she was fixing a drink of water for Faith. She asked her, "What kind of cup do you want, Faith?" Faith eagerly replied, "A CUPCAKE!".

Here's our BIG GIRL with her new tennis shoes on. And here's her big girl pjs that Nana bought her! She looks so grown up all the time!!!

She is in the midst of potty training and that is yet another thing that is making her look so big!! We love her so so so so so so so much!!!

Pictures

I got tired of looking at the same post from forever ago and thought I'd post some fairly recent pics for you.

We've been to TX and back (with a stop in TN)--driving both ways! The trip was wonderful as the kids did MUCH better than we had expected!! (thanks to the magic of portable DVD players). Pics and other updates to follow soon (hopefully). I am tired and usually run to my book at the end of the day to unwind! (I'm LOVING the Mitford series btw, thanks for suggesting it! I just finished book 4!)

Here are Faith and Eli where we can get them to smile the most.....

I LOVE this pic of Faith. She is at the stage where she doesn't pose or smile for pictures much and to capture her GIANT smile just makes this picture priceless imo!!
Can he be any cuter or tubby-er! I LOVE this little fella!
Eli LOVES Faith and Faith LOVES Eli! It truly makes my heart swell when I see them together. You can't teach/make kids act this way. I am LOVING watching them love each other. It's one of my favorite gifts of motherhood!

The Gospels

Quick Poll....

Which of the 4 Gospels is your favorite?

I am embarrassed to say that I don't recall reading any of them entirely through. We are about to embark on a road trip and I thought I would read them all and see which is my favorite. I'll let you know which one I like the best when we get back (is it ok to have a favorite?....seems kinda weird since they are all inspired by God). I'd love to also know why you chose the one you did.

Easter Bunny!

I made a mad dash shopping trip to the mall with the kids on Wednesday. The Easter Bunny was there and Faith was SO ENTHRALLED by him. She wanted to see him. We didn't have time to actually get in line so we got as close as we could and waved, hello & goodbye (this happened a few times). On our final "hello & goodbye" visit, Faith was really not happy about our departure from the Easter Bunny and kept asking over and over and over and over again to see the EB. When I said no, she started to whine and I say, "I want EB, I want EB." I told her no again and said (with much enthusiam, "Let's tell Daddy about the EB and ask him if we can come back and get our picture with the EB on Friday." "Yea!!!" was her reply and she told several people at church that night about seeing the EB and going back for "picture with EB". So cute!

This morning (Friday, Murray's day off) I told her after her nap, we'd go see EB and get a picture with him! All morning long, "EB, EB, EB." Finally it was time to get ready to see EB. We put on her pretty dress, fixed her hair and loaded the family in the van. All the way to the mall, "EB, EB, EB..." We get to the mall and all the way to the line "EB, EB, EB" There was one little baby in line ahead of us and 2 minutes later it's our turn. Here is the picture we got of our little ones with the EB.....

"Where's Faith?," you ask? After stepping across the "line" to go see the EB, she wanted NOTHING to do with him!!!! I mean NOTHING!!! But Eli was ALL SMILES and enjoyed the experience and Faith LOVED looking at EB's picture with Eli and giggled and talked about it a lot after we left.

btw--this picture is a picture of our "mall" picture taken with our new camera!!! We bought it after our wonderful EB experience! I know the pic looks blurry but it's b/c it's not an actual picture.

Question....

How do you do laundry? (Have I asked this before??) I can't get a routine down with laundry and it's driving me nuts. I've tried the following:

1) Having a "laundry day" where I do all the laundry in one day.

I like the idea of this but the reality is that I get beat down at the end of the day and I loose the energy to put laundry away so it sits around in piles in baskets or on the couch all week. I usually end up leaving the last couple loads in the W/D so it never really gets done.

2) Doing a couple loads a day (or every other). I usually get all the steps completed (wash, dry, fold, put away) but the organized person in me hates not having everything clean. And I feel like I'm always doing laundry.

I am the type of person who likes to have order and routine with my tasks. Any ideas that have worked for you?????

Idol Chatter

So who are your faves this year?????