And the Winner is....

Ok this was hard, I really wanted everyone to win I even thought for about 2 minutes that I could go ahead and make more so that I could give everyone an apron but I can't. But what I did do was draw 2 winners because the first apron that I made was with material that I already had just to see if it was something that I could do, so it is cute but not as cute as the others. If you own a sewing machine and have very basic sewing skills you can make one too here is the link the directions were very easy to follow with pictures, just what I needed, and if I can make them anyone can make them!

I had Avrie draw numbers from a bucket and the first winner is:

#7 Lila

and the second winner is:

#1 Candice A.

Send me a message on FB with your address and I will get them in the mail this week!

Thanksgiving Give Away!

I have been busy sewing cute little aprons for the girls and since I was sewing 2 of them I thought I might as well sew 13 of them! I have sewn enough to give all my little nieces one for Christmas and have a few to spare.


So I thought I would do my first ever give away! One of my lucky 10 or so readers has a chance to win a cute apron, leave a comment and on Monday I will draw a random winner. I can only mail it to a US address sorry for the 3 people that live outside of the US that read my blog.

This is the apron that will be the "giveaway" It will fit a child ages 6-10 this is being modeled by my teenager since it is a Christmas surprise for the little girls I really could not have them modeling it, the back side is lined with the pocket and tie fabric.
I know some of you are are shocked that I actually sewed this all by myself, but I did. They are not perfect they each come with their own unique flaws but they were sewn with love and I really had fun making them. Except for the last 3 I was getting ready to be done and needed them finished before the Thanksgiving company arrived!

Snow!

We had a snow storm on Saturday, I know it doesn't look like much but the girls were so excited to get out and play in the snow, first thing Saturday morning they were out with their sand toys building snow castles.
The worst part of the snow happened today when the temperatures dropped to the low 20's and everything is frozen over then the wind started and it is pretty miserable out there and all the pretty snow is now big chunks of ice!

Just for Fun

Destina loves to grab my camera and take pictures mostly of her doll but Avrie gets her fair share of pictures taken too. I have to say they are pretty good both pictures below were taken by Destina without any coaching or help from me!


Not sure if you can see the attitude in her face but it is there she is full of it and she thinks she can do whatever the big kids are doing and she does not want help with anything! She is always telling me "Mom I'm a good helper" yep you are so much help, unloading the dishwasher, helping with laundry and trying to help me make dinner. You would think that I would be getting the job done twice as fast but it now takes me twice as long when I have my little helper helping!

Discoveries

Another blogger that I like to read listed the things she discovered about her self recently and she encouraged others to do the same so I thought I would play the game!

I discovered that I am actually having fun sewing, I've been making a few things for the girls for Christmas.

discovered that I am having much more fun parenting a 3 year old the 6th time around (it would be 7th but I didn't have Destina at 3).

discovered that I really love hot yoga and even don't mind dragging myself out of bed at 6am in the rain to go!

discovered that some, ok most, of my clothes are older than my 2 youngest children.

discovered an old pair of jeans fit and don't look too old!

discovered that my teenage daughters act more mature than I do SOMETIMES!

discovered that I really have no self control when it comes to sweets, ok I have known that for a long time!

discovered that my house doesn't need to be spotless all the time and that as long as it gets clean regularly I am ok with the mess 8 people create on a daily basis.

discovered that although I am ok with the people mess I am done with the parakeet mess, they need to find a new home!

discovered that I have an addiction to the public library and must at all times have far too many books on my night stand that I will never be able to read in the allotted 3 weeks.

discovered that I really like having family live close by.

Still Grieving

Tonight I came home at about 10:30 most of the kids were in bed and Katie's bedroom light was on she had just come home from work about 30 minutes before. When I walked into her room to say good night and ask how work was, she was sitting on her bed in tears crying, and she said to me "It is all your fault that you made me write about THAT for my essay."

She is in the process of applying for college and has been putting off writing an essay for weeks, I have been nagging but to no avail. Today I dropped the hammer and told her she could make no plans until she had the essay written. The topic was about overcoming something hard in your life and how it changed you. We had brain stormed several different topics but in the end Katie is one of those kids where things just roll of her back and she couldn't think of anything of significance that she struggled with, so I told her to go with her story of her trip to Haiti, the bonding that took place with her new sisters and then the loss of Gracie.

She didn't want to go to that place because the pain was pretty deep. Even when we received the news of Gracie's death I thought she took it pretty well, she is not my most emotional child that would be child #1. But digging deep into those memories of the cute smiling healthy Gracie and the week that she spent with her was hard she opened wounds that maybe were still fresh but covered up. Her room has been a shrine to both Ellie and Gracie with their pictures posted in several places, but since she met Gracie, loved on Gracie, played with Gracie, her death was hard on her, and it came out tonight and we both shed tears for a little girl that should have been here.

This Whole English Thing is Hard Sometimes!

Destina having fun with the leftover Halloween make-up!

Destina has been doing really good with the whole English thing there is so much for these kids to learn and catch up on, she is reading a lot but sometimes she doesn't know the meaning of the word she reads but it seems to only take one or two times before she has it down pat.

When she started school this year and I went in to volunteer the teacher commented that she has trouble with her pronouns the whole he, him, his, she her, her's, it, they, them, it can get confusing, and that a boy got mad at her because she called him a she!! I let the teacher know that yes we are working hard on this at home and she is getting it, it is just been a little hard for her to remember when to say what! Then yesterday I came across a blog I like to read where they said that in Creole they only have ONE word for he, she, him, her, and it! That explained a lot to me about her struggle with pronouns so if you are a boy and she happens to call you a she cut her a little slack!
Also, we have sight words on flash cards that we go over everyday and I just added the word "know" to the stack, she said to me "Mommy why is there a K and a W in that word when they don't make any sound and it sounds just like the other "no" in my word pile! That was a fun one to explain!

National Adoption Month!

Creation Groans from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

November is National Adoption Month, it has changed my life, let it change yours too!

Haitian Roots!

Dear Friends of Haitian Roots,

A wonderful, non-profit organization called Six Seeds has made a very generous offer to help Haitian Roots. Six Seeds is dedicated to helping people and organizations do good things! They are featuring an article about Haitian Roots on their website and they will donate $2 to us for every comment left after the article! Each comment has to have a unique email address, but if you have more than one address, you can even comment more than once. Please take just a moment of your time to go to this article and leave us a comment by clicking here:

http://sixseeds.tv/s/content/adoption/660-from_haitian_roots

To learn more about Six Seeds, click here:

http://sixseeds.org/about/

Thanks so much!

Sincerely,

The Haitian Roots Team

P.S. Please pass this along to friends and family, post it to your facebook page, or onto your blog! Thanks!