Archives for May 2012

The Target cart with Huddy so perfectly positioned underneath.

Harper’s summer hat.  I like her in a hat.

My toenails & my Mother’s Day sandals Harper picked out all by herself.

Ariel’s hair.  Harper gave Josh a recent guilt trip about how we only watch boy movies.  Josh came home with these from the library.  He’s so weak 🙂

Huddy’s hand.  I love obscure freckles on my kids.  Harper has a freckle finger, Sol has a freckle wrist and Huddy has a freckle hand.  Do you see Huddy’s?  Right there in the middle.  I love them all.

New bunting with that special number 6.  Our paperwork was suppose to arrive Wednesday…it was certified…now it’s lost.  Boo!  My anxiety has sky rocketed & my blood pressure is probably at a really unhealthy level 🙂

A really special art piece…like crazy special.  Beyond thrilled for Courtney & Patrick’s big day tomorrow.  It’s going to be a hard one, but I’m praying for hearts to be flooded with joy.

And Harper’s baseball bracelet she wears every single day.  This girl makes her Dad proud.

Have an amazing weekend.

Happy Friday!

I noticed this quote on our chalkboard this morning.  And this is just one of the many reasons why I kind of dig Josh Kelley.

The superheros are endless.  Do you hear me?  Endless.  They are everywhere & I must admit, I may be coming around a bit to them.  They just make my boys, just so boyish.  And I do love that.

Today the boys had the best Pez they have ever had.  Thanks Courtney for loving my kids so well.

And why yes, Harper is photo bombing with Green Lantern’s twin Pez dispenser.

Stamp sets make for at least a good 1/2 hour of fun.  The wee Kelleys are stampin’ fools.  I think it’s the self inking 🙂

Our friend Jonathan, Brea’s husband, is headed to Nicaragua this summer.  They are doing a little fundraiser to help raise the last bit of money.  One of my 12×12 Names of Jesus canvases is up for grabs.  Head over and enter to win several great prizes for just $5.

This girl makes my heart skip.  I want to freeze her right where she is.  Her personality is really taking shape and I just really like her…like a lot.

And today we did our weekly planned craft.  We rocked out some pretty awesome ice cream cones 🙂

Here’s what we used:  Traced cones, ice cream layers and cherries, glue, scissors, glitter, sequins & pompoms.

First, the wee Kelleys cut out all their paper ice cream pieces.

(I love Huddy’s tongue of concentration.)

Next they glued their ice cream cone together.

Sol looks quite miserable, but he really does love to craft 🙂

Next I let Harper start decorating her ice cream with “sprinkles”, while I drew the lines on the boys’ cones with glue.

Then I let them go glitter crazy.

Harper was up next for glitter and the boys got started “sprinkling up” their ice cream.

And once everyone had decorated their cones exactly as they wanted, they called it quits.  I like them a lot!

And there you have it…another fun & easy craft.

Hope you’re having a great week…the weekend is so close.

Happy Thursday!

Harper is a sleepover pro…she’s been rockin’ sleepovers for several years now and completely loves them.  Right before Mom died, she was planning on having the boys over for their first sleepover.  Last night, Josh and I had a late date night, so the kids got to spend the night with Josh’s parents.  The boys were thrilled to finally be having their very first sleepover.  Bags, sleeping bags and inhalers were packed 🙂

The boys were totally beside themselves with excitement.  And Harper was super pumped as well.  She helped everyone load their stuff in the van.  She’s a very organized packer.

While the wee Kelleys slumber partied…Josh and I enjoyed a late night with his brother Andy at the M83 concert.

OH.MY.  It was an awesome concert…wildly awesome and M83 sounded incredible.  Completely loved it and what a fun, kidless night out to celebrate.  And this morning I even slept until 8:30 🙂

And super early this morning before we went to bed, we also signed up for The Color Run.  Registration just opened, so if you are interested, I would sign up asap.  It’s going to be way too much fun for a 5K.  Super stoked.

After picking up the kids this morning Huddy had a bathroom false alarm which put us in an unwanted Walmart trip.  I was a bit put out by the whole Walmart trip just to use the bathroom, until I saw this.

Yes, that is the “as seen on TV” Slushy Magic.  Kelley Family Fun Fact #301 & 302:  We do not have cable.  Therefore, one of the channels we watch that has lots of good cartoons also comes with lots of infomercials…the Slushy Magic being one of our faves.  And the wee Kelleys & myself are quite obsessed with any form of slushy or icee.  This will find its way into our house at some point 🙂

After our magical Walmart trip we headed to the cemetery.  Harper has been asking to go back for a few weeks now and on Mother’s Day it was a monsoon, so today was our day to make a visit.  Harper pleaded with me to do a picnic since everyone was getting hungry.  Sure…why not picnic in the cemetery…I’m sure there are lots of people who do that.  So we did.  She has also been planning a full-on birthday party celebration at the cemetery for Grammy as well…we’ll have to see about that.

It’s always so strange going there.  I miss Mom madly, so it’s definitely sad for me…I always cry, but since I’m always with the kids, they have such a different outlook on things.  We go a lot because it seems to really be good for Harper.  She’s always very excited to go and always tells me how much better it has made her feel when we are leaving.  She’s a really neat kid.  And today while we ate I just got so tickled at their little conversations.  I started to take note of some of their questions and comments.

I think my favorite was when Harper asked about a headstone for a Capshaw family and then Huddy so matter of factly said, “Well I hope someone had lunch with them.”

We also devoured an entire loaf of banana bread while we were there.  Mom would have been so proud 🙂

And we left some new flowers and some pretty Mother’s Day balloons.  What an incredible mom she was.

I’m still very unsure of this whole grief/mourning thing and am still figuring it out as I go.  Still crossing my fingers that my kids, especially Harper, are working through things in a good, healthy way.  We just keep pushing on through and doing the best that we can.  That’s all you can do, right?  I think so.

Happy Wednesday!

Today I am grateful for doughnuts.

The last day of MDO is upon us and Harper and Huddy were all super excited about their last day festivities…parties and picnics.  Sol was feeling a little left out, which I completely understand, so after we dropped them off at school, Sol and I headed to our favorite doughnut shop.

I may have consumed a few too many doughnuts lately, but they are just so hard to resist.  Sol was super excited about his sprinkle doughnut choice and I went with the regular glazed and blueberry cake.  Plus chocolate milk all around.  It was the perfect mid morning snack.

Times like these are absolutely precious to me…would not trade them for anything.  The baby of the Kelley family is about to take on a new role as big brother.  And even though he’s so far from being a baby anymore…he’s a complete big boy…it’s still a little sad to see him change roles.  I’ve been praying for his heart as he becomes a big brother.  I just know he is going to be fantastic at it…he’s going to completely rock…he has the heart for it!

I could seriously eat him with a spoon.  He just completely melts my heart into a big, drippy puddle.  I adore him!

Sol + Me + Doughnuts = L.O.V.E.

Happy Tuesday.

What’s in a post name anyways.  I want to hire someone just to name my posts for me.  Who wants to volunteer…I can pay you in, ummmm, maybe cookies 🙂

Huddy is allergic to all peanuts and tree nuts, so when he’s at school and we have lots of his allergy foods around, Sol gets to live it up.  He’s are will-eat-almost-anything-kid.

I’ve found that since Mom died, I have starting buying things I never bought before only because I know she was a stickler about buying those items.  Hence she only bought Oscar Mayer bacon & when it was on sale you better believe she stock piled it in her freezer.  She was infamous for her bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on her homemade sourdough bread.  She also only bought Log Cabin Lite syrup.  You will now find these items in our home.

Speaking of Oscar Mayer…the kids and I were a bit thrilled to see this parked on our street last week.  Who doesn’t love a giant hot dog car.

Mustache band-aids are clearly the best band-aid for any type of wound.  It makes you take your wound more seriously…you know, show it a little more respect than other wounds.

You should never, ever, under any circumstance venture into Aldies without your grocery bags.  Never.

2 out of 3 of the cutest little soccer players ever.  So what if they boo hooed for almost the entire game…it was a little over the top, but at least they were cute doing it.

My friend Stef and I ran a Mother’s Day 5K Sunday morning…in a flash flood warning.  It was crazy.  I made us some tees to rock.

It absolutely poured, but Stef was game rain or shine and so was I.  It was also all cross country…all grass…not a stitch of pavement…on a farm…lots of hill…lots of squishy, wet grass and mud…lots of mole hills and rocks to almost break your ankle on…a puddle that was shin deep…but also fun.

We rewarded ourselves with that oh so lovely Hot Now sign.  It was dreamy.

Mom was a crazy thoughtful lady.  And she was known for sending cards.  She sent them to everyone, for every occasion.  Her 65th birthday is coming up in June, so in her honor I’m sending out 65 cards.  I ordered special cards just for the occasion.  I’m quite smitten with them.

In my personal opinion, my cousin Rebecca’s Snickerdoodle recipe is the bomb!  These little guys are crazy good…and always need to be shared.

And today, well today, all the Kelleys, big & wee, are all smiles.  Paperwork for itty bitty brother headed out after all the official signatures and notaries were made at Mom’s bank.  Thank you Brian for doing all the important fancy stamping you did so well!

And off to the post office we went…bright and early.

Even one of our favorite postmen, Mr Ricky, joined in on the smiles as he added the postage and sent our sweet package on its way.

Now that is a Happy Monday!

Today is hard.  I really didn’t even want to get out of bed…and I may have eaten 4 doughnuts today…no lies around here 🙂  But I am trying to find joy in this Mother’s Day because there is really so much to be joyful about…there always is, even despite your situation.

And not just see it and recognize it for what’s it worth, but really take it in…feel it in my heart.  That kind of Joy.  The Joy that is real and true and thankful and blissful and pure and lovely.  Joy is a good word.

So even though this day is super hard and sad and I miss my mom like I never imagined missing anyone…I am finding Joy in the fact that I had a crazy wonderful, amazingly amazing, can’t be compared to anyone else kind of mom.  She was just fantastic and encompassed the word joy.

And I find Joy in being the wee Kelleys’ Mom.  I am singing God praises for finally showing us our itty bitty boy’s face…he’s quite the rockin’ little dude.  Being their Mom is quite possibly one of the best things ever & for that, I am grateful and find true, true Joy.

So much to find Joy in today.  Hope you can find a bit of Joy today as well.

Happy Mother’s Day!

(To win this 10×10 “Find Joy” canvas head over the Worthy Of The Prize & enter to win.)

First…THANK YOU!  Oh how loved and celebrated you have made me & our little Kelley family feel.  Your comments and emails and FB messages are crazy wonderful.  A big, big THANK YOU!

We are truly overwhelmed.  Tuesday was a wild day with Huddy being super sick and of course our sweet call coming at the very moment when we least expected it…in the doctors office.

Can you tell that is the crinkly tissue paper you lay on at the Dr’s office 🙂

And from the time of the call until about 3am Wednesday morning…everything was surreal and joyful and sad and completely bittersweet.  Oh how long we have waited to see his little face and how over the moon we are about him, but there was also a sadness for him and the loss he will soon experience and for his brief history.  And just so you know, we are very protective of our kiddos’ stories, so if you ask me about his time before us…in Ethiopia…please don’t be offended when I don’t tell you 🙂  It’s just how we have chosen to handle our kiddos’ stories…not right or wrong…but just our choice.

And of course, there was a great sadness for me about Mom not being here to finally, finally see him.  She was such an encouragement all through out our adoption journey and she did anything she could to help us.  She was elated to have another grandson and I know she would have been beating down our door to see his face and hear all about him.  So it was a very bittersweet day, but so beautiful.

We’re also picking our jaws up off the floor that he’s an itty bitty wee one.  I just knew that our next son was going to be 3…I imagined our “twins” becoming “triplets”…hence my ‘Brothers’ post, which I wrote early Tuesday morning and set to publish for Wednesday morning 🙂  Josh and I and our agency were all very confident of an older little guy, but then God had his plan.  We have sold every single baby item we owned…everything.  I’ll be honest, it does make my blood pressure rise a bit to be back in the world of diapers and bottles, but humbled and honored and blessed that God would give us a chance at being his Mom & Dad.

So since Tuesday life has been wildly crazy.  We’re working on paperwork and waiting on phone calls and everything else.  We told the wee Kelley’s the news and showed them his picture.  They were beyond adorable and all offered to help with all the baby duties…both boys even voluntarily offered to change diapers.  Harper’s wiser than that. 🙂

We celebrated with sprinkle Mickey Mouse pancakes that Grammy used to always make.

Friends have smothered us in love and celebrated us in super sweet ways.

We’ve printed about a gazillion pictures…if you see me, ask to see him…I have pictures in my bag waiting to show off 🙂

I even made a “Baby” Pinterest board.  OH.MY.GOODNESS.  This is crazy!

And our only girl…the sanity to our insaneness…graduated preschool.  This has been a rough week on my tear count 🙂

What a week it has truly been.  I’m preparing for Mother’s Day to be a super hard day, but at least I now have a little face to stare at.  I’m memorizing every little inch of him.  We’ve done this all before…we know how this process works, but I had forgotten how easy the first part of the wait really is until I saw his face.  Then I quickly remembered…this next wait, well, it’s the hard one.  Those almost 18 months were a piece of cake…they melted away with a click of a mouse.  But now I have seen who were waiting for and I can’t get on a plane fast enough.  It was amazing to go through my bold prayer journal and cross off every time that I prayed “Let us see his face TODAY.”  Now I’m filling it up with “Give us the fastest court date ever” 🙂  God is so able and He is truly, truly good.

Happy Friday.

And just like that the almost 18 months of waiting melted away.  What a beautiful, bittersweet day it was.  His face is far sweeter than we ever imagined.

Happy, oh so happy, Thursday!