DIY Birthday TuTu

Yesterday during Lydia's afternoon nap I did some rare crafting. I am not a crafty person, but in order to save money on her first birthday party, and to add some personal touches, I have decided to make a few things for her big day. Using Pinterest, of course, I gathered a few ideas, and I decided to start with the one that seemed like the most fun - an adorable tutu! Here is how it turned out:

I have to say I am pretty proud of it, and I decided a matching hairbow was a must :)

To get to the tutorials I used, follow me on Pinterest by clicking on the icon on the right of the blog, or follow these links, for the tutu and for the hairbow.

Have you done any easy crafts lately? Like I said, this normally isn't my thing (as much as I wish it was) but I really enjoyed making something cute for Lydia, and the sense of accomplishment was nice too.

7 snapshots: Random

It is happening! I am getting bad about taking new pictures of my girl. I didn't pull my camera out once this week, but lucky for you I did take some photos with Instagram (follow me at aharrison0525!) and other people took some pretty cute pics as well.

Enjoy :)

7 Snapshots... Tuesday

Happy Election Day! Hopefully you got a chance to vote today, and hopefully we will know by tomorrow morning who our next president is. Lydia sat with me while I voted today, and she even got her own little sticker that she promptly put in her mouth...

So, our weekend was pretty nuts. While most people got an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night we got almost none. Our poor baby had a stomach virus and she was up for 3 1/2 hours getting sick in the middle of the night. Having a puking baby is so pitiful, and so not fun. Sunday was a day full of nursing and napping, and even though it wasn't a great situation I must say that I loved having the excuse to really "baby" my baby girl. It is crazy how already all she wanted was me when she was sick, and how that feeling never really goes away (I still want my mom when I'm sick!).

Here are some shots of her when she is feeling very well, and eating bananas!

 Lydia is most expressive when she is eating. She screams, flaps her arms and legs, and makes faces.

 Silly girl.

 

Lately she is fascinated by Jasmine... luckily Jasmine just runs away when Lydia approaches.

After the craziness of the weekend our little family took a road trip. On Monday I was off work for Fall break, so we all went up to Columbus for David's swearing in ceremony. He is officially a lawyer now! It was a great occasion to celebrate.

 The ceremony was in a beautiful theatre, and Lydia enjoyed the fancy chairs.

Daddy holding his girl at the reception. She was such a trooper for the whole trip.

Now normal life is resuming. Lydia is feeling better, I go back to work tomorrow, and hopefully we will be hearing back about David's interview this week. I will be sure to keep you posted!

Patience is a Virtue

I haven't written a real post this week because I have been waiting. I wanted to be able to tell you that David had found a job - that within one week we had gone from knowing so little about our future to knowing much more. But, even after a very good interview this past Monday we still have no word. David had gotten a couple leads but none of them have come through yet. Don't get me wrong - I am beyond words proud of my husband. I am so impressed that he graduated law school and passed the Bar (scoring in the 82nd percentile!) with a newborn. I know that he is going to be a very successful lawyer and find a job that he loves all in God's timing. I know that in the meantime we have an incredible situation due to generous family and an abundance of opportunities for me.

But... we still have to wait. It has been almost 6 months since we graduated and in some ways it feels like we are no closer to where we want to be. Our dream as a family is to have a home that I can focus on, and a job where David can use all of his talents - and we hope that together these two components can create a wonderful childhood for Lydia (and hopefully subsequent kiddos). It's November now, and somedays it is just difficult to still be sharing a car, to be the only people in our social circle without a smart phone, and to be an indefinite amount of time away from buying a house. It isn't only the material things that we struggle with though - it is just the feeling of building something and getting some where that I often miss.

However, I think that it is in these difficult days that I am learning true patience. In the past I have been good at waiting - waiting to get married, waiting to graduate, waiting to have a baby. But all of these things had a real and concrete "due date". The most difficult thing right now is having no idea when we will take our next steps forward. Again, I have faith that we won't wait forever (and judging by the wisdom of all the encouraging people around me, one day we will look back at this time in our life and think it flew by), but we really have no control over when a great opportunity will open up for David. It has been in walking through this tunnel with no light at the end that has taught me how to truly be patient. How to live every day in the present instead of worrying about the future. How to relinquish the lie that I can control anything, and in contrast just start enjoying the blessings. How to force my heart to feel what my mind already believes.

So I think that it is better that I write this post. The one that says we are still waiting... we haven't heard anything... we don't know our next steps. But we are still so, so blessed. And abundantly joyful.

Happy Halloween!

Hope yours was as sweet as ours :)

First Steps

Lydia took her first steps last Friday, and last weekend she continued to build up more than more courage. Then all of the sudden she stopped trying, which is fine, but it left us without any videos of her first few steps! Luckil my sister got a good one, and now I will share with you :)

I can't believe she is so big already!

7 Snapshots - Halloween Party!

This weekend was a very busy one, but it was fun! On Friday I went over to my sister-in-law's house to make snacks for the party we were having on Saturday and then David and I went out to the Cheesecake Factory to get dessert to celebrate him passing the Bar Exam!!! It was a wonderful date and an amazing accomplishment to celebrate.

Saturday was the day of the Halloween party for all of the kiddos on David's side, and the pictures below almost begin to describe how adorable the whole event was.

 My sister got to join us, which was so much fun!

 Most of the spread created by Katie G. and I. We have witches hats, monster fingers, ghosts, pumpkins, mummies (and not pictured we had orange jello and dirt with worms). I was proud of the snacks that we made... and for me not being crafty, it was fun to do.

 Halloween costume #1: Winnie the Pooh. Tune in Wednesday (or Thursday) for #2.

 We played games - like making each other into mummies! My partner was Grayson.

 All of the kids in their costumes... this really was the best picture.

 Love!

This is why we chose Pooh for a costume - so that Lydia would match her cousin Lincoln. I love how they are just staring each other down. They are hilarious together.

Those are all the pics for tonight. We have a really big week coming up. Tomorrow David goes in for an interview at 1 (please keep him in your prayers) and on Wednesday is it Halloween, which should be fun. I can't believe that October is almost already over! It is getting way too close to Lydia first birthday, and Christmas will be here before we know it. Oh, how time flies.