The little girl with the spiderman sandals...

2 years in review!

Referral Photo

(love at first sight)

First Family Photo

"Gotcha"

Meeting Jory at the airport

1 month home

September 2009

Meeting Caiya - her MaoGang sister that now lives in North Carolina

1st Forever Family Day - 6/22/10

Family Portrait

6?22/10

2011

We've discovered rollers!

Miss Attitude!

Playing TBall



A COOL TREAT FOR A GOOD CAUSE

A NOTE FROM WENDY'S... JUST IN TIME FOR FATHERS DAY!!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!


6/17/11
A cool treat for a great cause
Dear friends,

On Sunday, I’m taking my 84-year-old dad to Wendy’s to buy him a chocolate Frosty for Father’s Day. I’m celebrating him and all that he has done for me – for bringing me up and never letting me down. Will you join us?

Stop by any Wendy’s this Saturday and Sunday and support the work of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption -- for every Frosty product sold, 50 cents will be donated to the Foundation in support of foster care adoption. There are 115,000 children looking for families, and a dad like mine, to call their own.

It’s simple. When you go to Wendy’s, you help find families for children. A Frosty is a cool treat for a great cause.

Happy Father’s Day!

Rita
Rita Soronen

President & CEO

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

Busy

I know I've yet to fill in April and May pictures... and here's why!  These are June pictures and it's only 1/2 way through the month!

Jory and Jia are both playing baseball and Jory is playing soccer too.

We have 4 baseball games and 1 soccer game per week!  This week we have 5 baseball games because we're making up a rain out. 

It makes it really crazy for supper... so any quick and easy ideas would be welcome!

Here's Jory!  He is really becoming a great little player this year!  Hit's consitantly and has had a homerun the last 2 games.  It's Pee Wee ball, so he's postitioned around the coach pitcher and he gets a lot of balls and throws them out at first.  It's so fun to watch!  They really got a good thing going and our coach this year is wonderful with the boys!

Jia is sort of figuring Tball out.  She's enjoying it, but it doesn't really hold her attention.

She'd rather stomp on the coaches toes, play in the dirt or twirl with her friend!

She does a lot of this!

This is Jory's second year of summer soccer and he does so well that I think we will sign him up for a regular fall/spring season.  He really hustles on the field and always scores.  We gotta work on sharing the ball and passing though!

Here's his team planning their strategy..(figuring out which goal to kick it in!)

Jia is always the adorable cheerleader at soccer...

Switching gears.... I made this awesome ruffled dress for Jia la last week.

She loves it!  It was very time consuming, but so worth it!

My mom, Jia and I went to my friends Mary Kay Makeover / Open House last weekend.

It was fun to spend the afternoon with the girls and put on makeup and have our picture taken!

Jacen spent two weeks in Lawrence KS with Jadeth and came back and Jayhawks fan!

Aunt Ake spoiled him terribly and let him bring back on of her guitars to practice with.

As you can see, Jia thinks she might want to learn!

Jacen has been making up for lost time with his friends since getting home, so no pictures of him!  This is his first year with no baseball.  They didn't have enough boys his age sign up for a team.  It's really been very sad for us because he is SOOOOOO good and Jack and I love to watch him play!

I promise to get some skateboarding pics of him soon and maybe some video of him playing the guitar!

I'm creating a summer bucket list and promise to take pictures along the way... so keep comin' back!

Sewing Projects

Well, I have so many things to add. I've been such a bad blogger and I'm afraid it's only gonna get worse before it gets better. 

You see, summer has hit and that means baseball, T-ball and soccer.

I plan on doing just a MAY post and upload all my pictures from May.

It has been a busy month... Jia's Preschool Graduation, Jory's acheivement award, Jadeth's birthday, Mothers Day, Jia's eye surgery, Baseball and soccer pictures.... you get the idea!

But first, I wanted to get you up to date with all the latest sewing projects!  It's been fun!

As you know, there's a new baby in our family, Jaxton.

So we've done a little sewing for him!

Here's an adorable little pirate outfit sewn on a onsie and matching pants.

These little Tie Onsies have been a big hit and Jax looks so handsome in his!

I bought this new pattern for Jia and she loves it! 

We used it for her Easter dress.

It twirls fabulously!

Here's the same dress in different fabric.

Another Tie Onsie and Bib for a gift.

Baby Andersen's last name is Burd... so the bib has a Baby Burd on it!

Another Birdie Onsie for a friend who had twin girls!

I made Jaxtons bedding and tried a new 'Faux Chenille' Blanket.

It takes a lot of sewing, but the end result if really neat!

 You stack your front piece of fabric and then 3-4 colors for the back.

I stacked a John Deere panel, Green, Red & Yellow.

Then sew diagonally every 1/2" across the entire thing.

Did I mention it was SEW time consuming??

After you sew all those lines, you cut through them.

Here's my front panel



After cutting all the lines, you bind the edges and wash it a few times.

It rags up and gets very soft like Chenille!

Jia got a new patchwork skirt

And this dress is made from a Jelly Roll and sewn onto a white t-shirt.

This Ruffle Shirt drives me a bit bonkers because the back ruffle doesn't line up. 

I think I'll try it again without the lower ruffle and just do a solid back.

A new reversible shirt with ribbon sewn around 'too-short' jeans to match.

(can you tell she's getting good at posing?)

The other side of the reversible shirt

And a dress made from an old shirt of mine.

It was difficult to line up all those ruffles but well worth it.

This looked like a really expensive dress!

And finally a little PillowCase dress for Graduation!

Stay Tuned....

Mommy N Me

My friend Renea of Look at Me Photography did Mommy N Me pictures this Saturday.

My kids weren't too happy about being drug out of bed early on Saturday... but it was so worth it!

Here is Lil' Miss 'Tude!

I went to get Renea some breakfast and Jory and Jia stayed with her. 

She killed the time by snapping pictures!

(Renea, Jia loves you!  LOL!)

Me and my kiddo's. 

We are missing Jadeth.  Maybe next year he'll make it home for Mothers Day.

Praying for gas prices to go down!

And in Black N White. 

I love the 'DANGER' sign above Jacen's head.

Priceless.



I do have some great Easter pics and some Mothers Day pictures to share soon.

And tomorrow is Jia's Preschool Graduation, so pics of that coming soon to!

Hope you all had a blessed Mothers Day!