cecee's room

cecee's room is overflowing with handmade love! we went with what started out as a shabby chic sort of look & it's evolved a bit. it's full of hand-me downs & crafts made by family, friends & myself.

i found this cross stich in a drawer at my papaw's house. my friend karen suggested putting it in an embroidery hoop. i added some material to make a ruffle around it. it turned out better than i thought!

her changing table was in my room as a baby. it's an old piece from my great grandparents & we had it refinished. it's a bit cluttered right now, but definately does the job.

the tissue box cover (one of my favorite things in her room!) was my baby dress.
daddio, beano & i painted the pictures above her changing table. can you guess who painted which?
her namaw made rugs for her room, which i just love. you can see her little chair in the corner. cecee loves to sit in it & look through her books.

above her crib (which neither child has ever slept in), are some awesome vintage nursery rhyme plaques my friend karen gave us. i painted the letters for her name

her bookcase is filled with books & "vintage" items that are dear to my heart. there are pictures of all her grandparents as children hanging up, which i love to look at & compare my kiddos to. the girl & gnome prints to the sides of the bookcase are from this etsy seller, mulitple personality. she has a girl with gnome doll i just love!


my friend karen made her this tree picture, which it too cute!


i used some of my grandma's old dresses as a mat for some pictures. her dresses were so worn, you could see through them! i love having pieces of her in the room. there's a picture of her in one frame as a teen, she was a hottie!


here's a rag wreath out of my grandma's old materials (she was quite the seamstress). it looks much better in person; here it just looks like a bunch of rags.
my first sewing attempt were some "creatures" a while back & they are scattered all around the home. here's one that has found his way onto the glider.

latest addition to her room is a set of pictures from a photo session at gray photography. we love him. he is the most talented man. i can't say enough about his pictures. my framing doesn't do the pictures justice. they didn't quite fit in the frames i bought, so i have to figure out a better way to display them.

beano's room is not so full of my craftiness, he still has some wall space. before he was born, we painted pictures for his room. he has a dinosaur / cars motif going on right now. we(i) wasn't too sure about what to name him, so i painted letters to spell out jacob, ben & kaden. as soon as we got home, i made daddio hang up the letters. a bit silly i know.

wheelin around, cpk & a prayer request

justin was helping papaw load up wood sunday. he also had some special cargo in the wheelbarrow


i found some of my very old halloween costumes in the basement. beano as a cabbage patch kid looks a bit spooky!


please have prayers for papaw tomorrow. he is having surgery to remove the cancer on his throat (that big lump on the side of his neck). i don't know too much about it, he likes to keep things to himself. but, i hope all goes well. he means so much to me, i don't like to think about the what ifs.

when i'm sad, stressed, happy, basically any emotion; i love to read brian andreas' storypeople stories. his prints are all over our home & make me smile when i see them.
these 2 really made me think of my papaw.
"The day he first told me he was starting to disappear I didn't believe him & so he stopped & held his hand up to the sun & it was like thin paper in the light & finally I said you seem very calm for a man who is disappearing & he said it was a relief after all those years of trying to keep the pieces of his life in one place. Later on, I went to see him again & as I was leaving, he put a package in my hand. This is the last piece of my life, he said, take good care of it & then he smiled & was gone & the room filled with the sound of the wind & when I opened the package there was nothing there & I thought there must be some mistake or maybe I dropped it & I got down on my hands & knees & looked until the light began to fade & then slowly I felt the pieces of my life fall away gently & suddenly I understood what he meant & I lay there for a long time crying & laughing at the same time. "

&:
"She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short. "

christmas fun part 2

eventually, i will get to the new year......

on christmas eve eve, beano & justin were both sicko! it was terrible. but, by morning time when santa arrived on christmas eve everyone was doing better. the kiddos received lots of fun presents. a cabbage patch kid doll for cecee, hot wheels race track & balance bike for beano and a disco ball for me! but the biggest hit was daddio's remote control helicopters that battle each other. the boys, i mean men, have had a blast with those!

after our christmas morning, we drove to stendal for christmas with the hagemeyer's, cooks and tassell's. here's jl modeling her new shirt..
we finally met jordan, ashley's boyfriend (good guy)! cecee loves it when brad reads to her! we had a good time visitng, eating, playing peanut & balderdash.

we then went to selvin with papaw for a burger. we got dressed at papaw's & the kids found the magnifying lens. they love to search for clues around his home. after pap's we went to the xmas eve program at church. you can see ben being a shepard in an earlier post.

christmas eve night, i caught the bug & was sick all night. but that didn't stop us from celebrating.

we went to papaw's & celebrated with mom, cousins nathan & luke and aunt peggy. we decorated cookies, swung in the swings, and had a good old time. ben said luke is the best swinger pusher in the whole world (whatever that means...)
papaw got some phillies papers from nathan for christmas- how awesome!

guess what i got.........

here are my cousins showing off their handmade wreaths & heating pads made by beano & me...



poor peggy had to rocky the babies.

after pap's we went up to tom & donna's for some more food &family times. a spectacular meal was served & the kids got some more fun toys. they got to play with cousin grant some more (their favorite!)


here are the pics ben took of namaw & poppy. i think i have a future rockstar/photographer on my hands!



i hope everyone had a happy holidays & a happy birthday to you karen!!! xoxo

christmas time fun

we had a couple of weeks worth of christmas celebrations. the past few weeks have been hectic, but very fun. it has been nice to have a few days to relax & recover at home. we are going to miss daddio being at home
auntie jen came home for the holidays & we got to pick her up from the airport. ben, being the gentleman he is, carried her suitcase.

we had a wonderful dinner with good converation as always.

the kids enjoyed tormenting big cousin grant. he cracks them up!

cecee also loved maryann giving her a pedi. i have a girly girl in the making!

the next day we went to aunt jane's to celebrate with the shuck side of the family. it is always a lot of good times & laughter there. that's what i love about a big family! check out the chaois of the kiddos opening gifts...<
ben & morgan has a great time playing motorsicles (as he calls them).

look at pretty denyail. she is so cute!



here is the shuck clan. a mighty good looking set of brothers & sisters i must say!!!


stay tuned for rest of xmas adventures...

r.o.c.k. in the u.s.a.

brandon brought rockband to play on our trip to the smoky hills (as beano calls it). we had a blast jamming out!


cecee & i couldn't hang the last night and went to bed before beano let his inner rock star truly shine. he was jumping off the fireplace, pointed at miss e & said this one's for you. miss e. is about 4 months old & was even singing along. here's my little rocker...

mighty machines!!!

beano loooves the mighty machines dvds! they put daddio & me to sleep. he has a favorite one we would get from the library, but santa brought him his very own! here he is belting out the theme song on the way to uncle tom & aunt donna's yesterday! i don't know why he looks so angry, he really gets into it! you can see cecee's arm to the left dancing.

away in a manger

here's papaw's manger scene he finally finished. he's been working on it since before grandma died. i am proud of him that he completed it & has it displayed. it was a labor of love. he has struggled since grandma passed away, especially on the holidays (she went into the hospital Christmas eve & never came out). but, he is getting better. i think my kiddos have a lot to do with that. kids just brighten up a day.




i just had to post some pictures of my little shepard boy & angel tonight. last night, before bed i was telling beano about when i was little & would be in the Christmas program. i told him, hopefully someday (when we better attend church) he would get to be in a Christmas program.
well, low & behold the program has changed at our church. any old kid is welcome to participate, no practice required. beano said "i'm so xited, what's a sheperd do?" he ran all the way to the dress area with a big smile on his face.
check out his smile. he is so happy. you can just see the anticipation and innocence in his eyes.


i can't get over how dern sweet he looks!


i love this picture of the boys. it's looks like their having a talk about their sheep, or that baby they heard was born in a manger.



all the kids did a great job. i loved it. beano was so sweet up there, he was really paying attention to the baby in the manger.




miss cecee was a bit worn out during manger time & didn't want to be an angel for long. daddy had to go rescue allie from the wriggling toddler at the front of the church right away. she was mighty cute though.

Merry Christmas to all! i look forward to posting about our christmas adventures over the past few weeks.

the new do..

here is his professional hair cut. he's my dollbaby. i'm so thankful the lady didn't shorten it too much. i care more about his hair than my own- a bit silly i know.

tonight, santa is visiting our home. the kiddos went to bed early so we could wrap & put together some things. nothing like waiting till the last minute. the kiddos got up at 4 this morning, due to beano puking. he felt all better by noon. daddio, on the other hand is starting to feel yucky. i hope he's feeling better for present time.
we've got lots of activities & a mini vacation coming up (to the smoky hills as beano calls them). i can't wait. i hope we magically get healthy.
merry christmas to all & happy birthday to my dear friend karen!!