Charm skirt and matching top are soo cute.
And I love the swing top revision... Thanks!
So I had to share this pic... its way OT.
DDs preschool class went on a field trip to the Kangaroo Farm
This is her and a baby Wallaroo (or Wallaby).
That is the cutest little Wallaby! How cool that she got to hold it!
Another cute creation! This picture makes your DD look too old! She's such a pretty girl!
So glad he hasn't had another. I hear ya about the forever wait on appts. It's unreal how long our kiddos have to wait. I hope time passes quickly.
We're doing better. A rough few months. We all got swine flu. The rest of us got better in about 7 days. Drew was off school for 6wks. It was the sure Grace of God he finally pulled through. He's given us a few scares since Oct. It took me a long time to stop being angry with God and be ok again. Now that I've handed the baggage to him, we're all doing much better. (why do I not remember this lesson).
Madilynn is doing great! She's in full day Kinder and LOVES it and has the best teacher EVER!
You know I take a zillion pictures so here you go

Halloween - dumping her candy to sort and inspect
Meagan, DeAnna, Steve
Madilynn, Ryan, Drew & Zander
Thank you so much for the pictures!! My favorite is of Madilynn in her Cinderella dress, of course.

I love the family picture, too!! Your kids are growing up! Why do these kids keep doing that?
That must have been so scary when Drew was so sick with the swine flu! My kids got it and I know how worried I was. But, they were better after a week. So, I can imagine you were pretty terrified.

I'm sorry you had such a rough winter. I pray that things stay better for you now!
Bubblegum Flavored Creme Soda. YUM!! I remember getting Big Red or Green River at the little store in bottles.......some years ago. Always a special treat. Right up there with the BubbleGum IceCream with the real gum balls in it we used to get every year in Old Sacramento
Mmmmmm....that sounds yummy! I used to love the bubble gum ice cream, too!
Wow, thank you for the overwhelming love and support/prayers expressed on my Facebook page! I hadn't even made an official "statement" and I have so many comments from so many of my Disboutiquer friends.
It was March 16th when my mom was given the diagnosis of lung cancer. She declined any treatment, and my dad expressed a desire to care for her at home. Last night, in her own bedroom with my dad sleeping nearby, she passed away peacefully in her sleep.
My sister-in-law was there (my siblings had been spending nights so Dad wouldn't be alone). My dad, bless his heart, got up and made his bed and tidied up the bedroom before the hospice nurse arrived. Heaven forbid the nurse find the bed unmade, LOL!
I will be traveling with 2 of my siblings to Arkansas on Saturday.
I know I take your warm thoughts and prayers with me, and I thank you.
Darla
Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry.

I'll pray for your family. How is your dad handling this? I'm sorry, I didn't see the posts on facebook.
Hi Everyone. Shardai just posted on FB that she's having a REALLY difficult time right now and could really use the prayers
My heart breaks for her. I can't imagine what she must be going through. right now.
I lost a niece @ 2 yrs old and I remember how hard the following weeks were.
That is awful. I'm so sorry you had to endure a loss like that.
Been there done that! And I don't wish it on anybody. Grace and Claire have caught them twice. The first time it was at private swim lessons. A woman from a different culture (one that normally lives with lice) was caught just picking them out of her daughters hair. Of course, the girls when they went back for their lessons just tossed their towels all together. We had it two days later. Then Grace caught it again at school in February. Her class has had 3 major outbreaks of them (the school only notifies you if there are more than 4 students with the same thing - lice, strep, chicken pox - whatever). Grace and Claire are constantly in each other's beds so Claire had them too.
Make sure you wash and dry everything (I send Darren to the laundromat so we can get it all done at once, instead of 30 loads at home) even mattres pads, comforters, and blankets. If you do end up with them, buy the comb called LiceMeister. It's around $15 but so much better than ones that come with Rid or Nix. We usually but the Rid, and do that the first day then Nix the second day. We come it out everyday with the LiceMeister comb. Days 3-9 we use Lice MD (this doesn't contain any pesticide but is the consistency of vaseline). It really conditions their hair but is really difficult to wash out. It takes about 3 times with shampoo to get it out. Then day 10 we use the Rid again and the next day the Nix. Usually after the second day I don't find anymore eggs, but I keep combing it out as a precaution. All it takes is one egg to hatch. My whole head itches just thinking about it! Darren, Lilly and I have never caught it thankfully! I saw that Courtney Cox caught it from her daughter once. Yuck! I know they like clean hair/heads but it's so gross!
We have never gotten lice, thankfully. I am hoping that maybe they just don't like our hair (even though it's clean

)! The little girls we wanted to adopt had lice every time they came over. They still have it to this day (and have had it for at least a year and a half). But, I treated their hair with the Lice MD and nit picked every time they were at our house. I was actually surprised that none of us got it. I went through Tessa's hair really thoroughly today and I still didn't see anything. I can't stop itching, though! It turns out that 3 kids in her class also have it (I can't remember if I already said that), but no one told us! They must have the 4 kid rule, too! Ugh! She's been going to school with her hair up and heavily hair sprayed ever day this week!
I vacuumed and washed/dried everything I could think of on Sunday after the little girl left. It took me all day long, and part of the next day. The laundry room was so piled with blankets and such that I was afraid I would recontaminate the clean stuff when I got it out of the dryer! I should have sent Henry to the laundromat, I never thought of that!
Heather I just sent you a PM. Thanks again for the compliment
Thank you for being so sweet about it!
Heather Sue... I looked and I am in love! Now I need to get some designs and buy an embroidery machine. In that order lol!

Now that's my kind of thought process!
Thanks everyone for all the compliments! But you've all got to stop mentioning how big the kids are getting! I'm trying to ignore it!
I just used CarlaC's simply sweet halter version - I elongated the bodice and the ties, then just added a loop in the middle of the back to tie the ties through. Hope that makes sense. If not, let me know and I'll try and take pics of what I'm talking about!
Just look at how little they were in your signature. *sigh*
Thank you for telling us how you did the top! I was trying to figure out what pattern that was, or if you made your own. I love the style, perfect for applique!
Here's the front of the dress that resulted:
I adore the piping you made for this dress! That adds so much to the final look! I also love the back- SO very pretty! This is definitely one of my favorites of yours! I also like how long you made the lace layer. I need to figure out how to make my lace look as nice as yours!
Something about Corey being 18 or 19.
I accidentally deleted what you actually said, so I improvised. But, you are giving me a heart attack- he's 17!! He'll be 18 on June 12, but I prefer not to think about that.
No way!! I can't believe that is your first applique and that you made these with no pattern!! You did a wonderful job! You are a natural at applique! I think the Mickey head is a very difficult applique to do with all the rounded edges. So, I am VERY impressed!! I can't wait to see what else you come up with!
Do any of you ever do any of your appilques by hand sewing - like needle and thread, putting you fabric in a regular hoop - not on the machine? The Squirt applique I am making - I just don't trust my free machine applique skills yet to do the little details - so here I sit between patients hand embroidery the spots on Squirt and will probably do all his facial features too. Does anyone else do this?
Yes! I always did the small details with a needle and thread (back when I used a regular machine). Teresa posted a link to some video tutorials of how to do certain embroidery stitches and I watched those to learn how. Here's a link, in case you're interested in seeing them:
http://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10/video-library-of-hand-embroidery.html
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I've missed you guys and your encouragement. I wish we had that in all aspects on our life.
Wouldn't that be nice?