Something Special.

One week ago, we were laughing and eating and carrying on with one another.
Our Thanksgiving meal was over and families began packing up ready to make the trip home. My Thanksgiving has always included a short hour's drive down to Ark City to fellowship and eat with my Grandma's 12 brothers and sisters and their families.

As we leave town, we usually stop at the town's park which includes an old train engine and play around for awhile before we head home. And this year, we did the same.

One of the little ladies and myself had stepped off the engine to play on other parts of the playground, and soon my dad joined. My Love, the eldest little lady, and the little Mister along with my Grandma stayed and played on top of the engine. You can't see from this picture, but just to the right is another part of the engine where you can climb up... high, really high. And they did.

And then I heard my husband yell. And then my dad. And then the entire playground full of people let out the most horrific scream in unison. I turned around... knowing it was one of the kids. My husband was flying off the train and I looked down and saw my baby laying face down in gravel. And then he was in my arms. As I write this, I ache, finally FEELING the miracle that we witnessed that day. 

His mouth was full of blood, which I soon realized was from him biting his tongue. My husband called the police and an ambulance was there immediately. They were concerned, but not really acting TOO concerned. And then one more person asked again, "Where exactly did he fall from?". Jacob showed them; and then they were moving. One Paramedic kept saying that we had in fact witnessed a miracle that day and he just could not believe it.

My little baby was then strapped to a board, holding my hand tightly like a grown person would. I don't know why that struck me the way it did, but it did. He held my hand the entire way to the hospital, as we sang, "This Little Light Of Mine" and I whispered over and over to him how brave he was being. 

My Husband sent the girls home with my dad and Grandma, and then followed us to the hospital. Our oldest daughter was quite concerned with where her little brother was going (I later found out Grandpa consoled her and the sis with some ice cream!). 

The doctor and nurses looked the little guy over and over. A few scratches on his forehead and chin. No bruises; no broken bones; there was nothing visibly wrong. They had him walk by himself and he took a few steps, limping, and then stopped and began to cry. X-rays were taken and showed nothing. He was walking by himself hardly limping at all by the time we left the hospital. The fact that he was alive was amazing to me... but nothing wrong? That's Grace... powerful, wonderful, Grace.

Throughout this week, my Husband has said several times that our little boy is something special. And as parents, I think we all have that thought... but then every so often we get an opportunity to witness just how special they really are and how our Creator and Savior has His Hand cradling even the smallest of souls each and every moment.

And in that we are humbled with thanksgiving.

vintage wear: Bows

This is one of my most favorite finds. First off, I think I paid $7.50 for it. Obviously, I love the bows on it; I also love the details on the top and the sleeves. However, as always, the length was so unflattering on me... so off it went!

I cut a few inches off making it hit just a bit above my knee which is what I always prefer. Add a sparkly gold belt, and some super cute heels and I have a favorite new outfit.

*SIDE NOTE* I wore this outfit to an outing at The Orpheum Theater where The Godfather Part 1 was being shown. As I was waiting for my date to catch up with me afterwards I was waiting at the back of the theater and a couple asked if I had dressed up for The Godfather. My reply was that I was dressed up because my three children were at home in bed and I was out on the town to which the man then said, "Huh... well, you look like a Corleone."

And Be Thankful.

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."
H. U. Westermayer

Today, we are giving thanks. We are loving one another and those around us. We are thanking the Giver of all things for the many blessings and provisions we daily receive. Our bellies AND our hearts will be full by the end of the day.

And we are thankful.

{Family} Lukoschat

Those young men made this afternoon session quite enjoyable! Lots of jokes told, lots of just laughing at one another... just being brothers.

I love getting to witness the love shared between families and getting the opportunity to capture it in an image and this session provided many opportunities.

{Family} Heinz

The Heinz family was so fun to work with. Those young gentlemen are just as charming as they are handsome, so you can imagine the afternoon I had with them! 

Ah! Those little faces kill me!!

The love shared between them is perfection. You don't find many families made up of mostly males that share the affection that this family did and I loved it so much. They definitely love their Momma!

And those Wildcats!

Cleansed!

I recently posted about a juice cleanse that I was doing. I did continue throughout the weekend and am so glad that I did. The evening of my last post had me feeling terrible... seriously terrible. The cleanse had not flushed out my systems the way that I had hoped, which made me consider that something actually was not working properly in my body (I've actually been saying this for months, hence the reasoning behind the cleanse in the first place!).

When I write that my systems weren't "flushed" I am basically saying that I did not go to the bathroom all week. Only having the juice concoction that I was drinking should have definitely made that happen. So, on Friday I began taking a mild laxative as well, just to see if that would help. Thankfully, it did. This, along with the two extra days of the cleanse, made me feel INCREDIBLE. I do feel like my systems were finally flushed out and I am amazed at how I feel. Even more amazing, I had not begun my cycle since having the little Mister (he's almost 18 months old!) and within two days, I had (with NO cramping, bloating, or fatigue!!! Whaaaat?!?!?!). Every ache and pain that I've been concerned about was gone. Just gone.

I researched adding solids back into your diet once your cleanse was over and found a schedule that looked good for me and slowly began adding solid food back into my diet; soft, cooked vegetables the first day; grains, the next (I actually had quite a few solid things that evening as I had some guests over and I DO NOT recommend that, bring it back slowly!!); dairy, the third day; animal meats, the fourth day; and I could begin eating fish the fifth day. I do feel as though my body reacts to either dairy or grains in an adverse way, so I'm hoping to keep those to a minimum (but seriously, I now notice how much of those two things are part of my daily diet, so it will take a little bit of tweaking for sure... totally worth it to me after doing this though!).

{Becky, this next section is for you!} I've always wanted a juicer, but after watching "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" I wanted one more than ever! So, I kept my eyes open, but they are so expensive and I just could not justify spending that kind of money (though in hindsight knowing just what it could do, it's absolutely worth the money). However, I follow Groupon and one day they had a Dash Juicer as one of their deals. It ended up only being $69 and I couldn't pass that up.

I love this juicer. It is so easy to use and even better, so easy to clean up. I also learned that this is one of the only juicers that will juice Celery (which was one of my ingredients) so I was quite happy about that. There's a great review here as well... if I didn't sell you on it, this lady will!

I'm not just happy with the results, I am ecstatic at the changes that it's allowed me to make. The ailments that were bothering me (that my doctor was unable to diagnose or really even help with) are just gone and I am amazed that our bodies are made the way they are. 

I'm a juicer for life.

She's HERE!

I mentioned in my last post that a new little lady would be making her way into this world very soon and she was here the next morning!! She's the tiniest little person that I've ever seen or held and she is perfection. I would never put her down if that was an option. She's wonderful in every way. My sister did SO awesome (and I hear my little brother was quite awesome himself... which I love to hear) and she was feeling great and up walking around by the time we came and met our newest family member. 

Thankfully, she only lives about five minutes away, so anytime I need a fix I just show up on their doorstep... which of course, they love.

Cleansing.

This has been what my diet has consisted of this week... in juice form. For the last several months, I've felt as though I needed to do something to get my systems working properly again. I had watched a documentary called, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and was sold immediately on juicing. The main reason being that you were still getting all the good stuff from your vegetables and fruits, sans the fiber... which is the healing part to your digestive system.

It has been a good experience for me. I realized a few things about myself and my eating habits that will hopefully stick with me. My goal was to do a five-day cleanse, but I think I may extend it a few more days as I feel like there is still work being done. I began this on Monday, and Thursday afternoon was the first time I began to actually feel hungry. I have realized that consuming more water throughout the day definitely helps. We'll see how the weekend goes for me.

So, if you're out eating a delicious solid meal this weekend, eat an extra little bite for me!

OH! And big news over at My Yellow Umbrella today! There are some SUPER exciting things going on... like... A NEW SHOP!!! This is seriously very exciting as a lot of hard work has been put into this and the blessings of that hard work are already being recognized (which I'm just going to get a bit sentimental here and say that I am SO proud of Alina aka one of the Sisters in this new endeavor! She has worked so hard and I CANNOT wait to see where this leads!!!)

OH and more big news!!! My newest little baby niece will definitely be here very soon... VERY soon!!!! As in maybe tonight!!!! I cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a lot of exclamation points, but there's a LOT of excitement going on here!!

Have the loveliest of weekends!

{Maternity} Lisa aka One Of The Sisters

I mentioned recently that my brother and sister-in-law are preparing for their little baby to get here, so obviously we needed to get some pictures of Lisa before that happens. Her parents are the property owners of the land where The Red Barn Outdoor Market is held, and at her shower which was also held there, we were able to sneak in a few photos.

The little lady should be here by the end of the month and I CANNOT wait to get my arms around a little tiny newborn bundle again!

Have a lovely day!

"I Made That!" Monday: Stuffed Monkey

A tiny, little lady in my life turns two today. We celebrated with her over the weekend and this was her gift. She's into Curious George right now, and she's quite the monkey herself, so I felt like she needed her own little pink monkey. After opening gifts, she carried her monkey and her little Princess Aurora baby around everywhere she went, so I think it was a hit.

PS: Making stuffed animals is a task... don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise.

Have a lovely day!