silent auction for the valentine's

one of my dearest friends alivia, is holding a silent auction with some amazing items to bid on for a family in serious need. if you would like to donate some items to the auction it's not to late for you to get involved. see how you can here. 

these are just a few items that phinnie & pais will gladly be donating to the auction to help the valentine family. 

there will be more info to come about the auction and how you can bid on the vast array of items. i encourage you to be a part in whatever way you can. there are not many things that bring greater joy in life then giving to others.  

big thanks to alivia for your big heart and determination to help a family in need!

a year ago today...

i was feeling a bit nostalgic this morning as i was watching my little birdie, who was sitting next to me downing her
'ba ba'. so i started to look through pics of her from this time last year and here are the bittersweet photos i came up with. 

and a quick word to my birdie please slow down there is no rush to grow up.
amen and thank you.

she had just started eating baby food and was still getting the hang of it! hence the sweet potato covered face. 

she was mastering the skill of sitting up on her own.

loving her girl time with one of her bff's. 

still needing help with eating her bottle and falling asleep while she ate. this never happens anymore! {tear}

being as cute as a button and loving her momma. i guess some things haven't changed. ; ) 

letting your babies grow up is one of the hardest things ever! now i know why people have tons of kids. 

{not saying that i will though.}

how do you seasoned momma's cope with this tough stuff?! help!

oh, to drive with the window's down

we were teased with spring like temperatures last week and of course now we are back down to  frigid  temps. {tear} i'm not sure how much longer i can take the freezing cold so to ease the pain i day dream of being able to wear sandals such as these pictured below, little sundresses, and to drive with the windows down.

1. coral sandals from BC

2. modcloth sea dweller sandal

3. steve madden gladiator 

if you could all join together with me in a giant prayer chain, that spring would make it's debut in good ole ohio, it would be greatly appreciated. ha! just kidding. but if it is warm and delicious where you are and you're doing something fun in the sun let me know so i can pretend i am you for the day ; ) 

paisley's birth story

it had been a long day of walking laps around the mall with my mom and eating pizza because everyone know's those two things can thrust you into labor. right? right. my achy feet were being rubbed by my caring hubs as we watched the lord of the rings {the whole trilogy} that saturday night. when we finally went up to bed i found myself pretty disappointed that my due date came and went with no fire hydrant gush of my water breaking in a public place. because that's just how i wanted it to happen, dramatic i know. {i thought it be funny.} at 2:30 in the morning after a few hours of what i thought was painful gas i finally decided to google "what do contractions feel like". to my surprise i found many women describing the feeling as extreme gas pains! holy moly i was in labor! after waking my hubs up and making him time the contractions with me we finally decided to go to the hospital after downing

a bowl of oatmeal {big mistake!}.

 i was actually scheduled to be induced the next day so i knew my doctor wouldn't send me home. 

they admitted me to the hospital and right away my nurse came in and started filling us in on what typically happens during labor/delivery etc. then she started to inform us about the "red button" on the wall. she said in the case of an emergency she would push that button and between 15-20 doctors and nurses would come running in the room to attend to the situation. then she assured us "that never happens". . .  right.

the time came for them to break my water and a doctor "in training" was the lucky guy to do the job. he started jiggling around the little hanger, hook, whatever it is and we noticed he was having a little bit of trouble. after several minutes of this i could tell by the look on his face something was wrong. apparently paisley's heart rate began to drop rapidly and to top it off instead of water, a gush of blood poured out of me when he tried to break it.{thankfully i couldn't see any of this.} i looked over at my mom and husband and could tell by the looks on their faces this wasn't good.

the nurse looked at the doctor and said "should i push it?" he nodded his head and this is where the chaos begins. she pushes the button and immediately 15 doctors and nurses come flying in my room. one is putting an oxygen mask on me while another is sticking me in the arm with a shot and the others are trying to reassure me everything is going to be ok. looking back now i see how serious the situation was but in that moment i was at such peace in my heart because i knew God was going to take care of us. 

the shot they gave me was intended to get more oxygen or blood or something to paisley but it caused me to shake, well more like convulse, uncontrollably. remember that oatmeal? yeah i started throwing that up all over myself, so that was really cool. i remember looking over at my mom and noah and them mouthing to me it's ok, and praying under their breath. everyone was rushing around, looking at monitors, making me breath oxygen and from this point on things were kind of a blur. 

my mom followed one of the nurses out of the room and asked her to shoot straight. she wanted to know what was really up. the nurse probably shouldn't have told my mom this but informed her that they were concerned of the possibility that my placenta was pulling away from the cervix and that's what caused the bleeding. if this was the case the nurse let my mom know that during the delivery while i was pushing it could cause unstoppable hemorrhaging and i could die. wow great news! so that's on my moms mind the rest of the delivery and 

 she is praying and believing God that she won't lose her little girl . . . 

 to be continued . . .

{all photo's by lisa christine photography }

part two:

sorry to leave you all hanging for a couple days. when you have a 1 year old begging you to push her around on a toy car, feed her baby doll pretend avocado and dance like you've never danced before to the fresh beat band it makes it hard to find time to write!

if you are just joining us you can read the first part of this birth story here. 

so where were we? ah yes. my mom had just been told there was a possibility i could die during the delivery. awesome. being the strong women of God that she is that was clearly not an option so she immediately found my dad {my parents are pastors in case i never divulged that info before} and they went to a quiet place away form all the insanity and presented their case before the lord. 

meanwhile back in my room, doctors and nurses are still tying to figure out what's going on. paisley's heart rate was continually dropping off for what seemed like minutes at a time. the nurse was having me lay every which way possible to see if it would help but nothing seemed to work. my husband was up and down from the hospital chapel every half hour or so. he did a lot of praying that day. we all did. 

they were continually checking me to see if the bleeding was slowing down or had stopped and thankfully it had slowed down tremendously. at that point it was decided they were going to pump water back into me. {i had never heard of this before but at this point i didn't care what they did!} the nurse told me it was possible that paisley's head was so low in the canal that she was blocking any water from coming out when they "broke" my water. they also thought it was possible she was either laying on or "playing" with the umbilical cord which was causing her heart rate to consistently drop. {i have a feeling it was the latter of the two. little stinker.} they thought if they pumped more water back in it may help move her away from the cord and get her more comfortable. 

so here they come with bags of water. they pumped them in {however the heck they do that!} and to our pleasant surprise everything started to calm down. paisley's heart rate started to level out. no more dropping off for 5-10 seconds at a time. finally we all felt like we could breathe. well except my parents who were the only ones that knew it was possible i could die during delivery! ha! {sorry, that is so not funny. my bad.} for everyone else though things started to lighten up and even though my parents knew this unsettling information i never would have known. i believe they genuinely put 1 Peter 5:7 into work and really cast that care on the Lord. {if you don't know this verse look it up. it's a good one.} 

and here is just an interesting side note. i had gone to the hospital about a week prior to this because

 i knew, i mean i knew, that i was leaking fluid. i know what you're thinking "oh steph, you were probably just peeing yourself and you couldn't control it." no no, i am telling you i was leaking fluid. i went to the hospital and they ran a test and it came back negative for amniotic fluid. according to my doctor they should have done an ultrasound to make sure, but they didn't and just sent me home. i believe with my whole heart that i had leaked out a lot of fluid prior to my labor and that's why when they tried to break it nothing came out.  

i dilated from 5cm to 10cm in about 2 hours. my doctor arrived and it was finally time to push out this babe. the nurse told me it could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours to push her out. i chuckled under my breath and thought "2 hours is not an option. i'm pushing this girl out like a mad women. " so we started the process of delivery. a nurse holding one leg, my mom holding the other and my noah holding my hand. {he didn't really want to see what was going on down under till her head was coming out and i don't blame him! 

{there is some yucky junk coming out down there! hello!} 

out in the hall some of my best friends, my dad and brother were listening to everything that was going on during the delivery. we put a cell phone in my room and they had a cell phone on speaker so they could hear it all! we used them like walkie talkies! so fun.

my mom said every push she was watching with excitement and concern. she new that at any minute it was possible for a flood of blood to come gushing out and the joy of this moment would be abruptly over. thankfully that never happened. and in 20 minutes, yeah let me just brag on myself for a minute i pushed an 8lb. 7oz. 22in. baby out in 20 minutes. and if you don't know i am a fairly small person so to me that was quite an accomplishment! ok enough patting myself of the back. 

after 20 minutes this beauty arrived. 

 just perfect.

i can't imagine the relief my parents felt at this point. their daughter and first granddaughter made it safe and sound. my mom snapped a bunch of pictures and ran out to show the gang. 

noah making sure the nurse is doing everything right. ; ) 

just lovin' on my baby girl. 

after the delivery we started noticing that paisley was losing her coloring and turning slightly blue. i know right? like we needed any more drama. the nurses took her from me, everyone had to leave the room and they hooked her up to some oxygen and monitored her breathing. after they had everything stabilized they gave her back to me with a monitor attached to her foot. they said if the reading on the monitor dropped below 80 to push the "red button" on the wall. that darn red button! about 3 minutes after the nurses left, paisley's numbers dropped below 80 and we had to push it. doctors and nurses came rushing in all over again and whisked her away from me. 

they told us she may have to go in the neonatal unit over night and the head of the unit would be coming over in a few minutes to look her over. we immediately prayed over paisley that all of her levels would normalize and by the time the doctor examined her she was just fine. the doctor said all paisley needed was some skin to skin time with mommy. and that i could definitely do. 

by the end of the day paisley ended up being just fine. mommy ended up being just fine. {all thanks to Jesus!} however naoh and my mom needed a much deserved massage and spa day. i think they both had heart palpitations for a few days after this dramatic event! 

afterwords we discovered the gush of blood that came out was from two things. 

1. we believe the doctor slashed my cervix when he was trying to break my water {the water that wasn't even there due to my leaking} and the pressure that paisley was putting on my cervix was causing blood to gush out. 

2. the top of paisley's head had anywhere from 20-30 bloody nicks on it from the doctor jamming that hanger around up there. break. my. heart. it was awful to see and she still has scars on her head from it. 

but a year and a half later we are all healthy. we are all fine. and we know despite all the drama and insanity our God was faithful and kept us all safe in his hand. i am so thankful for my little family. 

thank you for reading this whole birthing story! i hope i didn't jerk your emotions around too much!

{all hospital photo's by lisa christine photography} 

faith friday

have you heard of soaping? no, i'm not referring to dove, lever 2000, or whatever favorite brand you use. soaping is a super practical way to do daily devotions in your b.i.b.l.e. {yes that's the book for me} and i am in love with it. being a mom, wife and simply a human being distractions can easily keep me away from reading the most important book in my life, but this useful tool has kept me on track and i am thankful.

soaping is a simple way of journaling while you study your bible...below is the acronym for s.o.a.p.

i love my beautiful tree of life journal that my hubs bought me but you can also get these life journals {pictured above} that are made specifically for journalling and "soaping". 

these life journals are great because they have a yearly reading plan already set up {hello!} that you can easily follow. they explain to you all about soaping and even have an area to document your prayers. 

i know that soaping isn't necessary to get into heaven . . . at least i think . . . {harty har  just  messing please don't write me an email} but it certainly has helped me not only stay consistent with my bible reading but also take more insight away from what i've just read.

see more about journaling and purchase your own life journal here. and if you start soaping or do something similar let me know! i'd love to hear about it. 

where i make stuff

here is a look into my craft room. it's definitely not the ideal work space even though it is quite large. but in reality it's just my dining room with a giant table pushed up against the wall. it makes do but one day {i'm sure like many of you} i would love to have a work room solely devoted to crafts. ahhh what dreams are made of. 

welp thats it! i probably shouldn't share this with you and just leave you thinking my craft room always looks this tidy but i think we all know that isn't true. i wish i was more organized but this is what the space typically looks like. tornado alley. 

do you have a space totally dedicated to your crafts and projects? if you do can i come live with you? ; ) 

what i love wednesday

1. loving this whimsical peaches in the sky blue handmade journal from awaken journaling. i know i would write in it every single day if i had it! ; ) 
2. i'm such a sucker for anything with birds or owls so this coral red rose necklace by amandas boutique had me at hello. hello !
3. there's nothing like a good clutch {even though i never get to carry one due to having a 1 year old and  the need of a giant diaper bag}. this robins egg blue and pastel ruffle clutch from kallochic is what i would carry if i could. 
4. if i had any extra space for furniture in my abode it would be used to house a chair like this vintage number. brought to you by mint home. 

happy wednesday! and if you have some lovelies you would like to share head over to krystina's blog lollipops and link on up!

olivia is 1

freshly back from seattle {we had an uhhh-mazing time} and so excited about this gorgeous feature birthday party! i missed every one of you while i was gone and hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

another darling baby has turned 1! i'm thrilled to share her adorable purple, lime green and owl themed party with you. i happen to have quite a soft spot for owls so this celebration is simply dreamy to me. can i go back and re-do my daughters first birthday?!  ; ) 

emily did a spectacular job pulling together all the details to this 'hoot' of a shindig. the above goody bags are definitely a favorite feature of mine. emily purchased the owl toppers for the bags from the sweet etsy shop  kreativekelors. 

she attached the small goodie bags filled with yummy m&m's to larger colored paper bags that she purchased from a local craft store. she filled the bags with toys and prizes for all the kiddo's. what a treat!

the delightful cupcake toppers were created by emily and her sister-in-law by using scrapbooking supplies, a cricut and the create a critter cartridge. the cupcake holders are from sweet treats supplies. 

aren't these banners just perfect!? you can never have too many banners at a birthday party! ; ) 

love these pics of the sweet birthday girl olivia enjoying her smash cake. get it gurl! 

emily threw such a fabulous party for little olivia! what great memories to cherish forever and ever. thanks for sharing with us emily! 

have you thrown a lovely party for your little one? i want to hear about it! and if you have professional pictures of it and would like to be featured on this blog send your info to [email protected].

{**disclaimer** i am slightly picky about what goes on my blog so if i decide not to feature your party please don't get your feelings hurt! only love here.}