Gracey Shower in Dallas

This shower was given to us by Dan's family. Dan's mom Dotty is one of 6 six sisters, daughters of John and Martha Gracey. All the sisters now have so many kids who are cousins, and many of them still live in the Dallas area, so they have throwing baby and bridal showers down to an art. All the Gracey sisters (Dan's aunts) pitch in, plus my sister's-in-law Sarah and Ellen. It was held at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Dallas.


Beautiful cake made by cousin Lauren.


Diaper cake made by Ellen. She also hand painted the wooden letters for Jonah's room!


My friend Caroline was able to be there!


About to open gifts, Dan is caught on camera.




Dotty explaining her gift to me:

She gave us a subscription to Growing Child, a monthly newsletter that helps you understand your child — why he does certain things at certain times, what he's learning by doing them, and what you can do to help him develop. Each monthly issue of Growing Child matches the age of your child. Growing Child will keep you informed about what to expect at each stage of your child's development, and how to deal with each month's changes and challenges.


Sweet sister.


From left, me, Dan, Memama (Martha Gracey), Philip, Dotty, and Ellen

Trinity Shower in SLO

This week will be mostly some blogging of photos from some of my baby showers friends and family so graciously gave us this summer/fall. To start, the sweet ladies of Trinity Presbyterian in San Luis Obispo gave me a sweet, crafty shower in July while we were in California. It was the beginning of many whale-themed events to come.


Cute whale cupcakes made by Beth Appel.


Favors also made by Beth.


Chip and Beth's house decorated so cute!


Playing a game. Guests had to mold play doh into a baby behind their backs.


Picking the winner


Andrea, on the left, also hosted. Friend Annie on the right. Chip watching strategically from the food area.

Give them Grace - Review, Study & Resources

This summer I was able to help lead a quick book study with some moms on this book, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus. The book has lots of good things in it. There are some things I don't agree with, things I would challenge, but I'd definitely affirm:

• The authors expose the formula many of us operate on in raising children: Good parenting in, good children out.
• The authors correct this false formula: "Parenting with grace must not be employed as another formula to try and control God and your children." - page 52.
• On page 54, "One way to judge is to consider your reaction when your children fail."
• And page 59, "There are no promises in the Bible that even our best parenting will produce good children. None."
• "God may use your parenting as a means to draw your children to himself. But he may use other means and at a different time. Or he may use your child's rebellion and disinterest as a way to accomplish his unexpected will." - page 61.

The book has discussion questions for each chapter, some are good, some need work.

As part of our discussion, I also wrote a case study to help us talk about some of the principles, with accompanying questions. You can access it here:

"I know what the Bible Says!" - Parenting from the Backseat

We also read this article from The Gospel Coalition Blog:

Failure is not an Option

Which was somewhat in response to the July/August 2011 cover article from The Atlantic:

How to Land Your Kid in Therapy - Why the obsession with our kids' happiness may be dooming them to unhappy adulthoods. A therapist and mother reports.

And I wrote these discussion questions:

Questions for Failure is not an Option

DIY Flower Hairpins & Washcloth Lollipops

Made these for friends & family and packaged them with some baby bath products or lotion for a fun & cute gift. Lots of baby showers these days....


I still need some work/help on putting it together for presentation...


I was inspired and helped to make these hairpins by my dear friend Andrea (check out her blog and etsy site). I gave them away as party favors at one shower, game prizes at another, and part of a hostess gift for another.

DIY Wedding Programs Created by Me

These are the wedding programs I created and assembled for my wedding in 2008. I always planned to post pics of the process and never did.

I used red card-stock for the backing, and cream colored paper that I printed the pages from my designs on the computer for the other layers. I used a corner-cutting punch to make the corners curved and then tied all the layers together with gold ribbon.

I had lots of help from friends and family assembling it all as well :)

Here are some more photos

Nationwide Free Night of Theater!

Theatre Communications Group's
FREE NIGHT OF THEATER

Over the past six years the Free Night of Theater program has introduced more than 250,000 new theatergoers to the thrill of live performance. This year tickets will be offered for performances from October 1-31. Tickets become available beginning in September.

This is apparently a nationwide event. Click here for more information on how to get free theater tickets at a location near you:

http://www.freenightoftheater.net/

St. Louis tickets will be given away for the following theaters starting Sept 19:

Avalon Theatre Company (enter to win 2 tickets to Oct 15 performance of PORTRAIT OF MY PEOPLE)

Black Cat Theatre

Insight Theatre (enter to win 2 tickets to Oct 1 or Oct 2 performance of RABBIT HOLE)

The Black Rep

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

Upstream Theatre

Click here for more information for St. Louis.

I am bummed, because since the tickets will be for October, it won't likely be possible for me to go, but I hope someone else does!

Sweepstakes loot

About to list all this on ebay

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi