Best of the Best

Does it get any better? Honestly. I heart White Christmas. I could probably watch it everyday during the holiday season. Really I like any movie with singing and dancing, but this is a masterpiece. I religiously watch So You Think You Can Dance (hooray for Russell!), and they always talk about Bob Fosse the choreographer. I recently learned (through the show) that this is one of his earliest projects. Now I know (and so do you- whether you wanted to or not).

I digress. The point of this post is to discuss the brilliance of Edith Head, costumer extraordinaire. How do I even pick my favorite costumes from the movie? The coloration of each fabric is flawless, the tailoring and details, perfection. Let's talk specifics. I love that the men always have on suede oxford shoes dyed to match their pants. Oh, and the socks are the exact color as well. Judy's casual outfit with the full houndstooth skirt and the wide red patten leather belt is so classic. Edith always makes women look like women. I love that. I recently decided (about 98% sure) that if I could be any woman in any movie, I'd be Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas just so I could wear this dress:

I couldn't find a picture of the back- it's incredible. The brooch alone makes me drool, let alone the art deco inspired edging. Sidenote- how about the interiors at the Carousel Club where she wears this dress? The carousel horses make me laugh, and the pink stripe chairs make me excited. The Swiss Chalet ski lodge is also noteworthy.

And this just makes me laugh. Danny Kaye is such a squirrel.

I probably should have asked for this book for Christmas...

I feel like I'm a little all over the place with this post, but let me leave you with this:

One more Thanksgiving tidbit...

Do you know who this little cutie is?

It's Sadie, the Scottish Terrier that won the AKC Dog Show on Thanksgiving day! It's a sign! I don't really know what the sign means, but we like it :) Now we know two dogs name Sadie- lovely.

Holidays at Our House

I'm totally late doing this, but here's a recap of our Thanksgiving and an on time taste of our Christmas. This was the first time we celebrated Turkey Day at our house, which was great! We clearly made way too much food, which was also great :) All the food you see below was for four people.

My sweet mom thought it would be fine to use jumbo marshmallows on the sweet potato cassarole.

Here we are walking the turkey off on the Tobacco Trail. Yes, Sunny and Sam also celebrated with us. So cute!That is Sadie in a sling- I'm not pregnant again.

Now on to Christmas-

This is my first full size tree! Hooray! I decided to go with the large retro white lights, and they look great. However, its pretty bright. This picture is not; its dark. Sorry.We head out to Colorado this weekend to be with the Foster's- can't wait! Please pray for our flight, especially since it is our first with our little one. I'm also praying for a blizzard (once we get there)!

Joys of Motherhood- Premier Post

I've decided that I want to have a sporadically reoccurring "column" on this blog about the Joys of Motherhood. It will basically be sarcastic comments to make me laugh about things that would otherwise make me crazy. Motherhood (so far) is full of rewarding moments, however, this moment from this morning was not one of them. Hysterical, but not rewarding. Warning- this picture is not for anyone who is easily grossed out.

Take a gander...

It initially looks like a sweet little lady getting ready for a bath. No. Well, yes, but no. We were getting ready for a bath when all of a sudden, CANNON! My daughter shot poop across the bathroom. That shower curtain is like 3 feet away. Holy Moly.

Did I mention that I am becoming a whiz with Shout? I'll let you know how this one turns out...Oh, and I promise my next post will not be about babies :)

Thanks for laughing with me about this.

Happy One Month Birthday, Sadie!

It's a weird dynamic. I'd love to say that I can't believe that a full month has gone by since Sadie was born, but some days (like last Tuesday), I can tell that I'm tired, that we've come so far, and that we've learned so much about each other. The past month has been so full- full of blessings, family, friends, challenges, triumphs, and I don't really even know how to record it here. I can say that in the blur of it all, God has been so incredibly faithful to us. He's sustaining and providing, and I am so very thankful.

There has been a lot of this:

But when I see this:
And this:
It makes it all totally worth it. Sadie melts my heart, and I've completely fallen in love with my husband all over again.

Month One, check! We survived, with flair. Sadie gets more precious each day, and sometimes I just love her so much I think my heart my explode...so I kiss those chubby cheeks as much as I possibly can.

Thanks to Amy Free for the incredible pictures!

Stephen's First Post aka Death of a Gumball Tree

Happy Thanksgiving! I have decided to try blogging and will hopefully add posts in the future and bring some new topics to the Foster Love blog. So let's get down to business...

This past week, I decided it was time to tame the woods in the backyard and cut down some trees. For the main event, we (my father-in-law and I) cut down a 30-35 ft gumball tree in our front yard. It was practically dead and dropped annoying gumballs into the yard a couple of times a year. We successfully dropped the tree in the yard and not on the house and then spent the rest of the afternoon cutting the tree into smaller pieces and carting the pieces to the backyard.

Conquering Heros

Make sure to watch to the end to hear the cheers from the crowd (aka Sarah:)

Thanks Brad M., for letting me borrow your chainsaw.

The finished product.

Glen and I found our next target. An 80 ft dead pine tree near the back of our property. Stay tuned...

Our First Two Weeks

Sorry I've been MIA! I know it is okay and expected, but I still feel bad. Here's a brief look at our first two weeks together...

Riding home from the hospital

The crazy thing about this birthing process is that I didn't cry. I actually had been afraid that when I went into labor, I would become a huge puddle of tears and mush. Something supernatural came over me, and I put on my game face like never before. It really was an out of body experience. However, when we packed up our things to leave the hospital, the hugeness of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks. In the picture below, Sadie has on the dress that my dad and I wore home from the hospital. Yes, my manly dad wore a dress and satin booties home from the hospital. When I slipped the dress over her head, I realized how special this moment was, and how it would only happen once. Stephen and I were bringing our daughter home. The tears flowed...
Gram and Pops are totally in love (and I love this picture).
First bath (she screamed her head off)
We learned after her bath that she LOVES having her hair brushed. I think we might have a quirky kid on our hands. Check out this picture...is she krumping? More importantly, whatever she is doing she is doing it in leg warmers.
On Sadie's one week birthday!
Sadie is learning to play with some little toys, and it is really cute.
Tuckered out
Playing with Stephen on his birthday
I could write so much more about these last two weeks, but I think it would start to sound like a personal journal entry. I have learned so much and feel so different. Living life with our new schedule is a huge adjustment in and of itself (can I get a what what from all nursing mothers?). My mom was an INCREDIBLE help, and it was hard putting her on a plane back to KY yesterday. The good news is that my wonderful in-law's come late tomorrow night, and then my parents come back next Tuesday for Turkey Day. This is when it is really hard to not live close to any family, but I know God will continue to provide for us. All of our friends here have shown us so much love- providing meals, flowers, gifts, words of encouragement, prayers, and more. We feel so blessed by our community here. Thank you to everyone that has helped us survive these first two weeks! From the bottom of our hearts, we can't thank you enough!

We did it!

Here is how the whole thing unfolded...

At 5:30 pm on Tuesday, I started having contractions. They were different than the ones I'd had before, but I wasn't 100% sure it was the real deal. By 9 pm, they were less than 5 minutes apart, so I called the Doctor. He said to come on in, and they'd check things out. I got there, they checked everything, and told us to walk the halls for the next hour (hoping my water would break). My water didn't break, but things progressed, so they said we were going to have a baby! We were finally admitted and checked into our Labor and Delivery Room around 12:30 am.

Here I am checked into our room...

After a long night (that is completely a blur), I was finally ready to push at about 7 am on Wednesday. At 9:20, sweet little Sadie Katherine made her debut!
She was 7 lbs. 14 oz and 21-1/2" long...
I don't really know how to start to explain how awesome this experience was. As more time passes, it becomes more awesome. I'll be honest, laboring was probably the most challenging thing I've ever done. Let me also say that Stephen was the most encouraging and supportive and tender coach. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I think in the 12 hours we were in Labor and Delivery, he may have left my side for a total of 3 minutes. He is the best- and I felt so incredibly loved. God was so faithful to give us the strength to endure. I had two major times when I wanted to totally throw in the towel. I am thankful for the presence of the Holy Spirit that carried us through. I got scared close to the end, and I realized that God designed this process, and He would carry it through to completion. He did, and here we are enjoying our daughter...
About an hour after Sadie was born, my parents arrived after driving through the night from Kentucky.
We were excited to have visitors! Jayme and Megan dropped by to meet Sadie and give us hugs of congratulations. Our friends and family have been so incredibly encouraging during this whole pregnancy and yet again during this new phase. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Things are changing for us, but it couldn't be sweeter or more rewarding.


The picture above is cute, but we kept laughing at her security tag. She looked like she was on house arrest.

I'm going to post more on coming home and our happenings around the house as soon as I can.

Thank you again to everyone for the phone calls, emails, and prayers. We couldn't have made it through without you and will continue to lean on your encouragement in the coming days, weeks, and months. We thank God for placing each of you in our lives.

We introduce you to Sadie with great pride and yet complete humility. Can't wait to share her with you.

Where we're at...

Eating this for lunch...

Been sitting on this as much as I can...

This is as ready as it can be...

And it is one of these tonight...

COME ON BIG MONEY!

39 weeks

Come on Sadie! Let's get this going! We're ready for you to come out and play!

Sew Crazy!

Thanks to Jayme, who graciously let me nab her sewing machine for a couple weeks, I've been sewing like crazy. Can anyone say nesting? I had lots of left over fabrics and things I'd been hanging onto. I decided it was time to take action. I feel like I'm gaining some confidence with the sewing machine, so maybe in the near future I'll try something that isn't basically a square. Until then, enjoy these manipulated squares...

Living Room window treatments- roll up shades (sorry this picture is dark)

Okay, so this one is not sewn, but still, I was pretty excited about recovering this slip seat.
Hall bath sink skirt (please ignore everything in this bathroom but the skirt) Baby steps to improvement...
Kitchen window treatment

Nursery Finished! (at least as much as its going to be)

Sorry for the prominent ceiling fan in this photo. Thanks to Brad and Megan for letting us borrow the infant seat! And to Ben and Beth for the crib!

I obviously still need to add pictures to the frame, and I want to paint a long horizontal canvas to go under it. Maybe that will be Sadie's Christmas present. I'm sure it is what she's hoping for. :)
Here's my crib skirt that I just sewed. Please ignore the wrinkles. I need to steam it. That's brown grosgrain ribbon. It looks dark and flat in this picture. I followed my friend Erika's brilliant concept for crib skirts- adjustable, perfect!

Pregnancy Update: 38 Weeks!

Well. Here I am! I'm feeling quite pregnant these days, but at the same time, I can't believe how quickly our due date is approaching (Nov. 4). The Doctor is pleased with how I'm progressing, so that is exciting.

People are still saying interesting things...two new stories.

1. So I was at the gym a couple of weeks ago, and a lady came up to me after class. She was saying all kinds of nice and encouraging things about how it was so great that I was still working out. Then she launched into her personal story about her pregnancies and working out. She unfortunately included some VERY personal details. Thanks. She ended the conversation by lifting her shirt to show me her stomach (which really did look great for being 50 and having 3 kids), and then she gave me two wishes in Spanish. The first one I didn't catch because I didn't realize we were entering the bi-lingual portion of the conversation. The only part I caught of the second wish was "leche." I really don't want to know.

2. I was walking down the street in Carrboro recently, which I need to insert that you never know who you're going to see or what they will say in Carrboro (love that), and I hear some one calling out at me (loudly), "AIN'T NOTHIN MO BU-TIFUL THAN A PREGNANT WOMAN! I tell you ain't nothin mo bu-tiful! You carryin' God wich chu! Ain't nothin mo bu-tiful!" As ridiculous as this scene was, it did make me feel special while waddling down the sidewalk. So I smiled sheepishly and waved.

I think I might miss these kinds of stories when I'm not pregnant anymore. For the most part, people are super sweet and encouraging, and that has been great. I'll miss it when I have to carry my groceries or open the door for myself.