4 months in review

Spring. The quilt project. Wooden people. Spot. Easter. Camping Ottley style. Monkey bars. Lots of photos! Enjoy!

For Nehemiah

Quilted and waiting for binding, but that won't be done until the wee hours while watching a movie. Nehemiah was born quite a few months ago now...but as he is not yet a year old, I can still call it his baby quilt!

February in review

Violet turned 3

Valentine's Day breakfast - white choc chip pancakes & strawberries.

New clothes from Aunty Mindy, Uncle Steve and Ruby

A friend is having a baby girl and I made a snuggly quilt to go with her yellow and green, bee themed room.

It has been very cold and very snowy, too cold to play outside. Thank goodness Mummy's work is full of toys and swings. She takes us every weekend and we have lots of fun.

Homemade Valentines

At Lucy's school they make homemade Valentine's cards to distribute to their classmates. This year she drew and wrote her own card. Here it is sans the glitter that was liberally applied later.

Violet wanted to make one too, and this is her version. We used Lucy's Happy Valentine's Day, but Violet wrote her own name. Not bad for just turned 3!

We will attach sucker to the "hand" of the picture - 'cos it's just not a holiday without some sugar!

Valentines gift

Remember my post about Ava and how awesome she is doing with a lot of love and a little therapy? And then remember how I went onto talk about the orphans online who tug at my mummy heartstrings? Well, today they are combined again in a post by Charissa (Ava's mummy). She is raising money for Anya's adoption fund. Anya has arthrogryposis. She gets no therapy in her orphanage, but here it could be different. Children here with arthrogryposis get surgery. They get therapy. They get to be up, out of bed, playing and learning. As I can't adopt her (sigh) I will instead contribute to her fundraising and hope that will help someone adopt her and get her the help she needs.

Tesla turns 8

It is such an awesome thing to see your friend's children grow up. I have known Tesla and her parents for a long time now! I think I have been present at each of her 8 birthdays and seen her grow into this cute girl you see before you. She has inherited her mommy's artistic eye and talent and her daddy's desire to figure out how things work. She is funny and creative. She and Hannah go to the same school. For her birthday her family came over to our house and we celebrated with pizza, gf cake, and making a "city of Miis" on the Wii. Happy Birthday Tesla! We look forward to seeing the woman you become.

Christmas Crafty Wrap Up

As a full time working Mummy, I don't often get to go to the schools and see what is going on. Just before Christmas break I did get the chance to go to Violet's school and help her make a Gingerbread house. Made of a little milk carton, graham crackers and gallons of frosting, it was a lot of fun! She showed it off proudly at home and would not let anyone steal even the smallest candy off it.

Each of the girls have a little Christmas tree in their rooms. Violet's is decorated with cupcakes, cookies and chocolates. Here are a few of the felt and beaded cupcake ornaments I made for her tree.

Lucy got a kitchen for her 2nd birthday. She is now 5 and the kitchen has been moved into Violet's room. In order to spruce it up a bit for winter play time, I bought the polka dot jars from the Dollar Tree and filled them with new cookies made from wooden shapes I bought 8/$1 at Michaels. I painted them and popped them into the jars. The girls loved them and have been making and selling their Christmas cookies ever since.

ADOPTION

I have had the greatest pleasure working with and watching a little girl named Ava be rescued from an orphanage by an amazingly courageous family. This little girl could not even sit up when they brought her home shortly before her 4th birthday. She had no means of communication. She could not eat solid foods, instead drank a mushed up puree from a baby bottle. She was terribly underweight and undersized. She did not play with toys. It is amazing what a little therapy and a lot of love can do. She recently took her first steps independently, at almost 6 years old. To put it in perspective, here is Ava when her family first met her. A huge congratulations to Ava and Charissa (her forever mom).

Ava was adopted through an agency called Reece's Rainbow. They specialize in international adoptions for children with Down's Syndrome. Periodically I go to their website and look at all the kids who need a place to live, where they will be fed well, be given therapy to enhance their potential, and most of all be loved. I look at our house, with all our space and all our stuff, and think how much love we have. Or, if international adoptions seem too expensive, I look closer to home at all the sibling groups just waiting to be adopted together here. One day, God (and Tim) are going to give me the go ahead to "get me another kid"!

Until then, I pray for these children, and the families who are looking to adopt them. And then, usually I cry, and Tim tells me to stop looking at orphans on the computer.....

Crafty pressies

I was going to do this tomorrow but after seeing this post from my sister I thought I should include the photies of the recipients! My sister made these dolls for my very lucky daughters :)

She has an etsy shop and is currently taking custom orders for her lovely dolls.

Christmas Round Up

Where to begin in the post Christmas highlights? We loved having a white Christmas, for the first time ever! A lovely fire, Christmas unwrapping pressies in our pjs, and lamb roast with pavlova for dessert. Tim headed out over frozen roads to pick up Mum from the airport - a wonderful Christmas present! We have since spent lazy days playing and crafting, cooking and eating, visting and being visited.

Christmas Eve new pjs

Snowy Christmas fun!




You may remember the wonderful collage Tim made for me for our anniversary. He made one for each of the girls for Christmas with photos of the highlights of their year. Here are they are pointing out their favorites. The girls just loved the gifts and it is such a precious thing for Tim to do.

I have more to share! Tune in tomorrow (maybe) for the next installment of the Ottley Christmas fun!