Operation Christmas Child.

Today, at church, we kicked off Operation Christmas Child.

Last year was the first year we (Alan and I) participated...and let's just say, I loved it!

To get me even more excited about it this year we had the opportunity

to hear a girl give her testimony

about receiving an OCC shoe box when she was in 7th grade.

She is from the country of Belarus. She is 26 years old and now lives in

South Carolina with her husband. She travels around Georgia and South Carolina

telling her story of how OCC changed her life.

 Jamie Hardenbrook, who is the Regional Director for OCC in Atlanta, also spoke.

Here are some statistics he shared tonight. (I wrote them down.) :)

Since 1993, 77 million boxes have been given to children all over the world.

Shoeboxes have been sent to 135 countries.

8.1 million boxes were sent out in 2009 (worldwide).

There are 1.6 BILLION children in the world right now under the age of 14!

From the last statistic you can see that there are many more children to be reached.

So, our coordinator, at our church, is challenging each family in our church to make

ONE more shoebox than they did last year!

We have a church wide goal of 2000 boxes this year!

I have NO CLUE how many people even read my blog...

from the followers on the right, I know there are at least 27 of you, plus my Mom. :)

I want to encourage each of you to make ONE more box than you made last year.

Our church is the drop-off location in Warner Robins.

If you have boxes you want me to drop off, I would love to do it for you!
Collection week is November 15-22.

For more information you can visit the OCC website.

Let's help spread the gospel throughout the world one child at a time!

Rowan's First Birthday

Rowan's first birthday was celebrated on July 24th, 2010.

All of his grandparents and great grandparents attended, as well as, 

his Aunt Paige and Aunt Maggie.

His cousins Taylor and Cade also came!

And last but not least Chris, Lauren and Gage.

Chris took several of these pictures for me.

When I started thinking about Rowan's party

back in early May, I knew I wanted to do red, white, and baby blue. 

I didn't really want to do a theme, or so I thought. 

Well, as I was browsing the internet late one night I saw a red, white, 

and blue sailboat party. 

I just knew that it would be perfect.

Red, White, Blue and sailboats scream July to me!

I also love it because it is very classic and very little boy-ish.

So here are the pictures...finally!

First of all, the precious birthday boy.

We love you so much Rowan!

You are a total joy and the most precious gift we have

ever been given!

You can't see them, but his bubble has sailboats on it!

 

I love the invitations!

I am so glad I decided not to make them. 

The life preserver wreath!

I made this with a straw wreath form.

I pinned the red and white felt to the back of the wreath.

I free handed the banner on a plain white gift box lid.

I printed the words out on Microsoft Word, 

 traced them onto the blue fabric, and painted them

with acrylic paint.

I modge-podged the fabric to the gift box,

then I cut out the banner.

I hot-glued the banner on the wreath.

This is our dining room.

I was originally gonna put the food on this table,

but it made more sense to put it in the kitchen so people

could eat in here.

I made the tablecloth with the help of my sister, Paige.

It's red and white gingham, blue seersucker and white and red polka dots.

I ordered the balloons off of E-bay.

I bought these sailboats for a dollar at Michaels.

They come unpainted and unassembled.

I painted the red and white.

I used blue tissue paper for the "water".

The silver tub was borrowed from my friend Tara!

Here is Rowan's smash cake.

It turned out so very cute!

My sister made this bunting for his highchair.

She used the reverse applique technique for the "R".

This was the big cake!

Delicious pound cake with buttercream icing.

 Sailboat details. Aren't the puffy clouds and waves just precious!

One single candle for my baby boy!

 He wasn't so sure about the cake at first...but then he decided it was good!

The bunting on the mantle!

My sister cut out the triangles and I hot glued them to the jute!

I love this Southern Living at Home plate.

I always change out the ribbon and personalize the message.

Happy Birthday Rowan!

These were the favors!

I used a picture of Rowan on his exact birthday.

We were at the beach!

I made these on picnik.com,

printed them at CVS, and

attached a magnet to the back.

I put them in a cellophane bag and tied them up

with some ribbon.

The grandparents loved them!

I'm linking up to the

and

pumpkin topiaries...

 So, I have seen this picture around blogland and I just love it!

I wanted to make my own pumpkin topiaries.

Our front "stoop" is similar to the picture already...

I started with these "funkins" from Michaels.

They are carvable, fake pumpkins.

Of course they were 50% off when I bought them!

I bought some acrylic metallic bronze paint also.

I painted these bad boys with a foam brush very quickly and a little messily too.

Real pumpkins aren't perfect, right?

My very sweet husband drilled holes in the bottoms of all three pumpkins

and through the tops of the bottom two.

He also cut off the stems of the bottom two.

Then he slid the pumpkins on a piece of rebar in topiary order.

We stuck them straight into the planters (from Walmart).

Then I wrapped a fall garland around them.

I LOVE how they turned out!

The best part of it all.

It was quick and easy.

And my pumpkins won't rot!!! :)

I'm linking up to the

and

Gage turns 2!

I cannot believe Gage is already two years old.

My how time flies!

Everything turned out really cute!

Isn't his stance so cute!

 We were singing Happy Birthday to him!

                            A very cute tractor cake. One of Lauren's teacher friends made the cake.

                                                                         Love this!
                                     Look at his cute shirt. Lauren ordered it off Etsy!

                                                     Can't have a birthday without presents!

                                                                       Happy Birthday Gage!

                                                                       We love you!

               

                 Somehow I didn't get a picture of Chris in there.

            Probably because he was beside me taking his own pictures!



this is how I tumble...

I like to put "picture links" on mine. 

So I select the coolest picture of whatever I want to link...

I save it to my computer in "my pictures".

Then when you go to your tumblr dashboard, you click on picture.

You "browse" to find your photo. Select it.

Then you add your caption.

And then...don't skip this...it's very important...

Click on "set a click-through link". 

That's where you copy and paste the URL of the article/idea/picture/quote.

Also, don't forget to "tag" the picture.

Basically that means to give the post a category, i.e. recipe, tutorial, decorating, etc.

Later when you or your blog friends want to go back and search for

a recipe or something they saw...it will be easier to find the idea!

 

Hope that helps you!

Rowan and I weren't too sure about it either at first.

 

Now we love it!

SO i can say i blogged.

idea shamelessly copied from Stephanies blog.

:)

Articles. in magazines that is. i love'em.

Boo. Love me some Alan! 

Camera...thankful for mine.

Diet coke. my favorite drink.

Exercise. Makes me feel so much better.
Fridays!
Greek gyro wraps. Love them!
Holliqua...my nickname. Do you know why?

Indoors. where i am cool!

Jello mousse temptations. Have you tried them?

Kelly's Kids. adorable.

Laughter. it makes everything better.

Maggie.

Naps.

Obviously this is the alphabet.

Paula and Paige. and pumpkins.

Quiet. my rides to work.

Rowan. my growing boy. 15 months old.  

Sewing. the satisfaction of making something.

Tumblr. my latest addiction.

Umbrellas. they keep me dry.

Victories...big and small.

Weekends!

eXcited about going to Charleston in a few weeks.

You. Cause you are probably my friend or family.

Zzzzzzzzzz.....night night!

tumblr

I started a tumblr account to keep track of:

party ideas,

recipes,

tutorials,

decorating ideas,

and other cool stuff.

Now I will be able to access my

"favorites" from any computer.

And you can too!

http://nowwheredidiseethat.tumblr.com/

I used this tutorial to help me get it set-up!

handprints.

So I saw this precious idea on Becky's blog.

I knew I had to do it immediately.

 I bought an 8x8 canvas at Michaels.

I had the paint at home, but you can buy it at Michaels too.

I painted the top and sides of the canvas with a foam brush. 

Then I enlisted the help of this precious one...

I painted his right hand with turquoise paint. (loving red and aqua lately!)

No pictures of the rest because we got paint EVERYWHERE.

Here is a close up of the "after".

I just love it!

The great thing about the idea...

If you do this each year around the birthday of your child,

 one day you will have an amazing colorful display of your childrens

handprints as they grow.

I hope to display these in our playroom one day!

I am linking up to the

smile...

This picture absolutely cracks me up!

I love these bowls! I bought them at Bealls Outlet the other day.

Pretty much love polka dots and bright colors.

This is that photo book I ordered off of Walgreens.com the other day.

Very, very cool. And easy to design too.

Libby brought me this Apple Cider Tyler candle the other day.

It smells delicious. We share a love for Tyler candles.

If you haven't ever had one, you need to try them out!!!

Target Dollar spot find last Thursday!

Couldn't resist this cute little bucket!

This morning I made Rowan try on a bunch of

different outfits for fall and winter.

He was not happy about it. Here is one of my absolute

favorite longalls that I bought for him.

Libby brought us a BIG bag of Luke's clothes for us to borrow.

I am so thankful for friends with little boys who have my taste and don't

mind sharing with us!!! :) Thanks Libby!

Also, Lauren and I got to hang out last Thursday night without

our big boys or our little boys...and it was WONDERFUL!

We figured that it had been TWO years since we had spent any

one on one time. Hopefully our plans to make it a monthly

thing will actually come to fruition!

I think we both need it!