Before His Presence With Thanksgiving!

"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

For the Lord is the great God, and great King above all gods.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth;

The heights of the hills are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it;

And His hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and sheep of His hand."

Psalm 50:1-7

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This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Faires' home. Isn't it lovely?

It's especially lovely considering that it looked like this less than two weeks ago when they moved in! (Now you can see where we've been spending all our time!)

Here's another before shot of the family room:

And here is Caleb's family enjoying the room today. (Look at all those gorgeous windows looking out into the backyard! Perfect for a Mama whose kids love to play outside!)

Oliver and Bea enjoyed making puppet shows with our cardboard Ikea puppet stage.

And poor, poor Oliver had to hold still for just a second so his

Mama could photograph him in his handsome tie.

Was it really too much to ask?

Caleb tending the fire.

Beatrice had her eye on a loaf of french bread on the side board...

... and some days you just can't come up with a good reason why not.

I think she looks a little bit like she's playing the bassoon.

With this pudding 'stashe she looks a bit like her cousin, don't you think?

Oliver cuddled with his Grandpa,

and with his Papa.

And this Mama enjoyed being with two of her boys.

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We give thanks not because of the absence of trouble or because we have the security of many blessings. We give thanks to God because of who He is - because of His unchanging character. He is good. He is faithful. His steadfast love endures forever!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!

God is so good, all the time!

(oh, and a very special thanks to my sweet husband who took time with me to make my blog header a little more "Christmasy"! I'm a tough client - it's a good thing I get to pay him in food, kisses and babies, otherwise I'd owe him a lot of money for all the design things he does for me! Thanks, Ry!)

What we've been up to!

Alternately titled: unloading my camera and avoiding having anything real to say.

Truth is, I do have things to say. And the real truth is that I'm just not ready to talk about some of those things yet, so I'm avoiding writing much of anything right now.

Being pregnant after losing a baby brand new territory for me. Grieving and rejoicing simultaneously is exhausting and confusing and still somehow very beautiful and redeeming. I have a million thoughts, a million emotions, a million moments to tell you about. But I just need some more time before I can really talk about them here. I really want to and I plan to. So when I'm ready to I will.

Until then, here's another post buying me time until I write about what's really on my mind. :)

What we've been up to this fall:

Welcoming and photographing a friend's new baby boy

Oh, and remember this photo from last fall taken by our very talented photographer friend Claire Wise?

Well, Ry took this shot a few weeks ago and it's so funny to see how much this boy has grown in a year. (The photo is SO far from Claire Wise quality, but it's fun to see!)

I'm all but finished with this lovely quilt now! (I finished the handstitching on the binding the other night and then noticed one place that I'll need to go back over. Other than that, it's complete and it looks AWESOME!) I love it more every time I see it!

We've been painting a bedroom getting it ready to accommodate two instead of one. (And by "we've" I mean Ryan has... thanks, honey!)

We've been enjoying the last good swings on the swing set before the cold weather hits.

(If it ever does!)

Playing in the leaves

and enjoying house guests at the breakfast table!

We've been making tasty recipes and not letting any honey go to waste :)

We've been getting the yard ready for winter,

and enjoying all the fun things that come along with being 3!

And that is what we've been up to!

And now for a nice rest before the big Thanksgiving feast tomorrow!

Have a lovely, restful, worshipful Thanksgiving tomorrow, friends!

My lame excuse for a blog post

... because I'm just too doggone exhausted tonight to write anything interesting.

Instead, I'm just sharing a few photos from our day:

We decked the halls this afternoon (a bit earlier than we usually do,

but the afternoon was clear and we just love decorating for Christmas!)

(notice anything extra little and cute about that above photo?)

The boys took a break from hall-decking for some cocoa.

Oliver got to use Ryan's little espresso mug - it was just the right size!

And, a couple of shots of my growing midsection at 24 weeks pregnant.

Grow, Hazel, grow!!!

That's all for tonight. *yawn* It's bedtime for this sleepy Mama!

Still quilting...

I know, I've fallen off the face of the Earth again... I'm sorry...

I'm just writing to let y'all know that everything is fine! It's been a busy week (including instructing and hosting a gourmet Thanksgiving dinner for twelve with my Art of Homemaking class on Monday)! Whew - that was a lot of work. But well worth it!

Anyway, it's Thursday evening and I've got my nose to the grindstone - okay, well, more like my foot to the sewing pedal. I'm (hopefully) in the final stages of my quilt-making project and I'm really excited to show you all photos (as well as photos of all the other things that have been going on around here this week!)

I will post again soon!

Miss y'all!

Raechel

My first quilt!

Something exciting is happening at our house! Well, many exciting things, but one of them has been very evident on my kitchen table for the last 24 hours.

I've never made a quilt before, but I really wanted to make one for our baby girl. (It helps to have nice, visual reminders that not only is there a baby living in my belly, but she's going to come home and live here with us!)

So I did a little research online and got some basic instructions for making log cabin squares. I figured that if they were 12"x12" squares, I could make a dozen of them and call it a baby quilt since that's about the size they make them at PB Kids.

So I set to work - figuring things out as I went.

I have to say that there are few things I adore more than being surrounded by beautiful colors and patterns. It's like therapy! (Color therapy's a thing, right?)

And then, there's the exactness of cutting fabric into precise sizes and shapes.

I love exactness!

And of course, I love the sense of accomplishment when it all comes together and works out sort of like I imagined. I love making nice, pretty things that look how they're supposed to!

But there's this one problem.

This is my first quilt.

And I'm not really sure what to do next.

Help!

(And by "help", I mean, I know there's supposed to be batting and backing, but what kind? Can I use minky, soft fabric for the batting? Should I make my own edging? Does quilting a soft, minky fabric look funny on the back side? Also, how do I actually "quilt" it? Just my machine and my choice of cotton thread in any color? Just follow the lines of the pattern? Do I just need to take it to a quilt shop or is this something I can do myself?)

That's what I mean by "HELP!"