Blossoms and Blessings

Truth in the Tinsel Day 3

2011-12-04T07:37:00.001-08:00

We made our Day 3 ornament from Truth in the Tinsel this morning. I am so surprised by how much Isabella grasps from the stories I am teaching her. She learned about Zechariah and how the angel Gabriel came to him and told him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son. Because he was so old, Zechariah had a hard time believing this. So, God "buttoned his lip" until the baby was born! Here is our Zechariah ornament:

Happy crafting!

Advent

2011-12-03T10:28:00.001-08:00

I absolutely love advent! I use a birthday advent calendar too; this year I plan on doing one for Valentine's Day as well :) My only dilemma is that there are a million advent crafts and ideas that I want to do! I am doing two things with Bella right now. The first is Truth in the Tinsel. The other is Beginning with God at Christmas. However, I just ordered What God Wants for Christmas. To top it all off there are a million fabulous free printables on Pinterest for advent. Currently, we use the felt Christmas Tree from Pottery Barn and I made tags with cardstock and printed out these beautiful daily verses from The Happy Home Fairy. For my own personal advent journey I just purchased a stunning daily advent tabletop devotional from Dayspring that I saw on Ann Voskamp's blog. Ann's blog is so amazing! If you have never read her blog or her books I HIGHLY recommend you do :) I also have a number of versions of the Jesse Tree that I want to do, but that is a bit more in depth than Bella is ready for. I have to keep reminding myself that I don't need to do every single thing this year.

I participated in Operation Christmas Child this year and it felt great! This is something I definitely want to make a yearly tradition. We also sponsored a child through World Vision. Her name is Genesis and she is 2 years old. When I put Bella to bed each night we include her in our prayers.

As part of Truth in Tinsel we created this adorable ornament today that demonstrates that Jesus is the light of the world. Bella LOVED doing this project and painting the toilet paper tube blue so we can make and decorate a crown tonight to represent that Jesus is King. We are doing the angel Gabriel next. I am not following the book 100%, but rather using the ideas and including some of my own.

It has been a VERY long time since I blogged. I hope to start again.

Isabella's First Year at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-07-14T08:49:00.001-07:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

PICTURES!

2010-03-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

These are all of the portraits we had taken at The Picture People. We took her for Valentine's Day in February and then we took her again in March for St. Patrick's Day and Easter pictures :) Click HERE to see them!

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2010-03-23T09:48:00.001-07:00

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Bella's First Visit to the Easter Bunny!

2010-03-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

We are so lucky that she is not afraid of the Easter bunny or Santa (at least for now!) She was totally intrigued by the bunny and it took us a LONG time to get a smile out of her, which as you know from photos, is not typical ;)

Happy Almost-Spring :)

2010-03-11T04:26:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe that spring is right around the corner. This time last year I could NOT WAIT for my pregnancy to end and for Isabella to be here! Now we are preparing for her FIRST BIRTHDAY! It is amazing how fast it went!

We had pictures done of her for Valentine's Day that you can see HERE; we also had pictures done for St. Patrick's Day and Easter that you can see HERE.

Her smile warms my heart each and every time I see it!

Isabella Winter 2009-2010 (963 photos), by Dawn De Lorenzo

2010-02-19T07:37:00.001-08:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

TIme Flies...

2009-12-28T03:28:00.001-08:00

I can hardly believe that Christmas is over and the new year is about to begin! I also can't believe our baby is eight months old already! My pregnancy dragged on for what felt like eternity, but now time feels like it is flying by. But we all know the old saying ;)

We had a GREAT Christmas. It was truly magical finally having a holiday as a Mommy and Daddy! Mommy got a new camera from Santa, so now I can take even more pictures of Isabella (if that is possible! - lol). If you click HERE it will take you to our most recent album on Snapfish and you can see all the holiday festivities!

So, let's see: Bella is sitting up now, but now crawling. She has zero interest in crawling :( She does love to stand and have us "walk" her around though. Maybe she'll skip crawling? My mom said all of us went straight to walking. We'll have to wait and see! What are some of your experiences with your child (or children) in regards to crawling and walking?

I want to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY (and healthy) NEW YEAR!

Happy Holidays! at OneTrueMedia.com

2009-12-03T13:39:00.001-08:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our Baby Is Getting SO Big!

2009-11-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Bella is going to be seven months old in a few days! Time is moving TOO quickly! We are really excited about celebrating our first Christmas with her. The past few Christmas holidays have been very painful for us and we are so thankful that God blessed us at last with our precious Isabella.

Last week her two front teeth started to come through...they are almost completely through now. She had a rough two days where she was really whiny and in obvious discomfort. We felt so awful. You do everything you can, but there isn't much you can do. I hate hearing/seeing her cry!

Speaking of hearing and seeing her cry: She is sleeping through the night, but I had to let her cry. The first night she cried for about half an hour. the next night was less and that was it. I resisted this "method" as long as I could, but nothing else was working. I purchased and read every sleep book out there. You would think these "experts" would have come up with something better in all these years, but it is all the same old thing: you either put up with it (of course trying a million and one comforting techniques) or let them cry it out! I am just thankful that she didn't cry uncontrollably or very much because it is too hard to deal with that. My heart races and I just want to run in there are pick her up.

I bought her the CUTEST Thanksgiving outfit...a little pricey, but I couldn't resist. I will post pics after Thanksgiving. The pictures in this post are her Christmas outfits. One for Christmas Eve and one for Christmas Day.

I hate discussing this on this blog, however, it is positive news from a negative ordeal. You all know that Orson is in jail. They recovered $300k+ from him and it is to go to the victims. However, his ex-wife, Christen Brown, was fighting for the money...claiming it should go to her for alimony and child support. The judge ruled against her. Unfortunately, she appealed it. We just found out on Tuesday night that her appeal was denied and that is the end of the road for her. The money should be out to the victims by Christmas. Of course, it is not enough to cover all that he owes to the victims, so we will all have a judgement against him.

Financially, this money could not come soon enough! We are really sinking since I am not working this year. We got behind last month and now we are constantly chasing our tails. Every paycheck of Joe's is spent before it comes!

Well, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Bella Is Not Drinking Her Bottle...

2009-10-11T06:25:00.001-07:00

Bella has really been drinking MUCH less formula and I am worried. We have an appt. w/the doctor on the 15th, but I am not sure if I should call sooner, or if she is just going through a phase. She is eating solids; so far she eats sweet potatoes, bananas, peaches, peas, carrots, and applesauce (and of course rice cereal). Lately, it is a chore and a half to get her to drink her bottle though. She wiggles around, looks everywhere (which is all normal for her age), but hardly drinks. This morning when I went to put her down for her nap she drank a little and then got fussy. She ALWAYS wants to fall asleep with her bottle...so this is all new. Uuuggh! I know she won't starve, but I am worried. Is this normal?

Two Teeth Already!

2009-09-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

Bella had an appointment at the doctor this week (shots included - uuugghh!) and she just cut her two bottom teeth! I can't believe she got them so early. Now, I thought we got away unscathed because honestly, other than her erratic sleeping pattern last week she was fine. Hmmm...perhaps I spoke too soon ;) She was MISERABLE today and cried SO much. I don't know if it is a side effect from the shot and she is cranky from that or if it's her teeth. I thought it only hurt them while the teeth were still cutting through, but not once they came up. I hope that her mood changes soon...it was an awful day.

Getting So Big!

2009-09-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is getting SO big so fast! She will be five months old on the 24th and I just can't believe how fast it is going. She is rolling over both ways and it seems like she learns something new every day.

Her sleep schedule is not consistent yet. Some nights she only wakes up once or twice and easily falls back asleep. Other nights she wakes up four times and fusses every time I put her down. So many people tell me to let her cry it out, but I can't...I truly can't do it.

I am really enjoying being home with her. I am not looking forward to leaving her next year when I go back to work. With all the back to school hoopla this year I couldn't help thinking about next year and feeling sad. I don't want to miss anything and I am not looking forward to being away from her all day :( For now I am just trying not to think about it and enjoy every moment.

Long Time...No Post!

2009-08-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been a LONG time! I have been sidetracked with other things. Isabella's christening was great! She didn't cry :) It was a great day and it was nice to see some of my friends that I haven't seen in a while.

She is getting so big! We went to the doctor last week and she is 14 pounds 6 ounces! She will be four months old on Monday and I can't believe it. She rolled over for the first time last week and we were so excited that we BOTH got to see her do it. It is amazing how fast they grow and learn and change. I swear some mornings she looks different from when she went to sleep the night before! Speaking of sleep: she is doing well in this area for the most part. She has times when she is going through a growth spurt and it completely throws her off. But typically she naps for three hours in the afternoon (from noon to 3) and has been falling asleep around 8 pm. Then she is usually awake at 3 or 4 for a bottle. The only problem is that I can't fall asleep like I used to. I used to be able to fall asleep SO EASILY! Joe used to make fun of how fast I can fall asleep. Not anymore :( I hope I grow out of this.

You can see photos of her christening on my Facebook (a new addicting habit I have found) at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032818&id=1194669333&l=49a4339616

You can also see all of her new pictures at this link on my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031210&id=1194669333&l=96b5cd7fc7

Preparing for Bella's Christening

2009-07-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

Our little sweetie is being christened this Sunday! I was really worried (and still am) that her gown won't fit. It is size 0-3, but she is now 14 pounds and the gown says up to 12 pounds. My mom and I tried it on a few weeks ago and there was still room, but my mom was going to move the buttons around the neck just in case. I can't believe how big she is already and that she is only four days away from being three months old! She slept sooo much last night and today that I was worried, but I think she is just growing.

Last night she fell asleep around 8:30 pm and didn't wake to eat until 2:30 am! Then she was back up at 5:30 am and went back to sleep after eating and woke around 8:00 am. Then she slept for another hour or so around 9:00 am and again around 11:30 am. Then she stayed awake from 2:30 pm until just now around 8:00 pm. She usually doesn't sleep that much so I was thrown off.

I am so happy to be home with her! I don't want to miss a thing. She is "talking" up a storm now. Especially to her daddy! We also read every day and she looks at the pictures and smiles...it is too cute. Speaking of cute (lol) we LOVE this picture of her! She looks like a little Hollywood doll.

I just joined Facebook about a week ago and I am amazed. I was always curious about what all the hype was about. I found SO many people I graduated high school with and others I lost contact with years and years ago. It is nice to reconnect. It's also addicting.

So, I will post pics from this Sunday as soon as I can :)

Daddy's Little Girl!

2009-07-09T12:24:00.001-07:00

Bella is TOTALLY Daddy's girl! I can't even adequately describe the look in her eyes when she sees her daddy. She lights up and it is just too cute. She "talks" to him on and on. I can never get her to "talk" the way Joe can. I guess I will have to hope for a boy the next time around so I can have a "momma's boy" ;)

Joe is such a great father. I am blessed to have him as my husband and so grateful that I have a man who is such an incredible daddy. He adores his Bella!

A New Blog for a New Chapter

2009-07-08T10:06:00.001-07:00

This new blog is all about this new chapter in my life: blossoms and blessings. The word blossom has a few definitions. One is "to develop; flourish," and another is "a period or condition of maximum development". I feel that these definitions apply to this period of time in my life. I am working on developing the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22): love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Lord knows that I have my work cut out for me in this endeavor :)

Blessings are all those things that God has given to me. I used to see only what was good, at least in my opinion, as a blessing. However, I have learned that even the difficult times are a blessing from Him because the Bible says that "God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them" (Romans 8:28-29.)

The most awesome blessing is our beautiful daughter, Isabella. After initially undergoing three failed IUI procedures and enduring the loss of three sons in three failed adoptions at the hands of a con artist we knew that God granted our prayer for a child when we conceived on our first IVF attempt last summer. Our daughter is healthy and precious.

This is a new day! Joe and I are "...forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead" as stated in Philipians 3:13. Thank you for joining me here!

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2008-07-22T08:45:00.000-07:00