Dreaming of this Master Bedroom

I've had the same old comforter and dust ruffle in my master bedroom for years. It's time for an update. Hello, Anthropologie! I've been drooling over their Cirrus duvet set (in grey) for years. My friend, Laurel, from http://glitterandbliss.blogspot.com/ has this in white. I love rouching and the steel blue/black color scheme. Although I do enjoy sewing, I admit, this duvet project seems daunting. I'm just not sure my sewing skills are good enough to pull this off, but the $300 for just the duvet and two shams is a big motivator for me to try.

 I don't care for their dust ruffle. I'd probably make mine black, long, and gathered.

West Elm carries a cheaper version of this coming in at $180 for the duvet cover and two shams.

But, this is a duvet cover, and I'd have to go buy the duvet insert since my current comforter is too big to fit in this cover.

What's a girl to do? Hmmmm?

Baby Names

I'm joining Kelly's link up party at Show Us Your Life. Today's topic is baby names.

Before Judd and I were married, we talked about having children someday. We picked out names for them and wrote them on a list. One name was a 'J' name picked out to match Judd and Jennifer. After we got married and had years of infertility, that list of names tucked in our Bible at our favorite verse was a thread of hope for us. Imagine the prick in my heart when Judd's brother announced they were having their fourth child, and her name would be Jordan. But that was our name! We had it first! We had that name picked out for years and years on our list! Sniff Sniff. One by one the names from our list were "taken" as close friends and relatives had babies of their own. Stinkin' infertility.

But - God is faithful! After three unsuccessful rounds of IUI at the fertility clinic, we did in vitro and it worked.

We named our baby girl Sophia Coco. I always liked the name Sophie. It's a cute, friendly, happy name. As an adult, the name easily switches to Sophia - sophisticated, classy, and alluring. That name also means, "Wisdom of God." What more could a girl ask for in a name? Coco is just an adorable chic name I fell in love with. Yes, I do love to sew and enjoy fashion, so Coco Chanel did come to mind too.



We did in vitro again and had fraternal twins. We knew we wanted the first one born to be named Piper Jentry. I had to have an emergency C-section. The doctor reassured me that the lower baby is always pulled out first since she is the one who would have been born first naturally. I found Piper's name on a baby name website and loved it immediately. Judd instantly loved that name too. We found the name Gentry on that website too and liked it, but changed the spelling of it to Jentry. We had to get our 'J' name in there somewhere. (I see your "Jordan" and raise you a "Jentry" - just kidding).



Riley Autumn. Oh how I struggled with picking out her name. Part of me wanted to name her Petra ("the rock" and also one of the most spectacular places in the world.ever. google Petra and you will see). Since they were twins, Piper and Petra sounded good together too. But, Judd didn't care for that name and he kept the name Riley close to his heart. I'm so glad we named her Riley. It fits her perfectly. I wanted her middle name to be something soft and feminine, so Autumn was what we chose.



What's so important about a name?
Proverbs 22:1 "A good name (sterling reputation) is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favor rather than silver and gold."

My prayer is that my girls' beautiful character outshines their names.

Baby Food

Having fifteen month old twins means buying a lot of baby food. The checker at Walmart asked us if we were storing up on the baby food. Nope. This is one week's worth of food for the twins.



I used to make most of Sophie's baby food when she was little. That was before I had twins.

I do make baby food for Piper and Riley every once in awhile. Last week I made them poached then pureed pairs



pureed butternut squash


Blended green beans and peas.



Yes, I know it looks a bit gross, but my girls are looking rather orange with all the beta carotene in their other foods. They resemble little oompa loompas right now. I've got to balance that out with more greens and blues.



I also made smoothed sweet potatoes, and a pumpkin pair puree which didn't go over well. They didn't care for the steamed diced beats either, but Judd and I ate those right up - Yum! I get an 'A' for effort, but buying the pre-made stuff is so much easier. Fortunately, the twins are really starting to enjoy table food more and more each day. They've been off bottles for awhile now, and soon all of the mouths in my house will consistently be fed with table food, not little jars. Hooray!

In-Laws Are Here!

My in-laws came down from Nebraska this past week. I love it when they visit. I was able to take two, count them, two naps while they were here! My girls enjoyed the extra attention, and Grandma and Grandpa were tickled at watching the twins walk all over the place. All the pictures we took were with my MIL's camera, so I'll just post one from our last get-together. Piper and Riley have changed so much since their Grandma and Grandpa saw them last.



We did a little shopping, a little neighborhood walking, a little browsing at garage sales, a lot of eating - ha! I'm so thankful for my in-laws and look forward to seeing them again - soon, I hope.

Wordless Wednesday - Riley & The Chef Hat

Wordless Wednesday - Toys Amok = Happy Kids

Costume Clothes Rack

My three year old daughter, Sophie, loves to dress up in little costumes. She changes clothes at least five times a day. She has an assortment of fairy wings, tutus, twirl skirts, a Chinese Kimono style outfit, several gymnastic leotards, and a few princess dresses. Of course she also has the bunny ears, rock star headphones and gloves, jewels, shoes, and tiara accessories as well.





Originally, I kept all of these costumes in her closet. I got tired of having to pick up all her regular clothes which became disheveled while she played with her dress-up clothes. I built her a kid-sized clothes rack for her costumes and moved it into the corner of the playroom.

This project cost about five dollars and only took about 12 minutes to make. All of the clothes rack parts are made from 3/4" PVC pipe and joints found at my local Lowe's store.

The rack requires two T-shaped joints and six elbow joints. I had two long sections of PVC pipe I cut up for the legs, supports, and clothing bar.



At first I tried to cut my long PVC pipe down into smaller sections using a saw and miter box. That proved a bit challenging.



Fortunately my husband handed me this nifty little red-handled wire thingy that cut through the pipe like a hot knife through butter - eeeeeeasy.



After I cut my pipe lengths, I just stuck everything together. I didn't glue it because I want to be able to disassemble it.



Sophie loves having easy access to all her costumes. She spends at least an hour a day dancing like a princess in her playroom with her sisters, me, or her daddy.

Public Speaking and Such

I do not like public speaking. But yesterday, I led an hour-long teacher training workshop and survived.

When my former elementary principal at the Christian school where I taught for five years asked me to lead a workshop for their teachers on Biblical Integration, I accepted. Blah! For three and a half months I obsessed over this workshop. Perhaps it's because I haven't spoken in front of a group of kids, let alone adults for three years now. Perhaps it was because the workshop was to be an hour long and I was leading it all by myself. I was very intimidated to say the least.



I did it though - through nerves and all. It was great to see many of my former coworkers and meet new teachers as well. I am passionate about integrating God's Word into all academic subject.



Time will tell, but I hope my workshop inspired and informed the teachers enough to see tangible results in their classrooms.



The principal already hinted at having me back in the fall for another session. This first session was nerve-wracking enough to last me a lifetime. Sometimes, when we're really passionate about something, we'll be willing to overcome all kinds of obstacles to see it through.

Wordless Wednesday - Riley & Mr. Potato Head Mustache

Fenced In

Now that all three of our Little Chicks are walking, we decided to finally put up a fence. It's an expense we didn't want, but our children's safety is of utmost importance.

We wanted wrought iron, but cedar pickets are in our budget. We were so used to our lovely open view out our breakfast nook windows, that we opted NOT to put up the traditional privacy fence. Instead, we chose a picket fence with scalloped curves at the top. Judd (Mr. Chick) has been busy working on this project, and loving every manly minute of it. Most days he'd rather be outside doing some sort of physical labor than inside at a desk job. I secretly think he's trying to stretch this project out as an excuse to cut out of work early - ha!



Sophie has been just as excited about this fence as her daddy. She's been quite his little helper too.


We had all of the electricity, phones, TV, water, etc. located prior to starting this project. In spite of our best efforts and due diligence, Judd still managed to cut our neighbor's cable TV line. Ugh.

It took four days for Cox Communications to fix it. We felt sorry for our neighbors and lent them all our DVDs and invited them over to watch TV if they wanted. Our neighbor told us it was a blessing in disguise, because now that the line is fixed, their TV reception is clearer than ever before.

Judd also managed to cut the neighborhood entrance's lawn sprinkler pipe which, for some reason, goes through our yard.


Since it was simple PVC pipe it was easy for Judd to fix it himself. No harm - no foul - and no call to tell our home owner's association police.

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but Judd even worked in the rain. This guy is on a mission. A manly man mission.


I'll post after pictures...soon - I hope! (fingers crossed).