Craft Nite

I was the most recent host of Craft Nite, and this was our project:

I am part of a group of girls that get together every month to make a craft of sorts. This was my first time participating, and I was the hostess, how fun! It came about because I offered to cut all the wood blocks for people... 250+ wood blocks later, we were painting them all!

It was so fun to have like 30 girls in my house, all crazy and chatty, and paintin' and craftin'... I'm sure TJ loved it! Anyhoo, this is my version of retro Christamas blocks. I really enjoyed it, and am considering making more and taking orders.... anyone?

What's the coolest thing ever...?

Dishwashers with delay cycles on them. Yeah, I know, it's the little things in life that please me. I was visiting with a friend yesterday and we were discussing how some people are better at keeping hosue than others. She said that she knew someone who made it a habit to keep her hosue clean, and she would make sure to set the dishwasher on delay cycle every nite, so it would start after they went to bed and be clean by morning.

I tried out this new feature today after breakfast... I loaded everything in, hit delay cycle, gathered more and more dishes from the counters and table, and I didn't have to stop it from washing to load in the over-looked items. Then we jsut left the house, no running back in because I forgot to start the dishwasher! And 3 hours later when I came home... we have clean dishes to eat lunch on!

What an amazing little idea! I think I will start using this one all the time!

Tristan's One!

Oh my goodness, I can't believe a whole year has gone by! Where has all the time gone? I know I already posted about Tristan's birthday, which was a smash, by the way! But I just wanted to address the fact that it's been a whole year! (Did I mention it'd been a WHOLE year... okay)

I have the most fantastic pictures of Tristan, once again, thanks to Brianne Glover Photography for doing an amazing job on them!

Seriously, I thought I have coped with Tristan's experience pretty well, maybe better than one would expect. But there are a few times where I still find myself getting choked up over the memory of all that she and our family went through, and just how special she is to our family.

Yesterday as we started off the Heart Walk, I saw a girl there that I knew from church. She was surprised to see me and there and I her, and when she asked why I was there, and I had to briefly jog her memory and explain a little about Tristan, I was fighting back tears. A whole year later and I have to fight back tears just telling someone why we are sponsering a Heart Walk. Maybe that part never goes away, because maybe everytime I have to really stop and think back to it all, I just remember everything about it, and what a sweet child she is.

Last nite at the birthday party TJ took a second to thank everyone for coming, but also to thank everyone for being there and supporting our family while Tristan went through her surgery, and once again my eyes started watering. There were so many friends and families and family members that showed so much love to us during that time, I don't think we'll ever be able to properly thank everyone.

Sometimes as I think about why I am so touched by her and her story, I think it's getting worse as the time goes on. Maybe because now I'm so much more attached to her and her personality than I was a year ago, and I'm so glad that I didn't have to miss out on a great first year with her.

She truly is a little blessing to our family, and like every child, I can't even imagine what our family would be like today without her, and without having gone through her experiences.

Here's a poem I found, it's not directly related to heart kids, but rather trials in general. I like it.

I have a thorn in my side
And it hurts sometimes
Reminds me I'm only human
But every tear I cry
Waters a ground that's dry
And soon the flowers blossom
Like a rainbow follows bad weather
Hard times will only make me better
'Cause roses and thorns grow together
So I don't lose faith when the storm clouds roll.
'Cause I know the trials will strengthen my soul...
Making me whole.
-Hilary Weeks

Read more about Tristan's story here.

Happy Birthday to Tristan!

Today was so much fun, we celebrated Tristan's birthday today. I had been planning to do a heart themed party, ever since February this year, I was SO excited about the theme! It just so happened that today co-insided with a "Heart Walk" they did here locally.It was sponsored by lots of different businesses, and the American Heart Association. We were part of the Mended Little Hearts Chapter. So Tristan and Madison and I went down and walked the 2.something miles, and then took a bunch of pictures with the group, it was a lot of fun. And a great way to celebrate her first year of life! So, that's here "MLH" t-shirt in these pics, what an appropriate attire for the heart themed party, eh?

That's her cake and the extra cupcakes, and her party favors.

Her and I (and Brooklyne's head) all blorwing out the candle.

Tristan went right for the cupcakes, this is her on like 3 of 5-ish. Anyway, we had a total blast at the party, and I really hope that the other families did too... TJ got a bounce house, and so it seemed as though all the children were easily occupied and entertained!

I had such a fun day with her and our family and friends!

The REAL family pic

Yeah, all those other ones were fakes... this one is for real! Once again, when we were up in Colroado, we had pictures taken by Brianne Glover Photography

She did such a fantastic job, I'm always impressed with her pictures, and the quality and price, she's an abolutely great photographer.

Carve out some fun

Family fun time continued with some pumpkin carving. The girls loved getting to play with all their cousins, and Brooklyne adsolutely adored carving her pumpkin. Madison on the other hand, didn't love it so much. She mroe enjoyed helping put the sticker face on Tristan's pumpkin.

All in all, the pumpkins turned out great!

Hughes family fun day

So, we are back from our trip to "Colorful Colorado"!! It was so nice up there! In fact, my kids were quite disappointed that they didn't get to see any snow. Oh well, we'll have to catch the snow another time!

So, in order to accomodate seeing all the family, we planned a Family fun day... and oh boy, let me tell you how fun it was...! Actually, it wasn't too bad at all. We got together after lunch time (so much for a whole day of fun, huh?) Anyway, we hit the park for a little kite flying adventure.

Madison didn't care much for actually flying the kite, it was too much work. She had more fun throwing around the styrofoam airplanes.

Brooklyne on the other hand, LOVED flying the kites, with some help from Daddy of course!

More kite flying

See, there she goes with that plane!

I enjoyed comfortably sitting around in a lawn chair... now THAT'S famiy fun!

And Tristan... well, I think she hated the whole idea of having family fun.... !

As always, check out the web album to see the rest of the pictures.