Just Sharing the Cuteness!

Here are some pictures of Gracia enjoying a cookie...and being super cute!

Yummy cookie!

Practicing her pirate!

Can you tell that her eyes are gray with brown around the pupil...they are so pretty!

And here are some of her enjoying her bath...Steve loves giving her crazy hair!

 

Bath time!

Punk baby!

Can't believe she'll be one next week!

God bless~
Rach

She's Crafty~

It's been a while since I've "crafted".  Between being pregnant, having a baby, Steve finishing his PhD, and moving...well, there's just not been a lot of time to get out the craft and art supplies and create.

Well, that time has changed.  I guess I was inspired...

A month or so ago, I snapped this picture using Instragram with my phone.  The girls and I were on our way home from playing at the park when I just had to stop and see if the camera could capture what I was seeing.   

I love Instragram!

I thought it turned out pretty nice.  I wanted to display it, but I also began playing around with an idea in my head of how I wanted to alter and embellish it.

So, Steve gave me lots of free time to pursue my idea this past weekend.  It felt so good to get out some of my supplies and begin playing...it felt so good to create~


I started with a plain white canvas and a 6 x 6 reprint of my photo...and added paint.

I added more paint...

...and a verse from the Bible...

...and layers of decoupage glue...


...and this is how it turned out.  

It's not exactly how I envisioned it in my mind...and I made mistakes along the way that are permanently part of the project...but isn't that how art sometimes goes?


And art is good for the soul and the mind and the heart...and creating is a wonderful experience.  


And I am thankful for how it turned out.  I am thankful for a husband who gave me so much free time this weekend to work on it...love you so much, Steve...thank you!

I am thankful to God for the scene He allowed me to see and the photo that remembers it...and the art He led me to create with it.


God bless~
Rach

Pure Poetry!

Here's my little poet...my little winning poet...Sweet Sophia Rose.

Sophia with her poetry award~

Our local library sponsored a poetry contest for 1st through 12th grade.  I thought it would be great for the girls to enter, so I encouraged them to think about a poem...

I figured this assignment was more for Bella, but was very happy that Sophia wanted to enter the contest too.  I love reading aloud to my girls...and poetry is part of that.  

Listening to poetry...much easier than writing it.  

Both girls were at a bit of a loss with where to begin.  So I helped them narrow down their choices by encouraging them to write a descriptive poem...pick something in nature and use words to "draw a picture".

My only input was to help with spelling and grammar.  Here's what Sophia came up with.

The Wind and the Moon

The wind blows the moon around like a star moves in space.

The wind blows the moon around as it shines in its tracks.

You and I might think the moon has a special secret, but the moon is alone. 

Wow!  Steve and I were pretty impressed...she's 6, folks :)

So, off to the library went the poems.  A few weeks later I got a call that Sophia's poem was selected as a winner!  Wow!  Super wow!  I was so excited for her!  The look on her face when I shared the good news with her...priceless...absolutely priceless!

There were almost 350 poems submitted and a Texas Poet Laureate was the judge.  They grouped the poems into groups of 3 grades (Sophia's groups was 1st through 3rd grade) and selected 3 winning poems from each group.  She was the youngest winner of the bunch :)  We were invited to a poetry reception attended by many of the winners, parents, teachers, library staff, and the mayor of Frisco.  Each child was presented with a framed certificate presented by the mayor himself and a book of all the winning poems.   

Sophia and Mayor Maso~

Yep...I had to get a close-up :)

A collection of the winning poems~

They could also read their poem to the group...Sophia was nervous, but she did a great job!  The library is in the process of producing a video recording of the winning poets and their poems...I hope to have a link to that soon.

**Update**

Here's the link to the video the library put together.

Here's my recording of Sophia sharing her poem at the reception.  The sound quality is (unfortunately) very poor, but I still wanted to share the clip.

Thank you, Frisco Library, for your poetry contest...both my big girls were inspired and our entire family was blessed by Sophia's success.  I especially love how this has affected my sweet Sophia...this has been such a special blessing to her...sometimes it can be hard to be in the middle.  

Thank you, Lord for choosing to give her this special recognition...thank you, Lord, for helping her to see that "words" may be part of her "special talent"...a gift from You, Lord...may she be inspired to glorify You with this gift~

And, can I confess...this "writer Mommy" is bursting with pride :)

God bless~

Rach