A Time to Celebrate!!!

When I think of Halloween, I think of my mom!! This year, we were able to celebrate her 50th birthday on Halloween. Not a day I would want to have my birthday on, but she has put up with it for 50 years!!! 2 years ago, on my mom's birthday, my husband and I went up to Chicago to visit my mom and dad. NO they don't live there, and NO we weren't going out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate her birthday. Instead, we were headed to Northwestern University Hospital where my mother was receiving treatment for Multiple Myloma Cancer. It was a very scary time for our family. We had so many prayer chains and people all across the world praying for her!! We knew that God was taking care of her no matter what the outcome of the situation may be. Makes me think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). They had faith that God would bring them out of the furnace alive, but if he didn't the 3 men were still giving God the glory and the praise.
When we celebrated my mom's birthday that day, it was one of the best days she had while she was up there. Things were starting to look good and she was feeling "better". At least it seemed she had a great day when we left that evening. The next day, on November 1st, my mom took a turn for the worst. She was facing some serious complications and ended up being on a vent for a week. For the first few days, I stayed away. My dad was in constant contact with me, and he thought it would be best if Ben and I did not see her like this. We had a great memory of her on her birthday, and we were clinging onto that. We decided to head back to Chicago a few days later. I was terrified of what was about to be before my eyes. I have never seen anyone on a vent, and who wants to see their mother in that state?!!!! Mom had tubes and wires coming out of her like she was the next Frankenstein! As we took in the information from the doctors, they were going to preform a surgery that gave her a 50/50 chance of coming out of it alive. With more prayers going up, the blessings kept on coming down! Mom came out of the surgery fine (minus a colon and all her large intestines) but she was still with us!!!! Praise the Lord!!! Long story short, she had a long road of recovery and changes ahead of her. She was released to come home on December 15th! It was an extra special Christmas for our family that year! Mom returns to Northwestern for checkups with the doctors every few weeks. As of now, they are not seeing any more myloma in her body! Praise God! Her numbers are looking great and she is back to work full time!!! So when we celebrate her birthday, it is always a great time for our family. We remember to give the honor and glory to God because he was with Mom every step of the way!! Needless to say, he was also with the rest of us because we needed him just as much!!
Over the stretch of the next year, God blessed my older brothers and I with babies!!! My brother Luke and his wife Kate had Olivia in August of 2011, Ben and I had Isaiah in September of 2011, and Levi and Laura had Annabelle in December of 2011!!! My mom (and dad) was thrilled to be able to meet her grand babies! She loves to spoil them, rock them to sleep, and kiss them all over!!! That's what Grandma's are for right!!!!?! I know that my children will be told all about their Grandma's journey and how blessed they are to have each and every day with her! Happy 50th Birthday Mom!! We love you!!!
Now, on to some more cheerful and exciting news!!! My mom now has to share her birthday with our newest addition my niece Martynn Joy Goetz!! Martynn is the 18th grand baby on the Goetz side (our new addition due in April will be #19)!!! She was born yesterday morning, and joins her big brother Carson, sisters Amaleah, Alivia, Ainsley, and big brother Oakley. We are so excited to meet her, but we will let mommy rests a few more days!! She needs a break after caring for 6 kids!! :) As we gathered at my sister-in-laws yesterday for our Halloween evening, it was such a blessing to see Isaiah with his Goetz Family cousins! No matter what side of the family they come from, I know Isaiah will be loved by his grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. God has blessed our families beyond measure and that is what we celebrate when it comes to Halloween!!!!

 Mom and my cousin Breckyn April 2011

 

Aunt Shelly (mom's perfect stem cell donor match), Mom, Uncle Tim, and Dad celebrating the big 50!!!!

 

Martynn Joy Goetz 1 day old!

Birthday Fun

Well it seems like forever since I have written a new post (probably because it has been forever!!!). With moving out of the old house and into the new one :) there has been no time for me to sit down and write. Finally I feel like we have the majority of the work done, and I am able to catch up on the important things around here! Like this blog! hahahahaha
In the time that I was away, our little man celebrated his first birthday! We had a fun day. While I was hoping to have his party in our new house, it ended up being our last shebang at the old place. It was a nice way to leave the old house behind. We had a Mickey Mouse birthday for Isaiah this year. I had so much fun creating his decorations and planning the big event. In the end, it felt more like a party for mommy's hard work than it did for Isaiah! We had a great evening celebrating with our family and friends. Isaiah is so blessed to have so many wonderful people in his life that love, care, and pray for him!!!!
On to the fun stuff...

In November of 2011 we went to Florida for a family wedding. While we were down there, my aunt and uncle spoiled us with a trip to Disney!! It was Isaiah's (2 months at the time) and Ben's first time going. We had such a blast! From that time on, I knew I wanted to throw him a Mickey party. We all have to get our inspiration from somewhere... for his party, most of these ideas were found on Pinterest. I just added my "Leah" touch to them!

Isaiah's smash cake: bought it at wal-mart, added some oreo ears and sprinkled it with crushed oreos. I also made 48 of these Mickey cupcakes found on Pinterest. (I did not cut the oreos to make smaller ears, why create more work for yourself?!?!?)

 

For the food and drinks, I used my wonderful Cricut to create these cute characters...

 

 

Along with the characters that labeled our food, I made a few more special decorations for Zaiah.

 

 

I think he liked it! The hard work is all worth that smile right there!!!

 

I had way too much fun using my Cricut making these banners!!! When I went to Party City to order his balloons, ok I don't know how to make those yet ;), I was excited when I found balloons with his name on them!!!

 

The last thing that I made was a photo timeline banner. I saw the idea from a lady's blog that I follow when she posted about her son's first birthday party.

 

On Isaiah's actual birthday 9/11, he opened his gifts from mommy and daddy. My parents, sister-in-law, and niece came over to help us celebrate. (It was a special treat because my brother and his family live in Montana!!!)

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed seeing all the fun stuff I made for our special boy!!!! Remember, IF I CAN DO IT, YOU CAN TOO!!!!

 

 

 

Abigail

This week has been a new experience for us. Last Wednesday we had a unique day to say the least. We put our Irish Setter, Abigail, down after she was having numerous health issues. Then later that afternoon we closed on our new house!!! It was hard to celebrate the closing and be excited when we had to go through the loss of our first baby! Abigail was a great dog! She came from the pound, and we could never figure out why someone would get rid of such a wonderful dog. When she passed away we believe she was about 9 years old. We don't know for sure so we went with the guess from the vet. We also have a 2 year old (puppy) German Shepherd Bloodhound mix; Piper. The first several days without Abigail we were keeping an extra close eye on Piper. She would walk out on the step and look for Abi under the tree where she always laid. For a few days, she didn't want to be outside for more than 5 minutes. This is just not Pipe!!! She has two of the strongest noses combined into one dog, so she was always tracking moles and catching birds. After a week of special attention, Piper seems to be doing much better!! We have already noticed the change in her. She seems to have grown up over night. She is calmer and a lot less aggressive now that there is no competition. It has been a week and there is still a bone laying on the floor in the living room. When Abigail was here they each had their own and never put it down!! Now she is just trying to keep it away from Isaiah!!!!
Speaking of Isaiah, we knew that he wouldn't remember Abigail when he is older, but we haven't noticed him looking for her now. I thought it would take longer, but Isaiah seems to not care that it's just him and his best buddy Piper!!! He always liked Abigail, but with her being an older dog she never had the energy to play with him like Piper does.
Ben and I are doing okay with Abi being gone as well. Every once and a while we bring her up and laugh at how heavy she used to breath. We don't miss that noise!!!! Ben buried her by his family's pond near their old dog, Gator. He was a Rottweiler. We have been down there a few times to see her tree branch grave marker, but we are also farm kids, and we don't get hung up on the emotions of losing a dog!!! Guess that comes from raising your own steers, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and rabbits, and knowing they were going to market. (Well the bunnies we took to Grandpa Oman's to run around his farm although rabbit meat does taste good.)
We are looking forward to only dealing with training one dog over at the new house. With moving, Isaiah only being 1 (almost his birthday is 9/11), and a new baby coming in April, we are honestly relieved to have one less thing to worry about! But we are going to miss Abigail, she was a gentle giant with a mean bark!!!

 

 fall 2009                                  just got Piper June 2010

                 first meeting Isaiah, September 12, 2011

 the day before we put her down          saying good bye

              our last family picture of all of us

Craft Time!!!!

We have had a very exciting and eventful week around our house!!! Isaiah (11 months) got his 1st tooth, we are working on moving out of this house, and I am due in April!!!!!! With all the changes going on, I feel like I have not made enough time for my crafts and cards lately. These are a few projects I have completed that I wanted to share with everyone. I found these on Pinterest and loved them. So I had to make some for myself!!!! Enjoy!

Yarn Wreath

Supplies

1 skein of yarn
craft wreath (I used the green ones)
hot glue
any flowers or embellishments you want to add (scrapbook paper if you do a letter like I did)
sewing pins
glue dots
cutting knife
safe cutting surface



 

Start with wrapping your wreath with the yarn. I used a few sewing pins to hold my yarn in place where I started. You could hot glue it right away, I waited til I was all done. Wrap the entire wreath (it takes a while but it goes quickly once you get the hang of it) with the yarn and secure your ends with the glue.

Now it's time for the fun part!! Play with the layout of your embellishments before you glue them on. I probably moved my things around 10 times before I was happy with the location! I went crazy on the hot glue because I wanted to be sure that they would not fall off!!!

If you decide to add a wooden letter, you can paint it, cover it with scrapbook paper, or leave it plain. I have tons of scrapbook paper so I went with that option.

To cover the letter, lay it upside down on the scrapbook paper. Again, play with your location if the paper has a design or pattern. When you are ready to attach the paper to the letter, cover the letter with your glue dots. Again, I went crazy because I wanted it to stick!!! Once you have the items secured together, use your cutting knife to cut around the letter. Go slowly so you have nice smooth curves and corners. Once you get it all cut out, you are ready to attach the letter to the wreath. I used the hot glue to get one piece where I wanted it, then I added tons :) of hot glue to all the other areas that were touching the yarn wreath.

It is simple and you can do it!!!! I can't wait to hang it up on our new front door!!!!!!

 

 

 

I Love You Because Frame & Menu Frame

 

This was so fun to make, and we really enjoy using it!!! I tend to write on it more than my husband (hmmmm), but he does participate and doesn't seem to mind either!!! There are so many options when it comes to making this frame. I made two options that I have seen and love!

 

Same techniques for the menu board.

 



 

 

Supplies

picture frame (I used 8 X 10 bigger for the menu might be better)

scrapbook paper

flowers or any embellishments you like

scrapbook stickers

dry erase markers

hot glue

 

Like I said, these were very easy to make!!

The first thing to do is get your frame. Once you know what they look like, that will guide the rest of you designs. Then pick out your scrapbook paper. Remember to use something that doesn't have a busy design or your writing will get lost. Cut your paper down to size.

 

For the I Love You Because Frame:

I ran my scrapbook paper through the printer to add the "I Love You Because...". I knew the look I wanted from the font, so I did it that way. Just be sure you check your settings and get things laid out the correct way before you print!!! Then stick your paper in the frame and add your embellishments. I played with the flower layout before gluing them! I'm a perfectionist so go figure.

Ta Da. Done!!!

 

For the Menu Frame:

I am spoiled by having a Cricut!!! I used that to cut out my MENU letters because I wanted them big and I didn't have scrapbook stickers that large. For the days of the week, I used my scrapbook stickers. Don't be afraid to mix and match your stickers!! I made one of these for my sister-in-law, and I used different stickers for the week days. It turned out so cute too!!!

Okay, once you have everything picked out (be sure the colors look nice together), you are ready to assemble. I started with the MENU to be sure I had enough room. Then add your week days. Remember to leave enough room for yourself to write the food out!!! You could also run this through your printer and do it like I did on the I love you frame.

Stick your paper in the frame and add your embellishments. I got these cute flowers at Michael's and I just love them!!!

 

These are simple and easy crafts to make. I have already given one as a gift, and I can't wait to make a few more for people!!!

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, leave them below and I will get back to you! Thanks!!!!

 

 

Remember IF I CAN DO IT, YOU CAN TOO!!!!!!!

Camping

I love going on vacation! But I hate things about coming home! It is so hard to get back into the swing of things. There is laundry to catch up on (thank goodness no dishes!!), bills to pay (before the due date which you almost miss because of vacation!), invoices to bill out, and typical cleaning up around the house. Oh how I wish dust and dirt would take a vacation too!!! Other than the post vacation work, we had a blast at our annual Goetz camping trip this year! This is the 4th year (if I'm not mistaken) we have gone to Monroe Reservoir down in Bloomington. All of my husband's family was able to go this year which makes it extra fun! Last year Ben and I only stayed 1night because I was super prego!!! This year we stayed a week and it makes the trip so much nicer! We have so much fun out on the boats, jet skis, and swimming. We plan meals that everyone contributes to (OK we cheat and cook over the grill that we take not the fire, but oh well!). We also take tons of crafts for the kids to make each day before we go out on the water. With Isaiah being a baby still, I made his crafts. Sadly, I think I had more fun than the kids making the crafts!!!! We had a a great time and are so blessed to do things like this with our family!!

 Isaiah and Daddy playing in our tent

   swimming with mommy and daddy; he loved the water!!!

 All 17 Goetz Grandkids!!

One of the crafts from this year. We sprayed shirts with fabric paint and the kids added their own puffy paint designs. I made Mickey for Ben, Minnie for Me, and Goofy for Isaiah!

Busy Busy Busy

Things have been a bit crazy around our house!!! I have been helping my best friend with her wedding plans and serving as her matron-of-honor. The wedding was July 28th and it was beautiful!!! We had to move the wedding up a year (the groom's mother was ill; and passed away shortly before the wedding), but everything worked out perfectly, and we pulled it off!! Lauren (the bride) and I had so much fun planning her wedding! I was excited to be her matron-of-honor, except for giving the speech. I sucked it up and it turned out great. Sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zone. I would do anything for her and giving a speech is what she really wanted from me. Anyways, it was a beautiful evening, and the bridal party did the Macarena as our bridal party dance (stepping out into that scary zone again)!!

Me, Buzz, and Lauren Schoof (his real name is Andrew but no one calls him that!)

I had to get a shot of the bridesmaid dresses!!!

After the wedding adventures, my father and I have been busy canning and freezing various items from the garden. We will be making salsa once more tomatoes are ready. We have some peppers cut and froze ready for the salsa. My dad has done tons of pickles already, but I picked about 30 more cucumbers Sunday. You never need that many pickles, but who wants to eat that many cucumbers!?!?! NOT ME!!!! We have also been freezing quart size bags of sweet corn. We did 12 bags yesterday, and have 2 more hampers full of corn to do today! Thanks to my mom for taking the pictures during our messy adventure and for watching Isaiah so we could get stuff done!!!!

 Isaiah loved the corn!!!

 We are making a mess!!!

   Dad and I cutting cucumbers!! Going Crazy!!!

Isaiah was having so much fun with Grandma!!!!

Welcome to My Blog

Hello world!!! This is my first ever blog post!!! EEK!!! I have been contemplating whether or not I wanted to have another responsibility. Needless to say, here I am. I DO NOT claim to be an expert about anything, but I do have a lot of knowledge and experience I can share with you. I will be writing posts about the happenings here at home, DIY projects we have completed, crafting, food, family, faith, and anything a stay-at-home mommy might be dealing with. Please feel free to comment on anything, and don't be afraid to ask!!!
A little bit about me; I am a 24 year old stay-at-home mom. I graduated from Purdue North Central in May of 2011 with my elementary education degree. I technically work (doing paper work and invoicing for my husband's business), but I am always busy with everything else we do. I am a varsity assistant (junior varsity head) softball coach at my old high school. I am a 4-H club leader, again with my old club, I am a 4-H project superintendent for the Health and Leadership projects, and we volunteer for numerous activities through our church. My husband is also a 4-H project superintendent for Small Engines. My husband, Benjamin, and I have been together for 8 1/2 years!!! We met through our older brothers (who were great friends in high school) and school. We were high school sweethearts (INSERT "AWWWW" HERE). I am the youngest of 3 (and the only girl which I love!!!!), and my husband is the youngest of 6. He has 4 brothers and 1 sister. We love our families more than they will ever now!! We currently have 18 nieces and nephews and more coming. Ben is a self-employed mechanic. He is always busy, which is a blessing, even though it gets frustrating when we don't get to see him very much!!! But he loves us and works hard to provide for us. That being said, he is a huge blessing to me, and I love him dearly!!!! So, who is this "us" I keep mentioning? In September of 2011 we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy, Isaiah Benjamin!!! He is a wonderful baby and is the best thing that has ever happened to us.
I suppose I should stop rambling on about myself, but I figured you would like to know who you are following in this crazy world out here!!!! I hope you will enjoy my blog, and I pray that I will be a blessing and encouragement to you. REMEMBER IF I CAN DO IT, YOU CAN TOO!!!!!