Newest Endeavor

I have began a new endeavor and want to share with you all what that is.

A few years ago a friend of mine had read an article where a woman donated her wedding dress to be made into a burial gown. Well, this friend of mine decided to give me her wedding dress and asked me to make something special with it. It took me about a year of it hanging in my closet to take it apart. I cried when she offered it to me, I cried when I cut it up, and I cried once I made my first piece with it.

Since then, my cousin donated 2 evening gowns to me from when she owned a thrift store, a woman I met through our local Candle Light Vigil gave me her wedding dress, my daughter bought me a beautiful lacy dress from our Goodwill (will post a photo later), and today I met two women in a town about 35 minutes away to pick up 4 more dresses!

I truly feel blessed being asked to make such special tokens with something that was once so special to someone else. I imagine these women picking out these "perfect" dresses to make their day special. They probably tried on multiple dresses until they found this one, THE ONE. I imagine they wore these dresses with such pride and I bet they were beautiful princesses in them. 

                    

Here are a few pieces I have sewn together. I have many cut out, ironed, and placed in a box so that I can sew them at the same time and can add my special touches to them. 

I will post more as I get them sewn up. In the meantime, here is my Weebly website I have started with my information and I posted these same photographs there. I have also changed my Facebook page name to This Sweet Child of Mine.

God Bless You All!

Reflections of 2016

We are on the 8th day of the new year and I am just now posting this. Hopefully I won't be slacking this much this year.

Here we go!

January 

Crispin turned 5!

Andrea went to her first Military Ball with her friend Tanner.

March  

I have another teenager with Makaila turning 13!

April  

Back Row (l-r):Angela, Debbie, Papa, Bo, JD, Tory, Becky, Jessica

2nd Row (l-r): Jennifer, AB, X'Zaiden, Jesly, Diana, Emily, Makaila, Andrea, Candie, Taylor, Jessica

Front Row (l-r): Noe, Carson, Crispin, Me, Nya, Avery and Granny

Our Team Nehemiah this year had a lot of new faces and some returns of familiar ones.

May 

Andrea ready for her Senior Prom with her friend Max. 

My mom takes really great photographs.

June 

Makaila, JD, Andrea, Crispin and Me

Andrea graduated and a week later, my nephew Connor graduated.  

Carson, Dobie, Alex, Connor, Crispin and Pepper

July

Bo, Me and Sami

We enjoyed a small family reunion with my little sister Sami and her family. We missed taking a picture with her husband and mine. When they come down again, we will have to get a group photograph.

Makaila, Cadence, Megan, Collin, Carson and Crispin

August

A new year of school started with an 8th grader and Kindergarten. Their big sister is a freshman and their dad is a sophomore at Community College, just did not get their picture.

October 

This year's candle light vigil was very nice. The host tried out the flying lanterns, pictured above. 

Here are just some of the luminaries for this year.

We celebrated Nehemiah for the 9th year. 

We celebrated our oldest turning 19!

Happy Halloween from our clan!

November  

Here is what the men do during Thanksgiving versus what the women do.

We did our first re-enactment of a photograph of the girls.

December  

We had a great Christmas this year with each other and taking pictures in front of the tree.

Happy New Year! 

Many prayers for a Happy New Year to everyone reading this post!

A Little Story...

Here's a little story about this coat I would like to share:

Jd and I are high school sweethearts, so we have been through many fashion changes in the 2 decades we have been together. One day we decided to get matching Starters Jackets, know that I was a Florida State Seminole fan in high school and never really was a North Carolina Tar Heels, but Jd was, so whatever.

After a while we had decided we should get different coats, because matching couples are so lame. But, we became pregnant and lost a baby boy we named Nehemiah Christopher Reyna. (This would have been any of our older children's name had they been boys.)
After our loss we just could not give up these coats and my husband still wears his North Carolina hat religiously, just for the simple symbol - N.C. 
 

March for Babies 2016

Another year has come and gone for the March for Babies!

It was a little cool this mornging, after having been raining for a few days before the walk. We had a quite a few walkers this year, that always makes my heart happy! We raise $953.00!

Enjoy a few pictures below of us before the walk, during the walk and at the Memory Mile.

We are truly blessed to have so many supporters! Thank you all for participating!

Reflections of 2015

Here I am again, posting about my amazing points of the year that God has ever so graciously allowed me to enjoy!

We missed a lot of family this year that could not make it for the holidays, but we still had a blast.

~ January ~ 

  My baby boy turned 4 years old

 ~ March ~

 My pretty girl turned 12 (very front center)

~ April ~

 Celebrated our Lord's Resurection with family - here are some of the grandkids

 Our Family Team this year for March for Babies

My beautiful girl went to her first prom with her best friend Tory 

and I made her dress - my first formal dress, was not perfect, but she loved it

 

~ May ~

Last Day of School - they were excited to start Summer Vacation

 

 

~ August ~ 

First day as a Senior and 7th Grader

 I do not have a photograph of me accepting my 15year service award, so I added the next best thing - not many people my age can say they have been at the same job as long I have.

 

 ~ September ~

  Went to homecoming with her best friend Tory (our adopted son)

 

~ October ~ 

We enjoyed a beautiful evening lighting luminaries in memory of all 

the little angels gone to soon.

 Our donations for the hospital, we made smocks for 

the NICU to go along with our usualy tunics, hats and buntings  

 We celebrated our 8th Angelversary for Nehemiah

This beautiful lady turned 18

 

~ November ~

 Thanksgiving was a blast! Since my brother worked on Thanksgiving, we celebrated with my mother-in-law (here with the kids)

 Here is a little of the clan from my mom's Thanksgiving

~ December ~

 

My precious Christmas presents

     Family portrait on Christmas Eve

My children getting ready to ring in the new year!

We had a blast watching movies and stuffing our faces full of good food.

Here is a Toast to You and Your family this New Year from our Family!