Father + Son
Phone Photo Friday
09/05/2014
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Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Adoption, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: cell phone photography, Phone Photo Friday | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Phone Photo Friday
08/29/2014
Another week come and gone. I have a couple post ideas rolling around in my head that I haven’t written yet. I’m hoping to push through this writers block soon.
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Adoption, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: cell phone photography, Phone Photo Friday | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Phone Photo Friday
08/22/2014
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Adoption, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: cell phone photography, Phone Photo Friday | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Alianna’s Big Girl Room
08/19/2014Here are a few more pics of Ali’s room to follow up yesterday’s post about her new doll house. She’s currently sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor. I’m still trying to decide if I should move the twin bed frame in from the other room or buy a new bed frame (either for her room or for the foster kids bedroom). I really like being able to snuggle up beside her to read books before bedtime. The beautiful owl blanket was made by my mother-in-law as a third birthday gift for Alianna. The quilt at the foot of her bed was made for me by my Granny when I was a baby. I love these handmade treasures!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: kids room, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
A Home for Lottie
08/18/2014When I was a child my Granny made me a large set of furniture for my Barbie house. I posted about it a few years ago and it’s one of my most popular posts. Let me reiterate: I don’t have patterns for this furniture. It was made approximately 20 years ago by my grandmother who is no longer living. I’ve been hanging onto this for years waiting for just the right time and place to pass it down to my daughter. When Alianna got some Lotties for her birthday (our more age appropriate replacement for Barbie), I knew it was the right time. And then when my sister-in-law offered to pass on my niece’s Barbie house, I knew I had the right place to put it.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Phone Photo Friday
08/15/2014
1 Comment | Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Adoption, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: cell phone photography, Phone Photo Friday | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Pretty Pictures
08/12/2014I’m still alive and well… just a bit of writers block lately. That tends to happen when work gets busy and family life is low key. Here are a few pretty pictures from the past two weeks.
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Chickens, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: phone photography, photography, photos, pretty | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Phone Photo Friday
08/08/2014
Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of Alianna’s adoption day! We celebrated with ice cream, the same way we celebrated the past two years. (Yes, Alianna is wearing a dog suit. Because why not?)
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Posted by mahlbrandt
She Wants To Be Like Me
08/05/2014
It’s simultaneously flattering and terrifying that I have a daughter who wants to be just like me. She sees the worst of me, along with the best. My biggest failures are most often toward those who I love the most: my husband and my daughter. I’ve had to ask her forgiveness so many times. She’s always gracious to forgive. She teaches me. When she offends me, I want to be mad; I want her to know that I’m mad. On the contrary, when I’ve lost my temper with her, she responds to my apologies with so much grace. “It’s OK, Mommy. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You just try again.”
The other day I was heading out to take care of the chickens. She asked, “Mommy, can I follow you?” She hurried to put her shoes on so she could shadow me on my chores. If I’m working, she wants to work. If I’m vacuuming, she wants to vacuum. If I’m cooking, she wants to cook. If I throw a fit when I’m mad, she throws a fit when she’s mad. If I bark commands at her, she barks commands at me (or others). If I sing and dance in worship, she sings and dances in worship. If I feel sick, she feels sick. When I see how much she wants to be like me, I’m humbled. I’m desperate to be more like Jesus so when she emulates me, she’s emulating Him.
Jesus, help me to be like You. Help me to love my daughter well. Help me to be on her side and to model love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
5 Comments | Faith, Family, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: child, daughter, mom, mommy, mother, motherhood, parenting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
A Lottie to Love
07/30/2014My three year old is getting into the age of Barbies. I have a set of beautiful handmade Barbie furniture that my Granny made for me and with it I found two of my old Barbie dolls. They’re in bad shape…each is missing part of a limb from a puppy incident, each had an unfortunate haircut at some point and they were embarrassingly naked. I could have bought my daughter some new Barbies to go with the furniture but I did a little research and discovered these Lottie dolls are an affordable (comparable price to Barbie), funky, young-girl-friendly alternative.
To quote the top reviewer on Amazon: “In a market flooded with weird looking dolls with impossibly enhanced female figures dressed inappropriately (to put it nicely) with faces painted with makeup, in comes Lottie.”
And straight from the Lottie website: “The key point of difference is that Lottie has a ‘childlike’ body – she doesn’t wear makeup, jewelry or high heels and she can stand on her own two feet (always a useful life skill for all girls, big and small).”
For Ali’s third birthday she got one Lottie doll from Grandma and one from us, along with an extra change of clothes. I plan to add to the set over time.
1 Comment | Art, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: barbie, dolls, girls, little girls, lottie | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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