Holden's Hope Week 4 Paxten

 Look at that sweet little face of Miss Paxten. Isn't she just adorable?? Paxten is a sweet little 9 month old who is in for the fight for her life fighting leukemia. Here is a little info from her CaringBridge site:

Well where do we begin?  On December 4th, 2010 we received some news every parent dreads to hear. Our sweet baby girl Paxten Reede Pearson, born March 10, 2010 has leukemia.  Our world was turned upside down, however, we know that our God is a God of miracles and he made our sweet pea a fighter.  If anyone knows miss Paxten, than you know if anyone can beat this awful disease, it is her.  

Please remember this sweet little girl in your prayers! She needs as many as she can get! To follow along with how Paxten is doing click HERE

So yes this is going up later than it should have, but Mr. Holden was sick for the few weeks around this time. He is much better now and I want to make sure to get the word our about Miss Paxten! : )

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
From my family to yours!
Wishing you a wonderful day filled with family, friends and lots of love!

Holden's Hope Week 3 Asher

This Holden's Hope is an extra special one. That is because it is going to these two's little one who isn't even born yet. Meet Leslie and Josh. Aren't they just adorable?? They are waiting on the arrival of their son Asher who is due in January. Asher is an extra special little baby because he is being adopted by Leslie and Josh! : ) Here is their story:

We tried for over 2 years to conceive, and no luck.  We went through about 6 months of fertility treatments, loads of injections and hormones, and still no luck.  The stress and raging hormones almost broke our marriage before we decided that our destroying our commitment to each other wasn't worth it just for a baby.  So around January 2010 we started praying about what God would have us do...he had definitely placed the desire in both our hearts to have children some way, somehow.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  And in July, we both really felt like He was calling us to foster care. So, in August we started that process.  The first week of October, we completed our last home visit from the social worker, and were in the process of waiting for the state.  The nursery was ready, the house was in order, and the paperwork was done.  We even had a few baby showers planned in the month of November to help us stock up on all sorts of goodies for the kiddos we would welcome in our home.  Then I got the phone call...
 
A friend of our family is a pastor of a church back home.  He had heard we were doing foster care, and were hoping to eventually adopt from the foster care system.  After he said hello and introduced himself, he said "A couple in my church wants to give their baby up for adoption, do you want it?"  Of course I said yes!  Then I told him I needed to call Josh before I confirmed that for sure.  ;)  So, after talking to Josh and getting the okay, we set up a meeting with the birth parents the 2nd weekend in October.  We all immediately hit it off, and as we were leaving, they asked if we would parent their baby.  We are soooooooooo excited!  :)  Since then, the birth parents have met our parents, and we found out we are having a baby boy!  Asher Grant is due January 17, but will likely be induced the week before that.  The birth parents are both new Christians, and feel like they won't be able to give this sweet baby the chance he needs in life.  They have so much love for him, and want him to have every opportunity that they haven't had.  So pray for them as well!

What an amazing story that they have! I am so excited to be able to make this onesie for them!

Happy Birthday Holden!

Today this sweet little boy turned ONE! I can not believe that he has already been in our life for a year! Happy Birthday sweet boy! We love you!!

Bayleigh and Gage

Bayleigh and Gage and promised! : ) How adorable are these two?? Bayleigh looks just like her Mommy did when she was this age!

 Bayleigh and her Mommy Kayla

 Sweet Gage

Bayleigh and Gage with their Nana Leisha

Keep the prayers coming! Thanks yall!

Holden's Hope Week 2 Bayleigh and Gage

This by far may be one of or the hardest post I have ever had to write. I'm not sure where to start so I'll start at the VERY beginning about 20 years ago. Yeah seriously. When I was 4, my two sisters and I stayed with the most amazing babysitters in the whole world! It was a mother {Bobbie} and daughter{Julie} who kept us. Well Bobbie came from a family that was very close and she was one of 7 girls! Her younger sister Leisha lived only a few houses down {and still does} and she has two daughters Amie and Kayla. Are ya still with me? I know this can get confusing. So anyways Kayla was just a little older than me and we were best friends. We spent countless summers and days after school together. Many slumber parties and family trips. And Amie was older so she would come over and babysit a lot of night when my parents would go out. So you see I have know them forever and have been very close to them for a long time. We have kinda lost being close over the years. I think it just happens in life sometimes. We run into each other and check up on each other often. Kayla and I even have boys just a few months apart!
On October 25th, I got terrible news. Their Mom Leisha had been in a terrible car accident. It was a single car accident and when the accident happened, she was struck on the side of her head and this cause her skull to break off and enter  her brain. From this injury, she had to have surgery and the part of her brain removed that controls her language and speech, vision and hearing. The doctors have said that she may never be able to comprehend language again. Never be able to say her children's names. What horrible news to hear. But she is proving them wrong a little at a time! Today she is still in the hospital. Every day all you can do is pray that the doctors are wrong and she will be ok!
Leisha as two beautiful grandchildren named Bayleigh and Gage. That are such wonderful children and need lots of prayers for their Nana to recover right now! So this week's Holden's Hope goes to them! I am sorry for not including any pictures of them today but will do so tomorrow with a picture of Oakley's shirt as well!
Please lift up this family in your prayers today! They need as much as they can get! To follow along with Leisha's progress click HERE.

I told ya they were cute.... : )

Dear Miss Kendra,

Thank you SOOO much for making me the invitation to my birthday party and my tags to put on my party favors! I LOVE them sooo much and Mommy and Daddy do too! Everyone out there in blogland needs to go over to Key Lime Digital Design and order something from her. She really does awesome work! Maybe one day I will get to meet her. And I heard she has a cute daughter my age too......

Thank you again Miss Kendra! You rock!

Love,

Holden

My Go-To Gal

When I considered starting my own little Holden's Hut shop I had a lot to think about to get the word out. Do I want to have a blog? A Facebook page? An Etsy account? How am I going to let people know what I do? These along with many other questions came to mind. I of course decided on a blog and Facebook page for now but who knows what the future might hold! : )

When I decided to start my own blog, I knew that I wanted it to be something extra cute and wanted something that I wanted. Not something that someone had designed and place on their blog as free backgrounds {not that I don't LOVE those because that is what I have on my Family blog} but something that no one else had. I had played around with designing my own background and whatnots in the spring but never really got into it. While learning about how to design backgrounds and whatnots for a blog, I somehow ran across Key Lime Digital Design and love everything I saw! I met the owner Kendra and she helped me big time when I made my own background. Well I decided designing backgrounds for me right now, so I sent an e-mail to Kendra to ask her her thoughts about if she could help me or even make one for me. And what do you know she said yes! And I LOVE my background here and blog layout better than ANY one I have ever seen anywhere!

A few weeks ago, I started thinking about Mr. Holden's first birthday which is coming up way too fast! I wanted again some super cute first birthday cards without paying an arm and a leg. We knew we wanted a rocking beach party theme and I couldn't find any picture invites that I just loved. So what did I do you ask?? I went straight to my Go-To Gal Kendra at Key Lime Digital Designs! She made the most adorable birthday invites EVER for me! {I will share them.. but not until after his actual birthday}

So stop on by her website now and check out her adorable cards that she as for sale for the holidays!

Giveaway!

First of all, I can not believe that it is already December! And even more that my baby will be 1 VERY soon! This year has been the best year ever! Anyways, right now I am giving away one free tee or onesie over at The Monogram Swap! The Monogram Swap is just what it says it is! : ) You take you old Monogrammed things and sell them! Isn't that just an awesome idea?! So head over now and enter to win! Good Luck : )

Holden's Hope Week 1

This month I am very excited to be sending out Holden's Hope shirts once a week! This special little boy was supposed to come up in November.. but.. well.. I just missed it somehow! But we are starting off December with him!

Meet Oakley. How precious is this little boy??  Here is a little about Oakley from his Mommy:

Oakley is a very ambitious 3 1/2 year old.  He was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma in June of this year.  He started chemo in July and will continue with it until next year.  We're hopeful that between the chemo and radiation that we'll get to keep this special little boy around for a very long time.  He's strong willed and definitely a fighter (for which we are very grateful for).  Oakley LOVES the outdoors, anything that allows him to bask in the sun.  :)  He loves playing on the playground, camping, fishing, playing in the snow and anything to do with sports. His favorite color is green.  He loves his brothers (19 mos. & 5 wks) and sister (almost 5).  He's always good to remember them when he gets a treat or something that he can share with them.  

What an amazing and sweet little boy! I haven't made his shirt yet but am very excited to make it this weekend and fill it full of lots of prayers!

HERE is the link to his families blog so that you can follow along in this journey with them!

Stop by next Thursday and meet Bayleigh and Gage!