Newborn Shadowboxes are Done!

I'm so excited, I finished the kids Newborn Shadowbox frames! Picked up these 16x20 frames at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. They open from the front with a glass door hinge.

Here is Madeline's. It has her hospital take home outfit (you can see her wearing it in the photo below the outfit), her newborn booties, socks, mittens and cap. I stuffed them all with tissue paper to give them some dimension. I used my sewing pins to pin them all to the shadowbox.

I also had this name card printed at our local grocer photo lab along with 5 wallet size pics of Madeline as a newborn. I just designed the name card in Photoshop and had it printed as a 4x6, and then cut it to a 4x4.

Here is James'. It has his hospital take home outfit, newborn socks and cap. And I also put one of his burp cloths and his binky and clip that my cousin from Holland sent. You can see him sucking on it in the photo to the left of his outfit.

I thought they turned out pretty good! And I can't wait to hang them up and show them off to house guests! My precious babies were once so tiny! 

Time sure does fly!

Projects Around the House

We have family coming in 2.5 weeks for our mini Spence reunion (Stephen's parents and all of his siblings families). So day by day I've been trying to get projects around the house done so I'm not overwhelmed in cleaning the few days before. I am getting ready to paint our stairwell and by the window on our stairwell I plan on hanging these newborn baby outfit shadow box frames. Today Stephen got the tubs of baby clothes down from the attic and I was able to find the kids outfits for them. I can't believe how much my babies have grown! Touching and seeing all these clothes brought back lots of memories of when they were newborns and so tiny.

Right now I'm having 5 newborn photos (wallet size) printed of each of them either in these outfits or in other outfits the first week of their lives. I'm going to pin those along with a name card with their birth stats in the shadow box with these outfits. Hopefully I can get them done soon!

Can you tell we had one boy and one girl? :)

While I was doing a ton of laundry yesterday I thought to myself, "why not give the kids one of my house projects?". They were super thrilled to get their own bowls of soapy warm water with sponges. I had them scrub the baseboards! I try to vacuum my baseboards but sometimes the dirt just sticks and since they are white it is really noticeable to see the grime. The kids did all of upstairs and the entire stairwell. They did awesome! And they were very proud of the job they did. Now I can check that off my list - well maybe after I have them do the downstairs. :)

I finally finished my anniversary gift to Stephen, and giving our powder bathroom a transformation. Stephen said the bluish purple and my Oma's painting made the powder room look too old ladyish. So my work redid our art gallery lounge and the owner let me take some of the art taken down. Score. I was able to pick up these contemporary art images printed on acrylic. I love the artist and the images are abstract watercolors of a guy and a girl skateboarding. I thought they were fun, hip images. So I repainted the room a gray - much more clean and neutral.

Also put a hand towel rack.

I also took down the bath towel bar to the left of the toilet that came with the house. It's really silly to have a bath towel bar - when there is no bath or shower in the powder room. Anyhow, I'm pleased with how it turned out. And so is Stephen. :)

Newborn Shadow Boxes

Madeline getting her hospital photo taken before leaving the hospital.

I am so excited. I just stopped by the Hobby Lobby store and got a great deal (50% off) on two beautiful large shadow box frames. I am going to use them and put Madeline and James' newborn home-from-the-hospital outfits in them along with a few other mementos. I've had this idea for a really long time and I'm feeling creative this weekend so I'm finally going to start on the project.

James taking his first nap after coming home from the hospital.

Stephen and I are pretty sure we won't be having any more children. We feel that God has blessed us with a girl and a boy that bring an abundance of love, joy and happiness to our family - we feel complete. After looking at family and friends baby photos on Facebook, I kept thinking to myself "they grow so fast and I remember when Madeline and James were that tiny". Well we all know what happens as we get older, we tend to forget things. I think having these shadow boxes hanging in our home will be a sweet reminder of how little they were and how fast they grow.

If any of you have ever made these Newborn Shadow Boxes I'd love to hear your ideas! And even see photos of them. What did you put in them? I will definitely be putting their outfits and booties in them (Stephen honey, I need you to get them down from our attic! :) and I was also thinking of putting their birth announcement photos in them.