remembering cora and a baby shower

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A year ago today, our hearts were broken.

We miss you Cora.

We're so glad you're with Jesus.

We love you Joel, Jess and Levi.

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Yesterday morning we showered our dear friend Jess, and her little boy Levi - with lots of love!

I had a blast helping plan this shower!

Are you ready for to see all that cute blue and green I told you was coming??

Here's what Kendall and I were sewing up...

I've wanted to make one of these for a long time - so what a perfect excuse to do it - and now I know how, thanks to Heather! And thanks to Kendall for knowing more about sewing then I do!

Heather typed up detailed, step-by-step instructions for Kendall and I to follow. It made it SO easy! If you want the instructions you can contact her via her blog or email me and I can send them to you!

I'll start you off with your supplies:
I bought quarters of coordinating patterned fabric (one quarter is pretty close to what you'll need for one triangle (back and front)
Then I got a quarter of solid fabric to use for the letters.
You will need an iron-on fusible web for the letters. Heather suggested this one.
Matching thread
2-3 yards of ribbon to hang the triangles on
Letters printed from your computer in the size and font of your choice

So go get your supplies and then we can get you the instructions! They are just too long to put on here I think.

Moving on...
I found this picture online...(shoot, I forgot where)

and I was determined to duplicate it. But because my mind is just not all that crafty on it's own, I got some help. Help that turned into "I will do them for you!" from Heather! Seriously, it was like having our own little party planner helping us out- and such a sweet and gracious one at that!

So I sent her some fabric scraps - so they would coorinate with other fabrics we were using, and she sent these back...

They are made out of washcloths and baby spoons.

This picture (again, sorry I didn't keep track of where I got it), inspired a whole other idea...

Aren't the silhouettes on the table the cutest things??

I knew Heather did silhouettes - you've gotta check out her Etsy shop!
So we chatted, shared ideas and AGAIN, Heather said she'd do them!

Luckily, Jess was cooperative and sent me side profiles, not really knowing how they were being used.

I sent Heather measurements of my mantle and told her how I was kind of envisioning it all together...she took my ideas, and sketched out a little picture. Seriously, this girl is amazing. She even mailed me the green ribbon and the chipboard letters so our job to put it together was SO very easy!

This is the finished product...

We shed some tears over this.
Tears seeing the 4 of them pictured together.

Levi's name means "joined", so we wanted to incorporate that.

The chipboard letters spell out "a family joined"

What a precious, precious family - that WILL be JOINED again one day.

There's another wonderful lady who contributed to the shower.

The lovely Sara, at Sarah + Abraham did our invitations...

The cutest invitations EVER! The little bird in the tree represents big sister, Cora.

Check her out , her designs are absolutely adorable, a great place for gifts and invitations of any kind! You will love them!

She also did the stickers for these adorable cupcake toppers...

I got this cupcake stand after being inspired by my friend Bethany at Hissyfits blog. You're suppossed to be able to get them at Michaels - using a 50% off coupon of course. But unfortuneately, after 2 attempts, they STILL didn't have them on their shelf. So I ordered here.

Added some ribbon - and VOILA!!
You can switch the ribbon to coordinate with any theme or occasion.

I can't even express in words how grateful we are to Heather and Sara for helping us with this shower. Their contributions and ideas helped make all the details absolutely perfect for Jess and Levi! It has been so fun to get to know some of these amazing women out in "blog world" a little more personally. Thank you ladies!

Okay, are your ready for some more...

Wanna know about the poms poms hanging from the ceiling?
We made them with the help of Martha Stewart.
Go here for the tutorial. They were actually quite easy!

We focused some of the shower on this bible verse...

"And you will know that I have sent you this admonition so that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the Lord Almighty. "My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin."
Malachi 2:4-6

Kendall made the adorable frame with her awesome photoshop skills!

Our wonderful friend, Debby, shared such a neat devotion with us...

And then we used bible verses with Levi's name added into them, to guide a time of prayer - surrounding Jess in love and prayer for their little guy.

Kendall did such a sweet job of putting all of this together. I believe most of the verses we used came from this the book "Praying the Scriptures for Your Children" which I just recently purchased and LOVE!

We had such a wonderful time, eating and visiting, and honoring Jess.

We are very blessed to call Jess our friend.

We are very blessed by her and Joel's heart for God and their steadfast trust in him during this past year, as their lives have been turned upside down.

And we are so thankful for Levi and the opportunity we've had to welcome this precious gift of God into the Mac family!

We were so blessed to have Julie (far left) there to help us honor Jess. Please continue to pray for sweet Calla and the Johnson family, that they can bring their little girl home soon for a shower of their own!