Meet Baby Evie

I haven't updated in a while.  In case you haven't heard our big news...please meet our newest addition!
Evalyn Rebekah, born August 11 at 10:55 am.  She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long at birth.  She's since grown to be over 9 lbs in her first 2 weeks!

We are ecstatic to have her join our family.  She's a little diva, and so fun!  She already has Daddy wrapped around her little finger.  I have to admit that Mom's not far behind. :)  She's growing so fast and learning so much.  Thank goodness for pictures to remind me of how little she was.

Baby Shower!

Here's the pics from my baby shower.  It was so fun!  I didn't mention, during the diaper changing game, my friend, Marissa, would randomly shoot us with a water gun, b/c you never know when the baby will pee on you! Can you guess that she has a son???  It was a wonderful shower!  I had a great time!

Junk Room to Nursery Transformation

With Evie coming, we had quite a bit of work transforming our storage/sewing room into a nursery. Almost everything in the room to begin with had to be stored somewhere else, sold in the yard sale, or given to charity. Sam wanted to document the whole thing. So I've made collages of each step. First is the dreaded before picture. M-E-S-S-Y!

Picking a crib set was not as easy as I had thought. By the time we found out we were having a girl, PB had discontinued the crib set I wanted, and ebay was no help in finding a decent one used. So I started my search over, looking for a new crib set that Sam & I agreed on. For two people who agree on most things, this was harder than I anticipated! We finally agreed on one, and even though the original tan walls would have matched just fine, Sam really wanted to paint. So we chose a pretty green for the walls. BTW, if you'd like to see the crib set, here's a link to a picture: Crib Set

Once the room was painted we could start bringing in the furniture, and it finally started to look like a baby's room. Sam repainted the doll cabinet white and replaced all the hardware. My favorite part are the green glass knobs that I found on clearance at Target.

And...here is what it looks like today. We're still not quite finished. There are some shelves that need to go on the wall. A few things on top of the dresser that need a home (although most of them will end up on a shelf.) I've picked out some curtains at Bed, Bath & Beyond, but I'm hoping that they will go on sale. Since she won't be living in her room right away, I'm holding out a bit longer for a sale. The curtains are pink with white swiss dots. I made the art work above her crib. My talented sister in law made the bows hanging from the ribbon. So now we wait. My due date is this Saturday. I'm talking to her about coming on Thursday. That day sounds good to me! LOL

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day we had a cookout with friends at the Jones' house. One of our contributions to dinner was this angel food cake. I decided to make it patriotic by coloring the batter red, white & blue. Ok, so I didn't have to color the batter white! I love how it turned out! So pretty!

My little friend, Mia Jones agrees, too! She was so excited I was bringing "Angel" cake!

We have pictures of progress on the nursery, but I think the camera is downstairs and I avoid taking the stairs more than necessary right now! Ha Ha Our camera is actually dying, so we have to get another before the baby is born. Any suggestions on a good point & shoot? I'm not quite ready to upgrade to a DSLR the same year I have a baby. Ü So, more baby stuff coming. My shower is in 2 weeks so I'll definitely have pictures from that!

Nursery Inspirations

So, I'm sitting on the couch this morning, and TV is really boring!  Drew Carey was never destined to host The Price is Right!  Bleh!  So I started wandering around the internet and ended up on the Pottery Barn Kids page.  Of course I sucked Sam into looking at it with me...sorry Cerner, I promise he works most of the time, we'll call it a smoke break!  Anyhoo...I've picked 2 nurseries that I want to use as my inspiration to create our nursery!  I say inspiration, because I just can justify spending over $100 on a fitted sheet, crib sheet & crib skirt when there are so many free tutorials out there, and I can buy the fabric for less than that.  Especially when I want to splurge on an upholstered swivel rocking chair.  Sigh!  So comfortable! 

So here're the inspiration rooms. 

I'm not sure how to recreate the polka dots.  I'll have to look for fabric b/c I am not (repeat NOT) sewing individual circles on anything!  I'm not that crazy!! 

The boy bumper reminds me of a quilt I saw on a blog that was made from old shirts her husband had worn out.  I like the idea of using Sam's old shirts for something for the baby!

We won't find out what we're having until sometime in February, but you know me, I'm always planning ahead.  Whatcha think?

Announcement (could July be overtaking February as my favorite month?)

Most of you are already aware of this, but some of you may not have heard...around July 30 Sam and I will be welcoming a new addition to our family!  We are so very thrilled.  (Understatement of the century)  Here's the picture of our little seahouse from about 2 weeks ago.  The head is at the bottom.

Yesterday we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time during our 10 week check up! It's been a bit rough on my body (I've been on a pseudo bed rest since Dec 9), but totally worth it. The good thing is that I'm used to being alone most of the time, so I'm not usually climbing the walls, I just have to adjust to watching Sam doing all of the housework.  It's harder than you might think.  I've had to get over the guilt that he works a full day and then comes home to have to clean the house as well.  He assures me that he's happy to do it, though.  Gotta love that man.  I do get to go the church on Sundays, so that helps with the cabin fever.  So that's where we are right now.  We meet with our new and permenant Dr on the afternoon of the 18th.  Hopefully, things will be better by then and I can start moving around again.  If not, it's all good.  I'm getting some good internet nursery inspiration and if I could ever remember to bring down my crocheting, I could proably finish up all my mostly finished projects!  LOL  So if i can get on the ball with that, I'll post pics as I complete something.  I just wanted to thank all our wonderful friends and family who have suffered along with us for these long 14 years.  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.  We're are so thankful to have all of you in our lives!  I can't wait to introduce you to baby Audrey/William????  Still working on names.  Maybe I'll put up a poll sometime much later!

My first tied quilt

I finally finished my first tied quilt! It was much easier than I expected it to be. Even with my OCD making me stitch it from below so all my ties were straight on the stripes! I'm going to give to me new little nephew who is due to be born any day now. I'm feeling inspired to make another one soon. I love projects that I'm actually happy with them once they're done!
**UPDATE** My little nephew was born today!  He's so cute!!  I can't wait to meet him!

A new taggie

Sam has a cousin that I've teased him for years doesn't really exist because I've never met her. This "imaginary" cousin just had a beautiful baby girl named Zoe Rose. I wanted to send her something, so I decided to make a crinkle taggie. I sewed some plastic to the inside therefore not only does it have all the different ribbon textures to rub between her fingers it also makes noise to entertain! It was definitely a learning process, and there are some things I will do differently next time I sew on plastic.  For example use a zig-zag stitch, but I like how it turned out. The back is a cream corduroy that I just adore. I went a bit more romantic than I usually would for a baby gift, but I wanted it to match her beautiful name! So, Eowyn, I hope to get to meet you some day and congratualtions on your sweet little girl.

Peas and Carrot

If you've been following my garden posts, I had one lone carrot to actually make it. I've been waiting for 3 long months to pull it up and see what we got. If you know me, you know that waiting is not my strong suit. I like to peek. Well, today I got to pull up my carrot with high expectations...and this is what I found.

2 inches!!! Now you may be saying..."You're soil was too compact." Oh contraire, my soil is potting mix and compost. It's so lofty, it looks down on the other buckets. I haven't tasted it yet, so I don't know about flavor. Sam and I will nibble it when he gets home. So here is today's harvest from my shady patio. A baby carrot and some more peas. I have to say I've been impressed by my pea plants. I was about to pull them up last June because they peas were bitter and I figured that it had finally gotten too warm. They definitely want to live though. I went out the next day to commit pea carnage when low and behold it was covered with new growth. These are the first harvest from that growth and these peas are sweet again! Yum!

So now I'm getting ready to start my indoor seeds for fall plantings. Any suggestions? I'll do lettuce again, just not so many this time. Probably more peas. I thought about broccoli. We'll see how motivated I get. BTW, my lone pumpkin is oranging up quite nicely. Now it just needs some pumpkin siblings. We're are being re-roofed this weekend. I sincerely hope that everything survives.

Magical Floating Straw

You know your last drink was too sugary when you find this!

As I've most vocally complained about, I have an awful summer cold. My voice is cracking like a preteen boy. As a result I am taking Mucinex and drinking a lot. I complained to Sam yesterday that I feel like I'm on an all liquid diet! Anyway, when you are drinking a lot, you look for variety of beverage. However, upon taking my glass to the dishwasher this morning and finding the straw sugar-glued to the side of the glass (how did that happen??) I've come to the conclusion that I consumed too much sugar yesterday. So, to make up for that I believe by glass will look like this for the rest of the day...

Go Tigers!

After 2 weeks here, Spencer is headed out in the morning. His suitcase is a black Samsonite rolling case...not very unique. So I whipped up this felt luggage tag for him. Of course it has his name in the white section, but I'm not posting that on the internet!! Ü It's not perfect, but I'm pleased with my first attempt. I may make some more!

Spencer the Rocker!

Spencer has really enjoyed rocking out to Guitar Hero this week! He really gets into the songs. It's so cute!

Disclaimers on my camera work:

1. Sorry about the quality of the video, I took it with my camera & it was dark in the room (no video camera. if you want better quality videos, buy me a video camera!!! Ü)

2. I know it's sideways, but when I saved it up and down, it was so dark you couldn't really see anything. (once again, go with it our get me a video camera!! LOL)

3. I know it's 2 mins long, but he really starts getting into toward the end (there's even a foot change at about 1min and a half!) AND if you have good ears, he starts singing along toward the end too!

PS~If you're wondering, it's not him hamming it up for the camera either. He was doing it long before I got the camera out!

more Eclipse Pix

My friend Mandy took these pictures! Too much fun!

All the party goers over the age of teen!

Team Jacob (oh the poor misled)

Team Edward!

Marissa and I both called home while we were waiting for the movie to start. Mandy thought it was too funny and took a picture!

Eclipse Party

Eclipse opened last night, and of course I was there at midnight! Here are some pictures of the decorations and stuff. I don't have very many pictures because my camera battery died! GRRRR Thank you Sam for getting it to recharge when I could not.

Mandy found this awesome cake design! She did most of the work, I just frosted it. I love how it turned out!


Mandy's daughter Mia enjoying the cake and getting a black mouth in the process! She was so funny!


The party was a lot of fun. People wore their Twilight themed shirts and we wrote our Twilight names on our cup (I was Edward's Girl). There are a few pictures that I need to get from Mandy. Ones of all us girls being silly and one where I put on my Halloween cape and pretended to be Volturi! LOL Can't wait to see it again, as you know I will!

Eclipse Party

I just finished designing an invite for my friend's upcoming Eclipse party! I love how it turned out and I got to learn a new photoshop skill in the process. Gotta love youtube tutorials! What did we do before the internet??

Taco Soup

We love taco soup! We eat it all the time. It's something we generally have everything on hand for it...however, I recently went to make it and I was out of beans!! BLASPHEMY! I quickly rememdied that, and here is the result!


I love how pretty it is and it's good for you! It's extremely versitile too. We once put less water in it and entered it for a chili cook-off. We won hottest chili which made us laugh b/c we were cooking for a venue with children, so we didn't make it as hot as we normally like it!

Taco Soup

2 cans kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
half a bag or so frozen corn
1 cup salsa of your choice (we like Pace Hot)
water to make it soupy

Heat to boiling. Turn down and simmer until ready to eat.

Possible Toppings:
shredded cheese (cheddar or mexi blend)
sour cream (we use fat free, I actually prefer the flavor)
black olives
crushed tortilla chips
chopped cilantro
jalapeño slices

Ok, so I've never actually tried the last 2 toppings, but it sounds good (well except for the cilantro, YUCK!) Enjoy!

Baby Shower Pix

Here are the promised pictures of Marissa's baby shower. I think it went well...I had a lot of fun. I decided to collage everything, b/c it was a lot of pictures. The first is a summary of the games. We played the how well do you multitask??? The players had to hang clothes on the line while holding a baby that was having a "Mommy can't put me down or I will scream bloody murder day!!" I especially love how Wendy put her baby in the bag Kangaroo style. In the end Rissa's sis-in-law Jennie had the fastest score...Congrats Jennie! The other game is always popular. It's the match the baby event to the candy bar name. The prize is the candy bar. Yum!

Here's the food table. We had a salad luncheon. There was Brocolli Salad, Asian Chicken Salad, Pasta Salad and Cookie Salad! So yummy!!

Enjoying baby Ethan. On of the best things about a shower after the baby is born is that you get to hold him! He is so beautiful and a snuggler! I especially love the picture of just his face. So precious!

Lastly, you can't blog a baby shower and not show her opening the presents! I love her facial expressions! Congratulations Marissa on the new addition to your wonderful family!!

Baby Craft

As promised, here is the craft I referenced last week. It's a cute doggy rattle made from a sock! I got the idea from Homemade by Jill. I love her blog!

I'm super pleased how the face turned out. It's the first time I've tried satin stitching. Now, I have lots more socks...additional ideas?

BTW, I did get the extra blue off his face...don't you just love the Tide To Go Pen?!?