LIttle Paper Bag Picture Book!

I went to a Relief Society interest group last week and I'll have to admit, it was one of the first groups I've actually wanted to go to for awhile and what I made turned out really cute! It is SO easy to make and all made out of 4 brown paper lunch bags, scrapbook paper, ribbon and embellishments of your choice! Here's my close to final result of the book..  I'm just waiting on a name to put on the front and cute little pictures of our baby girl to go in the book! :)

Front Cover

The ribbon ties off the book to close it all together.

Each side opens up

Therefore each side has a front and back covering, so this is my front

And the back-- you don't really look at the back this way, once you start opening the book you see each side of all the pages anyways, but once all the pages are open some face down and others on top.

Anyways, this post has been written for a few days I just had to upload the pictures, and I was going to...but this past weekend I got extremely SICK :s And it hasn't been very fun.

 That's a really blurry picture, but it's the best I can do getting it from my cell phone :) I'm still feeling exhausted, sore, and coughing quite a bit, but things have gotten a lot better since Friday night, except that these past few nights I haven't slept at all. We spent Friday night in the labor and delivery room. My doctor told me to go in and be checked right away so I met Nicholas there and went in. They made us wear those blue masks while we were waiting in case I did have the flu. Quite embarrassing.. haha. This little girl just kept staring at both of us and kind of mumbling to her mom "Mom, they sick." She was like 3.

They tested me and everything turned out to be alright. They had me hooked up to a monitor to monitor the baby and she looked fine as well. I think that was the scariest thing for me, was just wondering if everything would be alright with her. I love her so much and I'm constantly thinking about her and feeling for her moving to make sure she's alright. I usually don't have a problem feeling her, she moves ALL the time. I'm not joking either. Nick can basically feel her almost whenever he wants because she's so active. I love her so much.

Anyways, hopefully I will be completely recovered in the next couple of days here. I don't like being sick.

12 weeks..

I feel like counting down the weeks now instead of counting up the weeks in my pregnancy.. but I'll still tell you what week I'm on until 40 weeks :) This week marks my 28th week! That means, 12 weeks left until my due date. If we want to have everything ready for the baby by the beginning of December, then that's only 8-9 weeks that we have left!! My belly keeps growing... as you can tell from the picture.

I can feel our baby girl moving all the time now. She'll often give some strong kicks and move around like crazy. It's funny to watch sometimes. Nicholas loves talking to her and feeling my belly when she moves.

We are still undecided on a name yet. We'll keep thinking though.

I bought my first pair of maternity jeans last weekend! I don't mind them. I heard all these things about them and how they were so.. I guess not form fitting... but I don't seem to have a problem, if they fit, they fit! And my regular pants were definitely not comfortable anymore with a little hair band holding the button together.

We still have a lot to do. Starting with clearing out our baby room. Right now it's our storage room full of extra boxes and things we aren't using. So that's our first step on my list of things to do.

Oh.. want to know about how big our baby is at 28 weeks?? About the size of a chinese cabbage! I think that's pretty neat. I hope she is chubby with cute little cheeks I can squeeze. At both of my ultrasounds the due date has come up a couple of days early, which probably doesn't mean a lot, but that means she's not measuring small. So that's good :) Well... I mean.. I hope she's not like a 10 pound baby!! But you know what I mean.

Which reminds me. Our baby will for sure be here by (hopefully) December 31st, if not earlier, depends on what she wants to do ya know??
My doctor is all about scheduling and asked if I wanted to be induced. Not a question I get asked everyday.. but I thought about it and talked with Nick and we decided we would go ahead and schedule an induction right around my due date, the 29th of December. Things just seem more real now... Now that we know the gender of our baby, an exact date to go in to the hospital, and the weeks are winding down. It's all kind of nerve racking, but still makes me happy to think about. :) I still got all of these fun holidays ahead to enjoy before she comes!!.. Halloween, Thanksgiving (I'm going to get huge) and Christmas!! And we'll be spending a wonderful New Years with our brand new baby girl :) How precious.. what a way to start out the new year.. :)

He's what keeps me entertained...

So, my husband is just so amazingly interesting and funny (that's one reason I have so much to blog about). He keeps me very entertained even if I only see him for a few hours at night due to the fact that he is very busy in school.

This last Saturday afternoon Nicholas came home from studying and said he was going out to try and fix something on our car. It’s a used car and there was this rattle in the back. I came out about half an hour later to check on him and this is what I saw:

 

 

 

I just had to get this picture I thought it was so funny you could see his legs dangling out through the trunk.. haha.

 You should have seen what he had done. I was SO shocked. I think what was running through my head was “Wow, I’ve never seen anything like this. I really hope he can put it all back together” I knew he could, I mean come on.. it’s Nick. He is very careful at what he does. But, it’s like he knew exactly what he was doing, which most people wouldn’t unless you worked in an auto shop or something, he had everything taken apart. The seat was out, the back panel was off, the side panels on the door, and the seat belts were out! And I’m sure there were many other things removed I just can’t remember.. but it was all very confusing to me when I helped him (more like watched him) put everything back together. Anyways, he DID fix the rattle! I was amazed. It was the gears in the seat belts that were making the noise, so he bought this ‘sound dampening material’ I know exactly what it’s called because I went to every auto parts store in town with him ;)

Anyways, Nicholas just amazes me sometimes. I think he could do any job he wanted and catch on very easily. I’m just glad he is going to be a dentist because then he can work on my teeth and I don’t have to worry about telling the dentist “THAT HURTS!!” because I usually never say it hurts when it really does… But when it’s my husband, he’ll be extra gentle and I’ll be very comfortable letting him know when I’m in pain! And he will be more careful… right NICK??

 

Journal Writing..

I love the challenge from President Eyring about writing in your journal about how you’ve seen the Lord’s hand in your life each day. I’ve actually taken it up and I feel like it has already blessed me and opened my eyes in many ways. I recommend that anyone does it especially because you really see how blessed you are, even by simple things.

Here is what he says:

“As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done… that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.”

He urges each of us:

Tonight, and tomorrow night, you might pray and ponder, asking the question: Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life…? I will do that. And then I will find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we need Him. I testify that He loves us and blesses us, more than most of us have yet recognized. I know that is true, and it brings me joy to remember Him” (“O Remember, Remember” Oct. 2007 Conference Address).

So anyways, going along with that, here’s a story for you which is one I wrote about in my journal, just thanking the Lord for helping me get through the day.
 
I started substituting out here in Oklahoma. My second day I got a call at 7:50 in the morning. Surprisingly I didn’t ignore it and just go back to sleep, I accepted it and jumped in the shower to make it to the school by 8:30 (I know… I didn’t know I could get ready that fast either!) Well, the job was for kindergarten. Not joking… I wanted to walk straight out of that building after about the first 20 minutes. Oh my goodness. I had 19 kids for the whole school day and by the end they were on the floor crying saying they wanted to go home. Kids were running around, another kid throwing his shoe at others, another kid slamming the chairs on the floor, and so on. I cried a little on the way home from school, haha. I was so exhausted from bending down, picking up kids all day, trying to give directions that just seemed to float right over their head, and the worst, was that the teacher hadn’t filled out any plans for me so I was basically scrambling trying to figure out what to do next the whole day. I was seriously just praying that I would make it through the day.. and I did!

So, I’m still subbing, I just probably won’t do kindergarten again ;) The day before was actually bliss I rotated through 2nd, 3rd, 4th and actually a small kindergarten class, and that went well, but we all have bad days right? So to go along with the journal thing, sometimes the Lord blesses us in even the simplest ways… like just getting me through this whole school day without giving up or breaking down! I really am just thankful that I even have a job, one that is easy going and flexible for me until the baby gets here. Now I can keep myself busy and I think it will help the days go by faster until December 30th!! (My due date)

Sew Fun... =)

I love to sew! Ok.. so most of this outfit was crocheted.. but the little booties I sewed, I just thought that would be a cheesy title to put. =)

Anyways... I can't wait for our little baby girl to get here! I'll admit. I started all of these projects before I even knew it was a girl. Haha. Thank goodness it was a girl though and I was able to continue and finish them to make one cute little outfit!

 Baby Outfit

I crocheted the jacket and skirt, I'm thinking a yellow or purple top underneath the jacket will go cute with it all and complete the look. I'm not even sure it will fit the little gal, but both the jacket and skirt are pretty tiny so I'm hoping it will!

So yeah... I just love sewing, and having this baby girl gives me so many fun projects to do! =) I've sewed some burp cloths and the booties, and my next project is hopefully a quilt! The booties were not very hard at all to make! I found a great site with instructions and just followed along, and wahlaaa, they turned out.

Anyways... I love making things!! I obviously have a lot of time on my hands right now, but my substitute teaching application just registered so I can sub now!  Yay.

Yes, so, babies are fun, sewing is fun, projects are fun. Another project I want to do... which I'm not sure if we'll really go through with it, but I've been telling Nick I really want to... is to paint our baby room! =)  Here's an idea of what I like... what the walls would look like. It's not all pink and purple which you would think a girls room should be, but we want boys too- and trust me I am not going to repaint this room over and over! So this is cute, and the rest of the decorations can be pink =) Let me know what you think.

Baby Room..?? Maybe..

Nick is great. He is so excited to have a girl. He talks to her quite a bit and always asks how she is doing. Probably more than he asks me how I'm doing. Haha, just kidding. He is studying hard and doing great in dental school! I don't get to see him that often, but he is really sweet and takes the time to take me on walks at night when he gets home =) So I enjoy that. He also rubs my feet... =) The doctor told me to tell him he had to. hah, but he willingly does!

My belly is slowly getting bigger week by week. Here I am at 24 weeks. Well, I'm 25 weeks, but this picture was taken at 24 weeks. I can't believe we only have 3 months left. Wow. I can't wait. We still have lot's to do however. When do you think is too early to start shopping for cribs, bedding, strollers, and all that fun stuff to go in the baby room? I don't know.. let's just hope we get it done before December 30th.

24 weeks

p.s. I decided I really really LOVE fruit pizza. I made it and it is so yummy. My sister loves it too. I used her recipe, thanks! =) It's so easy! 

Fruit Pizza =)

Daddy's Little Girl...

 

After a bit of a wait we are thrilled to finally announce that we are having a little GIRL!! =) We couldn't be happier! I know the ultrasound pictures never really turn out that great, but there she is. She is so adorable and precious. We love her so much already and can't wait until she get's here in December!

2 Years Ago...

Nick and I were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogos Utah Temple. We had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating our 2 year anniversary. Time has flown by, but each day has gotten better. So many new and wonderful changes have come to our lives and we couldn't be happier! =)

As for those who are still wondering what the gender of our baby is... I haven't been putting it off... we still don't know! I am anxious as ever to find out. Yes, the doctor did an ultrasound at my last visit but he couldn't tell what the baby was. They set me up for my "formal" ultrasound on the 11th with the actual ultrasound techinician who will then be able to tell and also do a lot of other neat things for us. =) I'm not leaving the doctor's office until I know what it is-- that's for sure. I've been dying to break out my sewing machine or go shopping, but I CAN'T, this is somewhat frustrating. Oh well! I'm 23 weeks, and will be 24 when we find out.

Anyways, I thought I'd leave you with these cute pictures of us when we were babies... as for now though, we still don't know what we are having. 

p.s. Funny story- I was looking for a baby picture of Nick and remembered I could get one from our wedding slideshow we used. I found this and was like, "Nick, this is you right?" Nick replied something along the lines of: "I don't know, I don't recognize it, I don't think so." He still doesn't know.. haha, but it was in our wedding video, and I believe his mom sent the pictures for that, so she probably didn't get confused. Anyways, if it happens to be his brother's baby picture or something, Daniel, let me know. Pretty sure it's him though. =) Bye!