Growing!!

   Look at what is all growing in our house this Spring!! 

   That's right! We planted some vegetables for our Summer garden! So excited that (most) of them actually sprouted. I am waiting on one or two more tomato plants...but other than that we have a pretty good turn out! Here pictured are a number of different types of tomatoes, parsley, dill, spaghetti squash, cucumber, and a few more that I can't quite remember (don't worry the names are written on the containers!). So excited to get into our garden and actually plant these! Of course I will also be adding some carrots (my family will smile at this because when I was younger the only thing I planted in my garden was carrots...I ate fresh carrots all Summer long! Yummy!). I am really enjoying watching them grow each day! Such close-up contact with God's amazing creation!
   But that is not all that is growing...or should I say "who" is growing:

  
 This is already an old picture (she is 8 months next week!) but look who's getting big! She has finally started gaining weight! YAY! At her last check-up (which was last week) she weighed 15lbs and 12oz. So thankful to God that we were able to so quickly figure out what was wrong and correct it. She took well to a bottle and loves to "feed" herself. Rarely does she want to even be held. She likes to lie beside me in bed in the mornings or on the couch during the day while she holds her own bottle and eats! So cute!  She is fully sitting all on her own now. It's so fun that she can sit and play! I love it! Such a fun stage to be at as she is becoming more and more responsive and observant. Its so easy to get a smile out of her or a giggle or a full belly laugh. Both her Daddy and I are loving having her around!
   Although those are the living things/person that are growing we also had something else "pop" up!

   Haha! Yup! Our "new to us" trailer! We bought it back in February with hardly even a glance inside...so it was a little nerve wracking this past long weekend when Mark finally decided it was nice enough weather to put the trailer up. Thankfully, it's in GREAT condition. There needs to be some cleaning done on the inside (I am a little bit of a perfectionist so I have already spent three hours just cleaning the one pop out side...might need to be a little less thorough!) but other than that its ready to go! I have had so much fun planning where everything is going to go and preparing for our MANY camping trips this year. Hopefully we have a beautiful Summer so this trailer can get good use!
   Well, that's all for now! PJ just went back to bed after a very rare midnight feeding. Guess its time for me to head back to bed as well! 

We're Going to the Chapel and We're Gonna Get Married!!!

   Once again its been too long since I updated this blog. It's not that I don't like blogging...I LOVE IT! Its just been that I have been so busy! But that is all about to change! This past Friday my beautiful friend and her Prince Charming finally tied the knot! It was a whirlwind 9 month engagement that ended in the most beautiful wedding day. The weather was perfect! It was a beautiful "sunshiney" day with just enough cool breeze to keep us comfortable (well, at least the girls comfortable! Mark was on the groom's side of the wedding party and the groomsmen were a little warm in their suits...but we (the girls) felt great!). The pictures were a lot of fun, the ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was hilarious! Klaarissa was GORGEOUS (seriously probably the most beautiful bride I have ever seen!). Most importantly, we were able to witness two of our best friends promise to love and care for each other in the fear of the LORD for the rest of their lives. They are now enjoying their honeymoon in the sunny South (I have to admit...I am slightly jealous of the honeymoon part...I LOVED our honeymoon because it was SUCH a relaxing vacation!). Hopefully they come home soon to set up house and get ready for some visitors:D. They (so excited for this part!) bought a house just down the road from us (seriously about three turns and only 10 minutes (which is close when you live out in the country!). I am so excited to have our best friends so close! I foresee lots of campfires, movie nights and double dates in the near future! Also, they have joined our church which means we'll see them lots! Good times! Anyways, with the wedding done, all of a sudden I feel like my Summer is wide open! I am hoping to pick up some of my interests that have fallen by the wayside - sewing, PJ's first year scrap book, and finishing up PJ's nursery. I am very much looking forward to this Summer:)!

Here's a little video that the Groom's family put together for the wedding. I think its quite impressive and pretty funny! Check it out: Engaged In Battle

An image from our honeymoon! Such a wonderful week long vacation!

Whoops!

   Wow! It has been a loooooooong time since my last post and looooooots has happened! First of all,PJ is FINALLY growing (WAHOO!!!). This past month (+) has been one continuous Dr. appointment (or so it seems). We figured out that she wasn't receiving B12 from nursing and therefore the Dr. put her on formula. Pretty much right away she started gaining...after only two weeks we have a total growth of 1 lb and 14 oz....! After three and a half months with only 7 ounces of growth we are pretty psyched with this! She took to formula really well...it didn't take her any time to adjust to the bottle (thankful for that!). I was a little lot sad about giving up nursing but seeing her start to grow and become more aware, happier during "awake hours" and sleeping better (at night and during the day!) made it an easier transition than I thought it would be. The only downside to all of this is the astronomical cost of formula...approximately $30/can and each can lasts about 5 to 6 days! YIKES! Oh well...she's worth it. We just have a couple more Dr. appointments booked (both with the family Dr. and the pediatrician) to continue to monitor her growth but they both seem very happy with her progress so far and have both hinted at her being off their "watch list" very soon! So excited to not have a Dr. appointment (or two, or three) each week! 

   Second of all, Winter finally appears to be ending! So excited about this fact. I am so ready to not have to bundle up each time I want to leave the house or worry about the fire dying out before Mark comes home each night. I am ready to start walking each day and enjoying some much needed sunshine! PJ has appeared to enjoy the weather a bit more as well. She loves the swing outside and I probably could easily spend an hour or more each day pushing her. Haven't done that yet...but let it get a bit warmer and that sounds like a wonderful way to spend an hour of my day:).
   Third of all, I am done my university history course....finally! That course felt like it took FOREVER! There were so many essays involved...but I made it through. A real Trooper my husband calls me:). LOL. I still haven't heard about my final grade...but I am pretty confident that I passed. We (hubby and I) have decided that I am NOT going to take another course this Summer but instead just enjoy the weather stress-free. Also, this allows me to enjoy some of my "new" hobbies.
   Which brings me to fourth of all, I am sewing! I don't have any pictures (oops) but I am sewing a very cute little Summer dress for PJ. I am sewing with my very patient Mother once (or so) a week...she is sewing the same pattern for my niece. Its a lot of fun! We have already picked out our next pattern. I am not very confident on my own yet...but I think that I will get there.
   Fifth of all, PJ is already half a year old!!! This is a little belated as she turns 7 months in exactly one week...but I still like to celebrate:). We did celebrate with a little rainbow (half) cake, a little present and of course her monthly photos! This happened to fall on Easter dinner with my family so everyone also sang her "Happy Half Birthday"...LOL definitely a first child! I can't believe how much she has grown and that she has already been part of our lives for 6 months! These have been the fastest 6 months of my life. She is such a wonder each day:)!

   To end this "catch up" post here are some "recent" photos! Enjoy!

PJ with her half birthday cake!

A close-up of the cake. I was pretty impressed that I did this. Not sure how to ice the inside of the cake...learning process I guess!

LOL. PJ with her "half year" sign and her present. Always tasting everything!

Opening her present with Daddy - a new Tag blanket...which she loves and a ball with lots of bumps to grab which she could do without! Lol. 

LOL. Her Daddy took her 6 month photo and this is the best one we have :(.  Oh well...!

And one without the sign for good measure!!

I made that!

   When we found out we were expecting a baby one of the things I was most excited about (other than the baby part) was creating a nursery. After we finally figured out where we were going to live (thanks to my sister:)!) and got moved in, we started to prepare the room. We didn't know if we were going to have a boy or a girl so I wanted to make sure that we had a room that was gender neutral...but could be "boyed" or "girled" up. We choose a cool light teal colour and decided on all white furniture. Although PJ is now almost half a year old (what?!) we still haven't completed the room. There are some last finishing touches that need to be completed, they are:
- curtains (my mom is going to help me with this!)
- ABC wall decorations (hopefully my dad is going to help me with this!)
- some other wall art 
- paint all the door knobs for the furniture the same color as the wall (hopefully my sister still has our knobs she can help me with this!)
   Really, its not a very long list and mostly is just fun "finishing touches". These are the things that I am starting to really enjoy. Since we have been married we have only rented...and although we are in another rental my sister has been kind enough to let us bring our own 'personal' touch to our home...it really does feel like home (more so than any of the other places we have lived so far)! These finishing touches are an exciting part of making PJ's room feel like a homey and comfortable part of our home! 
   This past month I decided it was time that I tackled the only item on my list that didn't involve one of my family member's involvement - wall art. I knew that I wanted some sort of framed something (pretty definite aren't I?) for the wall behind my glider (love my glider!), so I went on pinterest and started looking for some ideas. A lot of the things I pinned brought me to Etsy stores where people were selling their nursery designs for $20+! I looked at all of these options and thought, "I can do that!". And that's what I decided to do. I went to our local Bibles For Mission Thrift store and bought some old frames for a total of $7. Then I went to the fabric store and chose a couple of pieces of fabric that I liked and that I thought would match my wall color and white furniture. Finally I sat down at my computer, took an hour or so, and designed some different 'posters'. I also printed off a free downloadable bible verse poster from this blog: The Flourishing Abode (such a talented woman and an interesting blog!). I printed my designs and the one I downloaded at Staples, bought some supplies at Home Depot (paint brushes and trim white paint), and went home to craft! Now, if you were to ask anyone who knew me...they would tell you that I am not the most creative person around...so, I was quite nervous but I thought that I really had nothing to lose and perhaps some money saved and a decorated nursery to gain!
   Here's me attempting to take pictures of the process:

The picture frames before the transformation - I forgot to take a picture of them before I took them apart but one was a picture of a thatched cottage and the other an old fashioned bouquet of flowers. Both nice pictures....but not for PJ's nursery. By the way...notice my flowers? They are pretty and Spring-like!

Then I painted the frames. That's my hand painting...I think I have good form:).

We used my sister's old pizza box to protect the table from my paint...it mostly worked but our table now has some white paint splatters. Oops!

All painted! I think they already look better :D

One of the fabrics I used as backing for my poster. First I ironed it out to remove the creases . 

Then I covered the original picture's backing.

All covered!

Next I placed the text poster on top (this is the download from The Flourishing Abode) and put it all together into the frames!

This is the other picture/poster that I made - I forgot to take pictures of the process (oops!) 

The completed product! I think that they are pretty good. They will look great in PJ's room and I did it for a fraction of the cost of buying and having them shipped from Etsy! 

   I had a lot of fun doing this craft, so much fun in fact, that I have designed a couple more posters and went out to buy some more frames from BFM. I think having three or four in a sort of frame collage on her bedroom wall will look great! Who knows? Maybe I'll become a creative crafty momma yet!   

Bread Baker Momma!

   I made homemade bread! I've never done anything quite that domestic..but it was actually very easy! I used the recipe from this blog: bread recipe.  It contains just four easy ingredients, takes about five easy steps, and produces delicious bread. I cut the recipe into a quarter because I just wanted a very small amount of bread for our supper meal and didn't want a whole ton of extra bread that might go bad (didn't know how it would taste). Next time I think I will make a bigger batch and use the excess for sandwiches the next day (it was that good!). This also gave me an excuse to break out my new pottery dish. It worked well, it was pretty, and I love it! Here's some pictures of the finished product:

Love my beautiful pot!

Isn't it delicious looking? It was quite small (my husband joked that it looked like a big bun) but it was perfect for accenting our meal!

The rest of our meal was a BLT salad from a Company's Coming Cookbook. It was delicious as well. Notice my homemade croutons! I AM domestic;)! LOL

 

The finished product. It was all very "yummy"! Even Mark was happy...with salad for supper! 

I love Mondays!

   Crazy, right? Hardly anyone I know says that they LOVE Mondays...but I do! I really, really do! If I am to be honest with myself...I used to HATE strongly dislike Mondays. That was back when I used to have to get up at 6:30, quickly get ready for the day, be in the car by 8 for my morning commute, and at a desk by 8:30...yeah...back then, Mondays weren't my favorite (especially in the Winter! Brr!). But now...now I love them. The weekends are always a lot of fun...but they are busy. Mondays are a great day for me to relax, tidy up the house (which is still "mostly" clean from the weekend cleaning), and be productive. Today was another GREAT Monday. I got up before PJ, drank my morning tea while trying to pass a "tough" level of Candy Crush on Facebook (no shame here :D!), fed and played with PJ,

Such a sweetheart! She is loving the highchair and the food that comes with it! :) 

put my pinning skills to use and tried out a stove top cleaning trick that I had pinned a while ago (You should try it because it works!! Clean your Stove Top!),

(LOVE my turquoise teapot!) See how shiny the stove top is? Beautiful! 

tidied up our bedroom (I even made the bed!),

Its a good day when at the end of it you can crawl into a made bed :) 

did all my laundry (seriously! the only thing in my laundry basket is a random sock that I found on the floor (my OCD self finds that annoying! LOL) :D), folded all of my laundry (I know that this should go hand-in-hand with doing the laundry...but I HATE strongly dislike folding so it doesn't always get done right away), 

Showing off his sock folding skills. One of the two pairs he helped fold ;) Not complaining though...any help is good help :)!

washed some of PJ's stuffed toys that have been overly sucked and chewed on in the past couple of "teething weeks", spent some time on the computer trying to design some wall art for PJ's nursery, made baby food (squash and yams! yummo!),

My camera didn't really capture the truly beautiful colors of the food! Too bad! 

read my book ("Real Marriage" by Mark Driscoll - after I am done reading I am looking forward to listening to his sermons on the same subject! Check it out: Real Marriage - Mark Driscoll - Marshill Church), did a workout (yay me! PJ even joined in with Mark's help!), and enjoyed a delicious supper with Mark. Now, here I am blogging while on a break from writing my final essay for my university history course.

Healthy snack and all!

All in all, a most excellent Monday! Just keepin' it real I guess :)! 

"He is a Friend of mine!"

   Loving my new CD that Mark spoiled me with for my birthday (#24!). Its Chris Tomlin's Burning Lights CD. All of the songs are amazing but the one that is sticking with me and playing in my head today (not in the annoying sort of way but in the refreshing reminder sort of way) is the third song on the CD "Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)". I love having the reminder that our God goes before us, stands behind us and is ALWAYS by our sides! The God of angel armies and who reigns forever....He is a Friend of mine:)! Good reminders for a Stay-at-home Momma just trying to find her way! Have a listen! Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies).

   Wonderful:)