[ Pay it forward! ]

I saw this on my friends blog and thought it would be a fun game, so let me know if you're in...

"The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade (or possibly store-bought) gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch though...Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!"

I thought it would be fun to exchange gifts with some of my friends, because doing something for someone else always makes me happy! So join in the fun and see what happens when you pay it forward!

Oh and here's a random picture of Angie and I, because I hate posting without a picture! I was doing some yoga moves on my sister-in-law's Wii the other night and Angie wanted to join in of course, so she ran into the bathroom and comes back out carrying my scale! It looked just like the Wii fit board, so she set it up next to me and started doing yoga moves too! She loves to do everything we do and it's fun to see how her little mind works! :)

[ angie's quilt!!! ]

Alright, I promised I would post pictures of Angie's quilt once it was complete, so here it is!!!! I am so unbelievably excited about accomplishing this! I had my mind set that I would finish it yesterday and I did at 10pm! Whew! Thanks to a ton of help from my wonderful Mom, otherwise I never would have finished it! This is my first ever quilt and she taught me every little step of the way! THANKS MOM FOR ALL YOUR HELP!

I've been working on this project for a few months now, so I'm sure my Mom is just as excited as I am that I got it done! Here are just a couple of pictures, I posted a few more on my other blog (Creative Optimism- there's a link on the right side of the page for those of you who haven't seen it yet) and gave a little more detail for those who want more.

I'm so excited that Angie finally gets to use her blanket, which is much better than the Christmas one she's been using because that's the only one that we had that fit her bed! But not anymore! It made me so happy to see how excited she was when she saw it this morning, she rolled all over it and couldn't wait to use it for her nap! So sweet dreams Angie, hope you enjoy!

[ our little sweetheart ]

Here's our little sweetheart being a "ham" for the camera! She luckily wanted to cooperate with me... otherwise I wouldn't have gotten such fun pictures! You can definitely see how much personality is in that little body of hers! That is, when she wants to!






Angie was really getting into the pictures at this point because she wanted me to take a picture of her pink toes and her butt! I laughed out loud when she said "Take picture my butt!" then she turned around a stuck it right in front of the camera! We try to say "bottom" but apparently she's overheard us when we slipped up and said "butt"! We'll obviously have to keep working on that! I was excited about painting her toenails though... that's the first time I've had the guts to do it! I always had these nightmares of getting fingernail polish everywhere! But it was fine and she thinks it's great!



This table runner and matching coasters were a gift from my Mom... can you believe it? She's in the middle of her radiation treatments and she still manages to make beautiful gifts! She actually didn't quite finish the table runner because she's been so extremely tired from the radiation. So she took this opportunity to teach me how to finish it off. She sewed the blocks of fabric together and then showed me how to do the border, the quilting ("stitching in the ditch") and lastly the binding! It was so fun to learn and now I feel like I can consider myself a quilter since I know how to complete a project! I was even more excited that I finished the project for the holiday! I know some of you are laughing right now, but it happens! I get a project started and then get so many other things going on that I usually don't finish it in time to enjoy it for that holiday! Not this time! So now that I know how to quilt, I'm working on finishing up Angie's comforter which has been a work in progress for a long time! Thanks to my Mom... I should be finishing it by tomorrow! YAY! I'm finally excited about sewing enough to not be intimidated by a project so that I can finish it! So be looking for Angie's quilt! :)


Here's John's gift from Angie and I. Inside the bag is a heart-shaped paperweight that you can put a picture in. I didn't think to take a picture of it, oh well. We thought it would be perfect for him to take to work to have a picture of us and be useful at the same time! Angie and I had fun making our card for John and he loved his gift so it was a success!

And here are the beautiful roses John got me along with a very sweet note! I'm always so excited when I get flowers, as I'm sure most women are! John always remembers them for those special occasions... my birthday, Mother's day, our Anniversary and Valentine's day! Thanks for the beautiful roses Babe!Oh how I love special occasions! We ended the evening with dinner at The Olive Garden- YUM! Thanks to Nana and Poppa for watching Angie! HAPPY BELATED VALENTINE'S DAY!

[Angie's "Sparkle Song" ]

I've been trying to get a video of Angie's "Sparkle Song" for a while now and finally got it! She's not as into it in this video as she usually is, (maybe the lollipop she had was distracting her!) but it's the best we've got right now! Angie asks us at least once a day to play this song, and then just like you see at the end of the video, she says "One more time Mommy!" after every time! We usually end up playing it a couple more times and then finally have to say "That's it until tomorrow!"
We first heard this song on: "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" which is a really cute family movie for those of you who haven't seen it. Angie liked it because of all the toys and animals of course and because of this final song. In the movie, Natalie Portman who is a pianist and manager of the store is conducting this song that she created and that's why Angie conducts it! :) It's so funny to watch her because she's always moves right to the beat of the song! Maybe she'll be a musician someday, who knows? Hopefully we'll get a better video of her doing more dancing to her precious "Sparkle Song" as she calls it. The song sounds so magical, especially the end sounds like glitter or sparkles... so hence the name we came up with and the reason she loves it so much! She's such a girl that way! So as usual, hope you Enjoy!

[ Baby #2 Preview! ]

Yesterday I had an appointment for what they call a combined screening, which means that they do an ultrasound and take your blood to test for any birth defects or chromosomal disorders your baby might have. Everything with the baby looks great, so we're just waiting to hear back about the blood test, and we should hear back in about a week. So... here's the first picture of our new addition! I did get to see the baby on my first doctor visit last month, but they weren't able to give me a copy of our little "gummy bear"(that's totally what the baby looks like the first time you see them) because they used a hand-held ultrasound device which didn't print pictures. But now our baby really looks like a baby...YAY!

Anyway, I'm excited that we finally have some pictures of our baby! I also got a copy of the whole ultrasound on DVD and it's about 15 minutes long! They were obviously very thorough with the exam, but I'm not complaining because it's great to have so much footage! With Angie we only got a 2 second clip of her moving, so this is a treat! John wasn't able to go to the appointment with me because of work, so he was of course excited that there was so much to watch! It's fun to see John be just as excited with this baby as he was with Angie! Now we can hardly wait to find out if it's a boy or girl! We'll see!
What do you think we're having?

[ new pics by Lauren of course! ]

I love these pictures Lauren took of our family and have wanted to post them for a while now, but am just now getting around to it. I kept forgetting to get them off of her computer, but finally remembered this weekend. My sister is becoming quite the photographer! She keeps getting better and better each time I see her photographs! Thank you so much Lauren for your amazing talent and for being so willing to share it with us!

I love pictures! They capture those wonderful little moments that would otherwise be quickly forgotten. These photos remind me of what's most important in life... family! When life gets overwhelming and crazy... all I have to do is look at my husband and daughter and I'm reminded how blessed I truly am to have them in my life. That's when all those things that I was worried about that I thought were too big to deal with, really are small in comparison.

I am so thankful for the knowledge of the gospel that helps me to keep things in perspective. With Heavenly Father's help I know that I can make it through anything. I guess this is taking a little twist from what I started to post about, but I've been thinking a lot about this lately since I've been feeling so sick with this pregnancy. I'm realizing that Heavenly Father knows that I'm trying to do my best in spite of feeling so awful and that He'll make up for where I fall short.

Well, I hope you enjoy the photos! I also hope all is going well for you and your families! Until next time... have a wonderful day!