Goin' to church in style

Once I found the little bag for Alayna's "Crispers", I told her we could decorate it.  Just days before finding her little bag, I came across a tutorial to make a ruffle bag. 

And because every girl likes ruffles, we decided to make said ruffle bag.  Only, a miniature one in her case.

Layna picked the fabric.  And I did the creating.

Turned out pretty darn cute, huh?

In fact, I thought it turned out so cute, that I made a mom-size version for me. 

I have to admit, I like hers better, but alas, not all my church "stuff" would fit in her bag.  So I'm stickin' with mine.

It pays to be married to a handyman

There's nothing like having a baby that makes you want to check some things off your to do list.

In fact, having a baby even made me make a new to do list entitled, "Things to do before the baby comes".  (Really creative, huh.)

With this little one's due date slowly creeping up on us, we've started scheduling which of Dan's days off we will work on certain projects. 

First up.  Build shelves in the garage.  We thought we would start out by just doing one section of the wall to see how we really liked it.

Once I saw how nice they were and how much stuff would fit on them, I sweet talked my incredibly amazing and understanding husband to make more.

 And he did.

There is something about organization that just makes my heart sing.  I seriously am SO excited to have our garage somewhat organized.  There are a few little projects here and there that need to be done (such as reorganizing some of the totes and labeling them) but the BIG project is done, thanks to my handyman.

Not only did he build all these shelves and organize the garage, but he also made himself this awesome work bench.  I'd say he's pretty amazing. 

Thanks babe, for sacrificing some of your precious days off to check some items off my I mean our to do list!

A little too excited

I was thrilled to receive these in the mail today. 

I was even more excited that the company that sent them to me gave me two extra fabrics since the shipping wasn't as much as they said it would be.

 And I was quite possibly ecstatic that I love them even more in person than I did when viewing them online.

Let the projects begin!

29 Weeks

Only 11 more weeks to go!  Yikes.  It sounds a little scary when I put it that way.  (Maybe I'll just stick to saying 29 weeks.)

Here I am.  

As you can tell, baby is growing.  Although, I am somewhat proud to say that I actually measured a little (ok, a tiny) bit smaller than the 28 that I was supposed to, (I don't think that I have ever measured small) but nothing to be concerned about.

Baby girl continues to be doing great.  If I remember correctly, I think her heart rate was 138 at the last appointment (which seems to be typical for her).  She has quite a bit slower heart rate compared to Alayna and her temperament also seems to be more mellow (minus the fact that every doctor that has listened to her comments on how much of a mover she is, but let's disregard that for now).  Let's take her calm temperament as a sign that maybe she will be an easier baby than Alayna.  (Fingers crossed.)  As most of my family recalls, Alayna was NOT the easiest baby.  In fact, she was quite hard.  So, here's to hoping that this baby's calm temperament continues on.  (Although, I am comforted in the fact that I survived a HARD baby once.  I can do it again.)

I still feel really good.  In fact, when people ask me how I am doing, I kind of feel silly because I don't have much to report.  I always just say I am feelin' good.  I have the typical aches and pains here and there, but nothing to really complain about.  I am starting to notice I am a bit more uncomfortable at times, but who wouldn't with a belly my size. :) 

Layna felt the baby kick for the first time tonight and to be honest, I think it freaked her out a little.  But once we explained to her that was how the baby was saying hi to her, she was pretty excited.   We talked about how the baby is going to live with us at our house and we asked her if she was excited about that.  She enthusiastically said, "Yes!"  (Guess we'll see how she really does when the time comes.)

As for names, we are getting somewhat closer.  And by that I mean we have 3 possibilities, but we still are looking.  Rest assured, we are working as hard as we can to make sure this little girl's name isn't "baby" or "Grantalina" as my Dad calls her (considering his name is Grant after all).

Layna didn't want to be left out of the picture taking, so here we are.

Be on the lookout for upcoming crafting posts.  I am getting in the crafting mood. 

Craft #1.  Baby quilt.

Hello Pinterest

Where have you been all my life?

So, I have caught the pinterest bug. 

I have to admit that I somewhat purposefully waited to try it out.  Yeah, I am rebellious like that.  Sometimes when something is big, I like to hold off before I jump on the bandwagon.  (It took a long time for me to sign up for facebook...and even then I am not a big facebook-er.  Gasp.)

I will confess that it is quite genius.  Why couldn't I come up with an idea like Pinterest?

I have a disclaimer though.  While I really like that I have one place that I can stash my ideas, I haven't been completely sucked in.  Some people have claimed that they waste so much time on Pinterest, but really I haven't found that to be the case.  (I see how you could though.) 

*Thanks for all the comments,  ideas and encouragement for getting my recipes organized.  Rest assured, my recipes will get organized....one way or another. :)

Please tell me I am not the only one

who has a recipe cupboard that looks like this:

And when taken out, my stack of recipes looks like this:

I love that the Internet is a perfect source for yummy recipes, but I hate that when I print them out, I accumulate a pile of papers that need to be shuffled through. 

Let's just say it's driving Dan and I crazy.

Crazy enough that one of my New Year's resolutions is to get all these bad boys copied onto recipe cards. 

Wish me luck.

I've got a little helper

And I am putting her to work.

Just look at how good she is at folding the towels.

Now if I could just get to her to fold the rest of the laundry, then we'd be in business.

Baby steps, people.  Baby steps.

Only when living in Arizona.....

Can you use the money your parents give you for a summer gift as a winter gift instead. 

Winter or summer, Alayna still loves it!

Can you say cheese?

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa L.  Layna loves her sandbox!

I have to tell you a few things

....about this little girl.

She seriously is at the funnest age right now.  I really am loving three for so many reasons. Don't get me wrong,  I am not liking three as well.  In fact, I think it's more the terrible threes than the terrible twos, but I still want to go on the record and say that I like it more (way more) than I dislike it. 

And since this is such a fun age, I have been trying to write down a few things about Miss Layna as of late.

*As mentioned in this post.  She LOVES her "Crispers".  She is really into reading them, and carrying them around.  After she got her miniature Book of Mormon in the mail, I realized that I had a bag that may be perfect for them.  (It just so happened that I had one left over from when I taught Sunbeams like 7 years ago.)  When I found the bag and gave it to her, she tried to put her scriptures in and was ecstatic when they fit and said, "It's perfect!  Thanks, Mom!" 

I think that's the first time she has declared that something was perfect.  Too cute.

*I think one of the main reasons I am so in love with this age is due to the fact that we are involved in imaginary play almost 24/7.  I just love that she will say, "Mommy, will you play with me?"  And then she will take me on some imaginary trip.  We fly in airplanes to see our Grandmas and Grandpas a lot, and we also drive in the car to play at friends' houses.  But no matter what we do, I love that she wants to play pretend.

*Often while we are pretending, she will declare, "You are the Princess.  I am the Prince."  I don't know why, but not once has she wanted to be the princess.  Always the prince.  And if we are playing as mommy and daddy, guess who has to be the daddy?  Yep.  She does.  It's really no wonder, considering she is about the biggest daddy's girl there is.

*Her friends.  Oh, how she loves her friends!  Only, she doesn't always call them her friends.  They are "her people".  Whenever I tell her we are going to be somewhere where some of her friends are and I list off their names, she'll respond by saying, "All my people!"  Guess they're her peeps.  :)

*Alayna is quite the little dancing queen.  She loves to dance in front of our sliding glass door at night so she can watch herself.  She comes up with quite the moves and really impresses us at times with some of the moves she does.  The other night she even busted some moves in between tables at Burger King.   And was not shy about it.  If there is a good enough song on the radio, it will get her up and moving. 

*I love that she can communicate so well at this age, but I love even more the fact that not everything is entirely correct.  For a few different sounds at the beginning of words, such as j's and ch's she says the sh sound.  So, she says shammies (jammies) and shocolate (chocolate).  I.Love.it.

*One thing I do NOT love is the fact that she has started talking baby talk at times.  I can't stand it.  It is driving me batty!  Where do kids learn that?  We don't have a baby that we talk baby talk to....yet.  And Dan and I do NOT talk baby talk to her or each other.  Although, the last couple of days she hasn't done it as much.  Let's hope it stays that way.

*For a long time now when there is a fly, Alayna will say, "Shoo fly, don't bother me!"  And over time she started saying it to other animals as well.  "Shoo, bird!  Shoo!"  Well, the other day she said, "Shoo, Mommy!  Shoo!"  (I was in her way, and apparently that was the best way to get her point across.)

*And for the last bit of info.  Alayna got her hair cut for the second time ever.  She got her first hair cut over a year ago and she was definitely past due for a trim.  She got a few inches cut off, and I can tell her hair is much healthier.  There were only a few tears for the first couple of minutes, but then she did great.  The girl won her over because when she was all done, she put Alayna's hair in pigtails.  (Alayna's favorite.) 

A before.

And after.

Get a load of that belt.  Classy.

A Sunbeep, A Sunbeep

Can you believe this little girl is a SUNBEAM!?! 

Or a Sunbeep, as she used to say a couple months ago.

Our primary waited until the second week of January to change to new classes so yesterday was Alayna's first Sunday as a Sunbeam.  She was SO excited to go to "Mommy's class" (since I am a counselor in Primary and she sees me for sharing and singing time).

But the main reason she was so excited about Sunbeams was because she got to carry her bag that holds....

Her very own miniature Book of Mormon.  Complete with her name inscribed on it.  And let me tell you, she LOVES her "Crispers" (Scriptures).  She got them in the mail the day before and COULD.NOT.PUT.THEM.DOWN.  She even carried them around the store when we ran errands. 

She loved her Sunbeam class and her Sunbeam teacher, "Gwenna's Mommy".  In fact, I don't know if I have seen her so friendly and chatty church.....which may be good, and then again, it may not.  :)

Here she is after church with her very own "I am a Sunbeam sticker!"  (She was SO done with getting her picture taken, but I told her we had to get a picture of her sticker....and then she was somewhat okay with it.)

7 Years

7 years of being married to the most amazing man.

{Sigh.}

I truly love this man with all my heart.

And as the card my parents sent us said:


"A lifetime of love with the love of your life.
 It doesn't get much better than that."


Seriously, it doesn't get much better than that....except for the fact that I get to spend eternity with the love of my life!   What more can a girl ask for?

Crispers

Sometimes, as a parent, there are moments that melt your heart.  And you think, "Maybe I am doing something right." 

The other night, we had one of those moments.

With all the excitement and busy-ness of the holidays, Alayna's bedtime routine has been a little off.  She has fallen asleep in the car more than once over the past few days, and couple of the other nights, she has been so exhausted that we are doing good to just get her in her jammies. 

Anyway, the other night Dan was woken up to Alayna poking his arm at 4 in the morning.  He looked at the clock and said, "What's the matter?"  To which, Alayna responded, "Crispers, my crispers."  By now I had woken up and was trying to figure out what was not going on.  Dan said, "Your slippers?"  (Alayna got some new slippers for Christmas.)  She quickly responded, "No!" and grabbed Dan's hand and led him to her room where she kept saying the same thing, "Crispers!" all while searching around her room.

Dan was at a loss for what she wanted.  And after a couple minutes, Alayna just started bawling.  She was beside herself about something and, Dan just couldn't understand what she was saying.  Over and over again he tried to figure it out, but to no avail.  Finally after a few minutes of crying, she settled down and went back to sleep.

Dan came back into our room and told me all that happened and we went back to bed. 

The next morning at breakfast, I asked Alayna why she came into our room the night before and why she was crying.  She told me she started crying because we "Borgot crispers".  I said, "You forgot your slippers?"   

"No!" she said, "Crispers!" 

And then it dawned on me.  SCRIPTURES! 

"Scriptures?  We forgot to read our scriptures?"

"YEAH!"  she exclaimed.

Bless her heart.  We forgot to read scriptures the night before and she came to tell us.  When we didn't know what she was talking about, she went to show Dan, but searched and couldn't find them in her room. (They were left in our room from the previous day.)  And that's when she started crying....

Boy, did we feel bad.  But completely proud at the same time.  What a sweet little girl we have that just wants to do what is right and read her "Crispers".  :)