Caught in the Act Take 1 and 2

Picture this: it's 9am.  Molly's dressed, but just barely.  I'm upstairs doing my make-up and I hear Molly walking downstairs.  A little bit unusual, since she usually hangs out with me while I get ready, but I don't really think anything of it.  10 minutes pass and I head downstairs ready for the day.  I hear noises coming from the kitchen so I peek around the corner and find Molly, knife in hand, trying to cut the butter that she's retrieved from the refrigerator that she just learned how to open.  She looks over and smiles.  Mac-and-Cheese!

Fast forward 2 days. Picture us eating cereal as a family around the kitchen table.  Molly's finishing while I put my bowl in the dishwasher and the milk in the fridge.  The dryer buzzes and I go into the laundry room to switch out the laundry.  Not gone for more than a few minutes this is the scene upon my return:

 "Mommy, I spill"

Notice the milk on the table?  Yep, that's the one I just put away.  Molly looked so sad and worried about the spilled milk it was all I could do to not burst out laughing.  She got a little embarrassed when I called Shane to come see what she'd been up to.  We moved her to a different chair so she could eat the bowl of cereal and milk that she'd poured, all by herself.  (A first with the milk.)  After much reassurance from us telling her that it was okay and that it was only an accident we asked that next time please ask for help.  When she finished eating she helped me clean up the milk.

Fast forward to today.  Molly's eating cereal.  I've put away the milk and am checking my email in the next room.  "Mama" Molly calls.  I go into the kitchen and find the milk back on the table and ready to be poured.  She looks up at me, "More, please."

My heart swells with pride, music fills the room and a small tear forms in the corner of my eye.  I love my little girl!

Pillow Project

Seriously, does it get any better than this!

 I started this pillow for Molly the day she was born.  We were waiting at the hospital for Molly's birth and I still needed some embroidery thread.  There was a craft store across the street and since it didn't appear that Molly would make her appearance for several hours we decided to walk over and buy the thread.  20 minutes later as we were walking through the hospital doors we got a phone call from Molly's birth-grandfather saying that we needed to get to the birthing room as quickly as possible.  Miracle of miracles, our sweet baby girl was born within the hour.

I finished the embroidery work before Molly was 2 weeks old and then it sat. And sat, and sat.  And now, just in time for Molly's birthday next month, I'm finished!  Yeah!

Molly is just as excited as I am!

Molly and Me

I love Mother's Day!  For a lot of years Mother's Day was a really hard day for me...a celebration of my greatest desire, my desire to be a mother.  Enter Molly and her sweet birth-mother Ana.  They have blessed me with the most precious gift and highest calling of all.  Motherhood.  I celebrate this every day when I look into the eyes of my beautiful baby.  I am a mother.

My little helper in the sewing room

 

Always ready with a smile

 Can you see the mischievous spark in her eyes?

 Mama's shoes

Quiet Book: A Few More Pages...

There are still a few pages that I'm working on and I need to do a cover, but I wanted to get what I had put together so we can start using it.  I'm really happy with how the quiet book is coming together and I've had fun practicing my sewing skills.  Yeah for sewing!

Learn to tell time

 Practice counting and phone etiquette

(Molly's favorite page so far)

 Shapes, colors, and learning how to snap things together

Learning to lace and tie.  I could have done a shoe for this 

but since we're such big football fans a football was a much better fit!

March 2011 Project: Quiet Book

At the beginning of the year I decided to choose one project every month to work on during Molly's nap.  For January I chose to catch up on Molly's scrapbook, in February I made fun Mr. & Mrs. pillows for our bed and in March I started a quiet book for Molly. 

Growing up we had a quiet book that my mom made and I've always planned to make one for my kids.  I've been filing away ideas for years and Molly is at the right age to really enjoy something like this.  The initial book will have 12 pages that are fun and will hopefully teach something.  I'm making it so that I'll be able to add pages as Molly grows and is ready for more advanced quiet fun like braiding a girls hair and a tic-tac-toe page.  These are my first 4 pages:

Molly loves airplanes so I had to include one in the book.  It opens up so she can load and unload the suticases.  This page doesn't really teach anything, but Molly likes to count the button windows, so we'll call it a counting page (1 airplane, 3 suitcases, 4 wheels, 5 buttons...)

This is big enough to tuck in a bag of fruit snack with the luggage.

The balloons have velcro on them so they can be removed and matched with the right color.

Flower Pot: Button the flowers onto their stems

Noah's ark: unzip the ark to find the animals

9 years of marriage...

February 23, 2001
LOVE
friendship
Laughter
understanding
Joy
equality
Happiness

Happy Anniversary to the amazing man I share my forever with!
I love you!

Clipping Coupons

I've always loved clipping coupons! When I sit down to read the Sunday paper I hurry through the "news" to get to the ads. I don't clip every coupon, just the coupons for things we normally buy or products that we've wanted to try. I have an envelope I keep in my purse to hold my coupons and I dutiful place the newly cut coupons into the envelope and back into my purse every Sunday. And that's where they sit, safely tucked away, until the next week when I add to the pile. More likely than not, these coupons will meet the recycling bin with expired dates of use before they ever see the bright lights of the grocery store.

Last week I made a real effort to use coupons on my shopping trip. Before I left for the store I went through the coupons pulling out the ones for item we needed. So far so good. I also pulled out some coupons for things we wanted (Ben & Jerry's ice cream) on the condition I'd use them only if the items were already on sale. With coupons and shopping list in hand it was time to hit the store. I'm not going to bore you with the particulars, so let's just say those few extra minutes of sorting through my coupons saved me a a pocketful of cash! Almost everything I bought was on sale and I had a coupon for 1/2 of the items. With them combined I was able to get $56 worth of products for $18! Yeah for sales! Yeah for clipping coupons! But most of all: Yeah for using my clipped coupons on sale items! I could get used to saving that kind of money!

If you have any ideas or tips for clipping and using coupons let me know!

Schwinn "June" Cruiser

Shane has logged over 300 miles on his road bike since he got it last month and I've been feeling a bit jealous.  I don't know if I'll ever be the road bike type, but I fell in love with this little cruiser the moment I saw it.  I've only had it a week, but I've already put it to good use riding back and forth to the library and along the bike paths near our home.  I think everyone should get a bike - it makes you feel like a kid again! 

If you like yoga you need to check out my favorite new exercise site -  yoga today.  They broadcast a different yoga routine every day and the sessions are an hour long.  It's great because you get the variety and challenge you expect from a class without having to go anywhere.  Plus, you can workout whenever you want.  The routines are intermediate to advance, so if you are new to yoga proceed slowly and do what feels good to your body.  Namaste.

Sunday Dinner!

Every month my mom has a big family dinner (there are 10 of us plus spouses and grandkids).  Everyone brings something so that my mom doesn't get stuck cooking the entire meal.  It's something we look forward to. We tell stories and laugh, play games (including Rock Band), celebrate the birthdays for the month and just enjoy spending time together.  Since we live in Chicago we usually participate through a noisy phone call or video chat.  This month I was so happy to be in town for the big dinner (my mom would have planned a family dinner specifically because I was in town, but it was fun to be at the one already scheduled).

Playing connect four with my niece.

ParentProfiles.com

We are excited to add an additional adoption resource to our arsenal.  We have set up a profile with parentprofile.com, a website where birthparents can search a collection of profiles to help them find the right family to place their baby with.  They are promoted by a collection of the most popular adoption websites and we feel it will be another great way to help us find our baby.  LDS Family Service is still our adoption agency, but parentprofiles.com will help spread the news of our desire to adopt.  You can check out our profile here.

HAPPY FEBRUARY!

February is one of our favorite months.  Not only is it filled with love, hearts, all things pink and Valentine's Day but we also celebrate our wedding Anniversary at the end of the month!  Happy February!  Hug someone you love today!

Meredith is great!

Anyone that knows Meredith knows that she is just great. She is a super good seminary teacher and the students love her. She is a fabulous nanny that takes care of 2 kids and they just love her too. She also is an AMAZING cook. Not just the kind of cook that dabbles here and there, but a true to life, honest to goodness GLUTEN FREE MASTER CHEF. If there was an Iron Chef Gluten Free, she would be it!

But most of all, she will be the best mother in the world. We can't wait to start our family and hope that we will be able to adopt a baby soon. Then you will really see how awesome Meredith really is. Those that know her are nodding their heads as they read this, because they know it to be true.

So give it up for Meredith, she's the greatest!

Sewing!

Shane was out of town a couple days last week and I was caught up with my seminary lessons and somewhat on my sleep, so I got to do some sewing.  My friend gave me this darling pattern to cross stitch (which I actually started last Sept...augh!!!).  I was able to finish it pretty quickly, pick up some Halloween fabric, and put this pillow together.  Happy October!

Say Cheese!

In August our baby nephew Cooper was born so I went out to Maryland this week to help Monica and spend time with the kids.  Things are pretty busy when you've got 6 kids - especially with a newborn - and I was more than happy to step in as the designated baby holder for the week.  Baby Cooper is such a little angel, and everyone else is so cute and growing up so fast!  We had a great time playing games (Sorry and Marbles), going miniature golfing and just being together.  Navy invited the football coaches wives to go to the game with them in North Carolina and I was able to watch the kids for a couple of days so that Monica could go with Joe.  I just love these kids so much and had so much fun being with them!  And to top off the weekend Navy beat Wake Forest (who were ranked 16) - it was an awesome game! 

Beginnings...

Today was the first day of seminary for the new school year.   This summer has been such a whirlwind of events that I was kind of dreading the start of seminary- not the teaching part, but the part where my alarm clock goes off at 4:30 AM.  Yeah, that part!  Crazy as it sounds, now that it's here I'm actually feeling a sense of relief.  I'm looking forward to establishing a normal routine, getting organized, and feeling grounded.  It reminds me of the scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants 88:119 "Organize yourselves; Prepare every needful thing; and establish a house...a house of order, a house of God;"  

I guess that's why I like beginnings, they force me to get organized and when I'm organized I feel a sense of peace and a closeness to Heavenly Father.  I'm thankful for beginnings- without them my life would be a mess!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEREDITH!!!!

Happy Birthday Meredith!!! As many of you can agree, Meredith is one of the truly special people in the world. I am so lucky to actually have her as my wife. She has brought so much happiness and joy to my life and I can't wait when we can share that with our children.

I love you Meredith!

Girls Camp!

This past week was our stake's girls camp in Soni Springs, Michigan.  I went up as the first year certification leader for the stake which means I was in charge of making sure all the first year campers had an awesome time at camp.  The coolest thing about being a leader at camp (besides getting to spend a week with the most amazing girls) is that you get to use a walkie talkie!  (that's me in the middle with the black walkie talkie clipped to my hip).  Love that!  All in all we had a great time - beautiful weather, yummy food, mosquito bites at a minimum and only one case of poison ivy.