Brandon's new kicks and my growing belly

yup, that's right. Brandon had some Christmas money left and we decided to randomly go to REI for him to try on some chaco flip flops. I bought some last spring and pretty much never take them off. After realizing that we had our dividend from last year plus the %20 off for being members we figured it would be a great deal for him to buy some actual chaco sandals. yup, he loves em :) and i love the green.

here's the crinkle-taggie toy that i made from the tutorial that i posted about earlier. i love it and hope Clara does too.

yay, the front of Clara's quilt is finally done! this Wednesday I'll be working on the border around it. it's slowly coming together :)

wowza! hard to believe that she'll be here in 9 short weeks! did i mention that i only have 7 weeks of work left?! i'm pretty excited about that.

oh, and this is a pic that brandon took of me last week while i was folding some baby clothes that i just washed. he thought it was pretty funny that i can fold clothes on my belly :)

nothing much to say

hello friends. so much to talk about yet nothing to say. that's how i feel lately. soooo, maybe i'll put my thoughts in point format in order to blog about something today :)

*last week's vacation was lovely. i found myself with a crisis on sunday night though when my mind told me that i had to get up for work in the morning but the rest of me said that i was already done working forever :)

*the list of things i accomplished on my list last week:
1-lots of sewing! once i take pics, i'll post them
2-lots of cooking! i actually made meals every night, double the portion that i normally would, and froze the other half for later.
3. lots of cleaning! i had it in my little head that this would be the last good chunk of time i would have to clean and organize before miss Clara came along. this thinking made me super productive. i love the feeling of a freshly spring cleaned house :)
4. good time to myself. :)

*i am now on day 3 of this work week with 2 sick little girlies. one has the croup and possibly an ear infection (going to the dr. this afernoon) and the other has pneumonia and an ear infection! needless to say, i am soooooo grateful for the sunshine that we have. it gives me a little respite to all the days inside.

*and lastly, i believe i am going to order my cloth diapers this week sometime. it makes me oh so happy and excited for Clara to be here. and i can't wait to dress that little tush in some cute cloth :)

so productive!

I've been so productive this week that I've had off that I haven't had the time to blog! :) Hopefully I'll slow down today, get some sewing done and have some pics of my new creations.

baby things :)

Yay! I'm so excited to finally show you some progress for Clara's quilt. My mentor here in Portland is an incredible quilter and for her gift to Clara, she let me pick out the fabrics I liked and is teaching me the ins and outs and is going to do the actual quilting part of it. so far I have 8 of the 10 rows sewn and now just need to sew the rows together. Here is a sampling of the 5 different fabrics.

and here is the new diaper bag! haha. it's kind of ridiculous how excited i am about this. it was my mom's gift to us for the baby shower and just came in the mail. i got to pick it out so it wasn't a surprise or anything but i really like it. of course it's turquoise...my fav color :)

I need some fresh ideas

So now that my baby quilt is coming to an end (as in, all the rows are *almost* done and just need to be sewn together. maybe i'm being optimistic thinking that this part will be easy/quick...) anyways, I've been researching new tutorials online to find some inspiration for new baby crafts! I figure that this will be my form of "nesting" since we won't have a nursery to decorate for quite some time.
here are a couple of cute ideas I've found so far:
isn't the most adorable mobile you've ever seen?! I have quite a bit of scrap fabric laying around and think this might be fun. (found here: http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile)


here is another easy project to use some scrap fabric on! a "crinkle square" for baby DelG to play with. (found here: http://www.joyshope.com/2009/05/baby-crinkle-square-tutorial.html)


ok, so if you have any ideas for EASY crafts for Clara, let me know! oh, and I'm hoping that tonight I'll post pics of my new diaper bag and maybe some progress on the quilt :)

Brandon's 28th Birthday!

We celebrated B's birthday this past Saturday and I successfully pulled off a surprise! That doesn't happen all the time. :)
It was the most GORGEOUS day! We woke up, walked on over to the donut shop and leisurely ate our donuts in our pajamas. After getting ready we went on a little walk and then tried out a little Italian sandwich shop. Then we made our way downtown to walk around Powell's and browse the many sections of books(something we never get to do). Brandon thought all of this was the surprise and had no idea where we were about to head to.
When we got home I told him he needed to pack a bag for the night. He was pretty excited, I think :) This is where the pictures start.

us on the way to our destination

We had so many beautiful glimpses of Mt. Hood and all it's glory--hard to imagine that it's about half the altitude of Pikes Peak!


So, we drove across the WA border and went to the small little town of Camas. After checking into our hotel we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and browse the shops downtown. Here's Brandon and downtown Camas :)


For dinner we walked to a cute little pizza bistro called Twilight Pizza (no connection to the books unfortunately:))



Me in front of the cute little Camas Hotel

and of course after dinner, Clara really wanted some ice cream so we walked on over to the local Dairy Queen. Brandon lucked out and got the gal to upgrade his blizzard for his birthday :)

I love this boy :)

...

We celebrated B's 28th birthday on Saturday. It was wonderful to relax and make him feel special. Pictures to come!

Baby Shower Pics

me and the lovely hostesses :)

my favorite yummy cake

so many presents! we were so blessed!




the adorable hat that Jo made :)

Thanks, Sarah for sending these pics!

Some of my most favorite people

I'm back! Colorado was so awesome. The baby shower was awesome and I'm so thankful for such great friends who love me and the new littlest DelG. (pics of that to come...someone else was taking them. hint hint Sarah :))
It was really weird thinking that we will be living there in about 5 months though...crazy thought. It's like my trip to Colorado marked the beginning of the end here in Portland: 2 months till B graduates from Western, 2.5 months until B graduates from Multnomah and I'm done working, 3 months till Clara is due to make her appearance, and about 5 months till we are supposed to be moving...hopefully with a job. I feel like I'm working on a countdown. If you have ever made a big move somewhere, I think you probably know what I'm talking about. It's like you feel like you have to wrap things up where you are and you are constantly fighting being impatient. I don't anticipate change very well. We LOVE being here in Portland. We love the city, our friends, our life that we've made here. This city will always represent such a special time in our life and I treasure this time so much.
I think being in Colorado was good for me. It allowed me to imagine our life there again. I love being in Portland, but I think I'll love being in Colorado again too. It's so different, but we will be different. And I think one main reason that I will love it is because of the awesome people that are there...some of my most favorite people!

Ok, so these are the wonderful ladies who were the brains/beauty behind the shower. Oh how I love these girls. Emily lives in Colorado now and I'm SO excited to live near this girl again. Joanna lives in PA right now BUT I'm pretty sure God is going to answer my prayers and lead her and her hubby to Denver this summer as well :) And my dear sweet friend Sarah who also lives in Denver but for some crazy reason thinks she's going to move this summer?! haha. not if I have something to say about it. I love these girls and am so grateful for them.


Oh MaryHary! haha ok, that's not her real name, but my loving name for her. This gal and I have quite the history beginning in 7th grade. I love her so much and can't wait to live near her and her new baby girl :) MaryBella and Clara are going to be the best of friends.


Oh, and my mom :) Loved spending time with her this weekend and catching up in person. can't wait to have her near again and to see her with her first grandbaby. I don't know what I'd do without her.

Of course there are many other people that I'm so excited to have near. Too many to count. Hopefully they'll make the weather seem a little warmer in the winters! haha.

(pics of the baby shower coming soon, hopefully!)