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!)

a GREAT pregnancy!

That's what my midwife told me this morning when Livi and I went for my 27 week appointment. I really have been so blessed to have a very enjoyable pregnancy so far. AND now (as of next Friday) that I'm in my 3rd trimester, I get to go hear that every 2 weeks instead of once a month. It's the little things that excite me, really.
I really do love going to these appointments. Not really to hear my midwife say that (although it's nice to hear) or to get weighed or pee in that cup. I love these appointments because it's the only time I get to hear sweet little Clara's heartbeat. (Her name is Clara Bailey DelGrosso, by the way!) And once a month is an awful long time to go between hearing that sweet sound. It was especially hard when I wasn't feeling her move all the time. At least now I can feel her dancing inside and sometimes even feel the shape of her body in my belly. That's comforting but there is just something about listening to the doppler that makes me tear up every time I'm there. I can't wait to have her here.

rain smells so good

For pretty much the entire past week and a half, we have had unbelievable weather here in Portland. It's been beautiful, sunny, blue skies and just about 60 degrees every day...actually reminds me a lot of Colorado. Needless to say, I have just been soaking it all in. Every chance that Livi and I have, we are outside at the park, taking a walk, etc. It's been wonderful to just get out and get some excersize and fresh air. And now the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom...might be my favorite tree.

That said, I kind of forgot how good the rain smells. Today it's cloudy and a little rainy and after not having the rain for a while I was really able to smell how good it was. It's refreshing and clean. I think it makes me a little nostalgic. This week, especially, I've been thinking about how excited we are for this new time in our life: getting to finally meet our new baby girl, Brandon being done with school, Brandon starting a new job, moving back to Colorado. So many changes within a few months! But at the same time I think of how it makes me just a little sad that we will be completely abandoning the life that we have now had for the last 4ish years: just the two of us to worry about living in our tiny 1 bdrm apartment, walking to coffee whenever we feel like it, eating at our favorite Thai place, sharing life with the dear friends that we've made in "our" town. We have had so many good times and made so many memories here in Portland. I will definitely miss it. I'm sure once the time is here for us to go through all of these changes I will be completely ready to jump in to this next stage and embrace all the new blessings that God has for us. Until then I need to be patient: enjoy all the jumping around and squirms I feel daily in my belly, enjoy the quiet evenings with Brandon doing homework and me having time to do what I please, enjoy my last few months nannying, enjoy the rain and cherry blossoms.
Anyways, I will be going to Colorado this weekend for a baby shower :) I'm so excited to see my family and friends. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures. Brandon will be super busy here presenting a paper for one of his classes. And then the next weekend is Brandon's 28th birthday!!! Can't wait to celebrate him and the amazing man that he is. Seriously, he's the man.
:)

Anybody still there?

I'm not sure if anyone even comes here anymore. I know it's been a long time. I don't really have any reason for not writing other than I wasn't feeling inspired and didn't feel like we had a lot to post about. But I think I'd like to start again. I kind of miss updating the posts and writing random things. So hopefully, I haven't lost everyone's interest! Hopefully there are still some people out there who want to look at random pictures :)
I guess I'll update you on the last *cough* 4 or 5 months! ahh! can't believe it's really been that long. Well, I'm still pregnant :) haha. I'm at 26 weeks now (almost to the 3rd trimester!). It's really hard to believe that in only a few short months we will have a beautiful new addition to our family. We are so excited! We're in the middle of our Bradley Birthing classes and are having fun thinking about her finally being here. (this is from about 24 weeks(?) needless to say, i'm a little big bigger now!)
Brandon is in his last semester on school!!!!! YIPPEE!!!! He is so amazing at everything he does and really puts everything he has into it. His lead-teacher has been very supportive of him and has really encouraged him that he is awesome in the classroom. He is going to be a great teacher and we're excited for him to finally graduate!
so yea, I think that's it, in a nutshell. Hopefully y'all all haven't given up on me yet :) I'll be back soon.

going to let the cat out of the bag....

Yup, it's true. I'm pregnant! Baby DelGrosso is due May 28th. I'll blame my lack of posting on this HUGE secret that I've been trying to keep :) All of these great pictures were taken by our sweet friend, Jessica, who did an amazing job.
Enjoy!