Yesterday morning the kids REALLY wanted Josh to make biscuits for breakfast (he is a master-biscuit-er, by the way). Well, we were pretty busy, and it didn’t work out, so he promised them we could have them this morning. Carter woke up this morning totally ready to make biscuits. Fay wasn’t far behind. This is a little glimpse of what I woke up to this morning.

Moments like this are so precious to me! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband, and such fun, adorable children!

 

And since we’re having fun with video. Here is a little something that Fay started sometime last week, and Carter loves to do with her. It seems like it must be from something–a show or book or something–but neither Josh nor me have any idea what it is. If you recognize it, PLEASE tell us what it is!

Also, Josh and Carter were matchy-matchy today! They are both studs!Carter was concerned during the pictures because I was using Daddy’s phone to take the picture. He still looks great, though!

Fay didn’t want to miss out on any of the lime-light, so we got some pictures of her as well!

 

I think that it is a combination of a new year, and nesting for the new baby that has made me so excited about doing extra projects. Fortunately, Josh has gotten the bug as well, and we have done some pretty cool things!

For example: We have been wanting to get our living room looking more like an actual room, instead of an afterthought that you just happen to walk through on your way to anywhere else in the house.

This is what our front room looked like until December. Notice the complete lack of furnishings?

We did move the loveseat into the living room at Christmastime, and we liked having furniture in there enough that we left it even after the tree came down. But you can’t just have one couch and call it a furnished room.

So, we went to DI and found ourselves a chair.

It is a nicely shaped chair, and it was only $8. But, it just didn’t quite do it for me. So, I looked on pinterest and found a tutorial on how to make a slipcover for such a chair, found some pretty fabric, and voila!

Another thing we did was replace the couch.

This was a good couch, and it is now serving well at Josh’s sister’s new apartment. But we got a bit of an upgrade! We didn’t make it–though, we had seriously considered it, until realizing that since we had zero upholstery tools/equipment, if we bought it from the right place, it would be nearly as cheap to just buy it.

The room was looking rather nice with the settee and the accent chair. But we weren’t quite there yet. I knew exactly what we needed, and I knew I wanted to pay as little as humanly possible for it. So, I asked Josh to make it for me! He obliged very willingly! He really is the best ever!

I told him I wanted a stool. There was some miscommunication at first which led him to believe that I wanted a barstool in the living room. We cleared that up by relabeling it “an ottoman.”

Josh built the base of the … thing using wood that was left in our garage when we moved in. It was nice and sturdy, though not particularly comfortable with nothing on it.

Next came webbing (not pictured), foam, and painting the legs. Thanks to Joseph and Maren for the use of their staple gun for this project!

Then we did the upholstery/tufting–I actually did help with this part, as opposed to all the other parts.

And this is the glorious finished product! It’s just what I wanted, and it looks fabulous with the other furniture!

Take a look at the fully furnished living room!It’s cute and cozy, and we totally love it! But we’re not quite all the way there yet.  We (clearly) need some work on the walls, and we need a little something to put with the ottoman/stool to make the room feel more symmetric. We have thought about either a floor lamp, or some large-ish plant; but we are open to suggestions.

We couldn’t have done our living room projects without Josh’s own project! We mega-splurged and got him a table-saw. But using it on the floor was hurting his back, and not great for functionality either. They sell stands, but the ones we saw were super expensive for what you got. So Josh made himself one! It was roughly half the price of the one that they sell along with his table saw, and it works so much better than the simple stand would have.

Another project was decorating the mantel for Valentine’s Day. You can see it in the living room picture; but how about let’s look at it one more time!I decorated this for $3! We had a bunch of the stuff already in our stash of decor. I made the pink and white flowers on the right out of tissue paper and straws. I also made the heart wreath out of cardboard and some red streamers that we had from last year which I rolled up to make the roses. The garland in the front is a fun story. I had decorated the top and was very happy with it; but I felt like it needed something extra to pull everything together. I didn’t want to go buy anything, though, because I hate spending money. Then one day Fay and I were playing with the little jar of fabric yo-yos that Josh’s mom sent to Fay while we were in North Carolina, and she pointed out all the ones that had Valentine colors. I knew they were the perfect thing! So I strung them all up and just taped the thread to the mantel! They are PERFECT! Thanks Mom! The only things I bought were the frame-centerpiece-thingy which was $2 at DI and some conversation hearts to fill the little jar.

This is getting long! But nobody ever said you had to read the whole thing. So I’m just going to add whatever I feel like. 🙂

I have also been doing some purely nesting projects. I made the booties for her blessing outfit (She is going to be the most beautiful blessed baby in the whole world! Just wait!!!) I made the hat for her to wear for fun. I hope that it fits her at some point in her baby life. It is really cute, after all. This carseat cover is another fun story. I made a carseat canopy thingy before Carter was born, and I specifically made it gender-neutral colors so I could just use it forever after. But I have realized that when you know you are having a girl, you just want your whole life to be enveloped in pink! (Or at least I do.) So I really wanted a pink carseat cover.  The other day, I was looking through boxes of girl things and I came across this blanket that someone gave us when Fay was born (I think it was Welcome Baby). We had a lot of blankets for Fay and this one really didn’t get much use. But the patterns were so cute that I couldn’t bear to part with it. When I saw it in the box, I had a vision of it as the carseat canopy! I ran downstairs to see if it fit the carseat and it does PERFECTLY!!! I got some extra fabric from yet another baby blanket from Fay and made the straps to attach to the handle. I even had leftover velcro from the one I made for Carter, so I was able to make this thing in roughly 20 minutes for $0.00! It is such a happy ending for me and the blanket!

We’ve had lots of fun with our projects, and we’re not done yet! Josh just started another project that we’ll use for the kids’ playroom that we are both really excited about! We love our life and have found that it is even more wonderful when we have fun things to keep us busy!

 

Is anybody else SO over January? I feel like it has been January forever! I’m happy that tomorrow is a new month!

To pass the time around here we have gotten colds, stomach flu, and pneumonia. 🙂  Just kidding. That’s not all we’ve done–though we really did do all those things. We have done some fun things too! For example:

Also, Carter is cute. Here is evidence.

We’ve been working on some other fun projects as well; but I am saving them to do one mega-post on all the awesomeness we have undertaken! Be excited! Even if it is just excited that January is over. 🙂

We’ve been sick this week, and thus have stayed home a lot. I was feeling especially stir-crazy today, and just wanted to get out of the house and do ANYTHING!  Well, fortunately today just happened to be the most beautiful day January has ever offered, and Carter (the sickest one for today) even felt up to going on a little walk after his afternoon nap!

We walked down the street (almost a block) to our duck pond! We love having such accessible wildlife!

It was so healing to be outside in the sunshine! All three of us were different people when we came back home! I even cleaned the house! (Fay asked me why I cleaned the house this afternoon, and I told her “When you’re pregnant and you get the urge to clean, you just roll with it!” Because you never know when it will come back!)

Caution: This post contains high levels of snarkiness.

If you search pinterest for anything related to pregnancy, you find lists from moms about “essential” items for different parts of the childbirth process.  I have seen a myriad of lists about what needs to be in your hospital bag for labor, and another several about what sorts of things you must have before the baby is born.  I have decided to be very bold and create my own lists.  I don’t necessarily think I am THE expert on pregnancy and childbirth. But I have had two children, and am currently pregnant, so I’m probably just as qualified as many who submit lists. And so, here are my two lists.

Elisabeth’s List of Labor/Delivery Essentials

• Nothing.

I have nothing to put on this list, and I’ll tell you why.  If you spontaneously go into labor in the middle of the night 6+ weeks before your baby is due (not that I have any experience with that…) and you walk into the ER in your pajamas to find out 20 minutes later that you are going to have a baby before you had planned on waking up for school the next morning, and thus have essentially NOTHING with you, your baby will still be born.  You don’t need a cute hospital gown, you don’t need post delivery clothes, you don’t need your toothbrush, you don’t need to have diapers or an outfit for your baby. You can have absolutely nothing with you, and your baby will still be born. And you will still love her.

That being said, it is really nice to have a lot of things packed! The more you have prepared for your hospital time, the less running around you have to do after the baby is born. But if labor catches you unawares, your baby will still be born, and you will be okay! You can send your husband home for your toothbrush and underwear and clothes and whatever else you realize you would really like. If you are experiencing  labor without your husband (like my amazing friend who had put her husband on a plane the morning before she went into labor), then I’m the wrong one to give you advice. But I will pray for you!

So, there are a lot of really nice things to have packed and ready to go before you go to the hospital to have a baby. But as far as absolute essentials, your baby will be born even if you have nothing.

For my second list:

Elisabeth’s List of Essential Baby Items to Have Before the Baby is Born

• Nothing.

If you have a baby and you don’t have so much as a diaper prepared. Your baby will still be born and you will be okay.  You can again send your husband out and tell him to at least buy a carseat so that you can take your new bundle of joy home with you. (I think they would probably let you take a baby home without a blanket, but they would NOT let you take it home without a carseat.)

Again, there are lots of things that would be nice to have before you give birth–like some baby clothes, a bed for the baby, some blankets, and a decent supply of diapers–but if you don’t have any of it, you will be okay. Your baby will still be born, and you will still love it just as much as if you had every baby item you ever saw online!

 

So, obviously this post wasn’t meant to be all that helpful, and I apologize for the snark. I mostly get amusement out of people’s lists of so-called “essentials.” I suppose my take-home message is that being prepared isn’t everything. But, in defense of all those lists, it is really fun to do the little extra things to get ready for baby! With Carter, I totally packed a hospital bag over a month in advance, and was fantasizing about just how to set up his bed and changing table and other accoutrements long before I was due!

 

 

I was going to post this multiple weeks ago, but our blog got hacked again, so I couldn’t. But now Josh thinks he knows how to keep the hackers at bay, and so we should be ready to go for the new year! We’ll see what happens…

Anyway, we had a super fun holiday season! I could talk your ears off about it; but I decided to let the pictures do most of the talking (since there will be many), and I’ll just add brief commentary.

This video is just a sample of the music we experienced through the Christmas season! Fay seriously knows every Christmas song ever by heart!  I watch this, and it is just pure joy to me!

After presents at our house, we braved the weather and went to Mother and Daddy’s house! We got more presents, and ate delicious food, and played with family! So much fun! Then we drove down to Mom and Dad’s house and did it all again! We all got spoiled and had so much fun!

The week between Christmas and New Years was fun and relaxing. One project we had was to organize the play room!

We are a little hooked by the organization and cleanliness, and one of our major goals for 2016 is to make-over our home a little at a time! We’re excited to see what we can do, but are aware that when baby comes, we will probably accomplish less. 🙂

Fay has been requesting to look at old blog posts quite a bit this past week, and it has reminded me how much I like having our little history to look at! So, I am going to try and blog a little more often. (We’ll see if it actually happens. ha ha!)

Two Christmases ago, when I was pregnant with Carter, I remember pondering a lot about how God’s greatest gift to the world was the gift of His Only Begotten Son. It struck me that year that, just like Mary carried the Son of God–and it was an immense privilege for her and a great blessing to the world–I, too, was carrying a son of God. I realized better then than ever before just how great a blessing children are.

Each person on this earth is an infinitely beloved child of our Father in Heaven. He loves each of them (us) just as much as He loves His Son, Jesus Christ. So when He sends His children to me–this time around it’s a daughter!–that genuinely is the greatest gift He could ever give to me!

I am feeling the power of the gift of God’s children again this Christmas season, and I am overwhelmed by the trust that Heavenly Father has placed in me to raise, teach, and love His children so that they are prepared to live with Him again after their life on earth. Fortunately for everyone involved, He didn’t leave me on my own to do it! 🙂

I love my kids more than everything–except Josh. I always love him most! And I love Heavenly Father for sending them to me!

Josh is the best ever, and he got the blog back up and running! Thank you, Honey!

We have had a busy month of November, but it has been very fun! The morning after Halloween (very early), we flew to LA for a Monson family trip to Disneyland! The kids had so much fun, and got so tired! So did the parents!

After Disneyland, we came home, slept in our own beds one night, then went to “babysit” my 17 year old sister, Mary, while my parents were in Florida for a conference. We had tons of fun!

We had one more-normal week, and then we started preparing for Thanksgiving. Also, here are some pictures of the kids. They are cute!

About two weeks after completing the project that had consumed all his spare-time thoughts since July (Halloween), Josh stumbled upon another project. LED lights that are easily programmable for each holiday. He has designed them for my parents’ house; but if we can ever get them to work perfectly, they will be on our house, and probably several others. They are really cool!

And just as Josh has his little projects, I have mine (though they are on a MUCH smaller scale, and are not quite as impressive.

We moved the loveseat from the family room to the living room because we needed a place to look at the tree, and it definitely makes the room feel more cozy and complete. We are all loving being decorated for Christmas–especially Carter who can’t get enough of all the “balls” on the Christmas tree!

I seriously LOVE autumn and the Halloween season! There are so many fun things to do with the kids (and Fay and Carter too)!  Here’s a little sample of our autumn activities!

 

This past Monday for Family Party (our new and improved version of Family Home Evening) we decorated pumpkins! The kids used stickers, and they both loved it!

Josh and I carved pumpkins. I forgot to take pictures of ours on Monday, so these are 3 day old jack-o-lanterns. My jack-o-lantern’s top fell in, despite all my efforts to prevent it. sigh…

Josh is especially loving this Halloween season because he can finally embrace his love of haunted house-ing. He has some really cool plans for this year, and though he continues to assure me that his plans constitute “starting small since its our first year,” it is going to be pretty elaborate and exciting! If you’re in the area, come see us on Halloween night! If you’re not close, I’ll post pictures soon after Halloween. Either way, just get excited!

Ever since Josh and I got married, we have dreamed of having a garden. We did get a garden plot last summer at Baity Hill, and we got a few zucchini from it, but for the most part it wasn’t very fruitful.

This summer, because of the move and the time it took us to get settled, we didn’t know if we would have a garden. We decided, in mid to late June, that we would just try at least something. We planted two tomato plants. Because of our experiences with tomatoes last year (birds, and what I’m pretty sure was a tomato blight), I didn’t have particularly high expectations for the plants. But we have been quite pleasantly surprised! Because of the unseasonably warm weather we’ve been having, we have been getting a good handful of tomatoes from our plants every few days for the past month, despite our late start!  We LOVE having garden-fresh tomatoes for our recipes and just for snacking!

Along with our tomato harvest, our rose bushes have been blooming again. We feel so fancy having fresh flowers in our house!

A few weeks ago, we did something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time! We hosted a house concert! There were four performers, and a good variety of music, and I think everybody had a lovely time! It went so well, we might have to do it again sometime…

Another terrifically cool thing we did was a little over a week ago. We went on a family date! We rode the train up to Josh’s work, where we saw his domain (and got free snacks!), then we walked downtown and looked around the mall. We let the kids play in the Disney store and another toy store, saw lots of interestingly dressed people who were there for ComicCon and had lunch at a little burger place. Then we took the train home. It was so fun to see the kids experience a train-ride for (I think) the first time, and also watching Fay try on princess dresses was pretty priceless!

He’s some photographic evidence of the experience.

 

I know this is getting long; but I do this mostly for myself, so I’m going to do what I want. 🙂

Here are some pictures of every-day life.