crafting session

 elizabeth and my friend jessica came over yesterday to work on Christmas crafts, it was so much fun. we listened to Christmas music, ate lunch, munched on M&M's and got a lot done!

most of my crafts were for my mom so i'll have to wait to post those till she gets home, but i will show you the advent calendar i made. jessica made one as well i'll have to snap a picture of her creation sometime to show you, it's really creative!

{jessica hard at work getting inspiration off the internet}

advent calendar with bible verses on the back of each card, yes mom you're getting one too! and thanks to jessica for some of the materials!

you may ask what are they doing in the picture, well jessica had a flat on her tire when she was about to leave my house. so we all attempted to change her tire but we got stuck at getting the lug nuts off. so jessica called her husband who graciously left work early to help, he got them off without even trying. as my neighbor said walking by, "it's a man's job!"

have you seen josh smile bigger? i'm not sure i have, he quoted that day as, "the best day ever!"

he's a simple man, boiled custard + ice cream = you gotta love em!

Christmas Decorations

here are a few Christmas decorations that my thoughtful husband thought to buy while in Maui! 

and also our first live Christmas tree :^)

{this was a pricey ornament but we loved it & it's made from Koa wood in Maui, once we hung it up we both agreed we were glad we bought it!}

{I think on the pineapples I may eventually put our last name, it fits perfect!}

{josh decorating the tree!}

{i love how it turned out, especially the 'R' which was a $1 from Hobby Lobby and I just wrapped the cardboard shaped 'R' in grey yarn}

{we have to have a bicycle ornament, love this one!}

love this!

i love this! 

hehe

weekend recap

 josh picked out our first tree this past weekend, i loved how he took the picture he pretended i was there with his arm around me - pretty sweet guy! 

Christmas at thankgiving was a success! it's always such a fun time to spend time with family we never see. here are a few pictures to recap the weekend!

{this is our house, with our first tree - not yet decorated but soon!}

{papa & aliza playing dollies}

{pretty wrapping paper}

{we did a secret santa this year and my sister-in-law, Pam, had me - she made me this beautiful wreath, don't you love it??  i sure do, it's perfect, couldn't have thought of a better gift!}

{walk around joyce & gary's neighborhood, majestic oaks}

{we had a few games night, with our newest game 'Ticket to Ride' - I LOVE IT! And of course my favorite game 'Settlers of Catan'. I use to never play board games BUT i love them now, absolutely love them!}

you may also recognize the 'give thanks' banner in the background, joyce loved it!!

{tree farm}

{family photo using a timer, attempt 1 - hehe!}

{success!}

next year we will have another family member to add to the photo, we can't wait!! my belly is growing bigger every day which I'm so thankful for! i never felt guilty for eating too much this thanksgiving :^) i could get used to that!

happy birthday mom!!

I completely dropped the ball this week, it was my mothers birthday on Monday - And I forgot! I'm so sorry mom!!!

We can't wait for you to return so we can celebrate with you - possibly a hike at Jefferson memorial and a Quills Red Miele (like in the picture above).

I've been either hanging over the toilet or laying on the couch the past few days. So I hope that redeems me from not wishing you a wonderful birthday!

Love you!!

due in may

josh & i took this photo yesterday to post on facebook to announce our pregnancy. everyone says it's not official till it's 'facebook official!'

diy christmas tree

i've been trying to figure out how to decorate the mantel for Christmas. so today i got a crafty itch and decided to make a little christmas tree to put on the mantel.

i bought josh and i stockings the other day and completely forgot to buy the baby one (terrible confession). so i rushed back to the store to find only one left, it was my lucky day! even though the baby won't arrive till May i wanted to make sure they had one that matched ours. and i'm going to hang it up this year :^) even though they are still in my tummy.

well i spoke to fast the other day and i have been pretty (pregnant) sick the past 2 days. but i'm feeling 100 x better today, yay! by the way, the baby is as big as a peach today, they are 3 whole inches long. pretty sweet! i'm so excited to meet them :^)

have a great weekend!

baby bump!

 oh this baby is growing, everyday it seems another piece of clothes i own no longer fits. but the great news is my morning sickness is gone (cross your fingers!), i do hear it may return but for now I've felt great for an entire week, woohoo!!

i'm so excited to meet this little babe, we got our first baby clothes the other day, my grandmother couldn't resist, they are 3 month onesies and they are absolutely tiny. i mean tiny, tiny, tiny. 

i'm trying to get creative with what i wear, preferably nothing tight on my waist, i think i need to cave and go buy maternity pants :/ a friend did tell me they are super comfy, i hope so!

everyone keeps asking if i think it's a girl or boy and i have to say i don't care whether it's a boy or girl, i've never had a preference. but i do keep having dreams about a sweet little girl, my brother also says he has dreams that i'm having a girl. so who knows, can't wait to find out and meet them :^)

give thanks

i made this today for my mother-in-law, i hope she likes it!

enjoy your weekend :^)

pinterest pins

just a few sweet pins from pinterest,! i just love the one above so endearing.

enjoy your day :^)

{first, second, third, fourth}

jeni's ice cream

sooo the other night we made a run to whole foods for ice cream, already a bad combination. a pregnant women + middle of the night = disaster.

well a friend of ours told us about jeni's ice cream, based out of columbus, ohio, which he says is the best ice cream ever. so of course we had to try. so you may be asking why is this a disaster well my husband is very frugal or as i like to say money conscious and this delightful PINT of ice cream cost $9.99, yep i said :^)

but needless to say it was delish! they had such a variety of ice cream flavors, we tried roasted strawberry buttermilk, they also had pistachio + honey, sweet potato with torched marshmallows  salty caramel and lavender, so obviously some interesting flavors. i will admit i'm not a big ice cream fan but i absolutely loved this brand. they pride them self on using ingredients from the earth and their milk comes from grass-fed cows.

they have a wonderful 2 minute video on their website showing how they make their sweet potato with torched marshmallow ice cream to watch click here.

weekend recap

 over the weekend we celebrated josh's friends birthday, thomas, it was a wonderful time. we had a potluck dinner, sang happy birthday and finished the night with a game of charades (girls won!!). 

saturday morning we went to cheer jess on running her first 1/2 marathon, oh did i mention it was pouring rain and about 40 degrees out, brrr! we told her we would watch her at the 3 mile marker and the 6 mile marker, but then it absolutely started to pour once we got in our car after she passed the 6 mile marker. so we decided to drive downtown to the 12 mile marker and cheer her on that last mile. she was so happy to see us! just imagine running 13 miles in the cold and rain and then with one mile to go people jumping up and down cheering your name, josh even ran the last 1/2 mile with her. it was a great time!

i even managed to drag josh out for a run with me on sunday! :^)

trick-or-treat

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We were unsure how many trick-or-treaters we would have since this is our first year in our home. Tuns our we have a ton! In the middle of handing out candy we ran out to the store and got 3 bags of candy. All in all we went through about 400 pieces! Needless to say, I gave each trick-or-treater a handful of candy, ha, rookie mistake! But all the kids where so cute and I just loved their costumes plus it was a great way to meet neighbors.