Gettin' my Craft on

Super Saturday. Never thought I would look forward to it so much. Last weekend I went to Super Saturday in Mike's family ward and LOVED it! The crafts in his family ward are 10 times better than the cheesy crap we made in the married student wards. I feel bad saying that because our RS had to cater to poor married college students....but seriously. The crafts they come up with in family wards are delux AND inexpensive. Here is what I made....

This craft can be enjoyed for two holidays! Pretty cool huh?

These pillows are made of a burlap type fabric. Way easy to make. I traced the patterns on to paper, cut the pattern out with an exacto knife, ironed the paper onto fabric, then used a sponge and craft paint to stencil the pattern. I can't remember what kind of paper we used but one side of the paper sticks to the fabric when you iron it on. You can print graphics off on your computer onto the paper if you want. It's way cool.

Have you been in Restoration Hardware lately? OK, first of all I love everything in that store, and pretty much the entire store is fashioned in burlap fabric right now. I mean unless you want to pay an arm and a leg for their decorative pillows go right ahead, but you can totally make your own imitations. Just sayin.

Welcome to the world

Haven Claire Wiley!

Sarah, Mike's sister, had her baby girl at 2:07pm on Oct. 7, 2010. She weighed in at 4 lbs. 7 oz. and measured 17 1/2 inches. She came a little earlier than expected, 9 weeks to be exact, which means she will have to be in the NICU for at least a month. In this picture she is 1 hour old and the second picture was taken today. It is so incredible to be in the presence of a baby who is fresh from heaven. We love her and are so excited to be her aunt and uncle.

Congrats Austin and Sarah! We love you so much!!!!

Here is our new place.



One of my "must haves" before we even started looking at apartments was it needed to have a lot of natural light. I always hated how our last places only had like three windows on one side of the apartment. It totally felt like a cave. This place, however, has tons of windows which makes for a bright and cheery place to live.

We got a new ottoman because our last coffee table was not baby friendly. I wanted to get something that she wouldn't bonk her little head on.

We also got a new kitchen table, which I am VERY excited about. It has a leaf so it will fit our growing family. The chairs are from IKEA and the table is from a furniture store in Denver.

One of the windows I was really insistent on having was in the kitchen. The kitchen also has a glass door that leads to the deck giving it additional natural lighting.

Our little girl's room. I will post pictures of her room when we get it finished. So excited about decorating her room! It is going to have a Paris theme.....

Mike and I had some heated arguments over putting a t.v. in our bedroom. I was afraid that our pillow talk would become nonexistent, and I just thought we needed a no media zone. You know what I mean? At first he wanted to put a 42 inch in our small bedroom which literally would have taken up the entire room. I put my foot down on that one. So we compromised and got a 32 inch. Eventually we want to mount it on the wall. We will get around to it soon.

Finally a picture of my bump!

One day I woke up and was like, "WHOA! I have a big belly!" Every week it gets bigger and I can't believe I still have 15 weeks to go. I am going to be HUGE.

I can't say I love being pregnant. I mean, its has its ups and downs so all I can say is it's an experience. The past few weeks I have noticed my hands and feet are swelling up. I can't wear my wedding ring anymore, and to replace it I bought a cheapo walmart ring that has a big, fake canary diamond so people don't think I just got knocked up. Other than the swelling I am feeling pretty good. Ever since we found out we are having a girl the weeks have been flying by. Can't wait for this little girl to get here!

I have been such a terrible blogger lately! But I have valid reasons. We finally moved into our own place and we LOVE it. It has tons of windows, a large kitchen with granite counter tops, a fireplace, a deck, and is brand new. This is by far our favorite place we have ever lived. It's so nice to finally be organized after living like vagabonds for the past six months. I think we will be staying here for a few years and I am so happy about that. Since we have been married we have moved six times. Yuck! It feels so great to put some roots down in our new community.

Today I have to get my blood drawn again. Wish me luck! I will let you know how it goes in my next post.

We couldn't be more thrilled! I finally had my ultrasound at 21 weeks yesterday, and our little princess is progressing and growing just as she should. We were a little surprised when we found out because both of us thought our baby would for sure be a boy. I think it had something to do with the fact that we both grew up in families that had boys first, so it just seemed like that was in the plans for us too. Now that we know our baby is a girl it makes everything so much more real. We no longer have to say "the baby" or "it." Also, I can FINALLY start picking out fabric and decor for her nursery!

A little update on latest with us:

Currently we are living with Mike's parents. They have been so sweet to let us live with them for a few weeks. We signed a lease yesterday for our new place and move in Sept. 20th. We experienced a bit of sticker shock when searching for a home here since we were used to cheap Rexburg apartments. Oh well, you do what you got to do. We are excited to move into our own place again and get settled in. It feels great to know that we are here to stay. I am looking forward to staying in the same area for more than 4-8 months, and to get established in the community and church.

Pregnancy:

I have finally arrived at the point of my pregnancy where I am feeling great. It is so amazing to feel our little girl kicking and wiggling around in my belly everyday. The doc told me she is breech right now so I am hoping she flips around. Have any of you experienced this? He told me not to worry and that 50% of babies are breech at this point in pregnancy. I am not freaking out at this point, but if she stays put I will.

I want to post pictures of my baby bump but my cord for the camera that hooks up to the computer is packed away. Don't worry though. I will post some as soon as we get settled in our place.

Mixed emotions.

I am excited to go home to Colorado next week and see my family.

But my heart aches about leaving Mike in the east to finish out his summer job.
(By the way, it was his idea for me to go spend the last weeks of the summer in CO, not mine.)

I am cannot wait to find out if this baby is a boy or girl. Any guesses?

But we have to wait until the last week of August.

I am sooooo happy this is my last week of my summer job as the office administrator for Vision Security. What a headache it has caused me.

However, once I get back to Denver it's time to look for substitute teaching jobs for the fall. I will have to wear an over sized shirt to cover my baby bump at job interviews. ;-)

We are looking forward to settling down in Denver and raising our family.

But finding the right place to live has been stressing us out.


Overall, we have a lot of good things to look forward to, but also many unknowns. This is one of those moments in our marriage where we truly have to "go forward in faith." A good friend once told me, "You have to take a step into the darkness before the Lord shows you the light"

Guess this is what having faith is all about.

Living on the east coast definitely has its perks, especially when it comes to historical sights. Being a history major you know I am all about it! In May, when it wasn't so hot and humid, we drove to Williamsburg with some friends and spent the afternoon there. Every time I visit an historical sight I think to myself, "when I get home I am going to read up on this." Then whenever I am reading about a specific place or event I think, "I want to go there so bad!" I also feel like my so many of my history tid-bits are fading. When you're in school your mind is filled with so much information. Then somehow, at least for me, so much of it fades when you graduate. So frustrating. I need to brush up on my history again!












I thought this was rather interesting. Check out the letter "M." A little odd, don't you think?

Have you ever seen this game with the stick and circle? Mike gave it a whirl. He caught on pretty quick.

Last weekend we drove to Delaware to visit Mike's grandma in Wilmington. I love visit her because she is so sweet and takes care of me, especially since I have had morning sickness. By the way, this week I woke up one day and felt like a normal human being again! We went to the gym and I had a great workout. Such a relief! Anyway, while we were in DE we went to Pea Patch Island which was a fort used by Union soldiers during the Civil War to hold Confederate prisoners. Pretty cool huh?



If you look closely you can clearly see that I am in the "is she pregnant or just fat" stage.



Us walking around the prison corridors. Apparently this place is super haunted. I have to admit walking around the dark prison rooms made me feel weird....like someone was watching me or directly behind me. No joke.

Here is Mike waiting for me to walk around the corner so he could jump out and scare me. I caught him though. Ha!

On our drive back to Virginia I randomly saw a street sign with our last name on it. Of course we had to pull over and take a picture.




When we got home we went over to a park just across the street from us for the 4th of July fireworks show. These are our only friends here, Mark and McKelle. They sell pest control and we met them a church. We go to the beach with them just about every weekend. Not sure what's going on with my face in this picture but its the only one I took so whatever.