pressing down on me...

i don't know where it comes from, but i feel this everpresent pressure that when i do a new post, it needs to be in-depth, insightful and of course loaded with pictures.  part of it is that i RARELY keep a real journal, so this is the main place i document all of the new things adelle does... i have a saved post that i'm still working on about all that.  maybe i'll finish it someday... with or without pictures.

today i just want to say that i'm tired.  there are some things in my life that have caused so much stress and heartache in the past 6 months and honestly, i'm just tired.  i'm so over not being able to afford the things we need.  i'm so tired of having a messy kitchen...even after i've seemingly JUST cleaned it.  luke recently got a great job and right now all i can think about is how tired i am of him being out of town this week (he should be home within the hour).

just a little (much needed) venting.  i'm done for now.  as far as positives:

(a yay list)

• My sister Kelly took me to see Wicked a couple of weekends ago and I LOVED it!!  We had a lot of fun!  It's been a long time since I did something fun with Kelly.  We used to hang out a lot.
• Adelle is a walker (runner practically).  More on that in the unfinished post, whenever I get around to it...
• I actually made friends at work!  We even hang out sometimes.  And we've had a couple of days off the phones the past couple of weeks, which is basically awesome.
• Luke found a great job with advancement potential in the very near future!
• We got library cards!  Yay!  I got this book for Adelle called "Everywhere the Cow Says Moo!" where it does the animal sounds in a few different languages... Adelle was just laughing hysterically the first time we read it together!!!  So fun.

Time to get ready for work so I can actually spend a few minutes with Luke when he gets home before I leave.  Happy holidays and all that :)

the past few months for us...

This is why I never know what to say when people ask me how my new job is going:

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-john-lim-scammers-ps-111709,0,4421927.story

This was on the news tonight (Monday) on Fox 4.

And wow, I need to open my mouth more when I talk.

Some Exciting News!

It's finally time for the launch of Heidi Stock Design!

Check out my website for many more design options - holiday cards, baby announcements, etc!

:) 

All designs are original and customizable.

Get your orders in early and save 10%!

family visit!

This week, Adelle had a great time bonding with grandparents on the Stock side!  They came bearing gifts for Adelle AND mommy and daddy (some of the best hot cocoa I've ever had in my life) and we all had a great time!  Adelle warmed up pretty quickly.

You'll notice her silly little doggy hat... this is from a Halloween costume (from her Aunt Gina) we were going to have her wear, but it's too small :(  So she's been sporting the doggy ears for the past couple of weeks off and on.  hehehe  She has even slept in them a couple of times and loves them!  Thanks, Gina!  Luckily, Adelle's grandpa got her a great Jayhawk dress that has now become her cheerleader costume for Halloween as well :)  It even has a little white turtleneck with "Kansas" written on the collar.  Very  cute.

Luke's dad has encouraged me to market the cards that I make.  I do enjoy entering them in challenges and what not, but that night I went through what I had and realized how many great cards I have that would sell great, even if they wouldn't necessarily be chosen for a publication or something like that.  So now I'm motivated!  I've been at my sister Lori's watching her girls/helping her out some yesterday and more this afternoon because she had to have an unexpected surgery (she's doing well... just not enjoying the recovery process).  Then I start a new job on Monday!  And Luke is going to be enrolling for classes at JCCC this weekend.

This week we're heading to my parents' house.  My brother Craig and his family will be visiting from Missouri and the church there is having a trunk-or-treat.  It'll be fun to have all the grandkids together in their costumes.  Now I just need to find the SD card for my camera!

Happy Halloween.  Be safe!

the importance of creativity/creation

Luke and I are home from church today -- he has food poisoning and I have a fever and chills.  Awesome.  Adelle's the only healthy one around here.  Since we're missing church, I've been reading talks from previous General Conferences and was reminded of this quote from an awesome talk given by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, the 2nd counselor in the General Presidency.  This was during the General Relief Society Meeting in October (end of September probably) of 2008.  Enjoy:

"You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before – colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter. What you create doesn’t have to be perfect… Don’t let the voices of critics paralyze you – whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside. If you still feel incapable of creating, start small. Try to see how many smiles you can create, write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space and beautify it."

And here's a link to the entire talk: HERE.

thoughts and Cards Trends Blog

As far as the last post, I've decided to just be proactive. If I really want to have a relationship with the people I've been friends with in the past, then I need to be the one to make the effort to actually HAVE a relationship with those people.

Tomorrow I'm singing at a funeral for a 24 year-old man, who is the younger brother of a good friend from high school. His passing was very unexpected, so I ask that you all keep the family in your prayers tomorrow (Saturday) especially.

On a lighter note, I have a card featured on the Card Trends Blog today!  This blog is done by CARDS Magazine, so it gets a lot of traffic.  It's exciting that my work is starting to be recognized and showcased.  This challenge was to make a collage-like card, so I literally used scraps from another card to make it (with a few added things).  I was recognized for my overall design, but especially for my unique color combination.  Anyway, that was fun!

I hope everyone has a fun weekend!  Halloween is only 8 days away!

some days are just hard...

I'm not going to go into detail, but you may not know that my new exciting and glamorous job fell through. It's a long stupid story that results in me looking for jobs again. I got a temporary 2 month position that starts in 2 weeks, but beyond that, I'm looking. This of course has caused some economical challenges for us, but we're doing the best we can and are grateful for help from family.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine from 7th grade through high school got married. I found out about it from someone else's blog. Today I found out that another friend from elementary school through high school got married and apparently nearly everyone from our little high school group of friends knew about it. I'm not sure what to do with all of this information, but I am having a hard time with it. I'm not sure if it means that I was a bad friend after high school to not keep in touch as well as I could have or if it means that we were never really that close. This is aside from like 3 other marriages of friends in the past year that I either found out about after the fact or on Facebook. I know that my religious values sometimes left me on the outside of things, but it is just really upsetting. These are people I sought out when I got married to make sure they at least got an announcement. These days I don't really have any close friends who I HAVE to call when I get news, aside from my sisters anyway. Maybe that's the trade-off for having a close-knit family and a husband, but I guess I'm just not the type of person who can completely let go of a friendship, even if it's been a long time. I know I could've made many more efforts to see these old friends though, so maybe I shouldn't be so worked up about it.

Anyway, I just needed to vent a little. This evening Luke and I are going to take Adelle and just get out of the house for a little Family Home Evening. Location is TBD, but I'm excited to just get out and do something as a family, even if it's just window shopping or going for a walk!

time to update

Hello to everyone.

Not much to report today, but I wanted to share some exciting news (no, I'm not pregnant).  You may know that I have a card blog, where I show cards that I've made, etc.  Well, recently I've been submitting cards to be published in card/craft magazines, and one of my cards was selected!  I will be published in the March 2010 issue of CARDS magazine, which is one of my favorite craft magazines.  I can't wait!  I already had to box up the card and send it with details on the materials I used, how to make it, etc.  They'll send it back to me after the March issue comes out and will send a bunch of cardmaking goodies and 2 copies of the magazine along with it.  Yay :)  This was kind of a goal when I got started and I have come a long way since the beginning of my blog.  I've had fun learning about different techniques, trends, etc.  Each publication asks for specific criteria depending on the issue, so that's how you decide what to submit.  Here's an example.  Anyway, I can't show you the card now, but after it's published I will be sure to post it on here. :)

Adelle is as cute as ever and is becoming more and more dependent on us for entertainment.  She's never been too attached, but lately she wants to be held or us to be playing with her all the time.  She also got her first ouchie this week... nothing serious, but she slipped and hit her face on the corner of the coffee table.  It didn't break skin, but she has a long bruise line down her cheek.  She barely cried -- just got mad when I tried to put ice on it.

That's all!  Hope everyone is doing well.

sleepy adelle pictures...

taken 10/5/09 in the early A.M.

a busy busy busy month.

wow, i can't believe it's been nearly a whole month since i last posted... adelle is as cute as ever of course and she's kind of a big stinker. she likes to play with her daddy's XBOX and when he tells her 'no,' she looks at him, shakes her head no, then laughs and usually goes after it again. she is saying "up" and can repeat a series of notes if i sing "ahhh" to her.

about 2 weeks ago, i started a new job in OP. i'm working primarily from home, but am enjoying the change so far. monday evening luke and i moved to the KC area and really love our new place. i'll be sure to take some pictures when we finish unpacking (we're pretty close already). luke has had several job interviews and we're just waiting to hear back. tuesday evening, we found the phone number of a bishop of the ward we thought we would be in and called him. that same evening the elder's quorum president, elder's quorum secretary, and relief society secretary called us to set up times to meet us. luke already played bball tuesday night and i got to meet the r.s. pres and secretary this morning. the r.s. president in my new ward is one of my former YW leaders from growing up in lawrence. sometimes i forget how small the church really is. anyway, we get to meet in the brand new stake center, which is pretty close to home (and for luke that means a full-size basketball court).

that's the update for now. i need to take/post some more pics of us and adelle. we're so blessed to have such a sweet/funny baby. tonight we have a visit from the EQP and EQ secretary. then bball for luke and SLEEP for me. it's going to be great.

milestones and what not.

I think I'll just start with some cute pictures of Adelle, since they're not really related to the post.

Here's Adelle during bath time. I just wanted to show off her pretty face and long eyelashes :D

Here's Adelle's favorite bath time pastime (that's a mouthful -- the words, not the rubber ducky).

I cannot tell you how many times we have found Adelle chewing on her binky like this. So silly.

so i bet you're all wondering what we're up to these days... well at least our cute little girl.

just a day after my last post, so on August 12th, Adelle started pulling herself up to standing in her crib. she did that for a few days and then started doing it with furniture around the living room. about a week ago she started doing a LITTLE cruising (walking while holding on to furniture), but she only does it if she sees something really worth getting. also, she has been crawling since just a couple of days before she turned 9 months, so also just a few days after my last post. She is very quick and already pretty sneaky. also, about 2 weeks ago (so right after she turned 9 months) she started saying "dada" somewhat consistently. she definitely knows who "dada" and "mama" are and will sometimes try to say "mama," especially when she's crying.

we had adelle's well-child 9 month visit on Monday and the doctor couldn't believe how healthy and on target she was! she now weighs 20 lbs and 10 oz and is 29 inches tall (that's 3 inches in 3 months). the doctor also said, because she's getting all the nutrition she needs and eating so well, that we could start to phase in whole milk instead of formula and also more finger foods (you know, since she already has EIGHT teeth). she's already had a lot of finger foods, but i think we're going to start giving her veggies primarily in the finger food form because she has developed this habit to start talking and blowing out air and making silly noises as soon as she gets a spoonful in her mouth (only with veggies or something she doesn't quite like as much as fruit), making it gets all over her and us instead of you know, into her body.

i've gotten to go to a couple rehearsals now for the Kansas City Symphony Chorus. I don't think I knew what to expect when we (my mom and I) started, but it is such a wide range of people - experience, background, AGE, etc. Overall it's a fun time, though I forgot how much Charles Bruffy loves count singing :) I'm enjoying singing again and look forward to the performances and other opportunities it may present.

Oh, and I'm 25 now, as of Saturday the 29th. So far, it feels good :P

Update!

Hello hello! Not a ton has been going on for us. We just had a transition in the house where we work, so that has kept our hands and calendars pretty full. Transitions can be really challenging -- especially when we don't have all of the information -- but we're doing the best we can with what we've got!

On Saturday, I had an audition for the Kansas City Symphony Chorus. I have been looking for ways to get back into singing for a while now, so when they emailed me about auditions (I signed up for updates from them), I was excited to get involved. I was out the door on time to take Adelle over to my parents' house while I was gone, but then everything else went wrong. First of all, I wasn't paying attention and headed for the wrong highway. Turns out I could've gone that way, but without directions, I didn't want to get lost. So, I turned around and lost about 15 minutes. Then I decided to take the North Lawrence exit to KC and there was a huge detour once I got over the bridge. I got so lost in North Lawrence trying to figure out where to go that by that time, I had burned about 35 minutes, meaning I would undoubtedly be late. Well, I was late, but only by 5 minutes and they were running about 10 minutes late! So, I had just enough time to fill out my audition form and then sing. The audition was actually fun. Charles Bruffy, the director, worked with me a little bit, having me sing my song in different ways ('Pie Jesu' from Faure's Requiem) follow by a little sight reading. Then at the end of the audition they welcomed me to the choir and gave me the music! I'm really excited to sing on a regular basis again and my mom auditioned too, so I'll always have someone to ride with.

Fun Adelle things:

• I can just lay her down on the floor, give her a bottle and she'll hold it and drink it on her own.
• She is SO CLOSE to crawling that we're having to baby proof now, except while I was taping some cords to the wall, she started going around me to get to the part that wasn't covered yet and she keeps moving what we have in front of the TV stand to cover the electronics (uh oh!). She is pretty quick pulling herself around with her arms and she does this push up thing (hard to explain), but lately she'll go forward with one knee and then lunge. So, I think she's pretty close to figuring it out. It's so funny to watch. Oh and this morning, I went in to get her and she had pulled herself up on her knees holding onto the railing of the crib. NOOO!!
• Adelle has FOUR top teeth coming in all at once! We discovered them about 3 days ago and she had been a bit fussy, so that explains it! We're having to slightly medicate her in the morning before her first bottle, or she refuses to drink it because it hurts her teeth so much. So when these fully grow in, she'll have EIGHT teeth! The top 4 and the bottom 4. She's growing up too fast!!!
• She'll be 9 months old on the 19th, just 8 days away! We've been watching the Friends DVDs again and last night we watched Season 10 The One With Emma's Birthday and it made me cry. Before we know it, Adelle will be a year old! It's going by way too fast. Before we know it, she's going to be asking for help with Math that I can't do anymore...
• And now for some pictures representing her new "skills:"

Here, Adelle is sporting her new fake smile, which I'm sure she got from us. She is always imitating the things we do. So cute.

This is Adelle in her new preferred sleeping position. Bottoms up!

And here you can see her new obsession with sticking out her tongue. She's been doing this for almost a whole month now, but it's still so funny!
I hope everyone's having a good week! Soon I'll post a couple of projects that I recently completed.

Enjoy!

Clapping!

I mentioned in the last post that a goal for the week was to record Adelle clapping and overall just being cute, so this is some footage I took last night. (please excuse the clothes on the floor behind her and Luke sleeping on the couch) Enjoy!

Oh, and she has 2 more teeth coming in! She already has the 2 in the middle on the bottom row and now 1 on either side of those is just breaking through the gums.

8 months and a new missionary in the fam.

all of a sudden my daughter can do a bunch of stuff. like today i said "yay!" to her and she started clapping. then later i said "clap" and she clapped some more! so cute! and she has started waving, but not consistently yet. what's funny is watching her try to be mobile. she gets up on her knees and then doesn't know what to do, so she rocks a little and eventually lunges backwards. she's getting there though! oh, and she can pull herself up to a sitting position from being nearly flat on her back. it's so cute watching her figure things out!

on another note, my brother went into the MTC today! i'm excited to hear about his initial reaction and his experiences there. this is such an important thing for eric and i'm really glad he gets the opportunity to do it -- to go out on his own without family nearby and really learn how to work hard and be outspoken. this 2 years is going to affect the rest of his life so much and i am so grateful that he not only gets the chance to do it, but that there is nothing else he would rather be doing than serving as a missionary! yay! and so, i'm going to try not to miss him, but instead to be a good pen pal with words of encouragement and sincere interest. that's what he needs from his family, not "wish you were here"s.

back to the first note, my goal for the week is to get a picture of adelle, since she turned EIGHT MONTHS OLD on this past sunday, and also a video clip of her clapping and babbling. she is just so stinking cute.

if you really knew me...

you might know that i have a very slight bossy streak. and if you really knew me, you'd know there's more to say than that. let me explain.

i have a younger brother. he's nearly 20 now. before we know it, he'll be off to the MTC and then to the mission field (yes, I realize I'm referring to SLC as the mission field, but too bad, Utah! you're part of it too!) to learn about what it means to be self-sufficient, to realize how much he really values his personal space and time alone, to come to understand what it really means to work to the point of exhaustion, to draw closer to Heavenly Father than ever before, to rely on the Spirit for everything, to realize there's still so much to learn. now i'm faced with the realization that my little baby brother isn't so little anymore. i remember constantly ragging on him, not in the playful way an older sister would, but really just being bossy and kind of mean. i resented him for making me be the one to mow the lawn with this mentality that the able-bodied male should do it. i was annoyed that i was still the gopher even though he was the youngest. maybe i was just more of a pushover.

then there was that week in Kentucky where together we endured the nearly 10 hour car drive to a session of EFY (Especially for Youth), to be a part of my spiritual (and social) high. forced to be friends, at least for a week. now don't get me wrong, we always had our moments, though they were often heavily shadowed by my motherly attitude of "you should do what i say" or "you should feel bad for not doing what i say."

eventually i got over myself (some), got married and moved out and now we can actually talk on the phone, talk as peers, talk as brother and sister. i tease him about girls, impress him with my vast growing NBA knowledge, and watch him play with my little girl as I realize she'll be nearly 3 when she gets to play with her uncle Eric again.

but it really is worth it.

Eric, i am so excited for you. we won't be too far away and you'll constantly be in our prayers, that your time will be well-spent, not just for you, but also for the people in Salt Lake City (I guess you ARE going to a foreign land afterall, hee hee). Good luck and don't be surprised if Mom cleans your room while you're gone!

And I hope you'll forgive me in advance for my poor pen pal skills, but we'll do our best!

Love, your youngest big sister, Heidi.

craigslist

I love looking at antiques and random stuff on craigslist and came across this:

life is so good when you choose to be an active part of it.

i got up this morning determined -- determined to do something more than i did yesterday, specifically to start the day more active and involved in the outside world. so, i went to the grocery store. :) i loaded up adelle in the stroller and walked down the long street to hy-vee, where we browsed a little while, got some things we needed, and walked back home again. this is one of the nicer days we've had in a few weeks, so it was really great to be out in it. adelle fell asleep on the walk home and i was just trying to keep her legs shaded (i'm sure i looked silly walking to the side of the stroller, pulling it rather than pushing it from behind).

this has been a really busy week and i've really enjoyed it:

on thursday evening, i got off some time from work and went with my sister kelly to the mormon tabernacle choir in kansas city at the sprint center. we had a lot of fun and even got there a bit early. we were playing games on her iphone watching people running in at the last minute (this is one of the most embarrassing things for me about the LDS culture... always late! ... and i am guilty of this at times as well, but not for something like this -- there were lines of people walking in through the first song). i probably wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for my friend Greg who is in the choir and sent me 2 tickets, but i am glad i got the opportunity to be there. it reminded me of some goals/desires i once had that got pushed to the backburners while life happened... more on that later.

friday after we worked half a day, luke, adelle and i packed up the car and drove to st. louis to my brother Craig's house. we stayed there overnight and then went to the St. Louis Temple on Saturday early afternoon to go with my brother Eric and my sister Kelly, both of them going for the first time. my brother Eric is preparing to leave for the Mission Training Center to train to be a missionary in the Salt Lake City South mission. it was a really great experience to be in the temple with so many family members... i just wish that everyone could've gone. i am definitely grateful to Craig and Vanessa for being willing to stay and watch the kids. it was a really great trip and just reminded me of how Luke and I need to be making a better effort to go often. there are always reasons not to go... it's so easy to say you're too busy or that you can't get off work, but when it's really important to you, you make it the priority and honestly, when we told our boss how important it was for us to go, she found people to be on call for us herself and made sure we got to go. that was such a huge blessing and definitely not something that always happens.

i'm tempted to start rambling, so instead i'll just end with a super cute Adelle picture from today.

Adelle pic of the week:

I hope you will overlook the messy sweet potatoes on her face and notice how stinking cute Adelle is in her daddy's KU hat. What's funny is that she kept it on for a really long time... it didn't even bother her. Then of course Luke put it over her eyes and she tore it off and threw it on the ground.

I like her.

blog surfing.

i really don't blog surf very often. i stick to the blogs i know and have been invited to read... most of the time. but every once in a while i'll do a little blog surfing and come across something that looks kind of like this:

This blog is open to invited readers only

http://{insert clever blog title here}.blogspot.com/

It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.

Makes me feel like a total stalker.

{insert awkward scream here}

quick update!

I'm sorry I've been away for so long, but I just wanted to do a quick update and let everyone know that all is well. I took this picture of Adelle today and just wanted to let everyone know that she's just as cute as ever :) She's a really good eater and we're slowly working in the puffs and soon she'll start meat (at the end of the week when she turns SEVEN MONTHS on the 19th!). She babbles pretty much constantly and is playing with different sounds. She thinks the 'p' sound is hilarious and does it a lot, as well as the 'b.' She's growing up too fast!!!!

In other news, my little brother Eric got his mission call last month and will be serving in the SLC South mission. He goes into the MTC on July 22nd and we're all really excited for him! Very soon, we will go to the temple with Eric as well as with my sister Kelly. I haven't been to the temple since before I was pregnant, so I am REALLY looking forward to that. And I'm really grateful to our boss who is so understanding and said she'd be the backup so we can be gone on the weekend.

Unfortunately, this is all I have time for at the moment, but I'm going to try and play a little catch up here soon. If not, I'll at least be blogging more frequently than once a month. And in the meantime, check out my craft blog!

life, milestone, and other junk.

It's been a while since I really blogged about my life. Even now I don't have much to say, but wow have we been busy and exhausted... almost all the time. Our only day off in the past week was Saturday because of weekend staff participating in KU's graduation (and the fact that many subs were unavailable also because of graduation).

Luke and I have decided to change up our work schedule... we work together and it's a little bit flexible during the day, so now Luke has decided to take on the brunt of the work instead of us working equal amounts. We're in our second week of doing this and it already is working so much better. This way I'm available during the day to do the paperwork that needs to get done, as well as taking care of Adelle in her own home and having some time to pursue some of my own personal interests (I don't know if I mentioned that I'm working on a graphic design website). I already can feel this change helping our marriage so much and I'm so glad that Luke is willing to take on the extra responsibility. If you've never tried it, it is really challenging working with your spouse, especially this kind of job where it so easily spills into our personal relationship. This new schedule has really helped a lot though. We're not around each other ALL day long, so then we can appreciate the evenings/weekends more.

In other news, ADELLE IS 6 MONTHS OLD TODAY!!!! That is such a milestone that I can't believe she's there already! My sister Lori took some pics of her yesterday and I can't wait to see the best shots! maybe i'll post a pic of her before bed from ON her birthday. I'm going to write her a letter tonight and also write down the things she can do/almost can do right at this moment.

That's all for now!

Lori George Photography

As I've mentioned a few times before on here, my sister Lori has started a photography business. This weekend she officially launched her website/blog and she's included a drawing for a free session! If you live near Lawrence, check it out and leave a comment (by Monday, May 17th!). You could win a free session plus a $25 ordering credit! Also, even if you don't win, she is offering 50% off session fees if you book a session before May 31st (which makes the individual person session only $12.50!).

I'm taking a small part in her business in designing custom announcements/invites/etc. for her clients. Depending on how many opportunities I get through this, I plan to also start my own website where others can order from me as well... maybe other photographers offering to their clients as well as people who just want to order. Anyway, check it out!

my first order...

I have been working a bit with my sister Lori on her budding photography business and have had fun looking at pictures and helping her make editing decisions, etc. Along with that, I have also been working on various announcements/invitations, etc that she can offer to her clients for babies, holidays, etc. Well I got my first order! I took off last names and changed the birthdate to protect a little privacy at least, but here it is! I created that butterfly pattern myself and used a color scheme the mom wanted. It was a lot of fun making this! And of course the photo was taken by Lori! Click on her name to check out her website if you want some great child/family photos taken! And her rates are pretty low so far since she's just starting out.

yay!

adelle is cutting her first teeth! it's the 2 front bottom teeth. no wonder she's been sticking her tongue out so much the past couple of days. i would too if some foreign sensation started breaking through my gums...

yay! they grow up TOO fast.

...

i'm inspired by Susan Boyle.



This is the kick in the pants a lot of people need...

the butterfly.

I learned something new today and I wanted to share. I was thinking a lot about Easter and why we really celebrate it versus how we celebrate, so I wanted to find some of the symbolism behind things that often represent Easter. Some things are pretty obvious. Eggs, chicks, bunnies, flowers... all represent new life, just as Spring itself does -- the new life that is promised to all of us when our bodies and spirits are reunited in perfect form because of that Spring morning when Christ rose from the tomb after being crucified and then lying in a tomb for 3 days.

In my search for meaning behind all of the Easter bunny and egg decorating hype, I found a great explanation as to why we sometimes see the butterfly in the mix with everything else that may represent Spring and Easter. First we have the caterpillar who walks along the Earth, representing Christ's life on Earth. Then there is the cocoon stage, representing Christ's crucifixion and burial -- when he was lain in a tomb. Then comes the butterfly emerging from the cocoon transformed into a magnificent creature, just as Christ was raised from the dead--resurrected with a glorified body. I really enjoyed learning about this and hope it will give me an extra reminder of the blessing and promise that we will be resurrected into perfect bodies because Christ first was resurrected to set the way.

Happy Easter everyone!

month 5 so far... so fun!

i have a cute baby and she takes baths. and does other cute stuff too.

Last Thursday was our first attempt to give Adelle rice cereal. She may have gotten some swallowed, but if that's the case, it was definitely on accident. She must not be quite ready because she kept pushing it out with her tongue. We'll try again within the next week and see how she does. She has definitely been interested in food that we eat and seems to want more than just the formula, so we're just waiting for everything to fall in line.



On Sunday we gave Adelle in her little bath and decided to actually take pictures this time. Luke likes to just pour the water down her face "to help her get used to it," thus the following picture.



Adelle doesn't like to smile at the camera, but she'll smile at her mama... :) Last night I was sitting next to her and playing with her upside down... I thought this was a pretty cute one.



Enjoy!

fonts/headers.

a big thank you goes out to chelsea for reminding me of this awesome font website. Thanks to it, I have a new blog header. I would add pictures like I used to all the time, but I don't have any of me, Luke and Adelle all together (I know, what!?!?) so until then I don't want to add pictures. Anyway, I also approve of that website.

On a somewhat related note, I decided to email the creator of the 365 cards blog and asked if she would like a new header for the site, so here's what I came up with. She wanted me to use the same colors/font that was already there, so I did have those guidelines. Enjoy.

Be Thou My Vision

This is one of my favorite songs... a very old Irish hymn, from around the 700s. It really is beautiful and if you haven't heard it before, I suggest finding a recording on youtube or something. It's been in my head all evening.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light
Be thou my wisdom and Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I , Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one
Riches I heed not nor man's emptly praise
Thou mine inheritance now and always
Thou and thou only first in my heart
High King of heaven my treasure Thou are
High King of heaven my victory won
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun
Heart of my own heart whatever befall
Still be my vision O Ruler of all

it's official!

Adelle has a super cute dimple on her left cheek :)

i'm losing my hair... and my vision is shady...

Well, just the hair loss part is true, but that should give a few people a nice little giggle (it's a reference to something that you could call a guilty pleasure from the teen years). I am officially losing my hair from the whole post-pregnancy normalizing stage of life. I'm not breastfeeding (a very long TMI type of personal story that I will not be sharing) and my body is finally ... slowly ... getting back to normal. I didn't think it would bother me, but mentally, when I run my hands through my hair, only a couple of hairs at the most should come out, right? It's strange and kind of uncomfortable seeing more than that.

On another note, my sister Lori (the one who has taken the gorgeous pictures of Adelle) is starting a photography business and I got to design the header for her blog and her watermark for when she posts on the web. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited to see what she does with her exploding talent. I've linked to it on the top sidebar, so take a look if you like (and remember, she's just starting, which honestly really impresses me considering the quality of pictures she is taking).

Milestone!!!

Adelle has been trying to laugh for a long time. She'd do little fake coughs and smile, she'd open her mouth really big and squeal... today she laughed for the first time for real! She had the dirtiest diaper I have ever had to change (it was so full it leaked) and so when she was just in her diaper, I did raspberries on her stomach and she laughed so hard every time! Of course then I had to take her into the other room so Luke could see and she did it again :) What a fun milestone! Adelle is just getting too big way too fast! She'll be 4 months old in 9 days. I can't believe it.

Rock Chalk!

Luke and I were very lucky to be invited to the KU Basketball game on Saturday against Texas (we even got a pass for the parking garage)! Luke's brother Nick and his girlfriend Shelly invited us last minute and we were so glad to be able to go! And thank you to the family for helping us by watching Adelle!

Luke is a HUGE KU bball fan and this was actually the first game he has ever been to, so we took a ton of pictures/video. We were really high up, but we had a good view and had a ton of fun!


As you can see by the scoreboard, it was a great game! At one point KU was behind by double digits, so it was kind of nerve-racking, but they pulled it out in the end! I'm just glad they won because I'm pretty sure if we had lost that Luke would've thought it was his fault and he would never have gone to another game (and he probably would have burned his clothes too :P)

It was senior night, so the team all stuck around to hear the speeches of the 2 seniors (we snuck in at floor level to take a picture as we were leaving)



Also, congrats to the team for winning the Big XII Championship! They have won consecutively since 2005 and many people doubted they'd be able to do it with such a young team this year. They showed a video after the game about how they've won back to back to back to back to back and it was a great montage of moments from the past years. It was fun to see them receive their trophy too. Anyway, thanks Nick and Shelly! We had a great time!

Haphazardly Crafty

i have decided to start a new craft blog. If anyone is interested in being added as an additional author, let me know!

Sketchy Sunday

Here's my take on the Sunday sketch for 365 cards:

Card Patterns Sketch #5

Card Patterns (linked on the right) posted their weekly sketch on Saturday. Here's the sketch and then my take on it (we are allowed to alter it to accommodate our own designs...):

i'm a little bit country?

Saturday's challenge on 365 Cards was just to use a circle as a prominent part of the design. I made 2 and really don't like either very much.. I just wasn't feeling inspired by the circle. I think it's probably because I don't have any of those cool toys that make it easy to cut out interesting shapes, etc. It's not very fun to cut out circles by hand. If I had punches and cutters, etc, I think I would've used lots of different papers cut into circles... I dunno. It's just not in our budget right now to have all the cool gadgets. Anyway, here are the cards I made.

actual blogging

I know I've been doing a lot of card junk... maybe I'll start a separate craft blog or something. Or maybe it could be a group blog! Is anyone interested in doing a craft blog with me??

So, Fridays are hard. It's the first day off we have after working 4 12-hour days, so when Adelle decided to wake up at 5:45 a.m, it was kind of hard to be excited about it. Luckily she went back to sleep for a little bit after I fed her, but I guess we have to officially say goodbye to sleeping in, huh... I really can't complain. We have been extremely lucky. Typically Adelle will sleep 9 to 10 hours a night without waking up. Maybe that means she'll be an extra challenge in her teen years :P

Adelle is at a stage where she loves when things crash together, so I've been doing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with her a lot... I tried to take a video of it, but I was holding the camera, so couldn't use both of my hands to crash her hands together. She's still pretty stinking cute though. Take a look.



And a cute picture: She looks surprised a lot when the camera goes in front of her :)

(from Wednesday 3/4/09)



I feel all tech-savvy ever since I realized the laptop has a memory card reader...

Flashy Friday

Today's assignment for the 365 Cards challenge is to make the card flashy, whether with "bling" or glitter, etc. So, here's my take. I'm not sure about the striped paper... I think if I was to redo it, I might just leave that out. I accented the paper on the left with red glitter paint just on the stems and centers of the flowers. I really don't use bling or glitter, so this was a stretch for me, but I had fun!

more cards (get used to it i guess)

These are the cards from the last 2 days on 365 Cards.

Wednesday's challenge was to create a card based on an advertisement and I chose to use this vintage Bell Telephone ad:


Here's the card I came up with.... I really need to get some more sentiment stamps. All I have is "thanks" and an alphabet. I don't want to always have to use stickers. I wasn't as 'inspired' as I'd hoped... but maybe you'll see my interpretation of the ad...


The other challenge was Thankful Thursday, to create a simple thank you card that could easily/quickly be recreated for when I would need to make many thank you cards. I think the key is just finding nice paper that just kind of speaks for itself. Here it is:

more card challenges (card box, Tuesday Trio) ... (2nd post of the night... read below)

The very first challenge on 365 Cards was to make a card box, you know, for all the cards we'd be making. I kind of cheated by using a basket, but I did make the dividers... I like being able to see the cards sticking out of the sides of the dividers, but I decided to put foam on the bottom of them to better separate each section.



Then, this is yesterday's challenge... still 365 Cards. The requirement was to use 3 things: ribbon, flower, button. I don't usually use buttons and not many flowers either, but here you have it. Not the best I've ever made, but it's fun I guess. I'm still learning. I do really like the colors though (have you noticed I like brown?) And now I wish I would've stacked the flowers then put the words at the bottom of the column. Oh well.

technology, who'd have thought...

I did something dumb today. I accidentally deleted all the pictures off of my camera. Regular readers may have heard me say "I can't upload pics because I can't find the cord to hook up my camera to the computer." Yeah, there were a LOT of pictures on there that I had never uploaded... mostly of Adelle, pretty much since we left the hospital. My dad is trying to find some way to retrieve as many as he can from the card, but we'll see what happens. I bawled and bawled... so, then I learned today... guess what! This laptop has a memory card reader built into it! I could've been loading pictures all this time. I never even thought about that.

So, to make myself feel a little better (momentarily), I took pictures of some cards I've made for sketch/challenge sites.
Yes, I already showed you this one, but now you can actually see it. This is from Sketch #4 on the Card Patterns blog (link to the right). I tried to make it the right coloring to show the green of the paper, but I don't know if it's quite right. Ah well.

This next one is sketch #1 for the 365 Cards blog. I like using sketches. It's a good springboard.


This last one was a challenge instead of a sketch... This is the Monday challenge on 365 Cards. The challenge was to use no more than 2 embellishments, which is easy for me... I don't use a lot of embellishments. So, my embellishments are ribbon and... ribbon I guess.


Anyway, enjoy! And don't feel too sorry for me about the pictures. I'm coping... and praying that daddy can fix my screw-up :P

Pay it Forward Challenge

My sister Lori posted a Pay it Forward Challenge on her blog, so now it's my turn! The first 3 people to comment on this post will get something homemade by me within the year (and maybe sooner than later if you're lucky). The trick though is that then you must pay it forward and do the same thing on your blog (or facebook or email, whatever you use to communicate with people). I thought this would be a fun thing to do since I have all this "creative" energy. (I use the quotes because I always wish I was more creative than I am) Anyway, I look forward to it and hope that you like whatever I make for you!

Happy commenting!

Crafting

I can't stop myself. Ever since I started working on Adelle's quilt again, I've been crafting like crazy. I've been making a whole bunch of cards and finding all sorts of challenge blogs where they give you a challenge or sketch or something and then you make the card according to the challenge. I've made all the ones I've seen, but I still can't find the cord to hook my camera to the computer... booo! So, here's a picture of one I made from the Card Patterns (link to the right) Sketch #4 that I took on Luke's phone. Sorry about the poor pic quality.

And since then, I added a tiny rub-on that says "happy birthday to you!" (white). I like the added touch, but was too lazy to take another picture, especially with such crap quality.

Oh, and thank you to LynAnne for loaning me her sewing machine!!! I can't wait to really use it!

3 months!

Adelle turned 3 months old on February 19th. The following Saturday (the 22nd), we went by mom and dad's and took some pictures of Adelle. So, here's Adelle at 3 months! It's really hard to get her to smile at the camera because as soon as it's in front of her, she just stares at it like some strange foreign object. (Lori, recognize the fabric on her outfit?)

new wheels and such

The Eagle Summit has reached its last days. Right now it isn't even running (something with the alternator) and we've been driving my brother Eric's car, which emits horrible fumes through the vents. Anyway, it finally came time to find a new car, so on Saturday we got a silver 2007 chevy malibu. We really like it and it's by far the nicest car I've ever had. [Pictures to follow]

In other news, Adelle turned 3 months on the 19th! We also retired the bassinet and have been working on her sleeping in the crib. She's actually been doing really well, taking a few short naps during the day, then sleeping from 11ish until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. We have been really fortunate. She has been a really good sleeper since the first few weeks.

Saturday was the monthly craft day at Chelsea's house. Let me just say that she is a fantastic hostess! I didn't get a ton done because I was having too much fun talking to all the girls I haven't seen much since we switched wards, but I did start Adelle's album and made a few cards. It was so much fun and will definitely be a regular event. Thanks, Chelsea, for a great day!

cute little girl...

I still haven't found the cord to connect my camera to my computer, so here's a shot of Adelle from about a week ago that Luke took on his phone. She's just chilling in the bouncy seat my sister Lori has been loaning us.