Buttons, Bellies & Birthdays...

This weekend has been quite fun! Yesterday after being productive, Nicole came over & we played button trees. This year I bought two small trees & Tim did one. Can you guess who did which one? The players are: Nicole, Tim, & Jessie. Good luck with your guesses. Will there be a prize you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait & see.

I also decorated some Christmas ornaments for our Christmas bowl. We aren't putting up a tree this year, but I've put everything else out. I'm excited to add our two new button trees to the mix.

And here is another pic of me at almost 22 weeks (tomorrow) with my new hair. Laura cut & colored my hair for me on Friday - hooray!! Of course it looked better when she styled it, but you get the idea...

I'm off to take a much needed nap. Then it's off to work again for me tomorrow. Before I leave, I must say happy, happy birthday to my dear friend Kelly. I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day of celebrating!!! (Your card will be in the mail tomorrow...). :)

21 Weeks

Here is a tummy shot at 21 1/2 weeks. Baby Ella is getting bigger & kicking stronger each day. It's so fun to just sit and feel her move. The other night she actually woke me up with her kicking and squirming. I have a feeling it won't be the last time... :)

Tonight we decorated for Christmas & I made pumpkin cookies (thanks Erin-O for the recipe!) while we listened to Christmas music. How fun!! I also made a Christmas playlist on my iPod for school - so they can listen while they work during the next few weeks.

Hope you are all enjoying your holiday weekend - we each have so much to be thankful for...this year I'm especially thankful for my growing belly.

Look Whhhooo Came To Visit...

Stanley! Last week we had a guest in our classroom - Stanley the Great Horned owl. She sat on her perch & watched my kids while Susan, her care taker told us all about her. Stanley sat for over 1 1/2 hours in our room - it was very cool. The kids were SO excited - what fun. She even gave us a 'hoot' a couple of times.

Amanda's Baby Shower

On Sunday we threw Amanda Pants a baby shower. It was oh so much fun to get to spoil her & her baby girl - I was so excited for 3:00 to come. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought that I had...but that's okay - this gives you the main idea.

We had the shower at her mother-in-law's house. We played a few games including 'who's water breaks first'? (Where you freeze little plastic babies in ice cube trays & see who's pops out of the cube in a cup of juice first - I love this game). We also played the game where each guest was given two baby safety pins & told that they couldn't say the word baby. They had fun stealing pins from each other. :) And Miss Amanda walked away with lots & lots of adorable gifts for her baby. Here are some photos from our fun afternoon...

Why I think Ella will give Jessie a run for her money...

I Did It!!

...finished my Christmas Album that is. I told you I would. You didn't believe me did you? :)

Yep - as of this evening it's all finished, now all I need is for December 1st to come so I can begin my journal entries for the days leading up to Christmas. Hooray!

I must tell you before I show you the pictures - that I'm very thankful for two things during this project 1. My husband (aka, the computer) 2. My Cricut

Tim reminded me after I was already finished with cutting out 4 of the 16 scalloped papers to cover my chipboard that the Cricut (you may remember that he got this for me for my birthday) would do that for me. I shrieked with delight. I did not have this information! So - he scanned the chipboard & hooked up the Cricut to the laptop & boom - instant pages cut to fit exactly to the size of the chipboard. And it looks PERFECT! How fancy is he? I'm so proud of him. So here is a sneak peak of the album, in all of it's glory.

And She Shall Be Called...

Are you ready for this? The unveiling of 'her' name? If you are - please read on. If you're not, then close down this page & check back in April. :)

After much discussion, Tim & I have chosen to name our daughter Eloise Morgan. We will call her 'Ella'. Louise is my mother-in-law's middle name & Morgan was my grandmother's maiden name. I think Grandma would be proud to know that we used her name - I'm sure she's smiling down on us right now...

Okay - so now that I've told you - here are the rules:
1. As the parents of Ella we reserve the right to change her name at any time up until the first 24 hours of her life. After that -we won't change it.
2. We reserve the right NOT to change her name.
3. If you like her name - hooray!
4. If you don't - we don't want to know :)
5. I've got to stop making this silly list & go get a snack. Ella is hungry...

Random...

Here are a couple more random shots from the week...& after this, I'm heading to bed. MY BED - so excited about that...

The first picture: my tummy...(I can feel 'E' move everyday now - often several times a day - SOOO fun! There were a few times while I was sitting in the conference she would start to move & I would put my hand over my tummy & smile to myself. If anyone was watching me, they would think I am a loon - which may be true anyway....).

Silas being silly

Kim & I. Not the greatest shot of me- but I thought it was really cute of her & as she pointed out today, we don't have very many pictures together - we should fix that on future visits...

That's all for now. I'm off to dream-land!

My Cute Nephews...

Here are some photos Tim took this afternoon of the boys. So cute!!

Silas:

Elijah sharing his fruit...

Kim's SUPER CUTE new haircut - I l.o.v.e. it Kim! It looks adorable on you!!

Eli & Auntie...

I'm Back!

Which may be a surprise, since most of you probably didn't even know I was gone! :)

This week I traveled to Seattle with six other teachers from school to attend a conference. The conference was really good & to top it all off - I got to stay in a fancy-shmancy hotel - free of charge to me!!

Tim came up too & stayed with Jeff & Kim - then would come over to Seattle daily to visit me - so sweet. This morning he picked me up & we headed to Bremerton to visit Jeff & Kim & to see my boys. We had a nice *very short* visit with them & arrived home tonight around 8:00. I'm SOOO glad to be home - I think the kitties are glad too...

Seattle @ night:

Tim & I (notice the mustache?) Yeah...it's Movember - a promotion that his company is doing to promote Men's Health Month. I can't wait for December 1st...

My group that I attended the conference with:

My precious nephew. More photos of these cute boys to follow...

That's all folks!

That's it! It's finished! Here they all are on the 2 D-rings I have them attached to. So fun. Thank you Erin for the idea & thank you to all who played along & made this a super fun project!

...Now on to my Christmas album...

52 card wrap-up...

...really?!? More? Yep...

'Creative hands' - what have you made lately?

(front):

back: (Banana bread tonight while I scrapped!!)

Final card - (front):

back:

...and...

...more...

'What's on your playlist?' (front):

back:

'Your favorite moment of the year - that you haven't put into 52 cards yet...' (front):

back:

...more...

'What makes your tummy turn?' (This was NOT a hard one for me!!) :)

front:

back:

'Play' with something new (front):

back:

...and some more...

'Wish' (front):

back:

'Favorite Fall Routine' (front):

back: