Pinkalicious!

I'm behind on my weekly updates (again, it's more for No. 2 than the blog - I plan on making a little photo album with them).

Today I finished our Christmas cards, I actually made 3 and we had to choose one, and then finished Stella's birthday invitations. I can't believe my "baby" is going to be 3 just days after Christmas. It's tough to switch gears between Christmas planning and birthday planning, but I'm trying.

Now, I'm NOT a pink kind of girl. I think I can count on one hand the number of pink articles of clothing I've owned. Stella, however, is completely crazy for pink and loves the books about Pinkalicious. So, we're planning a Pinkalicious birthday party for her. I think it will be cute... We got our new 2010 edition of Microsoft Works which included Publisher - I make all of our cards in that program and love it! Want to see the invites?

I set the size to 4x6 and save it as a jpeg. They fit really well in the colored envelopes at Michaels and it's so affordable when you're just paying for 4x6 photo prints!

Daughter(s)

I was listening to my Christmas playlist today and a song came on that I've never heard before (or at least never paid attention to). It's Perry Como's "The Father of Girls". The song is a bit of a snooze, but I printed the lyrics for Jim, check them out!

23 weeks and something non-baby (FINALLY!)

23 weeks and getting BIG!

So, here's one of the crafts we've been working on. Our little coniferous advent calendar. It was so easy and actually turned out cuter than I'd expected. I'd still like to get some "snow" and lights to put around the trees, but I kind of like it. There are a few drawbacks though... With the "calendar" itself - the tape I used to form the cones isn't strong enough to hold them, they're popping open. Second, I can't imagine how I could possibly pack these up and have them come out next winter. That means next year I'll be doing something differently. I think I'll do a felt stocking garland advent calendar. I'd like it to be something that will hold up through our girls growing up so they remember pulling it out each year.

I need to get to work on what we're going to use for the treats though. I don't want to use all candy, but anything more is going to get awfully expensive. The 1st is one week away and I only have a few things so I need to get moving!

Finally, here's the little Stinker's 23 week belly! :) We can't get enough of this little character!

22 weeks

I've been meaning to do house posts, things have just been crazy! We had a little wind storm Monday night - Jim told me that the neighbor said they haven't lost power here for years. That was music to my ears since we lost it several times a year at our old place. 30 minutes later and we were in the dark. It didn't come back until 9am Tuesday morning. I think we've jinxed our new little neighborhood. I hope they don't force us out!

I got a new camera that I am in LOVE with, but I could spend days online looking at tutorials to better learn how to use it. We got the Nikon D3100 - I already have a few lenses on my wishlist. Maybe the rain will stop long enough I can take Stella out for a little photoshoot. It's too bad that all of the leaves have been blown off the trees in the storm.

Monday Jim got his 'monster' truck back. They still have some work to do, but it already looks amazing and he's crazy about it.

We also got new carpet Tuesday. It's wonderful, but... I'm not too thrilled with the color we chose. That's kind of sad. I'm hoping that it will grow on me soon.

Finally, Jim has strep. Stella might have strep. I'm thinking that means I'm next. YUCK! So, house posts are on the back burner for a bit.

I have a few holiday crafts too so maybe I'll be able to sneak them in! I'm SO ready for the Christmas season and all that it entails.

21 weeks

In house news - we're out of school tomorrow so the plan is to make some decisions on flooring. Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away, and I want at least the front room carpet done before then. (I want my tree up the day after Thanksgiving and don't like the idea of putting it up and then moving it for carpet). Jim and I will be doing the laminate ourselves again at this house. It's about 450 square feet and was going to cost more than $5K to have it installed! I'm not sure if we'll get to that over Thanksgiving break or if we'll wait until Christmas. I'm all for taking a day off work and just getting it done, but it's not as easy for administrators. I'd like to get it done sooner than later so there'll be less interference from the belly! I just cannot wait to get all of that nasty old flooring that someone else has gotten dirty OUT of my house!

Week 20

19 weeks!

Ok, so I'm a bit late, but here it is!

And... I'm thinking I'm going to do a little house tour of the new digs. Mostly so that someday (hopefully when this place looks like the picture I have in my head) I can look back and remember how far we've come. Plus, who doesn't like to look into other people's houses? I know I do! It will take a while to get pictures, but I'd like to post pictures of each room along with our (ok, my) plans for them. In addition to documenting the before pictures, it will help me organize what I want and get down what I like/dislike about each room. Plus, I've noticed that sometimes I see things in a different light in pictures. I wish I'd taken pictures before we moved in so we could have some true "befores" and have actual photos of the hideous paint colors, but we'll have to start from here. I wish we could go crazy and do everything now, but I know it will come in time and hope that this house will be whipped into shape before Stella leaves for college! Hopefully I'll get room 1 in sometime next week.