One week old.  Wow, time is flying by.**

I keep staring at her in disbelief and saying “We made her?  She’s really ours?  We get to keep her?” Amazing. Bringing life into the world is just simply amazing. So many times over the last week I’ve held her in my arms, watching her sleep, slowly becoming more alert, flashing those baby blue eyes and feeling like the luckiest new mama in the world.  Snuggling this perfect little baby feels too good to be true.

Of course, this first week hasn’t been all sunshine and roses as new parents, but it has been as close to perfection as I ever thought we’d come in finding our baby groove and adjusting to life as a family of 3 (well, 5 if you count our fur-less babies). We transitioned from the hospital to our home on Thursday afternoon and spent the next few days relaxing and getting to know each other.  I can’t say thank you enough for all the well-wishes and congratulations our friends and family have sent our way…we’re so lucky to have people that care about us so much.

Ella is quite the little peanut…she loves to curl up with her legs completely underneath her and nuzzle her head into my chest to sleep, listening to my heartbeat. She hums and squeaks like a little baby bird as she sleeps (and she’s such a good sleeper).  We’re on a fairly predictable 3-hour schedule- sleep, change diaper, eat, snuggle, repeat, repeat, repeat. She only cries during diaper changes and when she gets a little too hungry, but is instantly consolable by simply holding and loving her.  Wow.  I hope this will last. It’s the sweetest thing…her cries are instantly gone as she curls up into a little ball, content as can be (our little frogger…no, that nickname won’t stick, but right now it’s the perfect term of endearment).

As for Jay and I…we’re sleeping as well as can be expected and I’m very proud of us for sticking together and being calm through those inevitable tough moments.  I love him for so many reasons and adding “Ella’s Daddy” to that list has surprised me in it’s intensity.  I think we’re both very humbled by this new life given to us and the emotions that come along with loving someone so very much.  I’ve been jotting down little snippets from our first days together, stories I want to remember, and some of the millions of emotions I’ve been experiencing (thank you, hormones) in a notebook that will soon become part of a small scrapbook of her first few weeks.  We’ve been keeping things fairly low-key as we continue to adjust to life with a baby and I heal myself (ibuprofin is my friend). Overall, we’re doing great and feeling extremely thankful and blessed. 

**A small note: One of my goals while I’m on leave is to keep a more regular posting schedule here…so you might notice I’m filling in a few posts here and there catching up.  Windows Live Writer is great for starting new posts and coming back to finish them later…once I catch up on a few stories of our first two weeks together (hopefully tomorrow because Auntie Amy is visiting this weekend!), it’ll be back to the present time!

She’s here…she’s beautiful…our new family is so very blessed. Life is good.

Announcement: Tiny Prints

Oh my poor neglected blog…I think of you often and craft entire posts in my head as I’m driving home from work or daydreaming in baby class, but somehow when I sit down at the computer at night…well, hence the need for a February Recap! 

Life has been busy preparing for the arrival of Baby E.  Thankfully, I’m feeling pretty good, Week 36 already- wow. A few new things, I feel her hiccup all the time, there’s a foot permanently attached to my hip bone (ouch!) and several times, my ribs have become her punching bags, but honestly, I just love feeling her move around and explore.  I love talking to her and feeling her respond when I push or rub on my belly.  The kitties still love to “incubate” her. LOL  We’ve completed our childbirth and parenting classes.  My doctor appointments have all been good, progressing normally and now just working on staying comfortable, eating healthy, and sleeping as much as possible before she’s here! 

February was filled with the baby showers!  My very sweet colleagues threw me a baby shower on Feb. 5th, complete with a delicious strawberry shortcake, Baby Einstein Activity Gym and these fantastic Taggies Blocks. Then that weekend, my MIL hosted the most detailed and amazing shower for us (truly, she pulled out all the stops!)…complete with the ultimate gift- a surprise visit from my little sister!  No one is ever able to surprise me like that, but I stopped by Jay’s parents house and there she was in the living room!  We had a great weekend- the shower on Saturday with lots of food, friends, family and beautiful gifts for the baby, followed by a day of shopping and just hanging out on Sunday before she headed home again.  We’ve finally set up the video cameras on our computers, so I get to see and talk to her and Abby all the time now- it makes such a difference to see that sweet girl smile “in person”!  She’s growing leaps and bounds and turned 6 months old this past weekend.  Where does the time go?

Jay and I had a lovely low-key Valentine’s Day…he brought home huge heart balloons and Hershey’s kisses and we made dinner together.  Jay was SO excited to cook cornish hens, topped with delicious bacon.  Our ’side’ was Alton Brown’s baked mac and cheese (deep fried as leftovers the next day).  We finished our meal with a homemade blackberry cobbler and watched ‘Nights in Rodanthe’- what a wonderful night in!  Much better than last Valentine’s Day when our brand new kitten, Sami, swallowed a needle and was rushed to the vet ER for emergency surgery…

And another reason I’ve been so exhausted at night and straying away from my blogging duties (aside from playing host to a rapidly growing human), is that we’re *this* close to submitting a really influential paper to a prestigious neuroscience journal and I’m so excited to finally send this off!  We’re wrapping up some final analyses and if all goes as planned, it will be off my desk by the end of the week.  This would be an absolutely HUGE accomplishment…many years in the making.

So with that, I think I’ll leave February in the past and move on to *hopefully* more regular postings this month by sharing the collection of layouts I’ve made over the past 4-5 weeks.  Scrapping will always be the creative outlet that lets me wind down from analyzing data and writing at work, I’m just so thankful that these pages come together so much faster after 4 years of practice!  Enjoy and see you soon!

I was doing so good.  Regular blog postings have never been one of my strong points, but I was on a roll!  Well, here we are…on the verge of the last week of January.  Is that really possible?  The days and weeks sure do fly by when life seems to be moving at the speed of light! 

These past few weeks have been filled with writing and data analysis at work as I feverishly try to finish my Ph.D. theses papers and prepare for defense over the summer.  We’re likely making more changes to the timeline, but everything will work out in the end, regardless of how long it takes me to get there.  I just need to keep moving forward and making progress and smiling…

On the baby front, I had an appointment last Friday and the nurse/midwife remarked that I was having “the perfect pregnancy”. Now THAT I love to hear. It hasn’t been the smoothest ride imaginable, but I have so much to be thankful for. I’m still feeling really good most of the time (aside from the normal aches, pains and other “fun” things all pregnant woman are privy to) and we’ve been busy working on the nursery and preparing for her arrival.  We started our childbirth/parenting classes at the hospital and I’ve learned a lot while Jay plays on his iPhone. LOL  The beautiful baby crib and dresser are settled in their place in the nursery, I’ve taken the tags off the “quite excessive” amount of baby clothes hanging in her closet, the stroller and carseat (Graco, Rittenhouse pattern- so gorgeous) are assembled (and we even know how to work them!), and we have a bassinet and rocking chair in boxes in the living room waiting to see where they’ll find a home in our ever-shrinking home.

I’m happy to report that Project 365 is still in full swing!  I’m loving taking daily photos this year, probably because I’m doing it for the baby rather than just myself, but regardless of the reasoning, it’s moving along and I’m so happy I’ve kept it up.  If you’re interested in seeing my photos, I’ve got them updated through today in my P365 Flickr gallery. 

Last week, Gina Miller released a fantastic new love/Valentine’s Day themed kit- Chocolate Kisses in her store and I created this super fun little “10 Things I Love About You” album to make a sweet little something for your loved ones! 

 And last, but certainly not least…I’ve been scrapping my heart out whenever I have the chance- a few pages of Abby and a few for our baby’s scrapbook too. All images are clickable for credits.

Thank you so much for stopping by- I promise to come back again before the end of the month at least one more time!  Hope you have a fabulous week!

It’s the song I was singing along to in the car on the way home from work tonight- “I love this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic…awful beautiful life.”  Jay thinks I’m contaminating the baby with all these country songs.  She’s going to have some strange musical tastes if she gets a little from both of us: Heavy Metal + Country + Musicals + a little pop mixed in for good measure.  Good start to a very busy week for us if I’m still singing on the way home!  Tomorrow night we’re off to another hockey game (free game from the blood drive donation a few months ago), Wednesday we start our birthing/parenting class at the hospital for six weeks, Metallica concert on Thursday and then we have a date to finally put the crib together on Friday night!  The furniture is out of the boxes and looks beautiful- I can’t wait to get the bedding set up and my extensive collection of stuffed animals in their proper home, ready to be loved and drooled on my their new little munchkin owner.

Today’s photo is a double feature, it’s perfect for putting in my Project 365 album to have two vertical photos on one 4×6 canvas.  This bamboo plant was a gift to Jay on our first Valentine’s Day together in 2003.  It originally had two little heart suckers and a bunch of red ribbon, but those have gradually disappeared (hmmm….kittens).  The plant has almost given up a few times, but it seems to be easily nursed back to health and I’ve joked with Jay several times that it’s “our love” and we MUST keep it alive. Unfortunately, a green thumb is not a quality I was blessed with, so there must be some magic going on because it’s still kickin’!  The second photo is my sweet Sami. He snuggled under the covers with me this morning just before the alarm and literally draped himself across my belly to be as close to the baby as possible.  Both of our kitties do this, but Sami seems to have the monopoly on most days.  So cute.

Tonight I felt the need for a good scrapping fix, so I pulled out a few of the new Jen Wilson Beginnings goodies and this gorgeous kit from Susan and Amanda at Sweet Shoppe Designs again.  Here’s what I came up with (images clickable):

  
And because I haven’t done this in awhile and we’re coming to the close of another Project 365 week, how about a little giftie?!  I hope you’ll enjoy this template and use it in whatever way makes your memories special- have a great week!

Click here to download the template.

They’re live!  Two new sets of quickpages are in the shoppe now at Gina Miller Designs. I LOVE how Gina’s Savoy kit looks on the textured white backgrounds and the colors of Organic are so peaceful and dreamy.  These are available as a set or individually and are on sale right now for 20% off.  Thanks for peeking!

We’re off to pick up the baby crib and changing table- I can’t wait!!  Photos soon!

Last night we arrived home after a super fun “double date” hockey game with friends to find a UPS note on our door- a package was left with the neighbors.  Jay thought it was his, but they brought it over this morning and I was pleasantly surprised to find the Creating Keepsakes Project 365 albums for me and my sister!  Check out how awesome my first week of photos look in the album- I can’t wait to fill in the journaling and catch up with Week 2.  It’s so fun to see everything printed out!

Playing catch-up with my Project 365 photos here, this is what I’ve been up to the past few days:

8/365: Playing around with the camera and snapping “belly” photos.  I posted black and white one at SSD and Flickr, but decided on this one for my album.

9/365: Although the hockey game started out with a pretty picture, it ended on a sour note (Capitals lost 0-3 to the Blue Jackets).  But…we found a new restaurant to eat at before the games- The Greene Turtle.  I had THE most delicious chicken, bacon and cheese club with tiny onion rings on top.  We met our friends during the first period and had a great time catching up at the game and on the way home. The Caps are 4th in the entire league right now, but last night’s performance was less than stellar. Ovechkin even completely whiffed when attempting to power in a goal- hilarious!
10/365: Lunch at a new place for us- Crepes-A-Go-Go.  After talking to my sister about the crepe stand at the Mall of America, I had a craving, so we headed over for a bite to eat on our way to do errands this afternoon.  We both loved it! I had a turkey, egg and cheese, with the delicious chocolate, banana and coconut crepe seen here- devoured the whole thing (almost before I took a photo)!

We’ve been chilling this afternoon and evening, watching a movie now and just finished a fun new scrapbooking page, courtesy of an awesome new template from Janet Phillips at The Daily Digi and Susan’s new kit, Wistfull Blooms, at Sweet Shoppe Designs. All the things I love about being 29 weeks along…well, tomorrow. :)

New goodies in the shoppe arriving at Gina Miller Designs in just a few hours!  I’ll be back to show them off soon.  Hope you’re having a fabulous weekend!

Last year I started Project 365 and loved the “rush” of accomplishing the task each day and looking forward to what I’d find to photograph next. Half-way through January, that fire subsided and I fell into the daily grind of just getting by, getting thru the day and stopped taking those photos.  My hope is that this year will be different.  It feels different- there are so many people taking on the challenge, my life has drastically changed, and there’s so much to look forward to and plan for in the future that I feel compelled to do this project or I’ll seriously regret it! I’m happy to say that Week 1 is officially complete and I’m having SO much fun finding something to photograph each day- I almost feel like it’s my “mission” to tell these stories for our baby girl now.  How’s that for a little dramatic flair? LOL

My photo from yesterday- With the help of my awesome MIL who helped me figure out the sewing machine again, I finally finished a pin cushion for Kelleigh (yeah…remember that contest I had on my blog back in July, just a few days before we found out a little one was on the way?) and it’s making the journey to her sewing basket as I type.  :)  The little figurine was a Christmas gift from my MIL- isn’t she the most adorable thing ever?

And today’s photo- I begrudgingly headed to the lab early this morning for my glucose screening test…it was raining heavily, the parking lot was a zoo, I was late for my appointment (even though I was the only person in the lab, the receptionist thought it necessary to point that out…), and in record time I downed the most disgusting orange sugary drink imaginable, thankfully without it coming up again!  Now I just need to pray the results are within normal limits so we can avoid the 3-hour screening.  Think good thoughts for me!

And finally- I’m not sure I’ll be doing a digital recap of each week once my Becky Higgins 365 kit arrives (shipped yesterday), but for now I’m loving seeing these all together on one page.  If you’ve done a recap too, leave me a link- I’d love to see more ideas for capturing these memories.  See you soon- Happy Hump Day!

I saw this list of events on Paula’s blog earlier today- copy and paste to your own blog and bold everything you’ve done!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Sweet Shoppe Designs is hosting a Project 365 forum for the year and I thought it might be fun to start a Flickr Group for everyone to post their photos as well.  It’s awesome to see the daily photos, but it must be the psychology Gestalt training in me that loves to see everything together too. LOL  (whole is greater than the sum of its parts).  Day 5 photo is in the books (literally!).

Great day at work, successful scan and last meeting with a patient.  I love success stories…makes my job feel so rewarding and worthwhile.  And apparently the way to have everyone and their brother finally notice you’re carrying around an extra little person is to wear purple (I tend to wear a lot of black)! A few of the ladies noticed for the first time today and were so excited for me.  I really don’t like being in the spotlight or doted on, but they were so sweet and genuinely happy for us, such sweethearts. The weather man is predicting some serious wintery weather for our area tomorrow, at least this year I have a new vehicle whose tires hopefully won’t gravitate toward light posts…still, I’m hoping it’s all just hype!  Sweet dreams!

Yes, today is brought to you by the letter “P”- puking, pregnancy, and photography.  Our day started around 6 a.m. when the gods of inadequate digestion decided to seek their wrath upon our poor kitten, Sami.  He had just finished an early morning snack, cuddled up with me under the covers and before I knew it, the poor little guy was heaving something fierce all the way into the bathroom- at least he knew where to go.  Jay and I were due for a little dose “P”arenthood!

Pregnancy. I can hardly believe it, but my 3rd trimester is already here!  Only a few short months left before I’ll be holding a precious little baby girl in my arms.  Everything is going smoothly, I’ve gained about 12 lbs so far, hoping to keep the total under 25 lbs.  I’ve been craving fruit and devouring cans of pears and 1 or 2 clementines a day, along with a banana for breakfast in my cereal.  The baby also seems to like a little snack before bed, so we’ve been doing english muffins with peanut butter- yum! She’s getting stronger each day (as evidenced by her voracious kicks to my stomach, hip, basically anywhere she can maneuver herself).  Laying on my side the other night I could have sworn her entire leg popped out and hit my hand that was resting there to feel her move.  Such a strange sensation.

I spent several hours today getting my office ready for the arrival of her crib and changing table/dresser.  Feels good to clean up and organize (nesting, I suppose!). All that’s left is for Jay to carry a table and my electric piano into the basement for storage. With no crafting table, I’ll be a little sad to create fewer hybrid goodies, but have switched gears back to digital scrapbooking for now and have been loving it.  I’m a digi-SugarBabe at SSD again as of this month and stepped down from the Prima Hybrid team back in December. I have so many photos of Abby I’d love to scrap and soon enough will have my own albums to make, so I’m trying to prepare!  All this organizing today led me to my 3rd “P”…

Photography. With my desk free of its usual clutter, it was the perfect opportunity for my Day 4 Project 365 photo.  Here’s my scrap space, complete with the most beautiful red poppies from IKEA that never fail to brighten my day.

All this talk of photography accompanying Project 365 has been getting under my skin. I LOVE taking pictures, but I don’t think I’m very good at it and have a lot to learn.  I shoot with a Rebel XT and either my 50mm 1.4 prime lens or 18-135 IS zoom lens.  I’ve never been able to master the zoom lens. We did several photo shoots of Abby over Christmas and I have countless blurry photos, of course we have lots of great ones too, but wouldn’t it be nice to just take a great shot right out of the gate?!  So…I spent some time drooling over this and this today. Of course, new glass isn’t quite the answer to the problem, but so many people love this lens, might as well start with the right tool for the job.  I’ll keep wishing for a money tree to grow in my backyard first, though!  In the meantime, I’ll be digging into my photography books one lesson at a time and making an effort to master the basics before our baby arrives. No time like the present!