"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will." --George Bernard Shaw

So, as I said before, I've been slacking a bit on being motivated to do anything the past couple months....this pregnancy really wore me out this time at the beginning! And now that I'm not tired all the time I really have no excuse for being so lazy/unmotivated :) So I went through some of my piles of "to-do" lists in pinterest and my blogging lists, picked out some of the top things I could do/had the materials/could be done easily and have actually done a few of them! So far it's mostly been little things for Evelyn to try and keep her busy/play with....fun for me, fun for her, so everyone's happy right? :)

This first one is a project I found on a blog, Serving Pink Lemonade. She actually linked the project from someone else but did hers a smidge different and hers look a bit cuter to me so I got the pattern from the original blog and then sewed them together like Pink Lemonade did (the first one used hot glue). Anywho....these are princess finger puppets and I luckily had a nice big bag of felt I could use for it and didn't have to buy a thing! Perfect craft. So here it is! (sorry I don't have any pics of Evelyn with it....she's asleep and I didn't get any of her with them before :)

I made the little castle purse that went with it and added a "door" and "window" with a sharpie cuz Evelyn wanted them. Although she tries to make the princesses go through the door and doesn't like that it doesn't work :)

Pretty Princesses!! 

I did do a fifth, Ariel, but forgot to leave the opening for your finger and now I can't find it :)  Evelyn loves these though! And they were pretty quick and easy to do. 

My next project I just finished tonight...this one was actually pretty quick too because, luckily, I already had a big stack of squares leftover from a blanket I made years ago and I just used those! This is from a blog called "The Crafty Cupboard" and it's basically just bean bags but she added the alphabet to them for a fun learning game for her daughter. I thought Evelyn would have fun with these, she might not be able to do spelling games yet but she has been interested in the alphabet so maybe she can start recognizing some letters. She's been liking to watch some of the Leap Frog shows on Netflix and her favorite is the alphabet one and she's been starting to recognize that things have letters on them. She calls them all "a" :) Anywho, I made all the bags yesterday and today and filled them up, although I used rice instead of beans just cuz, then got some fabric paint/markers and Evelyn "helped" put the letters on them with Mark and I. Now they are all dry and tomorrow she can play with them! 

I did upper case on one side and lower on the other. I would have liked a bit bigger size of letters but had a hard time finding a stencil the size I wanted that had both lower and upper! Lame. 

Pretty cute I think! 

 These next two pics are just of Evelyn doing a little bead project I give her sometimes to keep her busy. She really likes it and it's fun to watch her.

I just love these little hands! Cutest hands EVER! :)

You can't see here but she is only putting purple beads on here....she's so particular about that...every time! :) 

So there you have it for now! I have some more things on my list but they'll take a little longer than these little projects here.

“Feeling fat lasts nine months but the joy of becoming a mom lasts forever“

So most of you already know this but Mark and I are expecting baby #2! I had my first ultrasound today so we are FINALLY making the big announcement online :) We told our family's on Christmas with this photo.....

And now we have this one! She doesn't quite get what's going on yet but we've been talking to her about it and I know she's gonna love being a big sister!

I am 11 1/2 weeks and the due date is August 16th....so the first trimester is ALMOST over and most of my annoying symptoms are calming down. Luckily I haven't been too horribly off....a bit nauseous feeling at first, but no throwing up, yay! (I did throw up once a few weeks ago, but I'm blaming that one on the taco bell burrito thing I ate two secs before). And I was WAY more tired this time at the beginning...I had to take a nap everyday for awhile cuz I would just crash...so those both eased up and then I was just feeling blah...so unmotivated, still a little slow/tired and everything I ate was just blah....everything sat heavy and it was just no fun cuz nothing tasted good/was very satisfyin. That only lasted a few weeks though and then I would switch off to feeling SUPER HUNGRY and blah...like I ate too much. :) TMI I know but hey! This is my blog and how I remember what's going on :) So anyway, this last week has just been the super hungriness and the past couple days have been better on that so things are looking up! I just gotta keep eating small meals cuz it feels way easier to overdo it now.

SO yeah! The appt. today was super quick, she measured the baby and looked at it real quick, listened to the heart beat (what a wonderful sound to hear for the first time!!!!) and then took some pics and I was done! The baby was really calm while she was doing the initial stuff and she mentioned that and I was like GOOD! I want a nice calm baby...and then it started kicking around and moving...so we'll see about that :) It was super cute and so amazing to see though! Last time I had my ultrasound at 17/18 weeks so I knew she was bigger and baby-like but I wasn't sure how it would look this early but it's a teeny-tiny-cute lil' baby! I sent Mark a quick pic with my phone afterwards (he had to work :( ) and he was like, "aw! I was hoping it was twins, but this is fine too..." and I was like, oh goodness....crazy boy! The idea of twins is cute and all but that's a lot to handle! So I'm good with just this cutie :)

Sweet little profile!

It had it's hand up by it's face most of the time. 

It's just so weird cuz other than feeling super hungry all the time I don't feel pregnant at all (well I have been having to wear my bigger pants cuz anything tight makes me feel clammy/icky, but according to today I actually lost three lbs! oh well :) so I was glad to have this ultrasound, more reassuring for me/definitely makes it more real! So I'm super excited for what's coming up, I'm glad we're moving the second trimester cuz hopefully I'll have more energy/etc. to get all that done and won't be too big yet! So anywho....now that we're "out" I'll be posting more updates on this! We're super excited and can't WAIT to find out what it is...hopefully we'll get it done before we leave MS so just a month more to wait! Yay!

"You're gonna miss this, you're gonna want this back. You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast. These are some good times, so take a good look around. You may not know it now, but you're gonna miss this."

I know it's been while since I posted, but not a whole lot has gone on around here to blog about! Evelyn and I have just been hanging out, doing a lot of puzzles and coloring, going to the park, riding bikes, coloring with chalk (it's been sooo nice here lately! like almost too hot sometimes but it's better than freezing ice or snow so I'm not gonna complain! :). I've been feeling kinda lazy about it all but I know next month is gonna be BUSY so I'm just trying to enjoy it while I can! Almost time to move again...ugh! :)

So I don't have much to say except talk about cutie patootey Evelyn! This girl is just so darn adorable! She's really such a wonderful, smart, funny, (sometimes :) sweet little thing and I just adore watching her! She's such a quick learner and I love seeing/hearing new things she's learned. She connects things so much better now and it amazes me sometimes. We are talking about something the other day and how it was far away, and she was like far away like Grammy is...(I always tell her Grammy lives far away and that's why we can't see her everyday anymore). And she's just putting things together/understanding things so well. She's a smart little cookie! She remembers things SO well too! You can't tell that girl anything anymore, she keeps it locked in her little head. One time there was a rainbow while we were driving and the next time we drove over there she was like, where's the rainbow? So we told her rainbows only come when it's rained. So next time it rained she was like, where's the rainbow? Smarty smart.... :) I love it though! You really never know what kids are gonna say so it's gonna be interesting to see what she comes up with! I'm gonna have to start writing things down cuz I can't remember when I want to.

She's been doing so well lately....she's been playing a lot better on her own, which is so nice, she's been loooving her puzzles and will do the same two over and over and over, but that's ok with me! And she's been loving coloring, she's been getting better at coloring the actual picture instead of just scribbling everywhere. :) proud Momma here :) She's certainly our little princess though...she loves to dance and twirl and everyday wants to wear a pink dress...everything has to be pink all the time and she calls everything pink too...lets go to our pink house, my pink room....silly girl! :) (We are going to Disney World in February for a little family vaca and I'm SOOO excited to take her, meet all the princesses, Mickey, Minnie... she's going to LOOOOVE it! and this time she'll actually know what's going on :) The only thing that's been a real bug is her constant insistence that "I do myselfs!" Definitely the independent two year old! So I don't mind the whole I do it myself thing if only she'd let me help her do it sometimes....she gets soooo upset when I try to help her and flips out if I do something she wanted to do. Ugh. :) But sometimes she just can't do it, like cook...she always wants to help me with dinner but sometimes it's just not something she can do...and she gets mad. :) Stubborn little redhead :) Anywho....Love her!  Here's a few pics from my phone and such :)

We went to Baton Rouge with some friends to go to the temple and afterwards we went to the mall where Evelyn rode a carousel for the first time!  She LOVED it!

Mark's battalion had a welcome home type party- lots of food, bounce houses, and a face painter for the kiddos! Evleyn was a little eh at first but loved the pink butterfly on her face! :)

just one of those days....I turned and saw her  pick up the bag and was like...noooooo. too late though :)

Mark and started building this before Christmas and finally finished it! Unfortunately one of the side boards was a little warped but we didn't figure it out til right before we were gonna drill it on so it's not completely right...(it's one of those angled shelves so those two on the sides are angled...hard!!!) we tried to compensate other ways but that didn't work either but the shelves are level and that's all that I care about now! After I find something to put here instead this will go out of sight in my craft room :) 

people keep asking me what crafty things I've done lately so I decided to finally actually do something...I found this burlap bubble wreath on pinterest (LOVE pinterest btw....best website EVER!). This picture isn't too great cuz the sun is so bright but meh...I was too lazy to do it again later.  The wreath was slightly time consuming but not too horrible, but also super easy and super cute! :) Wanted a change up from my normal grapevine wreath 

I did these flowers like I did the ones for Evelyn's birthday outfit, so cute and so easy! Just a little color for Valentine's day and super easy to remove to change it all up for another holiday! Just pinned 'em on :)

I do have a couple other little projects I've done but no pics so I'll save those for later! So anywho...that's all for now for me! Mark has been busy with work and studying for a ridiculous test that he has to redo again on Tuesday so pray for him to pass!!! :) I'll have another new post tomorrow night so keep tuned! It'll be a good one :)

"NO! Not the buttons! Not my gumdrop buttons!" --The Gingerbread Man, Shrek"

Well we didn't make gingerbread men but we did do gingerbread houses! This was before Christmas but better late than never. :) It started out as one of our things to do on our advent calendar and then I invited my friend Nicole and her kids and then Gwyn and her kids and then Chelsea and her kids. :) We decorated houses, ate lunch, played, talked...I loved it! It was a full house but a lot of fun!!! I'm really gonna miss these girls when I leave :( Well Gwyn is moving to NC too so THANK goodness I'll have one of them with me still, but I'm really gonna miss Chelsea and Nicole! Love you guys!!!

Anywho...here's some pics from the day! :)

The mommas helping with the houses :)

Evelyn, of course, went with the bright pink frosting :)

Lukas frosting his house

Chelsea and Gavin

time to decorate! of course I think half the candy was eaten instead of being put on the houses :)

Evelyn and her masterpiece!

I made one too (mine was real gingerbread :) I made it to match hers :)

and here's just a couple pics of the goodies I made this year for my friends! I kinda went a bit overboard but it was so fun and they are all such yummy treats!

my new favorite here is peppermint rice krispy treats, which if you've never tried you gotta!!! SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! and my other fav here is the pumpkin whoopie pies....YUMMMMMMMMY!

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one." - Dr Seuss

A couple days after we got back from Christmas we went to our good friend Langston's 5th birthday party! His Momma rented a bouncy house from MWR and had some goodies and the kids played and played. It was so fun! :) So here's a few pics I took!

super cute owl cupcakes!

Yummy cupcake!

Rhett was LOVING it! :)

Evelyn wasn't too excited about the bouncy house...

the Birthday boy!

It didn't take long til she was ok though!

Evelyn and her friend Landon!

He's such a cutie!

Evelyn's friend Lydia! Another cutie! :)

looks like Trouble! :)

adorable though! 

and yet another cutie! this is my bestie, Kaitlyn :) 

"In the eyes of children we find the joy of Christmas. In their hearts we find its meaning."

SO I figured it was about time I blogged about Christmas. :) Mark and I didn't do much for Christmas (gift wise anyway...) because we got a couple big things after he got home so we went out on a nice date a few days before Christmas. We went and saw Sherlock Holmes (SOOOOO GOOD!!!) and then went to a nice Italian restaurant on the coast for dinner which was so yummy! We also opened up our presents from our stockings that day with Evelyn...she was SO funny! She kept straining to rip them open and would make these funny faces....silly girl. :)

Evelyn and her stocking

Trying hard to open her present :)

She's at such a copy cat stage right now, we would say, what else is in there Evelyn? So she'd go,  hmm...what else is in there? and stick her head in :)

Time for daddy's stocking!

Being Silly :)

The next day we packed up the car and drove up to Alabama for Christmas with the Erwin fam! Amy and Calvin flew in the day before and Dennis and JoAnn arrived after us so it was a fun Erwin-filled weekend! The best part of it was seeing the kiddos play together. They got along SO well and played the entire time! I barely saw Evelyn sometimes...it was great :) It was fun too cuz we adults got to play a lot too...every night we played games, Mario Kart Wii, Pictionary, and a new fun game called Funglish, which we all really enjoyed! The rest of the time we just enjoyed each other's company and ate lots of yummy food :)

Evelyn joining in on the Wii action

Oh and the first night we were there, we went to Michael and Jessica's ward Christmas party, which was pretty fun! They had stuff for "graham cracker" gingerbread houses on the table and each table built something. This is what Calvin and I came up with, with a little help from the kids :)

I took a better picture later but don't know where it is, but it's supposed to be the SLC Temple

Isabella helping with the decorating

All the Primary kids went up on the stage so Evelyn went right along with and had lots of fun! You can't really tell here but they are shaking little bells. She loved it!

Evelyn and the kids watching the ward's slide show. 

Setting out cookies for Santa!

Christmas PJ's!

Tracking Santa on the internet

Pretty Christmas tree!

Christmas Eve we let the kiddos open a present, which was a pair of pj bottoms for each of them that I made and luckily they ALL fit! :) Isabella's was a bit close but they went on so all was good :) Christmas morning we were gonna get up with the kids to open presents from Santa but we TOTALLY slept in! Evelyn woke up at 6:15 and I checked to see if anyone else was up and they weren't so I got her back to sleep and then didn't wake up til almost 8, I was so bummed! We let Evelyn open a gift from Santa then rushed to get ready for church, which was a really great, musical Sacrament meeting.

Evelyn's gift from Santa!

princess dolls!

these are just some oober cute pics I took of Charlotte! 

She was adorable!

Cutey cuteness!

Amy and Calvin!

Us! Forgive my uncuteness...I had just washed my hair. :)

The Erwin's! 

Grandparents and the kiddos...Evelyn and Jacob wouldn't smile nice...kept making silly faces!

But I snatched a cute one of just her! 

And another cute one of Charlotte in her Christmas dress!

After church we all came back home, took some pics (some shown above), and then opened the rest of our presents! And boy was that tree full! It was so fun to watch the kids open their gifts. Evelyn was once again her funny self but this time had to take off every single piece of wrapping paper, looked at the present, then went on to the next one :) She was so cute! Isabella and Jacob were fun to watch too. Jacob had a lot of fun with his superhero gifts and Isabella got lots of girly stuff! :) The adults got to open stuff too, we just waited til after the kiddos.

Evelyn and all her loot

Jacob tearing it up

Isabella, taking her time :)

One of Evelyn's favorites, a Rapunzel dress! She wore this for two day straight when we got home, I had to hide it on the third :)

More princess gear! 

Big rip!

Checking the other side to make sure she's getting all the paper

Evelyn and Jacob playing with Evelyn's cool Disney figurines!

then she noticed the adults were opening presents so she "helped" Uncle Calvin and Aunt Amy

Charlotte tried to get in on the action too :)

So that pretty much sums up our time with the Erwins! It was so great to get together. We haven't all been together since Amy and Calvin's wedding, which was before Evelyn was born! We really miss Amy and Calvin now that we aren't in Utah so it was great to be with them again for awhile. I did miss being with my fam, but once again Skype saves the day and I was able to Skype during their "Christmas Program" which was so great! I love my fam!

 Unfortunately on Monday we had to head home :( We had a couple presents at home for Evelyn from family and such so here's a couple pics from that! Santa also dropped off a present that she asked him for, a bike! She also got a motorized little Princess bike from Grandpa Michael and Grandma Terrie so she switches back and forth between the two when she plays, she loves them!

Yay more presents!

She got a lot of puzzles for Christmas, which she loves! Just like her Momma :)

Princess time! She got a crown and wand too :)

the Princess in her tower, helping with dinner :)

Driving her new princess car! I can't find a pic of her bike...

So that pretty much sums up our holiday! I hope you all had a wonderful one and a happy New Year too! 2012 is gonna be a great year! :)