Monday, February 28, 2011

Dream Come True

Six months ago was our first baby shower for Ronan. We received so many thoughtful gifts and adorable outfits.  Before he arrived, I loved dreaming about him wearing each little outfit, imagining what he might look like and what his personality would be like. It is so wild to see those dreams realized now. He is so much cuter, sweeter and engaging than I probably ever could have imagined.  It's just amazing to watch this little man grow each day and I'm so thankful to be here to witness it. It truly is a dream come true.

I could not wait for him to grow into this handsome outfit from our friend Robin. He's worn in a few times already, but I thought I better get some photos of him in it. Seeing it now full of life and chubby thighs and cheeks...oh how I'm in love. 


My new favorite photo. For now at least. what a sweetie.

Someone's getting very sleepy...

 Part 2: Post nap. Ronan is now awake enough to realized he hates the hat.


He was doing stationary jumping jacks in most of these photos, making them blurry. I love the smile in his eyes so I had to share with you.

Meanwhile, I have to work around this handsome pup. He's always right under foot. Kohly is doing really well with Ronan. He typically ignores him except for the occasional diaper sniff. :)

Friday, February 25, 2011

Our Week (+ 1/2) in Review

We haven't exactly been busy week this past week, but blogging just never made the list.  Ronan seems to be changing every day. He likes to hang out on his side, but isn't rolling over quite yet.  Last week he discovered his tongue and is obssessed with it- sticking it out, sucking, curling up toward his nose. He lights up every morning when we get him out of bed (highlight of my day) and LOVES when daddy comes home. 

Here are some photos of what we've been up to


The swaddle wrap can't compete with this crazy guy. We've been finding him like this a lot lately.

First time in the jumper! Thanks Uncle Shane for bringing it by!

He's still a little small for it, but figured out he could touch the ground :)

We spent last weekend at my family's cabin celebrating my grandpa's 70th birthday. It was a great weekend filled with lots of snow and family time. Patrick spent most of his time like this, trying to stay focused on school work:




Target shooting with my dad and brother.  I may not have a future career as a sniper, but it was fun ;)

  
This little stinker will do anything to get a look at the television. We don't have it on very often, but when we do, he will contort himself to get a peek.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Favorite things

Snow days are perfect for playing with my camera.  I love how the sun reflects off the snow and brightens our house.  I learned how to change some settings on my camera (finally) and the while the baby slept and a hubby studied, I practiced on some of my favorite things.

I LOVE flowers. My husband knows how happy they make me. I love him even more :)

These are like sunshine in my home

Anemone paper flowers

All of my Anemone flowers are gifts and have special meaning

I love coffee in the morning. Especially in this cup. I'm not sure why.

true love

the.best.candy.combination.ever.

These just make me happy :)

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Love Day

Happy Love Day!  I suppose I could take or leave this holiday, but I don't mind an excuse to spend some time with my loves.  My mom always made this a special day with decorations, a fancy meal, sweet treats and a gift. I love that idea - celebrating love as a family. I appreciated her efforts then and I do even more now.  I'm excited for our family to grow and to establish similar memories and traditions.

I'm trying to read through the Bible this year and ironically I landed on 1 Corinthians 13 today, the "Love Chapter." The love verses are beautiful but even more so in the context Paul is using them. Essentially what he's saying is that without love, I am nothing. I could have faith that moves mountains, give away all of my possessions or have all of the knowlege in the world, but without having love, it means nothing. Loving is hard. It's hard enough sometimes to truly love those who love me, much less those who don't know me, care about me or even don't like me. I have been praying for a long time now that God would give me His love for other people. Because He knows, I know (and probably anybody I know knows) that apart from His power and grace I just can't do it. The great thing though, is that there is so much power in His love.  When I see other people as God does, it is the greatest motivation for serving, giving and sacrificing for other people.  And for speaking in boldness about His love offering to us-Jesus Christ-who died for our sins and was resurrected so that we, I, can have an eternal relationship with Him. Wow. I will always be humbled by His love for me and I will continue to pray that he will give me even a fraction of that kind of love for other people.

A fun V-day garland I made at our art night from a friends scraps


This is also a special day because a year ago today we found out we were pregnant with Ronan!  Our plans to go out for sushi were suddenly changed to Thai. :)  And now, one year later, I have a new valentine!


Yes, baby boy, mommy & daddy do love you. Very much.


A very talkative boy today!

 Thanks for the bib Grandma J!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sunshine!

Today was glorious! It must have been 50 degrees at least.  I really can't remember what the weather was like last week; it seems all we thought about around here was Patrick's midterms. Can I just say "INTENSE"?!?  Maybe it's just me (I don't think so) but this week seemed the hardest yet since Patrick started PA school.  Of course I wasn't the one studying or taking the tests, but I really started to miss him. I spent a few late late nights helping him study just so we could be together.  He says it helps, and I hope it does, but no one should be asked to pronounce words like "Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole" or "Cholelithiasis" at midnight.

Anyway, today's sunshine was beautiful icing on the cake of this whole weekend.  We spent Friday evening with friends and fantastic food. The guys watched movies, the girls worked on art projects and the babies slept :) Saturday morning we slept in, had coffee and made breakfast together and that evening we watched a couple of movies. Today was a beautiful day and a great chance to spend the morning with church friends and hear from our pastor who just returned from Thailand.  We loved hearing his perspective after his 3 week trip and it really confirmed many things we have been thinking and God has been showing us lately. I'll try to post on that soon...it's hard to find the words.  P still spent tons of time on schoolwork, but it was great to have a few hours with him each day :) 

Below are a couple of pictures from our walk this afternoon, sans Patrick.  PS. There was a seriously UNglorious side to this day. We woke up with no dirty laundry, but have wrapped up the day with 3, maybe 4 loads (which are now clean).  Everything Ronan came into contact with today ended up being spit up on - sheets, pillows, the Boppy, our coats, clothes, car seat straps, etc. Sheesh kid. 

Perhaps I should not wear my hubby's clothes in public.


Sweet cheeks and double chin


haha. I love this terrified look and those huge kissable cheeks.  I'm sure it's because of the large black box in his face and not those mismatched socks, er...mittens;)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

3 Month Photos

Last week on one of those sunny, clear, incredibly cold days I took some "3 month" photos of Ronan.  The light in his room was great so I cranked up the heat and went for it.   Those ever-rounding red cheeks are evidence he was plenty warm.  We love those cheeks - perfect for kisses :) We lost some photos due to our memory card being corrupted, but there are still plenty to remember these sweet moments by.


 





Aunt Rachel gave Ronan this sweet monkey for Christmas. I dig the color. I wish I had taken a picture then when Mr. Monkey was actually longer than Ronan. He loves his new friend!





Monday, February 7, 2011

Creating

I love that I now have the opportunity to create.  Not that I didn't before, but after spending each work day creating as my full time job, I just didn't have the motivation once I got home.  My goal is one project per week, at least for now. With birthdays, 4 baby showers, and a long overdue wedding present, I have plenty of inspiration to keep me going for awhile.  Maybe someday I'll get to those projects around my house...

The first two pictures are of a wedding present I made for dear friends. I've had this idea in mind for months, even before the wedding which was 4 months ago. Oops.  Well, better late than never right?  I used fabric for the birds and scrapbooking paper for the leaves and sun in the wedding colors.  The couple used birds as a decorative theme for the wedding.  It was a beautiful event and hopefully this will be a sweet reminder for them of that special day.




 It's baby mania around this place!  I am thankful to have friends we can experience our lives with. Friends who have had kids before us and can provide reason, guidance and encouragement; friends who are having kids now to share these times with- Ronan's future buddies :) And friends who don't have kids, but who love us and support us no matter how mushy we get.  I have decided to make some gifts for these new babies because it is fun and affordable.  I haven't taken pictures of everything but below are a couple of cute projects I made for a little guy who just made his grand entrance into our crazy world.

This is a simplified version of an idea I fell in love with on Etsy. I intended to make one for Ronan before he was born but never got to it. Maybe next month.


This was my first attempt at making these onesies. They are a fun and pretty easy way give a unique gift.  I hope they hold up! Next time I'm going to use that freezer paper backing stuff. I assume it will help since every tutorial I have found on appliques recommends it.

I think this little guy is my favorite