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 :)

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!

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;)

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!

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