Saturday, December 31, 2011

Christmas 2011 Part 1

I think this post is going to be mostly a photo dump because we had too many Christmas celebrations to describe! It was insane. We aren't doing that much next year. It was so much Christmas that I had to divide it up into 2 posts! Here you go:

A few days before Christmas we took Steven to see Santa. He was excited in line!!



Christmas Eve with Gabbymaw and Grandpa Steve:



Dinner with Jordan and Grandparents:


Some presents....


Christmas Morning at home:






Lunch Christmas day with my family (at our house):





Steven was actually sleeping when we opened his presents...he had a rough day, poor guy. But he got some really cool stuff!

But he woke up and made good use of his new toys!



Steven enjoying some family time with my parents and my Aunt, Jan.


That evening we went to Steve's Aunt Ellen's house to celebrate with his extended family and I didn't take any pictures for some reason...We had a great time though and it was really fun to see everyone.


Well that was our first weekend of Christmas...stay tuned. More to come!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Holly Jolly Christmas Decorations

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is seeing all the decorations that go up around town. I love seeing the huge trees in the mall and seeing our neighborhood light up! So pretty! This year, we put up some decorations around our place too. I think we did a darn good job.

Lets start it off right with the tree! This is the hand-me-down tree we got from my Aunt Jan. We had quite a few ornaments to add to it this year. I think it looks great!


Here are our stockings, Steve's mom made for us a few years ago...with one addition, Steven's stocking that my mom made last year. Don't they look nice?


Here are the decorations in the kitchen. I also hung up the Christmas cards we got this year on a makeshift clothesline...I think it looks neat! Too bad it keeps falling down. :(



Oh and look at the decroations outside! Doesn't it look great? Steve and my parents did that and I think they did a great job! My parents donated their candy cane lights this year and I love them!


These are my favorite outside decoration thought, the little light up Christmas trees!


Steven really enjoyed the decorations this year and I did too! I'm so glad we were able to get them up. Did anyone else do it up for Christmas this year? Hope you had a great one! More Christmas themed (catch up) posts to come!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

December has been...

CRAZY! We have been keeping so busy this month, I've hardly had any time for blogging. So how about some updates:

  • A few weekends ago we decorated our house for Christmas. It was so much fun! We've been so busy that I thought we might not get around to decorating this year but I'm so glad we did. Steven still looks in awe at the Christmas tree every night when we turn it on. We had some help on the outside from my parents and it looks great!
  • We haven been getting ready for Steven's first Christmas and we couldn't be more excited! Its so much fun having him around this Christmas. It makes everything more special. I can't wait to see how he does this year and see him experience everything for the first time.
  • Steven finished his semester of school recently and has a month off! That is so awesome! Its been so great to have him home in the evenings lately. We have gotten to enjoy spending time with Steven together and eating dinner together. Wonderful! I can't wait until he is done with school (2 more semesters).
  • I mentioned earlier that I got a new job. I started it a few weeks ago and its going great so far. It actually also came with my own office in a brand new building so that's been nice! I'm just learning and getting acclimated to my new position, but so far I like it. (Still waiting for my first paycheck with my raise on it...;)
  • On a personal note, I've been really challenged by some of my friendships lately. I think some times people take for granted how much work it is to be a friend to someone through a hard time. Of course, "that's what friends do" and I'm not complaining about that, just that its not always easy. And my friendships have actually taken up a lot of my emotional energy and time lately just trying to figure out how to best support my friends.
  • Steve and I have been going through a transition lately as well. He got a great internship at Monsanto starting in his last semester, which will be June. It comes with a pretty decent pay for an intern and hopefully he can turn it into a full time job. But until that time, he is still unemployed. His benefits are getting close to running out and he's had a really hard time trying to find a job. So that's been a struggle for us lately.
  • Well those last 2 were sort of a downer so lets end on a positive note...our baby boy is growing like crazy! He is getting so big and has such an amazing personality. He makes me smile everyday! We got some pictures taken of him for Christmas and they are adorable!
  • That's all for now! Several posts in the works so stay tuned...

Saturday, December 10, 2011

In the Works

I've been on a massive DIY kick lately. I've gotten lots of inspiration from Pinterest and other places to start trying some decorating, organzing and other projects around our house. I've got a few projects in the works and thought I'd let you know what I'm working on (full posts to come later).

I've started this project a few weeks ago and have yet to figure out how I want to finish it. It took a lot longer than expected to get the materials and find a color that was just right, etc. So I'm not exactly happy with it yet...But hopefully it turns out looking something like this:


I also started working on this project but ran out of toilet paper rolls to make it as big as I want. So I'm waiting (lol) for more and will finish it later.


Some other art projects I want to make for our house: this, this and this.



I viewed a few tutorials for how to make those roses on the pillows and I really think I can do that, so I plan to start working on that one soon. And how easy is that adorable wall art above? That will probably only take a few hours.

I also want to make some shades for our dining room windows. The valances up there now are hidious and dirty and left over from the people before us. I was thinking of making some faux roman shades like this.



I've been thinking a lot about how to best use our "planning" space in our kitchen. We've got a nice little nook with shelves and almost a desk-like feel in the corner of our kitchen. We've also got a major problem with mail, papers and stuff piling up in the upstairs so we need an organizing solution. I was thinking about something like this. Wouldn't it be fun to have a family organization/messaging center right there? Then we could have a place for all our mail (incoming and outgoing), schedule, grocery lists, coupons, etc, etc.



Along the same theme, I was thinking of using some of the shelves above this space in our kitchen to organize paperwork. We have a couple filing cabinets downstairs but papers just pile up down there and sit on our kitchen counter forever before finally getting moved downstairs. I had something in mind like this. Isn't that pretty? and organized?


So I'm working towards a solution in that area but it will probably have to wait until after the holidays because there are so many fun, holiday crafts I want to do!

Speaking of holiday crafts here are a few I'm planning (hoping) to get done in the next few weeks, here, and here 



Some longer term projects I want to do include some handprint art in Steven's bedroom. Everyone else has something handmade in there and he should too! Wouldn't one of these look so cute in there? Maybe the crab or octopus? That will probably be a fun and messy project!
Of course I have a couple other projects up my sleeve but those are secret! :) Happy DIYing!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Book Review: My Sister's Keeper



I recently finished reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I was loaned this book by my good friend, Jenn, a while ago. I was apprehensive to read it knowing that it would most likely be a sad story. For some reason, I like books that are uplifting and happy. Probably because I wish the world was like that, but that's another story! Anyway, I was apprehensive about reading this book but I was getting down to the bottom of the pile of books I had to read while pumping at work so I decided to read it. And, I'm so glad I did! I really enjoyed the book.

If you don't already know, this book is about a family who finds out their young daughter has cancer. They decide to have another baby, one that is scientifically chosen in order to have matching characteristics to donate blood to the sister. As you can imagine, as the siblings grow up and the older sister's cancer worsens, this dynamic causes more and more problems. Eventually the younger sister hires a lawyer to medically emancipate herself from her parents, meaning she doesn't want to be a donor for her sister's treatment anymore, which would cause her sister to lose her battle with cancer.

The premise of the book is very interesting in itself, but I really enjoyed the characters just as much. Picoult really intertwines all her characters in such interesting ways throughout the story. The way the book is written is really interesting as well. Each chapter is written from one of the character's perspectives. Some of the chapters have several timelines in them as well. At first, it was surprising to me to read a book written this way but I got used to it. It wasn't my favorite way to read a book but after I got used the writing style, it didn't distract too much from the story.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot was very interesting, full of twists and turns, suspenseful moments, secrets, emotional moments. The characters were all really deep, each having conflicting sides to themselves as well as interacting with the other characters in the story. The one thing I didn't particularly like about the book was the ending. It was pretty shocking and sort of just dropped off. Although, maybe I was just wishing for the happy ending I like, but I didn't really care for the way she ended the book. I also really didn't care for the epilogue. I thought it felt totally unnatural and went against a lot of the character development she had done throughout the entire book up until that point.

Even though I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, I really did enjoy reading this book. I would recommend it to anyone. It was sad at times, but also happy. The made this one into a movie as well so I'll have to put it on my list of movies to watch also.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Baby Steven's First Year...Seven Months


Officially over half a year old already, Mr. Man. I cannot believe how fast time is flying by! You are developing a super cute personality these days. You are just the happiest, friendliest baby! You smile, giggle, laugh and give kisses and hugs all the time now.


You will crack up so hard when we tickle you! You love to smile and flirt with other people, even strangers. You just love it when you smile and everyone melts around you. Too cute! You will respond when we say, "Can I have a kiss?" You lean in close and stick your lips out. Its adorable! Of course you are still giving open mouth, slobbery kisses but we'll take them!


You can go a little crazy with the kisses sometimes. You "attack faces" now. You will lean in and nibble on our chin and play bite us. Its so cute. Mommy was doing that to you earlier and you caught on quickly! I'm sure people who don't know you wonder what the heck this baby is doing! ha!


On the subject of biting, you have been teething like crazy this month! You bite and chomp down on anything you can get including our hands, legs, the edge of your bathtub, you name it. You have also been sticking your hands in your mouth and sucking your fingers pretty frequently. We are thinking teeth are coming soon, although none have appeared just yet.


You have continued to be very vocal this month. You are trying out all sorts of syllables. You love to play the game where you say "Ah?" and we repeat back other syllables to you. Its so cute. You have learned to say "Ba" too this month. Good job, little man!



A trick your daddy taught you a while ago, but I haven't mentioned yet is holding your own bottle to eat. I don't get to enjoy this much because I hardly ever give you a bottle but you can hold it by yourself like a champ now. Daddy also taught you to make funny noises with your mouth when we vibrate your lips. Pretty cute!

You are growing like a weed now. You are already outgrowing the 6 months clothes we just bought you last month! It could be partially because of your cloth diapers, but 6 months pants are way too short on you! We had to put you in 9 months pants and some 9 months shirts even! Should we start thinking about contacting the NBA, Steven?  You are getting very strong too. You love to stand up holding onto something. Not too interested in crawling yet, though.


So 7 months old already! You are a super smiley, happy baby. Giggling and giving slobbery kisses all the time. You love to try out your voice and can say "ah" and "ba". You nibble on chins and faces and are thinking about getting some teeth soon. You are still trying out solid foods but prefer to be spoon fed until you get some teeth. You are growing like a weed and are already in 9 month clothes. You are such a big boy when you practice standing and hold your own bottle. We love you so much, Steven!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Riegerix Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving day this year, Steven got to meet a lot of his extended family. We had a wonderful meal at Grandma and Grandpa Riegerix's house. The food was delicious! Steven also got to play with some of his new cousins and great aunts and uncles.

Steven with God parent, Jordan.


Before everyone got there, Steven made sure to give his gabby maw tons of kisses!


Steven hanging out with great uncle John and great aunt Ellen.




Apparently Joe was saying something funny because Steven kept looking at him sideways....ha ha!


Steven loves cuddling with the ladies...

So it was a great first Thanksgiving for the little man! Even though he slept through the meal! Everyone was very happy to see him and give him some love. Happy Thanksgiving!!