Sophie's 1st Year

Some of you might know that for Christmas we made a book for the grandparents of Sophie's 1st year. It was a fabulous hit and the grandparents loved it! Shutterfly (where I made it) now offers a 'gallery' to show off your work, so I thought I'd post the link so you can check it out if you want to.

http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDFg0Ys2Llo4Zg0zVLOw

I've put in pictures from each month as well as quotes from my journal from that particular month. I think that that makes it more intimate.

Edinburgh, Scotland

One of the perks of Aaron's job is that he gets a ton of frequent flyer miles. (That's what happens when you fly all over the world for 80% of the time.) He is currently in Cebu, Philippines again and comes home on the 30th. Then, he's home for a week and leaves for Edinburgh, Scotland.... so, Sophie and I decided to go with him! Yay!! It'll be all of our first times in Europe. Aaron, undoubtably, will be there a lot more, but I'm excited to be able to go with him this time. After deciding to go, I was so excited and mentioned it to my mom... who decided to come too! So, now my mom and dad are also coming with us. I'm really excited as now I will have someone to do stuff with during the day while Aaron is at work. (Hmm, and maybe we'll have a babysitter for one or two date nights in Scotland... shall we say valentine's day?)

We'll be there for just under 2 weeks. February is not the best time to visit Scotland, so I've heard, but it may be my only chance to go for free, so who cares! :) The picture above is of Edinburgh Castle which is definitely one of the first things on our list. I'm so excited to go!

Random Musings of the day

If we could find a way to use kids' snot as a fuel, we'd have a totally renewable and inexhaustible resource.

Clementines are good to eat. They are not good if they are stuck to your ovary. (If interested, or otherwise bored, see other blog: www.ttcsanity.blogspot.com)

Are blogs just our way of "keeping up" with people w/o really having to talk to them?

It's too bad TV isn't good for kids... we've watched a little today and yesterday b/c of the two of us being sickies, and some of them are so cute! Have you heard of "The Big Music Show," or something like that. Ahhh, we both loved it! :)

Part II

I got new scriptures for my birthday from my sweetie. I've been hinting for a couple years that "it'd be nice to have scriptures with my married name on them." Well, he finally got them for me - so I can stop using the ones that say Clever now :) Besides some of the pages are starting to fall out.

I'm excited to have them now since it's right at the beginning of the year and we're studying the Book of Mormon in our Sunday School Class (we rotate the book that we study: BOM, Old Test, New Test, you get the idea). I LOVE having my new scriptures. I was a little sad to not use my ones that are already marked up and whatnot, but this is my new beginning :) So, I've been doing my personal scripture study when Sophie goes for a nap each day. For me, I have to have it be part of my routine or I forget.

Anyway, I'm trying to make a concerted effort to " liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." 1 Ne 19:23

So, before I go on, read these two verses from 1 Ne chapter 9...

5 Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not.
6 But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.

Done? Ok. Need to read them again? Ok, I'll wait....
Nephi engraved all this stuff onto plates of metal and he had no idea why. Can you imagine how long that took and how hard that was? If I asked you to take an pick and axe and burrow through the rockies, you would want to know why - otherwise you wouldn't do it, or at least murmur against me. So often in my own youth and seeing other youth and even the not-so-young, there is a lot of questioning of easy, simple stuff.... for example... "why can't we get tattoos?" "What's the harm in an R-rated movie?" "Seriously we have to go to church for 3 hours? Why?" Murmur, murmur, murmur. Yet, Nephi (who was also very young) made these plates and didn't have to ask and didn't have to know because he had faith and knew that the Lord had a wise purpose.

Which brings me to another point, more of likening the verses directly to me, I suppose.
I sometimes get impatient with the timeline of having kids for us. Generally speaking, it will take us much longer and much more money to have our family than a good majority of other people (but not as much as others), and sometimes I get impatient. Yet, I KNOW that the Lord has a plan for our family. He has shown it so many times and I have such great faith in this... maybe sometimes I still murmur, or at least think of murmuring in my heart. Not against God, but just in general. Wo is me, I suppose. I try not to, and generally think I do a pretty good job, but some thoughts still creep in. I guess what I'm babbling about is that I need to just do my part. I need to have more of Nephi's attitude and go and do what my job is. The Lord will show the plan later for he knoweth all things from the beginning, will prepare a way, and hath all power unto fulfilling the plan.

Part I

Part I...
Well, the cat's out of the bag. It was our plan to not tell our family or friends (most anyway) that we were trying to have another baby... that hasn't exactly worked out well. A couple months ago I had such terrible stomach pains from the fertility medication that I'm on that Aaron had to call my mom and have her come over to help with Sophie. I couldn't do anything - I was on the floor (and later in my bed) curled into a ball from the pain. Sophie was so upset b/c she knew that mommy wasn't ok. We really thought that Aaron would have to take me to the hospital, so mom came over to help out and also stay with her while I was at the hospital. It turned out that I didn't go the hospital after all, but the help was invaluable (she would not let Aaron comfort her or anything). You just can't have someone (let alone your family) come over to help while you go to the hospital and not tell them why.... so my parents found out.

Then, maybe a month ago I was talking to my SIL (Aaron's sister) and well, it came out of my mouth before I even thought about it. We were talking about something else that related and it didn't even occur to me until after it came out. Ah well.

So fast forward to last Sunday or so. Aaron's parents came over and we had dinner and before he knew it, Aaron blurted it out too. At least I didn't feel so bad about telling his sister. :)

So now all of our family knows and a couple of friends, so I figured all of my friends might as well know. I'm terrible at keeping secrets and not saying what's on my mind. Funny b/c the first has kept me out of a lot of trouble and the second probably has gotten me in some trouble :) Anyway, I figured that I might as well be able to blog about it if everyone knows anyway. I haven't decided if I'll blog here or on our ttc (trying to conceive) blog that most people don't know about. Anyway, that is: www.ttcsanity.blogspot.com if I do decide to do it there instead so others don't have to weed through the endless babymaking charades.

The Pink Green Bag

Ok... the pink-green bag.... not a very catchy name - hmm, I'll need a different one. Anyway, I'm a fan of pink and browns together and loved this material from High-Fashion when I saw it.

I decided to make a reuseable grocery bag out of it - hence the 'green.'

I started it last night after I finished my new, cute, blue clutch (and after Sophie went to bed). So, after church today, I finished it up.

In these pictures, it has a loaf of bread and a box of cereal in it.

It's patterned after a regular, plastic grocery sack and

is gusseted on the sides so that more stuff fits in.

You can see the gussets better in the bottom picture.

I'm not sure if I'll use it for it's intended purpose, of if I'll steal it and put sewing material for my next project in it... hmm, what will the project be? I'm not sure yet... maybe I'll actually buy a pattern! I've been wanting to do some Amy Bulter stuff
(see: http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/patterns_top.php)
- and just found out that High-Fashion carries her patterns but not fabric.
But, I think that I may need a little more practice first.

The creative mo-jo has returned

Augh, I can't remember the last time that I did something crafty and creative... was it really Oct 2006 making a mermaid costume for Sophie? Really? There has got to be something else since then... but yet, I can't remember anything. I keep busy in my 'free' time (is there really any "free" time as a mom?) - gardening, running, photography, etc. but I definitely have lost my creative mo-jo since becoming a mom of a toddler. Mainly I think it's because I don't want to get all the stuff out, just to have to put it up an hour later when Sophie wakes up or try to wrestle her away from everything. But, I've been missing that part of me and decided to do something about it. Today, I made a cute little clutch purse. I'm looking forward to just sticking my wallet, phone, keys, etc. and sticking it in the diaper bag and going. Then, when I don't have the wee-one, I can just grab it and go.

I regret not taking pictures throughout the process, but ah well. I ended up having to sew it at my mom's house b/c my grandmother had my machine last and well... let's just say there is now a part missing.

Here's it's got my wallet, phone, and keys and definitely could fit more.