It is Spring right???

       Sun, snow, rain, windy, snow rain, cloudy, freezing. What is wrong with this picture?? Oh yeah IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SPRING!!!! Where's the warmer weather? The sun? The warm breeze that you want to sit outside in?? After having a few days of warmth a while ago I was all excited for the weather change. But now, it feels like those few days were a sneak peek at what's coming out later this year....

       Okay I'm done whining about the cold now.

       On the brighter side of life, I got the quilt top for Eric sewn, I just have to quilt and bind it then it'll be done. I got one set of curtains done, got some buttons (love buy one get one free sells) for a "Quite Book" for Sundays (or just any day) and I'm almost done planning the activity quilts. So that's pretty much my sewing projects in a nut shell, besides helping my mom make some quilts to donate to a local stake my mom works with (she teaches some of the kids in the Spanish wards piano /organ so that they can have real music at church instead of a CD to sing with).

      As for my knitting, I'm almost done with the blanket Matt picked out for Eric, his one outfit is coming along nicely and I've got a few sets of booties/socks made for him. I'm still waiting on the yarn for his blessing outfit but that should go pretty fast since Matt picked a fairly simple pattern for it (thankfully).  He also has helped me pick out a few more items to make for Eric that I'm actually looking forward to making.

       Oh and can I just say that I love ShopKo baby sales!! I got a $10 off a $40 purchase to ShopKo in the mail and was originally going to just get rid of it. But then when we found out that we were having a boy I ended up saving and using it. So, I kidnapped Matt for a night and we went to ShopKo during their sale and I got about $80 worth of baby clothes for $35. I was so happy!! At first Matt wasn't all that impressed with what we'd gotten, but then I started adding up what we should have paid for everything. He was much happier after knowing how much we'd saved.

       Other then that life has been pretty much the same as always... I've been working extra hours at work, and Matt's been keeping caught up with most of his homework and gets to register for classes tonight... But that's pretty much our life in nutshell for now!!

~Melanie

Playing Catch up...

       Well since finding out that we'll be expecting a little prince in our family I've been playing catch up trying to get everything re-done for him. So far I've been able to make the top of his crib quilt, 3 flannel sheets for the winter and a couple pair of booties. I've got one outfit for him on my knitting needles and two more in the planning phase. Matt has also picked out his blessing outfit for me to knit, so I'll be starting on that pretty quick here too. I've found that in some ways having this change in our lives has been a blessing to me. It's given me something to do to keep busy while Matt studies away with his school, and not feel like I'm just sitting at home waiting for him to get home each night. It's also given me a chance to be extra prepared for future children and to continue to look forward to what the future has in store for us. And if nothing else, it's given me a chance to have even more of an excuse to do some sewing :). Once I finish quilting the crib quilt I'll post pictures of everything that I have gotten done so far for Eric.

       As for Matt, he's got 3 weeks of classes left and then 1 week of finals. He seems to be a lot less stressed about school since finding a tutor that can explain what his teacher fails to do every day in class. He's also been able to work out his schedule to meet with the TA's for some of his other classes and is doing good in all of them. His ROTC classes are going well and he seems to still enjoy them, granted after hearing what some of the cadets have had to say about his last performance at lab I really want to rip some heads off... Thankfully Matt has talked me out of the hormonal psycho-ness for the most part and so now we just ignore it and move on to talking about happier things (i.e. our week vacation to San Diego this May!!)

       Yes it's true. Matt and I are going on our first "real" family vacation since getting married. (I found out when talking to Matt that our Honeymoon and the 3 day getaway to Park City don't count because they were cut short by school and other such reasons...) So this time we are taking a week and just playing in San Diego. I for on am so excited to go. It'll be nice to go and just have fun together someplace warm but not burning. I'm really hoping that it rains one of the days that we're there so we can have a day to just chill and not be running around... Although knowing Matt, we'll probably spend the majority of our time playing at Legoland, Sea World, and the San Diego Zoo. Thankfully he's not pushy when I tell him that I need a break or just time to sit (especially since Eric came into the mix:}). If nothing else, this pregnancy has shown me just how incredibly lucky I am to be married to such a wonderful man. Sometimes I wake up thinking it's all just a dream, until Bray'Tac jumps on Eric and wakes up Matt. Then it all seems so real that I just get overwhelmed with joy that it's all mine and no one can take it from me.

       Now that I'm starting to get all teary eyed (so claiming it's a pregnancy thing right now...) I'm gonna go eat some chocolate cake and start working on sewing some more things for Eric.

Biggest shock of our lives!! (so far)

       Well it turns out that after all the nights of thinking I'm having a little girl, and everyone telling me it's a little girl, we were all very wrong. Turns out that my shy little girl that wouldn't spread her legs for the first ultrasound was really a bashful little boy that let it all hang out during my ultrasound today. At first Matt and I weren't quite sure what to think. We've both been so excited since finding out about our little princess around that we weren't expecting to hear the doctor say, "Uh oh, looks like Samantha turned into Samuel." We were both so shocked that it took him saying, "I'm going to use some very technical terms right now. Right knee, left knee, weenie. So, unless you're having a three-legged girl, I think it's safe to say it's a boy." We were also able to find out that my placenta is the reason I feel him moving so little (which is really good to know because I've been freaking out when I haven't felt him for more then a day, turns out that's normal for where my placenta is, but will end soon enough).

      I was so shocked when I found out, here I'd been making all this stuff for a little princess only to find out that we're having a little prince instead!! So not only do I now have to redo the nursery bedding (thankfully I had gotten all the stuff for a boy nursery while Matt was at basic, so it's just a matter of finishing it), but I also have to start over on all the baby clothes and blankets I've been knitting. Thankfully I had started a baby boy blanket long before I got pregnant, so I can finish that one off for Eric (Matt had picked it out for him early on anyway). But now I have to find the time/coupons to get/make more fabric for sheets (since they are outrageous to buy) and his blessing outfit. Matt has picked out an outfit that I hopefully will be able to finish in time, granted he was nice enough to pick one out that is fairly simple and uses bigger needles then the last one he picked out. But for now I'm just going to worry about the blanket, sheet and outfit that I was able to get stuff for today. I'll post pictures once they are all completed.

        Since daylight savings is throwing me off, I better head to bed so I'm not a zombie in the morning. Night!!

20 weeks and counting

       Well I'm half baked!! (Speaking of which, Ben and Jerry's Half Baked Cookie Dough ice cream sounds amazing right about now...) So it's all down hill from here :)!! Tuesday we'll get to see our precious little girl again and I for one can't wait!! Tuesday really can't come fast enough for me...

       Other then that I've just been working on some dresses for Samantha and trying to decide if I have enough sheets for her crib... I've been told you can't ever have too many of them but at the same time I don't know that I want to be storing tons of sheets either... Same for blankets... As far as those go I've got a few saved just for Samantha that I got from Great-Grandma Lenna, Grandma Hennen and some that I've made just for her... right now though with all the fabric that I have in my stash I've been trying to make scrappy quilts that I'll decide what to do with once they are done. I have to make two Play-Time quilts (one I've started and the other I'm still in the planning stages of) But I'll post pictures of those once I get them done. The first one is just bright and uses up a lot of my scraps, the second one I'm thinking about putting butterflies and flowers on depending on what fabric I find to make it with.

       But since I'm just posting to avoid doing dishes I better cut this one short and post again once I finish cleaning...

~Melanie

The Blessing Dress

 

        So the pictures aren't the best, but this is the dress we are going to bless Samantha in. I'm thinking about adding a ribbon around her waist and a white flower.... But I haven't decided yet... If I do end up adding them I'll post more pictures (and have Matt take them so they actually turn out...)

~Melanie