Christmas 2010

Well, the Christmas tree is up. It looks a weeeeee bit smaller than last year's foliage, but there is a reason for that. When we went to get our real xmas tree last year, the window in my car broke after rolling it down to tie the tree down- it quickly became the most expensive Christmas tree I've EVER had!! After that, Drew and I agreed that we wanted to spend that extra $40-60-370 on gifts for our friends and family and so, reluctantly, I bought an artificial tree the day after Christmas. It was a good deal, but now I know why- IT'S FREAKIN' SKINNY!!!! Oh well, it leaves space for the rest of the furniture in our front room- especially leaving room for visiting friends!!

This was one of the very first ornaments we had on our real tree last year. We had just purchased our home in June and this was a gift from our realtor, Jen Buetler of John L. Scott. It was awesome- a picture of our first home to go on our first real Christmas tree.

Many people have some kind of "Our First Christmas" ornament, but I'm sure none of them look like this one. A friend from TF, Stephanie Crumrine, made this for Drew and I and we LOVE it. Something truly individual and artistic and we have the ONLY one.

I bought this owl in the after Christmas sales of last year. I was in an "owl" stage of my life and am just grateful that the colors of the owl match the colors of our other ornaments.

Getting back to those yearly personalized ornaments we all have to celebrate those special moments in our lives, we now have one for this year. I found this little piece at a Christmas kiosk in the mall and knew we had to have it. I've seen lots of "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornaments, but this was the first of this kind I had seen. It now proudly hangs on our Christmas tree, only to be added to by one of those "Baby's 1st" next year.

Newest Baby Projects

One of the favorite Case family projects is making burb cloths and matching blankets for their newest family members. I've seen cousins and siblings receive these near hand-made goodies for four years now and I have finally started receiving my own. Even better, I 've started making my own. While out-and-abouting on Black Friday morning, I found the pattern pieces needed to make my own set. The fabirc comes in the form seen below (some come with matching blankets), and it has the small stitching holes punched around the sides. It's up to the crafter to crochet or knit as she pleases around the edges.

Very proud of my craftiness, considering in High School I swore off all projects that resembled anything domestic or girlie. Those who knew me best knew I referred to these kinds of arts & crafts as "Mormon Women Projects", as all my LDS girlfriends spent their Wednesday nights at church learning these domestic skills. Now before anyone gets their feelers hurt, I used this term in a joking sense in order to avoid admitting that I might have been interested in learning along with them. I repeatedly refused invites from my class-mates and neighbors and now find myself wishing I could tag along as a fly on the wall to learn how to sew, or can, or scrapbook (my sworn off secret enemy) or bake withour burning, or knit travel size cosmetic bags. or...or...or... Yes, to those of you who are active members in the church, I do realize I could tag along at any point with any of you to learn, but I'm pretty sure they're age limits to learning how to make doll clothes :)

Perhaps in my next life, I'll come back with all the Martha Stewart tips I need to teach YOU ALL a thing or two about being domestic!!!

Winter is HERE!!!

With the first snow last week, I thought I would just get a few shots from our yard to share

#1-This little guys sits in our front flower bed and greets all of our guests.
#2- My last blooms of Summer.
#3-Our dog goes CRAZY when I get the camera out. No matter what she's doing she starts running around and barking, as in the picture below. Because the yard was covered in snow, she kept sliding everywhere and I was laughing sooo hard. It was hysterical!!!

I know we have more snow coming, so I'm sure more photo opportunities will follow :)

My New Look

In the past few weeks, I've had an especially hard time with feeling frumpy and boring. I hadn't had my hair cut or colored in five months, I was growing out of my clothes with nothing to grow into, and I was just feeling BLAH!!! With my birthday around the corner, I asked my family to help jazz up my wardrobe with some new maternity clothes, and boy did they all come through for me. Between the parents and sisters I got loaded up on some of the cutest things. And to top it off, Drew gave me one of my gifts early last Saturday when he woke me up and told me I was headed to the salon. He made me an appointment to get my hair cut and colored and I even got my eyebrows colored and waxed. With these new tops from Missie and jeans from the Motherhood Maternity store, I literally felt like a million bucks. I've worn some combination of new clothes since my birthday last Wednesday and am so grateful to be feeling better. Thanks everybody!!!!

My Drew

I was folding laundry in my college dorm room at BSU one day when I saw Drew walking past my building outside. We had not really met, I didn't know his last name, what he was studying in school, where he came from, or where he was going. But somehow, in that moment, I KNEW I would marry him. It would only take us another two years before that actually became a reality.

Now, four years into our relationship, we find ourselves in a wonderful place. We own our home, we have two great jobs, wonderful friends and family, and our first child on the way- what more could a woman ask for? If I DID have anything else, Drew would do whatever he could to make it happen for me.

Since the beginning of our time together, everyone always told me how lucky I was to have Drew, and I always agreed. He's the kind of person who would truly get out of bed and drive as far as he needed to in order to help a friend. He gives everyting he has to everything he does- he goes the distance to get the job done.

The thing I love the most about Drew is his ability to make me laugh. When I first met him, he was so quiet, and over the years I have come to realize he is one of the funniest people I know. When he gets together with his friends, I often find myself doubled over in laughter. He is smart and witty, and combines the two in order to provide some very interesting conversations.

More than anything, I am grateful to have him by my side in our adventures into paretnhood. And he has been by my side in everything- he comes to every doctors appointment, tucks me in bed at my new, earlier bedtime, has gone out for chocolate cake when no other dessert in the house would do, and has started reaching into the back of my closest to get me my shoes. He has been SO supportive and loving throughout this whole process and I hope I tell him often enough how much I appreciate him. I believe more and more everyday that he will be a wonderful father, as he has already proved to be an amazing husband.

I love you Drew Bob, and can't wait to continue our amazing adventure together!! You've been so wonderful to me, in ways and on days that I not always deserved, and yet you loved me through it all. You are my best part and better half and you have truly made me a stronger person. You will never know how you have touched my life and my heart and I am grateful to have you in my life. I love going to bed next to you everynight, and waking up next to you every morning. And most of all, I Love You MORE!!

The Most Perfect Baby Bedding

Before we even knew what gender our baby would be, we had picked out our baby bedding. Regardless of boy or girl, we were going to get a set from Fisher Price called "How Now Brown Cow." Even the name is cute!! And not only was it a bedding set, but they had matching swings and bouncers, clothing, and room decor. With everything they had, the one thing they didn't have was a mobile. Even though they made one, target wasn't carrying it, saying it was "Temporarily Unavailable". However, it never WAS available. I was bummed because it was sooo cute. I started getting even more nervous when other items started becoming "Temporarily Unavailable" or "Out of Stock". I was worried that we were slowly losing each piece of our now beloved bedding set. I even called Fisher Price and Target to see if it WOULD become available at soem point, and no one could give me a firm answer. So with regret, we started looking for a backup :(

Two weeks ago, a miracle happened. I got online to research some other baby items and no only was the bedding and its coordinating pieces IN STOCK, but so was the MOBILE!! I got so excited that I practically begged Drew to "compromise" and let me use my Christmas job money to buy the pieces we absolutely needded to get our nursery started. We agreed we needed the bedding set (quilt, bumper, and crib sheet) the dust ruffle, window valance, and mobile. We ordered them all and got the first pieces today. Let me just say, that the pieces are even more cute in person- each animal is textured and so comfy- I know our little man will love it. I was literally jumping up and down in the kitchen as Drew opened the packages. I couldn't be more pleased with our choice and am grateful to my husband for his compromise. Now, we are on to paint selections and crib building. HOORAY!!!

The Bump has Arrived

Please forgive the lack of make-up, but I wanted to share the arrival of my baby bump. Up until now, I haven't wanted to post belly pictures because, quite frankly, I wasn't looking pregnant yet- perhaps just bloated. This picture was taken the first day of week 23 in our pregnancy. I am spliting my time between my regular pants (somedays with the help of a belly band) and maternity pants (which I am wearing in this pic).

The hardest part of this whole pregnancy has been re-gaining all the weight I took this last year losing. I know I am gaining for a very different reason now, but it is nearly painful every time I get on the scale. I hope my hard work and dedication to working out before the baby will make it easy to get back on the regime after the baby. And I will be all in favor of the breast-feeding diet as well!!!

Drew and I started our registry today. I don't know if we did it too early, but I feel I have a lot of research to do before actually add a whole lot to the list. Registering for our wedding was easy; we just added plates and linens and bedsheets that we liked. Registering for a baby means looking at warnings and recall notices and parent reviews and product descriptions. Needless to say, the hour we spent in Target was exhausting and a wee bit over-whelming. We have a few things more to add to the list (baby monitor, more bottles, first aid/health products) but we did have a good time.

To answer everyone's first question after finding out we're having a boy: YES, we have picked out a name for our little man, but NO we are not sharing yet. We figured that with getting to share the gender and our nursery theme and our registry hopes and everything else, we wanted to keep one thing for ourselves. So we will be happy to share the name we've selected as soon as there's a baby to give it to- thanks for your patience :)