Playing with the lensbaby

The wonderful thing about having a professional photographer for a father is that you can play with his lenses any time you want! He has a lensbaby (a tilt-shift lens) and I thought I'd play with it for a while.

This one is pretty much all blurry but I
liked the movement and color in it.

Also it's nice to have a professional photographer for a dad cause he takes awesome pictures for free!

Here are a couple of pictures from Ethan's 1 yr session.



And soon I'll post pictures of our Texas trip. I'm gonna catch up-- really!

He's diggin' the shades

Cause it feels good to check things off a list (and to tell people about it)

So while Ross was gone I wanted to get a few little projects done. Didn't get as much done as I wanted to (always), but still had fun with a few.

Finally finished this cross-stitch that I've
been working on for over two years. Mostly while watching General Conference.
It is a Frank Lloyd Wright design purchased near Chicago.

I know you can't tell, but this is a skirt I bought
(because it was on sale) and it was HUGE!
So my mom and this other lady in my ward helped me shrink it to size.

And I caught up with Ethan's 'scrapbook.'
I decided not to do a big elaborate thing for him,
cause I don't think I'll have the energy
to do that for all of my kids. So it's really simple.

Worked on the family scrapbook. Still way behind!

Made a camera case for our point-and-shoot camera.
Using this tutorial.

And for a future project: we found this retro shelf-thing at
the salvation army for $2.
I love the colors and design, so we got it.
I'll clean it up and figure out something to do with it.

Also on my to-do list:

• Learn to knit well. (Like adding and dropping stitch!)

• Make a quilt for new baby

...hmm I can think of a billion things I still want to do. But we'll leave it at that for the immediate future. Happy crafting!

Hoo boy! It's been pretty boring around here! Ethan decided to give up his afternoon nap this week. He now has two extra hours in his day that he spends with his mom. I'm pretty sure he's bored with me, since his daddy isn't here to divert his attention after 5. It's just me. Only one more day though! Ross is done tomorrow. And then we're gonna PAR-TAY!

Ethan and I have been having some fun though. It's his favorite game:

And then we were playing with his blocks in his bedroom and there was lots of light coming in from my room so I got out my camera. This was one of those pictures where he started to attack me so I held it out, closed my eyes, and clicked. It's more flare than baby but I still like it.



Oh and I do have some more stuff to post. So stay tuned! Ha ha.

Not much going on...

We went to the St. Patrick's Day parade a couple of weeks ago.. That was fun. Lots of green. Ethan got a little bored after a while.







Looking forward to:

1. Warm sunny days, every day. Although I'm glad we have as many as we do. He loves playing in the sunshine:




2. Ross being home for good in 3 weeks!

3. Going to Texas with Ross and Ethan to visit Kathleen and Phil in May.. right Kathleen?

4. Going to England with my momma in June- yes leaving hubby and one baby, taking one with me (in the belly)

5. And having new sweet baby in September


Okay so I guess I always have lots of pictures

Oh and I found these and thought Ethan's face is so funny! It was back when I did the stop-motion video.

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead

So my little boy turned 1 year old!! Sheesh! I feel like he's changed so much in the last month. We can see him learning, and understanding. He can do things when we ask him to (somewhat)! I thought that would never happen. He's walking! Slowly, and he still prefers the more efficient crawling, but he's getting there. Plus I think he's gained like 10 pounds. I don't know. But he's getting way heavy. Time for him to really get the hang of this walking thing! I don't want to lug him around anymore.

We had a little celebration on his actual birthday, last Sunday: Where he enjoyed this cake:

And then we had a party for him on Saturday with a few friends and some family:

Ross made his mom's famous (well, I think it's worthy of fame)
buttermilk chocolate cake. Sooooo good..

And then we made some vanilla-bean cupcakes
(from rookie-cookie) but with lemon custard frosting:

I made a birthday banner:

And we had lots of fun:

Ethan was surprisingly very neat and
tidy eating his cupcake:

And the balloons we blew up entertained him
for literally HOURS afterwards.. Seriously? Who needs toys?

And he looked so cute when he woke up from
his nap this morning I had to take some pictures:

He has brought SO much joy and depth to our lives. We love him. In fact, he's brought so much happiness to us that we thought we'd add another bundle of joy into our lives... and... I'm due in September!

Been thinking about this quote from Elder Bednar in last month's visiting teaching message:

"By divine design, men and women are intended to progress together toward perfection and a fullness of glory. Because of their distinctive temperaments and capacities, males and females each bring to a marriage relationship unique perspectives and experiences. The man and the woman contribute differently but equally to a oneness and unity that can be achieved in no other way."

It kind of makes you appreciate those differences that are there. I think you can let them put distance in your relationship, or you can come closer together as you realize that those differences are complimentary. Where he lacks, you are strong. Where you fall, he brings you up.

I'd like to think I appreciated Ross just as much when he was here all the time. But I know one blessing that has come from him being gone a lot is that I like to soak up every minute with him when he's here. I can feel myself becoming whole again.

Marriage between a man and a woman surely is divinely designed by a loving Heavenly Father.