Gable Box/Card Set and a Halloween Photo

Hi everyone!  I hope my Halloween-celebrating friends had a super fun day yesterday :)  Here's a photo of my daughter in her Tinkerbell costume. 

This costume is from Rebel Daisy Designs.  My friend, Krista, is the owner and she handmakes absolutely beautiful tutu dresses and hair accessories.  She recently started a Bow of the Month club, too, which my daughter NEEDS to sign up for!  Rebel Daisy Designs is on Etsy and Facebook.

In scrappy news... I'm on the Momenta blog today with this fun gable box and card set.  I used the super cute Kaleidoscope collection for this.

I filled the box with some scrumptious chocolates... of course I had to sample one (okay, two) of the chocolates to make sure they were suitable for the recipient :)

Thanks for stopping by today.  I truly appreciate it!  Tomorrow I hope to post a few sneaks of what I've been up to for My Little Shoebox :)

Scrapbook Daisies April Project Sneaks

I've been working on several different projects and although I can't show them to you yet, I do have a couple sneak peeks to share of some of my work using the April "Mabel" kit from Scrapbook Daisies kit club.

Those My Mind's Eye papers are just gorgeous!  I knew they were beautiful from the photos that I saw online but they're even more stunning in person.  Have you seen them?

Come back here on Wednesday the 20th to see my full reveal of layouts and cards using that beautiful kit.  Be ready to "hop" that day because the design team will be hosting another fun blog hop filled with inspiration and prizes.

I hope everyone's having a nice weekend!  Allison and I had ourselves a little pizza party on Friday night.  Yummy!  Then on Saturday morning we went to the Kiwanis' Books and Breakfast where we got to hang out with friends, meet the Cat in the Hat, and pick out a new board book to take home.  Allison loves books.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a nice Valentine's Day! :)

My day has been great!  We started the day with a wonderful brunch (which Dan cooked).  Then he and I gave Allison her Valentine's gifts and took some photos and video.

She and Dan gave me lovely cards and a big box of chocolates :)  This afternoon we went to the kids' boutique and bought Allison her birthday dress (it's gorgeous!) and a few new board books (she loves books!).  Then we went through the DQ drive-thru for a soft-serve chocolate ice cream cone which Allison took part in and loved!  Now Dan's cooking us dinner, woohoo!  We're having ham and "killer potatoes" as my mom calls them (they're loaded with bacon, cheese, and sour cream... YUM).

Here are the Valentine gift boxes that Allison sent to her cousins.  Inside were some chocolates and other Valentine's-themed goodies (we made the boxes and the accordion flower toppers using my Martha Stewart scoring board... love that thing!).

Next is the Valentine's card that Allison sent to her Grandma...

We made the card using leftovers from the adorable Scrapbook Daisies February "Be Mine" kit.

Happy Valentine's Day!

6 Months!

Happy 6 months, Allison!

5 Months!

Happy 5 Months, Sweet Little Allison!

4 Months!

Happy 4 Months Sweet Little Allison!

3 Months!

Happy 3 months, sweet little Allison!

2 Months!

Happy 2 months, sweet little Allison!
Mommy and Daddy love you sooooo much!

6 Weeks!

Our sweet little Allison is 6 weeks old!

She continues to be an extremely content and sweet baby! We are so very blessed! I feel like I'm the luckiest mommy in the world :)

(I'm not sure why it looks like her hair is a reddish color in the photos... in real life it's not red but more of blonde color)

The poor thing has a rather sensitive digestive system and has been having a lot of difficulty keeping her formula down, especially overnight. It's not certain whether she has a protein sensitivity or severe reflux issues or both or what. Would you believe though that this little sweetie pie is such a doll that she doesn't complain even though she does so much vomiting?! She's truly a sweetheart!

So we have tried a number of different formulas hoping that something will agree with her. She's currently on a soy-based formula to which we've recently started to add a fair amount of rice cereal, and, we have her sleeping in an elevated position rather than flat on her back... and she's been doing tons better! She even slept through the night last night for the first time! :) :) :) So here's hoping that we've discovered the right "recipe" for her.

I can't say enough how blessed we are to have Allison.

Thanks for stopping by... I am really grateful for all of the comments and emails from everyone!

1 Month!

Happy 1 month, Allison! We are so blessed to have you!

Introducing Allison Kristine!

YAY!!! Our little sweetheart is here! We are soooooo incredibly happy! YAY!!!

Little Allison decided she didn't want to wait for our March 1st induction appointment. Instead, labor started on its own on the evening of February 23rd. About 48 hours later, at 6:46pm on Thursday, February 25th, Allison Kristine arrived! She weighed 8 pounds, was 20 inches long, and is just as beautiful, sweet, and perfect as could be! Allison and I both had some complications that kept us in the hospital a couple of days longer than normal but I'm happy to say that we are both recovering well! Our little girl is so amazing! Dan and I are truly blessed!

There is sooo much more that I want to share about the labor, delivery, and birth, but right now my time for being on the computer is so very limited and it's all I can do to get this quick post up! I haven't had a chance yet to look through many of the photos that have been taken, but here are a couple that Dan took shortly after birth :)



I am so very happy and thankful and blessed to be Allison Kristine's mommy :)

Well as soon as I get back on my feet and find some time and energy you can be sure that I will be filling this blog with lots and lots of photos and scrapbook pages of our little sweetie pie :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Crop Layout, Baby News, and a Sketch Layout

So this weekend was the Roses are Red online crop at Scrapbook Deals 4 U. Dan and I had a lot going on this weekend and I also found myself in need of a lot of sleep so I didn't get as much scrapping done as I would have liked, but I did manage to complete a few of the challenges. In a previous post I shared my layouts for the two challenges that I hosted for the crop.

Another one of the crop challenges was a Scraplift Love challenge, and for that I was assigned to scraplift Nicole, so I chose one of her many fabulous layouts to lift and this is what I came up with:


This was the first layout that I've made about just myself by the way :)

Speaking of becoming a mom, we had another great doctor appointment today. The ultrasound showed that everything continues to look good! We got another glimpse at her face and wow does she appear to have some very cute chubby cheeks! Another ultrasound is scheduled for next week, and then unless she decides to make an appearance on her own, we'll be induced the following week. We are soooo excited!

Back to scrappy stuff, Sketch Challenge #51 at SD4U is up! I'm hosting this challenge and this time around we're using a PageMaps sketch. Here's my take on the sketch:


That's my sweet niece, Amber. Her mommy took those photos of her and when I saw them I just knew they needed to be scrapped!

I'd love to see you all participate in this one!

Full Term Today!

It's really unbelievable to me that this pregnancy that we never thought would happen for us has progressed to full term!

Despite having quite a scare Sunday night through Monday morning due to a severe case of acid reflux and violent vomiting which nearly landed me in the ER, at my appointment later this week our doctor said our little one continues to appear happy and healthy and is measuring right on track :)

But since this is a high-risk pregnancy, our doctor still wants to induce just as a precaution just a few days before our due date at 39 weeks 3 days... that's only 17 days from now! I cannot believe that!!! My mom and my sister will be flying out here to join us for this which I think is absolutely awesome of them!

I want to sincerely thank all of you who have supported us throughout our infertility struggles and during this pregnancy... I truly believe your support has a whole lot to do with why we've made it this far!

I'll be back later today to share some scrappy projects that I've completed for this weekend's Roses are Red online crop at Scrapbook Deals 4 U!

Fun Co-Ed Baby Shower

Over the weekend our friends Amanda and Katy hosted a co-ed baby shower for us on behalf of Dan's coworkers and their families. How sweet of them!

Here's the lovely spread:


Amanda not only baked this cake but she embellished it to exactly match the baby's nursery decor! How cool was that?!


Katy created this super cute diaper cake!


Our little one received a bunch of wonderful gifts! We are so blessed :)


Dan especially likes this set of Minnesota Gophers themed onesies from Andy! He's also really happy about the Minnesota Vikings themed blanket from Chuck!


Here we are with a few of the girls that were there.


It was so great to have some of the guys there, too! They were very fun about it!


Thanks so much Amanda and Katy for arranging this special day for us!

Well I cannot believe how quickly things are flying by. Our little IVF miracle will be here before we know it!

34 Weeks

Here's me today at 34 weeks, 1 day. I feel like I'm finally popping out a noticeable baby belly! I need to teach Dan to stop taking pictures of me from angles that draw attention to my double chin, though! Anyway, it's really hard for me to believe that there are less than 6 weeks to go...


This afternoon our friends Amanda and Katy hosted a lovely coed baby shower for us on behalf of Dan's coworkers! We enjoyed great food, great companionship, and wonderful gifts for our little sweetheart. I think it's so sweet and generous that Dan's coworkers wanted to arrange this special day for us. We feel so blessed!

Great Ultrasound Today!

We had a great visit with our doctor today! Our appointment was for an ultrasound to check on the baby's growth, and we were so thrilled to learn that she's measuring right on track! There had been concern that she would be quite above average in size and thereby imposing complications during labor & delivery, but our doctor said that as of now she's looking to be just right! Hopefully she'll remain within the average size range for the rest of the pregnancy :)

We were also lucky enough to get this super cute 3D photo today of her head and face. I think it's so amazing that we can see her chubby cheeks and her kissy lips so clearly! I think she looks like Dan! :)


Because my blood sugar levels have been higher than our doctor feels comfortable with, he's planning on inducing at around 38 or 39 weeks to prevent any possible complications that the blood sugar issue could cause for the baby should she be born any later than that. So... it looks like our March baby will be a February baby! We're so excited!

32 Weeks

Are there really only 56 days until the estimated delivery date?!?! I reached the 32-week mark today so I thought I'd share a picture :)


I cannot believe how quickly the pregnancy is flying by. Although we've been preparing by shopping online for the necessities over the past several months (I wonder if we've set a record for the number of UPS deliveries during this time!), as the due date draws closer I'm starting to get a little anxious wondering if I have everything that we'll need! As much of a planner and researcher as I am, I've never done this before so surely there are things that I'm forgetting! I know that everything will work out just fine, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't worry at least a little bit :) We have an ultrasound scheduled for next week... can't wait!

Hello Third Trimester!!!

Hooray! I've made it to Trimester 3!

In celebration, I thought I'd finally share a "bump" shot :) This photo was taken yesterday at 26 weeks 2 days. Please believe me when I say that I am much, much happier than I appear to be in this photo!


I had a wonderful baby shower yesterday! My Aunt Laura and my mom worked hard to make it a very special occasion for me. It was so nice to celebrate with some family and friends. I'm so very grateful!

Here are a couple of photos from the shower...



My little one received lots of adorable pajamas and outfits as well as an awesome highchair, fun activity items, and other necessities. I cannot wait for her to arrive and to be able to use all of those things :)

While it's starting to really hit me that we really are pregnant and really are going to have a child of our very own, part of me still can't believe it after everything we've been through to get this far. I feel so fortunate to have been blessed with this miracle!

We're on Team Pink!

We had our big ultrasound yesterday and it went great!

We got to watch our baby on the big screen for about 30 minutes while the doctor took all kinds of measurements of the various anatomy. The baby was awake and was doing cute things, like sucking on its fingers!

Most importantly the doctor said everything is measuring right on track and that he did not see any signs of any abnormalities. Yeah!

Along with that wonderful news, the doctor told us that it looks like a girl! We are super excited to have a daughter on the way! :)

Here's her cute profile!



Thanks for stopping by :)

Rest in Peace Pumpkin Pie

Our dear kitty, Pumpkin, lived his final day today after a wonderful life of nearly 21 years. Dan has been his Papa for about the last 18 of those years. When I met Pumpkin almost 8 years ago he turned me into a kitty-lover, and I've been proud to be his Mama since.


Pumpkin was a loyal companion who got along very well with anyone of any species. He was most certainly the ruler of the house and was totally adored by our younger kitties. We are all going to miss him dearly.