New Blog

Hello all! I've started a new blog, where I will review children's books. We'll see how often I post to it - my goal is at least 2 or 3 times monthly. Here is a link: Manor Books

I also wrote a new post for my craft blog about some of the fun I had before Christmas :)
Manor Crafts

Baby Shower Pictures

Ok, ok, I know, lots of posts in one day, but thats because we don't have internet at home anymore, so I have to do everything in one trip :)

Our shower at church was hosted by Linnie, Stephanie, Teresa, and Joanna. They did a beautiful job with everything! We had lots of guests and tons of presents, and played fun games like pinning the wash on the line while holding the baby and talking on the cell phone. I beat Tony, but only by a little bit :)

This was the front of the shower invitation, and all the flowers from the tables combined into one vase.

This is a cool view of the decorations on each table. There were all sorts of pretty colors - green, pink, purple...

Tony kindly displayed one of the onesies each table was supposed to decorate. They turned out really cute!

All the food was yummy, as was the cake.

Here we are, all laughing our way through the challenge of multi-tasking!

Presents were last, and we had tons of them! All the pretty packages at the shower (above) translated into a very full baby room at home (below)!

Thank you everyone - for all you do for us!

Cadence's Room

Most of you know our main project over Christmas break was getting Cadence's room painted and such. That was a lot of fun, and since Tony was off work some this week because of ice, we pretty much finished decorating it yesterday and today. Here are a few pictures.

We have a few things we would still like to do - like I'm going to make curtains, but really, we have been blessed with oodles and gobs of stuff. We are very thankful!

Belly Pictures

Ok, this post is mostly for Kristina :) My belly is kind of getting rather large compared to the rest of me. We've been taking pictures every month, and it is so cool to look back at the pictures and see how much Cadence has grown. I don't notice it as much day-to-day, but when I look at the pictures I feel huge :)



Thirty-Three Weeks Pregnant



I made this skirt from a regular pattern I had. It was my first experience with elastic type material, so its not great up top, but it will hold together I think, and my shirt covers it up, so hey... :) This shirt especially makes me look pregnant... Maybe because its kind of clingy material?

How to Check Out a Book - Fourth Grade Style

1. Get bored of class.
2. Rummage through your desk to find the book you shoved in behind your math textbook when you came back from the library an hour ago.
3. Ask to go to the library because the book you checked out was too long/ too short / too hard / below your reading level / too boring / etc.
4. Run to the library with several of your friends, talking and laughing all the way through the school.
5. Arrive at the library in a flurry of noise and chaos, throw your book in the book drop and rush towards the shelves.
6. Play hide and seek / fight over books / ask your friends who they like / tease small children.
7. Randomly touch and knock over books as you pass them so it sounds like you’re diligently searching for the just the right book.
8. Try not to roll your eyes while the librarian / library assistant / volunteer tells you running and fighting are not appropriate library behaviors.
9. In an effort to appease said library staff, ask if they have any funny books.
10. Look at every funny book they show you with vague disinterest and distain, then wander off to play with the atlas.
11. Pull out every magazine to choose your very favorite, then remember you still have a magazine in your desk and shove them all randomly back in boxes.
12. Interrupt any classes going on in the library by yelling or going directly to the teacher and talking to them in the middle of their sentences.
13. Realize 20 / 30 / 40 minutes have passed, and your teacher said to be back in 10 minutes.
14. Grab first book you see on shelf that does not have a plain green cover.
15. Go to the check-out desk, pull up your account, and give excuses about the book you destroyed by shoving it in your desk / leaving it on the playground overnight / fighting over with a friend.
16. Check out book.
17. Get half-way to door and realize your friend hasn’t chosen a book yet.
18. Throw your book in the check-in slot and run over to where your friend is lingering.
19. Argue over who has the hottest girlfriend / crush / best football game.
20. Get shushed by librarian.
21. Repeat steps 13 through 16.
22. Run down hall to class.
23. Get to class and realize your book is not even in your reading level and is 500 pages long.
24. Oh well, you can always go to the library again in ten minutes when you change classes.

Needless to say, we’ve had a lot of problems with fourth grade students in the library this year… One boy hit the nail on the head today – I asked them why they liked the library, and his response? I don’t really, it just gets me out of class time. If they actually read the books they checked out, I would love to see them five times a day… as it is… not so much J Oh well, the rest of my job more than makes up for it!