new blog

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I have a new blog. Please come visit me there!!!

www.lifebygrace.com

random

So. . . I can't find the camera cord again. Kind of a common occurrence. . . and I don't usually lose things. Just have a problem with the camera cord. I even gave it a designated home. . . but it's not there. Not that you care, but you'll know when I find it because I'll post pictures. We've got some dang cute ones in the camera to share. 

Started back at work last week. Jonathan's daddy experience is going well. Evie has figured out when I am at home and gets up ever two hours or so in the night again (she was nearly sleeping through the night before). Bummer. Work is crazy busy which I think is a blessing- I hardly have time to miss her until I get home. I like retail because of the cycles. . .and January/February is a great time in the cycle (I think). 

I am itching to paint our family room. And get new carpet. And buy furniture. And. . .  what's with me? I don't have time or money for all that. 

We got netflix this past week. Talk about a time sucker. Maybe it's because I have no self control and am re-watching the first season of Grey's. Yup. . . that's more likely the problem.

Evie talks all the time. Sooo cute. Amazingly cute. Being her mom is pretty great.

Paper Red Shoes

My friend Sam has a shop on etsy and sells her beautiful paper collages and paper boxes. I have one of her collages hanging in the dinning room and I love it. You should check out her shop here. This picture is of one of her collages titled Remember Me. I think it's lovely.

newborn pics

Here is a small selection of our favorites of Evie's newborn pictures. They were taken when she was 10 days old by meg. If you're a fan of meg's and dying to see all 50 some odd pictures you will just have to come visit us to see them :) 

I hope you all are having a wonderful New Year's day. We are thankful to finally all be healthy (knock on some wood people) after a bought of the flu following Christmas at our house. I am hoping 2011 brings good health to our household because 2010 was defiantly marked by doctor's offices and hospitals. Thankfully it was also marked by the addition of the little bug pictured above which makes 2010 one of the most precious in our lives. 

van winkle visit

Last week Jonathan's parents and sister came to visit us and meet their first granddaughter/niece. We had a lot of fun catching up and playing a family favorite, chicken foot! We even went out to dinner (a first with Evie) and she slept the entire time-in her car-seat (which she hates being in) so I was thankful. It was a very good couple of days and we are so thankful they made the trip. 

 Evie and Grandma all bundled up. 

 Grandpa tickling Evie. . . she is trying to decide what she thinks about that.

Aunt Alisha and Evie.

4 more sleeps until Christmas!

update

all word posts should happen in color. makes the no picture part more better- i'll do this from now on.

I can't believe it's December 20th. The past  couple of weeks have flown by. My dear friends Sam and Andy stayed at our house while they were here for her brother's wedding, Jonathan's parents and little sister visited, my Dad and Julie visited and I had a stay at the hospital and surgery today. Lots going on and 5 days until Christmas. I feel like yesterday was the first day of December. 

If you don't know about the surgery. . . I will write about that first so their are no worries. I had surgery at noon today and was home at 4:30- seriously awesome. I feel fine (might be because I am a bit high right now from all the meds, but really I think I would feel okayish without them). So here's what happened. Remember how during my pregnancy I had 'heartburn' from hell-seriously.  Well it turns out that 'heartburn' that responds to no medicines, lasts for 10+ hours, makes you vomit every 10 minutes, and makes you think maybe you can't handle having another baby isn't so much heartburn at all. It's gallstones. And you need surgery. Yup- I'm not crazy (I thought I was, like how could this hurt so much). So. . . on Wednesday this week I had 'heartburn' that was so awful I couldn't breath so I decided to pay my doctor a visit in the middle of heartburn. He had never seen me when I was having a gallbladder attack so when I said I had heartburn he took my word for it. Me sobbing and vomiting into his trash can caused him to ask some extra questions and then tell me I needed surgery. So we scheduled an ultrasound to double check the next day. In the meantime I went home (after a shot to make me stop vomiting) and was okay for about 3 hours. Then I got sick, very sick, again. After calling my doctor I ended up being admitted to the hospital that night. Turns out I was passing a stone into my Pancreas which gave me Pancreatitis. YESSSSS. Not so much. I spend a few days at the hospital. . . came home for a day . . . and had surgery today. I hadn't eaten solid food since for 6 days until dinner tonight. Food has never been so good. So that's the story. 

I don't usually post things in detail like that, but I have a lot of people to call and tell that story to and it just seems a lot easier to tell the story all at once. Sorry if you didn't want to read that. I promise I left out all the not fun to hear details (except the vomit b/c that was kind of an important part of the story). 

I will do some posts with pictures about all the visits this week. They are much more fun kind of posts!

Love you all and thank you to those who were praying for me today and this past week. God is good.


Disclaimer: if any of this doesn't make sense, i am on drugs as i write (as previously mentioned). i have no excuse for other posts not making sense, that's all me.

whatever

Evie had newborn pictures taken a few weeks ago (they are adorable. . . I will post some favorites soon). For a sneak peak head over to whatever today (evie is the baby with all the hair). 

baby bear

This is by far our favorite picture of Evie thus far. . . so funny. She is yawning. . .but with the bear ears she looks like a roaring bear.

 I gave Jonathan this onesie when we found out we were pregnant. . . it looked so small then. 

 And a couple of pictures with her eyes wide open. She spends a lot more time looking around now.

Jonathan is re-designing my blog (fun!) so I am looking forward to sharing my new blogs space and hopefully being a much more consistent blogger in 2011.

thankful 2010

Better late than never (the mommy world has me behind on pretty much everything). . . this year's list. 

In no particular order. . . and a totally incomplete list. . . 

I am thankful for. . . 

our healthy and beautiful baby girl. So much joy.

sunshine on cold days.

a house that has really become our home. 

my Savior.

Jonathan not working outside our home during this season- such a blessing to both be home with our little girl for a while.

supportive friends who 'get' me . . . and love me anyways.

my husband and this season of our marriage. 

family. Both our family of 3 and our extended family. . . we really are blessed with great family.

every moment between 11pm and 7am in which my daughter is sleeping.

God's constant provision for our needs. 

Evie's smiles.

all of the pregnancy scares that stayed just scares. . . that although I spent 9 months of this year enduring a less than great pregnancy. . . the end result is so worth it.

kind neighbors.

one week old and a little bit random

Check out the cute onsie Miss Allison F. made for me.

On my first walk with my Nana. Now that I feel up to taking her on a walk it's too stinkin' cold outside.

 A not in the hospital family picture. Jonathan cracks me up in this picture. . . hand on his hip looking all GQ.

And here is an example of how the fashion police would usually take issue with Evie's outfits. Right now it's all about what fits and the ballet socks stay on so for now they go with everything.

Last night Evie blessed her parents with 5 hours straight of sleep. After a few very rough nights. . . it was AMAZING.

Genevieve

Genevieve Tigh Van Winkle was born November 6 at 5:12 pm. She weighed 8lbs 5 ozs and was 20.5 inches long. We are so blessed and happy and excited to have her home. More pictures to come . . . I haven't been spending much time on the computer :)

Believe it or not, this is still the only picture we have of the three of us. We will get on the ball of taking more soon!

 My first time holding her. So in love with this baby girl. 

And for all the inquiring eyes who have heard about the incredible amount of hair our daughter has. . . . here you go. Lots and lots of dark hair like her daddy. 

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. . . we thank God for such a beautiful little girl. 

comic relief

Right now, it feels like when you are watching a movie, and just when you get to the end, just when you are about to find out who the bad guy is or the couple is about to kiss or whatever. . . the DVD skips and you don't get to see the end. It's annoying. It makes me grouchy. I thought I would be a gracious at the end of my pregnancy and not one of those women who complains about not going into labor. I was delusional. Just ask my husband. My body has done everything it needs to do and all signs point to labor any moment. . . problem is it's been that way for over a week. Watching Brian Regan makes me laugh and not be so grouchy. So I thought I would share. Especially love the phone company. . . it's how I feel- "can you flip it right now?"

first quilt

This is my first quilt. It's for Genevieve and was a lot of fun to make, the crazy mix of patterns and colors is very me. . .  hopefully it is stimulating instead of overwhelming for my daughter. It is very far from perfect, lots of mistakes-- but I don't really care, it's my first try and I did it by myself and that's what counts, right? Anywhoo. . . I have started on my next quilt, much larger for our bed. It's kind of scary to make a bigger quilt. I made this one in a few days start to finish so it was very gratifying and I didn't get bored of the project. Hopefully I don't get bored during my next one! 

doily runner

This project was about a year in the making. Mostly because I refused to spend more than a dollar on a doily and it took me a long time to find enough that I liked cheaply enough. I first saw this idea here (I love her whole kitchen) and copied her idea for a table runner. Somewhere on Ashley's site there is a tutorial on making this. . . I didn't follow it but sort of made it up as I went, but it's there if you want it. 

what i've been up to

Okay people. . . I am a bad blogger. I have been waiting to blog because I am working on a blog makeover, but in the meantime lots of things have happened so I figure I will just suck it up and start sharing. I knew you would approve.

So, in case you don't know I am now on leave from work. For several different reasons working on my feet was too much for my pregnancy this late in the game so I have been home for almost a month now and will be until after I have the baby. I have been keeping busy (on the days not taken over by heartburn) by sewing, crafting, cooking, washing baby clothes, ect. I have to take it easy (I am not on bed rest or anything, I am just supposed to limit my activity) so sewing especially has become a big past time. Lots to share in the coming weeks of my projects.

In the picture you can see the cute pillow I made for the rocking chair in Evie's room (selfishly so my back doesn't hurt when I rock baby girl) and on the floor you might notice my boppy-- I don't like the covers at the store so I decided to make those too.

I have been cooking things I can freeze. This is chicken noodle soup day. Our freezer is literally about to explode though and I am going to have to back off of this endeavor because I have no more space to keep anything else.  I seriously considered throwing out ice cream the other day (gasp) in order to make room for some of this soup. 

And for the folks with out facebook- here is a picture of my belly this week.  Getting pretty huge. Genevieve is officially out of room in there, her feet have taken up residence in my ribcage, getting myself up from a laying position has become a feat worthy of the olympics, and people at the post office politely tell me "it must be any day now as big as you are". Really though, we have spent this week praising God for the health of our baby girl after we got some test results back and are very ready to welcome her into the world. 

evie's room part 2

Here is a sneak peak at the latest project in Evie's room. I hung lanterns above her crib in fun colors instead of a mobile. I also got her window's dressed with simple roller shades I embellished with ribbons and hung white sheers. 

Here is the view from her crib. I think it will be fun for her to look at.

Jonathan moved this pink vintage light fixture that came with the house- but was in the guest room- into Evie's room. It is perfect for her.

And since it's been a while since the dogs have said hello on here. . . Here is Audrey in the car sinking into a huge dog bed in the back seat. 

jello

Tonight I had my first strange late-ish night craving. At about 9pm I was craving Jello. I haven't had it in years but it sounded sooo good. So I made some and followed the quick set directions so it would be ready in a half hour. For good measure I waited until about 10:30 to pull it out and sat on the sofa next to Jonathan to eat my Jello. And then Jonathan's first "sympathy craving" set in. He got all excited... yelled JELLO... ran to the fridge to get whipped cream and proceeded to eat about 2/3 of the Jello. That's right folks-we ate it all, what is probably like 8 servings or something. Let me tell ya. . . if you haven't had Jello in a while- do it. There's a reason you liked it as a kid. It's good stuff.

new sono pics

This pic is by far the best we have seen of Evie's face during her sonograms. She usually has her hands up at her face, and did again today. . . but moved them so we got to take a peek. There is video too of her blinking that I will post once I figure out how to do that.

In this picture you can see her little bit of hair where the arrow is pointing. 

Evie was 5 lbs 8 oz's today. . . already a big girl considering she has 8 more weeks to put the pounds on -yikes! She is healthy and looks great. 

Evie's room- post 1

For about the past month we have been working on Genevieve's room. It is very much in progress. . . but some of the fun projects are complete so I thought I would share a bit at a time. My mom came a little over a month ago and painted the room a light aqua color (thanks mom!). I then painted a few animals on the walls to kick up the fun. I say I painted. . . but really I used some sketches put onto an overhead projector and more traced these animals. 

The turtle is over by her crib. I think Mr. Turtle is a cutie.

Penguin over looks her dresser/changing table. 

Giraffe greets you when you come into her room. The wall color is all weird in this picture. I took quite a few and couldn't get the giraffe to show up in the pic without blowing the wall color out weird. . so use some imagination. Mr. Giraffe is my favorite. Evie has a rocking giraffe (like a rocking horse) and a few giraffe toys already. . . I hope she likes them because it's kind of becoming a trend. 

I will post more pics as more is done. There are other complete projects. . . but they are hidden behind ladders and cribs in the middle of the room and other project-in-project messes.

my friend elly

My friend Elly is having a baby too. It is nice to be in the exact same stage of life as a friend. . . someone to call and ask 'do you feel like this too' and know she won't think I'm crazy. We have great friends who have thrown us 2 different dual baby showers. . . which has been a lot of fun. This picture is from July. . . so not so accurate of my baby belly (I am on the right). As we near our due dates I am looking forward to the next stage. . . calling each other with 'mom' questions.