Sunshine & Summertime Fun!

 The summer is flying by! I can't believe July is almost over already! Other than working we've been having some little adventures of our own as we get ready for baby to arrive. Mostly these adventures include trips to Des Moines for baby gear and side trips on the days we have our doctor appointments. However, in June, we got to go on a BIG adventure!

The last week of June we flew to North Carolina to spend the week with two of our best friends! You can't imagine how excited we were! (We hadn't seen them since they moved the first week of January.) We spent our time trying out restaurants, site seeing, and spending time on the beach! We actually spent most of the trip on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.

Sunrise on the beach!

We saw so many neat animals, climbed a lighthouse, swam in the ocean, and just relaxed! The pictures below are some of my favorites from the trip!

Maisee & I on the dolphin watching tour.

Dylan & I on the dolphin watching tour.

The four of us!

Dylan & Travis enjoying the car ride to Hilton Head.

Pelicans! I loved watching them and the seagulls on the beach!

While we were on our trip we reached our 31 week mark, so of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some belly bump pictures on the beach!

It was sad to leave Maisee & Travis behind, but nesting has set-in full swing since we've returned and we've kept busy getting ready for the newest little member of our family to arrive! Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to there!

I hope to get a couple of posts/tutorials up at some point for all of the sewing and baby projects I've been workings on.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!
Love,
Emily

Sweet Baby Girl

The school year is over and summer is finally here! If only it would stop raining! Ha!

 

Dylan and I (well, maybe mostly me) have been keeping busy getting ready for baby. (Unless you've tried it you can't imagine the amount of reading material on babies and birth on pinterest!) We also had our ultrasound and got to see our little girl. It was an amazing experience to see her moving around in there!

 

Baby Girl is super wiggly now. I love feeling her wiggle, though sometimes I wish her timing were a little better. (Like at night juuust as I'm starting to fall asleep.) She plays with us if we poke or pat my belly, and she wiggles at her daddy when he talks to her or blows raspberries on my belly.

Baby Girl also has a name! After a long time of going back and forth we finally found the name for baby! Annalise Aglae Ora. Many people have asked about her two middle names, so for those wondering... Aglae (ag-lay) was the first name of one of my great grandmas on my mom's side. Ora was the middle name of one of my great grandmas on my dad's side and that great grandma also had an Aunt Ora (and an Aunt Cora). Plus, as we were looking at the meaning of the names Aglae means "beautiful" and Ora is Latin for "prayer" so it just seemed perfect! :) And Annalise already has nicknames. Her Nana and Daddy have been calling her Annie. I like the nickname Lissy.

 

As for the rest of our summer plans: Dylan is busy working,  I'm working two days a week at the pool (when it doesn't rain us out), and, as always, I have a list of books to read and multiple Pinterest boards full of projects to keep me busy!

 

Keep an eye of for projects, tutorials, and book reviews! I'm hoping to get back to blogging and the summer sounds like a perfect time to get some things done!

 

Hope you're enjoying your summer thus far!

 

Love,

Emily

First comes love, then comes marriage...

THEN COMES THE BABY IN THE BABY CARRIAGE!

That's right! If you haven't already heard, we're expecting!

Baby P. is scheduled to arrive September 1st. We're very excited... and nervous... and a little scared. Hubby and I have been so lucky to have the love and support of our family and friends and I'm sure we'll find that it even more so as we move forward in this new adventure!

So, here's to 2014 and all of the exciting new changes that it's sure to bring! Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm Back...At Least For Now!

Okay, you guys. Seriously, I've been meaning to get back to this blog for, like, months. I even have a couple of drafts that I started and never finished. So, here I am, starting yet another one. And if you're reading this, that means I finally made it as far as publishing it! *Yeah!*

I cannot believe that it's almost November already! In just a little over three weeks the first 1/3 of the school year will be over. And two months from this past Friday is Christmas!!! (My students have been counting down the days till Christmas since the 100 day mark, but still, now that we're only 59 days away I can't believe it's almost here! Not only that, but this year is supposed to be our last Thanksmas at Granny and Papa's, and while I always anxiously await the chance to spend an entire day with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins, I'm secretly hoping that it won't really be the last one.

So, what have we been up to? Honestly, it's been mostly work, sleep, and driving. Lots and lots of driving. When we first decided to both keep our current jobs and live in the middle it seemed like a great idea. We figured that an extra couple of hours wouldn't be too big of a deal and we'd make up for the time apart with fun-filled weekends. Turns out, the drive wears you down. So much so that ordering pizza has become a once a week occurrence. (And a couple of weeks ago, it happened twice in one week. *Yikes!*) And our weeks have been fun for the most part, but they seem to be constantly packed with plans pre-made or things to do. There isn't really a lot of down time. Don't believe me? You should see my house. (Seriously, I don't think more than one or two rooms have been completely clean since school started.)

In September, we had fun putting together a "Kung Fu Kit" for Katie (my college roommate). Long story short, pain meds can sometimes make things confusing, and sometimes you read things wrong. (Like "First Aid Kit") Do you see where I'm going with this? Okay. So, we couldn't resist. Here's a few snapshots of what we put together.

Anyway, the other things we've been up to lately include reading, sewing, and general crafting.






Dylan has been reading The Dark Tower
series by Stephen King.
(He's on book four of seven.)

I have read several books as well. Currently I'm reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

Over the summer and into the fall I slowly worked putting together my first quilt. It wasn't a huge quilt, just a baby quilt. I was so excited when I found the fabric since my cousin and his wife were having a jungle theme in their new baby room. Here's the finished blanket for baby Cooper.













I also had a little fun with Dylan a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't like to be decisive when it comes to things like what movie we're going to watch or what we're going to eat for dinner. "Food" is just not a satisfying answer. I kept trying to think of what gross mix of food would teach him a lesson (while not making me sick at the same time) and all I could think of was the movie Elf. So, here's what he ended up with one night.



We're also getting ready for the month of November, because we've decided that this year we're both going to participate in NaNoWriMo. (Or we're at least both going to start. We'll see where the month takes us.) If you've never heard of this crazy program, you're missing out. (Especially if writing a book is on your bucket list!) Basically, crazy people like ourselves make a pledge to write a novel in the month of November. From November 1st to November 30th writers all over the world set to work trying to write a story at least 50,000 words long. (That comes out to about 200 pages worth of writing.) Granted, it doesn't have to be good writing, you just have to get the words down on paper. The editing comes later. There's also a Young Writers section of the program, which my students are participating in this year for the second year in a row. Last year I wrote along with them (which doesn't mean much except a much smaller word count), but this year I'm joining Dylan for the long haul. We'll see how it goes!

Anyway, that's about all of the news I have time for. Happy (early) Halloween! And hope you're all doing well!

Back to Normal?

Well, I think we've finally gotten everything washed, unpacked, and (mostly) put away.
We've had a little bit of normalcy here at the house (or at least as normal as it gets around here). The kittens are growing like crazy. (I swear they've doubled in size in less than a month!) The houses is a mess as always. (I don't know how people keep their houses so clean!) And our calendar looks a little less full. (But just a little, because after all, we wouldn't want to get bored or anything.)

The school year is quickly approaching. It's time for back-to-school shopping, lesson planning, and late nights grading papers. And of course, this year I'll have the added drive. Dylan has been making an hour drive each way all summer, so I guess it's about time I joined in the fun. I'm not at all excited about it, but I've come across a discovery that might make it a little more bearable. The Wilbor Online Library. It's a digital library linked to many of the public libraries here in Iowa that has not only digital books, but audio books! Halleluiah! Maybe I'll survive this after all!

I know I've been really bad about posting pictures, however, you'll have to bear with me as my computer doesn't want to upload any of my photos to blogger. So if you have me on facebook they're all there, otherwise you'll just have to sit tight for a little while longer until I can get my computer to cooperate.

I hope everyone's week is going swimmingly! As for me, I'm off to the county fair to look at the 4-H projects and enjoy some fair food before getting back to my lesson planning! Happy Wednesday!

3 Weeks in a Whirlwind

I have completely failed at this blogging business. So here are the basics of our first three weeks of marriage:

Our honeymoon was amazing! We had a week full of adventures, including staying in the Harry Potter room at the Sylvia Beach Hotel.

We spent the 4th of July celebrating with Dylan's family and then drove to Metropolis, Il to celebtate my biggest little brother's wedding. They had their wedding up on the dock at the lake and then scuba dived down and repeated their vows and everything.

And then this week (2 days ago) we got two little kittens. Pheobe and Trinket are ornery, but we love them already. So playful and full of cuddles! :)

I'm not sure how uploading photos is working since I'm writing from my phone, so I'll get some more up later with a little bit more detail. But, in the meantime, here's a snapshot of the craziness we've had the past three weeks. I think we're both ready for a day off! Lol

Honeymoon Day 1 (June 27, 2013)

Aaaaand we're off!!! We drove for 12 hours yesterday and made it a little over 700 miles! We drove halfway across Iowa, aaaall the way across Nebraska, and are now in Cheyenne, Wyoming!

We played the alphabet game forwards AND backwards in less than 100 miles.

We had fun looking at all the plates and got excited when we saw Iowa drivers only to realize that they had no idea we were from Iowa because our rental car (a Nissan Versa) has Michigan plates. Lol

The bluffs on the west side of Nebraska were gooorgeous! We decided living in the houses built in among them would be heaven!

We also drove through the "middle of nowhere" in Nebraska where all you could see for miles on either side was green grass, some hills and the blue sky! Can we move there please?!?

We went past a giant statue at the Wyoming boarder that we'll stop at on the way back. We thought it was just a big statue until we passed it and realized there were little statues arouns it and the bif statue was Mary. I'm pretty sure it was a giant rosary! Can't wait to see it up close on the way home! :)

If you're on instagram you can follow along on our trip. (Dylan is my picture man and has been plotting them on the map as he posts them so that you can see where we are and where we've been!)