Summer Vacation!

At last! I'm on summer vacation. And it feels great! Those last few days of work felt like torture. I was so tired and ready for a break.

Grace and I have been having a great day together. Lot's of playing this morning. And pool time this afternoon!

This is Grace's first time in a bathing suit and a pool! She loved it. I am hoping to get her into swim lessons this summer. I'm not a good swimmer and I have always regretted it. I know it's not too late to learn to swim...so maybe I'll get lessons too!

She loves splashing. I sported a bathing suit too...I was hoping to get a bit of color on my deathly white legs. I will not scare you with pictures of me! Yikes!!

I've been crafting a lot these past couple of days. Working on Grace's birthday party. I've made cupcake toppers and favor tags. Up next, favors and a birthday banner. Her birthday will be here fast!! I'll share after the birthday party.

Well off to make dinner! Not sure what dinner will be quite yet...

Blessings,

Beth

More Crafting!

I suppose I'm on a bit of a roll! In the last month I have made two chipboard albums. One was a Mickey mouse shaped chipboard album, which I neglected to take pictures of before I gave it away. The second is this puppy:

It's a cruise shaped chipboard album. This one was fun to make. I made it as a retirement gift for a co-worker. She loved it. I have lots of ideas for albums and crafting projects for this summer. I have less than two weeks left of work before my summer vacation! I just purchased four mommy and me classes for $25 through Groupon! Gearing up for lots of fun for Grace and I.

My little cupcake will be one in less than two months! Where did all the time go???

Blessings!

Beth

Finally...a bit of crafting!

Here it is! This is the hair clip holder I have been working on for Grace. I love the way it came out. Instead of using fabric for the bodice, I used scrapbook paper. I'm a little intimidated by fabric...

Here is what her old hairclip holder looked like...a little full, huh? It was definitely time to make a new one.

Here's her new one with most of her clips...I think I need another one! Especially since I just ordered 10 more ribbon hair clips...
Here's my big girl! "Look Mommy...No Hands!" Grace is growing so fast! As soon as she started crawling, she became a whole new person! She's on the move! Crawling, crusing, standing and not being still. She's also eating big people food and slowly refusing baby food. Awww...

I love this little video of Jonas and Grace. Jonas sure knows how to get big laughs out of Grace. She loves her daddy so so much!

I have four weeks left before summer vacation! I'm so excited and I really, really need the rest. What are you looking forward to?

Blessings,

Beth

Mother's Day Review

Happy Belated Mother's Day!! Whoo hoo! We celebrated my first Mother's Day. It was a special day. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that this year I was actually a mommy on Mother's Day. We started the day with church. Pastor Matt delivered a great sermon about Moses' mother and Timothy's mother and how their sacrifice led to God using their sufferings for His greater purpose. Moses was used of the Lord to save his people from slavery and Timothy was used to encourage Paul and the early Christians. It made me realize the seriousness of the call of the Lord to raise Grace to love and serve Him. It's really all about Him...all of it.

Our little family after church on Sunday. We attend the Village Church of Irvine. Check it out some time, you will be blessed.
After church, Jonas treated me to Taco Bell...yes, quite a culinary delight. We were the only ones there! At least there were no lines. And for dinner, we went out with my best friend Celeste and her three kids. It was very special sharing Mother's Day with her. We had been hosting them off and on for the last two weeks. They live in Colorado and I miss her every day!

Here we are with our daughters. Celeste is my long time college buddy.
I have five weeks left of work! I'm counting down the days till Summer vacation!! I have lots of plans...one of them is to take Grace to swim lessons and to enroll the both of us in Mommy and Tots classes. The City of Orange offers lots of low costs classes for babies. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of them.
As for scrapbooking, well, I'm getting going again. I have several projects in the works. I'm currently working on ballerina dress shaped hair clip organizers. I'm almost finished with my first. I'll share as soon as I'm done.
Hope you have a blessed week!
Beth

Easter Weekend

I love Easter! It will be Resurrection Sunday tomorrow. I love celebrating the most awesome event in the history of the world...Jesus' resurrection and the core of my beliefs. He died so that I may be free of my sin, defeated death, and rose again that I may have everlasting life! How awesome is that?!?! I can't wait till Grace is older and we can start teaching her about Easter.

Plans for Easter? Church Sunday morning and then heading to my sister's house for some good old fashion Carne Asada. A few other family members will be joining us. I have so many fond memories of family gatherings on Easter Sunday. I hope Grace will have those memories too.

By the way, today is Grace's 9 month birthday! 9 months!! She's getting big way too fast. Just a reminder to enjoy her as she is now. Last night, Jonas commented to me, "This is the smallest Grace will ever be." Yes! Because she will just keep growing. He has made that comment a couple times before and it always hits me hard. Grace is now crawling, walking when we hold her hands, and "cruising" from the couch to the ottoman. Yikes!

Grace loves playing with daddy. He can make her laugh so hard. They have such a precious bond and I love watching them interact with each other. It warms my heart.

Life has been incredibly busy. It's the end of the school year and we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off. My mantra..."summer vacation is almost here..." Six more weeks! Plans for the summer? Rest, hang out with Grace and get a bit of scrapbooking in. Speaking of scrapbooking? I have created a Grad Nite chipboard album.

It's for sale for $45. If you're interested, let me know. I can create one for you in about a week's time. The colors of the front cover can be customized to your student's school colors. It's also pretty big...12 inches tall and 11 1/2 inches wide. The one in the picture is going to my niece, Jackie.

Time to go hang out with Grace. Hope you have an awesome weekend!

Blessings,

Beth

Happy Birthday Jonas!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! Jonas turned 40 today!! Now that's a milestone. We went to the Hobbit last night to celebrate. We enjoyed it!! And this morning I made him his favorite...biscuits with gravy! He was in heaven!

I am so in love with this man! Jonas is a great husband and father. And he loves the Lord with all his heart. I can't imagine being married to anyone else! May the Lord bless him with many more years to come!

For his birthday, we were able to get a locker for the back axle of his jeep. It helps him get through the tougher trails when he's off-roading. Jonas is an off-roading junkie! He also went on an off-roading/camping trip for his birthday. He went to Death Valley and absolutely enjoyed it.

Beautiful, huh? I am so glad he went on this trip. He came back refreshed. Here's to many more birthday and camping trips! I love you, Jonas!!

Happy Anniversary!

Today, Jonas and I celebrate our five year anniversary! I am married to an amazing man who absolutely loves the Lord, myself and our little Grace. I can't imagine my life without him! God really blessed me when He brought Jonas into my life.

Jonas and I met online! Yes! Modern romance. Jonas was living in Monroeville, Alabama (out in the sticks!) and I was living Pasadena, CA. We started talking to each other online in May of 2005, met in person in Nashville that August, and engaged in October and married in April of 2006. It was a fast engagement, but we knew the Lord had His hands all over it. We were what each other had prayed for. And now five years later, our marriage has gotten better and better! It's amazing to think that you can just keep loving someone more and more as time passes. I love Jonas more today than I did the day I said, "I do."

And to share a bit of scrapbooking, here a few of the layouts I created documenting Jonas and my relationship.

This was one of the first layouts I created. I had never scrapbooked until I decided to put together a wedding album. And I was hooked! You can tell that this layout was basic. I didn't have a paper cutter or any sort of real scrapbooking tools. I though about re-doing this album, but decided against it. I love it just the way it is.

I actually used paper that I bought in the dollar section at Target! Love it when I get a great deal on scrapbooking supplies!

This layout commemorates our engagement pictures compliments of my friend Summer's stepfather and it is also the first layout of the album I put together documenting our engagement. It was an impromptu photo session while we were in Nashville for our first Thanksgiving together. I love this picture of Jonas and I.

And now for a little bit of Grace! We have now added 18 months clothes to her wardrobe! Some of it is still big on her, but some of it fits! Oh boy! She is a big girl! And she keeps growing right before our eyes. She is so tall. She is also cutting teeth like crazy. Last week she was working on her front two teeth and all of the sudden we notice that not only has she cut those two, but also three more on top and two more on the bottom (she already has the front two bottom teeth). Poor baby! I suppose that's why she keeps waking up in the middle of the night. Can't imagine it's too pleasant cutting teeth.

I took her to get pictures taken with a bunny (we don't call it "Easter Bunny," because a bunny has nothing to do with Easter. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus). She smiled a bit for us before she started crying. I dressed her up in the dress we bought her for Easter. She looked so cute! It's turing out to be a great month.

We are celebrating our anniversary, Jonas' 40th birthday, Grace's 9 month birthday, Easter and we'll be hosting Jonas' stepmom and my best friend. It's going to be a fun month! Hope you are having a blessed month too!

Beth

ps...not sure why this is underlined...couldn't figure out how to undo it...