September Baby Girl!!

I haven't posted in quite a while because I am pregnant and in my 23rd week. I had been so incredibly tired the first and into the 2nd trimester that the last thing that I had energy for was to blog. Plus I wasn't doing too much in the area of creativity. But here is my announcement!!! We will have a baby girl at the beginning of September! YAY!!

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On another note: We have definitely decided to homeschool Hannah for Kindergarten. I say "we" as in my husband and I but, I will most likely be doing the majority of it. Right now I am researching different curriculum and what she needs to know by the end of Kindergarten. I take things pretty seriously (that is the type A in me) and since I have never "Homeschooled" before, I am a little obsessed about getting the right material, including our faith into it, and not spending a whole lot of money. I could easily spend hundreds if we had it. Since we don't, I am trying to buy things as conservatively as possible.

I know it is "just"a kindergarten and it is such a great place to start because of the low pressure of it being "just" Kindergarten. I know things look different depending on the family, but I feel like I need to figure out most of it before September comes. Since I will have a newborn right when school starts, I feel like I need to get things together sooner. I am even planning on doing school during the summer, so I won't fret if we don't get to school that day. I know with a newborn I WILL be tired but Homeschooling is a priority and that is why I want to get a jump on it.

Any other homeschooling parents out there? I would love to hear your experience or advice!!!

Easter Foods

This week I have been creative with food making. Since being pregnant, I have had no desires to expand on my recipes and have even grown quite bored of cooking. BUT...this Easter inspired me to get out of my box and look for different foods to make.



These were amazing!!! I omitted the meat inside because I am anti-meat...but they were still soooo good. I had an Easter playgroup at my house yesterday and I made these for the adults. SO easy and SO yummy! They are called Italian Easter Pie Palmiers.

These, to me look so beautiful and yummy to make. They are called Mexican Vegetable Roll-Ups. I will be making them for Easter Day at my in-law's house.

Last but certainly not least are the Chocolate Birds' Nests. I made them for the playgroup yesterday and they were a hit. I have plenty left over for Easter Day too. I have to say that they are messy....really good but messy.

On a side note: What do you use as your search engine? I use google.com and then I switch over to images. You can find it at the top left. When I am looking for a recipe, I need to see what it will look like. When you switch over to images you can see just that.

Leaving this blog to contine with another one

It has been a year since I have posted to this blog and I owe it all to Facebook. I have enjoyed Facebook but I would like to continue adding pictures and stories on a blog. It's called Hands Always Creating since I am always creating up to something. This is one way to keep track of my life in one blog instead of multiple blogs for each thing I am involved in.

http://handsalwayscreating.blogspot.com/

Here it is...I will be posting everything that is going on in my life (ok, maybe not everything)...from family life...to jewelry...to sewing...to photography...to vegetarian thoughts and recipes. I hope you enjoy it!

Let's Update!

This is a little update of what we have been doing since November.

Thanksgiving we spent time with my husband's very large family. It is always fun going to their house and never a dull moment. I wish I had some good stories to tell but those brain cells are gone...remember, I have an almost three year. I do remember eating..talking and lots of laughing.

Jonathan and his mom, Grace.

Jonathan's youngest sister, Mary, cooking or prending to.

Oldest niece, Nicole, and Jonathan's sister, Jessica (the blonde sister :-)) They were working hard on gravy.

Jonathan's oldest sister, Monica's, 5th child, Mary Grace.
(Hannah and Mary were playing on the piano..very cute!)

Christmas my mom came over the evening before to go to Christmas Eve service at our church, Bridgeway Community Church. This year's service was titles Colors. And it was so neat! They had skits of different families around the world...like America, China (or somewhere in Asia), Puerto Rico, and Africa showing what they would be doing on Christmas. For America they chose a family putting up Christmas decorations and when the kids went to the kitchen or something, the husband told the wife that he just got laid off. Which I know that so many people were laid off during that time and still being laid off. But we Americans can relate to that. In Asia they showed two Asian girls in a secret place to get together to talk about God and showed the pastor coming in and then later someone knocks on the door..it was a military person or someone with a really big gun that heard about their meeting. You think that he is going to kill them for the faith but he claimed that he wanted to know more about their. Great drama! The other countries were similar in showing what is going on there.

On the long note, Christmas morning was great! Hannah was so much fun to watch. And I love how little kids are so "into" each present that they open. They don't hurry up and open a present and then hurry up to get to the next present. I guess it'll be a little different when she gets older. But I enjoyed it a lot this year.

Our tree (She is REALLY happy about it!)

I don't have anymore pictures..I took mostly videos for Christmas.

January is here and today it is a high of 23 degrees! It snowed in the early early morning. Thankfully, I woke up at 5am and got to see it. It's just freezing out! But when it snows somehow it is so much easier to deal with sub-freezing temperatures. (ok, I am a true Floridian!)

I have been making jewelry like crazy lately and trying hard to build my jewelry business...you can view my blog and my etsy shop.

I hope to be back on sooner than later! Thanks for not giving up on this blog. :-)

Autumn is Here

This is my most favorite time of the year! I love the colors that God has given us to enjoy during these couple of months. They go so fast too fast. I moved up from Florida 12 years ago and before that I had never seen trees turn colors. To some, that would seems unimaginable but it is true. I grew up with green trees all year round. I saw lot sof plants and flowers but nothing like the orange, red, yellow colors that we are experiencing right now. My dad has been visiting us, from Florida, for the last week and I felt so proud that I lived up here. I hope in the next couple of days that I will be able to take some really good pictures of Fallin Maryland. More pictures to post...but for now...Here's Hannah!

Hannah's thinking outside fo the box.

The things that my husband will do for me to get a picture.

Weeeeee....with mommy!

Weeee....with Daddy!

PUMPKIN CARVING!

Hey Hon

Hannah has gone through a couple of different names for me in her lifetime. The first one is "Mama"...that lasted for quite a while. Until about 6 months she did great with that name. Then out of nowhere she started getting "formal" with me and calling me "Mom". I was a little hurt by that considering she calls her dad, "Daddy" or Dada" all the time... Then she started calling me, "mommy" and I was very happy with that. And hoped that lasted a long time. It is an endearing way to get my attention as opposed to hearing "Mom!" There is just something negative about that. Maybe I am sensitive.

A week or so ago we were bead shopping at the craft store and she said, "look, hon". It caught me off guard but kept repeating it and I finally got it that she was calling me, "hon".

Where did she get that from??? I always call Jon, "Hon" or "Honey". Of course, when I am not having warm and fuzzy feelings towards him, I call him, "Jon". So, now I am "Hon" to my little 2 year old. I like it...it's cute...I hope that stays awhile.