Its a .....

squid!

no- not really :)
but that is our "code name" this time around (some of you may remember that Zeke was "cletus the fetus" when he was of unknown gender in utero.)

A couple weeks ago we had an ultrasound planned where we would get to find out the gender if we choose. We didnt decided to find out until about a week before the ultrasound.

Once we did decide that we were going to tell people the gender the next thing we decided was to not tell names and we would tell our parents at Christmas (about 2 weeks later)

I then had to decide how we were going to tell the parents. We actually managed to not even have them know if we knew or not. That was a bit tricky- especially when they came right out and asked us "so did you find out the gender?"

I went to the baby section in my local walmart and found some cute bibs and booties to wrap to give the parents as the last Christmas presents of the day.

Here are their reactions:

First my mom and sister

 then Daves mom and sister

This picture was followed by some giddy schoolgirl feet stomping with a gleeful "ohhh! now I can buy pink yarn!"

So if you havent guessed- we are having a GIRL!

I cant wait to get home and start pulling girly fabrics for a quilt!!
only one problem of having to move all my quilting stuff to the basement- I guess it will be my first project there! (motivation- right?)

we have some winners!!

Well I did the drawing and here are the winners!!

Here are your random numbers:

1
8
10

Timestamp: 2011-12-16 18:35:26 UTC

Debra said...1

Ilike to thrift shop then go out to dinner!

December 14, 2011 12:20 AM 

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...8

I love to have dinner delivered to my house where I can have a nice quiet celebration with my hubby. Thanks for the opportunity to enter your great giveaway!

December 14, 2011 8:03 PM 

Christina said...9

Happy Birthday Debbie!

Dave, I love your answer!

For my birthday, I love more than anything to have dinner with my brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, and my parents in San Antonio, TX. But now that I live away in North Carolina, I love to chat with them over the phone throughout the day and dinner with my hubby.

I hope I win. I'd love to start on a new hobby/ project ;)

December 15, 2011 12:30 AM 

I will be contacting you to find out which charm pack you want :)

Christmas lights and Birthday giveaway!

Good morning everyone!!

I wanted to show my Ikea lights in action:

Today (ok- so I posted this early- my birthday is Wendesday)  is my birthday...but even better than that - its my 30th birthday.

So I want to do a little giveaway. I have 3 charm packs that you can win.
I will use the Random number thing to pick 3 winners! First winner gets first choice, second winner gets to choose next... etc.

 The Bella Solids are 2 tones 

Contest is closed:
We have our winners :)




to Enter: Please leave a comment telling me what you like to do to celebrate your own birthday. 

Drawing will take place on Friday morning - giving you only a couple days to enter.
I think with these I can ship internationally.

good luck!

A Big Help!

Zeke has been a big help today.

first he brought his rolling back pack to church and brought in his own diaper and drink etc.

Our car was showing a low tire when we were heading home so Zeke helped daddy "fix it"

 We then went up the mountain to Blowing Rock where they had some snow on the ground

 We came home and after Zekes nap he helped daddy sort out the laundry.

By the way- my hubby is awesome to start laundry without me even knowing it took it downstairs!!

And this picture just makes me laugh out loud!

Zeke kept opening his mouth like he was going to bite you. I just looked in at his teeth but Dave got a tad "nervous" and so Zeke kept doing it and getting closer and closer.

We told him no biting so instead he decided licking was the way to go.....

Google Christmas Party 2011

So my husbands work has an annual Christmas Party.

Each year it has been in a different location and I think this was the best one by far.

We went to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville NC where we had dinner followed by a dueling piano bar, a stay overnight and a wonderful breakfast.

The Grove Park Inn hosts a gingerbread competition every year. Some of the requirements are that there must be gingerbread and everything must be editable. There was tons of gingerbread sculptures! even the youth ones were pretty amazing :) I dont think we got to see them all.

After breakfast we headed into Asheville and took a trolley tour and grabbed a couple geocaches (ask dave who found them!)

This was the very first time BOTH Dave and I have been away overnight away from Zeke. We had a good friend come and stay over with him and they had a blast together. Although I hear he was a little put off by us not coming to get him in the morning :)
Thank You very much Courtney!! We wouldnt have been able to go without you!


I hope you enjoy these photos our our mini vacation.

photos of new...

well this was not a typical day at all.

but I did get some great photos!

I also got a wisdom tooth removed right after these pictures were taken.

so that gives you a bit of what my day was like- both ups and downs :)

19 weeks

Thanksgiving Road trip

Well we got back yesterday from a 5 day road trip to the coast of North Carolina.
We went geocaching along the way with an average of 4-5 hours driving each day. Now- 4-5 hours is the driving part. Most of the time we were in the car at least 7-8 hours as we stopped to play and food and of course geocaching.

here is Daves recap of each day

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

On Sunday night we made sure we were at a hotel near the Charlotte airport so Dave could fly off for a work trip leaving me to pack up child and dog and go to Ikea. (not sure if I mentioned my love of Ikea here- ha!)

We arrived home around 3pm on Monday and I still havent done any groceries Tuesday night (we have enough left from our trip)

Here are my pictures:



and a video of Zeke counting while we were driving:


and a couple more where he was very excited to go geocaching:

quilting- whats that?

wow- I have been in a dry spell since Aug. (minus the wedding his and hers quilts and finishing a small wall hanging )

Since getting pregnant I have not made hardly anything!
I am feeling it after this long.

looking a head I cannot see time to quilt until the new year- this is making me sad. I will have to try to squeeze in some time somewhere.

I have a table quilt that I am hand quilting to keep me a bit more sane.

But I am now 18 weeks and starting to feel the tickles in the tummy :D

at 16 weeks

I absolutely love that feeling!

dont mind the non smile- I was taking this while Dave was getting Zeke ready for bed on a self timer. 10 seconds can be very long.

hopefully I can get my but in gear.

Next up:
- Cleaning up the basement office/craft room/man cave
- move quilting stuff to basement
- redecorate guest room to make it my sons bed room

then we can start moving zeke into his room (out of the nursery) to make room for #2 and the whole toddler bed thing.
We hope we can have both a toddler bed and the queen  guest bed in the same room until I am comfortable with Zeke sleeping in the big bed.

Zeke in the kitchen and elsewhere

one of the fave things to do in the car

cheese

Trying to show my his hat

giveaway

Shannon is giving away the traveling stash on Wednesday.

only 23 comments so far- go try your luck


http://nunusquiltworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/time-for-traveling-stash-give-away.html

Google reader

Reading your blog posts though Google Reader is great except you cannot see the actual blog layouts.

here is a tip I got from Scary Mommy

Finally, a tip for design loving blog readers: If you read blogs through Google Reader, but miss actually seeingthe blogs, this is the answer you’ve been waiting for: Logged into your Google account, go here and click on the Goodies tab. Once you “Put Reader in a Bookmark,” you will be able to read the posts from your reader, intheir actual blogs. You get to see the blog post in the pretty design, and the blogger gets the page-view. Win, win for everyone.


EXCEPT it hasnt been working for me since they changed the Reader Layout!


I will update this when it works again. 


EDIT: it works again!! yay!


I have blogged this so I have the info handy for when i need to do it again.

Halloween candy division

So- How do/ did you deal with Halloween candy?

did your kids get to keep it all?

did you divide it between everyone?

did you sneak candy from your kids?

Here is what my parents did with us growing up.

There were 4 of us kids bringing in candy for a few years.
After we got home mom and dad would dump all the candy in the middle of the table.
It would all be sorted out by type of candy- gum in a bowl, chocolate in another, chips in another etc etc.

We would then be allowed to take some - I think 10?) pieces each.

The rest of the candy would be put up on a shelf and every day mom would let us pick out 2-3 pieces to add to our lunch boxes. Sometimes we would get some after school, a special treat etc.

This was a fair way to deal with it, especially once me and my brother stopped trick or treating. The haul would often last well past the first week- usually lasting the whole month of November.

My parents also got some of the treats. I'm sure they ate their favourites first! (as we all do)

As you can see in that picture above, I have already sorted out the candy into groups and they are now in a couple bowls.

I think I may continue what we did with mom and dad- but we will see.

so- what do you do?

Renaissance Fair!

Wow- it has been a long time since I posted!

Daves parents and Mine have both been up for Zekes birthday.

I will blog their visits later.

For now I will blog about the Renaissance Fair that we went to in Huntersville NC.

Dave did a great post on it over Here (you should really check it out- its good)

It was the first time any of us have gone to a Renaissance Fair, ever.

We had a blast!!

There were soo many stages to see shows on. you could spend the whole day there and not see everything~!

The bonus of us going this past Saturday is that it was the Halloween day.
They encouraged kids to dress up and go trick or treating at all the booths!

I did most of it for Zeke- BUT after lunch I let Zeke out of the stroller and let him run into the booths to say Trick or Treat. he would often only get out "TREAT".

He would say "TREAT" to anyone in the booth to get the candy. We did have a little problem of him wanting to open the candy right away- but we told him he had to sit in the stroller to eat his candy- it was much more fun to run to all the booths!

Here is some pictures from the day- Enjoy.

Leo's visit here= the end

Leo has been with us for almost a month. 

We have enjoyed his company. He is a laugh and a half even though he can get into trouble!

Here are a few links from his time with us:

Leo arrived

then we went to Myrtle beach

and he celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with us

I have a few more pictures from his time with us. They are a bit mixed up but bear with me :)

First we have Leo at Zekes birthday party

Eating a piece of cake

trying to get re-gifted?

Leo attacking the birthday boy with kisses

Leo then went with Zeke to the pumpkin patch 

choosing a pumpkin

on the wagon ride

At Zekes preschool for Zekes preschool birthday party

one evening we went to the local walking park

tagging along on the stroller

Zeke wanted to hang out with Leo

Zeke giving Leo a ride

Ps- if you want to read about Leos previous adventures you can find them here or you can join in the fun here

Dave's moms quilt is done.

Finally! Its done!

When they came to visit this weekend I was able to give it to her even washed and dried (although it was still drying when they arrived)

Here are some links to it previously:
This quilt gave me lots of trouble
I got the top done
and it got quilted.

now it is finished!!

With a navy blue binding 

Daves mom 

Zekes 2nd Birthday!

Saturday was Zeke's 2nd Birthday!!

the spread

 The cake- Thomas of course!

blowing out the candle

eating the cake

 more kids eating cake

 where we decorated bags for a craft

some presents

T-shirt from nana and poppa

 the fam :)

more pictures here: