Of course, this wonderful news comes amidst the final preparations for Mimi's big day on Saturday.  I finished up the program design and Jon will print them and the song lyrics at work on his nice printers.  They turned out SO beautifully, and I'm really proud of them!

Sweet little Meemer, like most 8 year olds really doesn't understand what she is choosing, but she will do just fine, as she is a helpful, sweet, and loving little girl.  I am even more proud of her!!

We thought it would be nice to mail the little onesie we made for Jon's parents to them so they could have the memento, so today I got it in the mail for them!

Holy Smokes, Guess What?!

Jon and I decided last month that we wanted to begin trying to grow our family.  We have been actively preventing with pills, so my hopes for this month weren't particularly high, and I had felt like my period was coming this last week, but it never appeared.  This morning I took a test, and THERE WAS A LINE FOR PREGNANT!  Jon and I are stunned and so completely surprised that we have been so quickly blessed with this. 

In full disclosure, it was a Sunday, but once we knew, we knew we needed to tell our parents.  I have, of course, been thinking about how we would do that when the time came, I just wasn't expecting it this morning!  So off we ran to Target before church and grabbed some little tiny onesies.  I cut out the design on my silhouette, and painted the news on the front.

We wrapped up the onesie like a gift, and made some silly excuse to go up to Grandmere and Bapa's house this afternoon, where we gave the gift to them to open.  They are so excited, too!  Grandmere made all sorts of excited sounds and I think both she and Bapa are very happy another little grandchild is on the way!

Jon and I took this picture so we could tell Grandma and Grandpa G today, too.  We called Grandpa G, and while we were talking with him, we texted this picture to Grandma's phone, and told her to look at it while we were on the line.  She SCREAMED!!!  And thought we were kidding her!  It was such a fun evening sharing this incredible news with our parents.

We decided we are going to wait a while to tell anyone else, including the girls, until things are a little more 'for sure'...we have one heck of a secret to keep!!  Because it is so early, 3 weeks, 6 days, I feel no different at all...we will see how this goes being so much older!

Some Baptism Prep

Baptism coming up quick!  Today Jon and I went up to Grandmere's house to help with some of the high up decorations.  Jon tied this ribbon around my head and I felt quite silly.

It's going to be another lovely celebration, and this year, it will just be our family and Mimi will celebrate with her dad at a different time.

Jon has gotten really interested in sprouting seeds for microgreens and salads.  He got a bunch of different varieties, and planted them today in tupperwares.  I'm excited to see what they will do.

I got started on my embroidery right away, and it looks so cool so far!  I think it's going to be really great when it's done, plus have personal meaning for us!

Snagged this today while Mac was doing a handstand in her handstand shirt!  It was one of the shirts we had made for her for her birthday.  You can only read it right when she's upside down!  

I have a renewed interest in embroidery, but cross stitch seems a little too contrived.  In my searches on Etsy and Pinterest for modern embroidery designs, I have found some really cool ideas.  One in particular, when finished, looks like a topographical map.  This really caught my attention, and I thought, wouldn't it be cool to design my own based off of hikes Jon and I have done and loved??

The idea was sound, but I quickly found that some hikes are more topographically conducive to this design than others!  I had originally wanted to do Mt. Olympus, but it just wasn't working out.  So I chose to design an embroidery pattern for Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park.  Fitting, really, as it was very early on in our courtship...really just dating...that we hiked this trail.

I wanted to use lighter-darker to show elevation, but I didn't want the entire thing to be one hue, so I improvised, using the natural contours to create divisions between hues.  It will be greens, blues, and pinks/reds.  I am really excited about it.

I went to the store and got the greens to get started right away, and Jon helped me order them from lightest to darkest.  Not as easy a task because there were actually quite a few different hues.  Some more bluish green, some more yellowish green, some more desaturated green.  I think we worked out a good order, though, and I'm excited about the project!

I got the pattern all traced onto the fabric, and it's ready to start embroidering!  I've never done a project with this kind of creativity involved.  I'm excited to see where it goes.

Little Meemers, being 8 now, gets to go to Activity Days!  She got to go to her first event with Mac this afternoon, and it went really well.  Noel and Melanie were happy to have her, and they said she did great.  Love her so much!

More Birthday for Mac

And a snowstorm for a school morning!  We really haven't gotten much snow, so this was welcome and super fun to wake up to.  Hopefully it lasts more than the day before melting all away.

Tonight Mac got some more personal attention with our family party here for just her.  She got more gifts, including Barbies and clothes!!

She got her requested cake, and I even managed to keep hers off the floor!

It was nice to spend some more time honoring Mac's years here on earth...double digits!

Happy Birthday, Mac!!!

Mac has been very patient this year, with all the hubbub of Mimi's 8th birthday, and the celebrations aren't over yet!  She was so sweet and agreed to do her friend birthday party in March so we could get past the birthdays and baptism.  Today, though, is HER day!!

Her gifts were wrapped with pink and balloons, ready for her when she woke up.

Grandma and Grandpa G sent her a really cool origami kit, which she was really excited about opening up and trying out.

She was happy with her other gifts, too.  I'm glad they like Legos!

We got special breakfast in before church.  Easier, in fact, than on a school morning!

Leiden hasn't been feeling well, though, so Jon did a nasal swab on her to see what she's got.  We've got dinner at Grandmere's tonight and Aunt Susan will be there, and we have to be careful.

Birthdays on Sundays aren't always as exciting as other days, but we headed to church, where Mimi gave a talk!

Later this evening, both Mac and Mimi were celebrated at family dinner.  We put all the candles on one cake, and sang to them both, and they both blew them out!

Jon and I were jointly in charge of cutting the cake, and it was a fun celebration for the birthday girls.  Again, Mac was very gracious in sharing her actual birthday at the family dinner.  She's really learning (in spurts!) how to be kind.

Happy Birthday, sweet Mac!  We love you so much!

Unicorn Party!

Mimi's long awaited Unicorn Birthday Party was today!!

I worked hard making her a pretty unicorn cake, and I think it turned out really great!

My fondant horn struggled a bit, but Mimi didn't seem to mind!

I used edible gold paint for the details.

Jon was super helpful helping set up and get ready.

We are going to have a piñata for the kids, and it's a pull piñata, so that will be both interesting and much better for inside the house in February!

The favor bags are all lined up ready to go.

The unicorn horn ring toss is awaiting throwers.

The unicorn headbands are stacked, along with the yarn unicorn tails for the girls to pick and wear.

The coloring pages and crayons are ready to be used.

Mimi saw this unicorn balloon a long time ago at the party store and she really really wanted it.  I figured today was a great day to get it and use it for decoration!

She is so excited to celebrate with unicorns!

She got on a tail and headband early and alternated between standing in the doorway waiting for her friends to arrive, and looking out the window for them.

Finally they arrived, and the party commenced with some unicorn coloring!

Each girl picked her unicorn dress up decorations and set to it at the table.

We played unicorn horn ring toss, with varying levels of success!  The unicorn didn't stand up so straight, so there were issues.

And what's an elementary aged party without a good game of pin the blank on the blank??  It honestly never ceases to amaze me how OFTEN kids cheat at this game!  They seem quite incapable in most cases of just putting the horn (or whatever) where it lands first.  They try to be sneaky and move it after it's already touched.  One of the reasons I don't generally have prizes for the party games we play!

Guaranteed, the horn in the correct position on the unicorn's head was a little girl who moved it there purposely, thinking I didn't see her!

Then of course came cake!  We used gold candles, and put them back from the main horn and down the back like a mane.

The piñata worked pretty well.  We had to add a couple strings to equal the number of kids present, and they lined up and were allowed to pick one string to pull hard.

Only one of them was connected to the hatch that would let out all the candy!

I was standing there, but I'm honestly not sure who pulled the correct string, because as soon as candy fell, every child went to the floor and it was a free for all!

I made them pile it all up and divide it up evenly.

We did presents, and Mimi got tons of unicorn themed gifts.  She was so happy with all her friends' generosity!  Group picture, then they just wanted to play until their parents came.  All in all, a very successful home party!

Even Jon got in on the unicorn fun.  But really only for a picture with me.

We decided to play ring toss with Leiden's unicorn horn, which she was very reluctant to wear at all.  She really is almost a teenager, and sometimes the little girl stuff is just too much for her budding young womanhood!

As things died down, we had a GREAT time inhaling helium and talking to each other.  The videos are hilarious!

Mimi was very pleased with how her party turned out, and I think the girls had fun, which is really the whole point.  I'm glad it's over, though!