However, this one wasn’t quite as cooperative as Analiese was–always in a strange position and then moving around just as we were about to get a good image. Stubborn little one. It was a long ultrasound, but thankfully, the technician was as determined as we were to find out the sex.

We were most excited to come home and share the news with Baby’s big sister. So, we thought it appropriate for her to share the news with you…

That’s right…it’s another girl! We are shocked (since two girls in a row is very rare in our families) and super excited (because they get to be sisters!).

We’re not sure how much of this Analiese is grasping just yet, but we do know that she is going to be a wonderful big sister to this little one.

As hungry as I am these days–as in ALL THE TIME HUNGRY–it’s still hard to figure out what is going to satisfy my appetite. I end up snacking a lot throughout the day, but I usually want something really yummy for dinner. I’m sure Ross doesn’t mind that philosophy either since he eats the same thing–by choice–every day for lunch during the work week. He’s had little variation on his packed lunch since he was in grade school. No joke.

So, I’ve adopted her menu planning idea and have shopped for and prepared a few meals I’ve pinned onto my Food Love board. I noticed that there are a lot of Mexican dishes on there!

Tonight we had Chicken Enchilada Pasta:

via

YUMMY! Definitely a recipe keeper. We all–including Analiese–cleaned our plates. We topped ours with sour cream and avocado. I didn’t have any tomatoes otherwise I would have added a few to mine and A’s. And I just don’t like green onions at all, so those were left off, too.

I’ve also wanted to make use of my crock pot more because it just seems to make cooking a meal so much easier than standing at the stove while A begs for my attention and repeats “sit there mama?” over and over again. And since I’m a veteran freezer-cooker, this assortment of freezer/slow cooker meals was appealing. The three recipes call for many of the same vegetables, so it made the shopping and chopping process more efficient.

via

We tried the Healthy Mama Barbecue Chicken first and all enjoyed it even though it didn’t have a very strong BBQ flavor to it. I was skeptical of the big pieces of onion and skin on the sweet potatoes, but it was really delicious…and full of good stuff, which makes me like it even more.

We tried the Goulash next and thought it was good, too, but not as flavorful as the first meal. Analiese was not a fan, but I think that was mostly because of the meat. I’m glad I didn’t use as many beets as the recipe called for. In fact, instead of dicing them, I used a puree I had frozen from when I tried out Jessica Seinfeld’s Deliciously Deceptive cook book. They blended well this way and the beet flavor was subtle.

We haven’t tried the Chicken Curry, but I think it will be a good one.

It’s been quite an adventure with a few emotional ups and downs, but Ross termed it as his current “hobby” the other night, so I guess we’re doing ok in terms of our feelings towards the whole thing.

Ross diligently spent weekends and week nights before and after Analiese went to bed to finish up the framing and insulating so that we were ready for someone to hang the drywall before the holidays.

He finished framing in the work out room:

…around a corner pipe that we needed to have future access to in case of any issues:

{ The square opening at the front will have an access panel installed into it. The top will be fashioned with some distressed wood that will be used elsewhere in the room as a feature. }

…the inside of the closet:

{ We insulated the interior walls to provide a sound barrier more than for temperature control. }

…and the fireplace, which he worked on during the dry wall installation:

{ I’m sad that we didn’t get a picture of what the fireplace area looked like once it was all framed and before the dry wall covered it up. You can also see here that we have the electrical roughed in, too. We hired someone to do that part, as well. }

We are SO glad we hired someone else to hang and mud the dry wall. What a tedious and messy process that is!

We really liked the guy that did the dry wall. He was recommended to us by a friend from church who is in the construction industry. However, we discovered, that he is not a perfectionist. When the mudding and taping was finished, he offered to prime everything (for a price, of course), so that if there were any imperfections, he could fix them right away. We kindly turned him down (we’re pretty experienced painters since we did the entire rest of the house ourselves) and asked if we could mark the spots we notice as we go along. He agreed to come back and take care of those imperfections. So, we marked away…

{ See how great that wall looks!? We decided that since the fireplace would not take up the same width as the tv hole above it, we should do something with the space around it. Built-in shelving was the obvious answer, even though it looks like space for a sound system from the 1990′s. The center hole above the fireplace may work well for a center speaker, though. We’ll see. I’m leaning more towards functional, yet decorative shelving space. }

…and away…

{ I LOVE how the windows look! }

…and away…

{ The flexible duct that snakes through the closet is the rerouted vent to our kitchen. }

He laughed when he saw all of them, but we’re pretty sure he didn’t pay very close attention to how well he fixed them. It’s ok, though, we know we are oddly picky about things and if we have to do some sanding ourselves, we’ll do it. In fact, it’s one of the first projects I can actually help with. Time to get out my mask! And, if you can look past the blue tape, you can start to see our basement taking shape, which we are very excited about!

Most of the time, when Analiese sees the video camera, she clams up. But, the other day, I caught a rare performance:

This has been a full month for us. Between people coming and going to work on the basement, Daddy being away for a week for work and traveling to Cincinnati for Christmas, we’ve been a bit all over the place. I wish I could bottle up your energy because I am tired! That could be because I’m growing your little brother or sister inside of me, too. Which, by the way, we think you’re excited about. When we ask you where the baby is, you try to lift Mama’s shirt up to see my belly and often offer a kiss. You are going to be a very sweet big sister.

While Daddy was away, I whisked you away to do something very fun and exciting…

your first haircut! { Please, contain the joy. }

Really, though, you did great, babe.

You probably enjoyed our trip to the mall play area with your friend, A, the day before more. You had so much fun running around, climbing, sliding, hiding…it was a fun day for you.

You love your puppy dog! Parker makes you giggle out of no where. You love retrieving his toys when they get stuck somewhere and he usually has a very willing little person to throw his toys for him to fetch. He’s very appreciative that you now know his name, too!

You stay on guard when there’s food involved, though. Smart girl.

Christmas in Cincinnati was a treat for you. You woke up ready for whatever the day held and greeted everyone by name each morning.

We ate a lot of good food all week long and decorated Nana and Poppa’s Christmas tree.

You went to the grocery store with Nana where you put a smile on everyone’s face when you greeted them up and down the aisles.

You went to the bookstore with Poppa where you “organized” the shelves.

We slowly unwrapped gifts throughout the day so you could enjoy what you had been gifted.

Thank you, Uncle Erik, for the colored bubble launcher. It’s bound to be a favorite. However, it’s hiding until summer.

On our last full day, we went to see the trains at the Museum Center…

…made a gingerbread man with Nana…

…and in the evening took a drive with Nana to see the lights at Sharon Woods in our pj’s. What a fun and festive day that was!

When we returned home, we took advantage of having no plans and hung out with Daddy for the rest of the week. We wore our pj’s a lot. You played with all of your new toys quite contentedly. Some days you entertain yourself so well.

Other days require a project like painting { so focused! } or playing with water at the sink { messier than you may think }.

But you still love to color in your coloring books and are even trying to color specific areas instead of just all over the page. Nana would be proud.

In fact, most evenings before bed, this is what you’re doing:

Butt up. Tongue out.

Love you, Analiese!
Mama & Daddy

I could not have pulled everything together without the help from my two co-hosts–thank you Christy and Kelly! And thank you to my friend, Sally, for taking these amazing pictures. You captured my favorite details perfectly.

I kept meaning to get this post up sooner. The timing seems appropriate right now because Baby B was due yesterday and I have a feeling she will be gracing us with her presence any day now…any hour? Come on, Baby B!

I posted the invitations what seems to be a very long time ago. And now, here are the vintage-feminine details { almost completely inspired by Pinterest discoveries }:

Ross had to drink a LOT of Starbucks frappuccinos for the glass milk bottles to be a success. I had to use a LOT of Goo Gone, which during my first trimester become one of the scents I could not stand anymore! We will use these for many parties to come, I think!

Flowers were done by a local flower shop using blue Ball jars as the vase. It’s a fact that I am a horrible flower arranger.

Aside from the bowl of pita chips, the food was completely gluten-free and included some of K’s favorites. The cake balls were done by my co-hosts and were delicious. They followed this informative, but hilarious video tutorial.

K introduced me to white chocolate drizzled popcorn. It’s amazing. A dash of sea salt over the melted chocolate is essential.

Also on the menu: fruit salad drizzled with coconut balsamic vinegar, peppers and chips with hummus, and three different flavors of cake balls. Drinks included water with lemons and limes, decaf sweet iced tea, decaf coffee and Laura’s hot apple cider.

These amazing { and stackable } metal tins came from Ross’s mom. She was an invaluable resource for me as I planned this shower.

She let me borrow all of the old boxes, too. The antique pink dishes also came from her stash, but I get to keep those!

Don’t you just love a good baby bump?

Once plates were full of food, guests came down to the family room for some mama wisdom, a few games, and gift opening. Although, the shower was held at someone else’s house, I brought almost all of my throw pillows from home to add to the decor. I have many. The window frames were borrowed from a friend–thank you, Jenni!

I had my heart set on creating a fabric strip banner from the very beginning. Actually, it’s this photo that inspired the “sugar & spice” theme, too.

There were many other mamas of new babies at the shower. I love this picture. Little Allie { on the left } is awake here, but all three of them slept just like this for a long time!

Praying for you, K! You are going to rock your labor. Can’t wait to meet your sweet little girl!

Yes, I think that it was a success, and if you know my history of book-reading, you’ll be surprised that the list is longer than 1 :)

Here’s what I was able to make it through this year, in order of completion:

1. Crazy Love by Francis Chan
2. HTML 5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith
3. The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
4. CSS3 for Web Designers by Dan Cederholm
5. Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias
6. Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper
7. The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane
8. Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marchotte
9. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
10. Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter
11. Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp

Finally, I intentionally titled this post with “list” rather than “review,” but if you have specific question about a book, feel free to comment. And FYI, I’d recommend any of the books above to a friend.

Every year it’s a challenge to design our Christmas card. I spend many months designing cards for pipe|up, but then need to stir my creative juices to come up with just one more for our own card.

This year was no exception. I really love so many of the designs in my shop this year. (Is that ok to say?) I loved designing them and I feel so honored when an Etsy shopper scours through thousands of possible card designs, adds mine to their favorites–usually among many other very talented card designers–and then purchases one of MY designs. It brings me such delight. I also had some great text and layout ideas shared with me by close friends who just want to help me succeed in what I love to do. There’s really no reason, other than the surprise element, that prevents me from just using one of the designs that already exists.

 { front }

But, you see, I do love a little surprise. And this year, in particular, we have fun news to share with friends and family and I knew exactly how I wanted to share it. No, the “+1″ is not referring to Parker. We’ve been gifted a brand new little life and will soon be a family of four. We feel so blessed.

We also wanted our card to reflect the true meaning of Christmas–the birth of Jesus, our Savior and light of the world. ”May they know He came for them” is from “Christmas Christmastime is Here” by Rosie Thomas. It’s a perfect message that we want you all to know and believe.

A few weeks ago, our church held a Women’s Christmas Tea. My dear friend, K, shared with the group some holiday traditions she and her family have begun. She closed with this:

I hope you know tonight that He came for you. Because of Jesus, I have complete forgiveness of sins and I don’t need to earn anything. For those who have a relationship with Christ, He came for you. For those of you who are still deciding what you believe, He came for you. He came for all of us that we might know the love of God and experience His grace.

{ back }

He came for you. Merry Christmas.

A further head turn, and there was this (notice her real milk in the background):

Then, I started roaming the rest of the house to see what else she had lined up and found this in her room:

My little organizer!

This evening, she came out of her room with her arms full of lovies. We have a collection of a few that didn’t make “the cut”, but she still likes to play with them. She also put on the headband herself.

It wasn’t too long before she was lining them up to take a nap on the floor. She’s telling the last one “night night” in case you can’t tell.

But I digress. The purpose of this post is to offer a free printable download. The inspiration comes from the back of our Christmas cards, which I will post once they’re in the mail to friends, family and neighbors. And they’ll probably make their way to pipe|up in next year’s collection.

Consider this a sneak peak…and a treat…for you….or for your wall, which is where mine is:

The window to the left is very white because we woke up to SNOW when I took this picture yesterday morning!

Here are a few colors for you to choose from:

{ Click on the image to open the color you want in a new screen. Then, click on it again to download the 5×7 printable. }