{first wreath}

The first wreath is finished!! We are making a super cute one at women's day in a few weeks, but this one will have to do for now. I guess five years of super late night studying for Travis equates to me starting some new hobbies! 

{diapers}

When my friend told me about the diaper sale Amazon Mom is doing this month, I couldn't pass it up! I bought a box of 246 Huggies diapers for a total of $10.75 with free shipping, and they arrived so fast! No strings attached! Amazon is always a winner. I never thought I would be so excited about buying diapers!

{getting our craft on}

My friend Karlee and I are trying to do some fun projects while our husbands are so busy with school; we ended up at JoAnn's for most of the day getting supplies! We are working on some fun wreaths for our front doors and I also bought some fabric. I sewed a carseat canopy and am so happy I made it for just $6. I love how it stays on all the time and doesn't fall off like a blanket would. Thank goodness for the creative things people think of and online blog tutorials to do them myself...and for a sewing machine and for all the time my mom put in to teaching me the basics while I was growing up!

{loving north carolina}

We have been loving life here in NC! The weather has been so nice this summer and we just can't get enough of our new house or the fact that we have a bathroom sink and a dishwasher. There are twenty families from our ward who live in our complex, which means lots of new friends all around us. I hosted a dessert night recipe swap at our place last night for the ladies in our complex from the ward. Sixteen of the twenty were able to make it and it was so much fun! So many yummy desserts and a lot of great, new recipes.

We haven't seen a lot of spiders or bugs around or anything too crazy. But there has been one crazy thing; on my walks in the morning I pass a giant spiderweb every day and it is like nothing I've ever seen before. Don't want to know what lives in there! The picture below doesn't even do it justice.

I've been getting a lot of new sewing projects going lately and I start a new photography class in a week! I'm really enjoying this time to work on some hobbies before the baby comes. My belly is growing every day and I love feeling all the {constant} kicking going on inside me. Having life in my belly is something that I wouldn't trade for any terrible symptom or complaint of pregnancy. We love our doctor and feel really confident in our plan for the next 4 months. Travis has been super busy with school and got his grade for his first class he just finished {math bootcamp} and he passed! Wahoo! His new classes started this week and he is a champ. This PhD stuff is intense!

{snickerdoodles}

These days I randomly think of something that would taste good and then go make it! Guess that would be what you would call a pregnancy craving. Snickerdoodles were my latest treat; my mom gave me such a fabulous recipe...the one I remember eating growing up!

Mix:
½ c.  butter
½ c. shortening
1 ½ c. sugar
2 eggs

Add:
2 ¾ c. flour
2 t. cream tartar
1 t. soda
¼ t. salt

Roll in cinnamon sugar
Place on an ungreased pan
Bake at 375 for 8 minutes

{pillow covers}

I have a really long list of projects to get through before December while Travis is swamped in school and I have the time. One of those was sewing some fun pillows for our couches! I found some great fabric from fabric.com, although the way they sell it to you, you have to buy quite a bit to even have enough, but it was exactly what I wanted. I found a great tutorial here  that I used and had so much fun making them! I have more of the red fabric coming in the mail to make more of those. The red pillows and the chevron pillows will go on the couch, and the polka dot one was just for practice!

{thinking in blue}

This baby is a boy!! Our ultrasound went perfect and we are happy there is healthy baby growing inside me. Now we just need to get him here healthy at the end of this year! I hope he looks just like Travis. He was so active in the ultrasound; moving all around constantly, sucking his fingers {even his toes!} and sticking out his tongue.

Thankfully, all of our big/main stuff {carseat, stroller etc} is gender neutral, but it looks like I get to go on a major shopping spree for little boy clothes and shoes!

Having a boy for our second child is the best thing I could think of. It separates things from Elaine Raquel more emotionally right now. Heavenly Father knows exactly what He is doing!

Here is a glimpse of our little guy {we had such a great ultrasound tech who labeled everything and put all the pics on a CD for us}:

{6 months}

Six months ago today I went through labor, pushed for an hour, then delivered Elaine Raquel Dyer. As my dad has said, that this life is really the "plan of feeling," where we get to experience the bitter and the sweet and all the emotions that mortal life brings. Since that day, we have felt so much peace.

It's been said that when God wants to make a change in this world He sends a baby. Six months ago today He wanted to change me and Travis in deep, permanent ways, so He sent us a baby who we will always miss, but always love!