two little pink lines...

That's right..we are pregnant! I am only about 6 weeks along but we are very excited to tell all our friends and family (although, I think Eric has already told everybody - melts my heart that he is so excited). We have been thinking about having another child for a while now. Of course, we were concerned about a second pregnancy after how Charlie's birth unfolded. We have met with several maternal fetal medicine experts and have spent a lot of time in prayer. In the end, both Eric and I felt a complete peace about moving forward with trying for a second pregnancy. Now here we are. :) I can't say that I am not a little scared. I know that all I can do is pray for this baby and know that it will all happen in God's plan. I would like to ask that you all keep us in your prayers as well. I would be so grateful.

This Saturday is the March of Dimes March for Babies, so any of you who were thinking of donating, now is the time! Just follow the link on the right hand side of my blog. We have received several cash and check donations as well, so we are very happy with the money we have been able to raise! Thank-you everyone for your support.

we have a new roommate...

This little guy has made himself at home above our front door:

I noticed some twigs lying on the ground and looked up to see that he (or is it a she?) was well on it's way to making a pretty good sized nest. The sensitive guy that he is, Eric can not bear the thought of getting rid of the nest until the eggs hatch. So, now we shall see how long it decides to stick around. Charlie loves checking on it whenever we go outside. Tonight as we got ready to go for a walk he asked why the bird was not wearing his jacket since it was chilly outside. :)

The event this weekend was titled "Tell the story only you can tell". Just a little reminder that scrapbooking is not just about birthday and Christmas photos, but about the details of our lives. Things like our daily routine, the places that we visit often, the people that influence us most or our favorite place to sit and think. All these things that make us who we are. It really has made me think these past few days since I've been home. Taking the time to notice the details that fill our lives. I learned many different ways to document "my story" and I can't wait to get started. One of the quotes that Heidi Swapp told us in her class was "A year from now you will wish you started today". At first I didn't think much of it, but the more I have pondered it the more it has hit home. There are SO many things today that I wish I would have started a year ago. I think I am definitely going to post this somewhere in my house as a reminder.

i'm home! happy and refreshed....

This weekend was all that a girl's weekend should be: lots of talking, shopping, scrapbooking and staying up late! The event was great and we made several very cute projects. Great to just hang out with other women, even if I didn't know most of them - moms, sisters and friends - much in common with so much to learn from one another. I am feeling blessed to have an amazing husband that encouraged me to go and made sure that I didn't feel guilty about taking some much needed time for myself.

This is Heidi, Holly and I with one of our teachers, Wilna Furstenburg. She is from South Africa and is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. Very funny too! She will also be the guest designer for the May kit of Freehand Scraps, so be sure to check out her work on the 1st!

So HAPPY to be home with this little man:

our new ride...

Sorry the blog has been pretty lame this last week. I have not been meaning to neglect it, I guess I have just been busy getting ready for my trip to Nashville. I am leaving on Wednesday to meet up with my good friends Heidi and Holly for a girls weekend/scrapbooking event! So excited to see them and have some time away.

A few weeks ago we traded in our Pilot and got an Element. We have been trying to figure out how to simplify a little around here and also save some money on car expenses and gas, so it seemed like the time to do it. The Element definitely has less bells and whistles than our Pilot did that I thought I would miss, but we LOVE the Element and haven't looked back! It seems to have more room where we needed it and I just love how simple it is to keep it clean since everything is plastic. Very handy when you have a 3 year old in tow. Charlie loves it too - he doesn't even seem to miss the DVD player. Just remind me how much we love it when winter rolls around and we won't have heated seats....I think that is the only thing I am going to miss.


We love the suicide doors, it makes it so much easier to load up Charlie if I have other stuff I need to get in the car as well.

I am just SOO happy that he is already smiling with a fake, cheesy smile. Ugh. I thought that didn't happen until 2nd grade or so?

Since it has finally started warming up around here we have been spending lots of time outside with Charlie's new golf set. Here is our little Tiger Woods:

Great form don't you think? This set was made for a right-handed person. I think it is just a sign of things to come of raising a lefty.
Thanks for checking in with us. I will try to update before I leave, but if not have a great week!

another quiet weekend...

It was another quiet weekend around the Smith household. We did go bowling on Saturday with my mom and dad and had a great time. Charlie loved bowling, but just like anything for a 3-year-old, the excitement was pretty short-lived. Once the lunch and treats came out, he was all about that instead. Plus, he had been to a birthday party at the bowling alley a week ago so he just kept asking when the birthday cake was coming. That kid is all about the food. What is great about the local bowling alley is that the bumpers would come up just for Charlie and then they would go back down when it was not his turn. I did not get any good photos of the day because of the terrible lighting. I did get a short video of Charlie with our new Flip camera, but I am having a hard time getting the videos to load to the ol' blog. I am trying to get it figured out because I would really like to share some fun videos.

Anyway, here are a few layouts that I got done this weekend. These are from our trip to California in February. I really like the way these turned out!

I still need to add the journaling to this layout but I cannot find my slick writer pen...where did that thing go? I think I better go check Charlie's toy closet...he has been very interested in my scrap supplies lately...

project linus

I think I have mentioned before that my mom and I have been putting together some quilts to donate to an organization called Project Linus. This organization is so great because they give the blankets they receive to the local children's hospitals and NICU's. The hospitals keep some of them for the isolettes/rooms and they give some of them to the kids as a small comfort to warm up the cold hospital environment. Many of the blankets that were in Charlie's isolette had the little Project Linus tag on them. I researched the organization and fell in love with the idea. So, here is a picture of the quilts that we made this winter:


We made 2 boy and 2 girl quilts. I LOVE the way they all turned out, but this one has to be my absolute favorite:

If I were pregnant right now and knew I was having a boy, I maybe would just have to keep this one for myself! :)

i love spring....

Since the gallery will not be up until the 4th, Heidi asked if I would be interested in posting one of my projects for the April Freehand Scraps kit. So, I thought I would share the rest of the minibook that I posted about a few days ago. Even though I absolutely love this kit, at first I was a little worried how I was going to use it since I usually only scrapbook for Charlie's book and this kit was not very "boy". I quickly decided to do a minibook since I have never done one before. Plus it gave me a chance to work with an acrylic album, something I have been wanting to do. This is the great thing about being part of a kit club - it can really stretch your creativity and get you excited to create things just for fun sometimes. I am so happy that Spring is finally making an appearance so I focused the book on all the things I love about Spring. Here are the rest of the photos (you can click on them to make them bigger):







I really love the way this book came out. My favorite item in the kit is the tags from Jenni Bowlin. I used almost all of them in this book and felt a little panic when I realized they were almost gone. The rub-ons from Jenni Bowlin were also great because they went on very easily and I loved that they showed up black on both sides of the acrylic pages. I did not use any new or unique techniques in this book, just some stamping and my favorite go-to scallop circle punch. Make sure to check out the kit at www.freehandscraps.com, it is for sale now!

Also, I just wanted to note that the acrylic album does not come in the kit so you could easily replicate this idea with any type of minibook.