November November

This month has been pretty busy with Adam finishing up a quarter, beginning another, routine check-ups, visiting family...whew! Here are a few photos from our month:

More fruit, please!

To Great-Grandma's house we go!

One of my first few times in the exersaucer! Love it!

Isaac's Nursery Reveal!

When we found out that we would be having a baby boy, I contemplated the nursery theme for quite a while.

Inspired by the Restoration Hardware Baby & Child vintage aviator theme, the nursery adventure began!

I painted a dresser white and selected a dusty vintage blue paint for the walls. There is a post dedicated just for the dresser, which was published late June 2012...just a few days before Isaac arrived (good thing I didn't procrastinate painting the dresser!). The inspiration for the dresser came from Pottery Barn, such as this piece here. The dresser matches our white changing table and crib.

(Please pardon the lack of photograph quality....)

One of my baby shower's themes was vintage airplanes. I enjoyed helping out with the event's decorations. With my Cricut, I created a triangle banner out of vintage patterned and colored papers. 

It went from cake table decor to the crib's banner. (RH Baby & Child's nursery themes are generally neutral toned, but I wanted to add some cheery reds and pattern.) It kinda reminds me of this banner.

My sister created a beautiful blanket for Isaac. The colors are similar to this blanket, one of the inspirations for the room. She chose the perfect colored yarn for this special gift. It is so pretty I only want to drape it over the side of the crib for display!

In the spring  I found this nifty hook propeller at a children's clothing/etc resale event. Perfect tone of red, creative and great for organization!

Something I wanted for the walls was a dictionary print. You may have seen them...it's basically a picture or letter printed on a vintage piece of paper. Our printer wasn't cooperating and I didn't have a good dictionary page background image...so long story short I did something a little different. I have four identical black frames without the glass. Inside I inserted a dictionary page from my 1960's doorstop of a dictionary. With my Cricut I created "FLY!" in large grey letters. I adhered them within the frame using foam adhesives. I liked the idea of the letters being raised because it adds depth.

During one of the last few days in Wheaton, Mom, Isaac and I went to some garage sales. Along with some other goodies, we found these curtains. Linen. Neutral. Long panels. Only $1 a piece. Perfect. 

So I got four. :-)

One of the last things I added to the nursery was a mobile. I was waiting for inspiration. I really liked this one, but it was $$. So I pulled out my handy dandy Cricut once again and the following is what I came up with. I already had the paper and string...$0.

Most of the planes in the nursery are from my second home. This beautiful silver one is, however, a gift from some dear friends.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Isaac's nursery. It was fun to create! And just think, this summer I'll be taking it apart and putting it back together again this summer when we move. 

Last Weekend

Last weekend we drove a few hours to visit Sarah's family. This was to be an especially special visit because Isaac's great-grandmas drove 12 hours to come see baby Isaac, their brand new great-grandbaby. Laura did a great job taking such lovely photos of the weekend's festivities.
                                    




Isaac also had pears for the very first time last weekend! He was not enjoying his cereal anymore, so one of his great-grandmas said (saraphrased), "I got all of the grandkids and great-grandkids fruit for Halloween instead of candy. I got Isaac baby food. Want to try mixing in some pears or bananas?" He loved it!
                                                       



One of the fun parts of the weekend was getting to see all of the cute critters again. :-) Bo is cautiously wanting to sniff Isaac's foot. Sonny is posing handsomely for the camera.
                                             


                                                             



Saturday evening we had a bonfire. The weather was great! A bit overcast, cool and the rain waited until later to grace us with its presence. We roasted hot dogs and s'mores and enjoyed other goodies as well. We've had Isaac's first bonfire planned for months.
                                          

Good-byes were hard...but we're all looking forward to the next visit!

                                                        

Another {Co op Friendly} Recipe!

I was perusing Pinterest and came upon this lovely lil blog: Little Magnolia Kitchen. She shared a yummy looking red beans and rice recipe and I just had to try it - and it could be done in the crock pot!

How easy is that?

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The delicious recipe is super easy and Little Magnolia Kitchen has even included some step by step photos to make the process even easier. I didn't have any red beans on hand so I used kidney beans. I soaked them in water for 6-8 hours and then added them to the crock pot (good thing, too because I misread the recipe and put the crock pot on low for 7 hours rather than on high!). Definitely include the Tony Chachere's seasoning - if you don't have it in the cupboard, it's worth popping over to the grocery store and picking it up. I served this over brown rice and it was delicious. You know me, I made as much as our crock pot will hold so we'll be eating this one dish meal for a while (or putting some in the freezer). 

A Cup of This, a Tablespoon of That

It's nice being back at the seminary and being able to use the grocery co op - especially after living in the Chicago area for a year! The food co op is basically a grocery store for seminary families. There are many items available, everything from pasta and bread to onions and potatoes, milk and cheese.

Lately I've been busy striving to utilize the co op as much as possible. That goal has led me to the following recipes:

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Cream of Sweet Potato Soup was definitely a hit! I paired it with a yummy cheesy bread and fresh green beans. This soup also tastes delicious with some feta cheese sprinkled on top. Very filling.

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Curried Acorn Squash Soup was another good soup. To be honest, I liked the sweet potato one better, but this one was okay. Actually, if I had bacon like the recipe suggested the soup probably would have been just as yummy as the other! This soup was also paired with fresh green beans, feta cheese crumbles and a yummy bread.

When I made these soups on Tuesday I doubled or tripled the recipe so that they'd last through the week. I think I've decided that Tuesdays (food co op day) will be my cooking day. If I make a big enough batch I'll put some in the freezer for those days when I don't feel like cooking or if we have guests over and need another side dish or additional main dish.

Seminary Directory Photo

Every year photos are taken at the seminary for their directory. It's a great opportunity for us to get a family photo. Isaac did a great job being in a good mood for the picture. The lil cutie was playing with his daddy's watch during the session. :-)

Moving Day & Etc

The whole moving process began on July 18th. Some of us went to Fort Wayne ahead of the moving truck so that the house could be prepped, nursery walls painted and kitchen unpacked. The large moving truck arrived the next day and some unloading was done. However, Saturday was the big day - unloading the moving truck, arranging furniture and beginning the adventure of unpacking.

We are so so thankful for all of the unloading and unpacking help we received. Moving can be quite a challenge...even more so with a newborn. Some wonderful people from our vicarage church helped as well as some good friends from seminary and family from Illinois. So thankful!

We are very blessed with our home this year. It is a cute house, close to the seminary and a short distance from several places we like to shop. (It is just about walking distance to Hobby Lobby! Dangerous, I know! ;-)) Our home has three bedrooms, which is wonderful! Isaac has his nursery and Adam is able to have a room for studying. There are built in shelves and desks, too. As many of you know, a seminarian can never have enough book shelves. ;-)

Here we are once again calling Fort Wayne "home"...but for only a year! The Call Service will take place in the spring and we are already doing the countdown. :-)