Craftiness pt. one

I got a good idea from one of my friends to use glass jars as picture frames. It's a great way to reuse jars of pasta sauce, salsa, pickles, etc! So I've been saving those jars and put one in Mary's room. I also used a baby food jar to put her q-tips in :) Add a little ribbon and that is just plain cute!


I'm always up for ideas that help reuse products that would otherwise be thrown into a landfill! I'm also saving baby food jars for Amber! (actually I didn't really buy them before, so I'm getting them now and saving them. Kind of defeats the reduce part of reduce reuse and recycle) She's going to reuse the jars as candle holders in her wedding and cover them with corn husks. I know what you're thinking...but they're really cute. They will look something like this:

But she is going to use fall color carnations. So if you have any glass baby food jars (2s or 3s) save them and pass'em along!

Where's Mary???

Here's a video of us playing "Where's Mary." One of the many things we do when we're home all day together!

Leader Appreciation Dinner

Last night we had our Leader Appreciation Dinner for Young Life at Montgomery Inn! It was a fun night that we got to spend with great friends. Our friend Josh presented Ian with an award for being part of YL for 10 years! It was so cool for me to hear Josh talk about the impact that Ian has had on his life. Josh said a lot of really meaningful things that I know Ian appreciates and will keep with him!
I also got recognized for being part of YL for 5 years, although it's been 6;) but I'm not complaining! Here are some pictures from our night, including one with the princess before we left:



Here is a pic of Mary with a clip in the little tuft of hair she has on her head:

Too hot to trot

So today is really hot. I mean summer hot. I don't think Cincinnati likes temperatures in the middle ground. It's hot or cold here.

That's a lie. Yesterday was actually pretty good. Mid-seventies I think! I took Mary out in the back yard for some hammock time and to take some pictures. I crept over to my neighbors yard to get some pictures of Mary with their tulips, but she was NOT cooperating! I pulled all the stops to get her to look up at me, she was just too interested in the flowers! I can't blame her though, they're pretty;)

This is the one time I got her to look up!



And this one is from my phone a few days ago:

Late night wake-up

Ian and I just went in to look at Mary before we went to bed...like we always do. Well tonight, as we were standing with our heads over the side of her crib, her little head shot up - eyes wide open! Ian hasn't seen her all day so he is in there with her now just cuddling (by "in there" I don't mean the crib). She's so cute. We just can't get over how much of a blessing she is! I actually miss getting up in the middle of the night with her. It's times like this that I remember those quiet night feedings when it was just me and Mary.

Sun Hat ;)

Mary got a new hat to block the sun from her pretty little eyes! She's doing her Julia Roberts lips here again. We're getting ready for the really hot days coming up this weekend!

mama

So we try to have "independent play time" where Mary is in her pack and play, playing by herself. I sit in the office and listen to her play while I play on the computer. Sometimes she gets fussy, but we leave her in there til the alarm goes off (so she doesn't associate her crying with us getting her). ANYWAY, today she's in there blabbering and I hear her say 'mama' just like that. Not 'mamamamama' and earlier while we were playing I kept saying mama over and over again and pointing to myself. I want to run in there and grab her when she does stuff like that! I doubt she is calling for me, but how cute if she is!

Sunday:)

Yesterday was the day we celebrate Jesus' Resurrection from the dead, and for those who know Christ we share in that celebration because we are resurrected from our old way of life. How sweet.

Speaking of sweet...here are some pictures:

video time

I realized I haven't put a video up in a while. So here are two that I've taken in the past month I think. One of me making her laugh and one of her rolling over. Just in the past week she's gotten SO curious. It's so cool to see the tiny little things that she'll do different. Like I noticed at first that she would start to look for things and then reach for them and then push a little to reach then roll to reach. It's so cool!

NAKED BABY!

Here she is in all her glory. Bath time last night:

It's not easy being green

So, Ian and I have tried to make some environmentally friendly moves in the past...Ian went through 3 lawnmowers trying to find one that doesn't emit so much gas; even this little guy until we finally realized that the only "green" lawnmowers that they have right now are either a. annoying and inefficient, or b. really expensive. So we settled for Kurt's seconds (an extra lawnmower he had with a wobbly wheel). I think a lot of green stuff is like that. Most fall in to the second category like the new hybrid cars, organic food, biodegradable stuff, etc.
All this to say that I was thinking about diapers. Before I had Mary I considered the cloth diapering thing...but MAN is that a lot of work. Turns out, we got like a million disposable diapers from Ian's co-workers from the diaper shower they threw for us! So I'm torn (but not really), disposables are apparently pretty bad for the environment seeing as how it takes forever for them to decompose, but I have a ton of free diapers. Now, I'm all about being friendly to mother earth, but not so much that I didn't use the free disposables.
We're still using diapers we got from that shower, and still have like 15 packages left! But I'm thinking when those run out I might use these. That's pending an investigation at a nearby Kroger that supposedly sells the refills. I'm not too keen on touching her poop, but I'll take that small hit if I can make up for the hundreds of diapers I've already put in a landfill;) Plus the covers are SO cute. That's the main reason I like them I think! And you can use your own cloth diapers (which I already have) instead of buying refills. More laundry...eh. It's not easy being green.

Easter Egg Hunt

This Saturday our 'church' had an Easter egg hunt at a nearby apartment complex. I say church in quotations because we aren't a normal church as most people would think of it. Anyway, we like to serve people, so we rounded up all the kids in the complex (along with most of their parents) and had an Easter egg hunt along with some pizza afterward. It was a great day in my opinion ;) The picture here is of Mary with our friend's little boy. He calls Mary "Mayo", which I think is so cute!

Spring Break!

We had a great trip to Gatlinburg this week! We mostly spent a lot of time in the chalet with the other leaders and the students. It was great to hang out with them, share meals, and have some time to worship and pray. We also went on a 'hike'. I use quotations because we went to the top of a mountain and it was like 20 degrees colder than it was at the chalet. So we basically ran up through the fog to the top, then Hayley and I literally ran down. Hayley is the student that we have known for about 4 years now. She's great, and we always say that she could be part of the family. She has red hair and blue eyes so she would fit in quite well ;) Here she is with Brenna, one of the freshmen girls in my bible study. Brenna is great with Mary! I smell a babysitter!

Here's me with some of the other girls, making one of my usual picture faces:

Mary taking a needed bath:

We washed her, then we cooked her:

This is what happens when you give students your camera, lots of close ups on weird faces:

We had a great week and can't wait to do it again!