Daddy Rocks.

Happy Father's Day to all you daddies, grandpas, uncles, grampies, papas, etc!

As usual, I've been doing some crafts in my "free" time. Though, now Caraline is included in that time! I love it.

This year for Mother's Day we made our gifts. Father's Day it was the same way. I think handmade gifts are more special than most things I could buy in a store.

Now, to warn you, any craft involving a 4 month old and paint can be tricky! (Does that surprise you?)

The handprint project we did for the Mother's Day canvases was challenging. I learned my lesson and made two changes when doing a new craft with paint for Father's Day.

1) I switched to a footprint instead of a handprint (more stable)

2) I put her in her Bumbo seat, so she was stuck!

My adorable slobbering assistant.

If you ask me, it was pretty genius. And it totally worked better.

We started with a few rocks that were about the size of softballs or baseballs. I had four: One for Mike, one for my dad, one for Mike's dad and one for my grandpa.

I painted them all a different solid color and let them dry. I then painted the cute little foot of my daughter and pressed each rock up against her foot. She just sat and gave me funny looks. I'm sure it felt strange to have paint on her little toesies.

The blue rock that was for Mike turned out the best. It was the cleanest print out of all of them.

After all the footprints had dried, I added glitter paint to the white prints and later wrote with puffy paint. And even though the other prints were not perfect, I still love how they turned out. 

My friend Kristi did the same thing for her husband with her daughter Kinley's hand print. She gave me permission to use a photo of how hers turned out. I love the polka dots she made! So cute!

The footprint craft wasn't the only gift I had handmade for Mike this year. I also commissioned my friend D'ann with Creative Metals by D to have a keyring made for him.

I just love it. And it's so special. D'ann is so talented.

Happy Father's Day, my friends!

Fresh Summer Veggie Bake.

WARNING: This recipe was delicious!

Okay, maybe not a warning . . . but an alert so you're prepared for major YUM!

I found this recipe for Fresh Summer Veggie Bake on Can't Stay Out Of The Kitchen. I knew I wanted to make it for our annual family get together for Memorial Day weekend. Like a pinhead (that's an awesome person who pins lots of things, makes said things and then forgets to take pictures of the final product), I forgot to take pictures of the final product. Or really I forgot to take any pictures except ONE, right before I put it in the oven.

Here's how Teresa's turned out (She's the author of Can't Stay Out Of The Kitchen).

IMAGE SOURCE

http://cantstayoutofthekitchen.com/2013/03/09/fresh-summer-veggie-bake/

It has yellow squash zucchini, green zucchini, potatoes (I used red) and tomatoes. You sauté garlic and onions, put those in the bottom of the dish, then slice all the veggies and layer those in. Then you add a couple spices and pop it in the oven. After that, you add some parmesan cheese and put it back in the oven. It's so easy! And it's pretty to look at, too!

I did take a pic of how mine looked right before putting it in the oven. But that's all you get from me. Sorry.

This was pre-cheese which is the best part. I added mozzarella cheese in addition to shredded parmesan cheese. I'll be doing THAT again. I'm such a sucker for mozzarella cheese!

**Another thing to remember when making this, cut your tomatoes thicker than the rest of the veggies. They'll break down in the oven and if they're too thin they'll turn to sauce. You don't want that. . .

Happy Summer Baking!

Four months.

Caraline is four months old.

FOUR MONTHS!

"Time flies" sure is accurate. It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.

She's so fun these days. She giggles at surprising things (like her cousin Audra saying "boo" to her) and she gets so excited when she sees daddy and me first thing in the morning and when I pick her up from the sitter after work. Her gummy grin captures me like nothing else. I just love her so much.

Happy four months!

Organizing photos.

We have a stainless steel refrigerator.

We have lots of photos of family and friends.

We don't want to clutter our frig with said photos.

So what's a family to do?

Well . . . while going through old boxes in our garage, I found a cork board I used in college 2,452 years ago. It was boring then. It was boring when I found it.

The choice was to trash it or make it beautiful. 

I chose to make it beautiful. And to utilize it for displaying our bunches of photos in our kitchen.

I used blue painter's tape and black spray paint. That's it! 

(and you'll notice I didn't tape the whole thing because halfway through I realized I'd be covering most or all of the board with photos, so I stopped)

Okay, now go make something new again.

Happy spray painting!

High five for cheap crafts.

I love crafts (as you may know by now). I especially love crafts that don't cost a ton of money!

For Mother's Day this year, Mike, Caraline and I gave our moms and grandmas homemade handprint canvases to document our new family of three. This was a fairly easy project. The hardest part was getting our 3 month old to open her hand all the way to make a handprint successfully. As you'll see, not all were perfect. But I think that's what makes them more special.

The canvases came 3 in a pack for about $8 and the paints were $1.50 each. I got it all at Michael's. So for about $12.50 and some time we made some unique Mother's Day gifts.

We made an additional handprint for Caraline's babysitter for being such an awesome "second mommy" for her during the day.

In August of 2012, I became a mother. But on February 4, 2014, I became a mommy. I'm really treasuring every minute I have with Caraline. I don't take it lightly the honor it is to be a mother. I value the impression I will make on this little lady and know how important my role as a guide is in her life. I especially love watching Mike interact with her. We are both so in love and feel so honored to be parents.

Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

Three months.

I'm baaaaack!

You know that thing "they" say about babies changing everything? Well, I'll tell ya, "they" are right. For the most part, all the changes are awesome. We are so blessed.

One of the negative changes is how little free time I have now. Every second I am home with Caraline, I want to be looking at her and singing with her and cuddling with her. So, blogging isn't exactly high on the priority list. But this morning I am making a point of getting some writing in! Lucky you!

There have been a few projects I've documented the last couple months, so I'm hoping to get those into posts soon! One thing I'm very proud of that we've been doing is documenting Caraline's growth each month. I've seen many ideas online of how to do this, and I made a version of my own. Each month on the 4th, I will be photographing her in her monthly onesie in a basket with her friend Leaper. It'll be fun to see how she grows and eventually is bigger than Leaper, too! (hard to imagine now).

Here are the last three months.

I look forward to doing this each month. Next week we will already have a FOUR MONTH OLD! Time has gone so quickly. And we love her so much.

Happy Saturday!

Welcome, Caraline!

I'm approximately two and a half weeks late posting about the arrival of our beautiful baby girl. See, a thing "they" tell you that is so totally true is that a baby changes everything. And when I say everything, I mean it. Like, I took a shower today. That, in and of itself, is a WIN for me. I'm lucky to brush my teeth or eat at a normal time lately. I'm a zombie. But I love it. 

Another thing "they" tell you that is so totally true is that "normal" is no longer normal once a baby arrives.

I digress . . .

On Tuesday, February 4, 2014, my husband and I welcomed a gorgeous baby girl into this mad world at 10:24 p.m. She was 7 pounds and 11 ounces and measured 19 3/4" long.

We named her Caraline Grace Deak. 

The details of the labor process are not important now. She's healthy, seems rather happy when she's awake and takes up more space in my heart than I ever thought was possible. Even at 4 a.m. when she's crying because there's a spec of poo in her diaper, I love her.

A friend of mine, Stephanie, with Stephanie DeBolt Photography, took these amazing shots of her when she was 9 days old and I will treasure them forever.

Recognize that quilt? I blogged about its creation here. 

We are busy adjusting to Caraline's schedule, learning all the features of her cute little self and getting acquainted with this new family of three we have created.

Be sure to check out Stephanie if you live in the northern Indiana (or Michiana) area at www.stephaniedebolt.com or visit her on Facebook here. She was also one of the photographers who took our wedding photos. She's fantastic. And we love her.

Happy Saturday!

Wonderfully Chaotic Featured Friday.

I recently joined a group on Facebook for northern Indiana women bloggers. After introducing myself to the group, I found a fellow blogger named Shay who posted about her Featured Friday. She features other bloggers and showcases their blogs on her blog on Fridays.

I told her I was interested, so she sent me some questions . . .

Head over to her blog today to check out my answers to her questions! 

Her blog is titled Wonderfully Chaotic. Go show her some love!

Happy Friday!

Come on, baby!

Today is my due date. My EDD (estimated date of delivery). The day we've burnt into our brains for the last 9 or so months. Today, January, 28th.

Am I still pregnant?
Yep! 

Am I mad about it?
Nah. As long as she's healthy, I'll be happy. 

BUT . . .  am I anxious?
Uh,  you betcha! 

We have her room ready. Diapers stocked. Bags packed.

Our parents, grandparents and siblings are on alert. All in the name of waiting.

By the way, I'm not a patient person.

In the meantime, I find myself wandering into her room from time to time and sitting in the rocker. I think about how chaotic my life will be in a day, a week, whenever, and beyond. And I think about how blessed we are to be parents of this angel that we will so soon meet.

I'm so ready to introduce her to her room. Yea, I'm sure she won't care what color the walls are or which stuffed animals she has waiting for her to play with.

I know she doesn't care which bedsheets we picked out for her.

Or if those bedsheets match her curtains or not.

But I love knowing she will soon invade this room of hers. And our hearts. Our life.

I'm so ready to be a mom.

Happy due date!!