Day.Thirty.Four.A.

THE DAY IS HERE! Bring it on!

Mia Grace and Zooey Claire were baptized this morning! It was such a blessing to see them starting their journey as Christians. Beautiful dresses, jewelry, family, and God. It was gorgeous... and they did a GREAT job! Check out a few of the pictures:

 <3Family<3

 The Bracelets I Made for the Girls

 Mia Grace... giving the stink eye...

 -Zooey Claire-

*Me and Papa:: He Smiled!*

::Surrounded by Family::

 With My Mia

-Double Duty-

Immediately after the baptism... BABY SHOWER!

So, I headed straight for the baby shower. Good thing my mom and sister were home and able to help me get all of the stuff to the shower. I will do a separate post about the shower. So many pictures to share! It turned out fabulous and the world is going to be blessed with two beautiful babies! I can't wait to meet them! Stay tuned for the shower update...

May God Bless Mia Grace and Zooey Claire! They are blessed already with wonderful parents and a loving family. <3

-Alexis-

Day.Twenty.Eight.

Sunday. A Day of REST. (not so much...)

I got to sleep in and John made me eggs and toast! Yumm!

Then, it was off to get work done. I have a long list of things that need to get done. It is painful to look at!

First on the list, get things prepped for this weekend for the shower and for the baptisms. My goal today was to make a list of needed things as well as make the Easter basket filler for Mia and Zooey. I made it and had to blog! It is so cute, easy, and reusable! Perfect!
Here are the simple directions... pictures included:

1. Choose your fabric(s) <I used remnants>, pinking shears, and ribbon.

2. Cut the fabric with the pinking shears into pieces/strips. Mine were about 2.5 inches wide by 8 inches tall. (I just used the folds in the fabric to guide the scissors) They do not have to be perfect. Because I wanted the colors on both sides of the tie, I kept the fabric folded partially, so it was "two-sided".

3. String the ribbon (the length you want) between two chairs.

4. Start tying! I did just a single tie, then moved on. I did one color at at time to create the pattern. On my second one, I cut ALL of the fabric, and I just had to tie, tie, tie. It was easier to have it all cut then to tie.

 (yellow)

 (yellow and blue)

(yellow, blue and pink)

(yellow, blue, pink and green)

5. After all of the pieces are tied on, I spread them out and 'fluffed' them. They were still taught because of my tying, so I fluffed.

All Fluffy!!

6. Find a cute basket... (I only had this box, still cute) and lay it inside! Then, fill with goodies!!

I, personally, think they turned out super cute! 

**I think that this could be used in photos too... I made some for my favorite twins, so they might get to use them in their newborn pictures! :) **

Happy Crafting!
Off to do some more for the shower! <3

-Alexis

Day.Twenty.

Today started out EARLY! I got up, drove to Mechanicsburg, and hung out with family all day!

First, I got to watch Kerrigan play in her soccer game. She is proudly on the purple team, and started out as the goalie. It was fun to watch the intensity level and then it suddenly drop off (for all the kids) with about 3 minutes to go. They were ready for snack!

After the game...we headed to Wal-Mart. It is always an adventure, but add my sister and mom... double adventure. We were getting Wendy new curtains and some food. I was able to find GREAT remnant pieces for Mia Grace and Zooey Claire's Easter basket surprise! It is going to be perfect! (Pictures will come soon--pending completion) The colors are great, and I am excited to get started.

After Wal-Mart, we headed to the new apartment! I am happy that Wendy has a nice place to call home. The green paint in the bedroom.. NOT fun. The inspiration picture is beautiful and we got EVERYTHING accomplished. After three coats, the green was finally covered, the bed was up and dressed, the living room finished (complete with TV stand built by my mom and I) and the kitchen/dining came together great (without injury of course...) As Dale and I were flipping up the newly assembled table, the fold-down leaf did just that, fell down, on my hand. My thumb was instantly black and blue and in pain. I put ice on it... but it still hurts (I kept painting... and painting...)  With the move in complete on our end... John and I drove home. It is a pleasant drive with the windows down, country roads, and country music blasting!

Once I made it home, my hand was really hurting. So I am typing this with a bum left hand... impressed? So, I put my frozen veggies on my hand, and now it is time to relax. I will catch up tomorrow!

Oh, and by the way... HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! (thank you SJC for all of my green attire... no pinching here!)

-Alexis-

Day.Eight.

WOW! I did it! One full week of blogging! I have found it very refreshing and relaxing to sit back, and just write about my day. It really has made me think about the writing process and the different aspects of writing. I hope to transition this blog gradually into a blog about my teaching and the classroom. But for now, I am going to just continue to write in order to make it my habit.

As for today, Sunday. I was excited to get to sleep in a bit. Wrong. (I went to bed super late because I was up, catching up with Alissa and Clayton. For those who do not know, Alissa is my cousin. She is two years older than me. She is a lot like another sister. We have always been really close.) Then, I was woken up at about 5:00am unexpectedly. Went, back to sleep and woke BACK up at 7:45 to get ready for the day. I had to get Kerrigan ready too!

The day began. I headed to breakfast at Bob Evans with some friends from church. My omelette was not wonderful, but it filled me up. We always have a great time catching up and chatting. We all grew up together in the church. We were Girl Scouts together, confirmed members of the church together, and the rowdiest Sunday School Class led through our teenage years by our trusty leader, Heather! She has been a wonderful role model and we are blessed beyond belief to have her in our lives. She always makes us laugh, talks us through any problems we are having and accompanies us on our trips to the zoo! Look how gorgeous the window is in our church-->

Of course, after breakfast, we headed to church. I am amazed every time I enter how warm and welcoming it is. Grace Presbyterian Church has been a integral part of my life! I grew up there. We are one big family at the church. We laugh together, we cry together and we definitely EAT together. Because we are so close knit, we got to throw our new Youth Minister a BABY SHOWER! (Baby Boy Connor will be here so soon!) Our church always finds a way to get together and eat. So, we did just that! We got to celebrate baby Connor and Lisa with food, presents, and diapers. She got a LOT of diapers! Congratulations Lisa, David, Olivia & James!

After the shower, I was off again, Kerrigan in tow, to the dance studio. If you don't know me or just met me, the dance studio is my home away from home. I found my passion to teach in the studio. I have been a dancer since I was 2! (that is 23 years... if we are counting) This past year, I gave up my position to teach at Oglebay Institute School of Dance to focus on my teaching career. It is hard to know that on Saturdays, all of my students are dancing. Today I got to return to the studio to work with a family friend on a dance for a dance line try-out. I got to see Cheryl and a few students. I got to dance for 2 hours too! It was exhausting but amazing all at the same time. ((Note to self: Keep Dancing! It just made me beyond happy)) Since I have left the studio, there was a gorgeous addition added outside. Oglebay Institute School of Dance is located among beautiful gardens full of copper statues. It made for great homecoming and prom photo ops! (believe me, we took advantage of that!) They added a dancer statue! It is gorgeous and truly emulates the art that is created in that building. I am of course blessed beyond belief to have found OI and become part of their dance family. They build me up in ways that I can't describe. Look how beautiful-->

After dancing, Kerrigan and I headed to my dad's building to pick up a few things. We got to see Aunt Nancy and Lydia again as well as PaPa (my grandfather, her great-grandfather) He, of course, fed us chicken noodle soup and we were on our way. The wonderful thing about PaPa's house is that it has a creek surrounded by HUGE trees that seclude the land. Well, with the recent high winds, a few trees fell down. It looks strange with the big gaps! I guess this just means more firewood for our cookouts!

Headed back to get a bit of a Mia fix! I just love her! She is changing so much, so quickly. Today, she decided she should eat the bread in the bag. It was hilarious to watch her pull it away from Clayton. She loved chewing on it!

We got a quick picture! Look how adorable that smile is! <3

Made it home safely, caught up on the blog, and am now headed to bed. Full week ahead! KSACC next week: Arctic Animals. Check back for more details! 

-Alexis-