Baby Sweet P

So by now I think everyone has heard about our great news that our little family will be growing here in July. We are so excited to have a baby and now everytime I see someone else's baby I want to meet our little one! I am getting anxious and I am only 14 weeks! But soon it will be 7/7/11 before we know it and Sweet P will be here! So I thought I would share some pictures from the day we found out in October that we were going to parents!

So this is the morning we found out we found out we were preggo! We suspected that we could be pregnant the day before and bought the test but it said it was best to take it in the morning. That night before we could not sleep and kept waking up in anticipation to take the test. You can tell in the picture that we look a little sleepy - but yet excited! You can suspect it is coming but it still is shocking to see that plus sign saying you are pregnant! 

I took another pregnancy test later when I got home from work. You can tell it clearly says "pregnant"

 We went our for a celebration dinner to Victoria's and then took some pictures with our sticks. 

Can you sense our enthusiasm? :)

We went out and bought a baby onesie that says "Big Deal like my Daddy" 

Happy!

 A few weeks later (8 weeks) we got to see Sweet P for the first time. I think this is such a cute picture and you can even see its tail it still had back then! 

At our last appointment at 12 weeks we got to hear the heartbeat. That was cool to hear the heartbeat even though it was really faint. I have another appointment in a week and then a couple weeks after that we will get to figure out what we are having!! We are excited to find out what we are having. I finally want to start picking out some baby clothes and plan the nursery but have been holding off. I am sure there will be more photos and stories to come! :) 

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year!! 

So I redesigned the blog. I thought since I haven't blogged in a while and since it is a new year I would just redo things a bit to inspire me to write more - because obviously I haven't written on the blog since June. Oops. 

So last year I had 2010 goals - and I thought I would review over those and see how I did. I believe I said that I wanted to blog once a week and obviously that goal didn't exactly work out :) But I think I did pretty good on the rest: 

1) Learn to cook: I have tried 24 new recipes from June - currently. I know I tried several before that as well. I have made some recipes that I will never try again and some that have already become family favorites. So I guess I could say that I did pretty good on this one. 

2) Budget: I did not start the year off good with this one - but this summer I started to listen to Dave Ramsey and  read a few of his books and it has helped us tremendously with the budget! The last couple months we have had a budget and KEPT it! :) We didn't start the year off great- but ended it good though! 

3) Exercising: Well - this one is always a struggle. I would say I did more exercising than last year. I got a Gazelle (you know the one elliptical machine that Tony Little (man with woman -like long hair in a annoying ponytail) endorses on the informercials). Anyways I park it in front of the TV and watch shows with Todd while getting a quick workout in. I did mention the Wii we had in last year's post -but I haven't used that to work out since January. 

 So all in all I think I did a pretty good  job with my 2010 goals. So what about my 2011 goals (since I hate "resolutions") ? Well I am a nerd and doing this "24 goals til I turn 24"  - I started kind of late and instead of starting these goals after my birthday last year - I started them in June. I will share the list sometime but I am starting to think I am running out of time - I probably won't get all my goals done this year but at least I tried right? 

Hope everyone had a great new year! I can't believe it is already 2011. Where does the time go? I know Todd and I are excited for 2011 because it will be a big year of change for us with Sweet Pea's expected arrival in July. I wish you all the best  for 2011! 

Contentment.

Goodness... it's been a whole month since I have updated the blog... slacking... sorry.

So I gave myself a challenge for the month of May. I love clothes and accessories... I am a bargain hunter and love sales and coupons to my fav stories so it is not like I spend a lot of money. They are usually "little purchases." I am the kind of person that passing up a New York and Co. or Express Coupon I get in the mail seems wasteful... Its like free money... right? :) Ok.. so you have to spend money to save money... I guess not free. So we got down that I love to shop...
I challenged myself for the month of May that I would not buy one piece of clothes, no shoes, no jewelry, ect. At times it was hard. I even threw coupons away! GASP! I would see coupons or advertisements on Tv or from my email that talked about incredibles deals but I did not crack!!
The reason for the challenge:
1) To save some money - I don't think that I really spend THAT much on clothes - but how about not spending any one month?
2) To learn to be CONTENT with what is in my closet. That is hard. But I look at my closet and I have more that ENOUGH clothes that I need I have so much. When I watch commercials or see advertisements - its like it is telling me that I need more. But do I really NEED that tank or that pair of shorts? I don't NEED it. I WANT it.

So now I am trying to really filter through when I go shopping in the future if it is something that is more a need or just a want... and yes I have already bought something in June - a pair of $3 Capri Leggings. But that might be my only big splurge for the month... :)

I read a book in college and I am about halfway through it again. It is called Calm My Anxious Heart (by Linda Dillow). It is about worry and contentment. I haven't got to the worry part - I am just getting through the contentment portion.

One thing it talks about is being content in the stage of life you are in. This is hard for me to do sometimes... Since I have been little it has always been... well when I get a drivers license..., when I graduate High School ... When I go to College... when I get married... when I get my full time job... then I will be content. Still I have my drivers license, graduated High School, went to College, got married, have my full time job... and still am I content.. no. It is such a process. This book has just given me inspiration to be thankful where I am in life.... which is hard at times... but with the Lord's help... hopefully I will be more thankful.

It also talks about being content with what we have. Like talked about above... I always want more. My thinking is always "well if I have this... then I will be content." But I get that, then it is on to the next thing. I am trying to have a new perspective of this. It does not help that I live in America - basically the most wealthy nation... that constantly throws it in your mind that you need, need, need. Contentment is not part of their game. If Contentment was the popular thing, advertisers and marketing people would be out of jobs. I am sure that I will need to keep reading this book over and over to pound it in my head that I need to be Content....

Philippians 4: 11-13:

"Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. "(New Living)

I love this passage by Paul...who was truly content. Being content is something I can achieve through Christ who gives me strength... but only by HIS strength.

Entry Update...

A little Entryway update...

This is the "winter" look of the entryway...

In the winter we have to have the rug in the entryway, otherwise water gets everywhere... I hate the rug because it covers all the tile.. but practical. Since we moved in, we have always have the little shoe organizer in the entryway to stack shoes on. The bench has been there for a while... I snagged it for 75% off at Target about a year ago and it works great because it has some storage under the seat.

So here is the "AFTER"... more of a "summer" look....

The rug is gone, the tile is showing, you can actually see the brown rugs, I hung a picture and I got a plant!!


I love this print/art that my parents got me for Christmas that spells out "HOME" with cool photography and has a verse on the bottom. Then I got a little plant that fits perfectly in the corner the pot was a terra cotta pot but I painted it brown to go with the rugs.

This is the other corner of the entryway that has the bench which usually becomes a place to hold our mail and my purse... and of course the coat rack for coats, keys and dog leashes.
So where did the shoe bench go and all the shoes disappear to?

To the incredibly clean coat closet right up the stairs... This is seriously the cleanest this closet has ever been... pretty excited about this closet now! We'll see if we keep our shoes up in the closet from now on... :)

Weekend Fun

The last couple weekends we have been busy!! Here are some of the things we have been up to:


Weekend Adventure #1: Twins at Target
So a few weekends ago Todd and I were able to go to a Twins game in their new ballpark Target Field with some of Todd's family. It is a beautiful new stadium! It was a gorgeous April afternoon... what a way to spend an afternoon!!
Here is a picture of the new stadium...


Todd and two of his brothers... with their matching shirts.

Part of the family...
us.

Weekend Adventure #2: Rhonda!!
Rhonda is one of my really good friends from College. We had alot of classes together because we were both going for Public Relations and then we were roommates for our senior year of college.. I always had fun with her! We now live 6 hours apart... but because of her new job, she was passing through Rochester last weekend!! It has been a year since we had seen each other so it was so fun to have Rhonda around!! We had a blast... but next time around we aren't going to wait another year to see each other again!

We took a walk downtown Rochester and got some cake from Chester's.... there were these beautiful tulips! They were too pretty not to take a picture of...

Then we got a little artisitic and found a mirrored building to take a picture...

More weekend adventures to come soon! :)

Springtime...

I can't believe how nice it has been outside lately! Todd and I have had a few nights of grilling out and we still can't believe we are eating outside in the beginning/middle of April. It has been just such beautiful weather!!
With the beautiful weather comes spring cleaning!! One thing that was desperately calling out to us was our dirty garage!! We just got new carpet in our guest bedroom downstairs so by doing that we were able to get the bed, mattress and nightstands out of the garage. Pictures to come soon of that room - once we do a little more work on it!
So this is a sad before of our garage. In the almost 2 years of living in our house we have never parked two cars in our garage... because of junk...

I took an after picture ... but there is still alot of junk!! We still have a couple trips to haul the junk away... so I will post when that is done... I am so excited about being able to park two cars in our garage!

In the last year and a half of living in our house - I have discovered a new love: Decorating!
I LOVE being creative and figuring out ways to redo something without spending tons of money. I only fuel this love by perusing blogs and recording HGTV shows to watch later. My head constantly is swimming with ideas...a couple rooms have become done on my list Alot of projects have gotten done but there is still alot more to do. Our house is coming out of the 70s... step by step. I would like to start to slowly show projects I have done so far and show some before and after pictures so you can see where our house has come....along way!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from Bella and Brandi!!

I know this is a little crazy - bunny ears on my dogs, but I don't have kids to dress up so I dress them up for fun... haha. I found these ears at Target for $1 a couple months ago so I grabbed a pair because I thought it would be fun to catch a few pictures of them... They sat around until I remembered about them today. With a pepperoni in one hand and the camara in the other I snapped a few snapshots that just cracked me up! If you are wondering why the dogs are looking up in the pictures - it is the tempting treat of pepperoni above their heads.

Hope you have a wonderful Easter! Remember the true reason for this holiday - that Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we can go to Heaven with him - and then he rose again! We are so thankful for this wonderful Gift of Jesus and our salvation!

HE IS RISEN!