We're having a little girl!

Abbiamo fatto l'ecografia lunedi ed abbiamo scoperto che aspettiamo una BAMBINA!! Sta crescendo bene e non hanno notato nessun problema, quindi dovrebbe arrivare come anticipato, verso il 21 di luglio!

Dominic is star of the week in his class today, and he is loving it! I made this poster for him to take to class, and here are his answers to the questionnaire his teacher gave him:

My whole name is Dominic Temuri H.

My birthday is September 20th. I am 6 years old.

These are the people in my family: Mamma, Daddy, Christian, and a baby due in July.

These are my pets: Kukanotti (my guinea pig) and 3 hermit crabs.

At home I like to play games with my family.

At school I like play time.

When Christian plays with me it makes me happy.

When no one plays with me it makes me sad.

My favorite toy is my race cars.

My favorite food is pasta.

My favorite place is Papa’s house.

Sometimes I’m scared when the lights are off.

When I grow up I want to be a soccer player.

I wish I was at Papa’s house all the time.

I’m really good at soccer.

I had a regular appt today. When I scheduled it I had NO IDEA it would be a holiday, so I had both boys home today. It was only supposed to be a 10 min appt, so I didn't think it would be a big deal. I packed a back pack with toys and some snacks and headed out.

We ended up waiting for an hour. The doctor was at the hospital, I guess delivering a baby, and came in late. Thankfully, the kids did well waiting.

Then I had to pee in a cup. Try doing that with an audience of a 6 & 4 year boys. LOL! First, they thought it was HILARIOUS that I was peeing in a cup. Then they had to look at the urine and comment on it. Then they wanted to know what was going to happen to the cup of pee, and why anyone would want it. Sheesh! That was way more than I'd bargained for.

The visit with the doctor took all of 5 minutes. My growth is perfect, she said. Then she pulled out the doppler. The kids came over for a closer look. Immediately we heard a beautiful, strong heartbeat. The boys got the biggest smiles on their faces and started giggling. Then we'd hear a "swoosh" type sound and the doctor would tell the boys "That was the baby kicking!" which made them giggle more. Then, the funniest thing happened: they both started dancing to the baby's heartbeat. I was cracking up so hard! Which of course, only made them dance more. I wish I'd had my camera with me.

So, a mundane appointment turned into a fun little experience. The boys are still talking about hearing the baby. I might take them to my next appointment again, just for fun. :)

One of Andy's co-workers welcomed his first child into the world recently, and I made this card to go with a gift for them. I'm really happy with the colors, and I saw the "peek-a-boo" window idea in one of my books and thought it would work nicely on a new baby card.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

These are cards I made for family. The templates come from my new favorite book, Handmade Hellos by the Moyle sisters. The octopus one says "Stuck on You" inside. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful, sweet, handsome husband!

Pictures courtesy of Dominic. :)

Here are some pics of my new haircut and my 16 week belly. :) Yes, Christian isn't wearing a shirt, again. hahahaha! He says he's hot all the time!

Volcano making!








This activity never gets old! I stapled a rectangle of foam into a cone shape and trimmed the bottom so it would sit on the plate. The boys used a quick setting plaster to make the volcano. Then they poured some baking powder into it, using a funnel, added some red food coloring drops, then finally poured vinegar into the mouth of the volcano. Voila...instant eruption!

The boys had such a blast and spend a LOT of time creating "eruptions". They decided to add dinosaurs to the scene and had fun creating their own little stories, too.

15 weeks pregnant, almost 16. Woo hoo! My nauseau is mostly gone, but I'm still exhausted and feel awful after I eat. Hopefully now that I'm in the second trimester I'll get some of my energy back. This pic was taken at 14 weeks. :)

Oh, I got my haircut today and love it! I'll get Andy to take a picture so I can show off my new 'do.

I've always loved arts & crafts but don't usually have the time to pursue it. I've started trying to make time for little projects, mainly card making, and wanted to share a fun book I stumbled across. I was perusing the arts & crafts area at B&N when I found a book by Aranzi Aronzo called Let's Make Cute Stuff. Oh, is it ever cute stuff, very Japanese style, and easy to make felt projects. Here are some projects that I've tackled so far:
1 & 2 are cards that I made borrowing some of the "mascots" in the book. I loved the little monkey and I thought it would be cute to see him hanging from a balloon (a la Curious George).

3 & 4 This was described in the book as a business card holder (and if you've lived in Japan, you know how big this is!) but I made mine to carry all those annoying store cards. I got tired of them sucking up space in my wallet so I keep them in this cute little holder that makes me smile everytime I pull it out.

5 This tissue holder was too fun of an idea not to make. My boys like to pull the "tongue" out while I make the appropriate sound effect.

There are several other projects in the book I'm hoping to try out as I find the time. If you get the chance to check out the Aranzi Aronzo series of books, please do. They're fun to look at.

SNOW DAY! We finally had our first real snow and the boys had a blast!

PS. Ciao Amalia!!! Che bella sorpresa vederti qui sul mio blog! Un bacione a te!!

I is for ice cream!

I was assigned to bring a snack to Dominic's class for "I" week. I had planned to just bring in cups of Italian Ice, until I bought a new cook book two weeks ago and saw this idea. These were super easy and so fun to make. They are Ice Cream Cone Cup Cakes and, as the name suggests, you fill the cone with batter, bake, then top with an obscene amount of icing. I'm sure most kids only ate the icing, but, hey, at least it's another "I" word, right?

For those of you who DON'T read your Christmas cards (I say that laughingly!) or who aren't in my address book, I am PREGNANT! Woo hoo!

This scan was taken at 8 weeks. I had another appointment today at 12 weeks and heard a reassuringly strong heartbeat, so baby is still baking away in there. My due date is around mid July.

We are THRILLED with this news, of course!!! We were pretty anxious and held off on sharing the news at first, but things have been going so well that we're starting to believe this is really going to happen. :)

I had sooo many cute pics of Christmas projects we did that I wanted to post, but time got away from me. I can't believe tomorrow's Monday and we're back to the grind! Oh well...2009 will be an exciting year and hopefully I'll do a better job updating this blog. No promises, though. :)

We were lucky to be able to head back to Texas for the holidays. The trip was too short but fun. We can't wait to go back in June!!

We had pictures taken last Sunday and I'm very happy with the way they came out. Now I have to buy more frames! :)

Last Monday I spent 4 1/2 hours knocking on the doors of over 100 registered Democrats in my area, reminding them to vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday. It was soooo worth it! Thank you, America, for helping to elect Obama!

His campaign was so organized and well run. I was EXTREMELY impressed when I checked in to our local office to volunteer. The place was packed with volunteers of all ages, races, and genders. Everyone was smiling, enthusistic, and ready to work. The plan for the day was well thought out and explained to us. If Obama can bring the same spirit his campaign had to the rest of our country, then we are in for an incredible four years.

Do you want a free Obama sticker to celebrate our victory? It's designed by Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the iconic HOPE poster. And MoveOn's giving them away totally free--even the shipping's free.

I just got mine. Click this link to get your free Obama sticker:

http://pol.moveon.org/shepstickers/?id=-14361110-.QJHCCx

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween from our family to yours!