Something worth mentioning...

Last week we found out that my wonderful husband passed all three tests of his Professional Engineer Exam... which means he is now a registered Civil Engineer. This is the letter we received from the board. We're very happy about this! No more studying at night! It all comes down to my hardworking best friend, who somehow was able to prep for this examen while also fulfilling his church and family duties. Love you honey.

I need your answers!

Some of you know, but I currently serve as one of the YW advisors in our ward. I love working with the youth, and have decided to work on the Personal Progress along with the girls. I'm very excited about this since it's been eons :) since I did this.

So... I need your answers to the following question:

"What qualities do we as women need in order to teach our children to have faith and to base their decisions on gospel truths?"

You don't need to give me a long answer (but feel free to comment as much as you'd like); just your thoughts on this. Most of those who follow this blog are moms like me, so it should be interesting to see what you think.

Thank you for your help :)

Update

I feel like I haven't taken any pictures lately! Maybe it's because I haven't! It's been rainy and cold for the last week, and let me tell you, it's getting old. I miss being able to go down the street and visit a neighbor, or just doing the grocery shopping without getting rained on! Oh well, spring must come soon enough.

Crafts

Yes, Camilla officially has her "craft bin." And it's full with stickers, foam, felt, glue, crayons, and all sorts of other stuff. So in the afternoons, when it's rainy and windy, we sit at the table and color and do crafts. Our fridge looks like this:

(And she's not even in preschool yet! How can I throw this away!)

Decorating

Yes, before the rain and wind got to us, I was on a mission: To decorate Camilla's and baby's room. For baby's room I glued fabric to a few frams, and also to some letters (no pictures of the letters since I don't know if we're telling the baby's name at this point.. but yes, we do have a name :) I had already made a baby quilt, so that was done. Finally, I glued some cut outs to go as the wall borders, following the truck and transportation theme. I need to create some sort of panel out of fabric, but will get there eventually

For Camilla: Frames going with the frog theme in her room, and letters to spell out her name. I also love how all of her stuffed animals are organized now! And she has what I call her "baby corner." Hopefully this will come handy when the real baby comes!

Sick

Yep, Camilla started a cold last week, and now I have it. Hunter will most likely get it soon. Such is life.

So there you go; that's what we've been up to. I have a lot of projects I would like to get done... at some point :) For now, I am just enjoying whaever bit of quiet time I get!

Ps Pregnant belly at 26 weeks :) For all those who were asking :)

A quarter of a Century

That's what my mom said to me: That now I am a quarter of a century old (my birthday was this past week), and believe me, that sure made me feel old! Don't get me wrong though, I am happy to be 25... hopefully now when someone asks me how old I am, I won't have to start adding numbers! I mean, 25 is a pretty easy number to remember... I hope.

I knew it was going to be a great day when, after I told Camilla it was mommy's birthday, she said, "Happy Birthday." So sweet to hear it from my little girl. Hunter gave me a nice birthday card (I kind of got my birthday gift a couple of weeks ago: a new, FAST desktop computer... and I sure love it!). He also picked up dinner that night, so no cooking for me! And finally, we met up with our friends the Palmers for yummy Cold Stone ice cream. I had forgotten how good that ice cream is! Thank you guys for such a sweet treat!

And that's my birthday in a nutshell. I am so blessed to have a beautiful family and the gospel in my life. I have everything I need, and more. And I am happy, extremely happy. Let's hope 2010 is good for me :)

Ps Sorry, no pics this time. I am avoiding the camera since I finally "popped" and my tummy seems huge (to me)... but no worries, I'm sure I can't avoid taking pictures for long :)

Bonding

We all know some cool moms... the ones that make all sorts of things with their kids, from going somewhere on a day trip, to craftingf and such? I know some AMAZING moms that do things like that. Let's be honest though, in our home, at least, Play-Doh is as crafty as we get. Camilla loves it, and it's easy to clean. Today I decided I'd try to attempt to be a cool mom: I told Camilla we could make cookies together.

The little one inmediately got excited and started pointed at the cover where we keep our stack Famous Amos... It took a little bit for her to understand that we were making them from scratch. I didn't know how long her attention span would last, which is way I've been making cookies and other sweets while she naps, or after she goes down for the night. But she surprised me today. She listened carefully ad I explained the we had to mix the ingredients, and looked carefully at the measuring cups and spoons. She also tried some of the ingreidents, but hey, ground ginger straight from the contained hasn't been known to kill anyone, so I let it fly.

She loved poking a couple of the cookies and eating cookie dough. And although it was hard for her to understand that those delicious cookies ("My cookies" as she called them) had to cook for 14 LONG minutes, she eventually got it.

I look forward to more baking with my sweet little angel. Who knows, maybe she'll be my partner in crime since I'm the one who ALWAYS had a sweet tooth :)

New Year's Celebrations?

This year we had Travis (Hunter's twin brother), and his wife Miriam, with us for a few days. The goal was to welcome the New Year together, and have a great time. I had also planned on making this really good Peruvian dish (one of the few I make) on January First.

Yeah, that was the goal. Not exactly what happened.

Hunter and Camilla welcomed the New Year puking, and I welcomed it feeling nauseated and sick. My poor hubby and baby girl were the first to get a horrible stomach flu that has affected, as far as I know, 20 people! I didn't get it that weekend, but it finally hit me this past Monday. We're now doing well, but it was kind of sad to welcome the New Year in such a nasty way! Oh well, we surely will not forget it!

We did do a few fun things with Travis and Miriam. We had a friend of ours watch Camilla for a couple of hours while we enjoyed good food from the Cheesecake Factory. And we also took a day trip out to good ol' Fairfield and visited the Jelly Belly Bean Factory. Camilla LOVED it (who wouldn't love free candy though?).

So, all in all, our New Year was filled with fun, laughter, and a good chunk of time in the bathroom! But we do feel very blessed to be given one more year to be better :)

Waiting for more candy...

Hope you all had a Happy New Year's!