Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful day and were able to get everyone something they were hoping for or appreciated!

We had a lot of fun planning for Christmas for my family!! Ok so some of it was last minute, but I had a lot of fun trying to get into the spirit of giving. I know, *Gasp* Christmas is about getting!!! Yah we get presents but we also have to give presents and ugly neck ties and socks aren’t going to cut it!!! My personal wish list was a list of gift cards to places I normally shop at and a link to my amazon account (which had stuff on it since 5 years ago and I haven’t cleaned it up as I bought stuff) so was my husbands! (We still got some great gifts though)

 

This advent calendar was made with felt!
 if you want I will send you the PDF that has the instructions on it! (SO EASY!!)

Our Christmas was very low key this year, of our Christmas “traditions” that we followed were the simple ones Put the ornaments on the tree, start the advent calendar go look at all the Christmas lights around town, especially at the outdoor mall. (They decorate it like at Temple square, so beautiful!)

Oh and another tradition I have carried out was to make a gift. When I was a kid my Mom wanted to have a homemade Christmas.  Each of us, including mom and dad, got $20. Since buying something for $5/person was hard enough we ended up making all of our gifts. Being in a house with kids, we of course had a lot of crafting supplies but we used the money to buy more of what we needed to make the perfect gift for each family member. I don’t remember what was given around the family. But I do remember the fun I had in anticipation of Christmas and the surprise of Christmas day! So every year for the past 10 or so I try to make a gift for someone.  Sometimes I don’t get it done in time or don’t even give it because it’s so lame I know they won’t keep it. And sometimes it’s actually really cool and I occasionally still see it around the house.

  

This year I gave my mom a Book with a secret compartment. It was hard because I knew if I cut into a book that she liked I was doomed. But! She has been working on a garden so I got her a few gardening books then a hard backed book about gardening.

The last few chapters had some good info in them so I left them unglued so they could be read if she wanted to. Inside I put her favorite candy so it was kind of like “Oooo… aww man! OH! Yay!” ^_^ that’s the kind of reaction I was going for!

It was a lot of fun to do and easy! I wouldn’t mind doing that to a book of my own eventually. Here’s where I went to get the instructions.

This Christmas was special to our family though because it was Maggie’s first Christmas! She even unwrapped one of her own presents! I made a Vid! Enjoy! PS thank you Nana and Granpa! The outfits are adorable!

Any Thoughts on your New Year’s resolutions? Might I suggest actually going through with them! Do something to remind you of what you wanted to do! And rather than starting on the New Year, start right away! Make that Resolution and stick to it!

Well! I Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Enjoy what you have left of the year! Oh! And hey!!! Make Comments, let me know you are doing more than just “viewing” my posts.

What's up!

Ok! So Lynn is lame and is sucking at her Blog again… so here is how we have been doing and some super cute pictures of Maggie!

But! We are doing great! At the end of October I finally got a part time job! Which is great, because now I can help cover the bills from Maggie’s birth!

Anyway!! I am now working at Costa Vida! It’s like Café Rio but better! (I’m sure that’s a matter of opinion but I still like Costa Vida more. NO! I will NOT get you the recipe to the Sweet pork or the Rice. But I WILL tell you, if you go look up copycat recipes its close enough! I love working there! It’s a lot of fun! And I am always getting great compliments from customers, the other staff and Managers! WAHOO! Yay me!!

I have also finished some of my projects! you saw my beautiful Apron in the last post! I also finished my pajama Pants and started a different project! Despicable Me Minion beanies! I saw this beanie on Pintrest (where else?!) and couldn't help wanting to make it! (it was actually really easy!) Here's the beanie pattern I followed. Then I mimicked the first couple of rounds for the eyes and stitched them to the front, and tied in a smile and hair! it was super easy! 

Jonathan has been vigorously looking for a new job. You know, a grown up job! He was forced to change inbound call types (from wanting to up-grade to wanting to down-grade) and it’s hard to convince people to keep what they have or even upgrade them (that’s the real trick) and he is sick of a job that barely supports our family, so he is on the hunt! Linguistics (the study of languages and how they work) is his preferred job so if you hear anything let us know! ^_^

Maggie is amazing as usual! She has two teeth! And is rolling all over the place and bumping into things! (Hmmm… I need to get pool noodles for some of those corners in the house) She is talking all the time about nothing but having the time of her life and she is just barely figuring out how to sit up! Soooo Cute!! I love being a mom!

Other than that life is good! Christmas is around the corner and we are ready to rock!

 Have a Merry Christmas and great day!

Happy Birthday Jonathan!!!

Can you tell I forgot to hit post! And guess what!? Its 3 months later! UGH!! Oh well… here it is! Jonathan’s Birthday post! (3 months old)

What a great day for my wonderful husband. He said he had a "decent" day at work. Which means, it wasn't good and wasn't bad. Personally, I'm glad he went to work today! It gave me the time I needed to make his birthday dinner and party!!

The day started out picking mine and Maggie's outfit that I wanted to wear for his birthday celebration! 

 

 No worries I wasn't going to prep the house in that, so I got changed! 

 

I don't know why but I love working in a skirt! I guess it’s an old school house wife thing. PS: YES!! That is the Bandanna Apron I was working on! Supper cute right!? I love it! It will be so much fun to use in the future!!

First I started with making the cake!

 

Then I got right to work! I cleaned the house, put out decorations, iced the cake and wrapped Jonathan's birthday present

 Jonathan loved the candles! And, yes I know it’s not the greatest wrapping technique but I didn't want to waist a whole lot of paper. It’s pretty cool right? Besides, you get the idea! It’s the birthday present I even made the bow ^_^ the board was his favorite! maybe I will leave it up for a while (it turned out to be a month or so)

1 hour till Jonathan gets home, time to do dinner! Which was awesome I don't mind saying! I made Panda Express Orange Chicken and Fried Rice. Pretty good huh!? He LOVED IT!! (That was the whole idea) then I pulled out his present. He was really excited.

Big presents like that tend to be exciting. He even unwrapped it carefully so I could reuse that paper for something else! (Isn't he sweet!!?)

So I got him a Nerf Gun (Walmart special 6 shot rotary clip) it has a folding shoulder stock and an extension barrel. We have a lot of Nerf guns so come over for a shoot out if you want! It’s always fun! Of course that wasn’t the only thing in there! 

He got RockBand Drums! Which was so exciting for him. Like I said in the introduction, we met through RockBand parties and when he wasn’t fighting for the microphone with me he was fighting for the Drums. Happy birthday dear! The only thing I had forgotten was the drum sticks so we ran off to the closest music store and bought drum sticks! Wahoo! Oh yah! And when I had bought the drums (used) I forgot to see how well they worked… the yellow pad was broken and so was the foot pedal… put a huge damper in the day. Poor Jonathan was so disappointed… so we played Settlers of Catan, I gave him a back massage and we played with Maggie then all went to bed! All in all it was a great day and he went to bed one year older and happier too!

So take notes and learn from my mistakes… when you buy something used for a gift! Test it first to make sure it works properly and make sure it has everything you need to make it perfect!

No worries I will get updates going right away! I have done so much!

Sleeping baby makes for a happy Mommy

 I may be jinxing it: but the last few nights Maggie has been sleeping through the night!! 3 months and she is sleeping 6-9 hours!! How great is that!? 

She sleeps so well it scares me! I've woken with a start in the middle of the night a few times but have been happy to find her sleeping on!  

Lately I have been reading online about me and my baby's progress together I love babycenter.com because it is a forum community monitored by specialists. Not just moms. And if I have a question that doesn't require immediate attention I can post or search and find exactly what I'm looking for! It's so great! When maggie was born my mom sent me a link for a blog called "the alpha parent" kind of a snobby opinion of "I'm right don't question me". BUT she has this one post called

"Timeline of Baby and toddler sleep" I read the 3 months section today just to make sure Maggie is on track. Boy is she ever! One of the points said "Between now and 6 months, most babies will begin to sleep through the night (defined as five consecutive hours)" now I realize this is average and not my baby but really!? "Sleeping through the night" is 5 hours!?!? That's not through the night that is an interrupted evening! Maggie has been sleeping 7-8 hours THAT is sleeping through the night!!! WAYOOO!! I have an awesome baby!! No I'm not willing to trade!

 Ooo wanna see a super cute picture of her!? Tough you get to anyway ^_^

Adorable right!? ^_^ that's her blessing dress! She was blessed in August but I finally set up a photo shoot and took pictures!! Soooooo cute!!

 Can she get any cuter!? Oh! That's right she's my baby! Just wait till next post i'll have more!

Lets see.. me? Well I've been getting random bursts of energy and have been baking cleaning sewing and job hunting! (Know anywhere hiring?)

Cooking -  know any cake recipies that you can add your own twist and not kill the cake!? I got some Nutella to use up!!

Sooo much chocolate!!! I can't wait to use it!!!So I want to make Nutella brownies, cookies, cake... Etc. I even found a hot chocolate recipe with Nutella!!!

Sewing- I'm in the process of starting / making, PJ bottoms and a cute wrap around shirt yes I said shirt! 

Of course the pj bottoms are plaid but they are purple plaid!! So cute

And the shirt is from simplicity's 2369 

I'm going for pattern C! And it will be purple! (of course) 

As far as cleaning goes that's a work in progress but I get a little done everyday and that's all that counts, Right!?

I love being a mom!!! The smiles, the snuggles, the tears for comfort (or food XD ) and yes even the dirty diapers! 

TTFN!!

Long time coming

Ok so I keep prolonging this post cause I wanted to explain in full detail the delivery... But i realized that, really all that YOU need to know, is that I had a c-section and maggie was born at 11:51pm and we were in the hospital for 4 days (almost 5.) she was born 7lbs exactly and 19 3/4 inches. The perfect baby!!

Afterwards we went to my parents place for 2-3 weeks. Which was great! I needed the support and the help! I didn't realize how lonely and vulnerable I would feel without Maggie inside! What a roller coaster experience!!

 We found out she was failing her hearing test so we had to go find out why! 

The equipment was used to check that the neural parts that had to do with hearing were receiving the sound!

2 hrs later it was discovered that she had a slight hearing loss. Meaning she can't hear things quieter than a whisper. No worries! A little bit louder talking and a dash of ASL and she will be fine! I doubt there will be any problems for her. 

She is now almost 3 months old and what a cutie!!! she is 22" and 12.5 lbs!! Growing good and healthy she is standing with help and you can tell she just wants to get up and go!! 

This is my "no DNA testing needed" picture ^_^

It's fun to watch the grandparents with her! They are absolutely in love with her! And just like any "twitterpated" couple they are just plain silly!! 

Flying helicopters with Opa (German for grandpa)

Hopefully from now on I will be more consistent with my posting! Fingers crossed!!

Who is the Paulus posse?

Jonathan and Lynn! even though Jonathan will be talked about in this blog, I'm going to be doing 90% of the posting ^_^ (<- my favorite smiley)

Lets see.... a little about us! We have been married for 2 years (on June 11th) ! We met in Provo, (where else do cute Mormon couples meet ^_^) Even though we were in different wards our complex was extremely social! In Fact we met because Jonathan’s apartment would host a Rock Band II party every weekend and welcome any and all to come and play, visit or just chill. We would constantly be fighting for the microphone to sing. So when Jonathan finally got the nerve up to ask me out it was easy to say “yes” because we already had that common ground. A few dates and the sparks flew! We were engaged in a few short months and were married after the school season! 

The cake fight at our wedding, looks kind of like a left hook! 

Now, we are excitedly expecting our first child around June 18^th! We are having a beautiful little girl! Her name will be Margaret Elizabeth Paulus, we will call her Maggie or Little Maggie, as we are naming her after her Oma (grandmother) ^_^

Jonathan is the sweetest guy in the world! I am so looking forward to the rest of my life with him! Having Maggie is a blessing for both of us! we are excited, nervous and anxious for her arrival! 3 weeks and counting!

Why a blog? because I thought it would be fun. I love to talk about me! Even though not everyone will be reading or following along, here is where I can: share insights, store good recipes and home remedies, gloat about my DIY and finished projects and brag as I post pictures of little Maggie! Weeeee!!!

Did i leave anything out?! I hope not... but probably did! till next time!

Lynn