One month of devotions

We decided January first was a perfect day to start including our little guy in family devotion time and also start training him to sit still in his own little chair. It has made for some of the sweetest moments in our day for sure. When we tell him it's Bible time he runs and drags over his little seat, and then mid-month he started wearing his little "bible hat" from Grammy. Then he sits and asks for his Bible from grandma and grandpa Montoro and tries to read it...and sometimes eat it, balance it on his head, etc...

I look forward to the time each night and he has done really well with learning to pay attention. I on the other hand have been distracted by taking pics a few times as you can tell... 😃

Map Themed Missions Banquet

 Our church's theme for this year is Inside Out.  As soon as the theme came out, I knew a really neat way to help visualize the theme for the banquet could be maps, and a giant window looking from the inside "Out" to the world.  It was so fun to find many different, inexpensive ways to incorporate maps, and travel, and missions.  We only had a $100 budget for decorating for over 200 people, so that was a fun challenge, but a challenge nonetheless.  I could NOT have done it without hours and hours of volunteer help from church members and also some donations- like the GORGEOUS map runners that we made from wrapping paper purchased at TJ Maxx, and also all of the globes were generously forced (I mean donated) from people's homes.  Also, we had a great albeit grumpy carpenter make the frame for our giant map and it looked awesome!

Now, I will break down a little bit of what we did, in case anyone is hoping to decorate for something similar!

 Each table's decor was made up of a black tablecloth, the gold table runner found at TJ Maxx, placemats designed to match the giant map at the front of the room and our theme "Inside Out," Glass bottles that we found 50 of at a garage sale for $5 and spray painted black and gold, baby's breath spray painted gold and handmade map paper roses were placed into the black bottle vases, while a simple white taper candle was cut to fit into the gold bottles.  The taper candles were actually emergency candles found in packs of 8 at the dollar tree.  They burned up pretty fast, but they helped us to stay in budget, so I was glad we could make them work.  To complete the table, the centerpieces were globes of various sizes and colors which really helped add to the unique look.

Our paper rose template is found here: paper rose tutorial

 We had some vintage-y suitcases that we decoupaged with maps for the front centerpiece, an easy and fun project that can really spruce up old suitcases! Just make sure you put the maps on facing the top (handle) of the suitcase.

The giant map we pieced together from 60 standard size pages of paper- thanks to my husband having some program that figured out how to print our iStock photo that big. The quality was pretty good for something that big, but this did turn out to be our biggest headache, because the pieces didn't match up very well so it took a few hours to get them all laid out and not have too many discrepancies and then our double sided tape failed us and our map fell apart....I think maybe 3 times.  We finally did get it sturdy enough to turn over thanks to glue sticks and the patience of many friends and then we were able to turn it over and tape it with masking tape.  It could have been a MAJOR fail- but praise the Lord it came together.  Oh especially, because my dog ran out into the garage and walked right onto it and then because I freaked out, so did he and come to find out the map was sort of a slip and slide to his doggy feet, and I could picture him shredding all of North and South America.  Thankfully there was only one visible scratch and I said if anyone pointed out any flaws that it qualified THEM to decorate for next year, so I didn't hear any complaints. :-)

 Map paper bunting was cut up from leftover map cardstock, which you can easily find at a nearby craft store (we got ours at Hobby Lobby) or you can find many free map printables online and on pinterest.  We hung ours on twine and secured with tape, and then also placed some white lights across the top for a nice lighting effect.

 We got pretty fortunate to have these beautiful old windows and old maps from a school remodel for our back wall.  The theme was written out on foam core board and then spray painted gold to match our theme.

 I am so happy how everything turned out, and it was really fun to see it all come together, seeing as so many of the ideas and work was done with friends...it truly was a group effort!

Pregnancy week 21-25

I've gotten terribly behind on my pregnancy updates, mostly because I didn't take my weekly pictures consistently. If I had posted a New Year's Day "one word" as was super popular at the beginning of this month I would have said it should be consistency....but of course I got behind with that too, so maybe next year. 😝

Anyway....week 21-25 was a little bit harder because of the accident we were in. It brought on a lot of symptoms I hoped I wouldn't feel until the end of my pregnancy. Two days after the accident we actually spend most of the day in the ER just making sure baby was ok. Chloe is so active that it took them a minute or two to find her heartbeat, but I wasn't worried because I could feel her flipping all over while they were trying to find it. She's a crazy girlie. I did find out that day that I had 2 infections so I started on 2 rounds of antibiotics and also they tested and said I am anemic now, which I was so happy earlier on in the pregnancy to find out I wasn't this time. Bummer. But of course it will be worth it. Anyway, it was a long couple weeks as I got rid of the infections, healed from the soreness from the accident, and the iron pills made me feel horrible thanks to my IBS. Thankfully around week 25 I have started feeling really good again and so I have hope for the future of this pregnancy. 😀

(Photo credit- cammi j photography, Austin TX) 

Here's our growing crazy girlie, I love her sweet face already!! (Even though these 4D u/s are creepy!) we got an extra peek at her at 22 weeks because she didn't cooperate very well during her 18 week u/s because we interrupted her acrobatics session. 

Sunday school Christmas party 😀

Week 24- she totally popped out this week!! My back is starting to compensate for a big belly. 

Aaaand week 25 was Christmas week and I didn't get a belly shot, but I did get a pic of me and my sweetie on Christmas Day! A special day to be sure...blog post to come on that if I can get more...ahem...consistent. 

15 weeks to go until due date! 😍👶🎀💗