Christmas time

Being a Mom is amazing...it's so challenging and so rewarding all at the same time! I have to admit there are times when Paisley is crying and it's all I can do not to cry myself, it breaks my heart when I can't figure out how to meet her needs. I'm blessed (we're blessed) that she is such a good baby. She rarely fusses, and she always has a reason if she does. We are learning at such a rapid rate how to "read" our little girl. She's full of expressions and smiles all the time (I don't care what anybody says, she smiles!), especially in her sleep! She loves her Daddy and he does just as good of a job of soothing her as I do unless it's food and that doesn't count. We are learning and growing and so is Paisley, it's been quite the ride so far. We've been out and about much more than I'd ever imagined, we had Christmas eve at Jake's Dad's house and 1/2 of Christmas Day and then we went out to Jake's Mom's Boyfriends Ranch the latter part of the day and then back to her house after that all the way through 1/2 of Monday! We've just gotten settled in and now tomorrow evening Marsha and Fam will be arriving and we'll be headed back to Grants Pass (Marsha is allergic to cats so we don't want her to have to stay here to many nights in a row).

Here is a picture of Paisley taken when she was 4 days old....she's in the Christmas dress Uncle Tyler Grannis bought her. She is smiling, I swear, see for yourself!

Happy Merry Christmas and New Year from the 3 of us!

Pictures of Baby Paisley

Finished with so many things!

So Jake had to help me finish this dresser, but it turned out pretty darn cute I think. It's loaded full of baby girl clothes (thanks to my sister Marsha mostly) and in the baby's room which is almost done...just a few more little things. Thanks Jake, you are the best husband ever! Since he finished his 2nd to last final he's been knocking out things on my "list" left and right, I'm lucky and blessed to have him!

We've officially started our food storage thanks to some prodding from my SIL Gel! Nice work. It is surprisingly easy just like she says, you just get a little extra of something you are already getting! Sorry no picture, but maybe later!

Then we have me pregnant...SUPER pregnant. Here is a picture of me at 37.5 weeks and measuring like I'm 39.5 weeks! I'm actually starting my 39th week tomorrow (Monday) and if she doesn't come into this world on her own then she will be induced on Dec. 17th Wednesday on her Aunt Marsha's birthday (the day after Jake's). We're actually hoping she comes on her own prior to being induced, but we're glad to know when she will be here for sure! We can't wait to meet her! Plus I'd be lying if I said I was completely comfy all the time! Truly though for the most part I have had a pretty easy pregnancy.

As a side note I have the funniest dog, check him out riding in style in the back of the tahoe on an antique love seat we were moving to Jake's mom's house...he's pretty funny!

Also I've set up the bassinet, Jake hung Christmas lights outside and picked up this beautiful tree which he helped me decorate!

We've also got both the baby's bag and our hospital bag packed and the carseat bases in both cars w/ the carseat in the tahoe (I told Jake that is what I want to ride in to the hospital, stepping up into a car is much better than falling into the other car!). So we are pretty much ready to go for when our daughter comes! Just a few more touches in the room and then of course once we get back home I get to wrap the few Christmas presents we'll have which of course will totally be outshone (is that a word?) by our baby's arrival!

I'm super excited for my sister Marsha and Sky and Alise to come visit 12/31-1/6, we will get to spend some time w/ them and also hang out w/ Tyler and Mitzi and fam as well while they are in town. I'm excited to have my sister around while we have a fairly new baby, she's a great mom!

I think that's it for now, I'm guessing my next post will be of our baby girl! Keep us in your prayers!

Project Dresser and Baby Update

So here we are the first day of December and I am sooo excited for Christmas! I've got a start on the baby's dresser, a small one because I get tired super easy (it's almost pathetic!). This is the dresser BEFORE. I've got my sanding mask (safety first) and my sandpaper. It's definitely a project, but pretty neat seeing how it was my dresser growing up as a kid. I sanded the "body" of the dresser almost all the way today and I have the drawers and bottom piece for tomorrow hopefully. I'm also hoping to be able to paint tomorrow as well! I'll keep you updated!

This is me on Thanksgiving. Do I look like I rode uncomfortably in a car for 12 hours to get there? Did you notice that I'm wearing the same shirt? Yeah, limited clothing options really, be impressed I'm not in sweats! Belly bands are awesome! Of course these days I have my "home sweats" and my "fancy sweats" LOL!

This next picture is from Thanksgiving day as well. This is how tired we were. My SIL Suzy has a great picture of us both sleeping on the couch, but here is Jake with a bunny and my uggs on him, that is the work of my SIL Crystal, she's funny!

And last but not least, our baby is GROWING! Today I started our 37th week and when our Dr. measured my belly this morning I measured at 39!!! She literally looked at me and said "What have you been doing?"

So tomorrow we go in for a "baby growth" ultrasound, since she jumped up their in size. The Dr. also confirmed again that we are indeed having a little girl.

I am officially normal ... aside from the ginormous belly, I am 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced...that's for all you who actually know what that means :)

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl. I still have so much to do, here's my priority list (in no particular order because it all has to be done before she comes)

-car seat in car

-hospital bag packed (it's at 25% done now)

-bed in baby's room rotated (that's Jake)

-bassinet set up

-dresser completed

-Christmas Tree (doing that this weekend w/ MIL)

-Christmas lights up (that's Jake too)

-Mitten Stockings finished up (all 3 are sewn and almost complete except for names)

Well that's my story for now. Talk to you soon!

Christmas Mittens 1 down 2 to go!

Okay so I will admit it....when I start a little craft project I get a bit obsessive! I've got all the mittens cut out and I've got Jakes 99% done.

So here is a little mini trip down "Mitten Making Way"





This is the template, yeah baby, 3 sheets of computer paper taped together!!!!







These are the 3 mitten cutouts with the template. Jake wanted a patchwork one w/ the two materials I got for him to choose from; mine is the one on the top right, it's paisley (old sheets that I loved that got ruined, Jake's idea and I really loved those sheets) and Baby Girl Foutz is getting the pink, tan, black and brown plaid mitten :)

This is Jake's stocking w/ the batting sewn in between the lining and the front and back.

This is Jake helping me briefly (but wonderfully) cut out the circles for his snowman :)

This is the finished product, not the perfection I had imagined in my mind, but certainly a good first run :) I won't be remaking it or anything. I have a little hand sewing to do at the top and I am going to cheat a little and buy the felt letters to put his name on it :) Oh and of course add the little loop to hang it up :)

That's my day today, oh and I watched my friend's 1 year old for 2 hours, went to a baptism, had a mini date w/ my husband (we went to senor sam's and shared a super nachos) and went "saturday preparing for sunday" grocery shopping. All in all a good day!

Challenging Myself

So I've got some projects going right now since I'm not working anymore. When our little baby girl isn't kicking my insides out I am enjoying "creating" things.

So here's my project list for the next couple of days:

1-sand and paint the dresser for the baby. It's my dresser from growing up, my Mom painted it blue at one point and that won't work. Initially I wanted to strip and stain it, but we are to close to the baby arriving so I'm on to Plan B. Which is sanding it down and painting it "ballet slipper" pink! Then after life settles down a bit I will go back to Plan A and strip and stain it.

2-make our new Christmas Stockings. They won't be "stockings" in the sense that they are not going to be shaped like socks. They will be shaped like mittens! It was something Jake and I saw at Joann's (love that store), but figured "I could make that" so I'm going to give it a shot! One for Jake (Frosty the Snowman), one for me (Frosty's lady) and one for the baby (a little snowbaby)...then in the future I can make more little snow people as we have more children :)

I am excited to complete these projects hopefully within the next week before we leave for Utah for Thanksgiving. When I get there I have a scrapbooking project with my SIL Susan. I'm SO excited!

Reminiscing

I have a great family. I learn from them all the time and I have such wonderful memories. I know I said my next blog post would be about something moving forward, so to keep my word before I go backward.

I made my 2nd pumpkin pie and it's even better!!!

Okay so that being said, here's some pictures of me growing up and my family!

Okay so Jake's family has a picture just like this, w/ all of them in one seat in the back of a van. Oh yeah this is how we traveled :)

This is us at a family wedding...can you say 90's?

This was our found family dog Butch...SHE (oh yeah we named her before we looked) was the best dog. Like my bumble bee sweater? Part of a halloween costume I couldn't let go of.

Sisters have a strong bond, the first picture is of me and Jennifer

Me and Marsha at our joint bday party in our matching dresses!

Me, Marsha and Kate at Marsha's baby shower.

I'm so grateful for my sisters. I have some great SIL's too, but that's another post. Happy Wednesday!

Our very first blog attempt

Hello all,

It's about time I jumped on this bandwagon :) We are coming up on some very exciting times in our life. In about a month we should be meeting our very first child! Very exciting!!! Which actually gave me something to blog about instead of "I go to work and Jake goes to school".

So this post is a catch up post. I'll post a few pics and a few blurbs about them and call it good :)

Here goes!

The Foutz Family is serious about their baked goods. Everything is supposed to be made from scratch and Jake LOVES his pies.

This is my first attempt at a pie and I decided to do this at 8 mos prego! Not completely from scratch since I used pumpkin pie filling from a can along w/ other ingredients, but I even made the crust myself! It was even edible!!!! I've talked w/ Bob (Laurie Foutz my MIL) and she's given me some pointers and my SIL Crystal makes an awesome crust, I'm hoping she'll share her recipe w/ me!

This is Baby Girl Foutz at 23 weeks. We think she's going to be quite a bit like her Dad, she's got Jake's eyes, nose and mouth we think....I don't know what she will have of mine :)

3D ultrasounds are amazing!

This is at my baby shower on Nov. 8, 2008 I have a bow on my belly. All my Sisters and SIL's will recognize that pregnant girl sit LOL!

It was a good time for sure. I did feel pretty silly getting tired opening presents! Who would have thought that would be strenuous!

This is our 2nd Anniversary trip, we went to Turtle Bay (http://www.turtlebay.org/) and this is us in the Shasta Caverns and we also stopped and saw a local waterfall (that pic didn't turn out, we forgot our digital camera so this is from a disposable)

Jake planned the whole thing, I'd been wanting to go to both places for a long while, especially turtle bay! Isn't Jake cute! I was about 6.5 mos prego here.

This is Jake and his Dad (Steve) when they went for a motorcycle ride together.

One of the few breaks Jake got from school on a weekend.

He works really hard all day and most of every Saturday too on his schooling. I'm pretty proud of him!

This is our visit to SLC Temple so that Darrell and Gel and Collin and Brody could be sealed as a family for time and all eternity!

What a great trip. We were very happy to be able to be a part of their family's special day!

And this is what started it all. We were sealed for time and all eternity on Sept. 8, 2006 in the Sacramento, CA temple.

This is at our reception in Merlin, OR on Sept. 9, 2008.

In the background is Jake's truck, his very first car which he and his Dad with some help from me and my Dad rebuilt in about 32 days after it was run into a tree, just so it could be our "getaway truck".

So much has happened this year, but for now this is where I will leave it. Our next blog will be about something new that has happened from today forward. I can tell this is going to be fun!