Printable Subway Art

When I first saw a print of subway art, I fell in love! I'm a huge typography dork, so having art made out of words just made me happy. I gave my sister some subway art for her birthday, & I haven't been able to stop making more, so I thought I would share one with you. You should be able to click on the image, save it to your computer, & then print it at home or have it printed at a store. It comes in an 8x10 size. Oh, and I know it's for Thanksgiving, but I already have one from another site for Halloween. Maybe next year I'll make my own Halloween print. We'll see. I hope you enjoy it!

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Latest Pregnancy Page

A post about popcorn

Another page from our Hawaii trip

Giant Ruler Growth Chart

I've wanted to make a growth chart for quite awhile, and now that we are expecting Baby #2, I figured it might be a little more difficult for me to just remember the heights of the kids as the grow. So, that made it time to make the growth chart. I saw an inspiration picture online of a growth chart made to look like a giant ruler & thought it was exactly what I wanted. I bought a 6-foot length a pine 1x6, making sure it was nice and straight & didn't have any splits or crazy knots. After finding the perfect board, I bought it and brought it home. Myt husband routed the edges with a slight diagonal cut, then he sanded it and we treated the wood with a natural stain.  We let it dry overnight & the next morning I got to work.  I started the board at 6" instead of 0 because I want it to hang on the wall, and I'm pretty sure I won't have any kids measuring under 6". I measured and marked every inch on the board, then went back with a black paint pen & drew the lines, using a ruler as a straight edge. For the foot marks, the lines were two inches long, then I did two one inch lines & every third mark was 1 1/2". I printed the numbers, which are just Times New Roman font and 125 point. I tried just tracing the outline with a pencil and then using the paint pen to color inside the lines. That didn't work so well, so I pulled out my Silhouette & vinyl & used the blank space as a stencil. Much better, but I did still have a little bit of bleeding under the edge. While I was letting the paint dry, my daughter decided to draw a bit on the top end. So, after sanding the last foot, refinishing it, painting the lines & number 6 back on, we finally finished it with a couple coats of clear, spray-on top coat. I used the velcro picture hanging strips to hang it on the wall in my daughter's room & measured her for her 2-year birthday. She's about 31 1/2" tall now! It was definitely a good project, & not very difficult!

Giant Cupcake Cake Liner

I'm getting ready to make Sharon's birthday cake, the giant cupcake cake. Before baking the cake I wanted to try making the cupcake liner for the bottom half, so I don't have to frost it. I just melted 6 squares of almond bark (six was plenty with some left over), then painted it on to the inside of the giant cupcake cake pan with a spatula. I let it harden in the freezer & when it was ready I was dreading trying to get it out of the pan. Lo & behold, it slid right out & looks perfect. I added a little more chocolate to the thin spots, which were easy to see from the light shining through, & it's all ready to hug a cake! I can't wait! Oh, it's sitting on a two-tiered cake stand that I made using two plates & a small goblet.

Newest pregnancy picture

This is my latest belly picture! I'm 24 weeks this week. I was feeling fabulous today in my new dress & curled hair, so I got Ammon to take this picture before church! I've been feeling our little girl moving quite a bit, especially when I take some time to rest during the day.
This week I'll be getting three shots instead of one. I will still get my normal progesterone injection, but, in addition, I will also get two shots of steriods to help mature the baby's lungs (just in case). We certainly hope she isn't born early, but if she is, the steriods will help prepare her lungs for early breathing.  I've been feeling great & am really enjoying this pregnancy!

Trip to the zoo (Scrapbook Pages)

Our Garden

Kettle Corn

Yesterday, Ammon was in charge of a youth fireside for our ward. He decided to have the kids watch the movie To This End Was I Born, a wonderful movie about the last days of Christ's life & His ministry on Earth & in the Spirit World. It is very moving & wonderfully done! He also wanted to have popcorn for the movie, so I ended up making 7 batches of popcorn in our stove-top popper. Ammon had the idea to try making some kettle corn, which we've never tried before. He thought I'd made it, but I've definitely never put sugar in my popcorn popper. So, what to do? Go online of course. I looked at a few recipes for Kettlecorn & they all seemed fairly similar, so I finally settled on this one. It's pretty much exactly how I make our regular popcorn, plus some sugar. And let me tell you, it was wonderful! It's not too sweet, & after the popcorn has cooled a bit you can break it all apart so it's back to individual kernels, rather than a giant glob of sticky popcorn. It really isn't sticky at all & oh so fun to eat! So, here's the recipe:
Ingredients

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions:

In a large pot with a tight-fitting lid (or a whirly popper like mine), heat the oil over medium-high heat. add the popcorn. When the oils sizzles, sprinkle the sugar over the kernels. Cover and shake the pan until the popping slows down, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and toss with the salt.

Oh, & just so you know, 4 batches of regular popcorn & 3 of kettlecorn makes way too much popcorn for 15 people to eat. Leftovers!

Ultrasound news

I had an ultrasound on Wednesday and everything went well. The nurse said the baby is measuring perfectly for 20 weeks and is right on schedule. With our first daughter, she measured a little small at the same ultrasound, so I'm hoping things continue to go well.
Now, on to what you've all been waiting for; Baby Wilhelm's gender. We are having another GIRL! We are so excited! I'm pretty sure we would have been excited either way, but since we already have so many girl things we won't have to buy as much.

A quick catch-up

Wow! I know, I've been neglecting my blog. I've just been busy with other things, so that blogging kind of fell to the bottom of the list. So, you ask, what have I been up to? Well, aside from being pregnant and having limited amounts of energy for the day, we went camping over the 4th of July weekend with my parents & sister, I've been dehydrating food, caring for our garden, we planted grass and are busy trying to get it to grow (we have sprouts), I got released from my presidency calling in our Ward Relief Society, I've started getting my weekly progesterone shots (which are a pain in the butt, literally), we transitioned Sharon to her toddler bed & it's been fairly successful, Ammon's been busy with late night bat surveys and early morning bird surveys for work, I've done a little bit of canning, and now I'm working on cleaning out my craft room to make some space for Baby Wilhelm. I took a picture yesterday so I can show you my growing belly. It's not huge but pretty much none of my pants fit. I finally broke down & cut off a pair of my maternity pants so I can have some shorts to wear this summer.
I know I haven't given many updates on my blog, mainly because it's so much faster & easier on facebook, but I do want to give a few updates. I am now about 19 1/2 weeks and when I was about 11 weeks my doctor put in a cerclage as a precautionary measure to help keep this baby in longer. At 17 weeks I started getting weekly progesterone shots. Those are definitely going to be super fun & I think my butt already hates me. I've been able to feel the baby moving a lot more lately & I love it because it's so reassuring! I am feeling well & never really had any morning sickness. After the surgery I did notice that if I over did things even a little bit I would get really tired and sore, & get a major headache. I just make sure to rest for a little while after doing something a bit strenuous, which has made things better. We find out the gender of the baby next week & we are pretty excited to find out. All along I've thought it is another girl, but now I'm not so sure. I can't wait to find out because then I'll be able to start debating names with a little more certainty. I told Ammon a couple days ago that we should have a name picked out by 6 months, just in case, & so we don't have to make such a big decision with all that extra stress that we had with Sharon.
   Well, I'll get around to scrapbooking our latest pictures sometime, but I really want to take advantage of the time I have this summer to get things ready for baby & to do all the things I won't be able to do if I end up on bedrest. If it comes to bedrest, you can be sure you'll be seeing a ton of scrapbooking catch-up!

Hawaii: Day Three

Hawaii: Day Two

Hawaii: Day One

Sharon has an announcement!

Working out back

Spring has Sprung

A Quilt for Sharon