The best Christmas gift!!!

This Christmas will definitely be very high up on the memory list for Matt and I. We (finally!) got to tell our families that we are PREGNANT!!! It's been a secret that I had to keep for over a month, which was sooooo hard for me but Matt was adamant about wanting to wait until Christmas. Matt's family came over in the morning. We had a present wrapped for Allie and asked his parents to help her open it. Well, inside was a shirt for Allie that said 'Big Sister'. Immediately screams and tears came. Then that afternoon, we drove up to Prescott to be with my family. I had re-wrapped the shirt so we did the same thing with my parents. It was sooooo much fun. I will write more about what this pregnancy means to us, but it was amazing to share the news on such a special day which reminds us of the reason we are here. Here are some pictures of our wonderful Christmas day...
Telling Matt's parents first

Then my parents, I don't think my dad got it right away, or maybe he didn't see what the shirt said

Ohhhhh, I get it now!

Allie's Christmas jammies - last year I started a tradition of getting Allie a special pair of Christmas PJ's to wear on Christmas eve night. Last year's were soooo cute and I think this years are equally adorable

Complete with a tutu and ballet slippers

A baby Allie - actually spelled the right way!

Our child does NOT sleep in the car so we were shocked that she nodded off on the way to Prescott. Must have been all the excitement. And it didn't end there. She slept until 8:30 the next morning which is unheard of!!!

It was such an amazing day!

Christmas angel

One of my favorite things growing up was getting to pick out a pretty Christmas dress with my mom to wear to church each year. Now, I get the privilege of doing that with my daughter. I love picking out clothes for Allie anyways but when there's a special occasion to get something fancy, that's even more fun. Unfortunately Allie was sick on Christmas Eve this year so she didn't make it to church, but we did meet my family before for dinner so she got to wear her special Christmas dress. Please excuse the picture, but due to her feeling crummy she was NOT in the mood to take ANY pictures, so slouching on the couch with a cracker was the best I got.

The yearly visit

No, I'm not talking about that yearly visit, I'm talking about the yearly visit to Santa Claus! We took Allie to Kierland to see Santa and get the $30 picture that makes me cringe when I hand over my credit card to pay for it but is totally necessary. We really weren't sure how she would do, we actually thought she may scream when we plopped her on Santa's lap but she did great. When we got close to him in line, she kept saying 'Hi Santa' and waving. She didn't exactly want to sit in his lap, she doesn't exactly sit still in anyone's lap on command, so she did try and squirm away a few times but we got one decent picture. No smile, but no scream so we were happy.

Walking around Kierland

She did not let go of her baby doll the whole ride there and back, so sweet

Double ear infection + some kind of virus = lots of tears :(

Christmas again???

Christmas is NEXT week! Can you believe it??? I certainly can't. I am usually really on top of things...by this time decorations would be up, my shopping would be done, gifts wrapped, cards sent out, cookies baked, etc. Let's just say that this year, only one of those things is completely finished. Ugh! Oh well, what can you do? Anyways, I was finishing up with our decorations and I had a few Christmas frames that I needed to fill. So I got on our computer to look for some photos from last year to print. What I thought would take me 5 minutes, ended up taking about 45. I could not stop going through our pictures. I can't believe my little Allie was only 5 months old at Christmas last year! She had just started to sit up and was smiley as ever. Tears just came to my eyes looking at those pictures because it just reminded me of the second best Christmas present I ever got (the first of course being the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus's birth :) God has completely blessed our family and those memories of our first Christmas with our daughter will stay with me forever!

My Little Lady

We introduced Allie to a fork a while ago and she was never very interested. She of course just stared at this plastic foreign object and continued to eat with her fingers. Now, she is totally obsessed. The second that I put food on her highchair she yells, "fork, fork!" and won't eat a bite until she gets her fork. Even if it's not the kind of food that you particularly need a utensil to eat...like crackers, dry cheerios or sandwiches. Here is my little lady eating her turkey sandwich with a fork!

I am thankful...

I'm not a huge fan of e-mail forwards but I just got this one and it really hit me this particular time of the year. I have so much to be thankful for and yet with the busyness of life, sometimes it's hard to remember the specific things. I could probably fill up pages and pages writing what things I am personally thankful for, but this says a few...

I AM THANKFUL:

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME

FOR THE TAXES I PAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM EMPLOYED

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT
BECAUSE IT MEANS WE LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH RANSPORTATION

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH WHO SINGS OFF KEY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN HEAR

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE

AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME

Uncle Ryan - Hairstylist Extrodinaire

When I was pregnant with Allie, my brother told me that the first time he babysits my baby (at that time we didn't know if it was a boy or girl), he was going to give him or her a mohawk and dye it purple. So I guess it shouldn't surprise me that he did this to my daughter today...

The McDream House

Over the past few years my parents got the amazing opportunity to build their dream home up in the Talking Rock community of Prescott. I'm not sure that when they bought their lot about 5 years ago that they could have ever imagined the journey it would take them on. There was a lot of excitement, then A LOT of frustrations, but in the end I think they are so happy. The house is incredible and totally reflects my parents style. Matt, Allie and I got to spend the last two weekends up there with my parents and brother and sister-in-law and had such a great time. It's definitely one of those places where when you walk through the front door, you immediately feel relaxed and at home. (Not to mention that we get chocolates on our pillows at night!)
Here are some pictures of the McGuire's Dream Home!
View from the front

Custom Front Door

The Great Room fireplace - it's over 6 feet wide! (there's a TV above it now where the wires are hanging out)

The backyard - the main house is on the left, guest house on the right - and the amazing view

We can't wait to make a ton of memories up there - congratulations on your new house mom and dad!

"a" bag - my new favorite!

If you are crafty, and even if you aren't, you must check out this blog. It's called MADE and it shows off the amazing sewing skills of a woman named Dana. She has a daughter about the age of 5 and the clothes that she makes for her are absolutely incredible...I especially love the dresses she makes out of men's button down shirts. Although I aspire to be like Dana one day, I am not quite at that level yet, however, I am practicing! I saw something on her blog a while ago that I thought was so cute and would be simple enough to copy. So I gave it a shot. Since she didn't have any directions on her site I had to make it up as I went and just copy from pictures. I ended up making a pattern out of a newspaper and went from there. What do you think? I think Allie will love her new bag, it's perfect for weekend trips up to Prescott :)

Here is my newspaper pattern...

And here's the bag...


Personalized just for my little "a" :)

Tahitian Princess

A couple months ago my parents got the amazing opportunity to travel to the Tahitian Islands. They went on a week long cruise and then spent 4 extra days in Bora Bora. Yes, they got to stay in one of those incredible huts right on top of the water and yes, I am still VERY jealous! They came back with really neat souvenirs for all of us but Allie's were definitely the best! Check out my little Tahitian princess... :)


Seriously, how cute are these dresses???

Bows, bows, bows

One of the most fun things about having a little girl is all of the accessories that she gets to have. I was definitely a girly girl growing up, I loved all the hair bows, ribbons, purses, jewelry, etc. And I can already tell that Allie is going to be the same way. Since Allie was born with so much hair, I got a jump start on using hair accessories with her. But with accessories comes massive clutter. She has a ridiculous amount of bows, clips, headbands, rubberbands, etc. It's so hard to resist when a cute flower clip is only $2!!! Well, I needed some solution to the clutter so I made this...

I just took a wooden plaque that I got from Joann's, painted it, added some crystals, glued on some ribbon and hung it in her closet. It works perfectly to get some of Allie's bows out of the hair abyss of her dresser drawer. I'm thinking about making two more smaller ones to hang on each side because (I am embarrassed to admit) the one I made only holds about half of her bows!

My Little Bumble Bee

Seriously, is that not the cutest thing ever??? I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, I don't really like ghosts and goblins, skulls and spiders. But I do love the costume aspect of it, especially for little kids. My mom and I were randomly at Marshalls one day and weren't even looking for a costume and saw this little bumble bee one. We about died, it's just precious, especially with the tutu on the bottom. It's even more adorable from the back...

We had so much fun taking Allie to the Fall Festival at Highlands last weekend and then trick or treating in our neighborhood last night. When we got home I took her out of her costume, she still had her leotard and tights on, I loved that she looked like a little ballerina. Maybe next year????

(I tried to get her to put her arms over her head like a ballet move but instead she found her bow and decided to take it out, I can't keep a bow in that girls hair lately for the life of me!!!)

Has it been 10 years already???!!!

My gosh, I am feeling old lately. This past weekend Matt and I attended his 10 year high school reunion. I wish I could say that I married an older man (which actually I did) but we graduated the same year and my 10 year reunion was this same weekend so yes, my husband and I are both feeling old! Matt was much more involved in his high school than I was so his event won out. I was actually okay with this though because since we dated in high school and two of my best friends went to high school at Chaparral too, I actually knew a lot of people that they all went to school with. Friday night we attended the Chaparral football game and then Saturday was the evening event at Camerones Catina at Gainey Village. It was fun for both of us to catch up with some old friends and even more fun for Matt and I to reminisce about our high school days. It's so much fun to be high school sweethearts!

Tailgaiting at the football game

Matt's best friend Ryan and his fiance Brandie

Brandie, Robyn Yount and I

Matt and friends way back from junior high

My New Shirt

So can you tell I've had some time on my hands lately???? Actually, besides running around with a 15 month old (which you know is no easy task), I promise I've kept up with my mother/wife duties...cleaning, cooking, organizing, laundry, etc. All of which never seem to end or be completed. However, Matt and I have made a committment this month of a 'spending freeze'. We are really trying to be good with money and get back on track since his short stint of unemployment this summer. So, with that decision, I've had to really watch the amount of shopping I do. And that means no random morning runs to Target to just 'walk around'. No running into Marshalls to look for one specific thing I need only to leave with 5 things I don't. So in order to keep me busy at home so that I am not tempted to run to my favorite stores, I've been doing some fun things at home. I was inspired as I was looking through a J Crew catalog by this shirt...

And since I have so much t-shirt fabric left over from some other projects, I thought I would try to re-create it. What do you think???

I had this old gray shirt lying around so I just took a few strips of black fabric, made a bunch of ruffles, and formed some flowers. It was really fun to do and best of all it was totally FREE!!! It is by NO means Project Runway worthy, but I think it's pretty cute.

Old T-Shirts....New Creation

***NOTE - some intense bragging may occur in this post...

I have to say that I'm so proud of myself! (Sorry, I am on a high horse right now!) I finished my second T-shirt quilt and I think it turned out great. Back in college I got this idea from a friend (thank you Mere) to create a quilt out of old t-shirts. I had so many from high school...school events, church events, etc...that I just couldn't bear to throw away and knowing that I was going to be moving around a lot in the coming years, I just had no place to store them either. So I made a quilt and LOVE it (It kept me very warm during MANY baseball games!) Well, for seriously about 5 years now, I've wanted to make Matt one with all of his t-shirts from his baseball days. I always got so hyped up to start it but then when I remembered how LONG it takes to make one, I never started. But a couple weeks ago I told myself that I just HAD to do it so I did!!! It was really hard to get Matt to part with some of his (hundreds) of old t-shirts but I managed to get some from high school, college, summer ball and each year in the minors. I really hope this is something that will help him remember those days for years to come! I think it turned out great! Okay, I will get off my soap box now!

Here is the stack of t-shirts I used...


And here is the finished product! (It helped that all of his team colors always had either red or blue - the one I made myself doesn't match this well!)


I used a really soft black jersey cotton for the border and the back...

Finally some vacation pictures...

It's been a busy week so I finally was able to get the rest of our Newport pictures from my parents and go through them. We had such a great time and can't wait to go again next year. Here are a few of my favorites...







To see the rest of our pics, click HERE or go to the link below...
http://picasaweb.google.com/heather0921/NewportOct2009#

No, no, no!

We had a great time last week spending some vacation time in sunny California. One of the highlights of the trip was going to Sea World. I love Sea World and have so many memories of going there while I was growing up so I couldn't wait to take Allie. Although she is still a little young to truly appreciate the place, she had such a good time. She LOVED all of the aquariums, she just stood at the windows and stared, mesmerized by all the sea life. We really wanted to get her a stuffed animal for a souvenir. Stuffed animals are one of her very favorite toys, so we really wanted her to pick one out and just love it. At home she walks around with many of them hugging and kissing them. Well, picking out the perfect Sea World animal wasn't exactly what we expected. Check it out...

Home Sweet Home

Ahhh, I can still hear the sound of the ocean's waves. What a wonderful week we had in Newport Beach, CA and how sad I am to be home right now, back to the grind of every day life. We had the privilege of joining my parents at their timeshare in Newport this past week. It was such a great vacation. Allie and I drove up with my parents last Saturday, Matt joined us on Wednesday and then we all drove home today. Here's (almost) all that we did...

spent two days at Laguna Beach playing in the sand and sun
went to the 43rd Annual Sand Castle Building Contest (which actually wasn't as impressive as we thought it would be but still fun to see)
went to Sea World which Allie LOVED
had dinner with two of Matt's good friends from Merrill Lynch who moved to SD recently
also had dinner with Matt's cousin and his new wife who live in Newport
my dad drove to LA to pick up Matt since he accidentally booked his plane ticket for LAX instead of Orange County Airport (and didn't realize it until the plane landed!)
drank Pina Coladas by the pool
shopped
ate yummy food
went for walks
read THREE books (my favorite thing to do on vacation!)
and best of all, RELAXED and enjoyed the PERFECT weather all week!

I have tons of pictures and a really funny video to share but I have no energy to download and post right now. After the 9 hours it took for us to get home today (yes, NINE hours!), I'm pooped. More on our fun vacation to come!

The Candy Shop

I have been meaning to post this hilarious story for weeks now and am finally getting the chance to do so...in Phoenix there is this place right on the corner of a busy intersection called 'The Candy Shop'. I know what you all are thinking...gumballs, jelly beans, plenty of sugared delights to keep you wired all night long. Well, this 'candy shop' is not quite that kind of place. Let's just say it's one of those simple brick buildings with no windows, a very non-descript entrance with big heavy doors, mainly just male patrons, probably a security guard standing just inside the entrance, and other than the security guard and bartender, probably only good looking females are employed here. Are you all following me??? Let's just say it's X-rated and I promise I don't know this from experience. Well, a few weeks ago Matt was driving somewhere and was stopped at this intersection. He glanced over to The Candy Shop and noticed an elderly couple getting out of their car in the parking lot. Of course Matt had to sit and stare because not often do you think of elderly couples spending a Friday night at this type of joint. Well, the couple walked across the parking lot, holding hands and smiling and talking, walked in the front door and about 7 seconds later he said that they bolted back out the front door looking incredibly shaken, embarrassed and mortified and almost ran to their car!!!! hahaha They were probably on their way to their grandkids house and thought they'd stop and pick up some lollipops!

My absolute favorite project (so far)!!!!

Once again I got a great idea from this blog to create another little something for Allie. These quilted letters were just too cute not to try myself and I'm so glad I did because I think they turned out so great! I used scraps from fabric that I had and also raided the $1/yard fabric aisle at Walmart. Then I traced out letters on the fabric, made a sandwich with the colored fabric, some quilt batting and some chenille for that backs and sewed the letters together. Viola!

Here's the full alphabet set...


I made an extra 'L' so we could spell out ALLIE


All the fronts of the letters are a different fabric, but all the backs are this white, textured, vintage chenille which I love



I know she's a little young but it's never too early to start working on our letters!