11 days and she'll be here...

My baby niece will be here in just 11 days! Nicole is scheduled for a c-section on Oct 5th and (apparently) I am counting the days!! This little girl is beyond cute (I just know it) and I can't wait to meet her and hold her and kiss her little head :) Shawn & Nicole still don't have a name, and I love names, so I am equally as anxious to know what to call her. I have taken to calling her Baby Girl, which just isn't cute. It is so fun watching Emolyn get excited about her new baby sister. I was over at Shawn & Nicole's last night and Emolyn was very excited to help Nicole open a little gift I'd gotten Baby Girl.

I realized that I failed as an aunt because I brought not a thing for Emolyn... I didn't even have mints that I normally keep in my purse for when I see Emolyn. I did however have some stale pretzels, so that's something. I realize I need to better "Auntify" my purse with fun things that Emolyn can explore and play with. She usually has fun coloring in my planner or taking everything out of my wallet or pushing buttons on my phone or ipod, but I need to find something that will really wow her. Hahaha.

Have I told you all how completely and utterly in love with Emolyn I am? She is just so funny! She is so smart and silly and makes me laugh hysterically because she just says the absolute cutest things. Last night Shawn was telling her to get ready for bed by putting PJs and a pull up on. She quickly turned to be and said, "But Muwanda, I want yours mints." Shawn responded, "Emolyn you can have a mint if you put your pull up and Pjs on." Emolyn stared blankly at him. "Emolyn, do you want a mint." "Um, no." "Emolyn do you want to go to time out, cause if you don't put on your pull up and PJs, you're going to time out." "I go to time out." And she walks over to the corner where her chair was and sat down facing the wall. Again, I failed as an Aunt cause I was totally laughing. She is so sassy, but in such a sweet innocent way. She knows she is cute and people love her, but she is also so kind and cuddly and doesn't get annoying. I just think she is beautiful.

My heart aches with how much I already love this new Baby Girl. I can't believe how much I already love her so much!

Some pictures of life as an Aunt:

First time I saw her after coming home from 6 months in Europe

lightrail family date

Disneyland with the little princess

Christmas caroling at Mamaw's house

Emolyn and I love singing together

the birthday girl!

At her Grandma Beckie and Grandpa John's wedding

the little Easter bunny!

my favorite thing to do :) 

Tea party with Wonder Woman

playing catch

more tea parties!

my favorite niece named Emolyn! (I can't say favorite niece anymore)

I can't wait to start making memories with Baby Girl!!

Pretty Things...

I am sort of in love with the ModCloth advertisement that shows up in the right side of the Facebook news feed... I want all of these!!!

Link

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I want the top one the most... But I love them all!!

On a personal update, I have been busy busy busy with school! If I am not actually in class or at work, I am in my room doing homework or reading my textbooks. I love what I am studying, but I am starting to feel lame.
But I am very excited about what I have planned for the rest of the year! Aside from the holiday season, I have possibly two trips to Disneyland, one awesome wedding, and of course my 26th Birthday!!!

New music...

Oh my gosh, I am on such a new music kick right now!! I am not one to venture out and find new music, but I have had a couple people suggest some new stuff and I am so excited to listen to new tunes :)

So I thought I would share with you some of the new songs I am obsessed with!

#1. The Civil Wars - this first suggestion came from my mom. I am starting to have to admit to myself that my mom actually has good taste in music. Some of the the stuff she likes is not my style, but I am learning we align in music taste more often than a daughter would probably like to admit ;) Love you mom. 

I am obsessed with this song!!

Joy Williams (the female singer) also has some great songs - but only the stuff she has released after 2009. Her earlier stuff is not the best in my opinion.

#2. Sara Bareilles - Her sophomore album was released this last tuesday. I bought it and it is AWESOME! It seems like every song she writes applies to my life. Her first album "Little Voice" is one of my very favorite CDs and one that I can always listen to!

#3. The Band Perry - I only really like one of their songs so far... but I REALLY like it!

#4. Kings of Leon - I got their entire CD from my cousin over a month ago and I listen to the CD all the time. They have such a vintage rock sound to them. Really awesome. The stuff they play of the radio is ok, but this song is my favorite of theirs

#5. Katy Perry - I admit it... I am a fan! Her new song "Teenage Dream" is always stuck in my head.

Anyone have any other music suggestions?

I'm in a Disneyland state of mind...

I found an ad campaign launched by the Disneyland Paris resort called "Get rid of your bad dreams" I have no idea the logic behind the ad campaign... I'm assuming they are saying Disneyland Paris will get rid of bad dreams, but I don't fully understand. Disneyland Paris is so odd! hahaha

But can I tell you, I seriously think these pictures are SO CUTE!!!

This little girl looks like Boo from Monsters Inc

I laughed out loud at this one... I just imagine the look of determination on the little boys face

I need a trip to Disneyland PRONTO!!!

ASU will not deter me...

I promised I would keep up the blogging and I will! I just wanted to stop in and say that the fall semester at ASU has begun and is now in full swing... well maybe not FULL swing, it is kind of a wobbly swing if you ask me. ASU's online hub "Blackboard" has been intermittently down all week therefore preventing me from properly being able to deal with my 3 online classes. Luckily my professors of course understand (since they too are experiencing the Blackboard blackouts) and have cancelled due dates of given extensions. whew!

I am really enjoying classes so-far though. I am determined to keep up on the readings and thankfully I have found all my textbooks to be actually interesting! My favorite so far has been my History of Christianity textbook. I had to read 40 pages on the ministry of the Apostles as seen in Acts from a historical perspective!! Awesome! I like that this textbook somewhat likes Christianity and it is great at explaining the theological basis of the religion and how that played into its spread throughout Europe and Asia minor... anyways, Im sure I've lost most of you, but know that I am eating it up. I can't wait to read more!
My French Revolution class is great! I had studied the same time period in England last semester, so the fact that the first part of our reading was about France's relationship with England was incredibly helpful! It also overlaps a bit with my American Revolution class, so I am getting the info from many different places. It helps it sink in.
My American Revolution class and my two English Lit classes are all online... so they are little hard for me to follow cause I don't like not having a professor to listen to face to face. But I am getting by!

I hope this semester is great! It will definitely be busy and full, but I like it like that! I am ready to be busy for a change... summer was TOO lazy for me at times.

Alright... Since I don't have any pictures to post along with the stuff about ASU, I'll just post pictures of my niece!

Emolyn & I

Also check out Nicole's post about her maternity pics on her blog!!

I need a new look...

I am in desperate need of new clothes!! I weeded through my closet (as I occasionally do) of things I hadn't worn in forever. I am a firm believer that if you haven't worn something for the last six months (minus those that are seasonally specific - ie sweaters and coats) or if you look at it and your first thought is "eh", then you shouldn't keep it. So after I cleaned out old unwanted clothes, I noticed that all I had left were t-shirts and tank tops... nothing exciting... nothing stylish... I am a boring dresser. And the clothes I had gotten rid of were also not cute... so I need new clothes! I am determined to dress with more style and flare. I love the clothes at forever21, H&M, etc, but when I go shopping there I tend to get basic Ts and tanks ALL THE TIME!!! Well no more! I have recently discovered LOOKBOOK.nu - a website where everyday people post their cute stylish outfits. Some of them are ridiculous and I would never wear them, but some of the pieces are cute! So I am drawing inspiration from there. Here are some cute outfits I found -

I'm a fan of blazers

The necklace is strange, but the dress is adorable!

perfect!

really wish I could pull off aviators

I actually just like the bag and blazer in this picture... and maybe the necklace

maybe not the shoes or tights... but the rest if super cute!

So hopefully I can stick to my oath of not buying anymore plain t-shirts for a while...

Summer of babies!!!

So I didn't only travel this summer... there were also lots of babies being born - actually just 2... but still it was a summer full of babies and baby showers :)

First up was Jack Matthew-

me & Baby Jack

He was such a peanut! Proud parents Meredith & Andy were so excited for his arrival! All of us girls were excited to have another little boy around! He is so cute!!

Next up was this third little boy in our group! Spencer William -

me & Baby Spencer

My beautiful friend Jeannette!

Spencer William

Some of the girls! The other ones were there earlier so they have a different picture :)

This brings the total in our girls group to 6!!!

Me, Kelsie w/ Rori, Jeannette w/ Madi (Spencer in her tummy), Meredith w/ Jack, Jessica w/ Eli, and Nicole w/ Emolyn (Baby girl in her tummy) - we're missing Sarah & Tara

We definitely have our hands full!!

Up next is Baby girl Thompson in October! I am spending the day with Miss Emolyn Kate and when I look at my beautiful niece it is hard to imagine that I will love another little girl so completely! But I already do!

Me & Em

Emolyn Kate & me!!

I'm back!

Here's what has happened since we last spoke...

- Slept
- Worked
- Ate
- Hung out with friends
- Slept
- TRIP TO THE BAHAMAS!!

Amazing sandy beaches

lovely private beaches

View from our room!

LOOK AT THAT WATER!!!

Me enjoying our view!

the nannies

Rowan & I - I hung out with this little munchkin every night before bed :)

enjoying hand-rolled cigars!

Nicci & I - the only ladies who smoked :)

- Worked
- Boredom
- Slept
- Hung out with friends
- Made money
- CARLA'S VISIT!!!!

Macayo's for Carla's first true mexican food experience

Addicted to QT 32 oz Fountain drinks!

Heading out of town to the Grand Canyon!

Montezuma's Castle

Waiting to get into the Grand Canyon in the rain... Carla fell asleep

Bright Angel trail

enjoying the view from the edge

Tilly & Chels!!!

- Hung out with friends

- Back to school shopping

- School starts on thursday!

So as you can see aside from the occasional trip, my life is pretty uneventful. But I want to start blogging again and sharing with you my search for direction, adventure, inspiration, and just general excitement in life.

I'll be back soon... I promise :)

finals have stolen my soul...

I am coming upon the end of the semester... Summer is almost here and I am more than excited to have this summer to work and plan fun things to do!! I am determined to have fun this summer!
Due to my stress with finals and papers and whatnot that ends this semester, I have found it hard at nights to fall asleep... so last night I turned on the TV and flipped to PBS (you know, so I could bore myself with antiques roadshow or something - no offense Mom and Nancy). But to my delight, Rick Steves (I know Amy) had his travel show on and they were visiting YORK, ENGLAND!!! I have been to York... you all might remember Phoebe and my little video "Total Eclipse of the Heart" - it was filmed there! I was grinning like an idiot the entire episode see all the places I visited and seeing all the beauty of the city again! It got me to remembering Fountain's Abbey, The Bronte House, ghost tours with William Shatner (our tour guide looked and kind of sounded like him) around York where Rick, Brie, Tyler, Victoria, and I tried to scare ourselves! SO MUCH FUN!!! I missed it so much!
So I woke up this morning excited to watch Phoebe and mine's video... and then I moved on to watching all our videos again. I do this probably every couple of weeks and laugh hysterically cause they are so hilarious and were so fun to make!
I tried to upload the videos on to this post, but I can't... But I could only upload 2... so here they are





Europe #1

Europe #2

Excitement...

Wow, I almost forgot what this feels like!! To be excited about something... REALLY EXCITED!!! My best friend Kendra, my kindred spirit Betty, and I are going to the Bahamas this summer for a WHOLE WEEK!! A family from Kendra and Betty's church is going on vacation and asked Kendra to come and bring 2 friends along to watch 8 kids!! I am SO EXCITED!!!

Check out the RESORT we are staying at!!

TOMS Day without Shoes...

Hey all!!



I have been embarking upon an adventure today. TOMS shoes has declared this day to be a day without shoes!! I am overjoyed at this idea because I don't care for shoes! I tend to go barefoot whenever I can... haha!

But today is different, because I will not be wearing shoes ALL DAY! Wherever I go, I will have no shoes. Now, today is kind of an easy day to do this... I am nannying, so I have pretty much only felt weird walking through my garage and through the parking lot of the apartment complex where I watch Olivia. The challenge will come when I walk to the park later, a couple of block away! I am ready though because seriously it is nothing when you consider what SO MANY people live through everyday!!

Some facts:
Fact #1:
In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to food, clean water and to seek medical help.

Fact #2:
Cuts and sores on feet can lead to serious infection.

Fact #3:
Often, children cannot attend school barefoot.

Fact #4:
In Ethiopia, approximately one million people are suffering from Podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil.

Fact #5:
Podoconiosis is 100% preventable by wearing shoes.

For many people all over the world, everyday is a day without shoes on their feet. Today TOMS is asking everyone to experience what it is like to walk a mile in their soles... even if it is only for an hour, or minute, or whenever you can.

TOMS is an organization that makes shoes, and with every shoe you buy they send a pair of shoes to a child around the world. TOMS are seriously the most comfy shoes in the world and I am completely dying to get a pair one day when I have $50 to spare.

So take part and live today without shoes!!!

After Lent...

So it would appear that after all the questioning over what I was gonna give up for lent, I guess I gave up blogging... and without even thinking about it. hahaha

this time last year!

Lent...

How many of you out there in blog world are doing anything to observe lent??

I have never done it... I have talked about doing it... but have never actually committed to anything. I guess the pressure to do something isn't really there because as a non-denominational protestant, I have never been required to actually give something up for lent. But part of me has always been curious to do it.

I was brainstorming last night with my roommates about what I could give up to observe the 40 days leading up to Easter and I threw out some ideas. BUT the catch is... you are supposed to give something up that would take away from you spending time with God. Now, if I am being honest, I have been thinking of limiting my Facebook time (not giving it up entirely, but LIMITING). But, my roommate asked me if I'd really be using the time I would normally have been on facebook to spend time with God? Convicting... because the answer is probably no. I would probably try... and then I would fail... and then I would feel that lovely religious guilt. ugh.

So will I do it?? Lent starts today (with it being Ash Wednesday and all) and so for the next 40 days I SHOULD be limiting my time on facebook... but the honest truth is, I have already not been very good at it.

So here is what I ask from you... word of encouragement... What are your ideas on Lent? Will you observe it in any way? If so, what will you be giving up? If not, why?