Friday Favorites

This technically is a favorite from last Friday but I didn't blog! I got to hold sweet Ella Kate! She is absolutely precious. What is it about that sweet baby smell that just makes you instantly peaceful?!? I marvel at the strength of her sweet mom and dad- they are rock stars! Keep up the prayers that this sweet little princess continues to heal, grow and be able to come home! #prayforellakate

Some school favorites from the week!

I snapped this pic of my kiddos during their Read to Self time. It's so peaceful. They actually will whine if I have to end their time early. I hope we're fostering a life long love for reading in each of them. I love this time because Cherie and I actually read ourselves! What a nice little slice of 20 minutes to squeeze some reading in. I've been going through Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children right now. It's young adult lit but a great read!

Our school art show happened this week. I always chuckle when I put their artwork up. Their choices always surprise me. I love this little duck though. Doesn't it look just like a cartoon character?!

This past weekend we had a youth ministry gathering. Josh and I thought it would be really fun to play Human Hungry Hippo. WE WERE CORRECT. What a blast. 

Some things to note: 

1. You need a flat surface. Ideally cement or hard surface. It works ok in grass but it'd be better on the hard ground.

2. Buy more than a 100 pk of balls. 

3. We used furniture dollies with huge holes in the middle. Maybe purchasing some of the dollies/scooter boards that are used in P.E class would be better.

Enjoy the pics and video!

Josh vs. Michelle from Michelle Lindstedt on Vimeo.

Another Boden dress success! So comfy! 

Josh and I decided to try Faceswap at the urging of our youth. Prepare to be freaked out.

I laughed so hard when Josh asked if that's what our kids will look like. I HOPE not! 

We had our big FET #3 yesterday. I've been resting with my feet up all day. It's super boring to be stuck resting when you aren't even a teeny bit tired. I've watched movies and shows, painted, read magazines and now blogging. 

 

We transferred two beautiful embryos. Our nurses nicknamed them Bert and Ernie, from which we got a big chuckle. Everything went smoothly. I will continue to stay on my estrogen and progesterone meds. I'll also continue to do acupuncture once a week. My poor body..it's bruised from the acupuncture needles and from my shots! You can see one of the big bruises on my forehead in the pics above. Weird place to bruise. Now comes the dreaded wait until my blood work. Please keep up the prayers!!

Josh and I laughed and laughed when we read the above. So appropriate!

My bum is so bruised that our nurses yesterday marked me up with sharpie to show Josh some other places he can give me the shot. Thank goodness. Now we have at least 4 spots we can do! 

We did get to try out Duck Donuts in Dilworth on our way home from the hospital. YUM! The cinnamon sugar ones are the closest thing I've had to a Michigan Cider donut. Heavenly. 

I hope you all had a wonderful week as well! 

Life Lately

Happy Thursday everyone! 

Did this week seem long or was it just me? 

Wanted to share some moments from life this past week. 

 Spent a week with these two precious kiddos. They keep life interesting (them and that other big kid..) We got the full experience of life as a parent of school aged kids. The getting everyone ready and out the door in the morning part is the worst! I'm used to jumping out of bed and heading out the door in 30 minutes (remember..I'm low maintenance). That was not happening. It went like this, alarm goes off, get up, turn on straightening iron, walk to kids room, turn on lights, gently shake them, they seem to wake up- walk out and continue to get ready and repeat the waking kids part a few more times! Yikes! It was a blessing we made it to school on time. I'm not an early morning person but I guess I better start getting used to it. I get why parents say they get up and have themselves all ready before even waking kids. *Side note- I got to try out some fun braids! Glad I practiced all those years on my American Girl doll, Samantha!

On Sunday, I sent the picture below to my friend...let's just say it was a crafting weekend at my house. There was a Team Dress up Challenge day at school on Tuesday and Kindergarten decided to go dressed as the characters from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. First off, because it had enough characters for 10 people. Secondly, we figured it'd be easy. Of course, I thought it would be cute to make fascinators (like they wear in Britain) for each dwarf instead of caps. So, I trekked to Hobby Lobby and bought a little bit of everything, as you can see below! My mom was sweet enough to come and help me. I think they turned out really cute even though we didn't win. We had fun, that's all that matters!

                        Clockwise from top left: Sneezy, Happy, Sleepy and Doc

The Wicked Witch, the Mirror and our Kindergarten Team (in character)

Dopey, Bashful, Snow White and Grumpy

I've been following @lissletters on Instagram for a while and always marvel at her beautiful lettering done with a warterbrush and liquid watercolors. While I was at Hobby Lobby I picked up a brush and some colors. IT IS HARD. Mine did not look like hers at all. Ugh. Her strokes look so pretty and perfect. I guess practice will hopefully help me get a little better?! (For the record, I love words that have the letter "H". It's so pretty to write in different styles.)

(Photo of @lissletters beautiful work! Follow her on Instagram to add some beauty to your feed!)

Being the shopper I am, when I'm out and about I'm always stocking up on future birthday gifts for the nieces and nephews. How cute is this outfit from Old Navy? Our nephew is such a dapper little dude and looks adorable in cute little bow ties and hats. I also picked up a cute sundress and bathing suit for my niece as well. It's so fun to shop for kids. 

My new dresses that I ordered from Boden arrived. I'm in LOVE. Each one fit me perfectly and they are so pretty and comfortable! I wore one today and received lots of compliments. Even my Kinders were complimenting me! I may have to order 2-3 more...ordering from there may just replace my Stitchfix orders. 

I have a big doctors appointment tomorrow and have been given a date for FET #3. Next Friday! I start lovely progesterone shots next week while continuing two different estrogen meds. My poor body..it just settles down from being off meds and I start all over again. Why does it always seem that important dates fall on a busy and stressful week?!?! I have so many meetings, musical at school, acupuncture appointments, etc. Stresses me out thinking about it! I'll make it through. Been struggling a bit lately with resigning myself to God's will for this journey. Am I okay if his plan is for me to not be a mother (this way or at all)? Is knowing I'm loved by him enough for my life? I know the answer should be an immediate YES but my very human heart has a hard time climbing on that train of thought. It's really a struggle for me. I'm actually ashamed to admit that but have to remember that it's my journey of faith and through trails we learn truths. God has blessed me in so many aspects of my life and I have to remember to be thankful for those blessings. I'm asking of course for prayers that this third try works but also for peace with God's will for me (us). Thank you for the support and prayers you've said for us already so far. If this journey of infertility has taught us anything, it's that prayer can bring strength and hope! 

To end on a positive note, after my doctor's appointment tomorrow I hope to have a quick visit with my sweet friend Melanie and her darling baby Ella Kate (and maybe get to hold her)! Prayers DO work because baby Ella Kate has been such a fighter! She's over a month old now and though her medical condition has not gone away, we can see God's hand of grace already being used in her little life! Please say a prayer for Mel and Cuz and that for Ella Kate healing and restoration can continue to take place. She's a precious and beautiful baby. #prayforellakate 

Life Lately

Life has been so fun and BUSY lately. 

Firstly...all about the sad day of the Superbowl for Panther fans. Super bowl started out fabulous. We had a wonderful morning in church. My brother and sister in law were in town and it was nice to be together as a family. We also had some friends from Michigan visiting. We love the Heidema/Waters family! Corinne especially loves Josh. I'm pretty sure that when I first came into the picture she wasn't too fond of me. She was only 14 of course! 

(Yes... I'm married to a 34 year old who acts 5. Geez.)

              

Since we had company in town, we decided to just spend the evening watching the Superbowl together at our house. Josh and I wore our team gear (Panthers colors for me, Chicago Bears colors for him). We munched on yummy goodies and then watched the AWFUL game. Boo hoo. Still love the Panthers though. Next year will be our year- keep pounding! It's hilarious to watch American football with a German, soccer loving father. He is always asking why they don't get red cards or get kicked out of the game. That would be unacceptable in soccer he says. It keeps us laughing for sure. 

                                                   Here we are in our gear and doing the dab!

Danielle's cookie cake cracked us up! Apparently all the cookie cakes at the store had the same spelling error. 

We celebrated the 100th day of school this week. We fell a bit behind due to all our snow days! The kiddos were adorable in their "old people" outfits and we had so much fun working on centers during the day. Each year we end the day with a parade where we walk around the school counting to 100 over and over. It's always a big hit. Jamee and I were matching nursing home bff's again this year. Comfiest costume ever. Those Granny's have the right idea! These are the days that make teaching Kindergarten so fun. 

Josh put up another pretty gallery wall for me last week. He may have grumbled about it the whole time but didn't it turn out great?! I may have a slight , ok...major obsession with gallery walls. This is wall number two for my house so far. Is that wrong? I think the thing I love most is that vintage Monaco calendar print in the frame and maybe that cute blue car photo!

Today we celebrated the coming arrival of Melanie and Cuz's sweet baby, Ella Kate. We decided to make the book The Giving Tree the theme of the shower. It turned out so adorable. I could see this being a really cute theme for a 1st birthday too. I love the red, green and brown color combo. We did food in the vein of branches (chocolate dipped pretzel rods), leaves (salad) and fruit (fresh veggies and apple shaped cupcakes). The cake was precious and very yummy. I can't wait to snuggle that baby girl when she arrives! Congrats, Melanie!!

Our wonderful Kindergarten Team

Ready for Ella to join us!

I had fun working on some cute burpclothes for the baby as well. Wish I had taken a picture of the finished product! 

Josh and I had a follow up appointment with our doctor today. He touches my heart so much. Such a sweet man. He said he likes us a lot but wishes he didn't have to see us anymore! We said we feel the same! Ha ha! I have to undergo a procedure to check on some things and then I think we will be trying FET for the third time. Hopefully three times the charm. Please continue to pray for us as we make some big decisions and go through procedures, etc. in the next couple of weeks. I'm so thankful to feel so comfortable and cared for by my doctor. He keeps saying that he knows in his heart that we will have success. I pray he's right! After this past attempt I had been really down and sad. It's not like me. I'm pretty sure it drove Josh nuts because I normally bounce back quick. A part of me knows that it's healthy to process and grieve what could have been. I'm starting to feel more positive and happier. Truly, the prayers and sweet words of encouragement from friends and family have meant the world to me. The verse below says it all though. My hope shouldn't be in myself, a doctor or any human...it should be in him. I know years from now it'll all make sense and I'll have an "a-ha" moment where I will see how God's plan was so much better than mine.