I did a post about setting up a Valentine's Day photo shoot for my craft blog, Craft Quickies, and I thought you all would like to see the pictures, so I am reposting it here. I know it's a bit "craft bloggy" and full of instructions, but hopefully you can ignore that and just enjoy the picture of my three favorite kiddos.  Happy Valentine's Day!


It's coming!  Valentine's Day is almost here!  There is nothing more fun than celebrating holidays with kids.  I just love it. Last year my sister asked me to take some "romantic" photos of her baby boy, which I gladly did.  We stripped him down and put him on a white blanket with some blocks.  Not super fancy, but it totally worked.  He's irresistible.

When my {highly sentimental} sister asked me to take some pictures of him this year I decided to just go whole hog.  I decided to plan ahead and set up a cute but simple backdrop.  And that's what I did. I started by taping a long piece of brown paper packing wrap to the wall.  And then I strategically taped foam hearts (that I got in several packs of glittery and matte foam hearts at JoAnn's) all over the brown paper.

This week on my craft blog, Craft Quickies, I am giving away a crystal Signature Necklace!!!  WOW!  I am excited about the response I have gotten and wanted to be sure my non-Facebook-using friends got a chance to enter.  If you are the lucky winner you will be able to choose from the three necklaces show in the graphic above.

HURRY!  Go enter today---the giveaway closes tomorrow!

My little drama queen, Princess Jade, was born.  Isn't she beautiful?!  Jade Joanne McKenna.  She was born April 3, 2012.  She weighed 6 lbs 1 oz and measured 19.25 inches long.  Her small head and the blessing from God that is epidurals made for an entirely different experience for her mama than the traumatizing terror that was Callum's unmedicated birth.  The delivery and recovery were both astonishingly different for me.  So. Much. Better.  I am so grateful.  As is Logan.  I think he was afraid that we would end up with a very small family indeed.  :)

All throughout my pregnancy Callum referred to her as "Baby JoJo," so we decided to embrace that cute little nickname and give her a middle name in honor of her awesome great grandmother, Joanne McKenna.  He still calls her Baby JoJo occasionally, but she is usually called Princess, Lady, Pill, Lady Princess, Lady Jade, and Bug, which is her Bapa's special name for her.

I can't resist her!  She entered the world as a tiny 6 pound baby who cried if she wasn't held at all times, but she is now chubby and content, crawling around, babbling, snuggling up a storm, and making it her mission in life to eat all of the paper in the house when her mama isn't looking.  I have had far, FAR too much fun shopping for her and making her outfits and accessories for every holiday and occasion.  (Many of which were highlighted on my craft blog.)  We adore her.  I can no longer imagine my life without this wide-grinning little snuggler!

Logan, finished the intern year of his General Surgery Residency in July and started the second year.  He is happy to be slowly moving up the totem pole and getting the opportunity to do a few surgeries now and then and not just peon floor work.  He's a very hands on dad and a great hubby, even though he isn't around much.  This year we celebrated our eight year wedding anniversary.  He's a keeper.

We got to see plenty of the McKennas this year as well, much to Callum's ultimate delight.  That kid is OBSESSED with his Grandpa Reed.  After all, they couldn't stay away from Princess Jade!  My MIL Paulette is amazing, and she came to help after the baby was born.  My dad was astonished at the amount of freezer meals left in our deep freezer when she left, to say the least.  She is incredible.  I am so lucky to have her!  The McKennas also came out for Jade's Baby Blessing at our church and just for fun.  We also went to Jackson Hole with them for a fun, quick trip where Callum and I both saw our first rodeo.  He took to it a bit more than I did.  Shocker.  Callum was also introduced to the Alpine Slide on that trip.  Yeah, he was obsessed.  Taren got married to the kind, wonderful Kameron Going, finished her Master's Degree, and is now pregnant with their first child, due in May. (Hooray!  A cousin!)  Elise got engaged to the lively, delightful James Pierce and finished her PhD.  Paulette also finished a Master's Degree this year.  It has been a busy, exciting (and impressive!) year for the entire extended McKenna clan!


Last, but not least, my dear friend Courtney O'Dell talked me into becoming a contributor on the blog Craft Quickies.  She has a successful blog, Sweet Cs Designs, but her mom wanted a blog to contribute to that wasn't quite so grand and time consuming.  So she and her mom started Craft Quickies and recruited Courtney's BFF Heather and I to be contributors.  And then I sort of commandeered the site and claimed it as my own.  Whoops.  :)  I am so grateful that Courtney, Chris, and Heather allowed me to be a part of this endeavor!  It has been an enormous blessing to me.  At times it is extremely time consuming and stressful, but it has gotten me to start CRAFTING again.  I am sewing, creating, decorating, and dreaming up projects like I have never taken the time to do before.  I had been missing this creative side of myself, and I didn't even realize it!  I originally agreed rather hesitantly to be a contributor in that I would find easy jewelry tutorials from around the web and share them.  Then I asked if I could post an original tutorial.  Of course Courtney said, "YES!" and it all spiraled from there.

It has been very therapeutic for me to be creating and forcing myself to make time to do the things that I love as I have battled postpartum depression, which, unfortunately, is something that has hit me with extremely serious force after each of my pregnancies.  I lost my desire to create jewelry after Jade's birth, and I made the difficult decision to take a year off of my holiday sales and shows.  I fear that I may have lost some clientele and momentum as a result of that decision, but, as they say, you can't force art, and the stress simply wasn't worth it to me.  I needed a break.  My online shop still made steady sales over the holiday season, and I was able to concentrate on projects for my kiddos and those that I love.  The instant I made the decision to let my in-person sales and shows fall by the wayside I felt a weight being lifted from my heavy, stressed out mind, but I look forward to hopefully doing both jewelry design and blogging next year!

To the few of you who read this all the way through, thank you for your support and love.  I am blessed to have so many amazing people in my life.  Cheesy, I know.  But it's true!  Here's to a fabulous, fun, productive, and creative 2013!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't believe this pregnancy is almost at an end.  Except that it feels like it will NEVER end.  Whatever.  You know how the days can go SO SLOWLY sometimes but then the time period has rushed by?  I guess that's how it feels.  I guess that's how I feel about most of the meaningful time periods of my life, actually.

This pregnancy has been SOO much harder than my pregnancy with Callum.  With Callum it wasn't easy: I had nausea, vomiting, backache, heartburn that required a prescription medication, and, oh yeah, an unintentional natural labor that was the worst thing EVER.  But it didn't really slow me down or stop me from living my life.  This one sure has!  I hesitate to complain, because I do realize that pregnancy is an unbelievable privilege and a true gift and blessing from God.  It is one of those trials that is also the greatest blessing ever.  I know my sister would give anything to feel a baby kicking so hard that it feels like it is bruising her ribs from within, and I know that I cried and waited and mourned for two years waiting to get pregnant with this little gal who is now making me CRAZY.  It's a great sacrifice and a great blessing.  It's weird.  :)

For the sake of my records, here's a brief synopsis of my pregnancy.  I know most of you don't care, but, frankly, I'm not writing it for you.  I'm writing it for myself, and possibly for my future daughters.  When I was pregnant with Callum I would call my dad and ask, "Did Mom get stretch marks?  Did mom swell up a lot?  Did mom have heartburn?" etc.  Every time he would answer as follows: "I don't know.  I think so.  Don't all women?"  Helpful, right?  I would love to have a record of what she went through, even though I know it wouldn't be exactly what I was going through.

The first trimester was MISERABLE.  I was unimaginably tired, but also unimaginably nauseous.  There was hardly any vomiting this pregnancy, which is nice, but I just felt like I NEEDED to vomit (or curl up and die) but couldn't, which is not fun either.  I am not sure whether this and everything else seemed harder because I am older, because I am now keeping up with a child, or because I was significantly heavier and more out of shape to start with this time around, but for whatever reason (or a combo of the three) it has been a struggle.  Second trimester brought nausea relief, but I had to go right back on those prescription heartburn medications.  It was stressful also because of my car accident and because at the gender ultrasound the baby was small enough (12th percentile....um, look at me.....how can that be?!?!) that they were worried about her and ordered a special ultrasound to happen later on.  That ultrasound was actually cool because she was more developed in it and they did a 3D one (a poorly scanned version of one of the amazing photos is above) which was incredible to see.  I also got a very unpleasant surprise in the form of a vaginal infection.  Sorry if that is TMI, but it has caused the bulk of my discomfort, so it must be mentioned.  It is common enough, but can lead to pre-term labor, and when I first got it I was WAY too early in the process for her to be born safely, so I had to take it quite seriously.  Well, it has been about four months now, not to mention three rounds of antibiotics, and we have finally given up on treating it since I'm so far along and it's not dangerous to the delivery.  That means I've been feeling icky and having to "take it easy" or deal with constant contractions for FOUR MONTHS now.  We're talking I stand up from a chair and get a contraction.  Not my favorite.  Of course, now that we have "stopped preventing" contractions I am wondering why we bothered, because THEY DON'T SEEM TO BE DOING ANYTHING!!!  (Can you tell I'm eager to deliver?  I am at 38 1/2 weeks, after all!)  Last, but definitely not least, is insomnia.  I didn't sleep GREAT with Callum, because, you know, I had to pee 20 times a night, but with this baby it has been awful.  The other night I got five hours of sleep (after lying in bed for a total of 10) and felt like a million bucks because it was the best night of sleep I'd had in months.  Everyone keeps saying, "Why are you so eager to get that baby out?  You know you're going to be more tired afterward...."  Yeah, I don't think that's possible.  Right now I am so exhausted I want to collapse, and yet I can't fall asleep.  After she's here at least I'll only be awake at night when she's eating.  Hopefully I can be ASLEEP in between!  Really looking forward to that!

Alright, I'm done whining.  The doctor told me this week that I'm dilated to a 3 and that my cervix is soft and ready (sorry, TMI again), and I have had SOO many contractions since then, but every time they seem to get into a pattern they stop.  SO ANNOYING!  But at least I have had time to finish most of the little tasks and errands that I was hoping to do before she arrived.  (Including writing this blog post.)  And hopefully this little lady will make her debut soon---maybe tonight.....hey a girl can dream, right?!---and then I can stop whining about pregnancy and start whining about breastfeeding and weight loss.  :)  Just being realistic.

In all seriousness, I am so excited to meet this little girl.  I know that she is going to enhance our lives immeasurably, and I have had a lot of fun going a little bit nuts with making and buying things.  I must admit, I am nervous.  I love the life and the rhythm that Callum and I have.  He is in such a magical stage of life and he is so grown up and helpful and easy to be around.  Things are about to change BIG TIME.  Back to diapers, crying, and spit up.  Back to rocking and bouncing and not being able to run quick errands.  Back to babies.  Yikes.  I am also nervous that he will feel neglected and have a difficult time adjusting, as every child on the planet does.  I just adore him and want him to know that will never change, but this is just an adjustment that we are all going to have to make.  It is going to be hard.

I am also nervous to raise a girl.  What if she is like ME?!?!?!  I know what I put my parents through, and I know that I don't want her to make the mistakes that I made and face the challenges and struggles that I have faced.  But I also know that I can't truly stop any of those things from happening.  I will do my best, just as my parents did, but if MY PARENTS couldn't save me from myself then why should I be able to do any better for a feisty little girl with my blood running through her veins?  It was pretty heartening to me, however, when I said to my dad, "I can't do it!  I can't raise a girl!  What if she's like ME?!?"  He looked at me quite seriously and immediately responded, "Well, let's hope she is.  That would be wonderful."  I was quite shocked and also touched.  He may have a selective memory.  :)  Despite my dad's encouraging words, let's all say a little (or HUGE) prayer that she inherits Logan's disposition.  And let's all say another prayer that she will arrive SOON!  I am READY!  And I must LOOK ready, because today when I walked into JoAnn's Fabrics a strange old lady yelled ACROSS THE STORE, "WHEN ARE YOU DUE...TODAY?!?!?!"  I smiled, "Well....in a week and a half."  She called back, "Well we don't have boiling water here, so you better hurry with your shopping!"  Ooookaaaayyyy.....awkward.  Let's get this done.

Two days after Callum turned 3 his mother turned the big 3-0.  30.  I can't believe I am no longer in my twenties.  I am not any different than I was a few weeks ago, but I kindof hate that I can no longer say, "I'm in my twenties...." or read an article about skincare and read, "If you are in your twenties you don't need to worry about this yet..." and think, "PHEW!"  :)  Silly, I know.  I was feeling surprisingly melancholy about my birthday, partly because I was entering a new era of my life, and partly because Logan's sister Taren was getting married the day after my birthday, so not only was I not allowed to fly to the wedding (per doctor's orders), but my men would be flying off for a special family event without me....on my 30th birthday.  Boo.  Enter Rachel and Dad.

Rachel put a little bug in Dad's ear and they plotted to make my weekend amazing, which it was.  How, you may ask, did they do that?  First of all, Dad flew in Laura for the weekend.  I knew that was happening and was super pumped for a sisters' weekend.  What I DIDN'T know was that Rachel had also convinced him to fly in one of my all time BFFs in the whole wide world to surprise me: Jessica Haslam.  He spoils me ROTTEN, it's true.  I am so amazingly lucky.


I thought he and Logan may be up to something (which, I must say, shocked me to my core....not at all surprised to discover it was RACHEL who was the brains behind the operation) because I heard them whispering on the baby monitor.  I ran up and unplugged it because I didn't want a rare surprise from those two to be spoiled, but I thought I heard something about someone coming on Thursday.  So I thought maybe Laura was coming a day early.  And then I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, "Maybe it's Jessica or Morgan....."  But Thursday night came and went and I despaired when nothing fun happened.  I even told Logan how I had suspected and how bummed I was and he played it off beautifully.  BUT.......the next morning when I brought Callum home from preschool (on my actual 30th but before the airport drop-off of the men) Jessica was sitting at my kitchen table grinning.  I screamed so loud from excitement that Callum ran and hid because he thought we were in danger.  :)

Needless to say, it was a thrilling weekend.  I still wish I could have been at the wedding, but since I was stuck at home with my massive belly I'm glad I could be distracted by my girls.  We went to a fabulous dessert place called D Bar Desserts on Friday, then my sisters threw me a small baby shower on Saturday to help me collect some girly clothes for this little lady, and on Saturday Dad took us all to an amazing Indian food restaurant and then the girls did pedicures while watching 13 Going on 30.  It was an exhausting but perfect weekend.  Kid-free and surrounded by lively, hilarious women that I love, all while getting gifts galore, some for my birthday and some for the baby!  It doesn't get much better.  In fact, I had so much fun that I forgot to be melancholy.  Clearly 30 can be just as fun as 29!!  :)


A MASSIVE thank you to my amazingly generous Dad, Rachel who cooked up the whole special event AND a beautiful, meaningful book of letters from my dearest friends and family to me on my 30th birthday, and to Andrew Haslam who took time off of work so his wife could come party with me!  :)  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!