THANK You Jolanda!!!!!!

Look at the amazing gift I received today in the mail!!!!!

My amazing, awesome, super sweet, blogging friend Jolanda, from the Netherlands, made this gorgeous creation for me from my wedding.  I met Jolanda via this amazing blogging world and just love her bunches!!!!  Jolanda creates the most unique and beautiful pages!  I fell in love with her blog and always look forward to seeing her fabulous creations.  If you haven't seen Jolanda's work, check out her blog here!  You won't be disappointed, I promise.  Tell her I sent you and that my little wedding creation is the most amazing, sweetest thing!  :)  It is already hanging on my wall and I will treasure it!  Thanks bunches Jolanda! You rock!!   

March Prima Product Pick WINNER!!!!!

SWEET!!!! Look what I won over at the Prima blog:

Isn't that just awesome?  It TOTALLY made my day, my day has been miserable so this is AWESOME!  Our wedding colors were pink and green so how perfect is this going to be?  Looks like I'm going to have to work on two albums simultaneously!  YIPPPPEEEEE   Stop by the Prima blog, they have all sorts of awesomeness going on!  Denise, thanks for seeing my name and letting me know.... I would have been so sad if I'd have missed it!

Project Life Tuesday - Week 14

 
Welcome to Project Life Tuesday 2011! If you are new to my blog, welcome! I hope you will stay awhile. I'm Jessica and I am participating in Project Life, a different way to record our lives by taking one photo a day. This was inspired by the fabulous Becky Higgins who has put together a wonderful kit to make this challenge easier.


Don't worry, I'm not leaving traditional scrapbooking behind. This just gives me the opportunity to focus my scrapbooking on trips and things that are important to me right now and not get all bogged down with every birthday, dinner, and holiday that comes along.

Each Tuesday, I will post my pictures/journaling from the previous week. Project Life Tuesday was created by Jessica Turner over at The Mom Creative and she hosts a linky for readers to link up their pictures. So if you want to join in or want to see others POTW, just click the Project Lift button at the top of this post.


And finally, my POTW:

Saturday - Here is my adorable niece.  Juan managed to get a few good shots of her actually smiling.  She is about 4 months old now and super chunky.  How cute is she?

Sunday - We met Marco and Gracie (Juan's brother and his wife) for brunch after church today at .......  It wasn't the best food, but we had a great time laughing together.  It was great to see them and spend some time with them without the entire family.

Monday - I was having terrible stomach pains today because of this little one, and spent the day on the couch.  I would later find out from the doctor that it is Round Ligament Pain and perfectly normal.....uh they could have warned me!  That is why I'm reading every "what to expect book" out there; but no....let the soon to be new mom's panic.  Anyways, I'm glad to learn everything is ok and I just had to share our latest sonogram picture.  We also received our results from the genetic testing last week and everything was NEGATIVE!  That means we have no greater chance of our baby having genetic issues than a couple of 20 year olds! Thank you Lord!  He has definitely been watching over us on our recent journey.  That was the best news we could have hoped for.

Tuesday - YES! Taxes are finally finished!  I was a bit late this year and just did not feel like completing them.  At least we are getting a bit of a refund.  It is going straight toward our wedding debt.  I am determined to get that wedding paid off before I go into labor.....so that baby may just have to stay in there awhile!

Wednesday - I'm officially 13 weeks pregnant today!  Yeah, second trimester here we come! Weight - 221.1 lbs. Nausea....still kicking. This week I've been exceptionally tired again and having round ligament pain. This week, our baby is the size of a medium shrimp!

Thursday - Black Bean Burrito Bake.  I tried another new recipe this week.  It turned out pretty decent. Juan would have preferred if there was meat; but even he liked it. 

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients

1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
4 (8-inch) flour tortillas
Cooking spray
1 cup bottled salsa
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.


Remove one chile from can. Chop chile. Reserve remaining adobo sauce and chiles for another use. Combine sour cream and chile in a medium bowl; let stand 10 minutes.


Place half of beans in a food processor; process until finely chopped. Add chopped beans, remaining beans, and corn to sour cream mixture.


Spoon 1/2 cup bean mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas; place, seam side down, in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spread salsa over tortillas; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.


Note: Half of the beans are finely chopped to give the filling a thick, creamy consistency. This dish can be made up to 8 hours in advance and chilled; just bring it back to room temperature before baking.


Cooking Light
MARCH 2003

Friday - I don't have a photo from today, so I thought I would share our little alien......seriously, this is a picture of it's little face and it totally looks like an alien..... I think he/she takes after Juan!  :)
 
Thanks so much for visiting again this week!

SOU 4-01 Sketch & Sketchy Thursdays 4.7 Sketch Layout

Afternoon again!  I'm still up and scrapping.  Yet another layout from Barcelona, this one from Camp Nou Stadium.  Here is my layout:

I combined a couple of sketch challenges to create my two page layout.  For the left side I used the Stuck On U Sketches 4-01.  Here is the awesome sketch: 

I loved this sketch, but I'm afraid my basic soccer layout didn't do it justice.  I just couldn't figure out how to use butterflies and flowers with a soccer stadium, LOL!  I mirrored the sketch and will definitely use it again in the future.

For the right side I used the Sketchy Thursdays 4.7 sketch. Here is this easy to use sketch:

Hop on over and play along!
Here are a couple of detailed photos:

Materials Used: paper - Reminisce, Karen Foster Design, CTMH; soccer square - Corner Stones; felt strip - Queen & Co.; ink - CTMH black; title stickers - CTMH; making memories; thickers - American Crafts; arrow - Scenic Route; ribbon - unknown.

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments, they mean so much to me!

The Color Room - Palette #53 Layout

Happy Saturday!  I just love the color Palette this week at the Color Room!  I don't have many prima flowers in these colors, and my Barcelona building photos don't go real great with flowers; but I played along anyways.  I used a sketch from the "Sketches for Scrapbooking Vol. 7". 

Here is the color palette:

And here is my layout from Placa del Rei in Barcelona:

Here are a few detailed shots:

Materials used:  paper - CTMH and unknown scraps; ribbon - unknown; stamps - CTMH (Extreme Caps & Atomic Lower Case); flowers - Prima; vellum - unknown; ink - CTMH Moonstruck.

Thanks for visiting!

LS Scrap our Stash Challenge #5, Scrapbookers Paradise and Scrap That! April Challenge Layout

Happy hump day! I am totally ready for the weekend.  I did finish another layout this evening from Barcelona.  Here is my layout:

I used Let's Scrap sketch 3-24-10 and the Scrap our Stash Challenge #5.  Here is the sketch:

The challenge this week, is to use up some of our chipboard stash. Use at least 20 pieces of chipboard on your layout or cards.

*Chipboard can be plain, grungeboard, or tileboard. It can be homemade (you cut your own chipboard using a diecut machine) or store-bought. If you use pre-made chipboard embellies, and there is layered chipboard, you can count each layer of chipboard as a separate piece! See how easy this challenge is?


*If you use chipboard letters, each letter can count as one. Do a long title of 20 letters and you are done! Make sure that your letters are chipboard, and NOT foam, vinyl, cork, etc.
2. Use at least 3 different patterned papers.


3. Use Ribbon somewhere on your layout.

I used a ton of chipboard.  I used 21 pieces for the banner, they are jenni bowlin that I painted black.  I also used a chipboard clock, the chipboard key, lampost and love sentiment.  I used 5 pattern papers and one ribbon.  Great challenge!

I also used the Scrap That! April Challenge to create my layout.  This challenge was to

create a layout, a card or an altered item using only two main colours. You can add in neutrals such as black, brown, white and cream as much as you'd like...But try and stick to two colours.  My colors were blue and teal with lots of brown and black mixed in.

Finally, I added the banner to my project for the Scrapbookers Paradise - Playing in Paradise challenge 09.  Don't you just love banners?

Here are some detailed photos of my layout:

Materials Used: paper - BoBunny & misc. scraps from my stash; chipboard banner - jenni bowlin; paint - making memories (asphalt); twine - unknown; title stickers - CTMH and JoAnn Essentials; stamps on the banner - CTMH (Pennant Alphabet); rub-on senitments - making memories; rub-on whisper - AMM; chipboard key and lampost - crate paper; chipboard clock - heidi swapp; chipboard love - Recollections; journaling transparency - Little Yellow Bicycle; ink - CTMH(white daisy); ribbon - unknown.

Thanks so much for visiting, I hope you have a wonderful end of the week!

Project 2011 Scrap Our Stash Update

I tried to participate on Denise's challenge "Project 2011" this month over at Lala's World.  The challenge was a monthly challenge to avoid the stores and use your stash!  I did great with the second and failed miserably with the first!  I decided to invest in the new Spellbinders Grand Calibur machine at the beginning of the month, with a slight problem..... I don't own any Spellbinder dies!  So I spent the month watching websites and daily deals and slowly growing my die collection.  On top of that, JoAnns has new 4 set spellbinder kits and they were on sale from $80 down to $39.99.  On top of that, they had a 25% off friends and family day, so how could I resist? 

I also was working on finishing our California Vacation Album and I ran out of a specific paper so I had to order it online.... as I was paying shipping, I decided to go ahead and include a few things for our Utah vacation as well.  Then Scrap-Your-Trip had a 25% off the entire site sale.  I started our Spain Honeymoon album, so I needed to buy a few things there are well.  Then I was at Wal-Mart and they had a couple of cricut cartridges clearanced for $15, so how could I resist?  I also had a page lapse problem and needed to order a couple of other cartridges online. 

Then, my friend Jolanda posted a ton of amazing layouts with this awesome chipboard ScrappMatts.  I immediately fell in love with it and decided I just had to place an order.....only one problem, they are in made in Australia!  That meant that I had to purchase enough to make shipping worthwhile. Then I was all set for a 4 day scrap marathon with my friend Shannon, only she threw out her back and was unable to come.  I filled in my sadness with a trip to the scrapbook store.  It's been a few months since I've been.  Finally, last week was double discount day at JoAnns and they already had all of their scrapbook stuff marked down 40% off, so with the discount it was 70% off!  I am happy to report that I only spent $25 and came away with a ton of stuff. 

I think that was everything, although there might have been one or two other daily deals that I picked up along the way.  I am just obsessed with baby stuff now!  The good news is I created 40 layouts this month!  I think that is almost a personnal record for me.  I did out scrap that in January with 44 layouts, but I wasn't working at the time. 

I do think I reduced how much I typically purchase....if you can believe that! I really do have a problem! LOL.  I will try again next month and hopefully do a bit better.  I hope you did better than I!  I recommend you joining in the April challenge over at Lala's World.  Maybe together we can do better.

Baby Update!

Tomorrow I'm 13 weeks pregnant! We went to our OB last Thursday for the Nuchal Transluceny test.  This prenatal test (also called the NT or nuchal fold scan) can help assess our baby's risk of having Down syndrome (DS) (trisomy 21), Edwards syndrome (trisomy 18), and Patau syndrome (trisomy 13),  as well as major congenital heart problems.
 Trisomy 18 and trisomy 13 are genetic disorders that include a combination of birth defects including severe mental retardation, as well as health problems involving nearly every organ system in the body. Unfortunately, 90 percent of babies born with trisomy 18 or 13 die by age 1. It is important to note that 5 to 10 percent of babies with trisomy 18 or 13 do survive the first year of life. Therefore, these disorders are not universally fatal and, in the absence of any immediate life-threatening problems, accurate predictions of life expectancy are difficult to make. There are a few reports of babies with trisomy 18 or 13 surviving to their teens, however, this is unusual.


The NT test uses ultrasound to measure the clear (translucent) space in the tissue at the back of the developing baby's neck. Babies with abnormalities tend to accumulate more fluid at the back of their neck during the first trimester, causing this clear space to be larger than average. 
The NT scan must be done when you're between 11 and 14 weeks pregnant. (The last day you can have it done is the day you turn 13 weeks and 6 days pregnant.) We did it in combination with a blood test in what's known as first-trimester combined screening.
Like other screening tests, an NT scan won't give us a diagnosis. But it can assess our baby's risk for certain problems.
The sonographer first confirmed our baby's gestational age by measuring him from crown to rump to see if he's about the size he should be for his age. Our little alien was tracking right on schedule at 12 weeks, 4 days.  Based on our last sonogram it should be at 12 weeks, 5 days; but the OB was not worried about a single day discrepancy.  Then the tech positions the sensor, called the transducer, over my abdomen so that our baby's nuchal fold area shows up on the monitor and measures the thickness of it on the screen with calipers.Our OB was looking for 3cm or less measurement and our baby was 1cm!

Another item they look for is whether or not there is a nasal bone present. A nasal bone is a good indicator that all is well.  Our little one looked like an alien, but did have a nasal bone!
Our baby's chances of having a chromosomal abnormality are determined by the nuchal fold measurement, our age, and our baby's gestational age. Since we had the combined screening, the blood test results were also be factored in.

Our age is factored in because although anyone can have a baby with a chromosomal abnormality, the risk increases as you age. For example, your likelihood of carrying a baby with Down syndrome ranges from about 1 in 1,295 at age 20 to about 1 in 82 at age 40.  Both Juan and I are in the "increased risk range" with me at 35 and Juan at 50, so I have been very worried about the results of this test.

Our results were screen NEGATIVE!!!!

What does that mean?
Our odds for having a baby with DS were 1:250 prior to the screening; and are now 1:3118.
Our odds for having a baby with Trisomy 18 or 13 were 1:450 prior to the screening; and are now 1:9000.
 
Although a normal screening result (screen negative) isn't a guarantee that our baby has normal chromosomes, but it does suggest that a problem is unlikely.

Overall, this is VERY POSITIVE news and we are very thankful to God!  It seems we are hurdling each new step like pros.

Now for the big reveal!

I told you our baby looks like an alien!  :)

My Layout is a Featured Photo at Let's Scrap

I just found out that my Barcelona Cathedral layout was selected as a feature photo this week at Let's Scrap!  How awesome is that?  If you haven't checked out Let's Scrap, I HIGhLY recommend it!

Frosted Designs - Fabulous Friday & Getty Cricky Simply Sunday - Inspired Heart Layout

Afternoon my fellow scrappers!  I want to share a layout I did for the Barri Gothic in Barcelona.  Here is my layout:

I created this layout for the K Andrew's Simply Sunday Challenge at Getting Cricky - Inspired Heart Challenge.  For this challenge, make an Inspired Heart project (totally up to your interpretation) using any materials you want.  My layout is based on our Honeymoon in Barcelona.  Right now my heart is most inspired by my husband and our pregnancy!  While on our honeymoon in Barcelona in 2009 we became pregnant.  Sadly, we miscarried and then for the next two years tried desperately to become pregnant again.  After yet another miscarriage at the end of 2010 we gave up.  We turned to God and finally realized that we were blessed and happy just to be together. We accepted that the gift of a child was not in the cards for us and let go of our obsession.  The very next month, to our surprise, we learned we were pregnant.  This has inspired me to scrap our honeymoon and the wonderful memories that we made.  What inspires your heart at the moment?


I also played along with the Frosted Designs - Fabulous Friday Challenge! This week the challenge was to add BLING to your card, layout, or project. I used bling on the title, as the arrow, and for the little heart next to the photo of Juan and I.  Don't you just love bling?

Here are a couple of detailed shots from my layout:

Materials Used: paper - Scrapbook Customs; Spain title & bracket stickers - Scrapbook Customs; rickrack - Wrights; sentiment strips - Creative Imaginations; buttons - unknown; barri Gotic title - cricut Lyrical Letters; bling arrow and heart - tLc; bling icons - Me&MyBigIdeas; strolling title stickers - Cosmo Cricket.

Thanks for visiting again!