Sock Monkey Mania!!!

I guess word is out that I love to make ( and collect) sock monkeys.  I have been given some of the sweetest sock monkey gifts for the baby. Here is a sampling of booties, monkeys, bibs, toys, onesies, and blankets.  This adds to my collection of great sock monkey books I have been collecting for years.
Hurry up baby, I can't wait to share these with you!

MA in Art Education at UNI

I have been working for the last two years to develop a new program to earn an MA degree in Art Education for working teachers.  We are getting ready to take applications and I am getting excited!  I will hopefully start teaching, in late June, my first group of students. Wish me luck!

 

Don't you want to come spend the next four summers with me?

Baby Shower time!!

  Rachel and Kirsten threw me the most wonderful shower at Home Ec in Iowa City in early January.  Everyone was asked to bring a favorite children's book.  It was so much fun to read each book that was given to us and I am so excited to read them all to our sweet baby! 

    The greatest surprise though was decorating onsies!  Check out all the talented friends that attended my shower and their beautiful work. My baby will be the best dressed baby in Waterloo! What a wonderful way to celebrate!

 My mom made this great bag!

 Rachel and Kirsten (the greatest hostesses and greatest friends!)

 One of the sweet baby books- it looks like Roosevelt and Mabel!

 Here we are decorating onsies!

 My mom and my sister are freshening up on their sewing skills!

 Aren't these just amazing!!!

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    Back in Cedar Falls,  we were given a couples shower by our dear friends Steve and Elizabeth.  It was a perfect day- we had 6 couples attend the shower at Steve and Elizabeth's new house.  It was an afternoon filled with fabulous food, hilarious games like guess how many nipples Elizabeth is holding up, and my all time favorite shower game-  pick the parents of the famous people on the card.  The mayor of Cedar Falls was my favorite ( inside joke in CF).
      We received lots of great sock monkey outfits, blankets, and bibs... I feel a photo opportunity coming on for this little one in all the great outfits!
How wonderful it is to feel so warm in the cold month of January!
 Here are a few pictures from the couples shower!

 Elizabeth has 13 nipples- who knew?

 Andrew ( my colleague at UNI) and his wife Leah

 Jeremy sporting some of the new baby gifts!

  Thank you everyone!!! We feel so lucky to have such great friends!

Only two and a half months to go!!!!

Catching up!

It has been a busy few weeks and I have had a difficult time sitting down to share these few weeks!

Christmas break was fabulous!  We spent a great deal of time at home, working on house projects and baby preparation.  We decided to remove the last little bit of wallpaper in the entry of house. To our surprise- there were many layers of paper and lead paint underneath. With the new baby on the way, Jeremy wanted to cover the paint ASAP!  He researched and had some estimates and found out that drywalling the entry way was the best way to go. He amazes me with his ability to learn new skills on the job.  Jeremy successfully drywalled the entry way and I helped as I could with texturing and painting.  I'll do a before and after for you now...

Christmas was wonderful. Mom came up with this great idea for everyone to go bowling!  Jeremy and I volunteered to make 25 bowling trophies to give out and we made Grandpa Mike the "King Pin" and he got to choose the winner of each trophy.  Check out some of these great bowling shots!

Look at that face!  The trophies were a hit!