Ready, Set, GO!

My baby is getting so big! She LOVES putting on socks. Sometimes she'll put up to 3 pairs on each foot.

"Where's Lucy?"

My LucyBear is getting HUGE! She just had her 18 month check up today. She is already 21 months, so we are a little behind. Poor girl got two shots, but got stuck three times because the needle came out accidentally when she flinched. I always try and schedule her appointments about an hour before nap time so that when she gets home, she can sleep it off.

I cannot wait for Aleena to get here. I'm am definitely more uncomfortable now than ever. My feet swell, I cannot sleep at night, and getting up from laying down or sitting is only done on an emergency basis. It really does help for me to get up and going though. The other day I played softball. YES, softball! It was so fun. We used a foam bat and ball so it didn't go too far. We played with some of Tommy's family, mostly the little kids and a couple adults. It was mainly for the kids. I had my cousin-in-law and my sister (YES! my sister is here visiting for a whole month!) run the bases for me, and then just sat on a lawn chair as "catcher" haha. Tommy and his cousin's handi-cap was to hold their toddlers while playing. It was sooo funny to see them try and run bases with a kid.

Ok, so I've really been on a DIY spree lately. I really don't even know what to call this one, but I thought it was really awesome. J <3 T. Obviously for Jen <3 Tom, but the cool thing about this is that the J has a map of SD on it (where I'm from), the T has a map of Dearborn (where Tommy is from), and the <3 has the city of Pensacola (where we met, started dating, and got engaged). I LOVE IT! I have not  yet framed it in a shadow box, but I already got the update from my Michael's App that shadow box frames are 40% off this week! I'm so excited! Just in case anyone is interested, here's my tutorial. 

Supplies:

- Wooden Letters (Michael's for $1.99 each)

- Wooden Heart (Michael's 99c)

- Sheet of Wax Paper

- Printed Maps (I used GoogleMaps, but you can use an old Atlas if you have one)

- Mod Podge

- Sponge Brush

- Scissors

- Pencil

Put the wax paper over your wooden letters and heart. Trace around the edge with your finger.

If you don't have wax paper, you can use regular printer paper and a pencil. I just used wax paper because I wanted to see through it in order to know what part of the map I was going to cut out later. 

Place your wax paper over your letter and see if you need to make any corrections.

Lucy is my personal helper =] It's a little hard to see, but I here I have both letters and the heart traced out in wax paper. 

Now get out your maps! Pick which part of the map that you want to trace out and trace it out with your pencil. After you trace it out, use your scissors to cut it out. 

MOD PODGE! Dip your sponge brush in some Mod podge and put a thin layer all over your wood letters and shapes. 

Carefully place your map cut-outs on one at a time. Make sure you let it dry, it shouldn't take too long. I waited about 10 minutes. 

Once dry, put another layer of mod podge on top of the paper and let this dry. It's okay if you see streaks of mod podge, it will dry clear. 

TADA! I thought about painting the letters first before I started, but I decided against it. I think i like that the wood grain shows a little bit. I can't wait to get this project framed!