New Girlie Quiet Book

Because of all the interest and activity with my Quiet Book (30,000 hits!), I decided to design a girlie Quiet Book as well. You can read the details and download the book here.

Free Christmas Card Design

Alice Griffith {the awesome photographer who did Cambridge's newborn photos and our family photos} is doing a giveaway of a Christmas card design from yours truly :) Head on over to enter now!

P.S. If you already have your Christmas cards this year, it is good for a custom design of anything- birthday party invite, birth announcement, etc.

Enter here.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful day! We spent it with my family, and will be spending Christmas with Lance's family. It's interesting how sometimes the most tender and memorable times as a family are those that are the most ordinary. Preparing food, setting the table, cleaning up the meal; these are really the moments that our dearest relationships are formed and strengthened.

We had a full house this year, just how we like it! My favorite part of the day was when we each told what we were most thankful for. My dad started off the mood by saying he was thankful for the Santa Maria (I think?) apartments because that is where he met our mother - and that none of us would be there if it hadn't been for that. Way to go Dad!

It was really such a wonderful day. I love this time of year.

Growing larger every year :)

These sweet girls are only 11 weeks apart.

Now we're just counting down the days till Christmas :)

Turkey killing and a freebie

You can read my turkey tale here, on the Whimsy Place blog and download a Thanksgiving freebie!

And because I hate blog posts without pictures, here are a couple of my cute kiddos :)

 Playing in the fall leaves

Snuggle time

I got the new Iphone 5 so I've been taking a lot more pictures lately and I love how convenient it is! If you have instagram, you can follow me at chrissymwalker.

We also got family pictures taken this last weekend. I am SO excited to see them... and to update the photos on here- they are very outdated if you haven't noticed!

Anyways, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween

This Halloween completely snuck up on me! I cannot believe Summer is 

officially over and now we are already into fall. 

We had a great time going to our friend's Halloween party. The 

whole family was invited so we coordinated :)

Thor, Black Widow, Captain America and the Hulk.

Yes, we dressed our baby girl in a boy costume! But don't worry, 

we made up for it by dressing her as a Care Bear on Halloween day.

It was so fun to have Crew old enough to understand what was going on!

He was delighted to go around the neighborhood collecting candy. 

At each home he would say, "I'm gonna say it loud this time!", then

he would yell Trick or Treat. :)

It's incredible to think how Crew was just a year ago, at Halloween.

He was still advanced for his age in language, but he hardly spoke compared

to now. Now he is a complete chatter box and I can't get peace and quiet

unless he is watching a movie. I will often be found begging him for

a little bit of quiet.... oh the joys of being a mother!

Anyways, hope you had a great Halloween too :)

Skinny

Anyone who has had two children (or even one) knows how difficult it can be to see how your body changes during pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnancy and childbirth are miracles: miracles that leave your body less than perfect when you're all finished.

With my first pregnancy I lost 15 pounds in the beginning from being so sick which helped the weight come off really fast after I had Crew. I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight just 10 days after having him! But the composition of my body was very different than it had been before.

Now, after pregnancy and childbirth #2 the story is the same plus an extra 5 pounds. 5 pounds may not seem like much, but even 5 pounds can mean a lot when it's the difference between fitting in all of your jeans or not! We can all relate to that, right?

So! This is where I am-- with a body that seems foreign to me. I'm ready for a change, and I'm ready to fit into all of my designer jeans again :) Here's my plan:

Click here to download the PDF.

The goal section is empty on the PDF so that you can set your own goal.

Who's with me?!

China & Thailand

Lance is currently in Thailand! He made his first stop in Hong Kong for 3 days, then will be in Thailand until next Sunday. He and another co-worker earned the trip after they hit certain goals last year. The two of them are there with Jared, one of the partners in the business.

It's been interesting being at home alone with the kids, but we are surviving!  

His view from where they eat breakfast.

Lance has been sending us pictures and videos galore-  playing with a monkey, a king cobra snake... I am super jealous he is there without me but his promise to take me back in the next few years makes me feel better :)

Cambridge's Blessing

Cambridge's blessing day was perfect. We had the blessing in the morning,

then had close friends and family over afterward for a brunch.

I love this sweet baby girl more than words!

And this handsome guy too. 

I hope Cambridge has red hair like her big brother :)

Thanks to all who came to celebrate with us!

Crew's 1st Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We're thankful for this day

We're thankful for Mommy

We're thankful for Daddy

We're thankful for Crew guy

We're thankful for Cambridge

Bless Crew guy be 

obedient to Daddy

Bless us sleep well

Bless us wake up

Name Jesus Christ,

Amen.

Age: 26 months

It didn't even occur to me that Crew was ready to start saying prayers on his own. Luckily my sweet husband decided Crew was ready. Imagine our surprise when this is the prayer he pulls out! Lance only had to cue with "We're thankful" and, "Bless" once and Crew was off with the rest! What a sweetheart. 

My favorite is where he blesses himself in 3rd person to be obedient :)

A few more newborn pictures

I got the CD of images in the mail from our newborn photo shoot with 

Cambridge and here are a few more of my favorites.

 I absolutely love these two photos! They are just so perfectly her- my little angel.

Another smiling one! She is starting to smile at me everyday when we are

cooing and talking and it melts my heart every time.

Love my little Cambri!

If any of you are looking for a great newborn photographer, you

should definitely go see Alice. She is so talented and great to work with!

Getting the hang of things

It has been a little tricky balancing a newborn and a two-year 

old but I think I am finally getting the hang of it! I ventured out 

to go grocery shopping earlier this week and was completely 

exhausted by the time we got home, but still!

Crew has been a very proud older brother and asks to hold 

Cambridge several times a day. He also loves to give her her 

binky and sing songs to her. Today his song went something 

like this, 

(Think Will Ferrell in Elf when he's singing in the store)

Lullaby

don't you cry

baby girl

baby Cambridge

don't you cry

Mommy's holding you

Lullaby

It's so sweet!

These were the gifts Crew and Cambridge "gave" to each other

the first time they met. Lance came up with the idea and bought

them a few days before I delivered. What a sweet daddy!

So sweet and little. I love how she pulls her legs up like that. 

It helps me see how she was able to fit in my tummy!

These two have been spending lots of time together while I

cuddle with and feed Cambridge. They are the best of buds!

They especially love playing on the ipad together.

She doesn't have much hair but it looks like it's 

going to be red just like her big brother!

She is honestly a little angel- so even-tempered

and patient. She gave me two huge smiles

yesterday while I was cooing and talking with

her and they about melted my heart.

It is incredible how, even after just a couple

weeks, we can't imagine life or our family

without her.

2 weeks

The last 2 weeks have seemed to fly by! 

Cambridge is an absolute joy to have in our home. 

She is so even-tempered and patient- even when

she hasn't eaten in 5 + hours, she will just fuss a tiny 

bit and as soon as I pick her up she stops altogether.

Crew has done incredibly well with the transition.

He has needed more attention, and has acted up a

little more but is so sweet to baby girl! 

He wants to hold her all the time and will sit and

sing or talk to her. He refers to her as "baby girl"

all the time which I love!

We had a 2 week check-up for Cambridge yesterday

and she has gained exactly a pound since she was born.

The doc says that is very unusual to have gained that 

much so we must be doing something right!

I was hoping that would be the case, because she 

has been going for 5 and 6 hour stretches at night and

I want to be able to enjoy it, not be worrying that she's

getting enough to eat. With her weight gain, I can

rest assured she's getting enough :)

We are loving every minute of the newborn stage!

Ok, maybe not the interrupted sleep at night-

but even then, I love the quiet time alone with

my little girl. It feels like having a little piece

of heaven in your home to have a newborn around.

Now I'm off to take a nap!

Gone Viral

My Quiet Book has gone viral on Pinterest! I was really hoping people would love it and that others would get some good use out of it, but I never expected this. I have gotten over 10,000 page views on the quiet book post alone... craziness.

If you are joining us from Pinterest, please stick around! I have lots more where that came from, and I'll be posting all my freebies very shortly.

Introducing Cambridge Colette

Oh my goodness! What a day yesterday was. We are so delighted that baby Cambridge arrived safely

and that we are already home and enjoying her sweet little spirit in our family. She is just perfect.

Here is how she got here:

After feeling itchy on and off since Friday evening, I knew the Cholestasis from my last pregnancy was

 back. It can be quite dangerous for baby so Monday afternoon we heard from my doc that he wanted us 

in bright and early (5:00 am!) Tuesday morning for an induction.

They got me started on Pitocin around 6 am. After 5 hours of regular contractions that were 2 minutes

apart and quite painful, and almost no progression I requested my epidural. Little did I know that baby

girl was less than an hour from making her debut! To make a very short story even shorter, the epidural

only caught up at the very end of my labor- basically for the 3 contractions I pushed through and the

delivery. I went from a 3 to delivered in less than an hour, and felt all but 5 minutes of it!

I have never experienced pain like that. Lance was an incredible support to me and I could not have

 done it without him. He was by my side and saying absolutely everything I needed to hear the entire

time. I can't imagine what a mess I would have been without him by my side and I feel incredibly lucky

 to have such a wonderful man as my husband and father to my children.

Even though it was difficult, the labor was incredibly empowering! It felt good to do something really

hard and know that you can handle so much more than you think you can. And baby girl is just a little

piece of heaven- I can't imagine a better way to have gotten her here!

She was 6 lbs, 13 oz. and 19.5 inches

Almost exactly the same size as Crew.

 Crew was so sweet with her and kept kissing her forehead. 

We had lots of visitors at the hospital- all of our closest family came to see baby 

girl and to share in our excitement in welcoming her to the family.

Grandma Mary gave Cambridge her very first bath.

Time to go home!

Great Grandma Pat came to visit us at home tonight and baby Cambridge snuggled

with her for 2 straight hours. She is grandma's 14th great grandbaby.

We are at home now just relaxing and getting in the swing of things with two children.

Thank you for all the kind wishes and sweet gifts from friends and family!

We feel so blessed to have baby Cambridge and her sweet little personality in our lives.

Magnetic Quiet Book

I have had so many of you comment on the quiet book saying how excited you

are to print it off for your kiddos! I'm happy to know it will get some good use.

You can print the free boyish quiet book by clicking the link below. To download 

the free girlie quiet book, click here to "like" my facebook and unlock the freebies.

For now, here is the Free Printable Quiet book and instructions on how I put mine 

together. Enjoy!

Boy Quiet Book:

Girl Quiet Book:

It has been an even bigger hit than I thought it would be with Crew! Besides being very 

quiet in church, I've noticed that it's been excellent for his visual recognition, matching, 

and hand-eye coordination. He can't get enough of it.

Here's how to put yours together:

1. Download the boy PDF here
2. Download the girl PDF here
3. Print two copies of everything
4. Cut out the duplicates
5. Get everything laminated
6. Attach magnets
7. Use on fridge or magnetic board, & enjoy! 

(You can find a source list at the end of this post)

 My cute little Crew guy showing you how it's done :)

 I tried making some of them harder or easier than others. This one is slightly more 

advanced because he has to pay close attention to the details on the owls.

Can you tell how much he loves them?

Sources
Printing- I printed mine here on 65# Cover Laser white card stock.
Lamination- I paid $6 at Alphabet Station in Orem.
Magnets- I bought a roll of magnetic strips from JoAnns for about $5
                     or you can purchase 200 self adhesive magnets here.
Magnetic Board- $10 from here.


Crew loves this so much that I'll be making more pages before long and I'll of course share them on here when I do! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Want more freebies?! Click below.

Dear baby girl

I remember so clearly the day, 9 months ago, when I found out I was pregnant with you. I got pregnant with your big brother right away and was expecting the same thing with you. I just knew you were already growing in my tummy! So I wasn't really all that surprised when I saw the little "+" sign on the pregnancy test.

I fixed a normal dinner that night and when your daddy got home from work, I asked him to set the table for me. He pulled out the cups and silverware, then got a really perplexed look on his face when he noticed one of the plates had a large #2 drawn on it. It only took eye contact for him to realize what that number 2 represented...it was you! We sat and cried together, so excited to have you on the way to our family and a bit stunned that you had come so quickly. We spent the whole evening talking about how our lives were going to change and how wonderful it was going to be to be a family of four!

The next 5 months were some of the hardest months of my life. I spent a lot of time in front of the toilet and laying in bed, more weak and miserable than I'd like to ever remember. It's hard to explain the darkness and discouragement of those months, and even just thinking about it I get sick to my stomach. Your Grandma Mary and Grandma Liz took turns with your big brother Crew because I was too sick to watch after him. There were so many angels in our lives that came to help when we needed help the very most. You are already so loved, baby girl!

When I started feeling a little better, I immediately began making preparations for you. I was so excited to shop for my own little girl. It wasn't long before Daddy and I had the nursery ready, all of your clothes hung in the closet and brand new, beautiful quilts ready to wrap you in (from your Grandma Mary, of course).

And now here we are, just days from you arriving. Your big brother Crew talks about you all the time and is so excited to rock you and give you kisses. He is going to be such a good big brother to you, and I hope that you two are the best of friends. Your Daddy loves to feel you kick and talk to you. He is going to melt for you when you're here and you'll have him wrapped around your little finger.

I can hardly wait to hold you, sweet baby of mine. To rock you, and sing you lullabies and nurse you. I hope to have a very special and close relationship with you; the same relationship I have with my mommy, your Grandma Mary. I hope we will be best of friends and that you will always know how much I love you.

For now, we are just waiting patiently for your arrival. We'll see you soon, baby girl!

Lots of fun & 37 weeks!

We have had a very eventful week!

Saturday- Hiking up Little Cottonwood Canyon with the Walkers (Bruce and Kirstin were in town).
Sunday- Dinner with the Walkers, then a trip to Cascade Springs
Monday- OB appointment
Tuesday- Wicked at the Capital Theatre
Wednesday- Ward swimming party at the Scera
Thursday- At home with Crew and Colton (the little one I watch 1 day a week).
Friday- Swimming in the morning with my dear friends Skyler and Shannon and our kids, then boating and camping at Deer Creek with the whole Merrell clan.
Saturday- Boating at Deer Creek again (thanks Jake & Melissa)! Then dinner to PF Changs with my boys to celebrate 37 weeks!
Today- Birthday party for my oldest brother, Jake, who turned 30

It's been so wonderful spending lots of time with family and doing all kinds of adventurous things. It feels like the perfect way to spend our last few weeks before baby girl comes. I can hardly believe we are so close to seeing her. If I am induced early (it's still a little in the air) we have only 2 short weeks before we get to hold her in our arms!

Besides a short bought with a sinus infection, I am feeling fantastic. I'm sleeping great at night and have more energy than I have the entire pregnancy. I've noticed a little swelling in my face and I officially can't wear my wedding ring anymore. But no sign of the Cholestasis I had last time which I am SO grateful for. I also felt a definite "lightening" on Thursday which is when the baby drops lower into your pelvis, preparing for birth.

Lance has been very supportive and has been taking extra good care of me. He is so excited for the baby and is always amazed at her kicking and moving.

Crew is getting extremely aware of babies everywhere we go. He said to me the other day, "Mommy, my tummy hurts. The baby in my tummy hurts." I think I am most excited to watch him hold her for the first time.

For now we are enjoying our last couple of weeks as a family of 3 and are excited to soon be a family of 4!

skinny

Oh, to be skinny again!

Printable Quiet Book

Crew's curiosity and desire to learn has just exploded lately. I was a bit surprised, as I was not
expecting to start teaching him his alphabet, numbers, colors and other skills quite so soon! But as soon
 as I realized he was ready and I started buying developmental activities and puzzles, his appetite for
them has been insatiable! He will practically beg me to do his "alphabook" or other activities all day
long and we have had many a tantrum because of it. 

It all started with putting together a few quiet books for church. You know the kind; the oldies but
goodies that are in file folders with velcro. He loves them. He loves them so much that I wanted to
make some more so he wouldn't get bored of the ones we have. After looking around online for 30
minutes or so, I determined there are really no good printable quiet books out there. So I decided to
make one.

I haven't quite gotten mine finished but I wanted to share with you mommies out there. Here is the
book, and a simple tutorial on how I'm putting mine together.

(A sample of the pages)

 It's currently on Etsy for $4.99 but you are welcome to follow the link and download it for free.

Quiet Book Download

Ok, so here is a simple explanation to how I'm putting mine together along with a couple of links:

After using the velcro quiet books in church, I wanted to go the magnetic route. It's not that velcro

is super noisy, and probably no one but me noticed but I was still self-conscious about it. Also,

I think it's fun for a little toddler to play with magnets because it's a new sensory experience.

My sister-in-law, Kirstin, had found some decorative boards at a store that were magnetic which

she just glued paper onto to use as a quiet board. She was kind enough to give me one but I also found

these magnetic boards for $10 online that I think would work just the same. 

I got my two copies of the PDF printed at BestValueCopy.com. Your first 50 color prints are free.

They charge you an arm and a leg for shipping, but it was still almost half the price of getting them 

printed locally. I had them printed on 65# Cover Laser White paper which is a heavy cardstock 

and it didn't cost anything extra! It also came really fast, so I would recommend them.

After cutting out and laminating all the pieces, I plan on attaching 4 magnets to the corners of each

original pattern so it will stick to the magnetic board, then one self-adhesive magnet to the back of

each corresponding piece. That way, you have one magnetic board, then just one other folder

with all the other templates that can be switched in and out. I hope that makes sense.

Here is a listing for 200 self-adhesive magnets on Ebay for $7.99. There are about 175 pieces in this

Quiet book, so 200 magnets will be perfect with a few left over. I'm a little worried that after

laminating the cardstock, these magnets wont be strong enough to stick through, but having

them self-adhesive is a big selling point for me! I can't imagine glueing 175 magnets. I'm hoping

they will be fine but I'll update you once I finish my book.

SO...there was the not-so-short version of my Quiet Book story. I hope some of you will

download it and that your children will enjoy it as much as Crew has!