freezer-paper stencil crafts.

I'd been wanting to try these little guys for a while now, and what better reason than to create something special for our new little nephew?

There are a thousand tutorials on-line, so I won't be redundant by giving you my 'how-to'. You can find a good lesson on their site. Crafty-alumni talk about how 'easy' they are. And, yes, maybe to the more experienced...but, to me, they seem 'easy' to mess up. With practice, though, I think I'll be able to do them even better. I have lots of clips and graphics that I plan to use to create more things...newborn onesies aren't the limit, I have my eyes on pretty much anything cotton. There's a great flickr site where people can share other templates.

I used acrylic paint {it says you can}, mainly because of the affordability and variety of colors. I'm not certain I can mix what I want from just red, blue, and yellow fabric paint.

...and don't try and peek, wait until the paint dries overnight!

Teresa recommended 'setting' the paint by draping a hankerchief over the image, and splashing it with white vinegar, and then ironing it lightly.

I'll be sure to share some of the other clips I have up my sleeve... cute little birdies, cherry blossoms, a 'beard' die-cut for Aaron...and about 3-4 designs that all just say 'Logan'. Let me know if you give it a try!

He's arrived!

Our first little nephew arrived at 3:20 this afternoon!

8# 20.25 inches. healthy and surprisingly so alert.

Sarah did a great job, & these new parents now have quite the adorable doll on their hands! {I can say doll even if it's a 'he' right? because, that's how precious he is}

We are thinking of you guys, and praying for the new beautiful family of three that's been formed today. He is one lucky guy, he picked his parents well!

All of the grandparents were beaming right along side...

This is one of my favorites - they have the same smile!

He is just as excited to finally be here as we are excited to have him here!

As aunt & uncle, we're so excited to have him so close, and be nearby to watch him as he grows and changes so much!

We toasted with our 'its-a-boy' pretzel-cigars!

Baby-boy Chaloner doesn't have a name just yet...
but, I'll let you know what to call this sweet face soon. & of course, lots more pictures to follow!

ok, I can't resist. one more! I love this shot, even his little pout is precious...
say a little prayer for this little one {whom Aaron has temporarily taken to calling Pedro. sorry Sarah.} & for uncle Aaron {who's taking his big oral exams tomorrow!}

Smile, you're on camera!

My mom's going to love this post. It's going to fuel her conspiracy theories about the goverment and their secret cameras everywhere and phone-taps...and hidden agenda to rid Americans of their privacy.

she knows I love her. and love giving her a hard time.

but really, go check your DVR for a video camera, right?

I'm probably the last one on earth (the governmental personal internet-usage statistics log could back me up on this...) to check out Google Street Views.

it's pretty stinking amazing. you type in the address & you can actually SEE the place you're looking for. {granted, rural america hasn't quite been included yet}

But, in the bustling metropolis of Oklahoma City, they have us well captured. You can navigate street by street like you were driving your car right there. You can just imagine how handy this is for Aaron & I on the house hunt when we want to check out the 'neighborhood' and see (literally) what's nearby.

Here's the little car that's behind it all...

I know, not what you expected, huh? Not quite the spage-age unit I had imagined. All this can be done from my car?

Of course, now there are stories of people 'flashing' the google car, a group of 'costumed' men staging a series of 'wheres waldos' around the UK when they started photographing London, crimes in progress, the google-car hitting a deer...

and yes, although I have plenty to do, I've been typing in addresses all morning, checking out all this little feature can do. Chances are, friends & family, if I can remember at least your street name by heart, you've been googled. Not sure about the time frame of when these were captured, but we have a good idea of when they rode by our apartment complex. For others of you, we've seen your cars in the driveway!!. yes, you were home when this little beetle rode by your house. Dad, we saw the mini-winnie parked in back of your office. ...suddenly, the paranoia is starting to make a little more sense.

Aaron and I even managed to find the houses we stayed in when we studied abroad. We had fun virtually-'strolling' down the streets that we walked in Paris that summer. It was quite the visual trip down memory lane...We found the school we attended, sights we visited, shops & restaurants where we went, streets where we danced all night at the Fête de la Musique, and I found the site of the crêpe stand where my roommate and I were offered a job for a month (so the owner he could visit his family back in his home country of Sri Lanka)...in hindsight, man, we should have stuck around!

Here's Aaron's little "shack" over on Boulevard Murat -

He & his roommate stayed with a really nice Parisienne on the 6th floor, the fancy pad with the large balcony...

My roomie & I homestayed with a not-so nice couple (and their baby?)...they said they had 'un bébé', but in the month that we were with them, we never once saw him. made for some fun stories, and fun investigations. ah, le memories. All this googling made me pull out my scrapbook and relive some of the fun we'd had that trip, I found a note from our hosts where they'd chastized us for using all the hot water... oh, the chilly-showers of 30 Rue de jacob - we were there at the black door on the right, but the apartment was in the back three stories up, with windows that opened up to a beautiful courtyard. What an amazing opportunity, I'll say, it was one of my favorite things I've ever done. If you ever have the chance, (clearly) don't pass it up. Aaron & I can't wait to go back! ...I could tell stories for days...

Bon weekend tout le monde!

and you guys keep an eye out for those black helicopters.

the married survey.

Jen tagged all the 'marrieds', & this was one survey I just couldn't resist.
What girl wouldn't welcome a little trip down memory lane to remember her wedding day?

The Story of:
Aaron Steven Chaloner
&
Jae Lindsay Marie (Dedmon) Chaloner

1) Did you have a traditional Proposal? oh absolutely. Aaron proposed during my family's holiday vacation in Florida...it had all the makings of a traditional, perfect proposal - the sunset, the romantic walk on the beach, roses, the groom-to-be down on one knee, the bride-to-be giddy with tears, a champagne toast, and celebrating with family. {Read the full story here}

2) When was your wedding day? May 27th, 2007.

3) What day of the week was it? Sunday evening.

4) Church/court/other? We tied the knot in the Wightman Chapel of Scarritt-Bennett, and the reception was held in the courtyard of the Carriage House at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee. 5) What song played while the bride walked down the aisle? with such a majestic church, we needed something with a little 'oomph', ya know? Bach's Trumpet Voluntary was the perfect match for that 90 ft aisle.

6) How many in your wedding party? 4 bridesmaids, 4 groomsmen, and an adorable little flower girl + precious little ring bearer, or "ring bear" as he thought.

7) How many guests were invited to your wedding? invited? I don't even remember. I remember having to cut down our guests lists quite a bit to fit the venue. We recieved about 130 RSVP's, and then, of course, planned for about the 20 or so extras that came along too.

8) How long were you engaged? 16 months. I needed at least a year {trying to plan from long distance, and as a grad school student} and wanted to get married in May, so hence the time frame. I really appreciated being able to take the time to make the decisions for things that were important to us, tone down the stress level just a bit, & be able to book all of the people we wanted to.

9) Who did you hire as your photographer/videographer? We hired David Wright {we're on his page!} as our photographer, who was an absolutely amazing artist and captured every detail of our big day. I know you've probably seen our wedding pictures online, but our wedding album is simply stunning. I've never seen anything like it. We'd budgeted a little extra for photography, because it was a really important part to us. As a picture-person {what?!}, you can imagine that I'm very happy with all the wonderful ly captured memories that we have to look back on. For our videographer, we hired Gypsy at Premier Video Productions - Incidentally, they're the editors of Enchanted Brides magazine, and we soon found ourselves on a double-page spread in their Fall 2007 issue.

10) Did you have a DJ or a band? For the ceremony, we had a stringed quartet, Cody sang at the beginning, and later Logan played the piano while Melody sang. For the reception, the Blue Tones were a huge hit - they started us off with the soft-ballads of Nearness of You and What a Wonderful World for the traditional first dances...but, then they broke out into a rendition of I believe in a thing called love to 'get the party started' and kept the dancing going all night long.

11) Did your father walk you down the aisle? Yes, of course.
12) What color were the bridesmaid dresses & groomsmen vests? the ladies wore strapless celadon green silk dresses, and the groomsmen were in the traditional black-and-white tuxedo.
13) Who was your Maid Of Honor/Best Man? Carly, my college roomie & bff was my matron of honor and Aaron's brother, Cody, was his best man. 14) Did you have a bridal shower? Yes, we had one in Hinton & one in Camden. All the lovely ladies from our hometowns were so sweet to plan showers for us.

15) What type of limo did you get? Well the 'guys' had a limo shuttling them around on the day-of, but then Aaron and I decided to go for a white vintage Jaguar to shuttle us from the reception to the honeymoon suite.

I was about to post the picture of us waving from the car, but...

I believe you've seen that one on this page. :)

16) Where did you go for your Bachelorette/Bachelor Party? For the Bachelorette party, Us ladies had a fun room at the Downtown Hilton where had some fun party games, a lingerie shower, R-rated snacks, and some good ol' advice from the matrons. Then, we hit 2nd avenue in Nashville for some "marriage advice" for the bride-to-be from lots of friendly {and strange} folk. The boys hung out in the Hilton as well and went to play LaserQuest downtown. 17) The night before your wedding, did you sleep? Yes, I don't even remember having trouble...? We'd had a long day of rehearsal, manis/pedis, bridal luncheon, and then the rehearsal dinner - I was pooped.

17.5) Where was your rehearsal dinner? We had a great, classically-Tennessee time @ Jack's BBQ. We had a casual affair with friends & family... we had bandanas, mason jars, little name 'badges' for everyone, fresh wildflowers picked by the groomsmen from the side of the road :) ...and lots of entertainment - we have so many talented loved ones, we decided on an open mic night - we had lots of musicians, singers, comedians, storytellers, and 'pranksters'...

18) What type of wedding gown/tux did you two wear? Aaron wore a strapping Calvin Klein tuxedo with a classic white vest and tie. Mine, well, mine took some work... after perusing store after store, I decided I was just going to have to 'do it myself'. Well, design it...and then hope and pray that it would actually turn out right. I tried on several different styles, took the majority from a Vera Wang gown I just loved. {but wouldn't have even wanted to spend that kind of money on my dress even if I'd had it...} then combined a couple other elements that I'd loved from other dresses -- simple. strapless. sweetheart neckline. not a sparkle on there. no sir. just wanted it to be classic, understated, elegant. the only intricate detail was from the lace outlining my veil. my favorite part was the single-loop bow knot. oh, and the black sash for the reception to match the black-and-white I had going with the damask print everywhere... ok, good heavens, somebody stop me.
19) Did you have a veil? yes, a cathedral length veil for the ceremony...then, took it down and pinned a green cymbidium orchid in my hair for the outside reception.
20) What was the funniest moment from your wedding? You know, thankfully, we didn't have any major catastrophes. oh wait, except for the dead tulips. that were the wrong color. oh, well. It was adorable when Jill ran out of flowers walking down the aisle and started shaking her basket upside down looking for more. & I think everyone had a little giggle when they saw aaron's groom's cake...I think the rest of our funny moments aren't for all audiences... 21) How was the weather? gorgeous. perfectly comfortable may evening. I know, you can't imagine me, little-miss-planner, taking a risk and having an outside reception. Totally worth the gamble I tell ya. 21.5) Did you have a sit-down meal or hors d'oerves buffet? kind of a mix - we served passed appetizers and bellini's during the 'cocktail hour', then we had a big buffet spread with three dinner options - they all had their 'fancy' names that I can't remotely remember, but our own special request was the curry dish - an unlikely wedding choice, but of course personal to Aaron & I's love of indian food. Then, before the end of the night, we surprised the guests with dr. pepper floats, a long-standing Baylor tradition!

22) Did your bridal party deck out the get away car? Yes, we didn't see it until we came back from our honeymoon, and it was parked in valet at the Nashville airport. Hilarious. We got lots of honks on our long drive back to Oklahoma. 23) Where did you go on your Honeymoon? the French side of St. Maarten, in a little 10-room beachfront hotel. C'est magnifique! It was perfect, more than I'd ever imagined.

planning a trip? stop looking, go here! I'm never shy to show more pictures from this fabulous trip. ready to return... 24) What was your favorite part of your wedding day? I think the first dance. We'd walked down the aisle, the nerves were calming, we had said 'I do', shared our first kiss... this was our little private moment (albiet in front of everyone), but it was just 'ironically intimate', sweet, and so very special.

25) How long have you been married? around 1 year 10 months.

26) Rings? yes, we have rings. sparkly ones. 27) Did the bride change her name? of course! I never thought I'd go from the last name Dedmon to something less common and easier for others to mispronounce. Just ask my dad.

28) Any anniversary traditions? Well, since we've had only one...? but I'd say, we 'started' one on our anniversary trip to Florida this year. We spelled out '1 year' in the sand, and vowed to pay a similar tribute each year with whatever we had at hand... 29) Anything special about the day/time of year you were married? Spring. + over the long holiday weekend {Memorial Day} - so, now we'll always have a little extra day to celebrate!

30) Words of wisdom? Not to sound cliche and cheesy...I probably can't avoid it. But, what works for us - because I think you have to find your own way {harder concept to remember sometimes, in a world full of competition and comparing-ness}...For us, it's finding joy in the everyday, not missing an opportunity to show love to one another, remembering the committment takes effort. but, that doesn't necessarily mean it's "hard work". We love making each other happy, but that said - remembering we're not responsible for each others' happiness. Talk. Share. Listen. It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. Keep the silliness in it.

oh good grief. see why I don't do surveys? I had to do this is more than one sitting. my apologies if you made it to the end in one sitting as well. But, now it's my turn to read about YOURS. If you're married, consider yourself tagged...