Fantasma la Storia

Geez. Blogging must not be my thing.

All is well in the Fantasma family. Keeping busy with our little business, little church, and little girl. Not much going on besides all that!

Our biggest thing right now is plugging through photography and design work. It has been such a blessing that things have picked up. It has really helped our family financially to have a bit more steady income. If anyone needs Christmas cards, let us know!! We are excited to offer custom cards again this year. Postcards are a great way to save money on postage and still have an awesome greeting for your friends and family! If you want to keep up to date with our most recent stuff check us out on the Fantasma Imagery fan page or visit our website at www.fantasmaimagery.com

Our church, the Avenue, has been going through a sermon series lately called "When Life Dumps On You". It has been amazing going through the life of Job and how his sufferings relate to ours...and even more how his reactions and attitudes to suffering relate to ours. You should check it out at www.walktheavenue.com.

Sweet little Elliana is awesome too. She is now almost 14 months old and I can't believe it. I keep having these flashback moments where I see her sleeping in her little swing or laying propped up on pillows smiling at her Daddy. Now she's just walking around telling us all about everything she sees. I'm amazed at how many words she says...and how well I can understand her. She has developed this gentle, quiet personality, loving to just sit on the couch and read quietly with her stuffed animals even if a big ruckus is going on around her. She's just a little tiny thing too, at only the 10th percentile for height and weight at her age. I think that just adds to her dainty cuteness. I think she's the cutest thing to ever grace this earth, but I'm not biased at all.

I know...I know...I suck at this. I am no good at keeping up with this stuff. I guess that's what happens when life happens :P

Lot's on the home front as of now.

I'm 33 weeks pregnant...and growing steadily. Baby Elliana is very active and has blessed me with many early and painful contractions which has been an absolute blast!
The doctors finally cleared me from being on partial bed rest which was extremely exciting! I went 4 months without being allowed to have any aerobic activity or hold anything that weighs more than 5 lbs. It sounds like it would be a nice break...to have a medical write off to be lazy...but it was actually very sad. I'm just super happy that even though I was forbidden to exercise at all I still have only gained 20lbs total in my entire pregnancy. Now I am doing my best to make up for the atrophy and walk when it is not 100 degrees outside. Brian has been very nice to walk with me in the evenings when it cools down :)

We are going to be blessed with a niece due to Heather and Aaron in December! We're excited to meet Baby Holly and know that she and Ella will be the best of friends! Vince is growing like a weed and I have to say that I get quite a bit of satisfaction from the fact that every time he sees me...whether or not his Mom or Dad are holding him...he always needs me to hold him. It's a tough job being the kid's favorite person ever...but somebody's got to do it!!

Mom and Dad celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary (the actual anniversary date) in June. My darling sisters and I had the privilege of planning a vow renewal ceremony for them. It was awesome to see that after all of that time they are still madly in love with each other and were so eager to say "I Do!" again. No one could ever truly be as blessed as my sisters and I to have such an incredible example of God's picture of what marriage should look like. By God's grace we'll all have what they have someday.

The Avenue launched out from LSCC's facility in July and we are now meeting on Saturday nights. It has been quite an adjustment for us as half of our weekend is taken up by practicing, and setting up and tearing down Brian's drum set every week but we have really enjoyed being part of the team. We have been blessed abundantly by the awesome group of people that are working so hard to keep everything up and running at The Avenue and are so excited to see what God has in store for our baby church!!

Brian started his new job at Plattform Advertising in May..gosh has it been that long since I have posted on here!?...He is really enjoying working there...minus the 45 minute-hour long drive to Lenexa and back every day. It was really an answer to prayer that he got a job at this place because the insurance is absolutely what we needed in order for me to quit my job and us still have the same coverage and doctors that we had.

As mentioned, I will be quitting my job at Summit Tech when our baby girl comes to take on that full time job of being wife and mommy! I'm really looking forward to spending all of my time with my sweet Elliana but it will certainly be a change! I will also be working on our photography business for income, so if anyone of you needs any portrait photography services give me a shout! Now is the time to think about photos for your Christmas cards!!

Brian and I are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary a week from today. I was working on our wedding scrapbook the other day (yes...still working on it) and got to re-read the vows that we wrote for each other. It brought tears to my eyes when I read Brian's promise to my Dad to take care of me and then Brian's vows to me. He has kept every word...I couldn't be more blessed. There is no way to describe how awesome it is to be married to that man!


Ok...that's all I can think of to update on for now. I'll try to get on here a couple more times before our D Day...I mean Delivery Day :P