The baby's room taking form...

Sunday afternoon I was on a mission to get some things cleaned up and moved around upstairs.  I felt it was time to get E moved over to her sisters room so we could work out any kinks that may arise, before the baby comes instead of after.  I also didn't like the idea of the crib being left in the garage and not in a box to protect it, so up it went after E's bed was moved out.  It was a group effort to put it together, the kids seemed pretty eager to help get it set up.  This was the easiest crib ever to put together!  That was awesome.

We had fun with the girls and got their room set up, they seemed to be excited about it...although there were threats from A, to E about keeping her side clean because she doesn't like messes.  Gotta love girls!  While doing all this stuff we tried out our new old fashioned looking popcorn machine that we put in the theater room, after that the whole house smelled like popcorn for the rest of the day.  Maybe a window needs to be open next time.  It was a very fun day, and we felt like we accomplished a lot...What a busy couple of weeks for me!  The finished product in the baby room is beautiful, the crib turned out better than I thought it would.  Now I can't wait to get the rest of the goodies for his room! 

Mom, your huge!

These were the words that I heard after sporting my Christmas pajamas.  Hah!  You've gotta love kids, they will say anything, no matter how it sounds, and don't know any different!  My dear husband bought me pajamas earlier on in the pregnancy in anticipation of Christmas.  By the time Christmas got here, I had apparently grown more than he expected.  They were a little snug in the belly area, but, they show my bulging bump very well.

We had a great time Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  This was the first time we didn't have any extra family members visiting, so it was just us this year.  At times it felt a little lonely, but, it was fun to just focus on the kids and seeing their eyes light up while opening their gifts.  I managed to keep them guessing once again on the code names for the presents.  I think I do a pretty good job on this, and felt success when they said things like, I thought so and so was that one!  This is one of our family traditions that my mom started years ago to keep us from peeking at our gifts.  So I carried it on, and this year the code names were board games.  They get a little something in their stocking to let them know what name is on their packages.  I found a little package of candy board games from Target this year and used those for the stockings.  We used, Sorry, Operation and Monopoly.  They all thought E was going to be Sorry!  Hah, fooled them!  :)  It's so much fun.

Merry Christmas!

We had a fantastic Christmas Eve, and pigged out till we felt a bit sick.  Then it was time to open the jammies, and take our yearly traditional pictures...which I will post soon!  My hubby didn't anticipate my belly being so big, so the pajamas were a bit snug, but oh so cute anyway.  :)

I pray you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!  This is the time of year I remember how precious the gift of life is.  What a beautiful gift we have been given! 

Merry Christmas!

Heartburn and Baby Cribs

Ah, the joys of being pregnant!  With the growing belly comes heartburn, no good!  I'm finding anything with tomatoes in it is causing me to have a time of it.  Thankfully nothing else seems to bother me as much as that, and if I eat more often and less at once, I don't have a problem.  :) 

On a happy note...we picked up our crib today!  When we got to the furniture store we realized the box wasn't going to fit in our vehicle, so out of the box it had to come.  It fit fine after that, and it is now in the garage.  Gonna get it set up after Christmas sometime, well when I have the energy that is. 

Also having a hard time settling on baby bedding, well not just settling, finding something I like.  I guess I am picky, and jealous of the great selection that there is for baby girls.  Everything I have found, that I like is upwards of $500.00 for a 4 piece set!  Um, I don't think so!  If I can't find something I really like soon, I may go and see if I can find fabric and make my own.  We will see, thankfully I have a little time. 

I'm looking forward to getting our little ones room set up.  After Christmas is over I always feel a little down, so this year is giving me something to look up about.  I'm feeling very blessed!

How many times do I have to tell you...

You know you've said it if your a wife or mother, or even heard it from your own.  I find myself saying it often to 3 kids who seem to have stuck something in their ears to not hear me.  This time though was one of those I told you so moments, and all I could do was laugh.

We had made a trip to a Walmart Supercenter, which is the last place I would ever want to go, but, there were things I needed that I knew would be much cheaper there.  I took the kids and we got a Blimpie for dinner and bought some ornaments for our Christmas Party we are having tomorrow night.  Things were going well, until Miss E decided she must have one of those Coke's in the little bulb shapes for Christmas.
She had her arms full of them ready to put them in the cart, with a big smile on her face.  I proceeded to burst her bubble and tell her we weren't buying those today, not to mention they were diet...yuck!   I looked to see if they had the regular ones and they didn't and then noticed there was not a lip on the edge of the shelf where she found them, and thought to myself, that doesn't look very safe.  I was on a mission so continued on with shopping while she put them back.  Then I heard it, and knew immediately what that sound was.  One of the bottles dropped to the floor from the shelf making a loud POP sound, shooting diet Coke way down the aisle.  My daughter stood there soaked from knees down, and all I could do was laugh as she walked towards me like a penguin.  She wasn't sure whether she would be in trouble or not, but my laughter gave it away, and she just gave me a look like, oops!

This is where the phrase comes in...How many times do I have to tell you... not to touch everything you see.  A younger guy looked over at me and laughed and said my mom used to say that to me all the time...and I had to learn the hard way too. 

A teachable moment for sure, and thankfully I was able to laugh about it...I hope we don't have to many more of these moments, but something tells me they are inevitable.

The crib is in!

I just got a call that the crib is in!  The only problem...my hubby is away on another business trip and I can't lift anything.  Not sure what to do.  Also, why are there so many choices for mattresses and strollers and bassinets...and so on!  I looked on target.com and there were 32 choices for a crib mattress, why?  Back when we bought one for our first baby there were 3 choices...good, better and best.  I like it like that much, much better.  When did life become so complicated, bring back the simplicity! 

Think we will wait till after Christmas to get the crib set up.  There is too much transition for our youngest to get moved to another room.  I pray it goes smoothly and that big sister is tolerant!  This could get interesting!

20 Weeks J Carter picture

20 Weeks J Carter

Here is the profile and wave from the little guy! He is looking really good! =) This was taken at my 20 week ultrasound, I was really 19w4d, but he was measuring right on for dates. Not the best quality, but, got one up here finally!

This is the cutest!

A friend of mine showed this to me when I had just found out we were expecting.  From that time I have wanted one of these for my little bundle.  I found it again on Etsy, under SweetPeaPod's.  She makes the cutest hats too!  I think this just might be one of those must haves!

Halfway done!

Well time flies when your having fun!  I can't believe we made it halfway, already!  I had my level 2 ultrasound on Tuesday, the baby looks fantastic and is measuring right on target.  This is amazing for me, my kids always measured much shorter than the Dr. thought they should.  He is still a light weight for dates which is normal for me...he is weighing in at almost 7oz. so he is just a tiny little guy, but can sure pack quite a punch.  So strong for not much weight on him!  If I could ever figure out how to use this scanner I would get pics up from my ultrasound. 

We took the whole family, the kids were so excited to see him!  Although, poor Alli felt a little faint and had to sit down.  :)  I was watching her face and she turned pretty white..the other 2 were loving every minute of it.  The little guy gave them a wave and then proceeded to get the hiccups, which they thought was cool.  Oh, and if you couldn't tell by how I am referring to him...he is for sure a he.  :)  Good to know since we found out so early! 

I think it's time to get registered, so much to get, and so little $ to do so!  With the holidays and all 5 of our birthdays between now and time little guy gets here, finances are tight!  California has drained our savings a bit, they take take take.  Nothing like tightening our belts a bit, but, we will survive.  :) 

14 years ago today

It was a cold day in western Washington...but it was a beautiful day for a baby girl to be born.  After a fairly eventful pregnancy full of scares and meds to stop this little one from coming too soon, a cute little red head entered the world, sweet, tiny, and full of life.  Little A was born after 12 hours of labor and weighed in at a whopping 5lbs 5 oz and 18 1/2 inches.  She came exactly one week after I stopped medication to keep her from coming and one week after my birthday.  I am having a hard time believing that she is 14, and the years have gone so quickly.  I can still remember bringing her home from the hospital like it was yesterday.  I still remember all the times her Daddy would sleep walk after she was born and scare me spitless that he would wander out of the house on a cold morning with her.  He does these things when he gets excited, although not as often now that he is older.  :)  I remember the sounds she made while she was eating, she still makes some of those while eating breakfast...thank you Grandma for teaching her to really enjoy her food.  =)  I remember how tiny she was that she fit right inside the palm of J's hand and only stretched to his elbow...how little she looked in her car seat, and how she was always full of smiles and wide awake in the middle of the night so she wouldn't miss anything.

The years fly by.  They go so fast it seems that it couldn't possibly have really happened.  Looking at her now, I still see that sweet little girl and I catch even more glimpses of her when she is laughing, but beyond all of that, now I see a beautiful young lady, full of life and ready for whatever comes her way.  She is confident, stubborn, funny and loves to be with family and friends.  She will always be my little girl, but lately I see that she hasn't been one for awhile.  I can't help but be a little sad and scared, because with this come letting go, little by little, and letting her become the young woman her Daddy and I have raised her to be.  I pray we have done our best because all we can do now is guide.  There comes a point when they don't want to listen, and think they know what they need to know, and it always happens sooner than we as parents would like.   So I say this....

God give us the strength to let her become the wonderful young lady that has been growing so fast and furiously, help keep us sane in the moments of insanity, help her to know she is more loved than she could imagine, help us to know when it's time to step back and not push...and most of all thank you for this wonderful gift.

Sick day

Wednesday morning I woke up with an itchy sore throat, yesterday it seemed to just be that, until last night.  3am I am awakened by my own annoying sounds, I couldn't breath.  UGH.  Sore throat turned into head cold, and I couldn't breath laying down.  Decided to take a warm bath and drink some warm tea, hoping it would help.  I managed to prop myself up with my body pillow to help keep my nose clear and got two more hours of sleep before needing to take my poor hubby to get a bone graft in his mouth. 

So while I am sick and having trouble breathing, my dear husband sleeps on the couch with a very sore mouth and many many stitches.  He had his bridge cut out yesterday, and this was the next step to getting tooth implants.  He will take 6 months to completely heal from surgery today, and then will hopefully get some permanent teeth that won't cause as many problems for him.  All this from getting his 2 front teeth knocked out as a kid, it turned into 6 bad teeth and after 5 or so bridges later, it was apparent that something different needed to be done.  So expensive, but, teeth are a good investment.  

What a fun day, eh?  Once again I say Ugh, as the faucet that is my nose continues to run.  I hope this goes away soon. 

Oh yeah!  19 weeks today!  Woot!

Some Pictures from the last month

Okay so these are going to be backwards, but this is how they loaded.

For the last 2 weeks I have had the pleasure of loving on this little guy...my nephew Rocco. He is 8 weeks old, and I took some shots of him wearing an outfit that was my Father in laws when he was a baby. Rocco is a sweetie, and only cries when hungry, he eats a lot though! :) What a blessing he is!




Got a couple belly shots, although they were taken a few weeks ago.
This one I was 16 weeks, and the one below was a week before. 
The one on the bottom is when my oldest daughter informed me that,
my belly was as big as my backside...I'm thinking the belly looks bigger.
There were more pictures, I don't know where they went, or why this post looks so weird and I can't fix it!  Off to investigate!