another baby gift

      Geez. I can hardly keep up with everything going on right now. Between holidays, babies being born, and everyday things that need to be done, I am pretty sure that I am going to pass out one of these days.... probably while buying Christmas decorations at Target.

     ANYHOW... I made yet another baby quilt for a sweet little boy due sometime in mid-January.

I am a huge fan of the orange, brown, and blues. Hopefully this will keep that little guys toesies warm this winter.

Also, I started cutting out pieces for our own little guy's quilt. I am still unsure about just what pattern (if any) I am going to go with.... I have pinned a ton of quilts for inspiration. You can see them here if you like. My only real goal is to be done with it before the baby gets here. I don't care if I am still sewing in between contractions... (HA!)

I took a quick instagram photo of the pieces before West ran across them... but I am pretty sure that I am in love with the colors and patterns.

redo

     Before West was born, I made poor Stephen drive out in the middle of nowhere to buy this chair from craigslist. It was a great chair in theory- wide, modern, and neutral enough that I could use it in another room when he didn't need a rocker anymore. However, it was horribly uncomfortable. Also, tan microfiber is possibly the worst fabric on the face of the earth. Every fingerprint, speck of dirt, and stain was magnified by the terrible fabric.
    SO, my mom came up this weekend (because she is amazing, awesome, and loves me a lot!) and spent hours and hours helping me recover it with some fabric that I found on super clearance at my favorite fabric outlet near Asheville.

     It is now AMAZING! The fabric we used is ridiculously soft wide corduroy in velvet. Needless to say every living thing in my house loves it. Westley has actually just stood there rubbing his face against the arms a few times. I am a little sad that the pretty blue-gray color of the chair clashes terribly with the color of my bedroom. But that is where the chair will need to live while we are still in this house. Now all I need to do is find a moses basket stand for our room and I will finally be able to stop hyperventilating because our boy will actually have a place to sleep.
   

24 days of thanks

(FYI, I stopped keeping track of numbers and I am just kinda winging it. I am still frustrated and dealing with that, but I am determined to make a point of mentioning it when something comes to mind that I am particularly thankful for...)

                                                 (Ignore the weird color my legs look in this picture as well as my creepy alien toes)

     I am so very thankful that we have the opportunity and ability to put both kids in preschool right now. Yesterday was an incredibly long work day for Stephen, thus it was a very long day for me. But this morning, I took the kids to school and had three glorious hours to rest, relax and take care of myself. I chose to run errands and take about 30 minutes to get a pedicure. It's amazing what a massage chair and having someone rub one's achy feet will do for the soul. Anyhow... I now feel refreshed and as though the next 3 days won't be quite so bad. Stephen will probably have to work late all week, and I want him to feel as though he has nothing to worry about or to do when he gets home (except play with his kids and spend a few minutes holding my hand while we watch Big Bang Theory.) Thanks to the 6 hours of kid-free time I will have this week, I can actually focus on getting things done so that he can actually do that.

24 days of thanks #11

    I am going to be honest. I don't feel like being thankful today. I am tired, cranky, frustrated that my husband has worked 50+ hours this week and it isn't even over yet. I am not in a place that I want to think about the things that I should be thankful for.

    So.... Let's talk about contentment vs. thankfulness.
I try to be content with what I have. I have learned to live with less this past year. I have learned to be happy with what I cannot change around me (ugly wall colors anyone?) I have even gotten to the point where I am not constantly starting conversations with my husband with "You know what we need..."

   But I am not always thankful for what I have. I am constantly convincing myself that I can absolutely make my Honda Pilot work with three car seats (even if it will take some configuring and probably a few months of tweaking to figure out what works best), but what I REALLY think I need pine over daily is a fancy pants minivan. I am on Pinterest ALL THE TIME looking at stuff for the "next house" (if we ever actually get one). And probably the most difficult and frustrating one- I am constantly struggling with the fact that I have two amazing, funny boys - but no girls. *That is something that might take years to move from the "I'll get over it" list.

   So, when I am at this place... what is there to do? I will eventually snap out of it and remember that my life rocks and that I have basically everything that I could ever need or want. But for now, I am here. And this is where I might be camping out for the next few days. This is probably not the best timing (Hello, Thanksgiving!) But this is reality. This is truth. This is my life.

24 days of thanks #10

     I am soooooo very thankful for Skype! I have a sister in Isreal, and without Skype I would probably never be able to talk to her. It also lets my kids see her and recognize her when she comes home to visit. She was gone when Westley was born and will be gone when this baby is born. It's sad that she won't meet her newest nephew for some time, but I feel like being able to see him and and the other boys it doesn't quite seem so bad. I miss my sister so very much, but being able to talk to her and see her makes the long months in between visits go by just a bit quicker.

24 days of thanks #9

     I am so thankful to have a husband who knows when he has to be a little extra-strong for me. With our latest offer on a house not working out (and I really really liked this house!) it's been a little extra gloomy around our kneck of the woods. Stephen has been extra sweet and supportive. I know that God has some great plan and a perfect house for us somewhere.... I just really wanted to be there before Christmas and little boy #3 arrived. So, I will drink extra tea, take some extra deep breaths, and thank God for the husband that I have next to me in this journey.

24 days of thanks #8

I am thankful that I have a little boy who is always ready with something for us to do together. We put puzzles together, color, read books and he is always asking how he can help me. Harry is such a joy and has such a sweet spirit. It makes me kind of sad to know that in just two short months that I will have less time to spend one-on-one with him. I am determined to make some time just for the two of us though. I would miss i terribly if I did not.

24 days of thanks #7

I am thankful for this sweet pup. Emily has been with Stephen and I almost as long as we have been married. She is such a great dog. The boys love her, and I don't know what I would do without her sweet snuggles when I am home alone. She cuddles with me on the couch and keeps me company. I couldn't ask for much more than that.

24 days of thanks #6

         *I'm still going to attempt to catch up and get this thing back on track... I said 'attempt'.

I am thankful for hot drinks and quiet time to write. This morning (after an hour spent running around outside) the boys were chill enough to watch a bit of Dora. I took the opportunity to journal and sip my tea. Oh, how I treasure my little 15 minute breaks.

currently

- Our third and final (before this baby is born) offer on a house was rejected this past weekend. It looks as though we will be in our little rental longer than anyone really planned. Now I have to do some major improvising as far as where baby stuff will go. We don't really have room for a real nursery here without sacrificing our guest room, and we have tried that in the past. It was kinda terrible.

- I am really, really, really excited about Christmas. Really.
This is the first Christmas that we will be spending entirely at our house. I am already ready to start decorating EVERYTHING.

- My to-do list only seems to be growing. I already had way too much to do, and so I decided to try to make some gifts for Christmas and another baby gift, too. Oh, and I bought a ton of fabric to make my own lil' guy a quilt of his own. Smart, Truly. Real smart.

- We have too much stuff. I am going to go through every room of this house and purge all of the crap that always seems to be in my way (which is pretty much everything). If my kids are playing with rocks and sticks the next time you see them, you will know why.

- And now we have an emergency Target run to make. I used the last of West's diapers this morning.

24 days of thanks #5

(despite the fact that my numbers are completely messed up.... moving on.)


I am thankful for this baby bump. Most days I am uncomfortable, tired, cranky and frustrated at something (or someone). BUT, I am so incredibly blessed to have two funny little boys and one more on the way. I can't even begin to imagine how great their friendships will be. Harry and West are pretty much besties, so I am just going to assume pretend that adding a third to the mix will just create that much more awesomeness.... always.

a baby gift

      I went to a shower this afternoon for a friend from church. I generally stick to registries when buying gifts, but as of late I have become a huge fan of hand made presents for new babies. They seem so much more important in the months after birth. I love the handmade gifts I recieved for my boys, and hope this soon to be mama will like the quilt I made her, too.

This particular mama requested that we stay away from traditional baby colors and mentioned that brown and olive green were the colors that she likes.

Luckily, I already had the brown and green fabric on hand and really just had to pick up a few coordinating fabrics to put this blanket together. Stephen was nice enough to watch the kids all day yesterday while I sewed like a mad woman in order to finish this in time for the shower.

I really, really hope they like it.

24 days of thanks #4

Sooo. I am a little behind. Does that really surprise you?


Anywho...

I am thankful for my amazingly supportive and helpful mom. I don't think that I talk to anyone else (besides my husband) on the phone as often as I do my mother. She is one of my best friends. We don't always agree on everything, but she is so supportive and listens whenever I need it. In fact, she is coming to help me take care of the boys this weekend when Stephen goes to a football game. I love her.

This picture was taken the day that Westley was born. My mom was at the birth of both of my boys and I am really hoping that she can be at this one too.

24 days of thanks #3

I am thankful for the beautiful fall weather we are having. Days that are sunny and warm enough for us to spend some time out in the yard are definitely helping the kids and I from feeling stuck. It's also kinda cute when they jump in the piles of leaves that I will never pick up that might be there for a while.

24 days of thanks #2

Today I am thankful for nap time.

     Naptime is very important to me these days. I can spend that time doing something around the house or just having some quiet time. It's been especially nice lately, because I have even been able to sneak in a nap myself once or twice when I felt particularly warn out.

24 days of thanks

     I feel like this is the perfect time to get my bum in gear and start posting more (you know, right before the holidays and with me being 7 months pregnant and all.... timing was never my strong suit). So, I will start with a litte picture and something that I am thankful for everyday until Thanksgiving.

     Today, I am thankful for the three guys who make this life so amazing. Stephen took the day off yesterday to spend with us and actually suggested that I take some time to work on a baby gift that needs to be done in the next few weeks (more on that later). He watched the boys and I got some real time to focus. Harry eventually came over and wanted to help, so I had to get inventive and figure out what he could do that didn't involve scissors or the sewing machine. We figured it out.