34 Weeks

Yep, almost 34 weeks and I'm large and in charge. I've decided I don't like having a baby close to the holidays. Its just too much for a girl to take.

Happenings

You see that happy girl? The one in the middle?

 

I think that was the happiest face we got out of her that day.

 

On a random sidenote that may be too much information for some of you: I'm potty training that beautiful happy little girl. And it was going well (once I got past the first two days of wanting to claw my eyes out). Only problem: She is sick now. Croup mixed with Diarrhea. Yes, it makes for fabulous potty training. But I can't go back now!!!!! So its lots of rubber gloves and toilet rinsing and lots of laundry. But theres no going back. I'm determined to only have one child in diapers come January.

 

PS: this is me bragging. Leah can read.... well, not really, but she can sound out basic words and she read her first book today (you know, words like cat and bat, easy). And she is sounds out words on our cereal boxes, and other things she can find. She is so curious and happy (really truly happy, not Colette happy :)) She still gets into trouble faster that I can say Bobs you're Uncle, but I think she'll turn out alright in the end. Fingers crossed.

 

 

 

Halloween

I made sure to take photos this year, since last year I forgot, and perhaps the year before as well.

Granted, these were not the only costumes donned this halloween. Just one set. Leah stuck with what she originally requested, the Funnyman Boogeyman from the Backyardigans cartoon, previously her face was pale blue (did you know they still sell bright blue eye shadow!!!! who wears that?).

Jeremiah originally wanted to be Frankenstein, so I thrifted a womens jacket and altered it to fit him for his costume. Once he tried it on, however, he changed his mind and wanted to be a spy, the first thing he thought of when he saw it I guess.

Colette was a skeleton tonight, but before she was a princess, I just wanted her to be warmer, and I was lazy, so on went her halloween pjs.

I wish I would have gotten a photo of us at the ward trunk or treat. We were garden gnomes. Greg, me, and Jeremiah. It was great fun, and Jeremiah helped me transform the trunk of the van into a little garden gnome house, complete with dollar store ivy and flowers. I'll try to convince greg to pose for a picture with his outfit, so we can get it. Hopefully next week I'll have that picture for you. :)

Until then.... Happy Halloween!

The House

I've been asked to show pictures of the house, but have been hesitant because my house is never clean enough to photograph.... that, and its no where near where I want it to be. But because of that, I supposed that it would be ok to post "Before" photos of the house, and then post after photos as rooms are re-done and completed.

To start us off, I finished a 6 year old project last week. YAY! I posted about this glider before. For your viewing displeasure I'll show you the Before picture :

Complete with highlighter scribbled all over the seat cushion, and cusions that didn't have much to them anymore. This glider was 2nd hand 6 years ago when Jeremiah was born, and covered in a faux denim fabric that was showing WAY too many years of wear everywhere. I wanted to recover it then... and ever since it has just sat there, yucky and staring at me. I got bored one day and took some old curtains that had been ruined by a fountain pen during the move and the left-over foam from my couch project and went to town. I'm not sure I love the orange, but it was free, and much better than the yucky dirty blue. I still have to do the arm covers, but it's better. Hurray for finishing a project!

Girls room, Pink and yellow. Ugh.

To Do: Paint, curtains, a bunk bed, convert the crib back to a crib, get a new dresser and a rug, and create some art for the walls

Our room

To Do: Paint, bedside tables, lamps, get rid of the dust ruffle, move the curtains, bench for the base of the bed, and a reading chair, table and lamp for the large empty corner.

Master Closet

To Do: rip out the whole thing and start from stratch, and add deep shelves or cupboard for linen storage.

Jeremiah's room

To Do: Paint new curtains, new art piece for the wall, dresser for all his suff, headboard, and new bedding, oh, and re-do his closet.

Laundry Room: Super messy the day I took this picture... well, it commonly looks like this, lets be honest.

To Do: Paint, more shelves above washer and dryer, and build a shelving unit below the counter, window coverings, and art, and probably a rug.

Play room/Sewing room: it usually looks like this too.

To Do: paint, shelving for toy storage, and something that will keep my sewing stuff available, but safe from the girls... not sure if thats even possible.

The sewing closet

Family Room

To Do: Paint, move all the kid books to the playroom? window coverings, area rug, coffee table, two comfy chairs, some side tables and lamps. Greg hates overhead lighting, so lamps are the only way I'm going to be able to see in the winter evenings. :)

Living Room: the emptiest of them all

To Do: Paint, comfy movie watchin' couch, soft rug, side tables, lamps, built in bookshelves, floor cushions, oh, and a TV for watching those movies on that comfy couch.

Hallway looking from the front entry, not sure what I'm doing with this.

Kitchen:

To Do: Paint, undercab lighting, over-cab lighting, figure out how to decorate over the cabinets

Dining Room:

To Do: Paint, Side board, lamps, and try to find an alternative to those aweful vertical blinds.

Another Little Padawan

We will be adding another little girl to our lively bunch in January, or late december, but we're hoping for January, as far away from Christmas as possible. :)

I was sure it was a boy.... sure. I was looking at baby boy clothes and everything. But it really is a girl, She double checked. Gregs family had 5 boys in a row, and now... it'll be 4 girls in a row. So Kristina, if you want to have another girl, you'd better do it now so the streak doesn't expire. :)

Proof

This was taken August 1. I was 16 weeks pregnant, I felt HUGE. I couldn't believe the pictures, I didn't look that big, but looking down, I was enormous.

 This was taken today, Sept 5, I'm 21 weeks. And now I am enormous. :)



Please tell me it's perfectly normal to get way bigger with #4 than with 1, 2, or even 3??  I blame it on stress eating with selling the house, Greg being in CO,  moving, moving again... yes, blame it on the circumstances.

Overall, doing great, just feeling huge, and loving my maternity clothes, lots of stretchy things... AHHH. And anxiously awaiting the coming of fall and cooler weather.

Little Padawan

If Leah is the Jedi Master, then Colette is a Padawan. She is learning well the art of making messes with water (and other messy things)

Not 4

Greg told me the other day he's not sure 4 kids is going to be it for us.


HahahahahHAhaHAHAHAhahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAha!!!!!

I couldn't stop laughing. For me and for him. This is the man who said after Colette that 3 was good. :)

I reminded him that we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

And then I laughed some more. A lot.

More of Gregs Handy Work

I promised Greg that his closet work would get a post of its own. And sadly, it never did. It almost ddin't get any pictures!!!! But Greg made sure his iphone picked some up before they were done.

This is the girls closet. You can't tell, but there is this angle from the stairs beneath that makes the space at the bottom of the closet unusable. So, a little MDF and some paint and we have two shelves so that we could use all that space... you know... for about 6 months.

 Yes, they are beautifully staged photos, don't you think? Anyway, this was our solution for our long hanging clothes, of which we do not have a lot. There was eventually a bar underneath the shelf obviously, and yes, the caulk gun was still there.

 This is the long wall at the back, equal hanging space on either side of the shelving unit in the center. everything was built from scratch, no pre-made closet stuff. all the shelving was routered together. We were lucky enough to borrow Greg's uncles nail gun. Needless to say that is now on Gregs wish list.

 And the corner of "what do we do with this? Space. We added full height shelves and enough room to hang everything clear to the wall in the corner and still get to it.

I realize that these types of posts aren't very exciting, I'm not good at describing things in an exciting way. But there it is. My Christmas present from last year. Very, very sadly, I was only able to enjoy it for 6 months, but I loved every minute of it.

This was the hardest thing about the house to leave behind.... and the RO filter. :) we do love clean water.

Ingenuity

In our family we encourage ingenuity, making it work, or making due with what you've got. Leah's first pair of glasses was a perfect representation of this. Snapped right in half. Nothing a little craft wire can't fix!!! (don't fret, this was only until we could order her a new pair). Had to document Gregs handy work.