The Big Project of 2012

And one that just seems to keep getting bigger and bigger each week is this one...

Surprise!!!

I'm pregnant!!!  

We are just super excited over here and I have been just dying to tell you all, hooray for fun news to share!

If any of you were wondering just what happened to all the craftiness on this blog over the past few months, well, it was getting flushed down the toilet numerous times a day.  I'm now into the second trimester and I'm finally starting to feel like my old self again.  I might get nauseous one evening a week now and I'll spend a good two days out of the week dealing with migraines caused by hormones and blood pressure changes but to me that's peanuts compared to feeling nauseated 23 hours a day and constantly throwing up all time.  

We are so thankful to be blessed to add to our family again and we feel extra blessed to know such wonderful friends who helped out when I wasn't feeling so good.  So many friends offered to watch Noah, Penelope, and Eloise so I could rest and brought meals when the last place I felt like going was the kitchen or grocery store.  Thank You Thank You Thank You from the bottom of our hearts!

So to bring you up to date on the kid count, we will have four little munchkins come summer time.  All four kids less than two years apart in age.  Four kids five and under.  Thank goodness we bought that minivan, those carseats take up some serious space!

We are still debating finding out the sex of this little babe.  We didn't with the other three but since this juuust might be our last we may bite the bullet and try something new.  How much crazy baby crafting and sewing and knitting could I do with all my second trimester energy if I knew the sex?  Maybe we shouldn't go there.  Or should we?  Hmmm, less than a handful of weeks to possibly finding out.  

What would you do?

XOXO,

A Boobie Cover

Ahhh, to have a few spare moments just for me...between nursing and changing diapers and playing with the older kidlets...I just LOVE me some "ME" time!!! I know it's a bit weird but I have to admit that I relish the time I get to craft, sew, clean dishes, do the laundry and pick up the house. It's a definite stress reducer for me. There is just something calming to me in the fact that I have a few moments to myself to do things that make me happy, and yes, I am well aware that the phrases 'doing housework' and 'makes me happy' are in the same sentence. You had to know I was weird like this from reading my blog for so long...unless you are a newbie here, than welcome and hello to you :)

Anyhoo, I get a few such moments each day, little ones, but moments none-the-less. In one of those moments the other day I finally made myself a boobie cover aka a nursing cover. I wanted to do this during my pregnancy as they are easy enough to make but I wanted to make it in either girl-style or boy-style and since we didn't know Eloise was a girl until her birthday I had to wait on it a bit.

I just love my finished product...what do you think?

I didn't do a tutorial on this as there are tons of them out there (and I mean T-O-N-S). A few that I found that I really liked were here, here, and here. I didn't really follow any of these exactly but took from them what I liked to make mine.

And just a little note from me to you, I used a home decor weight fabric that was 100% cotton for breathability as well as I made a pointed end at the long strap to make it easier to feed through the D-rings. Cause we all know that when your nursing and you got a hungry babe on your hands you just need whatever makes life easier...and it adds a pretty touch to the nursing cover to boot, holla!

I love it!

Yuppers, I'm one happy momma right now

Later gators!

27 weeks along...

Ok, here's me and the belly. 27 weeks and kicking right along. I'm getting the heart burn and indigestion now and loving every minute of it...or not.

My hubs and I went through all the old week-by-week photos we took when I was preggers with Noah and Penelope last night. You know, trying to compare the bellies and face fat and figuring out if it's sitting high or low...all the good stuff.

Our conclusion...we have no clue. This baby is still a mystery to us. I think it would be fun to run some sort of poll and do some type of give away with the person who gets it right...not sure how blogger likes gambling though.

Soooo, Boy or Girl? What'cha think???

Live, Love, Life

So, I wake up today with tired and red eyes and a headache from all the pressure of sadness from this weekend. On Saturday, my husband and I attended the memorial service of a dear friend of ours who died way too young at the age of 36. Our amazing friend, Bobby, was diagnosed 7 years ago with an inoperable brain tumor. The doctors had given him a window of 5-7 years to live. He just surpassed his 7 year anniversary, living strong with his cancer when things took a turn for the worse and within 2 months he was gone. He died right before Christmas. It's been pretty sad here ever since.

I write this not to make you sad too, as you probably all know someone with cancer or inoperable tumors of some kind. But, really I just wanted to share with you how he lived his life. Bobby lived his life to the fullest. My husband met him in college, and I met him when we moved to Illinois 4 years ago. He was the most amazing person. Always up for an adventure, ready to gather friends and family at a moments notice, even when he was at his worst he would send an email out telling all of us to come up with something fun to do because even though he was undergoing chemo he didn't want to sit around and waste time feeling miserable. Can you believe that!

This morning, with my red and tired eyes I opened up my email and saw this week's MOPS International email waiting for me in my inbox. If you don't know what MOPS is here is an excerpt of what they are all about from their website, they can explain themselves better than I can at this moment in time:

MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. MOPS International exists to meet the needs of every mom - urban, suburban and rural moms, stay-at-home and working moms, teen, single and married moms - moms with different lifestyles who all share a similar desire to be the very best moms they can be! MOPS recognizes that the years from infancy through kindergarten are foundational in a mother-child relationship and are filled with unique needs.

MOPS helps moms through relationships established in the context of local groups that provide a caring atmosphere for today's mother of young children. MOPS also encourages and supports moms through resources such as books, this website and the MOPS International Membership.

I joined my MOPS group this past September thanks to an amazing neighbor and friend of mine, Kate. I am so happy I did. This week's MOPS email spoke to my heart in so many ways. Here is what part of it said written by Alicia Britt Chole:

"Wisdom calls us to de-clutter our days, to allow each good thing enough space to be appreciated and enjoyed, to savor beginnings and endings as opposed to blurring these moments by rushing toward the next great thing. Each moment is a treasure..."

It ended with the devotional, "God, help me treasure each moment for its own sake."

Wow, could this have been more fitting. I really wanted to share this with you because I want you all to realize how we need to live life to the fullest. Life is short and for some of us it is much shorter than we could ever possibly imagine. Our relationships should be cherished. You can always make more money but you can't make more time. Bobby really did treasure each moment for its own sake. He was a truly amazing person.

I wanted to leave you with what Bobby always ended every email with, "Make sure you tell the ones you love that you LOVE them. See your family and friends as much as possible. In harmony, Bobby"

I just wanted to pass this along to you...take his words and live by them.

Life is Precious!