I'm not a bean person... but I am loving the Kidney Bean right now!

Yep...

our little babe

is the size of a kidney bean!

(photo courtesy of a yahoo search... DECLAN MCCULLAGH PHOTOGRAPHY)

Only three weeks of waiting until 

my very first visit with my 

OB.

There we will schedule

my surgery and get all the 

nitty gritty details of how this pregnancy

will go down!

One of my main questions will be,

(and he probably won't be able to answer it)

is when I am 30 weeks pregnant,

my sister is getting married about

2 hours away from my hospital...

I am the matron of honor and my

girls are the flower girls...

I so want to be there for my sister,

and experience the joy of that day with her...

but deep down I am preparing myself 

for him to tell me no... or we'll see

when we get to that stage...

I would be absolutely devastated if I could

not go and see her dreams come true!

So if you think of me in your prayer time....

I would love a prayer for my pregnancy

to go smoother than smooth, so 

that I can at least be seated front and

center to see my sissy get hitched! :)

I Love being Pregnant... but it doesn't Love me!!!

Sorry for posts with no pics...

personally I don't like them,

but I have no pictures and no energy

to take any :)

So to elaborate on my title...

I love the state of being pregnant...

feeling the baby move,

having the cute baby bump,

having an excuse to take a little 

extra food!

but and this is a BIG but (not butt)

pregnancy and my body

don't mix well together.

I often think if I were born 100 years ago,

I would never be able to have children.

I have what the docs call an

"incompetant cervix"

Yep... my cervix is stupid!

It doesn't know what to do after about 18-20 weeks

it starts to freak out and can't handle the 

weight of the baby!

My first baby was stillborn at 23 weeks...

she was beautiful and I had waited a long

time to have her, but God had other plans for me!

The doctors weren't sure why I went into labor.

I didn't have any infections... they were calling

it a fluke and we would monitor any future pregnancies!

After we were given the A-OK to go ahead and

get pregnant again we did... on our first try!

The high-risk doctor didn't recommend a cerclage (sewing me shut, to be absolutely blunt about it)

he used the words like diahrrea and it's like sewing your butthole shut... yep he used all those words together in the same sentence!... needless to say he isn't our doctor!

Alaina was born at 24 weeks... need I say more.

The third time around we switched to a different high-risk doctor and he gave me a cerclage... still at 20 weeks I was contracting and needed medication to stop them and lots and lots of bed rest!  About 4 months to be exact!

So this time around I am nervous and excited...

scared and happy all at the same time! This time around

it took us a whole year to get pregnant. 

Yes, this baby was planned, we are crazy :)

I'm thankful for this blog this time around to document my

feelings and experiences! I'm happy I have lots of sweet blog friends who will encourage me while I am laid up on the couch,

unable to pick up my children and do my daily mommy activities...

and let me tell ya bed rest sounds really great until you have to do it! but it's so worth it if I can make it to at least 36 weeks!

I will resume Etsy some time next week and it will continue for at least the month of January. In the beginning of February I will have surgery so I am not making any commitments after that!

If you have any questions I am all ears and will try to answer anything you are curious about!

Seeing Double!

double lines that is!

We found out we are PREGNANT!

Crazy,

fun,

exciting,

nervewracking

all mixed together!

We will be expecting the little 

guy or girl

sometime in July!

Trying to keep it Together!

It's the Monday before Christmas 

and I am not even close 

to being done with shopping for gifts, 

making some gifts and 

I haven't even dug out the wrapping paper from last year.

I had to scratch the handmade 

gifts for the teachers... 

it just got too late and 

I was too overwhelmed!

So here's to hoping for a better week!

Project 320

Don't forget to donate so you  can be entered to win your favorite bundle!

Click HERE

Wiped Out!!!

My sister came home from Africa this week!

It was such a fun thing,

anticipating her arrival!

Better than Christmas!!!

We surprised my parents :)

I drove to the train station to pick 

her up a day earlier!

My mom screamed, LOUD, 

when she saw her!

It was great!

What's not so great is being wiped out from the week.

What is hard? Driving 2 hours with kids.

What is harder? Driving 2 hours with a kid that gets

motion sick.

What is hardest? Driving 2 hours with kids, that one

throws up in the middle of a blizzard!

Then staying up til 4:30am talking with the sister...YIKES!

I have been trying to catch up with

precious sleep ever since!

It's not going so well!

and now

we are going back to my parents

to really visit with my sister and

see all of her pictures... all 1500 of them

and hear all of her stories.

Along with that we get to eat all

the yummy food she has been craving

and we are going to Target to do a little

Christmas shopping! Yay... she hasn't been to 

Target since the beginning of September... it will be fun :)

Christmas Vintage and some sewing!

Here is a tour of our Christmas tree

and some other random things :)

Here is our Griswald tree :)

LOVE IT!

The next few pictures are all

ornaments from Jeremy's late

Grandmas ornament collection!

Love them, so special! 

 

 

 

The next few ornaments are some

of my all time favorite :)

 

If you can't read what that ornament says...

Baby's First Christmas...

1979,

Yep... you read it right. I will be 

turning the big 3-0 next week!

Crazy to even speak of!

These were placed oh so carefully by our

3 year old :) LOVE it!

Her placement of the nativity 

is a little different than mine.

I had to take a picture of it though, 

it cracked us up :)

All huddled around the "beautiful flower"

she said they are smelling it!

She also told me her head hurt the other

day because her brain was too big.

I'm thinking I have a super creative

one on my hands :)

She also likes to tie knots! 

LOTs and LOTs of knots! 

I bought a pattern off of Etsy 

and I am determined to make it!

Even if it makes my non-pattern 

conforming brain explode! It's on hold

at the moment, cause I miscalculated 

the amount of fabric I needed! Yikes

it's a lot of fabric, but it's gonna be

worth it!

This is a sneak peek, cause it's a gift

for a family member and I don't

want to chance it that she would read this!

Also in the line-up for my

sewing machine are:

-a Tu Tu

-scrappy scarves

-pillows

-a belt

-Christmas outfits for the girls :)

Bad lighting + wiggly kids +

shiny ornaments that you 

can't stop touching =

a hard to take picture!

Hope you enjoyed my post!

On a fun note,

my baby sister just flew

in from Africa today.

She's been there for 3 months and

we were unable to talk

to her the entire time!

Talk about sister withdraw!

She is in Chicago right now

and I can't wait to see her

face! I am going to be 

the almost old lady that

I am and pinch those cheeks:)

 

TA TA!

The Spirit of Giving...

I am in LOVE with this new bunting!

This one is going to Kate McRae for

her Birthday!

She turns 6 the day after Christmas

and I believe she will be spending it

in the hospital.

Kim from the Tomkat Studios

is organizing a birthday

surprise for little, sweet Kate! Her

theme is Red and aqua...

such happy colors!

Also,

if you haven't noticed my newest

blinkie in the upper right hand corner

of my blog a new project

started my the oh so talented Julie.

Project 320.

It's based on the scripture

Ephesians 3:20

Now glory be to God!

By his mighty power at work within us,

He is able to accomplish infinitely more

than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 

Help us build a well for people

in Africa!

Real people.

children.

women.

men.

families.

Think of how much water you used today?

It's crazy when you really think about it.

showered.

flushed the toliet.

gave kids a bath.

washed the dishes.

ran the diswasher.

drank some water.

made lunch.

laundry.

washed my hands.

I'm sure the list is longer, but

the use of water for us is so 

second nature. We don't even

realize how much water we 

actually use every day!

So join us over at Project 320

and from Dec. 14th - Dec. 18th

you will have a chance to help

build a well and win some fun packages!

I have NO title for today!?

Well,

today started off

with the husband waking 

up and letting me know...

he has pink eye!

Nice!

(he drives a school bus

for all the little kiddos. wonder

where he got it?)

So with me and my painfully sore

throat I drug my butt out of bed

put on a hat and took Alaina

to school! I'm sure I looked great.

(hope you can sense my sarcasm!)

Came home to get the husband and

off to the medical center we go!

Great times to be had!

We were the first in line so we didn't 

even have to wait which was extremely nice!

Since we both were sick the doctor just

saw us at the same time, convenient!

He came in checked over Jeremy...

Yep, he's got pink eye and Bronchitis...

So as he's telling him about how to take

care of this pink eye thing. i noticed.

He never washed his hands when he came

into the room. Is it just me or is that sick?!

Then before I could say anything he came

over my way... and started looking into my

nose, ears, mouth... and he never washed

his hands...

I swear if I get pink eye...

Getting past the grossness of this

doctor never washing his hands.

I was diagnosed with Pharyngitis.

Extremely painful...

It got worse the day after Thanksgiving

with a fever and aches all over...

more fun times!

So now we are all drugged up

on Amoxicillian and him on

some sort of eye drops,

which I asked if the family could

use if we got it... and he said sure!

That's good, cause he probably gave it to me!

Geez.

That was our morning :)

During our afternoon we accomplished what 

we couldn't last night...

the tree is up and in good condition!

I rearranged the living room,

which is probably not a great idea

when you are sick.

I'm sure I lost 5 pounds sweating!

sexy!

I'm gonna put up some pics tomorrow of the tree :)