VOTE for ROM!

 

Politics are exhausting to me. I just get frustrated and my blood pressure rises. At some point, we all have to laugh at the ridiculousness of our politicians, but inevitably we must pick someone. Whatever you believe, GO VOTE! I have been shocked at the number of people I know who don't even vote.

Do your part and vote.

A Beautiful Ballerina and Miss Cheer Bear

First, let me start off by saying that Halloween is my least favorite holiday. Ever. But in the never ending attempt to give our kids an amazing childhood, I made an attempt at a festive celebration. I still have around 300 pictures to edit, including more pumpkin patch pictures, but I did manage to get the rest of our Halloween celebration pictures ready for their blog debut.

Without further adieu, I present to you the cutest little ballerina and Care Bear you've ever seen.

 

We had a bit of rain, but we had a blast nonetheless.

Earlier in October Grandma came for a weekend visit. She of course had lots of fun things planned for the girls. They did lots and lots of crafts and made these ghosts pizza. Grandma's are so fun.

   

This is before baking them. The cheese melted, and they were less ghostly but very yummy!

Halloween morning, we did school and then made cookies! They had fun making a mess...I mean decorating cookies. They were delicious, though we are now in sugar overload thanks to trick-or-treating and cookies. :)

Kayleigh's creations

Mommy's cookies

Campbell's creations

And a little Halloweeny Sloppy Joes. By the way, the Pioneer Woman has a delicious Sloppy Joe recipe. Mandarin oranges are a hit around here too. The girls would eat them all day every day if I let them. If you don't have kids, take my word for it and don't feed your niece/nephew/friend's kid/random neighborhood kid or whatever other little kid you might feeding too many oranges. It's not good. Even if you are handing them back to their parents, have mercy on them. ;) But that's beside the point. We have a very festive Halloween and the girls are already asking to do it again. Thankfully, it's a whole year away.

 

 

Bugs, Babies and Wish Lists

We have been MIA due to a fun little stomach bug. Campbell had a mild version the weekend before last. I really didn't think much of it until I was up all night Tuesday very, very sick. That's never really fun when you are pregnant. Thankfully Brett went into work for just a bit while we were still asleep on Wednesday and then came home and babied me and took care of the girls. Such a lifesaver that, for now, he has a pretty flexible schedule. I thought we were good to go until Kayleigh came down with it Friday. Poor little bug got the very worst of it. I think it just intensified as it passed between us. It is so very hard to tell a little one that she can't eat when she's hungry and her belly is doing somersaults. :/

Thankfully, I think we are over it, but not after I spent a week cleaning and doing laundry. On top of that, my SPD is getting progressively worse. SPD (Sympysis Pubis Disorder) basically just means my symphysis pubis (the middle of the pelvic bones that meet together) are moving a lot due to the ligaments all relaxing and are basically rubbing and clicking together. Yeah...not fun. I never had this with my girls thankfully, but I am counting down the days until this Little Man arrives. They referred me to physical therapy but told me that there probably wasn't much they could do. I also have a belly band that really doesn't help. Basically I'm stuck with tylenol and relaxing on days it is really bad, so we haven't gotten much done around here other than school (which is going great) and keeping the house in decent shape. This too shall pass. The doctor offered to induce at 39 weeks due to the SPD. Vaginal birth could cause more trauma to the bones meaning I could still have problems after birth, not to mention, I'm over being in constant pain. Assuming all goes well, we could have a December baby. Praying he decides to come before that or that the induction goes as smoothly as it did with each of the girls. I've been kicking it into high gear getting all the last minute things ready for him and I think we are pretty close to having everything we need minus the diapers. With just 8 weeks until then and Thanksgiving and Christmas in between, I know he'll be here before we know it!

On another baby note, there are such awesome things now that they didn't have when the girls were babies. I feel like they are still so little, but nonetheless, here are a few things on my baby/mommy wish list.

1. Nighty Night Nursing Light - The perfect amount of light to see for a diaper change and nursing session AND you can set it to vibrate after a certain length of time as an alarm in case you are in that mommy exhausted daze. It can also help keep track of which side you were nursing from last.

 

2. Little Green Pouch - First, they didn't have these handy little pouches available for store bought baby food when the girls were little. That little invention alone is pretty awesome, but being able to make our own food and use these reusable pouches is economical and so convenient!

3. The sugarSNAP Car-Go - This is the kind of thing that makes me giddy. Organization and practicality rolled into one. I'm such a nerd...and a mom...so I'll just own it and tell you how I NEED one of these. I will definitely be purchasing sometime before our PCS (military move...which we are praying will be a cross country trip). It has pouches to hold all the things you need with kids...spare clothes, toys/crayons/etc., DVDs, snacks, sunscreen, lotion, diaper cream...ahhhh...the possibilities are endless. You can take out a pouch to carry with you wherever you are going. Need a few toys to entertain them at the restaurant? Need some snacks for the zoo? It's all there in a nice little bag for you to toss in the diaper bag/stroller/backpack.

 

 4. iBaby Monitor - First, let me say we will not be purchasing one of these. I am way too cheap. We already have a cheap, practical monitor that works just fine, and this may be the last little one, BUT...it is super cool. 

  

My goals today include getting the Halloween pictures off my camera and getting them edited, so hopefully, I'll have a post soon with a cute little Ballerina and an adorable Care Bear. <3>

So I've been sewing...

I've been highly unmotivated, but I've managed to start tackling a few projects I've had in progress for...we'll just say I've been putting them off for a while now.

Lesa came down this weekend and the girls got to enjoy Grandma time, and we got a quick little sewing project done. I saw these on Pinterest and decided to make Little Man something cute. It was super, super easy, and they turned out adorable.

I used a flannel material for the fabric along with basic Gerber prefold diapers from Target, so they are super soft and will be great for burp rags.

I also started on the advent calendar for my girls. I made one last year for my niece and nephew but never got around to making one for my own kids. My great-grandmother made one of these for us when we were little and I loved it, but somewhere along the way it got loaned to someone else and lost. I handmade the ornaments last year and matched a Bible verse, but I stumbled across these on Pinterest and am going order these and modify them a bit (A few verses are Mormon scriptures, so I'll just change those up a bit.) Short of picking up a few more felt numbers, adding a dowel and ribbon to the top to hang it and sewing to the tree a little ric-rac for decorations and buttons to hang the ornaments, I'm done with this way ahead of schedule.

I made it a bit topsy tervy on purpose. Sewing all that felt perfectly straight was just too much pressure. ;) I think it makes it a bit whimsical for Christmas.

I whipped these up today on photoshop today. I was going to order ones on Etsy to iron on shirts for the girls to wear to the hospital when I realized I could make them myself. Duh! I'll just have to print them on transfer paper and iron them on some shirts. I can't wait for Little Man to arrive and I know the girls are going to love wearing these. I made ones for my niece and nephew too for when their little sister arrives. Yay for two little blessings for our family.

Don't be too impressed with my progress though. I've had fabric to make dresses for the girls for over a year. In fact, it is probably more like a year and a half. I have more patterns than I know what to do with too. I'm really, really hoping I can buckle down and make dresses for the girls soon. I'm thinking I'll follow this tutorial instead of one of the basic patterns I have because it is just way cuter. If I can just get over the overwhelmed feeling and start tackling it, I might actually get it done. Am I the only one who gets too overwhelmed to even start?

Anyone else crafting for Christmas or just in general? I've got a few other things on the list for Christmas gifts, but those are super secret. :)

Letters made FUN!

For the record, Pinterest is not the devil. In fact, I love it. It, along with a million other things, is about how I use it and let it affect me. (Someone please tell me I used effect vs affect correctly? It always drives me crazy, and just when I think I have it down, I get myself all confused. Shae? Mollyanne? Someone???) So, I love Pinterest though I have to limit my time on there and, more importantly, have to recognize that pinning a million things that I'll never have the time/energy/money to do is pointless no matter how cute/awesome/beautiful it is.

On that note, I ran across a fun little letter match-up on there but didn't pin it. Later I went back and searched for an idea and made these cute little big and little letter match-up. The girls LOVE it. We had fun sitting at the table making them one afternoon, and best of all, they sit and do them together. Kayleigh helps Campbell with the ones she doesn't know, and I especially love anything that involves sweet sister time.

I didn't use a template or anything. I just drew one up on cardstock and cut away, but I'm sure you could easily find one. Let me add, I am making huge progress in my Type A perfectionism. Me winging it and just whipping it up would never, and I mean never, have happened just a few years ago. I just love how my kids change me and help me let go. :)

Now if I would just order this laminating machine on Amazon we'd be good to go. It is on my "to buy for school" list for next month though. I'm hoping they don't get too much wear before then. Is it sad I'm dreaming of all the things I'm going to laminate??? I love homeschooling...most days. ;)

And just for the sake of a cute picture or three... 

Disclaimer: We were not driving. ;) I promise she is buckled when we drive.

How to not blow it...

A friend posted a link to this article. I love, love, loved it! Seriously...I LOVED it. Sometimes we let exhaustion, kids, stress, a busy schedule, a pregnancy, sickness, and a litany of other things be excuses for letting ourselves go with our spouse. We get lazy. We don't make them a priority. We just let ourselves be the unfiltered, icky version sometimes, while we muster up enough grace, smiles and energy for the rest of the world. If only you could see me hanging my head in shame as I type this. Guilty. As. Charged.

For that reason, I absolutely love little reminders (or a kick in the pants...whatever works) to get it together. He deserves it. My kids deserve a mom who puts work into her marriage. As we skip along in our 7th year of marriage, I am determined to make Brett feel as loved today as He felt the day I said "I do."

If you know me well, you know that I am in a constant quest to grow, learn and be a better version of myself. I'm just a student by nature, so I am so inspired and motivated by things like this. I hope you are too!

I mean seriously...isn't he worth it? :) Just as handsome today as he was 7 years ago, though I am shocked at how young we looked at our wedding. Are we really getting that old??? OK, don't answer that.

Perfection

As the end of this pregnancy draws near, I am fighting through exhaustion and heartburn and indigestion and aches (You know all the yucky stuff that isn't the end of the world but just makes you feel "ugh" day in and day out but you feel bad complaining about because you are being blessed with such an amazing gift? Yeah...that stuff.) to be the Mommy I want to be to my girls. My patience is a little shorter. My energy is a lot less, and my motivation comes in brief spurts. It is days like this that I have to remind myself that it isn't being the picture perfect Mommy every second of every day that matters, it is the big picture that counts. It is making memories that will last a lifetime. It is choosing our words and, more importantly, our tone of voice carefully. It is just being there, even if "there" includes an exhausted, lazy, snuggle up and watch movies kind of day.

With Pinterest and Facebook and a multitude of other influences, we have put extremely unattainable expectations on ourselves. I get down about not making that cool holiday craft or baking those adorable treats for every occasion or decorating their room like it could be in a magazine. Sometimes I just need a reminder that it is so much more simple than that. Sometimes in my attempt to do it all, I lose focus on what I should be focused on. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has lost my temper while making an adorable craft/cookie/thing and totally took over to try to do it "right". Maybe I am, but I'll pretend I'm not so I don't feel so bad, mkay? I'm not saying we don't have lots of great moments where we make great memories and do cool things and everyone has a good time. I just know that I sometimes stress about the wrong things or push too hard to "do it all."

It is in these times that a day of snuggling and just relaxing together helps me refocus and energizes me in my parenting. I'm convinced a lot of this kind of bonding is way more important than a cute painting to hang on the wall or an adorable, perfectly decorated cupcake to gobble up. I'm reminded that just being there is all they need.

So as I muddle through the exhaustion that comes with pregnancy and a new baby, I'm going to try to remember to slow down and focus on the important things...like snuggling as we sleep in, reading books and watching movies in our jammies all day, giving lots of hugs and kisses, playing a game or two, actually listening to them and choosing my words wisely. I'm going to spend a lot less time worried about what I could be doing to make their childhood perfect and just be the mom I am.

Because in their eyes, I'm pretty perfect...