This Is What Happens....

When you turn the shower on for the boys (since they got their heads shaved) and then go downstairs to finish shaving your husband's head...

She really didn't want to wait to get into the shower with her brothers...and boy did that diaper weigh a ton!!!

Mud Cookies Anyone?

On Tuesday morning in honor of it being Logan's last week at our house her Mom Jen bought the kids a new toy set to play with.

If you know my kids or any kids for that matter you know how they LOVE to play in dirt. This was so perfect and right up my kids' alley.

The first thing the boys had to do was go down to the backyard and bring up dirt to the table. The table mind you that I had JUST cleaned the day before...oh well...they played so well and so long that it was worth a dirty table. I added the water and mixed it together to get the dirt to the right consistency.

I wasn't sure if Ella would want to get involved, but she did not want to be left out.

Here she is pretending to eat her mud cookie.

Jack's mud star cookie.

Mmmm mud...yummy!!!

 Logan wasn't interested in the mud, but she had fun helping clean up.

 Later in day the boys wanted to play again, but the mud had dried up a bit. So I let them be in control (read...I'm big and pregnant and didn't want to get off the couch) and get the water on their own. I did tell them to only add a little at a time. You can imagine my surprise when they came inside and told me the dirt was too runny. When I went to check it out this is what my deck looked like! At least they had fun and thankfully Daddy has a power washer! 

Slowing Down & Prepping For Baby Z!

I just noticed that the ticker on the side of my blog is saying there is 37 days left to vote on whether or not Baby Z is a boy or a girl. Wow....for some reason that seriously seems like just a short time! I haven't really paid attention to the actual number of days in a long time. I've been more focused on the fact that I still have over a month to go, but when I think of it in terms of days...oh my!

Life is definitely slowing down at our house and I couldn't be happier! Jack graduated from Occupational Therapy a little over a month ago, I stopped taking the boys to Taekwondo at the beginning of April and I just recently decided to stop going to my Wednesday morning Bible Study. I wish I could keep going, but right now I know that my body needs me to tone it down.

This is also my last week to watch Logan and then I'm on maternity leave. I'm excited to just have my kiddos for 4 1/2 months. And next Monday is our last day of homeschooling and then we'll be on summer break. I'm so proud of all 3 boys and their accomplishments. It's been neat seeing the progress they have made and I'm excited to see what they learn and accomplish next year. We are planning on taking them to a Fire House and then out to MCD's for a big end of the school year finale. We have also talked about having a "program" sort of day so the boys can show of their skills for the Daddys.

I've been waiting until I'm longer watching Logan to make a few changes in preparation for Baby Z. Since she sleeps in the pack and play that Baby Z will I haven't been able to adjust that for a newborn, but at the end of the week I will. I'm also looking forward to being able to take the baby gate of the stairs. All my kids are fine with going upstairs and so is Logan, but I do like having the ability to keep her downstairs since the upstairs is still sort of a novelty for her and she is a sneaky little girl! ;) We are going to be switching things up in regards to the seating arrangement at the table. Since I won't be able to pick Ella up after my C-Section we are moving her into Owen's old chair that has stairs so she can climb up on her own. Owen will be moving into a normal dinning room chair. They will all be moving to a different seating location at the table. If you know Owen you know that he does NOT do well with change so we'll see how this goes. Another thing we will be changing is the seating arrangements in the van. Owen will be staying where he is so he won't be upset, but Jack will be moving up. He is going to sit up next to Baby Z's car seat...this is something he's actually excited about!

I've also been going through my wardrobe. When I first when through my maternity clothes I wasn't really thinking about spring/summer clothes, but after today it was time to take out some of them. Man I've been getting hot lately! This week I'll be 34 weeks and I'm planning on packing my suitcase for the hospital soon. Ever since having Owen 3 weeks early I've always made sure to have my bag packed by 35 weeks. I'm not sure when this baby is going to come, but if I had to put money on it I would definitely say Baby Z is going to come before my scheduled C-Section and if you ask me I'm fine with that!

Ella's First Hair Cut!

We are having family/maternity pictures taken later this week so in preparation I wanted to get my hair freshly cut. I also had been toying with the idea of getting Ella's cut too. No huge changes just something to even it out since they had to shave the back right side of her hair when she had surgery. The first thing I did was have her sit on a stool and watch me get my hair cut. I wanted her to see that it wasn't hurting mommy so she would know it wouldn't hurt her.

Before hair cut!

Her hair really was quite long in the back and most of the time it looks just like this...frizzy.

To help her feel more comfortable I sat in the chair and she sat on my lap facing me. Other than turning her head a lot and getting a little ticklish she did really great!

Since my hair stylist Bridgett has two girls she showed me how to do girl hair and she even put Ella's hair up.

Side Note: See the black eye...yeah she didn't have that when she went to bed on Thursday night, but Friday morning...black eye! Thankfully pictures aren't until this Saturday!

Side view!

Bridgett cut her hair in an A line cut and it turned out great!

It was fun to have our first pamper session together. I tell you I am absolutely in love with this little girl. I love sharing things like this with her and she is just so wonderful! It's crazy for me to think back to when I was pregnant with her and how I was absolutely adamant that it NOT be a girl. Thankfully God knew better than I did. She is such a joyful addition to our family!

33 Weeks 1 day!

On Thursday I went in for another ultrasound...my doctor wanted the radiologist to take a really good look at the fluid on the brain of Baby Z just to make sure everything was normal. She decided this at my last appointment since I mentioned the fact that Ella has Hydrocephalus. It's not like it's genetic, but she just wanted to catch it early if there was anything to catch. Praise God everything looked great.

Baby Z's profile!

I didn't really get to watch much of the ultrasound since I didn't want to accidentally see what Baby Z's gender is. I did get to see Baby's cute profile and face. The pictures didn't turn out as good as it was on the screen, but it's still fun to have the pictures. Seeing that cute baby face and lips...oh my...I can't wait to snuggle this cutie patootie.

For some reason it still hasn't really hit me that we are about to have a baby. I think it's partially because I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. I haven't been able to talk to my stomach and say the baby's name. Don't get me wrong I still talk to the baby, but I feel like this time around there has been a bit more of a disconnect. I can't wait for this baby to come though!

Baby is looking right at you...tilt your head to the right...black spot on the top is the eye socket then the black spot under is the nose socket followed by the other eye socket. Baby's hand is up in front of the mouth.

Speaking of baby coming...I would seriously be shocked if I make it to my scheduled C-Section date of May 31st. First off they are estimating that this baby is over 1lb heavier than a typical baby at 33 weeks gestation. Secondly I'm measuring 3 weeks ahead at 36 weeks. Lastly I better not go until the 31st because I'm ready right now! :)

Jack's Felt Tic Tac Toe Game!

Today while the girls were napping and the boys were watching Cars 2 I decided to see if I could start and finish Jack's Tic Tac Toe game. Again I used The Big Shot to cut out the circles....love it! The 'X's' I had to just freehand and cut out.

Then I cut strips of white for the board. This does not in any way, shape or form look perfect. Felt is so hard to cut straight and I haven't bought myself a rotary cutter which I've been told by a couple friends is what I need in order to do so. Oh well...homemade isn't supposed to be perfect!

Jack was standing next to me while I was doing the finishing touches on it and he all of a sudden really looked at what I was doing and said, "Mama it's a Tic Tac Toe game!" Then he asked me who it was for and I told him it was for a special little guy and he asked if it was for the new baby (we still don't know the sex) and I told him, "Nope...it was for a special guy that was standing next to me!" That's when he got a big smile and said, "It's for me!" He's just so precious!

Here is the finished product. I made a pouch for the game pieces just like I did for Owen's Checker Board and I also used elastic and a button for the closure too.

Right after finishing it the boys and I played a couple games. This is the first game that as you can see ended in a cat. I think this is really going to come in handy on the plane or at restaurants while we wait for food. It was much easier to make since I already had the whole concept down from doing the checker board and there weren't nearly as many pieces to sew. All in all it took a little over 2 hours to complete.

Owen's Felt Checker Board!

After finishing one page for Jack's Quiet Book I got this idea for a felt checker board. I was kind of still working through ideas for Jack's book so I decided to put that off and work on the checker board instead.

My Big Shot and my sewing machine have been getting used A LOT!!! I'm so happy that my friend Kim has the circle die. It was so nice to not have to individually cut out 24 circles for each color for the checker pieces. As it was I still had to sew them together.

Kim also has a flower die that I used to make the crowns...it's just the end of the flower petal cut off. Even with a felt checker board you have to be able to make your piece a king!! I was not going to sew all those little crowns on though so enter the hot glue gun!

Here all all the pieces and the checker board cut to size.

I wanted little pouches to hold the checker pieces so I used Kim's Top Note die and cut two of them in red and two of them in black. Then I cut about a 1/3 off one of them, sewed Velcro on the whole one and then sewed them together to make a pouch.

Completed pouch filled with 12 checker pieces. They barely fit in there!

To cover the area where I sewed the Velcro on I decided to sew on a buttons.

Unfortunately Stampin' Up doesn't have a die for The Big Shot that will cut squares so I had to cut all the red squares by hand. Then I had to pin them to the board. I hate using pins! I just do...first off I always end up getting poked and then it's just another step added to the process. For this though I HAD to do it. There was no way they would have stayed in place while I did all that sewing. I decided to use the zigzag stitch to put the white lines in around the squares. It ended up looking a little wavy, but I really like it.

Before sewing the black board to the red cover I added ribbon straps.

I was kind of done using Velcro so I wanted to do something different for the closure so I used a button and some elastic instead. Then I stitched the black board to the red cover using the zigzag stitch again.

Here's the finished board!!! I started this project on Sunday afternoon and finished it on Monday afternoon. Don't worry I haven't been neglecting my kids they are still getting fed...now my house that's a different story. :)

While at Walmart today I picked up some cool buttons for Jack's Quiet Book so I've got a fire under me to make that now. I'm also planning on making Jack a Tic Tac Toe board. Oh the wonderful things you can do with felt!!!

Ella's Quiet Book AKA What I Can Do in 24 Hours!

On Thursday night I found this idea on Pinterest. I had been wanting to make a quiet book for Ella for some time, but had never really seen one that didn't absolutely make me feel completely inadequate when it came to sewing. This one seemed doable though and I had just been given a TON of felt. Also I figured this would be a great thing for us to take on the plane when we go visit family in Wyoming later this summer.

Here is the front cover which is funny that I'm showing to you first since it's was actually the last thing I sewed. I used my Big Shot die cutting machine to cut the flowers on the front cover.

Here's the first two pages. Flowers (also cut out with the Big Shot) that can be picked.

Side note: See the dark spot in the lower left corner. Yep new camera and it's still there. After playing around with the camera a bit I am almost positive that there is nothing wrong with it except it's a bad design. I honestly think it's a shadow from the flash because of where the flash is located on the camera. I need to call Panasonic this week and talk to them about it. Lame I know!  

Here are the flowers in the vase.

After finishing the vase I decided that Ella would need a watering can to water her flowers. It is velcroed to the page so it can be removed and if you look close there is a little strip of blue coming out the spout to look like water.

Here are the next two pages....a refrigerator with food and a plate.

The food in the refrigerator can be used to make a sandwich and the containers at the top of the page are mayo and mustard that can be spread on with the knife.

Here's my shout out to the good ol' paper doll.

The armoire holds her clothes and shoes.

The last page is a bit scary just because it's so hard to make a persons face and not have it look scary, but thankfully kids are picky. On the left is a purse that can be removed and it's filled with all sorts of goodies.

Here is the lady with all her goodies...two hairbows, earrings, broach, necklace, hairbrush and lipstick.

I had SO much fun making this for Ella. I completed it in 24 hours...I amazed even myself, but I just couldn't stop sewing. Thankfully the kids love to watch me sew. Really it wasn't that hard in fact I didn't even use any templates I just freehanded most everything. Plus felt is so forgiving when it comes to sewing.

Don't worry I haven't forgotten about the boys. In fact I'm going to make Jack a boy quiet book and I'm going to make Owen a felt medical kit. I already started working on Jack's quiet book and just to wet your whistle here's a sneek peek at it....

The Day After!

Just to recap here is what Ella looked like on Easter Sunday. Throughout the day she slowly changed her clothes. First her dress came off so she wouldn't get it messy while eating. Then she wanted to wear the new shirt and socks that Uncle Ry and Aunt Stephie got her. She was a FASHION PLATE I tell you!

This is what she looked like the morning after! This is after I had taken her tights off and she had already taken her socks off so it's not the total picture, but you get the idea. I had her hold her baby doll up because I thought it was funny that they were identical.

The kids were super excited to play with their new toys so I strayed from our normal rule of no toys at the table and let them play while they ate their super nutritious breakfast of Pop Tarts!

Jack had fun with his Star Wars characters.

 Owen was gearing up to pillage and plunder!

Ella was enjoying drinking milk out of her new princess cup!

Easter 2012!

The kids were all so excited to get dressed up in their Easter clothes. Getting their pictures in them...not so much! This was the best out of the batch!

Love the snuggly one though!

You might think that this is Ella posing and showing off her shoes, but it's actually her being a stinker and complaining about wanting her shoes off.

This is the picture that I have been dreading...that lovely picture that finally shows that pregnant fat face is here. I don't notice it so much in the mirror, but the camera absolutely adds 10lbs directly to my face. Ella's super cute though!

Ga-Ga had the kids Easter Eggs and empty egg collecting baskets in the family room waiting for us to hide the eggs. Ella decided why should she wait for us to hide them...she just went over and started putting them in her basket. This is her showing Pa her eggs she "found".

Cute little stinker!

Kids all ready to hunt for eggs!

And there off! It was SO nice to be able to "hide" the eggs outside.

The boys were all over the place.

Ella walked outside and immediately noticed the bubbles and got a little sidetracked.

We had to lead her in the right direction in order for her to get any eggs.

Owen found the one that I hid in their mailbox.

Jackers was a great hunter! In fact he loved getting the eggs that Ella dropped because she was running too fast and they would fall out of her basket!

Checking out their candy!

The eggs were filled with lots of jelly beans!

And here is all the candy the kids got! Seriously we have enough candy to last until Halloween....maybe! ;)

At our last MOPS meeting Owen's class made Resurrection Eggs. Owen has had a blast telling the story over and over. He's so cute and anal about how he does it. He has to say the number that's on the egg, shake it, open it, talk about it and put it back and then do it all over again. 12 eggs can take quite awhile for him to get through. This time he told the story he decided to add an additional step...eating a piece of candy between each egg.

The kids got totally spoiled by Ga-Ga & Pa and Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie. On top of TONS of candy they all got shirts, socks, Pez Despensers and bendy straws. Ella got hair clips, a Princess cup & little people toys. The boys each got Play-Doh and Star Wars characters. Owen got Pirate gear and Jack got a plush Darth Vader.

While we were hanging out before the kids opened their baskets Jack came up to me and said, "I got Darth Vader in my basket"....he and Owen had gone upstairs and found their baskets before it was time. It was so cute that he tattled on himself.

Owen has wanted a "spy glass" for so long...he was pretty excited to get one.

Other than breakfast the kids seriously didn't eat anything of nutritional value. There are a few days in the year that this is expected and Easter is definitely one. Towards the end of the night Ella and Jack did eat some strawberries.

On the way home all the kids ended up falling asleep in the van. Then once we got home the boys woke up and started complaining about going to bed and that they weren't tired. It was a bit dramatic and totally expected.

Last but not least...the family Easter picture!

This picture brings up a bunch of emotions for me. See this time last year we had a similar family picture taken at our churches Easter breakfast. I was pregnant with Kyan at the time and showing, but he had already died. We didn't find out until the Friday after Easter though. It really tainted that picture for me. I am so overjoyed that this year I'm pregnant again and Baby Z is doing well. It just goes to show you that you never know how much things can change in just one year!