Recovery

Hanging around this weekend recovering from outpatient surgery yesterday. A little sleepy and a lot sore but I'm slowly on the mend.

Catch you all after Thanksgiving!

Currently

Current Books: Have been rereading At Home in Mitford a page here and there as well as James Dobson's Bringing Up Girls.

Current Playlist: Have been in the mood for classical lately - Aaron Copeland's music is a favorite! The girls have been listening to a few songs from the musical Seussical which we recently saw at our local children's theater. It was excellent!
Current Shame: You know those tins of popcorn that they sell at Walmart every year at Christmas time ... I *love* them. Especially the caramel. : )

Current Color: chocolate brown and deep Christmas red

Current Drink: decaf iced tea and the occasional diet sprite

Current Food: nothing jumps out at me as something we're having a lot of lately. I did make these brown bag burritos the other night and they were soooo good. They will be a lunch staple for me over the next several days.

Current Favorite Favorite: Right now, I'm thinking January may be favorite month. A month off from all these dr. visits and procedures!

Current Wishlist: Um, just to name a few things I have my eye on ... the new Jan Karon/Mitford book, this bag, and some of this sticker/label paper. It's so fun to play with.

Current Needs: Nothing really, even though it's fun to make wishlists. Well, I could do with a bit more sleep.

Current Triumph: On most days, just getting done with what I need to is a triumph right now. : )

Current Bane of my Existence: The laundry. I really do like doing laundry, but I was just telling my husband last night that it seems to have quadrupled of late (and it's not just the baby's fault!)

Current Indulgence: Breaking out the Christmas movies a few days early.

Current Mood: Too many jumbled together to mention, but they are mostly good. : )

Current #1 Blessing: Truthfully, our insurance. We thankfully have very good insurance and even though bills are rolling in for me and the baby and we still have the gall bladder stuff to look foward to, it's not entirely overwhelming.

Current Slang or Saying: Shhhhhh....

Current Outfit: Jammy pants and an old t-shirt.

Current Excitement: Our trip next week to Gatlinburg with my family. Looking forward to our time in a cabin, looking at beautiful leaves, and relaxing.

Current Link: Love this little serve sign. It's on it's way to me as part of my Christmas ... now where to put in in my house is the question. I usually never buy little decorative kinds of things, but as we are house-hunting and talking about what features we want in a home and how we want to use it, this sign JUMPED out at me as something I want to display and be reminded of for a theme for our home.

Happy Friday. : )

6 Weeks

You are six weeks old and the time is flying by! We are getting more and more smiles from you which we aLl LOVE! In the past week you have firmly settled into sleeping on your tummy at night and for most of your naps. I can usually count on at least one solid 4 (maybe 5) hour stretch in the evening, usually from about 8 until midnight or 1 a.m. It would be nice if it happened at the same time I was sleeping! We have been working with you on taking a bottle since Mama has to have her galbladder out and can’t nurse you for a day or so. You are doing okay with it if necessary, but your preference is definitely Mama. Next week is yor first road trip and family vacation for Thanksgiving. You aren’t the best carseat traveller at times, so hopefully you take a good long nap while we’re on the road. We can’t wait for the time away for lots of extra snuggles with you.

Layout details: Template was a freebie from The Daily Digi (The Missing Digi Files #13), papers from Crystal Wilkerson's Me and My Little Brother (also the van), Me and My Baby Brother, and the orange stitching is from her Halloween kit, I believe. The font (if I remember to use the same one as my other layouts) is CK Ladder.

Wordless Wednesday

I keep thinking I'll find a moment to post, but it's not happening ... a few pictures to fill in for me. : )

The little mermaid and her pet turkey ...

What my floor really looks like some days ... a lot of days.

Reading, reading, reading ... even if it's not in focus.

Our mystery/detective loving girl has discovered Clue. We've played a game every day since her Daddy brought the game home for her.



The Simple Things

 Newly 7.  

Linked to The Simple Things photo challenge at Rebecca Cooper's blog.

5 Weeks

You can click the picture to see it bigger in Flickr.

Journaling:    
     You are just over a month old! We are starting to see even more of your beautiful blue eyes as you are getting more alert with every day. You are the popular kid on Sunday afternoons when the whole family is over after church. We are going to have to start some sort of ticket system to keep track of whose turn it is to hold you. This past Sunday you had some extra special snuggle time with Grandpa and Dr. Lawson, one of Grandpa’s best friends.
    Today, you had your one month doctor appointment: you are 12 lbs., 5.5 oz. (95%) and 22.5 inches long (75%). I already knew that you had been growing because some of your 0-3 month outfits are already getting too small for you! You are such a great nighttime sleper, Ethan. By that, I don’t mean that you don’t get up to eat a couple times at night - you do; But you are great about going back down after eating and letting me get a little sleep. Now, our project is to work on getting you good and full during those nighttime feedings so you will sleep just a bit longer.
    I think Daddy said it best the other night when it feels like our family is complete with you here, Buddy Boy.

All elements by Crystal Wilkerson. I used elements from her Me and My Brother pack and I think some from one of her Christmas packs. (I'll try and be better about remembering what I'm using.) The template is from Cathy Zielske and from the same pack that I used last week for his 3 & 4 week layout.

Christmas Cards!

A few weeks ago I ordered some baby announcements from Shutterfly, and I was recently given the opportunity to blog about some of their Christmas cards. Since I was completely thrilled with the baby cards, of course, I said yes. : )

I'm going to be combining the baby announcements and Christmas cards in the same envelope so I mostly looked at their 4 x 8 size cards that they offer. (They also offer a flat card that can be either 5x5 or 5x7 and a fold-over card). We're hoping to get a good family picture over Thanksgiving so I specifically looked at the card options that had room for one good sized single picture. Some of my favorites are:

(Yes, I love that deep chocolate brown color and especially if it has that splash of deep red in it). : )

If I had to pick my Christmas card today, I would go with the middle design that says Merry Christmas and has the simple ornaments on it. In my opinion, you can't beat the quality of the cards that you get from Shutterfly. I have ordered photo cards from them and from Costco and while I love the convenience of Costco being down the street and the fact that I can pick up the cards in an hour or so, the cards from Shutterfly have a more finished and professional look to them. I.e., the foldover cards are on thick cardstock and have a great heavy weight to them as opposed to a more glossy photo card. And, another nice thing, if you want to get a jump start and send your cards out soon they have Thanksgiving cards ... or if you are a little late to the game, there are New Year's options as well. (I'm keeping those in mind with as busy as this fall has been for some reason!)

Thank you to Shutterfly for the opportunity to blog about their cards! In the way of disclosure, in return for this post, I will get 50 free Christmas cards. Thank you!

The Simple Things Photo Challenge

 

 The Simple Things Photo Challenge hosted by Rebecca Cooper.

4 Weeks

You can click to see bigger in Flickr.

Journaling:

4 weeks: you have been part of our family for almost a month now! We are starting to see a few first little smiles and I can’t wait to see more! Your umbilical cord fell off about 3 days ago - finally! - but I had gotten tired of waiting to give you a real bath and you had had your first little sponge bath the day before that. You smelled so good! You are eating great during the day time - we are going about 3 hours between feedings, and yesterday you had your first attempt with the bottle while Mama had some unpleasant dental work done. You ate enough to get by but definitely prefer Mama to feed you. We need to work on our nighttime feeding routine for sure. You and I are both so sleepy that one or the other falls asleep and then we get to do it all over again about 2 hours later. You are worth it even on no sleep, Buddy-Boy!

All elements by Crystal Wilkerson. Red paper from her Dino Romp in Red set and the brown paper and yellow ruled paper from her December Solids Paper Pack. The template is from Cathy Zielske and from the same pack that I used last week for his 3 week layout.

Guess What I'm Working On?

Also known as how you can tell this is baby #4. : ) The girls had sweet little handcrafted invitations that I put together. Some how I don't think the boy will mind that I got him these cool ones from Shutterfly. : )

3 Weeks

You can click the photo to enlarge it in Flickr. The papers & little car are from Creativity by Crystal. (I think I used papers from both Me and My Little Brother and Me and My {Baby} Brother and the notesheet is from her Room Collection Elements.) The template is Cathy Zielske's (Template #3).