39 weeks and Ready to GO!

These back pains are driving me crazy! I've tried massage and the chiropractor plus rolling on two different sized balls and now nothing is relieving the pain! Ugh! Besides these back/hip pains I've been okay, just super hormonal and tired from yucky sleeps(due to back/hip pains!).

Baby girl is due this coming Tuesday (T-minus 5 days) and I wouldn't mind her arriving a few days earlier. Partially because I can't wait to meet her and also because I'm hoping that my body will start feeling better :)

Still no carseat installation.. but due to the layout of our van I don't want to move the boys until she arrives. It looks like I'm going to put one of the boys in the very back seat and keep our eldest next to the baby so as to help out with dropped toys, singing songs, etc. We could fit three across but then we wouldn't be able to stick any extra passengers in the very back too easily. I think I'd rather keep our options open.

I guess I'm pretty much done the nursery. All that remains are a few finishing touches that I won't be able to put up until after she arrives as we are keeping the first initial of her name a surprise :) Oh, and the mobile is half done.. I need to go buy some white felt and make some cute stars to go with the little pink birdies :)
Here are a few pics!

 Loving this fabric I bought online to make a change table cover!

To the right: Some of the tissue paper pom poms and my button artwork!

So glad I splurged a little bit ($100 off ebay - Thanks hunny!) and bought this adorable chandelier. Kind of funny though.. Jeff had to saw part of it off to make sure he wouldn't hit his head on it. 

 Here are the cute sleeping birdies that will be on the mobile. Just waiting on buying some white felt to make little stars and a moon.

I sewed pink pom pom trim to the curtains to spice it up a bit.. happened to have just enough left over to add to the lamp!    

 Yay for adorable girl accessories! Some of these were bought, some made by me, some made by friends.. i love them all! Can't wait to try them out on baby girl!

I couldn't bring myself to paint the inside of the closet before we added the closet organizer... but boy oh boy do I love how many goodies you can fit in when you have it properly organized!  No that is not a real baby in the baby seat :-p The boys have had me swaddle her up and have been playing with her like that!

It's pretty strange waiting for a little person to arrive when there is already so much going on in your life. Every night I try hard to organize the house a bit, make sure the dishes are done and things for the boys are organized, just in case I go in to labor in the middle of the night and someone has to come take over. I'd rather they walk in to a somewhat tidied/organized house than a crazy mess. Don't worry.. I'm not cleaning.. just tidying :-p Let's not get silly here! I think my cleaning phase has long passed. The nesting is complete.. I'm exhausted!The boys' bags are packed and ready to go because my Mother In-law is coming tomorrow to take the boys up Island for the long weekend! So exciting! I'm thinking it would be perfect if Jeff and I got one or two days with just the two of us and then baby arrived maybe Sunday or Monday :-p One can dream!

Full Term!! 37 weeks :)

Looks like I've made it to the end! Well.. sort of. Throughout each of my pregnancies I always worried about having our little ones join us too early, having to spend weeks upon weeks in a NICU somewhere or something. Hopefully we have bypassed that experience :) Supposedly baby should be fully developed by now and will be weighing in over 6 lbs at this point. In my pregnancy with Landon, he arrived 4 days from now.. so really it could be any day now. Or.. it could be 5 weeks from now! AHH!

Now that my busy birthday planning for Landon's birthday is over I feel so relaxed and I'm not really feeling too rushed to get baby out. I'm enjoying the boys so much lately. I just want to kiss and hug them and tell them I love them so much :) Maybe I'm trying to get in as many extra cuddles as possible before I'm too busy with a little babe. Of course I do get up between 3-7 times a night to pee or roll on my yoga ball because my hips are crazy painful.. but the days are still nice :) Tiring.. but nice :)

I've been working hard on our baby girl's nursery and I'm almost done! I've got a mobile to create and a few more photos to stick on the wall. I've also covered baby's first initial in yarn and will hang that up once she arrives - no name guessing!

Here is a photo of one side of the room :) I love how bright it is and how many Pinterest things I attempted!  I made the tissue paper pom poms, the tree button art, the Staples engineering print on the wall (obviously did not take the photo though), sewed pom poms to the curtains, and made the change table cover! I will definitely post more detailed photos when I get a chance.. but this is all I had for now and I wanted to share it!

35 Weeks with Baby Girl!

Wow, the last few weeks have flown by! Yahoo! I'm feeling pretty ready for this baby girl to join our family :) Of course it will be my luck that because I'm feeling so ready and somewhat organized that baby girl will stay inside the cozy warm belly for as long as possible.

Oh well.. I do enjoy being pregnant, minus the crazy hormones and lack of sleep due to hip and pelvic pains. Oh, and don't forget the back/purple leg due to varicose veins! I am SO sick of these prescription stockings.. ever have a pair of socks that cost $100 and were super hard to put on? It's oh-so-fun!

I know I will miss the belly, and the amazing feeling of the baby stretching and kicking. Right now I can feel the babe's bum and feet sticking out. She holds her feet in place often and you can feel the entire foot.. seriously, my hubby says he can practically count the toes! She's feeling pretty small still but I'm good with that. It will probably be another five weeks until she enters this world and by then she'll be just the right size.

The hospital bag is packed, the car seat is in the garage(so easy to install), floors have been scrubbed, parts of meals have been prepped, and the nursery is almost complete :) I've got some big brother kits ready to go for the boys, and we've asked a few friends if it's okay if we call them in the middle of the night to help us out :-p

Oh! And we've agreed on a first name!! Yahoo :) Of course you won't be finding that out until she's born but it's so nice to have a name.. it just makes me feel a lot more ready:)

We had a lovely maternity photo shoot over Easter weekend and here are some of my favs :) Thanks Jenn Foik from Foik Photography :)

 Loving the light in this one with me and my beautiful boys :) 

 Two of my sweethearts! 

 Listening for baby sister :) 

 I think I'll get this on a canvas to go with my pregnancy photos from Landon and Hudson

Love my hubby so much! Isn't he hot stuff?! That's my Hottie Mottie ;)

Emotionally Ready for baby?

Well, I am now 33 weeks preggo with babe numero 3! In case you missed the big reveal, it's a GIRL :) 

It's exciting and super scary at the same time. Exciting that I will have the three darling kids I have always wanted (the ones that I dreampt would behave so well, would never fight or yell, would never defy me, and would always sleep when they were supposed to).. Okay, so parts of that are true.. others, not so much. These boys are BUSY! People always comment about busy boys.. and some days I don't notice it so much until I see how the girls at Landon's preschool act. Calm, slower moving, and definitely quieter.  Does this mean that I'm going to have it easy later on... ?

Landon has been changing so much over the past few months. It's so neat to watch his development, and also hard to get a grasp on it. His imagination has really taken off. He is constantly making up stories using animals, tractors, dinosaurs and tupperware - you name the object,he'll work it in to his story.  He has also started being CRAZY! He is loud, uses wild new voices, talks back often, and flops to the ground randomly rolling around and making goofy faces. He has so much energy, yet he truly also enjoys playing on his top bunk for an hour with random toys or lego building. I love him to bits and can't wait to see how he deals and adjusts to this big life event of getting a baby sister. He has been coddling a baby doll lately - placing her in the swing, talking and singing sweetly to her, and telling me all of his responsibilities. We'll see how this goes :)

Hudson has also been changing so much. He has turned from the tantrum screaming munchkin to a super sweet chatty little boy. He gives kisses, lots of hugs, asks for more books, follows his big brother around and doesn't steal many toys, dotes on the baby doll as well, and is really starting to listen well. I'm tempted to think that he has somehow already experienced the terrible twos (16-19 months) but I think that would be very naive of me.  Lately he has been enthralled with trucks, dinosaurs, space ships, worms, running everywhere and jumping off of everything :) I'm so glad that this little guy gets along so well with his big brother and doesn't appear to get jealous at all when I hold another child/baby - i'm hoping that his transition to Big Brother will go okay.

I think what I'm more so worried about is how to give each of the kids the one on one time that they really crave.. especially Landon. I know how much time and attention most newborns need and I know that it will be an adjustment for everyone.

Alright so that wasn't the most exciting blog post.. I guess it's just what's been going through my head lately.

The next post should have some maternity photos in it!

Playroom Progress Reveal!

I've been wanting to post photos of the playroom updates for a few weeks now. Even though I'm not totally finished all of the fine tuning I just cannot hold back any longer!

Let us first have a look at what the playroom used to look like. This is the room that I spent the majority of time in over the past three years, 5 days a week... between 3-8 hours a day depending on the age of the children and their schedules. There were always things I wanted to work on, to fix up, or to paint. I did some of those things, but nothing too major over the years.

Yesterday was my last day caring for children other than my own! I plan on providing daycare in the future, but not full time, and only to two other children.. maybe a year or so from now, we'll see. I won't lie..I enjoyed caring for the other kids, but I'm soooo excited to move on to another chapter of my life. It must be some nesting instinct with #3 on the way.. for some reason all of a sudden I was in a huge hurry to change things up!

Here is the before photo. Of course it doesn't show everything.. but it you get the idea. It doesn't help that this was right after most of the kids had finished eating and we hadn't cleaned up yet.

 What it looks like now!

What you see when you walk in the door!  Would love these fancy chairs from Land of Nod but I'm pretty sure they're not in the budget :-p  I painted the walls (Stonington Gray), ordered some new storage furniture from Ikea (Expedit 16 cube), bought some hooks (JoAnnes), and found a $20 wood table on UsedVictoria and had Jeff cut the legs down in height.  Oh, and I ordered that fabric for the curtains online and somehow managed to whip them up on this past week!

 Hanging out the dress-up clothing instead of sticking it in a bin. The kids actually see it now and go to it. Still in need of a few bins in the shelving unit.. not quite sure what I want yet though.There are two small play tables & one main table - the one with the Little People on it I would love to turn in to a light table one day by following Play At Home Mom's instructions.

 Little play table in the corner for whatever they're interested in at the moment. Would love to find this table in white to go with the rest of the furniture and perhaps a little red, teal or white stool instead of this pink garage sale find :)

 Looking at the other half of the room. Train table gets used daily by both boys and the little kitchen has always been a hit.

 Little reading area with books displayed instead of just in a bin. I find they ask me to read to them more and/or go pick out books to look at more often. Finally have some of Landon's artwork hung up too!

 Cute little A & Z bookends holding some lovely books I scored from a school I worked at. They are all This is ______  books that are from about 40 years ago describing European cities.

 Letters, map, chalkboard, felt board, nothing board (what do I do with this!? Would love to make it a magnet board), and toys bins! Toy bins need some new labels one day :) 

Hands and feet of the boys :) Need to be hung but I'm not in a hurry...

There are still a few more things I would like to do including hanging a few more pieces of art and some family photos between the two main windows. However, I'm pretty happy with how it looks right now! It's so nice to have finished this inside project just in time for March - which means more time to concentrate on the garden :)

28 Weeks with Baby #3!

Since I haven't wrote on here in a long time I have not filled you all in on my pregnancy thus far. Heck, I haven't been writing in my journal either so this info is brand spanking new!

Here is a little update on where baby and mommy are at :)

Size of baby:Baby is about 2.5 pounds and is around the size of some Chinese cabbage - ever had that before? I sure haven't! She's also around 15inches long - not too much more growing to do in terms of length! Landon was 19, and Hudson was 21!

Maternity clothes: All maternity pants, some non maternity tops. However, The tops I'm wearing that aren't maternity are definitely not shrinking back to non maternity size :-p I need to find my shirt extender as a few maternity tops are becoming too short! I am so thankful for many lovely friends and family member that have given me maternity clothing over the past two years - I've got tons of clothing that I'm excited to pass on to someone else one day :)

Gender: It's a GIRL!! Her name is totally undecided. Today we have an ultrasound to check baby's size and we have agreed to talk seriously about the name after we confirm for the third time that it is indeed a she and not a he! Whatever we decide we will be keeping as a surprise! This name picking thing is tricky though.. with the boys we knew what we wanted really early on.

Movement: Sooo much movement! I love it! :) So far she is not kicking as hard as the boys once did, but she is also quite small. I'm guessing that in the next few weeks I'll start to get some huge kicks. It seems like she moves a bit differently that the boys ever did. Lots of crazy rapid fire kicking! I'm also finding it pretty tricky to guess where the parts of her body are in there - maybe I'm just not far along enough yet?

Sleep: It seems to go up and down. I'll have serious hip pains that keep me up for a few nights in a row, then I'll sleep fine for a few nights. Next we'll move on to insomnia for a few nights, and then back to some other discomfort issue! Oh pregnancy! I keep telling Jeff that we have 2 more years until there is a good chance that we are all sleeping peacefully again :) The boys are fantastic sleepers so it's going to be hard going back to a newborn's sleep schedule.

What I miss:  Alcohol, believe it or not! I've been craving a sweet, cold, crisp glass of white wine with citrus flavors on a weekly basis. I would also like to have a HUGE sushi feast after baby arrives :) Lately I've also been missing going for a run and feeling in shape. I've gained a lot of weight already and my hugeness is starting to feel quite blah. I'm walking a lot, but it's just not the same!

Symptoms: Insomnia, hip pains, SI pains, and severe baby brain! It feels like my brain just turns off for portions of the day. Oh, and don't forget the crazy varicose veins! I would love to post a photo to explain but it's just too gross. It's mostly in my lower left leg near my ankle. I wear prescription strength support hose but by the end of the day when I take my socks off it looks terrible! Definitely need to put my feet up more!

Best moment this week: Watching both the boys pretending that they have babies. Hudson carries around a life size newborn doll kissing it and putting it to sleep - it's super cute! Landon had his monkey in his make believe baby carrier (his sweater) and was taking it places and brushing it's teeth. I hope they'll be nice to their baby sister when she arrives :) Judging by the amount they love to wrestle/tackle I have a feeling that she will be toughened up pretty early on. 

I'll post a photo in the next few days!

Life is Grand & Full of Clean Laundry (sometimes) !

I was looking through my blogging history last night and reconfirmed that I am indeed a very sporadic blogger. There just hasn't been a lot of time left over at the end of the day to spend time writing about how busy my day was! I've been caring for other people's children for close to three years - and throughout that time I've had a new baby, raised my two little boys, and then become pregnant again. Between all of that new baby and pregnancy crazyness I just haven't been too energetic in terms of blogging... I wonder why? :-p

Anywho! At the end of January I stopped looking after two little munchkins a bit earlier than expected and I must say.. life is just so much easier! Not that being a stay at home mom is easy, but I am definitely enjoying spending more dedicated, one on two time with my beautiful boys. I am still caring for one other little one twice a week but it feels like just a playdate, and the boys fully enjoy it :)

There is of course this slight issue of no income which I will have to work around.. but I think with the weather starting to turn in the next month or two, and all of the free/cheap playgroups & playdates that we should be able to make something work :) Thank goodness for a Spring baby!

I would love to be one of those fancy mom bloggers that do amazing things to their houses... instead I'm one of the wannabes that do some lovely things, but not quite to the standards of the fancies. Over the past few months I've been working on the downstairs entrance area along with the help of my very handy husband! He created a laundry basket sorting/storing area (see below photo) where I can either place clean/folded or dirty laundry and have it stored out of the way. I was thinking of putting cute labels on them but I'm not too sure yet how they will be used. Ideas? The photo below mine was my inspiration.

Looking at the photos, I love what we've done, but it seems to need a pop of color or maybe a rug or something...I would love walnut laminate flooring but we're not considering that for a few more years. Maybe a bright turquoise chevron rug.. ? It's just such an awkward shaped space that I'm a little clueless.

That area to the left of the cabinet is something new too! It's an art hanging area where I'm able to hang up the boys' artwork.. maybe I don't need those picture frames above it..? Thoughts?

The door beside the art hanging area leads to the playroom that I am so excited to tell you about also.. maybe in my next post!

Thanks for reading :)