1 Month Gone

I can hardly believe Charlie has been here a month already! I cant believe it's been that long since I got more than 3-5 hours of sleep at night. (and more than 3 hours straight.) I'm glad I have done this before because I know about now I start to feel like I will never be able to do anything without a baby in my arms, we will never get into a routine, and I will always be tired. But I also know that sometime between the 6th and 8th week, like magic, things do get better so we are looking forward to that and enjoying this time with our tiny litte guy. (and in a month or so hopefully I'll be blogging more consistently- don't give up on me!)
Can you fund the baby in the laundry?

Free Card Downloads

Pottery Barn Teen has some new cute cards you can download and print from your home computer HERE. And I just discovered that Glitz Designs has a bunch of ready made cards you can download and print free too! Click HERE and then click on the little shopping bag that says "Bright Ideas" and then the "Downloads" tab and you'll see a list of cute cards made with their newest CD collection.

Plus they have lots of good ideas on their blog of things to make with their products.

And finally, the Epson Creative Zone always has a ton of great things to download and print.

I would like to thank...

Charlie will be 2 weeks old tomorrow! Besides all the help from friends and family with dinners and taking care of the girls, there are a few other things that have helped me get through these long days and nights- I have to give a special thanks to the following:

Lanolin. I would not still be nursing without it!

Pampers Swaddlers. Boys are different than girls. I have always been a Huggies mom. Pampers smell weird, and I don't like the way they feel. BUT, everytime Charlie peed, he soaked his back. Seriously, EVERY time! I don't know how he did it. I filled his laundry basket in 2 days. We switched to Pampers and no more leaks.And finally, a special thanks to good middle of the night TV shows! I don't recommend Food Network late at night as it usually makes me very hungry, but this show, Ace of Cakes is awesome! It's just about this bakery, Charm City Cakes, that makes the most beautiful, amazing cakes! Pastry Chef Duff Goldman and his crew are entertaining and crazy talented. Check out their cake gallery HERE. Very fun to watch, and it doesn't make me hungry.

Here's our sweetie! (finally)

His sisters are totally in love with him. (Sam & I too!) Besides being way too tired, we are having fun.

Been a little busy...

Charlie has arrived- last Sunday. I am working on getting the pictures, hopefully tomorrow! Last week I felt like I was in labor almost every night! Contractions would start around when I put the kids to bed, and then fizzle out a few hours later. Finally, Sunday morning I woke up around 1 hurting, and after a few hours of going in and out of sleep I finally was hurting too bad to sleep and got up and got ready. I spent all morning timing contractions and suffering, waiting for some kind of consistent pattern until I couldn't wait any more. We checked into the hospital around 2:30 and luckily for me they were pretty slow and happy to admit me and get that epidural going. Charlie arrived at 7:30 that night, a chubby and healthy 8lbs 1oz, without any major complications and we are both doing good! I don't get much done in the early weeks with a new baby, as you can see this post took me a week to do! Pictures of our handsome little boy to come soon!

Oilcloth Lunchbags

I got on a "craft of the day" e-mail list from MarthaStewart.com and the other day they had these pretty oilcloth lunch bags. I don't think I'll be making them any time soon, but I love them so it's filed away in my "to do someday list." Enjoy (click on the picture to see instructions for the lunch bag and also a pattern to make baby bibs)

Hillbilly/Red Neck/White Trash Party

Preston and Ginger had a fun theme party last weekend- I wish I had taken a lot more pictures! The party was out of their garage and Preston boiled up a million crawfish. Debbie let me take a picture of her with one: (yes, a lot of people were ACTUALLY EATING them!)Debbie and Shane: I won an awsesome recycled trophy for bringing the best side dish- proof I can cook! My Major Award: and the winners of the Best Dressed awards:And my country boy: (you may see him in this very outfit working outside many mornings)And me in my trashy shirt: (which you will NOT see me in again- it says "this shirt looks even better wet")

Kim & Derek: (who incidently cut his hair for the occasion, and is still sporting the mullet today) And David and Ruth, probably the couple everyone in the trailer park hates because they're so cute.

Easter Hams

Better late than never, here are our Easter pictures! The girls were really excited to wear their new dresses, and I was excited to finally find 3 dresses I liked- did anyone else notice there weren't a lot of options this year? Anyways, I didn't get anything good with them all together but they did ham it up for the camera when I had them one on one.

Costco Has Stationery

I think this is a special limited time promo they are doing with a printing company, but they have some really nice looking designs. I like to make my own cards and invitations, but these were too pretty not to share:And these were my favorite: I love how simple this one is- sometimes I think I have to try and get a lot of patterns to work together to make a good card, not so.

Can't wait to meet this kid...

I have about 3 weeks left and I know I shouldn't even be thinking about him coming early, but it's useless, I am ready to meet him! I can't wait to see what he looks like- I'm assuming something like his sisters... Unfortunately we didn't get a digital camera until Miss B was a few months old so I only have a handful of terrible 35mm pictures off our $30 camera from when she was born, so she's hard to compare but I think she looked a lot like her sisters- dark hair and skin, chubby cheeks...
Sorry for my lack of interesting blog posts- I'm very busy growing a baby here and it seems like I have little energy left for anything else! Even decorating my kids rooms, which I was looking forward to and ordinarily would consider very fun, just seems overwhelming now. Poor Charlie doesn't even have a room ready yet! I did re-wash all the clothes that his cousins passed on so at least he'll have something to wear now, and I cleaned out his closet!

The "very last first grader" to lose her first tooth!

Finally! We got a visit from the tooth fairy-she was hoping for $100 but was thrilled to get $1.

Time for a wide format printer?

The Epson 1400 color photo printer is only $250 at Staples this week after "Easy Rebate" and that's the best price I've seen for a nice printer that can do 12"x12"! So if you're big on printing your own scrapbook paper, or digital scrapbook layouts, or just like to print really big pictures, go get it! It prints up to 13"x19".

I love my Monday Morning Motivator e-mails

I get a weekly e-mail from Hannah Keeley- it's called the Monday Morning Motivator and it is great- I swear almost every week it's like she's been spying on my life and is writing exactly what I need to hear! I think I've blogged about her before, but I just wanted to share the summary of yesterday's e-mail, I wish I had actually read it yesterday because it would have been even more timely! Her daughter had made a "salad" out of the leaves of her houseplants, and had totally stripped one bare. It seemed a total loss but she kept watering it and soon it was growing back, better than ever. She thought it reminded her of herself at times: "All of the pride and ego that I have a tendency to hold on to is no match for my children. They can bring me to points in my life where the only direction I can go is up, and they push me to those new levels. When I need patience, they challenge me and help me develop it. When I need comfort, they push me and help me replace my need for comfort with character that can cope. When I have fears, they make me face them. When my vision is clouded with ego, they wipe it clean. No, it's not comfortable. Pruning never is; and it often takes away those parts of us that we often depend on. But when we are challenged, and when we rise to meet those challenges, it brings out a beauty that we never knew we had in us. They fill us out. They green us up. They make us better people." Anyways, if you want the whole article, let me know and I"ll forward it to you. And I highly recommend all moms CLICK HERE and sign up for her e-mails!

Ok, now I think I can unlock my bedroom door and go back to being an effective mom again!

Cute cards

I just wanted to show these cards- the first 2 I made in the card class at the scrapbook store and they were so simple and so cute! The last one Lindsey made for my birthday (months ago!) But I loved it and wanted to show it off for her :-)
Lindsey, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think she got the cute cupcake off the Glitz Create-a-Card CD and recolored it to match her scrapbook papers.

6 Week Countdown: things start getting ridiculous

The other day my nephew came up and slapped my belly and laughed hysterically and when I asked him "what's in there?" he said "a ball!" and thought it was really funny that I was hiding a big ball under my shirt!
And a tip for myself, and possibly other pregnant women, do not shop for clothing in the last 2 months of your pregnancy. You don't make good choices. You buy things because "oh, it's only $6! and it should cover my belly for a few more weeks! And since it's not maternity, I could wear it easily for a couple months after the baby is born!" Then you show it to your 4 year old to get her fashion stamp of approval. That $6 would have been better spent on lunch at Chic-Fil-A. Luckily I had a moment of clarity when I put it on this morning and it's going in the DI box. (but I had to take a picture of myself to laugh at first)

I like this clock

Besides being really cute, it looks like something I could make myself, and I really like that.

And this doorknob hanger too.

Meg Harper is on Etsy! And a new favorite blog...

My friend Meg Harper opened up an Etsy shop! She only has a couple prints in there right now but hopefully there will be more soon. They are from her Affirmations series and have inspirational wording woven throughout the paintings. You can check out her shop, artjoymeg by clicking HERE. And see a bunch of her other paintings on her website, http://www.megharper.com/.
Next, I think I found a new favorite blog today! Danielle Thompson has so many pretty things to look at, I added her to my list but I highly recommend taking a peak now HERE.

Back to Digital Scrapbooking

Ok no more controversial blog topics for me! Back to the frivolous things I understand better and prefer to talk about! Some of you have asked about digital scrapbooking, how to get started, and I came across THIS PAGE on Two Peas that totally tells you what you need and how to get going, so if you're interrested click that link! And if you just don't think you'll ever want to try designing your own pages, Shutterfly has beautiful ready made books you can just pop your pictures in! See this one and others HERE. My poor laptop hard drive is dead, but if I just get a new hard drive it should be great again, so hopefully I can talk Sam into letting me replace it when we get our tax refund! This old computer is so slow and short on space I can't stand to use Photoshop on it so I think I'm taking a digital scrapbooking break for a bit.

200th Post!

I've been looking forward to my 200th post! I'm not into politics, but the issue of illegal immigration is a biggie for me. I don't know if there is a "right" thing to do here, but I know what we're doing now as a nation is not working. I read THIS ARTICLE today and it is really sad. Read it, think about it, it's just not right to tear apart a family.

T.G.I. Almost Monday!

Sunday nights sometimes come with some gloom thinking about the upcoming Monday, but I have to say I am ready for this weekend to be OVER! It was frustrating and unproductive- I had a lot of plans that didn't happen, we started enough projects to just totally tear up my house and leave it a disaster area and I can't wait to start getting things wrapped up and put back together tomorrow! All 3 of my kids are sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the same (messy) room! One good thing from the weekend was trying out this odd little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant with really good tacos! Sam tried it out earlier in the week and since I was in no mood to cook by the end of the day Saturday, he suggested we go try it out. I wanted to turn around and walk right back out as soon as we walked in. No one spoke a bit of English, and they didn't even have a soda machine! We had to walk down to another creepy Mexican restaurant to pick up drinks! (and no Dr. Pepper there either)
Anyways, Valentines was good- I initially wanted to make a different kind of cookie every day of the week but after 3 days of butter and sugar I decided it was enough. We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with half chocolate chips and half Valentine M&M's, Peanut blossoms with Dove hearts instead of kisses, and pink snickerdoodles!For dinner the girls helped me make some super yummy heart shaped pizzas- since we did it last year it is a tradition!I got some Pomegranite Martini Mix and added it to sprite to make it pink and tasty. (FYI- it just tasted like cranberry juice in Sprite, for future reference, next time I think I'll just get cherry 7-up!) For breakfast I punched heart cookie cutters through bread before toasting it and that was much easier and just as impressive for the kids as heart pancakes would have been. I made Sam this Glitz sweetheart clear album (class at the scrapbook store) Yes I'm sure just what every guy wants for Valentines! But it was fun to make.and the girls got little baggies of dollar store stuff and they seemed to like it too. I hope you had a great Valentines and a better weekend than me!