Guess what.

This is going to come as a shock to my faithful blog followers (all three of you).  I'm human.  Gasp!  I know, I know.  It's hard to take in, but let's call this confession time.  I am NOT super mom!  IF they remember this summer at all, my boys will remember it as the one they spent in the sprinklers and in front of a screen.  We didn't do swimming lessons, we only went to the park three times, and we rarely left the house.  I didn't even sign my boys up for soccer this fall.  I let them watch WAY too much TV and play WAY too many video games.  My 2-hour rule was thrown out the window back in June.  My house is a mess most of the time.  I get by doing what's absolutely necessary.  I haven't really exercised for months, and most days I live in scrub tops, Allen's shirts, and yoga pants with hair dye stains on them.  I probably do my hair and makeup once a week--Sundays--IF then.  I've been a total hermit, and it will probably stay that way for another two months until I get the hang of having a newborn again and get my rear end to the gym.

It's always amazed me the difference exercise makes.  When I'm not exercising and taking care of myself, I have very little energy to take care of the other things in my life.  At least I can see this and admit it, and I know I won't continue to be a hermit forever.  I'm not sure my boys care or even know what they are missing.  I think they are just happy to be here (Oh! To be a child again!).  They don't seem to care when I'm being lazy and the bathroom isn't cleaned, or there's a pile of unfolded laundry on the living room floor that I've been avoiding for too long.  I know what they are missing out on, though.  I know how things *could* be.  But in the end, will one lazy summer really make a difference in their lives?

I love floral prints.

 I made this crib skirt for the baby last night.  It took me about 4 hours.  I love the finished product.  I just wish I had a white crib.

I still need to make a valance and a crib sheet.  I originally wasn't going to do much of anything with the nursery, especially since we were hoping to be moved by now.  But I'm really hating those yellow walls and want to paint them an aqua color.  I'm not sure I have it in me, though, especially since we don't know how long we'll be here.

So, I'm 35 1/2 weeks pregnant now.  Last night after finishing up the crib skirt I kept getting contractions, but they were mostly in my lower back.  Weird.  They were 3 minutes apart for over an hour, but once I was able to get some sleep they went away.

This boy is 18 months old now.  Seriously.  Where did the time go????

Grayson is such a little 'helper'.  He loves to help mess up the house.  I can't really pause do do much of anything without him getting into something or climbing on something.  His new favorite thing is taking a drink and then letting it dribble out of his mouth onto the floor.  Not so nice when I step on a puddle of milk in the middle of the living room.  I think I need to be better at picking up after everyone right away.  No more leaving boxes of cereal or glasses of water on the counter for him to dump out.  He loves to get up there and play with cups of water, milk, juice, or whatever.  First, he'll dunk his hand in there.  Then he'll plop whatever else he can find into the cup of liquid.  He really is a sponge when it comes to learning.  He can count to 10--he usually skips 7, though.  Every day he is saying new words.  He repeats what we say, just like a little puppet, and he's starting to speak in sentences.  Not long sentences, but things like "I want apple."  I love this kid.  He sure keeps me on my toes.

Projects for baby

One fun thing about having a girl is that I've found I actually WANT to sew again.  I've done Halloween costumes for the boys in the past, but it's just not as rewarding as sewing a cute little dress.  Here are the first two projects I did for baby.


This quilt/blanket has a soft minky dot backing.  For those who haven't sewn with minky before, it is a PAIN to work with.  It's recommended to use a walking foot on your machine, but I don't have one, so I ended up cutting off a ton of minky in the end.  I'm still happy with the way it turned out, though, even if one corner is a little curly.

I decided that rather than spending $40+ on a blessing dress, I would make one.  I contemplated learning to crochet because I REALLY wanted one like this.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/76958739/the-ella-crochet-baby-dress-christening? (Beautiful, isn't it!?)  But I just don't have the budget to be spending $100+ on a dress that baby will wear once, and I don't have the patience to learn to crochet.  I'm sure it would have been one of those why-did-I-even-start-this-project moments (like when I tried to sand and re-stain my old crib and changing table--BIG mistake).  Anyway, eyelet is the next best thing, in my opinion.  I found this adorable white eyelet fabric on ebay for $12, and I used this tutorial to make a dress.  http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2012/01/infant-peasant-dress-free-pattern-and.html  I lengthened it a little since the blogger said it's meant to hit right below the knee and I wanted it longer.  Here is the finished product.  Again, I'm really happy with it and had a lot of fun making the dress.  The pattern was so simple and easy too!

I know the lighting is terrible.  Sorry!

My next project for baby is a crib skirt.  I haven't decided if I'm going to make a bumper for the crib.  I might get to that project if I'm feeling ambitious or get the nesting bug.  This is the fabric I'm going to use--Garden Rocket in Turquoise.  I am in love with floral prints right now.  I'm going to use a coral pink print as an accent color.  I'm in the process of ordering swatches of different prints now, and then I'll make the final decisions.  I really like aqua with pink right now, but I just don't want to overdo it with the pink.

I'm also thinking about sewing another dress with that same peasant pattern.  I got a turquoise eyelet fabric, but it's kind of stiff and scratchy, so I may save it for something less delicate than my baby's skin.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to have a small 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1500-1700 sq ft home.  Cleaning this place is going to put me into labor.  Too many bathrooms, too much empty floor space to spread out the mess.

3rd Trimester!

I will be 29 weeks pregnant on Tuesday.  It's nice to be in the final stretch to meet this baby.  Hopefully she comes at 38 weeks like her brother does.  I don't think I'll know what to do if she decides to go the full 40 weeks.  I'm already impatient enough as it is.  lol  The weirdest thing, all the sudden my nausea has come back.  Granted, it's not as bad as it was in my first trimester, but I don't remember this happening with my boys.  I guess it's the only thing that seems to be different between this 'girl' pregnancy vs. my 'boy' pregnancies.  It's strange to be gagging again every time I brush my teeth.

I had my glucose screening last week to test for Gestational Diabetes.  I failed the 1-hour screening by 30 points, so I have to go take the 3-hour test tomorrow.  Ugh.  They make you drink this highly concentrated glucose drink (tastes like really bad gatorade), which I chug down to make it more tolerable, then they draw your blood every hour for 3 hours.  I'm not looking forward to spending 3 hours in the lab, but at least I'll have my Kindle this time.  We didn't have these kind of gadgets when I was pregnant with Hayden and had to do the 3-hour test.  To be honest, I have been terrible and eating a TON of sugar and carbs with this pregnancy.  I think I have otter pop juice running through my veins.  Even if I pass the 3-hour test, I am definitely making some changes to my diet right now.  I know it's not healthy to eat like I have been, and while I'm doing much better than I did when I was pregnant with Hayden, there is always room for improvement.  I'm worried that IF I have GD my midwife won't be able to see me anymore because I'll be considered "high risk" and I'll have to transfer to an OB.

I also have low iron, so have to start taking an iron supplement.  I'm not surprised about that one, though.  I have had to take iron with a couple of my pregnancies, and I don't think the gummy vitamins I've been taking (instead of prenatal vitamins) have iron in them.

Sweet Parenting Moment

Hayden decided to bring his scriptures to church today.  During sacrament meeting I watched him read the first two chapters in the Book of Mormon.  This was all his idea and all on his own without any prompting on our part.  I don't know how much he got out of what he read, but it just touched my heart to see him make a decision like that all on his own. 

Thoughtful boy.

Hayden did the sweetest thing this morning. We were up in my room playing for a little bit (and being lazy).  He went downstairs and came back up with a bowl of cereal for me.  Then he went down and got a gogurt and a glass of water and brought them to me also.  Breakfast in bed!  Then he went down and got Torrin a bowl of cereal and made himself a sandwich.  Sometimes he can be so thoughtful and sweet.   It makes me want to cry that he is growing up so fast!