Random Post

I really can't think of anything to write about at this moment. So I'll simply post a couple pictures of the girls I took yesterday:



I love these kiddos so much it hurts!
I don't know how my heart can handle a 3rd. But I'm sure looking forward to it.

Scrappy Monday

I have a bit of catching up to do, in sharing some of my latest pages. You've already seen one of my February Sussie pages HERE. But I haven't posted the rest of them yet! So here are the other pages I created with the February Kit.




This 3rd one also doubled as my page for Scrap Whispers this week. The challenge this week is "Novel Concept". Create a layout using your favorite childrens book. One of my all time favorites is the book I'll Love You Forever" By Robert Munsch. As many times as I've read that book to one or both of the girls, I don't think I've yet made it all the way through without welling up with tears. Such a sweet book.

We also just wrapped up a fun weekend online crop over at Dixie Pieces. My layout challenge was to use a border punch, and this was my example using the Feb. Dixie Pieces kit.

You actually have until the 18th of this month to get your projects uploaded into the DP Gallery, so even if you missed out this weekend, you can still participate. Just head on over to the forums to see all the great challenges.
Happy Monday!

Pregnancy Update

Disclaimer: The following post is for my own personal documentation. I don't want to come across like I'm complaining because I KNOW I could be feeling a lot worse, and we are more than thrilled to be pregnant. I just want to keep up with some of the details of this pregnancy and this seems the best place. So if you don't want to hear me ramble for a bit about symptoms, etc, you might want to skip this post!

So at this point I am about 9 weeks. I remember the tiredness and exhaustion that comes with the 1st trimester, but it seems to be much worse this time around. I just have no energy and stay tired pretty much all day. Now there are breaks, where I have a burst of energy and feel ok, but overall I am just zapped.
The nausea this time around is constant. I haven't actually thrown up, but I feel like I'm going to all day long. A lot of times I wish I would just puke, so I would at least temporarily lose the nausea. It's a lot worse when I'm hungry and there's a bit of irony there because I'm hungry most of the day but yet not much of anything sounds good. I end up forcing down food, followed by a few dry heaves, but still nothing comes up. (I told you, you might want to skip it..)
The most appealing things to me right now are fruit (very cold or fruit popsicles) and Yoplait smoothies. As of today, the Dr. called me in some Zofran (nausea medication) and I can already tell that it's helping. (Yea!)

One other side effect, which is a little odd, is that I have a bit of an aversion to scrapbooking. A lot of times, just simply thinking about it makes me feel sick. The same thing happened when I was pregnant with Abby. And if you're reading this, and familiar with my blog at all, you know this is a problem for me because it's such a big hobby of mine. I spend most of my evenings, after the kids go to bed, at my scrap table.
Now I do have Design Team obligations to meet, so I am pushing through it, but I am really looking forward to this odd side effect to pass. If it does the same as when I was pregnant with Abby, it was pass when I enter the 2nd trimester.

That's pretty much it as far as how I've been feeling. Natalie is so very excited about this baby. She's even "reminded" me about taking my "medicine" for the baby (my prenatal vitamin!).
And even today, she's offered me some of her goldfish crackers to "help my stomach feel better".
Abigail is just going with the flow. She's not quite old enough to understand what's going on. We do need to start thinking about transitioning her to a toddler bed. I want to have any issues with that worked out and her sleeping in one for several months before the baby gets here. The girls will also be sharing a room before too long. Lots to do in the next 6-7 months!

Conversations with a 3YO.

At Bedtime:
Natalie: Mommy, I want to sing the song about the 12 sons.
Me: You mean the one about the 12 tribes of Israel?
Nat: Yes!
(So we sing song..which is simply listing all 12 names, set to music)
Me: Do you remember who their Daddy was?
Nat: Jacob!
Me: Very good, and who was the son that he gave the coat of many colors to?
Nat: Joseph! (brief pause) And mommy, his brothers threw him in that thing.
Me: Yes, they threw him in a pit because they were jealous.
Nat: But that wasn't very nice..
Me: No, it wasn't. They ended up selling him as a slave. But it was ok, because God was watching over him.
Nat: What's that word mommy? What does slave mean? Is that like the thing that Santa rides in??

All Things Dixie Pieces

This was my first month designing with the Dixie Pieces kit. And it's such a fun and colorful one!
So without further ado, here are my pages and a card.

Journaling on this first one says: Taking a family photo is usually always an adventure. I'm glad my brother kept clicking in between posed shots. It tells a more complete story. Like how John just really wanted to show off Abby's baby belly!

(My cute nephew Wyatt features in the page above.)


I also just purchased the Slice die cutting machine with some Christmas Money, and I put it to use cutting the title and some flowers for "Outtakes" and I also used it to cut those big letters in "RICE KRISPY"The kit is on sale HERE. And you can see what the other gals did with it, HERE.

In other Dixie Pieces news, we have the 3rd annual Beat the Winter Blues Crop coming up this weekend. Feb 5th-7th. The crop will get underway on Friday, February 5th in the morning. Challenges and games will be posted all weekend. Can't scrap that weekend? No worries! The deadline for posting your creations is not until February 18th! That's right, you will have almost 2 weeks to qualify for the Grand Prize Drawing! Prize? Yep, you heard me right! The Grand Prize is a brand new March Kit and a goodie bag of fun stuff that Brenna & Sherry(the owners) picked up at CHA!
Put next weekend on your calendars and come on over and join us for some fun! The Design Team also used the Feb. kit for the challenge examples, so you'll see even more stuff created with the kit.