Random Pic to Share

I am going through some pictures tonight from this time last year. Need to place an order for some scrappy assignments for this month. I can not believe how much the girls have changed in 12 months time! Anyway..
just a quick post to share one of the gems I came across....

I hope she got some new pjs shortly after this...

Progression of the Kiddo Group Pic

If you have kids, especially more than one, and you ever try to take posed pictures of them, you know it's not usually an easy task. I snapped a handful today and while they're not perfect (perfect being defined as everyone looking at the camera with smiles on their faces..which face it..probably won't happen all too often anymore ), they sure make me smile.

If Jonathan could say "help me". I'm thinking he would. It's just written all over his face.

*Oh wait* *Don't take the pic yet* *Somebody's got an itchy nose!*

Again with the "help me". Sorry little buddy. With these 2 as big sisters. It will be the story of your life.. hehe

Hair pulling 101 - Lessons in defense mechanisms for little brothers.


Look! Everybody's looking at the camera! No wait.. Jonathan's going to sleep.


"No, I'm awake Mom" But just barely!

I love these kids so much. The past couple weeks I've heard, "You've got your hands full." from a lot of people. And yes, it's true. But so is my heart. :)

Kiddo Pics

The Big Sis:

The Middle Sis:

And the Little Bro @ 1Month Old:

I really didn't mean to let two weeks go by before blogging again. I hope to get a little more consistent with blog posts. But for now here are some recent pics of the kiddos, especially for the grandparents. :)

Jonathan's First Page plus Dixie Pieces Contest!

This page sat on my desk for almost 2 weeks. I started it and then just didn't get a chance to finish it until this morning. Of course I had a little motivation called a "deadline" for Scrap Whispers.
The challenge going up today on the SW blog is all about the color blue. I've taken a few weeks off from the challenges but this was the perfect one to get back in the swing of things!


I used leftovers from my Dixie Pieces kits. I pulled just about everything I could find that was blue out of the kits and used it to make this page.
An speaking of Dixie Pieces, we are getting ready for a huge Anniversary celebration!

There will be a new challenge issued every Saturday starting on September 18th. You will have till the following Friday night to complete the challenge, post it in the gallery and link it to the forum thread. The challenges will be based on genres of music and will be fun, fun, fun! There will be no one voted off and everyone will be eligible to win prizes!

Prizes -- oh, fabulous prizes! We have some fabulous prizes for you! Let me give you a partial list of our sponsors: Maya Road, Jillibean Soup, Reminisce, Imaginisce, PK Glitz, Piggy Tales, Teresa Collins, and Scrappin Sports!

Grand Prize will be valued at over $300!
Random Prize will be valued at over $150!
Inspiration Prize will be a kit of choice from the store valued at $28!

So if you'd like to play along, make sure to head over to the forum and sign up!

Scrapbook Sussies September 2010 Reveal

I'm so glad that Lara at Scrapbook Sussies was able to get our September kits to the team early, as I was able to get these done for this month before Jonathan arrived.
The September kit is so colorful and fun. It's great for beach pics (3 out of 4 of mine are beach!) but it's also great for other stuff too!

For this first one I altered the black glitter thickers that came in the kit. I peeled the top layer of the chipboard thickers off and painted them yellow. I then added some stickles to give them back their glitter look.
We can't seem to go anywhere without at least one person asking us if the girls are twins, so this layout talks about that.


And then for the beach pages. I had pics from our trip with my parents and brother from August of 2009 AND pics from our trip this past June. So I used some from each trip.


You can check out the gallery HERE to see the other girls' work with this kit. AND if you haven't become a fan of Sussies on Facebook, be sure to do that HERE!

The Story

It's been 2 weeks and 1 day since Jonathan joined our family and it's already hard to imagine life before him.

He arrived 4 weeks early on Wednesday the 18th, with some minor breathing issues and had to be admitted to NICU. They give them a 4 hour transition period before deciding whether they need to be admitted to NICU or can go to the well baby nursery. After this amount of time had passed they decided he needed to be admitted because his respiration count was too high. (Normal is 30-60 per minute, and he was jumping around from 90-120)
Later that afternoon they took him out of the oxygen dome and he was on regular room air. Not much changed over the next couple of days. He continued to have a high respiration count but was able to stay on room air. I didn't get to hold him until the day after he was born. John snapped this picture the first time I finally got to hold him.

I was released on Saturday and the NICU Drs. were anticipating that he would need to stay just a few more days. We knew he was borderline jaundice which could possibly set us back a day or two. On Sunday morning his billirubin level was high enough that he had to go on the photo-therapy light. After being on the light about 24 hours it came down enough that we were able to bring him home on Monday afternoon. Here he is coming in the door and Abigail's first time to see him other than in pictures.
So the past week and a half we've just been getting used to the new normal around here. Actually I guess we're still a few weeks away from being back to some sort of normal. Our house is a total wreck, and while this does bother me I'm trying to be ok with it. I know I'm still recovering from the C-section and up half the night feeding and it'll all still be here for when I do get around to it! Besides I'm enjoying sitting around holding and hanging out with all 3 of my kiddos too much. (Even if the older two have decided to fight like cats and dogs lately and totally test their new boundaries.)