Christmas 2008

Here are a few pics from our Christmas. We really enjoyed spending it with family and seeing how excited the boys were. While I love the holidays, I will be glad to get back into a routine.

Colton Dale is here

Introducing Colton Dale. He was born December 5 at 7:23pm. He weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 21.5 in long. I started having contractions at 8:30 Friday morning, but they weren't anything consistent or painful. I had an appointment at 12:30 and was 4-5 cm so they sent me to the hospital. We got the boys all settled with friends and headed over. I was admitted at 1pm and he was born at 7:23. It was my longest and most painful labor yet, but he was worth it. I am doing pretty good. Still sore and tired, but getting along.

Nothing much going on here. Just waiting. I am hoping he will be here tomorrow, but you never know with these things. I am feeling really uncomfortable and am ready to be done. It is still a surreal feeling that he will be here soon. I know that we have everything ready, but it just doesn't feel real. I'm sure it will feel very real when that first contraction hits~ They say that you don't remember the pain, but I do. Probably not the full extent of it, but still remember what it was like.

I am so looking forward to meeting this little guy. I want to know what he looks like, what his personality is like and how his brothers are going to react to him. There are just so many unknowns it is kind of scary. I know everything will work out, just have to get him here. I have an appointment for an ultrasound, NST (non stress test), and a midwife appointment. I am hoping that she will help me along some and I will go into labor tomorrow afternoon. We'll see though.

If I don't post for a few days then you'll know what happened!

Advent tree

Here is our Advent calendar for this year. They boys are loving it. It is a great way to countdown to Christmas and give them a little treat too.



Here is the tree all set up with the boxes.

Each individual box. I got the idea from here (http://comeandpeek.blogspot.com/2008/07/favor-boxes-how-to.html)

And here is the inside of each box. There is a piece of candy for each boy and then an ornament to replace the box so their tree stays decorated.

Other than that not much going on here. I am officially overdue and I'm ok with that. I'm hoping he will hold out until Friday. My friend Jen had her baby last night. I was hoping to get to the hospital to see her, but with only a half day of school I won't be able to. I'm sure she is enjoying her new bundle of joy though.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Ours was nice and relaxed which is exactly what this pregnant woman needed. I am feeling pretty tired lately and ready to be done though I want him to hold out a few more days so that I don't have to stress about who is going to take care of the boys.

Here are a last few craft pics. I have one more project that I need to get done, but there is no rush on it and it is super simple.




Little baby booties. I am so happy I finally figured out this pattern. I love how they turned out and I will probably be making a few more pairs for the little guy.

Here is a Christmas gift all rolled up.

And here it is all opened up. It didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, but it is functional and cute so it will work.

Here is the baby blanket. It turned out really nice and cuddly. We will use it on the floor and probably over his car seat when it is really cold.

If you ever wanted to know...

what 56 dozen cookies looks like here ya go.

I spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday baking cookies for hubby to take to work. Usually I do it around Christmas, but with the little guy coming I figured I would do it now. Plus they have been really good about this whole deal with his messed up school schedule. There are sugar cookies, ricotta cheese, chocolate chip, Andes mint, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate cherry.

And here is a pic of the 9 month pregnant belly that kept getting in the way. I have been horrible about taking pictures this time around. This is actually the only one I have. I can't believe that I am due in less than a week. I am thinking I will go at least a few days late, but you never know.

Lots of pictures...finally

I finally found the camera cord and had time to sit down and download the pictures. It has been a crazy week here with strange schedules, lots of appointments, and just stuff going on. I have been trying to work on my to do list and getting things crossed off. Only a few more weeks before this little guy makes his entrance and I am starting to get worried that everything isn't going to get done.

I have made some progress on my craft projects. I am happy to say that I only have a few small things left to do. I'm hoping to get them mostly done by the end of the week. Of course that assumes that everything goes as planned and I know that won't happen around here!






This isn't the best picture of my blanket I made for my friend's baby, but I forgot to take one before I wrapped it up.




This is a table runner I made for my grandma. She is such a hard person to buy for and she doesn't have a lot of room for knick knacks. I figure this will look great on her coffee table.


Here is the back. I'm not in love with this fabric, but it does fit in with the leaf/flower theme of the front fabrics.

Here is the front of little man's birth announcement. You can't really tell from the picture, but the Welcome is printed on the computer and the baby is a stamp that I embossed. It is a blurry on the one edge because I smudged the ink. Also, there is a line of swirls and dots that I embossed with clear powder so it just gives it a little sheen.

Here is the inside. Obviously our last name will go where the white box is. The name isn't set in stone, but it is what we are leaning towards right now. The stats are just place markers so that I could get all the spacing right. There is a be a wallet sized picture next to the stats when they are all finished. I am really happy with the way it turned out. Now I just have to actually make all of them!

Here is a hat that I made for the baby, but it turned out too big so Cooper has taken it. I love the colors of this yarn and will definitely be making a smaller one for the baby.

Here is the same pattern, just in a different yarn and definitely smaller.

And finally...

the dreaded Christmas present quilt. This thing has been a thorn in my side since I started it. I love how it turned out and am really happy that I did it, but man was it a long process.

Here it is all quilted. You can sort of see the little squares in the middle. I stitched in the ditch around the two squares and then did a smaller square in the middle.

The backing is a really big four patch. I couldn't decide which fabric I liked better so I used both of them. I like how it turned out because now the quilt is actually reversible.

And a close up picture of the binding that was the bane of my existence for hours and hours. I hate hand sewing, absolutely hate it. Unfortunately, hand sewing the binding looks 1000 times better than trying to use the machine so I sucked it up and did it. YUCK!

I still have to finish my mom's chicken picture I am making, make a few more hats for the baby, and I am hoping that I can figure out the baby bootie pattern that I found. I am almost done with his baby blanket too.

Congratulations Beth and Andy!!! I am so happy for you two.

Pictures of my latest projects coming as soon as I can find the stupid camera cord.

Life has gotten in the way of writing out blog posts. I swear that I have all these ideas and thoughts I want to write about, but I just don't have the time.

Cooper and I were sick all weekend. I missed a friend's baby shower because of it which sucks. Jeremy's schedule is still all messed up. Hopefully we will know something tonight, but who knows. I have hit the miserable part of pregnancy. I am sore all the time and can't sleep. This little nameless guy has to stay put for a few more weeks, but I am so done being pregnant.

I have started nesting some just hard to do when you have no energy. We did get the freezer restocked with hopefully enough stuff to get us through the end of the year. We found this little meat place not far from the house that has awesome prices and quality. We ended up buying 65 pounds of various stuff for $170. I spent most of the afternoon yesterday weighing it out and freezer packing. I still have to get a few baskets for the deep freeze to keep in organized, but at least it is all in there. Next on my list is to do some baking for the freezer.

I am stressing out about not having a name for the baby, not having everything done, and worrying about what to do with the kids when I am in labor. My MIL will be coming out, but not until I am in labor and if this one goes like the last two I will probably only be in labor about 2 hours. They live 3 hours away on a good day.

Yeah, I am stressing.

Mini vacation

We decided to take a mini vacation this weekend while we did our Christmas shopping.

We got a really nice hotel and spent the weekend relaxing and shopping. We got about 90% of the shopping done which I am so happy about. I still have to get hubby's stuff and finish up the boys, but that is about it. Now the task of wrapping it all. Luckily hubby likes to wrap and is good at it so I will be putting him to work soon.

The boys had a blast swimming in the pool. Their swim lessons are really paying off. They both were swimming all over the place and jumping in the water. The only bad part was the hotel lost power Saturday night for a few hours. It was annoying, but at least the boys were already asleep so it didn't bother them. Then last night I was in the middle of watching Army Wives and our electric went out at home. Luckily it was only for a few minutes, but it was still annoying.

This week is jam packed with cleaning and finish up projects. Hubby schedule got all messed up which I am not happy about. Hopefully we will be able to get everything done, but I'm not sure. There are days that I really dislike his job.

Baby blankets

I finished cutting all the squares for the baby blankets that I am making. Luckily there are just 21 pattern and 21 solid squares for each one. I am hoping to get the tops done within the next two weeks. It will depend on hubby's schedule since right now things are up in the air.

I'm not sure which one is going to be ours and which one is going to a friend. Once I get them together I will let the boys choose. I'm guessing they will choose the train one, but you never know with them.

I love these simple blankets. They are perfect for putting on the floor for tummy time or throwing over the car seat to get from house to car when it is cold.

We are going to try and finish up the majority of our Christmas shopping this weekend. It feels very weird to be shopping in October since I am usually a last minute type of person, but I can't really do that this year!

Halloween Costumes

The boys just had to try on their Halloween costumes. They look so cute. I can't wait to see how they like Trick or Treating this year. It will be hard with Cooper's allergy, but luckily we have a stockpile of candy that will replace anything he can't have. I don't think he will mind too much as long as their is candy to eat!

My favorite jam

I love toast with peanut butter (or in our house sunbutter) and jam. Usually we just had strawberry or raspberry that my mom or MIL made. Then last April I went to a Taste of Home Cooking School and they made a Apple Berry Pomegranate jam that looked and smelled really yummy. Since hubby loves Pomegranate I figured I would give it a try. Oh my goodness it was heavenly. It made 5 small jars and we had it gone within a month. It has just the right combination of sweet and tart.

Apple- Berry Pomegranate Freezer Jam
Ingredients:
1 pkg (1.59 oz) Ball Simple Creations Freezer Jam Pectin
1 ½ C sugar
4 cups peeled, cored, and chopped apples
½ C pomegranate juice
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 C crushed frozen raspberries (don’t completely unthaw leave a little frozen)

Directions:
* In a large mixing bowl, combine freezer jam pectin and sugar, stirring until evenly blended
* In a medium saucepan, combine apples, pomegranate juice and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 5 minutes. Lightly crush apples and allow to cool 15 minutes
* Add apples and raspberries to pectin mixture, stirring until just combined. Continue stirring for a full 3 minutes. Ladle ham into clean 8 oz freezer jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Apply lids. Let stand until thickened, about 30 minutes. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.

My day in pictures

Yummy raspberry pie
Halloween cookies with the kids
Stupid football game
Coop haircut
Cody hair cut. Hubby got one too, but no pics of that.



Mountains of laundry.

Eaten pie while watching...

the Red Sox lose!