Weekend Rewind

Hey hey hey!  Welcome to one of the greatest weeks of the whole year -- FAIR WEEK!!!  We LOVE the county fair at our house and it has officially started for 2015.  Going to be a busy week for us, lots of fair time, so don't worry if you don't hear from me a day or two this week. Now for the weekend rewind!

It all started with Friday, and Friday was HOT.  Luckily there was pool time in our plans!  The boys had their last swim lesson for the summer that morning. Andy came to watch, like he does for all of their 'last' lessons, then we went to lunch quick so we could rush back home to go to our local pool for the afternoon.  The boys are loving going to the local pool - they have their friends there to play with all afternoon and I think in the two times we've gone it's helped with their confidence in their swimming - awesome!  They have to keep up with their friends so they are pushing themselves just a tad more, love it!  Darn, why didn't we do this last summer?!?  And the word on the street is this small local pool won't be open again next summer - it just costs too much and they are already running in the red every summer.  What a bummer!!!  I hope this isn't true.

Friday night Aiden went to his 4-H mentor's to work with her sheep to get ready for this week's Clover Kids Sheep Mentoring program.  He's worked with Raigan 3 times now and they are ready for the show!  Friday night they washed Raigan's sheep and her dad sheared them.  While he was with the sheep we went to my aunt and uncle's place to pick sweet corn. It was so blazing hot still, and there was no breeze but we managed to pick three laundry baskets full to freeze.  To reward ourselves for our hard work we went to the local ice cream joint.  I got their new Peanut Butter Campfire Crunch.  Holy moly, girls, YUM!  It was the perfect amount of peanut butter flavor, plus had chocolate chunks and graham cracker crunchies in it - delicious!

We snacked on our treats on the way back home, picked up Aiden then set up around the wheelbarrow and shucked corn.  It took us about an hour, not too bad.

Saturday morning bright and early we were up and at 'em again.  We had a quick breakfast then Andy went out to set up the turkey fryer for boiling the corn.  That worked so slick!  We could blanch the corn 3 times faster with the fryer than in the big black canner I normally use.

Once I was able to cool the corn off I started cutting it off the cob.  That is my favorite part!  Well, after snacking on that delicious yellow gold while cutting it off, that is the BEST part!  And Tate would agree - I can't get him to eat corn, ever, but once he took his first bite I couldn't keep him out of my bowl!  I totally understand, Tater!

Once we had that mess cleaned up it was time to get ready for the fair!  Saturday was the day for judging non-livestock projects, and that includes Clover Kids projects!  The boys and I headed to the fairgrounds while Andy stayed home with Tate.  We got there a tad early but it was a good thing, they were starting the judging early!  The boys were numbers 10 and 11. Brennan was so darn nervous, poor thing.  I remember that feeling.  But when it was all done he said he had fun!  This is Aiden's last fair as a Clover Kid, in the Fall he'll be a full blown 4-H'er!

Look at these two handsome boys!

Happy 4-H'ers!

After we finished up at the fairgrounds we rushed back home to get ready for some friends coming over for the evening.  What was supposed to be a big party with a bunch of friends turned into a semi-quiet evening with 5 adults and 5 kids.  I made a ton of food but luckily because we nibbled and munched all night we didn't have too many leftovers.  There were jalapeno poppers, restaurant style salsa, bacon wrapped chicken bites, Chicken Lips dip, deer meat and chocolate sheet cake.  My friends brought puppy chow (heaven!), taco dip and sliced up apples.  A huge spread and none of us left with empty stomachs!

It was another hot day and night so the kids had some fun with water balloons, the sprinkler and slip n slide.  Our friends brought this super cool water balloon filler -- it fills the balloons, seals them and they are 100% biodegradable so you aren't finding little pieces of balloon in the yard for the next 2 weeks.  It worked so great!  I can't remember the name of it but they found it in a package with 3 sets of balloons at CVS Pharmacy for about $10.

I couldn't believe how slick that thing worked!  Definitely going to be keeping my eye out for these from now on!

Tate had a ton of fun with the sprinkler again - that boy loves getting sprayed!

The slip-n-slide is always a huge hit!

We had so much fun just hanging out with our friends - we don't see them often enough!

Sunday was yet another workday in the basement.  We made a run to Menards in the morning - on the list: doors (!!!), knobs, drywall mud/tape/etc, and misc.  We ended up grabbing some Arby's roast beef sandwiches to eat on the ride home - haven't had those for a long time!  They were pretty darn good!  Andy hung drywall all afternoon, I took a nap, the boys played, then we headed to my aunt and uncle's to pick some more corn - this time just stuff for eating.  We made a quick delivery to my in-laws with some of that, then came home to shuck it and cook some up for supper.  Something about having just corn on the cob for supper!  Yes, I got hungry about 2 hours later (ha ha!) but it is still fun to just munch on that delicious corn for the meal.  After supper, Andy headed back to the basement while I cleaned up the kitchen. The boys helped dry and put away the dishes I washed, Tate got into EVERYTHING, and then we sat on the couch to relax for the evening after showers.  It was a full day and a busy weekend, but those are the most fun, right?

Like I said, this week will be busy with the county fair.  Brennan and Andy are competing in the Lego competition, Aiden is showing a rabbit and sheep through the mentoring program, then add in to that the evening entertainment, which means late nights - we are going to be exhausted!  And I thought, why not add to the chaos and sign Aiden up for a golf camp in the mornings? So there's that, too!  Wish me luck!

Have a great week!

Baby Girl -- Week 21

Well, we've made it to the top of the roller coaster hill and are getting ready to start making the decent back down to the bottom.  21 weeks.  This has been *the longest* pregnancy ever.  Ever! Probably because I've known since the moment of conception (TMI??).  :)

How far along: 21 weeks 6 days

Total weight gain: ??? At my ultrasound last week they took my weight in Kilo's (hello, we're in America here, lets use POUNDS!).  She asked if I wanted it converted and I declined.  Kind of ok being in the dark this go-round.

Maternity clothes: Uh, yea.  For sure.  I still wear my regular, non-maternity comfy shorts and t-shirts around the house - so far my belly doesn't hang out ... yet ... but when that starts happening I'll be ditching those, too.  I don't want my boys seeing 'all that'. 

Stretch marks: Well, I'm not sure.  I mean, yes I have them from my previous 20 pregnancies but have no idea if there are any new ones.  Once in a while I'll decide to slap on some body cream, in case that might help a bit, but that lasts about 2 showers, then I forget again.  

Sleep: Yes please!  Ha ha, I know that's not what I'm supposed to put here but I am still tired all the time.  So the more sleep I can get the better at this point.  At night it's hit or miss - ever since Tate was born I've not slept through the night consistently.  I don't know why, never had that problem after Aiden and Brennan (once they started sleeping through the night).  And so weird, but 5 out of 7 nights I will doze off and wake up at 10:37 EVERY TIME (no lie!!) to go to the bathroom.  I just went not but an hour before that at the most!  Have no idea why it's the exact same time every night. So I go and can fall right back to sleep.  Depending on the week, 3 - 5 nights per week I'll wake up sometime between 1 and 4 to use the bathroom.  If I'm lucky I fall right back to sleep.  But pregnancy insomnia kicks in sometimes and I'll lay awake for 2 or more hours.  It totally stinks.  I don't nap every day, although I'd like to.  I can almost always fall asleep laying on my left side on the couch within 2 or 3 minutes when I do try to nap.  Yesterday, somehow, I napped for over an hour.  Usually it's just 30 minutes or less - I was tuckered out!

Best moment of this week: Telling everyone I know and meet that we are having a girl!  I still have not gotten over the shock!  I posted it on Facebook (duh, have to make it FB official, right!?! And I had to brag! Ha ha!), and we had a bazillion likes and comments - felt so good to see how excited everyone is for us!  Another 'best' moment was shopping for girly clothes with my friend.  I keep going into the closet and looking at all of those sweet outfits!

Miss anything: Raw cookie dough.  No kidding!  I very rarely make cookies, mostly because I'll do nothing but eat them until they are gone, but knowing I can't taste test the dough now kills me and makes me want it ALL.THE.TIME!  Ha ha!  So there's that. :)

Movement: Um, yes!  SHE is super active!  Not all the time, but the times she is she's dancing all over the place in there!  Just this week I was laying in bed and she started going to town.  So I stopped reading my book and watched my belly hoping I'd get to see, not just feel, her move. And then my whole belly bounced!!  Or lurched to the side, however you want to envision it. :)  Loved that!  And then yesterday my sister and I were texting, she asked how I was doing.  I told her I was doing great and so is Little Miss - she's a busy gal.  Here's her reply.

Food cravings: Not really.  I'm definitely eating more junk than I should be because it sounds good but I wouldn't say I've actually craved anything yet.  I remember a friend telling me when she was pregnant she'd send her husband to Subway to get her a Subway Round a few times a week, usually right before they were closing up for the night, ha ha!  Not had any cravings like that.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not anymore.  Back in my first trimester talking about or seeing something gross (like wet hair pulled from the shower drain) would make me gag.  Or hearing someone grossly clearing their throat would make me gag.  But now I'm pretty much over that.

Have you started to show yet: Ha ha ha!!!  YES!  And over the past week I've really popped out! There is no question, this is a pregnant belly, not just one that's holding too much food in it!  

Gender: GIRL GIRL GIRL!!!  Still is so surreal!  

Labor signs: No way, Jose!  Too early for any of that nonsense!

Belly button in or out: In, but totally stretched out.  Don't touch it or you'll lose a finger!  It's so super sensitive now!

Wedding rings on or off: Off. :(  I haven't worn my wedding rings since about week 15.  I think I still could but it's super hard to get them off and that worries me, so I just took them off for the rest of the trip.  I have a fake ring but it's a half-size too big and always spins, which drives me nuts, so I just go commando on my left ring finger.  Hate not having a wedding ring on, I worry what people will think.

Happy or moody most of the time: Totally moody, it's driving Andy insane!  I will be super duper happy then all of a sudden bam!  I'm p.o'd and letting people (my husband) know it!  I've mentioned I have road rage before but it's at a whole new level now.  People I normally like I can't stand to be around.  Music drives me insane - what happened to all the good stuff?  Any change sends me into a fit.  Throw in crying almost daily and I'm pretty much a basket case!

Looking forward to: Holding and meeting this sweet baby girl.  Gosh I can't wait to hold her!  18 weeks to go, I can make it!  You know it's funny, with my other pregnancies I didn't find out the gender so I wasn't nearly this antsy to meet the baby.  I loved (and still do) being pregnant so was in no hurry to get through it.  But now that I know I am going crazy having to wait!  Isn't that funny?!?  I am fairly certain I would feel the same way if this were a boy. You'd think it'd be the other way around - not knowing the sex would make me want to hurry the pregnancy along so I could find out, but it never affected me that way.  Sigh.  She'll be here before I know it so I need to remember to take my time, enjoy the pregnancy and continue to get things ready for her.

Symptoms/Side effects:  Well, heartburn, to name one. With Tate it started at week 11 and I eventually went on a prescription antacid.  This time it started somewhere around week 15/16, and it's not as bad.  Usually if my tummy is super empty I'll notice it.  And a lot of time after 9:00 at night, until I fall asleep. So far Tums still take care of it.  I haven't noticed that any one type of food starts it - I had jalapeno poppers 2 weeks ago for Aiden's birthday and they didn't affect me at all.  So I think I can mark 'spicey food' off the list of culprits.  Honestly, sometimes drinking water brings it on - how strange is that!?!

Next week I have my regular monthly check up.  I'm going to do my first glucose test, which is about 4 - 6 weeks early compared to most pregnancies, but since I have a history of Gestational Diabetes my OB wants me to checked sooner than later.  Better to get it under control early than to wait.  Fingers crossed I don't have GD and fingers crossed I don't have another 10lb+ baby!  I'm worried I'll be looking down the barrel of a c-section if I have GD, something I absolutely do NOT want to have.

Ok, Sweet Baby Girl, keep growing in Mommy's tummy - get stronger and bigger and healthier and I'll see you in 18 weeks!  Funny how I can miss you although I've never even met you.  But I do, Little Lady, I miss you!  And, I love you!

Life Lately/Weekend Rewind

It's been a busy past week.  I haven't taken many photos because of that.

It started with Andy's uncle passing away at the age of 55.  We had his visitation Sunday evening and his funeral Monday morning.  Hard to see someone so young die.  The family did a nice job of honoring him and his interests at the funeral.

Saturday I met a friend at an outlet mall and spent waaaaaay too  much money at the first two stores - all of it for baby girl! And all of it on clearance or sale and for next summer.  I think I only ended up with 3 sleepers for this winter - the majority of that stuff isn't out yet.  I had so much fun going through all of those pink outfits!  Add to that spending an entire morning with one of my best friends and it was pretty near perfect - perfect would have been if it hadn't been raining.  Can't win 'em all! Oh, and I got my niece's, MIL and SIL' stocking stuffers all done - winning!  Now to get started on buying actual gifts!

Sunday morning was yet another trip to Menards.  Once we got home we went to work on hanging drywall in the basement, got lunch and took Bren over to a friend's house for her birthday party.  Then I got ready for the visitation, went back to get Bren and we hauled the boys out to my folks' place - didn't think the boys needed to sit for 2 hours at the visitation.

Monday was the funeral. After, we went to lunch with all of Andy's extended family.  Then it was regular Monday errands - Walmart and grocery store.  My aunt had picked me up a sack of girly clothes from a gal she buys boy clothes from for her grandson so I stopped by quick to get that and oo and aw.  Then home again to hang more drywall.  While Andy was mussing and fussing with it I finally went through the toy mess in the basement - I pitched a ton of stuff, found a few thing to drop off at Goodwill and put away the Imaginex sets and a few other 'important' toys that need cleaned then stored once the mess in the basement is all done.  The boys still occasionally pull out the Imaginex sets but they are so covered in dust from all of the work that I decided they just needed put away for the time being.  I rounded up all of the tractors and equipment for Tate - he is majorly into playing with tractors these days!  It looks much less cluttered down there now.

Monday night the boys had swim lessons.  It has been highs in the 90+ degree range with humidity dew points in the 70's - that equals a scorcher!  The water wasn't super cool because of all the sun and heat but they did great. Aiden FINALLY jumped off the diving board and swam to the side all by himself. Hoping this means his confidence is finally there and he can now just have fun at the pool with his friends.  Bren jumped off the board, too, with assistance from his swim instructor in getting to the side.  But he did go down the slide all by himself, he was pretty proud of that!

The heat continued yesterday so we went to the local pool for the first time.  The 2 towns on either side of us have nice, zero entry depth pools so we've always gone to them. But with the boys doing so well with their swimming I decided to give the 'regular' or 'old fashioned' pool a try.  The boys had a great time since their friends were at this pool, and Tate had fun kicking his little feet under his floatie.

That pretty much catches us up.  We are gearing up for a busy week next week - it's Fair Week!  Hoping these temps and humidity go down enough so we aren't melting all week - this preggo can't handle the heat!

Have a great day!

Friday Favorites - Baby Girl Edition

Good Friday morning, friends!  It's been such a great week of sharing out big GIRL news, everyone is so excited for us, and WE are so excited for us!  This little lady is so loved already, I just can't wait to hold her in my arms... in 19 weeks!  Let's let her bake until she's strong enough to be out here with us, my arms can wait. :)

Now my Friday Favorites!

This beauty:

I saw this mobile at Pottery Barn Kids a couple of months ago and immediately fell in love with it.  I decided right then and there if this little nugget was a girl she'd have a room decorated with butterflies (and pink!).  I haven't quite decided if I'll pay the price for this beauty or try to make my own.  It'll look so pretty hanging over her crib and later over her bed - it's rather large for a mobile so will look really cool as a main focal point her in room.

Over at Momfessionals her little girl wore a ton of ruffled pants last winter and I just loved them!  So they are a favorite of mine and something Little Miss will definitely have in her wardrobe!

This image was found HERE.

Our Little Princess will need a warm hat to wear this winter, I found this one about a month ago and am so in love with it!  I'll be ordering it soon!

• 

This is called the Princess Charlotte Bonnet - fitting for our Princess! I found it at THIS Etsy shop.

I'm already in the 'give me all the bows mode' so when I found these headbands I swooned!

• 

Found at THIS Etsy shop.

I could go on and on but I'll stop there ... today. :)  Thanks for bearing with me and all of this GIRL hysteria!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Time To Organize

I think for the most part you could say I'm organized.  I like things just so, I keep all of my paperwork filed and I try to put things back in the spot I took them from.  But add kids into the mix and all of that gets a big ol' wrench thrown in.

I have organized, decluttered and arranged my pantry and linen closet a few different times since we moved here 4 years ago.  When I am putting groceries or the clean laundry away things stay nice and neat.  But now that I have 2 big boys who can help things are tossed in haphazardly and they become a big mess rather quickly.  I'd rather have the mess than not have the boys help but it sure would be nice if they did it in an organized fashion, ha ha!

Last week we had electricians here wiring the basement.  I hate being here when contractors are, I just feel weird and like I have to keep busy the entire time.  What a better day than to clean out and reorganize my pantry and linen closet?

I started in the morning with the linen closet.  The boys were all playing together so I started unloading the closet.  As I unloaded each shelf I made a decision to either donate, pitch, keep in the closet or move to the boy's new linen closet in the basement (when that gets done).  Then I wiped down the shelf, dried it and refolded the towels, washcloths and sheets as I put them back in.  Everything is now organized and put away orderly, just like I like it!

Before:

After:

That afternoon I started on the pantry.  Can I say, I was so disappointed it only took me 20 minutes!  Ha ha, I was hoping it'd take up an hour of my time so those electricians thought I was a really busy gal! :)

Same thing - took everything off a shelf, washed and dried it, then put it all back in an orderly fashion.

Befores:

Afters:

Aww, feels so good when I open these two doors and everything is neat, in it's place and clean!  Now to get the boys to keep it that way - yea right! :)