Katchup

***Disclaimer, I know that it's 7am and most people in this part of the world are already up and going, but I'm exhausted and I really value my sleep...especially now because in a few months when the young man comes along, it will be really hard to come by, so pardon me if I ramble. Siobhan woke up an hour early and I've had a hard time getting to stay in her bed for while longer.

Anyway, I decided that I would do a post catch up on some happenings from this summer. Get it, Katchup? Yeah, it's lame, but oh well. See above. Back in July, Audrey turned the ripe old age of three and we had a Princess but mostly Belle party with some family. Carson moved over for good the night before so we were able to celebrate with everyone! That was Audrey's surprise birthday present!Me and the newly minted 3 year old.

Having pizza for lunch during the party.

We ran through the sprinklers! It was a very hot day!

The two handsomest men in my life!

Audrey and cousin KayLee

All of us minus Mr. Will (he was napping). She loved all of her presents, but of course, her Belle toys were the biggest hit!

At her birthday dinner. We went to the Mayan Experience. They have a super fun diving show, but the food sucks! Like her outfit?

When Daddy's Away....

I hate it when Carson has to travel for work. Today he headed off the thriving metropolis of Quincy, Ill. It sounds like a super fun place to visit that's for sure! According to the official site of the city, places of interest include The American Red Cross as well as the United Way. Sounds exciting, huh? Even more exciting is that he's there for air compressor training. It doesn't get much better than that does it? So he's gone from today until Thursday afternoon. Every time he goes out of town, I create a huge to do list for myself and only a few things get accomplished. I'm determined to get stuff done this time around. So I decided to make a list of both practical things and fun things to keep me excited for everything that I want to do. These are my plans:

*Make a skirt for each of the girls. I'm going to copy these. They had a booth at the woman's show this weekend so I was able to get a close look at how they were created. And I already have the fabric from other projects. **In progress

*Rearrange our master bedroom.

*Finish all the laundry (that should be done today!)

*Make a treasure box with the girls for FHE. **Done

*Make squash chocolate chip cookies. I'll let you know how they turn out! **Done....delish!

*Finish the lap quilt I'm making for Siobhan's reading corner.

*Go to Iceburg! **We had milkshakes for dinner last night

*Make a Costco run. **Done

*Go to a few thrift stores to pick up materials for the kid's Halloween costumes. i convinced Siobhan to be Tinker Bell (we're doing Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure-not quite so scantily clad), Audrey wants to be Silvermist from the same movies, Mr. Will is going to be Paul McCartney.

I'm sure there are other things I want to do or that I will end up doing, but that's the list so far! Wish me luck!

I'm Famous!

Okay, not really. Well, maybe famous by association. If you read Char over on Crap I've Made, the Meghan she's talking about in her shout out is me. Ha! Face! Okay, it could have been a lot cooler if I had a fun blog for to link me to or if had been for some new original, never-been-had before idea, but it was in response to a question that I had for her for an enrichment night that I helped teach. She was so gracious and she is just hilarious in her personal correspondence. And we don't live very far away from each other. She said we could be friends and I'm so excited for that! I have visions and fantasies of her and I crafting together and me learning super cool things from her. Go take a look at her blog. I heart her!

I'm a ball of hormonal emotion right now with enough testosterone coursing through my blood to give any rabid, male, football hooligan a run for his money. One of the perks of growing a boy child in my belly. So it stands to reason that I really don't know what to expect from myself when I wake up in the morning when it comes to 'handling things'. But one thing I know for certain is, I am so lucky that I get to wake up and see kids like this:

Those are Siobhan's feet...at the dinner table...like ya do.

Audrey fishing at Strawberry Reservoir on Uncle Ron's boat. We almost caught something. She had more fun watching the digital fish finder. But really, wouldn't you if you were 3....or 26?

Mr. Will last night after having a bunch of avocado and a hostess berry pie. I think I should submit the pic for a cutest baby contest.

What's Goin' On*

*Pictures at the end

I have a love/hate relationship with the morning. I really despise waking up but I even more despise waking up early-especially when I'm pregnant. This whole pregnancy has been so exhausting so when the girls wake up at the b*** crack of dawn, all I can do is lay in bed while they watch Sprout so I can rest for a while longer. Oh well.

Yesterday was bad. All the kids knew exactly what they needed to do to get on my bad side. Siobhan didn't want her cheerios, she wanted marshmallow mateys. It wasn't going to happen. All she eats it the marshmallows and nothing else (so I finished them off last night to take away her temptation). Both girls were fighting with each other, they were tearing the house apart and complaining about everything I asked them to do. Not a great way to start off the week. We had lunch which was another fight-I served PB&J rather than cheese and crackers How dare I?

While Siobhan was at school, the other two and I went to Costco for some stocking up. Everything was fine until the first sample table with the infamous spork/soup incident. If you're friends with me on facebook, you know all about it. If not, don't worry, it just makes me sound stupid.

After picking up Siobhan from school, we came home for some good old fashioned room cleaning while I cleaned the kitchen and got started on dinner. There's some time when I wonder how many time and in how many different ways I need to ask in order to get those two to do something. If you have the answer, let me know. It was insane and more than frustrating. They almost had to eat peanut butter and honey on their beds and then go right to sleep. Believe me, that would have been the worst torture ever. Is it bad to say that I would have kind of enjoyed it? They finally got it all done so they were welcome at the dinner table.

Everyone went to bed early last night. By 8pm, all of dinner was cleaned up, kitchen clean up, dishes done and not a sign of human presence in sight. I could get used to that. I didn't know what to do with myself. So I enjoyed a book. I'm on the Secret Life of Bees now. I also took some quick glances through some sewing books that I got from the library. I did notice something about a few of those books. Some of the authors really play it fast and loose with the term crafty genius. Not that they actually call themselves that, but you can tell that the publishers are trying to market them as such. It's just that, I could easily come up with most of those ideas and I'm nowhere near being a crafty genius. Just sayin'.

Today is been better aside from the Little Man fussing about getting out of his high chair. I'll get to that in a second. Siobhan requested a breakfast burrito this morning. I thought it was weird because we've never had those before, but I obliged. Audrey was a little easier. Honey Nut Cheerios with Carnation Instant Breakfast (we're trying to put weight on her). Audrey ate everything, Siobhan, not so much. But, at least we didn't get in a fight.

I'm determined that today is going to be better than yesterday. Let's call today my new Monday. Wipe the real Monday off the slate.

Now, here's a few pics to look at if you read all of this....

I started the shower the other day and walked out of the bathroom for a second. That was time enough for Mr. Will to decide he needed a shower as well.

The girls and I made fruit kabobs on Labor Day. They had a blast and got all sticky!

National Sewing Month #1

Since one of my goals during National Sewing Month was to take pictures of my completed sewing projects, I figured I would/should post them as well.

The first project that I completed is one that I started on a whim. There is a craft blog and now a book called Graft Hope where there are a collection of projects that can be donated to specific charities. Read all about it here. For Pediatric Cancer Month, their project for September was pillowcases for pediatric cancer patients through the charity ConKerr Cancer. It's a really neat project and a really fun/easy sewing undertaking. So I joined in. But the deadline is Sept 15, so i started last week and I just finished 6 pillowcases. I sewed three last Friday night and three more yesterday. Here's how they turned out.

The great thing about this project is that each pillowcase only takes 1 yard total of fabric. So I hit the sale tables at the Cotton Shop (different day from when I saw someone get arrested) and got some really fun but inexpensive fabric. I was also able to destash which is always a good thing. I bought some fabrics that are not represented here because I couldn't find anything to coordinate with them. So I'll use them for other projects. I love doing projects for myself and my family, but it feels really great to do something for others once in a while who will benefit greatly. There's still time to get your pillowcases done because you don't need to ship them. Go here to find a regional representative who can collect your pillowcases.

National Sewing Month

I just read on Dana's blog that it's National Sewing Month. How fun is that? Just the thing to get me motivated! Even though I already had plans to do a bunch of sewing (hey, I always have the plan, right?) I thought I'd set some goals for myself to coincide with this awesome month celebrating creativity. Here's some the things that I want to accomplish during the rest of the month.

*Finish the pillowcases that I'm doing for ConKerr Cancer. These are pillowcases that go to children suffering from pediatric cancer. I've already made three but I'd like to make a bunch more. I need to get going on it as I only have until the 15th.

*Make cow jammies for Kate as a much delayed birthday present.

*Start photographing my completed projects.

*Join the Craft with Me fun over at U Create. For September, we're making fabric pumpkins that are super fun. Then I'll get the fall decor out.

*Get my sewing closet organized and finished up so I can have a workspace that is all my own (more or less). Every time I sew, I bring my sewing machine up to the kitchen table. I don't think my FIL appreciates it too much.

*Of course, watching plenty of Project Runway! Call it inspiration!

*Make some stuff for the new baby. Nothing extreme. Maybe some burp clothes or a changing pad or these super cute 'loveys'. I'm just not sure how they will translate for a little boy. Maybe if I don't ruffle the edge. We'll see. I may need to make the lovey at a later date because Minky fabric is expensive.

*Finally settle of the fabric for the bedding in the girls rooms.

*Try to figure out how to make an astronaut Halloween costume for Siobhan. Or figure out how to convince her to Tinker Bell.

*Make something for myself. I don't know what, yet, but something.

Those are my plans. It may be ambitious, but I think I can do it. And the kicker of this all, I want to spend very little money as I have been put on a spending freeze in regards to fabric and craft supplies. I may be able to squeeze some money out for one or two projects, but I think doing it all on a budget will be a good thing. I'll post pics of the projects that I complete.

If you want to participate in National Sewing Month, go visit their website (click on the link) and see what they have going on over there. Also, go visit Dana's blog MADE. She has a bunch of links to other people who are celebrating as well as some of her own ideas. So, here's to making the most of naptime!

Announcing....

I know that everyone has been anxiously awaiting our big announcement. Well, I won't hesitate too long, so I'll just get right on with it......drum roll please........We are having a..........

BOY!!!!!!

We are adding to our brood with another XY! I have a feeling that with Mr. Will and this new little man, we are breeding a very active, energetic, athletic and potentially loud gruesome twosome. But hey, I would not have it any other way! The girls were really looking forward to a little sister and very adamant that that's what we are having. But I think they'll come around. In the car Siobhan was saying that she was sad that we're not having a baby sister and I told her that I have a feeling that this new little brother is going to be a lot of fun for her and Audrey to help me take care of. Then she said, 'can we keep the baby brother.' I said, 'of course, we're going to keep all of the baby brothers.' To that she replied, 'no you keep Mr. Will and me and Audrey can keep the new baby brother that way we can all have new babies.' I think she's more excited than she would like to let on.

Here's some fun pictures from the appointment. I had to take pictures of the pictures with my camera because we don't have our scanner hooked up.


A profile shot.....so cute!

Cute little skinny leg!

From the 3-D portion of the ultrasound. He must have been tired because he had a big yawn!

Little Ethan McCartney will make five become six sometime around Feb 4th.

24 Hours...

Hey Everyone!
Tomorrow at noon, we find out what kind of baby we're having!
I put a poll on the sidebar to see what you all thing we're going to have.
So please vote and tomorrow, I'll let you know who was right.
We're excited and just so you know, I have no inclination so I can't give you any help!