Esther Amelia

Have you been checking in on me? Esther is here!! She is adorable. Weighing in at 8 pounds and 8 ounces, she's a healthy little bundle of joy! When she was born, her face is a little bruised up from her journey. Poor thing!

Moving Dirt!

Have you ever built a house? Although ours is part build/part renovation, it pretty much falls under the "build" category. It's a MAJOR undertaking, completely gutting the house and regrading the yard, etc. I have a guy coming over this weekend with a metal detector. We've been told that the house behind us was once a plantation administrative house, and then a confederate headquarters. And our yard was a campground for the Confederates. So hopefully he'll find something besides bottle caps and nails. Much of the grass is gone and dirt is being moved around, so now is an ideal time! I love searching for treasures!
Speaking of treasures, here's one...My sweet Katie Belle and her bundle of dandilions!

My Family

Here's a sweet picture of my family - and everyone is happy!!! 2 weeks left until baby #4 gets here, and I'll have one more to add to the picture!

Building!

We're building a house!!! Well, renovating. But practically building, because we're gutting an old house & adding on. Why? Because having a 4th baby just wasn't enough for us. So we just completed the first arduous process of creating floor plans and drawings & getting approvals from our city board (it's a tough neighborhood to build in!) Here we are marking trees that have to come down. I've always wanted to spray paint trees! We want to keep as many as possible, but THAT's a LOT of trees. Right? I hope to update the blog on the process, but...who are we kidding? I'm having a 4th baby in a few weeks, just moved in with my parents, selling our house and building another. I'm tired just thinking about it all!

35 Weeks

Are you still reading? Astounding! I've been super-duper busy these days. The whole household has had it's round of sickness, plus...We bought a house! We're moving! We're completely gutting & renovating! Lots of changes around here. Pretty soon, we're moving in with my parents in order to show our house without going bonkers. I asked some friends who said how challenging it was to show a house with small children. Add a newborn, and it sounds like a MAJOR challenge. So we're moving out, boxing up stuff, and planning a renovation! I can't promise any regular updates, but I'll check in with the blog from time to time. Time to waddle back to my load of laundry!

30 Weeks...Baby #4!

With the first baby, I enjoyed my baby bump, and never minded the challenge of figuring out what to wear. With #4, It's a major effort to get me out of my sweat pants. Looking back at my 30 week pictures, I don't look too terribly different, but I am way more uncomfortable these days than the first go around. The tugging and pulling of maternity jeans and shirts is making me crazy! Good thing my husband and kids don't mind the sweat pants!

More Christmas - Dip Dyed Bags & Ornaments

Here are a couple of other projects I pulled together for our homemade Christmas gifts. Dip Dyed Bags and Christmas Ornaments. Here were my inspirations: Baskets. Ornaments.

Hot Chocolate & Peppermind Marshmallows

Another year of homemade gifts. This year's projects included an especially delicious treat. Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows and Hot Chocolate on a Stick! This year, a group of girls I had coffee with were talking about gift giving. And so we made a plan together to make food gifts together. It was a blast! We scoured the internet (thank you pinterest) and thought peppermint marshmallows and hot chocolate on a stick sounded like a fun combination. (We used recipes on the above links above, but increased the sugar in the hot chocolate, and decreased peppermint in the marshmallows.) If you plan to make these one day, let me know. It was a pretty big project, and I have some tips I could share with you!Cutting, Dipping in extra chocolate, getting ready for their packages!My list of recipients is growing - More teachers, more neighbors, more relatives, more friends! And I packaged these up several ways for a variety of recipients.

Thankfully, I found these free downloadable labels online too! Hooray!

Here are 2 other cute packaging ideas if you decide to try this on your own! Here and here.

Snowman Milk

Here's a project that I found on the internet, which claimed to be "quick" and "easy." That's partially true, if you don't exclude all the time it takes gathering all of the supplies! This took much longer than necessary. But it turned out super-cute, I think! If you decide to give this a try, here's what you'll need:
Here are the supplies (because it took me a while to get this figured out.)
-Milk Bottles (or Starbucks Frappucino bottles, with labels removed by Goo B Gone or Turpentine)
-Orange Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds (I called around, and got the last pack from my local TJ Maxx!)
-Icing to affix the "nose" to the "face"
-Chocolate Nonpariels (only works if you use a thick cakelike donut)or a Edible Pen (works for airy or cakey donut)
-Powdered Donut Holes (this was a toughie! I went to 10 locations looking for the right ones. They were either not covered with enough sugar, irregular in size, too small for the bottles, or would not work with the sprinkles) If you are in Middle TN, Fox's Donut Den makes the only ones that will fit.
-Straw & Milk
-Felt for Scarf (the craft-sized felt is too short. Must buy yardage at your local fabric/craft store)
-Buttons & Glue Dots (or with Hot Glue, or stickers, etc.)
-Egg Carton for transporting donuts

Family Photos

We got our family photos back a few weeks ago from photographer Tec Petaja. Wow - he captured some amazing shots! Click here to see the highlights!

Thanksgiving Table

Some more fun projects I made, based on stuff I found on pinterest! Pilgim Boats, made from felt, craft foam & a straw!The kids table placemats. A free download from here. I had them printed at my local Kinko's, since it is larger than a 8-1/2 x 11 format.

Trick or Treat Bags

This is a late post...but I decided to make some more trick-or-treat bags for my other kids. One kid always had a cute one, while the other had a grocery sack! So I finally bought some felt to make 3 other bags. The one in the back is the original. Lance & the kids designed the faces (can you tell which is Ethan's and which is Katie Belle's?), while I made them into bags. I haven't finished the upcoming new baby's bag, but I think that at 7 months old, she's not going to be needing any candy anyway! Now they are stored away, ready for next Halloween!

Snowman Handprint Ornament

Are you on pinterest yet? It's a treasure trove of great ideas! A friend & I just completed these snowman ornaments for Katie Belle's 3 year old class Christmas party! Kristen each child's handprints this morning, and I made the snowmen! Here was the original idea on pinterest. (Details: A dozen frosted glass ornaments for $5 from Hobby Lobby!

Homemade Gifts of Past years

I'm looking forward to another year of homemade gifts! Mine have partially been made, although not completed. Of course I'll share with you in January! But here are some things I have put together in the past. Last year I made Homemade Vanilla, Blueberry Preserves and a Fabric tote. For a run-down on how-to's, click here for my post from last year.Handmade coasters, soup mix, cornbread mix & granola bars. Find even more of my past gifts, including granola, notecards and other past gifts we've received here: 2009 Gifts, 2008 Gifts, Other received gifts.

It's a Girl!!!

Having family photos made at 20 weeks pregnant was not the most pleasant experience. It took me ages to figure out what I was going to wear. BUT...on the upside, this photo was taken on the day that marked my 20th week of pregnancy. AND on the date of my 9 year anniversary! I will post more later, but wanted to share this fun moment. A big thanks to my sister-in-law, Renee, for filling the box full of balloons!!! (photo taken by tec petaja).

12 Months of Jewell!

Wow. My baby is 13 months, and gearing up to be a big sister! I had fun with the 12 months of stickers. But can I do it again with baby #4? I don't know if I have it in me!!! What was probably the best thing about the stickers is that it forced me to document a baby who has very few photos otherwise!!! What fun we had making faces at each other as I took the pictures. Although the past year was a blur, I remember every one of these days. Enjoy some smiling baby photos! 4 Months: Found those fingers!5 Months: Rolling all around, playing with her feet and her hands, staring at her fingers, and laughing out loud! 6 Months: Drooling, drooling, drooling! Sitting Up7 Months: Army Crawl, Everything in her mouth, mad when toys get taken away and wiggling, wiggling, wiggling! 8 Months: Everywhere! Crawling, pulling up, becoming acquainted with the first 3 stair steps, obsessed with anything crinkly, shiny or off-limits, squirming, blabbering, slobbering & putting everything in her mouth. 9 Months: Moving non-stop! Crawling, Cruising, Pulling Up, Loves to try to eat paper, has accepted that whole "teething thing" like a champ, loves to just watch and laugh at her brother & sister, & eats cheerios like they're going out of style. She hasn't conquered our stairs yet (which KB climbed at 8 months). Has a shiny tooth!10 Months: Saying Bye bye, happy, mama, dada, bible, and hi. She is nodding, shaking her head, standing, crawling up stairs, and has 4 teeth coming in. Has taken a few steps11 Months: Completely walking...I mean running...all over the place!12 Months: Loves books, puzzles, now also says "uh oh" "all done" and "no." Loves gibberish and mimicks noises. Eats steel cut oats with applesauce for breakfast.

Parade of Bible Characters

A few weeks ago, our kids participated in our church's "Parade of Bible Characters." The kids had a blast dressing up and sharing their clues. Katie Belle's costume idea came from Martha. Can you guess who they were?

Katie Belle's Clues (written by my dad)

The Philistines are coming, King Saul is afraid,
He wants God to help him But mistakes Saul has made.
Since Yahweh has left him, Saul goes to a witch
She calls forth Samuel, Who prophesies a switch
To a righteous new King, and Saul's sons will die
In the battle tomorrow, And she did not lie.
So sadly Saul left her, He wouldn't even eat
She was right about tomorrow, Israel would be beat.
WHO AM I?

Ethan's Clues (written by me)

Jesse's my pop & 7 brothers have I. I left my sheep and arrived to hear a war cry.
You think I'm too young, but didn't you hear? I killed a lion and even a bear.
"We are the Champions" no more he will sing. Because I killed him with only a sling. WHO AM I?

2 of My Favorite Things

#1: Clementines. These are beautifully in season right now. I have to cut my kids off at 4 at a sitting. The other favorite thing: The little bags they come in. For years, this type of bag ended up in the trash! Then, I read how they can be used for scrubbing dishes. BRILLIANT! They work wonderfully, and then you just toss after you use! Do you know this trick? Or am I just late to the party????

Jewell and Me

Do you see similarities?

20 Weeks - It's a Girl!!!

We're shocked & excited!!! I was certain it was a boy. Things will be pretty pink & princessy around here, but tons of sweetness to go around!