Saturday, January 31, 2009

We Have A Winner!







We have a birth date for Baby! At my doctors appointment today after she asked me a couple of questions she suddenly said, "How about April 6th for a birthday?" I replied with a big grin, "Sounds good to me!" I am excited to know this early on. I thought we would have to wait at least another month to schedule it. I knew it would be sometime the week before my due date but wasn't certain what would be available. I am really pleased with this date. There were a couple of dates Dave & I weren't quite comfortable with and God knew that. I'm thankful for His plan. We do think it would have been neat if Baby was born on April 2nd since that is my FIL's birthday. We think he would have liked that if it had happened. =)

Now the official countdown is on! Dave, the kids & I are all very excited to know Baby's birthday & to plan!

Friday, January 30, 2009

Treehouse, Drawings & Naps

Some shots from our week:

The kittens love the boxes that are piled high. They hang out in there constantly. I think they reason Bugs can't get to them up there! =)
(Left to Right = Pixie, Sassy, Sky Walker & Bailey)



I think the sunlight coming from the skylight is an added bonus.



Pixie & Sassy Relaxing



Bailey kicking back.


Learning more about Christopher Columbus
I read more of our history book to Elvis & Boo and asked them to draw about what they heard.


Boo working on her drawing.


This was before she colored it in.


I thought they both did a fantastic job!


Bugs wasn't feeling well & was terribly cranky & whiny. We were all relieved when he finally fell asleep. He was tons happier when he woke up!


Pixie is determined when it comes to a treat!


Another nap! Wow! Two days in a week! Much to his delight once he settled in Sassy & Pixie curled up and napped with him.

Friday Fill-In

1. I'd really like to run away for a month & be on vacation with my hubby & children right now.


2. "Crap!" is the word you'd most often hear me say if I stubbed my toe.


3. Possession is 9/10 of the law. Or so they say.


4. My friend Tammy L-O-V-E-S Captain Jack Sparrow.


5. Marshmallows and fire go together like lemonade & ice cubes.


6. Due to a judge with no balls our court case has dragged on and on.


7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Dave coming home a little earlier, tomorrow my plans include running errands as usual, having my sweet hubby make me some much needed shelves, spending time with said hubby and sneaking in a nap and Sunday, I want to go to church with our new neighbors, take a nap, spend time with Dave b/f he leaves for 4 days =( , and WATCH THE STEELERS WIN THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!








Thursday, January 29, 2009

A Special Nativity

Back in mid-December our new church hosted an outdoor nativity. I wasn't able to post pics b/c the small camera I took them with became misplaced. Of course! LOL! Boo Bear finally found the camera the other day. Hooray! It was raining lightly outside and of course dark b/c it was evening but I think the pics came out pretty good seeing as these were the conditions outside. Such a neat ministry! Oh, BTW it was free and open to the public.

I only took a few pics because I didn't want a constant flash from my camera to disturb anyone.

They had a tent set up where you could wait for your turn. Free hot chocolate & cookies were there much to my children's delight!



We rode in an open trailer pulled by a pick up truck. There were 5 stations to stop at. At the last one we got out and walked to it. At each station there was a recording telling us the story of that scene.



All the animals were live! The kids were amazed they had real camels there. There were 3 total on display with the kings.


The kings also had a tent & a fire going. They acted out what the narrator spoke.


The shepherds of course had live sheep. The sheep made sure they made themselves known by baa-ing. Lol.


Sheep & a shepherd.


This was really cool. They have a HUGE front window. When it was time in the narration to talk about the angel appearing to the shepherds this is what we saw. It looked so amazing!


This is harder to see but they used the same effect to show us all the heavenly hosts that appeared to the shepherds praising God. It looked so awesome! There were about 6 or 7 angels lit up.


This was the final stop where we walked to. Stop #4 was read to us by a live person but had no actors. This final scene was our favorite. I especially liked that in addition to holding & cuddling baby Jesus they all worshipped Him. Awesome!


Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Mommy, Daddy & Baby

After Dave's birthday party Sweet Pea took a few pics for us. I really want to keep up with pics of this pregnancy.

Dave & I

My best friend & love of my life.

Latest tummy photo. Growing bigger!


Here is a tummy shot from the front too.


This is my favorite photo.


Dave gives Baby a little kiss.




Sunday, January 25, 2009

Meal Planning

I finally finished my meal planning & shopping lists for the next 2 weeks. After talking with my friend Kristi I thought I'd share in case anyone would like to see. =) I usually appoint a specific day of the week to each meal but this time I decided not to do that. I'll choose more according to time & taste what sounds good for that night choosing from the list. A side effect of pregnancy? Lol. =)



I made my shopping lists according to the ingredients I'd need for these meals plus a few snacks & breakfasts. I find we definitely save $$ this way. This is much needed as our budget is tighter than ever lately. Dave & Sweet Pea took a quick inventory before the shopping trip. This prevents us from buying more than we need. Dave has been taking some or all the kids and doing the grocery shopping these past couple of months. Though in some ways I miss it, (I know I'm a strange duck. Hee, hee), I am deeply thankful he is taking this large task over. I don't have the stamina for it at this time as it involves a few hours and sometimes 3-4 different stores.



I made up a menu for both lunches & suppers for 2 weeks but I'll just share the suppers for now. Here they are!


1. Chili & Cornbread

2. Spaghetti, Sauce, Bread & Salad (Salad has been on sale here lately. If it wasn't we'd have a green veggie instead.)

3. Quesadillas, Refried Beans, Cornbread & Salad

4. Chicken Divan & Bread or Muffins

5. Potato Soup, Muffins or Bread, & Salad

6. Lasagna, Green Veggie, Bread or Muffins

7. Lentil, Turkey (or Chicken), Veggie Soup & Muffins

8. Pizza Night ~ English Muffin Pizzas & Carrot sticks

9. Taco Night

10. Pot Roast w/carrots, onions & potatoes and peas or broccoli

11. BBQ Pork, Buns, Raw carrots, Baked beans

12. Layer Dinner, Muffins or Bread

13. Mexican Hamburger Rice Bake & Broccoli Parmesan

14. Chicken Green Bean Casserole, Muffins or Bread, Extra Veggie?

A few of these are new recipes I have never tried before. I will have some PB&J standing by just in case. =)


This time I threw a few extras in just in case. What can I say, I like variety! Lol.

Maybe?
Honey Baked Chicken pg. 130
Chicken Pot Pie pg. 130
Pancakes








Friday, January 23, 2009

Friday Fill-In

1. Oh, I am so HUGE!

2. I welcome most changes, big and little.

3. During the winter, I want to hibernate.

4. An unbiased media; are you kidding me???

5. Right now I'd like to be on vacation.

6. My apple peeler/corer is my favorite gadget.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to giving Dave a big Happy Birthday hug, & surprising him with presents & a cake tomorrow my plans include making meal plans & a shopping list, running errands, working in the office & taking a nap and Sunday, I want to make it to church, rest & spend time with my dear family!





Thursday, January 22, 2009

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!!!!!!

To say we were ecstatic when the Steelers won Sunday is an understatement. I think our family in MA could hear us cheering all the way from down here in TN! LOL! Oh, and when that interception was made? Oh, baby! We were off the wall! What an awesome play!
You can bet we'll be watching & cheering once again when the Super Bowl is played. Come on Steelers! As Bugs says, "Beat um, bust em!" *grin*



GO STEELERS!!!!!!!


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Frugal & FREE!

I heard of this cool website from Living On a Dime. In a nutshell you use the website SwagBucks as your search engine and earn Swag Bucks to spend in their online store. The coolest thing of all is that it's all FREE! All you have to do is use them as your search engine. And what's easier than surfing the web? Of course there are other ways to earn swag bucks too, some of them involving spending but you don't have to. I haven't spent one penny. I have been using this for the past couple of months and am proud to say I have earned over 100 Swag Bucks to spend! If you want to sign up please go to my left hand column of my blog. You'll see the title "Search & Win" as well as a guitar, etc. Click on that icon and it will take you to their website where you can sign up. If you sign up through me I can earn some extra bucks too. I'd deeply appreciate it! I plan on using mine for birthday presents for my kids & husband. Hope you have fun with it. I've really gotten a kick out of earning something by doing practically nothing. =)


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

New Doos

I haven't cut the boys hair myself since they were each 2 years old or younger. I don't really feel confident styling it so we had them going to a barber. We haven't found a good one here yet. Plus lately our budget has needed to become even tighter. After much debating in my mind I decided to experiment with the new clippers Dave got for Christmas and see if I could indeed cut the boys hair and not have it turn out a nightmare. Elvis was quite hesitant at first. His reply was, "I don't want to be bald like Daddy!" Lol. I assured him he would not be bald and that I could make his hair be cut a little longer than Daddys' usually is. Finally after promising him $2 if he would allow me to cut his hair he agreed. Usually I would NOT pay my kids but would simply expect them to obey but in this I felt that it was important that he agree to participate. And that something be in it for him in case disaster struck. After all it would be HIM that would have to endure it in front of everyone in case I messed up. Some may disagree but this is how I felt and still feel. So off we went to Barber Mommy's chair!


I wanted to take some 'before' pics before the buzz. My ham here didn't have a simple pose in him. LOL!



Not sure where he gets this model attitude. What a nut!



This is my favorite. Isn't he a crack up?


Happy to be in the chair.....and still hamming it up.


To my complete surprise as soon as Bugs saw Elvis in the chair he declared he wanted his hair cut too! "My turn next!" he yelled. As soon as Elvis vacated the chair Bugs jumped right up.


My shorn sheep.
He is all set and quite pleased with his new doo. Boy was I relieved all turned out well!

Bugs' 'after' photo.
He did such a fabulous job sitting still in the chair & allowing me to move his head as I needed.

Another 'after' pic.
I am quite pleased with the results on both boys. These new clippers are great. I used the highest setting, #7. I think when the hot weather hits AND I feel more confident in my role as barber we will go for a lower setting but for now this worked very well. Since the clippers have already paid for themselves with the 2 haircuts Dave has had since we bought them the boys haircuts were FREE. Just my time & a little patience. Oh, and $2 for Elvis. Hee, hee. But even with Elvis' incentive to be paid I saved $28. I was really pleased to be able to contribute to our budget in this way.







Sunday, January 18, 2009

Baby Thoughts

Baby is moving a lot tonight! It makes me wonder what Baby will be like once he/she arrives. Will he/she continue to be just as active as in my womb? Like Sweet Pea was? Or will he/she be a laid back baby like Boo Bear or Elvis? Or, please God no, a colicky baby like Bugs? But also cuddly & snugly like Bugs. Oh, I loved that. Or maybe someone entirely different. Isn't it neat to imagine and wonder? I think of how God is knitting this miracle in my womb and I am in awe. All the many things that have to be precise in order for Baby to be healthy, active & growing. I can hardly wait to meet this Little One face to face. To see the little fingers & toes for myself. To kiss those chubby cheeks. To snuggle that little, warm, snugly newborn body. To smell that baby smell as I cuddle him/her close.



The nursery is coming along. We spent 2 more hours tonight sorting through boxes and trying to empty the room out. Boy its' a big job! But bit by bit we will chip away and eventually our work will pay off & we'll have a cozy, sweet nursery to welcome our Little One. Oh, it's going to be fun to set up & get everything in place.



Dave & I are still no closer to choosing a name. This is much harder this time than I had thought it would be. I'm not sure why only that I haven't found "the one" yet. I'm glad we still have time to look & decide. I have to admit it IS fun searching and dreaming............



HUH???????

Dave gave me this awesome new video camera for Christmas. I taped some funny things of the boys tonight and then took some pics on it too. Pretty neat, huh? Now I'm trying to figure out how to download these treasures. My computer says it doesn't recognize my memory card. Eh? I hope I can recover these as they were definitely keepers. Maybe I should read the directions. Now where did I put that booklet?

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Family Times

I had these miscellaneous photos from our week & decided it would be easier to post them as a group. In my files I call them, "Family Hang Time". I love capturing those kick back moments at home or just with the fam.

Boo lets me try out her new camera in the van while we wait for Daddy.






The Tunes


Goofing off while waiting.



Daddy's back!



Just at home.



My Mom sent us a gift in the mail, (pics of that later). Bugs thought the box it came in was as great as the gift! Lol!










He spent quite a bit of time in there entertaining us & himself. Lol.




Elvis using Daddy as a jungle gym.



Bailey saw all the fun Bugs had and wanted a turn.



After watching the Steelers win their game, (Yay, Steelers!), Elvis got out the football kit they received for Christmas. Soon Bugs was playing too. Dave was a proud Daddy!



Maybe we'll bring them out tomorrow again for good luck! Go Steelers!