Feminine Friday

I decided to participate in Feminine Friday this lovely Friday! This week was pregnancy pictures!


I have none on the computer from Sophia...pre-digital camera days. I have almost none of Elijah, and I have only these shots of myself the Sunday before Noah was due. I was already 2 days late at this point, he was born the following Saturday...8 days late.

Look at how tired my eyes look in these pictures. Either they are tired or I forgot to wear eye liner or something...probably both...I was most likely up too late the night before baking homemade cinnamon buns whilst re-arranging furniture. The weird things pregnant women do!





The day I went into labor with Noah, I watched 5 children, re-organized my entire house, danced like a maniac with the children and ate way.too.much.pizza. After the pizza and dancing to Chopin, I started to have contractions that night. After a sleepless night, "little" Noah made his debut at 7 something-ish in the next morning weighing 9 pounds, 3 ounces, 21 1/2 inches long.

Here's the little man in all of his cute-ness. This was his coming home from the hospital outfit, which he promptly christened with spit up...a sign of more to come. Also, I was a little disappointed when I put this outfit on him and the pants were knickers instead of full length pants. The arms were too short too. It was like a little capri-romper with 3/4 sleeves for boys. It was 0-3 M too! I get so jipped out of the layette with my tunnies!

Be sure to stop over at the Barefoot Mama for more Feminine Friday pregnancy shots!

Under the Oven Challenge

My friend Nan (I would hyperlink her name to her blog, but she doesn't have one yet, hint, hint. She's hysterical, you'd love her. :)), e-mailed a few friends recently about the "under the oven challenge". She told us what she found under her oven and challenged us to beat her list. I forgot all about this until another friend posted her findings tonight, and, well, I'm in a full disclosure sort of mood, so here's what I found under my oven:

1. One spool of thin gold Christmas ribbon

2. One hot wheels truck

3. One sweet streets doll

4. A piece of popcorn

5. gum wrapper

6. Ooodles of dirt, trash, and drywall dust. Apparently the oven was never pulled away from the wall.

7. On hot wheels race car

8. A hairpin - I don't think it's mine...eeew!

9. A 1/2 dollar...definitely from the previous owner...that's big money! :)

10. Paper airplane

11. A tablespoon measuring spoon from someone before us with crusty goo on it....yuck!

12. Two dowel rods...I think I found the secret hiding spot!

13. One super ball.

14. 7 filth encrusted ant traps....I wonder why there were ants under there? The grody spoon perhaps?

What's under your oven???

Authenticity

Here's the keepin' it real post, and I might add, my pictures are very real! ;)

The rules: Post photos of the following 10 "real life" things...no primping, prepping, or picking up.

1. The fridge

2. A closet - This is Noah's closet. In a picture it looks a lot messier than I thought it was...oops! Do you love my mongo diaper stash thanks to a free diaper deal at Walgreens a couple months ago? We've been living off them for the past couple months with more in the stockroom, er closet, to boot. I love me a free diaper deal!

3. The kitchen sink - there's a few grossy ketchupy dishes in there - this is reality, remember???

4. A toilet - Doesn't everyone have a stash of unraveled toilet paper on the back of their toilet? OR a plastic grocery bag hanging on the toilet paper holder filled with unraveled paper?

5. My favorite shoes - Right now my favs are my hot pink crocs. Hate me all the croc-haters of the world!!! :) There just so comfy and space-ish.

6. My favorite room - Our bedroom. As the instructions stated, I did no primping. (You probably noticed that by now. :)) Apparently, the day these pictures were taken wasn't one of my best domesticated, Martha Stewart, hearth'n'home-ish, Southern Living-type days.

7. What my kids were doing when I took the pictures - Soph and Noah were playing and Eli was sleeping...I didn't dare take a picture of him for fear of awaking the prince.

8. The laundry pile - See my dirty clooottthhhhheeessssss???

9. Self Portrait - the kids and me at the pumpkin patch. I should've taken off the glasses. Ah, hindsight is 20/20...

10. Dream vacation spot - 24 hours in my bed or somewhere else restful, with no one bothering me. I would post a photo of myself asleep in bed drooling, but I don't have one...whew! (I crack myself up)

Feel better about your messy or not so messy house now??? :)

Flashback Meme

20 Years Ago...

I don't remember much about twenty years ago, but I know I was in third grade, and I can't remember who my teacher was (Jen P., do you remember?)! We lived in our house on Dott St. and I *think* I used to ride bike a lot at this age. One of my favorite activities was to ride across the street to the office building and check all the newspaper machine coin returns, and check under the machines for loose change...I was a bargain hunter even then! The thrill has continued through the years although now it includes free diapers and getting paid to buy things! Love that!

10 Years Ago...

I met my future husband sometime this month, although I don't really remember the first official time we met very well. We met at church when he moved to the area for his first job after completing college.

3 Years Ago...

We went to the pumpkin patch! Elijah had just celebrated his first birthday and Sophia was only three years old. They were such babies!

1 Year Ago...

At the patch yet again, only with 11 month old Noah in tow. We were just about to find our new home and put our Haas St. home up for sale. It was a crazy and exciting time! Sophia had started kindergarten, and it was our first year of homeschooling. I did Sophia's hair in "Gretel buns" (from the Sound of Music) a couple of times at her request. We also celebrated Elijah's third birthday.

Yesterday

Hmm...I did laundry, homeschooled, put away the laundry, made phone calls, took the kids bike riding, truck riding, and park playing. I nursed a hurt girlie, went Marathon Monday shopping with my sister, grew a baby-licious, straightened up the house, did dishes, and prepared for the Pumpkin patch. I can't remember what else!

Today

We went to the Pumpkin patch! That's an October trend for at least 5 years running. I'll post pics later.

The Future

I hope to continue doing all the Mom things that I am doing now and hope to have a new sweet baby next year, Lord willing. My main concern for the future is to be faithful to our dear Lord and not to slow or stop serving him any year of my life...neither next year nor in 30 years.

Another one of our favorite videos...

Have you seen it yet?

Elijah's Birthday Present

Ever since Elijah rode his cousin James' battery powered Mustang this summer, that is all the boy talks about. Well, the little man's 4th Birthday is coming up this Thursday and I had asked him what he wanted for his Birthday. Each time he would reply, "a car that when you push the pedal it goes", just like James. Now that's a pretty tall order for a four year old! However, Daddy seemed to take a liking to James' car and thought it was pretty awesome...it's a man thing I guess. I set out to try and find one second hand (they are sooo expensive) and this is what we came up with....

The smile on his face says it all.

The truck is missing the windshield sticker and it's faded, but he LOVES his "monsta truck"! I was so thankful that the we could get him something that he really wanted on the cheap.

We've been watching a lot of this...

...and this...

...and this, until Sophia fell off the back and bruised her back.

I was pleasantly surprised that the kids haven't fought over it...*yet*. Sophia is happy to ride and doesn't care about being the driver, and Noah is unhappy when it is not his turn and can't drive it yet because he's too small.

I never realized how much exercise it took to keep up with one of these vehicles. The kiddos took it out for a spin yesterday, and I had to jog to keep up. Much of our neighborhood is mountainous, thankfully our home is on flat ground, but the walking paths around the neighborhood are quite steep. Hence, the jogging to keep up with them as they began to careen down a very steep grade on the path. I called over to Elijah to brake, he did, and after he braked, he did a complete 360 degree turn, and went crashing into the mulched base of the tree below which was right next to the busiest road in the neighborhood. Didn't I give him good advice? Sophia and Elijah said it was great and was like riding a roller coaster. I thought it was a roller coaster too, one that involved prayer for my children's safety and lives! :)

After that excursion, they wanted to ride bikes and we did, and after a long and exciting ride (which also involved me jogging with Noah in the stroller) Sophia fell and banged herself up pretty badly. She hit her forehead, shoulder, arm, and hand. Now she has bruises from the monster truck and scrapes and bruises from the bike. Why is it when my girl gets hurt I care, but when it's the boys I don't care as much? Is it because she's a girl and is supposed to be delicate? Why is that?

We went on our annual M&M activity to the Pumpkin Patch today. It was sooo much fun! We got to meet The Barefoot Mama today at the patch too! It's always fun to meet other bloggers in real life!

After today and yesterday I am feeling unusually refreshed and energized, but I am also tired!!!! Hope you all have a nice night!

The Bike Riders!

Here are the bike riders in all their glory. We did the take the pedals and training wheels off the bike thing a couple of weeks ago, and it worked wonderfully! We went out a few times this week and it was amazing to see them take off! I remember when I first rode a bike, and my babies are doing it now. It was such an exciting moment!