I'm having so much fun getting all Peter's stuff ready! He'll likely be co-sleeping with us, so the room is more for me (and his belongings)...at least in the beginning.
Here's the finished dresser with new knobs and the changing table we already had. I've spent several hours washing and folding baby clothes and blankets today. I forgot just how generous my sister-in-law and friend were to give us SO many gorgeous clothes! I can't wait to dress him up!
And here's the crib that took Steven and I a few hours to put together! Somehow we succeeded. The bedding still needs to be washed and ironed but I had to see how it looked!
And here's who is using the nursery right now...dolls!
An attempt to get them to smile for a quick picture before going into their homeschool class at church today! Thanks NeNe for their cute new matching outfits!
Ellie decopageing her box
Mary Clare working hard
Finished products!
What was put inside the boxes, their little hearts to give Jesus for Christmas :) We've put them on our family altar.
They also sang "The Little Drummer Boy" and played with drums, and made sock puppets for the sweet Christmas poem, "The Friendly Beasts". Ellie was so proud to perform in the little puppet show! It was a fun Fine Arts class!
Here are my usual dinner-time helpers putting salad together :)
And here's what they do all day, play "girly" things like wedding! Ellie was the flower girl who already came in, you can see the coffee table becomes the altar, and Mary Clare always plays the beautiful bride!
It was a nice relaxing Friday afternoon and evening. I hope you all enjoy the same sort of weekend...God bless!
Tonight was a big tree lighting ceremony nearby. They had a great band, a children's choir, the tree lighting complete with fireworks, and a SNOW MACHINE! The girls had a fun time and I enjoyed it too, except for my constant concern that I was going to lose a child amidst the hundreds of spectators!
Sisters as we arrive
It's snowing!
Wow!
You can kind of see the flakes here, they were like little soap suds :)
The girls by the big now-lit Christmas tree!
The cooler weather has come back to Texas, even though we likely won't see real snow! My 34 week doctor appointment went well, only 5 weeks (or less) till we meet Prince Peter! The blanket/thumb-sucking situation is going alright, just some whines and tears at bedtime, naptime, and wakeup. The thumb is still ending up in her mouth, but hopefully as she adjusts to life without the blankies the thumb-sucking will slow down. We might try the dentist's advice of gardening gloves at sleeptime if we need to. And I'm sure there will be some sort of reward program we'll have to start! But at least we've conquered the first step of losing the blankies.
Tomorrow we have a homeschool class where they'll be doing some Christmas crafts and making puppets, and this weekend should be filled with continued preparation for Peter's arrival...getting this house in ship-shape!
The dentist went really well today. It was nice that the place was a children's fantasy land, with a ship in the waiting room, toys everywhere, and hygienists that totally know how to relate to preschoolers! Ellie still had a bit of a hard time, but Mary Clare was a trooper. She did get a nice lecture from the dentist (which I told her would probably be coming) about how she needs to stop sucking her thumb. And so I hid the blankies, finally. But she still fell asleep sucking her thumb. Maybe I will need to try the dentist's advice of putting gloves on her...or some kind of reward system. It's affecting her teeth so we do need to work on it...
We had a great time shopping with my mom and aunt for a few hours, but then my body felt it tonight! I know I've been overdoing it with 3 days of painting and a day of shopping in the past week. It's so hard with this nesting instinct plus the fact that Christmas is coming very soon and there's a lot that needs to be done before Peter's arrival! My body is gearing up with lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions and tonight a great case of indigestion. Let's see if I can still get to sleep...and actually get up in time to make my 8:00am OB appointment!
They left the curtains opened during dance class today, so I took a video of my happy little "Twinkle Toes"! Note Ellie's head watching intently. She might already know Mary Clare's tap and ballet moves better than her sister!
Mommy is still in recovery-mode from the painting...whoa, that wore me out! And I think some of the stuff still needs another coat :( But at least the headboard is done now, and I'm on a roll with the white paint!
Here's my "lovely" 34 week picture of me with paint all over! Please excuse the attractive painting attire! We happened to have a mirror sitting by the fence, so I thought I would mark this crazy day with a crazy shot (as I talked on the cell phone)!
Tomorrow morning is the girls' first dental appointment so please say a little prayer for us!
Well, the furniture didn't get painted over the weekend, nor did we go on a fishing trip! We spent Sunday going to about 4 different Wal-Mart stores looking for the paint sprayer thing that Steven needed. No luck. Then I was ready to paint the furniture with brushes, only to discover that the only white paint I had was some kind of textured paint! Needless to say, the painting didn't get started until today. I'm painting Peter's dresser, 2 nightstands, and 2 wall shelves. The girls helped with the first coat before getting tired and ready to clean up! So now, they're fresh and clean while Mommy is covered in white paint with still a coat or two to go! Hopefully I'll be done in time for ballet class this afternoon!
Oh, and while at one of the Wal-Mart trips, I went ahead and bought paint for our master bath. Looks like November is painting month for me! Hope you all have a terrific Tuesday and thanks again for the complements on my headboard (which also required some more paint today since I didn't paint it low enough for the bed to cover the white part!)...
The camera lens is dirty, the bed isn't moved to the wall yet since the paint is still wet, and the end tables didn't get painted yet (hopefully tomorrow!)...but you get the idea! It was an all-day project and I can't wait to get the room all put together. I just realized that almost every item in the room besides our bed and bedding were given to us! "Design on a Dime"...that's for sure! I think I'd still like to find a different comforter since ours is getting really dingy and is too hard to wash, but other than that, I'm very happy with my new room and look forward to hanging out there with my new baby very soon :)
And edited to add a big thanks to all the encouragement and advice about my little project! Especially to Emily and Colleen for the stripes-advice!
Here's what I've done so far on the faux headboard. Gonna take awhile! I'm also still adjusting the outline where some other paint dripped (why the outline looks light in color). I'm having fun playing artist :) But my question is, inside of the flower border I was going to paint stripes. But what kind of stripes? Horizontal? Vertical? Thick? Thin? We have very small blue pinstripes on our pillowcases and will probably have a plain blue or white comforter. I'm all ears for ideas!
I really enjoy being the mommy of my two girls. I love watching them play together...dolls and doctor, house and dance recital, coloring and painting. Both of them are very much "girly girls" who like to play dress-up and put on my makeup. They do like to play outside and get dirty or put together a train track here and there, but most of their activities are of the typical female sort.
It's funny to imagine how our family will change once Peter joins our family and later gets older and starts to have his own interests and want his own "boy toys" and boy games. I'm excited about the new adventure but also a bit apprehensive about what it will entail. I know virtually nothing about sports...never played a team sport in my life. I was a dancer through and through! I'm not a big outdoors fan or a great lover of fishing and hunting.
But my husband is all of those and more!!! He speaks the male language of sports. I cannot for the life of me translate what he discusses with his brother and nephew of all their fantasy sports drafts or quoted movie lines. He loves camping, fishing, hunting, wildlife, outdoors...we are truly complete opposites in that regard. My dream vacation is a cruise or fancy resort and his is a trip to the Grand Canyon (which after seeing a show on it recently terrifies the daylights out of me...I formed a fear of heights after having kids!). He just called me at 10:00pm from work, asking if I want to go to the beach tomorrow so he can fish. Fishing and hunting run deep through his veins!
We compromise our interests in a lot of ways, and try to share his love of nature with the girls, but it's also exciting to know that Steven will have a little buddy to take out to the ranch, the fishing pier, or the hunting trip. He's tried some of these with activities the girls, but for the most part they have been scared of fish and large animals. They don't care to be outdoors in the heat for long hours or be around the loud noises of things like tractors or baseball stadiums.
Here's what my girls spend their days playing with: I'm embarrassed to admit that this is not even all the dolls. There were others in the playroom and probably in other areas of the house and at their grandma's house! I finally went to work purging some of the toys yesterday, including a few of these dolls, a handful of which were actually dolls from my own childhood! I put them aside to see if they miss them, before donating.
I'm going to have to start collecting some more masculine toy items, some dump trucks and swords, maybe another train set and some more matchbox cars and balls! The poor little boys who come to play have a really hard time finding suitable toys. A new adventure for me indeed!
I'll end my post tonight with a sweet video of Ellie from my parents' house tonight, and I'll watch the rest of "Ratatouille" while awaiting my husband's return. We'll see if we finish this weekend with painted furniture or fresh fish in the fridge....To Be Continued
I've been meaning to fix up my banner and template, but can only do it here at my parents' house with the Photoshop program! So here's my fall look :) It's back to warmer weather here again, so it doesn't really feel like November. Thanksgiving in two weeks? Baby in less than 6 weeks? Wow. I am just amazed that I am going to have a baby boy in my arms NEXT MONTH! My next blog banner should show THREE children!
I haven't worked on the faux headboard painting yet, maybe tonight. This weekend will hopefully be filled with lots of house projects, mostly furniture-painting. Then we can get to put the nursery and master bedroom back together...I'm anxious for that! I've done a little Christmas shopping and planning, and got to work purging the playroom yesterday. I'll have some pictures of that to show you. Let me just say that we have way too many dolls!
at 12:45am! Whoa, am I a tired mama! But with all the furniture awry, the room a mess, and the brushes to wash...I figured I'd be better off finishing the job tonight rather than tomorrow. The exact headboard plan is still TBD; hopefully I can work on it tomorrow! But I think I like the color a lot and will be happy to see it with the pictures and bedding back in the room.
has begun! I bought my supplies this afternoon and have gotten to work painting our bedroom. It's the perfect weather to leave doors and windows open for ventilation. And we have nothing planned this evening, except to attempt to finish painting and eat a dinner of crockpot macaroni and cheese!
I've had three crises already today, though, and I'm a bit exhausted from them. We've had a tripping incident resulting in a very damaged toy guitar (one of Ellie's favorite toys). Then we had a red slush drink spilled in the carseat all over a child's clothing on the way to Wal-Mart! Finally, I spilled a ton of paint, thankfully it was on the tarp but soaked through my pants. I am really a mess when it comes to painting!
I've only got one wall painted so far because I have a bed that needs to be moved and an alarm box that needs to be removed from the wall, and I can't get through to Steven's cell phone!
Maybe this nesting thing isn't quite what it's cut out to be. And I've got a long way to go! Hopefully in the late night hours I'll have an almost-completely painted room to post...we'll see. Back to the brush...
It has begun! A friend asked me last week if I was nesting yet, and I was so focused on the events at hand (All Saints', Halloween, First Friday), that getting ready for baby wasn't quite at the top of the priorities!
Well, things have changed as of yesterday. I cleaned the kitchen and used my foot-mopping technique to clean the kitchen floors. I washed probably 6 loads of laundry (none of which have been folded or put away) and cleaned out the laundry room. I scrubbed the floor of our bathroom, which had embarrassingly never been done before :-O! The tile is a very dark color so it shows no dirt, but the dust was horrible! I cleaned the shower. I took care of 2 girls with tummy viruses all night long :-( (They're feeling better but still upset tummies)
And here are some other nesting things I've been doing...
My mom ordered crib bedding for Peter...our little "Fisher of Men"!
I found a dresser for free on our area's online classifieds. It needs a little work.
Here's what the nursery looks like right now. We have a long way to go! And a lot of things to give away! But at least we have the basic furniture and a theme idea to start with.
Yes, that pillow says "Tempurpedic"! We got a coupon in the mail to a furniture store for $200 off when you spend $200 or more. So, we treated ourselves to some new pillows for just the amount over $200!
We've been taping our bedroom for painting...finally! I've had the paint since January! It's going to be a denim blue color.
I was thinking about painting a "headboard" on the wall, but a friend gave me the idea to use tin tiles like this. What do you think?
Okay, better get my sicklings down for naps and continue my cleaning marathon! It's been a pretty good Monday so far...not quite as "manic" as the past weeks...
Yesterday our homeschool group had the big All Saints' Day party at a family's beautiful home and ranch out in the country! I think there were probably over 100 people there! It was a gorgeous afternoon and so nice to be outside the city, to hear the crickets, see the stars, and breathe in the fresh air. Our week of excitement is over and now we're on to preparations for the coming months of Thanksgiving, Peter's arrival, and Christmas! Here are some highlights from yesterday...
A peaceful drive there for Mommy ;)
A beautiful drive out to the country
Coming up on the beautiful home
Ellie talking to the chickens
MC as St. Queen Elizabeth of Hungary minus her crown and basket of bread and flowers
Little "Mary" is not sure what's going on...
The saint parade begins!
Steven was my photographer and had to leave early, so I'm without any good pictures of the various saint games (18 booths, everything from face painting to bingo to tractor rides!). But here is a beautiful butterfly shot he took.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I've been doing lots of nesting, less than 6 weeks until our bundle arrives!
Thanks for the prayers. After her bug bite incident this summer when we were out of town and ended up in the ER, I wanted to be sure we got this taken care of ASAP! She's on a few medications and her eye is already looking better! The First Friday class went well, especially the adorable cards the kids painted for our priests and deacons, and we had a fun park outing afterwards. Now we're just resting up at NeNe and PaPa's before the big All Saints' Day celebration tomorrow! Have a great weekend, all!
We're headed to the doctor right now. She got a bug bite on Halloween and her eyelid is almost swollen shut! Hopefully it will be a quick and not-too-painful visit. Thanks for the prayers, friends! We'll probably head straight to our homeschool class so I'll update this afternoon.
Mary Clare-"This is the best Halloween EVER! I've never gone trick-or-treating before! This is much better than sticking it out at home!" She figured out the candy part last year and there was no way we could avoid this holiday anymore!
Mary Clare the angel, in her flower girl dress from when she was 3! As you can tell, it wasn't a very cold Halloween in Texas!
Ellie the ballerina butterfly!
Woohoo! Look at all the candy we got!
I let them choose one candy after breakfast so Ellie walked into my OB appt with a box of Nerds this morning..."the breakfast of champions" I stated! Doctor appointment went well, except that I'm already showing a little dilation so please pray that little Peter stays put until December!!!
AND HAPPY ALL SAINTS' DAY! Today should be pretty low-key for us, just Mass tonight, and preparing for our First Friday class tomorrow. The big All Saints' celebration isn't until Saturday so we have a few more days of fun to look forward to!
The costumes are finished (well, at least the All Saints ones; we still can't find Ellie's butterfly wings for tonight...St. Anthony!!!). The kids are ready for candy. And we started off the Halloween/All Saints' Day festivities with a trip to a local nursing home this morning. It was a wonderful experience...
We didn't get off to the best start. Ellie refusing to take a picture, hold baby Jesus, or put her veil on...
Mary Clare refusing to put on a costume at all...
But alas, Mommy wins and the girls participate! I did have to carry Baby Jesus the whole time though. And I thought that would be her favorite part of the costume! Meet Saint Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and the Virgin Mary
All the saints
These residents cracked me up with those wigs on!
I'll have to say that my proudest moment was with Ellie this morning. She has had a hard time since we first painted and filled the bags last week, wanting to carry them around for herself and keep them. She sweetly gave one of them away to a resident early in the visit, but then started crying. We gave all the kids another bag to hand out and I didn't ask Ellie until she was the very last child holding a bag. I saw a sweet old lady in her room clutching a giant stuffed puppy dog. I instructed Ellie to give the lady the bag and the lady got a huge grin on her face, shaking her hands and body and making a gleeful noise, even though she couldn't speak. It was really touching and I was very proud of Ellie, knowing how much she wanted to keep a bag. My baby is getting so big!
When you tell the 4 year-old she can make dinner. You have canned cinnamon rolls, LOL!
Today was an exhausting Monday. I took the girls to Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart, came home for a mini-break, and then had tutoring. One of my student's spelling words we worked on was "hauled"...I felt like I hauled my body around all day today.
By the time Steven got home I was about to fall over, but was trying to get up the energy to cook some dinner. I had it all planned out...Shepherd's Pie! But the ground beef was still frozen rock-hard in the fridge where it was supposed to defrost since yesterday. So Steven and I pondered what we could make, meanwhile he challenged Mary Clare to go make something. Cinnamon rolls were her choice!
I couldn't bear to eat that, so I slipped away for awhile, picking up my own little snack and having a nice quiet time shopping at Target BY MYSELF :) Ah, to not have children running up and down isles and grabbing things off the counters. No potty breaks or diaper changing in the middle of the trip, no lifting children in and out of the shopping cart, no fits on the floor, and I literally browsed the WHOLE store in an hour. I was a much happier mommy when I got home :)
Only I still haven't gotten to talk much to my husband, but it did look rather pretty on his trip this weekend... No fish pictures, but a very nice looking beach :)
I'm trying to motivate myself for these next few days of excitement. I'm not there yet. I know I'll get excited as the girls dress up and participate in all the activities of the week. But right now I just want to curl up in a little ball for a few weeks and meet this baby! I guess it should start with me getting to bed at a decent hour...
Before the storm of Halloween, All Saints' Day, and First Friday activities! Lots of costumes, accessories, event-planning, and other little details still need to be finalized, but I'm glad this week was a relaxing one where we spent most of our time at home.
Thank you for your prayers yesterday. We had a wonderful Holy Hour at the Planned Parenthood clinic. I hadn't prayed at an abortion clinic since last year when we lived in Aggieland. We pulled up to see "Sergeant Steve", the PP security guy who has been out at this clinic and the one in Aggieland from the beginning. That eerie familiarity was there, kind of like I was "home" back on the front lines again. We were able to pray a rosary and some litanies and pray specifically for some young women who appeared to be leaving the clinic after an abortion :(
The girls did really well and hardly ventured near the street until the last few minutes! I told MC that we were going to a doctor office to pray for babies in their mommies' tummies. She didn't ask much else, and for that I am thankful at this time. My prayers are with all those who go out there on a weekly basis to pray and minister to the men and women who have been or might be harmed by abortion. I really miss this ministry and hope that, if abortion is still legal (which I hope it's not), I might be able to do more in the future.
My pictures from yesterday were accidentally erased and I am camera-less this weekend while hubby camps and fishes on his last hurrah before baby arrives! Hopefully he'll have some exciting pictures of some big fish! Speaking of fishing, a friend gave us a crib last night and I am on the lookout for a dresser and some "fishy" bedding for Peter's room. Less than 8 weeks until his arrival...I can't believe it! My belly is getting really big and he's poking me all over the place this week! I definitely feel like I'm in the home stretch now!
Well, the girls have been playing dress up and I think it's about time they "dress up" for bed! Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!
Just a little note to say GOOD MORNING and to ask you all for prayer as my Regnum Christi team joins others in the 40 Days for Life campaign. We'll be heading out in the cool weather with our little ones to pray at the big Planned Parenthood abortion clinic downtown this morning, something I've done many times before but not so often with the girls. Better go get everyone woken up, dressed, and fed! God bless your day...
My name is Blair. I have long hair. See below on the sidebar: my family's there. My goals: to love the Lord in prayer, to keep my house from being a scare, and to homeschool my kids and not despair. I'd like to tap dance like Fred Astaire. I love to have new skirts to wear. Trips to the beach should not be rare. This blog is where my life I share. Take care!
ABOUT US
(click on photo)
Our six blessings
Baby Peter (1), Mary Clare (15), Steven (10), Katherine (4), Thomas (7), Elizabeth (13)
Meeting the Pope!
Receiving a Newlywed blessing from Blessed John Paul II on January 2, 2002
