A Moment Like This

As I woke up this morning, I had very bittersweet thoughts. Tomorrow our lives will forever be changed. We will go from a family of 5 to a family of 6, 3 of those members under the age of 3. This is the last full day I will ever feel a baby kick, roll, or move inside me. It's the last full day I will ever struggle to get down on the floor to play with Love Bug or Bug-A-Boo because we all know that getting back up is next to impossible when this pregnant. It's the last full day I will feel the weight of baby Willow pressing against my stomach oh so painfully. And while I am completely excited and grateful for what tomorrow holds, I'm also completely sad that this is an experience I will never have again. My pregnancies aren't easy by any stretch of the imagination and I'll admit that I complain--a lot--when I'm pregnant. But God gave women such an amazing blessing in the way we were made and today, I'm just realizing how much I've taken that for granted (pain, suffering, and all).

Moving on to the family and general updates... Yesterday I was sitting on the couch watching Bug-A-Boo play with a truck and was just in awe of the difference between him and Love Bug. Not just a difference in their personalities and physical growth but differences in their likes and dislikes at this age. Bug-A-Boo is all boy. I don't really know how else to explain it other than he just loves playing with blocks and building towers, playing with cars, and throwing himself around or climbing all over everything. Love Bug at this age was more interested in playing with dolls, kitchen food, and her rock table. Physically, Bug-A-Boo walked before Love Bug and also has a mouth full of teeth, whereas Love Bug waited until 14 months to walk and still only had her 4 front teeth. She started talking much sooner than he, even though he tries so hard to form words and has since about a year.

Bug-A-Boo started walking and hasn't stopped since (or so it seems)! He's still in that wobbly stage where he looks like a Weeble Wobble (but actually does fall down). He trips over his own feet constantly which makes me laugh, especially when he tries "run". He scares me half to death when he face plants on the couch, barely missing face planting on the floor by only an inch. He likes to knock things over (like our lamp) to see what happens and put toys inside other toys and objects to see if they fit.

Little Love is starting 4th grade, 4th grade, on Monday! I can't even believe it. Where did all the time go? I know I feel this way at the beginning of each year but this year I think it's hitting me a little harder knowing it's the first time I won't physically be here to see her off to school. It makes me incredibly grateful that the iPhone has FaceTime capabilities and that our hospital has WiFi access for their guests! She got to meet her teachers earlier this week and now that she has, she's excited to start school. Her teachers are nice and I think we're going to have a great year.

That's about all I have for today so until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Mastered Pregnancy Yet? Nope..

I have so many thoughts running through my mind today. From my pregnancy to how much my kids crack me up to holy cow I forgot to switch the diapers into the dryer! Speaking of pregnancy, you would think with this being my 6th pregnancy I would have it down pat by now. I do, for the most part. But there are still times when things catch me off guard. This pregnancy hasn't been too bad sans the sickness and earlier progression of gestational diabetes. Willow is moving and kicking all the time now and you can feel it much more from the outside in recent weeks. She's growing perfectly and one of our kids FINALLY cooperated for the 4-D ultrasound! I'm amazed at how much she looks like Trinity. It makes my heart melt every time I look at that picture. I'm so excited to meet her! We go back tomorrow for another ultrasound (one of the few positives of having GD) and I'm hoping we'll get another 4-D picture!

As far as getting ready for her, I'm all over the place with decisions. Since we don't really have a separate sleep area yet for Willow, preparations haven't been quite as extensive for her arrival as with my other two. I'm still trying to figure out a suitable arrangement for her clothes and am debating if we can use the dressers we already have or if we'll need another dresser. That brings a whole other host of problems though like where on earth I'm putting another dresser! So for now, I'm mostly just working on getting her NB diaper stash together. I'm sewing at least half, if not more, of her diapers and ordered the rest. After a lot of thought and talks with Andy, we've decided to go the AIO route for her diapers since Trinity isn't showing ANY interest in potty training yet. :/ Side note: AIO = All-in-One which is basically as close to a disposable as you get. I've made 5 so far and am in love with them! (You can check them out and my other crafting endeavers at On My Needles.)

I started this post weeks ago and never got around to finishing it but am going to do so today because it's a very special day. My one and only son is a full year old today! I just can't believe it! It's amazing and astounding that an entire year has gone by since meeting my little man. I absolutely love that his personality has really started coming alive the past few weeks. He laughs all the time when he's amused (he didn't used to) and is trying so hard to talk. When you ask him something, he actually responds like he's answering your question. He has the most expressive face and eyes. He loves to snuggle (most times) and wants to do everything that everyone else does. <3 access="" all="" at="" but="" can="" drive="" external="" hard="" here="" his="" i="" is="" moment.="" most="" my="" nbsp="" of="" on="" one="" p="" photos="" put="" re="" recent="" s="" shots:="" t="" that="" the="" they="" this="" unfortunately="" usually="" where="" year="">

Moving on to my other kiddos... Little Love is just about finished school. Her official last day is Friday and she's totally excited (as am I). We have about a week break before she leaves for Girl Scout camp, comes home, has her birthday party, and then leaves to visit her dad for the remainder of the summer. While I'm totally going to miss her while she's gone, I know she needs some time with her dad and future step-mom and -sister. She's totally excited to explore more of Seattle and I'm really excited for her. She's participating in character day on Monday and chose to be Hermoine from the Half-Blood Prince. I'm amazed at how she's taken to reading the Harry Potter series. She started reading them in September and read this last book in only a few weeks! I'm incredibly proud of her!

I'm getting ready to start some lesson planning for Love Bug and am doing research on homeschooling in PA. Oh my is it overwhelming! I'd like to start some sort of "school" time with her this summer to get her (and Harrison) used to a scheduled, structured time for learning. She's already counting to 10 orally so I'm thinking we'll start there and work our way to recognition. She's also doing great with shapes (thank you Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!) so we'll continue building on those as well as introduce more reading time. This is definitely going to be a journey and one I'm nervous about since I have no formal instruction on teaching. PA has a TON of regulations when it comes to homeschooling and thankfully I don't have to start documentation until she turns 8. With that said though, I'm currently looking into creating a Homeschool Planner because I really think it will help keep me organized and things less chaotic. There's so many resources out there and trying to sift through them all has been challenging but I'm very excited God has blessed me with being able to dive into this adventure with my kids.

Well that's all I have for today so until next time, much love and many blessings!

♥Courtney♥

Trying New Things

My goal as a mom and wife is to live as close to an eco-friendly life as possible on the small budget we have. That means making my own cleaners and eating organic, locally grown meats and vegetables whenever we can. That also means being creative with my meager budget. Pinterest. That's all I need to say. I seriously have a love affair. It's my go-to app when I have a question about how to do something or just need a little inspiration. I have a lot of pins, like almost two thousand a lot, but not enough time to devote to actually making most of them. This week I've decided I'm going to go for it! Pinterest has been my best friend when it comes to being an eco-friendly household, especially clean eating. Eating organic is expensive. There's just no way around that. One thing I'm doing to eat cleanly while still staying within our budget is making things myself. For example, this week I bought roasted peanuts and made my own peanut butter. I was a little hesitant about this endeavor because I have to be honest--peanut butter is something else I have a love affair with. I just don't like that commercially made ones, even all-natural ones, add more salt and sugar than what our bodies need. So I hit Pinterest to find a recipe. The first few I looked at needed additional oils which I didn't want and didn't have on hand so I kept looking. I finally found one that is just peanuts. That's it. Talk about simple! All you do is blend them in a food processor until it has a creamy consistency. Homemade peanut butter is a little different than the store kind of creamy because it's not completely smooth. And that's okay with me. I gave some to Little Love on her PBJ the other day and she was amazed at how much better it tasted. She loves it so much that she doesn't even want the jarred stuff anymore! Mom and Pinterest for the win!!

Another thing our family eats a lot of is bread (probably more than we realistically should). If you check out the label on your bread, I would bet that there's at least 4 or 5 ingredients that you can't even pronounce let alone have any clue what they are or why they're there. That was another alarm bell going off in my head so instead of buying prepacked bread with preservatives and fake coloring, I'm making ours from scratch. I love knowing exactly what is going into my food and know that I can make it much healthier (and cheaper!) than what I buy at the grocery store. And 9 times out of 10, it tastes much better than the commercial item! These endeavors definitely take up a little more of my time, but it's worth it. I want to teach my children that convenience isn't always better. Now, I'm not saying that our family will never eat things that aren't homemade again because that would be unrealistic. But I'm definitely going to do my best to limit my family's unnecessary exposure to chemicals, "fake" ingredients, and preservatives.

Two other projects I've tried recently is making my own detergent (different from my other posts) and deep cleaning the Pack N' Play we keep at my MIL's. I don't have pictures of either, unfortunately (I thought of that AFTER I was finished) but both projects turned out fantastically. In the powdered detergent version, I felt like my clothes weren't getting very clean and I suspect that the Fels Naptha isn't dissolving very well in cold water. We were still having problems with deodorant residue and food residue on the kids clothing. I went back to using Gain because I adore the scent, but really dislike the price (even with coupons) and all the added chemicals. It also wasn't getting my diapers very clean. I found a different version of laundry soap that uses the same ingredients as the powdered version, but you cook them instead. It's called Mom's Super Laundry Sauce from Budget101.com. Yes, this version takes a few extra minutes but it is totally worth it! I've been using this version for about 3 weeks and couldn't be happier with it. The first load of laundry I tested it on was... You guessed it! Diapers! If it can't get diapers clean, then it's not worth my time or effort. Well, my diapers came out better than clean. They went back to being just like new!! I am stoked that there isn't anymore funky smell and I don't have to strip them again with bleach. This version has had no issues getting our clothes clean either. This particular recipe makes 1/2 gallon which equals 128 loads because it's super concentrated and you only need 1 TBS per load--yes, it really does work with only 1 TBS, even large loads (I use 1/2 TBS if I'm doing a small load). I definitely will not switch back to commercial! The next time I make it, I'm going to try adding some essential oils to give it a nice smell. Moving on to the Pack N' Play. We got this particular one for free and knew the minute we picked it up that it had been stored in a musty basement (possibly from smokers?). It was pretty dirty and smelled horrible. We tried cleaning it with cleaners, spraying it with lysol, using a steamer... Everything we could think of but the smell still lingered and it was still dingy. I really didn't like my kids playing in it (thankfully it's our spare). My great friend and fellow Pinterest lover sent me a link on how to deep clean it. I was ALL. OVER. THAT. I picked up the play yard from my MIL and went right to work. It was so easy to do and only used 1 cap of baby laundry soap (I used Gain because it's what I had on hand), 1/4 cup baking soda, and a splash of vinegar. It came out looking and smelling great! (Click this for the instructions.)

On to the family update:

Bug is now almost 9 months old and still a total chunker! We finally got his acid reflux under control by switching his formula. It's to the point where he hasn't needed any acid reflux meds! Yay! He's finally starting to pull himself up onto his feet instead of to his knees and is crawling normally instead of army crawling. These both came about in the past week. I was getting worried about him not putting much weight on his legs or seeming disinterested in standing. The doctor said if he still isn't putting weight on them by his next check-up, then it was time for some physical therapy. I'm so happy that we don't have to go that route!

Little Love is doing great and is loving 3rd grade. The amount of work she's doing this year compared to last has been shocking. She's had so many tests this year but has aced each of them. I'm so impressed and proud that she's gotten back into reading. I feel like she really lost her love for it last year but since starting the Harry Potter series in September, has rekindled it. She's read through the first four books since then and is stoked to be on the 5th one. I absolutely adore that she's a girl after my own heart! Now, I just have to teach her to knit... ;-)

Love Bug just turned 2. I can't believe I'm saying, well typing, that! Two years old!! It feels like just yesterday I brought her home from the hospital and she was learning to roll over, crawl, and walk! She is such a bundle of joy and energy all the time. She's talking so much more than I remember Little Love doing at this age. I absolutely adore her antics and sweet nature. I also love that she's holding conversations with us. She says the funniest things and at the most inappropriate moments which makes what she says even more funny. One of my favorite phrases she's saying right now is, "Kristi! Kris! Mere!" (come here) while opening and closing both hands. She's so fascinated with everything. I forgot how much of a sponge they are at this age. Yesterday, we put a diaper on Nora and she kept lifting Nora's dress up to look at it, gasp, and put her hand over her mouth. Then she'd look at me. LoL! Right now, we're working on counting and numbers with her. She can mostly count to 10 but tends to skip 6.

I'm so stoked that spring is almost here! We've had a few 50+ degree days here but the ground is still sopping wet so going outside to play with the kids hasn't been an option. After today's temp plummet, we're supposed to be going back into the 50's for a few days. I'm hoping that the ground will dry enough that we can take the kids to the park. Harry has yet to get on/in a swing. Speaking of spring... I'm finally going to try my hand at gardening. Nothing too major, just lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes--my staple salad fixings. I've been wanting to try for years but have been hesitant due to my lack of green thumb (I've killed every house plant I have ever owned!). From what I read, these are some of the easiest veges to start with so we'll see how it goes. We're planning to purchase a 42 in. x 42 in. raised bed from Home Depot and place it on the right side of the house. I read a few articles on how to start your plants inside using newspaper and this method helps with better growing plants. This is just another way that I can help skim some from our grocery budget, eat healthier, and be more "green".

Well that's it for today. Until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Counting My Blessings

As I sit here with my pumpkin coffee, I can't help but count my blessings. As I was going through my day yesterday, I realized that while my life may sometimes feel like a train wreck, though it may sometimes be painful, I have so much to be thankful for. I have a beautiful home even though it's almost always a mess. I have a vehicle to take me wherever I want to go. I have 3 amazing children who I couldn't possibly love more. I have the most wonderful husband I could ever ask for. But most of all, I have a Lord who has blessed me beyond words and sometimes, I forget that. I admit it. There are times when I forget just how awesome and amazing God is!

I want to talk about my husband for a minute. We've shared our laughter, tears, joys, sorrows, and love for the past 6 1/2 years, 2 1/2 of those being married. I know it sounds cliche but I fall more in love with him everyday. He provides for our family so I can stay home and raise our children. He comes home after a long, tiring, and stressful day at work and helps me with dinner and the kids. He takes out the trash for me. He lets me have a kid-free evening to sit at Panera and knit with friends. He watches our children so I can volunteer with the PTA. There's a million other things that he does for us that I don't even know about because he chooses to do them without recognition. I am amazed everyday at the unconditional love he has shown, is showing, and will continue showing me until death do us part. I don't always remember to tell him how much I appreciate everything he does for our family and I don't always remember to be kind.

As I was sitting at Panera last night, we had a discussion on how we as wives aren't always kind to our husbands. Even though we may be joking at times, the words we say and how we say them can come across as biting or even downright mean. I have found myself being more knit-picky and annoyed with little things since Harrison has been born. After that conversation, I decided I'm going to find only positive things to say to my husband. I'm honestly curious how much better this will make our relationship and help our communication.

Now that all the sappy stuff is out of the way, here's the low-down at the Kramers over the past few months. At the beginning of June, Harrison was born. The transition of going from 2 to 3 kids was much harder than I anticipated. We had a lot of feeding issues in the first month and a half and it's was pretty crazy and stressful in our house (hence why you're only now getting an update). Since then, my Little Love has started 3rd grade (3rd grade!!) and is enjoying every minute of it! Things are starting to settle down and become more routine like now and I'm thankful for that. For awhile there, I thought I might pull all my hair out! It's been a roller coaster of emotions but I'm enjoying every minute of it; and yes, even those pull-out-my-hair and sobbing times!

On that note, I'm off to get my Little Love up for school. Next time, I'll update with some pictures. Until then, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

News & Updates

I can hardly believe that today I'm 37 weeks and considered full-term! This pregnancy has definitely been more difficult than with Love Bug. At 33 weeks I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes again (I had it with Love Bug). This time around it's been different in that my sugars aren't being controlled as well with just my diet, especially my fasting sugars. Because of that, I started taking Glyburide (the lowest dose) and that seems to be helping. The side effects suck but it's either that or I have to inject insulin and that's not even an option! Squish has been perfectly on target size wise so my doctors aren't overly concerned that my sugars haven't been perfect. I did find out that part of the reason for the higher numbers is my use of antacids (my heartburn is RIDICULOUS this time around) and my use of cough medicine for the cold I've had for the past 2 weeks. I started taking Zantac a few days ago so I'm hoping that will help with the heartburn so I can use less antacids.

It's been pretty busy around here the past month trying to get ready for Squish's arrival. We still have so much to do (at least it feels that way) but everything is starting to come together. We're hoping to have the nursery finished the first weekend in June. We purchased all the paint for it last weekend so hopefully we can hire our friend to paint it by then. I'm not too worried about it since he won't be sleeping in his own room for at least a week or two anyway. I've gotten all his clothes we currently have washed and put away. I know I'll have more to do this weekend since our baby shower is tomorrow which I'm totally okay with. I'm hoping we get some larger sized clothes since we already have a bunch of NB stuff. Since he'll be born in the summer, he'll mostly be wearing onsies anyway. Speaking of the baby shower; I'm going to go off topic here for a minute. I'm really excited to get together with everyone. I feel like time just flies and gets lost a lot lately and I don't get to spend much time with friends or even my family. It's going to be so nice seeing everyone. :-) So back to prepping... In a previous post, I talked about flipping the girls rooms so that Love Bug and Squish would share a room and Kristi would have her own room. After doing that, I really struggled with the configuration of all the furniture needing to fit in the littles' room and am still struggling with the idea of having them in there together. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking it's not such a great idea. Love Bug is pretty much on a set schedule and does so well with sleep. I honestly don't know if she would do well with a screaming infant in the middle of the night, multiple times a night. Andy and I talked a lot about it earlier this week and we're thinking that having the girls share a room for now is going to be the best option, at least until Squish gets on some semblance of a sleep schedule that is similar to Love Bug's. Side note: we probably should have had this in our minds when building our house. Anyway... this weekend is going to be so busy getting the rooms moved around...AGAIN. Little Love is really excited about the move though so that makes it better.

The last part of prepping involves finishing Squishes diapers. I've got 9 of 12 finished and the more I do them, the faster and easier it is. Depending how long it takes me to get these last few finished, I may bump up and do 18. Thankfully, Andy's mom lent me her sewing machine since mine's acting out and I don't have the time or patience to get it looked at right now. Her sewing machine is sooooooo nice (and I'm totally jealous because I seriously WANT one!). Enough on that though... You can read more about those adventures on my crafting blog.

On other fronts, last weekend we celebrated Andy's birthday, our anniversary, and our friends' birthday with our really good friends, the Wilts. The boys really wanted to see Star Trek (as did I) so we saw that in the early afternoon and then went to Aki for dinner. It was an amazingly awesome time and we had so much fun! We were supposed to go see Iron Man 3 after that but I couldn't get a sitter for Love Bug so we decided to stay in as a group and hang. I actually went to bed at like 8:30 because I was so exhausted while everyone else watched movies downstairs. It was so nice to spend time together, especially since I know that soon we won't have these opportunities very often.

Well, that's about all I have for today. I've got lots to do so I better get to it! Until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Expansion

Our little family is really starting to expand, in every sense of the word. We started with just Little Love and I, then added Andy, then Love Bug, and now little Harrison is on the way. I'm scared... This pregnancy caught us so off-guard and it's been a whirlwind of overwhelming since. I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing; it's just...different. I know nothing about little boys. I think that's what's the most disconcerting.

Expansion is usually positive in the sense that things are growing, whether it be family, business, etc. Just in the past week, we've purchased a new vehicle, Little Love started Girl Scouts, and I added a new member to my Thirty-One team! After finding out we were pregnant with Harrison, we knew we needed a larger vehicle. A Hyundai Elentra and PT Cruiser just can't handle 3 children in car seats. We were originally thinking of purchasing a smaller SUV because I've always been stone cold set on NOT having a mini-van! Well, after looking at prices and sizes, we got a mini-van. Although there's really nothing mini about it. It's an 07' Dodge Grand Caravan. I've always owned small vehicles so driving this monster has been interesting to say the least. So far, I'm really happy with our purchase and our growing family has plenty of space now so hopefully we won't feel like sardine's when we head to the beach this year!

Little Love had her first Girl Scouts meeting this past Thursday. I'm not sure she knows exactly how she feels about it yet. She did say that she was disappointed because she thought that they'd be going camping and having s'mores and doing that kind of stuff. I tried to tell her that this is her first time and those things will be coming up, just not today. LoL! I'm a little nostalgic heading into the weekend because I'll be visiting the 4-H store where I used to shop for my patches and Girl Scout items to get Little Love's vest and patches. I can't wait to see her in her "uniform"!

Thirty-One has been pretty steady so far this year. My goal for this year is to grow my team. I would realistically like to have 4 girls under my lead by the end of August. I'm not sure how feasible that is since Harrison will be born in June, so June, July, and most of August will be consumed with adjusting to life with a new baby plus a toddler and not-so-little kid! I'm definitely going to try though. I've pretty much mapped out my game plan for the coming month's of what I'd like to have happen so we'll see how it all falls in to place. My first recruit signed up yesterday and I'm totally stoked about that! She's going to be a fantastic consultant! Now comes the learning process for me of being a mentor. :-)

Well, that's about all I have for now. I'm going to get ready for the day before Love Bug makes her appearance. Until next time, much love and many blessings!!


♥Courtney♥

DIYing - Hit or Miss

Recently I have been scouring Pinterest looking for ways to be more economical not only on my wallet but also towards the environment. Something I really want to do is make my own cleaners. I sometimes have trouble with commercial cleaners because of the smells, especially now that I'm pregnant. I don't particularly like the strong smell or amount of chemicals found in commercial cleaners either. And I really don't enjoy the price tag on a lot of them.

For the past 8 months, I've made my own powdered laundry detergent and have loved the results I get with our CD, but it doesn't seem to work as well on our clothing. My best guess is it's not working as well because we wash everything on cold except CD, which get washed on hot. The soap isn't really "melting" during the wash cycle. I found a liquid version of detergent that pretty much uses the same ingredients over at the One Income Family Living Blog and she had the same observations I did. It seemed incredibly simple and doesn't have many ingredients. Plus, she raved about the liquid version she tried so I was incredibly stoked to try it but severely disappointed in the results. Now, I don't know if it didn't work well because of the type of soap I used (Soft Soap instead of Fels Naptha) or what but I was definitely bummed about it. Actually, I still am... I might give it one more go and use Fels Naptha since that's what the recipe calls for and see how that works. Moving on...

I am in love with smells (good ones, not bad ones, in case you needed clarification). I'm a Febreeze junkie but can very rarely justify spending the money on it (even when I have a coupon), especially with how much I use it. I, of course, scoured Pinterest and the One Income Family Blog (if you click the link it'll take you to the recipe) had a recipe and I'm in LOVE! I bought a bottle of Snuggle in the Sweet Blossoms & Wildflowers scent and it smells amazing. I use it mainly on our bed linens in between washings and it's working just as well as Febreeze, plus it's ridiculously cheaper!

Another DIY recipe I found was to make hand sanitizer. I found this recipe over at the Little House Living blog and I LOVE it! (Hm... Pattern much??) I used Up & Up's green, moisturizing aloe vera gel in mine even though she says to use plain aloe vera gel. I like that it has more moisturizing properties and works just as well. It doesn't dry my hands out as much as regular sanitizer does. This is a fantastic alternative to washing your hands all the time, especially us mamas that are constantly changing diapers. I put in an old pump soap dispenser from Bath & Body Works and keep it near the kitchen sink.

The next DIY recipe I tried was making citrus infused vinegar. I really like the cleaning properties of vinegar but many times cannot stomach the smell. Side note: I still don't understand how people put vinegar on french fries! Over at My Merry Messy Life, she posted how to make it. It's sooooo easy! I used it for the first time this past weekend to clean my daughter's bathroom mirror and was pleasantly surprised that it cleaned just as well as Windex and left no streaks! I'll definitely be making a lot more of this to clean with. Now, I'll just have to eat more oranges. The next batch I want to make is lemon and lime.

The next few things I would like to try are making my own liquid hand soap (we run through it like there's no tomorrow and it gets expensive), making my own pad of paper (I use these all the time), and making my own fabric softener. I'll give my reviews once I make and try them.

Now on to more family oriented entertaining... I had my spring Thirty-One open house this past weekend and it was a lot of fun. Even though I only had 2 guests, it gave me a chance to sharpen up my talking points on the new products from my add-on kit, well brush up period because it's been a few months since I've had a home party. I have a party set-up next month and one in March already. I'm really hoping to get to the point where I'm doing at least 2 parties a week but would like to be doing at least 4 a week. I am working on building a team and have one lady who's about to join and another who may potentially join. My goal is to be a director by the time Harrison arrives in June.

Speaking of... I can't believe that I'm already half-way through this pregnancy! It feels like just yesterday we found out we were pregnant and in less than 6 months, we're going to hold another little baby. I am beyond excited but also a tad apprehensive. I don't know anything about baby boys! We're still trying to figure out the logistics of where Harrison and Love Bug will sleep in relation to each other but we have some time yet. :-) In the meantime, I'm just working on establishing some semblance of a cleaning routine and actually making/knitting some things for him. On an even happier note, I got the call from my OB this morning that my glucose levels came back normal so I don't have gestational diabetes! No finger pricking 4x's a day for me!! :-)

Well, that's about all I have for now so until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

P.S. If you want to check out things I'm making for my LO's, check out my crafting blog, On My Needles.

Opinions and the Soap Box

So life... it's just crazy! I'm so behind on so many things, but eh, they'll eventually get done... Maybe??

We've spent some time running around and hanging with our awesome friends at Pinchot. Side note: Our GPS couldn't pronounce the park name. We got a good chuckle when she said "Now pulling into Pin Cot Park." It was a much needed break from the mundane everyday tasks! The kids definitely had a blast playing on the playground. Kris is a little monkey. I couldn't believe how much she was climbing all over the equipment.

She was really pleased with herself!

Megs and I knitted and chatted with Andy while he made some awesome burgers, hot dogs, and chicken (he's such a great cook) on the grill. There were many other families with their children there as well. Speaking of (yes, I'm about to get my soap box for a minute, hence the title) other families/children... There was a boy who was probably about 10. He was down in the children's play area throwing sand at our kids and just all around wasn't the nicest. The parents were no where to be found until it was time for the boy to leave. All of sudden, the dad comes over with his dog (mind you, this dog and its sibling had just run away from him not even 10 minutes earlier. Andy and Megs rounded them up for him.) and yells at the boy to get his shoes because they were leaving. Yelling doesn't usually phase me much because I understand that being a parent can be frustrating at times and sometimes you just snap at your kids. It doesn't make it right but I can say with honesty that it happens. Well, the boy decided to disobey his father and not get his shoes. Now, before I go on, I'm going to warn you that nothing I say going forward is meant to start an argument or anything of the sort. This is strictly my opinion and thoughts and I just needed to vent them because it really upset me. Moving on... The dad tied the dog to a post on the play equipment and climbed up it to get his kid. He roughly grabbed his child's arm and drug him down. The child then went over to get his shoes. The dad untied the dog and proceeded to smack the child's butt all the while screaming at him (and I'm not exaggerating when I say screaming). The kid of course was upset. After he got his shoes on, the dad then drug his kid back to the car while continuing to scream at him and then smacked him again...for no reason! The child's mom (or grandma??) came down at this point and said something along the lines of "...that's why everyone hates him [talking about the child]--because he doesn't listen!" Okay.. Really? Was that honestly necessary? My heart absolutely broke for this child. I agree that he needed to be disciplined, but the manner in which this family chose to do so is not right in my opinion. I believe in physically disciplining a child; however, it should always, and I repeat ALWAYS be done out of love and never in public. Disciplining a child is a very serious and private thing. Doing it in public undermines that seriousness and privacy. What amazed me (not in a good way) is that if that father displayed that much of a lack of self-control in public, what is he willing to do behind closed doors? I actually had tears swimming in my eyes after that display. Alright, I'm stepping down from my soap box now.

On a more upbeat note, Kristi had her first soccer game the day before (4/28).

Warming up before the game and pictures

It started out really well--we got 2 goals pretty quickly--but then went downhill, fast. I think the final score was 7-3? I lost count of the other teams goals. It was freezing out (and no, that's not the reason I lost count)! Speaking of...

What is up with this weather?! I would really appreciate if Mother Nature would make up her mind. I'm all about winter but going back and forth is really getting old. Now back to your regularly scheduled programing...

So Kris did pretty well for her first time out on the field in a competitive setting. She was kind of a party pooper after she got hit with the ball and sat out but we had a good time for the most part. Her second game went about as well as the first. She's scared of the ball (as is most of the team it seems) so she won't go up and steal it or block it. She was right next to a kid who was about to kick the ball into our net and had a great opportunity to block/steal it but she wouldn't take it. I'm not really sure how to get her over that.

After her soccer game, we went down to Shari's and had a great time hanging out. Kristi and Sophie played outside on the trampoline and in the sprinkler. It was so funny watching them run and jump around on it. We then went to downtown Frederick. They have a thing the first Saturday of every month where all the shops are open and there's all kinds of activities going on. It's really neat. At the art gallery, there was a troop of hula-hoopers doing an exhibit of awesome tricks. They had only been doing them for about a month and a half. I was really impressed! Kristi got to show off her moves after the exhibition and she was ecstatic! We found out that the company offers birthday parties and all kinds of fun activities so we're doing that for her party this year.

Well that about all I have for today so until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Five Years

5 years ago today, I came home from a spring break trip to Chicago. While in the grand scheme of things that doesn't sound like something that would normally be "important", it is one of the most important days of my life. It's the day that marked the beginning of my husband and I's relationship. Wow... 5 years ago... On one hand, I can't believe it's been that long and on the other it feels like forever. In the past 5 years, we have had many ups and downs, laughs and cries, joys and heartaches. In the past 5 years, we have shared our hopes and dreams, loves and hates, and intimate details that no one else but us knows. God has given my daughter and I an incredible gift in the man I now call my husband. He is the most amazing person I have ever met. He loved me unconditionally from the very beginning--no strings attached--just the way Jesus does. It amazes me how much this man makes me want to be a better person. He took my broken soul, spirit, self-confidence, and worth and brought me back to life. He gently and lovingly steered me in the right direction, especially those times I didn't want to go. He loves God with all his heart and tries each and has shown that to me since day 1. Because of him and God's love, I have found my way back to living my life for Christ and I can't thank Andy enough for that. He is my rock when things get tough and the one person who truly rejoices in all that we face. He is my love and I am so thankful that God has blessed not only me, but my family with an amazing and loving man. Happy Anniversary Andy! I love you and look forward to many, many more years with you! XOXOXOXO!

08'

09'

10'

11'

11'

12'

♥Courtney♥

Schedules

I find this to be the most difficult thing about being a mom. Trinity not really being on any kind of schedule yet is definitely throwing a monkey wrench in my routine, especially housework. I know that I need to get a handle on this because Kristi is going to be starting soccer in a few weeks and I've got a few projects coming up as soon as spring hits. Speaking of...

We're so excited to be getting our yard finished this year! We have so many landscaping ideas for our house but haven't been able to start any of them because the yard needs the final grating and top soil (don't ask). The thing I'm most excited about is being able to get my veggie garden going. My goal is to sustain our family year round on the veges I grow. I'm not really sure if this will be feasible this year since I'm very new to this and don't have a very good track record of having a green thumb (right mom?)! I have a feeling this will be a learning year and I'm okay with that.

I've been trying to find ways to not only save our family money but also helping our environment. Growing our own vegetables (and eventually some fruits as well), making my own cleaners and detergents are just a few ways I've been trying to be more green. I recently made my own bathroom cleaner from a post I saw on Pinterest. I have to say that I'm loving not only it's cleaning power but also the price and non-chemical smell. (If you'd like to learn how, check out my Everyday Uses board on Pinterest.) Let's just say that vinegar and Dawn are my new best friends! I also recently made detergent for our dishwasher and am loving it as well! For about $12, we got all the ingredients and one batch should last us between 3-4 months (doing one load of dishes a day). We were paying upwards of $6 for the store bought kind and we were lucky if the container lasted 2 weeks! The dishes get squeaky clean and I'm noticing that we're not getting any kind of spotting on our dishes anymore either--double score! The next DIY project I'm going to tackle is making my own hand soap and laundry detergent. I'm a big fan of scented soaps, especially from Bath & Body Works. but notice they zap all moisture out of my hands (even the moisturizing ones)! On a side note, I think it's a conspiracy because if the soaps dry out your hands, then you'll have to buy their lotions as well. I just love that making things yourself can save a ton of money and let's face it, who doesn't want to save money? Plus, there's a pride factor in knowing exactly what is in your cabinets and where it came from. Moving on...

Baby Kramer (a.k.a. Trinity/Gizmo/Chunky Monkey) is growing like a weed already. She had her first check-up this past week. She weighs 9 pounds 1.4 ounces and is finally starting to fill out her 0-3 months clothing. We've been having some feeding issues since coming home from the hospital but we seem to have them mostly resolved. We've unfortunately had to start supplementing her with formula and rice cereal (as per her doctor's instructions). The breast milk and regular formula are just too thin and she keeps narfing them up so we're adding rice cereal to the breast milk and switched her to the rice starch added formula. I was really hoping we wouldn't have to introduce formula but we just don't see any other choice at the moment. I really think she's starting to look more and more like Andy which is good. (I really think he was starting to get a complex!) I just can't believe that she's 5 weeks old already! Here's one of her more recent photos:

For being a shutterbug most of the time I've been really lax about taking pictures the past few months. I'll have to make a mental note to take my camera with me everywhere.

Last weekend we got to hang out with the Wilt family and it was great spending time with them (we don't get to see them very often). Jill showed us the most hilarious clip that I wanted to share with you because I just died laughing while watching it!

I don't have too much to update on goals yet except for weight loss. I'm not really doing anything special yet but am down 24 pounds since giving birth. I only have 14 more to lose to hit my pre-pregnancy weight! I can't wait to rev that up more with exercise, which I'll be able to introduce in another week or so. I'm going to start Zumba and am totally stoked about it! I'm also going to be trying some new recipes this week that will hopefully aid in my weight loss. One snack I would like to try is homemade potato chips. I love crunchy snacks like celery, carrots, etc. but sometimes would like to have potato chips. I don't really like all the salt and additives they have so I want to see how healthy homemade ones can be. Another snack food I really want to try is spicy roasted chickpeas. I probably won't make them too spicy since it's something I'm hoping Kristi will eat. It would be a great snack food to send in her lunches! This past week I did try a couple of new recipes. I found a recipe for crock pot honey sesame chicken and it's amazing! Although this recipe isn't one that would aid in weight loss (at least I don't think it would), it's one that will be at least a once-a-month dish. My husband really doesn't like honey and he fell IN LOVE with this recipe (as did my 6 year old and we all know how picky she can be!). I also made a crock pot chicken tortilla soup and it was pretty good too. It definitely needs some sour cream and cheese added but other than that, it's simple to make and pretty flavorful. I was hoping to find a recipe that is similar to the kind Smokey Bones used to sell but that hasn't happened yet. I also tried the pumpkin pie smoothies I found on Pinterest (actually all the recipes I tried were from Pinterest). This was the recipe I was most excited about trying and was actually let down. To me, it just didn't taste right. I'm going to try making it again but lessen the amount of pumpkin puree and add more milk. I think the pumpkin puree flavor is too overpowering, even when adding a Truvia packet to sweeten it. I'll let you know how the second batch turns out.

I keep saying this but I really do need to update more so these posts don't get so incredibly long. Until next though, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Incredibly Tired

It's 5:30 a.m. and I'm currently listening to the sound of my husband's snoring. I've been awake for the better part of an hour and a half. I'm already caught up on my Facebook and Twitter news. I'm tired... Me and 4 a.m. are not friends. We never have been and probably never will be. My mom will tell you that I am not a morning person as will I, as will my husband. Jeez, even my 6 year old will tell you I'm not a morning person. We've just never been friends. So why do I find myself awake and not able to go back to sleep? I don't know. I'm guessing it has something to do with the little alien inside me. I think she's preparing me for the times when she wants to wake up every few hours and eat. But the difference between that and now is that I'll be exhausted from only getting a few hours of sleep at a time so going back to sleep theoretically shouldn't be an issue. I slept for a solid 5 hours--I'm foreseeing a nap in the very near future...

Yesterday was a pretty non-productive day. I had the same problem sleeping yesterday (and the day before that and the day before that...) so after a very excited Kristi getting me awake (more on why she was excited in a few), my most loving and adoring husband let me go back to sleep. He got up with her, got her ready, and even did the dishes so I'd have a clean bowl to use for breakfast when I woke up. He seriously is the best! <3 After getting up around 10, I got ready for the day only to think that my water broke. So I woke Andy up and we headed to the doctors--false alarm. On one hand, I was kind of disappointed because I'm just so ready to not be pregnant anymore for her to be here. One the other hand, I was kind of relieved because I'm not sure if I'm really ready for this. I know you're thinking that I've done this once before so how hard can it be the second time around? Idk... I'll let you know that after she gets here. I just have concerns. Not about my parenting.. well okay, maybe one or two things about my parenting but that's more chalked up to hormones at the moment. My biggest concern/fear is loving Trinity as much as I love Kristi. I guess I can't wrap my brain around loving both kids equally. I've had over 6 years of just Kristi to love and dote on. That's a lot of time and a lot of love and devotion. I can't imagine giving an equal amount to Trinity, if that makes sense. I've talked to some friends about it and they've given me all the advice possible. I guess this is just something that'll resolve itself once she's here... So getting back to yesterday. After the false alarm, I pretty much just vegged. I was really, really, really (did I mention really?) tired so nothing got done other than reading a couple of magazines (the pile is slowlyyyyyyy dwindling) and pulling the articles I want to keep. Kris and I spent the evening together and yeah, that's pretty much it. (I wasn't kidding that nothing got done.) So on to Kristi's excitement...

Kristi's two front teeth have been very loose for the better part of a month but she won't pull them and won't let anyone get near them. Her cousin Shane (who is the master at getting kids to let him pull their teeth) couldn't even bribe convince her to let him pull them. He even offered her candy, $10 dollars, and a really cool playhouse/tent thing. Yeah, she wouldn't budge (she definitely has my family's stubborness). Well, 2 days ago, she let me take the first one out. I tried to convince her to let me get the second one but she said no. While she was outside playing in the snow, she fell and hit her other tooth and because her other teeth are already coming down behind, she was bleeding... a lot. So I finally convinced her to let me get it out. I told her if she'd let me, the tooth fairy would bring her double the money since she had double the teeth. She liked that idea. So we put her teeth in a baggie and under her pillow. Kristi loves to write and draw, especially notes to people. So she decided to write a note to the tooth fairy. I'm going to share it with you (her typos and all) because my husband and I found it highly amusing.

Thank you for the money! I like you guys! You guys are cool! Insted of the tooths being under my bed or under my pillow. They will be in my pillow case in the front. The tooths will be in a bag! love: Kristi to: Tooth fairy. by the way I have two teeth for you., So..............don't forget to dubble the money. by!

Oh-Em-Gee I was laughing so hard after I read that. Wow... Smh... I seriously love when she says/does things like that!

I got the crib organizer finished--you can read it about it here. I'm loving it's functionality already and will probably love it even more once Trinity's here! On that note, I guess I did get something done yesterday. I got the pattern typed out and posted to my blog as well as Ravelry. (On a side note--when I was getting the link, I noticed that since posting yesterday evening it's already been favorited 19 times! Score!)

Changing topics... During my stint on Twitter this morning, I found a couple of articles that I'd like to share. They're really good and I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. 

Parents May Hold Key to Treating... (A topic I find incredibly interesting, especially since it relates to my business.)

Time Makes Things Better (balancing life, kids, work, etc.)

Money Milestones for Kids (this has been a topic of discussion in our family)

On that note, I've run out of things to talk about this morning (I'm honestly surprised my brain is functioning this well this early and with no coffee) so until next time, much love and many blessings!

♥Courtney♥

Parenting

The hot topic of tonight's discussion is: parenting, specifically the art of discipline (well, I guess it's not really an art per se). I have to say that this is the single most awful part of parenting in my book. Throw all the dirty diapers, crying sessions, lack of sleep at me that you want. I can handle all that with ease and maybe even some finesse, but discipline? I hate it. I hate every aspect of it. I know, I know. It needs to be done if I want a well-adjusted and well-rounded child and I know that by disciplining her I am showing her that I love and care for her. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Tonight, I'm really not liking it. I'm currently listening to my child cry herself to sleep because my discipline took away her favorite lovey, Dooda (those of you who know her know that she doesn't part with this lovey, especially at bedtime). I know it may seem harsh but we have honestly tried every other possible form of discipline that we can think of and nothing else has worked. We only had to do this one other time in the past few months so it's pretty effective. I hate causing her pain of any kind! She's my child and I love her and just want her to be happy all the time. I want what's best for her and know that what is best for her is boundaries, rules, and discipline. It's so hard for me to sit here, type this, and not just walk back and hand Dooda over to her. While that's what I truly want to do, I know I can't because that would completely defeat the purpose of the discipline and lesson I'm trying to instill. No one told me that disciplining your child would be one of the hardest and most painful parts of parenting. I remember when I was a kid, I thought my parents actually liked disciplining me! I never realized that disciplining me hurt them more than it did me! Okay...Ranting over.

Today was an entirely unproductive day. I had every intention of starting to take down Christmas decorations, put away the Christmas dishes, finish cleaning the kitchen, and a multitude of other things before Kris got home from school. Yeah, that just didn't happen. I woke up this morning around 4:30 and couldn't fall back to sleep until 6:30 and then my alarm went off at 7. I waited until 10 before attempting to go back to sleep so I could test my blood sugar and then laid back down until about 12:15. I felt so much better after sleeping. I have to be honest and say that I'm not really one for naps. During the holidays, when the whole family is snoozing after dinner, I'm the one knitting or reading. On Sundays (our rest day), when Andy and Kris are resting, I'm the one again knitting, reading, or doing stuff around the house. Even being 8 1/2 months pregnant, I haven't really felt an incredible need to nap during the day, except for this morning. While it felt good physically, it totally screwed me up mentally so hardly anything got done that I wanted (although I did manage to get the dishes finished and some laundry folded and put away). I guess I could be doing something around the house instead of sitting here typing this but hey... What's the fun in that? On that note, I'm going to catch up on some magazine reading (I've got 2 stacks dating back to the summer) and maybe knit another square on Trinity's baby blanket. Until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Overwhelmed

That completely describes my mood today. I don't mean just a little, but completely, totally, 100% overwhelmed--by everything. I don't even know what brought on this feeling; well, yes I do. After I got up this morning, the realization that I'm 35 weeks pregnant and in 3 weeks I'm going to have a squirming little bundle of joy crying every few hours really hit me (and I don't remember having this feeling with Kris). I started thinking about absolutely everything I still have to do and get and organize and just freaked! Her nursery is no where close to even being started. Thankfully, we're picking up the crib and changing table this weekend so at least that will be taken care of. I still have to go through bags of clothes that were given to us and figure out a place to put them. My plan was to make her crib set (the bumpers, skirt, sheet, valance, etc.) although now that's not looking like an option due to financial constraints. We haven't purchased the diapers yet and I'm not sure how or when we'll be able to do that. Then I started freaking because I need to find someone who can stay with Kris for the few days I'll be in the hospital so that she can still go to school--and that's not even half of what was racing through my mind today! I'm not going to bore you with my emotional, hormone-driven freak-out so let's move on to goals...

Business:

Tomorrow, I'm sitting down and mapping out the individual action plan(s) for each months goals. I know that having individual steps and breaking down the larger goals will help me be successful in achieving what I want. Once those are mapped out, it's on to putting them in motion.

Spiritual:

The goal that I set for myself was to spend a minimum of 15 minutes each day to read, ponder, and pray about scripture. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. I have done some reading, especially each night with Kristi, but not the amount I wanted. I definitely need to step it up on this one.

Relational:

I've been in contact with more of my family and friends in the past week and have made some plans for get-together's--so far, so good!


So on that note, I don't really have anything else to talk about so I'm calling it an early night. Until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

December and Christmas

December's been a pretty happening month here at the Kramer household. At the beginning of the month, I went for my normal check up and blood work. The one-hour glucose test came back a little high so I went for the 3 hour test a few weeks later. Unfortunately, those numbers also came back higher than normal so I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I have to test my blood sugar 4 times a day and methodically watch the amount of carbohydrates I eat. I was concerned with the diagnosis because throughout my pregnancy I've been eating healthy with some not-so-healthy stuff but only in moderation. The doctor assured me that it happens sometimes in pregnancies because the body is more resistant to insulin. It's going pretty well so far. I've been able to keep my blood sugars in check with just simple diet changes. I have to say that it's a little weird counting carbs, fats, and calories all the time but so far it hasn't been overly hard. :-) Because of the GD, my doctor wants me to deliver between 39 and 40 weeks (unless I deliver naturally beforehand) so we've decided the best time to have Trinity is February 8th. I'm so stoked that it's only 6 weeks away and then we get to meet our beautiful bundle of joy! Anyway...

I got to do a bunch of volunteer stuff with the PTA and holidays at Kristi's school. I'm the chair of the community service committee and as our first drive of the year, we did a toiletry drive for Once More Ministries. Each grade had a specific item to bring in like toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. The classrooms collected 2 huge boxes! As an incentive to bring in items, the classroom with the most items gets a holiday cookie party in January. The next drive I'm planning is to help re-stock one of the local food pantry's. Since the holidays pretty much wipes them clean, I thought this would be perfect. Moving on...

We had a family weekend where we did movies, made meals, and made gingerbread houses. I think more of the candy went in Kristi's belly than actually on here house but here's the finished products:

Mine

Andy's (love his wreath!)

Kristi's

I think when we do them next year, I'll use different icing. I thought royal icing would be best because it dries hard but man, trying to get it to stick to anything was sooooooo hard! Lesson learned...

Next up was Kristi's Christmas party at school. We started in the cafeteria/gym with the entire school carol sing-a-long. Then we went back to the classroom for her party. She had so much fun playing games and making crafts. She got to decorate a cupcake, make an ornament, unscramble words, and play a game. The next day, the three 1st grade classes got together and had different stations of activities for the kids. I ran the Pictionary station and it was so much fun watching the kids try to draw and guess the pictures. There are some really great artists there!

Christmas was great again this year, although I did miss having my baby girl here. We had Kristi open a few of our presents to her as well as family gifts that were sent before she left on Friday. I think the gift she freaked out the most about was the Victorious t-shirt we got her. She's been begging for it all year!

We spent Christmas Eve finishing the shopping we didn't get done the prior day and wrapping presents for the next day. We went to the Christmas Eve service which was awesome. The choir didn't do a cantata this year so the service was a little different. The children acted out the nativity scene while one of the older children narrated the story. It was really, really adorable! We ended the service with a candle light ceremony which is always my favorite! We spent Christmas day and the day after with Andy's family at his parents. We got to their house pretty early in the morning and had Carol open one of her gifts so she could use it later that day (if she wanted):

After the family arrived, we had breakfast and opened gifts. Here's a few of the highlights:

Sophie loved her gift from us

Such goofs!

I think she liked it?

Loved her reaction to our gift!

My totally awesome new boots

He's a coffee fiend :-)

Trinity's sock monkey

Since then, Andy and I have been hanging out, cleaning the house, and rearranging things. We've been having a really great time having some "just us" time. Well, that's about all I have for now so until next time... Much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥

Kids say and do the darnest things

Okay seriously... Kids are probably the funniest comedians around even though they may not always realize it or mean to be. I have to share a quick story that had me in hysterics laughing yesterday. So Kristi came home from school and immediately had to use the restroom. Well, about 2 seconds after entering, she was crying and yelling why I put the toilet seat down. I was confused for a minute until I went back and looked at her standing in front of the toilet crying. She was upset because Andy had put the toilet seat down and in her haste, she didn't bother turning on the light (there's no windows in her bathroom and our hallway is pretty dark because of the doors being shut since we're dog sitting) or looking to make sure the toilet seat was up. So, she proceeded to pee--all over the toilet seat lid. I found this hilariously amusing and couldn't stop laughing. I had to walk away after getting her fresh clothes because I seriously just couldn't stop laughing. I felt kind of bad because she was sooooooo upset and kept emphatically saying, "It's not funny!!!" She was even more upset that I was laughing about it. :-)

Halloween, Princesses, and a Wedding

It's been a pretty crazy month around the Kramer household. It all started with Halloween, which was a blast. Kristi dressed up like Princess Ariel and we met up with her bestie Caitlyn and her family to go trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. It was a blast getting some mommy time along with the experience. Kristi and her girlfriends looked so adorable in their costumes. 

All the girls were incredibly excited and had a great time. 

Next on the list was Kristi's birthday gift from the Wilt family. They bought her a ticket to go see Disney Princesses on Ice at the beginning of November. She spent most of the weekend with them and had a blast! 

Next up was my sister's wedding. That was a crazy busy couple of days. We spent most of the Thursday before decorating the church. It honestly didn't take nearly as long as I thought. We had a lot of help which was nice. The wedding itself was spectacularly gorgeous! She looked like a princess! Here's a couple of shots:

Rehearsal

Servers I decorated

Table decorations

Head table

Banister in front of the head table (These looked awesome when lit.)

First dance waltz

The beautiful bride

Pretty, pretty flower girl <3

We spent Thanksgiving with Andy's family, specifically at his sister's house. We had a lot of amazing food including perfectly cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, crescent rolls, and stuffing. I took just a little of everything and was so stuffed I couldn't even finish it. Surprisingly, I didn't take a single picture the whole time we were there (I know... What's wrong with me?!)! We drove Kris to her father that evening and afterwards, had some awesome desserts. Even though we ate much earlier this year than normal, most of the desserts didn't even get touched. We had pumpkin pie (which I'm now realizing I didn't get any of), pumpkin roll, and ice cream. I made orange cranberry cookies (click on the link and it'll take you to the recipe) and 2 different kinds of sugar cookies. I wasn't very impressed with the first sugar cookie recipe. I don't know if they just didn't turn out right because I used Splenda instead of "real" sugar or if my taste buds are just off, which is totally possible since I'm pregnant. Even though they didn't turn out the way I thought, the orange cranberry cookies came out perfectly! I again substituted Splenda for sugar and the Splenda-blended brown sugar. The recipe called for a glaze on top but I liked them so much without it so I decided not to put it on. That just means less calories and carbs right? ;-) Even though cookies aren't the healthiest snack foods, I do try to make them "healthier". 

We went Black Friday shopping and found some really great deals. We went out around 7 to hit Toys R' Us first. We found a fantastic deal on a crib and changing table set. The set was on sale for less than the cost of the crib itself! We just got the call today that it's ready to pick up. I'm so excited to pick it up and set it up in Trinity's room. Now, I just have to get started making the crib set. The other thing I wanted to look for was the Leapster Leappad. I know they weren't running a sale on it, but I wanted to see if it was available. Since it's still pretty new, they've been unavailable every time I've tried to purchase one. TRU was sold out but I'm actually happy about it. I didn't realize that VTech had their own type of tablet. The VTech Innotab actually seems better than the Leappad and it didn't cost as much. The only issue with the Innotab is that there is only one game out right now that is rated ages 7-9. All others are 4-6 or 5-7. Kristi has a Leapster 2 right now and the games don't go past age 7. She's unfortunately beat most of the ones she owns and doesn't want any new ones. I thought the Innotab would be a great system for her since I can't see paying the price for an actual tablet. I guess that was a long winded way of saying we got it for her for Christmas and hopes she likes it. We also picked up some more Squinkies and small craft stuff as stocking stuffers. With that, we got Kristi completely finished. :-)

With all that over, not much else has been going on. I completed two scarves for our church's Christmas Bazaar. I'm making a batch of the orange cranberry cookies for that as well. I'm excited to see what families have donated to the bazaar this year. After that, it's mostly just getting ready for the holidays. We got the tree up last weekend and finished most of the decorating around the house yesterday. The only thing I need to finish is the lights outside. I found out that the one strand of icicle lights I bought last year are already out. I tried changing the fuses but no luck. I want to pick up a couple more strands of lights for outside and possibly some of the windows. The last thing I have to do is make the new bows for the wreaths and swags that hang outside. We found a great deal on ribbon at AC Moore on Black Friday. I got the bow maker machine from my mom this past weekend so now I just have to figure out how to use it and what size to make the bows. I'm just hoping that we purchased enough ribbon. I honestly don't know if we can get that ribbon again because we had purchased the last two rolls. Anyway...

Well that's about it so until next time... much love and many blessings!

♥Courtney♥