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♥

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♥

Ice Fest & Birthdays

We've had some amazing things going on since my last post. Earlier this month, we went to Ice Fest in downtown Chambersburg, a yearly tradition for our family since moving here 2 years ago. It's a great little festival that has food and drink and lots of ice sculptures. Many of the downtown businesses sponsor the sculptures and it's so much fun seeing all the creativity! I lost count of how many we saw but it spans the main square and a block on either side. There was even an ice slide that kids could sled down. Although it was ridiculously cold, we all had a really great time!

(I'll update later with some more pictures once I get them off my camera.)

The weekend after Ice Fest was Love Bug's baby dedication at church and her first birthday party. The dedication was amazing and made me realize just how much our little girl is loved. We had so many friends and family take part in her special day! When Little Love was a baby, my mom crocheted an amazing christening gown for her dedication. I'm so thankful it was able to fit Trinity as well! It was an incredible blessing to share that with both of my children and is a beautiful piece of our family that will be passed down for many generations. :-) 

Our loving family all praying over Trinity

After church, we all went back to our house for a light lunch, partying, presents, and cake. I was so anxious to see what she was going to do with the cake! I think she was a little overwhelmed at all the attention she was getting but she fared well and had a great time. 

The beginning of the party

Friends and Family ♥

The bag was as big as her!

Beautiful and YUMMY cake!

It took about 10 minutes to get her hands fully in it.

It took her about 15 minutes to finally get it all over her face!

With the blessing of her doctor, Love Bug has now started drinking whole milk and is weening off formula. She's eating a lot more solid food and is really enjoying feeding herself. She especially loves Cheerios and bananas. When she was an infant, she absolutely hated peas--with a passion--but since trying some not-pureed ones this past weekend, LOVES them! Score! This week we're going to start introducing our dinners blended so her palette will be more acclimated and diverse. I'm so incredibly thankful that my in-laws got us the Baby Bullet for our baby shower. It is one of the most used appliances in our kitchen and been such a blessing with preparing healthy, nutritious meals for Love Bug. 

She's really starting to talk, A LOT! She's learned some new words including woof, bye-bye, and please. It's amazing to me what she says and understands at her age! She just started picking up her toy phone and saying hi to it although hasn't quite mastered the art of getting it to her ear. She mostly just hits herself in the forehead with it. LoL! 

So in a few of my other posts I talk about having issues with my pocket diapers not fitting Love Bug really well. I found that it's mostly the Bum Genius brand and have decided to stop using them for now. I'm not really a fan of Aplix (a type of Velcro) anyway because it's too easy for her to get undone. Plus, since the laundry tabs are worn out, the Aplix gets a TON of lint build-up. Anyway... we've decided to go back to using pre-folds and covers. I was a little bummed at first but honestly can't for the life of me remember why we ever switched! I absolutely love that she NEVER leaks and hardly ever gets a rash! We got 5 Thirsties Duo Snap Wraps and I couldn't be happier. 

Speaking of cloth diapers... I finally got to order the PUL fabric, FOE, snap press, and snaps to make Harrison's diaper covers. I decided to make fitted covers meaning I'll be making around 4 sets of covers until he's potty trained. The first set will fit him from birth until about 10-12 pounds, depending on his shaping. I'm a little nervous since I'm such a novice sewer but there's nothing like a little practice to get better! I'll be posting more about it on my crafting blog, including pictures of the PUL fabric once I get it. 

One of the other exciting things that happened this month was being able to consistently feel Harrison kicking and hearing his heartbeat for the first time. ♥ I had a check-up this past week and Harrison is growing perfectly. :-) I just can't believe that in 16 weeks or less we will be holding another little bundle of joy! God is so amazing and has tremendously blessed our family!

Well that's about all I have for now so 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.

Goals: Why are they so hard to accomplish?

We are officially one month into the new year so I figured it was time for a goal update. Every time I make goals, especially those related to my business, I find myself trying to be realistic yet no matter how realistic they are, I just can't seem to achieve them. I had a major problem with this last year when it came to my TSFL business. I'm half-way through my first goals time-frame and have 1 client. I know if I want to hit my $2,000 goal by February 29, I'm really going to have to rev up. I'm thinking of different ways I can do that while having a new baby. I'll fill you in on that one once I figure it out.

Knitting: If you follow my crafting blog, On My Needles, you'll know that I'm actually doing pretty well with my 2012 knitting goals. I won't go into detail here since this is my more life/business-oriented blog so if you want to know, check it out!

Blogging at least 2 times a week: I'm doing okay on this one. I posted a total of 6 times in January which is the same as last year. While I didn't hit this goal entirely for January, I still did a decent amount of updating and will continue to strive toward reaching this goal (here's post #1 for this week).

Quiet time: Epic. Failure. It's the first of the month and I am making a commitment to achieve this goal this month!

Relational: I've definitely been doing better with this. I'm not exactly where I want to be, but I'm getting better and for now, that's all I can ask for.

I know I'm not perfect and I know that on any given day or any given month I probably won't hit all these goals. I'm okay with that as long as I'm continually working towards them.

The last few days have been pretty uneventful here. I'm just really trying to work on getting the house in order for when Trinity comes. I know that if it's not at least somewhat organized and taken care of prior to her birth, it'll be a train wreck afterwards. I've mostly gotten her room finished, there's just some things I need to get packed and taken to the garage. I, unfortunately, need my husband's help with that and he's not been so helpful as of late (not really his fault though). My main goal for today is to get the kitchen completely cleaned, floors, counters, fridge, etc. Once that's complete, I want to rearrange some things so I can find a place to put away the rest of the Christmas gifts that are still sitting under our tree. All the decorations are off the tree, it's just a matter of the hubby getting it back down in the garage. He was really silly in that when he brought the tree up, he filled in the space with other stuff so now he has to move all that stuff somewhere else to get the tree back in--hence why it's still sitting in our living room. I'm really hoping he'll take care of that this weekend.

My next big project I want to do is get into our garage and start sorting through the yard sale boxes. We have so many of them because we were planning to have a yard sale last year, but our location just isn't ideal for it. So I decided that anything we were going to sell, we're going to send to a local consignment shop and see what happens. The nice thing is, if it doesn't sell, I don't have to worry about it. I'm hoping that once those things are out of there we'll have a lot more room. We'd ultimately like to have our exercise room out there. I know this probably isn't going to happen until at least the end of March or beginning of April. I have a few boxes already packed and upstairs so I'm hoping to get those sent over before Trinity gets here next week.

For now, I'm just going to focus on the next few days. So until next time, 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♥

9 Months and Counting

The last week or so has been one emotional roller coaster after another. It's not because of anything anyone did or didn't do. It's just my hormones raging. I feel like this time around my hormones have decided to wait until the very end of the pregnancy to show up and hit all at once. I remember with Kristi being emotional pretty much through the whole pregnancy. I mean, I'd have a crying breakdown every few days it seemed. This time, not even close, not even one of those until 2 weeks ago. With that said, I've now had those meltdown-type cryings like every other day the past 2 weeks--and it doesn't seem to be subsiding. I know one of the things that seems to spark these fests is the realization that we're not the most organized family in the world so every time I look around the house I want to pull my hair out and insanely, madly clean. I usually don't care that we have clutter because let's face it--we live in our house. We have a 6 year old who likes to do crafts and then jump into the next activity without cleaning up the previous activity (I have to admit she totally learned that from me). So I've tried coming up with something to help reduce clutter. For example, to reduce the amount of clutter with magazines (I subscribe to at least 10), as I read a magazine I dog-ear the pages I want to keep for future reference like articles or recipes. Once I'm finished reading, I rip those pages out and put them in a binder or my recipe box, then I toss the magazine. Well, I've been more than a little backed up on my reading so I have 2 stacks of magazines that still need to be read dating back to the summer. (I'm thinking one of those will go with me to the hospital since I'll have ample time to read them.) I'm also making a concerted effort to do something similar with all the catalogs I get. (The ones I mostly care about are the knitting/crafting ones.) Back at the beginning of December, I found the Amazon Wishlist toolbar for my browser so I can now create as many wishlists as I'd like and put anything from any website on them. Score! So I also utilize the dog-ear method for things I want and then go to the website and add them to my Purchase Later or Christmas/Birthday list, then toss the catalog. Since implementing this 2 weeks ago, I've already thrown away 4 magazines and as many if not more catalogs. I'm thinking I'll keep this method. Well, at least until I run out of room for binders that is!

Okay that was ranting a little so back to the original topic of my hormones...  I've been nesting. Crazily, hungrily, nesting, especially when it comes to Trinity's room/stuff. I'm mostly finished with her room. I just have to finish filing some paperwork, change the files out since it's the new year, and clean the top shelf of her closet so I can fit my Cricut and Rubbermaid container with said Cricut stuff in it. I have a few other things to remove but other than that, the rooms good. I have to finish making the organizer for the side of the changing table (I've created my own knitting pattern since I couldn't find one anywhere online which will also count toward my goal--yippee!), sew the bumpers for her crib, and finish knitting her crib blanket. The bumper project is the one I'm most worried about. I haven't sewn since middle school. My sister lent me her sewing machine but I'm most worried about trying to read the pattern and get them to turn out right. I picked up the fabric, batting, and ribbon last week on sale at Jo-Ann's so I'm hoping to get to this project this week. I'm about half-way finished knitting the organizer and 40% finished with the blanket, both of which are fairly fast knits. Now, if she decides to come early, I'm totally screwed!

Changing topics completely... I was so excited to wake up to snow on the ground this weekend! I feel like I've been dying this winter because of cold/snow withdrawal.  This is one of the craziest winter's I've seen in a very long time. I love winter and snow so it hasn't been my favorite winter thus far. A side note to Mother Nature--if you'd like to score more points, you still have time to send me a blizzard. The only thing I ask is that you don't send one when I have to go to the hospital for Trinity's delivery. That just wouldn't be nice. 

I'm pretty sure I've talked your ear off enough for tonight 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♥

What Not to Crave

So two weeks ago I got a hankering for chocolate. Since most chocolate hurts my teeth (I have extremely sensitive teeth), I thought I'd try eating a Twix bar instead. Big. Mistake. OMGosh all I have wanted and craved in the past 2 weeks is Twix! I never realized just how much I LOVE them! I've been doing really well with eating healthy my whole pregnancy so I thought I'd treat myself and by a small bag of the fun-sized bars. Again I say... Big. Mistake. I have come to realize that I absolutely CANNOT control myself with these babies. That bag was seriously in my house less than 24 hours. So, being the health coach that I am, I now recognize that under no circumstances can Twix bars be in our house. I'm not really sure how I'm going to handle Halloween yet, but I have another week to figure that out!

My second and only other pregnancy craving so far has been muenster cheese. This was my absolute favorite cheese when I was a kid. I haven't had it since moving in with my husband 3 years ago. Although, now that I really think about it, I don't think I've had any since I was a tween. Oh wait, that's a lie. Anytime I've eaten at Isaac's, I've had it. I forgot it's on the Boardwalk Gull. LoL! Anyway... I was at the grocery store the other day and picked some up. Cheese has never tasted so good to me. :-) If you haven't tried muenster cheese before, I highly recommend it. Cheese is definitely one of those funny foods you have to be careful with. I mean, in the health sense. There are many positive attributes to cheese like calcium, protein, etc., but if you're not careful, it's very easy to eat more than the recommended amount; therefore, eating excess calories and fat. I've been doing great on that front so far. Speaking of...

On Monday, we had a baby appointment. I got to see my favorite doctor and ask lots of questions. One of the things I wanted to discuss with her was my weight. I guess as my stomach continues to grow, I'm noticing that that isn't the only thing growing. I wanted to make sure I am on a positive weight track with this pregnancy. One of my biggest regrets with Kristi's pregnancy was not eating healthy. And because of that, I am making a conscience effort to eat healthy with Trinity. Granted, I slip-up (um.. read above) but I can say that overall, I'm eating very well in comparison (thank you TSFL!). She said that I am actually under for my weight gain but that it's okay since I was a little overweight to start. As of that appointement, I have only gained 15 pounds and can gain up to 23 pounds by this point so that made me feel really good. She also discussed us getting a level two ultrasound. Since my last one was at 18 weeks, the technician was unable get very clear anatomy pictures. That's scheduled for Nov. 7th so we'll get to see Trinity again (yay!!) and verify that she's definitely a girl. LoL! Andy still thinks we're going to find different anatomy or he just likes teasing me about it. :-) Moving on...

TSFL is going well. I haven't actually signed up any new clients as of yet, but this week I made the decision that this is it. It's either now or never--I'm either going to do this or not. I've been dabbling with this since April of last year and haven't been focusing on my business; although, I still haven't quite figured out why. But this past week, I made the decision that it will be my primary focus. So I've started looking at the training videos, renewed my license, ordered the new file system, set goals, and am continuing to master my craft. I've made it a priority to do something everyday, whether it's 10 minutes reading the Habits of Health or an hour of phone calls--just something. I have found that when I constantly surround myself with it, my momentum stays up. I don't want to just be a health coach--I want to be a GREAT health coach; someone my clients can depend on. I want to work from the comfort of my own home and be in my pj's. I want to watch my children grow up and not miss a single step or milestone in their lives. Most of all, I want my family and I to be happy and healthy and stress-free (yes, I understand we'll never be completely stress-free). I want to be able to participate in functions at school and be an active member of South Hamilton's PTA, more than just going to a meeting every month. I want to volunteer more of my time at church and be a part of all the wonderful opportunities that are there like choir and Upwards Basketball. Being in business for myself will allow me to have all these things and then some. I'm just not sure why it's taken me so long to realize that.

Tomorrow is my sister's bridal shower. I'm so excited for her and can't wait to spend time with her, my mom, and bestie. We're going to have a lot of fun. I'm really looking forwad to her wedding in a couple of weeks as well. It's going to be beautiful as will she. Kris and I had our first fitting for our dresses tonight. I'm really surprised that she only has to shorten Kristi's straps. I thought she was going to have to take the sides in some. On mine, she has to take in the bust, add some extra boning in the back, and hem the bottom. All in all, not too much and she does amazing work!

On that note, I'm going to work on Carol's birthday present so until next time, much love and many blessings!

♥Courtney♥

God's Blessings

It's amazing to me how incredibly easy it is for us to focus on negative things in our lives. Negatively itself is a disease. It sucks the energy out of a person as much as running a 5k. Okay, maybe not quite that much but you get the point. I find myself many times thinking negatively and having negative reactions towards situations. I really don't want to be that way so I'm making a conscience effort to think more positively about situations that happen in my life and start my day with a healthy dose of positive thinking. For example, about a week and a half ago, I left work early to go to the doctor's because I had some light bleeding (for those of you who don't already know, I'm 15 weeks preggo). I totally freaked out because that particular symptom was exactly what happened when I had my miscarriage back in November of last year. The whole way over to the doctors office I was badly shaking, crying, and praying. At first, my prayer was focused on negativity, specifically, please God don't take this baby from us. But then, as I got closer to the doctor's office, I realized that thinking negatively or about the worst that could happen wasn't going to help me or Peanut. In fact, it could potentially hurt both of us because of raised blood pressure, etc. So I turned my prayer around and just simply said that no matter happens, I know You will never give me anything I can't handle. Whatever happens, please let it be used for Your glory and will and nothing less. Once I said those words, I honestly felt calmer and more relaxed. I won't lie and say I was completely okay because I was definitely scared out of my mind, but I honestly felt better. Everything turned out fine; Peanut's heartbeat is strong so the doctor told us not to worry.

Later that evening, I got the phone call that I was being temporarily laid off. At first, this made me happy because I was very stressed with my position and didn't really like going to work anymore (more negativity). Then it hit me... I left early that day plus was losing another day that week so I wasn't even going to get a full week's pay and nothing in the upcoming week or weeks. We're supposed to be taking our annual family vacation at the end of September, Kristi's birthday party was that weekend, and how on earth are we going to be able to pay the bills? Realistically, we can afford our bills on just Andy's income but it would be extremely tight. Again, I started down that path of negative freak-out. Now that I look back on it, I truly feel it was a blessing from God. I got a week off work which mentally I needed and thankfully didn't have a lot of bills due. I start back to work Monday and am only working 9:30-3:00 so I can get Kristi off to school and from school each and every day. Again, another blessing. God works in so many mysterious ways! Moving on....

Kristi's birthday party was awesome. Everyone had a really great time and I was thankful we got to spend some time with our friends and family. Here's a couple of picture highlights (and by a couple I mean at least 5):

Family tradition

She was just a little excited.

The loot

My heart <3

We played iCarly bingo and pin the mustache on Spencer. We listened to a combination of iCarly/Miranda Cosgrove and Big Time Rush songs. I don't think I've ever heard excited screaming as much as I did that day!

Sunday we spent the afternoon at the church picnic and then with Andy's parents swimming. That was a lot of fun and Kristi was sooo excited to finally get a pair of Twinkle Toes from Sketchers! The look on her face was priceless:

Other than that, Kris and I have been hanging out, going to the park, playing games and Barbie's, but not too much else is happening here so until next time, much love and many blessings!


♥Courtney♥