Foot in my Mouth

So along with my birthday card from my parents with my new mixer came a printout of this text conversation...

Never in my life have I been so grieved to have been caught on record saying something!

However, they're ignoring the fact that my mom said don't take the deal!

(Anyone know how to secure cookies for mailing?) :-/

25 Weeks

All of the sudden this week, I feel like baby boy has grown leaps and bounds! I could only feel him low in my pelvis, and now all of the sudden, I feel him up by my belly button, and I've even felt him two places at once at times. It's odd that there was no graduation. Feeling good though...just not looking forward to stepping on the scale next week because of Christmas! :-|

Early Birthday Presents

My parents and brother were able to come in town for a few days for the holiday. I was so excited to see them and even though I wasn't expecting anything, they brought presents for my birthday! And boy, do they know how to make me happy. A couple years ago, my brother let me borrow one of his guitars so I could learn to play. It's an acoustic guitar, very basic, and doesn't plug into anything. I've been wanting to play and sing a song at church instead of using a track, but had no guitar to do so. Well because my brother is so awesome, he brought me one of his acoustic/electric guitars and GAVE it to me!!!! I'm so excited! The neck on it is thinner than the other one, so it's easier for me to play too.And look at the design on it. It's black and an emerald green color. I love it!And look what my parents got me!!!!I have wanted one of these for a long time, but especially since I discovered the Pioneer Woman and make a lot more things homemade than I used to, I've REALLY wanted one. And my kitchen is red, and I've always been afraid that we wouldn't have enough money to get me one before red stopped being trendy. I love my red so much though, that my goal is to have a Coca-Cola kitchen so my red will always fit. I am so excited to break it in!

My birthday isn't until Saturday, but my mom wanted to have the fun of breaking in the mixer with me, and my brother wanted to be able to play guitar with me while they were here, so they wanted me to open them early.

Aren't my family the best!? Turning 25 isn't so bad when it comes with super-awesome gifts like this!

Merry Christmas!

Pregnancy Comparison #2

(Click on the picture to view it larger)

Well, I remember with Kylee, this ivory shirt didn't fit me anymore, which is why I had that purple one on. Well I must carry my boys a bit similar since I can still wear the shirt with baby boy.

It's funny that my belly is distinctly different in every photo though! I think I'm definitely smallest with this one in comparison to his siblings!

24 Weeks

I feel like my belly is oddly shaped. Like it comes to a point or something...

Anyway, 24 weeks. This little man does quite the flips and rolls at time. I'm a little apprehensive for the third trimester considering he is only about a pound right now. I hope he doesn't cause too much pain!

I need January here, pronto. He has me craving anything sweet and unhealthy, and with it being Christmastime, it doesn't help at all!

Hunter got to feel him kick for the first time! That was exciting. Except now Hunter thinks he's big enough to come out, but we still have a bit to go. ;)

Handsome Man

So ever since Kylee has been born, Hunter has shown an interest in girly things. Mom and Kylee get to wear skirts, dresses, hair bows, etc.

Then one day when Hunter filled his hair with flowers and hair bows, I decided it was time to find some boy things for him, that were just that - just for boys.

Since mom and Kylee get dressed up on Sundays in skirts and dresses, I decided to start with the same thing with him. He had a couple sweater vests I put him it, but I still wanted something more.

I've been searching everywhere for neck ties for him but couldn't find anything I liked that I was willing to pay the cost for. Then I thought, "There's got to be a tutorial for making neck ties for boys at home." And of course, there was! The one I found starts with a man's tie and then you alter it. Well since I had such an amazing sense of style when I was a teen and wore my dad's ties as belts, and because I don't get rid of anything, I had a tie to start. And guess what? My dad is so awesome because he doesn't get rid of anything either, and one of his ties I had is from the 80s and is really thin. So all I had to do to make it fit Hunter was shorten it and repair the end.

So Sunday for church, he sported his first neck tie. Isn't he handsome?!I mentioned the tutorial to a friend at church who ended up giving me over a dozen ties that he doesn't wear that I'll be making into more ties for Hunter. I'm so excited!

I was at the store buying Hunter's oxford shirt and I found this for baby boy for $2.80.
My boys will be so cute together!

How to Make a Fake Pregnant Belly

Now I know what you're thinking...yes, I'm already pregnant. However, the person that played Mary for our Christmas Cantata is not! I was in charge of making it look like she was.

After considering lots of different ideas and consulting with a master costume-maker (thank you for your help, Andrew!) I decided a stuffed pillow would be best.

I started with stretchy polyester that I had laying around. It was a royal purple, but I knew it would be covered up, so color didn't matter.

First, I cut a piece of fabric about 12-13" wide, and I turned the fabric so that if I pulled it on the sides, it wouldn't stretch. The length wasn't really important at first, so I left it about 2' long.

Next, I blew up a beach ball about halfway to serve as stuffing while I pinned. Since I already have a 5 month pregnant belly, my poor husband had to keep stuffing the beach ball under his shirt to see if it made him look 9 months pregnant, haha. Needless to say, he wouldn't let me get a picture of that.

After I got it to be a good size, I set it on top of my cut fabric.



Next, I draped another piece of fabric over the ball, making sure it was turned 90 degrees from the other piece of fabric so that if I pulled the sides, it WOULD stretch. Then, I pulled the fabric tight on the sides so the beach ball would flatten on the bottom and pinned the sides in a straight line to my bottom piece.

Next, I pinned the bottom corners in pleats to work around the curves of the ball, like this:

Then I did the same thing to the other side, and pinned a straight line at the bottom. Like this:
I then sewed the U shape on my sewing machine. Here is what the underside looked like with the flat piece of fabric. No pleats, just flat:



And here's the top side with the pleats:Next, I left the beach ball out of it, and pinned pleats around the top part of curves, but made them smaller than the bottom, since this would be the top of the belly. I made sure to leave the top open for stuffing it. I then trimmed the excess fabric around the edges.

I used fiberfil for stuffing, and did the same thing as the beach ball...my husband had to keep putting it under his shirt while we adjusted the size.

Sorry it's not a great picture, but here's the finished pillow.

You can tell it's a bit lumpy from the fiberfil but it wasn't a problem, because she wore it under a BellaBand like this so it could be easily slipped in and out:


I already had the BellaBand, which I got at Target for about $20, but it's just a tube of spandex. It could be easily recreated.

She wore a maternity tank over the belly which helped smooth out any last lumps, and then here's the finished product:
Doesn't it look great?!

23 Weeks

Ok, I feel huge!

Whenever I look at my belly lately, that's all I think. It looks so big to me.

Here's the belly pic of the week.

Greg took it right before I left for church for our AWANA Christmas party. I'm not sure whats up with my camera, but my tank is a Christmas green color. I finished my outfit with these:

When I came out of the bedroom from getting dressed, Hunter looked at me and said, "Why are you wearing that?" LOL!

Oh well. I liked it. ;)

Not much to report this week though. Things are still going well, thank the Lord!

Provisions

With Christmas right around the corner, things have been extremely tight financially.

Greg and I have been wrestling with what to do about Christmas, because we grew up with good Christmases, and would like to be able to bless our children in the same way.

Ever since we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace last fall, we haven't used a single credit card. God has been so good and met all of our needs. For over a year, all of our bills have been paid without using credit. He even moved us down here without them!

Unfortunately for us, not many people go to get their cars fixed in December. That translates to low paychecks for us since Greg is paid on commission.

Last paycheck, we didn't even have enough money for groceries. We started talking about the possibility of using a credit card just to get some groceries, and then use it for Christmas too, since we didn't have money for that. We knew we could just pay it off in a couple months when our tax return came.

Friday night, I had to run to Walmart for some medication, so Greg told me to take the credit card and buy some stuff for the kids.

On my way to the store, I had a mental battle the whole time. I knew God had provided every single paycheck for us for over year. He had been faithful. Yet my flesh wanted so bad to just use to credit card and buy the kids some gifts.

When I got to Walmart, I just walked around the store. I looked at toys, and even found some I would have liked to buy for Hunter and Kylee. But I just had this guilt while I was there. I felt like it was a sin to even have the credit card on me! It was crazy. In the end, I purchased only the medicine and went home.

When I got home, I told Greg that I just couldn't do it. Not only did I not want to break our streak of not using them, but I just felt like God was telling me everything would be ok. Food would be provided, and even though some gifts under the tree for the kids isn't a necessity, I felt like He was saying He would provide that too. I didn't know how, but I was going to trust that He would.

Saturday morning at 8:30am, we got a ring on our doorbell. I was changing Kylee's diaper so Greg went to go answer it. A moment later, he came back with this in his hand.

Inside of it was $100 cash.

We don't know who it's from. We saw a girl running to get into her car, but didn't recognize her or the vehicle.

We do know that God provided through someone being very generous to us. That $100 put much needed food on our table, and even provided some gifts for our babies.

I keep thanking God for meeting our needs even when we don't see how it's possible.

And to whoever gave us the $100, if you're reading this, THANK YOU. Gregory and I appreciate it more than you know.

Philippians 4:19
"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Christmastime

RAOK # 4-9

RAOK #4
A girl from church's husband is deployed, so I offered to babysit her kids so she could get some kid-free shopping done. Her boys are so sweet, but another crawler in the house is crazy! I couldn't handle crawling twins. ;)

RAOK #5
I took out the recycling for my husband. All I can say is YUCK! Thank you, honey, for making that your responsibility every week!

RAOK #6
I asked the person in charge of costumes for our Christmas Cantata at church if she needed any help. She asked me to make the pregnant belly for Mary, so I'm in charge of that. Blog post coming soon on how to make a fake pregnant belly!

RAOK #7
While at the mall today, I went into Hallmark with a coupon for $5 off a $10 purchase. I saw a middle-aged man looking very out of place as he shopped the figurines. I asked if he could use the coupon, and he, of course, said yes. Hopefully I helped him save some money for buying a gift for a special lady.

RAOK #8
Target has had a coupon for a $10 gift card when you spend $50. I was in the infant's section and saw a couple about my age buying a stroller/car seat system, so I asked them if they could use it.

RAOK #9
I mailed my friend a pack of Kroger coupons, some of which included free items.

These random acts of kindness are so much fun! It's awesome to see a smile on people's faces!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

So I made BBQ Chicken Pizza tonight, totally homemade!

Since one of my goals this month is to make all of our breads homemade, I even made my own pizza dough.

I started with this recipe.

The rest of my ingredients were:
Cooked, diced chicken, about 1-1/2 cups
BBQ sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Colby/Monterey jack blended cheese
Diced onion

Once the dough had doubled in size, I just sprinkled a pan with corn meal, and stretched it to fit my pan. (The pan I used it 14x10 inches.)

Like this...


Then I brushed my dough with BBQ sauce. I tossed the chicken in some BBQ sauce to coat it and then put it on top. Next, I added all my cheeses. I know I don't have amounts on here becuase it's totally up to you and how much you love cheese. If you want a ballpark figure though, I'd say around 1 cup per kind of cheese. After the cheese, I just sprinkled the onions on top and a tiny bit more BBQ sauce to make it look pretty and popped it in a 400 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, when my crust was golden and my cheese was bubbly and slightly browned.

Here's the finished product. YUM!

22 Weeks

I had a regular appointment today. Everything looks great. I have another appointment in 4 weeks, and then I'll be going every 2 weeks already. This pregnancy is flying by! They said at my ultrasound last week, baby boy was 12 oz. How sweet is that??? He's currently in the 22nd percentile for size. But, she said the later on in pregnancy is when babies differentiate more in size, so at my ultrasound in February, we can look at his size and get a better idea to how he compares with other babies. I'm fine if he wants to stay little while he's in there though!!

He constantly let's me know he's doing well with kicks and turns. He was a stinker for the dr though while she was trying to get his heartbeat. He kept moving and kicking her! Do we have another feisty child on the way? We already have two; isn't that enough?!

All of the sudden this week, I have been getting terrible lower back pain if I'm doing any kind of activity that could be possibly marked as lightly physical. Even doing laundry and picking up the baskets will make my back hurt for the rest of the day. They gave me some exercises I could do so hopefully that will help alleviate some of it. 

I gained 6 pounds since my last month's appointment. I was trying to stick to the "1 pound per week" rule, but that apparently didn't happen. They aren't worried about it though because even with the 6 pound gain, I'm only at 1 pound over my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess that explains why I still fit in my pre-pregnancy jeans with the button rubber banded closed!

RAOK #1, 2 and 3

ROAK #1
My first RAOK took place on Thanksgiving. I decided I wanted to show the local fire station how much we appreciate them, especially because of the fact that someone always has to man the station. They don't always get Thanksgiving off to spend with their family because they have to be at work to keep us all safe.

So I baked a pumpkin pie, and after dinner we all went up there to give it to them and say 'thank you.'

We didn't expect it, but the firefighter who answered the door when we showed up blessed us too! He let us come inside and showed Hunter the fire truck and let him sit in it.

He loved it!! We were very appreciative.

I hope the pie we brought let the firemen know we really appreciate them.



I hope the pie we brought let the firemen know we really appreciate them.

ROAK #2
While grocery shopping at Harris Teeter last night, I discovered that someone (or some people) decided to leave their expired coupons on the shelves throughout the store instead of throwing them away. Whenever I saw some, I picked them up and disposed of them myself.

ROAK #3
It was after 10pm when we finished, and the majority of the grocery carts were already collected and in the front of the store, so I took ours back up with the rest of them.

November Goals Recap and December Goals

Well, to recap November, I basically was a big fat failure...

*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians. I studied...but not 5 days a week.
*See a movie with Gregory. Wow, I totally forgot this one was even on here...we just didn't have the money though.
*Continue making bed. I did do this, but not as well as I would like.
*Stick to our budget again. It's pretty easy to do when there isn't too much money to budget with! ;)
*Clean at least 15 minutes per day, excluding Sundays. I discovered the FlyLady in October, and I'm trying to implement her suggestions to get in a good cleaning routine before I have three little munchkins. Total fail...I didn't keep up with cleaning like I'd like. Boo.
*Do (at least) one load of laundry per day, excluding Sundays. It stresses me out when I let it pile up and I have a ton to do at one time. Fail...didn't do it every day. I did do it majority of days though!
*Memorize (really memorize) at least 4 Bible verses. SUCCESS! I am very proud that I did this one. I memorized
Philippians 4:6-7
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:11
Let the woman learn by silence with all subjection.

Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

God definitely used one of the verses to convict me too...so they're doing their job!

So...I definitely get an F for my November goals...I think part of my problem is that a lot of my goals are daily ones...and if I miss one day out of the whole month simply because it was an off day, I failed...and then I get mad at myself and don't even want to continue.

I need a solution to this. I think I'm going to give myself weekends off, and hopefully that will help me be much better.

So here goes...
December Goals
*Complete all of my 25 Random Acts of Kindness.
*Study 5 days a week in 1 Corinthians.
*Make a weekly to-do list, and complete it! I learned a while ago that a weekly list is way better than a daily one. I'm much more successful with this.
*Do at least one load of laundry 5 days out of the week.
*Memorize at least 2 more verses, and still remember the last 4.
*Homemake any bread-like side (sandwich bread not included) that I serve to my family. I really want to weed out trans fat from our diet, and store bought bread, cinnamon rolls, etc. really have so much of it. So I will homemake all that stuff. I do have one more package of store-bought cinnamon rolls that I'll serve, but after that, it'll all be homemade. I made homemade dinner rolls last night so we're off to a good start!

21 Weeks

I'm tired. I'm so tired. (And I think this week's picture shows it.) And this might have a little bit to do with staying up too late at night (which will probably result in a new December goal) but I have to think the pregnancy plays at least a little part in it!With the extreme fatigue has come my pregnancy RLS. This is very discouraging since it wasn't until months from now that I got it with Kylee! I need to try to get to bed at a decent hour to see if it helps it because I just want to cry when it sets in as I am trying to sleep.

In other news, I had a stranger comment about the pregnancy this week...I think that may have been the first one. We were all checking out at Target and the cashier asked Hunter if mom and dad went on vacation. I was actually surprised it didn't make me mad since my sister tells me I overreact when I'm pregnant. But I just thought it was funny!

I have officially lost my feet if I look down. I even had pointy heels on last night and couldn't see the ends of those either.

Gregory got to feel the baby kick this week for the first time! That's always exciting. :)

Baby *boy* has me craving anything sweet...this is not good during Christmastime! I'm trying to fight it and remember I want a small baby! I have been wanting to bake cookies galore but don't want to eat them all myself!

My next appointment is Wednesday so we'll see if I've been doing well with saying no to sweets and have steady weight gain...

Ultrasound

Well, we had our anatomy ultrasound yesterday and we have a healthy baby BOY on the way!!!
He was sweet and cooperative in the ultrasound. Here's a profile picture. Greg and I think it looks JUST like Hunter, with maybe a little more of daddy's chin than Hunter has.
Here he is looking at the camera...
and here's his sweet little foot...
The tech asked me if I'd had a feeling one way or the other for boy or girl. I told her in the beginning I totally thought a boy, but lately I wasn't so sure. When she said it was a boy, Greg said, "That means you get to have another one." For years he has been telling me that we're done after 2 girls, but we have yet to mean that quota!

We talked to the doctor after the ultrasound once he had reviewed all the pictures. He said something about the tubes going to the kidneys, and the normal level being 1, and mine and baby boy's is .9. He said if it's off, it can result in pressure going up into the kidneys. I didn't totally understand what he meant, but he said it's not something to be worried about because the number is barely off, but just to be sure everything is ok, they're going to do a repeat ultrasound in the beginning of February. Other than that, he said everything looks great and we have a healthy baby!

Hunter is sooo excited that he's having a baby brother. It hasn't been 24 hours and he's already talking about sharing his boy toys with him, and things he's going to do with him. I am excited to pull out all the boy clothes again. When I went through the boy stuff to get out the neutral clothes for Kylee, I had so many memories of when Hunter wore it and I'm excited to pull it all out again!

I am a little apprehensive about baby's size though. Hunter was 10 lbs 8 oz, and being that this is another boy, I'm a little scared I'll have another gigantor baby. It's that much more motivation for me make sure I'm gaining slow and steady though!

Gregory and I are so excited for a sweet baby boy to add to our family though. This is the first time we have both wanted the same gender, and I am so grateful that the Lord is giving us another boy. He has been so good to us and I feel so blessed. God is SO good!

It's Christmastime!

We decorated the tree tonight. 

Hunter had so much fun!!! If you notice though, we kept the bottom of the tree clear of ornaments and lights. We have a little crawling monster this year that will eat them if we don't!

My Birthday Project

So next week, it will be my birthday month.

Typically for my birthday, it's a time for me to get a couple things that I've been wanting, but because money is tight, I can't just go out and buy.

However, while on Pinterest, I discovered a woman who spent her birthday a little differently than the average American, and I decided I wanted to do the same thing. You can read about her here.

Instead of getting gifts, I want to use the money Greg may have spent on a gift and complete 25 random acts of kindness (RAOK) for other people (because it'll be my 25th birthday.)

I have every thing I need. God has been so good to me and I have a beautiful family, a great roof over our head, and good food on the table.

If you look at the original woman who did this, she completed hers all in one day. But for a few different reasons, I decided I'm going to do it over the month of December. For one thing with my kids, it would be really difficult to get them all done in a day. But the main reason I want to give myself the month is becuase I really want some of the opportunities to bless people to be spontaneous. I pray the Lord will give me opportunities throughout the month to show His love to people who really need it. If every RAOK was preplanned, it could really take away from that.

So that's that. 25 RAOK for my 25th birthday.

And I'd love if you joined in. If you're out, and you see the opportunity to complete a RAOK and think of this post, could you do it for me? Maybe the person in front of you at the grocery store is just smidge short on their bill and needs a little change, or maybe you decided to take a few carts from the wayyyy back of the parking lot up to the store, or maybe you feel like paying for the toll fee for the car behind you, or you see an elderly person that could use some help loading their groceries in their car...(the list goes on!)

If you decide to participate because of this post, could you let me know what you did? I'd love to compile a list of all the blessings we bestowed upon people!

I will be keeping up with each random act on my blog, so stay tuned!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a good day over here in New Bern.

We ended up having an intimate Thanksgiving with just our family. We stayed in our pj's...and just relaxed. It was an enjoyable day.

We started our day with Pioneer Woman's Monkey Muffins.

She topped them with sweetened condensed milk, but I had leftover icing from the Pumpkin Cookies I made the day before, so I used that. The boys really liked them!

Even though it was just the 4 of us (and one of us doesn't eat meat,) I bought a 12.5 lb turkey...because Greg loves it that much. I made quite a bit of sides too because, let's be serious: it's all about the sides.

We had turkey, green bean casserole, Gulliver's corn (a Wehrman) family recipe, sweet potatoes, stuffing, Pioneer Woman's Potatoes Au Gratin, cranberry sauce, and olives. It was all delish!

Here's the boys enjoying the food. :)

And Kylee learned a new trick during dinner! Here's a video. :) I can't believe how big she's getting!



For dessert, we had pumpkin pie, no-bake cheesecake, and raspberry cobbler. Greg and I dipped into the cheesecake last night...I figured with how many desserts we had and how little number of people we had eating them, the two pieces wouldn't be missed today. ;)

After dessert, we went up to the local fire station to take them a pumpkin pie to say "thanks" for keeping us safe, even though that means working on Thanksgiving.

It was a good day. I am so thankful for how the Lord has blessed me with such a wonderful little family, and how next year we'll have another member!

How was your Thanksgiving?

20 Weeks

Wow, I'm at the halfway point already. I can't believe it! I had a lady in choir mention that I'll be in maternity clothes soon. Hah, I've been in them for a while now! I don't think she realized how far along I was either. This pregnancy really is going by soo fast!

Not much to update from last week I don't think. But our ultrasound is Tuesday so, Lord willing, we'll find out if it's a boy or girl. Can't wait!

Pillows

This girl loves 'em! She just constantly lays and hugs it. It's so cute!

19 Weeks

Baby has been a little acrobat in there lately! The kicks are strong enough to feel outside of my tummy, but I'm still the only one to feel them. No one wants to sit there for 20 minutes with their hand on my belly to wait for a kick, I'm sure.

I'm feeling totally normal...definitely in the second trimester. I do feel a little tired, but that might be because we've had Revival all week. But my appetite is good, and I feel pretty good. However, my belly is big enough now that it hurts my back to stand for a long period of time. My lower back hurts after every dish washing session at the sink, and I know it'll only get worse! EEK!

Here's the latest pic...

Only 12 more days until my ultrasound...YAY!!

18 Weeks

I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going now that I'm feeling good!

I had a Dr's appointment on Tuesday. I gained 9 pounds back from what I lost, hah! So now they told me to just go with the normal 1 pound per week weight gain. Everything looks good though and baby's heartbeat was nice and strong. 

My anatomy ultrasound is scheduled for the 29th!!! I can't wait! But for some reason, I have this odd feeling like the baby is going to be stubborn and not let us find out. I hope I'm wrong though! I've been feeling like its a boy but lately I'm wondering if it's a girl. I'm only 60% sure it's a boy when before I was about 80-90% sure. We'll find out soon though!

Pregnancy Comparison #1 :)

Guess what time it is...
Pregnancy comparison time!! Woohoo!

I know you're all excited. Don't try to hide it.

Anyway, here it is. Same dress, not necessarily at the same time. And I actually just threw it on for this pregnancy for the picture. It's too cold for a sleeveless dress!