Big

I am definitely feeling pregnant now, in fact sometimes I feel just downright big. I went to visit my midwife today, she told me that I am measuring perfectly and that I finally have gained two pounds (although I'm still shy of my pre-pregnancy weight). Baby boy was moving around like crazy and his heart was beating around 140 beats per minute. She said everything looked great and that she would see me in another four weeks. At my next appointment I have to drink Glucose, they will then draw some blood about an hour after I drink it, and they will test my blood for Gestational Diabetes. I have never had any issues with this before, so I'm hoping this time around will be the same way. Next visit, I will be one day shy of 28 weeks along, I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy is moving.

Monday we took our oldest daughter to the dentist, she was a little scared at first but realized he was really nice. The dentist said her teeth look great, but she does have a loose tooth. She is really excited about losing her teeth, every morning she checks to make sure she hasn't lost any over the course of the night. She is a little OCD (to say the least) about brushing her teeth, she brushes several times a day, and now our middle daughter is following in her footsteps. My husband can't believe that she is old enough to start losing teeth, they are all getting big so fast.

Busy, Busy

I know, I've been bad again and haven't been blogging like I should. The last couple of weeks we have been really busy. Our youngest is getting in two molars, and has been sick with that. Yesterday when I went in to wake her up, she had taken off her diaper. She was so proud of herself, even though her crib, mattress and everything else was covered in poop. Our oldest just started kindergarten on Wednesday. She attends in the morning, the bus picks her up at our house and I pick her up at school a few hours later. We figured she would love it, and she does, she is so eager to get out of bed in the morning to go. Although I am worried she is coming down with a bug, she has been coughing a lot and been laying around in the afternoons. Our middle daughter is doing well too. When her older sister is at school, I have been working with her at home in her workbooks. She is doing great, we want to make sure she is prepared for kindergarten next year. She isn't always as motivated as her older sister, but seeing her sister going to school is very motivating for her. I am now 23 weeks along, and our little guy moves around like crazy. It's so hard to believe that we'll have another baby in about 16 weeks (I'll more than likely be induced a week early). I think we have decided on a name, but I don't really know if we are 100% yet. I feel a little overwhelmed when I think of everything that needs to be done and bought before our baby boy gets here. I go to another midwife's visit on Wednesday, we'll see if I have finally gained weight (I sure hope I'm at least up to my pre-pregnancy weight, or my midwife won't be very happy with me). I'll try and be more faithful with updated my blog, but I have honestly not even been online much the last couple of weeks.

New Car

We sold my husband's truck Wednesday evening, and yesterday he bought a car. We found the car online and bought it in Kentucky yesterday. It's a 1992 Saab 9000 Turbo, he loves it already. He probably won't be driving it anywhere other than to and from work, but it's perfect for what he needs it for. It should get at least 30mpg, it has a little get up and go, but not too much. Surprisingly it's body is really nice for a '92, it has no rust and the paint is still pretty glossy. He insisted on buying a car with a manual transmission, even though I can't drive one well at all (I usually kill it every five feet). I guess I don't ever need to drive it, I love my suv (and we can't fit four kids in the back). He drove it to work today, and said that it did great on all of the hills. Hopefully we have a keeper, and it doesn't give us any problems. I think we have decided to keep his motorcycle for now, he loves riding it on sunny days. So for now we have our gas guzzling Cadillac Escalade, his fuel efficient Honda 919 and his practical Saab 9000.

Shopping Spree

I have been buying lots of boy clothes the last couple of days, but I think I'm going to slow down. About 1/4 of a closet is now filled with baby boy clothing, about half being newborn and the other half being 0-3 months. I have also started buying cloth diapers, I have 24 prefolds, 5 covers and 3 diapers. I'm going to make some fleece covers for him, but I haven't started that project yet. I also plan on knitting him some hats, but I'm just adding that to my long "to do" list.

Yesterday my mom and I took the three girls to have their pictures taken. The two older girls did great, our youngest wouldn't hardly crack a smile. The photographer did get some good shots, but she was very unfriendly and unwilling to take more pictures of the three girls together. Overall, the pictures are cute and we are pleased with them. It is not an easy feat having three young children photographed. When one is looking at the camera, the other is looking to the side and the other crying. I can't imagine how hectic it will be when the baby comes and we try to have all of their pictures taken together.

Profits

Our garage sale yesterday went great, our total profits for the day totaled $750. My husband had sold a bicycle and a cutting torch earlier in the week, we were going to put them in the garage sale too, so that adds $200 to our total. We still have tons of baby girl clothes left (even though we sold lots), so I think we're going to have another sale in September or October. Surprisingly hardly anyone bought the baby girl winter clothes, and most were in awesome shape. I guess it's hard to get in the mood to buy winter clothes when it is in the high 80s outside. Hopefully, people will be a little cooler at our next sale, and we'll sell the rest of the clothes.

I made our first purchase yesterday for our baby boy, I bought a nice winter blanket, four outfits, a knitted sweater, gown and five sleepers. I plan on going to a local shop in town that sells dressy clothes this week. I need to buy some church outfits, socks and shoes. Everywhere I have looked at boys clothing, I haven't seen any clothes appropriate for church. Hopefully this specialty store in our town will have what I'm looking for. My husband and I went to Old Navy yesterday after the sale, and I was surprised buy how little they had for baby boys. The girls section was at least twice as big as the boys, and they only had two infant sleepers. So I didn't know where to start looking for boy clothes, but my husband suggested Kohl's so we headed over there. That's where we bought all of the clothing, then we went to TJ Maxx and bought the blanket. I'm really trying to resist the preemie clothes because all three of the girls wore preemie sizes for the first couple of weeks, but I'm sure this boy will be bigger than they were. So newborn is as small as I'll be buying, unless he is really tiny at birth. Although the newborn sizes look so tiny, I know they'll probably still be a little big on our little guy. Oh, I just discovered that we can use two blankets and seven pairs of booties from our youngest daughter for this baby too, everything else has to be bought.

Garage Sale

I am starting to sort through all of our things, getting ready for our garage sale tomorrow. I have two large storage bins full of 0-12 month girl clothes to sell, I sure hope most of it (if not all of it) sells. My husband is going to sell a couple of riding lawn mowers, a welder, his truck, his motorcycle and who knows what else. He is hoping to sell his truck and motorcycle and buy a gas efficient car, so keep your fingers crossed for us. I'm selling just a bunch of different things around the house that hasn't seen any action in at least six months. We probably won't be going to be until late tonight because tonight is when we move the vehicles out of the garage and start setting up tables and pricing everything.

All three girls are spending the night at my parent's house tonight, so they should have lots of fun while we are being swamped with people at the sale. We'll be getting them back tomorrow evening after the sale is done and cleaned up. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow, I don't want to bring anything back in the house, I want to sell it all!

It's a........

BOY!!!!!

He is measuring about one week ahead, and he seems a little shy (didn't want to spread his legs for the camera). The ultrasound technician knew right off that it was a boy, but she didn't want to tell us anything until she could get a good shot of his "goods." I drank a can of Dr. Pepper before my appointment so that the baby would be good and active during the ultrasound. It worked for awhile, he was very active in the waiting room, but when it came time for the ultrasound he was moving his arms like crazy but his legs wouldn't budge. After a fifteen minute ultrasound, the tech finally got a great profile shot (the first picture above), and said that he was 100% boy. He weighs around 10 ounces and his heart was beating around 145 beats per minute. The midwife said he looked good and healthy. My husband and I are both very excited, but at the same time a little nervous about having a little boy, I'm sure he'll be totally different than the girls.

Almost there

Today I am 19 weeks 1 day along, so six days shy of halfway done with my pregnancy. We haven't bought hardly anything yet, so I really don't want to rush things along. In two days we will be having my ultrasound done, we can't hardly wait.

Hopefully, next Saturday we'll be having a yard sale. I like to have one every year, it helps us not to accumulate too much. This year we are getting rid of a lot, I'm tired of having so much stuff in our basement. My plan is if we haven't used it or plan on using it within a year, sell it. I don't really know how on board my husband is with my plan, but I do know he is sick of the clutter in his garage. My parents are going to take all three of the girls Friday night, so we'll probably be up really late pricing everything. If this baby is another girl, we won't have very many baby things we'll be getting rid of. If the baby is a boy, we have tons of baby girl clothes that I'll be selling. My husband always accuses me of underpricing all of my stuff, but I want to sell it not keep it. Last year we made enough money from our yard sell so that I could buy a new couch, so I think we did pretty good. All the money made from this yard sale will go towards baby equipment, clothes and cloth diapers.

Lazy Day

Hey, everyone is entitled to one every now and then, a wonderfully lazy day. My husband is mowing the grass, our youngest is napping and the two other girls and I are just hanging out (doing a whole lot of nothing). Sure I could be doing laundry right now, but it just feels good to relax.

I recently sold off most of our cloth diaper stash, I'm hoping I won't regret it later on (please, don't let it be another impulsive pregnancy thing). My new (and hopefully improved) stash consists of lots of wool and prefolds for home use. For going out we have went 100% with pocket diapers, so we have a combo of Blueberry, Green Acre Designs (GADs), Diaper Change and TKCuddlers. They all fit our little one great, almost as trim as a disposable diaper. For night time we are using the same diapers we have used since the beginning, Bumgenius 2.0 one-size pocket diapers, never has leaked on us. Once I start really buying for the new baby, I'll post pictures of both stashes. I'm really trying to hold on buying much until we know the gender, I only have six preemie prefolds, two Prorap newborn covers and one preemie Imse Vimse organic cotton velour cover. I can't hardly wait to start really buying tiny newborn diapers, then the next exciting thing is having a little baby to put the diapers on.

Moving Right Along

I am moving right along with this pregnancy, I am 18 weeks along today. Although my mom has wondered if I am pregnant with twins, I'm not showing anymore than most people at this point. My big ultrasound is July 21st, we will get a second look at our little one and hopefully be able to see if it's a little girl or little guy. Of course that isn't the only reason for the ultrasound, it makes sure that the heart, bladder, stomach, etc.. are all functioning and that the baby's spine, skull, legs and arms are all measuring and looking good.

Earlier today, I took our oldest daughter to the doctor for her five year checkup and kindergarten vaccinations. She passed the hearing and vision test (although it looks like she only has 20/30 vision). They gave her three shots in her thighs and she took them like a true woman, they brought tears to her eyes but she never shed a tear.

It looks like everyone is starting to feel a little better, except my husband. He has a sore throat and is coughing with some congestion. Our youngest is still a little congested with a runny nose, but at least she is acting better and doesn't have a fever anymore. I am feeling a lot better, the antibiotics seem to finally be doing their job. Hopefully in a few days everyone will be feeling better and things around the house will be a little more normal for us.

SICK

I know I have once again slacked off with blogging, I guess I just need to add it to my daily routine. All three of the girls are coughing and sneezing, and our youngest is running a fever. This wouldn't normally be a big deal, but I am still recovering from being sick myself. Last week I got a UTI (urinary tract infection), I thought I got better with the antibiotics but it came back on Sunday. So I call my midwife on Monday, and she prescribes me a different antibiotic. I took my new antibiotic three times and then started to feel pretty bad. I got a killer headache then started to feel really sick to my stomach, and this on top of being pregnant with a UTI. Luckily my husband came home from work early yesterday, so he kind of helped with the girls while I lay in bed. Then I started throwing up whatever I ate and got really bad really quick. I ended up calling my midwife and we both agreed that it was probably a reaction to the new antibiotic, so she changed me back to the original antibiotic, but I just have to take it seven days instead of three this time. I'm feeling a lot better today, just a little weak though.
Moving onto more pleasant things, we went last Wednesday with my parents, brother and sister-in-law to King's Island. The girls had a great time, I surprisingly did too (I was only able to ride three rides in the whole park). My husband and brother decided to do the Sling Shot, two people can sit together in this round steel cage, and they are thrown together up in the air (about as high as the Eiffel Tower at King's Island). Of course, there are heavy duty cables attached to the cage, but I'm sure it is a very exhilarating ride. Here is a picture of the two of them high in the sky-

Motorcycles

My husband loves riding a motorcycle to and from work on nice hot, sunny days. Of course, I really don't mind him riding a motorcycle, it does help with the price of gas. He bought his first bike two years ago, it was 2006 Suzuki Katana 600. He sold that bike so that he could buy his uncle's classic Harley, a 1984 Harley Davidson Softail. He then decided a classic Harley was nice for a Sunday drive, but not for regular riding. So his next purchase was a 1996 Kawasaki ZX9 Ninja, but he soon sold his Harley because it was a high maintenance bike. Of course he never keeps anything too long and sold the Ninja soon afterwards. He went a whole year without a bike and just bought one a month ago. His new baby is a 2002 Honda 919, it's a street fighter or naked bike (has no plastic fairings on the sides). I don't have any pictures of his first bike, but here is the Harley and the Ninja. I'll try and take a picture of his new bike tonight and post it.

Our House

Unfortunately, we haven't begun construction on our new house. I was really hoping we would be in it before the baby is born, but it looks like we probably won't even start until next spring. My husband had some of his overtime cut, and until it comes back we can't afford to build a house while still owning our current home. I guess there is still a tiny chance that all of his overtime will come back and we'll be able to start building soon, but we don't have much hope of that happening. We are both upset about this because we are sick of living cramped in our little house, and patience is not a virtue that we either of us have.

Just for kicks

The last couple of days I have started feeling some slight movement in my lower abdomen. At first, I thought I was just imagining it, but now I'm thinking it's the baby. I started feeling movement with our third daughter when I was only 13 weeks along, and I am now 12 weeks 5 days. Feeling the baby move and kick, is one of my favorite parts of pregnancy. I love it when I'm reading in bed and feel movement and look down, and I see the outline of a foot. I can't hardly wait to be sporting a big belly and feeling constant movements, I think these are some of the best parts of pregnancy. Obviously I love being pregnant, I'm really trying to enjoy every part of this pregnancy because it's probably going to be my last.

Overdue Update

It's been super crazy lately, so I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog. Since my last post in March, we have discovered that our fourth (and probably final) baby is on the way. I am due December 12, just nine days shy of our youngest's second birthday. I am 12 weeks 3 days along, so I'm almost in my second trimester. We have had our first ultrasound, and found there is only one bean (not two, like our two older girls had hoped for). Although a little nervous about adding one more to our family, my husband and I are excited. We honestly do not care if this baby is a boy or a girl, hopefully we'll be finding out the gender at the end of July. As long as the baby is healthy, that's the most important thing to us. I bought a doppler for us to use at home, that is the greatest investment we have ever made. With a month between midwife visits, the doppler really puts my mind at ease, being able to hear our baby's heartbeat at home is such a great thing. I have already begun buying some unisex cloth diapers, but I'm holding off for most of the stuff until we know the gender for sure. You'll have to excuse my choppy writing, I can officially blame it on my pregnancy.

USPS

I'm not very happy with the USPS (United States Postal Service) right now, or should I say our mail carrier. I was waiting anxiously for three new diapers on Wednesday, one being my Goodmama and the other two being Cuddlebugs. I knew that my Goodmama was being shipped with signature confirmation, so I made sure I was home around the time our mail normally comes. My in-laws had our two older girls Wed. because our youngest had her 15 month check up that afternoon. We came home from the appointment and I put our youngest one down for a nap. While she was napping, I decided to pick up sticks in the front yard, I hardly ever only have one child so I wasn't going to take a couple of hours for granted. Every 15 minutes or so I would go in and check our our daughter, but I hurried back outside to pick up more sticks and watched for the mail. I finally seen the mail truck at our mailbox, and she was sitting there for a few minutes. I thought to myself, if she fills out one of those "we're sorry we missed you" cards for my Goodmama I am going to scream. After she leaves the mailbox, I run to check the mail and sure enough on top of everything is the dreaded "we're sorry we missed you" card. I was irate, here I was standing in our small front yard and she was too lazy to pull into our driveway and have me sign for a package. Well it turns out she turns around and beeps her horn at me (I'm still at our mailbox), I run over to her truck and she tells me she has a package for me to sign for. Ok, she is too lazy to take two minutes and come to my house and have me sign for it, so she beeps at me to come to her. This whole situation has opened my eyes, I now realize why so many of our packages that have a signature confirmation weren't delivered to our door (when we are at home), it's because our mail lady is lazy. I guess none of this matters now, I have my three new diapers, and I am in love.

Zeus

Here are some more recent pictures of Zeus, we think he starting to look a lot better.

New Addition

I am happy to introduce the newest addition to our family, Zeus. My husband and I adopted him, he is seven months old and is as sweet as can be. All the girls love him and even Zelda gets along with him great. The rescue said that he is a American Staffordshire Terrier, but we don't really think he looks like one. We think his body type looks more like APBT, that's an American Pit Bull Terrier for those who don't know. He is a little nervous around new people, but at home he is all smiles, literally. The picture below was taken a couple of weeks ago, he has since put on weight. The rescue said that he was slow at gaining, since he was neglected when he arrived. We're hoping that in a few months he'll be where he should be with his weight, at least now you can't see his ribs. Ok, here he is, our new baby-

Goodmama

I finally snagged a very sought after diaper yesterday, a Goodmama! I'm excited because I have been wanting to buy one for a while, but I just happen to be in the right place at the right time yesterday. It is made out of organic bamboo velour and the snaps and serging are hot pink, it is also a one-size diaper so it fits babies 10-35 lbs. I should be getting it sometime next week, but I can hardly wait to try it.
We've been having some trouble on the home front recently. It's been raining a lot lately, and our roof decided to start leaking. My husband took two days off of work while it was raining to repair the leaks, but it still looks like we'll need a new roof. We really don't mind putting on a new roof because we have never really like the current shingles. It is kind of upsetting because our roof is only seven years old, but stuff happens. We will be so glad when we're out of this house, I am so sick of it. I'm not real fond of the neighborhood, but I HATE the house. I've never liked it, we've updated it a lot, but it still doesn't feel like home. Our current goal to be in our new home is November, so we'll see how that goes. My husband has been working on our driveway at our property, but it's been raining so much that everything is muddy and hard to work with. I'll try my best to update my blog more often, but it always seems like life gets crazier in the summer.

Hands Full

If I have one more person ask me, "You've got your hands full, don't you?" I am going to scream. All three of the girls could be on their best behavior acting like angels, and people still say that to me. What does it mean anyways? Next time someone says this to me, I am going to promptly reply, "No, my hands aren't full, but my heart is, in fact it is overflowing with love. Now get out of my way!" Ok, I'm not really going to be rude like that, but I don't understand why people need to comment. Maybe it's just me, but I interpret it as a negative comment. A positive comment that I wouldn't mind would be "My what wonderfully behaved children you have." Which by the way, someone has said to me while waiting in line at the Post Office. I guess it's just people that identify the obvious, I mean I think it's rather obvious that I have my hands full with three kids under the age of five. You don't see me going up to an elderly person and telling them that they are old. If I have a long piece of toilet paper stuck to my shoe please tell me, but please don't tell me something I already know. The only exception to this would be if you wanted to tell me how beautiful my children are, that I already know but I don't mind hearing from time to time. I'm now stepping off my soapbox, thanks for reading :)

Zoe

It's very hard for me to write this, but I feel that I need to. Our three year old Giant Schnauzer, Zoe, passed away this morning. We took her to the vet yesterday and they kept her overnight, and we just got the call. She died of Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia, here is a link for those who don't know what it is- http://www.geocities.com/aihadogs/index.htm. Here is a picture of her, it's not good but it was always hard to take a picture of her because she was so black.

February 6, 2005-February 28, 2008

Fat

I now know why adults get fat after they get older and have children. No, it's not because their metabolism changes, I know that's what everyone wants you to think. It's because after you have children, you become lazy. Ok, maybe lazy isn't the right word, but let me explain my philosophy. When your can of Coke is empty but you're watching a good movie and you don't want to get up to get another Coke, what do you do? You call your obedient child into the room and ask them to get into the fridge and bring you another Coke. Or another example is you need a wet-one to wipe the baby's face off, who do you call? Your older, obedient children. My kids aren't angels by any means, but they do come when I call them and they do obey me (most of the time). So there you have it, my philosophy on getting fat.

First Time

Everyone should remember their first times of most everything they do. For example- your first kiss, the first time you drove a car, your first marriage (hopefully your only marriage), the birth of your children, etc..... Well yesterday I experience my first, or should I say my youngest daughter experienced her first pee in the potty. I'm pretty excited, I know it doesn't mean that she'll be potty trained anytime soon, but it still gives us hope. Now don't get me wrong, I love my cloth diapers, so the whole potty training experience will be bittersweet. We do want one more child, so at least I'll have one more little bottom to cloth diaper. I've been thinking that I haven't shown everyone a picture of my current diaper stash, so look for that sometime really soon. It's hard to take a stash pic whenever there are always at least a couple diapers that are in the diaper pail. I even added up what I think I have paid for all of my diapers we are currently using. If you have heart problems, please stop reading here. I believe the cost of the diapers that currently fit our youngest is somewhere around $750. Now keep in mind that figure is not including smalls and larges, only mediums. I know some spend thousands on their stashes, but I think I am comfortable with the amount we have spent thus far. For those who are wondering if my husband knows, yes he does, I tell him everything (he's ok with it too).

Three going on Sixteen

My title says it all, no we don't have three kids and working on having sixteen. My three year old is acting as emotional as a sixteen year old. I know she is sick, but I'm about ready to go crazy with all of these hormonal women. Ok, I guess they aren't hormonal women, but they sure act like they are. We have so many fights and crying fits during the day, I'm at my wits end. Our youngest even is showing signs of becoming a little woman, she is starting to get very finicky anytime her sisters touch her. I've always heard that girls are more emotional than boys, and mine are proving that theory true.

Anticipation

Have you ever waited for something and after it arrives you are kind of let down? Well, that's how I feel, I guess it's really the wait that is exciting. I had two amber necklaces and seven Green Mountain Diapers prefolds arrive yesterday. I was so excited and when they finally got here, I thought to myself why did I get so excited about prefolds and necklaces. Don't get me wrong they were everything I thought they would be, but I was still let down a little. It's like my grandma told me, after you've been waiting with anticipation for nine months for a baby, you give birth and reality hits. I think with my diapers and necklaces, reality hit and I realized that the diapers are just going to be peed and pooped in and the necklaces are just going to be worn.
It turns out that our middle daughter does have strep too, in fact she is still running a fever today. So we have three children taking antibiotics at the same time, I hope this doesn't happen often. Our oldest and youngest are starting to act a little better, so I have hope by this weekend everyone will be 100% again. Our middle daughter that no longer takes naps, is now laying in our bed sleeping at 11:37 am. You know she is really sick if she asks if she can go to sleep during the day because she normally begs us not to put her to bed at night.

Sick and Afflicted

It's been a week since my last blog entry, and sadly nothing has changed except we have three sick children instead of one. Our oldest daughter has strep throat, our middle daughter is at my parent's house and has a high fever and complaining of her throat hurting (probably strep too) and our youngest is congested with occasional screaming fits. So tomorrow when we meet my mom and get our middle daughter, we will also be taking her to the doctor's office. Last night I was so tired that I went to bed before 9:30 pm, that is almost unheard of for me. Hopefully my husband and I will stay healthy and all the girls will get better soon. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers, my sanity is depending it.

Sickly again!

At church this morning, my husband said that there was a lot of people missing because of sickness, unfortunately we are included in the missing people. My oldest daughter is sick, she is coughing and complaining of her head and throat hurting, she also has a low grade fever. So I stayed home this morning with her and our youngest, my husband didn't want to take our youngest with him because he was afraid she may want to nurse while he had her. Hopefully all this sickness will soon pass.
I am selling a lot of our small diapers on Diaper Swappers because our youngest is now in mediums. With my paypal that I am receiving I have been buying more medium diapers for her. I am really excited because I bought a Muttaqin diaper to try. Ever since we have begun cloth diapering I have heard how awesome Muttaqin or Mutt diapers are, and I didn't even have to stalk her website. I also bought a new Cuddlebun diaper, I've heard a lot of good things about them too. I admit, I am addicted. My husband actually doesn't mind this obsession of mine, he thinks it's really nice that I have a hobby. He gets a backoe and I get diapers, seems like a fair trade to me.

Stumped

The stump is finally out! My husband got up early this morning to start work with his backhoe. Luckily the ground was a little firmer and he didn't bury it this time. He pulled the stump out and a small piece of concrete that was in the middle of our backyard. Our yard looks like a mess, but at least he's getting experience before he starts excavating for our new house. I forgot to mention that his backhoe is a John Deere 310, but as you could tell from my pictures it isn't John Deere green.
I just ordered another Baltic amber teething necklace for our youngest. I am in love with them, they are so cute and they work great too. She has a multi colored necklace now, but I ordered a milk and honey colored necklace this time. My mother-in-law bought her first one off of ebay and it was about $22 with shipping, but I just bought her second necklace from Inspired by Finn on Hyena Cart and only paid $12.50 and shipping is free. My mother-in-law bought her own amber necklace from Inspired by Finn last week and it is really well made, so I thought we would try them out too. No, my mil doesn't have a drooling problem, amber is suppose to help with any kind of inflammation. In fact, I just read today that a amber necklace will also help with diaper rash and the inflammation that comes with it.

It's Here!

Today we brought home the newest member to our family, our backhoe. After driving it 2 1/2 hours to our house, my husband went right to work. His plan for today was to dig up some tree stumps in our backyard, shouldn't be a big deal right? Well, he picked the wrong day to do anything in our backyard, with our wonky weather our whole backyard is very damp and soft. He didn't have any trouble at first, he was just taking it slow because he was still learning how this particular backhoe operates. After he started getting a audience, that's when things went south. A little background about our neighborhood, when we are outside every one of our neighbors join us in our yard, garage, driveway, deck, pretty much anywhere we are. So today my husband had a crowd of about ten people watching his every move. He dug a huge area around the stump because it was a huge stump and he was still trying to get things figured out. Between the soft soil and his lack of experience, he got hung up. Then on top of trying to figure out a way to get the backhoe out, all of the neighbors had an idea. Some thought he could use a truck to pull out a 13,000 lb backhoe, yeah right. Others just stood on watching my husband struggle. Finally one of our favorite neighbors offered a great idea, hook a chain onto the backhoe and the other end onto a tree. We finally got it out after about an hour of struggling. Now the backhoe is sitting on a firm piece of land in our backyard, and there is no more digging up of stumps until all of our soil firms. Below are some pictures I took of the whole ordeal. You'll have to excuse our neighbor's mangy garage in the background, it's where their dogs live.

When it first arrived at our house-

Our girls watching Daddy at work-

Working on the stump-

Hung up, if you look closely you can see that all four tires are off the ground-

Breastmilk, it's what's for dinner!

Oh, the joys of motherhood and breastfeeding. Our youngest daughter is the first baby that I have been able to nurse longer than three months, and I love nursing her almost as much as she loves nursing. Being almost 13 1/2 months old, she can be a little bit of a booger sometimes. A couple of nights ago when she wanted to nurse, I was talking to my husband and not really paying attention to her gently patting my leg. When she wants to nurse she usually just makes this funny sound, almost like a laugh and then she lays herself down across my lap. She couldn't easily climb onto the couch and on my lap, but she finally got my attention and I picked her up. She then started repeatedly nose diving into my chest, my husband and I were laughing hysterically. Some people may thinks it's inapproriate to nurse a child that is this old, but I feel as long as she wants to nurse and is getting nutritional benefits from it, it's alright. Now my mom on the other hand thinks it is "new age" to nurse a older child, but I totally disagree. I personally feel that extended breastfeeding was something that women have been doing since the beginning of time, there is nothing new about it. In fact, I think that saying a child needs to be weaned at one year old is the "new age" thing to do. I don't want to make my mom out to be a horrible person because she is not at all. She was a stay at home mom the whole time my brother and I were in school, she even nursed both of us until we were around ten months old. She is very pro-breastfeeding, but not so much pro-nursing in public or extended breastfeeding. My mom is a wonderful person and a awesome mom, we just disagree on some things when it comes to mothering. Now don't even get me started on nursing in public!

Smiles

Our yougest daughter had her one year pictures taken yesterday, they were a month late, but we finally got them done. She was all smiles, the photographer wasn't much, but our little angel looked beautiful. The first few pictures were of her in a white prefold that I pinned on, she didn't have a head band on, it was a very old-fashion looking picture. She looked adorable of course, until she peed in her prefold, then I had to change her into her dress and fix her hair. After the pictures were done we went to O' Charley's for dinner with my parents. Our oldest daughter announced while eating shrimp and broccoli that her favorite restaurant is no longer McDonalds, but (you guessed it) O' Charley's.
I'm still waiting on our huge winter storm that was suppose to start Thursday night and end yesterday. Like I have said before, I HATE Indiana's weather. On Friday morning (during the winter storm, lol) our whole family went and looked at a backhoe. My husband really likes it, so hopefully by this weekend it will be ours and we'll finally be able to start on our house. We also bought blueprints on Friday for our garage/house, I am so excited to get the ball rolling on this. Our current house is only 1040 square feet with a huge attached garage and a full basement. The plans we have decided on is 1005 square feet with a three car garage. In our current home we only have one bathroom, in our new garage we will have one full bathroom with a powder room (that means two toilets, yay!). So we aren't really even downsizing, we are going from three bedrooms to two bedrooms, but the bedrooms will be larger. I think we're just going to stick the three girls in a room together and we'll share our bedroom with the two dogs. I'm very excited about this, just in case you couldn't tell. I don't dislike our current home, but I don't like it either. For some reason it has never felt like mine, I guess I have always thought of it as a temporary home.
Oh, I almost forgot. My husband backed into a mailbox the first time in his life yesterday. I guess it's not that big of a deal, but when he does it in my Cadillac Escalade that I have only had for a little more than a month, that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. At least, there is only a light scratch on the side, hopefully he'll be able to buff it out. I've always told him that he was way too overconfident while backing up, but he somehow managed to blame the whole thing on me. Men!

Busy

We have been super busy lately, so it feels like I haven't blogged in awhile (probably because I haven't). My husband and I have been looking at backhoes, tractors, crawlers, etc... We are trying to find one to buy, so that we can break ground for our garage asap. In fact, we are suppose to look at a backhoe tomorrow morning. Our youngest has been keeping me on my toes, she is getting into everything. Last night she pulled a package full of doughnut holes off of the dining table, I found her covered in cinnamon and with a doughnut hole in each hand. At thirteen months old, she finally has six teeth. Thank goodness for her amber teething necklace, it's been a life saver. She doesn't appear to be in any kind of pain and she doesn't hardly drool at all, and to think I doubted the power of amber. I have recently started homeschooling our two older girls, they really seem to be learning a lot. Our middle daughter could be a little lazy when it comes to school, but I am pushing her just enough, and she is actually learning to write her letters! I look forward to this summer when I can buy curriculum for fall, I'm leaning towards the Sonlight curriculum, while adding some of my own touches. My husband and I do worry about the girls being socialized, but hopefully between church, soccer and meeting other homeschoolers they'll be alright for now. I'm trying to find a nice little boyfriend for Zelda, she should be ready to breed in April. I really don't think anything else is going on, other than Indiana's crazy weather. Oh yeah, what's up with Ebay's new feedback policy? That as a seller, I can only leave positive feedback for the buyers. I personally think this is a little stupid. From what I have read no one is happy about it, other than some one who just buys and doesn't sell at all. I hope they change their policy because if they don't, I'm going to have a hard time listing anything.

Dress Up

Having three girls in our house is a lot of fun, most of the time. I only have one complaint about girls, I am sick of dress up clothes. I can't keep "normal" clothes on our middle daughter, she always has a headband and a tutu on. Our oldest daughter isn't as bad, and our youngest hasn't discovered the joys of changing clothes. On top of wearing dress up clothes, they also love to change their regular clothes. Now I'm not just talking about changing their clothes a few times a day, I'm talking about ten times a day. At first I didn't notice, they are very sneaky about changing clothes, they only change one article of clothing at a time. I always wondered why it felt like they had a bottomless hamper. Then one day, I caught both of them. At this point, I feel like I'm going crazy, I can't get them to stop. I have even sat them in time-out for changing repeatedly throughout the day. Nothing helps because now they don't even realize they are doing it, it's like second nature to them. Yesterday I mention to our middle daughter that it looked like she had a new shirt on, and she had a very confused look on her face (like how did that get on me). I think sometimes they even change in the wee morning hours, when we wake up they are never wearing the same pjs that they went to bed wearing. I seriously think it's a conspiracy to make me think I'm going crazy. And to think my husband and I want one more!

Rocket Crazy

My husband is amazing in so many ways, soI won't even begin to list them. One small flaw in my husband is that he doesn't know what he wants. He just informed me earlier this week that he has been looking at some crotch rockets. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but this statement made me mad (to say the least). In the last two years my husband has owned three different motorcycles, his first being a 2006 Suzuki Katana 600, then he bought a 1984 Harley Davidson Softail, and his last bike to buy was a 1996 Kawasaki ZX9R. So let's recap, he has owned a touring sport bike, a cruiser and a crotch rocket. He is pretty spoiled really, if he wants something I try to be supportive and let him have whatever he wants (he works a lot of overtime so that I can be a stay at home mom, so I figure this is the least I can do for him). He sold his Katana so that he could buy his Harley, then when he owned his Harley he decided he wanted a crotch rocket too. He then sold his crotch rocket after a while because well, I really don't know why he sold it. Finally he sold his Harley last summer, and hasn't had a bike since. Less than a year after selling his crotch rocket, he wants to buy another one. Not just any crotch rocket, but one exactly like he sold last year (but he says at least two years newer). AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Ok, I feel better now. If you have made it to this point in my blog, I'm impressed. I really don't care if he has a bike, just as long as he is careful and responsible on it. But I do care about things when he can't make up his mind. He told me he probably won't buy one for a few months at least, but I know better. What my darling husband wants, he gets.

Nasty Habit

If I find one more empty (or full for that matter) cigarette carton in our yard, I'm gonna scream. We don't smoke, but most of our neighbors seem too. Even though one neighbor has convinced his wife that he gave up smoking after he had a stroke, he now hides his cigarettes outside and smokes whenever he gets a chance. He has hid them in his mailbox and the trunk of his car, although I'm sure he's changed the location again. Maybe that's what's happening, he is hiding his cigarettes in our yard, that's the last place his wife would look.

Sick

It's been awhile since I have posted, I thought I should update everyone. Yesterday we were really busy, my husband and I were helping my parents move into their new house. I luckily only had our youngest daughter with us, and she didn't get in the way at all. My in-laws kept the two oldest girls, so that was a treat for them (the girls that is, not the in-laws, lol). My husband is very sore after helping my parents move, it was only my dad and husband, so they had a lot of work between the two of them. The house is really nice, they had it custom built, so it's everything they wanted. I admit I'm more than a little impatient now to get our house started.
Today has been a pretty miserable day for everyone. My husband is really sore, our oldest and youngest daughters are sick and so am I. Our middle daughter is the only one that feels ok and she is super grouchy today. To have a little fun this afternoon we played bubbles, it was our youngest daughter's first time. Our two oldest daughters always have fun with bubbles, but so did our youngest (if you call having a soaking wet head fun). Even our dogs joined in on the fun, our Boston helped pop the bubbles and our Giant Schnauzer just lay sleeping allowing the bubbles to collect on her (which means she got smacked quite a bit today). My husband is off tomorrow from work because of the holiday, hopefully we'll all feel better by then.

Bored

I hope I'm not the only mother that gets bored some days. I know when I tell people I get bored at home, they look at me like I'm crazy. How can I be bored with three little one's running around and getting into trouble, you ask? I'm one of those people that wants to be doing something 24 hours a day, I hate to even sleep, it feels like a waste of time for me. All three of the girls can play together, but while they are playing I want to do something. Sure I read books, knit, get on the internet, do laundry and dishes, clean the house, etc..... Sometimes I want something else to do, like make some money. I love selling some of our used diapers on Diaper Swappers and listing things on Ebay, but there is only so much that you can sell. I've always wanted to own my own business, whether it be big or small. I've been considering breeding our female Boston Terrier, now all I have to do is find her a nice boyfriend. I think if Zelda (our Boston) got bred and had puppies, I would definitely be busy between pups, two adult dogs and three kids. If I think I'm bored now, I don't want to know how I'll feel when all the kids move out.

My Creations

Below are three hats I recently knitted and I promised to show pictures of. The first was just for fun, the second for our youngest daughter and the third is for my husband.

Cloth Diaper Comeback

Cloth diapers are making a huge comeback, even though you should see people's faces when they see me changing a cloth diaper. I am so glad to see that cloth diapering is also being recognized in big magazines, here is a article recently printed in Time- http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702357,00.html

There are so many cool options when you cloth diaper, people are often times amazed by all the snaps, velcro, and softness. Everywhere I go I love to tell people about cloth diapering, I really enjoy changing my baby's diaper. It's kind of fun to pick out what diaper your baby is going to be wearing, there are so many cute prints available for the diapers and covers. Right now I have about fifty diapers in size medium, I am truly an addict. At home we use the traditional prefolds with a snappi (we use this instead of pins, you can see a pic of it in my avatar) and a cover. When we go out we use a fitted diaper with a cover, and at night time we use a pocket diaper (you can stuff this with inserts to increase the absorbency). We have only had a handful of leaks, and it isn't a big deal to wash them every couple of days. Our baby seems to enjoy having soft velour touching her little bum too.

Knitting Fool

Yesterday my husband and I were at our church most of the day, it was a work day for the men and I just went to hang out. My parents had our two oldest daughters, so I was left to care only for our youngest. I had a lot of fun, but I don't know about my husband because he actually did some work. I was tired when we returned home so I popped a good movie in the DVD player and started knitting. I finished a cute multi colored rolled brim hat a few hours later (I'll try and remember to post pics sometime soon). Since my mother in law bought me some round looms for knitting, I have been knitting quite a bit. While all the men worked at the church yesterday, my friend and I went to Wal-mart and bought some yarn. My next project is to make two hats for our two oldest daughters and one hat for my husband (I bought him some really manly yarn). The hats looks really good too, I'm surprised because normally I'm not too crafty. I think I have finally found my calling in life, knitting hats.

Getting Wild

My precious little angel (our youngest daughter) is starting to turn into a little devil. We use to be able to hold her, now she is squirming all over the place. She is starting to walk and get into everything, including her two big sisters things. She is learning how to hit and head butt, we are trying to put an end to all of that. She still is a very sweet little girl sometimes, but other times you can see her father come out in her.
I have started selling some cloth diapers that don't work for us on Diaper Swappers. With the money I got out of all my used diapers, I bought a couple new diapers to try. I have been wanting to try the Dream-Eze fitted for awhile, so I ordered one and also the new Bummis wrap. I am actually considering selling off all of our small cloth diapers (our daughter is now in mediums). I was going to keep them for our next child, but now I have read how the elastic goes out on diapers that you put in storage a lot of times. It's so nice to know that after we use the diapers, we can sell them so some one else can also use them, and we can recoup some of the costs too. I know sometimes people are a little weird about buying used diapers, but as long as they were well taken care of I don't see anything wrong with it. I make sure all of our diapers are stain free with no holes or tears in them and if I buy used, I make sure the diapers are in excellent used condition. Really using a cloth diaper another baby has used before is no different than using a bath towel that someone else has used before. Baby clothes are big sellers at yard sells, but you know a lot of babies spit up and poop on their clothes. So how is all of this different than buying used diapers? When I receive a lightly used diaper, I first soak it in Oxi Clean and thoroughly wash it. I would say that 75% of my diaper stash is made up of diapers that I bought new, and the other 25% is diapers that I bought in excellent condition off of Diaper Swappers. We are such a throw away society, it's so nice to know that once we are done with something someone else can then use it.

Time

Tonight after we got out of church I called my mom, she told me that my great uncle died today. We weren't particularly close or anything, but it's sad because that was the last living sibling to my deceased grandma. A whole generation that is gone from us, so many questions that I wish I would have asked them. I have always been pretty close to all of my grandparents, and I really appreciate the two that I have left. My grandma died a little over 4 1/2 years ago, I was really close to her. I lived with her all through college, she made our wedding cake, but unfortunately she never got to meet any of our children. My "mamaw" died two days before the birth of our first daughter. I was getting ready to go to her viewing at the funeral home when I started to go into labor, and I was in the hospital when they had her funeral. It's been so long now, but it still seems like I should be able to pick up the phone and call her or go visit her. Not being able to go to her funeral really made it hard on me, I really never got any closure. You just never know when a loved one's last day will be. On one of the message boards I am a member of, one of the ladies just had their two month old baby die of SIDS. It just makes you want to hug everyone around you, but it seems like you get so wrapped up in life that you put hugs and kisses on the back burner.

My Gladiator

My husband just started watching American Gladiators on t.v. I told him since he is so athletic that he should try and get on the show, he thought that was a great idea. Then he got to thinking about how he doesn't want the whole world to see him in some skin tight spandex, I personally would love to see that, but he won't do it. Oh well, some dreams are so short lived.

Crazy Indiana

I hate the crazy weather in Indiana, the high today was 66 but later on this week there is a chance of snow. It is so hard to explain to the kids that one day they need to wear a heavy winter coat and the next day they need to wear a windbreaker. In fact, it is even harder for my husband to understand the weather. Today he wore a windbreaker with a heavy coat (that could be worn in subzero temperatures) over it. When I talked to him earlier today he told me he thought he felt pretty warm in the truck on the way to work early this morning. My silly husband, I told him he needs to watch the Weather Channel in the mornings before he leaves for work.
Today was our oldest and middle daughter's first day back to preschool after winter break. They were really excited about returning, I think they get a little bored at home sometimes.

Growing Up

Today was our youngest daughter's first day in Sunday School. It's kind of sad because she still seems like a baby to me, but I guess I have to let her go and experience new things. I really didn't have to even let go at all today because she kept by my side even in the classroom. It doesn't help that our middle daughter is also in that class, and she was trying to help her little sister along the way.
Right now is nap time, every Sunday afternoon we try to all lay down for a nice nap. Well there is nothing "nice" about naps in our house. Our youngest lays down for a nap like a champ, but I can't say the same about our other two girls. They find every excuse to get out of their room, today their excuse was that they had to take their pigtails out and throw the rubber bands in the trash. Our middle daughter wanted to sleep in her dress up clothes that she received as a gift for Christmas. Our oldest wanted to lay down in my bed with me for a nap. If they think that they can say something to get out taking a nap, they will say it. Oh great, our champion sleep (our youngest) just started talking in her crib, there goes my nap for today.

Boys

I am so tired of every time we tell people we want a fourth child, they just assume it's because we want a boy. We are perfectly happy with our three girls, and would not mind at all if our fourth is another girl. Having another baby is probably another two years down the road (take or give two years). Now let me talk about the people that think having four kids is a HUGE family. These people really irk me, I don't see how us having more kids affect their lives at all. My husband has a good job, we will be building a house plenty big for four kids, we have a vehicle that can seat eight people, I stay at home with all the kids and we have never needed any assistance from anyone. So why do people care how many kids we have? My husband and I are so tired of people asking how many more kids we are going to have and then seeing their jaw drop when we say we would like to have one more. So now every time some one asks that same question, we just tell them we are going to have as many as God decides to bless us with (now imagine their jaws no longer just dropping, but hitting the floor). Now keep in mind it's just not busybodies asking us these questions, it's our families too. Another question that is no one's business is- How long do you plan to continue nursing? I just tell them that I plan to tandem nurse my now youngest and the baby (then I perform CPR on my mother).

My Wish

It looks like my wish came true today, our youngest daughter's pedi told us that she doesn't need whole milk (only breastmilk) until she is 15 months old. It appears she has a lactose intolerance and we are trying to figure out the degree to which she has it. Won't my mom be so excited to know that we have at least three more months of breastfeeding in our future. Other than that it looks like she is a healthy one year old, she is 29 in. tall and 17 lbs 11 1/2 ozs. So I guess I was wrong guessing she would weigh around 18 1/2 lbs. Our pedi said she is just going to be a petite little girl. She has had a diaper rash for the last couple of weeks, we tried some prescription cream that the pedi gave us but it turned out she is allergic to a active ingredient in it. Our pedi thinks the rash may be a yeast infection, so she prescribed Nystatin, hopefully it will clear up soon. I am a little nervous about her possibly having a yeast infection and how it will affect cloth diapering. From what I have read I will need to wash the diapers in hot water and dry them on a medium setting.
We finally got the new lamp for our big screen yesterday, and my husband installed it last night. I am so glad to be able to watch t.v. on our 50" screen again, we were borrowing a very small t.v. while our t.v. was out of commission. The first movie that I watched on our t.v. today was The White Countess, it was pretty good.
Today when we were down at my in-laws, our youngest daughter took quite a few steps. Up until today she had only taken around five steps, but tonight she walked from my father-in-law to me (probably ten steps). She might have better luck with walking if her two older sisters would stay out of her way. They are always trying to pick her up and she doesn't like that at all (she is extremely independent and stubborn, like her father, not me).

Reunited

Today after six days, my two oldest girls were reunited. They are 12 1/2 months apart in age (our oldest 4 1/2 and our middle 3 1/2), so they can be best friends one minute and sworn enemies the next. My parents kept each girl for three days each, a real treat for them. Unfortunately for my husband and I, they can be real pistols when they get back together after being apart for awhile. Pushing, pinching, kicking just to name a few things that they will do when they get together. As of right now, we are down at my in-laws and the girls are eating pure blue sugar. They ought to be really easy to deal with tonight, yeah right.
Tomorrow our youngest will be going in for her one year appointment and the doctor's office. I am really excited to see how much she weighs, it's amazing what excites a mother. She is pretty petite for her age, so we're only guessing she'll weigh around 18 1/2 lbs. I am officially extended breastfeeding, even though my parents would like for me to wean (they haven't ever kept her overnight). Between cloth diapering and breastfeeding a baby over a year old, I am considered a real hippie in my family.
My husband and I received good news from the bank today, we should be receiving some money next week so we can start construction on our new home. Our plans are to first build a garage with living quarters upstairs, and when we sell our current home, we will start building our larger, permanent home. We are really excited about this, if everything goes as plan (which it never does) we should have a house (or garage) in the country this time next year.