Happy to be Halfway

We are halfway through this pregnancy. 24 weeks...which puts me around 5 months along. Though I don't like to wish time away, I find myself longing for the next 4 months to go quickly. I'll be honest...I'm so weary of the nausea, constant stomach aches, fatigue, sciatic nerve pain and shortness of breath. I can't say enough, though, how very thankful I am for Zofran. This miracle drug really does make life functionable. Staying busy also helps...if you just keep going, it makes the time go by much faster.

Anyway, enough of my belly aching. The baby seems to be doing good if my belly growth and the amount of movement I feel has anything to do with it. This is one very active baby with strong kicks already!

We should know if Baby Bee is a boy or girl next week! My good friend Jenny is making cupcakes with either blue or pink filling. One bite and we'll know whether we can reuse all the boys clothes or have to go shopping for some pink! =) I am 99.9% sure it's a boy...it just feels like a boy. Chris feels the same, but the boys think it'll be a girl. We'll know in a few days!

We have tossed around a few names for either gender, but haven't settled on anything yet. It's really fun to hear the boys talk about what we should name the baby. First they went through all their cousins names as well as their own names. Then they started in on names like, "Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker or Chocolate Milk." Though I thoroughly enjoy their input, I think we'll stick to the list of names Daddy and Mommy have come up with. =)

We are in the process of rearranging some rooms to make way for baby. The nursery will take over Chris' office. Don't feel too bad for Chris though, he'll still get his man cave since we plan to convert the formal living room into his office.

The boys are beyond excited about the new baby. They talk to the baby a lot and want to feel for his/her little kicks. They have even offered to change diapers...YES!!!

We will have our anatomy scan in a few weeks, so hopefully I'll have some ultrasound pictures to share. Stay tuned for a gender update!

23 weeks preggo with baby bee #3

Back to Dirty Diapers

Well, it looks like we’ll be back in dirty diapers sooner than we had anticipated...I mean changing dirty diapers that is…Chris and I aren’t quite ready for diapers ourselves.

Yes it’s true! Baby Bee #3 is on his/her way!

I am 16 weeks…aaaalmost halfway. In some ways I feel like I have been pregnant foooorever, and in other ways I can’t believe that we are almost half-way through this pregnancy. I think being sick makes pregnancy seem loooong. Unfortunately, extreme morning sickness hit around week 6 and thankfully I have Zofran…though it doesn’t help it completely, it makes it possible to function.

Luke and Will are beyond excited! They cannot wait to meet their little “newborn baby!” I think they are going to be phenomenal big brothers and super helpful when our new little baby bee is born.

I have been feeling the baby move for a week or so now – which is my favorite part of being pregnant. It makes it feel very real when you feel this tiny miracle kicking and turning.

My official due date is January 12^th, but I anticipate going late (since Will was so late.) I am already showing…I guess by your third pregnancy, your body is like, “yup, let’s get this show on the road and bring out the baby belly bump!”

(14 weeks)

(16 weeks)

One of the super exciting parts of this pregnancy is that I get to share it with my sister-in-law! We found out a few weeks ago that they are expecting too and I am so thrilled! We are only a few weeks apart, so these cousins will be super close in age!

I will blog with more later, but I wanted to get back to this blog and start posting again.

The garden is growing!

I'm actually quite shocked at how well the garden is doing! I've never tried to grow a garden of my own before, but I'm addicted to gardening now. My only "plant" experience has come from a few houseplants I've had, so I didn't really expect a whole lot of success to come from the garden. So I am pleasantly surprised to see actual plants growing and thriving!

Let me take you on a tour of my gardening journey thus far:

In March, I started some tomato and pepper plants inside. They finally started to sprout towards the end of March:

Chris built my raised beds and we slowly got them ready for planting through March and the first part of April...

(mixing all the soils and compost)

The first seeds were planted in April! I started off with spinach and lettuce and then a little later carrots and onions.

It didn't take long for sprouts to show up! And, as you can see below, I made the rookie mistake of planting WAY to many seeds in one hole. It broke my heart, but I had to pull up all the extra plants...otherwise they would smother one another and none of the plants would grow.

(lettuce)

(spinach)

A few weeks later, the little sprouts were making great progress!

(spinach)

After I was sure the last frost had come and gone, I proceeded to plant the strawberries (transplants), cucumbers, peas, beans and corn. Here is the garden as of May:

(spinach, lettuce, carrots, onions and green beans)

(strawberries, cucumbers, corn, peas)

My garden!

(please forgive all the tall grass...I promise we do mow our grass, we just haven't used the trimmer yet this summer...after seeing these pictures, I guess it's definitely time!)

Here are the tomato and pepper plants that I plan to transplant this week:

This week we will be able to taste the fruits of our labor as I can start harvesting some of the spinach leaves and strawberries! YAY!

Kids Workshop at Home Depot

Did you know that Home Depot sponsors a kids workshop the first Saturday of every month? I didn't know it either! =) I learned this information from a helpful sales member while shopping there. She said it was for kids ages 2-12 starting at 9am and lasting until supplies last...and it was FREE! (I don't know if this is something offered at every Home Depot location or if the age range is the same at every location, but it's definitely worth asking your local store if they do the workshops.)

The kids, since it was their first time attending, got an orange apron with their names on it. They looked so cute it them! The project this month was making planter boxes. They had tables set up with wood glue and little hammers. They each got a little packet that contained the materials and instructions and we started building the planter right away. The boys LOVED using real tools and even got to paint their newly built planter boxes. After completing the project, they each received a certificate and a pin to put on their aprons. It was such a fun little workshop and we will definitely be going back again!I wish I had brought my camera, but thankfully Chris had his phone with him, so we got a few pictures.

After we left the workshop, we let the boys purchase a plant to put in their planter boxes and they both wanted strawberry plants. We bought them, but realized after we got home that strawberries would probably thrive a little better with more space to grow.

So, a few days later, I took them to a local garden center and let them pick out some flowers. They chose these orange marigolds. Once it gets warmer, they will brighten up our porch!

*This is just my personal opinion and experience with the Home Depot Workshop...I was not asked to review or write about it by anyone. I just wanted to share our experience and this information!*

Trying a Square Foot Garden...

This summer, I am trying something I have never done before...gardening.

When I was a kid, my parents kept a huge garden for a couple years. At the time, I didn't know how much work went into it and how much to appreciate all the fresh vegetables that grew. Looking back, I wish I would have taken more notes on how to plant and grow a nice garden! My parents did a phenomenal job!

At our new house, we don't have the space to plant a large in-ground garden. So, I am trying something called Square Foot Gardening. If you haven't heard of it, you can find more info from this website or this book by Mel Bartholomew.

So, the goal is to grow vegetables in self-built planter boxes (we chose to go with the standard 4x4) that don't take up a lot of space. We are doing two boxes this year (hoping to do more next year if this year goes well) as well as some separate tomato plants and a little herb garden.

To say I am super excited is an understatement! With the price of produce so high in the stores (not to mention the questions about how the produce is grown and treated now-a-days) I am very excited to grow our own produce! I bought heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. It was hard narrowing down what we wanted to try this year...it can get really easy to get carried away with all the yummy looking veggies! So, I tried to stick with the basics...since this will be a learning experience for me.

Chris has been a big help. He helped me plan the planter boxes and built them for me.

It didn't cost much to do this. Just the cost of lumber and the weed cloth you tack on to the bottom of the wooden frames.

Thankfully, Chris had all the tools needed for this little project on hand.

Here is the completed box! See how easy that is!

Rinse, repeat and you have two!

I was a little late in getting my seed order in, so my starter plants

(tomatoes and peppers) may go out a little later then they should. However, I am excited about their progress as the little seedlings sprout through the soil!

So, the next order of business is getting the soil mixture in the boxes (a mixture of different composts, peat moss and vermiculite.) Once the weather clears up, I plan to get that mixture in the boxes and start planning out my seed map and planting seeds!

Fresh veggies, here we come!

Project Saturday

I enjoy scrapbooking. I haven't done it as much as I'd like simply because I haven't really had the space or the set-up. Here's the thing with scrapbooking. Usually you need lots of room to spread your stuff out. So, if you're like me the last few years, this means...

pulling all the scrapbooking stuff out...

spreading it out...

scrapbooking for a little while...

gathering it all back together...

and then putting it all away....

Rinse and Repeat.

The set-up and take-down was such a long extensive process that I tended not to scrapbook because of it.

When we lived in Germany, I did attempt to set up my own space (pictured below)...but it was just to small and I found it hard to spread out.


Now, however, I have found my own little nook to set up a scrapbooking corner. And, because my nook is in the basement, I can even leave ongoing projects out instead of having to continually pull everything out and put it all back again. This is so exciting to me!!!

So, last Saturday I started setting up my nook. I still need to put some pictures on the wall, but at least I have the table, drawers and shelves setup. The only new purchase I made for this space was a large (6 foot) foldable table (about $35) to create lots of workspace.

Before: Here is all my scrapbooking things...organization is needed!

Before: Here is the nook I want to set up my scrapbooking things in.

During: Here are the boys playing the keyboard I found while working...motivational music never hurts! =)

After: Organization completed!

After: My new work space!

Now I just need to find the time to start a new scrapbooking project! =)

It feels like home.

This may be the first time in our married lives that we have all our stuff under one roof. Well...actually, we are still waiting on the delivery of a few items from when we were stationed in Georgia...but it's only a few items...ya know like the piano, weight bench , two massive wall lockers, the lawn mower...just a few small things like that.

When we moved our items in from New Jersey, unpacking was a breeze. Knowing that we would only live in Jersey for a few months, we had only taken the essential items. When we moved our items in from the storage unit...well, let's just say, there are still boxes and bins I haven't even opened yet. I have found things I didn't even know we had! So, the unpacking process has been slow and I have tried to take the time to sort out the items we need, the items we should donate, and the items that are just wore out.

When I look at the calendar, I can't believe we've been in our new house for almost two months now. In so many ways, I still feel like we've just moved in! And yet, I feel like we are home. We may not be completely unpacked, we still have a list of furniture we need, and I am itching to paint the walls...but this house definitely feels like home. I am so thankful that God brought us here!

Chocolate Cupcakes!

When we lived in New Jersey, our kitchen was a one-person-at-a-time-kitchen.

The boys would ask to help me bake, but there just wasn't enough room. I kept promising them that when we moved to our new house, there would be plenty of room for them to help me bake. Now that most of the boxes are unpacked and we are beginning to settle into our new house, I thought it was time to make good on my promise to them. So, Friday we decided to make chocolate cupcakes.

Though I knew it might be messy, I even let them try to crack the eggs...

...and messy it was! Both the eggs exploded and went everywhere (this is a very burry picture, but if you look closely, you can see the egg bouncing back out of the bowl!)

Will even had egg on his head!! (We had to take a break to clean up after that.)

Back from cleaning up all the egg and ready to finish up the cupcakes...

The boys were anxious for the cupcakes to bake...

After lunch, the cupcakes were cool enough for the icing.

Then, it was time to indulge!

Yummy!!

A New Year

I generally make New Year's resolutions...and I generally don't keep them... I know this when I'm making the resolution, but I tend to continue making them anyway. This year I'm going to try something a little different. I am going to make a handful of 2011 Challenges.

1. 365 Photo Challenge: This is a challenge my family is doing this year. You post a picture of something on FB every day (or every day you're able.) As many of you know, I love taking pictures. I'm usually the one carrying my camera around taking picture after picture. This is something I started to do a lot when Chris was deployed. I wanted to capture as many moments for him as I could. Even if he couldn't see them at the time they happened, he could at least see them in a photograph. Lately, I haven't taken many pictures. Not because I don't want too, but mostly because things have been so busy with moving, unpacking and settling into our new home. This 365 Photo Challenge is making me itch to pick up my camera again and start snapping away. Now granted, I am already late on posting my first picture (but this deals with another area I want to work on in my life...just because I don't meet my challenge/goal every day, doesn't mean I have to give up right away) so I'll start posting today!

2. Recipe Challenge: I love cooking. I love trying new recipes. I love cookbooks. However, I seem to run to the Internet for a new recipe (which works great) instead of sifting through my cookbooks. I will still get new recipes online, but I also want to start using the wealth of recipes I have in my cookbooks. So, once a week, I want to find and cook/bake a recipe from my cookbooks.

3. Focus Challenge: This will be my "inner-self challenge." I had a very hard time with focus and motivation last year. There are a million reasons for this, but regardless of the reasons, it's a frustrating feeling to feel "unfocused" and "unmotivated." In college, if I had a million-and-one assignments due at the same time, I would have this moment of panic. What do I do first?? The only way I could squelch the panic was to focus on one assignment at a time until they were all complete and turned in. Last year I had a hard time focusing on the important things in life. If I found myself overwhelmed, I felt like shutting down instead of focusing on what was important, what needed to be done, and what could wait. This is something I know I need to work on -and by the Grace of God - I hope to make progress on this year.

4. Reality Blogging: I hope to be a better blogger this year. Last year, I really struggled with blogging because I felt so unfocused. This year, I hope to blog more...and to be a more vulnerable blogger. I want to show the good times in life, as well as the struggles. This is actually harder (for me) then it sounds. If I share a struggle, I feel guilty because I know that my struggles may seem small to someone who is going through something bigger...and I by no means want to come across as complaining about my life. I know I have a very blessed life. However, the reality of life is....there are struggles, hard times and frustrations...big and small. This is real. This is real life. So, I am attempting to find my voice and share more about what's really going on in my life. This was a resolution I made last year, but was unsuccessful at doing. So, it's time to try again!

Happy 2011 to one and all!!