the one and only

Prepare yourselves folks. You are about to see the one and only picture of me from this pregnancy. I decided I should probably take at least one to document the occasion. So here it is, me at 39 weeks and change.

Taken this AM before church.

This is going to be short and sweet. Tomorrow I go in to deliver our little one via c-section. Please pray for me, and our little girl, as well as the doctors and nurses that will be taking care of us. We are SO excited to welcome our little one to the world, but surgery, no matter what the occasion, is always a bit scary. God is so good, and I know He will be with us every step of the way, but a few extra prayers is never a bad thing. Thanks :).

I am off to finish up the last of my hospital bag packing, throw in another load of laundry, and then enjoy the rest of this beautiful Sunday with my boys. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Until next time...

tick tock

This week is crawling by.

I figured it would - it's like being a kid again counting down the days until Christmas. But we're enjoying the wait. These days our time consists of the following - in no particular order.

1. Games, games and MORE games. Two of our favorites - Wii bowling and dart guns (my favorite being the dart guns). Seriously. SO.MUCH.FUN. We all end up rolling on the floor laughing - it's that fun.

2. Prayer: this one is mostly just me, but I sure am doing a lot of it. Mostly because I am so thankful for all this precious time I have been given to just sit back and ENJOY my family. Of course I am anxious and excited for Monday - who wouldn't be? But this time right now has been such a gift from God - I am so thankful.

3. Laundry: never have I ever stayed on top of my laundry like I have been these days...it's incredible.

4. Breakfast: The hubs has been on leave so once a week, after the boys have been taken to school, we head to Panera and enjoy breakfast together. We talk, drink coffee, and just enjoy being together with nowhere to be. Again - one of the many things I've been thanking God for this week. What a gift!

5. Outdoors: Before it turned cold again (and decided to snow) we were taking family walks and making frequent trips to the park. Sadly this hasn't happened in the past few days because who wants to play outside in 30 degree rain/snow?

6. Stories and Snuggles: I've been soaking up the bedtime routine. We all pile in our king size bed to read to the boys at night. Even though they are "big boys" they still let me snuggle them during story time. It's pure joy.

7. Harry Potter. Don't laugh. Hubby and I decided it would be the perfect time to work our way through the movies in order thanks to netflix. This is how we've been spending our evenings after the boys go to bed.

There is more, but you get the general idea. We're all looking forward to Monday, but very much enjoying our time waiting.

and I'm DONE!

My massive "to-do" list is done! This baby can now arrive and we will be set. My delivery is all set up for a week from TODAY!! We are very excited.

Let's see...well the hubs is officially done with his school, so now we are working on stuff and soaking up every second of family time we can before he heads off to his new job.

We've had a really great weekend here in our little world. For some reason I can't remember much of Saturday...probably has something to do with the fact that my brain is shrinking - seriously y'all...it's true - something to do with the last trimester of pregnancy. Sunday we went to church, and then to a St. Patrick's Day parade. We met up with a few friends, and it was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast and really...who knew there were so many bagpiper groups?? Today the big kid had the day off school, so we took them to this indoor playplace/cafe and let them run around for a few hours. Good times. It was also cold and rainy so after that we spent the rest of the day lounging around the house, watching movies, and goofing around. So nice.

Last weekend I finished up my last sewing project. I decided to make this cute playtime mat that I came across awhile ago. Master seamstress...I am not. But at least it came out looking the way it was supposed to, and if you don't look too closely at the stitching it's not too shabby. I'm hoping my little one won't be too critical of it :). But I do love the fabrics that I found, and to me it just looks "happy".

Here are a few pictures, but you might want to check out the link...their pictures come complete with cute toddler eating a snack on her mat...I currently have no such toddler.

All rolled up

unrolled

With that, I'm off. We're getting the boys to bed so I'm going to go join in on story time, and get some snuggles from my favorite little guys. Hope you all have a great week!

so much to share

I wish I was sharing baby pictures, but she is still "baking" as we say. I'm just now at 37 weeks, so I wouldn't have really wanted her to come any earlier than now, BUT now that I'm here, and considered full term, I wouldn't mind if she decided to make her appearance! But, for now I'll share some things that I think are just too good not to pass on.

FIRST: I've been following a new blog, and LOVE it. It's a Christian blog for women, and I've read so many wonderful posts - they really do lift my spirits and encourage me. There is a button on my sidebar but you can also click HERE to go there. I call it a blog, but it's really a lot more, because they have other resources there as well, like a book club! How fun is that??

The next thing I have to share is an idea I got from Ali's Blog, and I thought it was such a great idea that I wanted to pass it on. It's a daily "list" you make - 3 things you're THANKFUL for, 3 things you WILL do that day, and 3 TO-DO's to get accomplished. She explains it much better than I could, so go on and click HERE to go to the post. I think it's a great way to start the day, and be reminded of all the blessings we have around us that we should be thankful for!!!

And finally, a little project that I finished up yesterday. I got the inspiration for this from a link that Sam posted on her blog - click HERE to check it out. At first I was going to do the project that this gal does, and make it for my recipes and menus, but then I remembered we're moving in few months and my stove top doesn't have cabinets that would work with something like this, so I'm going to put that one on hold until I get down there. BUT I have been looking for a system to keep all the forms, book orders, etc. that the boys bring home organized and in one place (read: not all over my counters or stuck on the fridge). So I took her idea and made it into something that would work for my needs. Here is what I came up with.


For the magnets, I found cute buttons and used my glue gun to attach them. The lettering on the folder was cut with my cricut machine - note to self: use that more often!

Here it is hanging up in it's final "home". Sorry for the bad light, it's in our laundry room by where the boys hang their backpacks.

I have some fabric washing for my next project, don't know if I'll get to it today or not, but I really hope so because I can't wait to see how it turns out. I hope you are all enjoying your weekends, doing fun weekend-y stuff. We still aren't sure what we are doing with the rest of our day...but for now I'm off to fold some laundry and maybe go on a walk to enjoy the beautiful spring weather we have.

A place for everything...

And everything in it's place...I've become even more of an organizational basket-case than usual.

All I can say is I must have hit the "nesting" stage of the pregnancy because I've been doing some very NON-Kel like things. Like ironing...I HATE ironing. I don't even iron the hub's uniforms, he does it - I avoid it like the plague. But yesterday I found myself ironing the wrinkles out of the pillowcases that go on the guest bed. Never-mind the fact that they are going to be wrinkled the first time someone lays down, or that we're not expecting anyone for another 5 weeks (after the baby arrives) but yesterday it was something I felt just HAD to be done.

Odd...very odd indeed.

Then today I continued my trend by washing and then ironing the bed skirt for the guest room as well.

However, in the midst of all this ironing I did come up with a good system to help organize my desk a bit - this is where the "everything in it's place" comes in. My desk and I have a "love/hate" kind of relationship. I love it because it does this.

I can't stand it because when it's open it's a giant mess and there isn't anywhere to put anything and the top of my scanner ends up as a landing pad...blah.

But I came up with this, and it not only works great but I had all the stuff on hand.

To make the folders, I used two file folders, stapled the sides, and covered them with cute scrapbook paper. I joined them together using paperclips.

Now I have two pocket folders to store all my papers that I can't file away yet, but I don't need ALL the time. These papers usually end up, A. stuck to my whiteboard making it all messy, or B. floating around my desk and driving me insane.

For the clear pocket I used a page protector. I cut off the side, and now it's the perfect size to hold my monthly calendar that I print out, and it's easy to swap one for another.

The lettering I did myself with a sharpie. To attatch it to my board I used these command strips from 3M. That way I can easily remove the folders if need be.

And I still have a little room on the whiteboard to jot a few things down. Best of all...

I can see the top of my scanner!! Ahhhh...

Now if only the cute fabric I ordered would get here so I could get to work on my next project. Maybe I'll come up with another clever idea while I wait. Only time will tell.

Hope you all have a great weekend!