10 Years!

 

On Thursday, Junior and I celebrated our 10th anniversary!

 

I got Junior a framed quote that reminded me of him that says "Live your life so that those who know you but don't know God will come to know God because they know you." One of the most tangible evidences in my life of God's love for me is that He made such a man as this and allows me to call him mine. He is everything I never thought I could have in a man - funny and generous, charming and full of life. He isn't perfect, but he's perfect for me. I love him 10 times more than I did the day we were married and I look forward to an eternity with him by my side.
So there's my sappy post of the year. I love you Junior:)

HE'S here:)

Tonga Teancum Mahe joined our family at 8:31 am on April 28, 2011. He weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. He was supposed to be a SHE, but I always kind of felt like it was a boy, so I didn't buy a stitch of pink - even though I had given away all of Emmie's baby stuff! But unfortunately, I didn't buy a stitch of blue either...so for the duration of his hospital stay, baby wore the hospital issued tee shirt:( Sorry buddy, get used to it - you're number 5 here.

 

This picture was taken a few minutes after he was born - I had been in labor for SO LONG. This was by far my longest and worst labor/delivery experience. I had been contracting pretty consistently for the whole day Wednesday. By 9:30 that night, they were about 4 or 5 minutes apart, so I went in to the hospital. The contractions were still not all that painful, but they were showing that they were strong on the monitor and they were getting closer together. But I wasn't really progressing, so they sent me home:( So I went home and slept for a couple hours until the contractions were stronger then went back. They messed up the epidural (I've never had a problem with this before) and so first of all, I was only feeling the anesthesia on one side - so they pumped me full of another dose - which made my heart rate drop to near death. So scary, it made me so tired, I just wanted to sleep but I was scared that if I did I wouldn't wake up! But I did, so take that reaper.

 

Then after the delivery, I got to experience what is called a "spinal headache". It doesn't sound so bad, but the pain was WAY worse than labor pains. Basically because they messed up the epidural I was leaking spinal fluid. This causes your brain to sag and pinch little nerves along your neck and shoulders. I was getting shooting pains down my arms and I couldn't move my neck. I spent the majority of the day laying down like this picture. To fix this, they do what's called a "blood patch". They draw a bunch of blood from your arm, RE-DO the epidural and then shoot the blood into your spine for it to clot the spinal leak. So gross. But after they did it, the headache went away. Unfortunately, it has left me with pain in my lower back and shooting pains down legs:( This is only supposed to last a couple more days. Suck-o, huh? I'm usually right back in the swing, but this time has been a lot harder.

 

But he's so worth it! Welcome to the world, Buddy!

Love naptime.

Have you ever fallen asleep next to a sleeping baby....only they weren't really asleep, they were faking? And then you wake up to an entire box of Cheerios dumped out on the bed? .....yah, me neither.

Craft group round 2

I wish I was better about taking pictures of the actual events - it would be fun to have pictures of all the fabulous people that made this fancy new stuff I've got. But I don't, so here are the pictures of just the items.

This adorable Easter wreath was made by my aunt Patti.

 

Katie made these super cute oven mitts, the plaques of cute sayings and a really cool coffee filter flower wreath.

 

 

 

 

Lydia did mod-podge frames with scrapbook paper. This will look pretty in my girls' room.

 

Emily made these beautiful Easter plaques! I love that it has a primary song quote on it.

 

How cool are these felt pillows that Brittany made?! I wish I could have took one in every color that she made! My mom is getting a turquoise one from her...I may or may not steal it...

 

My awesome friend Jen made these carrots! I LOVE them!

 

Amber made these spring signs

 

I made these key fobs and wall hooks for one of the groups.

 

My mom monogrammed these beautiful temple pictures for one of her groups.

 

These coffee filter flowers were another one of my contributions.

 

Carina mod-podged FABRIC onto these cute picture frames. What a great idea!

 

This was another one of my groups. I made book page rosette wreaths. Yes, they did take forever, actually.

 

I didn't get a picture of the record bowls with decor balls, which is a shame because I think that people liked them. Also, I'll have to take pictures of my sister's stuff when it arrives. It didn't get here in time for the swap, but I'll be delivering one more item to the gals in her group. Oh, and I didn't get a picture of Val's super cute Easter eggs. When I get a picture I'll be sure to post it.
I love craft group. I don't know how many people will be interested in doing it again, but I'm still going to plan on doing it and finding people to do it with because I enjoy it enough! So if you want in, all you 2 people that are reading, let me know:)

The Big 3-0

I realized that I never blogged about this. I turned 30 in September. The above picture was the one and only gift I received from my family. Junior took me out to eat after we watched his flag football game, but other than the gifts from my parents, this was my big gift. It's a diaper box with a cereal box and cracker box taped to it, decorated with hand made snowflakes and when you open the box you find a crayon, a couple cotton balls and a mouse trap. (The mice are gone now by the way, if you were staying away because you thought our house was gross.) I asked Evie what it was and she said it was "her invention".

Big 30.

That's about right.

Not a good blogger:(

I keep thinking "Man, I'd love to have one of those really cool blogs that I look at every day." But my computer is slow and takes WAY too long to load pictures and so blogging is a real chore so I don't do it. It's about this time every year that I get a renewed burst of blogging energy that lasts halfway through the summer then fizzles out again and I disappear into the real world not to resurface until next spring. But here I am all the same.

Anyway, today I want to write about a few things I've been doing that don't include wiping bums or sweeping the floor (which needs to be done no less than 5 times a day in order to look relatively presentable...and who has time for that? So...call before you drop in, because my house is un-presentable...always.)

First - I've been really excited about the craft group I started. I contacted a few of the gals in my neighborhood whom I know to be crafty and we started a craft swap. There's a theme - the first time was accessories - and I divided the gals into groups of 5. Yes, I'm in every group because I knew if there was something super cute in a group I wasn't in, I'd be annoyed. I'm petty that way I guess. Anyway, you make 4 of the same thing (or 5 if you want one of your own)and you get back 4 different items. It was SO fun! I loved everything that I got! The styles weren't all things that I would have picked for myself, but I think that's what made it so great was that now that I have it, I wear it. The theme for this next go-round is "house/home decor". I think I'm equally excited to be able to try out all these crafts that swirl around in my head as I am to get the things that the other gals bring. There are 4 groups this time and I'm making decor balls in record bowls, book page wreaths, etched glass vases filled with coffee filter flowers and I'm still deciding on the last group. It will either be monogram soap dispensers with embellished hand towels, jewelry holders or space saver decorated closet hangers.

Anyway - probably no one really cares about any of that, but I do...and it's my blog, so there.

I also have been loving this website:


It's kind of the same as my craft swap, but on a national level! You make stuff, post it on the site for a certain amount of points, 1-5, called "whoops" and when someone requests your item, you have more points to spend on something that someone else has made.
It's not really as complicated as I probably just made that sound. But anyway, I've swapped some of the book page wreaths, I made a crochet hat, some grocery bag holders, some lacing cards and burnt flower pins and received in return:

a cute pin cushion, Diaper Clutch, Easter Chicks Original Art Pendant, Crochet Owl Hat for Emmie, Zebra stripe key fob (which I LOVE), Chunky Pink Crochet Scarf, Full Length Chaps Bibs (such a cool idea - my kids never just get food on their shirts, it's EVERYWHERE.), Set of Three Burp Cloths for Boys (the cutest cowboy material in the world - I'm having a girl, but still had to have these.), White Initial Onesie (the lady even added a little ruffle bum out of the same material as the initial! So cute.), Family forever, for always and no matter what vinyl quote. This is only about half of the stuff I've gotten! It's so fun to get packages of fun crafty things that other people have made in the mail.

So if you're going to join this site, make sure you do it through my link so I get credit for it:)
http://bit.ly/hKXUFU
Yes, I'm talking to all 2 of you that are reading this.
I'll do another post in the next few days with some pictures. I'm pretty much done for the day:) Happy Tuesday.

Mice :(

We live right behind a great big park. And there's a lot of new houses going up in our neighborhood. Big park plus construction equals displaced animals. Translate: We have mice. Not to sound like too much of a hippy, but I just can't stand killing things. So one day, I trapped one in a corner and caught it in a cup. I took it outside to set it free (yes, I realize that it probably just ran back in my house - but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.) By the time I got back inside the house, Ellie had gone outside and...well, the picture speaks for itself.

This girl never ceases to amaze me. How in the world did she even see it? Let alone catch it? Will her hands ever be the same after the scrubbing they got when she returned to the house?

Anyway, I (foolishly) thought that I had taken care of the problem. Well, a couple weeks ago I threw a baby shower for my friend and right in the middle of the party one of these little beasties darted along the living room wall and into the fireplace. I'm SO not feeling like a hippy anymore, I just want the nasty things gone. I've caught 4 in traps, but having caught so many I'm thinking I need to hire this problem out. But I'm really scared to do it because I can't really do rat poison with 4 curious little ones...well, mostly just the 1 curious, but 2 other little. Anyone have any experience with this? Any tips? I'm a little out of my league here.