More pictures

okay, this picture was supposed to be below the baby pictures but I accidentally deleted it and unless I wanted to re-upload all the photos it has to go on top. Sometimes I get really frustrated with Blogger. Anyway, here's the re-upholstered couch. Along with 7 of the 13 pillows I made.

best 3D photo of the baby. He wouldn't keep still.

baby profile

my favourite pillow. Such an easy embroidery. Did it in one night but looks so cute. That red check pillow on the right? Made out of my old (like 12 years old from American Eagle) shirt. It was so simple and has buttons on the other side that I didn't have to sew on or make buttonholes for.

more pillows on the futon. I need to make a few more but I want them bigger and in a different pattern. 10 of the 13 pillows were made with fabric I already had. All I had to buy was the set of 3 kitchen towels and the stuffing. Less than $30 for 13 pillows. Not bad. I also want to make a cover for the futon but want a red/white check similar to the pillow on the couch or the strip on the quilt on the couch.

Happy 30th Birthday, Josh!

3 days old

9 years old

in 2004 with Catie

same day in 2004


Love you, Babe!!

Josh's birthday party

Beka pretending to blow out the candle

Playing catch with the football while waiting for people to show up

food

friends

Saturday afternoon ended up being so nice. There were probably about 50 people there all up. It was a beautiful cool, breezy, sunny day. We sat around and ate and talked and the boys played cricket and catch with the footy. People kept saying that we needed to get together and do it more often. A really nice afternoon to welcome Josh into his 30's.

PROCRASTINATION or ADHD

So, I started cleaning house yesterday. Everything in the main rooms was basically tidy. So, I started on my couch pillows. I have an embroidery that I did a year or two ago and I want to make a pillow with it. So I checked in my craft room. Then I decided to clean my craft room. And then I decided that my craft room needs more shelves. I remembered that Floyd had brought some shelves over a couple months ago so I decided to use them. But they were dirty and didn't match so I painted them. Then it was time for youth group then out to dinner. ($10 steaks. YUMMY!) Not much got done this morning before the swim carnival. Then we came home very tired so took a nap. Now I should be doing the house cleaning and getting dinner ready but instead I decided to make Emma's birthday invitations. Her birthday is a week from tomorrow after all.

Here's my question: Is this procrastination or ADHD? LOL ;)

p.s. as always you can click the pictures and make them bigger

Good morning!

As I write this it is just after 7 am, everyone else is still asleep! and it is a nice cool drizzly gray morning outside. I love it. I'm drinking iced tea and eating a chocolate chip cookie (quick/easy carbs). I believe I'll make oatmeal when everyone gets up. It's that kind of a morning. I probably should start it now so that Josh can have some and not be late to work.

We've got a busy weekend coming up. We're (the girls and I) home today and need to do a little homeschool catch up from yesterday and clean the house. My floor hasn't been mopped in a GREAT while. And I need to finish sewing up my couch pillows. Tonight the girls are headed to Grandma's for the evening as Josh and I go out to eat with Steve and Jennie. Steve's birthday was Tuesday and Josh's is Monday so this is an annual thing we do. Not that it's that much different from the other times we go out to eat. =) Tomorrow is the swimming carnival for school so we'll be at the pool from 10 - 2. Tomorrow night I'm having a Body Shop party. Then on Saturday we are having an afternoon tea/birthday party for Josh at the park. So far we have 24 people coming and possibly up to 60!! So I need to make some light foods for that. Sunday is church, of course. Monday is Josh's birthday and I have a clinic appointment and Josh has a dentist appointment. That slows us down just enough to focus on Emma's birthday next Saturday. =) Thankfully school holidays start on her birthday. Josh will have two weeks off.

Okay, the girls are up and having a chocolate chip cookie so I'm off to make some oatmeal.

Changing our Thinking

After thinking PINK for the last 6 years we have to adjust our thinking and think BLUE!!!! Yep, we saw "boy bits" at the ultrasound today!!!

Pictures

Beka the cane farmer

Catie the cane farmer

Emma the cane farmer

"helping" Noah with his gifts

sparkly shamrocks

Weally Wordful Wednesday

well, it is very weird having this "break" from the computer imposed upon me. Josh took the day off work today so I have the computer at home. (I should say that while he took the day off from his "normal" job at the school he has spent most of the day working with his dad. Silly boy!) Anyway, I finally realized that I have a computer and after about 10 minutes on it I didn't know what to do. STRANGE!! So I'm writing a post. I have pictures of the girls' shamrocks from yesterday but I'm not sure where the camera is so can't post those. We learned a bit about St. Patrick and Ireland yesterday. Then we coloured the Irish flag and map. And coloured and glittered a shamrock. I taught them how to use the shamrock to learn about God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Three in One.

I bought some new school books the other day because Beka want to do some school and I thought these would be perfect for her. Ends up they are more Emma's level. Still need to find some books for Beka. But I do copy some of Emma's and let her have fun. Anyway, one of the books in the series (A-B-C series, Rod and Staff Publishers, Inc) is Bible stories to Read. And it comes with a colour picture/activity for each story. So we do these together as a group. Even Catie. the first story was "The Bible is From God" And it had a cute little song to go with it. The girls have been singing it since we learned it. I'll have to catch it on tape for you.

Nanny and Poppy finished the couch. they finished it last week but Josh was finally able to go get it yesterday. (Have I talked about how incredibly busy Josh has been? No? Well, he has. Two nights this week he hasn't gotten home until after 7:30) It looks nice. Not quite so pink as the chair which is weird since it is the same fabric. Still not quite so red as I want. So I've pulled out all my red and blue fabrics and need to make some pillows. I also grabbed my old red/white checked shirt and found some cute red and white kitchen towels to make more pillows. so even though my house (as always. does anyone know of a self-cleaning house or children who pick up behind themselves?) needs some tidying I am going to sew up some pillows. I figure by the time Beka wakes up I should have 6 or 7 ready to stuff. The girls will enjoy that part I'm sure. =)

Well, I'm off to sew. Pictures to come.

p.s. my new cooktop has been ordered and should be installed next week. Did I tell you that it now has cracks all over it and I worry every time I use it? It does. and I do. =)

Rainbow Cake

Yesterday we made a rainbow cake. A lot of our extra discussion/school time was spent talking about weather this week. Especially Cyclone Hamish. Anyway, we tied that in to the story of Noah. A couple weeks ago I ran across a link for a rainbow cake somewhere on the big internet world. Since I don't have the regular computer I can't find the saved link. =) But this is our version of rainbow cake.

I made our normal vanilla cake recipe--vanilla cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, 1 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup liquid, 1/2 cup oil, 4 eggs. (from the cake mix doctor) Then I let each girl pick out a food colour. Then we put in a liberal amount of food colouring. And finally layered it into the angel food cake pan (I seem to have gotten rid of my bundt cake pan? weird!) As the cake rose while baking it got a bit of a curved shape going on with the colours. And as you can see our final result was VERY bright colours. The girls love it. I'm a little afraid to eat it myself. =)

Random

I still have no computer except when Josh brings home the laptop. Here's a brief snapshot of our week

• We were supposed to get a visit from Cyclone Hamish on Wednesday so it has been windy, rainy, gray and cool all week.
  
• Hamish decided to head back north instead of coming down here.
• We've been stuck in the house all week.
  
• So far it's okay.
• Went shopping today to get out of the house.
• Found a super cute, soft little romper for the baby so had to buy it of course.
• Spent $35 on flower and veggie seedlings at Bunnings.
• Planted them this afternoon in the rain because that way I wouldn't have to water them in. =)
  
• Catie and Emma were "freezing" but wanted to help plant. So they put jumpers on and stayed out and planted.
• It wasn't that cold.
• I'd better go as it is 6:30 and the stew and cornbread are just about done. Perfect meal for a cool rainy day.

p.s. I feel the baby move a lot now. And no tummy pics yet because I'm still 3 kg down in weight since I got pregnant so look pretty much the same. So not really much of a tummy to take a pic of that isn't just fat. =)

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today, Friday the 6th of March is Mom's birthday!! Happy Birthday Mom! We love you.

I am so not into computers right now. Our regular computer has died. Hopefully Josh will revive it and save ALL my photos from the last 4 years. I really do need to save those on cd/dvd or something. Anyway, since the photos are locked in that computer I can't add a photo of Mom for her birthday. I'm sure she is very disappointed. =)

Our media computer is being kinda stupid as well. So I can't always let the girls watch Playschool or a dvd. Oh well, less tv is always good, right? And today Josh has left his work laptop home so I can use it. But I couldn't figure out his password and had to call him. Then I couldn't get it to connect to the internet and had to call him again. And then once it was doing all the right things I accidentally first published this post with only the title. Laptops annoy me.

ANYWAY, on to nicer things. Today Josh and I are leaving with the Young Adults to go to the Sunshine Coast for the weekend. The girls are going to Grandma's for the weekend. They are very excited. And I am hoping for some good sleeping time. Tomorrow afternoon I'm planning on shopping in Montville. Can't wait for a bit of retail therapy. I do need to finish some laundry before then and get some of the food ready. I spent about $175 on food so that's still less than $4 per person per meal. hopefully I got enough.

Had the glucose test yesterday. Didn't eat from 9 Wed. night until noon Thursday. How can they do that to a pregnant woman? Got my blood drawn three times. The second time she tried on the left arm that she had used first. Couldn't get anything so dug around a bit. Didn't hurt at the time but now I have a big sore bruise. So I got stuck twice on both arms. oh well, I survived and hopefully it will only be good news.

I think fall is slowly arriving here. The mornings are so nice and cool. They warm up quickly but they start out SO NICE!! I was out doing laundry at 6:30 this morning and actually felt the tiniest bit chilly!

Well, I'd better get on to the laundry and food prep. Then packing. The girls had their suitcases packed within 10 minutes of getting up this morning. =)

Love you, Mom. Hope you have a GREAT day!! Sorry about the whole police thing on Wednesday. very annoying. =)

Shaving Cream Fun

By the end of it they had completely covered the table in shaving cream. Cleaned it really well. =) Beka kept saying, "I can't get it off my hands" I don't remember exactly what she said in the video but I was trying to get her to say it again. It was funny at the time. =)

Done!

The last couple evenings I've ignored what needs to be done in the house and just worked on the baby quilt. And it's done. And I LOVE it.

I've decided that I need to do more for me. So...that means making sure the house is in shape before dinner so that I can just do stuff for me in the evenings. And I do have to make the effort of getting out what I should do (Beka's quilt) but once I get started it's a good thing.

Baby

Heard the baby's heartbeat today. And they estimate the due date as August 20. I have an ultrasound scheduled for March 31st. Too bad it couldn't be the 30th on Josh's birthday. Some time this week I have to go get the bloodwork done. And because my last two babies were so big they are already having me do the 2 hour glucose test. YUCK!!

Monday

• Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday. So we are watching Horton Hears a Who and doing Seuss activity pages and reading Seuss books for homeschool today.
• I have my first visit to the antenatal clinic today. I'll have to see both the midwives and the doctors since it is my first visit then hopefully not the doctors again until week 28, then (I think) every week after 36.
  
• I'll probably go to the lab and get my 12 week bloodwork done after my clinic visit.
  
• And then I'll duck over to radiology and freak them out by saying I need an ultrasound in 3-4 weeks. They like a lot more notice than that.
  
• Roseanne says my chair doesn't look as pink as she expected it too. That gives me hope for my couch.
• I sewed the patchwork front for the baby quilt last night. But when I laid it out on my backing it is still small.
  
• I like the placement of the blocks so well that I don't want to mess with adding more blocks so instead I am going to add a border. I'm thinking orange.
  
• After going through my stash of fabric, ribbon, etc. I came across an unopened package of red rick-rack. Mom sent it to me. I think it was from Granny's stash. Anyway, there's 3 yards of it so I am going to put it on the seam between the blocks and the border.
  
• I need to figure out what colour binding to use for this quilt.
• This weekend is the Young Adult Retreat. Josh and I have been asked to go with them. The girls are staying for a "holiday" at Grandma's. They are very excited.
• I'm in charge of two breakfasts and one dinner for 17 people. My budget is $102 which works out (if my math is correct) to $2 per person per meal. hmmm...finding this a little difficult. And the budget includes drinks, tea, coffee, Milo, plastic cutlery and plates, bowls, etc.
• I'm planning on spending Saturday afternoon shopping in Montville. Although I realized this morning that one of the shops I was looking forward to is actually in Maleny. So I just ordered from them off the internet. =)
• can't think of anything else to write. So I'm off to the never ending chores of dishes and laundry.
  
• p.s. They just made a homeschool joke on Horton Hears a Who. =)