Sometimes you have to scoop up all the pictures in your “To Blog” folder, and just post them, even though they are wildly not related to each other.

Natalie got herself dressed up and then this little doll dressed up, and at some point along the way realized they were very similar, so she had me take her picture.  :)  (Or I made her stop and pose, whatever.)

Almost two weeks ago, Joanna and I took one of our MDO days to shop at Target together!  I rode the motor scooter around the store while she walked, and it was very fun!

We even treated ourselves to a little junk food lunch.  :)

Anyway, while we were there the bedding section sucked us in, and I ended up finally buying bedding for our king sized bed!

I was eyeing clearance sets and saw this dandelion duvet cover set, but only in a queen size.  But then Super Joanna found the king – wahoo! 

I just really a whole lot love dandelions.  And I liked the neutral color as well.  The color isn’t great in the photograph, but it’s pretty close-ish.  I also picked up a white bed skirt (which Matt IRONED for me and put on all by himself) and a set of sheets.  The sheets are pretty close to the color of the blue pillows in the picture.  It feels so good to have a real set of bedding on the bed.  Now, in real life, the duvet cover (which I found an insert for on Amazon) is laying on the floor and I’m using my thinner twin quilt until it cools off a bit.  And Matt has moved out to the couch again because I keep the bedroom too cold.  Poor guy.  There are pretty sham covers that match the duvet, so at some point if I ever shop again, I’m going to pick up a couple of super cheap king sized pillows to fill them.

It makes me feel good when my bedroom is a nice place to be.

Switching gears completely… a week or so ago, Kroger had their snow crab legs on sale (and I love crab legs!)  So we splurged on a few pounds to share for dinner.

We decided to forgo plates (it was a wise choice).  I served ‘em up with smoothies so it was practically a balanced meal.  YUMMO!

One day last week (I think) Joanna and I did some school work outside since the weather wasn’t super awful.  I made us some milkshakes (milk, frozen bananas, peanut butter), and we enjoyed a little almost-fall weather.

Sometimes it’s hard to concentrate when nature is right there.  (Eh, who am I kidding?  Sometimes it’s hard to concentrate anywhere!)

I’ve been slowing down week by week, day by day, so we ended up a bit “behind” on school this past weekend.  We have finished seven weeks to public school’s four, so we’re not actually behind on anyone’s standards.  And we can go into the summer further if necessary.  Anyway, I decided to make this week our catch-up week, and it was an excellent decision!  We have a few math lessons (they are Joanna’s least favorite I think) to do plus a ton of reading (it was sort of “extra” in the curriculum) that we can do.  And I’ve skipped some language arts stuff here and there that we’ll do.  I thought about doing a make-up week before my back really went out, so I felt doubly sure it was a good decision after that!  And it’s crazy but I have some kind of appointment four out of five mornings this week – yowza!  Next week we’ll start refreshed with week eight, all caught up with everything!

The kids love to put on CDs and dance in the living room.  James is often asking for “a pretty dress” to dance in.  Today I told him to go find something he wanted to wear, and he brought this dress.  He had it on a few times today, and he was so happy.

Natalie figured out she could put one of the bouncy balls from the baby shower in her dress to be pregnant.

Of course sister followed suit.

Later Natalie gave birth to a cute little pink doll, but I didn’t take a picture.  :)

The heat index was only 90 today and the backyard was pretty shady, so I sent the kiddos out to play for awhile this afternoon.  They love playing out there and can entertain themselves forever with very little in the way of toys or what not.

All was well until James discovered an ant pile.  :(  He was perky again after Momma’s (made up on the spot) remedy of a warm bath with baking soda and then some salve on the bites.

Well, being stuck on the couch, barely able to walk does one thing for me – I think I’m caught up on blog posts!  :)

Stuff

The kids were enjoying playing with math manipulatives this week.  I have a bin of things I got when I was in college, I think.  I was a math specialist, can you believe that?  Coming in handy now though.

These days I am pretty seriously mobility impaired.  It’s extremely difficult to do much of anything.  On the one hand, I’m happy to lay/sit still and let those babies grow.  On the other hand, the messy house (clutter mostly, not so much dust and dirt) make me a little crazy.  :)  I am simply not able to bend over and pick up toys or to carry items back to their homes or to make beds or to vacuum or sweep or reach anything on the kitchen counter!  It’s temporary, I know.  I’m just struggling a bit.  Also, I’m still feeling the nesting urge, and that’s crazy!  How can I nest when I can barely walk?!

So that brings us to the picture coming up.  :)  I had several walls in the living room that needed updating since furniture had been moved around.  Picture collages were not centered or too high or low, and as I sat here on my couch, it ate away at my soul.  I am by no means at all even a little bit a “clean freak,” but excess clutter and stuff on the floor and things not being centered clearly bother me a little.  :)

The children’s bedroom walls also seriously needed some updating (they also most seriously need some paint, but I’m trying to pretend that is not the case).  And the nursery walls needed to be cleared of the big kids’ stuff to prepare for the boys’ things! 

So on Sunday I began running waddling around the house, removing things from rooms they didn’t belong and putting them where I thought they should go.  I also actually have a pile of things to get rid of that don’t really hold any sentimental value.  Yay!  Anyway, I moved things around in the kids’ room and I’m loving it now, except for the lack of paint on the wall.  (Baby steps!)  And I began laying out a collage to spread across this wall that you see below.  There used to be a cross display in the entry part and a “small” collage of frames above where the cubbies are.  The main problem was that I keep moving furniture around and back and forth on this wall, so nothing was staying centered.  It was maddening to my crazy brain.  So I decided to take everything down and spread it across the wall, thus eliminating the need to center furniture or anything.

It may not be the style for everyone, but I’m IN LOVE with it!  It makes me happy to look at.  :)  I did pull things from a couple of other walls and the mantle in the living room, so I have some thinking to do there, but I’m excited!

I edited this picture of the littles from their first day of school so it doesn’t look so foggy.  They’re so stinkin’ cute.

I caught James in this amazing outfit the other day: Thomas the Train flip flops, pajama bottoms, Natalie’s bloomers that he found on the floor, sweatshirt hoodie because I keep the house pretty frigid, and a strand of beads.  He’s awesome.  :)

I’ve had this painting for forever.  I don’t actually know where it came from, but it may have even been in my house when I was a child.  It’s been hanging in my bedroom since I stole it my mother let me have it a few years ago.  A few months ago I looked over at it and saw it in a new way.  The title is “Young Kingbirds,” and it now totally makes me think of the boys.  I decided to move it into their bedroom this week.  For now it’s hanging on a nail that was already there, so it’s not quite in the right spot.  When we get the other crib in there and figure out the exact spacing of things, I’ll get it hung up (and properly centered!).  It makes me smile when I’m in there.

The wife of a patient of Matt’s crocheted these little bear hats for the boys – aren’t they ADORABLE?!!

Yesterday morning during our morning snuggle and chat time, James and I were talking about his siblings.  We agreed he had the best sisters, and I asked him about his brothers.  He told me they were in the belly, and I asked him something along the lines of “what are you going to do when they come out?”  He left and returned with the hats.  He told me “I’m going to put these on them!”  Melt my heart!

I’ve been rewatching episodes of Star Trek: Voyager on Netflix lately, and the kids often catch parts here and there.  They love it.  :)  Anyway, Natalie was working on a card for Anna’s birthday today and drew this:

Does anybody see it?  It’s Voyager!  She called it the starship.  I think she’s amazing.  :)

Also Natalie related, she has told me a couple of times when she catches sight of my belly that she thinks my stretch marks are beautiful.  I mean, who could argue with her reasoning – they’re like pretty pink ribbons!

New Blog Header!

I was deeply attached to my old blog header that my marvelously talented friend Amy did for me a few years ago.

You remember --

BUT she had moved and changed computers and all that kind of thing and didn’t have the file anymore, or at least not easily findable.  Anyway, that meant I/she couldn’t just go in and swap out new pictures for the old ones.  Which is why James has been like 6 months old for a couple of years now.  :)  I just didn’t want to let it go!!

I knew I possibly had the skill set (or at least ability to learn) to create my own blog header all by myself.

So I finally did.

It took me nine million hours.

And as you can see, I have no actual ideas of my own and shamelessly stole the general design from Amy’s.

Um, I hope she doesn’t mind.  :)

And I didn’t do the pictures in a smart way (clipping mask, I think?) that will make it super easy to switch out pictures when the boys come, so it might be roughly two years before they really make it onto the header. :)

Such is life.

I need to go fold laundry and pick up now.

But I’m probably just going to watch TV and eat ice cream.

Working on the Nest

I took at least some pictures this past spring even though I was a serious mess, including some I really love, but they were still sitting on my hard drive, chillin’.  I’ve at least posted them here and/or on Facebook, but it was time for them to get up on the wall!

So this weekend I sent some recent favorites to Sams (cheap, pretty good quality, and instant gratification!)

I used to have quite a few 4x6 frames up since that’s what I had and 4x6 frames/prints are cheap, but I’ve decided to pretty much ditch that size for display.  The exceptions are my collage frames which I do like, especially with a nice theme inside!

I printed some bluebonnet pictures from back in March (!!!), and I love it!

I reverted this collage grouping back to James’ newborn shots, though they’re really just holding a place for some cute little brothers on the way.

This one has old pics in it as well, from the last two years of pumpkin patch pictures.  I’ll probably replace these with new pumpkin patch pictures (hopefully I’ll be able to go!) when the time comes.

This grouping of 4 5x7s had black and whites of James as a newborn, but I replaced all but one of current black and whites of the kiddos.  I’ll hopefully have a sweet one of the twins together for the last spot.

This wall got revamped a lot at the bottom, just switching some frames out or turning them.  And I switched out a few pics for more recent ones. 

It was pretty simple, but it makes the whole house seems so much more cozy!

I have LOTS of work to do in other rooms, but until it annoys me enough to do something about it, they’re good the way they are!

Just stuff.

I love my fall decorations!

And my cutie patootie!

The girls, snuggled up on Laura’s blanket and the boppy pillow today.  :)

It was such a beautiful day today and sooooo nice not to have to get up early to get Joanna to school.  It was so fabulous to have the windows open and enjoy the fall weather!  I was soaking it in because it’s back up into the 80s the rest of the week.  :(

Fall

This morning it actually felt like fall outside.  I walked to school in my usual sweat-capris and a t-shirt, and I was a little chilly!!!!

I decided I really wanted to decorate my front porch for fall, and I saw the mums out at Kroger last week.  Since that’s pretty much the only place I shop, I grabbed a couple along with a big pumpkin and brought them home.

Natalie and James were helping me, AND they just so happened to be dressed cutely, so I made them pose with the décor.

I LOVE this one.  LOVE. IT.

(You can see my little gourds that I grew by James!!)

Here’s my little set-up, with Natalie in the background.  Forgot to adjust things to get her in focus instead.  But I like how it turned out anyway.

I’m planning to get at least one more mum and of course some more punkins.  I’m going to let the kiddos pick out some though.

Finally I just moved Natalie to the foreground so I would have to work so hard to get her in focus.  :)

This super precious skirt was handed down to us from a friend along with a matching shirt that has a monogrammed “N” on it!!  The shirt is too big yet, but because of the skirt’s elastic waist, it fits her fine now.  And she likes her skirts and dresses on the long side anyway  (Though, she likes ‘em on the short side too.)    I could only manage to dig up one lousy one shirt to match in the interim, and it’s a tank-top.  I can never seem to find pretty white t-shirts when I want them.  :)

I love fall!!!!  I really love it when it actually feels like fall!!!!

Oh my goodness that baby is SO CUTE!

The girls were born early in the year, so by their second Christmas they were almost two, and sort of got into it.  James still has no idea.  :)

But he wore his Christmas jammies (handed down – THANK YOU!) last night, and I HAD to take some pics in front of the tree.  Unfortunately it was night and the darkest corner of my house.  Oh well!  (But know you know what all the funky settings are about on the camera.  I couldn’t make up my mind how to defeat the darkness.  With a flash or by bumping the ISO.  James certainly wasn’t holding still for me!)

Interestingly, I LOVE the very first one I took!

This one is soooo cute, but I turned on the flash while it was on the setting where I had the ISO way up to 800 or 1600.  So he’s pretty washed out.

Looking at Daddy…

I like how big and pretty the lights look on these pics without the flash.  But they’re just so dark and grainy.  I’m eternally lusting over a DSLR camera.

James loved posing for me.  :)

And Joanna wanted in on the action too!

I’m not sure where Natalie was at the time.

This is our big tree that has the bulk of our ornaments on it.  We have a medium tree that has all my Star Trek ornaments on it. :)  And a little tree that has Matt’s train ornaments.  This may be the last year for the medium tree; it’s looking very sad and Charlie Brownish, if you know what I mean.  I LOVE Christmas trees.  I love how pretty they are and how they light up the room.  And I love my Nativities… and our stockings and all the crafts the girls make and all the cards we get in the mail.  Ahhhh…  Christmas.  Now I need to go turn on some music!

Decking our Halls!

We spent some time Friday pulling things down from the attic and making our house beautiful!

This is James in a bucket:

The bucket is apparently where you put the baby when you are in the garage and you need your hands free.

Inside, Fashionista Natalie quickly got to work getting herself all decorated.

She knew exactly what those stockings were for!

I pulled out the Christmas cards we’d received last year, and the girls enjoyed going through them.  Here, Joanna is ringing her bell as she sings songs.

We love our Little People Natvity!  Here, James has it strategically placed to cover he after-bath nakedness.  He loves to push the button to play “Away in the Manger.”

Up next, the big tree decorated with the cutest baby ever in front!

The Beginnings of Advent

We love kicking off the Advent season with Hanging of the Greens up at the church.  I think this was when Gary was playing the trumpet.  Natalie wanted to get a better view than from where we were sitting.

If you look very closely (and ignore the blur) you can see Joanna’s grumpy face.  She really wanted to be up on the Chancel area, not down with us. 

The girls were pretty antsy during the service, but I hope not too disruptive.  They enjoyed it.

I like getting Christmas decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, but it just didn’t happen this year.  Finally on Monday, James had a good morning nap, so the girls and I went out to the garage for the tree and some other things.  The stuff is actually up in the attic, which is accessed in the garage.  There’s no ladder/door so I had to put up the big ol’ honkin’ ladder (which is NOT designed for my tiny arm muscles) to get the stuff down.  That was HARD!

But I did it!  In fact, the only thing I couldn’t bring down was a big box that had books in it.  So I unloaded the books, brought them down, brought the box down, and reloaded the books!

I LOVE that this tree is pre-lit!  I caught the girls putting their baby dolls in the tree.  I have no idea where that idea came from!

 

We also put this tree up in their room.  I thought to use it as a night light, but it’s far too bright for that.  The night we tried it, they were up forever in there, and they made lots of messes.  It’s better when they can’t see so well!

Later in the week we decorated the tree with all our Hallmark train ornaments.

 

You can definitely tell little kiddos hung the trains, but I don’t think I’ll move them.

I like it.