Rejoicing!

So abundantly thankful that the Lord has blessed us with another precious little girl

♥

365Project.2014 | Weeks 10-12

The year Marches on ... literally. It hardly seems possible that we have nearly completed 1/4 of 2014 already! Other numbers of note include the fact that we have only 34 days of school remaining for this year and at 21+ weeks, Jenny has more than passed the half-way point of her pregnancy! So. All things considered, time seems to be flying by! :) Here's a glimpse of the last few weeks in our neck of the woods ... 

62. It's fun to see each child's development, even in something as simple as a get well card. Matthew (3) is happily coloring the picture of his choice--staying significantly closer to the line boundaries than he was a few months ago. Peter (6) is carefully copying the note he dictated ... in pencil, on dotted handwriting lines. Hannah (8) is writing her own note in cursive on lines that she drew lightly in pencil so that she could later erase them. 

63. We got new phones!!! And we are VERY pleased with them! If you're interested in saving money on your monthly phone bill, check out Republic Wireless! (And I just learned that they're coming out with a second phone option that's only $150 instead of $300!)

64. My boys are LOVING the trampoline that Hannah's piano teacher has in her backyard. :)

 65. The ever popular K'nex ... this time it's a crane, connected to the bed frame ...

66. A very common early morning view for Mommy ...

  

67. It was fun to celebrate our friend's birthday at the Children's Museum!

After cake and such, Hannah went off to explore with her friends and their parents, Peter and Daddy learned how to land rockets in the simulator, and Mommy and Matthew hung out in the construction zone. :)

68. And this Sunday was a day of rest for Mommy ... Daddy was super sweet and picked up her favorite treat. ♥

69. My young lady collecting daffodils ... ♥

70. Daddy's crew was super excited when he pulled in JUST in front of Mommy after Good New Club on Tuesday. Of course, they took advantage of the opportunity for a fun ride to the top! :)

71. Fuse beads! Some things are cyclical ... we won't see hide nor hare of these for months on end, and then we see them EVERYWHERE for a week ... till Mommy decides it's time for them to go away again for a bit. :)

72. Excited for the warmer weather!

73. More alterations! :) I LOVED the color of this $1 shirt ... the shape? Not so much ...

Quite a bit of fussing and trying and trying again yielded what is now my favorite casual maternity shirt. :)

74. And here's Mommy and Baby at 20 weeks ... :)

75. Sunday morning conversations ...

76. If one must fold laundry and lots of it (this was just the first few of many loads ...), it's nice to do it with sunshine and fresh breezes flowing through open windows. :)

77. In honor of the beautiful weather, the kiddos changed their desk arrangement ... to facilitate looking out the window. ;)

78. Matthew has been on a "model and remote control" coloring kick for weeks now. Mommy finally got smart and just saved the file on the computer. Now we simply replace the "model" (i.e. some form of airplane) and the rest stays the same.

79. Celebrating the first day of spring with lots of errands, cheerful, sweet kiddos despite lots of errands, and a special treat at Rita's as a well-earned reward. :)

And even better for Hannah? Her friend Eliza joined us for a few hours while her brother was at baseball practice. :)

80. Another beautiful day and continued energy for Mommy = our first day at the park for a LONG time! :) My crew chose a park with trails for hiking over a park with an incredible playground set. I can't complain there!

And though they were running ahead of me most of the afternoon, they obliged me for a quick photo on the bench they had claimed while they were waiting for Mommy to catch up. ;)

 Watching the ducks. :)

Just a few minutes on the playground after our hike ...

And then our friend and the most awesome babysitter EVER had an evening with the kiddos while Mommy and Daddy enjoyed an evening of uninterrupted conversation. Win-win situation in our books! :)

81. When did this young man grow up on us?!? He reveled in his work day with Daddy ... including driving the tractor to pull fallen trees out of the woods ...

and supervising the bonfire.

 ♥

And that's that! Our ultrasound is tomorrow, so Lord willing, we'll know whether we're going to even things up around here or make them even more lopsided. :) 

365Project.2014 | Week 9

It's so much more fun to do this project when I actually remember to take pictures throughout the week! :) 

55. Yep, we do have school around here. :) 

56. So thankful for Emmy who watches Matthew during Good News Club! :) Matthew loves playing at "Callie's house," and you'll notice that gender distinctions require NO coaching! ;)

57. Our dear friend and adopted "Grandma" was blessed once again in marriage this weekend! We are so excited for her, but we're definitely going to miss our Sunday morning rides with her as she moves away to her new husband's home. ♥

58. Spelling. Some lists are easier than others and this week's was one of the "others" ... our letter tile "game" came out and made practice much more fun (and effective!)

For any who are curious ... I made a table in Word and typed one letter per square till I had all the letters for his spelling list. We printed and cut those out. I also made "word cards" with a picture on one side to represent the spelling word and the word printed in light gray text on the backside (so that you couldn't see it through the paper.) He would pick a word card and then have to choose the tiles needed to spell the word correctly. He simply turned the card over to check his work. We don't do this every week, but on the weeks where he's still struggling significantly with his list on Wednesday, this helps him over the hump.

59. Mommy had a day without back pain! :) And since the weather was beautiful AND it was Friday AND strawberries were only $1.67/lb ... we made an excursion to Publix for the ingredients for strawberry shortcake! :)

Hannah and helpers made the from-scratch shortcake entirely by themselves while Mommy cut up strawberries.  What a joy it was to this Mommy's heart to watch them working together so sweetly! ♥

60. Saturday was a bit of a random day ... Daddy and Peter finished some rearranging in the shop, with one end result being a workbench for Peter. :) He's more than a little excited! ;)

Hannah and Matthew did some more baking ... Oatmeal Scotchie pizza was on the menu this time.

And Mommy sewed the valence for the front window in our bedroom! :)

61. Ta-da! :)

And one other random photo collection from the week ... Mommy's other sewing project. :) (With some less than professional pictures ... sorry!) I had some maternity shirts from previous pregnancies I had lovingly termed "tents." They were in the bag for Miracle Mart until I got inspired to see if I could replicate the side "ruching" I had seen at Target but didn't care to pay $20 for.

Pinterest made it look easy. ;) I started with the shirt I liked least ... since I could care less if I destroyed it ...

Before: Tent #1 ...

After: Multiple inches trimmed off the sides, elastic added for "ruching," and sleeves now appropriate for the upcoming season. :) It's now hanging in my closet! :)

And tent #2 ... it wasn't quite as huge as the other, but still more than a little shapeless.

And now it fits! (With room for the baby to grow ...) ;) (You'll notice I was actually wearing this one on Saturday when hubby snapped my photo!)

And that's that ... I've never altered clothing before, and am very excited about the results (and the potential!) Definitely have a few more shirts with which I'm looking forward to trying my new-found skill. Although, I strongly suspect that I might benefit from some instruction on how to sew with knit/stretchy material ... maybe YouTube should be my next stop ... 

Thanks for visiting! :)