Snapshot Friday

just plain silly.

always dress-up time.

"that should stay now" (after using half a bottle of glue and probably 5 ft of tape). LOL

playdough time.

post nap snuggles.

good morning snuggles.

happy sunday.

"i'm reading in my boat and floating down the river"

crazy boys.

Happy Weekend!

Busy.

I felt last week that we were on the go the entire week! While it is fun to do things and see friends, constantly going wears this mama flat out! Today is the first day we've been at home (for the whole day) in 10 days, I think. It's been nice to get back into our routine.

Here are some pictures of a few things we did. I hardly took any pictures the entire week. :(

We made a trip to Target to pick up a few clothing items for the kids because Jacob's brother, Joseph and his wife, were coming for the weekend and kindly agreed to do a photo shoot for us. I found some cute summer things on clearance, that helped us coordinate.

We went out for supper on Saturday night with Jacob's family and then they came over to our house for ice cream. Levi was so happy to have Uncle Joseph "home" for a few days!

Lily had the best time with Aunt Audrey.

Asher preferred to spend the evening scaring Grammie by climbing on the bookshelves. ha!

Of course some reading was a necessary part of the visit. :)

Week and Weekend.

Last week we enjoyed lots of time at home. We started "pre-school" and Lily and Levi love, love, love it! They ask all. the. time. if we can "do school." So funny! We are very laid back and really, just having fun while learning. I'll do a post soon on what exactly we're doing. 

I'm constantly adding to and marking off my big to-do-before-baby list. I'm attempting to just do a little each day to organize/declutter the house. I've finally gotten into a house cleaning groove that I like. Growing up, we always cleaned the house on Saturdays, and for the longest time I was doing all my house cleaning on one day. With three littles running around now though, it's hard for me to do that. So for awhile now I've been doing one chore each day (along with the everyday chores like cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, cleaning up the living room, etc) and it's been working out so well! Yes, my house is not all clean at the same time, but that's ok. :)

My sweet little Asher-boy. He is growing like a weed!

Levi loves to cut, and he's working on strengthening those little fingers.

Crafting.

I did some rearranging in the living room this week. The bookshelf with the baskets was in Lily's room, but there won't be room for it once we move the crib in, so I moved it to the living room to help with toy organization. I also bought the storage bench (between the two short bookshelves) with some birthday money and I love how it gives the kids a place to sit and read and also helps with organization.

Asher's love for reading has really bloomed in the last few weeks. He will sit for the longest time and look at books!

They were looking at photo books of when Lily and Levi were babies. So fun!

My little man got his first haircut on Friday. He looks so grown up now!

Jacob was busy all day Saturday with auditions for the youth orchestra, so the kids and I did the grocery shopping and had a good day playing at home after that. It had been awhile since I'd taken all the kids shopping with me, so it was an adventure! Thankfully they did really well and we managed to only get 5 or 6 "WOW, you have your hands full" comments! LOL

Sunday night playing at Yaya's.

Levi and Papaw reading.

Lily and Levi seem to always end up in Papaw's lap reading books. :)

Midweek Snapshots

Jacob's sister has been coming over once a week to play with the kids for a few hours. I clean and catch up on projects while she's here. It's such a blessing to me!

Reading together.

Lickin' the beaters.

Big boy.

Supper with extended family before some sweet cousins moved to Texas. :(

Mama spent lots of afternoons this summer writing down the books we read for the kid's summer reading program. It was kind of a pain to have to write all the book titles three different times. Next year I'll type them! :)

Mmmm.

The mess makers. At least they sat and read the books for a long time!

Our cucumbers did so well this summer! 

L&L love to drink out of mugs. I guess it makes them feel grown up. :)

27 weeks

27 weeks!!! Wow!! This pregnancy is flying by! I have been so blessed to feel great for the most part. I do feel like I could use a nap at pretty much any given time, but that's not necessarily pregnancy related...most likely from caring for three little ones.

25 weeks (left) and 27 weeks (right)

I have been having the most random/weird/scary pregnancy nightmares. I get them every time I'm pregnant. They've made for some funny middle of the night laughs with Jacob when I wake up freaking out about praying mantises falling from the ceiling or chickens roosting in the kitchen under a piece of tin foil (I distinctly dreamed that they got inside because someone left the door open - and I'm constantly reminding everyone to close the door and not let the flies in). Haha! The dreams just seem so real!

I'm still working out at the gym three times a week, although it's getting harder and harder to drag my body out of bed at 5:30am! On the days I don't go to the gym, I do pilates or something similar at home. 

Lily told me the other day that I am growing, and then later the same day, she said, "mama, you're just getting fatter and fatter!" LOL I definitely feel like I'm growing! I really really need to go to Ross, Target, and the consignment store and try to find some maternity shirts! After Asher was born, I got rid of all my short sleeve shirts because after three pregnancies, they were pretty worn out. So far this pregnancy, I've been wearing regular t-shirts from Old Navy. I love them, but they are creeping up my belly to embarrassing heights (even with a long tank under them, they still look funny to be so far up my belly!).

27 weeks (taken after sufficiently pulling down my shirt. Ha!)

Nesting has hit full swing and I have the urge to organize and de-clutter everything! It's kind of hard to make a lot of progress with three little ones, but I've just been doing what I can each day. I've planned all the meals I want to get in the freezer. I've also been planning and putting together "busy box" type activities for the kids. They are loving them now, but I mainly want to have them as easy go-to activities once the babe is born.   

We have a lot of room re-arranging that I'd like to get done before little girl is born. Lily is going to get a twin bed, the toddler bed will be moved to the boy's room for Levi, Asher will get Levi's crib, and Asher's crib (which matches Lily's dresser) will be moved back to the girl's room. Obviously the beds don't have to be re-arranged before baby is born, because she'll sleep in our room for awhile...but I'd kind of like to get the kids used to their new beds before adding a new baby. I just think it'll be easier for everyone!

I am also hoping to make the "play room" side of our living room a little more organized and kid-friendly.

I had an appointment with my midwife 2 weeks ago. Everything was great with me and the baby. Her heartbeat is consistently in the 140's even when she's jumping around. She kept kicking the doppler last time. I'm measuring a week behind, which is normal for me.

I'm praising the Lord for a great pregnancy and the precious baby growing inside me!

Weekend.

We had a good weekend! On Friday night we had two of my brothers over for supper because my parents were out of town. We had fun playing outside and chatting. 

Jacob has been working on closing in our screened-in patio to make a sun room. This weekend he got the insulation put in! I'm so excited that it's getting closer to being done. It will be nice to have some extra "living" space. 

These kiddos and their books are not to be separated! :)

Asher decided on Wednesday night that he's all of the sudden too big to sit in (what's left of) my lap during church. He's done really well sitting beside me and looking at his books. Yesterday morning during the closing song, he climbed in my lap and fell asleep within a couple minutes. Silly boy!

Our little family worshipping together.

The Music Man, Mud, and Head Wounds

Thursday night our babysitter came and watched the boys while Jacob and I took Lily to a preview show of The Music Man. One of Jacob's students was in the play and wanted to get tickets for us. It was so fun! I'd never seen it before, but Jacob's played in several times. Lily sat mesmerized the whole time. I wish we'd taken Levi, but we weren't sure how he'd do since it was late in the evening. Maybe we'll get to do it again soon! 

Lily asked me the next morning why we (the audience) kept laughing during the performance. I told her that there were funny parts that made us laugh. She said, "no, mama, it wasn't funny!" LOL 

Friday night we went to 5 Guys for supper (our whole family can eat there for $12 so we usually end up there when we get to go out to eat. It's kind of funny because the workers know what we order and how we like stuff (cajun seasoning on the side, etc) without us even asking. ha!)

After supper we went to Hobby Lobby and had the best time! Lily and Levi loved everything and asked for many things to be put on their Christmas or Birthday lists. :) Of course when Jacob saw the foam swords he couldn't resist a little sword fighting. The kids were all about that!

On Saturday morning, Asher and I went to get groceries. He was the happiest little helper ever! He talked and laughed the whole time. I was thankful, because last time he went with me, he was grumpy and fussy about everything.

While we were at the store, these two mischief makers were at home with Jacob. They were painting at their easel, but then decided to pour the water all over themselves. ha.

After they soaked themselves, they went and played in the dirt. This picture was right before Jacob took them in for baths. Silly kids!

These two pictures were taken about an hour apart on Saturday afternoon. We've dealt with several "mouth/lip" boo-boo's, but this was our first head wound. Levi was playing in our closet (hiding in the hanging clothes) and I guess he lost his balance and fell into the door frame. I heard the crack and knew there was going to be blood. Oh my, was there ever too! Jacob was out running and I called him to come help, because I knew I needed to hold pressure on Levi's head. Jacob was a mile or two away, but he got home as quick as he could (with his best time ever! ha). 

Poor Levi was covered with blood, and I was too as I later came to find out. When he saw the blood on his clothes and arms, he asked, "mama, am I going to die?" Of course I told him that he was going to be just fine. Jacob got home and we decided that if we took him to the ER they would just glue it and not do stitches. Jacob ran out to get liquid bandaid and butterfly bandages and we got Levi all fixed up. 

Sweet boy was scared when we were bandaging him up and he started quoting Psalm 56:3 over and over. "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." It was precious.

I don't want to forget this part of the story in years to come, so I'm going to include it. Lily was the best helper to me while I was holding pressure on Levi's bleeding head. She stayed calm, got me a washcloth, climbed up and got an ice cube out of the freezer, got the lavender oil off the bathroom counter (I'm still not for sure how she figured out which one was lavender, because there were a bunch of oils on the counter, but she still managed to bring me the right one the first time.), and she climbed up to the medicine cabinet and counted out five Arnica pills for me to give Levi. I was so thankful for her help and very proud of her for keeping calm and quickly obeying when I asked her to do things she'd never done before.