to run around like a chicken with your head cut off. Or maybe that is only those of us who procrastinate? Since the arrival of little Elodie, we have been busy. Mostly surviving. She is growing, growing though. As you can see.... Elodie at one month.... Elodie at two months.... Miss Chubby Cheekers.....with blue eyes. The three (!) bigger kids are adjusting well. At this point none of us remember life without the newest Princess. Xander turned two in November. Complete with a Yo Gabba Gabba party. Elodie also gave us her first smile. Kiki and little Kiki November passed and we hit the ground running in December. We spent the first weekend making tamales. The kids and I decorated aprons and made gingerbread houses. Though I could not let them decorate it. Next year: a small village where each child decorates a little house of their own. Oh yes. Front of house....gingerbread is not the easiest to work with. side view And that brings us to today. Finishing up Christmas prepar...

So I am a bit behind......please excuse me. I was having a baby. Elodie Bella joined us two weeks ago. She is beautiful and perfect. She has been a wonderful baby. We are all settling in to our new family of six. Here are a few pictures of Miss Elodie. Until next time.....

Oh my......just under two weeks to go. The nesting has begun. The freak outs are coming. In no time we will be a family of six.....wow. I am trying to get some small things done around the house. I find it amazing how God shoots you with a burst of energy in the final moment before you bring a new life home. Just little odds and ends to take care of. I have also found it funny how I worry at times about the kids sharing rooms. Yet, due to a mother in law who is kind enough to come and clean and organize our house, the kids all slept in Xanders room because of the smell of the cleaner. They only needed to sleep there Friday night. Three days later......they are still sleeping in there. I think it is great that the kids seem to love to be together that way. I hope it is something they never really outgrow. That closeness. Our family will have an exciting few months coming up. Not only bebe number 4, many holidays, birthdays......but some special things for my oldest kids. We ...

Still here. Five weeks to go. Growing a life is hard work. Or maybe I am a whiner. So, instead of writing a ton of nonsense, because honestly at this point I think that is what it would be (sleep is not my friend right now.) I will post some pictures of what has been going on here at our house. First, here is the most current pregnancy shot. I look...beat down. I am aware. This is 33 weeks. I have also kept myself busy (!) with knitting. Here are the the finished projects. Small knit pants for the baby. The top pair are knit in a yarn called O is for Owl. The bottom pair are knit with yarn inspired by the book Guess How Much I Love You. Here are the one pair I have finished for Xander. I have another pair on the needles, hoping to finish them up this week. This pair in knit with yarn inspired by the book Goodnight Moon. Which happens to be Xander's favorite book right now. Here is Xander wearing them. Turns out I need to knit pants for him the next size up. Boy ha...

I am really enjoying knitting. Ask Mark. He makes fun of me all the time. I should have known I would like it. My favorite part of making sugar cookies (or cakes) is the icing/decorating part. I like to work with my hands in a creative way. After making the doll blanket for Emma and scarf for Davis, I moved onto some little hats and booties for the baby. This was to give me some practice in knitting in the round as well as some other stitches. All those projects taught me a lot of the basics. They also taught me how to make my hands do what they needed to do to make the needles and yarn do what I wanted it to do. After that, I felt it was time. Time to pick up the longies pattern and go for it. The first round was a hot mess. For one, I tried to do too many things in one pair (learn not only short rows, gusset, and grafting the gusset together but how to make increases in the legs? Bad plan.). Second, I got turned around at the legs and was knitting inside out. Hard to exp...

I am way behind in posting current belly shots. I decided at 20 weeks to go for every 3-4 weeks between. As now, while I am getting bigger, the change is not as noticeable weekly. And it is hot. I am already getting, "SO, you are having the baby soon huh?" To which I say, bite me people. Not until September. I am "officially" at 26 weeks now. My OB will likely schedule me a week early. I think we are thirteen weeks out now. 17 weeks 18 weeks 19 weeks 20 weeks 23 weeks Looking.....big.

I was able to figure out how to knit little baby hats. My circular needles were too big so I had to do Magic Loop. Once I got that down, it was easy going. Here is hat number 1. I used cotton yarn, Lily Sugar 'n' Cream in gumdrop. I think. And here is hat number two. This is Lily Sugar 'n' Cream Naturals in browns. Next, I am going to try to make matching socks. I also want to knit a bigger hat for Davis. And Emma wants that little purse. Those are on my list to have done no later than the end of July. Then.....time to try my hand at longies.

I told Emma I would make her something as well in my learning to knit project. I picked some pink yarn for her and it was the first thing I cast on. I abandoned that and finished Davis' scarf first. Then came back to Emma's. I cast on far too many stitches for it to be a scarf. So we decided she could use a doll blanket. She picked out some ribbon (this was mostly to hide the not so good knitting at the top and the couple of holes that I managed to do.) to embellish the blanket. Last night I finished her blanket. It is kind of wonky. But it works for her dolly. It is also very soft (cotton yarn). Next up is knitting in the round. My next project is going to be newborn hats and matching socks. In these projects, I will not only learn knitting in the round but also increase and decrease stitches. I hope that by August I am ready to tackle some longies. Also, Emma has requested a purse. More like a pouch type purse. So I will add that to my learning projects. That ...

I have finished a small scarf for Davis. It is a bit wonky. You can tell it was a first project. But it was fun to knit and to learn. There is a sense of satisfaction in completing it, even if it is not perfect. And it was made with love. In that one you can see my oopsies. Where I lost focus..... Now onto my next learning project.

Once I found out I was pregnant again, I really thought about learning to knit. Why knit, you ask? Because I cloth diaper and love to use wool shorts and pants as a diaper cover/clothes for Xander. I knew I would want to do the same with this baby. Mom taught me some knitting techniques years ago. I vaguely remember the needles and yarn and her teaching me to cast on and knit. I seemed to have not really retained it though. Finally, a week ago, I bit the bullet. That is how I am. Jump in with both feet or not at all. Off I want to Wal-Mart to get some needles, a simple how-to book, and some yarn. I came home and started looking things over. It seemed overwhelming. I turned to the internet for some how-to videos. Still overwhelmed. I lack patience and get frustrated easily as a result. I am also a creature of comfort and do not take to learning new things easily or readily. The first night, I figured out how to cast on. Score one for me! The knit stitch was giving me a h...

Yep, that is what has been going on. Life is keeping us busy. Running around like chicken with our heads cut off. Awesome. I am not one for busy either. I do not like to be busy. It does not work for me. I am a cloud dweller, my personality type, and we cloud dwellers need time to just be man. It seems our calendar (another thing I am not fond of.....calendars. Goes along with the dislike of schedules. Gag. Ties you down dude....) has been jam packed for the last two months. I have found a moment to just be on this rainy Saturday. Though Emma is trying to rob me of that ("Mom, let's play Life. Come on." ) We spent the last week taking care of my two nieces and nephew so my sister and her husband could actually take a vacation ALONE. And not be running in 400 different directions every day. I always enjoy being "mom" to six. Even though the girls are now 16 and 14 and it seems I am not ready for that yet. Teens are from a different planet. And ...

Here are the thirteen week belly shots. Not much else going on. Other than the freakish weather we are having. Davis and I are thrilled to be experiencing pregnancy together.