Earplugs, library chutes, and a whole lot of other good stuff

As can be seen by my hand below, I spent a good deal of time today writing recipes. It is going to be so nice to have all my recipes consolidated into basically two places, easy to find instead of on a million random pieces of paper, note cards, clippings, envelope, and appt. card like they used to be. The only problem with this so-called "nesting" is that it makes you realize other projects you probably should tackle and it begins to lose its appeal or "fun".
Anyways, I do have a point. The thing that was so funny about my hand looking this way is that Jada didn't want me to touch her. I think she thought it was too messy, and only wanted me to touch her with my other clean hand. "Hold you other one" came out of her mouth. Below she is talking about my messy hand. I had fun torturing her with it just to see how she'd react. It was great pretty much every time.

And speaking of this cute one...

Remember this that we bought not even a month ago???

Well, now it looks like this...

And the culprits would be these pearly whites...

Honestly, children honestly. I asked Jake something like "At what point do we just give up?" (trying to keep things nice) and he said "Never" of course but it just stinks to have new or nice things ruined. Again and again. A lifelong lesson. Also, check out Jada's teeth. Ignore the yucky lip she got from falling yesterday and look at the chompers. First off, I think one has a tiny chip in it. But does anyone else notice how vampiric those canines look? Do you think it's because I read Twilight while pregnant with her? Those babies look like they could tear through anything!

Had the ward camp out this past weekend. Jake braved the cold, windy weather with the girls while Jada and I slept peacefully in our beds. Put Jada to bed, realized how easy life is with just one (only it didn't feel that way when we had just one), watched American Idol, enjoyed the peace while they roughed it. It was Mya's first time really camping out, and I think overall it was a success (although she was a little sad when I left before bed). One day we'll have to get a bigger tent and actually go real camping. I'm not an avid camper by any means, but I do think it would be a fun memory for the girls.

Like I said, it got really cold and windy...

Jada and her cute friend made good use of our curtains today...

Elle got to be the spotlighted student for her class. Favorite color- blue. Favorite animal- puppies. Favorite food- steak! When I grow up- an Artist. Very cute!

Jada also continues to see how many headbands will fit on that head of hers...

And does anyone have a problem with me wearing these sometimes when I drive???

If you understood how loud my kids can get, sitting right behind me, especially in the afternoon when my head is already feeling crazy, you would fully support me in my decision. Is it legal? I don't know, but totally worth it. To have the noise even just dimmed a little (because unfortunately I can still hear them) helps my mental state immensely. I have my friend Stacy to thank for the pink sanity savers. The best Christmas present I ever received!

And lastly, my poor 4th child- he's getting left at places like the library already. (Well, at least his pics are). I had started to wonder where my last ultrasound pics had gone. I then got a phone call today from a man at the library saying they found something of mine in a book I turned in. Okay. He said "It's a boy" and I said something like "Oh I wondered where those were!" See what I'm saying. He's getting left already. Poor 4th baby. We do love you just as much. I've just got about five million other things to worry about. I promise not to put the real you down the drive-up library chute even though you are making me quit running!

I Believe It's What You Call "Nesting"

First off, I have to say that I hate the term "nesting". It just sounds bird-like and strange and I despise using it to describe my behavior as of lately in any way. But, alas, it is the only term to describe my current whims so call me a bird, call me whatever, but I believe I'm building a nice little nest here. It really started slowly, beginning with the Blurb book. Hours and hours later, that was done and another one was already in the process. I then began thinking I should include some journal entries I have saved on my computer about the kids in the new book. I also got the urge to wrap up Jada's way overdo scrapbook from her first year of life, so I set out organizing my stuff, deciding how many pages I had left to do, and finally typing up and printing some things off the computer for the book. I'm beginning to believe this will be my last real "scrapbook" (I think babe #4 will get something wonderful, yet computerized- much easier), so I now see myself cleaning out all my craft stuff and straightening up my closet a bit. Binders should definitely bought, along with clear sheets to start collecting the kids soccer and school pics. I also thought about how great it would be to one day type up all of my journal entries to have one consolidated journal instead of just a million random books. Organizing all of my recipes that I actually use into a nice little book or container also came to mind yesterday. (Side note- please don't believe that I will actually complete all of these things anytime soon, if ever. I'm simply just proving my point here.) And let us not forget the insane amount of shopping I have been doing, along with weeding out and sorting through tons of clothes. And so, in a nutshell, whether I like the term or not, I believe that is what you call "nesting".

The Best Journal I Never Kept

Above are the two cute munchkins as friends. Below is friendship gone wrong when small polka-dotted child bites the bigger one. Man, I love motherhood.

We have "quiet time" at home which usually occurs after lunch when Jada is down for a nap and goes until we have to pick up Elle from school. I use this time to do a few "me" things like read and eat lunch, blog, nap, whatever. Some days we don't have much time, but I still enjoy the little bit of freedom. Mya usually watches some shows or sometimes plays on the computer. We also have been taking a little time some of the days to do "school work pages". She really enjoys this time and it makes me feel like at least I am doing something towards my kid's education.

I love to see how Jake dresses Jada. We don't always "agree" on what goes together (naturally, I'm right, of course). Usually, on school nights, I pick out clothes the night before and I get her dressed in the morning. But there are those occasional times when Jake takes the liberty or has the opportunity of being the wardrobe selector. This is what Jada wore to bed last night...

The funny thing is that I have spent all this time over the last few days sorting through clothes for the changing weather. She has all kinds of cute PJ's to pick from and this is what he picks (the older girls were in one of his t-shirts too). Gotta love dads! And speaking of clothing and how I have sorted way too much of it lately, it always feels good to get that twice yearly project done. Since we really have two main seasons here (hot and not so hot), the project must be done at least twice a year (unless I have a small baby and then it happens more). And sorting also means shopping! I've decided I'm going to go broke having to dress my kids. Between pants/long sleeves/jackets/tights/closed-toe shoes in winter and swim suits/shorts/shirts/dresses/shoes in the summer and three (almost 4) kids, I think Jake needs to get a second job. Luckily Mya usually is pretty well set (due to having an older sis). I also hit up two Targets today and lucked out on some super cute swim suits and cover-ups. They are on sale right now so that is always a plus!

We already bought school pics for Elle in the Fall, but of course they have to have Spring photos, too. I wasn't going to buy any but then they send home this whole pack of them and you can keep whatever you want to pay for. Tricky people. They turned out kind of cute so we may buy one sheet.

And onto my best journal I never really had to keep... I do actually write in a journal sometimes, but definitely not near as often as I should. But thanks to blogging, I now have the most awesome journal/scrapbook of sorts to look through for 2007-2008!

For those wondering if they should take on this project, I say it is a must! I love mine and am so happy! Blurb now again accepts Blogger, and you just download the software, slurp your blog, and away you go. If anyone has questions, I'm not an expert but maybe I can help. It is so worth it! The software responds a little slowly sometimes when trying to move pictures around, but besides that it is pretty easy to work with.

It even captures the kids artwork. Love it!

And because we are talking about artwork, here is the cover of Elle's book she made for her new baby brother. It has fun messages written inside like "It is fun having a baby brother". What a loving sis!

And last up, a video of my crazy baby just for fun, who apparently needs to work on playing nicely with her big sis. "Nicely" is one of the words that she says, but usually in the wrong context. She'll want something and so I'll say "Ask nicely" (you know, meaning "say please") and she says "Nicely". Cute but not what I was going for.

Sister the Blogger

There are many reasons why my sister #3 is great, and I'm going to tell you just a few:

1- She does awesome hair.

2- She shares similar fears with sister #2 (aka me) and even makes artwork about it.

3- She never went through that awkward kid stage- you know that gangly not so cute phase. She really was always just pretty.

4- She lives in San Diego, works at Nordy's, and has really cute clothes (although the wardrobe choice below is debatable).

5- She is fun and smart and likes to read a lot of what I like to read and will laugh with me as we watch people almost get injured as they leap for a place in a book signing line.

6- Awesome hair, yet again.

7- She'll rub a statue's bald head with me just because that is what I guess you are supposed to do.

8- And lastly- her most amazing talent is in the field of balloon animals. An expert, I tell you.

Doesn't she sound like fun??? And you know what is even better? If you really now can't live without knowing how she became so awesome, you can read all about her life here on her new blog. We are so lucky to be related!

Halfway

Before we get to talking about me and my belly, we had a special visitor named "The Tooth Fairy" visit our home last night. Her tooth has been loose for forever and Jake finally yanked it out. She was so happy about it even amongst all the blood. You honestly have never seen a kid so giddy- it was great!
Onto the belly...

Today is kind of a milestone sort of day- the halfway point to little baby boy. I honestly cannot believe it is already halfway. The time has literally flown by this go around. So weird to think that in 20 more weeks, little boy will be here. I typically enjoy the second half of pregnancy much more than the first- it seems so much more real, a lot of the sickness is gone, and it just becomes a little more fun. Hopefully this holds true this time because the first half was definitely not all that enjoyable (you know- feeling awful and all for a lot of it). 20 more weeks (or less- you never know) and a lot to do. I can't wait!

Due to the fact that the insane amount of baby girl clothes I house will no longer be needed anytime in the near future, I decided to do some major weeding. We also have a clothing exchange at Enrichment Tuesday night so I felt like that was a perfect time to get rid of some stuff. I saved my favorites, donated a whole bag full of stuff to some donation drop-off place already, and have two tupperware full of clothes for Enrichment. I have a little more sorting to do of Jada's things and then we will be ready. I picked out my favorite things and consolidated the 4 tupperware that use to hold stuff for 0-12 months down to 1. Still need to work on 12-24 months a bit more but if feels kind of good to get rid of some stuff. And, like I said, I did keep some favorite things I would maybe reuse if we ever have a girl again so we won't have to completely start over.

Mulch day is complete- thank goodness! It was severely tiring and I am sore today. It turned out great but took most of the day. Jake had a YM service project so was unable to do more than buying the mulch and dumping 1 bag for me. 2 others were dumped by another young man but I was on my own for the other 13. And those things are kind of heavy!

I did have some help- the girls did an awesome job removing the rocks at the beginning of the project. I was happy to have them help with that because rock removal and replacement is very boring and not so easy for someone with a belly.

I did have to replace the rocks myself (horrible job- I would hate to work in a factory and do the same thing over and over and over again) but was so happy to finally be done! Did have to stop for about 72 bathroom breaks (seem to be peeing a lot these days) but overall the day was a huge success.

I think my favorite lesson in life has to be the one that "stuff is just stuff and it doesn't matter and people are way more important so you might as well stop worrying about keeping things nice if you have small kids." Okay so not really my favorite lesson and obviously I need to keep learning it because stuff like this keeps happening...

Exhibit A- Jada always climbs on the dishwasher when I open it. I probably should kick her off more but you know sometimes we pick and choose our battles. Obviously this is a battle I should have picked because when Jada decided to jump on it a few times the other morning something popped out of place and took a chunk out of the front of the dishwasher. Looks awesome.

Exhibit B- The girls had moved the bench in the hall today to play with hula hoops and oldest child accidentally knocked the bench over, taking a chunk out of the wall. Once again, awesome.

Exhibit C- We had a travelling artist in the home this morning. The wall...

The toilet...

The bathroom cabinet. While it was beautiful artwork, small little artist earned herself a nice timeout in the crib (which she was very unhappy about) and then had to help clean up the mess. Thank goodness for washable crayons. (Isn't that pic below the most pathetic/sad face you've ever seen!)

I love my children. They are way better than stuff. But can't they just lay off the whole messing everything up bit for awhile??? It would be much appreciated.