It's Chirstmas PJ Time!

Here are a few pictures of the girls in the new Chirstmas pajamas they got from thier Grandma. We had a family movie night last weekend and the girls got to wear their new PJ's. Between my camera tryig to find the right setting to take pictures of the tree lights and the girls acting goofy...this was as good as we got! Maybe I'll try again for Chirtmas Tree pics once I figure out my new camera? After we finished our little photo shoot, we all watched Santa Clause 2. The girls just loved it! So on Saturday we went to see the 3rd one. It was pretty cute! Maddelyn and Emma loved it! Maddelyn is now starting to figure out how the whole Santa thing works! She told me yesterday that Santa was going to fix our fireplace (we can't light it), so he could come down it! She also saw something on TV that she wanted for Christmas and asked me for Santa's number! I told her that we can't call him, we have to write it in a letter. She is catching on pretty quick with this being her first year understanding Santa!

Good News!

Well, The midwife gave us some good news yesterday....the baby is holding off a little longer! She has dropped, but is not totally engaged in my pelvis, so as long as the I do not have regular contractions...more than I do now...we are ok. She has put me on total bedrest now though, but to me that is much better than being on bedrest in the hospital or having an early baby. As of today I am 32 weeks and baby is doing well! She tried her best to hide form the midwife, but we did eventually find her stong heartbeat yesterday! I also got some relieving news that if something were to go wrong with an early baby, the hospital thatI am going to be delivering at could handle it! That makes me so relieved! They are a step 2 nursery which is 1/2 way between a NICU and a regular nusery. They said as long as the baby comes after 32 weeks they can handle most things there. With Emma she had to be lifeflighted to a NICU and I had to stay at the one hospital while she was in another. On top of that I really did not get a full recovery after her birth because I was dicharged only 14 hours after I had her and then went right into taking care of her. So, knowing that she will stay with me even if there are problems is a relief! So I really am on bedrest now...for those of you who didn't think I was doing much resting before! With the baby so low, there is just too much pain/pressure for me to do much more than get up to go to the bathroom. I think the girls know this becuase they both have been pistols for Daddy and I the past two days!

Ebay Items and a Prayer Request

Just a quick post today. We had a great weekend but things have gotten a little wierd now. The baby has dropped and I still have 8 weeks to go. So I will be going to the Dr tomorrow to get checked out and just to see how everything is going. Hopefully all is well and she just likes to hang out in my hips? Nathan and I would appreciate your prayers for her as well. I will try to post an update after go to the Dr's. tomorrow.

Here are just a couple of the items that I have listed on ebay right now. I am just trying to get a few Christmas items off my shelf before the Holidays are here. The second picture is an advent calendar where the dates can be moved to count down to Chirstmas.

Turkey Day...Come and Gone

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I know we did! I spent Wednesday evening and all day Thursday at my parent's house helping get ready for the big meal. My mom hosted and had both her's and my dad's families there. I believe there were 20 of us at the meal? After the delicious meal, we just sat around, talked, and played a board game. Pitting the men against the women on a board game of Battle of the Sexes is always fun! After that we sat around pouring over the Black Friday ads. Nathan, the kids, and I all had to stay at my parents' that night because the fog here was way to bad to drive the hour home in! Yes, that puls the 60 degree weather the past couple of days has made it a wierd end of November!

My mom and I got up at 3:30am to do our annual mother-daughter Black Friday Shopping. We had a blast and got a ton of deals! I LOVE that Walmart does comparrison ads that day as well! It saved us a lot of running around! I really glad as well that Walmart decided to halt their non-family agenda....by suggestion of AFA! It sure would have been a hard thing to have to stay clear of Wally-World that day! :D Thanks Walmart for choosing pro-family!!!!

I have a very special announcement to make.....well, I'm already pregnant so no need to worry there! HaHa! I GOT MY NIKON D50 Digital Camera yesterday!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!! For those of you not familiar with photography it is like a dream come true! I already had the 35 mm film Nikon N75, but I wanted to go digital. I wanted the ease of only printing out the good photos, but with the same quality shots that my N75 gave me. When you have toddlers that move so fast, you end up taking 10 of the same pose to try and get 1 good picture. So basically you end up wasting a lot of film and developed pictures of not so perfect shots. I have not had the time to fool with it yet, but I am so excited to be the proud owner of a D50!!!!!!

Christmas is Coming!!!!!

Well I promised you all pictures of us putting up our Chistmas tree. I forgot to take pictures of the final product though! I have a few more things I would like to put up around the house and then I will have to post some pictures. I have no idea whay this thing is underlining all of my typing??? Wierd? Anyways the girls had so much fun putting the tree up. Emma actually did a better job at hanging ornaments than her big sisiter did. Maddelyn was so concered about the palcement of each one, that she actually was getting frustrated! Emma did not care. She would hang 10 bulbs on each branch and it still didn't upset her!

















Here is another blogger's challenge that was posted on 2 peas......

Thanksgiving Twenty
Do you cook all or part of the meal? I just do the silly things like bread and dessert...Mom and Grandma do the big things
How much do you spend buying groceries for the meal? bread and desserts don't cost much
Do you eat at home or go to someone else’s? My parents house...everyone is there
White meat or dark? white
Stuffing with giblets or without? stovetop stuffing all the way!
Anything you won’t eat at the Thanksgiving meal? homemade stuffing
Carve Mr. Gobble at the table or serve on a platter? platter
Favorite pie? not too much into pie
Formal table or Chinet? chinet...much easier to clean up with like 30 people
Your menu? The usuals....turkey, dressing. potatoes, and so
Favorite leftover? Mom's homemade mashed potatoes, with making 10 lbs of them there are always plenty of leftovers!
Extended family, friends, both or just the immediate family for dinner? The WHOLE family
After dinner, do you go to the latest movie or football on TV? we usually just sit around and chat
Do you watch the Macy’s Parade? always
Christmas decorations up before or after? usually the Saturday after, but this year we did it a week early
Black Friday shopping or sleep in? 100% Black Friday shopping!!!!
Any special Thanksgiving tradition? After the meal is over, we leave the leftovers out for a while and just snack the rest of the day. Basically it's the one day to STUFF yourself!
Favorite thing about Thanksgiving? Spending time with the family and the Macy's parade!


Yeah, doing something lik ethis TWO DAYS out from Thanksgiving is just not too smart for a pregnant woman! 9:30 at night or not doesn't matter! I'm ready to eat! :D

We Survived!!!

Well, we did it! Yep..the reason I have been MIA for the past week is that we camped out at Walmart for 2 1/2 days!!!! We spent all of that time waiting for the Playstation 3 to be released. We showed up at Tuesday at 8:00pm and they were released at 12:01am Friday! We were the 5th and 6th persons in line and they only had 6 playstations. We actually had fun waiting in line and made a few friends while we were at it. It was a great group of people who did not care if you needed to go to the restroom or get out of line to go and buy a drink. While we were there the guys actually stacked up a few boxes to make a table and then played Monopoly and Risk! The first night we slept in reclining lawn chairs with sleeping masks on! The next day Walmart Corp. made a nation wide policy that no one could be camping out at a Walmart, so we then had to go outside. The managers there were so nice!!! They went out of their way to make it easy on us to move the line outside. We lined up our cars and then camped out! Nathan and I had our conversion van with a TV in it and the back seat that folds down into a full sized bed! It was just like camping! The guys spent the afternoon playing football in the Walmart Parking lot and then we ordered pizza for dinner! At midnight the managers came out and walked us into the store and back to layaway. One at a time we were able to purchase the Playstations and then as a group they escorted us back out to our cars for safety! We went home and put both Nathan and I's playstations on ebay. I think that everyone who was in line at Walmart, waited 2 days to make a proffit on ebay! Our first one sold for $1525.00...we paid $599.00 for it! After our costs and our ebay fees, we ended up making about $1400.00 PROFFIT!!!!!! Basically Nathan got his new laptop and I got my new Nikon D50 for FREEE!!!! Woo-hoo! :D Yes everyone thought we were nuts, but Nathan was able to work from there and I just took a couple of days off to chill so why not? I would say that is pretty good pay for two days! Here are some pictures of the episode.....

Here is the whole group lined up by layaway in Walmart...

Here is our line of cars parked outside waiting....
The official sign at the begining of our line of cars....
The guys playing football while we waited the final hours on Thursday...
Nathan finally getting to buy his Playstation 3...
Nathan with his prize!
It's finally over!!!!!

About Me....

Just a quick update today. We have a fun filled day planed with the girls. We are putting up our Chirstmas decorations...yes, tree and all! We will be doing that this afternoon and then ordering pizza and watching Chirstmas movies this evening. I know most people think we are nuts, but our whole family is just so excited for Christmas this year. It has been 2 years since we have had our own Chirstmas. Last year we were still at my parents house and the year before Nathan was in Iraq. So it is very exciting to put our own tree up in our own home this year. So I figured our kids are 2 and 3 1/2, why not? Besides that, the more I get done now the less thatI have to worry about not getting finished due to baby. After all the dr said we would be lucky to make it to Chirstmas??? I will try to post some pictures later this evening of the girls decorating. I will leave you with a little blogging challenge from 2peas....... my answers are in purple.

one. I am happy with who I am
two. Nathan knows me best
three. I feel very pregnant!
four. the most important thing in my life is my family and my faith
five. I always carry chapstick and candy of some sort
six. I think these last 10 weeks of pregnancy could not go fast enough!
seven. I’m at my happiest when I am spending time with family
eight. on a Monday morning, you can find me at home with my girls as usual
nine. my favorite food ingredient is fruit of any sort!
ten. my eyes are brown
eleven. my favorite material possession is my camera
twelve. to relax, I like to turn on my bathroom heater and take a shower
thirteen. the town I live in is not the town we will retire in
fourteen. my worst habit is being a perfectionist
fifteen. my guilty pleasure is breyers strawberry icecream
sixteen. when I look at someone, the first thing I see is thier eyes
seventeen. I think Christmas should come more than once a year!
nineteen. I wish I had more energy to get things done....if I was off bedrest ;D
twenty. my life is blessed by God!

Altered Clear Paint Cans

I found these adorable clear cans at my local scrapbook store the other day. They are made by www.stampendous.com. I thought to myself that they would be perfect for making the girls' cute sayings cans.

By that I mean.....People are always telling me that I will soon forget all of those cute little saying that the girls come up with, such as.......Maddelyn wanting to name her baby sister Aquafina after the bottled water company!!! So, Each time they say something cute like that, I just jot it down on a little piece of paper and throw it in a can. When I saw these little clear cans, I knew they were perfect! The bottom picture is of an un-altered can.

Maddelyn called tonight and she is having a blast in MI with her grandparents. They did quite a bit of window shopping today but plan on going back to actually buy things after the crowds died down a bit. She was also thrilled to have gone swimming at the hotel. Emma keeps asking where Maddelyn is. Cute little thing is always so worried for others!

Nathan spoke in church today to honor our veterans. He gave a speech quite similar to yesterday's, but he also showed a video and had each branch of service stand to be recognized. Everyone said how much they enjoyed it and once again people asked for copies of the speech he wrote!!

Well, I need to get busy working on these invitations. I really need to have them out the door by tomorrow. Oh....please say a prayer. Nathan's great-grandma was taken into the ER today with congestive heart failure. They gave her lasix and she seems to be doing much better now, but was kept overnight for observations.

Veteran's Day

Well, our parade was cancelled today due to rain. Maddelyn was so dissapointed too! We had read a book on parades last night and she was eager to see her daddy in one today. they did however still have the ceremony afterwards. Nathan did a wonderful job on his speach. Many people said how moving it was and actually requested a copy of the speech! My little hero! The pictures are a bit blurry, but it was hard to get good shots behind all of those veteran's heads! :D

Afterwards we had dinner with Nathan's mom and Grandma at O'Charley's. YUM! I then spent a couple of hours shopping. You would not believe what sales the store have going on right now! Target had 50% off and Old Navy had an additional 50% off thier clearance! I was able to find quite a few Christmas gifts for the girls and my neices today as well as some new maternity clothes for me.

My parents came over tonight to eat dinner with us and they asked Maddelyn to go to MI with them! I was surprised! I thought this was a couple's get-away weekend but I guess not? They go every November to MI to Frankenmuth to Bronner's HUGE Christmas store and to Cabela's sproting store as well. Maddelyn will have a blast wpending the night up there as well. Sometimes it is nice to have one-on-one time with her grandparents. When you are one of 5, soon to be 6, sometimes it's hard to find that special time. So we will have just one child until Monday night.

Leaving time...as Maddelyn says

Maddelyn has again coined a new phrase. She helped Daddy and Mommy with the "leaving" yesterday. We spent the evening raking the yeard and sweeping the leaves from the driveway. they girls each had a little rake and helped out, or so they thought. Maddelyn told her dad...."Where's my scoop (rake), you know, the one for leaving?" Cute huh? Her eare soem pictures of "leaving" as well as playing with daddy in the pile of leaves before they were swept out to the curb.

Natha and I spent the entire evening working on his great grandma's 100th birthday party invitations. I will have to scan on ein when we are done...but that might be a while! It is just a lot of cutting, glueing, inking, and such to make 50 handmade cards.

Tomorrow morning, Nathan has been asked to be the grand marshall of our city's Veteran's Day parade and to give a short speach afterwards. I will try my best to get soem pictures for you of my little hometown hero!!

Here are a couple of layout that I finished at that crop last weekend. I just love Emma's smile in that first one. The journaling in the second one reads" We waited so long for Emma to get hair in. Now that she has some it has a mind of it's own. It is short on top and long an dcurly in the back.

New Layout

Well, obviously the elections did not quite turn out as we "red" people would have liked them too. The nation is looking a little too blue and especially in the areas of the control of the Senate and the House. But as I tell Nathan, not too much we can do now besides pray and hope this new class on the hill will in someway help prepare thr country for 2008. Enough about gloomy politics for now though.

Here is one of the layouts that I did at a crop last weekend. I hope to get the rest of them uploaded tomorrow. It's funny because since I came back from CHA this summer I kinda have been burnt out on scrapbooking? I mean yeah, I have been doing things here and there, but not getting much done. Since I have come home from the crop on Friday night, I have scrap'ed everyday! WOW! What is even funnier is that with me on bedrest, this is the perfect opportunity to get some extra layouts done before the baby comes, but for some reason I just haven't been in the mood. Hopefully that has changed now?

Did you do YOUR civic Responsibilty????

Well, it is that time again.....ELECTION DAY!!!! So, have you done your civic responsibility yet and gone to the polls? I know that after weeks of dog-eat-dog political commericials, you're probably sick of politics, but don't let that keep you from casting your vote! As I heard someone this weekend say...you can't complain if you don't VOTE!

Besides that, I see it in a different manner. I see it as my responsiblity as a Christian Conservitive to cast my vote. Many people say that there is a seperation between church and state...(which is a twisted phrase to be discussed another day)...but I say they ARE connected as far as my vote! How can I say that what is being considered on the ballot, including the issues that my elected officials will be voting on, does not concern my church or faith? The issues facing our polititions today are not just on taxes, homeland security, and the national debt. Most of the issues they face are social issues such as abortion, same sex marriage, and stem cell research that DO directly affect the church! The way my elected officials vote on these very important issues directly affects the world that my daughters will grow up in. So the sum up of all of this is; going to the polls is not just to elect some person to office to keep the government running...it is to PRESERVE OUR HERITAGE for our children and grandchildren!!!! Enough soap box!

Nathan and I will proudly go to the polls to cast our votes. The last time we visited there, we were casting ballots with Nathan's name on the list for US Congress. He did indeed not win the primary last May, but we PROUDLY go and cast our vote for the winner of that Republican Primary seat Jim Jordan. Yes, he was an opponent, but now that the primaries are over we are on the same team. We have moved on to the general election and seeing to it that our conservative valued candidates get all the support they need to win!

Nathan and I spent a couple of hours last night trying to help out with the final pre-election push. We (menaing mostly Nathan) went door-to-door passing out voting information. Ok...I sat in the car witht he girls while Nathan ran the literature up to the door of each house. I was just there for moral support and to run him from street to street. :D But hey, how much can a pregnant wife do on bedrest???

So have a great election day and remember.....

VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN! :D

The weekend is half over already!

Well we have had a busy weekend already! Yesterday I decided that I was going to my local scrapbook store's Friday night crop. While I was there Nathan had a few guys from church over to play cards and they hired a sitter to watch all of the kids. I did get 4 or 5 layouts done, which I hope to post in the next couple of days. Last night we also had pictures taken of all of my mom's grandkids. That was an adventure, but anytime you ask Emma to sit still is anymore!

Today Nathan had National Guard and I went to my friend's baby shower that I had mentioned. It was a really nice shower but kinda wierd to have a baby shower,for a baby whose sex is not known. Let's just say there was a lot of green and yellow!

Today was also my dad's birthday. My brother's family, our family, my parents, and my grandma all went out to eat at the Roadhouse. It was great, but man am I full! Of course they came out and sang to him. He just kinda chuckled, but the kids thought it was hilarious that they were singing to Grandpa while he was wearing a cowboy hat! Even little Emma giggled!

Speaking of Emma Grace, she woke up sick today. She has had a high fever all day and a slight runny nose. She slept most of the day. Poor little thing. Maddelyn was not feeling well this week also. She was just kinda whiney with a low fever, but she is feeling much better now. Emma always has seemed to get the worse of whatever sickness comes through our house.

Pre-election Week and a Pregnancy Album

Its been a few days since my last post....On Sunday afternoon we went to Emma's "boyfriend's" birthday party and then trick-or-treating with his family. I think there is a picture of Hunter at Emma's birthday party.

Monday was just a normal day on bedrest..nothing to report there! Yesterday Nathan and I went down to the local Republican Headquarters to volunteer for the day. Nathan made phone calls and I helped to sort, count, and organize literature to be handed out when people go door-to-door. It was kinda wierd to be back in the swing of campainging here in Richland County. We have not done that since Nathan's primary. Today Nathan spent the morning going door-to-door in our local precinct. I think there are about 150 houses on his walking list? Yeah, that brings back a lot of memories of all of those doors we knocked on this spring!

Here is an album that I have been working on this week for a friend's baby shower. Hopefully she doesn't read my blog??? Oh well. I used one of the new Maya Roads Chipboard Albums and LOVED it! You can take each page out of the binder as you decorate it, making it is sooo much easier! It's really sturdy too! You'll probably be seeing a lot more of these albums on my blog! There are more pages to the album of course, but this gives you an idea. I guess Blogger is just NOT my firend tonight trying to upload these pictures! I have like 4 more I wanted to post? I guess I will just try to update it later, so check back to see the rest of the album including the cover!!! LOL!