Our Next Big Goal!!

With baby number three on the way and coming soon we have been praying about what we are going to do for his birth.  We had such a wonderful experience with our midwife with our youngest(soon to be middle) that we have been seeing her for our prenatal appointments and would love to have her deliver our next little bundle.  So now the clock is ticking for us to raise money for baby boy's birth!!  
We have started by posting a few things on Craig's List that we don't really need anymore.  I think that a garage/rummage sale is in the books in the next few weeks.  I am also going to try to do a little babysitting for the next few months.
So if you could be in prayer with us that we continue to trust in God's provision and perfect plan we would be extremely grateful!!  I will be updating in the coming weeks and months!! 
For those whose glass is half empty, we do have a few alternatives as backup so we will not be left in a lurch!! Thanks for being there for us and praying!!

Dressing Up Should Always Be Fun!!

I love dressing up for church.  Since my uniform tends to be jammies or whatever is the most comfy, dressing up is something I look forward to a few times a week.  Even date nights I try to dress up.  I think it's nice to look your best for your favorite person!!

Recently, in the past few months, my oldest son has been asking to wear ties to church because he wants to be like his daddy(awww!!)  He's only three and there really isn't that many options for him other than the the children's suit sets that cost an arm and a leg!!  This pattern made two ties, a small short one and a thinner larger one.  The total cost per tie was about $2, give or take some change.
I utilized my friend, Pinterest, and found a great tutorial on the making of children's ties. Click here to see how!!  This one tells you how to make it from an old shirt, but they also give you the measurements so any comparable fabric will work. I only had the woman at the fabric store cut about 1/4 a yard and was able to make two ties from it.  A very small one for my one year old and a little bigger one for my three year old.  I think next time I will use the same amount only cut them evenly so the ties are similar sizes.   I took my three year old to the fabric store and let him pick out the fabric.  He really liked that. I would advice a pattern that is small as the end result could hide the design on a lot of the bigger patterns.  Lesson learned.  It still worked out, I just had to adjust the way I folded the fabric.  I actually started out buying children's tie clips on amazon super cheap(.95 each!!).  He are some pictures of my progress.

Those are pictures of the steps I took to make the ties.  I didn't take any of the tying part, because I had to Google tying a tie to a tie clip.  Click here to watch the how to on putting a finished neck tie onto an empty tie clip.  I tried to do it with the measurements in the tutorial but it was very difficult to attach to the tie clip.  The second tie I made was much longer and thinner and I like the way it turned out better then the first.  

So make sure to get enough fabric to account for an extra tie if you don't like the first.  It's definitely a learning process as the second was much easier and I made it a lot faster than the first.  The second one I made was longer than the first and has a "tail" on it, or just like a non clip-on tie, it has the small, thin part in the back.

Here is the finished ties!! 

My favorite is the one on the right.  The one on the left was the first one I made and it's a little too wide for my liking and it was extremely difficult to attach to the clip.  The corner of the clip is still showing on the left side, but I kept it as the collar on Titus' shirt covered it up.

So there you have it!! It's not a step by step, but I have included the links for you to have the step by step.  I have more empty clips so I may have to run to the fabric store in the near future.  Be sure to check them out on a munchkin near you!! Thanks for tuning in!!

Were You Trying For a Girl This Time??

 It's official!! Our third little blessing from God is a......BOY!!!!  

Even before we knew the gender of this new little one we got so many friends and even strangers asking if we were trying for or hoping this is a girl.  My response was either, "I would really love to have another boy." or "we were trying for a baby".  The latter a little more sarcastically than I should admit.  

This time around we had the blessing of having several ultrasounds.  At just under fifteen weeks the tech couldn't tell because of the baby's position.  The next week she had us come back and a different tech couldn't quite tell but was leaning toward a girl!! She wanted to be completely accurate so she sent us to a different location where the tech was more experienced.  She had to shake and wiggle my belly to get cooperation but finally said that it is a boy!!  Well, because of the conflicting announcements we didn't put too much stock and when I was twenty weeks we went to the clinic my midwife recommended and got the confirming, "It's a boy!" It was so much fun having family there!! My parents and niece got to be there for the announcement!! 

Even when we tell them we are having a boy we get the question, "are you going to try again for a girl?" or the sympathetic response of, "that's too bad.  Boys are easier anyway"

When did the perfect family have to have one of each gender?  I'm so glad that God knows what our family needs more than what we humans think we want!! Whether God blesses us with another and it's a forth boy is not up to me or even my husband.  It's completely up to God!! Even the gender and the order of the gender of our children!!  If God chooses to bless us with a girl down the line, it doesn't make all of the children after number one to be mistakes or not good enough.  If we have five, six or seven children(no I'm not announcing a preferred number, just an example) and they're all boys, I will be the happiest mamma to be blessed with exactly what God intended!! I think to want anything different, even the gender of children, is discontentment and if you're not content with God's BLESSINGS then spend some time with Him and ask God to give you contentment and see why you're not happy.  Are you comparing yourself with "the Jones"?  Are you wanting a "mini-me"?  I look at my nieces from my younger sister and, even though they are girls, I can see the ones that resemble their dad more than their mom.  I can see in my own boys how my oldest has more physical features taking after my husband and my current youngest after my side of the family.  So many just assume any boys take after their dad and any girls after their mom.  I would get a chuckle if God blesses us with a girl and she strongly resembles my hubby!! I'm sure I would get told a lot that she would look just like me!! 

In my own heart I pray to continue to be content with the plans God has for me.  I will admit to a little disappointment when the ultrasound tech said the words, "It's a boy!!"  When the first tech said she leaned toward a girl and we were en route to the second office to confirm I was also a bit disappointed as the name I liked would have to wait.  Talk about discontentment!! So when we got a confirmed gender, I also had to really pray and trust that God has a special reason for assigning me the title of Boy Mommy.  

I remember house/babysitting for a good friend several years ago.  She has four boys and three were at home at the time.  Sometime during the week I was there I remember thinking, 'I am in waaay over my head!! I bet God's going to give me all boys!!'  Little did I know I would be right!!  There might be a mom of one or two boys that feels overwhelmed that I could encourage.  That is all I need to know that it's worth it!!  So for all you fellow "boy moms" or "girl moms" There's a special reason God is assigning you the task!! Ask God to show you what it is!!  He may not right away, but at least in the mean time you will save a lot in clothes!!

Some moments I will not treasure...

There's the old saying, "treasure all the moments because the go so fast"  I'm sorry but when there are tantrums and naughtiness going on, I will not treasure them!! I love my boys but I am wholeheartedly looking forward to the time when I don't have to worry about being hit or kicked by flailing three-year-old hands and feet.  I'm glad that my almost two year old isn't at that stage...yet.  Right now he's at the I-want-mommy-to-hold-and-carry-me-all-day phase.  I'm actually thankful, even if my back and tummy aren't, for that.  

The moments I will cherish are the ones of Josiah hugging and kissing me at the store when I wasn't feeling well and leading me to my bed telling me I need to go to sleep when I told him I wasn't feeling well.  The moments that I will never forget are the ones where Titus pulls up my top and kisses the "baby" and says, "Hi Baby!!" with a huge smile on his not quite understanding face.

The struggles over bedtime or cleaning up toys I look forward to forgetting and moving on from.  Potty training and accidents will be ancient history.  I will probably miss the diapers and super long nursing sessions, but the spit up and blow out clean-ups I won't miss.    

I am so thankful God has blessed me with these two boys and third one not here yet.  Just like I don't miss the arguments and spats I have with Matthew, I know I learn and grow from them and move on.  I pray that I am continuously growing as a mom and learning how to raise these young men to love the Lord and others above themselves!!

Third Pregnancy in Three Years!

Whew! Life is going by super fast!  It seems that not too long ago I was planning my wedding and then getting ready for a new baby.  Now I'm pregnant with baby number three!! So far, in the beginning, I've felt great!! My first clues to pregnancy with the first two was exhaustion.  I could barely get up in the morning and with my first I was going to bed at 8pm!  This time around I had just had a tonsillectomy and was recovering from that when, even though it was early, I took a test.  I was pretty sure it would be negative as I didn't feel extra tired or hungry.  It was super hard to tell, but I thought I saw a faint shadow.  I wrote it off a negative.  Something in me decided to take another one that evening.  My mom, Matthew and I were babysitting some friends kids so it was the perfect time, right? Well, for some unknown reason, this test was POSITIVE!!  I was through the moon!! I couldn't believe it.  I had a special reveal to Matthew that I had planned and knew that having 5 kids in the house was not the right time to share the news.  That was so difficult to wait.  Well, once the kids we were babysitting went home, I finally got to put the movie in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and had Josiah hand him his dessert, a cookie, and a razor.  His tradition has been that when we're NOT pregnant he wears a goatee and when we find out we're pregnant, he shaves it off.  I know, silly, but fun for us!  At first when Matthew saw him following him around with a razor, he almost chewed him out, but when he saw the movie come on he asked me if it was really true.  I excitedly told him "yes!"  My mom was also with us, but as her sight isn't the best she didn't get the meaning behind the movie and especially the razor.  I brought Josiah over to me and whispered to him to go tell Grammy(my mom) that mommy has a new baby in her tummy.  He did very well and as with my other two pregnancies her first words reacting were, "Are you serious?!" Mostly in shock.  She is very excited for us and I'm very glad to get to be pregnant for at least a few months with my sister who is coming up on the final weeks of her last pregnancy. 

Now I am a few weeks further along and I am much more nauseous and exhausted.  Similar to my first pregnancy, eating seems to help.  I'm trying to be healthy this time around as I ate terrible the first two times.  I gained ten pounds less my second pregnancy because I worked out six days a week the whole time.  I would like to gain ten less pounds this time around so in addition to exercising I am trying to cut as much sugar as I can.  I look forward to a healthy uneventful pregnancy.

 We'll see what the next few months brings.  I am planning a homebirth with the midwife that delivered my second child.  We scheduled my first 8 week ultrasound at a place in Henderson called Miracle in Progress as the midwife only schedules 20 week ones.  I just couldn't wait that long to see my precious miracle.  I promise to keep you posted...

Pregnancy Craziness Take 2

Here we go again! The first time I got pregnant with munchkin number one we weren't really trying per say.
We had decided that if I did get pregnant then great. Well that plan happened right away.

Here he is a few months ago at his 1st birthday party!

This time around we knew we wanted another one so they would be about a year and a half apart.  My body wasn't ready just yet so we knew we would have to wait until it was.  I was nursing so I thought I would have to wean munchkin number one before even thinking about munchkin number two.  Not so!  It did happen when number one was eight and a half months old.  This time around I had started to chart.  We used information from the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility.  Well, two months later, I discovered munchkin number two was on board!  

I knew within days.  I became very tired that first week and it seemed different.  I mentioned it to hubs and we excitedly hoped it could be.  He thought we should wait until that Saturday(FOUR whole days later!)  Well, I got to Thursday and couldn't wait any longer.  It was in the morning and I knew I had a test in my  bathroom so I did it!  I took the test!  It was very faint, but it was positive!!  I wanted to take a second-just to confirm so I was going to head out to the store to get one.  I went to get a coupon for one in a box under my sink and lo and behold there was another test that I had forgotten about!  So I took it.  This one was the fancy digital one that had words.  It came back positive too!  I was so excited that I couldn't contain myself!  First I knew I had to go to hubs work to surprise him with the news.  I had a plan.  I first took a picture of the tests as proof :) then I put munchkin number one in a special outfit I got for just this occasion, then off we went!

I took the bottom one first then confirmed with the top one!

There is no mistaking the top test!  I just stared at it in unbelief.  Wow!  Another little miracle that God will bless us with!

 He posed so nicely for the picture too.

It was so much fun going to hubs work to surprise him.  Munchkin one was only ten months old and he wasn't walking yet but he excited to share with daddy.  When I got to his desk the first thing I did was to let Munchkin share the news.  I held him up to show Daddy.  He was so excited.  We didn't want to share with too many people for a few weeks as a precaution, but of course we called family right away.  Hubs' brother and his kids were in town so we were happy to tell them.  Munchkin donned his outfit. I actually made a two layer pink and blue cake with white frosting to bring.  We waited first for everyone to notice the outfit.  MIL didn't notice until I help munchkin up for her to see.  No one noticed the cake colors until I mentioned it. Hehe.  It was fun planning though.

We called my family and got to tell my sisters they would be aunts again.  My parents were of course very excited too.  Munchkin got a lot of use out of that outfit.  He wore it to church on the next Sunday.  Everyone was very excited.  

So far this pregnancy has been different than the first.  I am just as tired, but I was rarely queasy-so far.  I wanted to remind myself all that I felt and when I felt it so I made myself a 40 week pregnancy calendar.



The first pregnancy I started having trouble with my neck and jaw/ear around 10 weeks.  This time around I started noticing pain about 6 weeks.  I knew it wasn't an ear infection so I tried taking ibuprofen for the pain and inflammation.  That seemed to work for a while.  When I had my consultation with the midwife she suggested going to my chiropractor.  That did the trick.  I had my neck adjusted and while it hurt quite a bit the next day, it quickly started to feel better.  I'm so glad that this pregnancy will be relatively medicine free.

So far I have only had to go in about once every month or so.  I'm also learning how to adjust my neck at home and doing certain stretches and exercises to strengthen my neck joints.  Speaking of strengthening, long before munchkin number two was on board I decided that I would be sure to exercise the whole time the next time I was pregnant.  So far I am so glad that I am.  I'm feeling great!  I've also noticed that I'm not showing as soon as I did with preggo number one as I am in much better shape.  I've definitely had to modify some of the move on workout DVD's so as not to give the munchkin any seasickness.  I'm also enjoying using the elliptical hubs got me for Christmas last year.

Titus' Birth Story

So, it's been a long time in coming, but I finally wrote the story of the birth of my husband and my second child.  I seem to wait until I'm pregnant to feel the need to do so as I'm newly pregnant with my third and I wrote my oldest's birth story after I found out I was pregnant with my second.  My midwife actually inspired me to write it as she asked for home birth stories for a website and I volunteered. So here it is:
I had a much healthier pregnancy than my first as far as exercising and eating somewhat healthy.  I had gained a lot of weight with my first, not done much exercising, had a stressful job, and thought pregnancy was my free pass to eat what I wanted.  I paid for it at the end of my pregnancy with terrible braxton hicks contractions and gaining so much.  My knees hurt from the stress of the weight on them.  I decided once I got down BELOW my pre-pregnancy weight that I would never again get that heavy.

 4 Weeks

 24 weeks

39 weeks 5 days

With this pregnancy, I never had any braxton hicks contractions.  I made sure to exercise every day but Sunday, my day of rest and I ate much healthier, even though I craved desserts this pregnancy(salty foods were my friend with baby #1).  I was positive baby would be early because I had such bad contractions early on with my first baby.  By the 37 week mark I was exercising extra to get baby to come.  Long walks and jumping jacks were my way to try to hurry things along.  My mother even came early from out of town to help out with my older child.  Much to my chagrin, baby waited.  

About 6pm on my due date, April 4, 2013, I went to the restroom and thought I felt my water break(it had broken with my first so I knew the feeling).  I thought if I laid down and my bag was broken, water would gush out.  So I laid down for about 20 minutes and nothing happened so my husband and I decided to run an errand.  I guess walking around helped and on the way home at 7:08 I had my first contraction.  When I got home I told my mom and she got a paper out and recorded it and subsequent contractions' time apart and length.  I was having a friend watch my oldest and wanted to make sure it was the real thing before calling her.My contractions were stead at 10-11 minutes apart, but they were intense enough that I couldn't handle my toddler being there. 

 Once he was at our friend's house for the night, things really got started.I had to really concentrate for contractions.  They were between 3-4 minutes apart.  I let my midwife know.  She was surprised they progressed so fast since she knew my first baby took 25 1/2 hours from when my water broke to his birth.  She, assuming a long labor, had made plans and couldn't get away right away.  I should add that she was located about an hour and a half away!  She told me to call my childbirth teacher/doula.  About 10pm she came and sat with me, encouraging me to try different positions during contractions until I found one that made me comfortable.  I felt better kneeling against the sofa.  Upon her arrival my contractions eased back up to about 10 minutes apart.  I did some walking back and forth down the hall to get things going and they did.When they were back to about 3 minutes apart I felt the need to get into the bathtub.  The warm water was so relaxing, but that didn't slow labor down as I thought it would.  It just eased the pain of the contractions.  I was getting anxious about the midwife arriving on time and was assured by Robin that she would assist with the birth if needed.  My midwife came just as I was starting to push.  I pushed for about an hour.  He came out a little then went back in then out a little more etc.  Right before his birth he came out up to his nose and stopped. This time he didn't go back in.  That hurt so much and I screamed in pain.  I begged the midwife to "pull him out!!"  She was so patient with me and just calmly said that she couldn't and the next contraction I needed to really push hard.  He came out quickly after that and she put him to my chest right away.  She rubbed his back and suctioned his nose and mouth.  He didn't cry right away even though he was breathing so she was working at cleaning out his airway to annoy him enough to get him to cry more.  It worked and a few minutes later he was wailing.  The placenta was an easy birth as I didn't do anything to deliver it and it was out. Titus Matthew Hall was welcomed into the world at 3:19am on April 5, 2013.  

 Titus Matthew Hall 6lbs 10oz 18 1/4 in 3:19am

 Meeting brother for the first time.

It was such a wonderful experience and I know that if he were born in a hospital under the same circumstances the doctor would have given me an episiotomy and possibly pulled the baby out and roughed him up or taken him away from me for an unknown amount of time to examine him to make sure he was okay as his breathing wasn't the best right away.  I am very thankful for my midwife, my doula Robin, and especially my husband for all supporting me in this special time.  I am happy to be planning another home birth for my third baby due in early June, 2015.