Somewhat Random

I finally took some pictures this month....I've really been slacking in the camera department....too much quilting I guess!

I have FINISHED my quilt!!! And I love it. And it's been cuddle approved by Zane. I'm posting pics on my quilt blog.

I hit 36 weeks on Wednesday....doc checked to see if I'm dilating at all...NOPE! Most of me is really glad - he needs to stay in there a little longer - small part of me is sick and tired of being prego and just wants this kid out. I'm trying to stay focused on the staying in there part.

I have no idea what size this kid is going to be. The other two were always measuring slightly big and were 7-1 and 7-8. This one is measuring right on or slightly small according to my doc. So I'm curious. Any guesses out there?

I did a lot of baking today. And laundry. And now I'm really tired. I was going to plan my next quilt....but I think I'm going to curl up on the couch under my new quilt and veg out for awhile.

My boys

I was thinking last night about my boys who are already here and the one that is almost here. The one that is almost here was the reason for my very sleepless night - not the last he's going to cause I'm sure. And I was thinking of some of the fun/cute/endearing things they have been doing lately.

Zane is very proficient at prayers - meals, morning, bedtime....and almost every time it has been his turn to pray lately he has included the following "and please bless mommy to do good on her quilt...". Could he be any cuter? He's also beginning to read so he's always asking me how to spell/write words or arranging the magnets into 'words' and asking me to read them to him. I love him to pieces! He asked me the other day what day the baby was going to be here and I told him I didn't know - only the baby and Heavenly Father know that. He's so excited for his new brother to get here and is always telling me random things that he's going to teach him or do for him. He's going to be a great help! And he loves to wrestle with his daddy. In fact they were just having a 'session' while I sit here....Cliff retreated back to the couch, Zane got his shirt back on - don't ask - and then Zane looks at Cliff and goes - you're asking for it!

Rhett is my little tornado that never stops! He loves everything that Zane loves, wants to do everything that Zane is doing and does a pretty good job of being 5 when he's only 2.5. He's always learning new words and phrases. He has a blue light saber and our friend Parker also has a blue light saber. To nix any fighting over which one belongs to who I wrote an 'R' on Rhett's and showed it to him. He now brings me the light saber at least 3 times a day to show me his R - R for Rhett he says and then "Parker has blue too" to which I have to respond "yes, Parker has a blue one to". He's so pleased with himself. He loves finding books...Waldo, eye spy, Usborne 1001 Pirate and 1001 Wizard Things are probably his favorites right now. He's into counting and being his turn to pick the movie. And computer....he's learning to handle the mouse. This is taking a lot of patience on my part. He knows where our baby is....in my tummy and wants to give him kisses. I'm not sure that he's going to be quite as excited when the babe is actually here. A good friend came over yesterday with her little guy - 6.5 weeks old and oh so cute - Zane was enthralled with watching him and Rhett wanted nothing to do with him. Wouldn't even come over for a closer look. But I'm not worried. He'll figure it out soon enough and your own baby is different than a friend's.

I'm so blessed to be the mommy of these boys and to have another one almost here. Lots of cramps and contractions and more downward movement of this one has me thinking it won't be much longer....but I could be wrong. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted!

ps - I had to change my bakcground because when I posted this I had something completely different splashed across my whole blog that wouldn't go away. Grrr. I'm not techie enough to fix it up really cute right now. Oh well.

My 2 year old....

May or may not survive to see his baby brother born. He probably will because his cuteness out weighs his stubborn orneriness that has been overly abundant these last couple of days. But we have had some serious moments in the last couple of days. For instance, he has inherited a pair of Incredibles jammies that used to be Zane's....but he calls them his Spider Man jammies. The other day I was trying to get him dressed to go run some errands and had the audacity to take off his shirt and put a truck shirt on him. Oh. My. Goodness!!!!! The tantrum he threw lasted at least a half an hour. Now, really is is that big of a deal for him to wear his jammie shirt out? Nope, but I'd already told him no before he launched into his huge tirade. I hate it when I get myself into that situation - you know, the one where you say no without really thinking about it and then can't take it back because they're throwing a huge fit? Can't give in because then they think every time you say no and they throw a fit they'll get their own way. Finally he picked a different shirt and we carried on with the day. Later in the day at Walmart he threw another fit because I wouldn't buy him smarties. So Zane pushed our cart and I carried Rhett to the door kicking and screaming the whole way. I'm such a mean mom. He was asleep before we made it home...and we only live 5 minutes from Walmart!
But then he does really cute things like cart around this teeny teddy bear and call it his baby, or pick out the funniest combinations of clothes, or come for kisses. The other day he would come up to me and say "mom, I 'prise (surprise) you"- and then pull out his toy hammer and shoot me with it! Yep, he's a keeper. Hopefully he'll realize soon that tantrums do not get you your own way!
And I realize that I haven't posted any pictures lately....I apologize. I haven't taken any since Christmas. How is that possible? I'm the picture queen usually. I'll blame it on days that fly by and nesting. But I promise to try and remember to take some pictures soon and post them!

Testing my blood annoys me because....

I can't eat whenever I want to. I have to test 2 hours after each meal....which means when I've had supper and I'm wanting something sweet an hour later I have to wait an hour so it doesn't mess up my stupid blood sugar. Grrr. Really, it's a good thing to get back into the habit of eating really good again....but I think it's annoying me mostly because I 'have' to, and not because I'm 'choosing' to. I was banking on the last few weeks to still eat whatever and whenever I wanted before going back to my good ways and getting back in shape and all that stuff. I know. When you think about it, it's really a dumb thing. Why cause myself all that extra work? It's not because I'm going to enjoy the extra workouts or anything. Nope. It's all about the psychology of being pregnant. Not a good defense, but the one I'm going with. And I'm so looking forward to chocolate fondue Saturday night. Yum Yum Yum. I'm going to eat as much as I want and not even care about what my morning reading will be. Watch - it'll be the lowest one yet.
Did you know that I got flagged for this fun time because my fasting sugar was .6 higher than what it should have been? POINT 6!!!!! I'm shaking my head and counting the days. And yes, I'm a whiner. And I shouldn't be because I have wonderful friends who have to do this every day of their lives and take insulin. Yep, I'm shutting up now.

Nesting....

It's what I'm doing. I have no desire to go anywhere or do anything that I can't do at home. I read to the kids, quilt, minimal housework and cooking.....yep, that's pretty much it. Oh, and test my blood sugar level 4 times a day. We have recently discovered that I am INSULIN IMPAIRED. Seriously, who comes up with these names? Anyways, I had to go for a tolerance test because I had glucose and ketones show up in my urine the last time I saw the doc and 1 out of 3 levels came up slightly elevated. Hence, the IMPAIRED part and now I get to test my sugars 4 times a day. I was even a good girl and went to the class and you'll be so proud to know that I even paid attention! And I've been applying what they told us and so far I've only had one high reading. We'll see what the diabetes people say on Monday.
On a quilt note....I'm almost 1/2 way done quilting my current project. And I'm loving it. It's really coming together the way I envisioned it. I'll post pics on my quilt blog when I'm finished.
So, I'm really just hanging out, counting down the days.....hoping for another 3 1/2 weeks...nothing more nothing less!

Remember Me?

Hi. It's me...you know, the author of this little blog. The one who's nesting has kicked in pretty badly and I've pretty much been ignoring everything outside the walls of my own home that didn't have anything to do with quilting, getting Zane to school, quilting, and making sure we had food to eat? Yeah, I know, pretty lame excuse but it's the only one I have. And did I mention that I'm going into mom with drawl? Yep, pretty sad. 28 years old and I miss my mommy. But in my defense she is one of my absolute best friends in the whole entire world and we got to spend almost 3 whole weeks together!!!! And it was so much fun and the kids loved every minute of it and the only thing rotten about living in Central Alberta is that our families live in Southern Alberta. OK, I'm done whining. I think.
Seriously though, I have loved every minuted of the last couple of weeks being with my mom and dad in Raymond and then having mom here for the week and dad able to join us for the weekend. It was hard to see them leave...even though we have separate lives and things to get done and responsibilities etc etc, I count it as precious moments every time we get to visit them or they get to visit us - especially when it's for an extended period of time.
Mom and I spent a whirlwind couple of days de-junking all the toys, closets and drawers of the boys. Then we tackled the baby clothes and got those all sorted out....minus the ones I forgot I had stored in Raymond which turned out to be the newborn to 6 month stuff (thanks dad for bringing them up this weekend!) And now those are all sorted out to. And then we moved onto the fun stuff. We quilted, we played with the boys, we quilted some more, and we cooked a little bit. But mostly we quilted. Mom got her baby quilt done, and another quilt cut and started sewing the blocks together. I got a queen sized quilt top sewn together and today I finally finished pinning it all together so tomorrow I can start quilting it. It's the biggest quilt I've undertaken so far and I'm LOVING it. I can't wait to see it all done. BUT, I won't ever try to pin another quilt of this size together when I'm prego. Yep, 8 1/2 months prego and I'm on my hands and knees pinning about 750 safety pins into my quilt! Oh to have a table like mom's table in her sewing room. One day, one day.
We have had some fun family adventures....Saturday the boys and I travelled to Rocky to attend Lindsay's birthday party. They both had a great time and it was fun to see friends we haven't seen in a long time! We went to church with Grandma and Grandpa and the kids chose to sit with them rather than Cliff and I....not enough room on a bench for all of us. This caused some minor panic in a couple of our friends as they saw the kids and grandparents but not us. They assumed that I had had the baby and were very relieved to find me still hugely prego. And yesterday for family home evening we went to the lake for skating with friends. Cliff and Zane skated and Rhett and I sat on the bench. We tried to get Rhett to go for a ride on the sled but he wasn't having any of it. When they were done skating Cliff took the boys over to check out the ice castle on the lake - so cool by the way - and then they ended up having a snowball fight with some friends. It was fun times. And next time I'll take my camera and take pictures of the castle. I wasn't sure it they had it lit up enough for the pics to turn out good but I think they do.
So, I really haven't been smothered by a pile of fabric or kidnapped by aliens or anything like that. I'm just nesting and loving it.

Holiday Train....

I had a great ride on my holiday train and have been busy busy busy since getting back! So here's our holiday re-capped!

23rd:

- we opened our family gifts early in the morning...the kids had a blast playing with their new stuff all morning while I packed for our trip and Cliff went to work

- we left for Raymond and made the trip uneventfully

- We arrived in time for STRUDELS!!!! Oh yum.

- Alisha worked some of her fabulous computer magic and transformed one of our old family Christmas traditions onto DVD and we all really enjoyed it

- The kidlets went to bed, we all stayed up WAY too late and then Kizzy and Cliff headed to Lethbridge at MIDNIGHT to do some last minute shopping....silly people

24th:

-I woke Cliff up and told him we needed to go to the hospital because the baby hadn't been moving for almost 24 hours

- We got to the hospital for a stress test and the stinker started moving as soon as they strapped me in....we were much relieved!

-Back to the house for breakfast and then present opening!

-Rhett was Grandpa's elf and was just running every present to whoever it was....except for Auntie Lishie. Every time Auntie Lishie was supposed to get a present Rhett headed straight for Auntie Kizzy and had to be re-directed. It was really funny to watch and we all had a good laugh

-Presents opened...we all got spoiled spoiled spoiled

-Yummy turkey dinner

-Zane coaxed Uncle Jay to play laser tag guns with him (thank you Grandpa Dooley) and really stomped him in the first couple of games

-Naps for some, cards for others and a really good day all around

-Arrived in Barnwell around 9:00....forgot the stockings in Raymond. Thank goodness mom J had extras!

-got to Grandma Great Johnson's in time for the yearly nativity production. This year it was complete with written script, choir section and costumes. We got drafted and costumed and had a good time.

-Kids opened pjs and finally hit the mattress while we stayed up WAY to late with the sibs and watched a really STUPID movie. Oh well

25th:

-Up and moving just after 7:00....and Santa came through with the LIGHT SABERS! Even Daddy got one to join in on the fun

-Again, Rhett got to be the elf and had lots of fun passing out the gifts

-And again we all got really really really spoiled

-The day was kind of lazy...just playing with all the new stuff and enjoying each other's company

-Mom J put on a great supper and we got to see Grandma and Grandpa Great Jackson and Uncle Brian and Aunt Judy

-Uncle Jamie got in on the Light Saber action and the boys had a blast chasing him around and around...what a great uncle!

26th:

-We hung out for most of the day. It was nice to be lazy and not need to do anything for most of the day

- I got packed again....decided what to send to Sylvan with Cliff, what to take back to Raymond with me

-Went to Great Grandma Johnson's for lunch and games and white elephant gifts. Fun but long and warm in the basement

-Said goodbye to Cliff as he headed home to Sylvan and we headed to Raymond

27th:

-Spent good part of the morning shopping for ice skates for Zane with Auntie Kizzy before heading to Bow Island to skate and hang out with the Robinson side of the family. It was Zane's first time on the ice and thanks to a great apparatus at the rink and Auntie's Kizzy and Lishie and Uncle Jay and a spare pair of hockey pants from the cousins, he did really great and had a blast. We enjoyed lots of good company and visiting before heading back to Raymond

We quilted as much as we could for the whole rest of the week. You can check it out here. Even New Year's Eve was spent quilting! It was so much fun to be up in mom's sewing room with the boys up and down and playing with Grandpa! They played, watched movies, played more....the days just flew by!

And now we're home. We got home Sunday evening and mom came with us! She gets to stay until next Monday! My WONDERFUL hubby had put up the boys new bunk beds, took down Rhett's loft bed, AND put up the crib! I was really surprised by the crib but very grateful. I was worried how Rhett would take the change but so far so good. We got all unpacked, kids in bed and then attacked the Christmas decorations. Got everything down and packed up and puttered a bit before calling it quits for the night.

Today is my birthday! 28 and not feeling any different than yesterday. Had a doc's appointment and had glucose and ketones show up in my urine so that may mean I've developed gestational diabetes again....doing a test on Wednesday and will know the results when doc does. Until then, I'm not stressing. Good news is that babe is head down...thank goodness because he's starting to drop and I'm definitely waddling!

After getting home mom and I de-junked ALL the toys, books and movies. We're trying to get everything re-organized and ready for adding number 3 to this household. We brought in all the baby stuff from the shed and went through it all. Funny thing though.....we got almost all the way through it before we realized that we didn't have ANY of the newborn, 3 or 6 month stuff. Sigh. After much thinking we realized it must be in Raymond and dad confirmed this. Thank goodness Alisha is going to be up here on the 18th and 19th and can bring it to me. Oops!

Cliff came home with a yummy ice cream cake for my birthday and the boys were just ecstatic! They blew out my 2 candles...all we had in the house....and really enjoyed their cake.

Mom and I plan on doing some rearranging of the kids' rooms and furniture and a little more de-junking and then we can start quilting again! Mom has a baby quilt she wants to finish and I have a full size one cut out ready to sew for a cuddly couch quilt! I'll keep you posted!

And I really tried this year to cut down my Christmas pictures significantly....not because I don't enjoy them but because I wanted to focus on the fun and the memories, not on all the presents we all got.