But, at the same time, I get to enjoy three little lives. Anna has taken up violin lessons. Ben is working on going in the potty. Caden rolled over last week at his doctor appointment.

Anna is so excited about school.

Ben makes me laugh every day with how much he is like Justin.

Caden smiles all. the. time.

It’s amazing. Yes, they are trying at times. We have days like yesterday where the goal was to survive until bedtime. The house is covered in foamy stickers, mounds of dirty clothes are in the most random places, dishes are flooding the kitchen sink.

I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I’m challenging myself to shoot and edit at least one photo a day. You would think that would be easy for me, but with taking nearly a year off from professional photography, and my own personal photo stash was kind of lacking with being pregnant and all…I need something to get back into it.

I missed yesterday because I was horribly ill, but hopefully that’ll be the only day I skip.

Across the miles (1.1.11):

Smiles all around…almost (1.2.11)

In his big boy bed *sniff* (1.4.11)

- Baby C is a BOY! I was completely shocked, but thrilled at the same time!

- Justin got a new job…in Florida!

- We are now residents of Florida in our lovely home in Apopka. I really enjoy it down here.

- I am 22 weeks along today! It’s crazy how quickly time has flown by.

The kids are doing great in the week and a half that we’ve been down here. It’s HOT, but I think it’s magnified for me with being pregnant and all. We spend a lot of time in the blow up pool in our backyard. Yes, we FINALLY have a backyard! Like, Justin has to mow, the kids can run around, I can hang a clothes line here soon. Woot! We also now have a playroom/office/permanent sewing area for me. Woot again! I will post pics as soon as it all looks presentable. I feel like we’re kinda in shambles still, but it’s coming along nicely.

I do love my children with everything I have, and they fill my life with joy that can’t come from anywhere else. But, it’s tough at times.

How do I deal with this? I actually found this this morning:

Romans 12:1-2, 3b

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Many times, I am so well adjusted to my little culture I have going here at home that I forget that what I do is significant to God. Loading the dishwasher, breaking up sibling spats, folding the 15th load of laundry (ok, it’s not that bad…sometimes). As I focus on Him, He brings the best out of me. That doesn’t mean I will magically become the perfect wife, mom, or homemaker, or that I will have to keep the most immaculate house (thank goodness, that’s just a little unrealistic, especially with soon having three kids under the age of five!).  It just means that He cares about what I do. He cares about my everyday life. That is substantial to me.

I have to live in His grace, knowing that out of my imperfection, sometimes loneliness, my feeling of insignificance, He brings me His goodness. That’s the only way to really know myself, and understand who I am in Him. Knowing who I am brings maturity. Which, oddly enough, just alludes to the fact I have a better understanding of how much I am living in His grace and not my own strength.

So, I’m pretty happy with the pace that I’m going. Hopefully I won’t lose my sewing mojo, and I’ll get them finished in the next couple weeks. Then, I can move onto the bedding. We should know the gender of the baby by then, and I can focus on the fun part of being boy or girl specific. Even though pretty much everyone (including me) thinks it’s a girl. I’ve been using more pink than anything anyway.

Arg…just after I posted this, I was almost completely done with two more fitteds, and my sewing machine ate one, then the needles broke while eating the other, ruining both of them. I really shouldn’t try to sew with the kids awake! It seems to happen more often with them underfoot. Ok, just breathe and start over…

Oh yeah, if you didn’t know (which I think everyone who reads this does know) we’re having another baby! We’re super excited! Here’s a pic from when I was 5 weeks, so about 8 weeks ago now.

Impressive, huh? There’s not a whole lot to see there! We’ll be having the big ultrasound in about 5 weeks, so hopefully we’ll be able to find out the gender and everything!

Anyway…back to my list.

I get easily distracted lately.

I don’t think that’s anything new, though.

Ok…focus!

Bedding list:

Wash fabric (I’m so excited about this bedding! I’ll post pics when it comes in next week)

Cut bumper/batting

Cut crib skirt (I’m going to cheat and just attach it to the bottom of the crib, but don’t tell)

Purchase/make white or yellow sheets (whichever is cheaper)

Purchase plain white fabric for blanket

Purchase plain yellow fabric for embellishment

Purchase batting for blanket

Wash all fabric

Cut out embellishment and sew to top part of blanket

Sew blanket together

Quilt blanket (maybe)

I will have to repeat a lot of these steps depending on who gets to share a room with the babe. That will be a separate post.

Diaper sewing:

If you’re unfamiliar with cloth diapering, a lot of this may seem strange…I will post links explaining what each of these types of diapers are. Don’t feel like you must read/click on all of them or anything. It’s just so no one feels lost.

15 newborn size fitteds (this is a fitted, mine normally have snaps or touch tape. It has to have a cover bc it’s not waterproof)

8 6 16/15 cut (serger ate them, boo)

16/15 attached touch tape/apply snaps

16/15 sewn (which includes sewing together/elastic/top stitching)

16/15 outter tt/snaps

5 newborn AI2s (this is an All in Two. Easiest to use…just slap it on like a disposable, but it’s the most involved to sew)

5/5 cut

5/5 soakers cut (the part that soaks up fluid…hence, soaker)

5/5 snapped

3/5 sewn

3/5 outter snaps applied

10 quick snap flap wrap (Here. Sort of like a fitted, super duper easy to make)

12/10 cut

12/10 sewn

4/10 snapped

8 covers (Here…these go over anything not waterproof)

I’ve actually knitted one wool cover, I’m not totally sure I love it, so I won’t count that one yet

8/8 cut

7/8 snapped

7/8 FOE’s (looks like this…and makes cover look like this)

Phew…this makes me tired looking at this list. I’ll have to make another one for the size smalls I have to make because I don’t want to get overwhelmed. Thankfully, I still have 26 weeks to work on all this. I’ll post pics of the process as it starts to come along.

Well, they are just a given.

Fabric of all colors and types (source)

This necklace…reminds me of my grandma (source)

Cheesecake!! (source)

Spring flowers (source)

Newborns sleeping (and sock monkeys)

This song

Apples in the fall

House re-do’s (source)

Happy Wednesday!