Not enough time...

There never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done and definitely not enough time at night to get a good night's sleep, and with a new baby...well I just have that many more things to do day and night!

I had plans to blog last week about our Lovely Little Lilly but well, as we can all see that didn't happen.  So for now, forget the dishes, who cares about the vacuuming, I'll get to the office when I can, I'm blogging about my new baby!!

She is just the sweetest little baby (then again, aren't they all!?!)  She does seem to have some colic and cries a bit much but oh well, we're slowly learning what makes her happy and learning how to just breath when she has been crying excessively. 

I finally made time last week to take some official pictures of her.  She is just the cutest subject to photograph!  Okay really all FOUR of my kidos are the cutest subjects to photograph!

While Lilly was wrapped up and holding still James took this opportunity to measure her, and announced she was this big, that's why she came out.   :)

Katelyn is still VERY affectionate towards Lilly.  She is very willing to share everything with her new sister.  (We just have to watch her to make sure she doesn't love Lilly too much or share too many toys with her.)

We're all a bit tired around here but doing well.  Thanks for all the help with our kids, great food and love this wonderful time in our lives!

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures!!

Surprise!

For 9 months now we have been calling this sweet baby a boy... Robert and I were sure that it was a boy.  Michael and James said it's a girl...well, Robert and I were definitely WRONG!!

IT'S A GIRL!!

After my water breaking at around 10:30 PM and going into labor within about 30 minutes our sweet little baby came on November 17th at 1:17 AM.


Everything went great, no problems, nothing unexpected (...except for the fact that she's a girl, not a boy!) and baby and I are doing great! 

Robert and two of the three Midwives weighing her:
8 lbs 6 oz (our second smallest baby so far)
20 inches long with quite a bit brown hair

Around 2 AM all three kids were up celebrating with cookies and juice

Katelyn and our new baby

Michael and our new baby

James and our new baby

It was the perfect day for her to come!  Before she arrived:
we all went for a walk to the park
droped Michael off at school
dropped James and Katelyn off at Aunt Nicole's house
Robert and I went to the Temple
we picked up the kids, came home and went for a longer walk
went to On The Border for some spicy salsa and good food
stopped at Cold Stone for some free ice cream cake
put the kids in bed and relaxed and enjoyed some TV (Castle and Lie to Me if you were wondering)
...then my water broke  :)  and the rest is history...

We were so ready to hold our beautiful baby, you could say we were trying to convince her to come, I think we were successful!

As for a name, we were going with Nathan but now that she's here, we just aren't feeling it...We'll let everyone know as soon as we figure it out. 

And to clarify, yes we had this baby at home.  It was great, I wouldn't have changed a thing.  They were all so patient and relaxed but made sure the baby and I were safe and healthy at the same time. If there are more babies in our future, a midwife at home will be the way to go again. 

I LOVE CouponSense!!

So this morning I got up nice and early, 5:30 to be exact, to go the Fry's without the kids.  After spending nearly all day yesterday getting my shopping list together, printing coupons off the internet and cutting coupons out of the newspapers I had about 100 coupons (literally) to use and a great plan to save some money and stock up on much needed items.

So here is what my cart looked like at the store (Sorry, cell phone pictures aren't always the best but you get the idea--lots and lots of food)

Wondering what the savings and final price was?  Drum roll please...

85 coupons used
$352.55 Saved (Coupons and VIP Card Savings combined)
I paid $30.20
Bought 165 items = 18 Cents per item  (that included a 10 lb turkey too!)

By far this was my best shopping trip ever and I have the over 6 foot long receipt to show for it!  I never thought I would be one of those crazy coupon ladies that hands over so many coupons to the cashier...but I guess I am and I think I'm okay with that! 

Most of the deals I got today I knew of because of CouponSense.  It is a site that you pay once a month and they do most of the couponing work for you by matching up the coupons with the sales to give you optimal savings.  If you are not ready to pay for that, there are others sites that do similar things for free.  One of my favorite websites to help save money is http://mycouponlady.com/  She gives great plans on what to buy at CVS, Walgreens and local grocery stores to save tons of money.

Now onto more important things...Let's have this baby already!!  My cupboards are stocked and no one will need to shop for awhile.  :)  So I think we are ready!

First School Pictures

The highly anticipated first ever school pictures have arrived for Michael.  Doesn't he look handsome!!

And here's his class photo, can you find him?

...need I say more. :)

Halloween Costumes

Katelyn as Tinkerbell
James as Pac-Man
Michael as the red Pac-Man Ghost, Blinkie

The kids had so much fun trunk-or-treating at church.  They were a little disappointed that the only real trick-or-treating they got to do on Sunday was at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  But don't feel too bad for them, they have PLENTY of candy!

Costume Preview

So I have officially finished one costume!  Oh yea!  Here is a sneak peak:

I spent $3.50 on fabric and $1.50 on accessories so $5.00 total.  Not as cheap as I would like but better than buying a costume at Walmart.  Plus it's more durable, modest and cute than the ones at Walmart.  To see the full costume and little girl in all her adorableness you'll have to wait a few more weeks!

Costume #2 is in progress...

The transformation of a table

Years ago when Michael was just little we knew we wanted a train table for him to play with.  So we went to, where else, Toys R Us to check them out!  After seeing the $100 + price tag we knew we had to make it work some other way.  We decided to buy the train track set and get a table from Goodwill.  When we got home we put the train track together so we knew how large the table would need to be.  Then we began searching for the perfect sized table.  I think we spent about $15 at Goodwill and got a really ugly 90's coffee table.  We didn't like it so we did this to it:

 
Then Robert screwed down all the train tracks:

We all loved it for many years and it met our needs for a long time...until Katelyn came around.  She started to climb onto the table and rip the train tracks off the table, breaking the tracks and making everyone, especially her brothers very upset.  So in frustration I removed all train tracks from the table and against Robert's wishes I gave it a fresh coat of paint.


We were given a huge roll of paper so I talked Robert into attaching it to the table and our fun train table became an awesome art table.

This was fun but the kids really wanted roads to drive on...they even began laying out the paper and drawing roads...That is when I knew it was time for me to paint it again!  And this is what we have now, an awesome art and car driving table:

Originally my plan was much less detailed but once the boys got in on the planning, well, it became pretty detailed. It has a school, 3 houses plus and shoe hotel (Michael decided he needed a hotel not a house), pond, store, airport with a runway, helicopter landing pad, Firestone store (so they can get their cars fixed), 4 parking lots and they even insisted on two stop signs and a swing behind the school.  It turned out so great! 

I think our $15 table was a great buy!  You want one?  It's pretty easy (time consuming but easy) to make.  We began by planning it all out on paper. We then drew it onto the table measuring a lot to make sure things were mostly straight. (we measured their cars to see how wide the roads needed to be too.)  I used regular craft paint to paint it all up. Then topped it with a few layers of clear spray paint so it cleans up easier and can take the rough car driving.  It took about 8 hours to paint everything but I think we all can agree it was totally worth it!

NEXT MONTH!!!

I love it when I can finally say, "We are having a baby NEXT MONTH!!"

It has been exciting getting everything in order to welcome this sweet baby into our home.  He is definitely growing bigger.  He is still so very active; definitely the most active baby I've ever had!  It's fun to feeling him kicking and moving so much!

Nearly every day James will measure my belly with his hands...

And then hold his hands out and exclaim, "The baby is this big now!"

"When he is this big then he will come out of your tummy!"   It's so cute that he is so excited about this baby coming!

Michael has already counted this baby as part of the family.  When we make a comment about our family of 5, he is quick to correct us, telling us that we have 6 in our family.  :)  As for Katelyn she just pats my tummy smiles and walks away. She has also recently relized that it's nice to snuggle up to.

I don't feel too huge yet so I know this baby most likely won't be coming anytime soon, but I definitely am getting bigger.  Yeah for next month and a new baby!!!

Clarification:  We don't know for you sure we are having a boy.  We just strongly think we are having a boy.  :)   I know some have already been wondering about that.  We'll let you know if we are right or wrong on our guess in the next month or so.