Cloth Diaper Love

I never thought this would be a post I would write…but it’s true, I love cloth diapering!

I was worried it would be too time consuming, but let’s be honest; I have 4 kids now. What is 1 more load of laundry? I wash the diapers every other day and it’s as simple as that. I keep the freshly stuffed diapers in this cabinet in the laundry room

The bottom shelf has extra inserts and wet bags for when we are out and about. I have a small one that holds one or two wet diapers and then a larger bag that easily holds 10+ that I use when we will be out for long periods of time. When they are dirty, they go in an open hamper in the laundry room.

No solids yet = no stink. Walking into that room, you would never know there was a hamper of dirty diapers. It takes me about 20 minutes to fold and stuff inserts into a load of washed diapers, so I do that at night after everyone is in bed and I can watch uninterrupted TV. Win. Win.

Plus, look how dang cute she looks in them!

 

26 Weeks

Almost 90 days- HOLY CRAP!!! Sorry, momentary freak out. I’m done now 😉

Baby is the size of…Lettuce.

Let’s see, how are things going? In a word. Interesting. My life would be so much easier if this stupid insomnia would just go away. I know that once the baby gets here, sleep will be non-existent, so dang it, I want to sleep now! Almost every night I fall asleep fine and think, this is it, the night I sleep all night…and then around 1 or 2 I wake up and just lay there and lay there. That alarm going off at 6 comes way too soon when you’re up for a few hours in the middle of the night. #firstworldproblem- I can’t lay down during the day and take a nap because then it’s even harder to fall asleep and I toss and turn even more. Good thing I have a full DVR, I’m ready to move out to the couch instead of just laying there staring at the walls.

Other than that, just normal pregnancy stuff. It’s definitely getting harder to do simple things, but I absolutely LOVE watching the bump go crazy with movements so I guess it’s a fair trade off 😉

I did get some excellent news today. Back in October when I first got my Diabetes diagnosis, my A1C level was around 13.2. In December it was down to 7.3 and as of the bloodwork I had done yesterday, it’s at 5.8. This is awesome. No one can say what will happen after delivery, but the doctors are hopeful that I either won’t need insulin at all or I could go straight to oral medications or the best possible outcome being I won’t need anything at all and I can control it with diet and exercise. Only time will tell.

From 6 weeks to 26 weeks. I’m sort of bummed I don’t have any pictures for weeks 7,8,9,10, 11 or 12 because those were the weeks I wasn’t believed to be pregnant anymore. Looking back, I am still in disbelief that everything happened like it did. While I may have “missed” most of the first trimester thinking I had miscarried, I’m so very thankful this little miracle of mine continues to fight hard and prove everyone wrong. She is a champion and I can’t wait to meet her.

Marvelous in My Monday {6}

 

My kids have been out of school since December 19, today was supposed to be their first day back, but it was a snow day and tomorrow has been cancelled as well. While it’s nice being able to sleep in and bum around these extra days, we all NEED the school routine back in place. Soon.

I realize I’m a freak when I say this, but I love cold weather, like would trade the heat of summer for the cold winter any time, any place. The final total for this storm we had the last two days topped at 15.5 inches. This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning and then it kept snowing more and more and more all day and into the night.

We made the best of it, by catching up on movies

Eating some delicious chicken noodle soup

Making my favorite cookies of all time {Russian Tea Cakes}

And cooking one heck of an amazing dinner {Bow tie noodles with garlic/asiago chicken sausage, all covered in alfredo sauce).

Now that the storm has passed over us, here is what we are left with. Thankfully one of our neighbors plowed the whole road so we can all get out if needed, but with temps bottoming out around -40 tonight, we are only leaving the house tomorrow if my OB’s office is open.

This is looking out our front door.

Don’t forget to check out Healthy Diva Life for more MiMM fun!!

 

Five Things Friday

What a whirlwind week, but SO much fun! I’m happy that the kids and husband are still home for another week, we have lots of fun things planned and then before I know it they will be back to school and work. 

I didn’t get a post up for Christmas Day, so I’m including it in today’s Five Things Friday post. 

1. Santa came about 3.2 seconds after everyone was tucked in, mama was tired and wanted to go to bed too!

2. After they opened their stockings and Santa gifts, we piled into the living room to open the rest of the gifts. 

3. The afternoon and evening was spent relaxing and watching movies. I think almost all of the adults snuck a nap in at some point as well. Was glorious.

4. My daughter wanted a sewing machine from Santa, yesterday she made some burp cloths for baby girl Emma.

5. Baby Emma clothes are starting to be acquired!!! She was pretty spoiled Christmas morning, I got a few strong kicks and rolls as I was opening her gifts; we’ll just pretend that was her approval 😉

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

 

Christmas Eve 2013

This afternoon has been pretty low key so far. We met at my Mom’s house around 1:00, did a little relaxing and then started cooking the appetizers.

We had some homemade cranberry salsa over cream cheese, 7 layer dip and a cheese ball.

Apparently, I was too busy feeding kids to get pictures of dinner, but it was an amazing feast of taquitos, chicken enchiladas, beef enchilada casserole and taco pasta. I managed to eat a couple of taquitos and an enchilada before feeling so full I was going to burst!

Then it was present time! We usually get the kids a small gift to open on Christmas Eve and then the adults do a gift exchange.

Baby Jack’s stank face. He’s so cute.

Sarah modeling the two scarves and headband that my sister crocheted for her. She’s a genius with a crochet hook, and needs to pass on her skills before she heads back to CA next week!

We are now snuggled up watching Elf and once the kiddies are in bed, we can get all of the Santa stuff out, fill the stockings and go to bed ourselves!

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Marvelous in my Monday {5}

So happy that our power came back on a few hours ago! It is getting mighty chilly outside and we were worried about the pipes freezing/bursting before the power was restored. Thank you DTE for getting us back up and running!!! Let’s get right down to today’s MiMM.

Marvelous is…my sister making this amazing spaghetti/garlic bread loaf.

Spaghetti, garlic bread, cheese and sausage; if that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right!

Here’s the finished product

Marvelous is... my mom’s Christmas tree. I don’t know how she gets it so perfect every year, but I love it.

Marvelous is…dinner tonight! We took my in laws out for dinner for their Christmas gift. SOO good. I always get the asiago peppercorn steak and it’s AMAZING. Tonight was no exception.

I’m off to finish wrapping the rest of the presents and then we are headed to my mom’s house tomorrow and Wednesday for all sorts of Christmas ridiculousness. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!!!

 

Marvelous in my Monday {4}

I’m so bummed I ended up leaving my camera at my mom’s house last night. Good thing we are going over there on Wednesday, the iPhone will have to do until then!

Marvelous is…the 2nd annual cousin picture taken at my mom’s house last night. I can’t believe how grown up all of these kids are getting!

Marvelous is…the snow storm we had on Saturday. It was the perfect type of snow storm, light snow all day long so the roads were able to be semi-cleared all day and we were still able to attend the Christmas party at Church Saturday night.

Marvelous is…new ornaments for the Christmas tree. This one isn’t new exactly, but I found a whole bag of ornaments out in the garage that we haven’t had on the tree in a few years, so they are like new this year!

Marvelous is…the winter wonderland that our neighborhood has going on today.

Marvelous is…the sunset happening right now.

Marvelous is…my sister coming into town! She will be here tomorrow night, I can’t even remember the last time we spent Christmas together!!

That wraps up this issue of Marvelous in my Monday, don’t forget to head over to Healthy Diva Life for even more MiMM fun!

22 Weeks

Baby is the size of: Papaya

This is two weeks in a row he has decided that he needs to be in the picture with me. I’m also in denial that my current “baby” will be 6 in February. Seems like I was just pregnant with him!

Symptoms: Getting harder to find a comfortable sleeping position. I’ll wake up and my hips will be on fire and then I’ll switch to the other side to wake up a few hours later with that side hurting. It’s a vicious cycle. Definitely feeling more and more movements, the strongest are at night when I’m trying to fall asleep or anytime my blood sugar is low, she beats on me like a little drum to get my attention.

Food Cravings & Aversions: Steak. I want steak and lots of it.

Upcoming Appointments: I have an appointment on Tuesday with a new eye Dr. to make sure I don’t have Diabetic Retinopathy. Don’t ask me what it means, because I really have no idea. I just know my endocrinologist told me I need to be screened for it and then once a month until I deliver.

That’s all I have for tonight. I can’t believe we are already halfway through this, April may seem far away, but it’s really not. She’ll be here before I know it!

Marvelous in my Monday {2}

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is done and over with and the Christmas season is now in full swing! Pretty soon it will be January! We had a fantastic week, busy, but great! My husband was off all week, so we were able to spend a couple of days with just the two of us while the 3 kids were in school and then solid family time Wed-Sun. I have been straight up exhausted today, it will be an early bed time tonight for all of us. I didn’t take a ton of pictures this weekend, but I did manage to capture the highlights.

Thanksgiving is always at my mom’s house and there is usually about 25-30 people by the time family and extended family arrives. Lots of cooking and cleaning, but always worth it!

Normally, I stay the night Thanksgiving night at my mom’s house and we go shopping on Friday, but I just wasn’t up for it this year, so I went home and slept in…was marvelous!

After waking up late and enjoying a lazy breakfast, we decided to put up the Christmas tree and some of the outside decorations.

I just love the tree being up, makes the whole house seem a little more at peace.

Saturday and Sunday were spent doing some running around and then hanging out with family after Church before coming home and crashing last night.

Thanks for stopping by for my little piece of MiMM, read more here for a lot more!

Comparing

In my mind, I don’t see much in the way of my body changing, but as I was cleaning my phone of pictures today, I saw just how much things have changed since August! I made some collages that show just how much the baby has grown and how my own body is changing as well.

First: 5 weeks – 6 weeks.

Second: 13-16 Weeks. I don’t have any bump shots from 6 to 13 weeks because we were all under the impression that I had miscarried.

Third: 17-19 Weeks.

Fourth: 5 and 19 Weeks

It will be fun to do these once a month and then 10 week differences as well.