Also,

Since yesterday's post was void of any pictures, I thought I would share some today.

I also think I might be one of those people who uses waaay, too, many, commas.

Pretty girl.

Saving money with a diy haircut.

I taught her everything she knows.

One of my favorite pictures of all time.

She went on a run with Daddy.  She loved it, but he loved it more.

Dean not wasting any chocolate ice cream.

Our first movie night!  We watched Princess & the Frog, had homemade red beans and rice, popcorn, and gummy bears!  Emma loved it.  Dean talked the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME.

Dean's favorite part of the fair.  He was obsessed.

Calvin @ 5 months.

Fast asleep.

He's warmed up to baby food since.

Sitting on the front porch while it rained for 3 whole minutes.  Is she proud of him or what?

I kind of love this picture.  He's my baby baby.

Growing up.  Cal @ 6+ months.

They're, the, greatest.

a journal.

So, hey.

It's been a while.

I had practically given up on writing this blog.  I have been pretty busy, you know, with THREE kids.  But after much consideration, I have decided to write again.  I was looking at it all wrong.  I was equating writing this blog to "another thing to do", and that's not what I ever wanted this to be.  I was letting myself get stressed out about it...and that's just no fun.  But, I recently read through some of my old posts and realized how happy I was that I had written them.  So, here goes.  Try number five, I think.

Let's list the updates since I last wrote (which was November, by the way):

-I had a baby.
-Now I have three kids.
-So, there's this baby in the house now.
-Another kid happened.
-THREE.  KIDS.
-I went grocery shopping.

That should sum it up.

But really, it's been pretty great.  Calvin is a perfect mix of the older two muchkins.  His sleeping habits are not Emma's, but definitely not Dean's.  He is almost 7 months (!!) old and is not yet sleeping through the night.  But I'm more okay with it than I ever was with Dean.  I guess it's that whole "but he's the baby" logic that will get me in trouble in the future.  I'm pretty sure if I thought about him going off to kindergarten, I could cry right now.  Sniff.

This is Emma's last year home with me before she's off to kindergarten next year.  Now that - THAT - is crazy.  We have lots of plans.  Lots and lots of plans.  It's my goal to make it a year at home she won't ever forget.  Sniff.

Dean is a talking machine.  He loves to say "How 'bout dat?  How 'bout dis?" or "I too! I too!".  He's most talkative when he's tired.  The longer he stays up, the more he chats with you.  He doesn't go to bed until about 9, which goes against everything I ever believed in when it came to kids and bedtimes.  But we were battling bedtime with him for at least an hour every.single.night and it became too stressful for the both of us.  So 9:00 it is.  Sniff.

David and I celebrated our 6-year-wedding and our 10-years-of-being-together anniversaries.  Good guy, that husband of mine.

Sniff.

Boo.

If everything goes as it has with my last two children, I should have this baby in about 8 weeks.  Yeh, I know.  Scary, right?

And here is the exact opposite of scary:

My cute little bunny.  :)

I'm starting to get really excited about something kind of silly.  I've never been able to buy some things I've wanted because I've never really known how big our family was going to be.  Well, now I know.

I'm talking about things like plate sets and jewelry with birthstones.  One thing I will be able to do next year is get our family's matching stockings.  I've already found the kind I want.



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Purrty, right?  I can just imagine these on my fireplace.

Now, time to go shop for some birthstone rings.

okay, okay.

An exciting development has taken place.  My bff (yeh, I'm 28 and still using it) Lindahl figured out how to erase all 1,571 (not joking) from my memory card all at once.  I simply did not think it was possible, and she figured it out in point.two seconds.  So, instead of my stalling on my picture taking due to lag time of downloading, I will now be able to take/update/print pictures at a much better pace.

Hence, this (non-edited) picture-loaded post:

 The cutest boy there ever was.

Emma & her Aunt Kelly the day before the wedding.

Bubbies proving why I can't stay mad at him.

Ugh.  26 weeks with Baby #3.

This is a horrible picture.

And this is my little helper for today.

We made homemade applesauce in the crockpot.

Yeh, it's gonna be awesome.





Emotional v. Physical

Having a baby is a stressful event.

Of course, this is my third baby and I'm sure I know what to do by now.   Right?

With Emma, I was physically ready to have a baby.  We registered and had the showers.  We had every baby item we thought we needed.  We had a huge house so there was no question where she would sleep.  We both worked full-time so money was not a concern.  I would say we were more ready physically than we were emotionally.  Emma was a surprise baby (you think I'd have learned by now), and so it took some time to get ready for her arrival in an emotional sense.  I remember it didn't even really HIT me until the day we took her home.  I cried for the first hour we had her home because I realized that this sweet little baby girl was ours, and she was here to stay.

As far as Dean goes, he was planned.  I was ready for another baby.  But I was also ready to sell my house.  So we moved out of our house when I was about 5 weeks pregnant and feeling sick as a dog.  We moved in with my in-laws and stayed there until Dean was born.  The main reason we found out his gender was so I could feel prepared for something, anything.  I didn't know where I was going to live.  I didn't know how money would be since I was only going back part-time.  I didn't know if he would have his own room.  I just wanted to know.  So, I felt prepared for Dean emotionally because I was so ready to be a mom again.  I wanted a newborn.  I was ready for sleepless nights. (Although, had I known he would be the kind of sleeper he is, I might have changed my mind.)  I was ready for bottles and newborn-sized onsies.

Or so I thought.

What I wasn't ready for was the full-on-mom-mode I would have to be in 100% of the time.  Even though I thought I was ready for this second kid, there was nothing out there that could have prepared me for the stress that is two kids.  But, that's gotten better.  I was just getting the hang of it when along came the positive pregnancy test and all my energy went down the drain.

I am ready for this baby.  Emotionally, that is.  I feel like I've learned so much about myself in the last 16 months that Dean has been here.  I am absolutely prepared for the world of mutliple children.  I understand it will be insane and I can't do everything.  I am fairly educated on breastfeeding and have a strong desire to do whatever it takes to make it work.  I already know what the money will be like, and it will be hard.  But, given the choice to make more money away from home, or stay home with my babies while I can -well, the choice for me is easy.  I know what the hospital stay will be like.  I understand this baby will probably be jaundiced like my other two.  I am prepared for the multiple trips to the hospital for bloodwork.  I am emotionally ready to connect to this little baby - my last - my true baby.

As far as being physically ready goes....


...well, do you have a room we could borrow?

I have 100% of my energy...70% of the time.

When I have an energy spurt, I feel like I can complete every single task on my to-do list (which seems to grow by the minute).  But, when that spurt is gone...I'm done.  Count me out.  Finished.  No way I'm getting back up.  My eyelids get heavy, my feet and ankles swell a tiny bit, and by belly feels like it weighs 498 lbs.

So, I've been taking advantage of the energy I can find sometimes, and I've been researching recipes and actually making them.  There are many times that I find a recipe and neglect to try it, forget about it, or just plain give up on.  But lately I've been realizing if I find a recipe I have all the ingredients for on-hand, then I just get up and make it.  This morning, I've already made some "No-Bake Energy Bites" and it's only 10:13 am.  The thing is though, these things are the easiest things in the world to make.  Seriously.  And, by tweaking a few of the ingredients, you can make them pretty healthy.  You know, since your kids, you might lick the spoon around 23 times just to make sure they taste okay.

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Make them now, thank me later.  You know why you'll thank me later?  Because you can double the recipe, throw the extras in the freezer, and you have snacks that will last you a month or two.  Believe me.  When you're searching through your pantry for something to snack on, you'll be so grateful when you realize you have ready-make, healthy snacks awaiting in the freezer.  You're welcome...later.

The rest of my energy is being put towards finding a bigger car.  Yep.  I just bought a car when Dean was born.  I've only had it a year.  I LOVE it.  But I need more room thanks to the Surprise Smith growing in belly.  :)  So, I think the old car is getting cleaned up and might be accessorized with a brand new "FOR SALE" sign in her front window.  She'd look good with that, wouldn't she?  And to answer your question, no.  I'm not getting a minivan.  Thanks.  I'm thinking something more like this:

Purrty, right?

We'll see how it goes.

Hey.  Go make those balls.  You'll love 'em.

Doubt.

source

I found this quote the other day and it hit me good.

I have some major goals running through my head lately.  And I'm way ahead of myself.  Like always.

Halloween.  Thanksgiving.  And Christmas.  I have always loved the holidays.  The love has only grown since having my own children to share it with.  Introduce new traditions.  Make lists for Santa.  And bake.  Oh, the baking.  I can almost taste it.

Goal #1.  Tackling the Holidays.  The reason I am so gung-ho about Christmas this year is because I should be having a baby right around that time too.  The very last thing I want to worry about 4 days before the holiday is what gift I'm going to get for who and where the hell I am going to park in this &*%# parking lot?  I actually get a little stressed just typing it out.  Therefore, my goal is to have ALL Christmas shopping D.O.N.E. before Halloween comes.  I've already started.  Emma may already have some gifts from Santa waiting for her in my dresser drawer.  That way I can concentrate on getting ready for the new baby, nesting, enjoying my kiddos, and eating.  Yes, I said eating.  I'm trying to see how much weight I can gain by having my last trimester fully encompass the holiday eating season.  Of course, I'm kidding.  Kind of.

Goal #2.  Stocking my freezer.  This has been an ongoing goal of mine ever since I realized the amount of food out there that can be premade and frozen.  Breads, cookies, pancakes, burritos, lasagna, milk, fruits from the farmer's markets, baby food, etc.  I plan to have my freezer so full of food it can barely open.  The last thing I am going to feel like doing is cooking when I have THREE (omg.) kids who need me to be here, there, and everywhere.  Moneysavingmom.com is great blog out there for any parent who is interested in saving money and finding great recipes to freeze.  I'm also always a fan of Allrecipes.com.  Although, my biggest win so far has been Pinterest.  It blows my mind.  It inspires me.  It puts all of my ideas that I steal off of other people (ie. repin) into one big folder for me to easily find at any time.  I've made 3 recipes in 2 days off of this site.

Goal #3.  Finish some to-do-ing around this ol' house.  Why yes, that does include finding a place for the new baby to sleep!   We've got options, but we've yet to confirm anything.  Did you know I'm 5 1/2 months today?  Time flies when you're having fun totally freakin' exhausted and can't keep up with anything.  We also have some little things that I just want to have done before the weather keeps us in and I have to look at unfinished projects all day long.

Goal #4.  Try my brand new cloth diapers on Dean in preparation for Smith #5.  I gots 'em.  Them fancy ones. 

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I got a heckuva deal on them, so I went for it.  I bought enough gender-neutral colors to hopefully use on Dean & the new baby at the same time.  Yes, there was a big upfront cost, but the cost from here on out is $0.00.

Goal $5.  Learn everything there is know about breastfeeding.  If I pair this with not spending any money on diapers, and making my own baby food...this new baby should cost pennies compared to the other two muchkins.  That's the goal anyways.

So, there's a sneak peek inside my ever-insane brain.  Hopefully, I'm not the only one who thinks all-kinds-of-crazy like this, but it sure does help to write it all down.  Even if I am the only one who reads it.  :)