Stephanie's giveaway

My friend Stephanie at The Hanes Family Chronicles is having a giveaway in honor of her Sweet Pea's first birthday! If you haven't checked out her Etsy shop, Sew Inspired By Baby, her button is in my side-bar. Right now she's giving away these two cool items. Check it out here!

Pouring Pitchers - Preschool

I found these pitchers at Goodwill when we were in Appleton the other day. Pouring Pitchers is a Montessori preschool activity that teaches coordination and pouring skills. I had AllyOoper use the two plain pitchers (Still thinking of something for the flowered one) to pour water back and forth. Be sure to demonstrate this very precisely before allowing your child to do it herself. I found that a towel placed under the pitchers is quite helpful. :-) The first pour ended up all over the table! This is the second towel in the picture. Ally did this for about 5-8 minutes before starting to get sloppy (which is when I took this picture). RaeRae did it for a few minutes too, but she needs a little more activity to the game, so I might find some cups for her to pour into.

Book Finds

Every time I go to Appleton I like to go to the Goodwill by the mall. In the past I have found some pretty good finds at pretty good prices. Like this:
However this time the selection was small compared to normal and the prices seamed to have gone up. Still, I was very excited to find these two books. Both of these books I had growing up. I have been looking for the Christian Mother Goose book for some time, so I was very excited to see it at Goodwill. And as a bonus, it was 50% off! So I only paid $2.00 for it. Happy Day!

Glitterful Felt Stories Giveaway at Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls

Hop on over to Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls for this neat giveaway. Glitterful Felt Stories provides a creative and interactive introduction to literacy. They have felt sets that go along with classic stories such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Goldilocks And The Three Bears, and fun songs. Looks like a lot of fun!

Back to work

Matt went back to work today. Finally! It's been way too long. Unfortunately, he is in Minnesota. He'll be gone now from 3:00 Monday morning till 9:30 Thursday night for the next 8+ weeks. :-( It's been 18 hours, and I miss him already... The girls couldn't understand why he was working so late today. I didn't have the heart to tell them that he wouldn't be home till Thursday. They have been used to having him around most, if not all, day. But the good news is that I made it through day one without pulling my hair out. It helped a ton that the girls spent two hours at Tammy's (Matt's aunt who runs a daycare) this morning. I probably would've been pulling my hair out too, if it were not also for my sister, Jenelle. She moved in with us two weeks ago, and I'm so glad that she did. Bedtime tonight would not have been as "fun" if she were not here to hold Baby Bear while I put the girls to bed. One down this week, three to go...

The last month

I feel like I have so much updating to do! A lot, and I really mean A LOT has happened in the last month. Which is why I haven't blogged in quite some time. We ended April with the good news that the sale of our house was approved and we should start looking for some place to move to because we were likely to close within a month. This is what I dreaded when we signed the contract with the realtor back in January, that we would end up moving in May or June. Well, we already had a place lined up to move into, it just involved moving the previous occupants (family) out first which we weren't planning on doing just yet. Well after talking it over we all decided that it would be best to move as soon as possible so that we could be "settled in" before the baby was born. So all plans were put on fast forward and within 2 weeks we had most of their stuff moved out and our things moved in. The following weekend we had a rummage sale then Baby Bear was born, then we had to finish emptying our old house. It was such a relief to hand over the keys to the buyers at the closing! But of course while we were focusing on readying the old house, we were putting off projects on the new house; so then our focus switched; and though things have slowed down some, we're still running! So as I'm able I will continue to blog... here... and there... and maybe in between...

My Mother's Day gift!

Barrett Daniel
born Mother's Day, May 10th at 12:37pm
9lbs 7oz, 21 1/2in

Mother's Day morning I woke up crabby, tired, and rather depressed. For the last few nights I had not slept well due to contractions that would come 8 to 10 minutes apart, sometimes closer. Alas during the day when I was up and moving around they subsided. Saturday I made sure to walk a lot. It was town wide rummage sales that weekend; and while Matt was watching over our own rummage sale trying to sell everything that was leftover after our move (more on that later), I took RaeRae and we walked, and walked. Our (former) town is small enough that you can walk everywhere, but it is still a lot of walking especially when you are carrying an extra 45lbs straight out front or when you are 3 1/2 yrs old.

And being that all the rummaging wasn't enough we went shopping after, just to do some more walking. This baby boy had to be born that night, so I thought. Matt's brother was flying back to CA. Mother's day afternoon and from there would be shipped to Afghanistan in other 10 days. So if he was going to see the baby it had to be soon... Well, obviously my contractions did not continue to increase on Saturday; and after another sleepless night and then contractions subsiding again on Sunday morning, I really did not want to go to church. (Besides who really wants to hear the comments "You're still here?!" what do you know, they can see!) But it was Sunday; and there was still going to be Sunday School and church; so I needed to pick out clothes for the girls. There I am standing in their closet, and all of a sudden... a warm gush down my leg... my water broke! It was going to be a baby day after all! Half an hour later the contractions started, and within an hour we were headed to the hospital. Now since I had tested positive for Group B strep, I had to have an IV of antibiotics when we got to the hospital, and ideally another dose 4 hours later to give the baby the most protection. Well... that was not going to happen... My water broke at 8:10, we got to the hospital about 10:00, IV started at 10:30, 12:00 I was at 9 cm., 12:15 started pushing, 12:37 Barrett was born. Whew... Though we didn't get the second dose of antibiotics, God protected our little boy and he did not show any signs of infection at all. He was strong and healthy; our little Buddy Bear! And though I didn't get breakfast in bed on Mother's Day, I did get breakfast in bed the next day, and a soak in a big whirlpool tub, and a free hand and foot massage! Thank you for my Mother's Day gift Barrett!