Welcome, Gemma Michaela!!

 

Our sweet baby GIRL was born nine days "early" on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012, at 8:36 pm.  She weighed 6 pounds, 3.5 ounces, and was 20 inches long.  She is beautiful, and we feel so blessed to have her.  I will write about her birth story soon! 

We love you, baby Gem!

7 Quick Takes (6)

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1)  I am due to birth a baby in less than two weeks, people!  That's probably not crazy news for all of you, but I have to pinch myself every time I say it.  On the one hand, I am SO excited to meet the newest addition to our family, but on the other hand, I just don't feel quite ready.  It's like the due date just crept up on us. But, ready or not, I am jonesin' for some newborn snuggle sessions...and I am actually looking forward to labor, too, in my own twisted way. 

2)  Yesterday, Luke was trying to hold me on his lap on the couch, and this popped out of his mouth {about my 38-week pregnant belly}: 

"Thank God that it's kinda gradual because that thing's HUGE! 

I mean if you just came home with that one day..."  

Good thing I know he loves me.

3)  Some ladies from our church's Young Adult Club and myself have been meeting weekly to discuss Scott Hahn's A Father Who Keeps His Promises.  For anyone who wants a better understanding of what is going on in the long, confusing books of the Old Testament, I would highly recommend it!

4)  To all of you who have had babies before, what is the one thing you wouldn't leave out of your "hospital" bag?  We are actually having the baby at a birthing center, so our stay will be relatively short, but I would love to hear your ideas.  In case you were wondering, I haven't packed the bag yet.  

5)  I am really excited to order the bedding for our wee baby, but I have to wait until he/she is born so I can make the appropriate selection.  Anyway, these are my top three for a girl {in reverse favorite order}...thoughts??  I could really use some input.

6)  Oh, and "what if it's a boy," you ask? {which, by the way, is where I am currently leaning...as of three days ago}.  Well, to be honest, at this point if we have a boy, not only will I not have the bedding picked out and ready to order, but he will also not have a name.  Seriously.  Luke keeps reassuring me that we have narrowed it down to six--um, that's not very good.  A few more things to add to my "before-you-go-into-labor" list...    And since I am asking your opinion on everything today, if you have a suggestion for a boy name you want to share, feel free to leave that in the comment box as well :).

7)  On Sunday, we are having Augustine's birthday party.  I guess that is when I will have to officially accept that he is two.  I still act like he is my baby--and I suppose in some ways, he always will be.  But I know he will do a lot of growing up in the next couple of months as he takes on the role of "big brother"--it will be bittersweet.  
He is already a great big brother...

     
 

Christmas Photo Card 2011

Faith Love Family Religious

Shutterfly custom Valentines Day and Mother's Day cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Raspberries for Jesus

Saturday morning, Luke, Augustine, and I went to Mass together.  During the service, Augustine got a bit loud--he has this new high pitched squeal he likes to do in quiet places with echo-ey walls {i.e. churches}. 

At one point, during the peak of his squealing, I took him outside the main area to the back of the church where a huge crucifix hangs on the wall. 

Augustine loves Jesus and insists on giving Him kisses every chance he gets.  It's really quite sweet.  For several minutes, Augustine just looked at Jesus hanging on the cross on the wall and said, "Ouch, ouch, ouch," as he pointed out the wounds on Jesus' feet, knees, side, hands, and head. 

Naturally, he then wanted to kiss Jesus' wounds to make them feel better.  So we walked over to the crucifix, and Augustine leaned down to kiss Jesus' feet.  Then I lifted him a bit to kiss Jesus' knees.  Next, he kissed His hands and finally His side {Jesus' head was a little too high...}.  At that point, Augustine said, "belly button," pointing to Jesus' belly button and leaning in for what I expected to be another kiss. 

But the moment his sweet lips touched Jesus' belly button, Augustine blew a big raspberry! 

I laughed out loud. 

But I can't argue with his logic--boo boos get kissed and belly buttons get raspberries!

I am sure Jesus loved it. :)  

"Let the little children come to me..."

Matthew 19:14

What I do when I'm not Blogging - Day Five

Ok, this has to be quick because it's date night, and I have some things I still need to check off the ole' to-do list before we feed the little guy, tuck him in, and sneak out for the evening. 

I am sure, in some capacity, eveyone can relate to me on this one: holidays are a lot of fun...but they can also require a lot of preparation and work, too.  The big ones--Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter--are self-explanatory.  There are gifts to be bought, stockings to stuff, baskets to fill, meals to be prepared, etc. 

But in my particular situation, the holidays I am worst at {and create the most anxiety for me} are birthdays.  Birthdays are meant to be special days to honor dear people in our lives, but I am always behind on birthday gifts, cards, phone calls, and text messages {if you're super lucky you get a gift, if I am somewhat productive you get a card a week late, if I remember between the hours of 6 and 8 pm in your time zone you get a phone call, and if all else fails you get a text}. 

With my four siblings,
who have four spouses
and eleven children {four of whom are Godchildren and deserve extra special attention},
my Dad,
my mother-in-law,
my father-in-law,
and TEN siblings-in-law {can you imagine when they start getting married and having kids?!},
I have a really hard time keeping up. 

It makes me feel badly when I miss a birthday, but sometimes I think I should just send everyone their birthday cards at the beginning of the year and be done with it.  Not because I don't care, but because I am really that bad about remembering and getting a card in the mail on time. 

Anyway, there is another holiday coming up that I have been investing some time into...Halloween.  Halloween has always been a commercial holiday to me--I dressed up as a kid, got a bunch of candy, and never worried about any of the dark side that is emphasized by a handful of teenagers each year. 

I plan to always keep Augustine's costumes on the light side--no devils, witches, or super scary monsters--but I don't think it's bad for him to dress up in a cute costume and walk around our block on Halloween.  And, of course, we will also celebrate All Saint's day November 1st and All Soul's day November 2nd {it's crazy how pretty much all of our cultural holidays are derived from the Catholic faith, no?  St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, Halloween}. 

Luke and I are dressing up as Fred and Wilma for Halloween, and Augustine will be Bam-Bam.  Luke and I wore these costumes three years ago, as well, after I couldn't resist buying him the Fred costume going for $3 at our church yard sale.  I easily made a Wilma comtume out of a white sheet, and we were good to go. 

Bam-Bam's costume took a little more work...


Materials + elastic = just under $10!

 

First I covered the visor with orange felt and black triangles
--gotta love the glue gun.

Then I cut the fabric for the skirt
and made A try it on for a visual.

I wanted to make the skirt with an elastic waist,
so I folded over about 3/4" and made a hem.

Next I wrestled the elastic through the hem
--there is definitely a trick out there to making this easy,
but I opted for wrestling with it.

After folding the faux fur in half, I sewed a seam so it would be soft all the way around {no pic}. 
Then I cut a bone out of off-white felt and cut slits in the the fur for it. 

I left the bat making to my hubby. 
He cut it out of cardboard, and then we covered it in felt.

Back to the glue gun to decorate the skirt.

I measured my little Bam Bam to decide how tight to pull the elastic
and then sewed it into place.

 

I finished the skirt by turning it inside out and sewing the seam.



The last step is to attach the sash.  I used a button in front and a safey pin in back - I will sewn it on permanently when I have a minute!

 

Voila!

          

What I do when I'm not Blogging - Day Four

Keeping up with my little man takes a lot of time and energy!  He is at a really fun and social age right now, so this fall we have really upped our out-of-the-house social calendar.  

All but Friday mornings during the week, we try to get out of the house.  It is a good thing for me because it inspires me to actually get dressed in the morning {not that I don't have a tendency to slip back into my sweatpants when we get home...}.  And I think it's good for Augustine to experience new things with new friends, as well as learn to take directions and interact with adults other than Luke and myself.  

On Monday mornings, Augustine has his Romp 'n Roll class.  It took me a few months to justify the cost of a R'nR membership, but I waited until they were promoting a good deal and made peace with it.  His class is called Tumble Tunes and is a combination gym and music class.  He absolutely loves music, and you can't go wrong with exercise and energy burning!  He is learning to listen and follow instructions, and it is great for his gross motor skills.

Tuesday mornings we enjoy "Storytime" at a local library.  If we are super ambitious, we attend Mass {and sometimes even hit up Starbucks!} before heading to the library.  Augustine is still a little young for a 45 minute storytime, but the leader is great at mixing it up with relevant songs and dancing in between books, which Augustine really likes.  He tends to start wandering toward the end of storytime, but overall he does well, and I think it's a good challenge for him.

Augustine attended a music class for several weeks on Wednesdays this fall, but that ended last week.  Our Mom's group from church also meets on Wednesday mornings, so we are going to try to get more involved in that group, although most of the activities are on the other side of town, which can be inconvenient.

This fall Augustine and I joined MOPs {Mothers of Preschoolers}--a Christian, Mom's group that offers programs internationally.  It provides a good morning of recollection, fellowship, and fun for me, while Augustine is across the hall enjoying Bible stories and play time with other kiddos his age.  MOPs meets officially every other Thursday, but there is typically a play date or other activity scheduled for the other Thursdays.  

Fridays we just chill in the morning.  If Augustine is up in time we like to go to 7:30 am Mass with Luke and they come home and have pancakes for breakfast!

Among Augustine's other favorite things to do during the day are take walks--in and out of the stroller--; play at parks; read books all.day.long; watch "T" {t.v.}; help me with everything--cooking, cleaning, laundry; play outside on his play set in our screened in porch; go potty; carry his stuffed cat and baby all around the house; push buttons on every appliance we own; get into lots of things he shouldn't; wrestle with his Dad; and eat noodles.

All of this, plus running errands, cleaning the house, and cooking {also known as being a wife and mom} keeps me busy!!  Luke keeps reminding me, "just wait until you have two!"  But being a Mom to Augustine is the world's greatest job in my eyes, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

I used to sneak onto the computer a lot more during the day, but now I am very rarely on it at all while he is awake.  Sometimes I have a chance to blog while Augustine is napping, but taking a rest myself or working on something else often takes the priority.  This week I have mainly been blogging in the evening after Augustine goes to sleep...but Luke told me that after this week is over I need to take a blogging fast, so I can give him more attention again :).             

Tomorrow I will post pics of Augustine's completed Halloween costume!  Super excited to be finished with it!

What I do when I'm not Blogging - Day Three

One word:  PICTURES

Taking . downloading . uploading . cropping . captioning . dating . ordering . developing . sorting . organizing . 
album-ing . dreaming of scrapbooking
...you get the idea.  

About a month ago I was alarmed to discover that I had not developed ANY pictures since February!  {And I take a lot of pictures!}  As all of us in this world of digital photography can attest, it is way too easy to take a million pictures, download them onto your computer, and then put off actually having them printed.  For some people that works, and they are content with the pictures saved onto their computer.  But I am a bit fanatic about the whole thing, and I refuse to delete pictures off my camera's memory card until I am holding a hard copy in my hand...in addition to having them saved on my computer...and hard drive.  

This picture makes my heart smile.

Anyways, it was recently getting to the point that I couldn't take any more pictures because my memory cards were full.  So I finally made a huge order on Snapfish and got caught up on the developing aspect...but then I had hundreds of photos to date, caption, sort, etc.

I have been hard at work to make a dent in the process, but I still have a ways to go.

The top shelf of my desk presently looks like this:

...and my husband is none too thrilled.  {We may have had a little agreement that if I had a desk on our main floor, I would keep it looking nice and tidy.  Last night Luke said my "hobby lobby" (aka desk) was overflowing onto our kitchen table and that I needed to do some work on it--agreed!}.     

I arrange the majority of Augustine's photos in regular photo albums, but I have always planned on creating one BIG scrapbook of his most memorable pictures.  So as I put the captioned, dated, and chronologically ordered photos into albums, I set aside my favorite ones to put in the scrapbook.  

Pictures reserved for the scrapbook...
the first picture is, appropriately, of me in labor--real attractive.

At this point, the photos are all labeled, and I just need to finish putting them in the album...and then I am ready to begin the laborious, yet rewarding, task of scrapbooking.  It is my goal to have it finished before Baby #2 arrives!

Good intentions.

It feels like such a big job, especially because scrapbooking is messy and not at all conducive to "help" from a toddler.  Sometimes I wonder if I will ever actually get around to the scrapbook.  I sure hope so.  ...So does Luke!

I promise to keep you updated on any progress I make, and if you have any tips for photo organization or scrapbooking, please share them with me!