Citrus Lane Box Review(Dec. Box)

So Nov. I bought a groupon for a Citrus Lane 3 month subscription. I paid $35 dollars for 3 months, which breaks it down to around 11.66 dollars per box roughly. If you don't know what Citrus Lane is, its like a Birchbox for babies and Mama's. Its a box built around your child's gender and age, and they have different themes every month for their boxes. They are full of full sized products and samples.

Last month I got a Under the Nile toy, some Green Toy company bowls, a Goodbyn snack container, 2 little spoons that screw onto the top of a baby food pouch, which they sent me one of Plum Organics baby food pouches..and a sample of moisturizer for me! Not bad for $11 dollars.

I love seeing other people open their Birchboxes and their Citrus Lane boxes and wanted to show off my Dec. box I just got today. When the mail lady brought my box, I was excited to see it was bigger then last months. You open it and its so nicely wrapped and pretty. They have a little welcome note, and on the back is a list of the items in the box, their value and where to find the item to buy more of them.

 It came with a Tiny Love  Frankie the frog stroller/carseat clip on toy that has a pull down string to make it jiggle. ($6.99)

 A Ecomom.com's gift voucher for $15 dollars. Super excited about this..I love that store! Now just to decide how to spend it!

 2 samples of Dapple baby bottle and dish liquid..I haven't tried any Dapple products, so I can very excited about this.

 A pouch of 479 Popcorn Fleur De Sel Caramel popcorn. I immediately ate most of the bag, definitely something I would buy in store. The popcorn was very nice and light and sweet with that hit of salt. So good. I was nice and saved Luke a couple bites. :) ($1.99 per 1 oz. bag)

 A Green Toys tugboat. Its a bath toy..I know Micah doesn't quite appreciate this just yet, but he will! You can fill it up and pour out the front..also Green Toys are made from 100% recycled milk jugs..is BPA and PVC free as well..so its safe for them to play with. ($14.99)

 Pearhead Baby Hanging keepsake. How perfectly timed right here at Christmas..($14.95)

 So as you can see, I definitely got my $11's worth! And Micah has a few more things for under the tree. :)

Just for disclaimer. I was not paid to review this or given any incentive. It was on my own free will that I bought this and my completely honest opinion about the box. I still have a January Box as part of my 3 month subscription, but doubt I will renew just due to funds. However, if I had the money, I'd so still be getting these every month!

If you are interested in signing up to try it out here are some deals for you and my personal invite link!

Right now you can start your monthly subscription for less! Take 10% off the cost of your subscription with code SPRINGFUN. You'll save $7.50 on three months, $12.50 on six months, or $25 on twelve months!

https://www.citruslane.com/invitedby/Kayla.Fletcher

3 months.

I've gone almost 3 months without posting..! Whoa. I kept thinking it'd only been like a month and then realized it was way more then that.

Life has just become all consuming right now. Having 4 children, running a home, being a wife, and being a active participant in our church....

I will not even attempt to catch up, so much as just start where we are.

Olivia is doing so good in school and asks the teacher for extra home work. I'm so thankful that she is doing so well. She has become very smart and very helpful and I'm just so proud of her.

Noah is loving school and always has great grades. I was so worried about it and he has far surpassed how I thought he'd do in school. He LOVES Micah and its adorable watching him interact with his little "brudder".

Kate is finally potty trained(only took like a bazillion times trying)..but we can consistently take her out in public without pull ups and she does really good. She is enjoying her time home with me and Micah.

Micah is getting so big. He's 7 months...crawling, eating some baby food, "talking" it up and loving on his Mama. He also has 1 tooth and working on his second. We are getting ready to move him out of the pack n play in our room to his crib in with Noah. I'm both very very ready for this and having my room back but it also signifies a separating of us that usually doesn't reverse, for that I'm a little sad. Hoping he'll sleep better too without Luke and I walking in and out of the room late at night or early morning.

Luke and I are doing good..our life financially feels like a rollercoaster that we are just having to ride, but are continually thankful for the Lord's provision in this season...in the little and big ways.

We are so excited about Christmas this year and are probably going to set up our decorations this weekend. This is my favorite holiday and I'm so happy its here and we are getting to enjoy it. Now if the weather would cooperate and make it cold at least a few days this month to make it feel more wintery that would be great! :)

Stuffs

We went to T'ville this past weekend because Luke's grandmother passed away last week. It was both sad, and completely beautiful because she lived her life. It was full and she loved the Lord and she was without her husband for many years. I am thankful for such a great lady and for her time here on earth, and just as equally thankful for her passing as she is now with our maker and Bridegroom and I cannot imagine the unspeakable joy she has because of that. She is seeing her family and husband and all the Lord has for her there with him. She won't miss us, though we will miss her..and thats ok.

Got to see so many people while there and enjoyed hanging out with family. Not only do I have a great family myself but I married into an amazing one too..such a blessed girl I am.

The kids have been in school for a month now and are loving it. I'm still getting used to it, mostly just having to get up in the morning, but they are so thoroughly enjoying it that its hard not to feel their joy about it all. Both are doing well and seem to have friends already, so that's an answer to prayer!

Kate I have learned is a serious bum when the older two aren't around. She loves watching tv, and playing games on the ipad. I literally have to pull her away to do other things or she'd do that all day..

Micah is getting so big. At 4 months he's 17 lbs.. and pretty long though I need to measure him to see how big. He's wearing 9 month clothes and has ignored my requests to slow down on the growing thing. Stinker..:)

My coffee table.

Luke has asked me several times that we replace our coffee table. We were given it 9 years ago. It has scratches, dents, food that has dried and cannot be scraped off anymore, and has chewed up ends from a Rottweiler puppy we once had. Its not pretty anymore ya'll.

I cannot seem to part with it. It has seen life. It has been a place to put feet up, to eat dinner on, it has seen super hero's jumping from it, and glasses of sweet tea. It represents everything I want my home to be..A house the shows life, that sometimes life is messy and sometimes it leaves behind marks that show where we have been. I want people to know that they are always welcome at my house, but that it will not always be spick and span. That they can be comfortable because they can't possibly hurt our furniture anymore then it already is..

So if you come to my house, expect mess, expect life, and expect to see my grungy beat up coffee table that you can put your feet up on. :)

Dog Island 2012 notes

* Stayed with Luke's brother and our sister in law to break up our drive down, they have cats and we learned Micah is probably allergic due to a swollen face upon being around said cat. But enjoyed our time with them all the same.

* Being at the beach is wonderful.

* We had a 4 bdr. house all to ourselves.

* I realized how badly I missed a king sized bed.

* My children tired themselves out so well that they went to bed without issues all week.

* Micah slept like a champ. I however did not. What gives?!

* Walking on the beach every night after dinner should be a regular event in my book. Too bad we live so far from the ocean.

* Going with a set of Grandparents makes it even better. I enjoyed naps, finished a book(Water for Elephants, don't recommend due to some trash up in there!),had plenty of hammock time all to myself and went fishing thanks to her playing with them.

* My mother in law and I split the cooking. Pretty sure I got the better end of the deal on that one.

* My 14 year old sister in law is so awesome and sweet.

* Dog Island has shells. Like real big ones that aren't broken.

* It stormed on our way there and we had a choppy boat ride over. Noah freaked. Thankful our ride back wasn't so crazy.

* It feels nice having a tan.

* Forgetting to pack your bathingsuit will make you have to detour through Tallahassee to pick one up.

* We saw sharks, sting rays and crabs. No jelly fish thankfully.

* No one got burned the whole week. Score one for Me and sunscreen.

* On our way back home, we saw my sweet friend Patti, who made Micah his very own blankie because my kids love their Aunt Patti blankies, and she's been a gem crocheting 4 for us!! Also saw my Grandmother, ate dinner with her, saw my two youngest cousins and my aunt and uncle while there. Long travel times, but soo amazingly thankful for our time away. 9 days with my family is more then I can ask for!

Imperfect.

There are days where I feel like super woman. My kids act ok, my house is clean and there is a warm dinner waiting for my Husband when he comes home. 

There are days when I'm just ok. Had to discipline the kids more, laundry is washed but waiting to be folded and dinner gets cooked after Hubby is home and I can pass off baby. 

Then there are days like today. I yelled. Loudly. No part of my house got clean, my children played video games all day, and I sobbed when Hubby came home because I was simply overwhelmed. 

It would be easy to say that I am always looking to the Lord for strength, but that is not the case. Sometimes we fall and crash and burn, and are reminded how deeply flawed the flesh is.

Sometimes it takes your husband telling you to go to Starbucks to sit and remember to take the time to just ask.  Ask for Him. For a double portion of all that He is. Walking by His life is so easy, too easy really. Thankful that He promised that His fullness lives in me , just need to remind my flesh that it has been crucified with Christ and no longer lives so that He can be revealed even more clearly me.

News you can use.

Ok, so not really. Just me typing out random stuff on my iPad. :) So Olivia and Noah will be getting registered for school hopefully this week or next. The school they are going to just got charter status so that's exciting! Thankfully we are zoned for there and won't have to apply. Kate has been going in the potty a lot more, though I still feel leagues away from having her potty trained. If she doesn't potty train before the kids go back to school, I'll focus on it then when I can devote more time to her and the process. Micah is adorable. Seriously. While I still am not getting a ton done during the day, he has gotten a lot better. Happily sitting in the bouncy seat for short periods and letting the kids give him a paci if need be till I can get him. He has also been sleeping great at night the past 4 nights averaging 6+ hours and then going back Dow. For a couple more after eating. Such a sweetie. Luke found out this week that they want to offer Luke a week of paid vacation. Something we were told we wouldn't probably get, but Luke's bosses really love him and are really nice and I guess decided he earned it..haha. Trying to decide what to do, tried looking into the beach, but we can't afford $850+ for a condo/hotel room, so we are trying to look into other options. We'll see. We haven't seen the beach in 2 years, and haven't had a vacation for 4..it's time! I've been on a baking binge lately. I REALLY love baking..it's a stress relief for more, just need to find healthier recipes so when I eat said baked goods, I won't put on 50lbs...still below what I was when I got pregnant, but know that I need to be more careful and make healthier choices. Body is finally back to feeling good and as soon as I have more then 5 minutes to myself I plan on picking running back up, cause surprisingly I actually miss it..:)

Poor Micah..

He's had a rough go of things. He's seen more Dr's and nurses then some of my kids combined. 2 visits to the pediatricians office in a month, 2 visits to the hospital for blood work and several conversations with his Ped and Midwife about his rapid breathing(which is slowing down, thank the Lord!).

We noticed he had thrush the other day and like most people sought out the most common treatment(which I was told would have been his Pediatricians recommendation had I called him.)...so for 3+ days my baby had a purple mouth due to Gentian Violet(it stains everything!). Well he was getting fussier and fussier during treatment. On Sunday morning I realized when I wiped Micah's mouth that there was blood on my rag and once the purple faded some over the course of the day, I realized his poor little mouth was covered in sores. I read that the Gentian Violet can do that in rare occasions. Sucks we were in the small minority that reacted to it. Thankfully it did its job and he doesn't have thrush anymore, but now we are having to treat the sores which is just by treating pain till they go away on their own. Its pitiful cause he doesn't want to nurse much cause it hurts and thus has been very crabby. After seeing our ped. yesterday I believe he is finally getting some relief. He slept 2- 4 hr. chunks last night, nursed well, and was content all morning(and by content, I mean he wasn't screaming while I was holding him.) and even let me finish breakfast while he sat in a bouncy seat which I haven't ever been able to to. Thankful the pain relief regimen is helping and he's feeling somewhat better.

Hoping we are on the up swing and that poor Micah won't have to worry about Dr's or anything else any time soon.

Good news is my baby is a few oz. shy of 13 lbs. and his Dr was pleased with how he looked and everything(despite the mouth stuff).

BzzCampaigns..

Here are some Campaigns I'm a part of right now. Enjoying the perks of being a BzzAgent..:)

Busy weekend.

Friday I had to go back to our local hospital to have Micah's PKU screen re-done due to a non accepted first go at it, I felt soo bad for him and he had to have it taken out of his arm instead of his heel. Thankfully my Mom offered to come watch the 3 older kids so I could take him alone, which was such a blessing because I was there for an hour and a half waiting for them to get their act together.  We came back, he got fed and we went to lunch. Pretty sure we keep Chick-fil-a in business. ;) Did a little shopping in Old Navy, indulged in Starbucks then had pedicures(and an eyebrow wax for me, cause yeah...its been a LONG time and I was looking rough). A luxury I only seem to take with Mom..haha..Kate had her toes done too and was so big about sitting there in the chair perfectly still having her nails painted. Thankful for my girly girl and the time I know she and I will share treating ourselves in the future(Gotta figure out what Livvy enjoys, cause its not pedicures! haha). Managed to get home and we had a single Brother come over and hang out with us for the evening.

Saturday we went grocery shopping, then headed over to some friends house for a cookout for most of the day. Did I mention, I made brownies and cake balls to take with me, whew!

Sunday, Luke mowed our lawn(poor guy, its huge and we have a push mower!), then we went to Best Buy. We have had the same computer for 7ish years and its a 50/50 shot on it working most of the time and its memory was all used up, so we kept having to move stuff onto an external hardrive.  We decided it was finally time to upgrade...ended up getting a Gateway, which totally takes me back to my childhood and the cow printed boxes. We are enjoying it a lot and its crazy to have it work so well..:), Then we had to go get Noah a new carseat cause his was too big to sit next to Olivia's in the back seat, so he has graduated to a high back booster..such big stuff. ;) Ah, the joys of fitting 4 carseats in a minivan, then we got frozen yogurt...it really hit the spot on such a hot day and something we haven't done in forever thanks to my gestational diabetes when pregnant.

So yeah, it was busy!

Today Olivia and I finished off Phonics and Language Arts, so all we have left in school is 3 lessons of History and we are DONE for the school year. So happy and ready to enjoy some down time without school looming over me every day. We should be able to finish those all tomorrow..hooray!

We finally got a renter for our house! Our last one moved out early and we were very close to having to let the house go, but thanks to some help from a friend and the Lord, we have someone moving in June 1st. SO thankful.

Did I mention I weigh less now then I did when I got pregnant? All that eating healthy during my pregnancy paid off apparently. Giving myself 6 weeks to enjoy eating without calorie counting, then I'll be back to making much healthier choices and accounting for what I eat.  Its just amazing to me, because I haven't weighed less then Luke for a long time! haha..

Micah's birth story.

 (Some details may have been left out because I simply don't remember them..haha..Photo's by my friend Kelly Hardee)

Thursday(5-3-12) morning I woke up earlier then normal, and decided to make the most of it and get started with school..we finished super quick..during school I noticed my Braxton hicks were different feeling, but nothing that said "labor's coming". . Made the kids a nice big lunch, got my house re-cleaned since Luke and I had cleaned on Wednesday night, and played some Wii with the kiddos. As my usual routine, around 2 I laid down Kate for a nap, busied my older two, and laid down myself. Played on the iPad for a while before deciding to turn over in bed and watch whatever Baby story type show was on. I had also just talked to Luke about trying not to push getting home so late in the day.

It was 2:30 and I flipped over and went to tuck my big maternity pillow into its comfy position when I felt a pop, it started getting warm "down there" and for some reason I thought I'd peed myself, but as soon as I thought that, it started getting really wet and I realized what had happened, my water broke! I jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom..it was gushing out..I had a ton of fluid so I knew it would just keep coming.

I called Olivia and asked her to retrieve my cell phone, called Luke back and told him to come on home because it was going to be baby day! Called my Mom/midwife and she just happened to be with her apprentice and said they would be on their way. Called my friend/photographer and she thankfully was wrapping up at work and was going to get her camera and come. Wasn't really having any contractions, so I wasn't sure how long it would take for those to start. I laid back down in bed and waited and around 3:30 I called both Luke and Mom back because contractions had started and they were already very painful and meant business. Luke was 15ish minutes out and Mom was getting Chick-fil-a down the road from us. Photographer friend showed up just as the rest did.

Luke immediately started up filling the pool, and Mom and apprentice started stats on me, 6 cm's fully effaced and 0 station for those that care for serious details. Labored for a while with Luke by myself waiting for the pool to fill some, finally it was deep enough and it felt sooo good to get in, but wasn't as pain relieving as I remembered it being last time, but it was better then nothing and the idea of delivering out of the water made me nervous for some reason.

I wasn't in the pool long before I noticed I had some pressure..nothing I felt a couldn't breath through, but it was there. I had this fear about pushing before I was really ready, so mom suggested I pant/breath through a few more before deciding whether to push or not. By the time those 2-3 contractions were over, my body was pushing..I pushed one good time and didn't feel like anything happened..next push and suddenly he was crowning. I heard them saying, "His ears are out, his head is out,there's one arm, there's the other".. At that point I just yelled "pull him out" as I gave one final push and he was out! The relief you feel at that moment is amazing, and I was soo happy to finally be seeing this sweet face after so many weeks of not so patiently waiting for him.

After placenta came, and having a nice shower, we weighed and measured him. Baby Micah David was born in about 2 hours(once contractions started) weighing 9 lbs. 14 oz. 22.5 inches long.
14.75 head and a 14.5 chest.

So happy to be done!

The scene in our dining room. :)

Olivia helping Daddy cut the cord.

Mom with her special role as Midwife AND Nana.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Micah with a carrot cake I'd made and froze a couple weeks before.

Its April 16th..

As of this coming Wednesday, I will be 37 weeks. Normally, this date would come and go and not effect me at all aside from normal pregnancy complaints..but when you put off labor for 8 weeks and then NOTHING happens after a week of being off meds and bedrest...its a little disappointing. I know its still early, and I know he needs the time to bake obviously..but its still sad, when I kind of thought he'd be here by now. Please spare me the "it'll happen" comments. As a mama who's expecting her 4th..I recognize he WILL eventually come, and I only have a matter of like 3 week even if I went full term...but this pregnancy has SUCKED..and I'm just flat out done,done, done. Pretty sure he'd be better off on the outside of me, then in at this point.  As you can see, I apparently have not laid this down yet to the Father, who I know controls his birthday...it will come, the laying down...but today, here I am complaining, because He can handle it.

We are pretty ready for his arrival though! Got the birth pool blown up so we wouldn't have to do that in the middle of the night, the rest of the stuff in one location, and diapers and clothes ready to clothe his body. 3 VERY excited siblings who ask every day if today is THE day. We have baked him a birthday cake to enjoy on his big day(Mommy is very happy about that since I haven't had dessert in 2 months)..and its in the freezer wrapped up and ready to go. I have really cleaned my house and am doing my best to maintain that clean with Luke's help..

Just need a certain baby boy to join in on the fun..:)

Favorite right now..

When we had an apostle of sorts come and help our little body of believers, one "assignment" as we called them was to change all the "Love"'s in 1st Corinthians 13 to "Jesus" since they are the same...it was so great to see it that way, not just an emotion or feeling, but a Person..

Heard this song on Pandora the other day and it was so moving...both as is, and with Jesus replacing the loves...

Hoping it encourages you as it did me.

Love Never Fails by Brandon Heath

Love is not proud
Love does not boast
Love after all
Matters the most

Love does not run
Love does not hide
Love does not keep
Locked inside

Love is the river that flows through
Love never fails you

Love will sustain
Love will provide
Love will not cease
At the end of time

Love will protect
Love always hopes
Love still believes
When you don’t

Love is the arms that are holding you
Love never fails you

When my heart won’t make a sound
When I can’t turn back around
When the sky is falling down
Nothing is greater than this
Greater than this

Love is right here
Love is alive
Love is the way
The truth the life

Love is the river than flows through
Love is the arms that are holding you
Love is the place you will fly to
Love never fails you

You can't out do His grace.

I know that a lot of us are going through season's in our lives where stuff feels too much..While I quote to myself that His mercies are new every morning, I have often complained that I got short changed on my daily amount..The Lord has just been reminding me gently about something He showed me a while back.

Last year when Luke and I were invited to spend some time with his family and their ministry board at a lake house one weekend, we readily took them up on it. It was spring and pollen was everywhere. On the last day that we were there, we all went and sat outside on a big deck and worshiped together. Our wonderful host was apologetic that she had just wiped all the surfaces down out there but it didn't seem to help as the pollen just kept coming. While worshiping, it became so obvious..The Lord was clearly revealing Himself in the pollen. I was looking up and watching the trees, sometimes the pollen was just somehow there on the surfaces and you never saw it land there, other times a big gust of wind would blow and you would see this huge cloud of pollen burst forth from the tree and blow around.

He reminded me then, and now that just when I think I've gotten rid of/wiped it away, or used up all the grace He has provided me, there is ALWAYS more, and its pointless to even try to use it up so to speak. I can't...Sometimes its there, and we didn't see it show up..sometimes we get huge gusts of it and its more noticeable..but it is there all the same.

2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 

 

I seem to be..

An every 2-3 week blogger(sometimes more, eek!)...I apologize. Life is kind of crazy right now. Between trying my best to lay down as often as I can, homeschooling and caring for children, and everything else life entails, even my down time is busy...haha..

I'll be 32 weeks on Wednesday. Which means just over 4 weeks till we are in the safe to deliver zone...he may or may not come then, but at least I can be off meds and resume normal activity then which will improve my outlook quite a bit. Though, even with meds, I contract regularly(just not patterned and constant like before), so I'm thinking it may not take too long once I'm off the meds and up and moving for him to come..but we shall see. Either way, the end is in sight and that is something I am clinging to right now.

My gestational diabetes is going ok, I have only had 2 abnormal readings in the almost 4 weeks I've started eating properly...I consider that pretty successful. Both were because I ate something for breakfast I knew would probably send my numbers to the higher end..I'll be soo happy when I don't have to come up with a different way to make eggs every morning...I miss my morning cereal like mad crazy! In fact, I usually have some sort of soup right after delivery..and a bowl of cereal is what I want! haha..(along with a plethora of other higher carb/sweet goods)...:) Although I will say, its opened my eyes to how much food I can eat without tons of calories and will help me in the long run when I can eat higher calorie foods, to eat them in moderation...

Olivia is being quite helpful, she has taken on the task of unloading the dishwasher daily(occasionally loading it if I ask), moving laundry from washer to dryer and bringing me what was in the dryer so I can fold while on the couch, and making breakfast for the two younger ones(nothing cooking, frozen waffles and bowls of cereal..haha..). She may be mad high energy, but she's been a serious help to me. So thankful for such a big helper and for her willingness to serve and help..recognizing a need and meeting it.

Kate has been clingier then ever lately. I wonder if she knows it won't be long before her "baby" status will no longer be...guess its hard to explain to her at her age that she will always be my baby, and having a smaller baby will not "De-throne" her so to speak. I know it will just mean I will have to be extra careful when Baby Boy comes to give her extra lovins'...

Don't have much to report about my current middle child. He's kind of one of those fade into the background if allowed types. Though, I will say, he's been helpful too...but he's also going through a little not-a-big-fan-of-Kate phase which is challenging...handling it the best I know how..which isn't much! ;)

Till next time.

Eventful times..

Almost 2 weeks ago I had a really normal lazy day, but as night came around I realized that my normal braxton hicks were coming very close together...after timing them for an hour and having 20!, I tried every thing in the book I knew, my herbs, a bath, water, laying down, walking some..we finally decided that enough was enough and called a friend to come sit with the kids while we headed to the hospital. Upon arriving, I was tachycardic with a heartrate of 240...thankfully it came down pretty quick even though its stayed high..but contractions were showing up on the moniter of having one almost every minute. I was given a test called a Fetal Fibronecton test and it apparently picks up a chemical that you put off when you are heading towards labor..thankfully, mine came back neg! I was given a dose of Procardia and that didn't seem to help too much...they decided to keep me since I was contracting so often. I was moved from triage to a antepartum room and they decided to give me Mag sulfate which is kind of their go to med for labor stopping...well after being catheterized(NO fun, and I still don't quite understand why, but something to do with the meds) they started it but my blood pressure plummeted into unhealthy numbers, so they quickly shut that off..Luke said I looked dead, and after getting some oxygen he said I started looking better...

So that was off the table of a treatment method. Was given another med called Indocin which thankfully spaced them out a little bit. We were sent for an ultrasound to see how big Baby Boy was, had lots of blood work ran, and given an EKG because of my heart rate issues.. After the Indocin, they gave me a higher dose of Procardia and that helped to just about get rid of them all together with only one here and there. I was also given a gestational diabetes test while there and failed..boo. First time ever..

I was released on bedrest orders and on my meds which I am to take every 6 hours round the clock. I'm on a diabetic diet right now, and just careful to make sure my heart rate doesn't get too high. 

I am very thankful we were able to stop them mostly, and very thankful that I didn't have a 28 week old baby born..but I'm so fed up with being pregnant at this point. I'm 30 weeks in 2 days and then I just need to make it to 36 so I can have a normal birth like I want sans hospital....

So thankful for Church family who have taken my kids for afternoons, fed us and been so wonderfully supportive and for my real family..specially my mama, cause she's had to work out so much for me in terms of getting the help I need medically and watching kids so I can see those people.

Hoping the rest is pretty uneventful!

One more week!

 This post is just all over the place random. Sorry.

And I'm officially in my third trimester. So excited..I can't believe its so close..Baby Boy is quite active. He is always kicking and shoving, and gets hiccups quite often. Can't wait to start setting up a few things for him. We don't need much since he's our 4th, but we need a new crib and pack n play since our other ones have taken a beating through the first 3..Plus, every baby deserves a few new things that are just theirs and not hand me downs.

Olivia is progressing in school and we are looking forward to being done with this school year in mid May, though I am hoping to double up some so we can be done earlier hopefully.. 1st grade hasn't been a pleasant experience I don't think for either of us. She is so excited about getting to go to "real" school in the fall. Noah on the other hand is hesitant, but mostly cause he doesn't like the idea of not being able to be in the same classroom with Olivia. It will be so weird to just have Kate and Baby Boy at home for a good portion of the day. Though I am sure they will keep me busy..just a different kind then I'm used to. Its like reverting to a prior mothering state..haha..

We've got company at our house all week, we are enjoying having our friend around and thankful he didn't mind sleeping on the couch in our guest room..Poor guy. His time here has kept me busy though because I definitely feel like keeping things cleaner, more together then my average day might be. Staying on top of laundry, school, our personal appearance, and dishes, not to mention making fuller meals then I might make normally.

Isn't it weird that you can live so close to people and rarely see them? Our lives aren't crazy busy, but somehow we still barely manage to see my parents, Luke's parents, and my sister and her family and they are only an hour away. I'm blaming it on being pregnant right now, but honestly its just me being lazy and not making the effort to have people here, or drive there.

I gained a new niece last week..she's adorable and I can't wait to love on her and hold her.

Noah's birthday is coming up at the end of the month..we haven't decided what to do yet..guess we'll see.

I'm off..gotta fold clothes and prep all the ingredients for my quiche and fruit salad for tonight's dinner.  Then, I'm chilling. :)

Over it.

I had the best intentions of enjoying this pregnancy..since it will be our last, I thought, I'd savor every second of it. But just to be honest with you I'm not.

I know this is kind of horrible since I know many who cannot get pregnant, stay pregnant or have bigger issues then me, and I AM thankful to BE pregnant. It's just, I'm not enjoying it like I'd hoped. As I laid in bed last night, even Luke could tell..he said "you'll be happy when this is over won't you?"..I feel huge though people swear I'm not..I always seem to have all my complicated issues while pregnant..like kidney stones, and I'm pretty sure my hips and pelvic bone hate me.

I will miss the child bearing season of my life, but not so much this pregnancy part. ;)

Glad the pay off(being the baby!) is so stinkin worth it.

24 weeks on Wednesday..16 more to go..give or take. Hopefully the take. ;)