{Ahh..the little things}

A big kid now...

Who is he with all of these teeth missing? 

OMGoodness he just looks so cute :)

Tomorrow is school picture day too, and I am actually very happy that he is toothless...what a great memory.  As I posted a few days ago, he is a HUGE Bengals fan & I think he is going to wear his jersey for pics. Honestly, I am SHOCKED that I support the decision instead of pressing for the "cute/dressed up school picture look".  Makes me proud of myself in some ways though...knowing that I am okay letting him be who he is  :) 

It really is alot harder than I ever thought it would be.  I am lucky (so far) that he is a really good kid though, so it does make it somewhat easier, I am sure! 

More fun news for Kaden is that his soccer team is UNDEFEATED!!  These boys are a GREAT team, and are barely even getting scored on...it's AWESOME & we are loving it.  VERY exciting for a first year player.   The other day after Ohio State won, I overheard him & Daddy talking.  I caught my hubby in one of those "you are the BEST Daddy ever" moments when he said...

• "Guess what Bubba?  My three favorite teams are still ALL UNDEFEATED!!" 
• Kaden says "Three....? Who are they?" 
• And Daddy answers him "Hartzell's (K's team name), Ohio State &  the Bengals!!"

Talk about a proud little boy :)  being compared with the two teams he knows his Daddy loves so much!   *not to mention me grinning a HUGE grin in the other room*   

I was so proud!!

{Ahh..the little things}

YAY...finally

Well, one of our MUCH needed "baby" things can be checked off the list....

This is sitting in my driveway where my "I can not fit another child into this vehicle" Jeep used to sit.

I am SOOOO excited about it  :)  We've been looking for a van for quite some time & just could not find what we really wanted, and were also having some trouble getting much for our Jeep (which was FULLY loaded and in GREAT  condition) because of it's high mileage.  Well, last night we found a small car lot that wanted the Jeep so we had to pick up a rental car to get us by until we found something else.  At the lot that has the rentals we saw this, and it just looked like ME  :)   I am a casual, easy going person & I felt like this van was too.  Simple, yet loaded with enough extras, and not over the top priced...YAY! 

My fave thing has to be the automatic doors, paired with the fact that ALL of my kiddos (even little Zander) can climb in alone!!  I can not even tell you how hard it was getting to lift him into the Jeep, and his carseat was in the middle of the seat, and sometimes Ellie needed a boost, and my belly would rub against her carseat when I reached over it to get Z into his seat...UGH!  Things are SO much easier now, I just LOVE it.

Okay, dinner time here, I just had to share my excitement first:)

Non-food post (LOL)

Reading my blog, it is SOOO obvious that I am pregnant and overeating!!  I talk about food in every post lately, LOL!

The last few days I have been feeling EXHAUSTED, so I have lived on the couch.  I have not scrapped, and barely even felt like checking my e-mails, I just sit/lay there and veg all day long.  I get up to take care of the kids & transport them to and from school, but that is really about all I can do.   

  I am just about 33 wks along now, so I still have 7 weeks if I go to my due date...UGH ~  And I was just saying that this pregnancy was flying by so far, LOL!   If I continue to feel this way, I think I am in for a looooong 7 weeks.  Of course, I am to that point now that I am just hoping she comes a little early too, but I know the chances are slim.

I did have some fun shopping for her last weekend, and so did my MIL & SIL :)  They found the great summer clearance & bought her a bunch of stuff for next summer! 

We still have a few bigger items to buy (carseat, bathtub, MINIVAN, LOL) and some small stuff (breastpads, boppy, receiving blankets, sheets, etc)  but I just have not felt like shopping this week.  I've even considered shopping on-line this time too, but do not like to pay the high shipping prices.  As for the van situation, we *think* we have a buyer for the Jeep that we are meeting with tomorrow, and if all goes well, we will go find a van this weekend too.  I am keeping my fingers crossed...

happy & apples, apples, apples

So, the happy part is because I finalized the double birthday party plans last night...woohoo!  We are going to a local family-owned pizza place for an informal pizza party & the kids actually seem excited now.  Another cute thing that is working out is the fact that at one point Ellie saw either a cake or cupcakes with pom-pom's on them & decided she wanted a cheerleader themed party.  Well, my husband has been a lifelong Bengal's fan (he now has figured out he was near Kaden's age when it started!!!) and now has passed that love of the team onto Kaden.  I would actually say that Kaden's "love" is quite an obsession, but it is cute to see at this age!  He colors his papers at school orange & black, has decided he will be a Bengal's football player for halloween (and when he grows up), his fave animal is now a tiger, he play fooball outside (in his jersey, of course) nearly every afternoon, and now told me even recess at school is flag football too!!  This does not even begin to tell you what our house is like on game day, LOL.  I am telling you, the kid simply LOOOOVES all things Bengals.  Well, where that big story was going (LOL) was that he asked if I could make a football cake for him for the party.  How cute will that be?  The first time I had to do a party together, and they chose cheerleading & football as the themes?!?  I just hope I can find the pom-pom cake/cupcakes now too!!

Now, for the apples!!  This time of year is always good for apples in this area, but for some reason, this year it is all I seem to think about.  I guess it could be pregnancy cravings of some sort, because yesterday at the store I bought apple chips, and caramel apple flavored doughnuts, and apple juice, and cinnamon applesauce.  And I am dying for some homemade apple crisp...YUMMMM!!

My best friend called last night and wants to take the kids somewhere this weekend.  Being BIG pregnant, I told her I am not up for much walking & suggested one of our favorite family activities - the pumpkin patch/farm.  And this is the first weekend for pumpkins, but all I was thinking was APPLES... LOL!!!  Hopefully we'll find a clear day (it is supposed to rain) and be able to go.  There is alot of fun things for the kids to do there & it usually makes for GREAT pictures too!!

Kiddos need me, hopefully I can come back & finish my post....

yummers

The new peanut butter & honey on wheat...OMGoodness

Just had to sshare that I love these things so much that both sandwhiches that I have eaten have not even been completely thawed...but I could not wait

LMBO :)

http://www.smuckers.com/fg/otg/uncrustables/default.asp

MORE...

Yes, I know I already posted once today, but I wanted to share something so simple yet moving that happened...

During Bible Study this morning, Beth Moore said something that really hit me & I wanted to make sure that my kiddos never felt what she did.  She said somehting along the lines of as early as 8-9yrs old that she remembers feeling like she was not good enough, or wished that she was more like this person or that person.  She had always felt unworthy too, and could not believe that she could be called on by God to do her ministry (this BLOWS my mind as she is simply AMAZING)!!

The reason why it hit me the way it did was because lately I do not feel like I tell my kids how GREAT they really are.  I scrap it, I blog about it, I talk to other people about it, but just never say  "Hey, I think you are GREAT!"  I know that it is very important to me too, and started to wonder how things have been so busy that I have not just paid much attention to the fact that I was not telling them these things.  "I love you" is an all day/everyday thing around here, but the "extras" are what I have been missing.

Okay, long story short, I spent the afternoon telling them "secrets" which were just some simple things

• I love you
• you are special
• you are great
• I like the way you ______
• you are a wonderful brother/sister
• you are so good at ______

And do you know what was so touching to me??  The smiles that just BEAMED across each of thier faces as I took the time to do this ~ even Zander was grinning!And the first time when I stopped whispering to Ellie, her response was  "MORE!" she was just LOVING it!  After I picked Kaden up from school & told him some secrets, can you guess what his response was??  "MORE!"

I was SO excited about how much they enjoyed it that I could not wait to have Daddy try it too & see those grinning faces :) and he was just as happy as I was that they liked hearing these things so much, and that it was such as easy (and fun) way to show them they mean alot to us!

It really has made for a happy day around here, and I was glad to see that my kids responded to it so openly, and even asked for MORE  :)

busy is back...

and boy, it kicked me in full force this week!!

Monday -  (evening) Tastefully Simple party at a friend's

Tuesday - Dr appt in am, soccer game (in the rain...UGH) and Mommy snack duty

Wednesday - MOPS started back up (YAY!)

Thursday - Bible Study

Friday - NOTHING on the calendar (yet, LOL)!

All of this does not include M/W/F afternoon carpool to Ellie's preschool (just one little girl) and taking Kaden to & from school everyday too...whew!  Being a Momma is a busy job and I know, before anyone has to tell me ~

"It's gonna get even busier VERY soon!!"

I can not tell you how often I hear that one these days!  Or the other line (that has my hubby aggravated at hearing it so much, LOL) is *said while looking at my HUGE belly* 

"don't the two of you know what causes that YET??"  Ummm....no, could you tell us please?  ;)

I've started to plan a party for Kaden & Ellie's birthdays together this year due to the fact that Ava is due only 6 days before Ellie's birthday.  I did not think it would be fair if we planned something & had to cancel according to when baby comes.  So, to avoid that (hopefully) we are planning a party for the last weekend in October for the two together.  I know they are less than excited about the prospect of sharing a party, but it is just the way it will have to be. 

In fact, I bet Ellie & Ava may always have together parties (after the BIG #1 for Ava, of course).  We've also considered stopping the big party plans as it seems to be getting a little harder each year.  It does not help that the two older, and of course now the new little one, all have birthdays in fall which tends to be busy already with the Holidays.  We may just start having a friend or two overnight for pizza & movies, and family can just stop in and visit whenever it works for them. 

Okay, off to the couch, I have Zander napping & Ellie resting ~ so I am going to get a little rest myself :)

YAY rainy day!

Funny how as I have grown older (and more computer addicted, LOL) that I love rainy days.  My only complaint about the one today is that I have a Dr. appt so I must leave the house (with kiddos in tow unless Daddy takes a rain day) just for an hour or so though.  I am down to the two week visits already & can hardly believe it!  So far this pregnancy really has flown by...now I KNOW that the last four weeks tend to be my roughest, so I may regret saying that!

I logged on to share another layout & realized it seems that is all I do lately, and not a whole lot of talking :)  Shocking, I know!

This one is for Jen Wilson's Meaning challenge & I chose the theme "My inner spirit"  I used an older pic that was actually one of my faves of Harry & I (LOL) poor guy got CUT OUT!!  Oh how I miss that skinny face...LMBO!!

.

.

.

I also thought that I'd share a BIG belly pic taken last night.  I really am unsure how my belly can stretch any further, but know it always manages, LOL!

The pic was pretty dark, so I added a filter, I hope it does not take away from the BIG-NESS of that tummy (as if that is possible, LOL!)  I need to get these pics printed and into her baby book.  I have noticed that I am very bad at keeping up with printing my digital pics.  I used to develop my pics and get them all in albums right away... now I think it has been since the beginning of summer since I had prints made & who knows when the last time was I put them into photo albums.  They've been replaced with back-up CD's!!  LOL, and I used to say that I hated all things "technical" and e-mail was so impersonal (???)  Cracks me up to see my life now (as I sit here and BLOG!!!) ...

I guess I better get off my behind & get the kiddos ready for the sitters, and myself ready for my appt.  Have a GREAT rainy day!!

Happy belated Birthday...

TO my BLOG!!

I just ck'd and saw that my first post was 8/31/05, I can't believe that I've been keeping up with this (well, sometimes!!) for a whole year now  :)  I only have 125 posts, so I have not done the BEST...but am excited that I have a years worth of memories here.  Now I want to go back & read some, but I have to hit the shower, Kaden has a soccer game this afternoon!

digi dare #2

Just wanted to share this layout I made for the second digi dare, I am loving these!!

here is the journaling (song lyrics by creed):

It really is quite unbelieveable how a pregnancy changes your life. I am amazed every single day at how much this little life has already touched mine in such a BIG way! I am constantly thinking of ways to welcome her just right, how it will feel to meet her for the first time, nurse her,and to rock her each night. I think of how she will fit into our family, and how our lives will become richer with her in them! I heard this song the other day and it just spoke to me, as it is how I feel about her already....

Welcome to this place ...Now everything has changed  I'll show you love  I'll show you everything   With arms wide open

I also wanted to add that the contractions have now slowed down & things are fine.  I had them T/W/Th pretty regularly & called the Dr Friday morning to be sure that I was doing the right things (fluids & rest), and to ask when to worry.  They said go to Labor & delivery if they get 5 min apart (which they were Wed & Thur evenings, but I layed on the couch from about 4:00 on each night) and that this being my fourth pregnancy I should expect more "practice contractions" nearing the end.  So, now I am trying to just take it easy, which is kinda hard with three kids & constant running here & there!  But I know it is what is best for baby & me :) so I am really trying HARD!!

I realized the other day that I only have about 8 wks left (O...M...G...) and that when you put that into days like it does on the ticker I use in some forums, that is only 66 days!!!