Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours! Oooh, I forgot how long it's been since I've posted a picture of the kids. Mr. Peanut had to get glasses! Funny enough, he could have gotten a monacle (just like the actual Mr. Peanut), considering he has Anisometropic Amblyopia, which means he has diminished vision in one eye. Funny that I've never thought of that before! He does excellent with them. Most of the time...

Circus Birthday Party Overview

Presenting--the greatest show on Earth--Midget & Peanut's Circus Birthday Party!!I had so much fun planning this party! I searched all over the web for ideas that I could incorporate on a small-ish budget, even though I knew the party was going to be the largest I'd thrown since our wedding.

The first thing I did was create a board on Pinterest, just to keep my visual ideas in one place. I resisted Pinterest for a while because I really didn't want another thing that I had to feel guilty about not keeping up with, but once I got in there and started working with it, it became a great tool that I've used for several other things. I set up a non-personal account, so I can share eye-candy with y'all, but I just set it up, so it's completely blank right now. However, you are welcome to follow me if you'd like! Just click here to get to my Pinterest page.


The next thing I did was to search out a printable party pack that would work for both the turdlets in both graphics and color scheme. I searched on Etsy and found an affordable and, most importantly, ADORABLE pack from Dimpleprints. They were super fast and awesome to work with, plus the pack I received included SO much stuff! Invitation, thank you, party hats, cupcake toppers, every sign imagineable (and some I hadn't thought of), and so much more! Be on the lookout for all the matching goodies throughout the pictures in this series.

So as not to overwhelm you with pictures and information, I'll be doing three more posts about the Circus Birthday Party. Look for posts on Activities, Food, and Sweets & Favors. Better yet, subscribe or sign up for emails (to the left of this post) and get updates right in your feeder or inbox!!

For now, I'll leave you with two pictures of my adorable munchkins. I sure do have cute kids!!

Happy Birthday Midget and Peanut!!!

I am just so amazed at how quickly this year has flown by! My baby girl turns 4 in just a few days and my baby boy turned one a few days ago.















J-dub the hub and I took the turdlets to a small circus a few months ago and Midget was enthralled with the whole experience! She laughed at the clown, ooooooed over the lions and tigers, squealed with excitement to get her face painted, and almost peed herself when she got to ride an elephant!! So, we are having a circus birthday party this weekend and I decided to do their birthday pictures in the same theme.















For the tutu, I followed the directions here and it turned out beautiful! It's so simple if you get the tulle spools. They can be found for less than $2 per spool on ebay. I cut the tulle in about 30 minutes and tied the tutu while I was catching up on some Dexter. Oh, I love that show...















The tie was made using this tutorial, although I made the tie pattern quite a bit skinnier.














The diaper cover was made using the tutorial and pattern found here. Just a piece of advice--do NOT sew the waist and legs up until you try them on your little one. I had to rip out the waist AND one of the legs. Because I was being impatient and wanted to finish. That's why...

I made the suspenders from ribbon and mitten clip clips (does that make any sense?). I thought I had four clips so I would've just made the traditional X in the back, but it turned out I only had three, so I had to improvise. I used an orange hair band and looped it.... I can't really explain it, so here's a picture of it.














I think my two clowns are the cutest!! Stay tuned for Birthday Party Pictures!!

Has it been that long??

Wow, this summer has gone by SO fast thus far! We spent the beginning of June in Wisconsin and then my sister flew me and the turdlets out to Montana to spend almost a month. We got back last Friday and then left on Tuesday to go to North Dakota and Montana (again). I'm exhausted and am missing my garden, but it has been so much fun!!

Here's a smattering of the fun we've had so far!

Midget and Peanut

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!! Can someone please slow time down a little bit for me? These kids are growing too, too fast!! Here's a few pictures from a recent photoshoot. I know everyone thinks their kids are cute, and I'm no exception! I think Peanut looks especially dapper in his little old man hat... Love that sweet boy!

Taggie Blanket (Tag Blankie) Tutorial

I know I could completely get away with not telling you all how long ago I talked about doing a taggie blanket tutorial here. But, I'm just not that kind of girl. I prefer to berate myself publicly, even though it doesn't seem to help me in any way... It was almost two years ago. eeeeeeeek. How on earth does time fly like that?? I finally am getting around to it now.

To be fair, I haven't made a blankie in that long and last week, I noticed Peanut mesmerized at the tag on a stuffed monkey. Since poor Midget never got one, I decided to rip a tag blankie out for Peanut to try to make up for his second child photo syndrome. Surprisingly, I remembered that I said I was going to do a photo tutorial on here. Funny, since I can't seem to remember to put on my undies some days...

First, gather your materials.
Two 14 x 14 inch squares of fabric: I prefer fleece and flannel because they are fairly easy to sew and nice and soft, but you can use whatever material floats your boat.
Sixteen 6 inch long lengths of ribbon: I like to use varying textures, colors and widths of ribbon. You can coordinate them with your fabric or just use whatever you have on hand.
Coordinating Thread: I didn't worry too much about this because my non-patterned flannel fabric was light colored, so I used white thread. If you use a darker colored solid panel, you'll want to coordinate your thread.
Empty cellophane candy bags (Optional): I sewed in some crinkly panels, but once I realized I wouldn't be able to bring Peanut's tag blankie to church, I was sad I'd done it. : (

Here's my two fabric squares.








First, I sewed in the crinkly panels. I just took two empty candy bags (by the way, I LOOOOOOOOVE Everlasting Gobstopper Heartbreakers and wish they made them all year long but it's probably a good thing they don't because I'd have broken teeth and lots of cavities and I'd never look good in that strapless bridesmaid dress I have to wear in November) and cut off the end pieces and opened them up and cut them a little bit bigger than where I wanted to sew them onto and zipped around them. If your fabric has a right and wrong side, you would want these on the wrong side of the fabric. Midget was insistent her hand be in this picture. Silly girl!








Here's a front view of the fleece with the two crinkly panels sewn in.








Now it's time to pin on your ribbons! You'll be putting four ribbons on each side. Fold each ribbon in half and match up the raw edges of the ribbon to the edge of your fabric. The loop should be in the middle. Take your ruler out and lay it next to your material (if your fabric has a right and wrong side, you'll want the right side up) with the 0 at the end of the fabric. Place the middle of each of your four ribbons at 3 1/2 inches, 6 inches, 8 1/2 inches, and 11 inches on each side. Here is my blankie all pinned up.








Here's a step that isn't 100% necessary, but after making several blankies, I realized it makes everything a billion times easier than just pinning the ribbons on and sewing the two fabric squares together with the ribbons pinned inside. You don't have to worry about your ribbons being crooked, or poking the crud out of yourself trying to remove your pins by sticking your hand in the little opening, and it triple reinforces the ribbons, so (hopefully) your little one will have a harder time ripping the ribbons out of the blanket! Take a nice long stitch (I had my stitch length at 3 because some of my ribbons were only 1/8 inch wide) and sew just along the ribbons at 1/4 inch. Lift up your presser foot after you sew through each ribbon and put it down before the next ribbon. You can see the extra thread on my picture below. Clip your threads and proceed to the next step.








Next, put your other piece of material directly on top of your ribbons, making a ribbon sandwich. If your fabrics have right and wrong sides, match up the right sides.










Now pin your sandwich together and sew a 1/2 inch seam allowance around the outside, leaving a 3 inch opening for turning. I used a stitch length of 3, but you may need to vary yours depending on the fabric you choose. Remember, the thinner the fabric, the lower the stitch length. If you use cotton and flannel, you'll probably want to do a stitch length of 2.








Clip your corners about 1/8 inch from the corner so you'll have nice sharp corners. Clip off your threads.








Turn the entire thing inside out and poke out your corners. I use a chopstick to make nice square corners.








Tuck your opening inside and pin it closed. Sew 1/8 inch seam around the entire blankie (I used a stitch length of 2). TA-DAAAAAAAAAA!! Tag Blankie!!








Peanut immediately fell in love with it. Not as much as I'm in love with his utter gorgeousness...

Ooops

I meant to wish you a Merry Christmas...

I meant to wish you a Happy New Year...

But instead, I've been enjoying time with this little stinker...


Who is obviously growing WAY too fast!

Happy 3rd Birthday Midget!

Since Mister Peanut arrived only two weeks prior to Midget's birthday (and was actually due only a week before), we decided to have a very low-key celebration for her birthday. No guests, one present, and just a boxed cake mix. But you know me, I can't control my insanity, so I had to do at least one crazy thing!

Midget has been very into Yo Gabba Gabba lately, and since she had asked for a blue cake, I decided to make her a Toodee Cake. I figured I could freehand it simply on a round cake. It wasn't my finest piece of work, but it still turned out pretty cute. As you can see from her reaction, Midget thought it was pretty cool!









Here's a little eye candy of Mister Peanut. I can't believe how fast he's growing! I swear his little fingers fattened up during the day yesterday. He woke up with skinny fingers and went to bed with little chubby nubs!!

Welcome Peanut

Isn't he the cutest little Peanut you've ever seen??

I have to admit--boys are harder. Not just in the "peeing on Mommy is fun every time she opens my diaper" way, but also in the non-froofy non-flowery newborn picture ideas that aren't sports-related sort of way. I had the photo session all planned out for our second little girl that I was convinced we were having, but when little "Mister" Peanut entered the world, I was stumped! I decided to hop on to Etsy to try to get some inspiration. After lots of searching, I ran across what are called baby cocoons. PERFECT!! If I could find one I liked in a tan sort of color, it would look like Peanut was a little peanut!

I finally found the perfect one at Becky's Baby Crochet and decided to email her on Labor Day to see if it was going to be possible to get the cocoon in time for the appointment I'd already set up for Friday. She was quick to respond, was SUPER nice, and told me it would be no problem to get it to me on time, even with the holiday! To my photographer friends, you MUST go look at her adorable photography props!! I was more than pleased with my purchase and stunned at the amazing service she delivered!

Now, on to the birth story! I had a follow-up appointment with my OB on Friday morning, August 27th, to once again check my blood pressure and to see if I had progressed at all. I had been checking it at home and I knew they weren't going to like it, but I wasn't sure what my Doc would want to do. My OB practice is made up of seven doctors and you choose a primary, but you see all the other docs throughout your pregnancy because whoever is on call at the hospital when you deliver is who delivers your baby. I love all the doctors in the practice and the way it works is really nice, but you do get differing opinions from different doctors sometimes.

My bp was pretty high when the nurse took it and I went in to change and wait for my primary OB. When he checked, I hadn't made much progress from when I was discharged on Tuesday, but I asked him to strip my membranes and he agreed it would be good to try to move things along. He decided to set up my induction for a week later, my due date, just in case I didn't deliver before then. He left the room and I could hear him on the phone, calling the hospital to schedule the induction. He stopped right in the middle of his sentence and said, "Is this her blood pressure TODAY???" The nurse said yes and I heard him say, "Never mind," to the person he was speaking to on the phone. The door opened and he told me to go to the hospital because I needed to have the baby soon. It wasn't an emergency, but there was no sense it waiting until it became an emergency.

We took our time getting to the hospital, as I already know that induction is not usually a zip-a-dee-doo-dah super-fast process. Around 1 p.m., I asked the hubby to drop me off at the hospital and spend the day with Midget and take her to our neighbor's house around 7 p.m. and then I'd let him know what he needed to do once I had a better handle on what was going on.

They decided to use a Foley Bulb Catheter to help me dilate. I'd never heard of it, but they insert the catheter behind the cervix wall and then use saline to inflate it. When it has done its job, it simply comes out. They inflated it and hoped that it would get me to 4 cm in about nine hours. At the three hour mark, they checked and I was at my goal mark, all with relatively little pain. At one point, I even began to have regular contractions at about 5-6 minutes apart. I told my husband to stay at home, but to remain on standby.

Unfortunately, they didn't establish well, so the docs went back to the drawing board and decided that I needed to start pitocin. I'd heard such awful things about pitocin, so I was hoping to avoid it, but that wasn't going to be the case. At 11:30 p.m., they started the pitocin and I expected things to just happen instantly, but they didn't. I told hubby to catch some sleep and that I'd call him again when things looked like they were going to start moving along.

I was still sleeping quite well and they were increasing up the pitocin about every 30 minutes, but I wasn't really getting much further along. At 3 a.m., they decided to break my bag of waters and continue increasing the pitocin. About two hours later, things really started moving along. I called my husband and asked him to head down.

At about 5:30 a.m., I was at 6 cm and was finally beginning to have some fairly painful contractions, but they were manageable. An hour later, that all changed, when I began to have some weird kind of nerve pain that felt like FIRE shooting down the front of my right leg. I could handle the contractions, but the nerve pain was unbearable!! I tried every position and birthing prop in the known universe, but wasn't getting any relief. The doctor said most likely, the baby was somehow pushing on a nerve. Around 7:30, I asked for an epidural.

Thankfully, the anesthesiologist was in the next room and came over within a few minutes. They decided on an Intrathecal epidural (sort of a combination spinal tap/epidural), since I was already at 8 cm. It was unbelievable how fast it worked and how WELL it worked! Within seconds, the nerve pain was starting to fade. At this point, all I wanted to do was sleep, but the baby had other plans.

The doctor checked me right after the epidural and said, "WOW! You are fully dilated and ready to push!" I barely heard this between my snores, but I was glad the last two cm went in just a few minutes.

Less than thirty minutes later, they were all yelling out, "It's a boy!!" and my first response was, "Are you sure??" When they turned him around, sure enough, there were his little baby bits!!



Speaking of baby bits, Peanut was getting his first bath at the hospital when Midget walked in to meet him for the first time. She asked Daddy to pick her up and right away said, "LOOK!! He has a BIG pee-pee and I have a LITTLE pee-pee!" Silly girl!





Midget is completely enamored with her baby brother! She can't quit smooching on him and even three weeks later, asks to hold him at least 9 million times a day! She's relatively gentle and has only attempted to throw him once. She was holding him when her favorite tv show (Phineas and Ferb--yes, she's a strange 3 year old girl) ended and she was displeased so she literally started to "throw" a tantrum. Thankfully, we were sitting on the bed and I was right next to her, so Peanut was fine.




Peanut is doing really well. He is nursing like a champ and is the NOISIEST eater I've ever heard. The little porkpie has already gained over a pound from his birthweight and he's only three weeks old. He's a pretty good sleeper, usually going from 11:30-ish to 5:00-ish at night, so I don't feel like a total zombie. This kid is also a champion pooper! I can't believe how many diapers he goes through in a day. Every time I change him, he poops again thirty seconds later... *le sigh*

IT'S A.....

BOY!!!

08/28/2010
8:06 a.m.
7 lbs. 9 oz.
19 3/4 in.



To say I was surprised was a HUGE understatement. I would have bet a million dollars I was having another girl! More pictures and birth story to come next week. I'm just a little slow at everything right now... Everyone's adjusting well and doing great!

Hurry Up and Wait...

First, here's the belly at 38 weeks. It took a very patient photographer to capture this shot, as I was SO nervous to do a nekkid belly picture for the world to see. I'm super happy with this though!!

After 38 weeks of a blissfully normal pregnancy, last Friday at my regular OB check up, my blood pressure was a little on the high side, but low enough that they asked me to come back in a few days. Monday, it was high enough that they sent me straight to the hospital for monitoring. After it stayed high, they decided they wanted to admit me later that evening and start the induction process. AAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKKK!!! I was almost two full weeks overdue with Midget, so why on earth would I have everything ready to go two weeks BEFORE my due date???

They let me go home at about 2 p.m. and asked that I be back between 6 and 7 p.m. I scrambled to get everything together, as the only thing I had done previously was to set up the bassinette. No labor bag, no overnight bag, no bag packed for Midget, no plans for the Wieners, and worst of all--UNPAINTED TOENAILS!! " )

I rushed around and got everything together (minus the painted toenails, but I packed polish in my labor bag--hey a girl's gotta have priorities, right) and reported to the hospital at 7:05 p.m. because I can't ever be on time for anything. They checked me in and put in a prostaglandin tape to thin my cervix and I was to settle in overnight for some rest so they could start the pitocin at 9 a.m.

I had a pretty restful evening in the hospital and managed to sleep most of the night, except when they had to come in to readjust the fetal monitors each time I moved. In the morning, my blood pressure had normalized to the point that the doctor decided to send me home on modified bedrest. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT???

It is a good thing, as I was hoping to not be induced, but it's funny how I was happily enjoying these last few weeks of one Midget until I got it in my head that I had no choice but to be ready for two. Now, this baby can't come fast enough! I've served Peanut several eviction notices, but he or she is partying it up in my belly while I have to sit around and do almost nothing!!

On the plus side, the hubby is getting a crash course in being my domestic b*tch...

In the Home Stretch

It is simply amazing how FAST time has flown this pregnancy! I am now in the home stretch, getting bigger every day, and ready to meet the newest member of the family in a few weeks. I have the hugest list of things to do, but can't seem to get one thing done without another being added on... Just five weeks left to go!

Baby Bump, er, Mountain

It's funny how I didn't feel big last pregnancy until I was less than a few weeks from the due date. This time, I feel HEEE-UGE already and I'm just past halfway there! I suppose the fact that I'm almost 60 pounds lighter has something to do with it.

Despite my feeling of general fat-arsedness, we've actually been gardening up a storm the last two days. We should be finished with our garden completely on Sunday, so look for pictures next week!

Also cultivating heartily is our little Peanut! We had our big ultrasound last week and here's a pic of Peanut's sweet little profile. We decided, once again, to not find out the gender. We didn't find out with Midget and it was so much fun! I honestly can't imagine knowing what to expect before the delivery!

Peanut's First Portrait

Here's our first glimpse of Peanut! Everything looks good at this point, but I am exhausted, hormonal, and sick. Just like my pregnancy with Midget, I have lost a bunch of weight this first trimester. I just do NOT want to eat! Nothing sounds good and then I feel sick when I eat, so I don't finish my food. Good thing I have plenty of stored fat to nourish this kid!