Here's another pic... finally

I sat the boys down and took some photos of them in their Christmas outfits the other day, and although I took lots of pics, I didn't get a lot of awesome ones. Some of my favorites are of Karter. Just seeing the joy and wonder on his face as he played with the Christmas Ornaments made me smile. This picture is 2 of the photos I took, combined with a Close up of a Christmas tree, using Photoshop. My hubby is the Photoshop expert, and I'm thankful for that.

Hey Mom...

Hey Mom, can I borrow your Cricut??? This is Mr. Karter trying to climb out of his play gym and get Mommy's Cricut cartridges... Maybe he wants to scrap!! I caught him doing this and knew I had to get it on camera. Hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as I did!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

What a stud!!!

Here is my handsome stud in his Kindergarten photo... I'm polishing up my Louisville slugger, because I know all too soon, I'll be having to beat the girls off him! Special thanks to my very dear friend who was the photographer for the company that did the school pics!

Today's photo!!

Here are my handsome boys enjoying the Farmer's Inn a couple of weeks ago. We all enjoyed some of the last nice days of summer, seeing all the animals and getting a pressed penny for our scrapbook! OK, here you go... 2 in a row.. LOL I'm on a roll! Hope you enjoyed!!

Photo of the day is back...

It's ba-ack.... at least for today.. The photo of the day for today is my Sweet Sleeping Baby. Sometimes there is just nothing better than snuggling a sleeping baby to your chest. Karter is very much a Mommy's boy, and loves to snuggle... this is one of the few times that I didn't just let myself fall asleep with him... I mean he's so cozy and comfy..... and warm, sometimes it's hard to resist the urge to just let go and forget everything for a brief moment to just revel in his soft skin and hair and enjoy this time with him.... All too soon he will be up and running, and after they do that, they want to snuggle mommy less and less.... So, I cherish these moments with him.
Sorry there hasn't been a photo for a few weeks... sometimes life just gets in the way. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time in the near future, as I use a few vacation days and get a bit more time off work. I take photos nearly every day, it's just a matter of getting them here.. I'll try to keep up on here, but I'm making no promises!

I got to Scrapbook today!!!

I'm off work today.. YAY!! I just worked 7 in a row, so it's a nice break. This morning Karter has been snuggling Daddy in bed and Chase is at school. That gave me time to sit at my desk and Scrapbook. With Pandora radio in my headphones, and paper, photos, and embellishments on my desk I actually completed a LO in about an hour and a half.... (That was with a few small interuptions) After thumbing through about 50 photos, most of which I am embarrassed to say are from Karter's first week on the outside, I decided which photo I wanted to scrap.
I just grabbed a bunch of stuff and this is what I came up with.. It really took me longer to put it all together than anything. I knew I had super cute ribbon that I wanted to use, and I wanted to distress something (the torn and inked edges of the photo mat) and of course me being a Sassy Blinging Babe, the LO would HAVE to have some bling on it somewhere. I found the stork left over from another set of stickers and the transparency with the word baby all over it happened to be hidden in my stash too. I figured now was as good a time as any to use it. I had no ideas in mind when I sat down, but I'm pretty pleased with this project.
I really should have been doing laundry instead of sitting here but sometimes you just need a creative release, and for me Scrapbooking is just that!

Oh, and by the way, sorry I didn't get a photo up yesterday.. I'll try to post one every day, but I'm making NO promises! Sometimes life just doesn't afford me the time to get a creative or interesting photo.

Just sayin'

So, about the Fruit Puffs I wrote about yesterday... You know... The ones that are awesome.. I mean... Just sayin. I've been told that they are "Baby Crack", because they are so yummy that babies get addicted to them. I'm beginning to believe all Gerber Graduates Products are made with this same ingredient that causes babies to become addicts.


There should be a Public Service announcement.. or a Surgeon Generals Warning on them.. you know like the ones they put on Cigarettes and I'm sure lots of other products... It could read something like this:
Caution! May be habit forming.. May cause irritability in small children if not distributed quickly enough..Package may become empty at an alarming rate. Adults should Not use without Supervision of a child.
That last one is for the Mom's and Dad's (and Big brothers in my house) who "try one"... Trying one usually ends up in the Adult (or Big Brother) forgetting just who these snacks are for and eating way too many themselves! Because they are AWESOME.... Just sayin'
On that note, I'm headed out to cook dinner and feed a few of these to my baby while I'm cooking.

Way too Early!!!

Here is Today's Photo:

Here's Karter at 6:30 A.M. He is way too happy to be up at that time of day... It might be the fact that I had just nursed him and he was sitting in his high chair. He knows when he sit in his high chair, he gets big boy food, and this morning was no exception. He was getting ready to have some Fruit Puffs by Gerber. Have you ever tried those things??? They are awesome... I mean... just sayin'

New Idea!!

I have decided to try something new with my blog. I'm going to try post a photo a day. Hopefully I can keep up with this project... Just a warning... these photos will be random... Just whatever feel like taking a picture of each day.Today's photo is my son's desk.. primarily the Play doh mess that he made. He left all this Play doh out to dry out After he was told more than once to clean it up and put it away...and now he's grounded from his Play doh until he can be responsible with it.
OK, that's all for today. See you tomorrow!!

Tired of fighting with Blogger right now!

OK, so I'm tired of fighting with Blogger right now, so the post I was attempting tp write today is not happening...

Some of my SVG creations

Here are a few svg files that I have created using Vector Magic. Hope you like them. I'll try to make some more and have them available here for free download. All I ask is if you use one, you link back to my blog so I can share them with lots of other people as well. I thought with the end of the school year rapidly approaching, and my son preparing to graduate pre-school, I would make some Graduation themed svg's. Here are a couple different Graduation Caps: Click the picture to download the file.

Here is a Solid Graduation cap: Click the picture for the download.
Hope you enjoy, and check back for more free SVG's! Have a blessed weekend

Sassy Blinging Blog Hop

Thanks for stopping by my blog and participating in the First Sassy Blinging Babes Blog Hop. If you've been here before, glad to have you back and Welcome to those who are visiting for the first time.

My newest obsession is a product from Craft Edge, called Sure Cuts A Lot. I just need to tell you I love this program!! I have had so much fun creating with it and cutting things out using my Cricut Expression. You can use it to cut any True Type Font that you have in your computer, as well as SVG files that you can create using a program called Vector Magic. (I'll explain that more in another post) Maybe I'll figure out how to put my own designs up for free download sometime.. if I ever get some free time!

I'm a busy mom of a 5 year old and a 3 month old, so I don't often have a lot of time to create. Fortunately, I found some great sites that offer SVG files for free download. I used a few of them for this LO and I love how it turned out!
The photo is my youngest son, at 2 months old, on his first St. Patricks day (looking cute as ever) wearing the shirt that his Dad and I created for him using Photo Shop and simply printing the design on iron on paper and ironing it on a onesie.

First I used an Irish Hat SVG from this site:
http://lshdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/02/paper-piecing-pattern-freebie.html
I inked the edges of the green pieces and the entire shamrock with Green Pigment Ink from Studio G. I used Black Bazzill Bling Card Stock for the hat band, and DCWV Metallic Card Stock for the Gold Buckle.
Then I created a Pot of Gold using an SVG from this site:
http://svgshop.com/blog/?p=1106
I used some Metallic Card Stock from Best Occasions in 2 different colors for the Pot and DCWV Metallic Card Stock in Gold for the gold coins in the pot. Although it's hard to see in the photo, I added some Gold glitter just to add a bit more BLING to the LO.

I created my own Rainbow in SCAL, but later found this link for a rainbow that would have worked just as well.
http://lshdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/01/free-svg-rainbow.html

The Font I used for the title was a free download from www.dafont.com. It is called Action Is. There are some awesome fonts on this site and they are free to download, which makes them all the more awesome!

Thanks for checking out my blog. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Hop on over to check out what's going on at the other babes' blogs too. Next up is Kelly at http://foreverpaperdreams .blogspot.com/

Karter's Birth Story

On Monday January 11, 2010 we arrived at the hospital just before 7am for my scheduled induction. I went to Labor and Delivery and they got me set up in my room with all the monitors and such on and told me Dr. Rapaport would be in soon to check on me. My nurse Colleen was very friendly, and we hit it off right away!
At 7:45 Dr. Rapaport came in to check me and said I was a good 3-4 cm dilated. At that time, he broke my water. It was such a weird feeling... I almost felt like I was peeing myself! He told me then that if I was planning on having an epidural, that I should get my IV put in soon. The first time the nurse tried to put the IV in, resulted in a blown vein, and since I'm not a fan of needles, she asked another nurse to come in and try to put the IV in. The second try worked just fine...although it was a little more painful.
The nurse then told me I could get up and walk, which I did for a little while, but it was only Jake and I at the hospital at that time, and he wasn't feeling very well, so he wanted to go back to the room and sit down but he didn't want me to walk by myself, so we both went back, and I just got back in bed and watched tv for a while.
At 11am, the Nurse talked to the Dr. and he decided that since breaking my water had done little to speed up or intensify my contractions that I needed to be started on the Pitocin. It took less than an hour and 2 upped dosages to get the contractions so intense that I was ready for the Epidural. During that time, I had been up sitting in the recliner, just relaxing and watching Ellen and chatting with my nurse. I called my mom and told her that she could start heading to the hospital.
I tried to hold off on the Epi for as long as I could, but I finally asked at about 12:15 if I could get the Epidural, and the nurse checked me and said that I was a "full 4 centimeters dilated" so yes I could get the Epi. She went to call the Anesthesiologist, and I waited and tried to breath through some VERY intense contractions. I tried to stay relaxed, but they were so painful, that my body just wanted to tense up every time I felt one coming on! When she came back in my room, she had me get back in bed so I would already be there for the Epi. The Anesthesiologist came in about 12:30 and by 12:40 I had my Epidural in and I was feeling NO pain! It wasn't easy getting the Epi in though because my vertibrae are "tight". The first try didn't work, so he had to move up a bit farther on my back to try again. When all was said and done, I told the anesthesiologist I loved him, and I told everyone else that "the epidural guy is a god". It was such a weird feeling having the Epidural for quite a while (much different than labor with Chase) before time to push, because my legs felt so heavy!
She continued to up the Pitocin every 30 minutes and I could feel the contractions coming and going, but they didn't hurt.. it was just pressure.
At 2:45pm, the nurse checked me again and I was 6cm dilated. She was supposed to be done at 3, but the nurse taking over was in a meeting with the Head OB nurse, so Colleen stayed on til 4, when Lisa came in and took over.
At 4:30pm, Dr. Rappaport called and wanted to know what kind of progress I was making, so Lisa checked me and I was 9 and 1/2 cm, and still feeling NO PAIN!! She told me that we would be pushing soon and that the Dr. was on his way over from the office.
At 5pm, I started to push. They kept saying that they could see his head and told me that he had a ton of hair. Lisa didn't think it would take too much pushing for him to be delivered, but after an hour, I was almost ready to give up! I just kept trying to focus on getting him out, and at 6:18pm My beautiful baby Karter Jacob weighing in at 7lb 12oz and 20.5 inches long was finally born! Jake gave my mom the Honor of cutting the cord (since he had done it with Chase). Welcome to the World Karter! We are so blessed to have you!

Almost time!!!

Well, so much has happened since last time I wrote! The last time I wrote, we had just found out we were expecting but hadn't told anyone yet. This time I'm getting ready to deliver this beautiful baby! I've got a lot of catching up to do!
Here is a semi time line of events as written in my pregnancy journal (which once again I didn't keep up with)
5-19-2009: Took first pregnancy test.. I felt the results were inconclusive.. (maybe I was in shock and disbelief) The + was there, but it didn't look like it was supposed to.. one line was darker than the other

5-20-2009: Took a second test... this was a 1 line your not, 2 lines you are kind of test... There were definitely 2 lines on this one!
I was so scared!!! Scared something was going to go wrong, and I was going to lose this baby too, just like I had done 6 months prior!

6-3-2009: I had my first prenatal appointment, and to my surprise, the nurse calculated that according to my last menstrual period, I was 10 weeks pregnant already!!! I was scheduled for an ultrasound on June 26, but since the nurse felt I was farther along then we thought, we had better move the appointment up to June 9. They gave me an estimated Due date of December 30, 2009. I had been having Evening sickness instead of Morning sickness and even laying in bed at night made me nauseas! I knew that being sick was a good sign of a healthy pregnancy, but I was still nervous and worried about this baby!

6-9-2009: Today we had the first Ultrasound! Everything looked fine and we got to see the baby's heartbeat. According to gestational size, my due date has been pushed back to January 12, 2010.
Seeing the baby's heartbeat took a huge weight off my chest! I still worry, but not near as much as I have up to this point! We also told the family today that we are pregnant!

6-18-2009: Today marks 10 Weeks 2 Days! I'm still getting sick, and it's far worse in the evening than it is at any time during the day! Work really tires me out and when I get home, I'm ready for a nap. I still worry every day about the health of the baby, but I have faith that God will see us through to a healthy baby in 6 and 1/2 months. I've been taking pictures of my belly on Friday of every week for the last couple weeks and as long as I don't forget I'll take one tomorrow too.

6-30-2009: I haven't been sick the last day or 2, just a little queasy. I'm feeling a lot better. Today marks 12 weeks, so that's probably why the nausea is getting better. I'm starting to get excited! I can't wait til we have out next ultrasound. I really wasnt to find out if the baby is a boy or girl. I really would like to have a girl this time, but all that really matters in that we have a healthy baby! Thank you Jesus for giving us this precious gift!

7-3-2009: I've been feeling so much better the past couple days. I'm 12 weeks 3 Days now, and it is normal to start feeling less sick, but it still kind of worries me, (since the morning sickness went away when I lost our Angel baby). I'm trying to stay calm and relaxed, but sometimes it is difficult. I'm still praying and so thankful that God has blessed us with this baby! Thank you Jesus!!

7-10-2009: I had another Dr appointment today and we got to listen to the baby's heartbeat on the doppler. The heartrate was 148, that is slower than Chases was, and I wonder if this indicates we are having another boy?? It really does not matter, as long as this baby is healthy. I think I felt the baby move today! It was a distinct little flutter as I was standing in front of the counter in Jeremy and Jen's kitchen helping get dinner ready. I only felt it once, but I'm pretty sure it was the baby!

7-13-2009: Now at 13Weeks 6 Days, I'm feeling better. I officially start my Second Trimester tomorrow! I love my Miracle baby!

7-16-2009: Today I scheduled my ultrasound appointment! It is August 21, at 11AM. I'm excited to find out the sex of the baby, only 5 weeks to go! I would prefer a girl, but it doesn't matter, as long as it's a healthy baby! I saw the cutest onesie yesterday... It was pink and purple and said "if the tiara fits..." I thought that would be so fitting for a little girl of mine, considering I'm such a princess!

7-29-2009: I've been kind of paranoid and a little depressed lately... I'm feeling better today though. I've been worried that something will go wrong. I dreamed last night that we are having a girl.. I have crazy dreams most nights. I actally look forward to having the crazy dreams! I felt the baby move more today too. This time I'm absolutely sure what I felt! I got my hair cut a few days ago. I got about 8 inches off of it and got it layered. It looks really good now! Jake wasn't too thrilled (he never is when I cut my hair) but it will be easier to take care of once I have the baby.

8-22-2009:
We had the BIG ultrasond yesterday. It was so exciting to see our little miracle in there healthy and growing exactly on target! We are pleased to announce that we are having a BOY!!!! I'm so relieved that everything is perfect. He is handsome just like his daddy! Chase is SO excited about being a big brother and really thrilled that we are having a boy instead of a girl! The ultrasound was awesome!! We got to see our little man in 4D!!! They also gave us lots of pictures of him.. 14 to be exact! Now the task will be coming up with a name for this little guy! Chase just wants to call him Captain Jack Sparrow, and although it's a cool name, I don't think that will go with our last name very well..

8-25-2009: Chase wanted to write a letter to his brother in my journal... it reads:
Dear Baby Brother,
I love you!
Love,
Your Big Brother Chase

8-25-2009: I'm frustrated Jake and I can't agree on a name.. 20 Weeks today! Halfway to holding my newest baby boy in my arms!!! I can't wait to meet him, to kiss his sweet head, face, hands, all of him!!! I'm having a blast feeling our littl guy kicking so much! He actually woke me up with his kicks this morning. It was a much better wakeup call than an alarm!

9-3-2009: I'm past the halfway point in this pregnancy now. I'm so excited and can't wait to meet my little guyI still feel in awe sometimes, even as my belly grows and my feet swell (along with my hands), I still find it hard to believe that I have been blessed again! I am so thankful to have this opportunity to carry and eventually raise another child. God has truly blessed me! Chase is getting very excited too! He often wants to look at "stuff for our baby". Then he proceeds to tell anyone who will listen how to use said products. I find it sweet that he is so interested and wants to be so involved. I'm also glad we have chosen to let him be such an important part of this process of growing OUR family. We want him to know that he is just as important to our family as his baby brother. I just don't want him to ever feel left out. He is going to be a wonderful big brother and we are so blessed to have him!

So I have slacked and not even written in my pregnancy journal since September... A lot has happened since then. In late October (around 28 weeks) I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, and had to begin watching what I eat (and drink) and had to start testing my sugar 4 times a day! I have been able to pretty much keep my sugar under control through diet alone, which is good. That means I don't have to take insulin shots or any other medication for the diabetes. Thank God! Because of the Gestational Diabetes, I have gone for an Ultrasound every week since week 34. They check to make sure baby isn't getting too big, and they also do a Biophysical Profile, to check on baby's breathing and muscle tone as well as the amount of amniotic fluid.

At the 34 week Ultrasound, baby Karter (yes we finally chose a name) was estimated to weigh about 5lb. 7oz.

At the 38 week Ultrasound, they estimated his weight again and he weighed in at 6lb. 10oz. However the ultrasounds can be off by up to 1 lb either way, so he could be bigger or smaller.

Today, I am 39 weeks 5 days. I go in tomorrow morning at 7 am to have labor induced. I'm a little nervous, but so excited!! We can't wait to meet the newest member of our family! God has greatly blessed us, and I couldn't be more thankful!