Turning the corner...

For the past few weeks this pregnancy has been kicking my butt! I feel more tired with this pregnancy than I remember feeling with any of the others. People keep telling me, "Well, you have 4 kids to chase around now.", "With Jeff traveling...you have to take care of everything.", and my favorite, "You're older now than you were during your other pregnancies." All of these explanations seem reasonable...but regardless, having zero energy or motivation was really starting to bug me!...so not me!

These past few days I feel like my energy is picking up. When I wake up in the morning I'm not wishing (as much) that I could just lie in bed forever. Things that need to be done around the house no longer seem like a gigantic chore. I'm no longer using the Wii as the kids sole source of entertainment and we're back to playing more board type games and getting outside to play. And...when 2:00 in the afternoon rolls around that extreme sleepiness doesn't overcome me making me crave a nap.

And with energy comes a little creativity. My friend Emily asked the other day if I could make her some thank you cards for her daughters First Communion and her son's birthday.

Also, I made these little cards for those random notes that need to be sent out. I've found that with Logan in kindergarten this year I have more of a need for these types of cards especially when corresponding with his teacher or bus drivers.

Well, that's all for now...here's hoping this energy kick continues:)

Getting organized...

Those of you who know me know that I crave organization in my life. I have found the more that you have going on in your life the more organized you want/need to be. Having 4 kids with a 5th on the way I think definitely has me wanting to be organized more than ever.

When I returned from my scrapbooking weekend I had zero desire to put everything I took with me back to where it belonged...mostly because the space where it all belonged was one cramped bookshelf. You know what I'm talking about...where everything has an exact spot and to get to something you have to move 10 other things.Unfortunately I don't have that magical craft room in my house that is just for me and all my crafts. Nope...I have one bookshelf in our den to house all my creativity. Anyway, as I was looking at my unpacked stuff (which by the way somehow doubles when you travel) I kept thinking there has to be some way for me to store all of my things without shoving it on one shelf.

It was then that I decided to add another bookshelf to our den. I looked online at Target's website, found a shelf I liked that matched our office furniture, located the store that had it in stock, picked it up with 3 of the 4 kids, brought it home, and put it together all by myself. (I should fill you in that Jeff is out of town...so I have complete say over this addition...hahaha!)

I'm happy to say that in one short hour (with all 4 kids awake...granted the big kids were playing the Wii downstairs...but I had Mary Kate in my hip pocket ) I successfully put together this shelf.

I think an hour is a little long, but here were some of the obstacles that I had to overcome throughout the process.

When things got quiet I went looking for Mary Kate and here is the first place I found her...playing in the pantry (I didn't take a picture of the entire box of juice pouches and basket of napkins that she unloaded in the family room.)
Again, things got quiet...this time I got a little nervous because when she hides, she doesn't make a sound. She totally gets the game of hiding...and this was a great hiding spot. (Notice her little fingers sticking out from under the curtain.)

So, after the game of hide~n~seek and putting the pantry back together (plus cleaning up all the styro-foam Mary Kate picked apart and littered all over the house) I now have two shelves with all of my scrapbooking goodies all to myself. I even have space to spare on each shelf...whatever should I buy to fill that spot???...hahaha

I know, not the most exciting post...but I feel better...and I know that my other freakishly organized friends will appreciate the calmness I now have:)

Also, I need to give a big thanks to my friend Sarah for helping me move the small piece of furniture that was a huge annoyance in our den. Don't worry folks...it wasn't heavy.

Well, that's all for now...

Great weekend...and still going...

I love when you have no idea that your weekend is going to be great! Sure you might have some things on your agenda...but when the weekend progresses...you couldn't have planned it any better.

My Friday evening started with Euchre at my friend Sarah's house. Every six weeks the girls in the neighborhood get together and play Euchre. (It's a $5 buy in...2nd place gets their money back and the winner takes the rest.) Those of you who know me were probably shocked to hear that I'm playing Euchre on a regular basis. I've never really had a love of the game...therefore I have no strategy or plan when I play. In the past when I would play I'd pray that I wouldn't foul up too badly, and that I wouldn't make a complete fool of myself. When the girls in the neighborhood invited me to join the group it was mostly because of them versus playing Euchre that made me say yes. (They have not disappointed yet...every gathering is filled with laughing until you cry and many one liners to take home with you...SHOCKER!:) Well, I am happy to say with only one major mess up this past Friday (sorry Bethie) I came in second. Yeah for me...I broke even!

My Saturday morning began with Claire and I joining my friend Ami and her daughter Lauren at Sesame Street Live! Sure, not my pick of shows, but the girls loved it! I think the two of them jumped, skipped, and ran all the way from the car into the show. They ate themselves silly with popcorn, cotton candy, fish crackers, and pop. Although they got a little wiggly towards the end...it was priceless to watch their faces as the characters sang and danced.

When we got home from the show Jeff took the boys out for some laser tag...and me and the girls took a nap...a much needed nap.

Then at 6:00 our awesome babysitter arrived and Jeff and I headed out for the night to meet some friends from college that we don't get to see as often as we'd like. We ate at the Fuji Steakhouse in Oakley and then headed to Stones in Norwood for some bowling. (Jeff and I and our friends from college use to do a lot of bowling together before we all had kids. It was almost a guarantee that one night of our weekend would be spent at a bowling alley...ah, memories:) Needless to say...I've really lost my bowling game...but we still had a great time!

This morning Jeff had an early flight out of town. He's heading to Phoenix then to several other places throughout the week...I lost track after he listed off the first two stops...is that bad? Usually him leaving on Sunday would make me sad...but the day looks beautiful, the kids and I are heading to church, and then out to lunch. I have a feeling that we'll end the day with some playing outside with our neighbors. How can that make anyone sad?...although life is always more fun when Jeff is here:)

Well, I hope everyone had a great weekend...until later...

A weekend at Cornerstone...

This past weekend I spent Friday-Sunday at this scrapbook bed and breakfast (cornerstonememories.net) in Tipton, Indiana called Cornerstone. My friend Heather organized the trip and there were 10 of us who took over this house. We laughed, we created, and we cried...the weekend had it all.

I would love to retell some of the stories which made all of us laugh until we cried, but due to a lot of the content, I don't think that would be appropriate. Also, I'm one of those horrible story tellers, so when I try to retell a funny story people just end up looking at me with that polite smile, and I can tell they're thinking, "That was funny?" But regardless...we all laughed until it hurt:)

When you head out for a scrapbook outing you bring almost everything you own scrapbook-wise and use about 5% of what you bring. You pack it all just in case you might need it, but then you begin working, you realize there is still something you forgot. However, we all pushed through and ended up with some pages and cards we loved. Here are a few of my layouts from the weekend.

I love Claire's sad face...and the fact that she has this sad face and it's her 3rd birthday. In the journaling on the page I explain to her that she was sad because Grandma Logan had her brother's Halloween costumes ready to try on but not her's. Oh well...it was her party and she could cry if she wanted to, right?
I still need to add some journaling to this basketball page for Logan. I usually like to include a little writing to give some details about the picture or why I created the page.
This page is kind of funny. When Mary Kate was born everyone kept telling me how the 4th child won't have nearly as many pictures as the first...which I agree. You just do not have as much time to take those candid shots like I did with Logan...however, I pledged that I would not drop the ball with getting their picture taken every 3 months during their first year of life. As you can see in this layout there is no picture for Mary Kate at 9 months. In the journaling I fessed up to what I failed to do, but I thought maybe she would forgive me later on since I made her a pretty page:)
Claire and her "Pig Tails"...love these pics of her!

Mary Kate's 1st Birthday party!
These last two layouts weren't done this past weekend, but I thought I'd include them. I still need to add journaling to both of them. This first one is Mary Kate's 3 month photo and the second is her one year photo. I want to include her weight and length at both stages.


Although the weekend was fun, my friend Heather did receive some bad news. On Saturday night Heather's father in law passed away and she had to head home. He had been suffering from lung cancer and that day he had been readmitted to the hospital. We all felt for Heather as she left that night...so, say a little prayer for Heather and her family during this sad time.

Well, that's all for now...until later...

Baby #5...

This morning I had a doctor's appointment and I was very excited (and anxious) because I knew that I would get to hear the baby's heartbeat. As I walked into the office, my doctor requested that I have an ultrasound...not that he had any major concerns, he just wanted to make sure that things were progressing as they should be with my dates. Of course I was even more excited because not only was I going to hear the heartbeat, but I was going to see the baby. Well...here is Baby #5's first picture.

I'm very happy to say that everything looks as it should for this stage in my pregnancy...and there is only one baby in there (for those of you who keep wishing twins on me:)

I showed Logan, Frank, and Claire the pictures when they got home from school. Logan asked, "Is she lieing down?" (note how he said "she"), Frank asked, "When is her birthday?" (again, note how he said "she"), and Claire just looked confused as to how I had a picture of a baby that she couldn't see herself. It's fun to see their reactions and see how their thoughts on this baby being a boy or girl keeps changing:)

As things move forward I will continue to keep everyone updated. That's all for now...

Jeff's Birthday and a morning with Logan...

On Tuesday we celebrated Jeff's 35th Birthday! Although I like to make big deals of birthdays this one was thrown together quickly and without much creativity. Jeff was suppose to be out of town all week, so I figured I had the entire week to plan for a gift and how to make this birthday special when he came back into town. Well, his business trip was cancelled on Monday, so I had one day to get things together. Thankfully, Jeff is not high maintenance about birthdays...much less anything else:)

The kids and I headed up to UC's book store and bought him a couple of golf type shirts...although Frank was sure that Daddy really wanted a new Wii game...hahaha! I then picked up two New York strip steaks for Jeff and myself to grill...Jeff loves steak! Also, the kids and I made Jeff a cake...again, Frank said that Daddy wanted a cowboy birthday cake and wasn't sure if he was going to like the plan round one I made...gotta love Frank!

When Jeff got home we had a nice dinner, sang "Happy Birthday", had cake and ice cream, and opened presents. Even though it was low key, Jeff seemed to enjoy the night.

Earlier in the day Logan and I got to have a morning all to ourselves. Logan is on Spring Break this week...but Frank and Claire's Spring Break was last week. So, my dad came over to watch Mary Kate, I took Frank and Claire to school, and Logan and I headed down to the Newport Aquarium all by ourselves. With having 4 kids one on one time is very rare...so this outing was a treat for Logan and myself. It was fun to listen to all he had to say about the animals and to have uninterrupted conversations. Many times throughout the morning I watched and listen to him with amazement. He is such a smart, kind, and funny young man...all things which I've known for awhile:) As Logan has grown up we have gone on many outings to the zoo, the museum, the mall, etc. Although I'm going to miss these opportunities when he begins 1st grade next year and goes to school all day, I am so proud of my little man.
Well, that's all for now...

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter! We had a beautiful day filled with spending time with both the Rieder and the Logan families.

Our day started with going to church at 8:00 a.m. As we were leaving the house we noticed that our house had been egged!...in a good way!
Our great friends, Ami and Ed, have egged our house the past two years...and our kids love it! As soon as the kids see all the eggs they get all excited knowing that the Easter Bunny has been to our house...too cute!

After church we came home and the kids hunted for their Easter baskets which were filled with candy and other goodies. I then fixed a huge breakfast. We had pancakes, yogurt with fruit, hard boiled eggs, and goetta. Yes, goetta...Jeff and I love goetta and so do our kids!

Then we headed off to Grandma and Grandpa Rieders for lunch and a Easter Egg hunt where the eggs are filled with money. Logan, Frank, and Claire were big money winners this year...each collecting about $13! And Claire was also the winner of a big pink bunny from a drawing my mother in law has for all of the grandchildren.

Our last stop was Grandma and Grandpa Logan's for dinner and hanging out with my parents and my brother's family. It was a nice and relaxed evening where the adults sat on the deck and watched the kids play in the backyard. We also played a round of spoons (forgot how fun that game is) and a quick game of trivial pursuit (thankfully my dad was on my team or we would have not answered one question:).

It was such a great day...

we are definitely blessed!

Submitting for publication...

Recently my friend Heather had one of her cards appear in "CARDS" magazine. (I would love to include a picture of her work and the magazine cover...but I'm having some technical difficulty. I'll have to ask my tech support "Heather" about how to do that:) It was amazing to see her name in a magazine next to her art. She does some pretty creative and amazing things...and I thought it was about time that someone else noticed. Since she told me about her card being published (two more of her pieces were picked up for publication) my mind has been thinking. Would any of my cards or layouts be worthy of publication?

As I was scrapping with Heather the other weekend, she really encouraged me to submit some of my things. She provided me with websites and all the information that I needed to get the ball rolling. So, I thought...What the heck? What do I have to lose? I realize that this may be a process of many many submissions and rejections, but I have to start somewhere, right?

Scrapbook Trends magazine has a call going on now for their September 2010 issue. One of the categories is "Back to School" I did this layout from Logan's first day of kindergarten. I just submitted it...I'll let you know if anything comes of it.

The magazine also has a category titled "Showcase". This is where you can submit cards or layouts that you love, but they don't fall directly into any of the categories they have listed. So, I decided to submit this bike layout. I've posted this picture before, but I thought I'd include it again so if you wanted to see it you didn't have to go hunting around for it.

I also have another layout from Logan's t-ball that would work for the category of "Sports", but I'll post that when I have a good picture of it.

Like I said, I know this may be a long long process...but if I don't try then I'll never know.