8 Weeks Old

Caleb's first hike was spent bundled up in his stroller. :)

4 Weeks old

Sweet and solemn Caleb wore his first tie this week. John and I needed to attend a business social type event and we brought along my sidekick.  I was inspired by Caleb's utter cuteness and made him one of those applique tie shirts you see all over Pinterest and Etsy.  It took no time at all and turned out so adorable!  He was a hit!  I'd love to get some onesies in the nxet size up and make him a few more. :)

3 week pictures

Settling in

Caleb is 2 and a half weeks old and we are settling in quite well with 7 kids.  He's a good baby, nursing and sleeping better than I had hoped actually.  He seems to be putting on weight, evidenced by his sweet and chubby double chin. The kids are thoroughly enjoying Caleb and all his newborn adorableness. They are taking turns holding him and "checking" on him. 
I'm so thankful that he is a good nurser.  I love the simplicity of nursing and the closeness that it fosters between Caleb and I.  I'm also so excited that Caleb, as of now, is not a spit up baby.After 6 kids who spit up profusely, it's a welcome change to have one that doesn't need a bib at every feeding. I imagine it will help his weight gain too, if he doesn't spit up half of every feeding.

I decided that we will take it easy one more week at least without homeschooling.  I'm trying and doing well getting us on a good housekeeping type schedule and keeping food on the table.  Before I add in the third major element of my life, I want to get the first two going smoothly.  I plan on having the kids begin reading again next week and spend some time working on their fun Christmas presents.  The girls got a bubble gum and sour candy kit that I hope to make with them.  The kids have been watching a lot of Netflix movies these last few weeks and enjoying time visiting family. 

6 days old

Little Caleb is 6 days old today.  I'd like to freeze him at this adorable, squeezably cute stage! 

It's a BOY!

Caleb James was born December 29 after a very short 4 hour labor!  He is healthy and handsome. So far he is a superb baby, sleeping good at night and nursing like a pro.  He hardly spits up and keeps his crying to a minimum. :)  Caleb wins the award as the quietest sleeper I've ever had too.

Here are a few pics from the first few days.

23 days

        23 days from now and I should have a newborn in my arms!  I am so ready, physically and emotionally for my son to be here. My body feels so stretched and uncomfortable at times and my mind wants to settle down into the calm and quiet of a babymoon.  Instead we are wrapping up schoolwork and I'm busy checking paragraphs for title sentences and helping solve word problems! 
       I have had more time to rest, thanks to a fantastic husband and good kids.  I've been busy racking up my swagbucks points.  I have earned 3 Amazon $5 gift cards already in the past 2 weeks.  I have a quandary though, my Amazon prime benefits, that came free for a year through Amazon Mom, have expired.  I loved being able to order smaller packages and not try and get up to the $25 needed for super saver shipping.  I haven't decided if that is a good thing, by reducing purchases, or bad, by buying something I don't really need just to reach that free shipping level.  It's gotten so much harder to get out to the stores that I rely heavily on online shopping.  Most of what I order can be returned if necessary to a local store anyways if it doesn't fit. 
       Here are a few pictures of our pursuits recently.  I'm trying hard to practice with a new lens I got, a prime lens with a focal length of 1.8 or 1.6. I can't remember right now. :)  I hope to have a few stunning winter photos of Caleb in a few weeks!


Lily and her fall painting.




Rachel painting with a Q-tip, an idea I found on Pinterest.




Rachel



Busy, busy, busy

Life has been busy, somehow it seems busier than normal. I am 32 weeks pregnant and full of baby. I can't hardly rech my feet and my belly has ballooned to new proportions. Caleb is an active baby with lots of reassuring movements. I've gotten the urge to do lots more sewing for him recently and I am super pleased with my turn out. I made a chocolate brown minky dot crib bumper for his mini crib, two crib sheets,1 slip covered waterproof pad for the changing table in the polka dot fabric and 2 sheet saver type things. The sheet savers are cute in a polka dot fabric, with an old prefold diaper sandwiched inside to absorb spitup. I sewed ribbon ties to the short ends so it can be easily tied to the crib slats. I'll have to see if two sheets and two sheet savers will be enough. I also sewed 6 smallish lovies for him, with whimsical prints on one side and orange minky dot on the other. We had a pretty normal Thanksgiving holiday. We had one extra child all week and our family of 8. Our out of town family decided to come at Christmas instead of both holidays this year. It has been a lot of work adding an extra child to our home, teaching them our ways and habits. I'm looking forward to normal for sure this week. I'm so thankful to be done with our Christmas shopping this year. It's always my goal to be done by Thanksgiving and then just stay out of the stores until January. :) We have one project of John's left to complete, hopefully in the next two weeks. John has been diligent in drawing and creating the best gifts this year and we only lack getting them printed. One of my favorite gifts is to give a handmade gift. Even better is when John draws something because his talent is so amazing! One of my handmade gifts this year is a collection of homemade bath products. I've begun making our own body butter, powdered laundry detergent, sugar scrubs, and I'm going to order some Dr Bronner's Castillo liquid soap so I can make our own foaming hand soap. I've been busy reading the back labels of our lotions, soaps, and beauty products and I've decided to make some myself. I really want to find a more natural approach to body care. It's fun for me to create something healthy, inexpensive, and crafty all at the same time. I've fallen most in love with the cocoa buttEr body butter. The smell is divine and the feel of my skin afterwards is amazing. This butter cures the itchy skin every time. Lily loves it as much as me and I love giving Joshua a baby massage after his bath. My upcoming goals are to make a lotion, vanilla extract, and glycerin soap. I'd love to make soap with lye but I'm too afraid to do it by myself!

Third trimester!

I am almost 30 weeks pregnant now.  I can't believe how fast the end is approaching and how soon my arms will be full of a new baby.  I washed the last few clothes I picked up and they are nicely folded in his dresser.  The blankets are folded and in a basket.  I made a few new burp cloths, using unstained prefold diapers and I picked up several bibs for $.39 each at the thrift store.  I hope to stop by Carter's are get a few more of their bibs.  I'm ready to snuggle a newborn, but not ready to lose my sleep.  I pray constantly for Caleb to eat well, feel full after eating and to sleep as long as possible.  :)
On other news, Rachel is doing great.  We had an appointment with a surgeon last week and decided to remove the lump.  He had an opening this past Friday, so we snagged that spot.  She did great.  After he removed it he said he was pretty sure it was benign, which was all I wanted to hear.  Her recovery has been fantastic!  Besides the bandage, you would never know she had anything done a few days ago. 
Updates around the house:
1. I planted a row of garlic in one of my raised beds.
2. John pulled my cucumber plants up and tossed them in my huge compost pile.
3. I pulled lots of little green tomatoes off my tomato plants and will compost those plants this week.
4. I cleaned out my meal binder and organized it with scrapbook paper dividers.  All three girls helped me with this project. 
5.  I updated all my other binders, bills, schedules, homeschooling, and medical.  This is something I usually do around New Years but Mr Caleb will need me more around that time. :)
6.  Katie finished her 2nd volume of Short Stories and Poems.
7.  I typed everything into Snapfish and added photos of artwork and photos of people to round it out.  By using a coupon and ebates, each book will only cost me $5.10 each! 
8.  I bought Caleb a new countered changing pad and a chocolate brown minky dot changing pad to cover it.  My bedroom looks ready to host a new baby. 
9.  I really, really need to buy the padding for a crib bumper so I can cut out the mini crib bumper and sew it together! 
10. I am almost done with our Christmas shopping, 75% or more of which has been done online. I may make a few new Christmas wrapping bags. I still love that idea and it works to keep the chaos and paper clutter down. It also helps me "wrap" those awkward packages. :)

Hydrangea in our front yard

Our front walk

Katie and Callie today

26 Weeks

John and I took the kids to a playground today and I brought along my trusty camera.  I need to practice a lot more with it.  I walked around taking all kinds of pictures of the kids and then Sam took a picture of John and I.  I am 26 weeks pregnant now and feeling the heaviness of this time.  I caught the kids cold a week ago and haven't quite gotten my energy level back up yet.  Caleb is a good baby though.  He moves and kicks and squirms all over the place.  He has kept me up some at night, with his karate kicks though. :)
Overall, I feel good and ready to enter the 3rd trimester.  I found a diaper bag I love and we assembled the new mini crib for our room.  I want to make bedding for that crib and finish his quilt.  The top is sewn together, I just need to decide on the backing and sew it all together.  This weekend John has put on 2 coats of paint on the dresser/changing table we are going to use for him in our room.  It's a creamy white with new silver pull knobs. 


Joshua needed some Momma lovin'




John and I, 26 weeks pregnant with Caleb




5 of the kids



Rachel, 4 and a half