Pay It Forward Challenge/Giveaway...

At the beginning of the month, my blogging friend Brittany over at Sweet Nothings hosted a Pay It Forward challenge/giveaway. Brittany chose me to be a part of her challenge and so now I am hosting one on my blog. The way this giveaway works is that I will send homemade gifts to three other bloggers, hence the name "pay it forward". The winners from my challenge then host the challenge on their blog and "pay it forward" to at least three other bloggers. One important detail is that you have 365 days to send the homemade item to the winners and the winners have 365 to pass on their items.

If you like to participate in the challenge you need to comment on this post before midnight on Thursday. I will draw three names and if you win, I will send you your handmade gift.

Just to give you an idea of what you could get in the mail:
Homemade Candles
Homemade Cookies
Some Embroidered Napkins
or even something else!

Don’t forget that if you are chosen, you are agreeing to host the challenge on your blog and reciprocate to three other bloggers. Please don’t enter if you aren’t willing to do that step.

I’ll announce the winners on Friday.

A Little Bit of News..

The last few weeks of pregnancy have gone really well. I have been feeling really well and have had a nice amount of energy. Below is a picture of me at 18 weeks and 2 days.


Yesterday my DH and I went for an ultrasound. I was surprised by all of the stuff that they look at. We were able to see the heart, the little toes and fingers, and the face. It was sooo fun.

I wanted to share a picture with you of our sweet little BOY!!!!
You read right, IT'S A BOY!

Let the Craziness Begin...

I am sorry that I have been absent for the last week. I have managed to keep up with reading others' blogs, but posting on my own blog did not happen. I hope that all of you had a nice Mother's Day weekend and a good start to your week.

Well, within the last week we have started setting the wheels in motion for the "getting ready for baby" almost complete house rearrangement. This weekend, my DH cleaned up his desk so that I could move into it too. After spending at least an hour reorganizing the drawers and combining the office supplies, I am quite happy with the result. I actually have all of the bills in their folders in a hang file instead of in their folders in a pile on my desk and a little stationary/correspondence section a desk drawer.

This weekend we also moved all of my sewing and craft supplies to their new home in the laundry room. It is kind of tight in there, but I think that it will work. It will be a place where the baby can hang out with me and I won't have to worry about the dogs being around or their hair mixing with my current project.

On Monday, along with watching the kiddos, I finished cleaning all of the odds and ends out of my old sewing room. All that is left in the room is stuff for the yard sale I am having this weekend. After I price all of it, I am going to start prepping the room to be painted. My goal is for us to have the room painted and have all of our bedroom furniture moved into the freshly painted room by next Friday.
Yesterday one of my goals was to alphabetize all of our CD's and putting them into the baskets on top of the new shelving. I also made some cute little labels for the front of the baskets so that we would know what CD's the baskets held. I had some leftover scrapbook paper that matched the accent fabric from the shelves that I used to make them look a better than plain white paper with letters printed on it.
Today, I went to the intro class for a Bible study I am getting to attend this coming fall. The program is called Bible Study Fellowship (or BSF to a lot of people). I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the program last spring and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am so excited that God has opened the doors for me to participate next year to study the book of John.

So, what has your week looked like? I am also curious if any of you are a part of a BSF study?

Three Years and Counting...

On this day three years ago, I was fortunate enough to marry the man of my dreams and the man I had been praying God would bring into my life.
These three years have seen us through several things, mainly health issues and a miscarriage. But God used the trying times to reinforce His love and my DH's love for me.Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary since we have dance class tonight.
This morning I woke up to breakfast in bed and the beautiful flowers below.
I look forward to many more year with the wonderful man God has given me for a husband.

A Few Packed Days...

Well, I hope that all of you had a very nice weekend and a good start to your week. I know that mine was.

My sister drove in from Florida on Thursday and drove back to Florida yesterday. We had such a nice time and it was sad to see her leave.

On Friday my sister and I went to breakfast and then went to the zoo. We spent several hours at the zoo looking at the animals and chatting.
Here are our butterfly pictures. One of us is the sweet butterfly and the other is the grumpy butterfly.

After the zoo we went up to my DH's office because my sister hadn't seen where he worked. Then we went to play shuffleboard. I taught her how to play and she even managed to get a few four pointers.
On Saturday we made French Toast for breakfast and then went to play Frisbee golf. After lunch we went shopping for a while and then went out to dinner for my birthday.
After dinner we went bowling and my DH and sister played shuffleboard. We then went to Outback for dessert and finished the evening out playing Mario Kart.
On Sunday my DH grilled hamburgers after church for lunch. My DH and sister then went to play Frisbee gold again while I rested. After I rested we went to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins, went shopping again, and then went to have dinner at Chipotle.

She left yesterday morning after we went to breakfast. We had a really nice visit, but as always, it was way too short.

Sweet Sixteen...

Today I begin week 16 of my pregnancy. Yay!!!! I can't believe that we are moving along and that I am so close to halfway there. In so many ways it seems like it has been so much longer than 16 weeks since we found out. On the other hand the time is passing pretty quickly (as long as I don't check the pregnancy counter too many times during the day).

I have been feeling the baby move a little bit over the last couple of weeks. I felt it a few different times without being sure what it was. But on Easter Sunday, I felt the feeling I had been having and when I placed my hand over where I felt the movement I could feel the slightest movement with my hand. My DH also got to feel it so that was really fun.
In regards to food, first let me say that I am loving food and have found the key to not overeating is to not get starving. I have still been craving beef though not as much as I was. I really enjoy eating Gala and Honeycrisp apples, turkey sandwiches, and drinking grapefruit juice. I have found my alternative to the "usual" pickles for the pregnant lady thoughts. They are Zapp's Cajun Dill potato chips. I have become a big fan of them since I discovered them and have been trying to limit myself to only having a few with my sandwich at lunch.

We are going to be finding out the baby's gender soon. At first I thought that I might wait until delivery, but that idea quickly flew right out of my head. My doctor usually does that ultrasound between 18 and 20 weeks. We are getting sooooo close. I jokingly told my DH that the odds are even, I have had a dream about having a girl and a dream about having a boy. (Not that we would base any of it on my crazy dreams.) In the dream I had about having a little girl, I dreamed I went into labor and I was on the spaceship thing from the movie Wall-E. The dream I had about the having a boy, my doctor walked in and said "You are having a boy, that is what the guy at Waffle House told me and I agree with him." Ummmm excuse me, am I crazy or something??? I really hope that neither one of my dreams come true in regards to the details of them. Really, all of the little hovercraft chairs from Wall-E????

I have my next appointment on Thursday. We will set up our gender ultrasound then.

My Lovenox injections are going okay. As far as I am concerned, it is a small price to pay for the blessing of a little one. My DH has been doing a fabulous job giving me my shots and my mom even gave me couple of my injections when I went out of town with her. I have been bruising some, but I found a bag of frozen corn to be my solution for humongous bruises. I put the corn on my leg for at least 5 minutes before my shot and then at least 5 minutes after it. So far it has made my bruises a whole lot smaller. The first few I got made bruises bigger than a silver dollars. However, with practice and frozen corn my bruises are generally smaller than a dime. All I have to say is it will soooo be worth it when I hold my little one in my arms.

I have been feeling really good for the last few weeks. With the energy I have, I have been trying to get as much stuff done as possible while the energy lasts. I have been having enough energy to make it through the day, but I pretty much crash at 10:00 p.m. This week I worked on the list for the registeries and we made a basic registry at a couple of stores in town. I have also been looking at paint colors. I have a bluish color in mind, but I haven't decided on one yet. I also ordered nursery furniture and can't wait to see it when it comes in.

Our house is getting turned upside down in order to make the nursery comfortable. If you feel like following the complicated "switch-a-roo" then you can continue to read this paragraph. Our bedroom is going to become the nursery. My sewing room is going to become our bedroom. My sewing room will now be the laundry and the storage shelving in there will hold all of my supplies. All of the stuff that was on the shelves in the laundry room are now on the covered utility cart in the office/dogs' room as well as the freezer. See I told you it was a big switch.

Our goal is to be finished with the room swaps by the end of June. In the case of the nursery and our bedroom, a new coat of paint is on the to do list as well. I will keep you posted on the progress, however slow it may be.

God has been using this time in my pregnancy to encourage me to trust in Him. I seem to go through these cycles of feeling like everything is going well and will turn out fine for a couple of weeks and then I will have 3 or 4 days where I am start to really worry and every time I go to the bathroom I am horrified that I am going to be spotting. I have been trying to bring all of my little or big worries to God as soon as they enter my mind. God has been reinforcing a verse that I believe will be my life verse.

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
~2 Timothy 1:7

God has given me a sound mind, I have to remember that HE is in control not me. Worrying about it will only make me anxious and a nervous wreck.

Sorry this is such a long post. I know that a few of you out there were wondering how things were going since I haven't posted about pregnancy in a while. Now you have the whole 411 about my health and the baby happenings around here.