Today was the day!

Gracyn Kay 8 lbs. 9oz. 19 inches long!

We welcome with love....Gracyn Kay! She has made her entrance into our world! This morning at 5:30 am I started contractions, but nothing real bad. We hung out in bed until about 8:00 this morning with both girls and I got up around 8:00 and put in our cinnamon rolls and hopped in the shower. In the back of my head I was thinking that this was it, and yet my contractions weren't unbearable yet. We had breakfast after I got ready and about 9:00 I decided I would call the labor line. I did hesitate b/c I knew two weeks ago when I had false labor - it was the same Dr. on call. I was afraid he would think I was looney again with false pains. He told me to come in if I think it was it. So I told Kyle I think we should go and of course he ran around the house wanting to put laundry in, collect trash, etc... Crazy guy. Finally I told him for real - we had to get going. My cousin Lindsay slept over night since we went out last night so she stayed and called my mom once she got out of church. Anyway - we got to our room by 10:15 am and Gracyn made her appearance by 11:01am. So you can probably guess since it went that fast - I got NO drugs. No epidural, not even stadol. I was feeling the need to push by 10:50. The Dr. checked me at about 10:35 and I was a 7. Obviously it progressed really quickly. Anyway - much was a blur, and yet I remember it all too - crazy. I remember saying I couldn't do it without an epidural, and yet I was pushing without even trying - just couldn't stop it! So I feel great and Gracyn is doing wonderfully. She is in warming up after her bath, which I got to go watch b/c I am not numb! That is one plus! So our home is the hospital for a while - it will be a nice break. Braelyn and Selah came already to meet their sister and Braelyn was very happy and excited, Selah just poked her a bit and moved on - LOL! Gall bladder pain is gone - I am praying for good! Thanks for all your prayers - it is truly a miracle to have a healthy beautiful baby girl!

I will post more pics when we get more good ones! My sister in law Nina will come and snap away with her rockin 40D!!!

No News...means no baby.

No baby. What was I thinking anyway - I am still a week out from my due date. Problem is...the back pain persists. Not only does it persist, it is getting worse. Thursday at work was HORRIBLE - I could not get comfortable. On the way home from work that night I called the salon where I used to work and made a maternity massage appointment with my favorite masseuse! Wed. night I did not sleep at all - I think I watched the time just keep ticking....slowly. Thur. night after Tylenol PM I FINALLY fell asleep, but the time up until that was excrutiating. I was near tears. So the massage was DYNAMIC today, however the pain is back. That is what leads me to agree with the doctor that it is my gall bladder - not just muscle/growth issues. My fear is that the gall bladder issue does not go away after baby - I pray it does. I am just saying that the epidural sounds pretty darn good right now - I am thinking when I do go into hospital, the first words out of my mouth will be "is the anesthesiologist ready?"

Tonight is computer time for me - although I will admit I am heading for the tylenol PM once I finish my post so we'll see how long I stay awake. Kyle is out with the guys tonight for a drink. He deserves it - he has been so busy lately. And I have had quite a few little "night outs". One of his friends is in from NY so it'll be nice for Kyle to see him. Tomorrow morning I think the girls and I will travel up to Kyle's job site just to be with him. It is a big hour drive one way so we'll maybe stop for breakfast and then hang out while he does a few things there. Girls will get good naps in afternoon and then my cousin is coming to watch the girls while we go out to dinner with 3 other couples. Olive Garden - YUMMM!!! Bring on the salad and breadsticks. Sunday - the normal sunday school, church, and lunch at moms.

Monday is another Dr. appt. - I am not holding out hope for anything though as far as a further idea of when or what. I am sure I will check back in then.

Sorry my posts have been all baby related lately - it probably won't get any better once I have the baby either - LOL. Hope you don't mind. If you do - I guess just stop reading - LOL!

Night all! Have a GREAT weekend!

Dr. update and a LO

Sharing a LO that I started last week, and now finally finished. I have no energy or time to really scrap lately so one LO a week is all I might manage. I do have lots of photos to scrap though. This should be the last one for the new babies book though before she arrives. She actually has quite a decent album already.

Credits here

So my Dr. appt. yesterday went good. Baby seems to be doing well - he said she is in a good environment. She seems happy. He did determine after talking to me and me pointing to where my pain is, that my gall bladder is probably acting up, causing the pain. She said the only cure is to have the baby unfortunately. Everything is just squished in there. So I will continue with my Tylenol PM for that. I have not dialated any further, but he did say he has good contact with the babies head, so she is down there. Unfortunately he said unless my water breaks he expects to see me next Monday at the office. The things that go thru my head are just amazing. All the anticipation. I know that she is probably easier inside of me than she will be when she comes out, but I still want her out - LOL. So that is my update - really not much new news unfortunately.

So just a slow week around here - not a whole lot going on. Still plan on working to the end. Braelyn is trucking along in school - she seems to LOVE it! They are doing such neat things in class and she seems to be learning how to be responsible which is a great thing. Selah - well she is just Selah. She is my stinker. A touch of a handful, but totally funny. While I was at BSF last night Kyle video taped the girls a bit and Selah busted out a new cute dance move for him! Cute to watch.

Off to clean a bit before heading back out to pick up Braelyn - have a great Tue. everyone!

Such a good weekend

We had such a good weekend! Thursday night, our dinner banquet for Winning at Home was AWESOME! Ok, ok, so I didn't LOVE the food, but I normally don't at those types of things b/c I am so picky - it was too fancy for me, but the entertainment and information we got was GREAT! One of the great things they are doing is called Married for Life, an awesome copncept in a world that is so divorce ridden! Kyle and I are signed up and there are great emails with good information. They want to have one million people sign up for this - so far they are just over 5,000 only - so sign up and make the commitment. You already have made the commitment on your wedding day to your spouse - now make the statement to the world that marriage is still an institution that is meant to last. The other thing I am looking forward to that Winning at Home is starting is a parenting event. Dan Seaborn is partnering with Mark Harris (singer/songwriter) and they are going to host an event on parenting - both speaking and singing! Should be good! So that was a great evening.

Fri. night was small group at our home - went well. Watched a video by Rob Bell -his Nooma series. The one we watched was entitled "Today" and it was about embracing today - not holding on to yesterday. How many of us say "oh back in highschool - those were the days" or "oh before having kids - wow that was a good time". Too often we spend so much time living in the past that we forget to embrace today and enjoy NOW. Good stuff. Good food and fellowship!

Sat. I got my hair done - FINALLY!!! Good morning out. Then by 5:00 we were headed out to the Professional Bull Riders event at a local arena. That is quite an amazing show. Even if you are not into bull riding (or think you would not be) I assure you they put on an amazing show. We had a good dinner before hand too at Friday's! We didn't get home until about 12:00am - late night for me - LOL!

Yesterday (Sunday) we did Sunday school and church and then to Kyle's mom for a good Sunday lunch. Girls did naps (as did myself) and then we went out to the beach with a pizza. It was a GORGEOUS night! I can't believe this weather here in Michigan lately. Today is supposed to be 88 degrees. Maybe a record high for this time of year here. We have had great sun to lately. So nice - although - 88 is a little too warm for this pregnant woman! Work today inside anyway so it will be fine. Tonight I have BSF and it is fellowship night too so I think I will try to go early and get to know my group a little better. Not sure yet if I will sit thru the lecture part though b/c I am in such pain/uncomfort lately with my back and ribs so it is a long time to be sitting for me.

No baby of course yet. I see MY doctor today at 4:00 so hopefully he will say i have dialated more and things are progressing. It is so funny b/c I know of 2 other gals that are due the same time and all of us are on our 3rd to 4th child - and no babies. Maybe we'll all be at hospital together! I have been having the pain I mentioned - like starts under my right chest area (rib pain) and then wraps around to the back muscle of upper back. Severe pain - sometimes takes my breath away. I called the nurses line finally on Fri. thinking they could give me something stronger than Tylenol to take. The nurse called me back after checking with Dr. and she told me to get liquid antacid b/c he thought my stomach may be irritated. WHAT??? I don't think they understand what I mean. So I did try it just to appease them, but no such luck. While I was at the pharmacy though I also picked up Tylenol PM to at least help me sleep. It has helped a bit, but I am still extremely tired from lack of sleep. Just preparing me I guess! Other than that, the contractions have slowed and aside from the normal pressure I feel down there things are just sitting tight. Could still go to my due date - we'll see! The anticipation kills me. Braelyn is so excited too! I think she will just LOVE having a little baby around - although she is at the age now that she will want to hold her all the time. Selah won't really care much I don't think.

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend too! See ya on the flip side!

MercyMe - Bring The Rain

Let the fun begin

First and foremost - THANK YOU ALL for the kind words of encouragement. I have gotten over the whole issue from yesterday. I did cry for a good 2 hours almost, but thanks to Kyle, Beth, and all your comments I made it thru the afternoon. Kyle had a talk with Selah before dinner and made her apologize and told her that is uncalled for. She apologized so sweetly to me. He then offered that I stay home while he went with the girls to his grandma's house b/c it was her 87th birthday! I took him up on that since I was going to head to Mindy's house around 8:00 for scrapping. The time in the house by myself for an hour was divine. I did a little quick clean and then hopped in the shower for a nice peaceful shower. Did a little face mask, put on my PJ's and headed to Mindy's. We had a good night of chatting and scrapping with some apple crisp and chips and dip! So, I have overcome once again and it is all looking up from here on out!

Tonight after work Kyle and I will go directly to a dinner banquet with my sister and her husband and a neighbor couple! Should be a nice adult night with a comedian - who can't use a good laugh - right? Tomorrow is school for Braelyn and then cleaning up the house for our small group to come at 6:30. Good food, good fun! Sat. morning I finally get my hair done - man oh man does it need it - I have about 2 inches of dark roots. I think I will have her put lowlights in along with the highlights to hide the growth a little longer! But at least I should have new fresh hair for the baby coming and all the pictures! 20 months ago I had short dark dark hair - so crazy that 20 months ago I was in the hopital having Selah and Braelyn was then 20 months old! Sat. night the PBR event in G.R. - again - adults. So I will get my fair share of adult time this weekend - which will be good b/c it may be a while before we get that again with a new nursing baby!

So - again thanks for the encouragement - I really appreciate you gals and I know I am not alone. Sorry I post those types of posts even, but hey - this is my everyday life blog right! We don't all have perfect days and that is okay - I do believe that God makes us stronger thru them - just not sure how yet. I must admit I don't have Him anywhere close to figured out! I just know He is amazing and He works in amazing ways. Ironically Selena was emailing me to see how I am doing right around the time my poop incident was happening - I truly believe God put me on her heart and that is why she emailed me - and she is sitting there with no hubby and two kids for a whole week - what is she thinking thinking of me - LOL! I have a song that keeps popping into my head that is by a christian artist and it is about taking the rain if it makes me praise God more, etc.. - I have been looking for it on google and when I find it I will post it b/c it is sooo good. If any of you know which one I am talking about please do tell!
ETA - It is the song "Bring the Rain" by Mercy Me - Thanks Amy! I am trying to have the YouTube Video play on the blog.

So I will probably not check back in here this weekend - until maybe Sunday. Big shout out to Janet Phillips and her ventures of SOY (Scrapbooker of the Year) out in Las Vegas this weekend - GOOD LUCK!

Shitty Day (excuse the language - this post might be full of it)

I am about to BLOW. I just got done cleaning up a crib, floor, and kid FULL of POOP. She has now heard EVERY swear word on the face of this earth. If you are the perfect mother that has NEVER done this then read no further and just ignore the whole post - as if you never even checked it once. I am tearing as I write this. Not because I am sorry for how I acted, but because I am so MAD. I cannot handle one more thing this week. I am mean to my kids and I can't handle the way they are acting. Who freaking never warned me that I would have to SCRUB shit off of a nearly two year old who has eaten it and smeared it all over EVERYTHING. This is not what I signed up for folks. Yesterday I was in tears and today again in tears. I recover so quickly which I guess is good, but I am just plain sick of it. It's not like I don't get breaks - I do. My husband is good about helping too - GREAT in fact. He wants more kids - I really just think God is saying I need to be done. I am just not cut out for this. Braelyn is now up and looking at me and wondering why I am crying. She is turning on the TV - which she can't go for more than an hour without. ARGH. What's a mother to do. Anyway - I shouldn't even post this b/c I know it will be fine in an hour and I will take everything back. And of course I will get some ridicule from mothers who have NEVER had a child poop all over in their crib and say "You should have handled it differently", but oh well. OK - rant done.

On a lighter note - here is one more LO to share that is being added to the new babies book.

A better day

Today is a better day. The contractions have stopped and now I am certain I will be pregnant for another 2 weeks -LOL. Not sure if that is good or bad. I am still really uncomfortable - have a horrible pain all the way around my chest region (well just under my chest) like I have bruised ribs and a sore back up there. I don't sleep well, and all the good last month of pregnancy stuff. Plus now we are packed and ready so that makes things all the more exciting. I just HATE the unknown, but I trust that God will bring little "*^*^%*#" into the world in His perfect time!

Here is a picture of the letters that I made for Selah's name. It was super easy - I just traced the letters on the paper, but the paper out, used some ModPodge to seal the paper and sanded the edges a bit for some distressing. Whaaalaaa - all done. I did obviously doll them up with ribbon and other goodies too. So fun. I have close ups of each letter if you want to see those, just leave me a comment here and I will post each letter individually.

OK - time to work on my bible study work while Braelyn is still in school. We are getting in the 80's again today so I am sure we will play outside for a while after lunch! Have a great day!

A New Week

As I started this post on Sunday night, I had no clue that Monday morning would bring a pre-labor scare. This morning I woke up with contractions that were 2-5 minutes apart for about 5 hours. They started at about 7:00am and Kyle had left for work. I figured they would let up, but then got to thinking that since he might be headed up to Ludington (2 hours away) I better call him and maybe see what to do. By 8:15 I called the before Dr. office hours phone line to see if the Dr on call wanted me to go in to hospital or wait for office hours. He said to call right at 9:00am for an appt. at office. So I got an appt. for 10:15am -meanwhile my mom had come to my house to sit with the girls while I beared thru some contractions. We also packed the girls stuff - at least we are all packed and ready when it is for real. At the Dr. I was told I was a 3 - so one more point dialated, and cervic was still not lined up. Not what I was expecting to hear. Kyle was with me by the way at this point - he turned around in Muskegon to come home. So, false alarm. I did continue to have contractions and they were the ones with the back pain - definitely different from what I had been having. I went to my mom's house then and laid with Braelyn for a while for her afternoon nap and then did a little scrapping (had my laptop packed for the hospital!). So - that was my day. We are about to have dinner here and then I am going to attempt BSF tonight - which will be VERY uncomfortable, so hopefully I make it thru the whole thing or at least half! I just popped tylenol so that should help a bit. Obviously missed work today and no work tomorrow b/c it is my normal day off, so I will go in Wed. if everything is still normal.

Here are a few of the things I worked on this week. The T-shirts are all done and ready for the girls. We got the girls final things hung in their room (I will take a picture of the name letters I did for Selah - they turned out great!!!) I also have the baby's scrapbook album half filled with pre-baby LO's and the visitor signing page, so I feel like I accomplished a lot!






Credits for LO found in my gallery link on upper right!

Hope you all did not have quite as an eventful day as I! We'll keep you posted from here on out!

Look OUT!!!

So I made it thru my Dr. appt. - the 36 week check. I am dialated to 2 and 50% effaced - we'll see where that leads. My guess is that I will stay like that for a while. I think I will just keep telling myself that it will be a while yet so that I don't get my hopes up. Really though, I am going crazy trying to get last minute stuff done! LOL - the nesting part of pregnancy.

Got the carpets all cleaned today. Last night was a BIG night of moving tables and little things off the carpet. I met the cleaner here at 8:00am and then came home from work to a CLEAN and good smelling home. Bad part is - we had to put much of the furniture back tonight. I am AMAZED with the carpet though - it looks like new - almost better than new! No more spots, no sticky feeling, etc... Well worth the money!

The apples that we picked on Sat. - we got those all taken care of now. I made one GREAT apple crisp, and then last night we were having fruit flys flying around so I told Kyle we need to cook the remaining apples. So at 9:00pm he started peeling and coring the apples. We did a HUGE batch of applesause that turned out great too. That will come in handy come next month for a good side dish with easy dinners once the baby comes! I also want to make a few dishes of cheesy potatos that I can easily throw in the oven. Better get some frozen hashbrowns and cheese.

Tomorrow's schedule: (this is more for me - skip if it bores you)

9:15 - leave to bring Braelyn to school

9:35 - drop of property tax payment

9:45 - Michael's Craft Store (to get: a black shelf for girls room, & iron on transfer paper for the girls' big sister shirts)

10:15 - home and do some cleaning - vacuum and mop wood floors (carpets are done - YEAH!)

11:15 - head back to school to get Braelyn

11:35 - home for lunch with the girls

12:15 - 1:30 - play time with girls

1:30 - girls down for naps and time for mom to sit and relax!!!

4:00 - girls up and play time - hopefully outside a bit
5:00 - clean bathrooms (bonus if I get this done before 5:00!!!)

6:00 - Kyle home and time to eat - easy Fri. night dinner at home.

We'll see how that schedule really pans out - LOL!

And here is my reminder list of things to do in the next few days:

*hang the girls shelf and picture in room

*print pictures for the little baby album that Braelyn bought for the baby as gift

*print out the visitor signature page for baby album

*pack bags for me and Kyle and for the girls

*find pictures of both girls at hospital to hang in our hospital room this time to see if the baby will look like either of them!

I did finish a few LO's recently and uploaded them to my galleries tonight. This first one is for a new album I am working on that I will call my Praying Parent book. I am using the prayers from the book "Power of a Praying Parent" by Stormie Omartian. I read the book this summer and really found it helpful. I am not a good pray-er and I think having these to look at and read as prayers to start will help me establish my own prayers in time. I will stick with these similar papers and use these great doodle swirl overlays by the New Designer coming tomorrow to the Lilypad.

And this LO is a LO using Shabby Miss Jenn Designs new Cherrywood Farm kit. I can just say WOW for this kit - literally almost speechless. This kit put me in the mood for fall! I used this LO as my submission for the Hodge Podge challenge this week!

That is it for tonight I guess. My little gal is just a KICKING away - I hope she settles down so I can get some sleep - I think she is using me as a punching bag - super crazy hard. Oh yeah - she has completely dropped too - like she is down there for SURE. Crazy how I always wondered why pregnant woman "waddle" towards the end. Well now that is me - I have to waddle just because I feel like there is a watermellon between my legs - LOL! I just can't WAIT to meet her and to find out if she looks like her sisters did at birth or what. OK - NIGHT! (or good day if you aren't reading this until tomorrow)

MandaKay

I'm a mom of a school child!

What??? How can this be??? I cannot believe it. Today was Braelyn's first day of Three-School! She seemed to really enjoy it. For the first day she only went for an hour and I stayed with her to introduce her to all of the new things. She has a peg for backpack and a cubby hole for her papers. There is a cute kiddie bathroom and little chairs and tables. She thinks that is the BEST - everything is for her size! Her favorite thing about the visit was the pink barbie phone that makes noise - LOL. She wanted to take it home and told me she would take it back there. I explained that the phone can be something that is special to play with at school b/c if she had it at home she wouldn't be so interested in it. I think she let it go. After that I went with her to Target and she picked out a gift to give her baby sister when she comes to meet her at the hospital. She picked a sleeper outfit (b/c we don't have like a MILLION of those - LOL), and the Sassy book that the baby can look at pictures of those who love them. We will put pics of Braelyn and Selah in it (and of course mom and dad too!). I also got pj's for Braelyn and Selah that matched the babies new one b/c Braelyn wanted to be matching. Two little basic cream shirts to make the big sister iron-ons again. I better get on that!

I haven't blogged in a while - we had a busy weekend - Sat. we went apple picking which was great! Sunday was a nice day of church, home for lunch, naps, and then the Sam's Club spree. This week has been going good. Kyle is working lots of hours again this week so our nights feel real short. Other than that, not much going on.

Can't believe it's been 6 years since the aweful attack in NY - my thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims in those attacks and also with our servicemen fighting for our safety.

OK - this post took ALL DAY! Totally had to do it in between doing a bunch of other things - just multi-tasking I guess. Hope to update tomorrow with what my Dr. appt. says.

So many good challenges out there....

I mean - I can hardly keep up. The thing is I LOVE them! I usually need a good challenge to get my scrapping mojo up there. Once I get going it's a breeze, but the push of a challenge helps! The incentive of possibly winning something always helps! The Lilypad challenge this week has so few entries that your chance of winning is like one in one (at least there is only one comment on the post and I think it is a requirement to link up your LO in the comment section of blog after uploading LO) So play along - just use something bright and colorful in the LO, arrange some things in rainbow color order and use some Lilypad product - which I am sure you all have!

I am working on a LO for this challenge also. I hope to finish it up tonight - after our busy activities! Can't wait to show you - I like it so far. In fact - it actually is a LO that combines BOTH challenges. I am kind of killing three birds with one stone you could say. Two challenges and it is a LO of Lilypad goodies so that works for my team requirements!!! Just some good stuff out there!

And lastly I am contemplating taking this challenge. My reservation is in the fact that you need to do a LO a month between (official rules) Sept. 19 and Oct. 30th. which I think means about 6 LO's. Problem with that is that I will be having the baby in between there. Yikes - do you think it will be too hard to keep up with three kids (one being a nursing baby) and do the challenge. Either way I will be buying the kit b/c it looks awesome and is done by a TON of great designers. So help me decide if I should just buy the kit or if I should buy the kit and enroll in the challenge. The prizes are awesome - for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place - not that I would even win, but at least it is incentive. Ugh - what's a girl to do?

So tonight we have my niece Isa's b-day - that is at 6:00 and thenat 7:00 Kyle and I have to skip out for a parent meeting at Braelyn's Three-School. Hopefully that takes an hour or less - don't want to miss out on too much of the party! This weekend will be pretty laid back - no real plans tomorrow night (although Kyle has mentioned the fireworks downtown G.R. for Celebration on the Grand) and then Sat. we are going to go pick the first honeycrisp apples at Crane's Orchard. It is a ZOO there on the first weekend of these apples, but I am willing to brve it! The girls will love it! Plus I think we will do lunch there in their restaurant - make a day out of it! At night we will be going to a derby that my brother-in-law is in - girls have never really been to one of those I don't think - so hopefully they like it. Sunday is church and I don't think either of my sets of parents are doing sunday lunch so maybe just home at a decent time.

I am totally getting the whole anxiety thing starting with this pregnancy now in these last few weeks. I keep thinking something is happening and keep thinking I will go early, and yet I wonder what I will do if I don't and if I will want to be induced if that is offered closer to due date. I had two totally different labor onsets so I wonder if this one will be comepletely different too. I am sure all of you mom's out there remember these feelings. It is so exciting - really. The unknown. I am ready to be done being pregnant and yet I totally enjoy it. I have slight fears that this might be the last and I can't imagine never having the feeling of a moving baby inside of me. It is so amazing to me. I can sit and just watch my stomach move. I can feel the feet on my stomach - it is WILD. This little girl as I have mentioned before really makes herself known. So anyway - next Wed. I have my 36 week check so i should know more then! At least they will tell me if ANYTHING is happening down there. I feel like it is, but I also keep telling myself - "don't get your hopes up". In reality it would be nice to make it past the weekend of the 21st - because that weekend is full of adult nights out - our last real weekend I figure of dates like that for a while. (it includes a dinner banquet on the 20th for a local non-profit, small group at our house on the 21st, and then a Professional Bull show on the 22nd) So I do hope to make it until then - which I am sure won't be a problem! It is just fun sometimes to sit and wonder though!

Time to sign out. Thanks for listening to me blab (although I would blab on here even if no one was listening - LOL), and don't forget to take a challenge this week if you digi-scrap!

MandaKay

We're back!

So we're back from our little weekend get-away. It was so nice to spend time as a family and have Kyle helping with things! The weather was GREAT this weekend and we just had a lot of fun! I have a few pics to share that just highlight our vacation.
















Mac Woods Dune Rides

This was our first year actually doing the dune rides. It was $40 for our family - but it was SOOO worth it. Braelyn smiled from ear to ear the whole time and the views were GREAT!

The girls were so excited to go on this ride! it took us thru the dunes and out to Lake Michigan - got us a little wet and then back to the shop. It was so much fun - Selah loved it and I even think the baby in my tummy loved it! I did sit in front seat since it was the least bumpy and really - the ride was the same as riding in a regular vehicle - nothing crazy on this!

We did the beach on Sat. and Sun. - great weather each time - a little windy on Sunday, but bearable. Again - the girls just enjoyed playing. This little "creek" runs into Lake Michigan on this beach - so great for the kids!

Selah needed a little rest time I guess. She kicked me right out of my beach chair and made herself comfortable. Of course she was pulling her hair and sucking on her first two fingers - double barrel!

Braelyn had fallen asleep on the way to the beach on Sun. We had some trouble with parking since the beach we like has only about 30 parking spots. We waited on the road for about 5 minutes with cars behind us just to wait for one car to leave. Ugh - that is the only downfall on Labor Day weekend - the place was PACKED! Chad drove around for about 20 minutes so we waited for him (he dropped his wife and kids off at the beach) and we let Braelyn take this cat nap. She was OUT!

And here is Selah while we waited - just re-hydrating and getting ready for a beach party!

That's it for pictures - sorry for the rawness of them - I am not the type to fix up pics until they go on my LO's! I also hope they don't post all funny on the actual blog - that is one bad thing about blogger is the layout of it is not the best!

We got back Sunday night around 9:00pm which was great because we got all unloaded and started on all our laundry. We have gotten smart with laundry though - both while camping and really for any little get-away. We take a larg garbage bag and as we have dirty clothes we throw them in there so by time we get home all our dirty laundry is all in one place - and anything left in the bags then is still clean and can just be put away. So laundry even went fairly quickly! Monday morning we went to breakfast with my sister Kim and her girls and my mom and dad. IHOP - nothing fancy. After that we headed down to our Holland Market Place where they finish off a "truck" parade and the trucks all park and hand out goodies and you can look at the semi trucks and sit in them. It is just a little tribute to some local businesses and fun for the kids. They got lots of candy and little toys! We were home by 10:30am and then it was clean time. Kyle did yard work while I kept trucking on the laundry and cleaning house. I put the girls to bed by 12:30 since we were skipping lunch and doing an early dinner. Kyle then came in and we went thru our house room by room and threw away a TON of crap. 2 LARGE garbage bags full! And a pile for GoodWill. Feels good to de-clutter! I did my cousins nails last minute for her senior pictures and then it was shower and off to dinner - again with my mom and dad - LOL! Dinner was Logans - the 2 dinners for $12 deal is GREAT and kids meals are only $2! Our kids split a meal b/c they NEVER eat even half of a half - LOL! Good food and it is always nice to have a little extra help along like mom and dad - LOL! After dinner we went to Target, Best Buy, Michaels, and Bed Bath and Beyond. Talk about errands. Didn't get everything we needed, but we made quite a bit if headway! Home by 9:00 and kids RIGHT to bed since Kyle bathed them late afternoon. Good day! Kyle and I watched a movie once we got all settled to unwind before the work week!

Today I have been busy cleaning again! Talk about nesting - right?! Basically I am going room by room again starting on one end of house and cleaning floors, washing base boards, and scrubbing walls where they need it! Feels good to have this done now that we know we are staying. In the next two weeks I will be calling to get the carpets cleaned so they are all ready for a new baby to be laying down on! Plus I must admit we have only had the carpets cleaned ONCE while living here - like 4 years! YUCK. I just HATE forking out the big bucks for it, but I know it will be worth it. I think I might try the company my sister uses b/c she swears by them - and I want them done RIGHT! I am going to try to scrap here for a bit during naps - I am sooo behind!

Well, my oven timer just went off and I can smell the scruptious blueberry crisp which must mean it's done! Have a great day and week!