Been awhile

It's been too long since I've last blogged. It seems like everything is going on fast forward and I'm running behind just to catch up. My baby girl is 5 months old already. How and when did that happen? She is in love with watching her older brother do the things she, I'm sure, can't wait to do. She is rolling all over the floor now, and has even recently began sitting up on her own. She loves tummy time (remarkable to me considering Christian hated it). Naps are a no go.....sleep seems to be a no go. She won't nap for long and her sleeping at night is kicking me in my butt!!! It usually is around 1 or 2am before getting her asleep and then she is waking up every 2 hours it seems. Ugh. I need sleep. Can't nap during day either because Christian doesn't nap. How lucky am I? LOL

Some funny stuff has happened while I've been away though. Christian is such a good big brother. The other day while riding in the car, Grace was crying. Nothing we were doing was stopping her. She just wanted out. Christian starts screaming to me, "mama!! mama!!! baby Ace bottle!!!" I said honey she doesn't want her bottle. So then he starts singing her the ABC's. How sweet!!!!!! Well when that didn't work, he stopped trying. He was really quiet. So I turned around to see what he was doing. He had his fingers in his ears!!!!!! LOL I love watching the two of them together.

As far as Christian, he is almost 3 years old!! He has no interest in the potty (ugh!) Ive tried several times to get him to go. He says he wants to be a big boy but then when I say well lets go sit on the potty he says no! I guess he'll let me know when he wants to go. He will get it I know.

He knows his ABC's, he can count to 10. He recognizes a circle, triangle and square. He knows his colors. And the thing that amazes me the most and this child can work a computer better than I can. He did something on my mom's computer the other day that she has been trying to do for months!! I'll let him play on a website called Starfall. He LOVES that website! He plays every morning while eating his breakfast. It is very educational and it's a website they use in the kindergarten classes here. He can do everything on that website already. My mom told me the other day I just needed to go ahead and send his butt to college next year instead of 3K. LOL
I'm nervous though that he will be bored once we send him to school.

Well Jason and I were thinking of moving a couple states over, but after much thinking and praying we have decided to stay for now. I was willing to go but didn't want to go. I'm thankful we have decided to stay.

I have scrapped some but don't think I've taken the pictures to post. I've started making cards lately. They are quick and easy to do and satisfy my appetite to scrap when I don't have much time to do so. I'll post pictures soon. I've actually started an etsy account and going to start selling some of them on there.

Since we have decided to stay here and not move, we have made the decision that I am going to start riding with my husband and help him with his business. My mother will be taking care of my children. I have mixed feelings on this. I want to be able to help him out, get out the house and feel like I'm contributing to the household. But at the same time I feel like I'm cheating my daughter since I stayed home with Christian but not her. I feel like I'm going to miss out watching my children with the everyday little things they do to make my day. The kisses for no reason, the hugs out of the blue, the helping with the pancakes and eggs in the morning. The outside play, the little giggles when I tickle Grace's tummy, the smiles I get when I walk in the room. Maybe we can compromise. One month riding, one month off, etc. :)

Oh well. Times are tough. We will make it through. We always do. That's it for now. I'm going to go rest my fingers.

Grace

Grace is already 12 weeks old!! How the time flies! I cannot believe my baby is getting as big as she is!! May 29th she laughed for the first time and rolled from her back to her belly and back again. That was also the day me and Jason celebrated 5 years of marriage together. What a great gift my baby gave us!! Christian is getting sweeter by the day. The other day we were riding down the road and Grace started crying. So I turned around to see what was wrong and to give her her paci and Christian was holding her hand to try to calm her down. What a sweetheart!!! She is his "baby Ace" or "baby pink". We were in Hobby Lobby the other day. I went to the restroom to feed Grace. My mom had Christian and my aunt came up and took my cart with her. Christian thought Baby Grace was in the shopping cart still and he raised cain thinking my aunt was taking his baby away! He starts yelling "baby ace! baby ace!!!" My mom got such a kick out of that. Sweet boy. Here are a few pictures of Grace to enjoy. These were taken yesterday at my nephews 6th grade graduation.

2 new layouts

Have I ever mentioned just how much I love to scrap? When my children allow me to I can sit down and actually create some really nice layouts in my opinion. Scrapbooking gives me an outlet. Lets me just let my creative juices flow. Scrapping gives me something to be proud of (other than my children of course, but then again THEY are the reason I scrap and THEY are the center of my scrapping) Here I did a layout for my daughters book. The title is I didn't ask to be a princess. I saw these papers and I knew I wanted to use them for a layout on her. This picture was from her newborn pictures taken at Sears.



This layout is for my son's second year album ( I scrap by year.....1 album=1 year) It's title is How does your garden grow. Him and my mother were out in my yard planting flowers together. It was suppose to be my mother and I planting the flowers but Christian jumped in and I jumped behind the camera. What precious moments. I love moments like this and I love the fact that since I've scrapbooked them, they are moments that my children can relive again and again.

They are the reason I scrap. And I enjoy every moment of it (and them).

Sesame Street Live!!!

My mom and I took Christian to his very first Live show tonight. Sesame Street live. Nevermind the fact that Christian doesn't watch Sesame street. He only knows Elmo off one of his shirts and he has a Tickle Me Elmo. So I was skeptical about how he would react, how well behaved he would be, etc. HE DID GREAT!!!! And throughly enjoyed the show!!!! He was mesmerized by them dancing birds and monsters. It was great. Even Grace behaved. She slept the whole time thank goodness. I was worried about that too.

So since Christian enjoyed himself so much we will probably start watching Sesame Street on ETV. I wonder if it will have the same effect on him as it did tonight. Enjoy the pictures!

Wow!!

He stood here so still and let me capture this perfectly!

He clapped for the first time after the intermission and they started again. I think he finally got into the groove of things then.

One cool dude here with his hands up in his pockets. Too cute. Such a little man.

This was taken before the show even started. I knew then that we would have a great time. I love that little (or shall I say BIG) cheese grin.

I loved making this memory with my beautiful son. I can't wait to scrapbook this moment so he will never forget his first LIVE show.

Randomness

I thought I would add some random photos of our life throughout the week..

Here Grace is chillin in the tub. She loves to take baths. It calms her down immeditely if she is upset. She kicks her little legs and splashes the water. The only time she don't like it is when I take her out. She starts whining until I have her wrapped in a towel.



My little fisherman buddy. First time that he kept a hat on after I put it on him. Of course after 10 seconds of it being on I grabbed the camera. Wasn't sure how much longer it was going to last!!



I adore her smiling face.

That sly little grin that will have daddy beating the boys back

Christian loving on Grace

Christian got into a fight with M&M's the other day in the car.

The M&M's won

I love my life. :)

Been scrappin lately?

I've been trying to organize my scrap room. Get it more so where i can see what I have. That way if I see it I will use it. I had my dad build a ribbon holder for me and he is working on a shelf box for my wood mounted stamps. I have been able to get in there and scrap a little bit but not much for the craziness of everything laying around. My hubby bought me a peg board to hang some stuff and we bought a bathroom cabinet to put my paints, glitter, flock and embossing powders in. I found some clear containers at Hobby Lobby and organized my flowers by color. i can't wait for it all to be done.

Here are the two projects that I have worked on the last couple of days. The first picture is a birthday card I made my best friend and the other LO is something that my mom and I worked on for her book. That is Christian's nickname. Punky. Something that I gave him as a baby and it has always stuck with him.

Mothers Day 2009

Happy Mothers Day to all mommies out there! We are having a cookout at my house to celebrate all the moms. I can't wait. Should make for some good pictures to scrapbook. My hubby went out tonight and bought me a laptop that I've wanted for a while to accomodate my scrapbook hobby. I'm throughly enjoying it especially since it has Wi-Fi on it and I'm sitting in my living room with my hubby and still able to cruise the web. I've been kinda busy with the children and unable to post pictures of my little people but will do so later this weekend maybe. Grace is getting so big and Christian has finally came around and is doing so much better. He even now says he loves his Grace. I asked him if the baby was his and he said yes. He says "I love you Grace!" It is so darn cute. So anyway, if there are any misspellings or crazy sentences it's because it almost 4 in the morning. One perk of having a wide awake daughter! I'm off to bed hopefully soon!!! Night all!

Welcome Grace Autumn Brune!!

We welcomed beautiful Grace Autumn into the world on March 17th at 8:15am. She wieghed 8lbs 9oz and was 19.5 inches long. She is very healthy praise God!! My family has been so richly blessed with our two children and everything that God has decided to grace us with.

I've been nursing her now with no supplements (another gift from God). Christian never did take to nursing so I had to quit nursing him at 3 months. It broke my heart. But Grace came on wanting to nurse and has been ever since. The home nurse came yesterday and reported that Grace has gained 6oz in 3 days! They typically want the babies to gain an half an ounce a day so for her to gain 6 in 3 days is great!!!

All she does is sleep sleep sleep and eat!! If you were to come visit my house you probably wouldn't even know she was here! She is a great sleeper. Now lets see if that continues.

Christian is the best big brother!! I'm so very proud of him! Except for when his grandma Ta comes over. If she holds the baby he yells at her to put the baby down so he can play with her (Ta). He could care less if I hold the baby. Jealousy. At least we only deal with it when it comes to grandma and not me. That would be an issue. Here Christian is playing with Grace's hairbows. Silly boy.

Doctor said I couldn't drive for 2 weeks (I had a section) so it has been just one week and I'm going stir crazy!! I've even resorted to online shopping. Pitiful. Oh well. I probably should enjoy it while I can.

Valueable lessons

This is quite funny if you ask me. Maybe not so much to my hubby. Last night I decided to cook meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Well when I was peeling the potatoes, brillant me decided it would be okay to put them in the garbage disposer instead of the trashcan. Well they went down fine. No problems. About an hour later my husband decided to clean up the kitchen while I bathed Christian. "Honey, our sink is stopped up!!" *hubby calls my dad* Dad tells him to create pressure in the sink by filling both sinks up with hot water. Nothing happens. We turn on the garbage disposer and from under the sink the floods start. My hubby has no idea why and what is going on. "Honey, I think I know the problem." I say. *smiles sweetly* I tell him what I tried to do with the skins of the potatoes and he laughs at me. "Haven't you ever seen them little old ladies sitting by the trashcan peeling potatoes? "yes" I say. He says, " Theres a reason for that!!" Well of course there is a reason!!! They didn't have garbage disposers back then!!!!!

Needless to say, he had to undo the pipes and clean them out. Lesson learned. No potato skins in the garbage disposer. I have the best husband for being such a good sport about that. Especially since we were up til about midnight working on our plumbing. :)

Oh and by the way, 6 more days and counting.

Countdown begins: 7 days left

Well as of today I have only 7 more days that I will be pregnant. In a way it's a sad feeling. I love being able to feel her move in my tummy. As selfish as it sounds, I also love the fact that I'm the only one able to take care of her right now. I don't have to worry about whether she is cold, hungry, crying, etc. I am the only one that can "hold" her. I don't have to share her right now. I know, I know, it's selfish but hey, I'm only human!!
On the other hand, I can't wait to see her beautiful face. I can't wait to see Christian's face when he sees his baby sister for the first time or see the way he acts with her. I cannot wait to see her features and see just how much her and Christian really do look alike. I cannot wait to see daddy's eyes light up the first time he holds his daughter or how protective he will be with her. I also can't wait for the day that we all get to leave the hospital as a family and come home to start our new life as a family of four.
I went in for my final prenatal doctor appointment this morning. Nothing has changed still. Her heartbeat is still going strong thank the Good Lord above. I have come down with a cold. Although that will not change the surgery date, it will effect my comfort level. Doctor said I'll just be more miserable than I would be without a cold. Geez, thanks Doc. Talk about words of encouragment! I'm just thankful they didn't have to change the c-section day.
Things are getting rather hectic around here. I've got to sand down her changing table and have my husband paint it white to match her room. Then I have to start putting away all the baby shower gifts that I've recieved. (Thanks everyone!!!!) And some things I have to go exchange b/c I recieved two of them or already had one. I still have to make an appointment and take my dogs in to have thier yearly shots done before Tuesday (they were due for shots in January...oops!) AND I have to go Friday to get my hair cut because who knows how long it will be before I get to get pampered again. Also I have to cut my son's hair as well!! He is really starting to look like a wholly booger. All my clients that I still do are calling me needing haircuts and color before I "go out on maternity leave" persay. I has been a busy week and will continue to get and be hectic until after Tuesday I suppose.
Okay well I think I've ran my mouth long enough. I guess this entry will last until after I have Grace. If not, I'll be back to write more.

Getting Closer!

Well I have a little less than 2 weeks now left before Grace comes along. It's getting harder to breathe, do housework, even play with Christian. So I'll be glad when she gets here. I can't wait to see her beautiful face. The C-section is scheduled for March 17th. Yep, St. Patty's Day. She is going to be my little Irish lucky charm. I've got Irish in me so it's all good. Plus that is the day that Jason's grandmother was born. She passed away in 1995 and it broke Jason's heart, they were inseperable. So this is such a blessing for him to be able to have his daughter share her great grandmother's birthday.
My last week's appointment held no changes. Nothing! So I'm about to go back to the doctors in a little bit and we will see if there have been changes. Probably not except the fact that I feel like I'm getting bigger than the whale I saw in my email this morning.

Grace Autumn

Well with only 2 weeks left until baby Grace makes her grand entrance, I've been trying to find the time to enjoy some quiet scrapbook time. That has not worked out so well but I was able to break away for about an hour the other night to design this page for Grace's album. I really love this page. I've never been a "busy LO" scrapper but this page just does it for me. I'm so glad to have the best of both worlds with a boy and a girl. I enjoy scrapping Christian but because I'm more of a frilly prissy kind of woman, I'm going to have so much fun on Grace's pages as well. So heres to the beginning of prissy, frilly, flowery pages!!!

Snow Day

Well it was a rare day in SC. We got snow for the second time in 6 years. And it happened all in the same year. January 20 and today February 4th. Crazy. The only thing that made me mad was the fact that it was sticking good! But by the time we all got up and got breakfast down the snow was already melting. Oh well. It's been a crazy year so far. Maybe we will get snow again next month. HAHA

Sick Days

Well it's defintely been interesting the last couple of days. Christian spent the night with my mom Friday night despite his runny nose and coughing. Jason and I had a date night that night and I knew Christian would be in good hands with my mom. So we went to pick him up Saturday afternoon, he was still sick some. I started giving him some medicine. By Saturday night he was running a fever of 100.5. I called the doctor. He told me to give him some tylenol and bring him in the next day.
Next day Christian woke up fine!!! However! Sometime during the night this little virus snuck itself into Jason's body and my body. We woke up with sore throats and headaches. Jason also had the runny nose and coughing. I had the watery eyes. At least Christian is feeling better now. Maybe I can scrap tonight some. That is, if I don't fall asleep first.

Sketch Challenge

So I started scrapbooking around 8 or 9 years ago. Jason's aunt is the one that actually started me on it. It has been a rewarding hobby but an expensive hobby as well. I'm part of 3 different scrapbooking online communities. Let's Scrap Divas, Let's Scrap, and Scraps of us. We have different challenges or sketches in each group that I sometimes take part in. This is the latest sketch that I've done from Let's Scrap Divas and Let's Scrap. Okay so I'm new to this blogging thing, so just bare with me as I get used to this.