it was fine until the jam...

Today started out fine. We took the van in to the mechanic this morning to find out the cause of a terrible grinding sound when I braked.

2 hours later we get the call that all our brakes are shot and that grinding sound was metal on metal. $482 total. "That's okay," I thought, "this is why we listen to Dave Ramsey. And we were protected on our trip to IN when we only had 10% of our brakes left. There is the power of prayer."

The girls and I make jam. I leave during a crucial part and the whole pot boils over leaving a huge mess on our gas stove and scorched jam residue in my pot. "That's okay," I thought, "I'll just clean it up and we will move on. And we still have delicious jam."

Matt tries to make dinner but we don't have BBQ sauce for the ribs. He tries to make a substitute but the Worcestershire flavor is a bit strong and he didn't cook the ribs slow enough so they are too chewy. "That's okay," I thought, "we just slow cook them for a few hours and we can use the meat in a casserole. And this is a very uncommon fail on Matt's part."

Then we ate some of the jam from earlier in the day. It is the leftover stuff that didn't,t fit into a jar. It tastes burned. "That's okay," I thought, "it's from the bottom of the pan so it is going to taste burned."

Until I open up a random jar from the middle of the bunch. Burned. And another. Burned. And a third. Burned. Half the jars. All burned.

Goodbye, 14 pints.

Highlights from December

December was a busy and fun month for our family. I didn't blog much because of the busyness, but I don't want to forget some of our happenings!

In no particular order:

Charlotte got ear tubes. And we have noticed a big difference. She never got a lot of ear infections so we haven't noticed any difference in that, but she doesn't have a continuously runny nose anymore. We have also noticed a big difference in her ability to hear and talk! She's been talking up a storm and speaking much more clearly and she also responds when we call her, which she didn't often used to do. Yay for tubes!

Nathalie started preschool. She enjoys it, mostly. She's a strong personality and occasionally has conflicts with the other children or doesn't want to listen to her teacher but since that's why we sent her, Matt and I feel like this is good for her. On the first day, during a transition time when her teacher had asked her several times to finish her activity, Nathalie put her hands over her ears and said, "I don't want to listen!" Ah, my beautiful Nan.

Emily figured out how to make books. Meaning she staples together pieces of paper folded in half and makes books. We have about 10 "Emily books" running around the house right now. What do I do with them?

We found out we're having a girl. For the record, when the ultrasound tech announced it was a girl, I laughed. She stared at me and I said, "Well, I already know what she looks like!" I thought it was hilarious. Still do. We're struggling over a name, but we'll get there. We are girl specialists!

Matt graduated with his Bachelor's in Nursing. Yes, you heard me! After many years he has a BSN! Now he's working on applying to grad schools and we're thinking about what it'll mean for our family. He did get a raise too!! His raise is 50 cents per hour. Woot woot!

It snowed. We had an incredibly mild winter last year and the girls were so sad that we never got enough snow to do anything. This year already we've built 4 snowmen and had two snowball fights! The snow is patchy now but we've had a lot of fun.

My sister had a baby. This is a big deal. The biggest part is that her baby had a negative diagnosis (he may have some special needs) and he has beaten every odd so far! He was 4 lbs 7 oz when born (37 weeks) and struggled for a few days but he's home, no feeding tubes and no oxygen! We're so excited at his progress.

Matt had a record of 3 days off right before Christmas. Matt's been working a lot so that we can meet some of our financial goals and the weekend before Christmas he actually had Saturday, Sunday and Monday off! He did work Christmas Day but since he had Christmas Eve, we didn't feel jipped. That's the longest time he's been home (and awake) since Thanksgiving.

I turned 27. Whoo! I'm an old lady! Actually, I feel like I'm not old enough for the life I'm living (mid-30s?) but it was a great birthday. We didn't have any cake (since it's so close to Christmas) but I got some really thoughtful gifts (28 spools of thread from Matt!!) and the girls were sweet to me all day.

Our first Christmas as our family. And we loved it. It was fun and special and I'm glad we could start some traditions that belong just to us.

Now on to 2013!

Check out this bad boy

 Matt's request this Christmas was a large denim quilt for our bed. Matt loves denim quilts and he wanted one made by me. So I set to work on it. And get this...I started sewing about 12 days ago. Yes, that's right. This quilt is a total of 398 squares (I think?) and I only started sewing a few weeks before Christmas.

 Because it is a 9 patch it came together quickly. Matt specifically requested farm fabric. I looked all over and this was pretty much the only farm fabric (age appropriate, not baby fabric) I could find.

 The denim and colored squares come from clothing we've been saving--old scrubs and jeans. I am completely out of denim now but still have a few scrubs squares left.

 The quilt is so big that I had to move all the furniture to the edges of our dining room to baste it. This is what it looks like on our bed. It comes down to about 8 inches over each side and touches the ground at the end of the bed. I really don't like quilts that barely cover the top of your bed because then you're not covered if you roll over or something. So I made sure this quilt was huge.

 In fact, it is so big that I laid the quilt lengthwise against the width of a king-size flannel sheet (does that make sense?) and I still had to add a 6" piece at the end of the flannel sheet. This green plaid is from Riley Blake's "Fox Trails" collection. I love plaid and Matt loved this fabric.

 I hope you can see how I quilted this. Two quadrants go vertically, two are quilted horizontally. I had to do this because I started from the center and in order to reach the "far side" I would have to roll up the entire quilt and fit it under the arm of my sewing machine. With a quilt this size, that simply wasn't going to happen. So I had to quilt in two different directions since only half the quilt fit under my arm. (Did any of that make sense?)

Admittedly this present took a long time. Matt helped me cut and pin rows together. I stayed up late (about 12 or 1am) finishing this. It was completely worth it. Matt was so happy to have this. He wrapped up in it all Christmas morning. I am so glad I finished it. Seeing him love this was worth every late night and ripped seams. He is worth it.

We have arrived!

The other day, on a rare sunny and slightly warm day, the girls were outside in the background. Nathalie came running inside, crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "Emily is ruining my life!"

Emily has a little friend at school she plays with all the time. I asked if the friend was a good listener (I meant a good listener to her teacher). Emily's response? "Yes, she's a good listener. I tell her what to do and she listens to me."

Emily came home from school a few days ago and as we were talking about her day she said, "Mom, do you know who Justin Bieber is?"

Aaaaaand....welcome to parenthood.

Photo Book

 Those big brown eyes are killer!

 Three girls. I had to keep moving backwards because they kept advancing.

 Charlotte's big day. Ear tubes and in her cute baby hospital gown.

 Cutie patootie did great. She was silly and goofy even though she hadn't eaten.

 Only a few hours after the surgery at COSI. You'd never know she'd been under anesthesia. An hour after surgery she was down and running.

 Doctor Nan.

 Emily loved these crutches.

 A long day of surgery and playing leads to tired girls. Don't worry Mom, I was at a stoplight!



I wonder what it'll be like when I have to make four crowns every day!

In about 12 years, this will get interesting

So.

I'm pregnant. 19 weeks, in fact. I'm showing now. Well, I feel like I'm showing but I really just look fat.

This has been a harder pregnancy in a lot of ways. "Harder" is a relative term, since I am one of those blessed women who has easy pregnancies. But it was definitely the pregnancy with the worst morning sickness and the worst fatigue. Emotionally this pregnancy has been a roller coaster as well although the second trimester has definitely been a major improvement.

Anyway, here I am almost halfway done. I've been feeling the baby kick since about 15 weeks-- strong, definite kicks. The baby doesn't move around much, more like it sucker punches me. We told the kids about 3 weeks ago and they ask me every day if the baby is coming out yet. It's going to be a looooong wait until May for them.

In the meantime, Matt and I are starting to brainstorm names. The reason we're brainstorming? We're out of girl names.

Tomorrow is a big day

Tomorrow is Nathalie's first day of preschool. I don't know why I'm so nervous! I keep thinking, "Okay, she needs to be up by 7:25. Okay, have we set out her clothes? What if she cries when she is dropped off? Will she keep her shoes on? What if her teacher doesn't like her? What if she gets in trouble at school?"

We did set out her clothes. Put her to bed at an earlier time because she'll be getting up earlier. Matt gave her a blessing and I've never seen her sit so still and be so reverent.

For goodness sake, preschool is only 2 1/2 hours long! This is a little ridiculous of me.