End of the Week

Rachel ended her year of ballet this week with a recital. Michael went and took videos for those of us who stayed home. I was quite impressed with all they've learned and the dance they put on at the end.

And, of course I have to include more pictures of Laura. She's definitely the most popular subject matter for photos just now. :)

I can't believe she'll be two weeks old in a few days!

The weather has taken a turn for the worse here and it's a jeans and sweater kind of day. I need to get out and Miracle Gro my garden, so that there will be hope of actually getting some produce! The peas are looking quite nice and I must get a trellis up for them to climb. I'm hoping to go to the plant store next week.

We have only four more days of school left!!! The kids were good sports and plowed through school while I was in the hospital, despite my having promised that we could take a week off. In return, I've decided on a class party for the last day of school -- since we don't ever do that kind of thing. It will include cupcakes and a measured amount of candy as well as a special project to work on.

A very big thanks to all my friends who have so kindly brought meals to us these past weeks. Wow! We have enjoyed so many delicious foods and it has been very nice not to have to worry about dinner. The kids have enjoyed it too and like to ask "Who made this?".

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. I hope you have a special weekend. Laura and I are looking forward to hopefully making it to church this week and spending time with family.

At Home With Laura

Laura and I were welcomed home by this colorful sign, made by the children:

Here we are, all back together again:

And little John was here to greet his new cousin:

Yay, for all being together!

It is so fun to see the two sisters together:

And little baby feet:

And of course we have to try on different outfits to see how they look:

Laura and I spent our first Sunday at home together, but I still dressed her up:

Because taking pictures is too much fun:

You would not believe how much this girl smiles. I know they aren't "real", but they are just so adorable and frequent.

Sleeping babies are so precious:

If I could just get her to go to sleep tonight...... :)

And Now For The Pictures....

We have been having way too much fun with our little baby!!! I guess it's about time I post some more pictures.

Let's see, we arrived at the hospital last Tuesday around 7 a.m. Can you believe after all my careful planning WE LEFT THE CAMERA BAG HOME!!!!!! I was beside myself until Michael got ahold of a nearby friend and had them drive over right away with their camera.

We were so thankful to have the nicest nurse who shared a lot in common with us. We saw the doctor around 8 and got the pitocin started around 9.

Laura's heartbeat kept the nurse readjusting me, trying to find a position that suited the baby. The epidural arrived at 12:50 p.m., having only gone from 3cm to 4cm from the time we arrived until that point.

The doctor arrived around 1:30 to check on the heartrate problem and discovered we were already at 9cm. She decided to just stay put and get ready to deliver. In the next 10 minutes the doctor rotated the baby's head to the proper position and deftly used a vacuum to get Laura out fast. The nurse and doctor then made quick work of getting the thrice-wrapped cord unwrapped from around Laura's neck. And then she was here!!!!!!

The kids arrived about 1 1/2 hours later, just in time to watch Laura's first bath:

Rachel gets to hold her very own sister for the first time!!!!
And here is Grandma, for whom Laura is named:

The nurses thought the sweet pea hat was way too cute:

James just adores little Laura, as does Andrew. Andrew can't stop telling us how cute she is.

But the boys were also busy taking pictures:

The girls of the family:

So the next two days were filled with sitting in bed, holding Laura, reading, knitting, and watching tv (since we don't have a tv at home: incidentally, I'm glad we don't! Even with cable I felt there was hardly anything to watch!):

I thoroughly enjoyed just staring at this adorable little girl!!!

And this was her going home outfit. You saw the little cardigan before I went to the hospital and I finished up the matching cap while there:

And the proud Daddy:

On our way home:

I have plenty more pictures since we arrived home, but will save them for another post.

The Final Checkbox

I think just about all the checkboxes that are going to be checked off are completed. This little sweater was my last project I really wanted to get finished before the baby arrives. It's an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern called "The February Sweater" I believe. I'm working on a tiny little hat in the same pattern.

I also spent a bunch of time sewing flowers this past week -- a nice, relaxing activity to get my mind off the fact that she hasn't come yet.

We made it through another Sunday for Michael without the baby interrupting the normal plans. And we had another delicious Sunday dinner, which included beet salad. Beets never cease to amaze me with their color and I can hardly resist photographing them.

And this is my last pregnancy photo:

The plan is to head to the hospital tomorrow morning (Tuesday) for an induction, if our little girl doesn't come on her own tonight.

Hopefully next time I post I'll have good news!

Check Box #8: The Room and Quilt

Finally, I have pictures of the baby's "corner" of Rachel's room and just about everything is finished!!!

Here is the changing table -- the dresser is full of tiny, little pink clothes! Just this week Michael and I found the diaper basket for free. All I had to do was cover the broken handle with a bit of fabric and the wool flower. The lining washed easily and it is just what I wanted!

Here is the crib, which was also "found" for free. I love it! The curtain came with the bed set off of Craig's list and my mom is painting two paintings framed in white -- one for each side of the window.

The crib set I found went perfectly with the lavender-painted walls, but didn't have a quilt. That was fine because the one thing I wanted to make the baby for sure was a quilt. Here is the finished product. It goes along almost perfectly with the bumper and sheet.

And the basket of blankets and burp clothes is waiting beneath the window.

Here's the quilt. Rachel and I made up the pattern using the diagram below. Rachel sewed the top together and I quilted it. We found ribbon to match the bumper and sewed that along the edge and then I embroidered a few lines here and there to match the design on the bumper.

Here was our plan:

The fun thing is, Rachel is working on a miniature of the quilt. She's sewn the top and it looks EXACTLY like the big one, just tiny. I need to put it together for her so she can start quilting it.

My sister came today and put lettuce, beets, swiss chard, and radishes in the garden. Now we just need some rain!

Everyday we get a little bit closer to meeting the baby and just a little bit closer to having everything ready for her!

Check Box #7

Last night I finished a sweet pea hat for my baby. I've made numerous sweet pea hats for friends but finally decided I better get on the move to make one for our little girl!

The pattern is one of Susan B. Anderson's and I used Cotton Classic for the yarn. I also finished the quilt last night!!! I'll need to post pictures soon.

Emily took me to Costco yesterday and we stocked up on food for the baby's arrival. Little by little things are getting checked off the list.

Saturday I got my haircut!! The beauty school I normally go to was full and couldn't fit me in so I decided to just go to the very first salon I came to (providing their cost wasn't exorbitant). Funny enough, I ran into a family from homeschool group at the salon and it turned out the lady cutting my hair used to belong to the same group as well! Small world.

My mom is here today working on our garden, which is so nice of her! Michael dug up the peony bed yesterday so that only peonies, and no weeds, are now growing in it. I see peas poking their heads up through the soil in a corner of the garden! Spring is glorious just now.

Check Box #5 & #6

Today I made a lot of progress on my checklist for the baby. Thanks to a very kind friend, who volunteered to take all my kids for a day, I had time to finish up these burp cloths, get the quilt almost completed, and pack my bags for the hospital.

This time around I wanted cute burp cloths. I made these from flannel and a chenille-type fabric. I'm quite pleased with them and hope they will hold up well.

I finished the diaper bag last week. I'm not so pleased with it. The imagination I had in my mind didn't quite translate to the finished product. But, it works for now and I'll use it until I either find something I like more or brainstorm something different.

The bag is made from an old skirt and lined with pink fabric. Large pockets inside go all the way around and are made from the floral Ralph Lauren fabric on the front (found at Goodwill).

Next up will be the quilt which is just getting it's edging sewn in place. I've started a sweet little Elizabeth Zimmerman cardigan in pink cotton and need to finish up a sweet pea cotton hat. I'm definately feeling close to the finish (of the projects -- hopefully the pregnancy too! :).

Check Box #2 & #3

On the list to be finished were spring purses for my mom and myself. Mom's purse is her old purse, but the handles were wearing thin. She liked their style, and so I came up with this solution to keep the old: a new felted band along the top, encompassing the hold handles. It turned out quite well, and mom chose the bright pink flower for a decoration.

This is my new spring purse. I just realized that the flower I couldn't part with, and which I designed the whole decoration around, never made it on the purse -- somehow a smaller, pinker flower got in the center. So, there is still a corner of the check box to fill in when I rip of the wrong flower and put the right one in its place.

I like the basket design of the purse and the lovely cables that still show from the original sweater.

I couldn't resist including a picture of the daffodils that are sitting on our table right now. No, they're not from our garden, but they really do brighten up the room and remind us that spring is just around the corner.

Right now I'm working on a few "check box diversions" which I'll show you soon. In the mean time there are quiet times to be had, chores to do, and a plan to make for the next few days. Michael is away on church business and we'll be on our own.

Check Box #1

As I mentioned, I'm trying hard to check things off my list of to-do's in the craft department before this baby comes!

Last week I finally finished up a very belated wedding gift -- this is a set of 6 linen napkins embroidered with the couples' last initial.

I do love embroidery, and am reminded of that every time I do a little project that involves it. With the napkins finished I moved onto my spring purse as well as one for my mom. More pictures to come....

Nesting

Nesting has definately started around here. However, rather than cleaning (like I probably should) it's all about sewing. Now that Christmas is behind us and the first round of flowers are made and put in the shop, I feel a great urge to finish up all those little projects that have been sitting around forever -- like my friend's wedding gift, my mother's spring purse and my spring purse. I'm making progress!!!

But, Rachel and I finally got out to Joann Fabrics last week to buy some fabric just for our new little girl baby. It was so fun to pick it out!!!

Here are the fabrics for the planned diaper bag -- a recycled jean skirt, some Ralph Lauren rose fabric I found at Goodwill and some pink duck fabric from Joann's.

I decided we needed pretty burp clothes -- no more of the white cloth diapers. Here are the flannel fabric selections, along with the pink chenille-like fabric for the backing.

And last of all the quilt. I found a crib skirt, sheet and bumper set on Craig's List that was originally from Pottery Barn. The only thing missing was the quilt. However, a quilt was the one thing I knew I wanted to make for our baby.

Rachel did a fantastic job helping me to find colors to coordinate. We made a quilt design and cut it out and have almost the whole quilt top sewn together. Pictures will be posted in a separate post. I'm amazed at how much the quilt actually looks like it really goes with the bumper. We even bought checked ribbon to go on the quilt -- just like the bumper.

And now we are off to ballet and then we're going to my sister's to catch our first glimpse of the Olympics. We couldn't pass that up!

And the Color of the Day is......

PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still can hardly believe it. And now, we can spend the next 5 months sewing, knitting, buying, and dreaming in pink. I think it's quite a birthday present (a few days early).