Wanna help?

Here are some of our favorites. My dad’s name is Stewart so I’d like to use that as a middle name. Samuel and Lyle are both family names. The rest are just names we I like. Our last name starts with a C.

Let’s have a vote, shall we.

I love where I live. There is a good mix of old and new, places to explore, access to the mountains and even lovely biking/walking trails throughout town.

My due date is creeping up pretty close and my comfort level is getting less and less. I’m having contractions but nothing regular. I do wondering sometimes if things are going to get going but then I’ll still wake up in the morning pregnant. Sigh. I’m trying to be as patient as I can for this baby but I admit it’s harder this time around. I just don’t know if I have it in me to go 2 weeks over again.

No, I do. I really do. I’m just being wimpy about it.

Leah and I have been spending a lot of time walking to the park in hopes that I can get things going sooner than later. It’s a bit of walk from home (2 miles round trip) and by the time we are back home, I’m completely worn out and sometimes regret the walk. My waddle isn’t very pretty these days.

For our next walk I’m a bit nervous though…

Jeremy took off Leah’s training wheels and of course, off she went. The thing is that I’m not sure how stable she is right now. I don’t think she’d be to happy to do a 2 mile loop by herself. I usually end up pulling her part of the way by hooking the dog leash on to the handle bars. It worked out nicely. But now I wont be able to do that. I certainly couldn’t run behind her and make sure she didn’t fall. Hum!? I guess our first trip out will have to be a shorter trial type one.

This pic is absolutely awful but it was the only good side shot I got of my courageous girl.

She was so happy about it all and loved going super fast. Way to go Leah!

Here’s a template for you in case you have too.

Download by clicking here.

Here is how mine turned out. I just printed it on 8.5×11 white card stock, folded it and trimmed the edges a bit. Nothing too fancy.

Enjoy. Happy Mother’s day to all you wonderful mothers.

We’ve been debating how to rearrange the kids rooms to make space for baby brother. Isaac and Emma have been together on bunk beds since Leah was born. I always felt a little bad having Emma in a boy-decorated room but she never seemed to care.

One idea was to move the 2 bigger kids downstairs (who weren’t ready for that kind of move after a 3 night trial) and give baby brother his own room. I love having babies sleep undisturbed. But in the end we figured it was best to move the girls in together and then have the boys together. Works out nicely, really. Why it took us months to figure that out is beyond me.

I wanted to take this bedroom switching opportunity to redecorate. I was completely tired of the paint in Leah’s room. But what to do? My 8 year old Emma is totally over pink and is loving lots of awesome shades of blue. My dear 3 year old Leah is in love with pink and purple. So when I saw this pin, I about died and went to heaven. I wanted that exact room for the girls. The problem was, though, that I couldn’t fit 2 bed side by side. The room is just way too tiny so I had to go with bunk beds which have turned out just fine but maybe not as cute as the room that inspired me.

Now that I’m looking at this pic, I think I need to lower the two darling flower prints, yes?

I copied the gray paint idea, though mine might be a bit lighter. I had major drama picking out gray paint. I’m such a coo coo head. I did lots of research on gray paint and had a list of popular colors from online. I got all overwhelmed by the variety of tones.  I didn’t want to drive all over town looking for the perfect color so I went to Kwals because it is the closest to my house. I came home with a sample called Seattle that looked perfect and painted a huge spot on wall. It was so hard to tell what it would look like with the funky pink background. I decided that it was too dark and too blue, especially when Emma came home and called it blue. What to do?

I went back and couldn’t decide if I should buy another sample or just bite the bullet on a full gallon. The cost of this room was stacking up. With the help of the paint guy, I ended up buying a gallon of Spray River thinking it was lighter and warmer than the Seattle color.  I painted half a wall and still didn’t know what I thought. Maybe too light. Not enough color. Should I go back to add more color? I kept going because it seemed like the easiest choice and I wanted to be done. I was worried that it was almost too white but thought that adding punches of color with accessories might dress up the room enough.

I wanted to make both girls happy with the room by using plenty of pink and blue. When I saw these new comforters at Ikea, I knew they were perfect for the girls room. Sweet but colorful and I just couldn’t beat the price, especially with wishing I could make homemade quilts but having no time or energy to do that.

Now for the fun accessorizing-

I learned to make homemade tissue pom poms.

I hung up curtains and sewed up a little flag banner with fabric scraps that I had on hand. The flags might be my favorite thing in the room. I had the idea to make it one night while I couldn’t stop tossing and turning. Love it.

I painted the backside/inside of a little billy bookcase.

Made some doll bunk beds with duck tape.

And hung up little picture frame shelves from Ikea for storing small stuffed animals and books. My girls love their knickknacks so I knew I needed to provide limited space for their treasures.

I’m so happy with the way everything turned out and so happy that I’m done. The girls love the room and so do I.

{Don’t be too freaked out with the leopard gecko on Emma’s head. She loves Lizzy and holds her whenever possible.}

*** *** ***

Isaac was initially sad about losing is bunk mate but after I gave his room a thorough cleaning, took off the top half of his bunk bed and did a little furniture rearranging he loves it again and is happy to show off his big boy room and points out the fact that he’s going to share with baby brother when he comes.

I had an old bookshelf I moved into his room and created a little place for his knickknaks too.

Now, it’s time to sort old baby clothes, buy a pack of new born diapers and maybe bust out the diaper changing pad and bassinet.

But I’ve been able to check a couple things off. Yea!

A month ago when I went to Idaho, I had my hubby get the carpets cleaned in the house so we wouldn’t have a bunch of little feet running around on wet carpet. When I got home I looked at my empty rooms and at all the furniture piled up in the areas that hadn’t been cleaned. It felt like we were just moving in and we had a fresh start to arranging furniture.

What a great time to improve things, yes?

My first thought was to find a better home for my ugly computer desk and cords galore. This gave me the idea to tuck it in the little space behind the couch. Our tv and sectional were centered in the room leaving some empty space along the far wall.

Now, imagine a toy room chuck full of toys. Imagine a table in the middle of that mess with a sewing machine and a cutting mat on top of it. Well, that table is where I’ve been doing most of my crafting. I had some storage going on for my sewing supplies but it certainly wasn’t the ideal situation. Because I don’t have my own room to make into a craft room, I needed to get creative.

Now, if only I could find a decent before picture.

I think Jeremy had the idea to skooch over the tv and couch, giving more space for… what?

A CRAFT CORNER!! My very own space! Yea!

Now, I know it’s not terribly glamorous, nothing worth pinning, but it’s an improvement for me. Isn’t this how most of us live anyway. Not all of us can have perfectly decorated dream rooms.

Maybe I should have cleaned up a little better before I started snapping photos. But hey, I’m all about real life.

I really should get rid of the fake tree. Jeremy doesn’t like it and it kinda cramps my space. I was afraid of melting it with my iron the other day. Yikes. Adding some fun, bright art to the walls would make it even better.

I’d also like to get a new iron board cover. Something cool and modern looking. I can tuck the iron board, cutting mat and sewing machine behind the couch if I want it to look really nice and clean.

I splurged on this Expedit from Ikea. It’s perfect for craft supplies. I already had most of the Itso bins from Target and the little drawers full of scrapbooking stuff. I added the lables and tidied everything up.

The best thing is that the kids tend to leave my stuff alone and I don’t have to step over a ton of toys while I’m working away.

Yea, yea!

With all the wonderful sales going on around digi-land, I’ve decided to jump on the band wagon and have a little sale here at my template shop in case you’re needing to stock up on some templates. Just enter the code iNSD4mandagirl at check out and you’ll save 30% on your entire purchase through Saturday..

Jeremy has had some family in town so we planned a little weekend getaway with everyone. It was nice and relaxing with lots of cousins, lots of yummy food to eat and lots of fun and laughs.

It’s always amazing how well cousins play together.

Here’s part of the crew.

Oh, did I say it was relaxing? Actually we did a ton of walking. Hikes to beaver dams, exploring trails around the Ogden Nature Center and even the MS Walk to support my sis -in-law. We walked so much I thought I might go into labor with all the contractions I was having but NO. I woke up the next day still pregnant.

We spent a couple of the nights playing the card game BANG. Have you heard of it? It was pretty fun if your looking for a new game to play with your family.

With everyone snapping pictures, I finally managed to get a good snap shot of my belly.

I’ve always had pretty easy pregnancies but this time around I’m feeling older, less mobile, less energetic, and much more pain. The pain is mostly in my lower back and hips when I’ve had a busy day. Lots of standing, walking, cleaning, etc. I think I may fall apart one of these days. Sometimes when I lay down I think I’m going to never be able to get up and move again.

I’ve been going to the chiropractor for adjustments. My pelvis is always a little torqued so I think it helps the pain quite a bit but never makes it go away. My baby was breech for a while too but after a couple of adjustments he’s head down now. If you ever had a breech baby, I completely recommend trying the chiropractor. I didn’t know that when I had my first.

Now that I’m getting somewhat close to the end, I’ve thought about getting out the baby boy clothes to see what I have for this little guy, washing blankets and maybe, if he’s lucky even pulling out the crib. It’s so funny how baby #4 gets so little attention.

Leah is in a total “that’s me” stage. I’m not sure she sees anyone else in her family in the pictures besides herself. She scans the pages for her own little face and points every single one out to me. Sometimes in the older scrapbooks she thinks Emma is herself. They do look quite similar. I’m sure it’s some great developmental stage to recognize your own picture but I think it’s so funny. She’s been wanting me to go through every book with her.

Honestly, I didn’t stage this. She saw me pulling out the book and sat down and started pointing all by herself. “That’s me with a messy face.” “That’s me eating an apple!”

All I had to do was snap the pictures.

I love two-pagers, as most of you know, but occasionally there is the required one page… such as a title page to a scrapbook. I also rarely only have one picture on a page but I think it’s justified for a nice title pages, yes? I pinned this cute page a while ago and was inspired to make it my title page. If you’d like it too, you can download it here.

Here is how my page turned out.

Of course, you don’t have to use this template for a title page. It’d be cute with the circles filled with pictures or journaling too.

What a party pooper I am. Maybe I’d feel more up for it if I wasn’t 35 weeks pregnant.

Isaac is 6 today. He’s been counting down for a while now. We celebrated over the weekend by having all of the neighborhood boys over for a little party. We had pizza and cupcakes are our house…

and then went to our favorite pool for some swim time. The boys had a great time. We gave them squirt guns for their party favors and I have to say they were such a HIT!!

Score one for the party pooper!

The guns keep the boys playing the whole time. Battles were going on everywhere. Even I got caught up in the line of fire game for a while.