13 Years Ago....

 It is hard to believe that 13 years ago today I became a Mommy!  Where did that time go?  How did my baby girl grow up so fast?  No longer a baby nor a child.  

March 30th 1997 happened to be Easter.  I felt amazingly good that day for being a day short of 38 weeks pregnant.  It was beautiful outside!  I remember playing outside with my little sisters, then only 3 & 5 years old, and cleaning while my mom was cooking for Easter.  Then shortly before 2:00 pm the contractions started.  Nothing terrible but they were there and coming faster and sooner then the one before.  To keep it going we walked, and walked, and walked some more. By 9:00 pm, with contractions lasting a over a minute and every 3 minutes apart, we loaded up and headed to the hospital.  After I got hooked up to everything guess what happened?  After 5 wonderful contractions & finding out I was dilated to a 3 it all stopped.  Nothing, nada, zip.....  The good news was that my OB really didn't want me to go much longer anyways due to the estimated large size of the baby and the small size of the mommy.  He gave me something to sleep the night away and said we would start induction bright and early the next morning.


I slept wonderful!  Brett & my mom, not so much... They were nervous and didn't have sleeping pills in them!  lol  I was awoken at 7:00 to get the ball rolling.  At 8:00 the pitocin was started.  At noon my ob came in to break my water.  He told me I had till 5:00 to labor and if there was little to no progress he was doing a c-section.  If there was ANY signs of distress from me or the baby before then we were off to a c-section.   My plan was to do this all natural.  I was more scared of the needle going in my back for an epidural then I was of the pain.  I was told they could give me other pain meds that would help and that is what I was going for if I needed it.  At 3:00 I told my nurse I couldn't take anymore and I wanted something / anything for pain relief.  Little did I know I was at the worst part of the end of transitioning and I had almost made it.  With in seconds of her leaving the room I told mom I could push.  Her and Brett ran back out to the hall to flag down my nurse.  She came running back in to check me and yelled for help and started moving things around.  At first it scared me greatly thinking something was wrong but we were told it was just time to have the baby and off to the OR we were going.  This was before l&d rooms.....  


My OB came running in and asked the nurses if he had time to change, to which they yelled no and threw a gown over him.  He asked if I had been pushing long and  they said they told him I had went to do 1 and the baby was right there.  I didn't even get one full push in before they made me stop.  With one big push Alexis Rose was born at 3:15 pm on March 31st!  All 7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long of her were perfect!  


Looking back I remember her terrible colic at night.  NEVER sleeping.  We would take her for car rides to finally knock her out only for her open her eyes the minute the car stopped.  The fits she would throw during her toddler years.  Oh she was a stubborn one!  How sick she became with her kidney issues.  The surgeries, the specialists, the hospital stays, and how scared we were.  I am so thankful she made it through that and is healthy now.  She was such a silly kid!  Sleeping with her socks on her hands every night.  From a very early age she learned how to take them off her feet and put them on her hands!  WHY?  How she loved to play with little things and was always so soft with them.  All of my mother in laws holiday decorations trinkets were her favorite!  She never broke one.  All of her silly quirks from freaking out of a wash cloth to having to bathe only at Aunt Lynn's.  Thankfully they have always lived next door to us!  The past 13 years have been amazing and I feel blessed to be her mom!  

Happy 13th Birthday Lexie!

Before you were conceived, I wanted you. Before you were born, I loved you. Before you were an hour old, I would die for you. This is the miracle of life.

It's DONE!!!

The boys room is 100% done!  The only thing I would like to add is 2 little bean bags in blue.  I am so happy with how it turned out!  It did take a lot of work but all worth it.  This all began with us starting to look for bunk beds to buy for the boys.  The ones we loved were going to cost us a few thousand dollars.  The cheap ones for $200 - 500.00 were well, cheap, and we didn't trust them.  I was directed to a Blog to check out and soon found a new hobby.  

Knock off Wood is AMAZING!  Anna is AMAZING!  Brett and I poured through her site for a few hours one night and came to the conclusion that we could do it ourselves.  With a lot of help from Anna from her supplying the shopping list, cutting list, and plans I headed to Lowes the next weekend! 

The plan called for two Simple twin beds with two head boards for the bottom and two foot boards for the top.  We wanted a full bed on the bottom so we printed off the plan for the Simple Full size bed and did that with the two head boards for the bottom and continued on with the rest of the plans for the twin (top) bed.  Pretty easy to customize to what you want!  For the color we chose a deep brown that I love, I love browns!  It is called Chocolate Truffle.  Anything that has the words chocolate or truffle is a love of mine!  lol   

I did most of the beds myself but Brett did help!  I did all the cutting and pieced everything together.  Then I had him countersink the 4 x 4 posts and then together we put the finished product together.  It was easier with two of us and in all honesty kinda fun since we banned all kids from the garage due to the saws and boards moving all around.  Almost like a date!  lol  Then it took a lot of sanding, painting, and putting on the poly.  


Up next was the book / toy shelf.  This was pretty easy and really took me just an afternoon while the little kids were sleeping, older kids were at school, and Brett at work!  My plywood was a little warped so I ran into a few issues but in the end I got it done and am ok with how it turned out.  Not as happy as I am with the bunk beds but it will serve it's purpose.


I made the wall hangings, curtains, and bedding!  We couldn't quite decide what to do the room in.  At first it was tractors but any tractor material I found I didn't love.  It was either babyish or too busy.  I hate any character themes so that was out the window.  The boys have had airplanes / jeep / camo since Ethan was a baby, almost 5 years ago, so I was growing a little tired of it.  I had this fabric in the blues, white, and brown striped in my closet.  I got it for a steal of a deal at Chez Ami and thought it would be perfect.  Gives the room color, boyish, but not too busy or babyish.  Thankfully they had more in stock when I went back to order more!

 Now for all the pictures!  Excuse the poor lighting.... It was dark out and I didn't want to wait  until today to take the pictures out of my excitement to getting this on here and finish up my Lexies room!  Oh yes, more woodworking, sewing, & painting!  

Can you believe all of that cost us just a tad over $300.00?!  From paint, fabric, wood, to all supplies needed.  Of course it took lots of time but if you know my husband he loves to save money and would rather use time!  lol  Just like with sewing a new dress for one of my girls I get great satisfaction out of doing it myself! 

A little brag on my big girls and more.....

I had parent / teachers yesterday for Alexis and Olivia. My Olivia is now 9 and in 3rd grade while Alexis is 12 days away from turning 13 and in 7th grade. Time goes so fast and I hate how they are growing up right before my eyes. Both got great reports and are doing excellent in school! I am SO proud of both of them for all their hard work they have put in this past school year! I can't believe this school year is just 2 short months from being over. While I look forward to summer break and all that it brings - lazy days, warmer weather, softball, and sleeping in - I hate to think of next school year means I have 3 in school instead of 2. Ethan, who will be 5 in August, joins preschool.

I know Ethan is just the start of this. As he joins kindergarten the following year it will be Isabella joining preschool. Then comes Aidan.... I survived having 3 under 3 years old. There was SO many times I thought for sure I couldn't go on one more minute due to pure exhaustion of sleepless nights and running after toddlers with a newborn in my arms all day. It saddens me to think of the very near future of my kids growing up yet at the same time I am excited to see how they bloom and who they will turn out to be. I try to think of all the fun things we will get to do together as they grow. On days that I long for a quiet house with everyone at school I have to really think hard at how well I will really enjoy it. I am thinking I won't once it happens.

So today I will try not to think of tomorrow and just love today and what it brings with these crazy group of kids that are all MINE!

The Stash Game

During the month of February my sewing board had a Stash Game! The basics are you sew as much as you can with the fabric you already have. You get points for extras and if you buy fabric during that time you loose points. While I wasn't able to do as much sewing as I wanted to, 2 sick kids for two weeks during the game, I did manage to not buy even 1 yard of fabric! Of course I loaded up before and right after but that is besides the point! lol

Here is some pictures of what I did get done!

My Olivia, 9 yrs, loves her American Girl dolls. Well, the knock off! Anyway she wanted some new clothes for her dolls so we grabbed some patterns to fit 18 inch dolls the last time we were at Hobby Lobby. This is what we got done!

Some clothes for Isabella!

Some for Aidan Man!

A set for Ethan Boy!
Aidan also got this same set but in a smaller version of course!

Baby goodness! NOT for me.... These are gifts I made for some mamas with little ones on the way.

These do have some matching hats. I believe my little girls stole the hats to put on their own babies. I need to go steal them back.....

Well, that was pretty much the extent for my sewing during the Stash Game. I did also do a baby quilt but I couldn't post pictures of that yet until the mama receives it since it is a surprise and has read my blog before! It came out pretty darn cute and I hope she loves it!

Sewing Room is DONE!

I planned on finishing on Saturday but decided to go shopping instead. I really needed out of the house for a bit so I finished up yesterday. Wasn't a lot to finish just some touch ups with painting and putting a few things away. I am happy with it and glad to have my own room in the way I want it.

Walking in....

Desk top that I keep embroidery designs on and digitize. Not to mention get a little online time hidden away from everyone else!

Embroidery Station


Yes, that is a coffee table that I sit on. It gives me room to work and I also put my cutting mats on it and do my cutting!



Ironing & the sign my oldest made me! I LOVE it!

Sewing & Serging
The sign above here is perfect for me! I hate to cook anyways and if I am sewing I really hate to break and go cook. I blame my mother in law and say I inherited that trait from her since she hates to cook as bad as I do!

Now onto the closet. Fabric, Notions, Extras, & Patterns
Ignore the emptiness of the bottom shelves. Those should be filled up in the next day or two with 2 huge orders of fabric I have coming in!!!!

Now onto cleaning up the rest of the house that has been neglected since I have been spending all my time in here...... Then I can come back and do some sewing. First in order is bedding / curtains / pillows for Lexie! She getting a new Zebra room in browns instead of the black. Can't wait to get that finished!

A new blog

Ok, lets try this blog thing again! I was terrible at using my last one and the fact I wasn't fond of the *location* didn't help either. So, here I am with a fresh new pretty looking blog!

I am in the midst of organizing, painting, and making my sewing room all pretty! I am in the final stretch and hope to have pictures on here by tomorrow. It is calming and girly! Better yet, it has a door that locks!