my crazy heroes

baby book

I purchased a baby book for baby brother a.k.a baby boy #3 a.k.a we can't tell you cause it's a surprise.

I am slightly obsessed with memory keeping. You might have noticed this if you paid attention because I blog and scrapbook and baby book it all. I scrapbook so my kids can see real pictures of what we and they did plus I like the artistic part, I blog because my family and friends can't see the scrapbooks and there are other day to day things that pop up that aren't worth their own page and I baby book so I can look back and compare my kids plus I really liked looking back at my own baby book with Micah so I could see how similar the two of us were when I was a new mama. Recently I read this post that made me feel much better about my memory keeping OCD :)

31 weeks

This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy. ~babycenter.com

The weather is changing and it is amazing! I finally feel comfortable in shorts and a tank top while everyone else is donning their jeans and/or hoodies. I'm feeling really good right now since I'm in the not yet miserably uncomfortable stage. I feel huge however because I can't bend over at all and have to be hauled off the floor. It's seriously amazes me how big a body can get during this process. I won't share how much weight I've gained but I've only got 16 pounds to go until I match the weight gain from Micah and Connor. Hopefully I only tie and don't feel the need to beat any records! I can't believe there is only nine weeks (plus or minus) to go until we meet our 3rd son. 90% of me is fine with him staying in until necessary since I know what is to come when I can't just carry him around inside wherever we go. There is that little 10% that is just so curious about who he will be and what he will look like and how Connor will feel about being a big brother that I'm ready to just dive in to the craziness. However that is just 10% so hang in their buddy!

I was listening to my Sara Groves playlist the other day when this song came on. I've heard it tons of times but apparently I HEARD it this time and if I hadn't been driving it would have stopped me in my tracks. I felt like I it was releasing my hearts thoughts. Hope you enjoy and understand :)

I do not know how I am to pray for this child
as a mother I don't want my baby denied
but in the waiting in the waiting
I learned

every instinct in me wants to shield him from pain
take the arrows of misery, heartache and blame
but in the sorrow in the sorrow
I learned to hold on

I only have two eyes - be all seeing
I only have two hands - be everywhere
I do not know enough - to be all knowing
I give this baby up into your care

I do not know how, how to pray for this child
I want to guard her from everything wicked and wild
but in the trial in the trial
I learned to hold on
And in the trial, in the trial
I learned to hold on to the heart of God

my little crafter

If I would take the time to stop and make a list I could find numerous ways how Micah and Connor are like Zach and numerous ways how they are like me. This is actually a cool idea...hmmmm...

Anyway one way I know Micah is like me is he is a crafting/coloring/art making machine!! He goes through phases (as all us crafty types do) of not only what he likes to make but of how often. He is on a binge right now and has been coloring, drawing, gluing, stickering and cutting up a storm in his room and in the kitchen. He has a jar in his room full of random stuff I've collected like pompoms, clips, stickers, pop sickle sticks, etc. The idea is from the art jars that many stores sell except that they are way more expensive then the actual stuff is separately. I used an old container from some animals Connor got for Christmas and just began throwing stuff in occasionally. The jar is almost empty! The past two days has been a flurry of creativity. He has mostly been working on book marks. They are not for him either. He has a specific person he makes each one for and I have been enlisted to pass them out. He's also made a toy robot, a picture frame, poster, patch, watch, wrist band, mario costume, a psp and ds and a variety of other things. I love that he can and will make anything that pops into his head!!

(this is the bin on his desk where all his creations are collected.

It is OVERFLOWING right now!)

tiger time

Football season has started again and Micah and Connor are really excited about watching this year. Micah has already gone to a high school game with Zach and spent the whole time picking out all the numbers which is pretty much what he did during the Auburn game except added a few go tigers and war eagles this time :) My parents were in town for the first game helping get things organized for the nursery and bringing up a carload of awesome goodies (will share that later).

Micah and Connor parked their tiger chairs in front of the TV and we all enjoyed and stressed over another game. Our players sure do like to make it heart pumping interesting!

robin of christian woods

Micah has become quite fond of Robin Hood the last week or so and has really gotten into pretend play aspect of it. Micah likes to be Skippy. He's the rabbit at the beginning of the movie who has his birthday money stolen by the mean old sheriff and then gets a new bow and hat from Robin Hood himself. He and Zach 'play' Robin Hood every night and act out that whole scene. It's beyond adorably cute.

This weekend Zach made Micah a Robin Hood hat out of paper and then a bow and arrow set out of sticks and a kite string. That bow could seriously make those arrows fly. Micah was pretty good at it! Zach even made a 'target' for Micah to shoot at. Look closely at the pictures to find out who that bad guy was ;) It is so much fun watching his mind work to try to really connect to things he sees and watches!

rearranging

At least one room of my house has been in complete disarray for almost a month now and if you know me you know there's a good chance it's driving me crazy :) My brain just tends to work better in an organized environment. Making room for baby brother has proven to be a time consuming task. One reason is because if I want to actually be a good mother to Micah and Connor I have to work in small time frames and the other is because there has been A LOT to do. It's kind of like the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. One thing requires something else to be done which means something else has to be done which means...you get the picture.

It started with Connor and Micah moving into the room together. This required a hand me down dresser/desk to be painted, bunk beds found and in our case painted, toys to be gone through and condensed so they'd fit, walls to be painted, new bedding to be purchased, closets to be cleaned out and shelves to be hung, then there were the couple of crafty projects to do for the cute factor of course.

Next was the new nursery/guest room. This required walls painted, closet cleaned out, new bedding purchased, mattress purchased, crib being put together, room rearranged a thousand times until it all fit without being cluttered, a dresser and bookshelf painted, and there are still projects to be done to make it 'finished'.

Still to be done is to get the piles of stuff that came out of the closets and is currently sitting in Zach and my room gone. I have an overwhelming desire to clean out the junk from my attic to sell, donate, organize and put back (I blame my cousin in law Hannah for this because she did it to hers and it just inspired me!), the consignment sell I do twice a year is in the beginning of October so I need to go through the boys clothes and toys to see what we don't need and price it, and then there's getting all the baby equipment back down and cleaned and put in place.

Zach and I were talking last night about all of the things I needed to do and wanted to do before baby brother gets here. I shared that my goal is to POWER THROUGH the month of September and use every available time I have so that the last month and a half of this pregnancy are spent resting and enjoying our last weeks as a family of four.

just a thought:

I am aware that some people just wouldn't care about some of this and that's ok. I am quite aware that I'm picky and like things to look a certain way and I honestly I think that's ok too as long as I don't obsess or put 'looks' above the important things in life like my relationship with the Lord and the time I spend caring for and being with my husband and children. I pray that the time and effort I spend making things comfortable and beautiful for my family will enable them to feel at peace and protected in their home and help make our times of play and rest more enjoyable :)