Fifth Day of Christmas...

As I'm sure you can see, we are busy behind the scenes here gearing up for my re-immersion in the blogging world. Much (like, 95%) of the skill and hard work from this went to my super awesome sister Eliza...she blogs about her newly married life over at Creme de la Creme, take a minute to stop by! I am still working out the camera thing, but hopefully I will have a new one in the next few weeks, when the regular blogging will begin! In the mean time, here are a few iphone pictures of our Christmas...because I can't post without pictures! 

Can you believe how big they are?? This is as we got home from Mass, Dominic was...er, not willing to smile. ;) You can expect to see more about both the new sweater I made Bobby and Jenny's dress when I share some pictures of my (aforementioned) sister's wedding!

 Sweet Baby Nomi (yeah, I know-another nick-name) Santa was thoughtful enough to bring him a giant "Puppy Bear" (as Bobby calls it), and that is *ahem* a Mama-made wooden bowl!!!!!!! You'll being seeing more of that too. 

Check out those cheeks!! At eight months he is weighing in at 25lbs, and is proudly sporting three teeth. I can't believe that he's closer to one than to "new"...sigh...moving on.

 Cruddy picture, but I love it so here you go. I'm justifying it by saying that you can see a glimpse of their Christmas jammies in it, another Mama-made! We were completely finished opening presents at 6:00...which sounds dreadful, but they actually slept in on Christmas. Which actually is dreadful...and reminds me....time for more coffee! 

~ Fall ~

Just wanted to share a few pictures on this rainy first day of fall...lots of knitting happening here lately! This is our first year of homeschooling, with Miss Jenny in kindergarten and Mr. Bobby busy doing preschoolish things...trying to find some sort of rhythm but soaking up the craziness at the same time. :)

booties for my Little Lovey

My first color work! (a kangaroo vest for Dominic)

Who has become very rolly-poly (5 months tomorrow!!!)

something for me, with yarn my sister dyed...

Mr. Incredible himself, sporting his pixie hat <3

I haven't forgotten I swear!

No, I haven't forgotten this little blog...just still working out computer/camera/life issues right now. While my sister was home last weekend she got new portraits of my older two Doodles...I thought I would share a couple really quickly! And you should peek at her adorable blog while you're at it!

: teething :

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

p.s.) I've been gone for a while because we still haven't replaced our camera and I'm very uninspired to write posts without pictures. We've been marching through a busy, crazy summer and I'm hoping to work out our computer and camera problems soon! Hoping to be back in this space before fall :)

It's A BOY!!

Dominic Karol was born on Saturday the 23rd!!!! After a very long week of trying every natural option (most of them several times over...) we decided this one just wasn't going to be born at home and it was time for the big guns... Two nights later we headed into the hospital for my old friend pitocin. Just shy of 12 hours of labor, and with only 12 minutes of pushing later, he was born into the hands of the person who is really The MIDWIFE for my family...having delivered several of my siblings and one of my nieces. (how cool is that??) I am surprisingly at peace with the change of plans...my wonderful midwives and I tried everything to get this little one to be born at home and it didn't work...I'm just trusting that for a reason unknown to me, this is just how it was supposed to be. I'm so lucky to have been able to transfer so last minute; I feel very blessed to have had such excellent care...and I can't wait to introduce this little guy to my other midwives! They have after all known him for 9 months now :)

Just an hour or two old here...just barely squeezed into the hat I made him!

He was another big boy, at 10lbs. 3.7oz. and 21" long. His head wasn't quite as big as his brother's though, measuring a "mere" 14 3/4" ;) Of the three though, his labor and delivery were by far the easiest! Joe and my mom were fantastic support and I made it all the way through without any pain meds!

I was delighted to find that my baby dreams were right on the mark when he was born with a full head of dark hair...however I have never been more surprised than when Joe announced it was a boy! This is the first time I've been able to hold one of my babies right away and it is a moment I will never forget. It took me about 4 seconds to name him and about 4 seconds less than that to fall completely in love with him. :)

My Mama was there all through my labor and delivery this time! She remembered I had wanted roses for while I was in labor and brought this beautiful yellow bloom in a tiny little bud vase for me...it made such a difference!

We are all home now, just starting to figure out what life with three kids will be like...the older two love him, and I think they will adjust well. My milk is coming in and with it the brain zapping hormones, so I'm sorry for how disjointed this all is...off to try to get some sleep and love on this sweet little BOY!! :)

Birdie Friends

We hung it up yesterday...they have checked 4 times to see if it still has enough food... I think the trick will be keeping them away from it long enough for the birdies to find it... ;)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Monday he dressed himself for the first time! (Love the rainbow leg warmers!!)

Baby & Me...

My darling sister took some pregnancy photos of me over her spring break. So perfect to be seeing these (from just a week and a half ago!) right now while I'm feeling exhausted and puffy and READY. ;) She took several, but these three are my favorites...

Baby at 37 weeks

Baby has dropped even lower since then...we are officially at the "any day now" stage! Really we are ready any time now, but there are a few little things that I've been putting off that need to be dealt with. Like seeing if we can actually squeeze three kids in the back seat...!

A bit last minute...

But just in case anyone sees this and feels like throwing their name in the hat I thought I'd share...(and it gets me another entry, lol) Imagine Childhood is giving away a $75.00 gift card to a very lucky winner...but I'm way behind in seeing about it! Enter quickly if you're interested, it closes at 8:00am MST Tuesday the 22nd. This is a lovely company with beautiful toys! Good luck!

Center Piece for Lent

Simple but so peaceful and lovely :) I covered the canning jars with tissue paper and slightly watered down elmer's glue. They're two of the ones we use for our Advent wreath. ;) The split peas idea is from another blog that I can't for the life of me find again...but they look so pretty in the bowl with the candle, don't they?

Nesting Meets Spring Cleaning

I did not get the classic nesting bug with the first two pregnancies. The closest I came was making a nest of pillows on the sofa and curling up in it...thus my homes were never submitted to the whims of pregnancy hormones, and I never got the satisfaction of knowing every square inch of "xyz" was *PRISTINE*. Until this time around...Almost every room in the house has been scrubbed, de-junked (we're talking 20+ large black trash bags and several good will runs), and shoved around. A bit odd considering that Baby will not know, notice, care or remember, but somehow it's still important!! I say "almost every room" not because I'm not doing certain rooms, but because I'm just not finished yet. What will I do if I finish before Baby arrives???

I thought I would share a few pictures of our living room which my sister (who has helped me with everything!!) helped me overhaul today... this is sort of a season table, fitting our season of life right now, more than a nature table that would be specifically geared towards the outdoors. It has our spring books, our new baby books, and a few Easter books underneath, next to a wooden bowl of river rocks. (The top photo shows a collection of a few of the birds we have been seeing return, Jenny's bunny toy, a beautifully illustrated book and a Montessori-esque tray with a folding icon and small- for little hands- crucifix.)

This is one CLEAN sofa...underneath and inside were completely vacuumed...I want to make some pillow covers for the throw pillows but I'm not sure what fabrics to use yet...a survey of the stash is in order once I finish a few baby related items! Above is the beginnings of our family art wall; Jenny's water color of a peacock is on the left, and Bobby's water color of "Daddy in him's bathrobe" is on the right ;)

Their play area~ I need to fix that handle on the "oven" this week! I'm also getting ready to rotate some toys, I think Bobby is really hitting a point where he would like blocks, instead of just throwing them like he was a few months ago!

I am SO proud of these two plants...I am notorious for killing plants. I decided last fall that I would give it one more try and asked my grandmother to start a few plants for me. I figured starting with something "un-killable" was a must, and these baby plants coming from a plant that has been alive about as long as I have couldn't hurt either. ;) I am very pleased to say that I got them in early October (I think) and they are still alive!! There were a few close calls, but they always spring back... once I remember to start watering them again...

Baby's first

Baby's first outfit...and a peak at Baby ;)

A glimpse of right now

This post could also be called "lots of random pictures from my iphone" but I'm hoping you will forgive the grainy pictures for now...I'm hoping to get a new camera shortly after (or maybe right before?) Baby arrives...

Jenny's picture of herself (right) and Mommy (left)...cousin Zoey in the background ;)

Baby's blanket in the works...an unplanned stash busting knit that I'm completely in love with!

Reading, "CHEESE", Reading, Reading, Reading...

"Bob is the easiest of all!"

My sister helped me paint our room a lovely shade of green...after about a week of intense

de-junking and rearranging I'm completely in love with my room, and looking forward to curling up with a sweet little armful of baby! :)

With only a few weeks to go, it is already time to get everything washed and organized...it feels so much more real now that everything is unpacked!!

Me and my baby belly as Jenny sees it....

Me and my belly as my mom's bathroom mirror sees it :-p

Bob, the nice dragon

100th Post!!

It seems that despite being a slacker blogger I have reached my 100th post!! In honor of that I wanted to share my first knitting pattern! This is a very simple little pattern for toddler sized fingerless gloves. I would say they would fit from about age 2-6, but it would be easy to add or subtract stitches (in multiples of 2) if your child has skinny or extra pudgy hands. ;) If you have any questions about any techniques used in the pattern feel free to ask questions!

You will need:

a set of 4 size 2 dpn's

a set of 4 size 3 dpn's

a stitch marker

A small amount of light worsted weight yarn (I knit this in Cascade 220 Superwash, which is almost a dk weight really)

Quick Fingerless Gloves for Toddlers

With size 3's CO 10 sts onto each of three needles, join for working in the round being careful not to twist stitches! Place marker for beginning of round. (30 sts total)

Rows 1-7: Work in k1p1 ribbing

Row 8: k all sts

Row 9: (increase row) *k2, k1fb- repeat from * to end of row (40 sts total)

Row 10-20: k all sts (this should be about 2" from CO edge)

Row 21: BO 5 sts loosely at begging of row, k to end of row (35 sts total)

Row 22: CO 5 sts with backwards loop method, k to end of row--make sure to replace marker once the sts are back on! (40 sts total)

Row 23-26: k all sts

Row 27-30: switch to size 2 dpn's and work in k1p1 ribbing

BO all sts loosely in pattern (I like to use a size 4 needle for the bind off), weave in ends and add any desired embellishment. Present to an adorable toddler!

(I'm happy to offer this pattern for free, but please do not reproduce this pattern or sell items made from this pattern without first talking to me!)

Nightgowns for Miss Jenny

Jenny has been (when she isn't giving people haircuts ;) growing like a weed this season, and the 4's and 5's that I thought would fit her through the winter simply wont last much longer! Warm pj's were the first thing on the list, and I couldn't resist making a few more things out of my favorite Simplicity 9968--she's at the biggest size now!

So, over the last week I've whipped up these two sweet nighties with some flannel from my stash.

I have been sewing for many, many years now, but this was the first time I was able stretch and sew the elastic for a cute ruffle! I've been trying for years, but it always ends with evil noises and gobs of thread being spit out of my machine and much tearful seam ripping. ;) Hurray for a new skill!

These sweet bears was actually from a stash hand-me-down from my mom!

Next up are a few warm tunic/jumpers for her with some simple warm pants for underneath! However my sewing machine took a tumble off of the table today so I have to find one more piece before I can see how much damage was (or was not!!) done to the inner workings.