Gideon and Tirzah

More pictures taken by Kelsey at the maternity photo shoot...these are so cute! The kids decided to creek walk and eventually lost their clothing!

They decided to go creek walking and got soaked...

Rinsing out his shorts

Sisters Maternity Photo Shoot

My sister-in-law Amy Joy due September 20th

My sister Beth due November 4th

Notice the little feet behind me?

Beth and Amy

Don't forget to predict when you think our baby is coming on the previous post...

Predict our Baby's Arrival

I don't know if you realize it but the time for our baby's arrival is quickly approaching. I am 33 weeks along and I'm not on bedrest (yay)! The Lord has been very good in giving me strength for this pregnancy. I have had subtle signs that my body is preparing for baby but as of now I am hoping to make it to around 36 weeks!

For those of you who don't know, Gideon was born five weeks early and Tirzah was born three weeks early. They were both healthy and fine and it is supposed that I may have a shorter gestation. For those of you out there who are jealous of this fact that I don't go through the whole last month do realize it is stressful knowing I could go to early and having to be very careful not to let my body go into labor for a few weeks.

We do not know what gender our baby is as we love the excitement of the surprise and finding out ourselves instead of having someone tell us. With both Gideon and Tirzah people predicted through the whole pregnancy that Gideon would be a boy and Tirzah would be a girl, however with this pregnancy I have people very confused and they usually ask if I'm having twins--which I'm not.

So I thought I would have a little contest and a little prediction sheet going on to put in the baby book. Baby's due date is September 11, 2012. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think:

• Gender of baby
• What day baby will come
• What time baby will come
• And weight if you want

I will be giving out a small prize to the person who comes the closest to the actual date and time of baby's birth! Have fun and enjoy adding to our excitement!

 

Photo Credit goes to my friend Kelsey who did a beautiful photo shoot with my sisters and I...

Shutterfly Summer Photo Contest

 I don't know about everyone else but I seem to take lots of extra pictures during the summer since there is so much to do outside and places to go and people to visit! Well Shutterfly is hosting a photo contest this summer that you should really go and enter, I mean come on, I know that there are plenty of good photos floating around out there from this summer so go over and enter in a picture of something you've been doing this summer and enter into one of their themes (listed below). This contest is just starting so you have time!

Long Live Summer – Facebook Photo Contest details - 7/9 – 8/12 Multi-week summer themed photo sweepstakes with instant win prizes.

Win a trip for four to The Bahamas and a professional photo shoot so you’ll remember your vacation forever.  All you need to do is upload your favorite photo and caption based on the theme of the week.  Get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering! You can enter at any point during the 5-week sweepstakes period.

PHOTO THEMES

•       Week 1(7/9): Americana

•       Week 2 (7/16): Great Outdoors

•       Week 3 (7/23): Water Fun

•       Week 4 (7/30): Sports & Activities

•       Week 5 (8/6): Parties & Celebrations

PRIZES

•       Instant win prizes just for submitting a photo!

•       Weekly prizes (contestants can enter one time/week)

•       Weekly featured photos: up to 5 weekly entries will be selected from the gallery and featured on the Facebook fan page and awarded a $500 gift card on Shutterfly and a copy of the new Lonely Planet travel photography book.

•       Grand prize: trip for 4 to Bahamas, 4 nights, family photo shoot

•       Shutterfly Sweepstakes - Official Rules

Cow Appreciation Day

There is nothing like the fun of dressing up together as a family as cows (especially when your little ones love to say "mooooo") and heading to Chick-Fil-A for free meals! We definitely hit the three Chick-Fil-A's in our area for all three meals. Gideon actually enjoyed dressing up and wanted his cow "nose". Tirzah was just adorable. We met up with Joshua's parents and our sister-in-law with my little niece April. We also met up with my sister and two friends for breakfast that was fun! All the people at Chick-Fil-A were friendly and enthusiastic and happy to see us all dressed up!

Grandpa and Tirzah

My niece April

Grandma and Alaina

So cute, look at those eyes and ears!

Beth and Kelsey

Joshua and I

Gideon with his nose!

Andy and Michelle--my wonderful in-laws

How we Watch Fireworks

We live on an amazing mountain that overlooks our town which is in a valley...so on July 4th what better way to watch fireworks than to go to an overlook pull off and watch bunches of displays going off all over the valley??? It is so beautiful! This year the kids sat on top of the van and Joshua's parents joined us. I sat in the van and still had a great view! So fun!

Yay! First Completed Cloth Diaper!

I am so super psyched! I completed my first diaper for Tirzah that I have been wanting to do for so long! I finally had time to squeeze in putting it together, thanks to Joshua's help. This is my first attempt at using Babyville Boutique from Joanns and I think I like it! We'll see how it washes and fits Tirzah...I have two others cut out and plans for many more! I LOVE them!I'm still learning so I'm afraid my first one is a little rough but it's cute! This one is a cover with a flap opening in the inside for you to slide in a soaker. Now I just need to test them...it looks a little big but maybe it will fit better than I think. I wish I had more energy to pump them out faster but I have to take it slowly...

Outside

Inside

Playing in a Truck

Here I am!

Failed Potty Training and a New Project

I don't know if anyone else has failed in potty training like I have but I thought Gideon was going to be potty trained early at like one and a half, he acted interested and he could go on the potty...but here we are with him over 2 and a half and I feel like a failure! I know it's not really me completely and I'm trying to just wait till he is ready now but still it is frustrating! So I've stepped back from big boy underwear to a form of trainer underwear. Now I don't know if you've noticed but Pull-Ups cost $10 for like 20...that is insane! So I decided to make a few trainer underwear for Gideon out of fleece and PUL and we are going to try that for a while. I have five pair done and I'm pretty pleased, they are cute and we will see if they work well. Tirzah acts more interested in the potty than Gideon and I would not be surprised if she was potty trained before Gideon...as for now it looks like we will have three in diapers!

New trainer underwear

Our Yearly Getaway

Once a year Joshua and I try to take a day or more and getaway to just focus on one another, last year we found a beautiful bed and breakfast in town and spent the night...I was still nursing so I had to pump but it was still a wonderful time to get away. This year however I was not nursing (yay) and we decided to spend two nights in the beautiful Shennandoah Valley at a lovely little cabin that had it's very own pond that you could even fish in! We dropped Gideon and Tirzah off with Grandma and Grandpa and headed out on a Wednesday evening. We had a lovely dinner at Red Lobster and then saw a Blackfriars play (Winter's Tale) at The American Shakespeare Theatre! It was a very fun experience and we had seats on the stage which made it more exciting--at one point in the play a pickpocket walked away with my purse...we spent all of Thursday at the cabin enjoying the AMAZING beauty outside--we had fish in the pond, frogs, deer and muskrats that look like beavers and were swimming around. It was so quiet and peaceful! We also had a nice jacuzzi and hot tub and since it was a cabin it had it's own kitchen so we made our own meals which was so fun! Joshua and I like to make special meals that look as appealing as they taste (see below). We had plenty of time to rest and we also brought a BBC miniseries Nicholas Nickleby (which we hadn't seen)...and games! We had a delightful time! On the way home on Friday we stopped at a quaint little restaurant called The Pink Cadillac which was filled with Elvis and reminded me of my Great Grandma who was quite a fan. It was a great little getaway and babymoon before the appearance of our new little one. I encourage all you young couples to make the effort to getaway even for a night once a year to really focus on one another with no distractions, and you can always do it on a small budget you just have to be creative!

Back of the Cabin

Joshua caught a few sunfish

Our yummy dinner we grilled

Such a yummy breakfast!

Married 3.5 years as of yesterday!!!!

Meeting MoneySavingMom

Last month Joshua and I had the opportunity to attend the Virginia Homeschool Convention for free and since we were already in town we decided to attend. I was excited because I got to meet and listen to Crystal Paine who runs www.moneysavingmom.com and Joshua was excited to listen to and meet Jason Lisle who is a very smart and famous scientist who works for Institute for Creation Research. He has written an amazing book called The Ultimate Proof of Creation and he has some great astronomy books that Joshua has been enjoying as well. I wanted to share a few things I learned from Moneysavingmom that were helpful to me:
Ways to get Free Coupons:

• Ask friends, neighbors, etc.
• Stop by Starbucks or McDonalds on Sunday afternoons and ask if you can pick up an inserts lying around.
• Trade coupons with friends
• Check your local library to see if they will allow you to have the coupons from their Sunday paper
• Look for coupons available in dispensers at stores
• Print them out online
• Write to the manufactureres of your favortie products and ask if they have coupons they can send you.
• Freecycle or Craigslist
• Gas stations sometimes give away their newspapers Sunday night or Monday morning

Isn't that helpful? I don't have an extensive coupon system but I sure do love learning more and more and extending my system. I had a great shop at Kroger yesterday and was able to use a lot of coupons, I appreciate people who leave coupons they can't use with the item at the store, I found a great one yesterday that was helpful.  Anyway, just wanted to share. Below is a picture of Crystal and myself, it was such an honor to meet her and listen to her wisdom!