Okay, I have to disclaim, it isn't the prettiest picture. It is 5 days after coming home from the hospital. All of us are in our pajamas and we are just about to go to bed... but this is one of my new favorite family photos (and the only one we have with Jake). But I love it. It's imperfections and casualness and all. I probably won't blow it up or frame it on our wall, but I will find a way to use it somehow!
We had a blast with grandma and grandpa in town. Grandma took the girls to the park every night (that is until we got our own playground in our backyard). Hannah loved doing arts and craft projects with grandma every day. They loved playing in the backyard with our little pool and going on errands with grandma, especially trips to Yo-diggity and McDonalds.
When grandpa is in town, they always get airplane rides at bedtime. And of course, you know about the playset. the girls definitely had a blast these last two weeks and I know they will wonder how life could get so boring so fast, when it is just me. But luckily, the fun continues in a week when Nana and Papa come to town.
Once we finished our backyard, the end goal was always to get a playset for the girls. So, this weekend, my dad came into town to help us put together this long awaited playset. The girls couldn't have been more excited. So, after 19 hours of building fun in 90 degree weather. My dad and Chris created what the girls call "our playground". They have been out on this "monster of a set" every day for hours.
Needless to say, they love it and so does mom!
Thanks Chris and dad... you guys are the best.
PS - We took a picture every 5 to 10 minutes during the whole building process and here is the movie of the structure being put together from beginning to end.
I keep meaning to take a photo shoot of Jake as a newborn... but I don't really have it in me and I don't really know how to do it. I am afraid of him being naked and pee-ing all over the place, so I am kind of avoiding it. But I really need to do it and do it soon before he doesn't sleep all day. Any suggestions? Until then, here are a few photos of our little guy. He has so many faces... but I guess that is a newborn for you.
Random Report June 20, 2009
My mom has been grandma of the year and mother of the year. She has been playing non-stop... she is making me look bad as a mom. The girls are going to be really sad when she leaves and life is boring again. I have been able to take things easy. I get ready when I want, enjoy Jake, take naps and just take things at an easy pace as I learn to deal with three kids and recover and take care of a newborn.
My dad and Chris will have spent 19 hours working on the jungle gym. They did it in two days in 90 degree weather. The play set is a monster. I am so glad grandpa came to help. He arrived with a hurt back, but of course that hasn't stopped him. He is typical grandpa - a hard worker and a great man.
Jake is doing the newborn thing. Sleeps a lot and luckily sleeps after each feeding at night, so that is a huge blessing. He is starting to look big again as he gets close to his birth weight. he could eat forever. Each feeding session is 30 mins long, but I think he could go longer, but we will see how this does. He is 8'6" in weight, so halfway back to what he weighed when he was born. He also got circumcised earlier this week. That was sad. Poor little wee-wee.
Funny thing. When Hannah first saw his wee-wee. She said what is that. Grandma said it is his "penis" being all technical. I said let's call it his "wee-wee". She will go around in public with friends and at church talking about a "penis", so let's use a cuter name for now.
So, after Hannah learned it is how he goes potty, she said "just like Landen's"... (her friend's brother). I shrugged yes and asked how have you seen Landen's? "When he goes potty here". Oh, goodness. So, much for closing the door when you go. But, at least that is covered. She knows the difference between boys and girls.
I wish I could lose weight faster, but of course that will be a slow process. I don't know how I will get ready with three kids, but I know I will figure it out. life is good so far and I am grateful for all mom and dad and my husband do to help it be soo much easier right now. So, that is it for us.
With summer upon us... there are more camp-outs, trips to the mountains, vacations and late nights out. Although, we won't be doing these things for awhile, I wanted to share some fun variations on s'mores. Check out these fun twists to an old time favorite.
As I wait for the bed we are going to put Ella in and wait to re-do Jake's room in an alphabet theme, I came across this great site called Project Nursery. It is a great site to get ideas for rooms, projects, etc.
But, you have to check out this room. I love it. How clever is the mom that found all these letters and created such a great wall. I might have to start my search for letters and see what I come up with. Although I am sure it took her years to find them all. But the outcome would be well worth it. I might not have a nursery to put them in, but a playroom would work great too.
I love doing blog banners. The sky's the limit with creativity and they usually have a definite theme which is fun to play with. Here are a few of concepts of banner designs I created for a client. I want to share, because they were so fun.
PS - these were created before the baby came. I am not that crazy to be taking customers a week after having a baby :-)
And the events leading up to his arrival. Again, I write these things down as a journal for our family and all that happened when Jake was born.
It all started Sunday. hannah woke up throwing up. Monday was a better day and we thought it was all over. Then come Tuesday, it all came back. We went to the doctor and he told us we had to wait it out, but was concerned about her being dehydrated. So, worried about Hannah and me scheduled to have Jake the next morning. Around 8:00 pm, things got worse. Ella started throwing up too. So, both girls were throwing up and we spent the night changing towels, sheets and pajamas. I went to bed at 1:00 am and woke up at 4:00 am for the rest of the night. Chris went to bed at 4:00 am.
We had to leave the girls with a babysitter (still sick) and head to the hospital Wednesday morning at 7:00 am. So, with a lot of prayers and hope, we left the girls and went to the hospital. My friend Tiffany scheduled herself to work (she is a labor and delivery nurse) and so she got us all ready for surgery. At 9:30 am, I was in the OR and getting my spinal and waiting for Chris to join me. There was a bit of anxiety while I waited for Jake to arrive. Usually I am in labor, so I am more concerned about getting the pain to stop than worrying about being cut open. But this time, I was a bit worried about being cut open.
So, they started the operation and told me they could see Jake and then wa-laa... I could hear him crying. The doctor said "wow" when he saw Jake. I was a bit concerned by that exclamation. But then he said "that is a big baby". Everyone in the room commented on how big Jake was. I was just thrilled to hear him cry and know that he was here and had officially joined our family.
Chris went to the nursery and they cleaned Jake up and did the tests. I stayed and they sowed me up and then off to the recovery room. Tiff and I chatted (it was nice to have a friend there, since the recovery room is a bit boring and you have to stay there 2 hours). We went to our room and relaxed for a couple of hours and made phone calls to family. Then Chris had to go home to make sure the girls were okay.
That was it. Chris was only able to come back to the hospital for an hour the next day and an hour the day after that. He was busy taking care of sick kids and then on Friday, he himself got sick with the flu. So, now Chris was taking care of sick girls (this darn flu lasted about 5 days per person) and himself and trying to clean up the house, so that Jake and I wouldn't come home to a germy house. It was pretty miserable for Chris, but what a husband and dad. he did it all feeling lousy.
So, the day Jake and I got to come home from the hospital... we had to find a babysitter to watch the girls (ella still being sick) and Chris had to come to the hospital and wait in the car for the hospital staff to take me and Jake to the car (because they didn't want sick people up on the floor). Not our ideal plan for Jake's big day coming home from the hospital.
But we finally are home and Jake and I are limiting our time with the family. We are keeping a distance from Ella and Chris has yet to hold him, while we are home. I just hope and pray my mom doesn't get sick while she is here to help and that we can get this home back to normal really, really soon.
Jacob christopher Williams has joined us! He was born 10:07 am. He
weighed a hearty 8 lbs 12 oz an 21 1/4 inches. He is a cutie and are
so happy he is here.
Sent from my iPhone
Tomorrow is the big day. Jake comes to join our family. It has been a long nine months and we are very excited to meet this little guy. hopefully the c-section will go well and the recovery will go better. I can't believe we are going to be a family of five. What fun things we have in store and we welcome a boy to the family and one more kid to our bushel. 
Have you noticed that even the simplest of things when packaged with ribbon, tags, twine or paper takes on a completely different look and can become the cutest gift one could ever receive. I love turning simple gift into cute gifts by packaging them in a fun and clever way. So, when I came across this blog Miss Pickles press (a cute name doesn't hurt either) ... it went straight to my bloglines.
I love these ideas. Case in point. simple s'more ingredients (graham cracker, chocolate and marshmellow) is about the cutest thing ever seen when packaged in a cellophane bag, tag and ribbon. The possibilities are endless and again anything (soap, band-aids, an orange) can become the cutest gift ever.
I wanted to share the mutual activity we did last week. We took the girls to Target and gave them a list of random things to go find. They had to take a picture of the item and at least one of the team members had to be in the picture. They had 30 mins to find all the items and get back to me and the winning team won anything they wanted at the snack bar. (Everyone else won a small icee).
It was a fun activity, because my girls love to take pictures of themselves (which you would understand if you saw their facebook pages). And it was a great bonding experience for our girls (which is another thing that was great for our little class).
It was a fun night and an easy activity to prepare for.
As you may or may not know, I love cakes stands. I don't know what it is about them, but if I had room and money, I would own quite a many. The other thing I just love is ruffles. They just say FUN. Well, so Crate and Barrel combined the two to make these adorable ruffle cake stands. I just love them. I might have to go and buy this little guys. Mostly, because he is pretty affordable and more than cute.
I am not sure how it started, but our patio doors have become our wall of art for all of Hannah's arts and crafts. I had to capture a picture of all her artwork and how it is displayed for her to see in the future. This is probably 6 months worth of school art and art projects she has done at home. We are about out of room and need to probably take some down and start over for the summer.
My girl loves arts and crafts!
A while back, I shared the chair covers I made for our kitchen table. Although they were fairly easy, they were time consuming and I lost steam on the last one. I never finished the last chair. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
Well, just last month, we got a new kitchen table and again it had upholstered seats (which is not idea for little ones). so, after the first day of one of the cushions getting a grease stain on it... I was under pressure to yet again, make new chair covers. something I did not want to do, but had no choice if I wanted my chairs to stay nice and clean.
So, I set out to make 6 new chair covers and to do it before any other chairs were ruined and before the baby came. I made it to the last chair (again) and ran out of piping and couldn't find the color anywhere. I had to get this last chair done before the baby came, so I went out to find my needed supplies and I just finished all of them.
I am thrilled about how they turned out and am sooo happy this little (or should I say BIG) project is done!
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