Goals for the new year.

   So this year I have decided that I am going to set goals for myself that I will do my best and hardest to complete.  Some things are just a one time thing and others are things that I will do all year long, hopefully.

   2014 was a year pretty much like any other year.  There were some firsts, including the older guys joining soccer this year, but mainly just the every day bumps and lumps that come from raising three boys in this world. 

   So here is what I hope to accomplish this year and things I would like to put into practice this year.  These are in no particular order.

   - Buy a new vehicle.  We have been trying to do this for awhile, but for one reason or another have not been able to save up the money to put this into action.  Plus my current SUV has continued to chug along so its been a blessing. 

   -Get Gabriel a new bed.  He is currently still in his crib turned toddler bed, which he still fits into, but it squeaks when he moves around because it has been jumped on too many times, lol.  I am going to look into bunk beds that can convert into two single beds so that way we can either put Gabe and Julian in a room together or have them still set up like they are depending on if we move to a house with more bedrooms this year or not.

   -Declutter.  When we had our house fire three years ago we lost everything but then got a lot od stuff given to us and as usual there are the extra things around the house that don't get used that are just taking up space.

   -Make room for baby.  This kinda goes along with the last goal but is still a little different because it focuses more on my bedroom than the whole house.  For the most part the new baby boy will be in the master bedroom with us this coming year but that room is what needs the most cleaning out because stuff just kinda gets put in there so it needs organized and moved around a little bit.

   -Get caught up on laundry.  This is something that comes and goes yet kinda goes along with the last goal too, but it never seems like I am caught up with the laundry but I want to figure out a system as to where the laundry is more manageable, but that may just come when I get some energy but who knows when that will be, lol. 

   -Read more books.  This past year I havn't been reading as much as I would like to.  I don't have a set amount of books I would like to read, just an overall want to read more.

   -Read more with the kids.  We have gotten out of the ritual of doing this with the kids recently.  Between running late with the bedtime schedule and momma being rather tired at the end of the day we havn't ended up reading together as much as I want to.  So my goal is to read to the kids at least 3 days a week, doesn't have to be at bedtime though just whenever it fits in.

   -Keep in touch more with family.  Not to much to expand on there, lol.

   -Work on the Christmas fund.  I plan on doing this by saving up money throughout the year and buying things as I see them on sale rather than wait for Christmas like I have done in the past.  Any money I make from selling things in the declutter department will go towards birthdays and Christmas funds.  Also I plan on working hard with the Swagbucks that I have been doing which earned me some of the money via Amazon gift cards that paid for some of Christmas this year.  It's a pretty cool program that gets a monetary reward for little output. 

   So hopefully with some of these in place we will be more prepared for Birthdays and Christmas monetary wise.  But also I just hope to be able to enjoy this year with my family and become closer and more organized.  But who doesn't want that, lol.  Here are a few pictures from the last year.

 
   And that does it for 2014.  Hello 2015.  Be good to me please. 

Christmas and we are having a Boy!

   So it's been fun and crazy week around these parts.  The kids really enjoyed Christmas and got lots of new stuff to play with and have fun with.  Murphy even got a stocking and some treats for Christmas too.  He really enjoyed his Christmas as well.

  Christmas morning Julian and Gabe woke up earlier as usual so they got to look through their stockings before Sebastian woke up, so of course they had to help Sebastian look through his stocking quickly once he got up (at 9:30, lol) so they could open their presents.

   Sebastian really likes his new scooter.  He always tried to ride his brothers but they are only two wheels and he couldn't ride it very well so he got one with three wheels.  

   Someone woke up not feeling well yesterday with the cold that is going around.  But after 14 hours of sleep last night he seems to have woken up feeling better.  Giving momma a smile while he watches a movie :)

   I vacuumed  this morning so I put one of the kids recliners on the couch and of course it got used while it was still on the couch, lol.  Oh, and Sebastian got one for Christmas too so now we have three :/

  Let's see what else has been going on, not really crafting much since Christmas has been so busy.  But I did order fabric online to sew up some receiving blankets for the new baby, which is another boy btw, and some burp clothes too.  I will put up some pictures as I do them.  If anyone has any suggestions for baby boy names, I'm all ears.  I have used all the names I really liked already so this time around will be a little tougher naming the little guy.  Oh and as the New Year is right around the corner, as my OB said as I was leaving the office after my last appointment, Happy New Year, and don't forget apple cider looks just like champagne, lol.

   Don't forget to look me up and follow along on Facebook, and Instagram at m_mitchell07. 

As the countdown comes to a close.

   Edit: I wrote this last night on my phone on the blogger app but it wouldn't post for some reason.

   So, there is just two days left till Christmas.  More like one since its evening and tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  I hope you all have your shopping and wrapping done.  Me, I ran out of tape last night, of course, so I have to finish up my wrapping tonight.  But I refuse to wrap presents on Christmas Eve.  It just kinda feels pointless to me since they will get unwrapped in less than 12 hours anyway.  But its not like we put our presents out under the tree or anything.  That would be disastrous with Sebastian around.

   Today I thought it would be cool to make Julian and Gabe Santa hats.  I have ones that I bought but they are falling apart so I decided to crochet them.  I looked at patterns on pinterest, found one Gabe liked and while we were at the store today picked up some yarn.  So we will see how they turn out and hopefully I will be able to get them done soon.  The first one is more than halfway done so they don't take long to work up.

  So my day tomorrow looks like it will be full of laundry, crocheting, and I need to make dinner rolls for Christmas dinner.  So, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. :)

Busy week, but what's so different about that, lol.

   So, I've been pretty busy the last few days and will be for the rest of the week too probably.  If you follow me on Facebook or on Instagram you know what I've gotten myself into, lol.  I've been baking cookies, getting my craft on, and wrapping up some Christmas presents while the older two kids were at school.

   Last year I made a few of those snowflakes made with a hot glue gun.  I even went out and bought a glue gun specifically for this project because I did not have one.  Well, not all of my snowflakes made it through the seasons of storage that come with Christmas decorations.  So I decided to make some more.  So I grabbed my trusty glue gun, wax paper, glitter, mod podge, and a brush.  It took a snowflake or two to get the hang of it back going over the pattern, then everything went rather smoothly.  Except for my helpful little elf, Gabe, who came over every few minutes and asked if he could put on the glitter yet.  But then came the time to take the snowflakes off the wax paper, and they didn't, :/  Last year I used parchment paper, so I don't know if that made any difference but I also forgot to put a little bit of Dawn on the paper before starting since that is supposed to help with getting the snowflakes off, so now I have eight snowflakes that are stuck to a piece of wax paper and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them.  Also, now I need to make more that I can actually take off the wax paper.

 

   Today I also started the long process of making Christmas cookies.  Today I made snickerdoodles.  I also plan on making chocolate chip cookies, some kind of sugar cookies, and peanut butter cookies.  I think there was another kind I was thinking of making but I can't remember it at the moment.  I signed up to make cookies for the fellowship after the kids Christmas program on Sunday.  I also need to make something for Christmas dinner, so I figured I would just make extra cookies to take.  And any extra I have will go to work with my husband, hopefully.

  
   Also on Thursday I have a baby appointment with my anatomy ultrasound scheduled so we will be able to find out what we are having!  Yay, I'm so anxious though.  This is the first pregnancy that we have found out what we are having.  I don't want to take anything away from the birth of our baby if I experience gender disappointment, especially since this will more than likely be our last baby.  So we will be finding out what this baby is.  I was a little upset when our third child turned out to be another boy, but I think in the back of my mind that I always knew we might have another baby so it would be ok.  So with this pregnancy I'm not exactly sure how it will go if we are having another boy.  But all will be well and we will be happy with whatever God gives us.

   We also decorated the Christmas tree this past weekend.  Sebastian tried to help, he would shove the ornament into the tree then when it didn't stick he would say "uh, oh," at it fell on the ground.  He is too cute.

  
   And to leave things, a cute little picture of my Sebastian.  I love it when he sits like that with his little hands under his chin.

Holiday break.

  I know, long time no post, but my computer is still being wonky a little bit, and it's just been busy around here the last few weeks.  So let's see what I've been up to recently.

  The week before Thanksgiving I had family in from out of state, two of my brothers to be exact, and my mom came over too, lol.  But this also meant two additional dogs in the house as well.  Little Murphy loved it.  And Sebastian did too, as you can see, lol.

  This is what happens when uncle come to play, but luckily nothing got broken.

   The Saturday before Thanksgiving it was beautiful here and we enjoyed some much needed outside time to burn off all that energy from having guests.

    This was taken a few nights ago.  My two oldest enjoy having sleepovers when they don't have school the next day.  Notice the Santa hat on Gabe.  They call it the Christmas spirit hat and really enjoy wearing the Santa hats. Gabe even wore it to school one day.  Also notice all the soft toys on the bed, apparently they cannot sleep without all that stuff, lol.

   I am very thankful for this item in our basement.  We can get wood for free from where Josh works so heating out house has been a lot cheaper this year than in years past.  We put in a heat pump when we moved into this house, which is hooked up to our fuel tank and that kicks on when it reaches a certain temperature outside, (we have not had to get oil since we moved in almost 3 years ago.)  But the only problem with the heat is that it increases our electric bill over the winter to around $250-$300 a month.  Well last month out electric bill was only $135, which I am very thankful for.  This little guy is thankfully in our basement but still heats our whole house very well.  The only problem with wood burners is not being able to regulate the heat well and our house is usually 75 to 80 degrees depending on where you are in the house.  So it may be winter time but I have windows open, lol.  But at least it helps to regulate the temperature.

   With the Christmas season coming up I try my best to make sure my kids know the reason for the season.  The older two guys are in the Christmas program at church which is taking up some time in our schedule, not that they mind, lol.  So they have practice during services on Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday evening.  The program is on the 21st of December and Julian and Gabe keep singing Christmas carols around the house, lol.

    And finally a baby update.  Don't mind the mess in my room, I do not have a big mirror, just this one sitting on the floor in my room, and that clear plastic container has the decorations for our Christmas tree, which we havn't gotten yet (thank you hunting season, lol).  It's a big container and heavy so I just threw it in my room instead of dragging it downstairs.  Anyway, back to baby.  I am currently almost 20 weeks.  My anatomy scan is scheduled for the 18th of December and at that time we are hoping to be able to find out the sex of the baby.  This is our last pregnancy and it was a surprise in general, but after three times of not finding out and three times having a boy, I'm finding out this time, lol.  So come what may we will find out what our new family member will be  soon, yay.

  Don't forget to look me up on Facebook, and I also now have Instagram so look me up at m_mitchell07.  It's my new addiction and I have been putting up bunches of pictures on there.  I will probably be updating more on there and Facebook and only leave the blog for weekly or so posts. 

I need a nap

So, I know its been awhile but unfortunatly my laptop is on the fritz so I'm doing this from my tablet so please bear with me if there are any spelling or grammer mistakes.
   So, what's been going on these past few weeks with us.  Halloween parades, trick or treating and trunk or treating, and most of it just being me and the kids because Josh has been hunting (but he did get a deer last weekend so yay.  I canned some deer meat, but updatedabout that on facebook.)

Something this week comes

  Yeah, crazy title, lol.  Halloweens coming so what can I say.   Well last weekend, not the one that ended yesterday but the one before Julian was sick.  I thought he had the Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, again, because he had a fever of 103 that would not be lowered by medicine and that is usually how it starts for him.  But after two days he didn't have any of the blisters to go along with my thoughts of HFM.  So off to the ER for him because I didn't know what was going on and he had really started to complain about his throat hurting so I thought maybe strep. Turns out it was just a virus, so he went back to school after he felt better.
  
   Recently I have started to have some issues in the clothing department :/  meaning my pregnant belly is getting bigger, but my clothes are not magically getting bigger to go along with my size.  So I made plans to go down to my moms for the weekend and do some bargain shopping.  Josh was going to be hunting during the weekend and had to fix the pipe for the tub that was broken, and he also wanted to fix some flooring issues we have been having, (our subfloor has been getting holes in it in high traffic area, don't know why, but we have already fixed one spot and now it's worse).  So it was good that The kids would be out of the way for that since he would need to pull up part of the carpet in our living room.  Friday came I was all packed to go to my mom's and I noticed Sebastian had a fever.  Asked my mom if she still wanted us to come down and she said it was ok, and I said if he got worse we could always come home, it's only about 1 1/2 hr drive, so not too far.  Friday evening Gabriel had a fever too.  Talked to Josh, the husband, and he was sick with a fever and stuff too.  So somehow no one got sick all week from what Julian had but then it just hit all three of them on Friday.  Still don't know what it is other than "some virus" but needless to say the weekend was less than productive for both Josh and I than we wanted it to be.  I was still able to get a few pieces of clothes.  Gabe's, the store, has a few racks of maternity clothes! Yay, so I got a pair of jeans for like $10 rather than like $25.  And Josh got the broken pipe fixed and a spot of flooring in our room done, with the help of his dad, but the living room still has a hole in the floor.

   So now it's the begining of a new week and we have a few runny noses and we are back to the grind, but this week comes with it's own new set of differences.  Tuesday Josh had to take off work because I have to go to some jury selection thing, sounds like fun, right?  So he gets to do the pick up for Gabe.  Wednesday Julian has a doctors appointment after school but I have to pick him up from school because it will take us about 45 minutes to get to the doctors office and his bus doesn't drop him off until after 4 and his appointment is at 4:45.  Then on Thursday I have a baby appointment at 4:15, those can turn interesting.  So we will see what comes out of this week.  But hey, at least I now have some clothes that fit me so I won't have to feel frumpy or uncomfortable most of the time.

TBT

   Here's a quick TBT for ya.  Just FYI I was born with a cleft lip which atfer having it corrected did leave a scar on my lip which is what you see in the picture.  Also I believe this was taken after coming inside from playing on a winter day, hence the rosy red cheeks.

Indoor Smores

   So, I've been thinking about smores since I bought what I needed to make them last Friday.  Since my cousin was coming into town for Gabe's birthday party we usually have a bonfire when she is here.  But it was a little too windy to have a bonfire and my pregnant self was very tired after standing all day baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes.

   So finally the other night I could stand it no more.  You know what it's like when you have all the ingredients to make a sweet treat, you just can't help yourself sometimes.  Also, luckily, we have a gas stove.  I know, probably not the smartest way to do it, but when you want a smore you make smores, lol.

  

   
   Don't mind my dirty stove, I need to get around to cleaning my stove top.  And yes that is a beater from my hand mixer.  I know we have camp fire hot dog roasters somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find one, and it was raining so I didn't want to go hunting for a stick.

   For future refrence make sure you have the flame on low, the marshmallows seemed to catch on fire rather quickly even without having it close to the flame but you want to make sure you cook it long enough that it gets gooey in the middle so that your chocolate will melt.  I made them the next night for the kids, well Julian and Gabe anyway, Sebastian just got a few marshmallows. 

  
Don't forget to follow me on facebook :)  Shared on The Homestead Barn Hop.

Birthday with a Surprise!

   So this past week has been a busy one getting ready for Gabe's birthday party on Sunday.  And it went off without a hitch!  There were about ten kids running around my back yard yesterday they had a blast.  Plus it was also the first birthday party where there were little friends here and not just family even though we have a lot of little people in the family.  There are ten kids in their generation that are six and under! 

   This is the cake and cupcakes I made for the party.  I really like getting fancy with cakes and love to decorate them but I have run into some issues.  Most of my husbands family is diabetic so I would make these awesome looking cakes but no one would eat them because they couldn't, and I would have lots of cake left over to eat and some of it would go to waste.  So I started making cupcakes for the kids and a cake that was sugar free with sugar free icing.  Thankfully there are now some option in the store for sugar free cake mixes and icing.  I have tried many different sugar free icing recipes and I didn't really like any of them.  Also the reason for only making a plain sugar free cake with no special decorations is because sugar free icing does not hold up well for decorating.

  Sebastian had fun running wound outside with all the kids, but he kept stealing the bikes the older kids were using to ride down the hill, lol.

   So now, the day after the party I have only a little bit of sugar free cake left, none of the snacking food I had made for yesterday, and balloons everywhere! Lol.  But that is fine by me, I'd rather not have a lot of leftovers.

   Here is a picture of cute little Sebastian, such a cutie.  This is how he usually watches tv, laying on his back, feet on the tv stand, with his arms behind his head.

   I was trying to clean up some of the blocks the kids have so I was washing them in the tub last week.  I went into the bathroom to see how much water was in the tub and this is what I found!  Little man in the tub.  I guess he just couldn't resit all those bubbles!   And also a picture from Saturday, I think he woke up too early so he passed out right as dinner was ready.  Always has to have his blankets with him.

    And here is our little surprise that we shared with everyone at the birthday party.  So let me see, one, two, three, four, five, six.  Wait a minute six pumpkins?  I thought she only had three little boys, why are there,....oh wait, BABY PUMPKIN! Wow, so new baby coming end of April 2015.  We were very surprised by this one, but never the less are excited about our surprise blessing :)

   And here is Gabe practicing his baby sitting on Murphy.  He is so excited about having a new baby.  He keeps telling everyone, "There is a baby in my mommy's bellybutton!"  He will be such a good big brother/helper this time around.

Shared on Homestead Barn Hop.