Projects

 While I decided to close up shop for most of the summer due to soaring temperatures in my garage, I have managed to finish a few other projects.

 I wanted to totally redo Ethan's room which is now Aria's room.  However, I am just too practical.  And seeing as this will probably go back to being his room in a couple of years I didn't want to change too much.  But here are a few things I could do.  I grabbed a few little trinkets from Audrey's room that she didn't have room for and created this "A" from pintrest and this tutorial .  I actually created my own cardboard box letter using a font I liked and I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. 

And THIS photo was my main inspiration for these globes.  I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  Check out my craft blog for the tutorial on each one. 

I was of course not happy with my oober drab laundry room.  I didn't want to put much money into it, but I wanted a few things cuter and a little more functional.  So it isn't designer, but I got most of the look I wanted and the functionality I was looking for.  Check out my craft blog for details.  

Update

Aria at 3 weeks.  She is now 5 weeks but these were some cute ones I managed to grab real quick.

We had a family Wii night.  It actually was pretty fun little hour with the kids.  Even Ethan got the hang of bowling and boxing!

Anyone else turn their babies into little caterpillars?  I love it.  

I love the idea of summer, but not so much in Vegas.  We don't play outside (unless in the pool) we don't have picnics like all the magazines seem to think we should be doing.  We stay inside and try to come up with ideas that DO NOT involve the tv, and we stay up late (much to my dismay).  This is the result.  

I wanted to get a picture to prove to her one day that she actually liked cleaning!

Aria two weeks old and a few more

Just a few more caught in the moment of wakefulness.  She is still sleeping pretty well.  Although this week she is struggling with gas and all that goes along with a new digestive system.  Hopefully she settles into this soon because she is quite a grunt-er at night. 

Here is one of the kids using the office chair as some kind of ride.  Isn't it funny when you have no idea what they are doing and you ask, and they have it all completely figured out!

A couple trying to catch her little dimples!

Audrey and Ethan both LOVE to hold Aria.  Audrey does really well except she thinks Aria is ready to play and be big already.  She doesn't like following the "do not bounce your sister" rule.

Aria is quite the cuddler.  She always has her hands right up at her little face.  So cute.  

Summer Fun

So I knew that with a new baby right in the middle of summer meant that we would really be hunkering down and digging in for the summer to hibernate from the heat.  I have to talk the kids into going outside to even play in the pool most days.  And then it sometimes only lasts for a half hour or so.  I am really lucky in that my kids are at a perfect age and they play REALLY well together.  They pretend that they are kitty cats, they build legos, they play stuffed animals and they play with their plastic animals most of all.  The best investment ever for my kids has been hitting all the thrift stores for plastic animals and dinosaurs.  They love them.  However, I told myself that I was going to try to do something fun with my kids each and every day.  Something we can do that is maybe a little more special than a normal day and something that I can do with them to make sure they are getting mommy time.  We have gone to the library for lego party, and once for craft time.  We have had a swimming party and a date at the water park. 

Then one day I decided that my kids needed super hero capes.  Charles likes cartoons and so they have been exposed a little to batman, spiderman, and the other day I watched the old superman movie.  Since this they have been pretending that their blankets and towels are capes.  Then they walk up to each other and say, "Superman, I missed you" and give each other hugs.  I can't for the life of me figure out why this is associated with superman, but they do it almost every time.  So I let my kids pick fabric from my way too big of a selection and looked up a design from some tutorial online and off we went.  We finished them in a day even with a nursing newborn.  Each one took less than an hour probably.  It was very nice of them to pick fabrics that didn't need to be hemmed!

Who's Who

Granted, I know everyone says new babies all look the same.  What do you think of my three?

Aria One Week old

So this is unfortunately all I was able to get today in the 7 minutes of shooting before she pooped on the set!  Hopefully we will have some more cute ones in a couple days after the umbilical cord thing falls out too.  She is happy and healthy and lets all knock on wood that my luck will hold out this time and I finally got me a mellow kid that just hangs out.  That would be an awesome gift! She has the cutest little pair of dimples just below the corners of her mouth.  Hopefully I can catch them on camera soon. 

Aria Olivia Graf

 The following account if almost straight out of my journal and therefore contains all the "gory"  details you may not want to know, but read on if you wish

We were beyond blessed to have our 4^th child (Aria Olivia Graf) come healthy and happy to be part of our family on June 15th. I was not actually due till the 19^th but we were planning on being induced on Friday the 15th. The previous Friday I had my doctors appointment and she checked to see that I was already dilated to a 4. I was absolutely sure that I was going to go into labor that weekend. This proved for a very different experience in the days proceeding labor. I had been in pain quite often throughout the last month of this pregnancy. I just could tell my body was not really liking being pregnant and weak. I know I sure didn't like it. Good nights sleep was impossible, picking anything up off the floor more than once was out of the question. I was exhausted and so ready to be done. So, I was sure we were going to have a baby early. So we just kind of sat around all weekend waiting. We had things to do, but in the back of my mind I was constantly thinking what I would do in each situation if I went into labor. Then Monday rolled around and Charles went off to work. I was tired of just sitting there so I tried to spend some time accomplishing something. Monday I cleaned my house. I picked up everything and got some things organized. It felt much better to actually have a clean house. However, that worked me into so much pain that I had to take a day off again on Tuesday. Not enough to send me into labor, just enough to make it so I could barely walk! Then Wednesday came around and I was tired of sitting so I tried to do a few things in Aria's room. I got her crib set up, sewed the bed skirt, ironed the bumper covers I had gotten and DI and put the whole room together. This also meant moving the full size bed out of the room and vacuuming (probably a little more than I should have attempted by myself being days away from delivering). I also got a few little decorative projects done to help tie it all together. I am pleased that it looks pretty put together and pretty cute for spending almost nothing extra. This however, once again overworked me and I spent most of Thursday sitting and resting again. At this point I had come to terms with the fact that nothing was going to happen before being induced. I was strangely a little disappointed. I think mostly for curiosity sake I was wondering what a normal labor for me might be like. Audrey and Ethan were both induced and I am not sure that Emily counts as normal because she came so early.  Although it was good that nothing happened early because I might have had to do it alone seeing as Charles carpools to work 40 miles away and the likely hood of me getting a hold of him at the dam and him making it back in time was slim.  I was glad I did not have to go through labor by myself.  

So this Friday morning arrived with a check in time of 8 am.  Ethan woke up to go to the bathroom at 5:30 and I just could not go back to sleep. So I just got up and showered to get started and ready. I had finished packing the bag the day before so didn't have that to do, but there were a few things that needed picking up and cleaning. However, at 6 am on the dot I was standing in my room after getting all dressed and sneezed, and my water broke! The next half and hour presented an experience that was NOT my favorite. I always hated having my water break in the hospital bed and having to kind of sit in it. That was gross, but at least it is contained. I couldn't believe how much water kept coming. I was trying to do things, and put on make up, and move around, but then this huge gush of water comes rushing out and you don't quite know what to do with yourself. My first real contraction came at about 6:30, thankfully my parents were already on their way planning to be here at 7 am anyway. So as soon as they pulled up we hopped in the car and off we went. 

We arrived and I was in the bed by about 7:20. I was having contractions about every 5-7 minutes. This continued for about 45 minutes. It occurs to me now that I have lived through two experiences where I am silently thinking that the people around me are not behaving quite like I think they should, that maybe in the future I might need to be a little more pushy. Not that we are having more kids, but both with Emily and now with Aria, I have had lots of thoughts like, “Why are they not moving faster” I don't say anything because I don't want to be THAT person to people who have a job to do and have done it before. I think it was about quarter till though that she finally hooked me up to monitors and checked to see that I was dilated to a 7 already. She said, “now you did want an epidural right? I thought my voice conveyed enough urgency and eagerness to mean, yes right now please! She did go to the door and talk to someone out there about calling someone to see who wanted to do this, so I thought we were covered. So for the next half hour while the contractions were still manageable I didn't say anything. The next half an hour after that however, is a blur of motion, yet so precisely at the forefront of my mind that it is nightmarish. My contractions were manageable till about 8:15 and then I had three that were all of a sudden a lot stronger and I told Charles to go check where we were at with the epidural and what did the nurse do? She came in to check how far I was. Now at a 9 she told them to put in a 911 to my doctor. She left the room and a few minutes later I had that last contraction where you know somehow with every fiber of pain in your body that this baby is ready to come. Charles ran to get her and the next 10 minutes or so were complete chaos. There happened to be another OB on the floor passing by and they yelled out to him really quickly and there were now people everywhere I just remember seeing him looking quickly and then frantically trying to throw on a gown and gloves quick enough, and one nurse bringing things in, another nurse doing something else, and another nurse telling me to lift up (YEAH RIGHT) to put the pads under me before this baby came out. I vaguely remember something like a whimper escaping my lips about, “seriously there is nothing you can give me”? And the next 10 minutes equate the most awful pain and distress I have ever been through. I could feel my contraction put that baby's head right there all on it's own and they told me to push. I did so 4 excruciating times and felt every single detail of her little body make it out. I remember begging inside my head that my luck as of the past would hold out and this would go fast. I remember pleading in my head to, “get her out, get her out” And then when they said one last time, I took them seriously and did it, and felt immediate relief (for a minute or so) that I was no longer being torn apart.

There was some part of me that knew this was going to happen. I knew it, although of course I would never admit that even to myself that. Why on this good, green, modern planet would any woman want to do that without an epidural?!?! I have heard women say they think they heal faster with no drugs. That is a load of crock in my very humble opinion. When you have an epidural you also don't have to feel all the pain for a while AFTER giving birth that no one talks about. The pain of being sewn back up, the pain of them ramming their fists into your stomach to get all the blood out, and the pain of your uterus starting to contract (which FYI feels almost as bad). With Audrey and Ethan, I distinctly remember feeling that rush of – whew it's over- but with them I got to turn over and go to sleep while they took care of the baby and cleaned everything up. Not so when there are no drugs in you. I do remember them giving her to me to kind of hold while they toweled her off and she cried out. I smiled and talked to her little white and purple body and empathized about how I knew she didn't like that.

So far things are going pretty well.  She seems to be a fairly mellow little baby.  Although she does not like dealing with poop or gas pains.  So last night it felt like she was awake most of the night grunting and mad.  That was not fun.  But it is still early and we will figure things out.  What a testament of  a seasoned mother eh?  The fact that you can say, "it will be ok in a week or so"  I remember so distinctly with Audrey that if someone could not give me immediate answers and relief then I just was NOT going to make it through the next couple of hours!  Having other kids and distractions helps.  I think it is good that it is too hot outside to even want to open my blinds.  It forces me to be ok just sitting and not having real high expectations for the day.  I do have moments of restlessness, but for the most part I am trying to enjoy this sweet little girl.  And we are.

Audrey and Ethan are beyond infatuated with her.  They give her kisses about a million times a day and they both want to hold her all the time.  Audrey held her in her lap (with the boppy) for almost an hour yesterday.  It is just so cute.  I love it. 

It is finally done

The building brag's have been a little light as of late.  Not because there has been no projects, but because this was a MASSIVE project and I didn't want to put it up till it was DONE.

This is up in my kitchen at the moment and it looks pretty good as a buffet don't ya think?

But, I must say that it looks pretty dang good all put together.

It took me forever, and I learned more than a thing or two, but I am pretty proud of it.  Head over to my blog Dreaming for More Hours in a Day or to Ana White site in a couple days to see the sequence of the project as well as the entire plan so you can build a Pottery Barn copy cat for a 1/5 of the price. 


I of course built this to sell, so wish me luck that I will get some good money for it.  Or of course if you need an 8 ft entertainment center feel free to contact me!

Easter

Easter although subtle was a big hit this year.  Almost our whole family left out of town.  My parents are traveling the western states looking for tulips, Charles sister (who usually is left to head up the family gatherings) and her kids hi-tailed it out of town looking for snow in Utah.  I was a little sad in preparation for the holiday knowing some of our favorite people were not going to be there.  But ya know, when the weekend arrived we were just fine, we had plenty to do and I don't think we felt the lack.  Cassidy's family does a very fun Easter party in the park every year and we love to attend that.  Complete with tons of eggs, yummy food, and a thrilling water balloon fight we were grateful for a fantastic afternoon.  Charles needed some alone time for homework so I took the kids to the Natural History museum right after, and then even to a play place to get some more wiggles out if possible.  They would say the day was a complete hit!

Easter morning was of course one of the only morning Audrey has ever gone downstairs without me.  So she totally saw what the Easter bunny had brought her.  She was super excited and hard to convince to wait for the rest of us!  Sunday night was a celebration of Easter (I cooked my first ham all by myself) along with Jordan's birthday.  This was a fun night with family, yummy food, a movie outside on the projector, and a glow in the dark egg hunt.  Super fun!

Camping

I am not brave enough to try our hand at real camping yet with toddlers and kids that can run away and get lost, and the possibility of a very long night.  So this is our solution to letting the kids really get the experience but having fun too.  They still love it and have no idea the difference.  Ethan and I gave up at about 3 in the morning thought.  My pregnant midsection could not take the hardness of even the cot, and I think Ethan was a little cold. 

We have a huge 11 man tent that takes up the whole backyard, so we put the kids in their little play tent (which doesn't even have a real door) and Charles and I slept in the 5 man (yeah right) tent.  We bundled  them together with a rain cover to help them not be nervous and keep in some heat.