My house is so clean, I scare myself

Anyone who knows me well, knows that my house is not always particularly tidy. It typically isn't awful, I just have a hard time keeping up with the clutter (um, and fur) that seems to accumulate when you have three kids, two adults, and two dogs sharing a house. The nesting has been fierce this time though, so my house is ridiculously clean. Vacuuming on a regular basis, making sure that the kid's rooms are tidy and beds are made. Sweeping. Mopping. Laundry washed, dried, folded and PUT AWAY (the put away part is often my downfall) I realize that my housekeeping standards will relax once again after the baby is born, so I am trying to enjoy it now :)

A side note: A sign that you don't vacuum enough- when you tell your four year old to clean the toys off the floor of his room so you can vacuum, he replies, "Oh, who is coming over?" Ha!

Pictorial proof that my house is very, very clean right now. Our family room.

The basement, complete with clean toy area.

And a gratuitous shot of my fantastic bathtub, because I talk about it a lot. It makes pregnancy a whole lot easier.

Up next in the ridiculously productive nesting blog series: More cloth diapers for the baby. 14 out of 18 are complete!

Mother's Day Hike

For Mother's Day, we got to go on our first family hike and picnic of the spring. It was a lovely day and a very enjoyable stroll through the woods.

Everyone is all ready for the hike!

Picnic first

They spotted me. Joe has better pictures of our hike, but I don't think he has put them on the computer yet.

Playing in the backyard.

Mother's Day flowers from my in-laws. They were gorgeous!

Snuggling with Papa.

Tattoos. This made them extremely happy. It is the little things :)

Foxy Mama

36 weeks

I don't recall the last pregnancy that I felt this good at this far along! Will try to update in the next couple of days with what we have been up to the last few weeks!

Craftiness!

I still have a couple of posts to finish up my Kansas pictures, but I am now getting behind on blogging current things, so here are some things we have been up to lately.

The nesting is in full force! Starting in my second trimester, I began to knit a wool diaper cover stash for the baby. And here it is! I can't promise that I won't knit anything else (in fact, as I was going through her dresses, I realized I really don't have a blue or green one, so I might need to do make those) but this is a good start I think :) She has two Sheepy sacks in the top corner for easy nighttime diaper changes. The four covers next to those are size small. And the ones on the bottom row are all newborn size. My sister Michelle knit three of them and gave them to me when she found out she was having a boy- lucky us :)
I have also been working on sewing some cloth diapers for the babe. Here are six newborn size fitted diapers (absorbent but not waterproof- used with a cover, for those who aren't familiar with diaper lingo) I have four size small diapers completed, and I am aiming for twelve of those. I am going to get some prefolds and contours and viola! diaper stash complete!
Here is my trusty little sewing buddy. He likes to sit by my sewing machine on a stool and watch me as I sew, and on occasion "help". He must be growing up because up until recently I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that he would sit next to me for what amounts to 30 or 45 minutes at a time and just chat and behave himself. *sniff* My baby is getting so big!

He really likes the cloth diapers for "Baby Dell" He is holding a whole stack of them here.

While I was in Kansas, Joann Fabrics was having a sale on their snuggle flannel, in all sorts of cute prints . Who can pass up a bargain? So I bought some that I hemmed and made into receiving blankets for when the wee one is born. When she outgrows the need for receiving blankets, they can easily be recycled into material for larger cloth diapers.

Here is a blanket that trimmed with ribbon, similar to one I made for a friend a couple of months ago.

All my little helpers. They were enjoying tea and trail mix while I cut out some fabric.

Zoo Trip- Part I

We had the opportunity to go the zoo a couple of times while we were in Kansas. This day we went with some friends on a very warm but windy day. We kept it relatively short (a couple of hours) but the kids had a lot of fun. Here were some pictures from our day:

Visit to Grammie and Grandpa's!

Uncle Dave reading Issy and Isaac a book. A relatively long book, at that. He is a good sport :)

Grammie reading the kiddos a bedtime story.

Liam and Grace. I have no idea what he was doing in this picture. I do know that there were cupcakes (the most delicious cupcakes I have ever had, thanks Patty!) on the counter behind Grace, so perhaps that has something to do with his hand gestures?

Playdoh. A favorite at Grammie's house (and ours, for that matter!). Here is Isaac's playdoh necklace.

Getting ready for breakfast.

Grandpa set up this spectacular train track for Isaac on Easter, of which Isaac was very appreciative!

Uncle Joe and Conrad playing blocks

Baby Zane

Well, we shall start the series of update blog posts with the cutie who started it all. Part of the reason that we were going to visit Kansas at this particular time of year was because my sister was due with number 3 on April 8th. I attended her last birth and was *supposed* to attend this one. But this tricky little fella had different ideas about that. I planned my visit from March 27th- April 18th to give a nice, generous window to make it there. But he decided he wanted his birthday to be March 25th. So I missed it by a couple of days, but on the upside, had a chance to spend my visit with this squishy little bundle:

Zane Andrew

And there are some pictures with his cousins and Uncle Joe.

So much updating to do, it is a little overwhelming!

Shortly after my last post, I spent three weeks in Kansas with family and friends. It was great, though very tiring! And then immediately after we got back (like within a couple of hours) we started moving into the new house we are renting. Then I was without internet connection for a while. But I have a functional computer, the boxes are mostly unpacked, so I feel like I can make a return to blogging with a clean conscience. There is still plenty of nesting and crafting to be done before the baby arrives, but I will try to keep this updated better!

I have a gazillion pictures, so I'll try to sort through them and blog them in a logical order :) But for now:

34 weeks