Purses

I have made 2 purses so far. One for myself first and then one for my best friend Wendy for her birthday. The black one is mine and the blue one is hers. I bought 3 coordinating fabrics and quilted them for the body of the purse, then added a pocket on both inside and outside. Upon close examination the craftsmanship is not perfect, but then it does the job and works well. :)

My new top and sick little girl

I sewed a new top for myself yesterday from a Simplicity pattern and fabric I got at Hobby Lobby. So here is a picture Matthew took of me this morning in it. I got to wear it a total of 30 minutes before Michelle puked all over me. Poor kiddo, she was so pale and lethargic today, and threw up like 4 times. Thankfully we caught the rest in a bowl rather than on mommy. She is doing much better this evening though, and even ate dinner. However, she is still pretty tired and went to bed early. Hopefully the rest of us don't get it and we have a better day tomorrow.

Prenatal appointment

I had my second prenatal appointment last week at almost 13 weeks. Blood pressure was good; 110/60, and total weight gain at about 5 lb so far. The cool thing was listening to the heartbeat with the doppler this time. Matthew thought that part was really neat, and enjoyed "helping" the nurse take my blood pressure by squeezing it after she took the offical reading. Next appointment is August 21.

Intelligender

Okay, so I guess I am nuts, but I have really been wondering about the gender of this baby now lately. So, I went out and bought one of those new Intelligender tests to see what it says. Here are pictures from the "girl" and "boy" sides. According to what I see, the color looks more like "boy" (greenish instead orangish) to me, which is contrary to my gut feeling for a long time. Gut feeling based on feeling similar to Michelle's pregnancy, ovulating about 3-4 days after when I think we DTD to conceive, and that several people have said they think I am having a girl. So really, I guess I need to just wait and see for another couple of months till we have our 20 week ultrasound and hopefully can see something!

Pregnancy/new baby

The new baby I am now carrying came as quite a surprise to both of us. Here he/she is at almost 9 weeks of pregnancy. I had a clear pattern of ovulating on day 18 the four or five months before we conceived, and that month I O'ed on day 16. So while I thought we were outside the "window of opportunity", we weren't. I guess God had other plans for us. Even so, we are excited about what this new little one will be like. So far, all has gone smoothly in pregnancy. At about 7-8 weeks, I was feeling kind of nauseous and really, really tired, but now at 13 weeks that is easing up. I definitely have a pooch, and look more like I did at 20 weeks with Matthew. I guess that happens third time around. I have been to one appointment so far with the nurse-midwives, and I go again in 2 days.

Michelle

Michelle is my little sweetheart. She is almost 4, and a girl in every sense of the word. Here she is dressed as "Dancy Dancy" (Fancy Nancy) in her dressup clothes. She is a drama queen, stubborn, and extremely loving and smart. She did preschool for the first time last year, going 2 days a week, and will start PreK4 next month going 3 days a week. She turns 4 the end of next month. She is way into My Little Pony, baby dolls, dressups, and all things "girl". Her favorite color is purple, followed by pink. She cracks me up with some of the stuff she says too. She is little for her age, but thinks she can do everything her big brother does. She takes gymnastics once a week with him and loves it too.

Matthew

Matthew is my oldest and my sweet boy. He is going into first grade next month, and just lost his first tooth last month. Here he is holding his tooth fairy pillow that his mommy made for him. He is on the autism spectrum, so has a few special needs. He has done really well in PPCD and kindergarten last year. He has occupational therapy once a week, and the results have been incredible. A year ago, he was just starting to write and not consistently holding a pencil correctly, and now he writes sentences! He actually talks in conversations now whereas he used to just ignore you. I have a lot to be proud of. He is way in to volcanoes now, but still loves ice, penguins, trains, cars and construction vehicles. He is pretty adept on the computer and is having fun playing on the Wii too. Starting next week, we will alternate weeks of physical and occupational therapy as his fine motor skills have improved that much. He also takes gymnastics once a week to help with core strength and flexibility. This boy is full of questions and I LOVE the stuff he comes up with!

First Post

Well, I guess I should introduce myself. I am Jill, a 36 year old wife of 13 years and mom of 6.5 years. My husband is Chris, who works hard as a chemical process engineer so that I can be home with our kiddos, Matthew (6.5), Michelle (almost 4), and new little one on the way due end of January. So I stay busy caring for household, kids, and doing some sewing projects. I also like to read, surf the net, take walks, and of course, play with my cutie pies. More later.