Sweet little  yawning girl…

Baby getting cuddles from Grandpa & Auntie B…

It snowed on Wednesday, so I declared it “comfy clothes day”…

Fevers & coughs abounded in our house this week, so copious amounts of lots of Barney was watched and a few lots of books were read…

Baby girl’s got a strong neck!

…and she can smile, too. (No, she didn’t do it for this picture, but she was about to. I promise.)…

Oh — and she sent baby N on some AMAZING “blanket adventures”:

If you are interested in checking out more of what she does, check out her website: K Photography.

So…uh, I took a little maternity leave from Project 365. These pictures capture the spirit of the last few weeks, but still. Whatever. I’ll be back at it on Sunday!

Just wanted to peek out of my hiding place to make a little announcement…

…our precious baby girl has arrived!

Baby N arrived on Tuesday, February 8 at 10:29 a.m. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 10 oz, was 20 inches long…and is basically the sweetest baby in the world (in case you were wondering).

She and I have spent much time bonding, and I am in love with my sweet little lovebird!

The past week and a half has been a wonderful time for our little family. M has been fortunate enough to have several days off of work, so we have been able to spend lots of time bonding as a family, getting to know our new little one, and adjusting to being a family of five (It feels so weird just to type that, by the way — FIVE! We have THREE children! Surreal!).

Anyway, I have plans to write about her labor/birth (preview: in my mind, baby N will forever be associated with the show Survivor-Man) and perhaps even her name…and no, though I am far behind, I have not given up on my Project 365 (trust me, I have at least a picture a day for the last couple weeks!) . I will catch up in due time. But not now. For now I am keeping plenty busy catching up with life,  and just enjoying this precious little dear that currently snoozing on my chest!

HEAVENLY!!!

Well, I’m sad to say that it’s been another 4-photo week. But I refuse to feel too guilty…the whole idea is to get in the habit of photo-documenting life, which I am doing more and more of. (plus, honestly, one of the reasons I have been hesitant to crack out the camera is that it’s all packed up & ready to go in my hospital bag, and I am *so* scared that I will take it out & forget to put it back in!)

((Still, maybe I should re-name this, like, “Project 325″? Might be more realistic for me…ha ha ))

Anyway, here’s what I ended up with this week:

January 25 — Pretty Pretty Princess – Auntie B found some of her old dress up clothes, and S went to town.

January 26 – Proof That I Need This Book – I have no further comment.

January 27 – Verses – I recently decided to put together some “verse cards” to bring with me to the hospital — to meditate on as I labor.  I asked friends on Facebook to share with me some verse suggestions, and got some good ones! I took some time the other day to jot down the verses on some pretty pink cards. I know they will be treasured in the hospital room!

January 28 – The Screaming/Ball Game - W & S have recently made up a new game. It involves them running up to a wall, throwing a ball, then screaming hysterically. Over and over again. And over again. It’s alternately hilarious and adorable and terrifying (it’s always rather scary at first when all I hear is blood-curdling screams – then I run into the room and realize they’re just playing their game ).

…but then I’ve been reflecting on a conversation I had on Thursday morning with a new friend from my Bible Study Fellowship group. We were talking about how I was nearing the end of my pregnancy, and though I can’t remember her exact words, she made a comment to the effect of “Just think of how bittersweet it will be to finish this stage of things”. At first I thought she was talking about pregnancy itself, so I said “Yeah…I’m sure I’ll miss feeling the baby move, and all of that…”, but then she explained that she was talking not only about pregnancy itself, but about this stage of family. These are the last few weeks (days) when we will be a family of 4 — when my two kids will be the only two kids. Once the baby is born, things will forever be different — GOOD different, but different.

So…with that thought in my mind, I want to focus on savoring this time as best I can before things change. I am uncomfortable and I don’t know how I can possibly make it for 4 more weeks until my due date…but I pray that I don’t lose sight of the fact that there is so much to treasure and enjoy, even in this moment when it’s so easy to focus on what’s next.

And I’m pretty sure this is a life lesson I’ll need to remember even after this baby has arrived!

((Project 365 = Jenny at The Rigney’s idea of documenting the year by taking a photo a day for 1 year and posting each week’s photos every Saturday. Wanna take part? Start anytime & go for 365 days! Drop me a comment if you’re gonna do it!))

Well, I knew it was bound to happen. I knew I’d drop the ball. I knew it. I thought I’d taken lots of pictures this week — one each day, for sure…but alas, upon importing my photos this evening, iPhoto revealed to me that only 4 days had been covered. And they’re not even great photos or anything. Oh well…I’ll show you what I got this week — and, as Anne Shirley puts it “Tomorrow [or next week] is always fresh with no mistakes in it!”.

January 15 – Mommy Brunch — On Saturday morning a friend from church hosted a little brunch for several mommies from our church, all of whom have one thing in common: 2 years ago we were all pregnant at the same time, and now we are all pregnant again! It was a sweet morning of fellowship for the moms and playtime for our babies who are soon to be big-siblings:

January 16 - No picture

January 17 – Nursery - This was the day I finally got baby N’s nursery cleaned and ready for her arrival. Phew! There wasn’t a lot to do in there, aside from cleaning, but I did buy a new rug to put under the ottoman. Exciting, I know.

January 18 - Nothin’.

January 19 – Belly Shot - I finally took a pregnancy pic of myself. Not my favorite thing to do, but I know I will feel bad years down the road if I don’t have at least one shot of my preg-o belly this go-around! Here I am at 35.5 weeks.

January 20 - Nope

January 21 – No pictures this day, but I did take some adorable videos that I will have to share sometime…

January 22 – Army Guys – Confession: I don’t know who took this picture. I don’t think it was me. I suspect it was a member of my family (who babysat tonight). Either way, it is a pretty accurate depiction of our living room floor right now. Lots of army guys…and a few crumbs…

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So…there we go. Failure? I don’t know. I don’t really care. I’ll pick up & try again next week. Wanna join me?

Yay! I officially made it through 2 weeks of Project 365! Here are my shots for the week:

January 9: Small Group Kick-Off —  I made the Pioneer Woman’s Mocha Brownies for our church’s small group kick-off Sunday evening — but I forgot to take a picture of them all pretty on a plate. So here are the leftovers in a pan. Hmmm. You’ll have to take my word for it that they tasted good.

January 10: Mommy Night Do you know how awesome my husband is? Every Monday night, he comes home after a long day at work, makes dinner, plays with the kids, & puts the kids to bed — all so I can go out to enjoy an evening to myself for shopping, errands, relaxing…whatever.  It’s as divine as it sounds. Anyway, I’ve had some work to catch up on, so this past Monday night I opted to hang out at the local coffee shop while I worked. Here’s the proof. It was great. :

January 11: Elmo Hat - I dunno. I just looked and she was running around with this Elmo basket on her head. It was cute, so I took a picture.

January 12: Chaos Theory – I took this picture to document the chaos that my life/house was that day. It doesn’t even fully capture it. Little did I know that Thursday would be worse. Also, I think I watched the movie “Chaos Theory” that night (which I don’t really recommend).

January 13: Mr. Bump – Sweet child. Cut lip. Lots of blood. Pregnant mom with no experience with stitches/blood. Pregnant mom freaking out while frantically calling grandparents to come over & help her figure out what to do. Child A-OK — totally fine. Pregnant mom glad that morning is over.

January 14 – Birthday Cake – Friday was M’s birthday! The kids & I had fun preparing. For dinner I made the Pioneer Woman’s Marlboro Man Sandwiches (because apparently men are supposed to love them – and he did ), and we followed up by the W family traditional buttermilk cake, which the kids had a blast decorating:

(*bonus picture!*)

Alright, so there’s our week. What about yours?!

Alrighty then. Without further ado, I present this first weeks little collection of (not-awesomely taken) photos:

January 1: Star Wars Guys meet Stroller

January 2: Decorating a Trader Joe’s Giant Ginger Bread Man

January 3: My new teapot and my pretty tea-cup — companions I have become quite well-acquainted with in recent days (p.s. I am new to tea — anyone have any recommendations?)!

January 4: One of my favorite little smiles.

January 5: S & the Boppy — S & W discovered the boppy pillow and wondered what it was, so I used a couple of S’s dollies to demonstrate how it helps mommy hold baby. A few minutes later this is what I saw.

January 6: Um, oops. Didn’t take any pictures on January 6. #firstweekfailure #thisisnttwitterbuti’mgoingtousehashtagsanyway

January 7: I would love to use this sweet photo of my boy…

…but the photo below more accurately documents my mothering this week. It’s my children watching Blues Clues. Or Wonderpets. Or Barney. Or Dora. Or something. Which they did a lot of this week. This is what happens when mommy is 8 months pregnant, kids decide they’d rather not nap for 3 days in a row, and when you have a new AppleTV/Netflix streaming subscription (which, right now, is feeling like a *fabulous* invention). Hmmm. Oh well. Just bein’ real!

January 8: Beautiful Gifts from Beautiful Friends — This morning some dear friends of ours stopped by and dropped off some beautiful gifts she made for baby N, including a beautiful hat/booties she crocheted. I was so touched by her generosity — she is so gifted! And check out how eerily-well the hat/booties match the little dress I had just bought for baby! Don’t they look like they were made to go together?!

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So that’s what I have to share for my week in photos. What about you? Up to the challenge of Project 365? I’d love to have you join me!