Getting ready for the little man...

My friends threw me a beautiful shower/ brunch. I took a few photos before but totally forgot to take any during the shower. I'm so bummed because the room was filled with women that I love and I wish I had documented it better.

As I was opening gifts I put each gift back in the gift bag it came in. When I got home I stacked them all around the fireplace and when my girls got home they got to have their own shower and open all the gifts themselves.  They were so fun to watch and so excited for this little guy to arrive.

I finally finished the little blanket for the girls to give Keaton when they visit him in the hospital.

I have received multiple requests to post photos of my prego body and I really don't want to, but since this is the only journal I keep I may regret not having a photo of my big belly. So here it is. The ultrasound says he is only about 6 lbs so I am guessing the other 29lbs are all in my face, bum and chest.  I shouldn't complain because with all my girls I gained 45-50 lbs.

I never thought I would be sporting blue gel toes... but my cute friend Jill told me that I had to have blue toes for when my little boy gets here. I listened to her and not only to my girls think I am so cool now, I actually kinda like them.

One week to go!!!

The nursery

14 days to go...

Honey, jam, peaches and eggs!

Brian, one of our friends is a bee keeper as a hobby and we have some of his hives on our property. We love it because he comes by every couple of weeks to check the bees and teaches the kids all about them.

Our bees were doing so well that he brought over more hives. We currently have a tower of four hives. Last weekend we went over to Brian's house to watch and help him spin all the honey from our hives. It was sooo interesting. I should have taken photos of the process, but I only have a photo of the outcome. He got TONS of hone from our hives and it tastes amazing. We came home with a gallon for us and my kids have just been eating spoonfuls of it. 

A couple of weeks ago I got together with some other moms and all our kids and had a strawberry jam making marathon. I could not believe how much jam we ended up making. We went through 3 or 4 50# bags of sugar!

Luckily we had several little worker bees that loved helping out and stirring. I don't know how we would have done it without all the slave labor!

Here is a sampling of some of the finished product.

One of my main cravings with this pregnancy has been fresh fruit. I have been eating watermelon, cantaloupe and grapes like crazy. When our favorite local orchard said the peaches we ready I was so excited I could hardly sleep. The fact that we all LOVE these peaches, the girls were having so much fun picking them and I have been craving fruit were a very costly combination. When we took all our peaches to get weighed it was $97.... What? I asked how many pounds of peaches we picked and it was 198 pounds- oops!

We spend the next 4 days washing, peeling, cutting and freezing as many peaches as possible. We also ate a ton just off the counter.

After talking about all the sugar... I guess I should show a little protein. All of our 40 chickens are now laying. We have been getting between 18-36 eggs a day!!! They are so beautiful that the other day I snapped this photo after washing them. Look at all the variation, I love it. The girls have been selling them on our street and I have been giving them away to the older ladies in our church.

My new/ old rocker

I wanted an apolstered rocker that was small, not a huge lazy boy, but something built for a little old lady to sit and knit in or for me (formerly little) and old to sit and nurse in.

I found this one, but just could not justify the price ...

Charleston rocker from Pottery Barn $749.00

So I started stalking craigs list for a few weeks and found this pink rocker for $60. I emailed them after a few days and asked if they would take $40 and they did. Score! It's super comfortable and a swivel/ rocker. It was perfect... except for the color and fabric.

So I decided to slip cover it. I have never done upholstery or made a slip cover, but after reading blogs and tutorials on line I decided I could do it. I have a huge bolt of great linen fabric in our attic that was left over from one of my Dad's old projects, so I decided to use that.

I will admit it's not perfect... but I think I did a pretty good job. The chair is really comfortable and perfect for me to nurse in and for $40 it was a steal.

The 1st day of school!

Ruby started 5th grade, Lucy started 3rd grade and Haley is now in 8th grade!!! (Haley left for the bus before I could snap a photo). I can't believe how fast time is flying by.