A Green Day

I managed to have everyone wearing green yesterday but I only managed to get 3 out of 5 photographed. Carter even had on a very cute pair of white and green tennis shoes! I even had green on, with green fingernails! The perfect St. Patrick's and BOMBER green :) We'll get lots of use out of that bottle of nail polish!! So just imagine Spencer looking just like Mason, same shirt. Harley had a green shirt on that said, "Good Luck...you need it" It was pretty cute. I was also negligent and didn't make a green dinner, or breakfast. I just had too much going on that day! Next time!

Big Brother Part 2

Spencer, gotta love him!!! Here's another one for ya. A couple days ago I was getting ready in the morning and Carter was hungry and mad. I had him on the floor in the living room and asked Spencer if he could talk to him and make him happy. I was almost done getting ready. Carter never stopped crying but it was pretty dang cute when I looked downstairs. There was Spencer talking away to Carter trying to settle him down....while wearing Alex's hunting earmuffs. He wasn't in a panic or bothered that Carter was crying, he just cut out the noise!

Big Brother

This morning I set Carter in his bouncer and put him in the living room. I asked Spencer to help keep him happy while I went and took a shower. After I got out of the shower I peaked downstairs to see how they were doing and there was Spencer holding up a book in front of Carter and pointing to pictures. I wished I had my camera right there with me but I knew the moment would be lost if I tried to sneak downstairs to get it. What a good big brother he is, I love it when I see things like that!

Dippin Dots in my Hand

More than one person has said that it looked just like raining Dippin Dots today. Poor Harley was at softball tryouts while the white stuff was comming down. Isn't this crazy!

WOW

It's raining Dippin Dots. And then it stops!

Hhhmmmm

I think my blog needs a makeover but I can't decide what to do with it??????

CKC Portland

Just sittin in the hotel with a baby wide awake :) plus he's a little crabby. He just needs to settle down and go to sleep so I can too.
This wraps up a fun weekend in Portland scrapbooking and taking classes. I took Carter with me since there was no way he was staying home at 2 months old. He did pretty good all weekend. Some of the classes he slept though. It was nice when I got lucky to get a seat next to a wall with space next to me or behind me and he could lay on his blanket on the floor. Everyone ooohed and aahhed at him all weekend like they had never seen a baby before.

One of the classes we had to today was with Amanda Probst. She's one of the writers for Creating Keepsakes Magazine. She was so cute. You'll have to check her out. Her blog is listed on the side below. We made an album called "A Peek into my Week." It's very cute. When I get it completely finished I'll have to post some pictures. Anyway...Amanda was so sweet. We got to a point in class where she just walked around and made sure people were doing okay. She came over and asked if I needed her to hold Carter so I could get some scrappin done. She asked in a way that was more because she WANTED to hold him and not because I NEEDED her to. She was such a sweetie.

I have so much more to talk about but I'll save that for next time. It's so much fun to go to Creating Keepsakes Conventions (CKC). If you're a scrapper and you get the chance you should go.

Please don't rain!

Not today, we don't' want rain today. It can rain all it wants AFTER 3:00pm! Today is the day of Camp Jason Lee Park (JLP), also known as Camp Jalopy. The pre-Camp Wooten day for 5th graders at Jason Lee. Normally, the rain wouldn't bother me that much, but Carter has to hang out with me today while I'm at Camp Jalopy. It won't make for a very good day if I have to figure out what to do about the rain and Carter. I may have to make a trip to the store to get a stroller rain cover!! Pray for no rain today :)

Long Naps into Late Nights

Why can't Carter decide to sleep for 4 hours straight AFTER 10pm?? He fell asleep as we went to the store this evening around 7 pm and stayed asleep in his car seat until I woke him up at nearly 11pm!!! It was a two edge sward. On one side I was able to have a quiet evening watching some tv with Alex, which I haven't gotten to do in a while. On the other hand...I'm blogging......it's 12:30am.....Carter's wide awake.....and a bit crabby so I can't really do much.

Today I decided to write down Carter's schedule. He has his two month appointment on Wednesday. I always hate it when the nurse asks "how many hours does he sleep at night, how many times does he wake up, does he nap during the day, how long" etc....HE'S AN INFANT...EAT SLEEP POOP. So I wanted to keep track and see how long he really is awake during the day. From about 11pm Sunday night until now, he's been awake about a total of 8 hours. The rest has been sleeping or eating or a combination of both. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Guess Who? - Free Pancakes!

So when's the last time you played a game of Guess Who? Spencer got the game for Christmas and we JUST opened it. It was in the front closet on the floor and he saw it while he was putting the vacuum away for me. He begged me to play with him. I was expecting a gal to come over in a short time but Carter was asleep and I figured now was a good time. Seems like these days you can't just open a new game and play. There's all this set up involved!! We had to punch out all the characters for each board, twist out all the flip up tabs and snap them into place for each board. Then we (and when I say WE.. I really mean ME) had to slide each character into the flip up tab for each board. They don't really stay in that well. So after I got one set put together I realized that I put the red characters in the blue board so I had to take them all out and swap them. Spencer made the comment that I was taking forever to get done, silly boy. So after getting everything done we were able to play a couple of rounds. The gal I was expecting called and got detained doing something else so Spencer and I were able to play a little longer. Carter cooperated for a while also. It was a nice change of pace!! I need to remember to stop and do things like that with my kids. The dishes can wait a bit longer.

Today was national pancake day (or something like that) so IHOP was serving a free small stack of pancakes. Someone told me this last week and I put it in my phone to remind me. Cierra was playing with my phone and when she saw that she wouldn't let me forget it. So I loaded up the kids this evening hoping to beat the dinner rush to IHOP. I also had a primary meeting at 7pm to get back for. We made it to IHOP just in time!!! We didn't really even have to wait but shortly after we got there the crowds started coming in. Each of my kids got a stack of 3 pancakes and I paid the extra dollar so they could have strawberries on top. I'm not a pancake fan so I ordered some other breakfast plate. I kind of felt bad for our waitress, she looked like she was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. She was quite busy but she was still very friendly and did a great job. She can really carry an armful of pancakes! It was funny to see all the parents bringing in their kids for free pancakes. Free food brings out all kinds!

Our Little Circle

The Science Project

It's that time of year again, time for the Science Extraveganza as Jason Lee calls it. Every year we have a hard time deciding what to do for a project and then we always seem to wait until the last minute. I admit, that's partially my fault. This year Cierra was the only one who HAD to do a science project. We searched online for some ideas and she decided that she wanted to test the ph level in soda pop. Easy enough right, get some ph strips from a pool store and dip them in, DONE. Well, the other day I hopped in the car after getting kids off to school and was going to head to the pool supply store only to find out that the one I knew of was no longer there. I searched around a little and checked a few stores for some testing kits with no luck. Then I went to Walmart because I had to get something else. While I was there I remembered that they usually have some pool supplies so I went and checked. Sure enough, there they were, chemical testing strips. YES!!!
Now jump to today. By the way, her project is due on Monday!! Shame on us! So we get the strips and get the pop she wants to test and dip a strip. Come to find out the ph level of pop is on the lower end of the scale, which means it's more acidic, which doesn't show up on the strips we had. Now we need strips that show the whole range on the ph scale. I looked up pool stores in the phone book and headed out. They didn't have anything showing the entire scale either! Did I mention that I don't like science projects. After going a couple of places that were suggested we headed home. On the way home from Kennewick I was thinking that I should just check Fun 2 Learn. It's a teacher supply store, very fun, love to go there. After we got home I fed Carter and called Fun 2 Learn and wouldn't you know it, they had ph strips that show the entire ph scale. I should have known to just go there first, dang it!!
In case you are wondering, Coke, Pepsi and Dr.Pepper are the most acidic, followed by Sprite. The funny thing we found was that A&W Root Beer was practically a neutral on the scale...that was kind of odd. We also tested other things just for fun like, Kool-Aid, milk, tap water and Barq's Root Beer. We also tested vinegar to get an idea of where that fell on the scale to compare it to the soda pop. It was about the same as the cola's.
Now we just have to put the display board together. Maybe next year we won't procrastinate like we did this year. Ha ha ha, yea right!

A New Face

I needed Photoshop for a project I'm working on so I downloaded a free trial version. I had no idea how to use the darn thing. I took a picture of Carter and messed around with it for a while and this is what I came up with. I removed a bunch of the acne that he had on his face. There's still quite a bit of redness on his face but I think it looks better.

Here is the original photo. A cute little smile with milk coming out both sides of his mouth.

And After

A New Nephew!!

My sister had her baby yesterday, Cooper Hiatt Larson. What a good lookin baby! Congratulations Allie & Scott!!!

He's 4 weeks old already!

It's amazing how fast time passes. Carter's already 4 weeks old. I had him yesterday to check his poor little face and he weighed 11 pounds!! I made sure to get some pictures of him yesterday!

Picture Tag-EDITED!

I've been tagged! Here's my picture. Not too exciting. I was supposed to show the 6th picture from the 6th folder. Well, on my laptop I only have two folders so this is the 6th picture from the 2nd folder. I couldn't get to the file on my other computer at the moment.





This is our boat when it was parked at a storage lot. We wanted to find a nice, fenced, safe place to park it for the winter until we could get the side driveway done at our house.


Well, we got fenced, but not safe!! Alex went down to check on it and found out that someone had broken into our boat and stole the stereo that Alex had just put in this summer. Needless to say we were ticked! Alex took this picture along with others after that happened. That was a few weeks ago. The sad part is that it happened AGAIN! We think they came back to finish the job, they stole the new speakers too. We pulled the boat right out of there!!!

Speaking of the boat. Here's the sixth picture from my sixth file from the sixth folder. That's just how mine are stored, year, month, picture.




So I finally got to the file from my other computer where most all of my pictures are kept. This is a picture of one of my YCL's from girls camp. We took them boating before camp. This gal had the best time tubing!!! I felt bad for her because the rest of the girls didn't want to tube with her because she loved going fast and wild. If I hadn't been pregnant at the time I would have tubed with her!!

Okay, here's what you are supposed to do. Post a picture on your blog and tell the story that does with it. It is supposed to be the 6th picture from the 6th folder of pictures.

I'll tag: Kris, Allie, and Dyana

I Rest My Case!!

She's Guilty! I put Carter in the swing to check my email and he started to get fussy. This is what happens. Now Cierra's trying to do her homework while she's holding Carter. She's too funny!

S*P*O*I*L*E*D

I feel like I spend a great amount of time doing this. But he's sure nice to cuddle!!

Nice picture huh? I think Cierra took that one.

As you can imagine he gets held a lot around here! I lay him down to get some stuff done and if he fusses the girls are right there to scoop him up. Mason and Spencer try their hardest to make him happy without picking him up. It's hard to resist holding a cute baby!!

He's starting to find his voice and make those cute cooing sounds. There's been a couple of times where he's actually giggled in his sleep. I wish I could catch that on video! Today after he had been fed he was in good mood so I took that opportunity to take a few pictures. Poor little guy started getting that baby acne all over his face a few days ago. It doesn't seem to bother him so that's good. Carter had his first bath today! He enjoyed that nice warm water and wasn't too happy when he started to get cold. I had to make sure there was a warm washcloth over him while I was washing his head or he would get a bit fussy.

Back on schedule

Alex headed back to Bothell this week and I'm on my own, more or less. I have rides for the kids to school so that I don't have to be up and ready for the day yet. Then I have all morning to take care of Carter, get my shower and be ready in time to get Mason and Spencer from school. I'm having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. There seems like so much to do but it's all just the normals stuff I'd be doing anyway but now I have one more, very cute thing to add to my to do list.

The laundry is starting to pile up (clean and dirty) and I just can't seem to get myself to get it done. The problem with having a couple weeks of rest and recovery is now I'm on that kind of schedule.

I went to our storage unit and grabbed the baby swing for Carter. He seems to like it. I'm hoping that will help me be able to get more things done around here. He's just so much fun to hold and snuggle!! Especially in those nice fleece sleepers! Harley came home from school and noticed the swing with Carter in it and then made the comment, "that sound is going to get annoying," she was referring to the click and hum of the swing. I've already tuned it out!

Gotta love those cheeks!

Not the thumb!

Somewhere around 5 days ago I caught Carter with his thumb in his mouth. I just had to catch a picture. Thank goodness for a camera with a pop out, rotating screen on the back, it sure comes in handy. As cute as he was I DO NOT want a thumb sucker! A binky is so much easier to take away. And for your viewing enjoyment I threw in a couple other pictures too. :) Spencer always asks to hold Carter but he usually only lasts about a minute then he's done. He's happy to just sit on my lap while I'm holding Carter. Spencer's my little lap boy.

What a cutie!

It's amazing how much infants change in such a short time period. Time to take more pictures!!

Thank you, Thank you!

I just wanted to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us out since Carter was born. You know who you are :) I appreciate all the dinners, treats, gifts, rides for kids and all the well wishes. It's great to have such wonderful friends! I'm not usually one to ask for help, for whatever reason. I think I have to take myself down a notch and let others serve me. That may sound kind of weird but I think sometimes I forget that maybe we need to LET others have their chance to do service. Maybe I'm just to proud to admit when I may need help, I don't know. I only hope that I can use your examples and be of service to others also!
I am truly thankful for all your kindness!!

Carter Duane Pospical

We are happy to announce that we now have a new member of our family. Carter Duane Pospical was born on Tuesday, December 30th at 5:31pm. Duane is my Dad's name. He weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. He has much lighter hair than his siblings did when they were born, they all had dark brown hair, Carter's is closer to a dark blonde. It will be interesting to see how his hair changes. Our pediatrician says he looks like the rest of our kids but she sees Spencer. We've been with the same pediatrician since Harley was born and we love her! Anyway, I think he looks like Spencer too.

Still No Baby

While I was at church yesterday everyone kept asking me what I was doing there. I should have been having a baby apparently. :) I'm not really in a big hurry I guess. I feel great other than getting up every couple of hours to use the bathroom at night and not being able to put on my own socks and shoes.
I had a doctor's appointment this morning including an ultrasound. Everything looks great. Fluid levels are great, baby's heart is going and he's breathing (sort of anyway). Doctor stripped my membranes and hopefully that will get me going. I can tell that I have had some contractions since then, nothing major though. If I don't go in on my own then I'm scheduled for Thursday to be induced.
We'll keep everyone posted!!

Construction Update!

The entire downstairs has been drywalled!! It's looking like a real space again. The first coat of mud has gone up, dried and sanded. Alex is downstairs right now putting on second layer of mud.
After the girls got home from school today we went and picked out carpet. It's so nice to have that done! Now I get to pick out the paint I want. Getting one thing done always relies on another thing being done. Isn't that how it always works? The kids are anxious to help paint. Since the room is so big and open, and we won't have carpet in, I have been telling the kids they can help paint. They only thing they could get paint on that would be a problem is the fireplace. No doors or trim to worry about. This is the best time to let them help paint! We are looking at Monday to get our carpet laid. We have to contact a carpet guy to make final plans. I can't wait until it's done. I'm sure Alex feels the same way. Poor guy, he stays up until at least 11pm working downstairs and that's after he's worked from home on his computer all day! I feel bad that I can't really help. I plan on getting that new Fresh Air paint so that I can at least help paint, which I enjoy anyway.
I'm getting close to getting my laundry room back!!!!

Baby Update

So the inducing on the 21st is a no-go. Doctor told me the 23rd. That's cutting it a bit close! I have another appointment on Monday the 22nd and if nothing has progressed I'm going to just wait until after Christmas. I feel fine (just getting tough to get shoes on), everything is going good and I'm sure I'll make it! I just have this paranoid feeling that I'll go into labor and have to miss my kids opening gifts on Christmas morning. Going into labor that night wouldn't be the end of the world, just not that morning!!

Late Night in the Snow!

All week the kids have had a two hour delay. I think that sets a record here!! We've known each night before they go to bed that there is a delay the next day so I have been a bit lax on bed time. Tonight I got the boys to bed and the girls decided to test the snow fall. It was about 10:30pm. I don't think they have ever been out in the snow that late at night. The snow flakes were HUGE!! They didn't want to come in and go to bed. These pictures remind me of the song "If all the snow flakes were candy bars and milk shakes....."

Getting close!!

The baby countdown is getting closer and closer!! At my appointment last week I told the nurse (doc was gone) that I didn't want to be in the hospital on the 25th. She didn't think the doctor would have a problem inducing me a week early, possibly on the 21st. That would get me in, deliver and be home before Christmas. I'm sure he doesn't want to be at the hospital on Christmas either! I have always felt pretty good after having all my other kids so I'm not too worried about it. We have enough family here to make it easy on me. So I could be looking at a week from now! It's amazing how fast the end of a pregnancy goes, especially at this time of year.
So tonight I was getting the boys in bed and decided I needed to make a list of things I needed to get done before the baby was born. I realized that I have WAY more things to do than I was thinking. Granted, if I went into labor tomorrow everything would work out fine but I would worry about it. This list didn't even include what Alex has got going in the basement, besides the fact that I need that space to make room for baby. Most of my to do list is things I can do, some of the things require a small amount of assistance from Alex. I hate to make his list of things to do any larger than it is!!
I have a doctor's appointment on Monday afternoon and I'll keep everyone posted of any decisions that are made that day.
Oh, I went and got a pedicure today since I can't reach my toes. It was so nice!! They were busy so they got me set up in the pedi chair and got the water on and then left me. I got to sit in the nice massage chair for about an hour total today. It was so nice not being in a hurry. Alex took the kids shopping and I was all alone. ANYWAY...The gal sitting next to me was also pregnant and she looked about the same size as me. I asked her when she was due and she said not until May!! I'm sure she gets the look I gave her quite a bit because she immediately let me know that she is having twins. How fun!! Plus, she already has twins. Isn't that funny. Twin boys that are 6 and this time she's having a boy and a girl. Her mother was with her and said that there's at least one other set of twins in their family. WOW, that gene really hit them. The funny thing was she gave me the same look I gave her when she asked me if this was my first and I told her it was my 5th. It's always interesting how 5 kids to some seams like so many kids and to others it's not. 8-10 kids sounds like a lot to me but not 5.

More Pictures

Laundry room and bathroom gutted.


Front window with a pile of rubble outside.

Alex replaced the large window on the back wall with two smaller windows. That's the TV wall!

Daddy's little helper Mason!

Electricians came today and got just about everything done. I think they are coming back Monday morning to finish up before the inspection happens. Alex has to get some windows in, plumbing done and a bit more framing in a few places.

I went looking for carpet the other day and found that all the carpet that I liked, for color and feel was the GOOD STUFF, of course costing more. So we'll have to decide what we want. There's some really nice polyester carpets out there that feel so nice!!!

Demolition Pictures

Laundry room. See how cramped it is in there?!!!


Front of the family room.

Back of the family room. I'll post more pictures later. There's some new windows in the back now! Plus, there's not any drywall in the room. Everything is bare.

We have no laundry room!

Actually, we have no family room or downstairs bathroom either. Alex started on Thanksgiving with the demolition of the downstairs. Pulled up all the carpet and pad then started in on the take down of the half bath. Today, we have no drywall at all downstairs. It made for a great place for the boys to drive their remote control cars one day though!
Alex is rebuilding the wall between the laundry room and the bathroom to make room for the washer and dryer to be turned the other way. That will make it so much nicer in the laundry room. It's a very small room to begin with! He couldn't take out the wall all together because the plumbing wouldn't cooperate. He's also building a couple of soffits so that we can install some more lights. Plus he's got an electrician coming to redo some wiring and move some outlets. He's got everything mapped out for each day, how many hours it's going to take him to do certain things. He's got Thad over here tonight helping him out, hopefully that should make it so he's on him time schedule! Tomorrow I'm supposed to go pick out tile and carpet.
He plans on having everything done by the 20th. He tells me I'm not allowed to go into labor before then! I don't plan on it, but you never know. If that happens it will make it difficult to get downstairs done. It will be nice to have everything finished! We already have a new tv that's going down there sitting in the box patiently waiting to be opened. We'll move all the boy's toys down there and half of the room will be a play room for them. That way we'll have room for baby number 5 in the boys room.
I have taken lots of pictures I just don't have them on the computer yet. Check back and you can see all the progress!

Doctor Appointment Update

36 weeks and counting! I'm just hanging out waiting for something to happen. According to the nurses and my doctor I'm boring, but boring is good. My doctor thought I was measuring slightly big but I tend to have children on the larger side. He had me get another ultrasound today just to see how things are going. Yep, still a boy! Everything looks good and he said he was happy with where I was (or the baby). The gal that did the ultrasound said she put the baby a little over 6 pounds.
So like I said, I'm just hanging out trying to get things ready for Christmas plenty early so I don't have to worry about them. I even got a batch of gifts wrapped today!