Last week we celebrated Ray’s birthday and they served BBQ from Whole Hog Heaven. It was yummy. Today I had a hankering for brisket so we all had supper there. We had been there one time before and the owner had come out and given us free corn bread (I think). Tonight he came out with huge cookies for the kids. There is just something really nice about a place that really works hard to make sure you have a good experience.

When we eat out, Ethan likes to sit by me. He says it’s so he can snuggle me. I like it because the snuggles are great and he doesn’t need as much help or make as much of a mess as Audrey! Tonight, I put two straws in my lemonaid so we could share. He decided that he was supposed to drink out of both of them at the same time and thought that was swell. He really enjoyed taking turns. I should also mention that he was wearing his superman sweatshirt and cape. I love my little superhero!

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The “A” things on his page are “apples”, “applesauce”, “angel”, “animal”, “algebra” and “Avent”. I did the cutting. He did the pasting. Ethan loves to glue things.

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I had an OB appointment this morning. I waited longer for my doctor than I thought I would have to at such an early appointment. Oh well.
Blood pressure was good. She didn’t mention my weight gain. I am up 7 lbs from my where I started. 5 of those lbs was in the last 4 weeks. Oops. I need to watch myself better. Baby boy’s heart rate was 170. If I didn’t know for sure he was a boy, I would think I was having a girl since they tend to have higher heart rates. I’m measuring right above my belly button which is where I should be at this point. My next appointment will include my glucose test. My doctor gave me the name of another family doctor that she recommends in case I need to see someone on a Thursday(her day off). Hopefully, I wont have to use it, but it’s nice to have.

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This was the third hat she had on that day. She is also wearing her brother’s shoes.

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I’m dedicating today’s post to my husband.

I knew Nathan was awesome when I married him, but I had no idea that I would think he was even more awesome more than 5 years later.

He does is very competent at his job at Crown College. I think this is his 10th year of working there. That’s pretty amazing given that he is so young.
He watches children’s shows/movies with Ethan and Audrey and pays attention. He knows the theme songs and plots of every single show. He even went out of his way to make sure we recorded the new Tigger movie that was on yesterday and looked forward to watching it with Ethan. His review will appear later this week. I can get a lot done after supper when Nathan takes charge of the little ones.
He agreed to read a historical fiction book with me, even though I’ve already read it and it’s the first of three in a series, just because I really enjoyed it.
He loves to organize things. He spent a considerable amount of time organizing the storage room this weekend and it looks awesome.
He’s working his way through reading through the Bible using the Discipleship Journal plan which has 4 different passages of reading a day.

There are more reasons that I think my husband is incredible. These are just a few. I love you, Nathan!

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It was awesome. It was especially great since my dad called this afternoon and said he was hoping to stop by since he would be halfway here already for an appointment. I don’t really know how it worked as well as it did, but like Chris said in her tweet to me, I think the key was cooking all day and keeping it covered and moist. Keep those suggestions coming. I can’t wait to try them all out and report back!

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Nesting is in full-force. I’ll probably lose my energy closer to the arrival of this little guy, but I’m very motivated right now and taking advantage of it.

I mentioned on twitter that I was planning to get all the girl clothes sorted, boxed and distributed. I just had to wait for Nathan to help make a path through the storage room so we could get to them! He handed me boxes and boxes of clothes. I couldn’t believe they were still coming. Thankfully, they were pretty much sorted already. I have 1-2 diaper boxes full of clothes for Erica and about 6 boxes for Marie. That was after deciding to throw away some items that were stained or had been handed down too many times already! I also found a couple of tubs of boy clothes (a few items from each size).

In my almost 4 years of parenting, I have been slowly figuring out the best way to store clothes for the kids. This is what has been working for me:
1. Clothes currently being worn are in the dresser. If they are dressy clothes, I have them hanging in the closet.
2. Outgrown clothes are packed away and the box is labled by size/season/gender. Including the season in the labling makes it so much easier to quickly be able to see if you have something that will work well for “hand me downs”. I store them out of the way.
3.The next size clothes that the kids are growing into are in a box in the kids’ closets. Again, they are labled with their size prominently displayed so I don’t have to take it out to see what size it is. Once the kids hit a size that generally lasts a bit longer (once they hit 2T or bigger), I have two boxes in the closet: one for Fall/Winter and one for Spring/Summer. I love this because when I buy clothes for the kids, I can easily see what I still need and I can quickly pack them away in a place where I wont forget about them.
4. Anything bigger than the next size is stored by size/season/gender in boxes downstairs. They don’t need to be as accessible, but they should still be labled in a way that I can know what’s in the box without having to pull it out and open it.

I think the two biggest deals for me are 1) Having the next size where I can easily and quickly see what I have and 2) Including the season in labling the storage boxes. With newer babies, the season is critical since they grow so fast.

Does anyone else have any great tips for organizing your kid’s clothes?

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We went on a trip to Target! We needed to get valentines. We’ve reached another childhood milestone for Ethan. Last Wednesday, he came home with a list of his AWANA classmates. It took me very little time to figure out that my son is going to participate in his first ever valentine exchange! This is very exciting. We picked out “My Friends Tiggers and Pooh” valentines. Audrey also needed a box. She chewed on it in the store. Strange child. She thought it was candy or something.

There was an infant carseat on clearance for $19.99. It was a nice Evenflo one with a base. Alas, it was pink. Very pink. But if you live near Waconia and know someone who could use one. You can’t really go wrong at $19.99. If it’s still there. And, we might not need it since we will be given back our infant seat. I’m just worried that it’s expired. They expire 5 years after their manufacture date.

They also had the Medela PIS double electric breastpump discounted about $70. It was still $250 though and Nathan is holding out hope we’ll find one that doesn’t cost that much.

I saw some cute crib bedding. Then I remembered that I already have some cute bedding that I registered for when we were pregnant with Ethan. It has greens and blues and is very nice. See? I saved a lot of money today!

Now, we just need to get the crib out of the garage and make sure we have all the hardware we need to put it together. Somehow, we ended up with 3 cribs at one point. That’s how we have managed to still have one after giving one back to the original owner and giving one to Erica and Tim (kind of– they got to use the recall voucher for a different crib). We have a very nice crib mattress that Audrey is currently using. Toddler beds use that size mattress. We’re thinking about getting bunk beds (intended to last a loooooong time) for Ethan and Audrey so that would free up the mattress.

I did buy a baby book. It was $3.50. The last baby book we’ll ever need!

And, last, but not least…. Nathan and I have a name we both really like for our youngest child. We’re not telling. We need to have some secrets!

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A boy! Do you really want to see the “boy” picture? Right as we got into the room, I told the tech that I was guessing boy and Nathan was guessing girl. I guess we can get rid of the girl clothes now. I don’t have any baby boy clothes anymore. So, I’ll need to start shopping!

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