Better late then never?

*Confession time; a little later on down this blog post, I will tell you about how one of my resolutions for 2015 is to blog once a week. Now is when I will tell you that I have that one photo of Ronan there, and the first paragraph written for like two weeks, sitting in an open tab on my browser. I'm busy, don't judge...*

This is is people. This is my Christmas card. Merry Christmas!

I may never send actual cards again, just saying. See it's really because I care deeply about our earth, and want to reduce my carbon footprint by not sending paper cards. See if I don't send them then I won't cause more greenhouse emissions asking the postman to deliver them. That's it. Really.
Not really.
Maybe next year.
But y'all don't mind right?

I suffer from a complete and total lack of time management skill. I am forever over filling my plate and I just keep right on filling. Some things that didn't get done this year; halloween pictures, Christmas cookie baking, neighbor gifts (Sorry amazing neighbors. You will just have to imagine how much I love and appreciate you), Christmas pillow covers, taking the lights off my artificial tree and replacing them with ones that work.

Despite my lengthy to do list, we did manage to survive the Christmas holidays, not just survived but dare I say we actually thrived. Dani and I took the kids to sort donations for Toys for Tots this year in an ongoing effort to help our kids see beyond themselves. I'm not sure how much progress we made toward that goal, but my heart was certainly warmed and we did do some good. Plus it was actually a ton of fun! Not surprisingly this was Ryders "best day ever!" If ever I could figure out how to live with this kids enthusiasm all my problems would be solved. Just his enthusiasm though, not the meltdowns.

 

One boy is a total ham, and the other one.. I can not get this kid to look at the camera for anything...anyone have any tips? Sheesh!

We had 16 for the Christmas sleepover this year. That's 16 stocking hanging up there, count em. It's truly amazing and also humbling, that we can gather together as a family, to be thankful for each other. To celebrate Jesus. And eat copious amounts of sugar. It's a glorious tradition...and a glorious sacrifice from my introverted husband, I don't think he had any idea what he was in for when he asked me to marry him....poor bastard. There he is right there in the corner of that photo snuggling our sweet sleeping baby. You guys how did I get so lucky?

So now here we are in the third freaking week of January 2015 already. Today is actually my beautiful baby niece Lydia's first birthday. Her first freaking birthday! Where the hell did the year go? While we're at it where did the first three weeks of 2015 go?! I swear it was just yesterday I made this list:

I am proud to report that I have actually crossed a few of those things off the list. I did streamline my craft supply, and I did clean out my master closet. Just doing those small (OK I lie those were BIG HUGE THING! HUGE THINGS.) made me feel SO much lighter.
I have not yet worked out at all, let alone for 30 min at least twice a week and lets not even get started on what my linen closet looks like. Baby steps people, baby steps.
I am however, quite serious about my goal to blog once a week. You see it's on my bucket list (I'm big on lists, and using parentheses in a sentence. Did you pick up on that?) to write the book that's been bouncing around in my head since I was 16. I'm too embarrassed to tell you about it so please don't ask. But I figure that if I can hone my writing skill by blogging once a week for a year, maybe grab a few more followers because lets be frank, eleven is pathetic. Even though I love all eleven of you, it would be huge for my self confidence to have more. A good bit of my self worth is tied to how many people like me. Childish I know but there you have it. That's a whole nother bog post altogether...
So there we are, my first post of 2015. I'm not proud of it, I'm rambling I know. But at some point I need to just post it or it will never be posted and 2015 is the year of getting shit done. So I will leave you with this. I found it while cleaning out my master closet. I told you I've been writing that book for a very long time. Ane yes, I at one point titled it "Window" terrible I know.

The one, the only, Nightman!!

This IS Ryder's birth story. I promise. But to give you the whole picture we need to go back a bit further.

It was June of  2007.

I was just wrapping up my first term at the Art Institute of Portland where I was studying Fashion Design. I was working full time as a visual merchandiser for Nordstrom. Daden was 3, Tessa was 1. I loved my kids, I loved, my job, I loved my classes. Life was amazing, God had blessed me beyond belief.  See how awesome we were!

He was about to bless me a little more.....

People, I was NOT happy. I sat and let Eric hold me while I cried and cried and cried. Was this God's idea of a joke? Seriously? How was I supposed to finally finish school, work full time, and pay for three kids in day care?! We were going to need a bigger car! Eric, bless his heart, stroked my hair and assured me that everything would be fine. I was totally not convinced.

I didn't want to tell anyone. I waited weeks before telling my own parents. I grudgingly admitted it to my boss of all people, who was so excited for me she told everyone at the Clackamas Nordstrom. Which was a bad move because my sister worked there. It didn't take long for someone to spill the beans to her. I got a text message that went something like this:

Dani: Missy are you pregnant?!

Me: Uh.....

Dani: Joey from the ebar just congratulated me on being an aunt thrice! WTH?!

Me: Well, yeah I am.

Dani: ?!?!??!?!?!?!

It did get better though! God worked wonders in my heart and made room for this amazing little man he made. 

Fast forward to February 2008

I had been out of work for close on a month because of preterm labor ickyness. Two weeks before my due date both Daden and Tessa came down with strep throat. So much for bed rest! Oh and I can't forget to mention that Eric lost his job in January. Remember how I was worried about paying for daycare? Problem solved! 

But despite all that I was induced at 39 weeks anyway :P See here I am all hooked up enjoying ice chips. This was after the Evil Midwife left and the awesome, amazing wonderful gift from heaven, midwife showed up. 

Let me explain. He was born at Kaiser Sunnyside, you get who you get. My midwife, who I had been seeing throughout the pregnancy wasn't on on the day we were induced. So when we showed up at 6 AM bright eyed and excited to meet our baby this is what happened; 

Nurse checks us in and hooks up the IV, she leaves to get the midwife. Evil Midwife walks in, grabs my chart, turns around and leaves, not a word. Eric and I exchange nervous glances. Evil Midwife walks back in, sets down my chart and turns to address us. She says "So, we are here for a trail induction."

I look at Eric and back at her and say "Well, I don't know anything about a trial, I am here to have a baby!"

She says "You know that sometimes this doesn't work and if that happens we will be sending you home right?"

I am not totally shocked and intimidated, I don't even know what to say!! So I say, "Uh, OK."

Evil Midwife exit stage left.

We are totally floored. I start to cry and Eric does his best to calm me down when the nurse comes back in to hook up my pitocin. She takes one look at me and says "Sweetie don't worry, shift change is at 9, you'll be just fine!"

We never saw Evil Midwife again.

I labored away in the hospital bed, contractions strong and regular, I am feeling pretty good! Things must be moving right along! Awesome Midwife breezed in at around eleven, introduced herself, asked a few questions including if I wanted her to check my progress. I did. I had been dilated three cm at my appointment the day before and my contractions were starting to be quite strong, so I was sure I was at least 5 by now.

Imagine my dismay when she announced I was dilated to 2. TWO!!! Evil Midwife's warning came flooding back and I am crying again begging not to be sent home. How could I possibly be only twp? She must have checked wrong I was three yesterday and I had been having contractions for hours! Awesome Midwife calmed me down and explained to me that seeing as this was baby #3 my cervix was quite stretchy and that without babies head putting pressure on it it could kind of shrink back down. She promised not to send me home and recommended that I get up out of bed and sit on the birthing ball.

Holy birthing ball Batman. Let me just tell you that sitting on that stupid ball made all the difference in the world. In the span of one contraction I went from painful, to HOLY ($)*@!! I could actually feel Ryders head pressing down with each contraction. I made it about an hour hour and a half on the ball before I started to feel sick to my stomach and had to get up. Eric called the nurse and she came in to check me again. Now I was dilated to six!

Now a different kind of panic set in. Tess was born 30 min after I was dilated to 6. I didn't have an epidural yet! What if the Dr couldn't make it in time? What if I had to deliver without one?! Not to worry, the anesthesiologist was prompt and super efficient. My water broke while he was doing the epidural and in no time I was snug in a dry bed contracting away.

My mom, dad, and sisters all showed up around this time, and we joked and talked waiting for that magic #10!

You guys I kid you not. Ryder's delivery was amazing. I was actually laughing while trying to push. I yelled at my family to stop making me laugh so I could concentrate. Awesome midwife was there coaching me, while the nurse got Alexa all gloved up to help.

Three pushed later and he was here!

I know it's a little gross sorry :P Here's a cuter one!

One last photo, happy birthday Ryder aka Nightman! I could not imagine our family with out your smiling face. I am so thankful every day that God blessed us with you! 

How to make a Christmas Quilt: PART 2

So here we are! All revved up from completing block one, ready to take on block two! Right out of the envelope block two is crazy. Pieces A-U!! You've got to be kidding! Oh well, to work!

Whew! Two hours later, cutting is complete. The new 6 inch wide quilting ruler I picked up at Michaels today is coming in SUPER handy. Money well spent for sure. But now it's time for a break....I should not take breaks. Or maybe I should stay away from the computer during my breaks. I am so pleased with my progress thus far that my ambition takes over my senses yet again and I order this:

http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?sid=60705141558346070&Store_id=499&page_id=23&Item_ID=52376&Parent_Ids=

If anyone reading this is also feeling crazy ambitious feel free to quilt along! I couldn't help myself it's SO cute! Visions of Tessa's room done in pinks, yellows, and strawberries swim through my head and I am sold.

OK, back to work!

This little piece of the block takes me two FULL hours. Damn that was hard! I am feeling less

confident...I am however, so focused on not screwing it up that I forget to take more pictures.

Well there it is! It's a little wonky but I am still proud. Those little squares are as tiny as they look in the picture and they were super hard to keep square. I learned that taking the time to mark the seam allowance with a pencil before sewing makes a world of difference on the tiny stuff. Block three will have to wait till tomorrow. I am wiped! Here's hoping that I can get most of this one done before the new one stars showing up in the mail. I am determined to sew those blocks AS THEY COME!!