Girls Trip

I finally get to take a vacation this year. A real one. A week long girls trip with my mom and my sister. No husbands and no kids! To say I am excited would be an understatement.

We are leaving in about a week now. We are going to Napa Valley for three days and then heading to San Francisco for the remainder of the trip. My brother has lived out in San Francisco for about 5 years now and we only get to see him a few times a year. I am very excited to get to see him and get to hang out for a few days.

So, today I start the preparation! I finally get to have my hair highlighted and I am doing the spray tan. I am tired of being so pasty. I can't wait for some sunshine and girl time!

I also need to finish making my maxi skirts. I thought those would be super comfortable for traveling and walking. Plus, light weight and easy to pack. We all plan to just take carry ons, so this should be interesting for packing. I'm not a heavy packer anyways, but trying to fit a weeks worth of  clothing and essentials into a carry on bag may be challenging.

My hubby will  be holding down the fort at home with all three kiddos for that week! I am so thankful that I get to have this time away and spend it with my family! It is a much needed break.

Pregnancy update

I've managed to make it to 12 weeks! I had an unexpected visit to the doc around 10 weeks 4 days due to some spotting, which I've been having on and off during the pregnancy. It makes every day rather nerve racking.

Doc did an internal exam and my cervix was still long and closed. Then he did an internal ultra sound to check on baby. Baby looked great with a HB of 178 and was measuring 4 days ahead. He looked at the position of the placenta and stated that it ended just before my cervix and that may be the cause of the spotting. But he saw nothing concerning. He said as my uterus grows it will likely pull the placenta away from the cervix. Thankfully, I haven't had any spotting in almost two weeks now.

I am feeling pretty good and have made up for lost time in the eating department. I've gained between 3-5lbs already. :( This is not good and I keep reminding myself that I need to make better choices.

My belly is huge and by most evenings I feel like a balloon ready to pop. My belly often feels heavy and bloated. I'm sure it's a combination of normal pregnancy symptoms and my poor eating habits lately.

I am having a harder time now falling back asleep after I get up during the night. I have been taking my vitamin and omega pill in the evening which makes me have to get up and pee about 5-6 times per night. Usually after midnight I have a hard time falling back asleep. Like last night I was up for over an hour at 3am. Not fun come 6am!

But, overall things are going well. I can't complain too much. I remember weeks 5-8 and how horrible those were. I know it can always be worse.

I think as a family we've come to the consensus that we are going to find out the gender of this baby. Everyone so far thinks its a girl. We shall see.

And last, a 12 week belly pic:



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My favorite things

This post is going to be about all the things I am loving right now. Most of these things I use on a daily basis and I just adore them. So, here we go.....




Dr. Bronner's Castile soap in Peppermint. I love this stuff! Seriously. It has about a million different uses. We mainly use it as part of our all purpose cleaner. I add a couple of tablespoons of this soap in a squirt bottle. Then add equal parts water and vinegar. Bam! That's it, works like a charm. We have been making out own cleaner for about 5 years now and I wouldn't go back to store bought. This huge bottle cost $9.99 at Trader Joes and lasts forever. I've had this bottle for about two months now and you see how much is actually gone. It's great for baths, dishes, cleaning carpet, etc.




Suave Keratin dry shampoo. I am trying really hard to wash my hair less. The washing, blow drying, and straightening is starting to take a toll on it. The past week I have washed every other day and used this dry shampoo on the off days. It actually works great and I'm loving it!!




I recently had to revamp my skin care routine. My skin is so dry and just nothing seemed to work. So, I started from scratch. This is now my daily routine and my skin is really thanking me! I use the scrub every other day and its gentle enough for sensitive skin like mine.




Goat milk soap from Goatmilkstuff.com

This soap is amazing! It is all that we use and has been for almost a year now. They are a family run, Indiana based company. I have been to their store front in Scottsburg and their children help run the store and make the soap. They are a large, homeschooling family and their children are delightful! I also adore their scrubs, lotions, and chap stick. If you subscribe to their monthly newsletters, every month has a code for free product or a percentage off your order. Check them out!!





Baby bottom cream from Green Housewives Bath Co. This stuff rocks! Avonlea has super sensitive skin and this stuff really heals it and protects it. I use it every night on her bottom, cheeks, and her eczema spots. A little goes a long way which is nice and a money saver! It also smells fresh. Check them out on Facebook!

Well, that about rounds out my favorites for right now. I hope you check out the products and try for yourself!


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Really?

I'll preface this post with a disclaimer. This is more of a rant than anything else, so bare with me.

I'm slightly irritated by people and their seemingly harmless comments that I just can't  get out of my head. We've all had thoughts or reactions when we see large families in public. I know I have, you know how it goes: you're in the store and then a family passes you and you just start counting the kids. I know I've made a silent comment to myself of "wow, 6 kids!" And then I watch them, all walking together quietly, helping the parents or holding the hand of a little one. And then I make another silent comment to myself of "dang, that mama knows what she's doing!"

I guess I'm just one of those people where large families don't really bother me. Maybe it's because I am involved with 4 different co-ops and most of the families have 5+ kids and homeschool. I'm friends with parents of large families and we attend a Catholic church with several large families. I don't even bat an eye at it anymore. Nine times out of ten, those 5+ kids are more well behaved than my three even on their best day!

So, I guess maybe it just took me a bit by surprise that people would make some comments about us being pregnant with baby number four. I mean, is it really that shocking that people still want more than two kids now a days?! Or that we view children as a blessing and a gift from God rather than creatures that take over your life and ruin any fun thing that you might want to do?! I feel so blessed to be able to be the mama to at least three amazing kids! They are my entire world and every decision I make surrounds them.

I really admire those parents of large families and I often go to those veteran mamas for sound parenting advice. Seriously, I am amazed at how structured, patient, and caring these parents are. I have learned so much from them.

So, I guess I'm going to end this little rant with a piece of my own advice: Please be mindful of your comments to others regarding their children and their family. Just because it isn't for you, doesn't mean it isn't for someone else. And no my children are not a curse, they are a blessing and I am lucky to be their mama! And I can't say that I am 100% positive I am done after four children. I have always had the mindset of taking it one child at a time. I know what I can handle and what my limits are. I would rather have a house full of  chaos and love than a fancy car or 3 vacations a year. That's just me.

Family of six

As of October 2013 we will be a family of six!

I had my first appointment yesterday at 9 weeks and 1 day. My due date is October 6th, but lets be realistic, we are probably looking at a September baby.

Weeks 5-8 we horrific! No joke! I questioned if I would make it through. I literally survived on Wheat Thins and water for most of that time. I was sleeping 10-11 hours each night and I still felt like I had gotten hit by a Mack truck come morning. I questioned how and why people do this multiple times....I was miserable! And then came Saturday...and I woke up and wanted to eat. And on Sunday too. And so on.

It really made me super nervous, that on Friday I felt like death and then on Saturday I felt so much better. I questioned whether I had lost the baby or not. As much as I hated feeling miserable, it at least gave me some peace of mind. I knew I had an appointment in a week and somehow I restrained myself from calling the doc.

I was a ball of nerves yesterday before my appt. I needed and wanted that ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. But at the same time, I was dreading it in case there was no heartbeat.

Thankfully, my doc knew about my nerves and brought the machine in with her and said, "we are putting all the worry out of your head!" We immediately saw the baby and the heartbeat. The baby was even moving and squirming around. The heartrate measured at 182 beats per minute. The doc said the heart looked strong and the baby looked great! The placenta in the left posterior position which she said she was really happy with.

I am so happy and excited now that I can put some of my worry to the side. We hope to make this a delivery surprise, but I am such a planner. We shall see if I last. :)

And a bump pic just for fun. I can't really hide it anymore.

8 weeks


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Phone dump

I haven't updated the blog lately. I've just been feeling like crud lately and it's all I can do to make it through a day of work these days. So, here's my dump of pics over the last few weeks:



- avonlea's keen sandals for this summer




-custom outfit for Avonlea




-I really like the pattern on the right. I have this obsession with carseats!




-a hot mess!




-two peas in a pod




-Bennett looooves this Gator at Rural King. He must drive it at least 5 times while we are there.




-sissy found this car at Cracker Barrel and she was NOT going to share it.




-she thinks she's hot stuff using the big kid things.

The youngest two have also been battling a stomach bug since Friday. Frankly, I'm tired of cleaning up puke and poop. And so is my carpet shampooer!

I need a vacation!

Cooking and eating

This weekend I spent sometime making some homemade goodies for us. We have a deep freezer that we fill with cases of free range chicken and meats, organic veggies, etc. The freezer is tall but rather narrow and sometimes what's jammed in the bottom somehow gets forgotten about. For the next 3-4 weeks my goal is to do a freezer/pantry clean out. I would like to use as much from what we have with only buying produce, milk, cheese, etc for as long as possible.

This weekend I took an entire gallon of whole organic milk and made Greek yogurt. It was soooo easy and turned out great!

Source: onegoodthingbyjillee.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I also cut up my first whole chicken. Now, I roast whole chickens all the time. But I've never actually cut it up into pieces. The whole chicken gave me two whole meals to feed a family of five.

Honey soy chicken (really good!)

Source: nlrockrecipes.com via Courtney on Pinterest

"Worlds best chicken". Made this and put it in the freezer for later in the week:

Source: rachelschultz.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Made homemade hamburger buns:

Source: eatliverun.com via Courtney on Pinterest

And creamy pasta salad:

Source: anediblemosaic.com via Courtney on Pinterest

*This was super good! I doubled the recipe and used my homemade greek yogurt instead of the mayo.  I used however much on the pasta and then saved the rest for later. That night we made this for dinner:

Source: thelondoner.me via Courtney on Pinterest

and it was AMAZING! I used the pasta sauce on top of these instead of sour cream. Superb!!! Seriously!

I even made some homemade chicken stock using the remainder of the chicken bones, some carrots, celery, onion, garlic and herbs. I boiled it down until it was a rich broth. I got about 4 cups of stock from the chicken:




I'm hoping to get creative this week and in the upcoming weeks for meals. Any suggestions would be welcome and appreciated!

*Edited to add all recipes. Just click on pictures*