And then there was four!

I just want to start by saying that I am married to the greatest man ever. Well, excluding Jesus. Spencer Bryson Bell arrived at 11:56 am on 3/29/2011. He weighed in at 7' 00". He was 20 1/2" long. The delivery was short and sweet. I arrived at 6:30 to be induced and the baby is out before lunch. Easy, Peasy, rice and cheesy. I have determined that I am a women's women. As a result of Spencer's impatience, I delivered him old school without drugs. I am tough. See below pictures to cuteness. Clearly, he takes after me. The baby and I are home now. We are both healthy and relatively happy. I will post again.

I'm Taking Suggestions...

for a great color to paint the steps of the stairs. I have a couple of ideas, but I want to hear what you think.

I found two benches at $7 for both at a church rummage sale. I did a mediocre job at recovering them and now they sit nicely in the kitchen. In the long run, two benches are better anyway.
Bryce hung up these two pressed flower panes. They're actually old doors that we got from Bryce's grandparents basement.

The spool frame was hung up a couple of weeks ago, but it feel down, no animals were injured in the process.

While my sisters were here I got them to do some painting. I'm hoping to finish up the room that we started on before the baby comes, which seems pretty likely at this point, since he's never going to get here. It's going to be pretty awesome.

Here's to hoping I won't be able to post next week....

Katie

Not A Post

I'm posting to tell you that I'm not posting.

I haven't had the baby, please don't ask....

Elizabeth and Adeline are at the coast with cousins, aunts, and grandma.

Meg is enjoying her one-on-one time by wanting my un-divided attention.

My two younger sisters are here visiting for their spring break.

I'm busy nesting by accomplishing a whole bunch of projects that have nothing to do with a new baby whatsoever.

I found two benches to go under the new table in the kitchen.

We still don't have a name picked out. Please don't say something lame like 'well, that baby is not going to come out till he has a name'.....

I just read on my cousin's facebook page who is a couple weeks behind me in pregnancy that they were told the wrong gender of the baby....the she is now a he....yikes.

I got my package that I won from the The DIY Showoff blog.

I am realizing that our yard has a whole bunch of bulbs in a whole bunch of random places.

I found a gift card to Wal-mart that I forgot I had so I bought something completely practical and useful - some orange spray paint.

Bryce knows how to work the blog so if and when this baby comes, you'll all be taken care of, I just haven't committed him to his responsibilities yet.

Katie

The Laundry Room

I know, pretty creative title. I got the laundry room/mud room/ pantry area all painted. I still have a bit left to do. But, when I went downstairs to grab some things, there was a huge dead rat, and I couldn't bring myself to go down there until Bryce came home to take care of it. I'll put the finishing touches on it....later

I want to eventually build a half wall there and put a bench in front of it for putting on shoes and such. And to keep anyone from plunging to their death, you know, that sort of thing.

Pantry to the left, bathroom straight ahead, and kitchen to the right. Bryce painted the stairs under myy careful observation. They were this really horrible, horrible, justbecauseit'syourfavoritecolordoesn'tmeanyoushouldpaintyourwholehousethatcolor green.

The washer and dryer. I'm going to make a fabric skirt to go around the cement sink to pretty it up.

Built it shelves, that in theory, are great. It turns out they're so short I can't fit a bottle of anything on them.

A cute little closet for the vacuum. The green paint is the same as in the kitchen.

That door goes to the storage room.

That's the door for the backyard.

In other exciting news, we finally hung up the rest of the curtains for this room. We hung up curtains for another room, but it's a disaster, therefore, no pictures.

This is a vintage file cabinet that Bryce picked up, on his own, at a garage sale. It has an old typewriter on top that I picked up for $5 at a garage sale.

We bought this table two days ago. I've been wanting to put one there so when the girls are in the kitchen and want to help, there's a good spot for it. It's a bit wider than is necessary, but it was a great deal. I now want a bench to slide under it for the girls to sit on.

A bit of Meg.

A bit of spring.

Have a good one.

Katie

What Is Beautiful

• Waking up at 6:45am and not hearing any kids


• Phone calls with parents


• Little girls


• Blooming spring branches


• Fresh made beds


• Piles of folded, clean laundry


• An empty kitchen sink


• A sign for an estate sale


• Hung curtains


• Lime, green, wool coats


• Dirty, rosy cheeked children


• Yellow paint, the color of the laundry room, which I started painting on Saturday, by the way


• A new, used book


• Seeing your name on a blog as a winner of a giveaway


• Homemade bread not made by you


• Emails from friends


• A magazine in the mailbox


• A child reading a book to you


• An ultra sound picture, only 2 1/2 weeks to go


• Wedding invitations


• Daffodils

Here's hoping for a better week,

Katie

My Week in Numbers...

and a possible explanation of my posting absence:

• 3 - total number of children lucky to be alive



• 1 - total number of children refusing to come early



• 1 - total number of husbands I am jealous of because he was out of town, staying in a hotel, eating at Sizzler while I was ordering off of the value menu at Wendy's with three children



• 0 - total number of projects completed



• 154 - total number of times Meg hurt herself because she wouldn't listen to my sound advice



• 1,562,397 - total number of times I wished spring was here



• 50 - total number of new outfits for baby, rough estimate only



• 1 - total number of mother-in-laws who came to visit with gifts and a positive attitude, possibly saving her grand children's lives



• 2 - total number of hours spent by myself during nap time



• 1 - total number of children who learned how to crawl out of their crib



• 1 - total number of mothers wishing they didn't have a child who had learned to crawl out of a crib



• 1 - total number of houses cleaned this week



• 0 - total number of houses that stay cleaned



• 4 - total number of ant traps bought and set



• millions - total number of ants predicted to die by ant traps



• 0 - total square footage painted in laundry room



• 1,978 - total number of times I wished my pants would stay up



• countless - total number of times I wished people would pretend I'm not pregnant, especially when they feel it necessary to touch me or make completely inappropriate comments



• 76 - total number of times I played Princess Memory with Adeline



• 652 - total number of times I took Meg to the bathroom, make that 653



• 6 - total number of times Meg actually went poop



• 2,352,804 - total number of times I wish I had a maid



• daily - total number of times I thought Bryce was a genius conning our children into racing to see who can go to sleep and stay asleep the longest



• 14 - total number of days con has been suggested and worked



• 2 - total number of parents happy beyond belief with outcome of con



• 0 - total number of names decided upon for baby boy



• infinite - total number of blessings, even though it's been one of the longest weeks of my life

Katie

Fri - Yay

Baby boy's quilt. This is my first attempt at machine quilting...it looks o.k.

This child about got herself sold to the gypsies this week....grrr.

Katie-in-a-box: Harry and David truffles, hot chocolate mix, an old doll dress, old sheet music, some home-made cards, a jar of wooden spools, old buttons, mascara, an embroidered table runner, clothes pins, an enamel pot, some cute girl flannel, and some old flash cards.

I'm so glad that it's Friday, so, so glad.

Katie

I want to start painting the laundry room this weekend

Something None of You Will Probably Care About

I grew up in Idaho.

I feel like if anyone can appreciate a guy and a piece of large machinery, it's me.

That's why the whole snow plow thing confuses me.

Not so much the snow plows themselves, but the amount of attention they get, and the guys driving them.

It's snow season.

A slightly attractive, overly-made-up female news anchor reports on the impending snow and all of the havoc it will wreck on the city.

She then commences to tell me how diligent the men and snow plows are going to be, plowing until all of the snow is cleared, working in twelve hour shifts, not having a day off for over a week, blah, blah, blah.

Well, I sure hope so.

It's your job, dude.

You're not some hero, you have the rest of the blessed year off from snow plowing.

You're out plowing deserted roads in a big piece of formidable machinery.

Is there even a death rate statistic for your line of work???

No one reports on how great I am because I suffer through a sick child, nursing them back to health, cranky and sleep deprived.

Or how I'm going to work on that laundry till it's all sorted, washed, dried, folded, and put away.

That's all I'm saying.