Announcing...

Our little girl has finally decided to come out and meet us! Rachel arrived after a full day of coaxing last Tuesday evening. Both of us are now happy to be home and are doing well. Thank you all for all your prayers!

***EDITED TO ADD***
In my postpartum, brain-dead state, I forgot to mention that this was created using one of Doris Castle's Baby Announcements from www.scrapbookgraphics.com. I just tweaked the photo to match and added the text. I was gonna create my own, but this one was just WAY too cute not to use!

Tomorrow is BABY day

Unless I go into labor before then, tomorrow is BABY day. I am scheduled to go into the hospital tomorrow morning to try and get my labor going. Hopefully that will work or I will be facing a c-section. Doctor doesn't think it would be wise to wait any longer though with my gestational diabetes and all. Wish me luck and I would greatly appreciate any prayers for a safe delivery for baby and I.

I have also include a couple of recent LOs I have done that I thought I would share. The left one used several fun photos that my oldest daughter took one morning at breakfast. I used Doris Castle's Enchantment kit and her Stroke of Art brushes from www.scrapbookgraphics.com. The one on the right was done using the American Cancer Society Calendar of Hope charity mega kit that I talked about in Saturday's post. And yes there ARE five children in that photo - one's still in utero, though. :-)

I will probably be pretty quiet for a while since I expect to be in the hospital and I don't have the luxury of a laptop to keep things updated.

God bless!

Charity kit and crop

I just thought I would share about this mega kit that was created to raise money for the American Cancer Society. One of my fellow designers at Scrap Outside the Box has been deeply touched by brain cancer and wanted to do a charity kit. As it turns out, many of the Scrap Outside the Box designers have been affected by Cancer of their loved ones and wanted to do something to help others suffering from the same difficulties. We decided to create this lovely kit and donate the funds to the American Cancer Society. I, personally, haven't lost a close family member to cancer, but have still been touched by it. I just found out this morning that a special man at our church passed away last night. He was just diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last Thursday. I am deeply saddened and I can only imagine how devastating this is to his family. So, anyway, I am so glad that I was able to participate in this mega kit, too.

Scrap Outside the Box will be hosting 4 special crops today to promote this kit at 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm (EST). There will be prizes from all over the digital community.

CREATING KEEPSAKES WILL BE JOINING SOTB Rachel Thomae of Creating Keepsakes @ 2 p.m. and Jessica Sprague of Creating Keepsakes @ 6 p.m., 10 p.m. EST
There are also crop freebies available, posting bonuses, a layout contest and a participation contest. More details and the links to the downloads can be found here.

I am hoping to be able to attend at least one of these crops today. Although, I would not be too disappointed to miss them if it was because I went into labor. I am still trying to be patient and wait for this baby in God's perfect timing...but it is so hard :-)

Waiting for baby...

STILL waiting for baby. I do really think God is trying to teach me patience! Just like all of my other babies, I have seen my due date come ...and go and still no baby, no labor. [sigh] That's ok; it's not like I don't have anything to do. I went to see the doctor yesterday. They did another ultrasound and the baby is measuring 7 lbs. 6 oz. Perfect size! She is moving just a bit less than she was, but everything still looks just fine. My doc doesn't want me to go past a week overdue because of the gestational diabetes, so if by next Tuesday I haven't gone into labor, she wants to try and get something started or do a c-section.

Yesterday, I was feeling productive and got some cleaning and organizing done around the house and on the computer. I burnt a bunch of photos onto DVDs and cleaned them off my hard drive which is making things run SO much better. I also decided that I should package up these jiffy scraps that I created several weeks ago. I have a bunch of fall papers that I created and these are made with some of my favorites. There is something about the cool crispness of fall that makes me want to wrap up in a cozy quilt. With these, your photos can do that, too! Ü

Just for fun, I did this:

I don't know that I truly see the resemblances and I used a really bad photo, but I am just happy to see that there are some gorgeous women in the bunch! Ü

Hopefully, I will have baby news to post soon. Hope your day is great!

Better mood

Sorry for that downer of a post yesterday. I woke up feeling SO much better today - way less achy and tired. I'm sure it helps that the sun is shining today, too. The kids aren't behaving any better today, but kids will be kids. They have already earned extra chores and schoolwork today because they were all fighting and misbehaving. I may feel a bit better today, but I still have NO patience for that!

Today is my official due date and I have another doctor's appointment and ultrasound scheduled for this afternoon. Hopefully the baby will still be on the small side and all is well.

So do you like my little tomato dude? We came across this cool tomato this summer and all thought it looked like he had a nose, so I photographed it. Perhaps I should get creative and use it to make some cool artwork for my kitchen.

Unenergetic and uninspired...

How's that for a motivating blog title? I had really hoped that I would be posting a baby announcement by now, but, alas, no baby to announce yet. I have eaten spicy foods and walked up and down hills at a local craft festival, but obviously, this little lady just isn't ready to make her appearance. My mood is icky. I am trying to shape it up, but I woke up feeling totally exhausted and achy. As if on cue, my children have been bickering and whining all morning. [sigh] I am hoping things look better after my morning coffee kicks in.

I keep looking around my house at all the things that should be done. There is too much clutter and things are not as clean as I would like them to be. Unfortunately, my energy level isn't what it should be to kick into gear and do some serious "nesting." I am off to try to have some quiet bible study time. Hoping my outlook will improve after that.

A ticking time bomb...

That's what my dear hubby called me the other day. That's because I am just a week away from my due date and have regularly telling him that I am really READY to have this little blessing. I had an ultrasound today. My 4th. That's protocol for someone taking insulin. I will be having them every week until I deliver. All is well and according to her measurements, she is 7 pounds. Now, I am just waiting for my body to go into labor. [sigh] I think God is trying to teach me patience!

Anyway, isn't this a fun little photo of my son? He is so funny about talking to his baby sister. Several months ago I was telling him that she could hear him and he could talk to her. So, he will put his mouth right up to my belly and say something real fast like "I love you" and then act kinda shy. It is so cute, and I wanted to try and capture that in a photo. This is the best we could get and was taken by my 12 year old.

I did the scrapbook page using Doris Castle's BellaDonna quickpages and page set. I love the way the sepia photo looks with this.

Hopefully, I will have a fun announcement soon. Otherwise, I will be praying for patience!

Free Chocolate!

Well, sorta...free clothes for your chocolate. I used my contribution to the August Scrap Outside the Box mega kit to create a chocolate bar wrapper. I did these up for a couple of dear friends and I think they came out pretty cute. Now, these are designed for the Hershey's Extra Dark (60% Cacao) bars. I am totally hooked on the one with cranberries, blueberries and almonds. Hey, and it's a natural source of antioxidants, so it's health food. [grin] They measure about 5 1/2" x 2 3/4". I don't have any standard Hershey bars around to compare, but I think with a slight adjustment to where you fold, this would work out ok for these, too.

Download your free chocolate here. Enjoy!

Be sure and leave me a comment if you snag it!

I can't believe it! Blogger actually let me post a picture! I was all set to use photobucket again.

A couple of folks made a wish at the Wishing Box at Scrap Outside the Box for a water park themed kit. That sounded like fun so I decided to see what I could come up with. Actually, I probably got carried away. I tend to do this when I have a clear cut theme. There are TWENTY backgrounds! There are 5 with "Splash" word art covering them, 4 that are tiled, a pool water one, several solid textured ones and my favorite are the towels, especially the stripes. I threw in a bunch of fun elements and even some digital water so you can make a wet layout without actually harming any photos. :-)

This isn't in the Scrap Outside the Box store yet, but I am feeling totally exhausted today and needed to sit for just a bit, so I thought I would post about it. It will be there very soon, I'm sure.

For some reason, I have been so physically tired the last couple of days. I felt way better after lunch yesterday, and am wondering if I just plain and simple am not eating enough. I have been SO careful with the gestational diabetes and I really have not been gaining any weight. The baby is still growing, though. I am thinking that maybe I have reached a point in the pregnancy that I need more fuel. I am off to eat a good lunch and see if that helps. I have way too much to do to be lethargic! I am thankful for my scrapbooking/graphics outlet because at least I can feel productive while I am just sitting.

**EDITED** Splash City is already up in the store and can be found here.

Sorry about the lack of posting. Every time I try to post I have had blogger troubles. Hopefully I will get lucky today.

I forgot to mention last week what scrapbook graphics I used for the materity layout below. I was looking for a kit I had to use and didn't have anything that quite matched, so I created my own.

It is called Little Pinky and I had lots of fun with this little baby doodles! I really wanted something in the softest pink and white with just a touch of black to match my photos.

I also created another layout. This one has some journaling and it is more personal.

In case you can't read it, here's the journaling:
Here I am at 34 weeks into this pregnancy. Now, I feel like I can begin to count down the time. Only 6 more weeks until we get to meet this sweet baby girl I have been carrying. Her movements constantly remind me she’s there and I am continually praying for her. Although I have not met her, I know that God has already planned her days and knows exactly who she is and her purpose. Amazing! I am faced with the reality that soon I will be caring for a new fresh little blessing. I think about the sweet closeness of holding her and feeding her at my breast. This is tempered with the knowledge that this comes with loss of sleep and hands that will rarely be empty for a long while. But, having gone through this with my four other children, I realize how short this season of her life is and how soon it will be gone. In mere months, she will begin her journey into independence by crawling and walking on her own. I need to remember that the discomfort I feel right now while carrying this child is very temporary. Help me, Lord, to cherish these moments right now while she is so very close.

I have my weekly OB appointment today. I am now less than a month away from my due date. I think it is time I drag out all the baby gear and get it washed and ready. I am really hoping this will be my early baby. Actually, on time would be early for me. (All the others have been late.) Perhaps, if I have everything ready, the baby will take the hint! ;-)