Today has been such a wonderful day.

I got up early this morning to run to the grocery store for a coupon run. That in itself was nice because everything I planned on getting was in stock. A lot of things ended up being cheaper than the price I’d found on the internet too. I spent a lot less than I planned on which was a real blessing.

After I got home, I sat down in the recliner while Caleb was down for a nap. Samuel was playing quietly, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, Samuel was finishing folding a basket of laundry. He does such a good job, and the fact that my five-year-old son was folding the laundry for me was so sweet. He had even drawn me some cards and left them on my desk. I love being his Mommy! My favorite has a picture of him picking me a flower.

When Caleb woke up, both boys were sitting on my lap while I was trying to read to them (trying – Caleb won’t sit still long enough to really let you read to him too much). Sam leaned up and planted a big kiss on my cheek. Caleb looked at him, grinned, and leaned up to kiss me just like his big brother had done. He has definitely hit the mimicking stage and it was so fun this morning. By the time they were done egging each other on, my face was covered in their slobbery kisses and my hair was an absolute mess. But it was FUN.

Later, I noticed the mail carrier pulling into our driveway. She handed me a big box from my mom. It was stuffed full of sweet little baby dresses that she had found and a baby gift from an old friend. I just love seeing all the frilly, lacy, pink (and purple and yellow, lol) girlie stuff! It was so fun going through the box because she also sent little surprises for the boys too. And hearing Sam say, “Look Mommy! There’s MORE dresses in here for Sissy!” Melt this mama’s heart!!!

Now he has an entire plastic rescue operation out on the kitchen table and I’m hearing a running dialog about people needing to get in the ambulance. He is so creative. . .

God has blessed me so much. I don’t deserve these two sweet boys that He gave me, but I LOVE being their mommy!

Wow. It’s still early too. Wonder how the rest of today is going to go?

This dress is also from the Simplicity 3508 pattern. It’s almost identical to the one I made before, but has more of the alterations I was wanting to make.

It’s supposed to be a 0-3 month size, but looks closer to the 6-9 month clothes that I have. Must be that baby patterns run large too.

I like the sleeves much better without the binding

Closeup of the button on the back

I finished my first baby dress for Little Miss today. This dress is from the Simplicity 3508 pattern, just like the baby shower gift I made a few weeks ago.

I did make a few changes this time around. Instead of doing ties at the neck, I added a tiny button and a fabric loop. It was more work than I anticipated, but it looks nice. I also lengthened the sleeves enough to hem them instead of adding trim to them.

My favorite part of it though is the lace I used at the bottom. The hearts are so sweet! I bought too much lace last time, so this time I bought less. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough to do both the sleeves and the hem. It turned out great though!

Last week, we bought a little wading pool for the boys. We filled it but haven’t had a chance to get in it and splash any in it yet.

Yesterday we discovered that the bees had found it. They were landing on two floating squirt guns and were getting a drink from our pool.

While I’m not thrilled to be sharing the pool with the bees, it was really neat to watch!

Well, I had this week all planned out, but then we got a ton of leftovers from the school. I haven’t decided whether to use them as lunches (what I’m leaning toward) or dinners yet.

Here’s the menu the way I wrote it. It may or may not change.

Sunday – lasagna at Stephen’s parents’ house
Monday – Chicken Caesar Club Sandwiches
Tuesday – waffles or pancakes
Wednesday – spaghetti, green beans
Thursday – chicken fajitas
Friday – homemade pizza
Saturday – enchiladas

Breakfasts – cereal, eggs, oatmeal, muffins, grits, biscuits

Lunches – leftovers, egg salad sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, etc.

You can read more menu plans over at Organizing Junkie.

There’s been quite a few changes to my notebook store lately. One of those changes is I’ve added a bunch of new files.

I’ve been working on some new menu planning forms for quite a while now, and they’ve been added to the store just today. There’s one major difference though – these forms offer the ability to type directly into the .pdf. No more printing the file once, putting it back into the printer, and printing the customizations over it.

The original forms are still available the same as they have been, for those who don’t want to change how they’ve done things. But there are new typeable forms available now as well.

The main household notebook file still isn’t quite finished. I’m hoping to have it done soon, but it’s not quite ready yet. I have to admit – this project has been a little bigger than I anticipated it would be. It’s been fun, but has kept me busier than I thought.

Feel free to head over to the notebook site to check out all the new additions – especially the new Menu Planning section!

My boys can be such hams sometimes! I shot this picture the other day when they’d just gotten up.

Our bees have been so busy lately that Stephen opened up the hive to check on them. They’ve been making so much honey so quickly that we actually had to order more hive supplies before we thought we’d need to.

Here are some pictures of the frames.

A good look at some uncapped honey

More uncapped honey

Nice light-colored comb

A frame absolutely loaded with honey (also uncapped)

Some capped honey

We’re waiting for all the honey to be capped over before we harvest any of it. I can’t wait though – it’s been quite a while since we’ve had any raw honey so I’m anxious to have it in the house again!

Today I stopped at the thrift store to look for a few things. I was hoping to find some tops for myself, but didn’t find much. I did find a white Motherhood nursing tank that will be wonderful for layering. That was nice.

Since I was back by the housewares section, I glanced through their sheets. When I sew diapers, I use fleece for the outside and flannel for the inside. Lately, I’ve been looking for fleece blankets and flannel sheets to use. Did I ever find a winner today!

My intent was just to find something that was flannel. Pink would’ve been nice, but wasn’t my ultimate goal. I was surprised to find a full-sized flat sheet and two pillowcases for $4.50. It was even pastel pink. There was a pink fleece blanket there too so that went into a cart too. When I got up to the register, the sheets were half off, making the entire set $2.25. I was hoping to make at least two dozen Rita’s Rump Pocket diapers, and it looks like there will be more than enough fabric in the flat sheet alone to do it.

That is mind-boggling. Two dozen cloth diapers for under $10 plus the time making them. Can’t beat that!

We had our big ultrasound last week. We had originally planned on not finding out gender of this little one, but that didn’t exactly go as planned once we were in the exam room.

To make a really long story short, we found out that this new little one is a girl. Both Stephen and I suspected as much, but it was nice to have the confirmation. :O)

We are absolutely thrilled to be adding a little girl to our family! After two boys, it was quite the surprise.

Plan on seeing lots of little pink sewing projects in the near future. I’ve been dreaming of the day when I’d be able to sew little baby dresses!