What Have We Been Up To??

It's been a long time since I posted.  I know.  I feel like our lives are just ordinary and boring now so there is nothing that anyone would really want to read.

Bubba is job hunting and working on getting his license.

Sissy is going to start working for a friend of mine one day a week and starting her cupcakery business again.

 Here are Sissy, Bubba and Hubby before the Daddy Daughter Dance. 

Sissy and Bubba were helping with it.

Both of them are working very hard at finishing up all their high school credits by June so they can graduate early. They are also heavily involved in youth group and are earning  money to go to a missions trip and youth conference this summer.

Snuggle Bug and Princess are just chillin.

Grandma got Snuggle Bug a knitted hat with a beard and hair attached. Hilarious!

Little Miss and Baby Girl are running a muck together. 

Little Miss all ready for her first Daddy Daughter Dance

Baby Girl is finally getting hair

Hubby is working long, hard hours at the factory and is also in the process of getting back to doing police work.

And I am very, very pregnant and trying to get everything ready for #7 and for everyone else too so I don't feel completely overwhelmed when the baby comes.

Here is a progression on my pregnancy-

These last few weeks have been pretty tough for me.  I am very limited in what my body can do and in a decent amount of pain when I walk around or do anything. I don't want to complain, because I am grateful to be pregnant and  for this baby, but man, I hurt. I also hate to feel useless and incompetent.  I am very independent so it is difficult for me to have to rely on others so much.

The new baby will be here in less than a week!  It will be my 4th C-section. We are all very excited and were oohing and awwing over the tiny newborn diapers I bought.  We actually cloth diaper but unless you buy specific newborn cloth diapers, the regular cloth ones are a bit too big in the beginning.  It is cheaper in our opinion to just buy disposables that first month or so. 

I just finally bought some of the last stuff I needed before the baby.  We got rid of almost everything when we went on our trip since we didn't have any room for it.  We trusted God would provide if we ever had need of baby stuff again.  There are a few other things we need but we'll get them in the next few weeks hopefully.

I packed the baby's bag the other night which made me feel so much more prepared!  

I want to finish getting the kitchen cupboards painted next week( I will post pictures when they are all done!) and I need to do some things for my nieces' baby shower coming up the weekend after I deliver.  We were suppose to have her shower on the 18th of last month but she went into labor 6 1/2 weeks early on the 16th and had a beautiful baby girl weighing in at 5lbs 3oz.  They thought the baby would need to be in the NICU for 2-3 weeks but she surprised them all and came home in just 10 days.  

My mom and I jumped in the car when we heard she was in labor and definitely having the baby( the Dr's were trying to stop the labor at first but with no luck).  We drove 4 1/2 hours south and stayed a few days.  Because of RSV and Influenza B going around, outside visitors were not permitted into the NICU though so we never got to see the baby except when my niece would snap some pics.

We knew there was a chance we wouldn't be able to see the baby when we headed down.  We just wanted to be there for my niece and her husband. 

So anyway, the baby shower got pushed back needless to say!  I am helping to make some of the table centerpieces and doing the punch and Sissy is doing an awesome cupcake cake.  So I wanted to get on top of all that before I have my baby because I know those first few weeks are a sleep deprived blur.

I also meal planned and shopped for the month s of April so I don't have to worry about any of that for a while.  We are very blessed to have almost all of our dinners taken care after the baby gets here in the month of April!  After 6 kids, the delivery of meals is the thing I most appreciate and the one thing I ask for after each baby.  We are so grateful to all those friends and family who will be feeding our crew(which is a big undertaking obviously!) in the weeks after the new baby arrives.

So I just had to do a few freezer meals to have on hand and planned out our breakfast, lunches and snacks(and those other miscellaneous things you end up needing) for the month.

I also schedule social media for a friend who has a photography business so I am going to schedule out as much of that as I can now.  I am also sitting down today to get bills ready to be paid for this month.  Even if I can't send them out quite yet, if I at least have checks written out and envelopes addressed and stamped, I can just grab them out of my bill folder each friday and send them out. 

I also need to print out some things for school for the kids( though Sissy and Bubba do almost all their work online at www.allinonehighschool.com).

We took a 3 hour trip to Chicago at the beginning of January to the Shedd Aquarium. I needed to get out and do SOMETHING.  I miss doing things while out on the road. Our van actually broke down on our way and we had to get a rental van that would fit all of us and have our van towed 2 hours back home. It was quite the day but our trip has taught us to roll with it. 

Beluga Whales

We kept on thinking of Finding Dory lol

Lake Michigan

We enjoyed this part of the aquarium and feeling a personal connection to it. 

It is neat to be able to say we have been there.

Those Flipino faces look familiar

We stopped by the famous Giordano's to grab a classic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. 

Emma had zonked so I had to hold her the entire time. Still managed to stuff my face though!

It was the best pizza we have ever had!!

So that's what we all have been up to!

We will be getting our trailer out of storage in a few weeks but we have no idea what we are doing with it.  How our house in positioned and the alleys leading up to it, there is no possible way to get our big trailer in here.  If we could cut down a few telephone polls and power lines we would be set  but strangely the city frowns upon that. So please pray that God provides a place for us to keep it( preferably as close to out house as possible).  If we get a seasonal site at a local campground it will be anywhere from 1,500-4,000.  We really don't want to do that.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Many Blessings,

The Mama