Hello November

Well just thought that I would share with you what's been going on around here and what's about to happen. We are 5 days out from our due date - baby Justice is expected on the 9th - I'm still shootin' for the 10th (I like the date better) and well, things are a bit crazy right now. I have been up to my ears in boxes of baby clothes that I have held onto now for four years, just waiting for this little one to join our family, and if baby clothes aren't enough - I have also been weeding through bottles and breastpumps, trying to remember again how all of this stuff is suppose to go together. Thankfully a good friend of mine @ work gave me a breastpump exactly like the one I used before and so therefore I think I may have just enough brain cells left to figure it out again. As much as I hated pumping, that thing was a life saver, I'm praying for better results with this little one.

As for myself, people always assume that I am ready to get this over with, and well....honestly - yes & no! Call me crazy but I love feeling this little life inside move around - I missed that so much after the birth of my first daughter and she didn't move even half as much as this one does. I will not however miss the swollen feet & ankles, nor the tingling fingers that I have now dealt with for almost 2 months, that part I am definitely over.

The good news is that I was able to get my 3 year old daughter & I the H1N1 flu vaccine today so that is one less stress. Granted we stood in line for 3 hours, but it was worth it to have all 3 of us protected, really been sweatin' that one, wasn't sure if any health care facility would have it before baby came.

Now that we have all the important things done, I suppose @ this point if baby were to come early I'd be okay with that. In the meantime I have been working on lots of scrap projects because I know that once little one does get here there won't be gettin' much done for awhile, so tonight I am going to share with you the

Christmas Count Down calendar that I have finally put together for my older girl. I have lots planned to do with her throughout the holidays, depending on my energy level of course, so this will be a great way for us to get things done and to celebrate the holidays as we go.

I started out by painting one side of the boxes red with acrylic paint, which is where I decided to put the numbers; this is the way the calendar will start on December 1st. All the red painted sides will be showing, so we know what day we are on. Then once that day is done, we will turn the box over and start seeing a totally different side to our calendar.


On the opposite sides of the paint I used patterned paper. Then on every other box I used brown letter stickers to spell out the phrase, "merry xmas 2 all" and then the rest of the boxes have just a small embellishment - this is what the calendar will look like once we have counted down all the days to Christmas.

My reasoning for all of this is that I wanted us to celebrate the season together and on a daily basis. Kids grow up so fast and doing things as a family now is what is important to me, because then when they get older it will hopefully be important to them too. This year will be like no other too for the simple fact that I will be on maternity leave throughout all the holidays, so I want it to be extra special for my 3 1/2 year old who will hopefully remember this Christmas season very well. Some of my ideas for each of the days are still in process, but then other ideas I already know. One day we'll listen to all of our Christmas music and wrap gifts, then one day we'll bake Christmas cookies, then another day we'll rent or watch a Christmas movie and have popcorn, then the one I am totally looking forward to is the day we attempt to build our very first 'gingerbread house' (I already have the kit that I picked up @ JoAnn's). So things like that will be what we do throughout the month of December. In addition to this Countdown, I also have the nerve to do a December Daily album again. Not sure but for those of you who remember last year, I was pretty darn frustrated with that whole project, but this year I have decided to go mostly digital and therefore make it a whole lot easier for me (what with a newborn and all), so hopefully I have a better impression of it this time around.
Well that's all I have for now, hope all is well with you! thanks for checkin' in
just B ..... inspired!!!