I want to make this (the wall art and potentially the matchy pillows):

But I am having trouble choosing fabric. My couches are this color:

I also have these chairs, covered in this fabric:

Amy Butler

They don’t have to stay in the room, because I’m not sure they match, but I love that fabric and have extra of it – so it could be one of my fabrics. At first I thought there was no way I was going to combine the grey color with the brown, but then I looked at my kitchen and what do you know?

Here are some fabrics I like, but I don’t know if they go together, or if they are too busy, or not colorful enough or the pattern is too small…What do you all think? As you can see, I tend to lean towards blue, but I also thought it would be fun to throw in something more exciting, like the red. The real problem is, I will really like one pattern, but not all the matching ones and all the ones I like do not go with each other…

So please comment and let me know which ones you like, what you think will match the furniture and maybe I can narrow down my search to try and find matching fabrics to one of these:

Amy Butler

Amy Butler

Amy Butler

Amy Butler

Amy Butler

Michael Miller

Michael Miller

Michael Miller

Michael Miller

Michael Miller

“To laugh often, to win the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of fast friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch… to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Almost the whole family went away to choir camp last weekend. Only Jack Jack stayed home with my mom. I think both boys had a good time in their respective places. It’s been fun having Dash join the choir – he loves to sing and does pretty well, even though he is the youngest chorister. I also took my Babe to camp, which proved to be slightly exhausting. I came home and crashed – physically and emotionally!

My baby also turned 2 months! It’s gone by so fast! He really is a good baby – he will sleep for about 6-7 hours at sometime during the day. Sometimes it starts around 8, sometimes midnight. He isn’t completely predictable yet. I tried to take some photos of him for his 2 month birthday, but he wasn’t really into it. As you can see, Jack Jack really wanted to be in the picture and kept popping up behind the Baby.

The older boys love the Baby, but they are a little too physical. I have to keep telling them to leave the Baby alone!!

Since they have gone back to school, the boys play together so much better. I find that when they are away from each other all day, they appreciate their time together more. They love to play variations of ‘house’. This morning, Batman was the dad and Robin was the son. Apparently, Batman registered Robin for gymnastics. It’s pretty cute.

The Baby has become quite the little smiler. He is so cute and sweet when his little face breaks out in a huge grin. He ‘talks’ more and more every day. The most I’ve ever heard him talk was the other day when I took him to a meeting I had to go to. He was cooing away and I felt like I should be shushing him!! I have yet to capture his little smile perfectly. This is as close as it gets:

Today I was chatting online with my bestie who lives in a land far, far away. The next thing I knew, I woke up to my doorbell ringing with the imprint of my computer on my forehead. I put away my computer and went to get Jack Jack who was being dropped off from school by a very sweet friend. Later, I got an e-mail from the previously mentioned bestie, saying something along the lines of, ’sorry we didn’t get to finish our chat…’ Oops!! I completely forgot I had been carrying on a conversation when I fell asleep. On my computer. Literally. Sheesh!

Enjoying the new baby…

Our new family looks a little something like this…

And then a new little niece and cousin is born…(and for some reason all my pictures are out of focus!)

So really, it is a coincidence that my resolutions and New Years happen at the same time. I’ve been saying that I am going to change our lifestyle as soon as the baby is born – we’re going to eat healthy, I’m going to work out. So now that the baby is here and I have no excuse to be carrying around so much extra weight and eating so much junk, I am determined to change. My husband surprised me by buying me a gym membership this weekend – yay! And now the food…
For financial, organizational and health reasons, I really need to menu plan. I also want to try making some new, more healthy meals, so I’m looking for suggestions!! Please share your favorite recipes and/or sites. I think recipes that have been tried by friends are the best kind! I am also going to start posting recipes I try and my reviews. If you ever try something new and meet with success, please share!!!

Some days, when I feel like the narcolepsy is controlling my life, not the other way around, I want to cry. I really wanted to try and breast feed my baby longer than 3 months, but I just don’t know if I can keep this up. Today was a hard day.

It’s been really nice having time off from school and work and having family home! We’ve had a lot of pajama days at our house. My brother and sister-in-law came home from school and my brothers made a skating rink in my parents back yard. My boys had fun playing on it until Jack Jack fell and now I don’t think we’ll get him to touch a rink with a ten foot pole!

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents place. It was the beginning of the gift-giving mania…

Christmas morning was at our house, with our own little family. The Baby pretty much slept through all of it, but the big boys had a lot of fun.

After the boys spent some time checking out their new toys and I had a nice nap, we headed over to Mr. Incredible’s parents house for Christmas dinner and more fun times with family!

Merry Christmas!

My mom.

Having narcolepsy is hard. I’m not going to lie – it mostly sucks, most of the time. My husband joked that maybe Jack Jack has narcolepsy because he always falls asleep in the car. I wanted to cry. If any of my children were ever burdened with this it would break my heart. But I have a saving grace, an angel, someone who makes my current lifestyle possible. My mother.

She drives me everywhere. She gives up her own life so I can have one. She picks up my boys from school when I haven’t had time for a nap. She plans her vacations and appointments and friends around my schedule. She babysits my children so I can work. She meets me in town on my breaks. She does all this and so much more without even blinking an eye, never complaining, never making me feel guilty, or that I am a burden.

Today I realized I have mastitis - yay! So much fun! I spent the morning in bed, feeling terrible, my boys planted in front of the TV, thankfully, baby sleeping. She called me a few times, worried when I didn’t answer. Finally, I got up the strength to ask Dash to bring me the phone (ha!) and she made me call the doctor’s office, came and picked me up to drive me there. (Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for watching my two oldest boys today!) Then she drove me to her house where she let me sleep and held my baby who would not sleep. She made my family supper, cared for my boys and let me sleep in her bed.

How did I get so blessed?

“I can fold socks, whistle and snap. I’m almost grown up!”

- Dash, age 5 1/2 -