sharing some My Little Shoebox projects

Just a quick post to share some My Little Shoebox creations that I submitted for the design team call:

and a card:

Have a great day!

leaving Lily

I am home now but leaving Lily at the hospital this afternoon was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.

I was able to spend time with her during her noon feeding today, holding her close knowing I wouldn't be able to do that as often once I got home. I have three other girls who have been missing their mama, too. So, I will do my best but know that a little bit of my heart is there with her in the hospital.

Here is Lily right after she was born- such a grumpy face from this sweet angel girl. 

I sure hope that these next days pass quickly until we can bring her home.

a quick update on Lily

I have been trying to arrive at the NICU before they change Lily and get her ready for her feedings so that I can hold her while she eats- it makes the biggest difference in my day just to be able to see and hold her.

It sounds like Lily had a busy night last night- her nurse Stuart said that she pulled out her feeding tube a few times, made lots of messy diapers, her IV fell out and she gained .5 ounces. I went in this morning a little bit before 6 and there were a couple of nurses trying to get her new IV started and her veins are so tiny and fragile that they weren't able to get it going again. After a call to her NICU doctor they were given permission to go without the IV fluids as long as Lily can keep her food down, which she has been doing well. They've increased her tube feedings to 40cc's and she was keeping it down while I was there this morning. She is a sweetheart; I hope that she gets to go home soon. So far she is breathing on her own and is doing better to hold her body temperature where it needs to be so the main thing now is feeding. I am anxious to be able to nurse her and take her home!

In other news, in honor of the Royal Wedding today Hailey got to wear one of her princess dresses to school; I think it will be fun for us to have our own Princess Party after I get home, have a tea party, wear fun hats and tiaras and let the girls watch a real prince and princess get married.

Matt is coming up to the hospital later and will hopefully bring the camera back so that I can take some new pictures of Lily for you.

I may get to go home today but am waiting to hear from my doctor. I have mixed emotions after being here for so long- I want to be with the rest of the family but don't like the idea of leaving Lily here.

Lily Grace

 I just wanted to let you know that Lily Grace was born yesterday, April 27 at 2:55 pm weighing 5 pounds 15 ounces and 19.5 inches long. She was only 34 weeks gestational age but she is doing remarkably well. We don't know yet how long she'll have to be in the NICU and are anxious to get to spend more time with her.

Happy Easter to you from the hospital

I don't know what you believe but today I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who loved each one of us so much that He let His Son die for us. What a blessing it is to know that we can be forgiven of our sins and live with Them someday. Not only are our sins forgiven but we will be resurrected as Christ was and our imperfect bodies will be perfect, all of the ailments we suffer from during this life will be taken away and we will be made whole.

I know that I tend to stick to scrapbooking things, light-hearted things here but today I am feeling especially grateful...grateful to a family who loves me and grateful to all of the many others who have shown love and support over the past weeks as I have laid in bed in the hospital not knowing what was going to happen or when this little baby would have to be born. I had been hoping that my condition would improve to the point that I could go home but I am now resolved to the fact that I will be here until after this baby is delivered.

Today is day #12 in the hospital on bedrest, I am at 33 weeks and 4 days. We hope that I can make it until the baby is 34 weeks along and I am confident in the decisions my doctors are making in regards to my care. The lab results continue to increase, which I have mentioned they expected to happen. My blood work continues to stay about the same and my blood pressure so far doesn't seem to be affecting the baby in a negative way. She had a bad case of the hiccups this morning when I was being monitored but she eventually settled down and all is well. I am having more contractions and some spotting, perhaps my body is helping to prepare for an early delivery.

While it is hard for me to be away from my family while they participate in egg hunts, egg dyeing, seeing my girls in their fancy new dresses to Church (thank goodness I'd already bought for Sarah and Aimee and Hailey is being so grown-up about the fact that I hadn't been able to get hers before I came to the hospital- we'll go shopping after I get home), bunny pancakes for breakfast (yes, my girls have the best dad- I know that he is exhausted physically and emotionally and he is doing so much in my absence) I know that I am where I need to be to receive the best care. I just received my hospital lunch- ham and potatoes and some thumbprint cookies with bright blue something in the center :) and I am going to make the best of this day.

If all goes well today I will be able to leave the hospital for a few hours to have Easter dinner with my family...what a welcome thing it will be to feel "normal" for a little while before settling back into my bed here.

Happy Easter, everyone. I hope it is a wonderful day for you.

super quick update

I am still at the hospital...my labs continue to get worse as they expected with the pre-eclampsia, my blood pressure is still consistently too high so I will likely be here until after they deliver the baby. That timing depends on how quickly my blood pressure gets worse, how high the protein in my urine gets (over 800 today where they want it under 300)- I am starting to "sour" as my OB was expecting.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers and for all of the help given so far. It means more than you know.

And, thank you to a kind friend from church who let me borrow her laptop while I am here so that I am no longer so disconnected from everyone.

It is a scary, trying time but we are doing our best to stay positive and trust that all will be okay.

I will update again as I can.

a little hiatus

Some of you may know but I am in the hospital right now and other than checking email I have no internet access.

I am at home for a few minutes to gather some things to take back to the hospital with me, to shower and spend a little bit of time with Matt and two of my girls. Hailey is at school and we are hoping that she can spend the night with me at the hospital tonight.

I went to see the doctor on Wednesday afternoon because I was concerned with the swelling in my hands, feet and legs and with the headaches I'd been dealing with. My blood pressure was 172/94 so they sent me straight from the OB to the hospital where I've been since Wednesday afternoon. I have pre-eclampsia and for now the doctors don't feel comfortable even sending me home on bedrest.

Family and friends have been wonderful and I am so grateful for the support. I will update you as I can. Hopefully I will be home again soon.

i should really be sleeping

Yes, I should.

Right now it's 1:30 in the morning and here I am at the computer because I can't sleep.

I am exhausted, so very tired but I can't sleep. I didn't sleep well last night so I should be able to now, right?

Nope.

I fell asleep for about an hour on the couch in front of the television and then woke to check on the two oldest and then came downstairs to find the youngest one in the floor in the hallway. I got everyone back to bed, ate a half of a peanut butter sandwich because I was hungry and tried to go to sleep with no luck at all.

I tried sleeping in my room, tried sleeping on the couch in the living room and...nothing.

All I have to entertain me now is the sound of our basset hound getting a drink from the water bottle attached to her bed where she sleeps at night and this little baby squirming inside of me.

My stomach is growling and I want to eat something but because my middle of the night snacking has caused me to gain way too much weight this pregnancy I am putting it off.

I sit and watch as my legs swell while I sit here...I am indeed an elephant lady with horrible swelling in my legs and feet. Two more months to go.

I hope that you are all having a wonderful night's sleep.

...wish I was, too. Tuesdays are so busy and it's almost 2 here.

Thank goodness it's Matt's week off. I feel like he is doing WAY too much to compensate for what I am not getting done lately. He is way too good to me. And, when I lose patience with the girls for the umpteenth time he kindly distracts them so that I can have a break.

I wish that I had something exciting to share...

Oh, I got a peek at some new Jillibean Soup today that will be released soon and it is adorable.

There's some fun news that I can't wait to share with you. I'm not sure when you'll get to see it but it is very cute and will be perfect for scrapping pictures of our new baby girl once she gets here ♥

silly kids

We really enjoy being able to spend time with Matt's family since some of them live so close. I wish that my girls could spend more time with my sisters' kids, too, but they all live so far away that it just doesn't happen very often.

One of Matt's brothers lives in Houston and once in a while we like to "meet in the middle" or somewhere close to that and hang out for the weekend. On this particular weekend we'd gone to Fort Worth so that Matt and Marc could go watch Jimmer play basketball. Before the game we went to the stockyards and then hung out some more while the guys were at the game.

We have three girls and they have 3 boys and it's quite a party when we get them all together. 

I used some of the fun border and alpha stickers included in the kit. 

I made this page using the April kit from My Scrapbook Nook featuring "For the Record" from Echo Park. 

p.s. sorry for the nasty picture. I really need to take another one now that it's not so overcast and nasty outside.

how about another Jillibean card?

Today will be another busy one...isn't that always the case lately?

My swelling ankles and legs are telling me that I need to slow down a bit but that's so hard to do with three little kids running around and things to do.

Anyway, here's another card that I created for Jillibean Soup for this month:

I just love the new Blossom Soup and the new stickers and die-cuts that came with the new collections!

sharing a Nook project

The "For the Record" collection from Echo Park was one of my favorite releases from this last CHA. I really like the ecclectic mix of patterns and knew it would be a fun one for a kit. It is more "formal" than I tend to use most of the time but I've been having fun using this kit for sure.

Here is a look at one of the layouts that I created using this collection:

Have a nice day!

April kit from My Scrapbook Nook

Would you like to see some pictures of the April kit from My Scrapbook Nook?

Here you go:

Papers from the Echo Park "For the Record" collection

Prima black bling, Petaloo flowers, Maya Road chipboard butterflies, ColorBox ink

Stickers from the "For Record" collection

pretty lace trims to top it off. 

You can get yours here:

http://stores.intuitwebsites.com/hstrial-myscrapbookno/-strse-Kits-cln-Feature-Kit/Categories.bok

and another card- Jillibean Soup style

Y'all know by now that the new Blossom Soup collection is my favorite Jillibean collection- ever. I love the cute prints and bright, happy colors.

Here is a card that I made using this collection:

Another thing that I really like? All of the fun new stickers and die-cuts that come with the collections now. 

I used some of the little sentiment stickers for the flower stems and bits of green grid canvas flowers for the leaves on the flowers. 

Have YOU gotten some Blossom Soup yet? 

My local store is FINALLY carrying Jillibean Soup and I want to run to that store just to see it up on the shelves! 

Have a great day!

sharing some love

I created some cards for American Crafts in February and thought I'd share a couple of them here today now that it's been two months since they've been on the AC blog.

and my fave of the set that I did:

For this one I used some of the AC tulle and my EK Success retro flower punch. Fun stuff. 

I hope that you have a great weekend!

introducing the new Jillibean Soup team

This is something else that I was waiting for... the big announcement from the Big Bean Jill herself.

It has been so much fun to be on the Jillibean Soup team this last year and I am thrilled to be a part of the team for another year.

Here's the list- congratulations to all of you who made the team/guest list. There are so many people I don't yet know but am excited to get to work with.