Avery Grace Wilde

Avery is here!

Finally, she is here with us. She was born Tuesday August 2 at 10:15 am.

She weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 20 3/4" long.

She is beautiful!

Little bug

Cute!

I love baby feet!

Newly arrived

So cuddly

Happy big sister

Cute!

Here are the kiddos! I cannot believe there are 4!

My doctor was concerned because I was measuring big and he worried about my anemia. Because of that, I was induced at 38.2 weeks. The birth was smooth and relatively quick. I checked into the hospital at 5:45 am and was started on Pitocin at 6:30. They broke my water at 7:30. I had the epidural at about 8 am. At 9:45 they checked and said I was basically at a 10, but my doctor was still in surgery. We waited a little while and he showed up and started getting ready to deliver. I was kind of surprised-I thought we might have a while to go. We started pushing at about 10:00 and she was born shortly after that. It was great! All the time I've been pregnant, I've been visualizing an easy labor and delivery much like Jack's. Though it was not exactly as I had envisioned (I did not expect to be induced), the end result was the same. I had time for an epidural, the labor progressed quickly and she arrived safely.

We are all so happy and trying to settle into having so many kids.

Thanks for all the prayers and help!

Let's get real

Let's Get Real

So in this post, we are going to talk about what it's really like at my house when I am very pregnant.

1- I forget everything!

2-I am very very cranky.

3-I am very anti-social. I think my friends all think I hate them. (It's not true!).

4-I cannot get motivated to do any art.

5-I cannot get motivated to open my shop (someday soon I promise!).

6-I completely neglect my blog--wait, I do that even when I'm not pregnant.

7-I completely neglect my online friends (by the way, my friend Paula just filmed a DVD for Cloth Paper Scissors!).

8-I completely neglect my responsibilities for groups I've joined.

9-I don't play with my kids much.

10-I read a lot (both a positive and a negative).

11-I do not get much housework done (see photos below).

12-I whine a lot.

13-I cry a lot (usually when I am alone and feeling frustrated that I can't do much).

14-I'm pretty slacking in my church calling (see #1).

15-I'm sure there are more but I can't remember (again, see #1).

Bathroom floor needs to be swept and mopped

Cluttered countertop

Jack's room (did he really just clean it on Thursday?)

Now, the boys usually clean their own rooms twice a week, but I will pick up here and there in between those scheduled cleaning days. Not so much right now.

Clutter under the desk and needs to be vacuumed. See that book on the floor-Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean. Ironic.

Sam's room. Again, all this since Thursday? *Sigh* boys!

So, you can see that right now is not the happiest time in our home. It's not terrible, but we are all ready for the baby to be here so we can get back to normal. Hopefully soon!

I will be 37 weeks along tomorrow. I guess no preemies this time!

I have been having a lot of contractions for the last couple of weeks and when I went to the Dr on Wednesday, he said I was almost 3 cm dilated. Maybe the next post will be about baby Avery? Pray that that is the case. I am ready!

Here are a few more photos for ya!

Sam and Addison eating lunch in Zion NP.

Surfer Jack in La Jolla, CA.

Addison with her birthday cake made by my mom (Addison was really tired at the party-can you tell?)

Hiking in Zion NP.

Sand Dunes trail in Snow Canyon near St. George.

Another cute photo of Jack in Zion NP.

Can't I just post twice a year?

Jut kidding!

I have not been feeling up to much of anything these days. I've had terrible anemia with this pregnancy. It makes me so tired! It's been bad enough that I have to go to the hospital once a week and get an IV of iron. It's been horrible. I was only supposed to have 5, but they say I need 3 more. I just pray that these are the last.

We had an ultrasound in April. The tech said it's a girl, but they couldn't get a really good picture. I'll have another ultrasound in 3 weeks so they can double check. Other than that, everything looked great.

My grandmother (my Dad's mom) passed away at the end of February so we headed to San Diego. It was beautiful there, but it was a sad reason for going. I was so happy to be at the beach. It is where I feel the happiest and most at peace. I was happy to learn that it was my grandmother's favorite place also. She would have been happy we spent some time there.

Addison had her 2nd birthday. She's a nutty little girl. SO much personality. I love it! My biggest fear about my kids' personalities is that they would be dull. How could I stand it? No problem there yet though.

We are planing for the arrival of the new baby. Only a little while left. I am 27 weeks along. Hopefully this one doesn't come too early. We don't want a repeat of Addison's birth! Sheesh!

We had a great vacation in Zion's National Park in April. It is pretty much the only trip we are going on this year. All of our usual travel time is too close to the baby coming. Next summer we'll make up for it though.

I just got called into the Relief Society Presidency. I am excited. I have never been there before and I am excited to learn a lot of new things. And I know it's where the Lord wants me to serve right now. I will miss primary terribly though! I loved it there.

I had a wonderful mother's day and birthday. My sweet hubby and kids do so much to make me feel loved and appreciated. Among my gifts (for both) were a Lisa Leonard necklace with all 3 kids' names, an iPOD touch, gift cards, 3 (THREE!!) prenatal massages with my friend Annette, an altered canvas with photos of everyone, and a fun date to dinner and then a movie at home. Love this time of year!

There you go! There's an update! Talk to you in 6 months! HAHAHA!

Here are a few photos also.

Hiking in Zion's

Me and Addison in San Diego. Look at her eyes! Can you tell she's mine?

Finish it Friday

I finished!

A couple of weeks ago, I received another art journal in the mail from July. If you remember from several months ago, I was invited to join a round robin art journal project led by the fabulously talented Paula (who had an article published in the current issue of Art Journaling Magazine!!).

The theme of this journal is Vintage Love. This was a difficult theme for me--it's just not my style. But I did my best and finally finished it today. I have to say I was very motivated to finish because not only am I backed up on these journals (I still have to finish Paula's journal), but I REALLY wanted to put a link on Robyn's "Finish it Friday" blog post today. Now I can!

Here is the journal:

A little far away, but I wanted you to see the 2 pages side by side.

Left side

Right side

Detail of the glassine envelope (some small journal spots will go here later). The image is from The Graphics Fairy.

Another detail photo. That purple at the top is decorated packing tape adhered to one side then folded over to the other. I love doing that!

Detail of pearls and lace attached with Tiny Attacher.

Can you see the shimmer? I sprayed the entire page (all of them) with Old Lace Glimmer Mist to make it a little shiny. That image is also from The Graphics Fairy.

The quote I used. You can see the texture from scrumpled tissue paper which I adhered with heavy gloss gel. I then put a thin wash of white acrylic paint over it to blend it into the page. The tissue had been colored with Oriental poppy GM and Burnt Red GM. The colors were a little overpowering for the pages, so I toned it down with the white. I love the texture.

My sign in page-love that image of the girl. She reminds me of me though I'm not that cute! :)

All in all the pages went quickly. There were several of those "ugly" stages where nothing looks right. But Paula says you have to just push past those and continue on. Ultimately, I like the way it turned out. I think it represents my style and matches the theme.

It will soon go off to Margo!! Yay!

I've figured it out!

(After 5 years!)

Remember this is only MY opinion.

If you are offended-IGNORE IT!

It's no secret to anyone who has talked to me for any length of time that I HATE the library in my town. It is awful. I live in a very small town and the library reflects that.

For one thing, they close at random times. If there is a holiday listed on the calendar, then the library has to be closed. No matter what it is. Nothing else will be closed-no schools, banks etc-but sure enough the library is closed. If the holiday falls on a Friday, they will be closed Friday AND Saturday. They are not open on Mondays. Why? Do the librarians really have such a hard job that they need that much time off?

They close at 8 PM. EIGHT O CLOCK PM~!!! What? And earlier on Saturdays. Do people in Tooele stop learning after 8 PM? (Of course with a lot of people in this town I wonder if they ever started in the first place!)

9 out of 10 times they do not have the books that I am looking for. They rarely get anything new. Not even kids books. Their kid section is really bad. They have all kinds of old kids books, nasty falling apart chapter books and very few picture books. And they have so few new children's books. It's very frustrating when one of my kids will read a book at school and want to find it at the library. They never have it.

The worst part about it is that the librarians are so proud of the library and think it's so great. I guess it is compared to what they used to have. But it's nothing to be proud of.

I am happy to pay the $80 per year fee to have a library card at the Salt Lake City Library in Downtown Salt Lake. Now that is a LIBRARY. It's beautiful!! That will have to be another blog post.

Anyway- I went to the library tonight and found every book on my list except for one! I felt victorious! I felt accomplished! I was so happy! And I finally realized after 5 LONG years of living in this hellhole (Sorry if you like Tooele!) how to use our library. Here is the secret:

If I want good books, new books, or anything with substance I can go to the City Library in SLC. If I want a brain candy, entertainment-only novel, I can go our library. HAHA!! I figured it out!! Now I don't have to tear my hair out in frustration when I can't find my book!!

I am so happy

What I checked out tonight

PS-This may sound harsh. But realize I hate this town and I cannot wait to get out. It is sucking the life out of me. In all fairness, I'm sure the library is better than it once was and the fact that they even have a library is miraculous given the education level of most people in this town. And the library does have a few good books: a few classics, a few good non fiction books, and things like that. But when I say 9 out of 10 times it's frustration, I am not exaggerating. Pray for me.

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry about being away so long. We have a lot going on the last few months of the year.

And there is another reason I haven't been around lately. I have been too tired to do much of anything! I haven't been scrapbooking, art journaling or anything. And the reason for that is...

I'm pregnant!

That's right. Baby #4 on the way! We are so excited. I am 12 weeks today. We've known for a long time (about 2 months!) but wanted to keep it a secret until I was further along.

I was apprehensive about getting pregnant again for many reasons but we knew it was what God wanted for us. And we couldn't be happier.

Here are some things we've been doing lately and some other updates:

Sam at the Zoo.

Addison at Christmas. I just loved her little ponytail!

Jack and his guitar. He has the rocker face and stance down perfectly.

My cute girl with her brother's boots on.

Some of the artsy Christmas gifts: Neocolor watercolor crayons (Love these!), Black Lava texture gel, Gloss Super Heavy gel, Colored India Inks, and pen nibs.

Urban Decay Naked palette: the coveted sold out everywhere palette! I found it by chance at Ulta so I grabbed it! I was so excited. For those of you who don't get excited about makeup, ignore this photo! :)

Some books. I love books!!!

Stampotique stamps. I absolutely adore these! They are so my style! I wanted the circle in the middle because it reminded me of my 3 kids.

So, right now my Etsy shop is closed. I am still trying to work on some new inventory but since I don't feel very energetic right now, it's hard to get motivated. I really miss doing it though, so I have to start back up at some point. I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, I have a few newsprint paper bags left, some little envelopes, and a few bottles of Glimmer Mist so if you want some just send me a message and we can work something out.

I signed up for an online class called Remains of the Day. It's taught by the cute and quirky Mary Ann Moss. I LOVE it! I cannot wait to make some journals. My husband also got me a Brother XL2600 sewing machine so I could make them. I have to get together with my grandma so she can show how to use it. I have no idea and the manual doesn't help. I am sewing machine illiterate. And it makes me really nervous!

Anyway-I don't know how often I'll be posting on here. Blogging in low on the priority list I'm sorry to say. So is my YouTube channel. I have 2 videos that will go up someday! One is part 3 of my travel journal kit. And the other is about downsizing my art studio. Hopefully they will be up sooner rather than later, but you never know!

Have a great rest of the weekend and I will see you soon!

Jamie