Our Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was a little bit different from years past. We decided we were still going to host Thanksgiving dinner at our house as we have for the past 4 years; however we weren't quite sure when baby Aaron was going to be making his appearance and whether or not I'd be majorly pregnant or just haven given birth. It turned out to be the latter since Aaron decided to make his debut on November 16th! We decided to ask everyone to bring a dish to complete our Thanksgiving meal this year and I have to say it worked out perfectly! I don't think there is any better feeling than family togetherness, and this year it was what our Thanksgiving was all about!

Unfortunately during all the mayhem I completely forgot to take even 1 picture this Thanksgiving-so instead I'll attach an adorable picture of Aaron Matthew with his big brothers!

SCORE!!

I won my first online giveaway contest last night and it couldn't have come at a better time! Recently I found kayteedid's website and FELL IN LOVE! If you have a little one at home, or know someone that will soon have a little one you need to visit her site and order a blanket-like now! Anyway I entered her contest on her Facebook page at the last minute last night thinking to myself "oh I never win anything, what are the chances?!" Well apparently luck was on my side because I did win, and I know our new little man Aaron is going to enjoy his blanket and get a lot of use out of it :) I won a free "Lovey Blanket" and can't wait to receive it in the mail!!

He's finally here!!!

I have been MIA for a few days because this past Tuesday we welcomed baby boy #3 to our family. Aaron Matthew Acosta was born at 8:23pm weighing in at 6lbs 9oz and is 19.5 inches long! I'm sure my posts will be very sporadic through the next few weeks, so please bear with me! I'm hoping to get on in the next few days as well to post my birth story so I can have a little memento from the birth of our newest son :)

Happy Saturday, plus some exciting news :)

It's a Saturday morning and I'm sitting here enjoying my coffee (decaf of course!) while the boys eat their breakfast and watch yet another episode of iCarly on demand. I went to the doctor yesterday and in addition to being nearly 38 weeks pregnant I'm also 2cm dilated so it's just a matter of time at this point! We're super excited and cannot wait to meet our new little guy that will be joining our family.

Thursday I found myself at Joann's again buying more fabric, and supplies to get started on my newest project-baby bibs!! Yesterday I was able to take some time in the morning while my husband watched the boys (he's really been so good with that lately) to get started. I'm posting pictures of bibs that I started working on yesterday thanks to this tutorial. They're not perfect, but I did find they were easier with each one I made. I also like this project because it helped me learn how to control my sewing machine's speed and the way the material needed to be moved through the machine with precision. It was really fun! Enjoy and happy Saturday!

Getting out

With the change of weather hitting the East coast we have been hesitant to take the boys outdoors because we don't want them catching anything with me being this close to have our newest addition! Plus lets face it-it's NO fun taking care of sick kids!! Well spending all that time cooped up in the house was starting to wear on the kids as well as my husband and I, so we decided to take a trip to our local aquarium. Even though it was small in size compared to others in our area it was practically empty which is always a mom's dream (no worries about losing your kids, germs, or other kids misbehaving!), very inexpensive, and had a great touch tank that both the boys were able to explore and learn about the animals living inside. Angel and Ayden really enjoyed themselves and I was able to get some GREAT shots with our camera! Here's our adventure to the aquarium.

Another sewing project :)

Ever since the birth of our second son, Ayden, we have become a very pro-breast feeding family so I was out shopping the other day at Target and while walking up and down the baby aisles looking at all the cute stuff I came across the disposable nursing pads I used and noticed that the price went up on them AGAIN! At first I thought to myself no biggie, you need them so there's nothing you can do just suck it up and put them in the cart. Then I remembered seeing adorable, handmade reusable nursing pads on Etsy and I thought to myself WHY NOT?!! I came home and started researching them online and was able to use a combination of this tutorial as well as this one for when I decide to try to make them contoured. So ladies and gentlemen here they are my first batch of reusable nursing pads (pink w/ elephants)! I was able to make 12 more this afternoon in just 30 minutes, how awesome!!

P.S. The front is made of fleece and the backs are 3 layers of cotton/flannelet.

Burp Cloths!!

YESSS, they are finally finished! They were my first sewing "project" on my sewing machine and completely SELF TAUGHT!! Hubby was awesome enough to let me finish these this afternoon while he entertained Angel and Ayden for a bit. VERY VERY easy is the best way to explain them and once you get the hang of it you are able to bang them out very quickly. I used this tutorial which was just perfect. I'm hoping to get a few more sets of these finished before the new baby makes his arrival. The size of these also makes them great to double as changing pads too! Let me know what you think :)

Fabric!!

More fabric is on it's wayyyy! I just placed another order on Etsy from this awesome seller Sew Materialistic. Last night was my first bad night with my sewing machine..we got into a fight and the machine won :( I broke the needle, I had to rethread the bobbin half way through my project, and the top thread wasn't going all the way through the material amongst other things (including my 4 year old waking up and lounging on the couch for a bit while Mommy did some sewing). With all of that it took me nearly 2 hours to finish 1 burp cloth-VERY frustrating. Through it all I'm determined to get back on the horse and figure out what went wrong. So I've ordered more material for burp cloths and found a really cute pattern for bibs! I can't wait to get started tonight! I promise as soon as I have these burp cloths finished I am going to post a picture for everyone to see!

A loooong week!

This has been a very long week for us in our house. In addition to me having a throat infection (and we know mommy's don't get sick days) we have been struggling to get into a new routine as well. I haven't mentioned anything for fear of "jinxing" it but I can't hold it in any longer. This week I made a promise to myself that I would start having Angel and Ayden sleep in their own bedroom. With Angel, our oldest, we were a co-sleeping family and he slept in our bed till he was nearly 2 1/2 and we brought his brother home from the hospital. When Ayden was born we swore we were going to do things differently, but of course ended up not! Eventually we were able to move both boys our of our bed and into their own separate beds, but still in our bedroom. The thought of bringing home baby #3 and having all 5 of us in our bedroom gave me nightmares so I am trying to do something to avoid it. As a result we have all had a VERY long week trying to adjust to the boys sleeping in their own room. Ayden has done better with the transition than Angel but you can tell during the day they are both exhausted from waking multiple times at night :( As for my husband and myself I am considering this a dry-run for when we bring home the new baby due to how little sleep we have been getting at night because of the boys waking up. Some nights have been better than others and next week I plan on putting the boys in their rooms to fall asleep by themselves...this week i have been staying in there with them until they fall asleep and then tippy-toeing out! Fingers crossed :)

Feeling Homey :)

Blame it on the fall weather, how the leaves just float and fly through the crisp fresh air in their fiery oranges and bright reds. Blame it on me being 36 weeks pregnant and entering my nesting phase, or you can blame it on me realizing that we are about to bring baby #3 into the world and feeling the need to have a stronger grip on our everyday activities and routine. Something has come over me lately that makes me feel very domestic. I try to take each day a day at a time and remember that we are blessed by all we have. Our faith, family, friends, and children are the most important things to us. Lately I have been finding inspiration from other mom's through blogs, books, or even their Etsy shops. If you have been following a long you would know that recently I have taken up sewing and have completely immersed myself in the culture of it and all it has to offer. This is something I have wanted to learn since shortly after having Ayden, more than 2 years ago and I'm so glad that I've finally started doing it, instead of just wanting to do it! Most days my house is a mess, there is laundry to be folded, and my kids don't listen to me but in the grand scheme of things it's all about enjoying life and taking each day as it comes!

Fabric Giveaway!

So there's this amazing Fabric Shoppe (literally) on Etsy that has the most amazing fabrics...many of which I will have to wait to purchase until AFTER my maternity leave LOL! However right now they are doing a crazy giveaway so go check it out here to find out all the details. Good Luck and happy sewing!!

Cute Headband!

I found this fellow blogger E while searching for tutorials on how to make reusable nursing pads and I fell in love with not only her blog, and Etsy store but also this headband! Totally cute and I would totally ROCK it :)

Halloween

Halloween was very busy this year. Thursday Angel had his Halloween parade and party at school, then we did trick or treating in central Jersey with his cousins and family friends- oh and i'm now 36 weeks pregnant! This year Angel wanted to be Iron man and Ayden was Frankenstein. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

A great buy!

I've been pretty good since I've been back to blogging at keeping up with a post every day or so...but this past weekend was just so INCREDIBLY busy that it was impossible. Between Halloween parties at school, going away, and trick or treating we've been swamped! So now that I'm done giving excuses as to why i haven't been blogging LOL let me tell you about my latest and greatest find on Craigslist! I was patient enough,kept checking back, and it paid off. A lady in my town was selling a sewing machine she bought for her teenage daughter that her daughter ended up barely using. Their loss was my treasure! This lady gave me a practically BRAND NEW sewing machine (with the instruction manual), a ton of accessories, a bunch of fabric, (which is great because I can use it to practice on rather than buying fabric at the store) and a huge bag filled with batting to stuff pillows and make little kids items/dolls. She sold me all of this, including the sewing machine, for only $15!!!!!! So i brought it home one night last week and taught myself how to thread the needle, thread the bobbin, etc and 2 hours later practiced some stitches on fabric! Needless to say it felt great! I've included pictures so you can see everything i purchased. I've already got a few beginner projects in mind so i'll keep you posted when I attempt them!