44/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Peyton: teenager mode.
Lia: not impressed. making Meg breakfast.
Austyn: always writing something.
Tayt: working on his reading.
Nash: who knows.
Drew: four eyes.
Meg: also not impressed.

One, two, skip a few… that's the new motto for my 52 project. Only 8 weeks left of this year. Hard to believe. I'm going to try my hardest to finish the year off strong. No promises. If you're worried about missing the kids between these posts, make sure to follow us on Instagram… here  :)

one!

I don't know how it happens so quickly, but another year has gone by. Baby after baby, they still grow up. We celebrated Meg's first birthday almost a month ago now, but I thought I'd share a little of her day here as well. 

This one… she's turned/turning into quite the spit fire. No surprise there. She is number 7. Nonetheless, she is such a treat. Easy newborn, easy baby, easy toddler. Let's keep it goin ;)

everyone loves cake!

and then there were gifts :)  (thank you everyone!)

side note: my baby is still super tan… snot!

I couldn't have asked for a better way to end her birthday day. She let me rock her to sleep, and I just watched her sleep. Someday this will be extremely creepy. Until then, like the other kids, I'll continue to sneak a peak at least once a night.  :)

go ahead and reminisce on all this chub and this amazing day :)

first pickling

I'm reminiscing back to when the weather was above 40. I miss it. Regardless, we're moving right along to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Time never slows around here. But back when the weather was warmer, I pickled my first batch of pickles. ALL BY MYSELF. My crazy neighbor harvested a good load of pickles for me, but I finally did this process alone. I was pretty smitten with myself when all was said and done. Sadly, this is about all I did with regard to the garden this year. I'm failing. Sorry, crazy neighbor.  :(

Because said crazy neighbor is The Best Neighbor Eva, she brought me some goodies to help me make it through my first independent pickling session. And the best pickling kit ever. I'm so thankful to have her! If I remember correctly, the whole process took me 3 hours, not too bad.

the amazing kit

let the process begin - prepping

'helper'

ready for stuffing

{insert official name of this process}  ;)

Pickles were never so beautiful until this day. *Proud moment!* ;)

After the pickling was done, I ran some errands and came home to a lovely note from my crazy neighbor. She's too kind. After talking with her later, I found out 'we' canned 90+ pints of pickles… of which 8 were the batch I did... uhhh… good job, Courtney? Glad I could contribute ;)

week 18

baby Smith #8

due date: March 30 (probably before Casey)

weight gain: 16.5 pounds (unofficially/according to a meat scale)

Not too much exciting to report in the last 4 weeks. Busy adjusting to the weather change (and soon the time change), busy taking and editing photos, busy season at the meat shop, kids back in the swing of school... and on and on and onnnnn. I have a feeling my body is adjusting to the weather change as well  :/  (my back side apparently quicker than other parts... yowzas!) 

Next appointment isn't for a couple weeks so I don't have much new to report until then. Staying healthy I hope. According to my pregnancy tracker readings, I should start to feel movement soon... baby kicks... blows my mind every time! Always makes it more real when you can actually feeeeeel that you're really carrying a human being. Mind blowing.

I enjoy looking back through my pregnancy posts, but the closest I could find when I was pregnant with Meg was this post... oops! and this post from when I was pregnant with Drew... crazy! but oh how I love to reminisce :)

Thanks to Casey for making me get outside today and getting a photo. I like to take them, not be in them ;)