25 weeks!

I'm 25 weeks tomorrow and certainly growing each week :)

There's some swelling in my feet at the end of my long shifts and LOTS of back pain... But I found a back support from Motherhood Maternity!  It works wonders!! 

I'm feeling Lucy love more and more, and some mornings I see her move in my belly :) It's amazing!  Tim and I can't wait for him to be able to feel it!

We have set up pieces of our nursery and I love being in there :)  We have her crib up, and the closet is mostly ready for her things (and already packed with some goodies!).

Our cloth diaper stash is complete!  

The picture  below is of my last purchase. these are "all-in-one" cloth diapers from Bum Genius called Freetimes.  They have inserts sewn in so I'm hoping for ease of use by Tim and myself. We purchased 37 of them on MANY sales (since Tim's brother and sister-in-law told us they have 50+... I purchased a couple more than I thought I would).   

We also bought 3 "pocket" diapers for night time to add more absorbency.   24 Cloth wipes and  2 wet bags should be coming SOON from Nickie's Diapers... Yeow! 

We will start with disposables on Lucy as a newborn and see when she will fit into the cloth diapers.  I hope before I'm off maternity leave :) 

Looking forward to her coming, but there's lots to mentally and spacially prep for still :)

  Thank you, Lord, for this most amazing gift!

Pictures

Howdy!

I've neglected to post photos on my blog due to busyness laziness.  Honestly, the last thing I've wanted to do is upload photos.  Who likes that, anyway?

But I did it!
Here is the latest in our little journey as the Kurkinens :)

TIM HAD A BIRTHDAY (LAST OCTOBER!)

We said "GOODBYE!"  to our apartment this last March by shoving our whole couch together...

We went on a couple trips to the BEACH!!!! Rockaway BEach is my favorite favorite, but we also are blessed by time in beautiful Pacific City TWICE this last winter.

Rockaway Beach, Oregon

A TRIP TO PACIFIC CITY!

We bought a little house and are now OREGONIANS!

Our little love nest :)

OUR DINING AREA

stump removal by Timmy and his Dad

OUR GUEST ROOM

TIM DOING THE DISHES LIKE A MAN :)

OUR NEW FRONT DOOR

PIPER WAS HELPING US WITH THE MOVE

TREE CHIPS FORM TIM'S WORK FOR MULCHING

After ALL the drama that is filled with moving, we got to snuggle

then we sat down and SNUGGLED

Then, BOOM!  It was June (can we talk about how the year is flying by?)

and we celebrate Father's Day with both of our families!

My parents :)

I went on a little trip to WASHINGTON to see my dear friends from college.  I found out I get to be in a wedding for my beautiful friend, Natalie (on the left) and Katie (on the right) will be standing with me!)

I've been quite under the weather as of this last week or so.

 Here is my sleep remedy :)

I made dinner in one pot yesterday!  Turned out delicious! Here is the Link to the recipe :)

I made this easy ONE POT DINNER tonight!  Yum.

Hopefully I can update this beast more often!

Cheers!

Family Reunion

On August 7th my sweet mother-in-law, Sally, planned to get all of her boys and all of their families together for a Kurkinen Family Reunion.  Just the immediate family.  IT was so much fun!  

Stephen is back from Taiwan with Christy and their kiddos until the end of the month.  And David came back for a couple weeks from Australia.  

I'm blessed to be a part of such a loving family.  It was hilarious and SO fun :)

Dale (Dad) with all seven: Andrew, Sam, Joe, Steve, Phil, Tim (he's mine!) and David

The Wives (not in order): Helane, Me, Megan, Sigh, Christy and Asena

Grandma and Grandpa with all 11 Grandkids (and there is another due in December).  

Grandpa Dale and Bethany 

The Kurkinen 9 :)

Dancing!

Stephen and Christy dancing :)

The youngest 3 

Married 40 years this year!

Telling stories

More Dancing

Caed the wonder boy!

Uncle David finally meets Annabelle and Adam!  (And Bethany, Mikaela and Caed).  He's been in Australia for 2.5 years and Kurkinens make 5 babies fast ;)

Simplifying!

It feels SO good to go through my things and P-U-R-G-E ourselves of "stuff!"

I've been reading this blog by a mom who is simplifying her home: theyearofless.blogspot.com
 It's inspiring!

Also reading the book The Best of Cheapskate Monthly by Mary Hunt which you can find here.

These are fabulous resources!

I am trying to live with less things to bog me down, steal my attention and keep me from feeling freer and like I can have joy without acquiring things.

I even got rid of my Facebook and got a brand new one with only family and a handful of close friends so I won't be on there very much because there isn't much to look at.  I made it boring on purpose :)

Last week I went through most of what we had and got rid of many items I realized we didn't use.

My rules:

• Toss books we don't open and most likely never will (even if I bought it because "I've always wanted to read that") 
• Get rid of "extra" things: yoga mat I never use, clothes I never wear, shoes I never put on 

•  Get rid of things I can use now on the Internet: Dictionary, A Bible with 4 different verisons, Thesaurus

Tim even spent time getting rid of video games he doesn't use (and sold them to a game trader to buy himself a new X-box controller).  I'm SO proud of him!

And in the process, our church raised about $500 in a yard sale for Laundry Love to support families who need laundry done for free.

Ahhhh.... now go get rid of your stuff & tell yourself you'll be happier and more satisfied with life if you just have LESS!