This belly isn't big enough for the two of us.

Pip's arrival is now imminent and my over filled belly is going into protest. 

My kind physiotherapist said on my last appointment, "you're all belly though" I felt confident to assure her that my cardigan and jeans have confirmed that my arms and legs are also pregnant! In fact I feel that my entire body has ballooned in what I would like to think is in as a sense of camaraderie with my stomach!

After some debate I have decided to let you see a bump photo, 

 I think I'm safely in 'about to blow!' Territory

This was my 30 week bump photo for comparison 

I am beyond uncomfortable and walking prompts such intense braxton hicks that the lady in mothercare looked slightly sceptical when I reassured her I wasn't in labour. I'd gone in to get a nightie and massive knickers for hospital and the lady became very helpful quickly grabbing them for me so we could quickly pay and get home :-D 

Hospital bag still isn't packed though. Perhaps at 8.5 months pregnant it should be! 

My inability most nights to last past 8pm before becoming a zombie and going to bed has inhibited my crafting which has almost grinded to a halt. 

I eventually managed to bring myself to undo the shawl which I had done the wrong tension for and ensure that the half way point of the shawl was also the half way point of the wool. Having redone the entire second side I realised with horror that I has still run out of wool despite using a tighter tension in the second half then the first!?! 

I haven't got far to go but far enough that a little alteration won't stretch the wool out enough to complete it. 

You can see from the pictures that the wool is made of 8 colours, I start decreasing at the end of the 4th colour and use a tighter tension for the red half so how can I have run out??? Perhaps I have super baby brain but this makes no sense to me. 

Anyway the failure of this simple shawl pattern for a second time sent me into such a mood that only my husband throwing ice cream my way made my huffiness go away. 

After discussing this, at length, with my very patient husband (in what must have been for him the most boring conversation ever) I've reached the conclusion that I am going to unwravel the entire thing, use a smaller hook and go by the weight of the wool for the half way point instead of going by the colour change to indicate half way.

......I will complete this shawl if it kills me........ 

What I have managed to do more successfully is finish my photograph challenge.

In 4 months I have managed to sort through all the photos we have from 2010 to the end of 2016, putting it all into years and months and selecting the best and making them into photobooks. I have worked out that I have sorted through a total of 64,532 photos on total! I will show you a photo of our complete photobook collection since 2007 when the last two books arrive :) 

In other news last weekend was lovely. 

Kudos to my older brother and his wife who came to visit us (a 3.5 hour drive) with his twin girls to save us the journey. My nieces just get more and more gorgeous every time I see them. They are very different to Nemo and Pip, much more delicate creatures. I remember when they and Nemo were just over 2 and we took them to the beach. The twins picked flowers and held them nicely in their hands for hours, Nemo meanwhile was running around chucking rocks into the sea! 

On the Saturday we took the kids on a train ride. 

Here are the 4 of them watching the toy train tracks. 

Aren't they just adorable?

On the Sunday we went to the local soft play then spent the afternoon in the garden. 

Poor hubby had the lawn to do! 

We introduced my Brother's family to Trolls, something that our children have been obsessed with since my Sister played it for them when we last visited!

The twins love our dog Poppy, they were very clear upon leaving that they would miss Poppy the most out of all of us!!

Well I will leave you with the usual cute photos of my children sleeping. This may well be my last blog before baby Pip arrives (unless I have something slightly interesting to talk about!) so will look forward to showing you baby photos yay! 

Easter entertainment

Walking, well it's not going well..... 

However with only around 3 weeks to go I am on the last leg of the pregnancy and the end is in sight. There are many things I will miss, I love having a tummy buddy and playing the 'what part of the baby is that?' game! 

However I do look forward to reacquainting myself with the view of my feet, losing the waddle walk, being able to breathe on my back, losing the heartburn and not having a sniffy nose! 

It's a good thing that this baby will be born shortly as my quest to busy myself with crafting whilst I wait these last few weeks has seen me start to knit or crochet some more 'alternative' baby things. 

First I knitted a pointed hat 

Then came a mermaid tail sleep sack... 

I got the pattern free from this website 

http://www.slugsontherefrigerator.com/blog/pattern-mermaid-tail

It uses this lovely wool

It's a lovely chunky wool so within a day I had completed it! 

So then I started teaching hubby to crochet to keep me occupied! 

He actually did really well with his double crochet stitch, however I think he still prefers playing games on his phone! 

So then because I was driving my husband crazy I started a shawl. A lovely easy pattern and with this beautiful colour changing wool. 

Unfortunately my tension hasn't been tight enough so having nearly completed it I realise I will have to undo a whole side of it to change where the center lies. It's been a few days since I realised I would need to do this but I haven't yet got to the point where I can bare to do it! 

Instead I went back to my photo project and have now sorted photos all the way back to 2010 so I just need to make the two final photobooks then we will be all caught up!

This Easter holiday we have been focusing on Nemo's writing. Nemo is many things, but definately not the most delicate child and takes a scribbling with pen in fist approach to drawing and writing if he can get away with it! We've been trying to encourage Nemo with his pen grip and the school use the phrase 'frog legs on a log' to help remind them how to hold the pen. 

Now Nemo can do it but needs reminding regularly! To be honest I'm annoying myself with the constant frog legs on a log prompts! 

So here are the photos of our progress.. (I've pixilated his Nemo's name writing) 

Apart from one bad day I think there may be some general improvement (perhaps I'm looking too hard!) However in a bizarre twist his little sister who I let scribble to her 2 year old heart's content holds her pen like this...

I mean what??? She also interestingly draws with both hands!

Well I guess Nemo is still only 3.5 and definitely has plenty of things he is good at. Nemo enjoys his letters we have now mastered all of these, aside from the g.

Nemo also enjoys his adding, subtracting and counting backwards so our kitchen walls resembles more and more a nursery! 

Nemo is so looking forward to school and is seemingly never entertained enough. He has bundles of energy!

(Nemo chose his own outfit hense the Christmas clothes!)

Well he seems to have boundless energy... Until he doesn't!

Little Pebble is finding 2 an emotional time. She is either a delightfully happy little girl or inconsolably upset. Time outs are proving interesting with her as when she has been told that she has 'served her time' will then rebel by insisting on keeping herself in time out! She will eventually emerge, just on her own terms!!

She's a bright little thing but has an adorable quirk of adding a 's' to almost every word she says. For example she will count like this: "ones, twos, threes, fours...." Etc etc. 

This Easter weekend we have been largely getting things ready for Pip's arrival. Hubby did some trips to the tip, I packed the hospital bag we scrubbed the kitchen floor, dug out the baby toys etc. 

Here is Nemo with the first thing he ever wore, crazy!

We of course did the obligatory chocolate cornflake cake making with the children 

Yesterday after church we did an Easter egg hunt for Pebble and Nemo. Nemo enthusiastically found all the lost eggs whilst Pebble didn't understand why she just couldn't tuck into the first one she found. Whilst the children were tucking into their winnings Mummy and Daddy had their eggs. 

My husband had a pretty massive egg.... But I beat him!

We paid a visit to the beach today

The children looked Iike mini Jedi walking around in their towel robes to keep warm! 

On the Pip front well surprise surprise the midwife measured me and the baby is now measuring a good size! With 8lb 11 and 9lb 8 babies I guess it was to be expected. I was thinking of having a competition for who can guess the gender and weight of baby Pip and was wondering what a good prize would be? 

Let me know if you have any good ideas!