My blog is not fancy...

...but I guess that is fitting for my life. We aren't showy people here. In fact, a couple weeks ago, we did The Big Closet Purge of '11 and gave four bags to goodwill. Mostly some still-decent stuff from college (which couldn't really be that many years ago, right?), and some that Stacy and Clinton would have loved to use as fodder on their show. But now it looks like we're moving out. As a result of the great giveaway, I now find myself wearing the same clothes overandoverandover again.

I'm also very thankful for Febreze :)

Well, so much for that...

Allow me to quote the last line from my previous blog post.

"Maybe I'll blog again before we have our third child ;)"

So about that...

Cara Nicole was born in April 2011 and I most definitely did NOT blog before I had my third child. Whoops! It was a pretty uneventful pregnancy - we found out when we were about 30 seconds pregnant, so it was an impossibly long 39 weeks, but I survived. She was born in a hurry, and appropriately on 4/13, giving me one of my favorite Bible verses from Philippians to recite through the lesser contractions. She's such a peach - I wish each and every one of you could meet her. You'd honestly want to give her a pony.

The only real speedbump in the pregnancy was that I did end up with Bell's Palsy at 36 weeks, which was very surreal and bizarre. If you've ever known anyone who has had it, you know what I'm talking about. I basically lost the use of the entire left side of my face for 3+ months. Friday I was fine, and Saturday, I had no moving parts on the left. Couldn't pucker, couldn't wiggle my nose, couldn't close my eye or lift my eyebrow. I told God that I was really OK with this whole thing (though I could definitely see how it could throw someone into a very depressed state), as long as I could get my eye back and my mouth back. I told Him He could keep the forehead wrinkles. See? Compromise.

That was the end of March. I didn't get "full" use of my face back until July. I say "full" because it still feels strange to me around my mouth and cheek, though outwardly you'd never know. It was most definitely a test of faith and my optimistic nature though. Every twitch caused much rejoicing, and every time I could close my

eye a little more, even if it was only a millimeter, was awesome. It was hard to go out in public because I felt like I looked so strange, but my family truly kept me positive. Not once did my kids make a comment about my face. Not once did my husband make mention of the fact that I looked freakish. I love them all dearly.

And here they are (minus the biggest one... he's at work:)