Hopes

I have not posted in a little while, but I can't say it is because of a baby....not yet anyway. 13 days and counting though. We have been busy finishing up house projects and I am happy to report they are done. The bedroom downstairs now has a closet and a real door, thanks to my awesome husband and talented brother-in-law Danny. And then Joe and my sister and I painted the downstairs. I think it looks very nice. So now the boys live downstairs and the upstairs bedroom has become the nursery/spare room. I am getting anxious for the little one to get here. Of course I am tired of being pregnant, but I am also just looking forward to meeting this baby, and seeing if we really have a girl! I do realize life will change once the baby is on the outside, but at this point I think I am ready to take that on.

And the most recent event, Eli started 1st grade today! Here is a picture of him ready for school. I can't believe he is in 1st grade! What happened to my little baby boy? And time just keeps going. Here are some of the things I hope for as I send my son into the world and the dynamics of the household change. I hope Eli has a great year and learns a lot. I feel fortunate that he likes school so much and I hope we can keep nurturing those feelings. I hope he makes good friends and is a good example to the other kids he is around. I hope I have taught him enough and the right things so he can be successful. I hope I still have some influence on him. I hope that Simon and I can bond and grow together, having time with just us. I hope Simon likes his new sibling. I hope I can potty train Simon sooner that later. I hope I teach Simon what he needs to know, and how to be loving and patient. I hope the new baby will be as wonderful as the two boys I have. I hope they all know how much I love them! I am glad I can work on all of these things and do my best to make them happen.

Feeding Ducks

I just had to post this little video of Simon feeding the ducks/geese yesterday. He got such a kick out of it. It was fun to watch. The geese were very into the bread and stayed a little too close sometimes.

Ayden and Eli had a good time as well. There were some baby geese that were very cute, following their parents around. Here's a couple more pictures.

Counting Down

It has been a few weeks since I posted. Time sure does fly by, and the last few weeks have been busy. We went to Utah for a few days to see some family. It was a lot of fun to see everyone. We watched my cousin play softball, her team won one that we watched and lost one. And then after we left, won 8 in a row to win the whole tournament. Congratulations Kelly! Of course that made us wonder if we were bad luck or something....

We spent some time in Park City, thats where the softball was played. So we went to the alpine slides and had some fun there. We all got to have a ride or two. Even I went down once, big belly and all. I had Simon with me, so we didn't go too fast, but he liked it. I found it rather nerve wracking riding the chairlift up, with a 6-year old, and a squirming 2-year old. But no one fell off. Somehow, I didn't end up with any pictures though.

We also took the kids bowling one afternoon. Did get pictures of that. Even I bowled, though it was difficult and I did not score quite a well as I know I can. But at least I never fell down.

My older brother and his wife came out from Virginia to see everyone and we got to meet the newest cousin, Andrew. He sure is a cutie!

The time is getting close for the baby. I am counting the days. Looking forward to being able to bend over again and not being quite so uncomfortable. Of course the room downstairs has to get finished first. Joe and Daniel have started working on it, so hopefully we can finish in the next couple of weeks.

Accomplishments

So I thought I would post some pictures of the things that have been accomplished around my house this summer so far. We put in a lawn that seems to be doing fairly well. Our garden is growing like crazy, and we finally finished the bathroom downstairs. There are a few more things that I would like to get done before school starts, and the baby comes, but for now I am feeling pretty good about what we have finished.

Here is the lawn growing. We moved the rock from the backyard and put it around the foundation of the house and planted the grass in the four areas and backyard.
Here are some tomatoes we have growing. We have 3 different varieties, these are the biggest so far.Here is a little pepper we have growing. We have 4 different varieties of peppers. We will have to see what Joe ends up doing with all of them. I am not a big pepper fan.Here is a view of the acorn squash plants. There are only 2 there, but they are trying to take over! The tall things against the fence are Eli's sunflowers that he got from his teacher. They are supposed to be ready when he is ready for 1st grade. And in the foreground is a watermelon plant. It already has several blossoms on it.And here is the finished bathroom! We painted the walls, they were a rather ugly spring green color. And we painted the vanity blue to match the decor.And of course the new floor. I am bad about taking before pictures, so you will just have to trust me when I say it is much improved!

Now we are off to Utah for a few days, then back home and will have Joe's parents here for a few days, and my mom will be here for a couple of weeks. It will be lots of fun being able to visit with all the family!

They're good for a laugh

Here's a few kid quips from my week:

Ayden and Eli go to the library for a summer reading program on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Ayden brought home a little booklet they worked on answering questions about what they like and stuff, you know, "If you could be on a TV show, which would it be?" and all that. My sister and I read it. Our favorite question and answer by far:

*"If you were on a school field trip and the bus broke down, what would you be glad you had in your backpack?"*
*Ayden's answer: "A horse."*
We had a good laugh about that one.

Eli and I have been reading "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" before bed. I read to him. It takes place in a hotel, so there are maids that clean the rooms, which are talked about in the book. So one night this week while brushing teeth:

*Eli (questioning me) - "Is maid another word for mother?"*

Apparently it's true, we are their maids.

What's filling my days

Birthdays:

Mine was on the 10th, turning 29 for the first time. It was lovely. I took a nap, Joe cooked dinner. I ate way too much sugar, but it was yummy. The sugar consumption continued throughout the whole week. I am a little scared to get weighed at the doctors next Monday, hehehe. But it was worth it. Joe got me a new rice cooker, because I told him to since ours broke. It's very nice. And I got some money, so I bought myself some new sandals, Skechers, which I got on sale but still paid way more than I would normally pay. I am cheap. But they are worth it. Way comfy and since I didn't want to trap my feet in my tennis shoes all summer, these are great! Eli's birthday was the 18th. We had a little get together with family the Sunday before. I made a chocolate cake, from scratch. It ws very good, way better than store bought or boxed. And not too hard to make. Here's Eli licking the beater, why shouldn't he, it's his birthday, right?!

Then on Thursday, we drove to Chuck E Cheese to play games, and then ate at Wendy's, Eli's choice. The kiddos had a good time. Simon was way excited to go to Chuck E Cheese.

Getting into the car:

Simon - "I want to go Chuck E Cheese!"

Me - "What are you going to do there?"

Simon - "PLAY GAMES!"

He knew exactly what we were doing. And he had a great time. We found a baseball game and that was where he spent the rest of his tokens. Don't ask me where he got it, but Simon is obsessed with baseball. Could be worse things to be obsessed over.

Eli got a scooter for his birthday. A green scooter, just like he wrote on his list. Wow Granmama, how did you know?! He likes it very much, as does Simon, who seems to think it is his. Simon didn't quite understand the birthday thing, but I am sure in October when his comes around he will be very excited that the presents really are his.

Friends:

I got to get together with some girlfriends. Amber was in town visiting, so we went over to Loveland to meet up with her and Amy and Brittany and Jerilyn came up from Longmont. We went to the park and let our kids run wild while we chatted. Well, Kate didn't run wild since she is only 5 weeks old, but we got to admire her. What a cutie! (Simon refused to come be in the picture. He's 2, what do you expect)

Projects:

I am sure it must be the whole nesting thing kicking in, but I (and my sister) decided to take on the redoing of the downstairs bathroom floor. It needed to be done when we bought the house, but we ran out of time and money last summer. So I had planned to do it this summer, just didn't know when. Sometime after the grass got planted. So now is the time. Of course tw0 moms, one pregnant, with 5 kids between them don't often find a ton of time to work on projects undisturbed. So what might have taken other people a couple of days is a week in the works so far. We ripped up the old, found concrete under the old linoleum and two layers of wood. Which was a good thing to find. Then we cleaned it up, scraped off old adhesive and have put down some self-leveling concrete. This coming week will install the new plywood subfloor, prime it and have it ready for the sticky tiles. But before the tiles, we will paint, spruce up the vanity, put the toilet and sink back in place, and then do the tiles and install new trim. Whew! We will see if it all happens this week or takes us through the next one as well. Swimming lessons start tomorrow, so our work time will be further decreased. But this is Joe's last week of his summer online class, so the next week he will be more available to help, i.e. watch children, and maybe heft the toilet around.

Also in the last couple of weeks I made a bunch of those scrabble tile pendants for the Young Women going to girls camp, and painted some beads for necklaces they make at camp also. And today I sorted through 8 bags of clothes someone brought me. Mostly baby girl clothes. Wow! That is a lot of clothes. I do believe if we actually have a girl, she may not have to wear any outfit twice for the first 3-6 months of her life! We will probably have a boy just because we have all this clothes now! Oh well I am sure there is someone out there who would love to have it if we don't need it.

Time to go eat cheesecake, special for Father's Day for Joe. What a fabulous dad, he deserves it!

New Additions

With the impending arrival of a new little one, thus the expansion of our family, we decided we had to get a bigger vehicle. Of course this has been on our mind for sometime, but this past weekend we finally acted and bought a minivan. After much internet research, we decided to head down to Denver, where there is more to choose from. And here is the newest "member" of the family...

It is a 2008 Kia Sedona. The boys love it. I am not sure if that is because it is bigger, or just new. They keep asking to go on rides. Eli was very excited to get the red one. Anyway, so far it has been very nice. I like the space and feeling like I am sitting up higher when I drive around. Of course there is no 4-wheel drive to help in the winter, but just being a larger, heavier vehicle will I am sure help get around town. As every sales person told us, right now it is "THE safest vehicle on the road." It has some nice features, one of which is that the windows on the sliding doors roll down. That is a new one to me, but the kids sure like it! So we took the plunge and have become the minivan driving family. We even cleaned up the garage and fit it inside. Nice and cozy! And pretty soon I will have too big of a belly to get around the van when it is in the garage, but oh well. I think we got a pretty good deal, so that makes us feel good too. We are looking forward to having lots of space when we drive to Utah later this summer!