Another week goes by...

Well, we made it almost another week and things are starting to move and feel like we're accomplishing something. Before I get into that though, I realize I haven't said anything about our ultrasound a week ago. We weren't going to find out because I thought it'd be fun to find out in delivery but the girls wanted to know so I was easily persuaded to find out. It was quite obvious that it was a girl. I really thought it was going to be a boy. I thought  I was getting divine messages that we were supposed to have another boy so I felt a little tricked. It wasn't that I was upset it was a girl, just more or less upset that I was so sure it was going to be a boy because I felt we had another boy waiting to join our family. Oh well. If we only get one boy, I'm sure glad it's Cooper. He's so sweet and loving and I'm glad Isabelle will have a little sister closer to her age, so we're happy about it. Here's a lame-o picture I took of myself to show my "progress". I'm 22 weeks in this picture. I tried to get Elizabeth to get one of my but I looked like a freakin' giant, so I tried myself and this is as good as it gets for now! I feel like I'm in that awkward in between stage where people can't tell if you're pregnant or just chubby. I figure the nightly ice cream will catch up soon and push me out a little more, not that I want to, but I hate the in between stage.

So just over a week ago our wood came in and is still sitting until this weekend. I can't wait for Brian to start putting it in. I'm anxious to say the least. However, he hasn't just been sitting around.

On the main floor we just had our bedroom and then a large room that used to be 2 rooms. The lady turned it into one room and put this fireplace in and used it as her tv room. Well, I said it would be better for us to have 2 rooms than one big one. I told Brian I'd like to put a wall up, well, for him to put a wall up. I didn't think he'd do it for a while, if he did at all. I mean, we have enough bedrooms downstairs, but one day he went over to work on the house and he said, "you're not going to believe what I did" and I didn't. He had already knocked out half the fire place.

It was no easy job. He had to chisel off a bunch of the cinder blocks to be able to flatten it enough for the sheet rock to go over and what not. I was amazed when I saw how much he had done. The bricks went all the way up to the ceiling. I think he probably has a brick worth of dust in his lungs. The crazy head won't wear a mask!

So Saturday he put up the framing and yesterday did the wall. I couldn't believe how he just knew what to do. I was kind of freaking out like "how are you going to do this" and he would just say, " I don't know yet. I'll figure it out." And he sure did. By the end of yesterday he had the wall up.

He got the other side completely done, but now there's this challenge. I have no doubt he'll figure it out though. He is amazing me and how fast he's working and how much he is figuring out on his own. I'm so impressed. My Mom keeps saying, "that Brian. When he puts his mind to something, there's no stopping him." And it's true. He's a mad man working so hard and I love him for it.

Now that today is supposed to be good weather I'm hoping to finish up this forever long project of cabinet doors. Well, I probably won't finish them, but I should get at least half of them done and ready to hang. They

are at the house we're living at now outside. I haven't been able to do anything on them 'cause of the wind and crappy weather.

 I almost wanted to cry yesterday when I saw we still hadn't done anything with the drawers and Brian said there are like 15. It will NEVER end!!! And then I keep freaking out that I'm going to give this baby brain damage with all the painting I'm doing. It is well ventilated though, so Brian tells me I shouldn't worry... but I do. But I feel bad 'cause there isn't much else I can do. Well, there's the progress for now. More this weekend!

Free time? What's that?

What were we thinking? For some reason we thought redoing a house would be fun and I don't know... stress free under no real time constraint, but we, well, I, was wrong. I guess I didn't factor in being pregnant, trying to now keep up with 2 houses, keeping the kids happy while painting and what not.  Ugh! However, today we have hit a major point in that we are nearly done with a room. Just have to touch up the floor boards and touch up paint and I think we're good. Our living room got carpet today and not only that, it was 2 days early! A first. So here's the original:

And here are 2 of the nearly finished. I'm happy with how it's turned out so far. I realize that I haven't put up many pics, so you can see out the one window there's a side porch. It's  a nice size and covers to the back of the house. It's well shaded too which is nice. I just love all the big windows in this room.

This is our kitchen. It was the main starting point. All the doors off and are all ready for, if not already, painting. We removed the amber glass above and will leave that open. We need to get a stove/oven to replace the cook top. I painted the countertops white and the bar area black with light glitter in it. It turned out okay. Not as great as I would have hoped, but it'll work until we get the new ones. Now we just need to get the doors on, the drawers sanded, primed and painted and the floor in. That should take, oh I don't know.... forever!

This is a built in that's in the dining area (which is open to the kitchen area). My sister Caroline took this on as her project. I painted the countertop black like the bar. The blue parts on both the kitchen and this piece will stay open. And yes.... the intercom does work. :)

This has been a familiar pose for Brian lately. He's amazed me at how much he can get done and so fast. He always does though. He spent a few hours taking out all the staples out of the particle board, and the just 2 days ago started ripping up that same board. Realized now that it was a waste. Oh well. You learn as you go right?!

Amidst all the house work, I realize that I just wasn't going to be able to get as mu;ch done as I wanted to during the day. I've managed to paint a little here and there or plant a few things in the garden, but my patience is already so thin that trying to do all the things I need to and being constantly "interrupted" just isn't worth the frustration  and getting upset with the kids, so I've cut back. It'll all get done eventually.  We went down last weekend  and picked up our hardwood flooring. My parents came back up with us and as we neared the house to drop off the wood, the kids got a little ride with Papa John on the trailer. Highlight! Even if they don't look like they were having fun... they were.

We took a little hike, and it was quite little. I should have left the kids at home. A few minutes after walking the girls were upset with rocks getting in their shoes, so they took them off and complained the rocks were hurting their feet, so we carried Caroline, Liz toughed it out, and then a few minutes later Bri ran back and got the car and met up with us to take the kids home. Good thing the trail is only a 2 minute drive up the street.

Thought this one was cute. This sweet little girl seemed to have been abandoned on the trail, so we took her with us. Okay, just kidding. I just didn't do anything with Isabelle's hair for like 2 days.

Caroline found a beautiful "flower bouquet".

At one point, I came home and this is how I found Cooper and Papa John. I thought Cooper was asleep, but I'm assuming they just took a break from wrestling.

This one was cute.

And so was this. :)

Well things are going  well, and eventhough slow, we are making progress. Brian is such a hard worker and I'm impressed with his handyman skills. Some day this will all be worth it! At least that's what everyone keeps saying. Brian read something online where this lady was talking about redoing her cabinets and the guy was like, "you either have only 3 cabinets or you've been watching too much HGTV". We're one of those who watch too much HGTV and think we can do it all! We'll see.

Because I just can't help it

I love scaring people, it makes me happy. Sounds bad I know. One time I dressed up as a stuffed newspaper dummy for Halloween and sat on the porch to hand out candy. I had a sign on me that said "take one" and if they tried to get more than one I'd grab their hands and freak them out. Another one of my faves was hiding in my Dad's closet a few years ago. He was getting out of the shower and I had to wait for like 15 minutes and just sitting in the dark in his closet I was laughing at how funny it was. Well, just to make sure, I closed my eyes when I jumped out at him and thank goodness I did! A towel doesn't do much good on the floor. JK. I have no idea if it fell or not.... my eyes were closed! So I set up the webcam to video the kids watching the video. I'd seen it before so I knew what happened. It's one of those dumb videos where something jumps out at you, and do you know who sent it to me? My Dad, so I don't feel so bad jumping out at him! For some reason the sound is off from the video, but you get the idea.

Busy busy busy

We have been busy! We had 4 milestones in less than 24 hours. #1- I put Bella down for bed and she wouldn't have it, so.... she climbed out. Twice. Hasn't happened since then but now she knows she capable. Not a great milestone for us, but one none the less.

#2- Cooper had his first night in underwear and stayed dry. To top that off, it's been almost a week and he's done it every night. Yay!

#3- Caroline "graduated" from preschool. She was pretty excited and it was a fun few minutes to celebrate her accomplishment.

#4- Elizabeth had her 2nd piano recital, but first one playing a song with 2 hands, and not only with 2 hands, but both hands had a different note going and at times different tempos. I was AMAZED when she learned it. It wasn't easy learning it and in my opinion, extremely early to learn, but she did and plays it fabulously!(She was also embarrassed I made her take this picture.)

Other than that, we FINALLY got our house. We closed on Friday and Saturday morning we were at Home Depot just after 8:00 spending away our checking account. Well, not really, but I assume that will be our most shopped at store over the next few weeks.

I realize that after going through my pictures, I haven't taken a picture of the front of the house, so I'll post that later. It's an older home, built in 1968. There is a lot of work to be done. The house is in great condition, just not to our taste, so we could live in it just fine, but we won't. :)

So as I said, we woke up Saturday morning and made our first trip to HD. We didn't get too much, but amazing how this little bit could add up to $160. Mostly the paint I think. I know we'll be spending much much more. I'd rather a trip to Hawaii or something like that, but I guess a nice house will work too. :)

So here is the glorious kitchen. It's a great size, but we have major plans for it. And look, matching seat covers. :)

I had to run back to the house we're living in and grab a few things and when I got back, Brian said he electrocuted himself a few times while pulling the fridge out. Luckily he wasn't laying on the floor when I got back. Then, he had to disconnect the water from the fridge and ended up flooding underneath the sink. We'd only been there a few minutes and already one reason to NOT have carpet in the kitchen. And 2 to NOT leave Brian alone!

There were no other major problems. Brian got the most of the issues. He kneeled on the nail strip and sliced his knee up a little and ran into the chandelier in the kitchen a few times so by the time we left he had blown out 3 of the 5 bulbs.

So our near future check list:

Tear up carpet in kitchen/dinning room

Tear up carpet in hall/living room

Remove cabinet doors in kitchen

Remove hardware from cabinets

Paint counter tops

Put in garden

Paint Cabinets

Paint kitchen and living room

Redo floorboards

Install wood floor

And on and on it goes. That's just near future, but we're making progress and excited about seeing the transformation. I'll take more pictures and put them up as we go. My last picture is just 'cause I thought it was funny. Caroline and Elizabeth came upstairs and Liz had put these balls in their shirts. Oh the things they come up with!

  

2 in one day!

Yep, another post. I have a free second (a rare moment. ok, not that rare.) and I wanted to put these up of Caroline. I try to get a picture of them on their birthdays, a nice picture, but it didn't work out, so yesterday I grabbed a quick moment to snap a few.

Of course once I tried getting one of Caroline, Cooper jumped in so I had to snap a few to appease him.

I couldn't decide between the color and sepia on this one, but I'm thinking the color. The sepia makes her eyes stand out more though and I do love her eyes. I love how her hair just cascades over her shoulders too.

And of course we had to have a cross-eyed picture. She loves doing that one.

And I really liked this one but her eyes aren't "smiling". Oh well. Still a pretty girl.

Busted again! This time.... kids chocolate pudding bowls left on the table. Does she look guilty?!!!

I love this guy! Just thought I'd let you know. :)

Getting behind...

Oh I'm getting behind and I don't want to do that. April definately went out like a lion! We had all kids sick and fluids coming out of both ends! Yikes! Caroline only had one throwing up moment but Cooper's lasted about 3 days. It was horrible. He couldn't keep anything down. The first 2 days we were lucky to keep water down. We gave him a sip every 10 minutes and he was just sobbing for some water. Not even juice.... just water! He got up from sleeping and walked into the kitchen and looked in every cup left on the table or counter hoping to find water. It just killed us. He didn't eat for 3 days and I was starting to get really worried, but on that third day he perked up a little and ate some chocolate pudding. Of course, he threw it up a few hours later, but we did get past it eventually. It was Bella's first experience throwing up. She hasn't ever been that sick and she sure wasn't a fan of it. Needless to say, the carpet cleaner stayed plugged in for 2 days just waiting to be used!

Everyone was normal and great a few days later.

Every night we put the kids to bed, usually around 7:00, but Liz and Caroline sure can hold out on falling asleep. One night Cooper joined them and this is what I found. They said they were being Tarzan. Creative.

They've been pretty creative in their play. Here's some joy from duct tape and Cooper pulling off the risky business look. I just thought this was cute of Bella.

We celebrated Caroline's 5th bday on May 4th, well, that and the rest of the week! She had school that day and I dropped off a treat to her preschool class and then later that night the girls both had soccer games. After that we came home and did the presents and cake and ice cream. Pretty busy day but she seemed to enjoy it. I let the kids request what they want for their birthday cake. Luckily for me all she wanted was a pink cake with pink sparkles. Easy enough, but even that gave me issues. I made it from scratch 'cause I didn't have a mix and the middle sunk in. OH well. When she saw it she said, " that's exactly what I always wanted." Mission accomplished!

After she opened her presents she said, " Mom and Dad, thank you so much for the Princess and the Frog." It was pretty sweet. Guess that was her favorite present.

She's growing up so fast. It's hard to believe she's five. She still seems so little to me. Love this girl!

We've only got 2 more soccer game days, and I'm thinking tomorrow is going to be another horrible one with this crazy weather. It's hard to believe we are still as cold as we are. I mean, I know we get snow at least once in May, but like 75% of May so far?!!! Seriously! I'm going crazy! More than half of our soccer games have been freezing... example here.

This just kills me. Spring trying so hard and winter sticking around dumping it's junk on us!

It's crazy how one half of the sky can be clear and blue and the other half snowing. And of course we get the snowing side! At least it makes the kids happy I guess.

Caroline had a friend party on Saturday. It was her first one and she was pretty excited. All week was her birthday because we had until Saturday for her party. Brian cleaned the house and ran an errand. I baked the cupcakes and got most the stuff ready. The kids were quiet and playing upstairs, so I hurried to go get ready. I heard a noise like a wet patting noise and I knew exactly what it was. Bella had snuck downstairs, climbed on the counter and gotten into the cupcake batter AND took a grab out of all the cooked cupcakes. Luckily I had enough batter to make a few more cupcakes. This is how I found Bella.

I didn't laugh, but I did run grab the camera. Now I laugh. Oh the joys!

The girls had been sleeping in the closet for a few nights. We finally had to put them back in their bed because here they are, 3 hours later, when we're trying to go to bed, and this is how we found them. I don't really mind though, unless they're grumpy the next day! I love the friendship they're building and the memories they're making.

Mother's Day was great. Brian made some fabulous french toast and they brought it to me in bed. I don't necessarily care about the in bed part, but I was going over my Sunday lesson, so it worked. Plus it was a little calmer. The girls gave me their home made cards and sweet gifts they picked out at the store. Liz gave me a heart locket with Mom on it and Caroline gave me some snazzy earrings. Brian tried to talk them out of it but he was unsuccessful. Elizabeth said, " Mom's going to love it because it's from me." True. I never pictured myself with a Mom locket, but now I am the proud owner of one. I was also given some great lotion and beautiful roses.

I wanted a picture with my 4 sweet blessings that allow me the title of Mom. We sure have crazy and rough times, but I love each one of them and am so grateful the Lord has blessed my life with them!

The rest of the day was great. After church Brian made his perfect grilled cheese sandwhiches, gave me a foot rub and then for dinner he made paella and tortilla de patata. I'm sure I'm spelling them wrong, but they were good. I was grateful for him choosing something and making it. It was really good. It was a good day!

Well, that's pretty much where we are for now. We've been going crazy with financing for our hopefully soon to be home, but hopefully this week we'll be done with that. All's well.