Halloween!

O the Spider!


d & O - Spiderman and his Spider.

That little floating blob to the left? I think it dressed up as a baby! It suddenly looks really, really BABY to me.

My stupid, stupid camera is broken and I did manage to get some good pics of O, but very few of d, which makes me sad. I need to get the stupid thing fixed!
Halloween was a big hit around here! O and I handed out candy and d & D went trick or treating. He got a load and insisted on coming home because his pumpkin was too heavy. ha!
Also, we got rid of all the candy we bought! Success!!

house

This one is taken from the stop sign at the end of the cul-de-sac and you can see the neighbor's house too. It should be done around the same time as ours.


Here's the house today. I thought they'd be done by now, but not quite. The back and sides are totally finished, so what you see is all that's left to be bricked.

Blogger hates me so it took me an inordinate amount of time to upload these two pics. Enjoy.

Christmas

I started my Christmas shopping today. Besides stocking stuffers, I'm done with the boys. I have my nieces to buy for and also both sets of grandparents and the names we and the kids drew on each side of the family.
The best part about all this shopping is that Christmas is hardly going to cost us anything! For months and months I've been saving up our cash back bonus awards on our credit cards. We use cc for everything and pay them in full every month. We've never paid them interest or a late fee so this is truly "free money." With the cashback and gift cards I used our points for, we had a little over $200 to spend on Christmas gifts. I also have another $60 gift card that I'll use to buy the remainder of the gifts. My goal is to spend $300 or less on Christmas this year (not counting shipping for those presents I'll have to mail.)
All this shopping and penny pinching this morning caused me to wonder about other people's Christmas budgets. Obviously the bigger the family, the more it costs too.
We're really trying to keep Christmas small so that it doesn't break us since we are building the house too. Plus, the kids are still small and don't expect anything yet.
So, how's your Christmas budget? Also, when do you finish Christmas shopping? I try my best to be done before Thanksgiving because I hate crowded stores and it's a nightmare everywhere I go after Thanksgiving.

neighbors

The neighborhood we live in now is a decent neighborhood, but it has it's share of very bratty kids whose parents let them run wild and people who let their dogs poop on your lawn. Also, for the most part, the people here aren't very friendly. (in the South! Can you imagine?!)
Well, tonight we went to a holiday party in our new neighborhood. (Btw, they started bricking the house - yay! It looks awesome!) We met our immediate neighbors, plus many of the other people in the neighborhood. We were by far the youngest and the only ones there with young kids, but they were all so friendly and nice! The entire community is only 57 houses, so we'll have a chance to get to know our neighbors pretty well.
I really like the sense of community I felt there. It makes me excited to move in!

O crawling

A true man already. Look what he's after...

Untitled from Devan on Vimeo.

Penny & Owen

Our very gentle and tolerant pooch with our very slobbery kid. Don't worry - I wouldn't leave them alone. ;)

Untitled from Devan on Vimeo.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

These are really yummy and I'm posting the original recipe that I have. In the ones I made yesterday I used pumpkin pie mix instead of regular pumpkin and then cut back a teeeeny bit on the ginger so it wouldn't be so strong. However, I think these are more pumpkin-y with regular canned pumpkin and NOT the pie mix. I'm going to try it that way next time.

2 cups all purpose flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger (less if you don't care for ginger)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
dash of ground allspice
1 egg
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2/3 cup milk
3 TBSP butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips (I used regular size and I recommend using the mini's for a better distribution of chocolate and pumpkin. :) )

Combine the 1st 7 ingredients in large bowl. Combine the rest, except the chocolate chips, in another bowl and mix into dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes. (grease muffins tins or use muffin cup inserts.)
Yield: 1 dozen

Good, bad and random

Good:
We went to the pumpkin patch Saturday and had a great time. This farm is awesome. They have hay rides and animals to pet, corn cribs, cotton jumping, a hay maze, and pumpkin picking.
Then, on Sunday, we went to visit some friends at their parents house and there were a bunch of us with little kids there. (we know each other already.) We went on a hay ride and had yummy soup afterwards, plus just got to hang out and chat while the kids played. Great weekend activities!

Bad:
Our open house was yesterday from 2-4. ONE. 1. Couple showed up. I'm so disappointed! ugh! We had 4 showings the first 2 days it was on the market and then NOTHING since then. We thought an open house would be great. We cleaned and cleaned and mowed and weeded and painted and for what? ONE frigging couple. Crap.
Also, not this coming up weekend, but the next, we were planning a visit to a town about 1.5 hours north. D has a rugby game there on Saturday and they have an awesome aquarium and children's museum. D told his parents about it last night because they called to chat and asked what was going on. His mom was like, "oh, well we were going to come see you that weekend because it's our ONLY free weekend."
1st- how about asking first? (you know, instead of acting all disappointed and put out that we already have plans because you never told us what you were planning!)
2nd- yes, I'm sure two 50 somethings, one retired, are just as busy as we are with 2 small children and a house selling, building situation. Anyway...
3rd - Can you see where this is going? Yes, you guessed it. Our little weekend getaway is now including them.
However, at least they aren't coming here, because the nightmare of having overnight visitors while trying to sell the house is not something I want to experience. I'm thinking that seperate hotel rooms and eating out is going to be a LOT easier for me. Plus, it's only for a short weekend, so it won't be that bad, right?
I think I just hate the "we're coming too!" aspect of this situation.

Random:
I made pumpkin chocolate chips muffins and YUM! Also, I found out last night that one of my girlfriends is pregnant and due 2 days after me! yay! This is her 2nd.

My head is full

I've been thinking a lot about this pregnancy for the last month or so. I'd be lying if I said I was taking this well.
Let's be clear for a moment, shall we? I WANT this baby, but I don't want to be pregnant. At least not right now.
If I lost the baby I would be devastated and so sad and undoubtedly terribly guilty because I just put it out there that I don't really want to be pregnant right now.
*sigh*
I'm sure that there are infertile women, and women struggling to get pregnant and women who desperately want a baby cursing me right now and I don't blame them. I'm being whiny. My feelings are mine though, and I claim them. I'm not perfect.

I'll admit to being a bit selfish right now. I hate taking care of the boys by myself and feeling so damn sick all the time. I hate having to drag my maternity clothes out of the attic when I just put them away. I hate the naseau, the hormones, the exhaustion, the depression. I hate nursing and then making a bottle as well. I hate bottle feeding. I don't care if other people use bottles and formula, I don't think it's evil, I just didn't want to use it myself. I hate the guilt that I'm screwing O out of a babyhood of his own.
I hate that I was dumb enough to get myself into this mess. D knows I blame him, but it's really my fault too. I knew it could happen.
The first trimester affects me this way. It gets to me. Trust me when I say that I can't reach 14 weeks soon enough.

Lest you fear for me or the kids, let me assure you that we are fine. I am tired and I am worn out but I am dealing. We aren't in danger over here. We have good days more often than bad.
In fact, the boys are the light. They keep me going. I mean, really, I don't have a choice! They need so much!
When I see how they love each other it helps me tremedously. This baby will fit in and it will be fine. I will get over this little funk and get over feeling sorry for myself. I know I'm blessed. I just need a reminder sometimes.

Milestones

Well, O is officially crawling. I can't believe how fast these 6 months have gone by. He can do so many things! He crawls, he scoots and he goes from flat to sitting in no time. What's more scary is that this week when I go into his room to get him from naps, he's often hanging on the bars of his crib, pulled up to his knees and grinning from ear to ear. It won't be long before he figures out how to get to his feet! Eeeps!
According to our scale at home, he's right about 20 lbs and he feels every ounce of it. Carrying him around is quite a chore!
He wants so badly to do everything that d is doing. You can see the adoration in his eyes and it fills my heart up. It also gives me hope that everything really will be alright when baby3 gets here. They'll all love each other so much. (right?)


Untitled from Devan on Vimeo.

he was wrong!

My 2 year old is not psychic! Woo!! There is one healthy little blob in there. EDD is May 26th.

house today

More pictures!

Standing at the far side of the living room. O is in the corner of the living room, near one of the entrances to the kitchen. To the left is the dining room.

Standing in the kitchen, looking towards the backyard.

The brick.

The house.

Standing in the living room, looking toward the backyard. Kitchen to the left, bedrooms to the right.

Master bath. His and hers closets, one to each side of the garden tub.

Shower with seat!

I can't wait till they start bricking it!! My u/s is in the morning and I'm so nervous! Stay tuned.

Friday!

It's Friday! My favorite day of the week! My brain is too fried to make this coherent, so let's have a list, shall we?

1 - See that floating baby over there to the left? Doesn't it seem like it's getting bigger really fast? I can't wait till Monday's u/s to see if I'm right on the dates or not.
2 - We've had 3 showings! Our house officially hit the market late Wednesday night and we had 2 showings yesterday and one this morning. I hope this house sells fast so that I can quit cleaning with every free second.
3 - My house is still clean. (it's a miracle!)
4 - I haven't mentioned the potty in 4 days and this morning d stripped down and ran to the potty and went. BY himself. I don't know what gives, but he's got the right idea. I haven't mentioned the potty since then either, but he did get a balloon for being a big boy. hehe
5 - It's a cruel joke that I'm craving sandwiches but am not allowed to have lunch meat. hmph
6 - Both of the kids are napping at the same time. I actually got to eat lunch and get online! It's a great Friday!
7 - Our new house is coming along! The roof is done, the windows and doors are in and D says there are bathtubs inside and that the plumbing and electrical are done! I drove by today and saw piles of brick so that must be next. Also, the sprinkler system is done. I'll take more pics this weekend. I'm starting to get excited.
8 - I SWEAR I've felt the baby move, but I KNOW I couldn't have, because it's like the size of a pea or something. I must be crazy.

And the day is done.

Thank goodness.

I can't even tell you how much time it took me to de-clutter and clean the ENTIRE house. Thank goodness it's less than 1800 sq feet! It looks pretty awesome though.
D came home and he was like, "did we move out?!"

Heh.

Starting tomorrow, our house is officially "on the market." Oh, and that POD thing? They delivered it and I thought, MAN this thing is huge! I guess D was right, the bigger one would have been waaay too big. This one is good.
Turns out they never got the order change and DID deliver the bigger one. SO, they'll be back tomorrow to pick it up and bring the smaller one. Sheesh.

Also, on a completely unrelated note. After 2.5 weeks, we have officially given up on potty training. He was having more accidents than successes and begging to be in a diaper. I give up! At this point I'd rather change a diaper on a happy kid than have a stinker running around peeing on the floor.

Now, my back is killing me and my uterus hurts. I think I'm going to go lie down.

GAH!

Pissed. That is the one word you could use to describe me right now.

D has been so helpful and mostly understanding for the last couple of months. This week, he's having to work in a city 1.5 hours south, which means early morning departures and no help during the day. I get that. It's work.
However, being a jerk doesn't have to be part of the job.

He's still set to arrive home at 5:30 every day. Yesterday we had a hell of a day. I'm trying to get the house ready to show, which means major deep cleaning and de-cluttering. d didn't take a nap and O took only cat naps. I definitely overdid it, my back was killing me and I was exhausted.
While I was making dinner, I called D at 5:20 to see if he was almost home because both kids were screaming and I thought if I could just make it ten. more. minutes. I wouldn't have to explode.
HE HADN'T LEFT YET. Which means he wouldn't be home for at least 2 hours!
I thought I would cry. I know, I know, it's work! But he has a cell phone! So do I! Call!

Once I got over that I gave both kids an extremely early bedtime. (What? It's almost dark at 6:30!) Luckily, they cooperated.

I had also ordered a POD to be delivered to our house to pack up some stuff so that we could actually try and sell our house without crap, er, toys and clutter everywhere. It was not cheap. BUT they bring it to you, they pick it up and take it away and they take it to your new house when you call. Easy and convenient. Can you imagine packing up the mini with boxes and both kids and driving to a storage building and unloading everything (undoubtedly by myself) and doing it again in 2 months when we move?! I couldn't either.

D was annoyed though. It's too expensive. You got the wrong size. Blah blah.
That annoyed ME because I busted my butt all day and not only did he not comment on the extrememly clean and uncluttered bedroom we were sitting in, he found fault with something I did to make life easier for all of us. (but especially me) So HE called and changed our order to the smaller size. Fine.
This morning we had an email confirming our order. The price was wrong. It was more expensive than the webquote and than what was discussed on the phone, but still cheaper than our original order. He was ticked off, which I understand. I told him to call and fix it, I was busy cleaning the other 6 rooms in our house. Plus, he has an almost 2 hour (not traffic filled) drive this morning while I don't. (Though I'm now feeling guilty I'm taking the time to post this rant instead of cleaning. heh)
We got into a big fight and he wanted to cancel the whole thing. GAH! I said no way and it was ugly. Finally, he agreed to call on his drive in and straighten it out.
If he cancels it, there will be hell to pay. We don't have time to mess around! This house is going on the market tomorrow and it needs to be ready. If we want to sell it before we close on the other house, then we need a contract before Thanksgiving.

I guess I'm really just pissed because I feel like I'm working like a crazy woman and taking care of the kids and house by myself and still managed to make dinner and all I got was a husband who couldn't give me the courtesy of a call or a thank you.

He did manage to make O's bottle this morning, let me sleep in a little bit (6:30 lol) and take out the trash so he's not all bad. I can't figure out a good way to end this and time is ticking. I need to clean!

watch this!

d & O from Devan on Vimeo.

Your Title Here

I bit the bullet and called and scheduled my u/s this morning. I go in next Monday morning so I only have to wait a week.

Last night, D thought it was acceptable to rinse raw meat off over the bottles in the sink. ew.
After I washed the bottles, I put them in a pot of water and set it to boil. In true mommy and pregnancy brain fashion, I walked away to do one of the million other things on my list. I never remembered to walk back into the kitchen. I got distracted by laundry and then Desperate Housewives. Halfway through Brothers and Sisters I saw a baby getting a bottle and it hit me! I had left the bottles boiling for hours! (or so I thought.) I jumped up and started to race into the kitchen and D started laughing hysterically and informed me that he turned them off ages ago.
I swear, if I was alone, I would have burnt down the house. Not to mention totally ruined the bottles. Am I just going to keep getting dumber?

I'm alive!

I'm still here, even though it feels like it's been ages since I posted. I've been sick. I just wasn't ready for the first trimester yet again and I forgot how miserable I am in it. Hopefully the morning all day sickness won't last too many more weeks. By Thanksgiving I expect to be fully recovered. (hopefully before that even!)
The more time that passes, the more I think that 3 might be the magic number for our family. Of course, I'm not sure enough to do anything drastic just yet. D is still pretty convinced that he wants 4 or 5 kids, but 4 is my upper limit.
Of course, the spacing is important. With O and this baby just 13 months apart, we're planning on waiting at least a year and a half before we even consider another addition. At that point, if we feel we're done, then someone is getting snipped. (and it's not me.)
I already feel a burden for this baby. Countless people have told me that they hope it's a girl.
On one hand, if I HAD to choose, I'd choose a girl too, since I already have 2 wonderful little boys. On the other hand, if we have a boy I'll be happy as a clam. I love my boys and it's familiar territory. Plus, they'd be so close in age - what fun they'd have!
I just hate the feeling that people will think that we're disappointed if it turns out to be a boy. Also, I don't want them to be disappointed. If we DO have a girl, and decide later that we're done, I don't want others to think we stopped because we finally had a girl. That wouldn't be the case at all.

Question for the internets: When you were pregnant, if you had an older child, did they express that they felt the baby was one gender over another? Or more than one?
d was always insistent that O was a boy, and he was right, but he had a 50% chance, right?
Now d is insisting that there are 2 babies in my tummy. I thought he was saying we'd have two babies, O and the new baby. But when forced to clarify he insisted that there were 2 babies in my tummy and that O is a "big baby now."
I'm not particularly freaked out, because the chances of him being right are so small. I mean, what are the odds? However, I admit it gave me pause. I can't imagine a 3 year old, a one year old and newborn twins. I should have an ultrasound in the next week or two, as soon as I schedule it, so we'll know before too long. I'm praying desperately hoping that he's wrong though.

baby!

Jen over at Never Melts had her baby!! Go see!!

Can you believe? Also, pictures.

Can you believe:
That 3 years ago, when I was pregnant for the first time, I actually enjoyed it? Even the first trimester!

That since June of 2004, I have NOT been pregnant or breastfeeding for only 4 months?

That in May of 2008, I will have had 3 kids in 3 years and 3 months?

That formula costs $28 a can? I had no idea!!

That I have the cutest kids ever?

___________________________
Have you ever heard of Babylegs? They are this nifty little product that I happened upon when d was learning to crawl. They are sort of like baby leg warmers. O has been getting monster carpet burn from his quest to crawl so I busted them out again. (The hat is just for fun.)

They have c-u-t-e designs too!! You can check them out here: http://www.babylegs.net/

stepping up

I've had many posts on this blog about D. We had some rough times shortly after O was born, and I had serious doubts about the strength of our marriage.
Things have gotten vastly better since then. In fact, since I've found out that I'm pregnant again, D has been wonderful.
True he's still working overtime, but that's work. He's been helping out with O during the night, letting me sleep in in the mornings while he gives d breakfast and plays with him, even trying to remember to take out the trash. He forgot to put the trash bag in this morning, but hey, nobody is perfect. He even said that he'll help me clean up the kitchen when he gets home from work if I don't get to it! (it's a disaster! Bottles = a lot of work.)
He's calmed my fraying nerves more than once and helped me feel like maybe I can do this. (not that I have a choice at this point...)
He even fixed the grout in shower last night, something I've asked him to do for at least a year and finally gave up on. It could be that he's finally gotten it. It could also be that rugby is here again and he knows that he's *thisclose* to being DONE for good because of all that we have going on.

Either way, the house is still a disaster and I still feel like crap, but at least I know that I have a shoulder to lean on. And that, my friends, makes all the difference.

more house

Sunday: Next step is the windows and doors, then roof and bricks!

(garage is left, bedrooms right)

Trying to show our yard. Our property line goes all the way back to about the 2nd post on the fence. We'll have a very large side yard.

Nice, big covered back porch.

(window on far right, kitchen. Moving left: kitchen door, then living room window, living room french doors and I think one more living room window.)

Darren took this pic of the inside. For the life of me, I can't figure out which rooms we are looking at. Ask me again when we have walls. :)