November

Why Hello November!
I guess it's almost gone now so it's time I update the blog again.

Home ownership is busy!
We have now blown through all of the money we saved up for the last 3 years for home buying. "Where did it go?" you ask? So do I!
With several thousands of dollars we bought:

• A yard, sprinkler system, and the labor to landscape and install all of it
• Blinds
• Appliances (Dishwasher, Fridge, Stove/Oven, Microwave, Washer, and Dryer)
• Dinning Table with 4 chairs and a Bench (seats 8-10 when extended)
• Claire's "built-in" shelves and bench
• La-Z-Boy rocking chair

And that's all. So you look at our house and it doesn't look very furnished or finished, but it at least has all the basic necessities. For the most part we tried to buy quality items that will last and so far, so good! There is at least one last big purchase pending: built-ins for the living room. We're waiting for our tax return for that one. Our most recent purchase though was a couch set. We were looking at buying something new, but gosh! Couches are expensive. So I checked KSL Classifieds and found a set for a little less than half the price. The guy selling the couches had only owned them 6 months, and actually, unfortunately for him but great for us, he suffers from an OCD cleaning disorder. So the couches are in GREAT condition! (for now) We borrowed Phillipa's truck  to bring them home ridiculously late at night, so no one was out and about to help Peter bring them inside. I helped him drag them off the truck into the garage--like 3 feet. They are a sage green/gray. I really like them a lot. In the other guy's apartment they looked more gray than green, but in our house they look more green. Which is slightly unfortunate because I was really going for a white, blue, and gray look in the living room, and when I put anything blue near the couch, it just looks MORE green. So... green tones it is.Oh well. Not the end of the world.

What do you think, Kady? Is there any way to have my teal/blue, white, and gray color scheme with a green gray couch?

Our front room now holds the old couch:

So my days are full of entertaining Claire, crafting, cleaning, cooking, and babysitting. Then on the weekends Peter tries to knock off a few items from his never ending project list. We're constantly clearing out and rearranging the garage. Things tend to build up there.

But honestly, with all this stuff to do, most evenings, once Claire has gone to bed, all we want to do is die on the couch and watch TV.

I've been going to a chiropractor for a few weeks now, and I really feel so much better!  I hadn't realized that I was living with so much pain! I still need to work on strengthening my back muscles, but the doctor says that will have to wait until after the baby comes. Meh. Ok by me!

My next OBGYN appointment is on Wednesday(today!). We start the day off with an ultrasound which will hopefully show us what our baby's gender is! We are super excited. Peter says he wants another girl to save on costs, but I know he wants a little boy. He says it doesn't matter if it is a boy or not though because Claire already loves trains. :-)

Events that occurred recently:

Last Saturday (Nov. 16) I finally got around to doing a project that I've been planning for the last THREE YEARS involving felt, pom poms, and hot glue and I seriously burned the palm of my hand. I had just put glue on a pom pom when Claire came over WAVING her hands at me about something obviously important and I dropped the pom pom right into the palm of my left hand. It hurt SO BAD. I got a huge blister--between the size of a dime and nickle. Yeah... I cried too. And the rest of the day Claire kept saying, "no! Mama not sad! Claire kiss it better. Be happy!" She was very concerned that I should always be happy. One week later the blister is gone and replaced by what appears to be a weird scab-like callus. I'm thinking I should have released the pressure so the skin may have returned to normal. So I probably  now have a permanent reminder of a bit of crafting foolishness.

The next day (Sunday Nov. 17) our ward split. We still overflow into the gym, but only half of the gym is full now instead of all of it. (It isn't a full sized gym, but there are two basketball hoops. The 3-point line is a few feet away from the would-be half-court line.) So this week and next week we only have sacrament meeting while the presidencies and teachers are called. Our meeting time changed too to accommodate all the wards in the building (4). We made the switch for the year so our new meeting time of 1:30 will last all through next year. Right during Claire's nap time. I've been forcing her to continue her naps daily, and I'm really afraid that this will be the beginning of the end of Claire's afternoon naps. Oh well!

Friday Nov. 22 I had 5 kids at my house (including Claire). 2 three year olds, 2 two year olds, and 1 one and a half year old. Oh my goodness. It was a couple hours of crazy here. It really wasn't bad until we got out the food. I have no idea how to feed that many kids. There were many spills, a few tears, and several messes, but we all got through and all were fed.

Saturday we went to one of Claire's friend's birthday party. She turned 3 and Clarie now thinks that she is three so that she can have a birthday. She's really excited about having a birthday. She's also a bit excited about Santa this year. Super fun!


And Sunday Peter and I hung some pictures/calendars on the walls. We have quite a few large spaces to fill and now 3 are down. Then in the evening we went to Peter's mom's house to celebrate Phillipa's and Francesco's birthdays with dinner. Claire had a hot dog and lots of olives and pickles. The rest of us enjoyed potatoes and raclette. In case you are unfamiliar, it is a Swiss cheese fondue. Yum. Honestly, it smells kinda funny while it's melting, but tastes amazing.

And that is everything interesting that we've been up to.

BOO!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here's a picture of my two loves heading out to trick-or-treat! Sofia the First and Steve Jobs.

 

Claire was SO excited to get dressed up and go trick-or-treating when daddy came home. I waited until after her nap to tell her that she would be going trick-or-treating. It was my incentive to get her to practice saying "trick-or-treat."

This picture is just adorable!

And here is the after trick-or-treating:

Claire's "smile"

 

Obviously, we've been pretty busy over here for the last couple of months with birthdays and parties and MOVING and now unpacking. We are finally at a place where I'm not compelled to unpack a box each day. So I can start blogging again--hopefully regularly.

So here's a virtual tour, through pictures, of the main living areas of our house--the downstairs.

Here's the front of our house--with grass!--all decorated for the big day! Until this afternoon there were only pumpkins on the front porch and a mummy door. Now there is caution tape, spiders and spider webs, and jack-o-lanterns! And a cute little girl ready to go trick-or-treating.

And would you look at that porch!

Would you like a close up of the carvings?

BOO!
Did you get it?
Are you surprised?

I'm already 15 weeks along. It hasn't been too terribly difficult keeping the secret because I don't really have good friends to talk to about that sort of thing here yet. But that has also been the hardest part, not joking about/complaining about the worst part of being pregnant. One friend said she liked waiting to tell people because then those people weren't bugging her so long about "how much longer" she would be pregnant. I dunno. I got bored of not telling people. I'm ready to be excited about having a baby!
Sometimes it's still unreal. Last time I was SO eager. This time, now that I'm feeling better, I've pretty much forgotten that I'm pregnant until I hear that little heartbeat at the doctor's office!

Another factor in us choosing to wait to tell people (mostly just me) was that we know at least 5 other people or more who are having babies early next year--a few of them in April. So I thought we could wait and try to be less white noise in the baby announcing frenzy.

But enough about that. Here's the rest of the house.

 The first room on the right as you enter the house. This is the music room and library. This is also where I'm storing all of our boxes of pictures.

Claire's window stickies in that room.

The stairs are next.

The door to the left of the stairs leads to the basement.

 On the wall opposite the stairs and basement are the coat closet and then powder bathroom.

Straight ahead is the living room.

 To the left is the tech center, dining area, and kitchen.

And the mess of toys in between the two areas.

Off of the kitchen is the mudroom/garage entrance.

And here is my kitchen. To the left of the fridge is my pantry door. It currently stays closed. :-/

I honestly haven't had much trouble keeping the counters "clean." Generally I like it clutter free, but I am also referring to crumbs and marks. I only wipe the whole thing down once a week or so (it's a lot of counter to wipe!). I do big spills as the come.

So there it is. All of the exciting things happening over here are all out now! Hooray! Yay for the holidays!

It's June!

For the past two weeks (the beginning of June) I've been trying really hard to just DO stuff. And to use my time well--not necessarily efficiently. I've just been trying to get stuff done that needs to be done and stay away from time drains like Facebook and TV. I haven't even been reading my books like I was a few weeks ago.

So almost every day for the last two weeks I have been focusing on working out, getting outside, cleaning inside, keeping up with laundry, and making dinner. We have had a planned dinner every night and I worked out at least 3 times each week. We also went to the park 9 out of 10 days (we don't go on the weekends). 

Claire loves the park. She is getting really good at going up the ladders alone. PLUS This summer the city is giving lunches to children under 18yo. So I haven't made Claire lunch in a good while :- D

It definitely got hot enough for swimming!

And Daddy brought home his old toy trains for his little girl who also LOVES "choo choos."

Claire likes to help water the flowers. The water is really cold.

We stop to smell the roses every day. Mmmm!

We've been eating TONS of grapes.

And we went to visit our house together! This picture was taken on Tuesday the 11th. You can see our garage floor and the gravel where the driveway and sidewalk will be.

The is sideways but it's our basement floor and some plumbing and a window well to the back yard.

As of Friday, Peter reports that wood for framing had been delivered and was sitting on our property! Hooray! It's REALLY going to look like a house now!

They added that pole on the right and the tubes right in front.

 And look at that wood!

Claire got car sick on the ride down to the house so we made sure to let her have a good long break before we got back in the car. We stopped at our neighborhood city park and played for a while.

So those are our days. At night I've been editing photos and trying to organize myself enough to blog. I'm not really fast at any of that because I'm a total perfectionist--most of the time. Sometimes I just try to throw it together (like this post--I know what you're thinking, this is just thrown together? Yes--and it took me over an hour!) and it still takes forever. 

I've also generally just been planning and getting more things done--like gift buying and wrapping for Father's day and our anniversary and a very special WEDDING! These coming two weeks are going to be packed full of fun and excitement! The only problems: time off and money! Technically all extra money (and then some) is supposed to be going to the house, but we're suckers for presents and gift giving! I sure love us as a couple!

Also to mention, around Monday the 3rd Constance saw a commercial on TV and mentioned that she was interested in seeing Jersey Boys and I was SO excited and told her I wanted to go too! They were in town for two weeks only and shows started that week. So Constance dragged me along to the show on Thursday night and it was FABULOUS! If you don't know, it's about the boy group The Four Seasons and how they became famous and what happened to them. Amazing music. It was just a ton of fun. I still have the playbill, but no pictures. It was so good to 1) be out and 2) go be cultured and in a theatre again!

So...

Our summer sure is off to a great start!

Best Week Ever!

I'd just like to say that I have the best little family EVER!
My husband is amazing and spoils me as much as possible.
And our daughter is beyond cute! She says the darndest things and has such a fun and happy way of living!
This week was just perfect!

Today
Peter and I had to give talks in church today so several of my nights this past week were filled with reading, studying, and writing in bed. It actually felt kind of nice to be researching and writing again. I didn't realize how much I missed that part of college! (gross right?!) Seriously though, I fell right back into the swing of my paper writing routine, except that this time, I started early! I started on Tuesday and this paper wasn't due till Sunday! Go me! I'll have you know, everything was typed and printed a whole 30 minutes before church started this morning! Yeah...

Claire helping to write my talk.

But it seriously is a huge improvement from my last talk. My last talk was maybe 8 minutes long. I maybe could have stretched it to 10 if I didn't talk so fast because I was so nervous. This time I managed to speak an entire 20 minutes! And Peter said I got going too fast for a bit too. But I learned something from that 8 minute talk.

I cannot wing it.
I cannot just write down basic ideas and start talking about it freely.

So this time I wrote a whole 10 page paper. It was the easiest and quickest 10 pages I have ever written. Let's hear it for a lifetime of knowledge and the Holy Ghost bringing it all to my remembrance coming through for a win! So yes, I read my entire talk. But I wrote it exactly like I would say it--that's just how I roll. And I looked up at the audience frequently. And I tucked my hair behind my ear nervously in a tick-like fashion. : )  (I've picked up a few things from living with Peter ; -) )

But it was all heart-felt and honest. I talked about Living Prophets and Revelation and Peter talked about Personal Revelation. I loved my topic because all I had to do was remember everything awesome about General Conference. And how awesome is General Conference?!

Check out Pres. Uchtdorf! He's probably winking at his wife! :)

So that was today.

We'll just go backwards now.

Yesterday, Saturday
We bought appliances for our house!
Yeah, our house comes with appliances, but we didn't like what was offered through our builder, so we went with the standard included appliances and upgraded them separately. We'll have the appliances of our choosing delivered and installed once we have closed on the house--hopefully at the end of August! We bought them this weekend though because typically Memorial Day Weekend is the best time to get great deals on appliances.
And we did!
We bought a french door fridge, slide-in gas range, above the stove microwave, dishwasher, and washer and dryer for about $6,000 including taxes and some installation.
It is hard giving away so much money!
We have been saving a TON for so long now that I feel REALLY poor.
But it's an exchange, right? Money for appliances. Money for house.

For kitchen appliances we went with the Frigidaire Gallery line in stainless steel.

I found this picture on Amazon.

This isn't my kitchen, but it's almost exactly what my kitchen will look like. My floor will be wood and my counter top is a bit darker gray. My fridge is also the TEENIEST bit different, but I only know this because we almost bought this model. We actually decided on the newer one. Beautiful right?! Seriously, my husband spoils me.

For our washer and dryer we were torn between a Maytag (just like yours mom!) and LG set that were both on sale for great prices. We settled on the LG because, according to Consumer Reports (thanks for the help Dad!), they have a better repair rate and are less noisy than the Maytag. Our laundry room is on the second floor with the bedrooms so vibration and noise were a concern for us. We didn't get the pedestals.

LG TurboWash Series WM3070HWA--incase you're wondering.
Picture from http://www.ajmadison.com

Friday
Peter took the morning off from work to come to the last day of Baby Animal Days at This Is The Place Heritage Park with me and Claire.
What a PERFECT day!
It was cool outside, but the sun was warm. We got there just as the park opened so it wasn't crowded at all. Claire loved petting all of the animals and naming the ones she knew. She thought a lot of them were funny and said "uh oh!" a lot as they were pushing each other out of the way to eat their breakfasts at the stalls.

It's a good thing Peter was there because I do NOT catch baby chicks. I was definitely scared. Haha. I know. Lame.

The whole experience reminded Peter that he wants goats and a chicken coop. Not happening.
Claire really wanted to look closely at the ponies, but once she got close she wouldn't let go of my neck. Her "pony ride" was a little embarrassing. Thank goodness hardly anyone was there and no one was waiting in line after us.

This is her screaming "no" as I tried to get her to let go of my neck.

Claire really liked milking this "cow." It dripped a bit of water when you squeezed it, but I think it was mostly empty.

One of the streets had a little village of small children's houses. Claire loved opening and closing the doors and banging on the little windows to look at mommy and daddy. Peter is determined to design and build one for Claire.

All Week
Peter worked late and left early nearly every day this week to try and get a product working. He's had some successes and some set backs, but mostly progress. The hardest part about it is that his boss had no idea he'd been putting in so many hours. Downside of working remotely.

We also tried, once again, to potty train Claire.

Once again, it went well for the first two days until she started saying "no!"
I think she has a serious fear of pooping in the toilet. She doesn't say as much, but she always denies needing to go or having had an accident when it comes to number 2.
So I have once again given up and am officially waiting until after we move into our own house. Oh well.
I kind of feel like I wasted a lot of time and effort. But I'm trying to find a different way of looking at it.
Meh.

On the plus side, we found a way to get Claire to go to sleep without crying, again! For a few weeks she reverted back to melting down EVERY NIGHT when we left her room. She was also determined to only go to bed with Mommy. What usually happened was I would put her down to bed; 5-10 minutes later she would start crying, and Peter would go in and quickly tell her goodnight and lie her down again, and she would go to sleep. This graduated to a cycle of crying and soothing for 30 minutes and sometimes up to an hour. When the crying started carrying over into nap time, I decided something had to be done. (She usually is happy to take a nap and goes right down.)

First we tried going in to her room as quickly as we could. Then we tried a graduated crying method. Then one night when Peter was gone to work I ignored her for 15-20 minutes while she cried. She still cried.

Then one day she decided that the stuffed giraffe that Grandma Lieber had bought her at the zoo was the Best new toy ever. (That may have been influenced by her newly-found-favorite-cousin Taylar's love for the same toy when she got it.) She had trouble going to sleep at nap time that day, so I went and grabbed her newly appreciated giraffe (I've named him Fred for her) and placed it in her arms. She went right to sleep. We haven't had a bad night since! Except tonight because she woke up from her after-church nap at 5pm and wasn't really ready for her regular bedtime at 7:30. Oh well.

Claire has also been on a SERIOUS coloring spree! She colors EVERY day for at least 30 minutes straight! She loves naming the colors, writing her name, naming and coloring in shapes, and drawing mommy, daddy, and our house.

Writing her name. She says all the letters, just not in the right order.

So happy to get her picture taken.

After smiling for a while it turns into this "smile."

She's started coloring things in all of the way! Not always inside of  the lines, but she definitely tries to get them all colored. She is also very concerned with choosing the right color.

Coloring Daddy.

We also did bubbles and side walk chalk outside a lot this week. The weather has just been perfectly mild. Hooray for the beginnings of summer!

So I think that is just about everything that happened this week. So much fun!