25 weeks

Time is flying by now, it seems like I went from feel sick and having a suspicion I was pregnant...to having a huge belly and waddling around the house. I'm in full nesting mode now, so I am trying to accomplish as much as possible while I still can, and am still interested! Josh painted the room over the weekend, and It looks even better than I imagined it! I got the idea right off another blog...I think, but it made the tiny room look so much bigger and brighter. Here are some before pictures:

and after!! Josh really did such an amazing job, we were nervous about getting the lines perfect, but after learning a few tricks they turned out as perfect as you can get them!

Snow days...

These are just a few pictures from the snow...first us watching Horton Hears a Who...and then venturing out into the leftover snow

 

Summer Nostaglia

We had an amazing week of warm weather, and now we are back to being too cold to play outside this week. Noah spent almost everyday playing in the backyard, and he actually begs at the back door to go outside! Daddy is so happy that he is such an outdoors men! Now this week he isn't really understanding why he can't go outside to play...here are just a few more pictures from last summer of Noah in the pool, I think he is about the cutest baby ever!

  

I had a prenatal appointment yesterday, 24 weeks already! It's hard to believe. Everything looked great, and though the doctor says it's too soon to tell if she is on the bigger side...I just feel that she will be. My guess is at least 9 pounds, maybe more!

She always seems to be hiding her face during the ultrasound, but from the little I saw, she could not look less like Noah! She may take more after daddy, which isn't surprising since Noah looks almost identical to me. 

All in all, we are starting to get very excited, and I have convinced Josh to get their room painted this weekend so the decorating can begin! I ordered the crib yesterday...for some reason I never realized I would need two cribs since they are so close in age. I will be taking tons of before and after pictures of their room....more to come

Friday!

Remember when Friday used to be the greatest day in the world! Yeah...I barely remember it too. It's amazing how quickly that feeling and excitement disappeared and Friday became just another day of the week that also included cooking and cleaning and changing diapers (or whatever your grownup week consists of)! Of course I'd never want to be school aged again, yuck, but it's amazing how the most important things in your childhood fade into adulthood and you barely even notice it. 

Now, having said that. I will say I am looking forward to summer like it will be the last day of school! This was my first winter with a toddler, and man..it's hard! It's consisted of lots of movies, staying in our pajamas, and basic laziness. I will say the pregnancy played a huge part of that and the two week snow blizzard played an even huger part! Now I'm trying to piece together a maternity wardrobe (without actually buying maternity clothes...they fit weird!)to get me through the warmer months, and I'm searching for Noah's swim wear. I'm torn between an adorable speedo, which will also double as blackmail later, 
or one of those suits with floaties built in that looks incredible dorky, but makes me feel safer! After years of being a lifeguard in the summer, I'm so paranoid with small kids around water.
Side Note:one of my brothers had a speedo that was white and had hotdogs and hamburgers on it. I remember it so clearly for some reason even though he must have been only 3! If I find a picture of it...I won't hesitate to post it. 

First things first, we do have our two day assembly in a few weeks, so I'm planning for that. I'm searching for some sort of lunch box for Noah that he can carry himself...all in all they are always such a mini vacation so we can't wait!
It's been a long month, and today is wrapping up the worst of it and getting things done! Hopefully we can spend this weekend as a family and have a little fun!

The Sun!

That's right, the sun! It's back and slowly melting off this ridiculous amount of snow! I know we must seem pathetic here, seriously, snow can shut down an entire city almost completely for almost two full weeks! I guess it can and it seems we aren't the only ones...but this week is looking at highs in the 70's, and even the warmer 50's felt great this weekend! 

A few things I'm thinking about this week, first off, Radiohead finally set a date for their new album! I'm so excited about it, it was supposed to come out last summer...so I've been patiently awaiting it's arrival, the best part...it comes out in 5 days!

 

check it out  

Noah is currently obsessed with the movie Horton Hears a Who..I don't know when it started, but he carries the dvd case around constantly, and watches parts of it almost every day!

Horton Hears a Who

I've been wondering what to get him for our anniversary in September, and I'm not positive that he will even really care...but I some plush Horton elephants online that are adorable! I'm also considering ordering the little lunch box for our upcoming assembly. So many of those things are just as much for my entertainment...I seriously doubt at 14 months he cares at all what his lunch comes in, but I do have to keep myself entertained!

 

 

TV Zombie...

It's come to my attention that I may be a bit of a TV addict. It's hard to admit, but I know it's true. I don't know when or how it happened, but my TV seems to always be on, even just for background noise. Now that I can admit it, my goal is to make a change and not let it happen to Noah too! I notice that when he is in the room with the TV on, his eyes are fixated, and the mouth drops open. There's no distracting him, and this is not just for cartoons, if the TV is on, he's glued to it! It's amazing because when I turn it off and turn the radio on, he's completely different, a whole new Noah emerges, the Noah that's using brain cells!! I guess my point is, I don't want to create another TV zombie, our generation has plenty and its up to me to break the cycle. My goal will be to spend more time doing anything and everything that doesn't involve staring at a glowing screen, seeing as it will be amazing weather next week I shouldn't have any trouble! 

I can cook, who knew!

Since we have been snowed in, (yes we still are...day 13 I think!) I've tried to get a little more creative with my cooking, and so far things have turned out great! Josh and I decided to take turns being in charge of cooking each week, that way he gets a little break and I get to try out new recipes! The hard part is keeping him out of the way when it's my turn...with my new success, It's inspired me to build a cookbook over the next year of all out favorite recipes and the new ones that turn out, I don't know if I'll stick to it, but it's fun to take pictures of pretty food...so I'll need a place to put them.

We are still snowed in, and at this point I have succumbed to pajamas. It's a historical winter, apparently. So I guess it will be a story to tell one day...one a brighter note, the forecast for the this weekend and next week looks amazing! Climbing up to almost 70 at some point, may sound hard to believe, but around here, we expect that sort of weather!

Here are a few pictures emailed to me this morning by a friend from last summer, Noah is so incredible round! I guess I don't realize how much he looks like a little boy now and not a baby. 

So thankful for pictures!

This is us at the Zoo, we don't have a lot of pictures with all of us because I'm usually taking the pictures! I'm really glad to have this one!

 It's hard to believe that just a few months ago he was this little toothless, drooling, blabbering fool. Now he is eating his eggs with a fork!
 

Sunday!

Saying farewell to a very long week. Just about every scary grown up problem (as far as house & car go...) happened this week, all under a mountain of record breaking pure white snow. The snow its self is still beautiful to me, since Josh will be returning to work finally, I'm planning on getting more creative this week and getting some pictures of it. Creativity has saved many a housewife....

Despite it all, we are confident now (after small breakdowns here and there) that we will survive, and figure things out. We always do. Maybe five or ten years we can look back and see how silly we were to get so upset over a broken pipe or a little car trouble.

Or laugh at how broke we would get, and think to ourselves "how did we do that?"

Well, for now I'm trying to find that mind set now. We are young and healthy, have the most amazing and entertaining little toddler to hang out with, I have a good healthy pregnancy well on it's way to bring us another completely new person to hang out with....so no matter what else these winter storms will bring, THAT is what we do have! I will do my best to see that now, Noah is becoming more of a man every single day and I won't waste any of that time wondering how I will get to my destinations, 

I'm already here, and this is it!

I wish I could capture these moments better on film, just the mood of it, the lighting. I wish you could hear these little burst of memories and see them like I do. 

This is why I want a new camera to better capture them! For now, he's still adorable, flash and all.

Tomorrow will be Monday, again, and I will face it much happier than I thought. I will get satisfaction out of my routines because they benefit everyone around me, and at the end of the day that does make me happy. I choose to be happy about the week ahead because if not the mundane will claim me its next victim,& I just dont play like that.

Heart

Heart! we will forget him, you and I tonight!

you may forget the warmth he gave,

I will forget the light!

 This necklace instantly made me think of a favorite Emily Dickinson poem...it's a bit dreary of course..moving on.
It's a little soon to be thinking about our anniversary this year, but it's big number 5! Wow it's gone fast...just thought I'd share what I'm hoping for this year! (this and a new d slr camera!)

find it here 

Josh got an awesome gift last year, and this year he is getting a newborn baby girl...that's about all I could come up with!

The sky is falling!

Well not really, but it felt like it today! After a long week of being snowed in together, having truck issues, a busted water pipe and this morning terrible van issues...we are feeling worn out! There's another snow storm headed our way, and without a van to drive, i might as well get over it already and make the best of it. We did manage to get a few small projects done, like finally hang the T.V up in the bedroom. I also found a few cans of left over paint in the garage, after letting it thaw all day I mixed them together to paint our bathroom...the color turned out pretty good! Here are before and after pictures:

Before

 

 

 

 Side note about this picture, I didn't realize Josh was in it, and apparently he didn't either...but it was the only one I took! Boys are gross.

after

 

It's still an ugly, dated room. The color did improve it though!

On a happier note, Noah was in a good mood and completely oblivious to all our grown up troubles. 

Just for fun, we took a few pictures of me in the snow to compare them to me at almost 6 months with Noah...in very different weather:

21 weeks

21 weeks

23 weeks (Noah)

23 weeks (Noah)

 Josh was really embarrassed that I went outside in his thermal pants...I don't see what the big deal is, I mean when you grow out of your pants...what else can you do? ;)

Up until this point, I had only one girl name I felt pretty sure about, and I promised Josh I'd keep an open mind if he could come up with something else, well he managed to do that and now I don't know what I want! The list so far is: Willow, Petra & Stella. I think we've decided to make a final decision once we meet her and just see what fits. For now her official nickname will be June Bug!

No more snow please!

Our ability to handle snow is pretty pathetic around here...I realize it's been a record amount, but it's scary to think a little snow is all it takes to leave us literally trapped indoors!! 
Today has dragged on more than the rest...at first it was nice to be together at home with nothing to do and nowhere to go, but now the walls are just closing in. What made it all worse was the fact that we all got bundled up, got the car warmed up and then realized our truck would not start...which happened to be parked behind the van! Trapped!!! Our driveway is clear, the neighborhood is fairly clear (thanks to a neighbor on a rented bobcat), and here we are trapped by our own vehicle. Josh plans on taking a walk to the nearest auto part store tomorrow to take care of business...
So that was our day, all this snow has Josh thinking about our vegetable garden for the warmer weather, let the planning begin!

Blizzard...day two

We are still completely trapped by snow. To make things worse, a few pipes froze and cracked and poor Josh had to spend the entire day outside shoveling snow out of the way, and fixing it. Thanks to some help from a few friends...we now have hot water! Neither of our cars can handle this much snow, luckily there's a store at the end of our street that we can walk to for essentials! 
Noah spent most of the day looking out the window watching daddy work...

My week of cooking has so far been a success! I made an Asian pasta type dish tonight...and I was so impressed I felt like I needed to take pictures...I thought it was pretty, and Josh couldn't stop eating it. Noah wouldn't touch it...but he's doing that with everything besides bread and bananas right now...

 In conclusion...we will be snowed in for a few more days at least, so I am thankful for my laptop, netflix and Josh having plenty of vacation days to stay home with us!

Making Plans...

I've been in full nesting mode since...well, since the morning sickness wore off! We have plans to take a little shopping trip and then spend the rest of the week redecorating Noah's room to accommodate two babies (Noah is still a baby to me...)! This project will include a total closet makeover, paint, and finally pulling up ugly carpet and cleaning up the wood floors underneath. Here's what I have planned as far as wall color. 

I feel like it can be gender neutral, I'm planning on using orange for an accent color!

 I think this DIY wall art is genius, so simple too! Just a little fabric

 Its hard to not make the room totally girly...these can go just on her side ;)

There is such a plethora of cute newborn things, mostly for their first photo shoot. It's hard to narrow down my favorite headbands & bloomers! Like these amazing vespa ones!

 http://racheldenbow.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

 so many accessories for girls out there...we may need a bigger house...