Nesting!

Well I have been doing a lot of nesting in the last 2 months since Zach came back from Portland, we found out what we were having and I quit throwing up. I knew my days were numbered until this baby came or I just couldn't move anymore. No the baby has not arrived but I am getting to the end of my energy. My midwife wants my feet up more and I am just so exhausted that the nesting process has slowed down significantly. Thankfully I have finished about 80% of the house.

I have gone through almost every room in the house purging, reorganizing and cleaning out cupboards and closets.

Here is the kitchen after I reorganized and made room for the baby bottles and inevitable collection of baby items that end up in the kitchen.



Kids Bathroom Closet

I have also finished the Kids' bathroom, Hall Closets, Living Room, Laundry Room, Cleaning Closet, Master Bathroom. The only thing left to do is the Master closet and Bedroom. A few final details on the "Big Kids'" Room, and the nursery.

My nesting came with a long honey do list for my honey as well as a list of things we have been talking about for a while. We have been trying to create more storage to make things more accessible and functional. In the dining room we added cupboards for kids arts & crafts as well as homeschool items.

I love this. Before I had all of the crayons, coloring books, stickers, play dough stuffed in a cupboard so tight that we honestly never used any of it. It was too much of a hassle to get out.

Our next dilemma was putting the kids in one room and still having enough room for toys and books and clothes, not to mention space to play. We initially bought a bunk bed that had a trundle underneath and dresser, desk and shelves in the middle. It became apparent pretty quickly that the unit was too much for our little room. Samuel wasn't ready to be up on the top bunk so he was still sleeping in his toddler bed. The trundle slid all over on our wood floor and wasn't deep enough to keep blankets in the drawer with the mattress. It also did not leave very much play space.

So we put it up for sale and started rethinking things. I had an idea about toddler bunk beds. We only found one place that made them and it would have been close to $1200. So we started toying with the idea of Zach making them. Zach's friend Brian thought it was a great idea and was willing to help him. So after about $200 in parts.

Before

After

Zach and Brian spent a good day and a half building these. Zach spent another week whenever he was home sanding and staining. I think they turned out amazing. The kids are super excited to start sleeping in them. Samuel will sleep in them for the first time tonight. As for Ellie, we will try and make the transition a couple of weeks before the baby is due, to work out some of the kinks of them sharing a room.

The next issue was organization for the closet.

We had plenty of space it just was not very functional. After shopping around and working on a plan this is what we came up with.

We switched to bifold doors that Zach had to cut down to the right size, stain and install. We bought the center unit from Ikea and then cut the shelves and rods to the right size. Zach again did an awesome job.

We are pretty close to being ready for this baby to come. I just have a few more things I would like to finish.  

The Midwife says slow down!

Well we had our midwife appointment today. Everything looks good. Baby's heartbeat was a little slower at 140 today but she was happy with that. Still measuring right on time. The only thing she said is that I need to slow down and have more time with my cankles feet up. This was her way of saying I don't want to make you put your feet up. I have so much I want to get done. I am not sure how to do that. I guess it is good that I have organized most of the house except our bedroom, and closet and the final move of baby stuff into the nursery. Thankfully many of my other things on my to do list I can do with my feet up. Books to read, catching up on S & E 's babybooks. I guess I have an excuse to ignore the 4 loads of laundry on the couch that are screaming at me to fold and put them away.

Princess Ellie turns three!!

3 years ago we met this little angel. She was born at St. Joes in Bellingham. The dimple in her chin was the first thing everyone noticed. She also had her first tooth at birth. Before I had her I worried a lot about weather I could really love a second child as much as I did my first one. It did not take very long to realize that God allows our hearts to grow and the love just keeps on growing with it.

At the hospital

She is definitely her own little person. Everything I thought I had figured out with Samuel I had to relearn with her. She didn't do anything the same way. She sucked her fingers, put everything she found on the floor or anywhere for that matter in her mouth. She ate her board books, then tore the covers into bits of paper all over her floor. We started to think that we had misnamed her Ellianna Grace, as she tended more towards Ellianna the destroyer. I am having faith that she will still grow into the name we gave her.

1 Year Old

She is our fearless adventure girl. She is not afraid to climb anything, to try anything. She has no concept of danger. And very selective hearing. This makes for many near heart attacks for me. But she is just so darn cute.

2 Year Old

We started her birthday off as I have since Samuel's very first birthday. We woke her up with a birthday song. Normally I have a small gift for them to open at this time but I was so exhausted the night before I just couldn't stay up any longer to wrap presents. Good thing she didn't remember that from last year. She just had to be happy with the Balloon daddy had stopped for on the way home from work. ($9 balloon I might add. Really for a balloon?) Samuel sang to her multiple times on his ukulele. It was adorable. And what do you think the first thing that came out of her mouth was when she woke up enough to communicate.

"I still want to suck my fingers."

This was followed by a trip to the mall to ride the train. I have been saying no to this since the train started driving around our mall. I promised we would come and do it on her birthday. Go figure the train was closed two days a week which happened to fall on her birthday. Thankfully she was not to bothered by this, especially when we played in the play area, picked out her big girl bike and went to the dairy for ice cream before daddy had to go to work.

We went to Grandma Scott's house for a special birthday dinner. Ellie was super excited about the presents that were waiting on the table for her. And when she saw the birthday cake the only thing she cared about was that Grandma had gone to get m-n-ms for her cake. We had a hard time convincing her to go play until dinner. She sat in her chair saying she was fine waiting to open her presents. So we let her open one. That was enough to get her to go play.

 She got a glowing firefly from Grandma King
A Pink Bat, Pink Glove, Pink Tball, CD set, Outfit from Grandma & Papa Scott and Uncle Michael.
From Mom and Dad she got a new bike, a jewelry box with beads to make necklaces with mommy, a sesame street book pack and four adorable hair clips which she insisted Papa put in her hair all at once.

 Samuel and Ellie have this idea in their head that if they don't have birthday cake that they won't grow bigger on their birthday. Ellie has called birthday cake just plain birthday for a long time. So there just is no birthday without cake in her mind.

She has grown and changed so much over the past three years. She is loving, caring, affectionate, spunky, stubborn, daring, independent, mischievous. She talks non stop and works very hard to keep up with her brother. They have started to play together a lot. I have to take a step back sometimes and allow them to work out their differences. She has a definite mind of her own.  She has a wonderful imagination. When she doesn't have the object she wants to pretend with, she just holds her hands as if she does and continues on with her play.

There is definitely a little of Ellianna the destroyer left in her. I have been moving all of her stuff to the "big kids" room so I can turn her room back into a nursery. I made the mistake of leaving the closet unlatched with a whole box of costco wipes in it during nap time. This is what I found.

 She had emptied out two or three entire wipe packages as well as opening every single other one and an entire package of Pullups. When I came in to check on her I found her sitting on top of her mountain as happy as can be.

Riverside Birthday Bash

Zach had planned on having a BBQ to celebrate my turning 30. When we figured out that Carolyn turned 40 the day before we thought it might be fun to do a combined party. Zach talked to Sean and then they phoned back and forth for a couple of weeks before coming up with anything definitive. Unfortunately the week before the party was planned for Zach got pretty sick and was home from work that whole week. He finally was able to make phone calls to invite people on Tuesday. The party was planned for Saturday. I wasn't sure how it would all turn out at such short notices especially since Zach was pretty much in bed until the morning of. Thank you mom for doing the shopping.
It turned out wonderfully. We had The Slocums, Us, the Cooks, the Senior Cooks, The Meyers, The Simpsons, Michael, My Parents & My mother-in -law. (I hope I didn't forget anyone). That gave us a total of 15 adults and 14 kids. We had salads, chips and hot dogs cooked over the fire. My mom brought homemade lemonade and birthday cake. It was so simple and so fun and relaxing.
I had been concerned about keeping the kids entertained down at the river park, but they were running and playing the whole time, finding dinosaur fossils, dipping in the water, playing at the park. It was great.

Carolyn & Tammy & Pam



Yes I know my tummy is ginormous. Yes I really do still have 7 more weeks. & NO I AM NOT HAVING TWINS OR TRIPLETS OR ANY OTHER MULTIPLE



Here is Ellie taking a minute to recoup

The boys were eager to get roasting



Everyone roasted their hot dogs over the fire.

Michael taught mom how to play Frisbee and she taught Ellie

Ellie and her God-Father Michael

The kids spent most of the day down at the water, they couldn't really get in very far due to the currents but that didn't slow them down

All in all it was a great day that I would love to repeat a number of times this summer.

Tiny Treasures Preschool End of year

Our intention has always been to home school, but we decided to put the kids in preschool as a chance for them to have some fun interaction in a safe environment. Samuel has attended Tiny Treasure Preschool at my parents church this last year and has loved every second of it. Teacher Brea did a great job and was loved and respected by all of the students. Next year Ellie will be in her class. We are so glad she will be there again.

On one of the last days they had a bring your bike to school day with an obstacle course and a bike washing station. Ellie tried to participate with her strider but ended up carrying the strider half of the time.

I am glad to be done with preschool for the year. We went back and forth about weather or not to do it again next year. In the end we decided that since they will both have their classes at the same time and it is only a total of 5 hours a week, it will be a nice break for me and time with the new baby.

4 Year Old Tball - The Green Machines

This was Samuel's 2nd Year playing Tball. I have to say compared to last year he was much improved. It gave us a good excuse to get out in the occasional sunshine for an hour. Ellie really wanted to play and had a hard time sitting still to watch. She will get to play next year.

His teem mates were adorable. I was amazed, considering their short attention spans that more of the kids did not get beamed by the ball. Only one child did. Samuel got beamed in the chest with a ball. I missed that game but apparently he never cried. Especially when everyone started giving him high fives.

Mommy Reality

So many times I read moms blogs about their parenting methods or about what their families are up to and they make it look so easy. I am sure it is not that way, because in reality each of those children are not just the quiet calm pictures that we see on their blogs but they are noisy little people, individuals who each need to be trained, loved, and nurtured. Sometimes this is completely exhausting.

Take yesterday. Zach has been sick and we are finally starting to get some answers but we have gone to a regular doctor, a cat scan, an ENT, an allergist, an ENT, a sleep specialist, and yesterday we were again at the ENT as Zach is still not getting better. He has been sleeping the better part of this week and still feels like crap. So being 7 months pregnant I am exhausted emotionally and physically. Between worrying about how we are going to pay for all these medical visits and wanting so badly to take good care of him and the kids I am having a hard time.

I think the faucets in my eyes have broken. I burst into tears at the slightest provocation. I know this is a pregnancy thing but it is really quite irritating. Especially when on the inside I am saying why the heck am I crying but yet the tears are rolling out. Maybe I am just retaining water and that is the outlet the water has found, especially since it seems the tears don't really roll they squirt. That has got to be it.

I definitely wondered about my parenting skills when I was at Target getting Zach's prescription. The doctor had suggested taking one pill when migraines start and up to three more in a day. Well the insurance would only allow us 9 pills for $15 in a 30 day period. Which means Zach can get relief from his migraines two days out of the month.

While the pharmacist was filling the prescription I was looking for a new toaster as ours cannot seem to toast without turning our toast black anymore. I spent the whole time trying to make the kids stop poking at each other. Then while I was checking out, talking to the pharmacist. Ellie bites me as hard as she can in the arm. When I tried to finish my conversation before talking to her she did it again. I finally turned around and told her to stop. By then the tears are involuntarily pooling in my eyes. The poor pharmacist was and elderly man and he must of thought the whole thing was nuts. He checked me out as fast as possible. When I got back to the car and got the kids strapped I just dissolved.

Reality check the kids sat in the doctors office with us for an hour and half. Since we had spent the gas to come to town we needed to run our other errands at the same time. So we stopped at one other store before going to Target. The kids stayed in the car with dad sleeping. By the time we were in Target it was really dinner time so they were hungry and since neither of them had slept during their nap they were also tired. Not a good combination for rushed parent errands.

Really parenting may be the most rewarding job there is out there, but I would argue to say it is also the hardest especially when pregnant.