The upstairs bathroom is nearly done

Frank was here over the weekend with the plan to get the bathroom ready for grout and he succeeded.  All of the tiles are in place waiting to be grouted.  Here's the shower.

The vanity (we did run into a few hiccups...we forgot to buy a gfi socket, and we bought the wrong light switch thingy, so there are wires still hanging out of the wall.  We also bought a medicine cabinet that was too big (though the guy at Home Depot insisted it would fit), and Frank did some surgery on the wall and made it fit.)

The tiles in the shower

Friday was Peter's day off, so he installed the drip system for our veggies.  This front side of the yard as well as part of it that's not pictured will be our garden area.  We are currently growing zucchini, several types of peppers, cucumbers and a tomato here.  Though the other area will have watermelon, cantaloupe, butternut squash, and yellow squash.  Not to mention we still have the little bricked in area that is currently housing several varieties of cherry tomatoes, carrots, peas(though it's almost the end of the season for that), radishes, red bell peppers, blackberries, ollaliberries, strawberries, some green beans, onions and celery.  And we have blueberries, and cilantro in pots and a grape vine waiting to be planted.  I hope it all grows well.  Connor has been devouring every strawberry that even remotely turns red.  He'll likely eat all of the cherry tomatoes too.  Though once our zucchini gets going, I'm sure we'll have plenty to share.

Here's our first boysenberry...almost ready.  I'm sure Connor will enjoy it in the next couple of days.

Our neighbors keep commenting on our yard.  All of the flowers are in bloom and it really looks great.

Here are some baby grapes on our grape vine.

During this week Frank hopes to come by after work and grout the bathroom so he can install the toilet and the last of the shower/sink parts and it'll be done.  Then he'll be busy mudding and texturing the bedrooms.  Oh yes parts of our plan have changed.  We decided to have Frank do all four bedrooms upstairs which involved moving all the stuff that was located in one room downstairs and out of the way.  So our new family room is loaded with stuff.  We're also moving the family room to the front room of the house (originally the living room).  Then we will have a kitchen/dining room next to each other, which made more sense.  We're also adding an island to the kitchen...but the upstairs is a priority so that will be taken care of first.

Peter plans on planting the grape vine this week and building some sort of support system for it.  He'll also add more drip hose so I can plant more seeds to the side area of the front yard.  He's also talking about replacing the manifold area as well since it leaks pretty badly and we have to turn all of the systems on by hand.  He's also going to get a timer, so that'll be pretty cool.

My job this week is to order the window treatments.  Currently we have red paper over our family room windows-it really is quite lovely :)  My mom and I measured almost all of the windows on Saturday so now I just have to get them ordered.  Peter and I also have to order the cabinets for the island since it'll take about 4 weeks or so for them to make and ship them.

There's major progress being made and I'm really excited to get the bedrooms upstairs done. 

The past two weekends

Two weeks ago we celebrated Bubba's birthday.  We bought him a kite which we took to the park the following day to fly.  Normally Hilltop Park is breezy, but of course on the day we want to fly a kite it was completely still.  The flag on the flagpole which was up a good 30 feet or so lay motionless.  Just our luck.  So instead we played on the playground for awhile. Connor really enjoyed the slides.

 Connor and Bubba go down together

Connor had a blast!

Just as we were about to call it quits, the wind started to pick up.  The flag started dancing so we grabbed Bubba's kite, put it together and attempted to fly it.  Unfortunately the wind came in about 5 minute increments.  As long as the wind was blowing the kite would stay in the air, but as soon as the wind died down, the kite took a nose dive.  After trying for quite awhile to keep it up, we realized it just wasn't going to happen that day, so we packed it all up.  We'll have to try another time when there's some obvious wind.

This weekend Peter went out and bought a lawn mower and then gave the grass a trim.  He also placed the edger pieces around the grass so the lawn looks a bit more complete.  We ran out of pieces though, so another Home Depot trip is in our future.  I don't think we've gone a single weekend without going there at least once since buying the house.  They should know us by name by now.

While Peter was buying the lawnmower I headed out to get my hair cut.  While I was there I told Karina that I was going out to my work's annual dinner and auction that night.  So she styled my hair really nice for me.  I got so many compliments...I was loving it.  I even wore makeup (yes I just said that)!  I felt really girly and spiffy(as my dad would say).  It was fun dressing up (sort of-it was what I had that fit). 

Oh yes and here's the bump at 23 weeks.  People keep telling me that they're glad I'm finally showing...
Friends/coworkers/family members all told me that with your second and multiple children you show much earlier on.  This wasn't the case for me.  I showed with Connor around 15-17 weeks.  This one was about 20 weeks when I finally couldn't wear normal clothes anymore.  And sometime within the last week or so the belly just jumped out, or at least that's what people tell me...I noticed it awhile ago.

We have grass!

This weekend was very productive...actually the last few weekends have been very productive, I'm not sure where we get all the energy from.  Saturday morning Peter and his dad picked up sod and now we have grass in our front yard.  It looks amazing!  Oh so much better than what it looked like before and all the neighbors are well pleased.  Now apparently we need to buy a lawn mower for our tiny grass...but we intend on having grass in the backyard at some point so it's all good.  Peter also played with another set of sprinklers which are on his to do list for next weekend.  There are two lines that are capped.  One we will uncap and use with a drip system for our veggies that we'll plant in the front yard.

I don't know why this picture turned the background pink...but here are Peter and his dad laying sod.

 Connor loved rolling in the grass...

...and in the dirt.

Isn't it pretty?

Then we watered it...

...and the boy too.

Also on Saturday we bought several veggie plants...Home Depot is having their spring Black Friday sale until the 10th, so the plants that are normally $3.98 each were 5 for $10, so of course I bought 10 of them.  They also have Behr paint for $5 off a 1 gallon can, well I need like 6 cans so I'm meeting my mom at Home Depot tomorrow after work with some fabric samples and hopefully we can pick some great colors for Connor's room and the nursery.  We've also changed our minds on what the nursery will be...yes it's still Winnie the Pooh, but there will be a cute Pooh border that we're doing.  The bottom portion of the room will be a light green and the top and ceiling will be a light blue color.  I'm also adding in some cute butterfly sticker decals too.  The back of the shelving unit will be yellow and the shelves will be white with baskets to hold baby clothing.  It's going to be really cute.  Connor's room will be yellow with two colors of green as mountains.  Then we'll put up these cute safari decals.  I'm excited to see some progress with the rooms.  I also might be nesting a little bit. :) 

Next week's project-Insert drip system and garden in this area.

The upstairs bathroom is a work in progress again.  Frank came by this weekend and worked on the tile for the shower and the floor and installed the vanity.  Now we can call our granite people and have them install the counter top this week hopefully.  Frank said he'll be by a couple times this week to work on the tiles.  He'll be gone for a business trip this upcoming weekend, so he's trying to get things done with the bathroom so he can work on the rooms.

 Here's the shower tile and the nook for soap/shampoo that Frank created for us.

 And the bathroom...yes it's small, but it is going to be oh so cool when it's all done. 

 I can hardly wait!

Easter

Last week was Spring Break for me!  It was great!  We found out the gender of the baby on Monday, Tuesday Connor and I ran errands, Wednesday we went to the Safari Park with grandpa-I managed to snap this cute shot and then my camera battery died. 

 Thursday we ran more errands and played in the garden.  Then Friday, daddy had the day off of work.  He and Connor went to the Safari Park again with cousins and grandpa.  Then they came home and worked on the front yard.  The two of them installed sprinklers.

We haven't figured out how to adjust the pressure just yet.  So the sprinklers spray EVERYTHING.

Connor helped me gather some of our veggies.  He was delighted to see all of the carrots we grew.  Aren't they pretty?!  We used several of the colorful carrots, radishes and peas in a salad we made on Sunday.  They were delish.

Saturday afternoon we went to Chris and Mary's for an Easter egg hunt in their front yard.  They just moved into a house in Ramona that hasn't had the yard weeded/mowed in a long time.  The grass was up to our knees, so basically waist high for the little kids.  Connor and Calvin's eggs were hidden near the driveway in little patches of grass.  The girls' eggs were hidden further out.  I'm not sure all were found.  Good thing we used plastic eggs with candy instead of the real deal.

Sunday the Easter bunny came.  Connor got three books that all contain about 6 or 7 books in one.  He loves them.  He also got a coloring book, some playdoh, and of course some candy.

Checking out the loot in the basket

Enjoying a peep

It's a GIRL!

Apparently I'm terrible at the guessing the gender of the baby game....I was convinced that Connor was going to be a girl and he clearly isn't.  Then I was pretty sure this little gummy bear was going to be a boy and it isn't.  Here's a look at our little girl gummy bear.

These pictures never look quite like it does on screen.  Or maybe it's easier on the screen as the technician is telling you exactly what you're looking at.  In any case, here is the profile (above) and the gender identification (below).

After leaving the appointment, I ran over to Babies R Us and bought this:

It will go perfectly with the "Big Brother" shirt I ordered online last night.

Is it a boy or is it a girl?

Monday morning we go and find out the gender of baby #2.  I think it is going to be a boy but I really have no clue. 

Connor:  I was nauseous pretty much round the clock.  Most often in the evening and early morning.  I threw up multiple times-basically stopped counting when I ran out of fingers and toes...though I threw up more during 12-24 weeks than I did during the first trimester.  Connor rode very low causing me to go to the bathroom quite frequently.  At 15 weeks I was wearing maternity pants.

Baby: Nope not nauseous...very very little amount of nauseous feeling in the mornings of 8-12 weeks, and have puked a grand total of 3 times.  I do get stomach aches in the evening, but I figure that's just because I've eaten too much food at one time.  It definitely feels like this one is riding low too.  I'm at 19 weeks and I'm not wearing maternity clothes yet...though some of my pants/skirts are getting too tight.  With Connor I had a boppy maternity pillow around 22 weeks.  This one I got my pillow out a few weeks ago to help ease the back pain, though I always end up waking up on my back. 

At my last appointment...about a month ago I only gained 1 pound.
Dr: Are you eating?
Me: Yes
Dr:  Are you sick?
Me: No
Dr:  You need to eat more!
Me: Okay, my husband has been having me eat as if I had diabetes, so I don't get it as fast.
Dr:  You don't have it yet, so don't worry about it yet.  Eat whatever you'd like, just be careful around straight sugars.  We'll test you again at 26 weeks.
Me:  Really 26 weeks!  Sweet!
Dr: If you pass it then, we'll test you again at 32 weeks which is when you failed it before.  Generally with each pregnancy you'll get it sooner, but sometimes it starts at the same point as the previous pregnancy.
Me: Okay, sounds good to me. (still walking on cloud 9 over the whole I get to wait 2 1/2 months before I test again)

I clearly don't have gestational diabetes yet.  I go in again for a regular check up on Friday, hopefully I've gained more weight.

Yard and Connor

Wow we got a lot accomplished this weekend:
Friday Peter had the day off and so did I so we ran some errands and did stuff around the house.  We borrowed Peter's dad's truck while he was out of town-While returning home with the truck Peter got pulled over and received a fix it ticket....apparently all three brake lights were out on the truck...oops.  We used the truck anyway and picked up a load of amended soil for our front yard.  We headed out to Evergreen Nursery, got a load of dirt and picked up a grape vine, a raspberry bush and some shrubs.  We went looking for a dwarf blood orange tree but only found standard ones so we bought everything else instead :)  Back at home we planted plants.  Peter unloaded the truck.  Then we ran to Home Depot and Costco and picked up a few more plants.  We also went to Armstrong Gardens to look for fuschias but we came home empty handed there...we might go back on Monday and get some though.  So basically Friday was a shopping day and we started planting some things.  Oh yes we bought an orange tree at Home Depot, not a blood orange, but a dwarf regular orange.  We plan on going back and special ordering a blood orange soon.  (Above the apricot tree surrounded by shrubs.)

 The front yard...look all the roses are in bloom!

 The raspberry bush I picked up at the nursery and then divided into this pot.

 So Saturday morning rolls around. Peter used a pick axe to dig up our front yard-the area that we will intall grass in soon (hopefully). We go to pick up a blood orange tree that my mom has...but Peter decides he doesn't want it, so we replant it in a deeper hole.  Okay now off to drop the truck off and to tell David of his fix it ticket.  While there we pick some oranges off of their tree and oh how yummy they are.  We left with a bag full.  Then it was naptime, or so I thought.  Connor got a two minute power nap on the way to grandma and grandpa's house and thought that was all he needed...arg!  He sat in bed for roughly 30 minutes and then his "nap" was over.  We went back to the front yard to survey our mess and to plant more...but we didn't have any cactus soil or soil amendments for fruit trees...so off to Home Depot we ventured once again.  With a quick trip to Costco to pick up some birthday presents for nephews and a niece.  At Home Depot I picked up some pretty white ground cover flowers and two bags of soil.  Peter gathered up parts to install sprinklers for our grass.  At some point while heading to the registers we had six long tubes of pvc piping barely balancing on the cart.  Peter turns a corner and one starts to fall.  A worker at Home Depot comes over to help and knocks two more off the cart.  Peter grabs for them and then another worker comes over to help and pretty soon all six pvc pipes are on the ground. I had to laugh.

Back at home we planted our plants, watered and cleaned up our mess.  Our neighbors said it looked like our yard was coming along.  Yeah I'll second that.  Our roses are in bloom and its obvious that we are doing something with the mounds of dirt we keep digging up.  I hope to have grass in by Easter, but that might be asking too much as Peter is helping Chris and Mary move next weekend...but it's still my goal.

 Above-Celery, below cilantro that Connor keeps digging up.

 More cilantro that we've used, planted more, but Connor thinks that's a good spot to play with a shovel so we'll see what survives.

 Last month the majority of our pea plants got some nasty bug or disease on them.  They turned white and all the peas were gray and gross looking.  I ripped out all the affected plants, which left our pea collection a bit bare, but every weekend we still get about a half bag of peas.  We used to get about 2 bags full.  Eh oh well, you win some you lose some.  When the peas die out, I'm going to plant a grape vine.

 The grape vine anxiously waiting

 Costco had succulents on sale for pretty cheap, so we bought three largeish containers to fill up one of our window boxes.

 The previous weekend we bought these fuscias at Armstrong for $14 each.  We went back this weekend and they were all hanging in baskets being sold for $25 each...ARG!  We should've bought more when we had the chance.

 This is a boysenberry root with a bud on it....we're so excited!  You can't buy boysenberries in the stores around here.

 This little pepper came out of nowhere.  I didn't plant it in my azalea pot and yet there it is.

 Strawberries!  Yes we get strawberries pretty regularly.  Connor goes out and finds all the good ones daily.

 He also likes to help water the garden.

 These are white radishes.  They're called Easter Egg radishes...so appropriate.  They're planted in the same area as the peas, but these two look the best as they are not covered by the peas, like most of the other radish seeds.

 Here's the area that is going to be grass.  And you can see all of our roses...well most of them at least.  They're all in bloom except one I think.

Connor's photo of his favorite book.  We ordered this online and it has 10 Biscuit books inside it.  We read it every night and many times throughout the day.

 

 One evening while getting ready for bed we noticed Connor had lined up all of his binkies.  We were down to two at one point so I have no idea where all of these came from.  We keep throwing out the green ones as he bites holes in them.  These are for bedtime and nap time only.  He enjoys having one in his mouth and one in each hand to play with before falling asleep.  He enjoys switching them around too.  Lately he has been climbing into bed to retrieve these during the day, or he'll sit in bed and play with them. 

Our Wild Weekend

A little while back Mary had asked us if we could watch the kids on Saturday.  We said sure.  Then she called and said we only needed to watch Calvin(19mos) since the girls were going to a birthday party and the mom would keep them all day so they could attend the party.  So then we were down to Calvin and Connor.  Saturday was great!  We ran to Home Depot and Walter Andersen's Nursery.  The boys enjoyed running up and down the walkways at the nursery.  As we drove home Calvin was quick to fall asleep and Connor was starting to fall asleep too, so we stopped at my parents' house to pick up the pack in play so we could put both boys down for a nap.  Well Calvin transferred to the pack n play quite well.  Connor did not!  He was awake and enjoyed his cat nap and was ready to play.  By the time Calvin woke up Connor was running out of steam so we put him to bed.  Calvin helped us "garden."  Then it was time for him to go home.

Today we had all four of Chris and Mary's children.  We were to take them to church, then bring them back to our house.  We would make dinner and feed everyone before Mary had to head to work and Chris would come home from training.  Well that was the plan...but then while Peter and Connor were in the shower Ellie says her tummy really hurt.  I told her to go to the bathroom...she didn't make it.  She got off the couch and barfed all over the floor.  I didn't know that much stuff could come out of a little kid.  She stopped momentarily and then began again...about three times.  When it sounded like she was roughly empty I had Camille take her to the toilet....I didn't want to clean up barf all down the hall.  And no sooner had she sat down by the toilet but then more vomit came out of her.  Camille being the little mommy that she is, undressed her from her Sunday clothes and put her back in her pajamas, while I cleaned up the mess.  (I generally ask for help from other teachers when this happens at school as I have quite a weak stomach, but I held my breath and it wasn't as bad as it could've been.)  By the time I had the mess mostly cleaned up and all clothes and blankets in the wash, Ellie returned from the bathroom and sat down on the couch.  She got up a few times later, but always managed to make it to the toilet...again I didn't know all that mess could be stored up in a little girl.

Once everything was clean it was on to plan B...I took four children to church while Peter stayed home with Ellie.  Camille was in charge of keeping Calvin close by, I had Connor and Claire promised to be on her best behavior.  They all lasted until about the last 3 minutes of sacrament meeting, when Calvin and Connor thought it would be great fun to run up the aisle to the sacrament table.  I'm sure it looked like I was herding monkeys.  2 minutes later Peter shows up to "help"...If only he showed up 5 minutes prior.  And then it was time for primary and nursery.  After church we moved the pack n play upstairs and Calvin went down immediately.  Connor had a little playtime and then went down and they both woke up within 30 minutes of each other.  Camille and I played Lego Harry Potter while Claire played outside in the sandbox.  Once everyone was awake they all played in the sandbox.  We had dinner then Chris arrived and shortly thereafter Mary and Ellie arrived.  We did a little switcheroo with the kids and then Mary was off to work and Chris headed home with his kids.

Frank didn't come again this weekend.  His home project turned out to be bigger than he thought, which given we had extra children it all worked out for the best.  We were wondering how we were going to get two kids to nap if there was a lot of noise going on upstairs-we always take Connor to my parents' house for nap time when Frank is making a lot of noise.

Poor Little Guy

Last Friday evening Connor started acting a bit tired/cranky early.  Saturday, Sunday and Monday he had a fever, runny nose and nasty sounding cough.  By Tuesday he seemed to have perked up a little bit making us think he was starting to get over this bug....well Wednesday hit and he cried basically the entire day.  When I went to pick him up after work he was snuggling with Grandpa and clearly looked a bit dazed.  He went from laughing to crying in about 30 seconds.  The little guy was miserable.  I held him as he passed gas and filled his diaper and then promptly fell asleep on me.  Realizing he really smelled bad I picked up the blanket that was on him only to find diarrhea all over his clothes and the blanket.   Problem...kid just fell asleep and feels miserable...what do I do?  Well I couldn't stand the smell so I woke him to clean him up, which involved putting him in a shower because no amount of wet wipes were getting that smell off of him.  So he basically screamed and didn't want to get in the shower, but I held him in there and washed him off.  Then shortly after I got him out and dried him off, but of course before I could get a diaper on him he peed all over the cabinets, the door and the floor.  I was startled by this and grabbed him to get him closer to the shower and of course he stopped peeing.  Then as if I was asking an older child I said, "are you done?"  He replied by peeing all over my shoe, pants and the floor.  So into the shower he went again.  Yes more screaming and crying was involved.  I'm sure it was a comical mess to anyone but me.  Okay out of the shower once more, dried off and diapered quickly I decide to take care of Connor and throw all the dirty clothes and blanket on the peed on floor and I would clean that up last.  I walk out to the family room to get Connor's extra set of clothes and fill them in as to the fun we were having in the bathroom.  Part of which was I knew I had pee on my shoes but I didn't know how much of the wetness on my pants was pee and how much was water from the shower.  With me dressing Connor, my dad got to work on throwing dirty clothes in the wash and mopping the bathroom floor.  We went home shortly thereafter.  I told Peter of our "fun" and requested he call the pediatrician today and make an appointment or go to urgent care as our kiddo was certainly under the weather and quite frankly if nothing else I just wanted peace of mind.

So Today he calls, gets and appointment and goes.  Connor HATES the doctor's office.  So in order to take his weight they had to weigh Peter and then weigh Peter holding Connor and subtract.  Peter said it went downhill from there.  He told the pediatrician, "my wife made me come in, she thinks there's something wrong since he wouldn't stop crying yesterday."  The pediatrician looked in one ear and said, "well this one has an infection so that might be your problem."  Then she looked in the other ear and said, "this one has an infection too and it is much worse."  She then said, "sometimes mommy's have this special mother's intuition...they just know when their kid is sick...daddy's don't have it quite the same way."  The pediatrician said they'll look into the diarrhea later if it doesn't clear up within the next few days.  They have another appointment in 10 days to make sure the ear infections are gone.

So now Connor takes this fruity medicine twice a day and well....he likes taking medicine about as much as he likes going to the doctor's office.  We even bribed him with ice cream...that didn't work.  Anybody have any great ideas for getting a toddler to not spit out medicine?