Sex and the City

I don't get many nights, days or even minutes to myself anymore, but last night Danny watched Owen while I went to see Sex and the City with Julie and her girlfriends. This was only the second movie I have seen since just after Owen was born. I did get to see Juno with Julie a few months ago. It was so nice to get out of the house with girls, eat dinner and watch a movie without having to worry about Owen. I must say, I need more nights out like this.

Julie went to San Francisco a few weekends ago and she brought Owen back this adorable shirt.

Here he is modeling his new shirt....

Here he is with Julie when she came to pick me up for our night out...

(oh, and by night out, I mean from 6 pm until 9:30om)

32 Weeks

The latest on us...

We are officially moved in, YEA!!!! Last Thursday night our good friend Bethany kept Owen for us so we could come over to the new house and get it clean for move in day. It took us about 4 hours to get it where I felt good about moving in.

Friday morning the movers arrived around 8:45 am and they started loading the truck. I was a little nervous about what to do with Owen and the dogs while they were there and I think I made myself sick thinking about it. I woke up that morning throwing up and very anxious. Fortunately, our neighbors across the street, Bob and Betty, offered to watch Owen. They kept him from 9:00 am until 4 pm. What a BLESSING! This allowed me to continue packing wardrobe boxes and other things we just ran out of time to get packed. Danny, on the other hand was sitting at the new house waiting on the appliances to be delivered.

Once the movers packed the truck(s)... they ended up calling for a second truck.... we headed over to unload. They were great! They put each box and piece of furniture in the room where we wanted it and assembled our beds and Owen's crib. All I had to do was dress the beds and start unpacking and washing everything.

Danny and I spent most of Friday night getting things settled and ALL day Saturday washing linens and dishes (if it went into a box, it got washed.) We pretty much were unpacked by Saturday night with a few exceptions. We have a few boxes with decorative accessories and picture frames and a box of odds and ends that I just don't know where to put yet and we haven't hung anything on the walls. I am waiting until our living room furniture is ready and then we can see we how we live in the house before we start decorating it.

On Sunday, Danny's dad and step mom came to help with a few projects. I was really not pleased with the hearth the mason's put together with our fireplace, so Dan and Danny cut our hardwoods to make the area larger and they pulled up the stone that had been laid. Danny and I are hoping to go today to pick out something new for the area. We are so ready for the fireplace to be complete and to start touching up the paint around it. Dan and Danny also hung most of our towel bars, rings and toilet paper holders and a security latch to keep Owen out of the pantry. Did I mention we have a PANTRY? We didn't have one before; I am so excited :)

Yesterday, the storm door and blinds were installed and we are putting the deposit down on the fence next Tuesday. Things are really coming together and I must say Danny, Owen and myself have transitioned very well. Molly and Sam, on the other had, have probably had the toughest time adjusting. They have seemed a little sad and confused since we moved. I have read it takes a few weeks for pets to really get acclimated.

I'll try and post pictures soon. I have my camera here, but I can't find the USB cord to upload the pictures. I assume it is still at the other house. We are having dinner with Bob and Betty tonight and I hope to do some cleaning over there (the old house, not Bob and Betty's) and get the last few things still lingering around the house.

** I'll be honest, I am tired and I don't feel like proof reading this post, so please don't hold me accountable for and grammatical errors.**

on that note....

First, I would like to send out a HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish to Danny, who turned the BIG 28 yesterday. Poor thing was stuck driving a rental truck from here to Lincolnton to deliver our furniture to be recovered. When he finally arrived home, he was too tired to celebrate and so was I considering I held a yard sale two weekends in a row. Danny played golf today and we went out to the Japanese Steak House tonight. He really wanted Sushi for his birthday.

We had a great server who really seemed to be in tune with me and my body. Sounds weird, I know. After she took our drink order and brought it back to the table, she looked down at my oh so large stomach and said, "Aw, another a boy." "You are 7 months?" I replied "yes" and she took our dinner order. When she came back to the table, Danny asked her how she knew I was having another boy and she said, "Because she looks so tired." She said, "You are due in July." I told her yes, the 23rd. She then said he would be coming early. I guess we'll just have to wait and see....

Almost ours!

At 11:00 am, we will begin the much anticipated loan document signing and officially, the house will be ours! Yea!!!! We had our walk through yesterday and everything looked great and there were only a few things that didn't meet my type-A cleaning standards; the foreman was more than willing to have these things taken care of.

Just a few more...

So lucky...

to be the mommy to this little guy!

Happy Mother's Day to all you other moms!

29 weeks

I had my 29 week check-up on Monday and everything went well. My glucose test came back ok, so no gestational diabetes here (yea! Especially considering ALL the sweets I have been eating.) I had not gained any weight- WHEW! And the baby's heartbeat was loud and clear.

I have been feeling a lot better lately and with the weather being nice, I have gotten out for many walks. I try to do at least 4 miles a day, but on Wednesday I went three times with three different girlfriends and walked a total of 9 1/2 miles. This makes me happy. I really feel walking so much while pregnant with Owen helped me have an easier labor and delivery. Hopefully the same will be true this time.

It's so hard to believe little Ben will be here in 11 or so weeks.

_____________________________________

Moving update....

Everything is going very smoothly with our upcoming move (Hopefully I haven't just jinxed myself.) We had the bank appraisal this week and the house appraised at 90% to loan value (almost $36,000 more than we are buying it for.) I met a man from Lowe's out there this morning to measure for blinds. We really wanted the wood shutters, but when we started pricing them, we quickly realized we were crazy and not rich. So, we are opting for wood blinds. Bali has just come out with a line that are wider than the 2 1/2 inch that they refer to as shutter style. Hopefully these will look nice.

The cleaning crew was out there getting the house ready, the sod was layed and shrubs were planted this week. It's starting to look more complete and less like a construction zone.

We close on May 15th and we are having a stone company come out on the 16th to start the two-story rock fireplace. I am probably the most concerned about how this will look. I have a vision, but all we have really discussed with the company is a general style and color scheme.

We are set to move in May 23rd. We have a moving company moving us that day and all of our appliances are to be delivered and installed that weekend.

We will still have some time to get our current home cleaned and ready for the new folks. We are set to close June 4th.

18 months

It's so hard to believe my baby is already a 1 1/2 years old. I can remember starting to plan his first birthday party when he turned 6 months and it seems like it was just yesterday.

Since I haven't written much about the little guy lately, I'm going to attempt to do a list of what he's been up to.

- he has a good little vocab including words such as: juice, mama, dada, girls, bye bye, shoes, socks, waffle, nana (banana), this and animal sounds such as: moo, baa for a sheep and baa baa for a duck.

- he has started combining sounds and syllables and I am just waiting for him to blurt out a phrase or sentence any day.

-climbs the furniture

- can open doors

-loves to push the button to open the garage

-enjoys playing outside, going for walks, sliding down the slide, going for wagon rides

- sleeps from 9pm until almost 8am

-still loves to be read to and sang to. I even catch him singing in his crib in the mornings.

- is great at cleaning up. When we sing the clean up and toys away songs, we can get him to put almost everything away.

-loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tiger and Pooh

-hugs and kisses my belly

- will eat almost anything you make for him. Although, he still has reservations about meat, but I think most kids his age do.

- poses to have his picture made

-has become very gentle with Molly and Sam. He likes to give them kisses

-He's very "helpful" in the kitchen. He likes to bring you EVERY pot holder and colander when you're cooking.

-He likes to play with our keys and phones. Usually he takes them and goes to the door and says "bye bye." He does this with travel coffee mugs as well. I guess he sees Danny leaving with one every morning.

-He's very good at following commands.

- likes to brush his own teeth

- has discovered how to put his hand down his diaper and his fingers up his nose... I am not excited about this!

- He is the hit of the party almost everywhere we go. He really has a great personality and is almost always very well behaved.

We just feel so lucky to have him in our lives!

Then and now

Pregnant with Owen (above)

Pregnant with Ben (Right)

I am hoping to have these blown up into two large canvases to hang in our new house.

Waiting for Ben

Thanks....

Thanks for all your suggestions! We took our Economic Stimulus check and bought a Whirlpool Set that was about as close to our current set as we could find. We talked Best Buy into giving us 10% off the dryer and we had a coupon for 12%, so we used it for the washer. We also had a $300 gift card that we received when we bought our Kitchen Aid package a few weeks ago. With the money we saved, I went next door to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a Dyson hand held (with a 20% coupon.) We still have about $600 of the check left, so we are thinking about getting a glass front door. Yea for the Economic Stimulus check!

Suggestions....

The people who bought our house negotiated our washer and dryer into their offer, so now we have to buy new ones. AHHHHHH! We actually love the Whirlpool Gold set that we have, but they are no longer being made. A lot of the major brands have come out with new designs recently, and most of them are getting mixed reviews. I don't know what to think about front loaders (other than they use less water and look very attractive) since they get mixed reviews and are expensive to repair.

Have any of you purchased a new set (front or top loaders)? Any suggestions????