Peek a Boo

Creighton loves to play Peek a Boo with Kiley. First is his "Peek" face, then his "Boo" face- which is overdoes sometimes. He hold his hands over his eyes for an unusually long time and then gets very excited when he finally decides to take them off. Its cute.

Packing makes Kiley tired.

After a long day of packing (Kiley didn't do that much) I guess she was too tired to make it the two feet to the bed and passed out in the container that is filled with clothes. I tried to wake her up, but was unsuccessful. At some point during the night, she made her way to her bed.

Some updated photos of the kids.

Creighton loves bath time. After he eats, he runs to the bathroom door and says "bath, bath, bath". If I say "no", he throws a huge tantrum that consists of hysterical crying and throwing himself on the floor in front of the bathroom door. Needless to say, he is a very clean baby!

Disaster of a week-sinus headaches, broken teeth, huge bruises, a sick dog, no keys, tons of packing, and luckily-a very funny husband

This week has been one accident after another. First, I broke a tooth on a hot dog-a hot dog? A crown will cost $750.00. Why is dental care so expensive? I always wanted to be a dentist. I should have done it, then we could have free dental care. It has been cool and overcast in Colorado for a few days now and that is a nice change from the 90 degree weather, but has left me with terrible sinus pressure since Wednesday. Yesterday, I locked the keys in my car-again. Poor Chad. The night before we met with our insurance agent, who saved us $1000.00 a year on our car insurance and homeowners insurance, but talked us into buying better, more expensive, life insurance policies. That's important though, with all these kids we are having. He was telling our agent how he wanted to pay more per month to have a free, unlimited, emergency road side assistance because I am always locking my keys in the car. I defended myself, even though I did do it three times last year. It was funny that not even 12 hours later, I called him because I locked my keys in the car. So, he came home right away, made fun of me, let us in and headed back to work. Then, I was cleaning off the porch and I lost my balance and fell down a few stairs and landed on this oddly placed piece of wood. Of course, Chad made fun of me for that too, until he got home and saw the giant cut and bruise it left. Then he felt bad and even suggested I go to the Dr. to make sure I didn't do anything to serious. He did let me know in advance that he would make fun of me for a while about this one and tell everyone it was just a small scratch. It's not. I sat on ice the entire day and night, and it looks worse today but feels a little better. Creighton fed the dog Captain Crunch. Our dog is allergic to everything and got sick and threw up three times. I was so happy to see my husband at the end of the day, I needed his help. This is the last weekend we have before the move and next week will be busy with family coming in, walk-thru's, and closings. We really need to have 99% of it done by Monday. I am looking forward to spending the weekend with Chad, even though we will be busy packing.

18 weeks pregnant

About 18 weeks pregnant. Still not showing a lot, but its bound to turn a corner soon.

Okay, I forgot how much of a procrastinator I can be

10 days till we move and I still have done very, very minimal packing. We have been busy with other things, so that can be somewhat of an excuse. I just don't know where to start. It's not easy to pack up things when we still use most of them. I have been having dreams about decorating the new house. I guess I am most excited about that. I have some great ideas for the Master suite, but am still torn about the main level. Kiley has given me some ideas about how she would like her room to look. I am going to decorate her room when she is in Omaha for a summer visit. Hopefully, it will be a nice surprise for her. I still have no clue what to do in Creightons room or the nursery. I have some time to think about it. We bought some patio furniture last weekend and that will be very nice to have. Colorado has great weather and it will be awesome to sit outside and eat dinner and watch the kids play. We wanted to get a pool and hot tub this year, but lost the money we set aside for that on the sale of our current home. I went to Target and bought the kids a pool and we decided next summer we will get the big pool and maybe the hot tub. Chad is still convinced that he will lounge in the kids pool, even though its only 18 inches deep and 8 feet around. I know that I will find him on a raft floating in the pool and the kids watching from the side, because they can't fit in there with him! It will take us several months to get our savings built back up and then we can start remodeling, which I am very excited about. I can't wait to start posting pics before and after of each room!

Not much new, but a busy, busy week.

Okay, I think this has been the busiest month of my life. Moving is the worst, why do people put themselves through this? We have had both inspections done, one appraisal, the furnace certified, made some repairs to our current home-small ones, like fixing GFI outlets, cleaning a vent in the attic (those inspectors are picky). Still to do in the next two weeks: two closings, packing, moving, one more appraisal, meeting with a new insurance company to discuss a new homeowners insurance policy, meeting with ADT to set up our security system...and learn how to use it, changing our address with everyone, transferring Qwest and Excel, setting up trash, water services, getting Kiley enrolled in a good school-Cherry Creek is the highest ranked school district in Colorado receiving a state accreditation ranking of "accredited with distinction". The state ranks using "low, average, high, and excellent performing, and the highest is "accredited with distinction". I want her in a great school, so I am doing choice enrollment in the district. Besides just packing up some of the kids clothes, I really haven't done much in that area. I don't even know what to start packing. Maybe I will make some more progress this weekend in between all of our commitments. Despite the stress of moving, we can't wait to get into the new house and put our own touch on it....eventually.

It's a boy

We had our ultrasound today and it was awesome. We went to this place called "FirstView Ultrasounds". We sat in this large room with couches and theater seating and a big theater screen. We got tons of pics and two DVD's of the ultrasound. It was so nice to watch the baby move all over. Kiley was a little sad that its another boy, but thought he was very cute. We will have one more baby, so there is still a chance for Kiley to have a sister...she could also end up with three little brothers! I would like to have one more girl, but also have a soft spot in my heart for little boys. Creighton is so cuddly and funny. I love that Creighton and this baby will be so close in age. They will only be one grade level apart and can play on the same sports teams. I was sure this one was a girl, which now makes me 3/3 for being wrong with the gender of my kids. I had all the colors picked out for the nursery, so now its time to make another trip to the store for paint colors! We are all getting very excited for the move. We have someone coming out today to certify the furnace because its 20 years old. More money...it seems as if this is all costing way more than we had anticipated. We had set aside the money to lose in the condo sale, closing costs, and the down payment for the new house. Still, we have all these new costs appearing-inspections, repairs, taxes, appraisals, fees from everyone..it never ends. Its well worth it though.

A nice, but busy weekend

I was so excited to see Chad once he returned home from California. It had been a very stressful week when he was gone, only because of all the things going on with the new house and move. Kiley could not wait for him to get home. Every day she would ask when he was going to be home. He was supposed to get home Sat. night around 7:00pm, but his flight was delayed and he didn't get home until about 8:30pm. Kiley had begged all week to stay up and wait for him. I decided since it was the weekend that she could stay up past her usual bedtime and see him. Creighton and I fell asleep around 7:30pm, but Kiley stayed up and played with him for about 15 min . when he got home, and then she crashed. Sunday, both kids stayed home from church because they had colds and I didn't think we needed to pass colds around when there is this H1n1 flu already in the air. We did take the kids to the park after I got home and then made a trip to Dairy Queen for Blizzards. Chad helped Kiley finish her homework and then he made dinner: Spaghetti, bread sticks, salad, and corn on the cob. Kiley told me that he made it better than I did. Nice. I think we are going to start packing this week and we are all getting very excited for the move. Especially Kiley. She has big plans for the backyard and they include an in ground pool, trampoline, playground, tire swings, bike trails and more. It is a big yard and there is a possibility of a pool and hot tub...and a tire swing, maybe a play set.

It always pays to marry the smart ones

Chad is in California for an architecture convention. I usually go because we use that as our annual vacation for just the two of us. I didn't go this year because we knew I would probably be pregnant and I anticipated being sick, like I was with the other two. Turns out, this is a great pregnancy. So, Chad went by himself and is pretty bored without me. He spends about 10 hours a day at the convention. To kill some time he played a trivia game and won. At the end of the day, the three highest scorers (out of hundreds) had to participate in a "winner takes all" challenge. Chad won, he's so smart, and he is bringing home a Wii and Wii fit. Kiley is very excited.

I like this style of dining area. I was going to do other colors, but after deciding how to decorate the kitchen, formal living room, and family room, this will match the best. Our formal dining room also has that beautiful white paneling on the lower half of the wall, so I will only paint the top half. Since this room connects to the entry way, staircase, and formal living room, I will probably use this color throughout those areas. The family room will be a lighter shade and the kitchen more of a vanilla color. Hopefully, it will all blend well since our mail level is pretty open.

I am not sure what bathroom this would be in, maybe the upstairs bathroom. Chad and I's bathroom in the master bedroom has this great white paneling on the lower half of the wall, so it would probably be easiest in there. I like the simplicity of it.

This is sort of what I would like for our kitchen to look like. I love white cabinets, with stainless hardware. We are going to get all new stainless appliances, since we have to leave ours at our other house. There is already nice ceramic tile flooring in the kitchen and crown molding. Chad wants to put in granite counters. He is extremely handy and talented. Chad will also want a wine rack somewhere.

This is what I would like the Master bedroom to look like. Since we are buying all new things eventually, this will hopefully be the end result. In our room, to the left of this would be a sitting area and fireplace. To the right, would be our walk in closet and bathroom. It will look very elegant.

Decorating the new house...what a stress

So, I guess when you buy something that is 3 1/2 times the size of your current home, you need to also buy lots of furniture to furnish this new house. For the time being, we are going to keep our current living room set and put it in the family room and everyone will keep their bedroom sets, except for Chad and I. We are going to put our bed in the basement and eventually our living room furniture will be down there also. Its exciting to have to start fresh and I have already decided how I want to decorate. We will have to buy a ton of new things though, eventually. Our parents, who are incredibly generous people, are donating some things to us. My mom is buying us a new patio set and a new grill. She offered to buy us a living room set, but come on, we can only accept so much from her. My in-laws are bringing us a new bed for our master bedroom, coffee tables and end tables for our basement, lawn care tools, and perhaps a lawn mower. We had it easy here, never having to shovel snow or mow the lawn, but it also cost us $220.00 a month. I think we could pay a neighborhood kid $50.00 a month to do that for us. Its a win-win situation. I am planning to buy a nice dining room set, a larger table for our growing family for the dinette, two full living room sets, one comfy and casual and one more formal, a new head/foot board for the master bedroom, furniture to put in the sitting area of the master room, and eventually, some new things for the kids rooms. Chad wants a hot tub, of course. The kids want a pool and trampoline. We both want some workout equipment to put in the basement. So, lots of stuff to buy. Here are some ideas I have about decorating.