2011

Well, so far so good in 2011. We are now 20 weeks pregnant and everything is looking good. I have decided to not find out the gender. Chad is dying to know though. I told him we have to decide on a boy name and girl name and then never speak of the baby again, otherwise I am sure I will figure out what it is. I am not curious at all to know the gender and with the other 3, I was so eager to know as early as possible. I think I can make it to the end, but I won't be disappointed in myself if I can't. I don't know of a single person who believes I can do it either. :)

We are going to be finishing our basement this spring/summer...and I am sure into next year. The plan is to add two bedrooms, one large and one smaller that will be used for an office, but have a conforming window and a closet. We'll have a living room, bathroom, play area and large closet (about 6 feet long and 3 feet deep to house toys) a storage area, and a small kitchen. The kitchen won't have appliances until next year when we remodel our kitchen, but it will be tiled atleast. It will be nice to have it finished, but we get so much use out of it now, being partially finished, that I can't imagine not being able to use the space all summer. I am not sure how much value it will add to our house since it's a 5th and 6th bedroom and 4th bathroom-I read that a 3rd bedroom is the most profitable and value goes down after that because of necessity. I can't say that we don't need a 6 bedroom, 4 bath house though with 6 people and 2 dogs. I looked at comparables in our neighborhood at 4-5 beds, 4 baths, 3500 sq. ft homes like ours and the value ranged anywhere from $280K-$455K (the highest I saw in our neighborhood) Denver is so tricky with house values, there really is no telling what it will do for ours. On our street alone, values range from $200K-$350K, with an average of about $265K. We don't plan to refinance, but equity is always nice.

Chad's work has stayed busy for the past couple months and it's been great. I feel like a single parent some weeks and won't see him at all until the weekend, but we certainly can't complain. I am crossing my fingers that it stays busy throughout the year.

Baby info:
19 weeks and 4 days
weight: up 10 lbs.....but I feel way bigger and my stomach is much bigger at this stage then with the boys.
I didn't have an ultrasound this week so I am not sure on much info for the babe and I didn't hear my blood pressure.
Everything seems good though.
Placenta is still anterior, so I am not feeling many kicks unless they are to the side, but I don't mind. ;)

Church is having a baby boom! There are about 5 couples, including myself, who are expecting in a few months or just had a baby. I got to hold a sweet little girl, 3 months old, today and it made me want a girl...for the few moments. I think I am planning to stop working there around the end of May (last time, I worked there until the day I had Cort and I had to call in to our head pastor and explain to him that I thought I was in labor). I will probably take a month off and then go back only every other Sunday though. The alternating Sunday's it would be nice to go as a member and not staff. We'll see, we'll see......

Spring cleaning has began in our house. We had the carpets cleaned, although, I think I have already noticed a couple stains in our family room. Last night, we had the tile and grout cleaned and it's being sealed today, and next month we are having the air ducts cleaned and sanitized. This would all add up to about $1300, but we got a great deal on it from a friend of a friend.

For the first time in a couple years, we have had snow for several days in a row on the ground. It's been warm the past couple days, but we were still able to build a sledding slide from our neighbors front door, across their yard, across our driveway, and into our yard. The kids love it. We also spent about 2 hours outside in a 10 man snowball fight yesterday.

I am still looking for a pic of Creighton in his too small halloween costume. It's pretty funny...well, we think so and I am sure the grandparents will too.