House Update - November 27, 2011

This week the biggest change was the lawn - we had one!  they sodded the front and seeded the back.



The pantry shelving had also been installed:

They also had finished out our little dry bar area with the wine rack:

The fireplace itself was in - but we were still waiting for the rock to go up on it:

The smoke detectors were in:

And the Air Conditioner controls were in:

Randomness and Cute Videos

When I uploaded my pictures from my camera to my computer and began looking through them, I noticed an alarming number of random pictures (101 to be exact!!!!) that I did not take!  You can all take a wild guess at who did - and if you can't figure it out, there is a big clue in one of these pictures.  I have selected several to show you her abilities:



Apparently, this is where she began chasing Chuck around.  There are about 20 or more pictures of Chuck - starting out on the chair in the dining room:

Then under the chair in the kitchen:

And finally in the garage.  Note: This picture is taken through the cat door!

 And here is your BIG clue:

Great pictures, huh?  Well, I didn't show you all the ones with her hand in front or the ones of nothing in particular.  But she really did have some pretty good pictures of different things.

Anyway, here are some "intentional" pictures of Owen and Olivia.



 Check out this outfit (even the socks!) - Go Pack!

Here are some cute videos of Owen.  The first is him holding a rattle for the first time and the others are of him smiling and talking.  Very cute!

We are doing a pretty good job of packing up the house for our move (we close in less than 2 weeks and move in 2 from tomorrow!!!).  My Aunt and Mom helped a ton when they were here.  We got everything in the kitchen and dining room that we wouldn't need the last month here packed up.  My dad, brother and mom also helped us get everything down from our attic for us to go through and pack up.  We've just about gone through all of that - just have a couple things to put on Craigslist to sell (anyone want a 25 gallon aquarium with a ton of accessories??)  My Aunt is coming back this Sunday to stay a few nights to help me pack up the rest of the house!  How awesome is that!  Then my parents are coming back next weekend to babysit so we can take Olivia (shhhhsshhh - it's a surprise) to Disney princesses on ice Saturday afternoon, then my company Christmas party is that night.  Then the next weekend they are coming back again to help with the official move!  OMG, we are running crazy around here!!!

Oh, I forgot to tell you all - great news about our current house (nope, didn't sell it).  Since we couldn't seem to get it sold and we were seriously running out of time, we contacted a rental agency to help us rent it out and manage the rental for us (like we have the time to do it ourselves!!!).  Anyway, we put it on the rental market on a Wednesday (2 weeks ago), we had a showing the next day.  By that weekend we not only got an offer from that couple, but also another one that had never come to see it in person (they are in Tennessee), but saw it online and loved it!  So, they had a little bidding war and we wound up renting it for $40 more than we were asking a month and for 15 months instead of 12!  Wow!  All the paperwork has been signed officially, so we are good to go with that starting the first of the year (and it more than covers our mortgage here - Yeah!).    Thank goodness we don't have to worry about that anymore!  That is a huge relief!  Especially with me not working right now while I'm out on maternity leave (and not getting paid) and us building the house with a much higher mortgage and then having both kids in daycare starting the first of the year.  What a relief not to have a second mortgage to boot!

Well, that is about all that is going on right now.  We do have our walk-through for our new house next Thursday morning, so I'm guessing we will see a lot more progress on the house when we go visit this weekend.  I'm hoping for a rock fireplace and carpeting!  We will see . . .



House Update - November 20, 2011

The first thing we noticed at the house this weekend (November 20th) was that they had done some of the landscaping - the natural areas were in place with some bushes and flowers.  They had also been working on the stone part of the front of the house.  It wasn't quite finished, but was looking awesome:

The irrigation system was also in (yeah!!! - no more fighting with hoses!)  - This was our biggest upgrade - and we are very excited about this one!

The hardwood floors had also been stained - and they looked great!

Here's just a random picture of me and Olivia in the part of the house I am most looking forward to!  My HUGE tub!!

The cabinet doors had also all been put on and looked awesome:

Happy Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was a bit crazy for many reasons.  Let me start at the beginning.  My Aunt Sue, Uncle Paul and Grandma Lynn came to visit us from Rhode Island the weekend before Thanksgiving to meet little Owen, so we decided to take the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family a little early.  So, my parents and brother also came that weekend.  So we had Grant, myself, Olivia (on Owen's crib mattress) and Owen all sleeping in our room; Grandma Lynn on Olivia's bed, Aunt Sue and Uncle Paul on the pull-out couch in the bonus room, Mom and Dad on an air mattress in Owen's room and my brother on the couch downstairs!  We have never had so many people stay at our house at the same time - but it all worked out and it was nice to have so much family around for thanksgiving!  We had a nice time with my relatives from Rhode Island!

Here is Grandma Lynn holding Owen with Aunt Sue and Uncle Paul in the back:



Grandma with Liv and Owen:

Here is our "new" family at our Thanksgiving feast!

 And here is the whole group (minus myself taking the picture):

Here is Aunt Sue and Uncle Paul with the kids:

 Then just a cheesy picture of Owen.



 We had planned to go to Lenoir the Saturday and Sunday over Thanksgiving weekend to celebrate with Grant's family . . . but we never made it.  Owen had gotten pretty sick that week - started throwing up Tuesday night (I mean violent, projectile vomiting - just about his entire bottle after a feeding).  On Wednesday, it got a bit worse.  Thursday (Thanksgiving day) - he wasn't keeping anything down.  We managed to get one good bottle in him that evening - but by morning - he thew all of it up!!  We called the pediatrician because we were so worried about him (Friday morning) and he said to try some pedialyte and if he didn't keep that down we were to head to the ER.  He was worried about not only dehydration, but also possible Pyloric Stenosis (which Drew had to have surgery for when he was couple weeks old).  This is when the opening from the stomach to the small intestine is basically closed up. 

Well, the pedialyte didn't stay in him, and nothing really seemed to - so we headed out to the ER that afternoon.  Here is the poor little guy at the hospital in his gown and the second picture shows his pitiful little IV in his ankle:

Thankfully, the ultrasound showed that he didn't have pyloric stenosis or any other of the couple really bad things it could be.  So it was pretty much undetermined when we left the hospital (and of course, he didn't throw up the bottle we gave him at the ER, so they weren't able to see him in action).  We left the hospital around 9pm that night.  Well, the next morning - he threw up really badly again - so Grant took him to see our pediatrician - while I stayed home with Olivia.  The doctor's best guess was a formula sensitivity (we had no idea it could be so extreme!), but also gave us a reflux medicine prescription - just in case.  So we were back on liquid gold formula - Alimentum.

It seemed to help some, but we were still having 1-2 violent episodes a day.  So we started him on the reflux medicine on Wednesday and (knock on as much wood as you can find before reading further) so far, we haven't had any more violent episodes, just some pretty normal spit-ups.  Yeah!  He has been eating better and seems to be doing much better. 

Since we weren't able to go to Lenoir that weekend, Alan and Susan decided to come visit us that Sunday (and check on poor little Owen).  Here is Alan with the kids:

House Update - November 13, 2011

When we went to see the house on November 13th for our weekly trip, there were some pretty nice surprises.  The driveway and walkway were paved:



They had the light fixtures in.  They looked great!

Kitchen eating area light:

 Family room ceiling fan (the same one was in our bedroom, the study and bonus room):

 Bathroom fixtures (the same in each of the full bathrooms):

 And all the mirrors in the bathrooms were new, too.  Here's our half bath downstairs:

 Dining room:

They had finished the back patio concrete:

Smiling and 1st Haircut (From 11/10/11)

Time for my monthly blogging blast!  Here are some pictures and videos of Owen just hanging out.  He had just begun being pretty smiley and has been a mostly happy baby.  He really only gets upset when he is hungry!  This first video is the first video I was able to get of him showing off his cute little smiles:

And the first picture of him smiling I was able to get:

Smiling at daddy:

We got Owen a fun little music play mat and he really seems to like it - in short bursts.  He still loves to be held most of the time and will only tolerate this for maybe 10 minutes at a time - so we are still working on being independent.



Check out his cute little camo outfit from (yep, you guessed it  .  .  .) Granddad!

Here's Liv painting some snoopy Christmas magnets:

So, everyone is aware of Owen's natural hair-line - the funny old man hairdo.  Well, it started getting pretty long (everywhere but the top) and hanging over his ears and sticking straight out!  It was starting to look even sillier than it already did, so we gave him a haircut (or Grant did while I held him).  Here are some "before" pictures:

And here is the new look.  Check out that cute little boy!

It came out pretty good and he looks like such a sweet little guy now!  (not that he didn't before!)