Olivia Rose Nelson

Update on Owen from Mid-December

2012-01-06T23:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some cute pictures and videos of Owen from mid-December. He is becoming quite the little charmer! Every time anyone comes and talks to him, he gives them a huge smile - especially if they smile at him. He really has just the best disposition. He just goes with the flow and is really laid back (even when Olivia is *loving* all over him). Here are some pictures and videos:

Disney Princesses on Ice

2012-01-06T22:56:00.000-05:00

We took Olivia to the Disney Princesses On Ice as a special treat for being such a great big sister. We kept it a big surprise and she didn't find out until we were there. It was a lot of fun to see her enjoy it so much and was actually pretty entertaining for us!

Pictures with the cousins

2012-01-06T22:53:00.001-05:00

Every year we get pictures taken with Olivia and her cousin(s) - we seem to add one to the picture every year - this year we added Owen. Becca and I met in the middle - in Greensboro area - with the kids and had the pictures done. It was a bit of a test of our patience, but the pictures came out pretty good. They even give you the disc with all the pictures (even the ones you don't buy) if you get so many. So here are the cutest ones of Owen and Olivia:

Going to see Santa

2012-01-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

Back in early December (while my Aunt was still here), we took the kids to see Santa. *They* (ok, Olivia) were very excited. Here they are dressed and ready to go:

We didn't tell Olivia where we were going before we got there. Here we are telling her what was going on:

Some family shots:

Here is their picture with Santa. He did fantastic with them. He really took his time with the kids and spoke to Olivia and Owen a good 5 minutes after the picture was taken.

Catch up

2012-01-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! We are moved and somewhat settled in at our new house now. It has been a while since my last post, but life has been busy with the move and the holidays and we did not have internet for a while after the move - so let me catch you all up. Let me start back where we left off from early December.

The house was coming along really well. This post will catch you up through December 6th. At this point, they had gotten the garage doors on - which looked great, unfortunately, this meant we were no longer able to get inside to peek at the progress (the key was hidden in the electrical box inside the garage!). This was the second time my Aunt Sue was in town and was trying to come see the house and was out of luck (the first being at thanksgiving when they were staining the floors). This time she was nice enough to come and help me get the house packed up! How awesome was that! :) Thanks, Aunt Sue!

Here are a BUNCH of videos of Owen and some of Liv from the first week of December. Owen is hanging out smiling and working on cooing and talking and Liv is being her her funny self:

Family tummy time:

Sleepy baby:

House Update - November 27, 2011

2011-12-02T21:52:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-02T21:49:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-02T20:56:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-02T20:47:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-02T20:22:00.001-05:00

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)

2011-12-02T17:47:00.001-05:00

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!)

NC Museum of Natural Science

2011-11-08T18:32:00.002-05:00

This past Sunday, we took Olivia (and Owen) to the NC Museum of Natural Science. Olivia always loves going there! Here we are in the butterfly house:

Just to prove that Owen was there - although he slept most of the time:

Hissing Cockroaches . . . yuck!!

This one is for Papa! A giant tarantula:

Here we are overlooking the dinosaurs:

Little blue poison dart frog:

In the dinosaur room. Liv's feet are a bit smaller than this footprint!

Our little DJ:

November 6th - House Update

2011-11-08T17:15:00.003-05:00

We did our weekly trip to see the house on Sunday. The newest changes are:

They started the backsplash in the kitchen:

They installed the dishwasher, sink, faucet, oven and microwave:

The wood mantel was installed, but looks like it still needs to be sanded and stained:

The toilets have all been installed. Here is the downstairs guest bathroom - they also installed the cool counter/sink in this one:

They installed all the sink/shower and door hardware throughout the house.

They also started the patio out back:

Update

2011-11-08T16:44:00.003-05:00

Here are some more pictures of the kids. Olivia has been such a great big sister! She loves to help feed him and loves to hold and cuddle with him.

Owen has been doing a bit better at sleeping overnight. 3 of the last 4 nights, she has only woken up once and then last night he ate at 10:30 and didn't wake up until about 5:30 this morning! Great job, buddy!

On Saturday Grant volunteered at a 5K race with some of his staff. One of his Techs, Jenn, that volunteered with him (a UNC grad) came over after the race to watch the NC State/UNC game with us. We fully expected to get trampled by them - but we actually won! GO STATE!!!

Here is Olivia and Jenn after Olivia helped style her hair!

Just some more cute pictures of Owen:

Happy Halloween

2011-11-08T15:42:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween, everyone! We had a great Halloween with our little ones. Olivia was Cinderella this year:

Owen was a little pumpkin (Olivia's costume from her 1st Halloween):

We had Sara, Randy and Gracie over for Halloween to keep with our tradition so the girls could go trick or treating together. Gracie was Belle, so we had two princesses! The girls went trick or treating around most of the neighborhood in the rain with their daddies. It was a pretty cold and yucky day, but the girls still got their rounds in and came home cold and wet with tons of candy! Needless to say, Olivia had a tummy ache the next morning from eating too much candy that night! :)

Here is Olivia with her buddy, Jordyn from daycare:

October 30th - House Update

2011-11-08T15:36:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went to check on the house. It is always fun to go see what new updates they have made since the last visit.

Here is a picture of the front of the house. The shutters are new! Our garage door and front door will be a dark chocolate brown like the shutters.

The kitchen island was updated quite a bit. They had the granite on and the shelving in front of the island done.

They had also painted the inside of the house. Here is the ceiling in the family room - the paint really shows off the cool ceiling! You can also see that the built-ins in the background are finished, too:

They also had come a long way with our master bathroom. They had almost completed tiling the shower and bathtub. They also had the bathroom sinks and counter top in:

Here is Olivia's room. We picked "Friendly Yellow" for her room! She really likes it!

While we were there, we had a visitor in our backyard. We actually saw 2 deer back there.

The tile was completed in the guest bathroom off the guest bedroom:

Here's the kids' bathroom:

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-08T14:49:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we carved our pumpkins. Olivia was our official pumpkin gut remover. She had a great time with it. We even made one for Owen.

Here are Olivia, Owen and my pumpkins. Liv picked out silly faces for her and Owen's pumpkins and I did Tinkerbell.

Here is Grant's pumpkin. Liv picked out a scary face for him to do.

Sunday, Grandmom and Granddad came to visit. Here are some pictures from when they were here Sunday:

Look how big Liv is getting!!!

Owen Update

2011-11-08T14:36:00.000-05:00

Here are some cute pictures of Owen from the end of October. He's been doing really well lately. We did have some issues with his skin a couple weeks ago. he had developed a pretty bad rash all over his face and head and some on his shoulder. I took him to the doctor and they thought it might be a formula allergy so they suggested we put him on Alimentum (extremely expensive hypo-allergenic formula!). So we did (and it smelled awful, too!) and the rash seemed to get a little better, but didn't quite go away.

Well, I had an appointment at my allergist to get allergy tested to go on allergy shots last Wednesday (I had been needing to go on shots, but had to wait until I wasn't preggers anymore). Anyway, while I was there I asked the doctor about the rash and if he thought it could be a formula allergy. He offered to do a simple skin test on him for the 6 common allergies (milk, soy, eggs, peanuts, wheat and pine nuts). Good news - he had NO allergies to any of it! Yeah! So it wasn't an allergy. So he recommended putting him on Soy formula for a couple weeks/months then going back to the milk based - just in case he has a milk protein sensitivity (because he seemed to have some tummy problems at the same time the rash showed up). So far, he has done fine on the soy formula!

By the way, my allergy testing showed that I am allergic to 26 different things (cats, dogs, dust mites, weeds, trees, grasses and molds!) Yeah for me! I had my first round of allergy shots yesterday - they have to give me 4 shots since I have so many allergies! Fun!

Also, the doctor just said to keep moisturizing the rash several times a day and now it is just about gone! Yeah!

Here are some cute pictures of Owen and some videos:

And a funny video of Olivia rocking it out:

Hillridge Farms

2011-10-30T14:27:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we also went to Hillridge Farms with my parents. We go every year and Olivia always has a good time. Here she is bouncing in one of the bounce houses:

Then she hit the little playground to head down the slide and ride the swings for a bit:

Then through the maze with Daddy:

This year they had a new pillow bouncer thing that Olivia LOVED!

Here she is riding the train with mommy and daddy:

Then she went down the big tunnel slide with daddy and she even made Papa go down after them! Grant even took a video of them going down:

Then she went check out the Teepee and they were apparently trying to make fire in there! Check out the video:

She wanted to get her face painted while we were there and wanted them to do the same "happy spider" that was on her shirt. They did a pretty good job! Too bad it only lasted for a short time before she smeared it all over her face and hands!

Here she is riding the train with Grandma and Papa:

Duck Races:

The corn pit:

Then we got to ride the hay ride over to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. Here is a family shot from the hay ride:

And one from the pumpkin patch:

Then we had Owen do some modeling for everyone - Lol!

We had a great time with her, but she was pretty zonked by the time we left! She passed right out in the car almost as soon as we got to it!

House Update - October 22nd

2011-10-30T13:44:00.001-04:00

We went up to check on the house last weekend with my parents and they had made even more progress. They had the stair rails up:

They also had a lot of the trim work done. Here are the built ins in the family room:

Here is a shot of the kitchen. They were in the process of spackaling the walls while we were there, so we assume they are about to paint. That would be why everything was covered in plastic wrap:

Here is our bathroom counter in the master:

Our closet:

Here is some really nice trim work in the foyer looking into the dining room. They also had the chair rail and trim work done in the dining room:

Hanging out at home

2011-10-30T12:41:00.001-04:00

Here are some pictures of Owen just hanging out around thehouse.

Here he is doing some tummy time. He wasn't a big fan of itand actually rolled back over onto his stomach the first time I put him on histummy, but couldn't do it again for the camera. He is showing off his cuteguitar pants, though!

This weekend my parents came up and visited with us. Here is Grandma and thelittle ones - sorry that she looks so serious - we'll try to get her to smilenext time! :)

Dad had gotten Olivia a soccer ball. Here they are playing in the back yard:

We decided that dance class wasn't right for Olivia right now. She's alittle too young, but more so, she's too high energy to stand still and tap hertoes right now. So after giving it a good try, we pulled her out of it. She'llprobably enjoy soccer much more - she'll get to run around and use some of herenergy. Dad has already found us a soccer league near our new house to lookinto after we move!

House Update - October 16th

2011-10-30T11:54:00.000-04:00

When we went to the house that weekend they had made quite a bit of progress. The biggest change was that they had installed the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. Here is the kitchen (looking from the family room side with the island at the bottom of the picture):

Here is the side of the kitchen - where the refrigerator will be:

Here's a bigger shot of the kitchen area with the island:

They also had the hardwood floors and tile in! The hardwoods haven't been stained yet, but were all in. So the floors were all in except for the carpet areas.

They even had the stairs in:

Here is the tile for our master bathroom and the cabinets for our sinks:

Here is the kids bathroom tile:

Here is the tile in the spare bedroom bathroom:

Here is the laundry room tile:

Here is just another picture of the front of the house:

And for fun, here are a couple videos of Owen just hanging out:

NC State Fair

2011-10-30T11:24:00.002-04:00

A couple weekends ago (on the 16th), Grant took Olivia to the NC State Fair with Randy, Sara and Gracie (I stayed home with little Owen). They had a great time and had some good food! (Fortunately no one got sick with E-Coli!! Thank goodness!).

Here are the little ones walking into the fair:

Here they are riding a fire truck ride:

Going to check out all the produce - especially all the HUGE pumpkins:

Riding the merry go round:

Riding the swings with Daddy:

My little Pumpkin:

October 15th Update

2011-10-27T09:46:00.002-04:00

I am doing my best to catch up on the blogging, but was having some Internet issues with trying to upload the pictures and videos - sorry about that! Also, poor little needy Owen wants me to hold him all the time and it is very difficult to get much done with one hand! I have had a pretty long to do list with the closing of our new home coming up (Set for December 14th! Yeah!), so I have been focusing on that lately. In fact, I am meeting with our lender this afternoon to lock in our rates and get the final paperwork in. Now we just need to find a new buyer for our current house!

Anyway, here are some pictures of his 2nd bath. Olivia was around to help and he seemed to enjoy it much more this time. And since then, he has enjoyed the baths a lot more.

Here are just some pictures of us hanging around the house. What a cutie he is!!!

Olivia LOVES to hold him and give him lots of kisses and hugs constantly! She is a great big sister, we just need to watch that she isn't too rough with him and try to minimize the kisses and hugs while he is sleeping - she has woken him up many times! lol!

Here is a pretty funny video of Olivia dancing while Daddy plays guitar:

October 9th - House Update

2011-10-27T09:17:00.002-04:00

I had not been up to the house since Owen was born so we went up there last weekend on October 9th to see how the progress was going. They have gotten it all painted on the outside - just waiting for the rock front to go in.

They had also poured the garage concrete (not the driveway yet):

But the biggest change was that they had done all the dry wall for the house. So now it was looking much more like a house on the inside. Here are some pictures:

Family Room

From Family room looking toward the kitchen area

Master Bathroom

Foyer

And here is the back of the house:

I also took a few videos of me walking through the house now that the rooms are better defined to give you guys a better look at the floor plan, but unfortunately, the videos are too large to upload onto blogger. Sorry about that!

Just hanging out!

2011-10-17T15:27:00.000-04:00

Hello again! So last you guys heard, little Owen was doing well and weighed in at a whopping 6lbs 13 oz when he was 1 week old. At his 2-week appointment he was 7lbs 5 oz (still growing!), then this past week (at 3 weeks, 2 days) when Olivia and I went in for our flu shots, we weighed him again and he was up to 8lbs 2.5oz - so, yep, the kid LOVES to eat!

I have given up nursing. I had a hard time nursing Olivia and it had never really worked out. Well, even though I thought it was going better this time around, after I got a pretty bad infection from nursing, I had to give it up. But, Owen is doing just fine on formula and we are all well again!

Olivia has been a great big sister! She LOVES giving Owen lots of hugs and kisses (We just have to watch that she doesn't get too rough with him or lay on top of him while hugging him). She also has really enjoyed helping us feed him and she always wants to hold him.

Here are some pictures of the kids:

I'm sure Owen will appreciate this one when he is older. Olivia wanted to play dress up with him and she dressed him up with her necklace and bracelet. He was a good sport about it, but I'm sure he won't appreciate me putting on the Internet once he gets old enough to know better! ha ha!

Here are some pictures of his first bath (after his cord fell off). Needless to say - he did NOT enjoy it! It was more like water torture!

Here I am brushing his beautiful hair after the bath:

Look how little he looks in the crib!! He hasn't slept in it yet (he's been sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed), but we wanted him to check it out. He really enjoyed the mobile.

Here is Livi holding Owen watching tv:

Bringing Owen Home

2011-09-27T23:26:00.000-04:00

We headed home around 3pm on thursday. Here we are ready to leave the hospital with our new bundle of joy:

Once we got home and got settled in, Grant had to head out to meet the builder to look at a couple things and pick up my perscriptions. So I got to hang out with Owen for a little bit then head over to pick up Olivia.

Thursday was pretty uneventful. Grant was home friday morning, but had to head into work around lunchtime for the rest of the evening. So, my friend Harmony came over with her twins to hang out for a bit. We determined that Owen can sleep through about any level of noise (and later confirmed that with Olivia!). Here are some pictures from the next few days:

Olivia really has been wonderful with Owen. She loves him completely and has only showed a few signs of jealousy (wanting tobe held the same time as him - as in the previous picture), but has overall been great. We just have to watch that she doesn't get too excited or rough around him. Here is the proud big sister:

Friday night my parents came back up and my brother came up to meet Owen on saturday afternoon.
On saturday my parents went with Grant and Olivia to see her dance class and I took Owen to his first doctor's appointment. He was 6 lbs 11 oz at birth and had dropped to 6 lbs 5 oz when we left the hospital. At his doctor's appointment on saturday, he was down to 6 lbs 3 oz. The doctor said that was within the normal range but wanted to see him start going up in weight before we could relax our strict feeding schedule (I was attempting to nurse him even though I was not successful at all with Olivia). At that point, my milk had just begun to come in and nursing was seeming to go much better. We had not even needed to suppliment him with formula at all to that point.

Sunday, Chad and Becca came up with Drew and Emma to meet Owen then later on Susan and Alan came up. Alan was finally able to meet Owen:

Sara and Randy also came over to meet Owen that afternoon. Here is a picture of all the kids together:

Everyone left except Susan who stayed for a couple days to help me out for a couple days. She is here now and has been a great help. Alan is coming back up tomorrow to get her, then I will be on my own during the days (and nights when Grant is working). So . . . I am always up for visitors to come hang out! :)

Today (Tuesday) at his one week, we took him back to the doctor's office to do a weight check to see if he had started gaining weight back yet. I had a feeling that he had because the little guys is quite a piggy and LOVES to eat! Needless to say, he had! And boy had he! He was 6 lbs 3 oz on saturday (3 days ago) and today he was up to 6 lbs 13 oz!!! OMG the little piggy gained 10 oz in 3 days! Yep, we are doing just fine with the breastfeeding! I am so relieved!

Here he is in his little carrier, he looks so tiny:

And here is a cute picture of Olivia and a very funny video of her rocking it out on guitar from today:

Then, of course, we had to take a 40 week belly shot since today was my official due date:

First couple days at the hospital

2011-09-27T22:46:00.001-04:00

We had him on Tuesday night and were released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon. So I wanted to break the blogging up into our time in the hospital then once we got home. Here are pictures/videos from that Wednesday and Thursday until we left. Owen did not sleep too well over night. He had a fussy period from about midnight until 3am (and still has trouble with that time of night - though we are working on getting his days and nights straightened out).

Here is Livi when she came up to see him on Wednesday:

Here are some more pictures from our stay at the hospital:

He had his circumcision done Thursday morning and we were able to go home a couple hours later - around 2:30 or so. He was brought back from his surgery asleep, so we are assuming that he tolerated it ok. Here we are all dressed and ready to head home:

Welcome Baby Owen!

2011-09-27T22:33:00.001-04:00

On induction day (Tuesday, September 20th) - at 39 weeks we got a call at about 6:15am from the hospital telling us to be there at 7:30. My parents had come up the night before to help out. So, Grant left for a half day of work (with me promising to give him updates every second) and mom and I got ready to head to the hospital (Dad was going to stay with Olivia and get her to daycare a bit later, then join us at the hospital).

Mom took some belly shots for me for my week 39:

We got to the hospital at about 7:30 and by the time we got checked in, brought to our room and I got into my nifty gown it was already almost 9am. The nurses had to get the order from the doctors for my pitocin and antibiotics to start my IV - and they got it all going at about 9:30 am - so let the clock begin! I was already 3 1/2 cm before they started my pitocin and I had been having some contractions through the weekend (remember I was only 2cm that Friday) so, the nurses think I was already going into labor naturally anyway.

It didn't take very long for my contractions to get to 3-4 minutes apart. They were planning on breaking my water around lunchtime, but I wanted to get my epidural first. Thankfully, Grant got there around 12:30 and just in time for my epidural. Fortunately this epidural worked for me - Yeah!!

They broke my water at around 1pm. not too long after, I was 5-6 cm. After Grant had gotten there, mom and dad left to go get Olivia and bring her up to see me. Meanwhile, Susan arrived.

The family all left around 5 or so for dinner, and I was beginning to be quite uncomfortable with the pressure and pain breaking through. The epidural definitely helped, but there was still quite a bit of pressure. They checked me shortly after and I was about 9cm. A little after 6pm, I got to 10 cm and the nurse called in Dr. Gunter (the same doc that delivered Olivia!). He arrived and while he was getting his gear on, we did a couple "practice" pushes and he was already crowning! So, I was told to hang on for the doc and when he was ready, he told me to push at my next contraction . . . so I did and he popped out in one push!!!! OMG! I could not believe it! He was perfect!

He was born at 6:37pm, weighed 6lbs, 11 oz and was 20 inches long. Here are some of the first pictures of him:

The proud big sister:

Olivia has done so good with him! She was absolutely mesmerized by him when she first saw him. It was so cute! Here is a family shot from when they first moved me to my room after delivery:

The proud grandparents (Alan was out of town on a hunting trip and would have to wait until the weekend to meet him):

Another big sister moment:

Olivia also got a special present from her brother as a big sister gift. He got her a Pandora bracelet with a couple charms on there. She really liked it and now she has one just like mama's!

It was a long day, but we wound up with a beautiful baby boy! Welcome Owen!

Pregnancy and Baby Update

2011-09-19T10:18:00.004-04:00

You guysknow that I’ve been put on bed rest and taken out of work at 37 ½ weeks (Thursday). Anyway I had the follow-up sonogram that nextTuesday and all looked good with the little guy. He was fully developed and doing reallywell. The only thing that wasn’t perfectwas that he was a bit smaller than average – 23^rd percentile –about 6lbs, 6oz. But since he is healthyotherwise, I am perfectly fine with him being a bit smaller – better for meanyway. He has plenty of time to growafter he comes out of my body! But thenagain, those estimates can swing by a pound or two – so there’s no telling whatsize he is.

Anyway, thenext day (Wednesday) I had another pretty severe headache (since the nightbefore) and the medicine wouldn’t work that they gave me so I finally caved inand called the doctor (like they told me to do) and I had to go back into thehospital for more monitoring. He didwell with that monitoring again and I was able to come home. The same doctor that I saw in the hospitalwas the one I already had an appointment with for that Friday. When I saw her on Friday, everything wasstill good with the baby and they went ahead and scheduled my induction for Tuesday,September 20th, exactly at 39 weeks. Yep, if you’re paying attention – that is TOMORROW!!!! OMG!!!

Of coursegoing naturally would be better, but looks like he isn’t planning to make hisown entrance unless something changes today/tonight. So, in the meantime, I have all my bagspacked and everything ready for the little man to join us tomorrow (or Wednesdayif the induction takes a really long time). They haven’t given me a time for the induction. They just told me that they will call me andthen I come it and it may be as early as 6am. I am guessing it will depend on when they get a bed available – based onhow many walk ins they get overnight tonight.

My parentsare coming up tonight so that they can go with me to the hospital tomorrow sothat Grant can go into work for about half of the day. We don’t know when I will be called in andeven if they call me in first thing in the morning, it will be at least lunchtime before they get me hooked up and anything starts happening – so I toldGrant to go ahead and go into work so he doesn’t miss the whole day fornothing. I’d rather him be able to takethe rest of the week off to be with me and the little man when he actuallystarts making his way into the world and when we bring him home.

Grant’s momis coming up Tuesday afternoon (after work). (Alan is out of the state hunting and will have to wait until theweekend to meet our little guy). Susanand my parents are all leaving on Wednesday. My parents may come back to see him again over the weekend and Susanwill be coming back on Sunday to stay through Tuesday to help me out afterGrant goes back to work. I also expect tosee Alan over the weekend and Chad and Becca.

So we spentthe weekend making sure we have everything ready to bring him home. We have the bassinet in our room and the packand play downstairs. I have sterilizedbottles and pacifiers and think we have everything ready to go now. Just a couple more things to pick up at thestore today (but nothing urgent).

The hospitaljust called me to confirm my induction for tomorrow and now they are telling methat they may call me as early as 5am!!! Wow, that is early! Anyway, I amgoing to try to post on the blog as soon as I can after he arrives, but no guaranteesthat it will be the same day he is born. I promise to do my best, but it will not be my priority, I’m sure. J

Ok, so nowfor the exciting news . . . . we have finally agreed on a name for thebaby boy!!! Are you ready??? Ok, so we have decided to name himOwen. So his full name will be OwenHouston Nelson. Yeah!

9/17/11 House & Dance Class Update

2011-09-19T10:13:00.003-04:00

This weekend Olivia did much better at dance class with Ms. Heather back. She participated the whole class and looked like she was having a lot more fun. We are glad!

On Sunday we went up to see the progress on the house again. Doesn't really look a lot different, but it looks like they have come a lot further with the electrical work and have started putting in the kitchen island:

Ok, so this isn't the best picture of me, but here is a picture Grant took of me at the house showing off my tummy. This time it really is almost all belly, but I'm still quite ready to get my baby out of my body and start feeling normal again.

9/10/11 House & Dance Class Update

2011-09-19T09:38:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we took Olivia to her 2nd dance class. Unfortunately her regular teacher wasn't there, Ms. Heather, so we had a substitute. I say unfortunately only because Ms. Heather is a bit more engaging and the kids respond better to her - especially Olivia. So, Livi spent most of the class standing around watching the rest of the class. She did start warming up a little toward the end of the class and I was able to get a couple cute videos:

After the class, we rode up to see how our new house was coming. They started the electrical work it looks like they got the entire upstairs HVAC unit in. Not sure when they will get to the downstairs one. Here are some pictures:

Now, let me give you an update on our current house. I already told you guys the "too good to be true" news about us selling our house and being able to rent it back to the end of the year. Well . . . we had a bit of a hiccup with the buyers. Apparently the buyer was married previously and when she got divorced she was supposed to have been removed from their mortgage (years ago). Now that old mortgage is showing up on her credit report and is holding them up from being qualified. So, they backed out of the contract in order to not lose their earnest money before the due diligence period ends and they plan to try to get it all straightened out as quickly as they can with the bank - then re-submit the offer. In the meantime, our house goes back on the market (which means more showings with the new baby quickly approaching). We have called off showings for the next couple weeks to help reduce the stress of it all, but really hope that the buyers can get all this worked out and come back to us soon so we can get back on track without the stresses of having to show the house some more and stressing over who will buy it and when we will have to move (and to where). So say a little a prayer that this will all work out for us. We are trying to stay optimistic, but can't help but feel a bit down about it all.

House & Health Update

2011-09-09T09:08:00.001-04:00

Ok, so life continues not to be boring around our household! We SOLD our house! Yeah! And what is even better, the new buyers aren't starting their new job until January, so they are going to let us rent it back until the end of the year - perfect timing for us and our new home since it is supposed to be done by the end of the year! Not really sure how it all seemed to work out so well, but we are thanking our lucky stars! Our home inspection (for our current house) is next Friday, so let's just hope they don't find anything major that will scare the buyers away. Otherwise, we should be in great shape.

The new house is looking good, too. They did the plumbing the week before last and did the electrical this past week. Grant is meeting the builder and electrician out there on Saturday morning to do an electrical walk-through.

Ok, now onto what's going on with me and little man. I had my blood work and urinalysis sample drop-off on Tuesday. My real appointment was yesterday morning (Thursday). When the nurse checked my BP, it looked good. But I had gotten a really bad headache Wednesday night that kept me up all night ans was still hanging around (after taking medicine and having Grant try to work out my neck). So when I told the doctor that, he got very concerned. He said that being pregnant (especially this late on), I am at a much higher risk for stroke or seizure. They pretty much told me I had pregnancy induced hypertension due to the up and down swings of my BP, finding some (but not above the danger level) protein in my urine and with the headaches. So . . . he sent me over to the hospital to have more blood work and testing done and to monitor me and the baby for a while.

So, I spent the better part of the day yesterday in a labor and delivery room getting poked and prodded and making sure everything was ok. My blood work looked good there, but my urine had a higher level of protein than even the morning's sample. The baby was doing well and my BP looked good. So they released me a little after 2pm, but took me out of work and put me on bed rest. Now I have twice a week appointments where they will also monitor the baby every time and will have an additional sonogram on Tuesday to make sure he is doing well and ok just in case he needs to come out soon. They also gave me a list of reasons to have to come back in immediately (and I'm guessing it I do, I'll be leaving with a baby outside my body). They gave me some medication for if I get another headache, but if it doesn't resolve it, I have to come back in right away. So . . . looks like I need to take it easy and rest up and hope that nothing gets worse. But I am doing ok, just tired and sore and trying to make it a little longer so we make sure our little guy is ok.

So, if you need me, you know where I'll be! I'll keep you guys updated as things progress and definitely let you know how my appointment and sonogram go on Tuesday. (I'm sure we will go and check out the house this weekend, too - so we should have more pics of that and Olivia's 2nd dance class).

New Polls

2011-09-05T16:42:00.003-04:00

Please look over to your right and participate in our Baby Boy polls. This is the same thing I did for Olivia. (And yes, we still haven't quite settled on a name for him yet! - we are working on it!)

1st Dance Class

2011-09-05T15:01:00.016-04:00

Here are the VERY CUTE pictures and videos of Olivia from her first ballet/tap class. Here she is before we went inside in her cute little leotard:

Here is Ms. Heather helping get them ready for class:

The girls were so cute in the class. There is a one way window that we could watch them through so we wouldn't distract from the class. This is the first class with no parents, so all the girls were following directions on their own for the first time. They all did pretty good, but were all lost here and there - as expected with the first class. Olivia did really well and we loved watching her. Here are some videos and pictures (they did Tap the first half, then switched over to Ballet):

New House - Week 5

2011-09-05T14:52:00.004-04:00

I think it is worth me going through our weekend activities to fully explain how "Restful" this weekend has been. It is labor day weekend and you all already know that I got in trouble at the doctor's office for having raised blood pressure . . . well, this weekend hasn't really helped much - but I am trying to take it easy today at least.

Friday night was pretty uneventful. Saturday morning, Grant let me sleep in a bit (doctor's orders, right??) and then we had to go to Olivia's first Dance Class (Ballet and Tap combo class). This is her first big girl class without parents! (I have the pics/videos from that in my next post). Anyway, we were running late for it (as usual) and I just threw my phone into my bag without looking at it. Her class was really cute (there is a one-way window that us parents were able to watch from). After her class, we grabbed an early lunch at chik-fil-a then were going to go head up to check on our new house.

Well, at lunch, I finally got around to looking at my phone. I had a missed call and email telling me that we were going to have a showing at our house TODAY from 11-noon. Well, it was already 11:30. Oops! Our house looked like a disaster. We hadn't had a showing in almost 4 weeks and got a bit complacent about keeping it clean (and we had been running late). Our grass was in desperate need of mowing, we had a pizza box on the counter, toys all over the family room, none of the beds were made and we had dirty clothes on the floor in our room. You know, what most people's houses look like when no one is around but them. GREAT! So, I called our realtor and explained to her that we did not get the message until just then and asked if she could please let the other realtor know how sorry we were for not cleaning up (how embarrassing!). Anyway, our realtor talked to theirs and told us that they figured we didn't get the message based on the state of our house, but they still really liked it and could tell how good of care we had taken of the house. We were on the top of these buyer's list at this point! WHAT?!?!?! Could this be the first time that murphy's law worked in our favor!?!?!

So, anyway, we went onto see the new house and the builder was there (so was his crew - putting up some of the siding). We were able to see some paint samples for the exterior siding and picked one out - I think it's called Dessert Resort Tan. Anyway, it looked pretty good, but we didn't get any pictures that day. Grant's parents were coming up the following day and we were going back - so we could just take pictures then.

So, Sunday, Grant's parents did come up. We went and got some lunch and checked out the house. Meanwhile, while we were at lunch, we got an email from our realtor.

Anyway, turns out that the people who came to look did like it a lot and put in an offer! Amazing! We gave them a counter offer and they seem to be ok with it, but need to check a couple things out with their bank on Tuesday! AND they are willing to let us rent the house back from them through the end of the year so we don't have to find temporary housing (with a new born) until our new house is ready at the end of the year. They apparently are moving in from out of town and the guy starts his job in January! Could this really all work out for us! That would be AWESOME! So everyone, please keep your fingers crossed for us!

During all of this, unfortunately, we got some sad news from my parents. My dad's very best friend, Mark Gordon, passed away that morning from pancreatic cancer after a tough almost 3 months since being diagnosed. Not good news at all, but he wasn't in good shape and we are glad that he didn't have to suffer very long. Please say a little prayer for his wife, Bev and their families.

On a more positive note, we did see the house and get lots of pictures. Here it is with siding (though it hasn't been painted yet, so don't think it will be yellow):

They still need to do the rock parts of the front.

Here's the family room:

The breakfast area of the kitchen:

Here's our master bathroom. They've got all the tubs in place!!

The foyer:

The back of the house:

This will be Olivia's room:

We also got quite a bit done to get ready for baby this weekend, but still have a couple more important things to get done (Car seats in the car and pack our hospital bag). But all in all, it has been a crazy and busy weekend! We are trying to get some rest today (especially me) and we are definitely excited about the potential sale of our house and the great progress of our new home! We will definitely keep you all in the loop on both - as well as, baby boy and my health status.

New House - Weeks 3-4

2011-09-05T14:35:00.007-04:00

So when we went up to the house after week 2, they had just the foundation in. Then when we came back only 1 week later (Week 3) on August 20th, here's what we found! OMG - It actually looks like a house!

One of the rooms upstairs:

This will be our Kitchen area and it opens up to the family room (off to the right). Olivia is standing where our kitchen table area will be.

Here is Olivia showing off what will be HER room!

On August 28th, we went back to see what Week 4 had accomplished. Making amazing progress!!!

Garages:

Kitchen area:

Family Room area (you can just make out the outline of where our fireplace will be on the far wall in the center). The room behind that will be our master bedroom:

This is the front door area. We are standing in the dining room and the study is on the other side of the front door.

This is our master bathroom - looking at it from our bedroom:

The back of the house. You can see where our screened in porch will be:

That's it for this posting. I'll do another for this weekend when we checked it out again.

New House - Breaking Ground (Weeks 0-2)

2011-09-05T14:09:00.008-04:00

So we have let you guys know that we are building a house up in Wake Forest and - they are really moving along on it! We have been out there every weekend to check in on it. Here are some pictures from the first couple of weeks:

This is before they broke ground - just a nice picture of out SOLD sign!!!! (July 31st)

They were intending to break ground on August 1st. We made our next trip out there on August 6th to see what progress they made during their first week. They dug out the layout and poured some concrete in to start the foundation:

Then we went back on August 14th to see how Week 2 went. Looks like they got the foundation in:

They were making pretty good progress these first couple weeks, but wait until you see what happened when we went back just one week later . . .

Belly Shots

2011-09-05T13:25:00.010-04:00

Ok, so I know you guys are probably wondering how big my belly has been getting since it has been SO long since I have posted. Well, here is what you have missed:

31 Weeks

33 Weeks

Here are a couple videos of the little man kicking me quite a bit. This is from August 18th, when I was about 34 weeks along. Pay attention to the upper edge of my belly:

35 weeks

37 Weeks (Today, so one day shy of 37 weeks)

Ok, so let me fill you in on how I've been doing with this little guy in my tummy. All my appointments were going really well until I hit about 34 weeks. At that appointment, my blood pressure was starting to get a little high and I was told to take it easy and slow down. Well, that was also the same week that my swelling started and the headaches started (now I know those are from the high blood pressure). My pressure was 141/86 that week. They wanted me to come back for my next appointment in one week (at 35 weeks) instead of waiting until I got to 36 weeks (2 weeks away).

Ok, so at my 35 week appointment, my pressure had gone down some (and the headaches were better), so they told me I was doing better, but to still take it easy. (Meanwhile, I had started my new job about a month ago, was on a new project and was trying to get as much done before I had this guy as possible!). Anyway, I set off with another appointment scheduled for the following week - week 36.

Well, at that next appointment (last week), my pressure was higher than ever (145/98) and they threatened to take me out of work. After negotiating with them, they are giving me one more week to see how it goes, mostly because it is a holiday weekend and I'll be able to rest a bit (that's what they think!). Anyway, the headaches were back with a vengeance - so is the swelling. They also want me to do some additional testing to test me for pregnancy induced hypertension, uric acid and all the general preclampsia symptoms - so I am currently doing a 24-hour urine sampling today to bring in tomorrow (so much fun) and I will get bloodwork done when I get there in the morning. I have my next appointment on Thursday (so they have time to get these results) and I have a feeling that I will not be going to work again after that. I think I'm probably going to get pulled. Oh, well, I'll have tomorrow and Wednesday to tidy up what I can and turn it over - then we'll see what happens from there.

Now this weekend was a whole other story - but relaxing it has not been yet - so I am trying to take it easy today and get some r and r before Thursday. We'll see how that goes. I'll fill you all in on this weekend in a future post.

Needless to say, I am trying to get as much ready for little man as possible this weekend - just in case he decides to show up early, or the docs think it is a good idea to convince him to come a bit early - so resting hasn't been easy.

We have cleaned off a lot of our registry at Babies-r-Us, put together the swing and bassinet and we are planning on putting the car seats in today and pack my hospital bag to keep in the car. I figure that as much as Murphy's law loves us, if I'm not prepared, then I'll have him this week, if I am, then I can get at least one more week beforehand.

Other than all of that, I wanted to show you all some pictures of little man's room. It is just about decorated (even though we won't be here that long after he is born). He has a cute little jungle sports theme. I painted the cute little animal pictures on the wall in this next picture on either side of the blanket that is hanging on the wall.

Ok, so that's enough drama for one posting. I'll fill you in more in my next couple posts.

Long Time No Blog

2011-09-05T12:44:00.007-04:00

So sorry that my blogging has been even worse lately (and that is pretty bad!). Things around here have been busy, crazy and very busy! lol! First, we got a new camera (since our other one went swimming) and it took me a bit to load the software to be able to upload the pictures, also, our internet is SO SLOW at home that blogging can be pretty stressful trying to upload the pictures and videos - but enough excuses, onto the good stuff.

Here are some funny pics and a video from when we first got our new camera of little Livi:

Yep, she got into her hair clips and decided to wear ALL of them! ha ha!

We have a new jumpy place that just opened up in our town and we've already been there twice. It is still pretty undiscovered, so we are taking advantage until all the other kids hear about it. Here is Olivia doing the big green slide - over and over and over again!

Here she is dancing like a maniac when I was watching "So you think you can dance." Apparently, she really liked this song and decided to cut loose! It was pretty funny!

Ok, that's all for this first entry. I'm going to run down and get some lunch then try to post some more. I have a ton to get onine for you guys (about a month and a half, I think) and a lot to fill you in on. I'll be back!

Nelson Beach Trip - Day 4

2011-07-29T11:55:00.016-04:00

Ok, so I am finally getting around to finishing up the Beach Trip blogs. I told you that our camera decided to take a swim, so the pictures on this entry are either from my phone or from Becca's camera. Here are a couple more pictures from the day our camera went swimming (day 3):

Nice family shot (even showing off little brother!)

That night we went to play miniature golf (though Olivia and I didn't make it to the end - it was MUCH too hot and we were both exhausted - so we headed back to the room a little early). Here's a nice shot of us from there that Becca took for us:

Collecting Sea Shells on our last morning at the Beach (Sunday morning):

Then we headed off to the Ripley's aquarium after lunch on our way out of town. Here are Drew and Olivia looking up at a shark from this neat bubble thing they had:

Another family/group shot - though Olivia was NOT in the mood for a picture! oh well!

Here is Olivia and daddy petting the horseshoe crabs and other creatures.

Here's a couple videos - sorry they are turned sideways - I don't usually use my phone for this stuff, but had to in the absence of the camera:

Then we headed to the cool tunnel to look at all the sea creatures swimming around us. Olivia was pretty tired (it was right in the middle of nap time), but really liked it all - especially the sharks!!!

Then they got to try to pet the sting rays - though both kids backed up whenever they got too close!

After saying goodbye to Susan, Chad, Becca and the kids - (we hung back to make a potty stop) - we saw that the mermaid show was going on and tried to let Olivia see the *real* mermaid before we headed out. We missed the show - but caught the meet and greet. Here is Olivia when she go to meet mermaid Melissa. She was so excited!!

Unfortunately - for some reason - the videos from my phone don't have any sound (though they do on my phone) - must be something lost when I emailed them to myself. Anyway, this next video is of the mermaid asking Olivia her name and just talking with her.

After we said hello to the mermaid - we headed back to Raleigh. We had a great time and look forward to going back next year. Thank you, Susan for a wonderful family vacation!

Hopefully we can get a couple little day trips in to some different places before little brother arrives and we are a bit more house-bound.

By the way - we did get a new camera - but we haven't really done much since to warrant taking a bunch of pictures. But, when we do, we'll let ya know!

Nelson Beach Trip - Day 3

2011-07-18T12:30:00.004-04:00

Saturday was more of the same (again) - I mean, what else are you supposed to do at the beach! ha ha! Here she is in her cute little bikini that Grandmom got her:

All the cousin's got together for a group shot before heading out:

To the pool:

Then the beach to do our daily sand castles and such. Here we are digging a large hole:

Whatever can we put in that large hole????

A Livi!!!!

Then, of course, onto the ocean:

Unfortunately, right after this picture, our camera was jealous of all the water fun and decided to take a swim! Uh-oh! Needless to say, it was out of commission the rest of the trip. Fortunately, I was able to get the pictures off the SD card today! Yeah! We don't mind *having* to get a new camera - ours was getting dated anyway, but didn't want to lose our pictures from the trip! So, we don't really have a lot of pictures for the rest of Saturday (we went to play miniature golf) and Sunday (we went to Ripley's Aquarium). But I did take some on my phone that I need to download and Becca took some that she is going to send me). So, when I have those, I'll post them.

We did have a a great time and are glad we were able to make some time to go. Thanks so much, Susan, for taking us! :)

Nelson Beach Trip - Day 2

2011-07-18T12:12:00.005-04:00

Our second day there was much of the same - sand, pool, ocean. We did start out the day with Olivia getting her nails painted by Grandmom - she had some pretty cool purple toenails and Olivia had to have hers done, too!

Here I am reading to the kids. I actually had them all paying good attention - not an easy task with 3 little ones!

Getting ready to head out in her Princess tu-tu bathing suit:

Here she is posing with Cousin Drew:

Here's a good shot of Olivia and Mama before we headed out:

At the pool:

Awww, so tired! I think it's time to go in for a nap!

Back out to the beach for more sand castle building:

Hanging out on the porch (we had 4 in our suite total!!!)

Heading out to dinner - had to give our cousin Drew just one more hug! They had such a great time hanging out together. It's too bad we don't live closer to them!

Then back to our hotel to get ready for night night so we can do it all over again tomorrow! Here is Drew and Olivia cuddling with Grandmom:

Nelson Beach Trip - Day 1

2011-07-18T11:58:00.009-04:00

We just got back from our annual Nelson beach trip (See, you didn't even have to wait a month for this post! Getting better!). The weather was great - not even too hot for a prego like me (most of the time!). The kids had a great time and so did we. We arrived on Thursday around lunchtime, ate and headed out to the pool:

Then it was off to the beach to build some sand castles:

Then into the Ocean:

Here's a family shot - the best we could get - Olivia wouldn't get her hand out of her face. (This trip will give you all lots of opportunity to see my prego belly in all its splendor! - Ha ha!)

Playing in the waves:

(Here's a good side view of the little one!)

Olivia is getting pretty good at using her swimmies. Here she is jumping in without daddy even catching her (But don't worry, he's supervising!)

And here she is swimming around in her swimmies! What a pro!

Happy July 4th!

2011-07-13T17:09:00.004-04:00

We invited our close friends (Randy, Sara and Gracie) to go watch the fireworks with us for the 4th. Sara even got them matching shirts! We had a good time and the girls LOVED it, but it was a VERY LONG walk to and from the car! We got there later than planned and had to park at the grocery store and walk (at least a mile, maybe more!) carrying all our stuff and keeping up with the girls! I was really worn out by the time we got home and the next day!

Eating some yummy snacks

Laying down being silly waiting for the show to start

Yeah, they've started. Here are the girls jumping for joy:

Here's a little video of some of the show - if you turn up your volume, you can hear them chatting with each other!

When we got home, even though it was really late, we let the girls have a sparkler (they wouldn't let us use them at the park):

The fireworks were the night before the 4th. On the actual 4th, we had our wonderful neighbors, Cindy and John over for a cookout. We welcomed one of their friends (Rich), as well and had some good food with some good friends that we will dearly miss when we move up to Wake Forest.

And we got to use the rest of our sparklers! Everyone got to light up a couple - but Livi got most of them!

Summer Fun and Updates

2011-07-13T11:34:00.008-04:00

We had some family pictures taken a couple weekends ago (after we got back from the zoo) by Lundies Photography. We did an outdoor session with them and the pictures turned out great! Here are some of the samples they sent us:

FYI - this is not our dog - this is the owner's dog.

Ok, so let me give you guys a quick update on our house situation. We had been looking at moving up to Wake Forest to get closer to Grant's work and get a little bigger house since we are quickly outgrowing this one! Anyway, we saw a beautiful house that was a new construction, reduced into our price range and we fell in love with it. But we wanted to look at other houses, too, so not to jump at the first one we saw. We went out a couple weekends later and saw several other houses, then went back to this first house. Yep, we loved it! So we decided that we wanted to put an offer in on it. Unfortunately, while we were at the house the 2nd time, it went under contract with someone else! :( So, we were pretty bummed.

However, we decided to see if the builder would grant us the reduced price to build the same model home on a new lot in that neighborhood - and they did! YEAH! So, we have asked for a couple changes, but other than that, we are going to build the house we fell in love with and we will actually get it on a nicer lot! So, things do happen for a reason. Anyway, we've already signed the contract and been approved for the loan and put our deposit down. Now, we are just waiting for them to get the permit to break ground. The only downside is that it won't be ready before little man arrives in September. It is expected to be done at the very end of the year. Oh-well, can't have everything. So, in the meantime, our house is on the market (for the last ~3 weeks) and we've had 2 showings. Hoping for some more showings, but don't really want to sell it quite yet and have to figure out where we'll be living between then and when our new house is ready. Just hoping for a smooth transition, but expecting that we probably won't have one. We'll take that as it comes.

So, this is a picture of our lot! Yeah!

That's the update on our house stuff. As far as the pregnancy goes - everything is going well. No issues or problems to report. Just growing and having normal prego aches and pains. Still need to figure out little man's name - we just need a night to sit down and spend some time figuring it out, but we haven't had ANY free time at all in a while. We'll have to make some time to get that done BEFORE he shows up! ha ha!

Here's a picture from when I was ~25 weeks along:

Ok, so that's the house stuff and the baby stuff. Oh - did I mention that I am also changing jobs! Ugh! Long story, but the short of it is that this company wasn't exactly panning out the way we had hoped and after much consideration, we decided that it would be more stable and and secure to move to a better established company in the area (doing the same thing that I am currently doing). And, my team is also moving over with me - so we'll get to stay together. Yeah! I am going to start with them at the end of the month and am very excited about this company.

So, needless to say - EVERYTHING is a bit crazy for us right now! Hopefully things will start to settle down soon!

On a more fun note - here are some pictures and a video of Olivia running around in the sprinkler. She had a blast!

The other night Grant found a pretty good sized turtle in the yard and we brought Olivia out to check it out. Here she is (in her jammies right before bed), checking him out:

Here is just a random picture of King Chuck (at least he thinks he king - when Olivia isn't around!):

Here is a funny video of Grant and Olivia playing hide and go seek:

Well, that's a quick update on what has been going on around here lately. (and another excuse for not blogging more often!). We are headed to the beach in the morning with Grant's family for our yearly trip. Looking forward to it - but hoping it isn't too hot out! I may be spending a lot of time in the shade or indoors if it is too warm! ha ha!

NC Zoo

2011-07-13T11:09:00.005-04:00

A couple weekends ago we took Olivia back to the NC Zoo. It was a good day and it wasn't too hot. We went in the morning and were headed back home by a little after lunchtime (we had to get back for a family photo session that afternoon). Olivia had a great time and we got to see lots of fun animals. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Check this next one out - That is a gorilla behind us laying on his back taking a snooze right next to the glass!

Here we are going to see the Dora 4D show at the center of the zoo:

And, of course, we cannot miss the carousel:

Here is a picture of me with Olivia - a chance for you all to see how big my belly is getting!

These are air vents and Olivia thought they were awesome!

We have 2-year passes to the zoo that will expire next spring - so we will definitely be heading back to the Zoo again shortly - maybe at least one more time before baby brother arrives!

Durham Museum of Natural Science

2011-07-13T11:02:00.003-04:00

Last month we got to meet some of our college friends (Ralph and Sheetal) and their kids at the Durham museum of natural science. We had never been there and were excited to go. Olivia got to meet their kids: Lilly, Ethan and Leeya and hang out with them while exploring the museum. They all had a great time and we were all pretty worn out by the time we left!

Here are some pictures from our trip:

It was a good time and we look forward to going back again!

3rd Birthday Slideshow

2011-06-23T18:57:00.001-04:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Water Bug and New Rooms

2011-06-17T18:43:00.005-04:00

The other day I was working from home and went outside and came upon Olivia at Ms. Angie's house "helping" her water the flowers. Needless to say - I'm not sure how much "help" she was, but she had a good time and got soaked in the process!

Silly girl!

I wanted to show you guys pictures of her new big girl room, too! This was her present from Mama and Daddy for her birthday. We got her some big girl furniture and a new bedding/room set with flowers and butterflies on it. Granddad helped get us a great deal on the furniture and even delivered it for us! Thanks so much for helping us out with that and to you both for helping us set up their new rooms!

It turned out so pretty and we all love it!

And when she got her big girl furniture, little brother inherited the baby furniture for his room and put his bedding together and hung the valances. His room still needs a lot of work, but is looking pretty cute already!

Now our dilemma is whether or not we will still be in this house when he comes! So here is the run down of everything going on in our lives right now.

We put our house on the market on Monday this week. (now we just need to keep it looking clean and pretty EVERY day to show!!)

Our air conditioner broke on MONDAY - yep, the same day our house went on the market! So, we had a very hot night and a very hot Tuesday, but it is fixed now and back to the coolness! Thank goodness!

We have decided to build a house (since the one we fell in love with sent under contract with someone else while we were looking at it for the 2nd time!) - so we are building that same house on a nicer lot! We should be *hopefully* signing the contract with the builders tomorrow! Yeah!

Oh, yeah, and did I mention that we are having a baby and have no idea if we will be homeless when he comes! If we sell this house too soon, we may be homeless for a bit before our new house will be ready at the end of December. And possibly by the time baby comes. So, we'll have some juggling to do if we sell our house before our new one is ready! We will keep you posted on that one!

There are a couple more things going on right now, but I'll save that for another post. for now, just know that we are doing well, but have VERY full plates and are trying to get everything worked out. One thing at a time.

I'll leave you guys with a cute video of Olivia spelling her name for you guys. This is something that she has known how to do for a little while now, but we were finally able to get it on video. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

2011-06-17T18:22:00.009-04:00

So our little Olivia has turned 3! I have been trying to get this blog entry out for over a week, but the blogger wouldn't let me upload the videos. I finally got them uploaded today! AND I already put a slide show from all the wonderful pictures that my great friend, Jenn took at the party for us. THANKS, JENN!!

As always, I had to make a fancy cake for Olivia and mom came and helped me out this time. Not quite as elaborate as last year, but still came out very good. Here is our cute Minnie Mouse cake:

We had her party at a bouncy place called Jumpin Beans up in Wake Forest. It was a perfect place to have a 3-year old party! The kids LOVED it and the adults got to mingle and some of them even went in the bouncer to play with the kids!

I only got a couple pictures of the occasion, but the slide show from Jenn (in the previous blog entry) has TONS more.

Thank you to everyone who was able to come share Olivia's special party with her and for all the wonderful gifts that she received. We have such wonderful friends and it was great to see everyone!

Here is Olivia when we all sang to her:

Here she is with a couple of her buddies, Reece and Jordyn:

We had a great time at the party and I think everyone else did - I KNOW all the kids did and I am sure they all passed out on their way home after all that jumping.

Olivia's actual birthday was on a Tuesday, which just happens to be Grant's night off - yeah! We decided to do something simple and take her up to TGI Fridays for dinner.

She has always loved when they sing to other people at restaurants for their birthdays and wanted to have them sing to her. Unfortunately, she did get a little scared when they started because they were so loud, but she loved that they sang to her. Here's a video of it:

She even got a special birthday treat from them . . . ice cream! Yum!

When we got home we had one more gift for her (her big present from us was her big girl furniture and bedding). Here is a video of us giving it to her:

This guitar is a little nicer than the toy one we got her last year. We can actually tune this one (more or less). We decorated it with princesses and flowers for her and every day since she has told us how much she loves her own guitar.

Here she is playing us a tune:

Swimming!

2011-05-27T17:23:00.006-04:00

Olivia just graduated from her swim class with her friends Masyn and Logan. This is her 3rd year doing it and she is still a water bug! Grant was able to come to the second to last class (it is 6-weeks) and took some cute pictures and videos for you all to see:

She LOVES the water and is always one of the best "swimmers" in the class! She is getting really good at kicking, paddling/digging and blowing bubbles in the water. She is also really good at monkey walking down the side of the pool (in case they fall in and need to get to some stairs or something) and can even climb out all by herself! Here are some videos of her from class:

By the way, little man is kicking my bladder repeatedly while I type this! ugh! I think I need a potty break! :)

That's about all that is going on here right now. We are also preparing for Olivia's 3rd birthday party. We are having it in a couple weekends at one of the local bouncy places (where the kids jump around on the inflatable stuff). She is so excited to see all her friends and go jumping. We are doing a Minnie Mouse theme for her party. I guess I need to start getting everything together for that . . . after we finish with the house this weekend!

Baby Boy Update

2011-05-27T17:13:00.003-04:00

I went to the doctor the other day and baby boy and mama are doing well. His heartbeat was in the 150 range. He is definitely a mover and a shaker! He is always moving around and kicking me! He has already found my bladder, too! Not a fan of that, but you take the good with the bad! I have gained about 4 pounds at this point - not a lot, but we've been pretty busy and chasing Olivia around keeps me fit! ha ha!

We have picked out his bedding/room theme and gotten his room painted. His bedding is called Team Safari from Babies-r-us. It is really cute. It has little jungle animals playing sports! I get my cute jungle animals and Grant gets his sport theme! Win win! (now to just come up with a name . . . )

Here is a picture of the bedding. We already got the 6-piece bedding set, but none of the accessories. We just wanted to get it to pick out the room color. Here is a picture of the room colors. We had a chair rail put in and painted the bottom half tan and the top a light green. It looks really good!

We have ordered a "big girl" furniture set for Olivia for her birth day (with a big girl bed!!) and as soon as that comes in, we can move the crib and dresser out of her room and into the little guy's room. (She is using the crib converted to a toddler bed right now).

Here is a picture of my belly from about a week or so ago (at 21 weeks):