The Dogs

The dogs got out last week and we really thought that we had lost Bruno for good. When we were cleaning up the back yard, using three green waste bins to do it, the gate latch didn't catch behind Ben when he was finished returning the bins. We didn't know this until 7:30am the next morning when our neighbor knocked on our door to let me know that she had found Coco at a bus stop in front of the school her kids go to. She was kind enough to return him, which she has done three times now. But there was no sign of Bruno.

Ben checked at the local pounds and was checking the Craigslist adds to see if them was anything. Ben found an add on Craigslist that matched Bruno's description and the location where he could have gotten to. Ben called and found out that they had given him to a Bull Mastif Rescue facility. He may be big but he is not a Mastif by any means. Ben went and picked him up on Tuesday and he has been happier ever since. He really does love those two dogs even if they do drive him nuts. I am happy that he is happy.
Here they are watching us put together the swing set yesterday.

A Swing Set for Grandma and Grandpa's

For the past little while when we go to Grandma and Grandpa's with Ben there is usually a comment about how rickety the swing set is. It is about ten years old and a metal swing set that when you pump enough with your legs you can lift it out of the ground.
A week ago I went to my parents house to visit and Katelynn loves to play outside so, my mom and I usually sit outside and chat while she plays. She commented that toys r us has a swing set on sale this week that she wants to buy. I turned to her and asked what are we waiting for let's go get it. So, we went and bought a wood swing set that my mom has wanted for years. All she was waiting for was someone to tell her to go get it. She had even shown my dad the swing set on Sunday and she had been thinking about it all week but hadn't done it.
We had to wait until Ben had some time to build it. Ben looked at the instructions on Tuesday and it said that it would take 10-14 hours to build. We thought that couldn't be. Thursday after Ben got off work we got started. We worked with Mike from 4-8:30 when it was getting dark.
Katelynn was there with us roaming from inside and outside. At about 6:30 when dinner hadn't been fixed she started foraging around and found some bread to eat. Which two slices ended up being eaten by the dogs since she was teasing them with the food. That was our clue to get dinner started.
We all went to bed tired.
We woke up at 8:30 and slowly made our way over to Grandma's at 10:30 to finish the swing set or bust! We were there from 10:30 until 5. It is finished.
11 hours, 4 sunburns, hundreds of screws, 50 pieces of wood, one little girl without a nap, 2 trips to Lowe's for missing screws, and we finished it. My mom called today and said that she would have called in sick if we had to work on the swing set any more. Every bone and joint was aching. We were all bushed and we are all happy that it is done. It looks really good and it is strong enough to hold Ben so it will be just fine for all the Grandkids.

Katelynn couldn't wait until the slide was screwed in to test out the slide.


This was about 4 o'clock on day two. I am glad that we didn't put it together when it was 100 degrees outside.


Katelynn playing peek-a-boo and enjoying the new fort.


The finished product.

A Garden

Last year Sarah had found a new and seemingly easier method for gardening. So, After she had successfully did square foot gardening last year I knew that if we ever planted a garden again it would be like that.
Well, little did I know that Ben was very anxious to have a garden. I told him that he would need to clear the spot and get a lot of the work done for it so that we would have a growing garden. After a week of clearing a spot, building a box, filling it with dirt, putting a fence around so that the dogs would stay away, and fixing a sprinkler line that we were trying to avoid we had a spot ready for plants.
We were a little late in the the whole seeding and planning phase of this whole thing so we got some plants that had been started. Next year I hope to have a better plan going, since this was a very last minute thing.
We planted 2 cucumbers, 2 tomatoes, 2 zucchini, 2 green peppers and one parsley. I just hope they grow. I put them on a drip line, which makes it nice for me to not have to remember to water.

Our box is 6 feet by 6 feet. We bought 12 foot boards and Ben cut them in half. Notice the rose bush, there it is and...


...now it's gone. Ben was also cleaning that entire area as we were working on the garden. It needed alot of attention, as in 3 green waste bins full and we didn't even get to mowing the lawns.


This was the garden today it is about two weeks old now and has grown since we planted, so that is a good thing. We did loose a Cucumber because Katelynn was trying to help.


Hopefully this garden will do better than our last attempt. That garden was way too big and the drip line was a mess.

24 Weeks

Baby Boy's birth is getting closer and closer. I really can't believe that in about 3 months he will be here. Sarah has given me some clothes and blankets and of course I have bought some too. I have started washing stuff and putting it away. One major thing that we need to do is move our food storage rotation system out of the office. We are moving around our room a little so that we will have a place to fit the pack-n-play for the first few months. He will end up sleeping in the office when he goes into the crib but we haven't decided what we are going to do about Ben's computer. These are all just ideas for now we shall see what transpires over the next few weeks as we start putting things into action for this little guy.
A name. We don't know yet. We have ideas but we don't want to tell people our ideas until we know for sure what it is.
I have been feeling pretty good and sleeping decently. Nasal stuffiness is still a problem but is mostly under control, I can handle blowing my nose a couple of times a day it was when I couldn't be more than a few feet from a kleenex that is a little much.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
I had my monthly OB visit last week and everything is looking right on schedule. I have gained 11 pounds total, which I think is perfect for me. I know that the big weight gains are coming.
Here I am at 24 Weeks


Here is 26 weeks with Katelynn. I think I am carrying lower this time. It definitely feels that way at least. He moves alot. He will get into a kicking and punching fit, especially when I am going to bed. I can easily sit for a minute and he will start acting up. I think he is used to me being on the go all the time.
I had a fall yesterday. I was visiting a couple primary kids for their birthdays when I lost my footing. I landed on my bum so, baby boy is just fine but the big problem was that my knees gave out when I was trying to balance myself. I think that the ligament loosening pregnancy hormone is working and that is why my knees gave out so easily. I have tried to take it easy today. My right knee hurts the worst as I am walking and getting up and down. It does feel better than yesterday and I am glad that I don't have work until Saturday so I can heel completely.
I think that is all for know about Baby Boy. Talk to you later.

2 Years Old

What is Katelynn doing at 2? Well, she wants to do everything. She is ALWAYS on the move. It is EXTREMELY hard to get her to sit still. The only time she does it when one of her shows is on. Then she is glued to that.
Her vocabulary is at least 50-100 words. Some of my favorites are: "booshie" which means flowers and/or butterflies (don't ask me where that came from) "stoar" star, "haort" heart, "eaor" ear, "siwwy" silly and "han(s)" hand(s).
She is learning more about numbers and letters and loves when I sing abc's. Most numbers are "9" and most letters are "O." She likes when I draw on the magna doodle the letters and numbers.
She loves to climb or be on top of anything.
Sacrament meeting is really hard for us all. I can't remember the last time we were in the chapel for the entire meeting. It is a good Sunday if we make it through sacrament being passed. I have things to color, books, "sunday" toys, and puzzles. If we try to keep her still or in the pew she just gets louder and louder. We haven't figured out what will keep her entertained for that hour.
Hugs. She loves to give them and receive them and she uses it against you too. She will want a hug when she is hurt or she'll come up to you and say "huuugg" and squeeze you say, "oh, baby" It also means I want you to pick me up so that I can be higher and get into what ever you are doing. Last week for her birthday she recived a book about emotions with the Sesame Street characters. There is a page where Elmo has a sad face. We talked about sad and she then gave the book a hug and said, "oh, baby" I have since then noticed her giving hugs to random objects throughout the house like door frames, the refrigerator, her babies, then last night when she was taking her bath she gave a hug to the water faucet in the tub and the handle to turn the water on and off with. I don't know where she got these ideas from.

On Sunday, since we already had her party we still wanted to celebrate her Birthday so we had some eggos for breakfast and I stuck two candles in it and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She Loved it. She probably was wondering why we didn't have candles all the time.






I am so grateful for Katelynn and the love and happiness that she has brought to our family. It is definitely not easy to be a parent but, it is worth it. It is going to be hard when the baby comes home and I can't focus on her all the time anymore, but having a sibling will be great for her.

Mother's Day

This was my favorite Mother's Day of the three that I have been a Mom for. The first one Katelynn was two days old and I wasn't quite feeling like a "mom" yet. I wasn't feeling much of anything, I was just going on steam then.
Last year was Katelynn's first Birthday and we had her party that same weekend. That was not a nice and relaxing weekend at all. It was fun, but a lot of work.
This year we got it right. Since Katelynn's party was done I wasn't putting that together all day Saturday. Instead, Ben took care of Katelynn in the morning and I got my Mother's day gifts finished for our mom's. Ben took her out for an hour or so and I went digital scrapbook shopping. It just so happened that the first Saturday in May is National Scrapbooking Day where all the digital shops have sales and freebies. So, I checked some stuff out in the morning.
We had planned on Ben Katelynn and I meeting my parents for lunch, but when Ben came home from Target he came up with a good idea. I go by myself and enjoy lunch with my parents. After thinking about it for a minute, it did sound like a good idea. Being able to eat without having to wrangle Katelynn and feel totally hurried during the meal. That would be a treat. So, I went and had a great lunch with my mom and dad.
When I got home, Beth came over and we checked out the digital shoppes together and had a nice time together.
I didn't make dinner.
Saturday was really my Mother's Day. It was really nice. The gift of me time was all I wanted.

On Sunday we all went to my parents in the morning and gave my Mom her mother's day gift and took a picture together.



It took some fruit snacks and not holding her and we ended up with a good picture.



We went to church and then to Beth and Kevin's for dinner where Kevin made some Cabbage rolls, garlic bread and we had Ice Cream Cake for Dessert.

It really was a great weekend. So, we probably won't have Katelynn's Birthday Party and Mother's Day on the same weekend. I was nice to separate them.

Getting Wet

All last week we spent the afternoons getting wet. I had to check out the sprinklers in the front yard so I turned them an and knew that she would be getting in them. She had a great time.




Since it was getting warmer we pulled out our little Kiddie pool and she played in that for a few afternoons.





We went outside to play on Saturday afternoon and I hadn't emptied the pool and it was too windy to get in so I tried my best to keep her out but then I started day dreaming about something and the next thing I knew she was in the pool.

I am trying to get a couple of pictures from my phone to upload hopefully it will work and I will post those too.

Birthday Party!

Katelynn had her Second Birthday party on 4/30. Mother's Day weekend was a little too cramped to have it then so we had it a little early. Katelynn LOVES Elmo and Abby Caddaby from Sesame Street. We had a couple DVD's of Elmo's world and she would watch them intently. A couple of months ago on Netflix my dreams came true they added about 80 episodes of Sesame Street to their streaming library. (We still don't have any sort of television hooked up, and we are keeping it that way for as long as we can.)Now Katelynn knows the whole Sesame Street gang and will say "Cookie" in Cookie Monsters voice. She knows that Count says "Ah, Ah, Ah" and will say that when she sees him in books.

I decided to be a little ambitious and make Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes. They turned out cute and everyone knew who they were supposed to be so that was the important part. That they were recognizable. I also made some sugar cookies with number 2 and letter K.



While Katelynn was waiting for her guests to arrive she was outside playing with her favorite toy at Grandma's the Tee ball Set. She saw me taking pictures of her and so before each swing she would stop and say "Cheee" then swing. It was hilarious, but at least I got a good picture of her.



We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she LOVED that minute and she knew exactly what to do when she saw those candles. We said blow and they were out and she probably hasn't seen candles in person since Matthew's birthday.



She only ate the lips off of her Elmo cupcake. She has a hard time eating when others are around, she just wants to play.


She was spoiled and has enjoyed all of her presents that she got that day.


I like this picture of me, just wish it wasn't blurry.



It was nice to have everyone together to celebrate Katelynn. She is so much fun.