My Birthday Present

In honor of my birthday today I thought I'd show you what I got for my birthday (and Christmas and the next few birthdays/Christmas) The kitchen isn't totally done yet but we've  I've decided that since Norah is coming soon we should focus on getting ready for the baby and then work on the finishing touches to the kitchen.  I've had a few freak out moments thinking she'll be here in a month or less and we are not ready for her.  But most of the kitchen is done.  Just a few trim pieces, a few more tiles installed, transition piece, paining the ceiling, add another piece of trim under the window, and then picking out a backsplash.  And somehow those are the things that are easy but seem to take the longest to get done. So here are the before and after. 

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After (opening up the doorway makes such a difference. And you can see we're still moving in our stuff.  We have to unpack some boxes in the garage and figure out where to put them all.  We have so much cabinet space.  Its wonderful)

Before

After (where the microwave was there is now a full pantry cabinet. I love it. Its hard to believe we fit all our food in one tiny cabinet before)

Before

After (I love the fact we put the counter there for the kids. They eat breakfast and lunch there, do homework, color, its great.)

Before

After

We love it.  And got some amazing deals on everything. Its fun to even see the kids walk into the kitchen and just look around.  Its hard to picture what the kitchen looked like before.  We love it.

Pirates

Window

 Anyone need a window cleaner?

 

Snow

We've been enjoying a very mild winter so far which I love.  The kids have been able to play outside a lot and its been nice walking to the bus stop. The other day it was cold in the morning and Colin commented "boy that warthog actually got it right - there really is 6 more weeks of winter"  (hahahahah i love it!)  But Colin has been wanting snow so bad and really wanting a snow day from school.  We didn't a snow day from school but we woke up this morning to a light dusting in the ground.  We had to be at church early this morning but we bundled up the kids and let them go play outside before we left.  Just in case it was all melted by the time we got back.(which most of it was)

 And now we're wanting a real snow storm. Enough to cancel school, make a snowman, and go sledding. 

nap

 Joel is in the process of dropping his nap.  Sometimes he will go right down - other times he will fall asleep around 4ish and most days wont even take one.  Today he fell asleep in the car at 10:30 running errands with me.  So its anyones guess when he'll fall asleep now. Part of the problem is he's so excited to play with Bubba when he gets home from school that by the time we do start nap time it'll mean he'll be up really late. And since the boys are sharing a room and Colin goes to bed early -I would love to get Joel to go to bed at the same time.  So I'm not pushing nap time around here.

 The other day he fell asleep on the couch around 4:30.  We tend to stay in our pj's all day around here.

So cute 

Another tooth

Colin has been working on his second loose tooth.  It was crooked yesterday afternoon and I meant to take a picture since I thought his snaggle tooth looked cute.  Then Brent came home and a wrestling match started in the boys room.  All of a sudden Brent is calling to me saying there's lots of blood come quick. He had knocked out colin's loose tooth in the match and it hadn't been quite ready to come out yet.

 All was fine after a few minutes with a cold wet washcloth

Colin wasn't as excited this time. The blood freaked him out.  And then the fact that we can't find the tooth. Brent told Colin he probably swallowed it. (which was always my biggest fear and i'm not sure why brent told him that)  So then Colin was afraid he would have to poop it out.  I reassured him that it is probably somewhere in his room and that we can't find it because its smaller than the legos all over his floor.

I can't wait to see what he looks like when his adult teeth come in.

Conversations with Joel

 

 Lately my conversations with Joel have gone like this:

Me: Lets go play cars

Joel: who?

Me:  You

Joel: What? 

Me: Cars.Lets go play with your cars

Joel: Who?

Me: Joel - Does Joel want to go play cars with mommy?

Joel: Where?

Me: In your room.

Joel:  What?

Me: cars. lets play cars

Joel:  Who? 

And it goes on and on. Sometimes I give up but it does make me laugh.

6 more weeks

 Baby girl is getting bigger.  Only 6 more weeks to go.  Colin was a week early, Joel was on his due date. I'm predicting this girl to be a week late but I'd really like her to be a little early.  I already feel like she's about to fall out when I walk.  The other day we got surprised by a short storm at the bus stop.  No one had coats, it was literally pouring so hard I couldn't see.  Joel was screaming and clinging to me.  Colin was in the jogger crying about his groundhog hat he made that was just dripping, I'm pushing Colin, holding Joel and trying to walk as fast as I could all the way home (I wish the bus stop was closer) It stopped raining 10 minutes after we got home.  Go figure.  A few more days like that and baby girl will come early. 

 She's measuring right on time.  As large as I look and feel I haven't gained as much weight this time.  In fact a few times I've lost weight recently.  I still can't eat sugary sweets.  I passed my glucose test but I still get sick after eating even 1 M&M - I usually have to follow it up with a carrot or piece of broccoli.  But I do sneak some in. Sometimes its just worth it :) 

And we have finally picked her name.  Norah Grace Goedecke.  Although Colin is still calling her leah :)  That was and still is his top pick.  But Norah just seems to fit her.  Norah means honor and light which we liked.  And now that the kitchen is almost done its time to start thinking baby.  As much as I'd love to be done being pregnant its almost come too fast. There is a lot to get done before she gets here.  I have a feeling these next few weeks will fly by. 

Kitchen demo

 Our kitchen renovation is underway.  Brent and some friends basically gutted the whole kitchen last Friday and today (this Friday) cabinets will be delivered.  I think - I'm still waiting on them to call with a time. Tomorrow the cabinets will be installed.  Our appliances come Monday and then we'll wait I think another week for the sink and counter tops. Once the cabinets go in tomorrow it'll get a lot easier for me to start putting our house back in order.  (oh and in the midst of all this we moved Joel into Colin's room - we're nothing if not ambitious! we just desperately needed sleep that we went ahead and did it.  So far so good.  The kids are enjoying it and Joel is sleeping in his bed longer and longer)

We've had some great friends come out and help.  We couldn't have done it without them.  Tyler even came late two nights to help Brent tile.   Brent has been working hard.  Working all day and then coming home to work all night some nights on the kitchen.  The only complaint from the kids is that they miss daddy since he comes straight from work to do kitchen stuff. The boys have enjoyed the donuts for breakfast every morning and the fun snacks I got them to eat this week. And a dear friend of mine made us dinner one night that has been our lunches every day since.  So it hasn't been too bad.  I think its amazing we can go from gutted to basically done in a week.

 Then there will be painting and backsplash to do and we'll be done.  In time to get ready for our baby girl.  Most of you have been following the process on facebook but don't expect pictures on here until its absolutely done.  I took a ton of before pictures and I'm excited to place them side by side to see the difference. But that will probably come after the painting/backsplash.  We've gotten some amazing deals on all of this stuff so if any of you are looking to redo your kitchen let me know - we have connections.

Colin has made a fort and insists on sleeping like this every night.  since he sleeps all night and actually sleeps in later I have no problem with it. 

Squirrels

Joel is still in love with squirrels.  Joel got this squirrel from Ant Ant for Christmas.  He loves it and carries it all over the house.  He recently found the bowl of cedar balls that were in the bottom of my closet (we had a moth problem a few months ago) and has claimed he balls as his "nuts." They are perfect size for the squirrel to hold and "eat."  The nuts have to go where the squirrel goes.  I have to remember at night to get the bowl out of his bed after he goes to sleep so he wont roll over it at night.

Poor Boy

This has been Colin since Christmas.  His asthma medication isn't working so we're waiting on our appointment to see a specialist to figure out how to control it.  2 more weeks. But lately its not unusual for Colin to just lay on the couch for a little bit.  It will usually last no longer than an hour and then he's back up and bouncing around the house, climbing up the walls (literally) and his normal self.  He has been stuttering a lot lately and having trouble getting words out.  Its almost as bad as it was back at the beginning of school. The speech therapist said a lot of it was stress - but i'm beginning to wonder if its also asthma related.  Although he does have a lot of changes - we're moving joel into his room, getting a new kitchen, and a new baby coming up.  So that could be adding to it.  We're looking forward to the doctors apt but that is also making him nervous about what tests they will do.  I will admit I'm a little worried there is something going on more than his asthma but I guess thats what moms do - worry about our kids. 

But I should've known something when he didn't want to go to a birthday party Saturday.  He seemed fine but said he was achy and just wanted to lay down.  Joel has been snotty for a week now so i figured we'd all stay home.  Turns out they both had red eyes and gunk oozing from their eyes yesterday.  Ear infections.  Both of them.  Colin has a mild case - his first ear infection - Joel has a really really bad case.  The doctor was amazed Joel could hear anything.  (But the best part of all this is that we got the doctor we want. Our favorite doctor moved and we didn't like his replacement so I begged yesterday to see Dr. Dan - who we also liked.  Colin loves him too and was scared of the new guy.  But now we're on Dr. Dan's schedule. I had to ask Dr. Dan to be added but luckily being a Gouger can get you in - he knows my uncle - YAY!!!!)   So we're taking another day off from school today to get better and I'm enjoying some extra snuggles with my boys.  Although my plans of getting everything ready for our kitchen demo tomorrow have gone a lot slower.  It'll all get done. Hopefully :)  And by this afternoon the boys will have enough medicine in them to be chasing each other all over the house and back to wrestling. Right around the time I need a nap :) 

Davy Crockett

 The kids have been playing Davy Crockett off and on since Christmas. 

Colin built the Alamo.  He proudly called me into his room and showed me his fort.  Then said "don't worry mommy - they all die."  (we watched the movie and while they don't show everyone dying the kids picked up on it pretty fast)

And then Davy Crockett has some pretty cute death scenes.  

Lego Club

We don't have a wii or any other video gaming system.  But we do have a computer and Colin loves to play games on Lego Club.  Joel loves to climb up and watch. I love Lego Club because after playing his games or watching the Lego videos, Colin will go in his room and create his own creations for hours.

Last week I was sitting on the couch drinking a cup of tea and Joel climbed up next to Colin.  He reached over, gave Colin a big hug and kiss and whispered "I wuv  you Bubba." Colin replied "I love you too Joel." Joel went on to say "you my best friend Bubba." and Colin said "we're best friends forever."

This now happens almost each time Joel climbs up next to Colin. A hug, a kiss, I love you or a best friends comment. 

I think I have the worlds sweetest boys. 

Flash Light Fun

Happy Monday

Getting too big

 Notice anything different? 

Guess the tooth fairy is coming tonight.

I think the tooth fairy might cry.  I remember when he got that tooth.  It was his first one...can't believe he's old enough to start losing them. Its been loose all week and tonight while eating Apple Jacks it came out.  We have a very excited boy tonight.... and a very teary mommy :)