HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We as normal are behind. We spent this morning carving a jackolantern. The Boys had a blast. Logan enjoyed stirring the pumpkin and got mad anytime Andrew worked on it. Aidan took one of the kiddie knives and kept stabbing the pumpkin saying, "I did it!!" I took pictures and a video. Like most things the kiddie knives became drum sticks and Aidan serenaded us.

Nana and Grandpop came over to see the Boys trick or treat. I took one picture of our house before we went. Luckily Grandpop is always at the ready with the camera! We went to 6 houses and then Aidan said he needed to go pee and we went home. Logan was content to run around the cars and "scare" us. Aidan enjoyed seeing the other kids, handing out candy and of course eating it too! Don't know how many more Halloween nights we can get by with only hitting a few houses.

Progress in preparing for Daniel

I am just a BIT ansty on trying to get this all done. I have said before most "smart" people would do a home rennovation finish it then try to get pregnant. Andrew and I prefer the back asswards approach. Why not try, get pregnant on the first try and then in a month or two start the home rennovations. Yup, that's us in a nutshell. The wall is ready for moulding and today Matt came over to help get the chair rail up in Aidan's Big Boy room. Matt and his friend Jacob will be coming over tomorrow to assess what needs to be done in the new office and toy room. I decided to grab a few shots of Matt and Andrew's handy work along with the mess that is weighing on my shoulders. Here we are closing in on the last 8 weeks of the pregnancy and this is what we have. No place for Aidan if we make room for Daniel, no place for Daniel if we make room for Aidan, and a wall painted with primer. I grabbed some shots of the closet. We have used it for storage. Andrew needs to make a shelf in the garage to help accomodate, we are purging and reorganzing as much as possible. In my opinion decent storage is lacking in thise house. We feel we are busting at the seams and yet are adding another human being here. Luckily, some of the stuff int he closet is the crib and mattress Daniel will use. Some filing cabinets that are not currently in use but will be soon! Some Holiday decorations, wrapping paper and gift bags. Three suitcases filled with toys we took out of the toyroom to build the wall. We have the bumper pool in the middle of the room that will need to be moved the garage. The garage however has all of Aidan's Big Boy Furniture that I am finishing. Here's hoping we can get things done or I might go nutty!!

Logan and the Balloon

Today we went to Harris Teeter. Of course cookies and balloons are a must! Logan let go of his balloon in the foyer and was trying to jump and get it. I also FINALLY got a clip of him saying, "Hooray!!"

Enjoy!!

Candy Necklaces

We had a Halloween Party at Carrie's Parent's house this past Saturday. The kids bobbed for apples, pinned the smile on the skeleton, did a blindfolded marshmallow game, ring toss, and an eyeball spoon relay. We brought mac n cheese, homemade candied apples and caramel apples. Aunt Melanie made a spider cake and brought candy necklaces for the kids to make. The ate so much junk we all brought the necklaces home to finish. Today after nap we made our necklaces. OK, well I helped Aidan and Andrew helped Logan. Logan preferred his candy off the necklace. :-)

Hill Ridge Farms

Today we went had a Family Day at Hill Ridge Farms. A local farm not too horribly far away. We had planned to go Monday and Andrew had the day off. However, even though he was off he had to be at work for a particular project. As almost always we changed plans to accommodate. Turns out it rained Monday and did not today. Plans change for the best! That is at least how we see it! Here are a few of the pics we took while we were there. The Boys had fun on a huge tube slide they had but they were not fans of waiting in the super long line. Aidan enjoyed the bounce house and maze. Logan preferred the sand pit and toys. They thought feeding the goats were hilarious! They thoroughly enjoyed the train ride. Aidan used his first port a potty. Euw. Kudos to Andrew! Meanwhile Logan could not wait any longer to romp in the pumpkins. Logan did not see them as obstacles to avoid he just ran into them and spent most of his time climbing over them after he fell. Luckily, I was able to get ONE shot of Aidan picking out a pumpkin meanwhile Logan continued his trek through the patch towards the road. Don't worry I picked him up long before he got near to it. Anyways, we headed out to lunch with two worn out Boys. We had a blast. Mom and Dad were worn out too!

"I like to do things myself."-Logan

Isn't it great?!

Isn't it great?! Like life goes things always choose a great time to break. I knew our kitchen faucet was nearing the way too soon end of it's life. The handle would spin 360 degrees at times so they hot cold adjustments did not work. It started that just this past week. Well, last night Andrew was getting the sippy cups parts ready to wash and Aidan decided he wanted Daddy for bedtime. I went downstairs and there was water all over the back of the sink and the back splash. It was completely pooled up. I cleaned it up and I also noticed this week that the faucet would drip continuously unless you moved the handle just into the right spot. I thought what a pain but we can make it work until it breaks. I started the fill the sink which was cold water by now. The faucet turned on and the water started spraying out the backside of the faucet. I quickly called for Andrew to come down. He got underneath the cabinet luckily it was dry there and he started checking things out. He tried to undo the faucet so he could take it apart and the entire thing snapped. Go figure after 8p on a Sunday night. So first thing this morning we ran to the home improvement store to check out a few faucets we looked up on line. We did some price matching so we hit two stores and used a coupon and came home with our new faucet. What a pain. Luckily, in the scheme of home repairs this is a very affordable one but a pain none the less. You can't do anything without a kitchen faucet. I like this one better but would much rather have the old one and keep our money in the bank. Doesn't everyone??! Andrew went in late to work so we could have a functioning kitchen. I had to snap a few shots of his plumbing job. Just glad I did not have to try and get in there even more glad that he is capable of doing these things. :-)

Post Dinner Milkshakes

As the Doc ordered Logan needs some fattening up. Tonight was a milkshake night. Andrew found it funny where they both chose to sit while we cleaned up dinner and they drained their shakes.

A Green Light Bubble Bath

Today my Mom came over to tame the kiddo's so we could get some work done on Aidan's furniture along with some reorganizing/purging in our room to help make room for the wild amount of crap we have to relocate. We REALLY are trying to simplify things and get rid of unnecessary items. We have our home splitting at the seems and one room is currently vacant and filled with tons of CRAP. There is no other word for it but crap so we need to remove over a person's worth of worthless junk so we can add another life in our home. In the mean time we came across a glow stick that we were given I don't know how many years ago. Really?! OK, well the Boy's had fun with it but in the meantime it was been collected dust and taking up space. Yes, I understand it is a small item but when you have a gazillon small random items like that they tend to take up space and now we have to exert our energy in removing them from our home.

I was on an adrenaline rush scrubbing stains out of the carpets and cleaning floors so Andrew took the Boys up for bath. The glow stick was the item that pushed them to head upstairs. They ran around upstairs with it. They turned all the lights off and had a blast. Aidan was not wanting to get a bath because that meant to him no more glow stick. Andrew came up with the idea of a "green light bubble bath." He turned all the lights off and the Boys got into a bubble bath with the glow stick. They had a blast. The video we have included is of them running around upstairs. It's a pretty good spin on the same ol' bath time.

Logan

So today we ran to Lowe's for a few things. One thing we picked up was more foam mat's for the toy room. I took a little video of Logan playing with them once we got home. He likes to do his own thing and sometimes wonder/worry exactly what he is plotting. :-)

29 weeks...

Andrew had another late night at work so I took the liberty of doing the shot myself. Sure we have a tripod and I could have set it up but I don't have the energy to do that right now...so a self portrait in the powder room mirror...

Go put it by the gate...

Andrew worked until 9:15 tonight. We really missed him. I had the Boys upstairs in PJ's and they had the before bedtime milkshake and smoothie. I was sorting dirty laundry when Aidan came up to me and said, "Mom, I am all done with my schwee(aka:smoothie)." I said, "OK, my hands are full can you go put it by the gate for me?" On my way to the laundry room I saw where he put it...

And some dessert

So here is the aftermath of Sunday's dinner. As we said before we're trying to "fatten up" Logan. He likes Nutella but it has a bit more sugar than I would like. I found an all natural dark chocolate almond butter. It has more protein and less sugar. We wanted to see how he liked it. We'll let you be the judge.

While we were in the kitchen...

Aidan was rocking it out to "Paradise City." He chooses the foyer for most of his solo acts..it has much better acoustics. :-) I think it was also enjoying watching his shadow on the stair wall.

Le Chef Bit

Here's my little kitchen helper on Sunday evening. He sees the mixer, a pot, or large bowl and he wants in on the action. Here he was helping make some pizza crust for dinner and some to freeze for later.

Sweethearts

Just a few photos of The Boys from the past couple of days.

OK, well almost 29 weeks now...Eek!

Friday we went to the 28 week check up and I got to do the fasting glucola test. Yum. For those who aren't familiar you fast for at least 3 hours go to your appointment and drink a wonderful (italic=sarcasm) glucose drink. I did not get a choice the tech just walked in with fruit punch. So it tastes like a super super sweet fruit punch gatorade. So you know I like candy but am not big on super sugary stuff. Doesn't really make sense...I like my coffee with just a hint of sugar...tea can be sweet or unsweet...I like some nasty sweet candy but overall prefer not too sweet. So, to me it's gross. I tried to drink it as fast as I can and let the minimal amount hit my tongue. However, it's a decent sized bottle so I only got about 3/4 of the way through it before I had to breath again. To me the after makes me want to gag...a whole bunch of sugary sweet on an empty stomach. So off to wait for an hour. In the meantime I wait to see the doctor for a heart rate check and belly measurement. Baby Daniel's heart beat was easy to find and super strong and my belly was measuring at 29 weeks. (According to the EDD they gave me at the first appointment I "should" be 28w 3 d at the time. According to me I am 29 w 3 days.) No complaints here!! I should know today what the results of my fasting test and the monthly antibody screen.

Work on the wall has halted for what feels like an eternity. We hit a bump in the road trying to find the same crown and chair rail that was installed in our dining room. We got it from a wonderfully helpful neighbor who works at a local building supply company. However, our crown is discontinued and our chair and back are now special order. We gave him a call to see if they have a showroom we could go to do purchase it since the home improvement stores have zilch of what we need. He directed us where we needed to go and helped out a good bit too. Thank you Neighbor Terry! We now have in our hands a different crown and all the chair we need to finish the two new rooms and Aidan's Big Boy room. I have been a hair lazy and need to start the clear coat on his new bed and start staining his new dresser and book shelf. Matt is going to help us hang the moulding however, he is being worked to death so his free time is limited and he is exhausted. We're hoping we can enlist his help this coming weekend. If that works out then we will be ready for paint in both rooms!! I have to get Aidan's furniture done so we can make room in the garage for the bumper pool table that is currently in Aidan's Big Boy room. All the "junk" in Aidan's Big Boy room will be transferred to the new office...just need to get it finished to get the next big chunk of work done. We are probably going to make some good use of baby sitters (aka: Grandparents riiight??!) so we can get this last overhaul done.

I am turning a bit antsy for everything to be done. Right now I feel like a bomb blew up in our house. There are cold weather clothes EVERYWHERE! However, the warm weather clothes are still needed. Today is a high of 88 by the end of the week the highs are supposed to be low 70's. Luckily, the humidity has dropped tremendously so the 88 we see today is nothing like 88 would have been 2 months ago. Well, two months ago we were in triple digits. Halloween is right around the corner, then Aidan's Birthday, then Christmas and a Baby! WHOA! Our bedroom is full of clothes that don't fit me and every time I start to organize them a little helper or two undo all the piles and all of our space bags are no longer sealing. Do I buy more?! How many do we need? Can I use something else, but what?! I have no where to put Daniel clothes until I finished Aidan's new dresser or get a new laundry basket..Hmmm..I might need to get one. We have stuff to either donate, throw away or try and sell. Andrew is super busy at work with deadlines. By the end of the day we are all exhausted and not much gets done. My kitchen floor is getting pretty gross but the idea of a hands and knees scrubbing doesn't sound too hot. If I don't do it now I won't do it and I would rather give it the cleaning it deserves than a half hearted mop kind of clean. I am trying to declutter tremendously. Our living room carpet is heinous and needs scrubbing again. Anyone want to come work for free or food? :-) However, instead of taking care of it here I am blogging a rant.

The whole point of the rant is that I am starting to feel super overwhelmed with all that needs to be done in the upcoming weeks. There are plenty of things I have put on the "let it go" list and since I am at least deeming them not a priority. We are so excited to meet Daniel but there is so much to get done before his arrival. All the worries you have when bring a new little one in the world. The Boys are also becoming super duper cuddly and snuggly with me....something that is only done if they are hurt or if they were sick. Currently, this is not the case they are healthy and happy. I am not complaining but wondering what brought on this change. Then I wonder how they will be when Daniel comes. Aidan is excited and knows Baby Daniel is in there and has felt him move. Although I do not think he totally gets it. We've been looking at pictures of the Boys as little ones and the belly photos too. We got a book a few months ago called, "Baby Makes Five" Aidan is in love with reading it. It is a Berenstain Bears book and pretty good. It talks how Sister bear has trouble accepting the new baby in their family. Until she learns that babies take a lot of time and attention just like she did when she was a Baby and all the things Momma and Papa are doing with the new Baby are exactly what they did for here. Aidan is enjoying reading that book over and over and then seeing all the pictures and videos we have of them just like Momma and Papa Bear do. Logan doesn't care for the book it is a bit too long for his attention span however, he loves looking at pictures and videos. Enough of the rambling. I am hoping to get some good things done here today so I have to get off of here! I have a few pictures and videos to update and will hopefully get a new belly shot here shortly. Thanks to those who have made it this far through my rant. :-)

Our Little Bit is Growing Up

18 Month Stats

Weight: 20 lb 8 oz (< 3%)

Height: 31.5 in (49%)

Head Circum: 19.25 in (90%)

Typical stats for the Little Bit, basically average height, super skinny and a large noggin. Three things that are easily observable when you see him. To us he is as perfect as he can be.

Everyday he finds new things to scale. I turn my back to find him most definitely in places where he should not. I get him down and he goes right back up. Eventually he gets distracted with someone he is "supposed" to do.

He loves playing with his Big Brother. They love to chase each other and get each other to pretend laugh. Which then gets them giggling for real.

He loves trucks and trains.

Logan says a few words loud and clear and others are harder to catch. He prefers to start with a new word with tones. Then one day it's the entire word. It's pretty interesting to here.

Favorite Words are:

*Hi!!

*Bye Bye!!

*Aidan (Ai-da)

*Hi Aidan!!

*Dada (which seems to be both Mom and Dad)

*Grandpa

*Thank You (was one of the first phrases he started over 3 months ago)

*Dog

*Uh Oh

*He makes attempts at various animal sounds, they all pretty much sounds like grunts.

He LOVES his puppies! He goes out of his way to pet them and is engulfed in hysterical giggles any time they get excited, bark or play.

He also LOVES to feed the puppies. In turn they LOVE Logey too. ;-)

He is happy 97% of them time, but that 3% he is mad. WHOOOOO BOY! He gets mad! If he gets upset we tend to get a bit more flustered since it's so atypical of him.

Today, I finally noticed one of his canines FINALLY cut. Let's hope the others are quick to follow. It seems they have been trying to come through for at least the past 3 months. They need to hurry up so he get a break before those two year molars rear their ugly heads.

Logan is our tiny miracle still each day. He impresses us and makes us laugh almost constantly. We are so thankful to have him here with us.

The Doctor was impressed on how he handled the check up, his constant motion, independent personality and friendliness. Logan's area of improvements is to try even more to increase the protein we've been feeding him and to give him more fats. The Dr. wants to make sure he can pack on a bit more so in the event he got sick he wouldn't go into the negatives so quickly. Oh yes, they did a quick blood test and he is super healthy! Logan just has a metabolism unlike most peoples.

I can't believe in 6 months our Little Bit will be 2! (Some of that time needs to slow down.)

Paradise City

Aidan's latest music obsession is "rock 'n' roll". He newest favorite song is Guns N Roses, "Paradise City." Last night my Parents and Brother were over for dinner and he was singing something we couldn't make out. He told us it was song #4. Which on the CD we've been listening to in the car is "Paradise City." Tonight we figured it out and he managed to pick up the tune a bit more after we solved the mystery song. Andrew went to get the camera and of course he stopped singing. He then tried to get Logan to do their laughing game so we tried to encourage the song singing. Needless to say he did not do much but when we uploaded it to the computer it started him singing it all over again. Here's the short clip we got out of him...