No more front teeth!

Yep, it's gone. Megan finally lost that crooked tooth of hers!

We were gone all day today at the Children's Museum and the tooth wasn't loose at all. Before supper, she was eating a grape and she looked at me with blood on her lip and said, "mom, my tooth is bleeding." It was! She rinsed her mouth out, but her tooth was still in there. She then complained that her stomach was hurting and she didn't want to eat supper.

The rest of us sat down for supper and she did eat a little bit, but not much. I think when she bit on her grape, it made her tooth loose and she was worrying about it. All during supper, you could see it getting looser and looser. As she talked, you could see it move- it was really wierd.

After supper, we encouraged her to mess with it, Matt and I wanted her to lose it before bedtime so she didn't swallow it during the night. As it was getting closer to bedtime, she had it worked so loose that she was able to turn it sideways. While we were in the bathroom getting ready to brush her teeth before bed, I noticed that the tooth was just barely hanging in her mouth. Out of nowhere, Megan reached her hand up and just pulled her tooth right out of her mouth!

She looked at me with a great big grin, the biggest I had seen all day! She looked a lot better with her tooth gone than she did with a crooked one hanging there! (I think anyway). We called Matt in to come look and he was pretty excited that it was over with. Megan sent Matt downstairs to get her tooth box and she got it all ready for the tooth fairy. She is pretty excited about the tooth fairy coming, so hopefully she will calm down and go to sleep- she does have school tomorrow!

Megan's tooth

She's going to lose her top middle tooth tonight, it is really loose!

Bedtime already?

Is it bad to put your 3 1/2 year old to bed early because she is constantly saying, "I'm tired" in order to get out of eating her supper?

Matt put her to bed a half our earlier than normal and she was asleep within 15 minutes- maybe she was tired! Too bad she'll be starving in the morning.

Shower Pictures!

I finally have a moment when I can sit down, download pictures, and post them on my blog. Courtney and I don't have plans this morning, so we are catching up on things around the house.


Last Sunday I had a baby shower given by my sister-in-laws and one of Matt's aunts. It was great! Here are some pictures from our time together.

Sheryl brought the food and it was yummy! I got to bring home some leftovers.

The two grandmas of this little boy! He is the first grandson on each side.


The presents!

Some candids of the girls

Courtney and her friend Riston :

Megan and her friends, Fiona and Raeanne


Courntey being goofy again!

The fun part was opening the presents! I had lots of little helpers!






Family pictures

All the Ruwe ladies plus my mom:

The Hasemann side:

After I got home, I put the presents on the living room floor. I don't have anywhere else to put them yet!

Nap time!

I just took 1 1/2 hour nap...wow, I needed that! I've had a busy last couple of days plus a big night tonight at our church's spring dinner.

I'm so glad Courtney can entertain herself for that long. (Just to let you know, I don't let myself fall fast asleep. I just need to lay down and close my eyes for awhile because I know I still have a 3 year old to take care of.)

Crazy Sunday!!

Today was crazy! It started with church this morning, then my baby shower, then AWANA awards, and have to give piano lessons yet tonight!

My baby shower today was awesome! It was put on by some of my sister-in-laws and Matt's aunt and they had everything so organized and geared towards boys, even green punch! We walked into the room and Megan said, "Mom, there's a baby boy balloon!" Of course Megan, it's for our boy!

The shower was wonderful! We had a great lunch, a game, and then it was time to open presents. I got lots of onesies and things with monkeys on them (must be the thing lately)! Everything is so darn cute, even for a boy! I even got some toys geared towards boys, including matchbox cars! How exciting!! I also got some crib sheets and blankets , Courtney had to give them the "snuggle test." I think they all passed! Hopefully she won't claim them as her own...

After our shower, we headed over to church to go to AWANA awards. Courtney got her book completion award and her Apple Tree award and Megan got her blue ribbon for her first place at Sparks-a-rama and her book completion award. We are very proud of them!

I still have piano lessons to give tonight and then get the girls to bed to start a new week. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to download pictures and post them. I hope I have some good ones from today!

Toothless Joe...I mean, Megan

Megan has been playing with her loose front tooth for awhile now. For the last couple of days, every time I turned around, her finger was in her mouth working it loose. Finally yesterday morning, it was to the point where she could bend her tooth all the way backwards and it looked like it was out already. I thought it would take at least a couple of days yet to lose it, but no!

I went to pick her up from school yesterday because she had Daisy's and as I was looking to check on Courtney who was playing on the playground, Megan came up to me and said, very excitedly, "Mom, I lost my tooth today!!!" She was grinning from ear to ear!! I looked at her and she looked completely different from the girl that I sent to school that morning! She had a big gap where her tooth had been and then the other front tooth was completely crooked! What happened to my child?? It was almost scary looking!

She showed me her tooth box that she had gotten from the nurses station (they go there when they lose teeth) and of course, it was pink. I got her in the car and she told me that it had fallen out during writing time in the morning. I asked her, "Were you playing with it?" She kind of paused, "yes." I knew it! Luckily, her teacher let her go the nurse right away and take care of it, she also said it didn't bleed at all.

When I got home from picking her up from Daisy's, Matt was home already and he hadn't seen her yet. I called him and told him she had lost a tooth and that she looks a little strange. His first reaction was, "You look like you're from the south." (sorry all southern folk). With her crooked tooth, it looks like she doesn't take care of her teeth and they are all falling out. He was joking with her of course!

Here is a picture I took when we got home of her crooked tooth:



We have a special box we made here at home to put the teeth in for the tooth fairy. She got this special box out and put her tooth in it and last night when she went to bed, she put it in her bed right next to her.

This morning, she came bouncing into my room 10 minutes before my alarm went off with $2 in her hand and her tooth box in the other. Again, she was grinning ear to ear with her crooked tooth right in the middle! She was VERY excited that the tooth fairy had came and brought her money! She was already plotting what to do with it.

Personally, I am hoping she loses the other tooth soon! I think she would look a whole lot better with both teeth gone than one there and two big gaps on each side of it! But I really am enjoying her excitement and all the joys of being a child!

Wednesday thoughts

I had a couple of thoughts that have been swirling around in my brain today, I just wanted to write them down!

1. I'll start with yesterday. I went to Wal-Mart to get groceries. I knew with this pulled ligament muscle it would be hard, but I just may need to take somebody along next time! My first problem was getting Courtney a big cart to ride in instead of walking beside me, this is SOOOO much easier with her, except that these carts are about 10 pounds heavier to push, plus add a 35 pound kid. By the time, I had it full of groceries, it was a lot heavier than it started! By the time I had pushed this cart around the entire store (because I need something from about every department), my side was really hurting.

So much so that when I got to the checkout line, I remembered something I needed in the back of the store and I thought there was NO way I was going to push this big heavy cart all the way back there, so I didn't. I told myself I would much rather make another stop at another store than go back and get it! I checked out and the really nice cashier, who was a college student, could probably tell I was hurting and she offered to help me out. In most cases, I would say no, but yesterday, I swallowed my pride and took her offer! She pushed the cart out and loaded up my groceries- I really think she wanted a breath of fresh air, but it was still really nice of her! I haven't seen any other Wal-Mart employee ever offer to help me out! And it really helped me in the process! If only I could've brought her home to unload them too. :)

2. My pregnancy brain- I have MOPS this morning and since I am rotating between two pants outfits for this stage of my pregnancy, I threw the shirt I wanted to wear today in the washer last night before supper and then at 10 pm, I made a special trip back downstairs to throw them in the dryer so they would be ready for this morning. Note to self: turn the dryer on if you want them dry by morning!

3. I came downstairs this morning at 7:30 with Megan to eat breakfast and the milk was on the kitchen table from when Matt had breakfast. He has a little habit of doing this sometimes, but I know he left about 6:30 am, so I know he probably ate breakfast about 6:15. I don't think the milk went bad, but I don't like cereal with warm milk, so I opened a new one I bought yesterday.

4. I need to buy Megan a new umbrella. It was pouring rain at the bus stop this morning and I was sharing one with her. I bought her one from wal-mart last fall, but it broke, so I took it back. She didn't need one all winter, so I didn't buy her a new one (I am refusing to buy one like her old one from wal-mart), but now, she needs one! I always say I'm going to buy her one and then it doesn't rain and I forget about it. I really need to do this!

5. Speaking of MOPS this morning, there is a landscaper coming to talk about pretty flowers and anything on that subject. I think I would rather work in the nursery. :) I have no interest in landscaping, flowers, or anything of that matter. I will still go though, I missed the last meeting because Megan was on spring break and she had pink eye. It will be nice to see everybody again and Courtney always enjoys her class!

6. I have only 6 weeks of my pregnancy left and I still have nothing ready. Matt's brothers were over last night unloading 18 12-foot sheets of drywall and I asked Matt if they could help him take the dresser upstairs so I can start putting baby stuff away. (and no, the room is not even started yet). He said we don't have a place for it yet, so he doesn't want to do it yet. My reply was "the room isn't going to be done in 6 weeks, so we need to find a place for it sometime!" We need to get a carseat yet and get all the baby stuff upstairs and cleaned off because it has been downstairs in the middle of construction zone! I'm starting to get worried about this!

Off to get Courtney ready for MOPS and to go out in the rain again! I do admit, I love spring!I need to post pictures of the trees in our backyard, they are beautiful!!!

Baby Doctor

I just got back from seeing the midwife and she says I pulled a round ligament. She said whenever it gets irritated, it will hurt more, so I'm supposed to take it easy and let it heal. She said it could take up to a week or so. I'm glad she figured it out, I was beginning to get worried!

I measured 33 (I am 34 weeks on Friday), gained 3 pounds, and heartbeat was great. Jenda (my midwife) was having a great time with it. Little boy had the hiccups while she was getting the heartbeat, she said, "I love this." I am amazed that after 20 years of midwifery, she still thinks it is fun to listen to hiccups and see babies move inutero!

We also talked about my platelet situation/ iron situation and looked over my previous births, especially Courtney's. Wow, she was a scary one! I almost want a copy of her dictation to put in her baby book to make her realized how blessed we are to have her with us! If you don't know, she was born with the cord around her neck 4 times and as Jenda was reading through it, I asked if she remembered delivering her and she said, "It's all coming back to me." Yikes!

I go back in 2 weeks and then I start going every week. We're getting to the end here!

On the way home, I was talking to Courtney on the phone and she said, "Did you go to the baby doctor?" "Yes, Courtney," "Did you get me a sticker?" I said, "No Courtney, I didn't get you a sticker." She said, "Did you get yourself a sticker?" I said, "No Courtney, I didn't get a sticker." Her response was, "Mommies can have stickers too you know!" I laughed!

Our Weekend Fun!

Ok, I thought since it was Monday and I haven't posted since Friday morning, I better do something today!

I posted last week that I had braxton hicks contractions during Thursday night, well, they are still going on and off. I was told to drink water and sit down when they start, but that doesn't always help me. Whenever I go to get up (to go to the bathroom), I have another contraction. It took me until about noon on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to really feel good and to get going. I eventually had to take tylenol to feel better. I've also had some side aches, so I am going to the midwife today to see if she can give me any answers. I even tried to clean one room today and got a terrible side ache! So I'm going to sit down here for awhile and blog, see if I feel any better!

As for life around the Ruwe house, we stayed busy this weekend. Friday night we stayed home because Matt really wanted to get the tiling in the shower done this weekend. While I was making supper Friday, the girls decided they wanted to paint! Which is fine, but this got out of hand! It was super fun for the girls and there was so much laughter and giggling going on that I just love to hear, but we had a huge mess when we were done!

Courtney and Megan both started at the table painting, then Megan wondered off somewhere and left Courtney. She thought it would be fun to make blue handprints on paper, she said it was something she learned how to do in Cubbies...

Pretty soon, Megan came back to see what Courtney was up to and she joined in the fun!

Pretty soon, dinner was ready and we had to clean up! I couldn't believe Courtney had it all over her stomach, in her armpits..


and even blue paint on her back!
In additon to having great fun with the paint, I think the girls laughed and giggled just as much as they washed the blue paint off their hands!

The kitchen table after I had cleaned everything off, luckily the paint came off pretty easily!

I thought we had all the paint cleaned off Courtney, but nope, Saturday morning, she woke up and she still had blue paint all over her legs! I think Matt stuck her in the tub and washed her off, but you could still see the blue on her.


Saturday we stayed home all day and Matt got the shower completely tiled! Yay!! We're almost done with the bathroom, THEN can we build the office in the basement and move the office down there???

Later in the afternoon, While Matt was mowing the lawn and the girls decided to make "soup" with flowers, grass, and rocks. I wish I had taken some pictures, they were being quite creative!

Sunday was church and then we spent the day at Grandpa Chris's and Grandma Lu's house for Easter. It was so nice seeing everybody again, some of them we hadn't seen since Christmas. We ate prime rib and had an Easter egg hunt (for adults too!). Again, I didn't take many pictures, but I did get this one of Courtney and JoDee opening up all her Easter eggs.

We left grandma and grandpa's house around 7 and got home around 8. Courtney had fallen asleep in the car about 7:45, so when we got home, we just put her to bed. It was a little early, but we figured it was close enough (8:30 is bedtime). I left her shirt on and put some pajama bottoms on her and tucked her into bed.

At 3:40 this morning, I hear a voice in my bedroom say, "I don't have any pajamas on." It was Courtney and she woke up and realized that we didn't change her clothes! I got up, put her pajama shirt on and put her back to bed. She slept until 8:15 this morning! When she got up, she said, "Where's Megan?" "I already put her on the school bus," I think she was a little disappointed she didn't get to see her off! (Sometimes it's easier to just let Courtney sleep and just deal with getting Megan off to school!)

Courtney right after she woke up!

Lack of Sleep last night. :(

I don't know what had me up more last night- blowing my nose, coughing, or Braxton Hicks contractions...when is it nap time??

Last night at AWANA!

Last night was our last night at AWANA!

Courtney has been in Cubbies all year and has learned every verse in her book! She will get her book completion award and her Apple Tree award at awards night in a week or so. I am amazed at her ability to memorize Bible verses! She walks around the house saying, "God loved us and sent his son," and "Jesus came into the world to save sinners." She also knows John 3:16! (Did I know that when I was 3 years old???) I really hope she can keep these verses in her heart!

Megan has been in the Sparks program. Her verses have been much longer. She had to memorize the books of the New Testament- that was kind of hard because it's not quite tangible yet. She has a Bible, but since she is just learning how to read, she's just starting to associate books in the Bible. I really think this is important for her future and I want to keep reviewing them with her! She has also had to memorize John 3:14-16! These were the most challenging passages for her, but she got them! Megan will also be getting her book completion award plus a review award for going through her book twice.

Last night we celebrated the end of the year by having ice cream sundaes in both Cubbies and Sparks. It was nice to sit back and relax and think about what we've learned all year. Matt was unable to go (he helps in Courtney's room in Cubbies), but I was still there to help with Megan's class (I help with Sparks). I'm not sure what Matt and I will be doing next year with a new baby around! But we will defenitely sign our kids up again, what a blessing it has been for them to know Bible verses and see them grow in faith!

I have to admit, my favorite verse that both kids have learned is, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right," Why does this verse always come up when they aren't listening???

Courtney's First Dentist Appointment!

Today Courtney went to the dentist for her first cleaning...but before I post those pictures, I want to post pictures of her crazy hair this morning!

She was sweating last night when she went to bed because she is still sleeping under her comfortor and when she sweats, her hair gets super curly! She still had her super curly hair this morning when she woke up, so I had to get a picture!

I need to find her a cooler blanket for the summer!

We also noticed this morning that our flowers are blooming outside our house! They are so pretty!



Finally, Courtney went to the dentist and had her first cleaning this morning. She did great! She watched "Curious George" and "Sid the Science Kid" while they were cleaning her teeth, so she wasn't paying attention the whole time. She didn't like when they put flouride on her teeth though, I just don't think she liked the grape taste. The dentist came in and looked at her teeth and say she has a very beautiful "princess smile." I hope she continues to have good teeth!

Melissa's Baby Shower!

On Sunday, my two sister-in-laws (Lachelle and Erica) plus myself gave our other sister-in-law a baby shower. She is due May 21st and is having a girl.

We had sent out invitations and our count was 55 people, including adults and kids. We only had 3 people RSVP, so we assumed the rest would come (or a majority of them), so we set up for at least 50 people. We also got food, cake, and punch for that many.

When we got there Sunday, us girls got right to work setting up for everybody. We had enough places for 50 people, so we thought we were ready to go!

The shower was supposed to start at 2 pm and at 2, we had 4 people there. We all thought that everybody was just running late, so we offered them punch and about 2:15, my aunt and her 4 adult daughters came (plus two children). So, we were up to 11 people yet, 40 more to go (give or take some). We waited another 15 minutes and yet nobody else came. Since nobody has RSVP'd, we figured more were coming.

About 2:30, we decided to eat and wait a little bit longer. We offered all the guests food and they all got something to eat.

At 2:45, we decided to go ahead with what we had. We had eleven guests and then there were 10 of us immediate family members, so altogether, there were 21 of us. We decided to sit around one big table and get started with the games.

Here is a couple views of our small crowd playing games.

After we played games, we had Melissa open her presents. She got a lot of great gifts and had lots of little helpers!



She got a nice embroidered blanket from my grandma!

All her presents:

After the presents were opened, we cut/ate the cake and ended the shower.

I think even though we had a small crowd, it turned out very nice. I admit, I was disappointed that more people didn't come and nobody had told us they weren't coming. It would've helped us plan better. We had a lot of food, cake, and punch leftover. We also wouldn't have gone to all the work to set all the tables up! I don't know if it was just a bad day or what it was, but hopefully Melissa will get some cards from some family members this coming week.

One final picture:

Back row: Lachelle, Melissa, Mary Hasemann (my mom), Erica, Charla, and Courtney

Front row: Abby, Megan, Darlene (my grandma), and Lizzie

New Platelet Count

I wanted to write this down before I forgot what these numbers were.

Here is my platelet count history. Normal platelet counts are 150,000-400,000.

October 2009- 135,000
January 2010- 137,000
March 12th- 106,000
March 19th- 107,000
April 12th (today)- 94,000!

They are going down each time they take my blood. The hematologist wasn't concerned today, she said to come back in in 3 weeks and check my CBC again. I think she just wants to watch them until I am close to my due date, then if they are still low, she wants to put me on steroids.

Am I ever going to blog again???

Wow, I was looking at my website and realized I hadn't blogged since last Wednesday/ Thursday. That is a long time for me...it's been a crazy week and weekend. Megan had spring break last week, so I had two kids running around instead of just one. We were also gone a night to CoCo Key (more to come later) and we weren't home much this weekend!

Today should be back to normal. I just put Megan on the bus, so she is on her way to school. Courtney is still sleeping. She hasn't felt good since about Wednesday and we had a long weekend, so she can sleep awhile. Then we need to get back to our routine, I think she's ready to have the house to herself again. Her and Megan got along great last week, but they also had their moments when you could tell Courtney wanted some extra attention.

I will blog more later!

CoCo Key

We are headed off to CoCo Key Water Resort today for some Ruwe family fun! We are going to spend the night at the hotel and spend two days at the water park for a great price! It is $129 to spend the night. We've had a $100 gift certificate for over two years plus a $20 coupon, it will cost us $9 plus tax to do all this! (and food, I guess).

We've been waiting for Courtney to get a little older to go to CoCo Key and I told Matt that we should go now before little boy gets here and we wait another 2-3 years!
So, we're going tonight! The entire hotel is booked, but I think it will be fun anyway! We bought both the girls sleeping bags and they are set! I hope their swimming suits still fit, I still need to find one for myself before we leave. :)

32 Week Checkup

Wow, 32 weeks pregnant already! I can't hardly believe we're going to have a new baby around here in 2 months! And that means Megan will be done with kindergarten in two months too because we are due two days after her last day of school!

I had my 32 week checkup yesterday and asked about all these braxton hicks contractions I've been having lately. My midwife had one word of advice- drink more water! She says that by not having enough blood volume, it will irritate my uterus since it is a muscle and cause it to contract. Yikes! She said I should be drinking at least 2 liters of water a day! 2 liters?? Do you know how much I will be in the bathroom after drinking that much?? She said if it is hot out, I should be drinking 3 liters! Wow! I don't know if I'll be able to chug that much water down in a day, but I could up my intake. Hopefully it will help.

I have also had a lot of tendon pain around my lower stomach and about a month ago, my midwife suggested to get a maternity belt for support. One of my friends borrowed me one, but I never used it until about a week ago! Wow, what a difference it makes! I will probably wear it all day long until the end of my pregnancy! If I don't wear it, my muscles hurt to even walk and then I am in pain. With it on, I am great! They say this is because this is my third baby and my muscles don't have much support left..it probably doesn't help that this little boy is so low either!

I only gained one pound in the last two weeks too- I was pretty excited! I have been trying to eat better and have been exercising every day! My midwife also brought up the subject of pain management yesterday (I guess they talk about this at the 32 week appointment). She said, "Well, it looks like you've had nothing before, do you plan on doing that again?" I said, "Yep, pretty much." She responded with "alright," and that was the end of that! We talked a little bit about my birth plan, heard the baby's heartbeat, she measured me(32 cm this time), and my appointment was over!

I took both girls along and they were great- except Courtney is getting into this habit of having to go to the bathroom right in the middle of the conversation with the midwife. I show her where the bathroom is and send her on her way herself. (well, Megan took her yesterday).

After my appointment, Megan and I saw the dentist for our 6 month checkup. Both of us checked out great, except Megan wouldn't let them take x-rays of her teeth. :( We got Courtney signed up for her first cleaning next week and then we came home, had dinner, and went to church for AWANA. It was a busy day!

Spring Break!

I just wanted to say that I love spring break! Up about 8:30 or 9, breakfast about 9:30-10, lunch about 1-1:30, maybe get out awhile, late snack, supper, then bed! Ah, I get a whole week of this! Next time Megan is out of school for this long, we're going to have a little baby boy keeping us up all night!

I do admit though, I like the school schedule. I like getting up early, getting Megan off to school, getting out with my friends/ Courtney's friends in the morning, home for lunch, and then taking care of things around the house in the afternoon. I am definitely not getting as much done this week as I usually would if Megan was in school. My schedule is off! One part is that I don't have any energy all of the sudden since these braxton hicks contractions have started and the girls have stuff/toys in every corner of the house! (two girls home, twice the mess) I can't clean up everything and I don't really have the energy to get on their case about it either!

I also want to take this week and enjoy having Megan home. I just want to let her play with her sister and not worry about school! I love the relationship they have, but I know they need to clean up their messes too, so maybe tomorrow we will get to it. :)

Thoughts from the Weekend

Here are my random thoughts from Easter weekend.

Kids

I love my kids, but I also love having a break from them! They spent the night at Andrew and Laura's on Friday night and had a blast! Megan's favorite part was eating "butterflies" for supper (bowtie noodles) and Courtney's favorite part was playing hide and seek. I love it that I can trust their uncles with my kids and not even worry about them! They went to the park, ate "dirt and worms" for dessert, had a great breakfast, and actually had enough sleep!

Matt and I got to go out to dinner by ourselves and go shopping for a dishwasher without two little girls running around. It was funny that even though we had all night to find a dishwasher, I was falling asleep at Lowe's around 8:30! I had to go home and go to bed! Matt had talked about going to see a movie that late, I am sure glad we didn't!

I did get to sleep in as late as I wanted on Saturday and Matt and I watched a movie that morning before we got the kids. We ate breakfast on the couch and it was nice!
We did have to get going though because we had to find a dishwasher before the end of the day....long story short, we ended up back at Furniture Mart with the same kind we had.

Easter

Easter was fine this year..nothing too exciting! When I grew up, we would go to church every Wednesday night of Lent, attend Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, and then go to sunrise services on Sunday morning. It was so exciting and I have such great memories of the Easter season. I don't do any of that anymore and I really miss it! All these services got your mind focused on Easter and what an important day was coming in the Christian church. The church we attend now does not have Wednesday night services or even Maundy Thursday services. They just started Good Friday service a few years ago and church on Easter is at the regualar times. It just seems like a regular service, except there are police outside directing traffic and there are a lot more people in church!

I am also disappointed in the fact that I didn't once hear scripture about Jesus dying on the cross and rising again. Isn't that what Easter is all about? If the church is packed, tell them the story of Jesus! Our pastor did a sermon on Romans 8, which was about redemption, but if you're not a Christian, what is redemption? How do you get there? I just wish our church would put more of an emphasis on Easter and make it a special day and tell people about all the great things Jesus did for us, let people know how they can be saved and go to heaven, I know we should celebrate it every day, but this is the day that we celebrate his resurrection!

Baby News

I have officially started having Braxton Hicks contractions! Fun, fun!! I had these starting at 32 weeks with Courtney and I am now 31 weeks. They happen all times of the day and there are no rhyme or reason to them!

Baby has started having hiccups (at 28 weeks) and I love it that he moves as much as he does, even though sometimes, I wish he would stop and go back to sleep! Courtney didn't move the last two months because she had the cord around her neck, so I am extra cautious about this one!

I have also had so many people in the last week or two tell me that I am CRAZY for not getting an epidural. It just makes me want to go natural again! I don't want a big long needle stuck in my spine- are YOU crazy??? (sorry if I offended anybody, that's how I feel). I have started reading up on natural births again and am starting to get my mind focused on it. I can do it again, many people support me, so we just need to get prepared! Hopefully all these braxton hicks contractions will get things started a little bit earlier!

By the way, Megan has pink eye today again, so we're treating her! I can't believe it, this is the fourth time we've had pink eye in this house! I'm on my 4th bottle of antibiotics! Good thing she is out on spring break and that she enjoys being at home!

New Dishwasher!!

We finally have a new dishwasher, it's not installed yet, but it's at our house. After a night and day of searching, looking on Consumer Reports, stopping at Lowe's twice, Furniture Mart twice, and even Menard's, we settled on another Whirlpool Gold. Yes, this is what we just had and I hated it. It didn't clean my dishes and was terrible. I was secretly hoping it would break down so I could get a new one.

The other night when we got back from our walk, there was water on my kitchen floor and through the back of the house. We pulled the whole thing out yesterday and there was water and mold underneath it! The lines were also leaking water. Matt's dad and Matt took the dishwasher out back to the patio and tore it apart. The insides were disgusting!! They had calcium-deposits all over and they were covered in old food. We figured that it would be just as much to buy a new one as to fix the old one (which again, I hated anyway!)

But you say, why did we buy another whirpool Gold if I hated the one I had? Because they were rated #1 on Consumer Reports and it was a really good dishwasher for our price range.

If this one gives me ANY trouble, it is going back to the store!!

Slumber Party!

Megan and Courtney are staying the night at Uncle Andrew's and Aunt Laura's house. It sure is quiet at our house tonight.

They have been looking forward to tonight all week. Courtney kept asking, "Is it Friday yet??" Megan thought it was funny that they were going to sleep in her old bedroom. I hope they're having fun because I am enjoying an evening of relaxing (ok, we're really shopping for a new dishwasher!)

Basement Update- finally!

I keep meaning to post some updated pictures of our basement. I take new pictures every weekend to show the progress, but then don't post them! So, I retake them the next weekend and so forth. I am finally going to post them today and I mean it! Megan has a friend over playing and Courtney is occupied, so here it goes!

Here is our new bathroom taken from the main part of the basement, the drains are done, the venting/ piping is done, the walls are up and painted, and Matt just finished putting the tile down last weekend.

Here is the new sink and spot for the toilet to go shortly! You can see the new tile job on the floor and the nice blue walls. The sink is in and actually works! Unfortunately, Matt is now using it as his workbench. :)

Our new shower, and yes, it works too! It needs to be tiled yet. Maybe next weekend.

Megan and Courtney's favorite part of the basement at this point. They call this the "elephant!" It is really the vent from the new bathroom.



Finally, the room that we need for the baby in about two months, Matt's office. Matt just did the bathroom first in the basement because he thought it looked more "fun." After that is done, he is going to do his "new" office. The top picture is what his office looks like now (don't worry, the girls made half the mess!) and the bottom picture is his "new" office in the basement. He still has a ways to go! There is a big heavy desk that needs to be moved downstairs, so if anybody is willing to help with that, we are willing to pay!

I can't forget, Mr. Handyman himself...