Movin' on up!

We are having a baby in 2 1/2 weeks (or less), Thanksgiving is 3 weeks away and Christmas is just around the corner. So, we have decided to move the first week of December!!! Yeah, we are crazy. Here is how it happened...

When we got back from Katy this summer, we realized that our apartment is getting cramped. With another child coming, we knew that we were going to have to find a place a little bigger and with another bedroom. As I have been researching apartments with 3 bedrooms I realized that it was about the same as renting a house or a mortgage payment. So, we knew we wanted a house. Mostly because it would have more running around room, wouldn't be on the 3rd floor and would have a backyard!!! We thought about buying but realized it would be too tight and risky on our budget, plus we probably wouldn't build up much equity while we were here. We also just didn't have a good feeling about buying here. I started thinking about how we were going to have to pay a penalty for moving out early on our lease no matter when we moved out so I thought that since we would have some time off for the holidays that we could move in December.

I just kind of started looking at some prospective places and somehow got myself linked up with an agent and that same day I went out looking. We looked at a couple of potentials but they weren't real impressive. On kind of a fluke we looked at this one place that was more than we wanted to pay but it had been on the market for over 4 months so we knew that it would be negotiable. It was bigger than other houses I looked at and nicer. I loved the set up of it and so our agent talked to the seller's agent and was able to negotiate a good price for us. Daniel came and looked at it that same day. Today we got the call that it is ours (at least for the next 2 years!).

It is a 1 story brick house built in 1999 located in Pflugerville. We are psyched because we will stay in our ward. It is just over 1600 square feet and feels pretty spacious for that size. There are two living areas. The living room is a living/dining combo that we aren't sure what to do with yet. We certainly don't want to buy a whole dining room set and aren't ready to buy a new sofa for it yet either. It might be a playroom for a couple months anyway. That leads to the kitchen/breakfast area that is open to the family room. The openness of it is Daniel's favorite part about it. It has a laundry room, 2 bathrooms, 2 kids rooms and a master bedroom. The master closet is pretty big. The master bathroom is like a regular bathroom but we don't need the garden tub/separate shower thing, so it will work fine for us. We will finally be able to get a King size bed in this room. It has a cute rectangular, flat backyard that will be perfect for the kids to run around and enjoy. And, of course, it has a 2 car garage that will also have some storage space in it.

We are sooo excited! No more hiking kids up 3 flights of stairs or groceries! Can't wait!

Hallo-weenie

Today was the ward trunk or treat and we managed to coax Ellie into wearing her octopus costume. As you can see from the "before" photos, it wasn't an easy job. We tried once in the morning and she cried for about ten minutes before she got used to it. When we tried again in the afternoon, she only managed a couple of whimpers.


It was worth it though. She was easily the cutest kid there. Everybody loved her costume and commented on how cute she was. Ellie and I made a ghost out of a lollipop, which she then ate and drooled all over her costume. We got a couple pictures of her coloring her trick or treat sack and "fishing" for stuffed animals. During the actual trunk or treat, Ellie managed to steal some of the candy in her pail and shoved it in her mouth, wrapper and all. That made for some oddly shaped peanut butter cups, to say the least.


You have to admit, she makes an awfully cute octopus, even if she was scared to death at first.

What's up Doc?

Well, I went to my long awaited doctor's appointment today. They brushed me off earlier this week so I got scheduled for an appointment today. I suppose it went fairly well.

First things first, my blood pressure was great! It was like 116/70 or something like that, which is really good. I think last time was a fluke or the nurse that took my blood pressure had no clue what she was doing. I would guess the latter. The second thing is that I measured 38!! This is pretty big. Usually you measure the number of weeks you are along. I am 351/2 so I should have been between 35 and 36, but I was 38!! I thought that I had grown quite a bit these past couple of weeks and I was right. Basically this means either I am going to have a huge child or I will likely deliver early. I am hoping I can keep this kid under 9 lbs! I am dialated to 1 and 1/2 centimeters. This isn't significant or anything, but anything over 1 gives me a little hope!! Last night I was contracting quite a bit, again nothing worth counting but still gives me hope!! I have definitely gotten increasingly less comfortable after my extremely invasive check up. Sometimes they say that the checkups themselves can help get things going a little more. Basically, the doctor said this kid could come anytime and he would be perfectly ready.

Ellie Lou is doing well. She has learned to climb up her changing table so we are constantly fishing her off of that. She wants to turn the light switch on and off and she can reach it from atop the changing table. Ellie went to the doctors this week with a small eye infection. It really only looked infected one day. While we were there she got her flu shot which she wasn't thrilled about. Giving her eye drops in her eye has been a bit of a challenge but less of a struggle than I had anticipated. Tomorrow is our ward's trunk or treat. We are excited about it but a little worried about Ellie and her costume. Basically, she is scared to death of the costume. I think she is scared because she has extra legs and can't feel them when she touches them. So, we might have to come up with a back up plan.

Mission news and this week

First and foremost, my most exciting news is not even my news, it is my brother Patrick's exciting news. He has been called on a mission to serve in Fresno, California!!!! He reports to the Missionary Training Center on January 10th!!! We are all very excited because he is the first in our family to serve a mission. Daniel I guess is considered the first, but he is married in so he doesn't count :P. I had a feeling that he was going to go to California and I guess my dad had the same thought. I think it will be a great mission for Pat and I am so excited for him!!!!

This past week Ellie and I were in Katy watching the dog and keeping Evan company while my parents went to Mexico City. It was nice to go down there and be able to have them go off on a "sorta" vacation. However, it was a little difficult being 8 months pregnant and having Ells be the active toddler that she is. On top of that, I had what I am convinced was food poisoning for a couple of days while we were there. We felt a little shut in since it rained quite a bit this past week so it was nice that the weather straightened up for us by the end of the week so we could have some outside time. Daniel came down on Friday to pick us up. It was fun spending the weekend in Katy visiting with Ellie's grandparents!!

Tomorrow I have my 35 week appointment. I am pretty anxious about it because we should hopefully find out if we will have to be induced earlier (like 37 weeks) or not. Basically it all depends on my blood pressure. I am a little concerned about it because I have had pretty bad headaches the last week or so as well as a bit of swelling. 37 weeks sounds great to me because I have been really uncomfortable this last week. I have felt a lot more pressure down low and just feeling really large. Having the baby in 2 weeks doesn't really work for Daniel so he is hoping for at least a week longer. I am starting to think (and my mom thinks so too) that I will have the baby before the 20th regardless. We shall see I guess!! I have a habit of having these babies at really inconvenient times so I am sure I will have the baby while Daniel's in finals or when the Webers are in Italy-- wouldn't be one of our babies unless someone was out of the country! We will see though. 4 weeks is not far at all so I can stand to wait that long if I last until then!! I have a huge list of things I want to do before we have the baby... LOTS of cleaning and I actually need to do some Christmas shopping too. Yikes!

Ellie is doing well. She was waking up pretty early (like between 4 and 4:30) each morning we were in Katy, but by this morning she was sleeping normally. I think it will be something we will deal endlessly with Ellie, she just is not a sleeper and getting her on a schedule is a nightmare. Oh well, that's Ells. She has been reading lots of books (as always) and is picking up new words. Her latest words are "pretty, rain, Kyra, Evan, seat, ruff ruff (like a dog), meow, tomato, peas". There are probably more, but she has been learning so fast lately that it is hard to keep up. She says the words much more often when she is just playing or reading. Getting her to say a word while we prod her is another story. She has been eating a lot better since she was sick a few weeks ago, still not like a normal kid, but MUCH better for her!

This week's happenings

Ellie is sleeping and I am waiting to vacuum so I figured I would write a quick post.

Things with us are going really well. Daniel is at school. He took a test yesterday that he thinks he made lots of stupid mistakes on and will receive a bad grade, so I am sure he will make an "A" instead. He is always swearing he fails and then gets an A. Never worked for me like that. Dan is getting geared up for his week home alone. While a little quiet time is nice, I think he will be sad to have so much quiet time. Ellie and I are going to spend next week in Katy. Daniel has lined up a bunch of movies on Netflix. I actually think he is going to check out the first season of Battlestar Gallactica. Not my cup of tea so I am happy he will be watching it when I am not around. I think Daniel is also getting excited for Owen to come. It is not far off now and after next week we will only have 4 weeks until the induction. He has really fallen head over heels for Ells, so he is getting eager to see what a son would be like. Me too.

Elise is doing wonderfully as always. She had some rough nights last week and earlier on this week she was having really horrible diaper rashes which were not fun. The cream that works really well kind of stings her for a minute after so it is always really difficult to watch her squirm and cry from it. Luckily it is looking much better. I think we were lucky early on that she didn't have many diaper rashes. It seemed like she always got them when we went home for the weekend and forgot diaper cream, of course. We haven't done too much this week because of bad weather and yesterday and today we have been getting the house cleaned (which she loves doing) for when my family comes into town. She is learning a few new words but mostly she has been trying to do new things around the house. For example, she wants to switch off the light switches. This is a particularly annoying "new thing" because she wants you to pick her up to do it and she only wants to turn them off and not on so she gets mad when the switch is already in the off position. Ellie has also been increasing in her frustrations and has developed a bad little temper. She is just at the age where she wants to do everything by herself or wants you to help her in a certain way (some way that you don't know but she knows) and when it doesn't turn out like she wants she throws a little fit. Her fit is usually accompanied by biting the object, luckily no people bites yet.

I have been feeling large, but overall I have been feeling alright. I mean, at this point I am just uncomfortable but that is expected. I am starting to get more and more excited. Daniel makes fun of me because he will often catch me going through Owen's clothes and refolding them or showing them off to Ellie. I am just excited, that's all. I am looking forward to tomorrow when my family is coming in town and also my Grandpa. I only see him about once a year so it is nice to see him and he should get a kick out of Ellie and Kyra. We are planning a picnic in Zilker park but the weather is not looking great, so we might be picnicking in the apartment. I am also going to make yummy pumpkin bars which I haven't made in forever. They are the only thing that Daniel has actually requested me to make (is that a bad thing?). It is good that I will make them while everyone is here, otherwise Daniel and I would pig them all down ourselves.

Daniel and I are thinking about buying a house. It is still in preliminary stages. Meaning we really have only thought about it. We want a bigger place and it is possible that we could be here for awhile so our kids are going to be big and wild. I really want a backyard for the kids and a bigger living area. We might be better off renting a house but we are not sure at this point. This is still a ways off. But I have been doing some research and our best bet would be to buy a foreclosed or preforeclosure property. This would mean that the house would sell for cheaper and we can turn a higher profit when we sell it. --- We really have a very slim budget to work with so it makes the thought of buying a house and the risks that it would bring very scary. I have just been looking for three bedroom apartments and they are just about the same price a mortgage payment would be, so that is why we are looking into it. My guess, we will be in an apartment forever and ever and ever.

Tired Mom with an Active Helper

Well, it has been kind of a bad day for us here. As Daniel mentioned, Elise woke up at 3 in the morning. I am not sure what her deal is today but she wouldn't go down to sleep and has been particularly cranky. It is not helping out much that there are people out on the tennis court outside our apartment that are playing roller hockey or something equally as loud and annoying. Grr. It is just really hard to function when she doesn't sleep routinely. For some reason my body could get up in the middle of the night no problem when she was still a baby and when I was still nursing her, but now... forget it!! I need my sleep!!! Hopefully we will get her back on track because we can't handle this too often.

Not too much has been going on this week. Ellie and I went on a play date and also to the park. She is now really into playing in the sand at the park so I need to buy her a shovel and bucket (she has been mooching off of the other kids' sand toys). Also she has wanted to go up and down the stairs constantly. Other than that we have done a bunch of housework (the usual). Ellie is getting to be quite the helper. She helps putting toys away, throwing out garbage, unloading the dishwasher, sorting laundry, switching around laundry and folding it, washing windows, dusting. This sounds like she is a good helper, but really it is just her making my job 5 times harder than it really needs to be. But, I figure if I want her to do chores when she is older, now is the time to teach!! Plus, she loves to help.

I had a doctor's appointment on Friday. All with the baby looks good. My blood pressure is elevated a bit but at this point that isn't a huge concern. Basically I need to check it periodically to make sure it isn't too high, but that is pretty much it. At this point, it is almost good news (says the doctore--- and me) because this means I can have the baby at 37 weeks (still considered full term--- same time as I had Ellie). We shall see though. I am thinking our little Owen is not the smallest child ever so I am looking forward to having him slightly early. However, Daniel keeps saying that it would be pretty inconvenient for him if I had the baby before 38 or 39 weeks. I am not listening to him much... it is has been a little inconvenient having a bowling ball in my stomach too!!!! I think Owen will come when he is ready.

Our God is vengeful

We got to prepare for the Sabbath early this morning when Ellie woke up for the day at 3 am. I guess she figured we owed her one, as she let us sleep in until 6 on Saturday. Erin let her cry for a half an hour or so before she went in and tried to rock her back to sleep. Unfortunately, Ellie had already decided that it was time to play and that it needed to be a family activity. Erin managed to coax her into a nap around 7, so we were able to get an extra hour before we had to get up for church.

Due to our daughter's shenanigans, I didn't have time for breakfast, so I pulled one of those "I forgot to eat, so I guess I'm fasting" fasts. Lucky for me, today was our ward's Fast Sunday (In my defense, I didn't know whether they had already had their Fast Sunday or not, as I skipped two weeks ago when Ellie and I were both sick). Leave it to me to accidentally fast on Fast Sunday (though if this is some divine plan to encourage my righteousness, I'd like to make it known that waking my daughter up at 3 am Sunday morning is a very mean way to get me to fast and I don't appreciate it).

We found out today that Ellie can't go to Nursery until two weeks before she's 18 months old. Of course Owen is due around that time, so we'll basically be trading Ellie in for a baby that's less mobile. That's just fine with me - I spent Sacrament Meeting and Priesthood chasing her up and down the hall. That baby must be cheating somehow. She eats next to nothing, yet she somehow manages to find the energy to run around the church at full speed for three hours straight. But she's cute, so I guess we'll keep her.

Katy and more rambling on about us

Well, it has been a pretty decent week or so for us. Daniel and Elise have recovered from their 2 week long colds. I had a scratchy throat for a day or two but managed to dodge the sickness. So, that was good for me. I am surprised since both Daniel and I kissed Ellie's snotty little face quite a bit!!!

Unfortunately for Ells, we have spent a lot of time indoors because she has been sick. We usually do play dates, Gymboree and go to the park with friends, but couldn't do much of that the past couple of weeks so hopefully we will get back on track this week. I always feel so bad for her when we are cooped up in the apartment for several days at a time. She gets restless and so do I.

The picture that I have included is of Ellie the morning we went down to Katy this past Friday. It was a pretty good trip I think. She didn't sleep much in the car but was still fairly good, especially after we stopped for an ice cream treat. She is just like her mama and daddy and LOVES ice cream.

We spent the weekend in Katy for Kyra's first birthday. It was a lot of fun. We were able to see Grandpa Weber since he was home from Nigeria for a little bit. And Ellie got some much needed grandparent time. Ellie also enjoyed playing with all the toys Kyra got for her birthday. She especially enjoyed a riding toy that was VERY noisy and VERY annoying. So we were glad to leave that one with Kyra's mom and dad! She was a little protective of that particular toy and pushed Kyra off of it a few times. While bullying is not encouraged in this family, it really has been the first time Ellie has done something aggressive to another child. Usually she just gets beat up on by other kids or just lets others steal her toys. So, we are sorry Kyra, however, it looks like you might be beating up on Ellie here very soon!!!

When we went to the doctors when Ellie was sick she had lost weight from being sick and weighed under 20 pounds and Ellie is fairly tall so she is kinda skinny. The doctor said to really concentrate on her eating when she gets better and we have. She usually spends her days nursing a cup of milk, but we have tried to eliminate that during the day so she has actually been eating really well. I think she has packed on a couple ounces at least. (Wouldn't it be nice to count your weight gain by ounces???? I count by 10 pounders myself!!!)

Daniel has been in a mild depression since the Astros weren't able to pull through at the end. He still has the playoff beard that he was growing out. He says he is keeping it until Owen is born, but I think I can convince him to shave before then. He is starting to look like a bum.

I have been feeling alright actually. Most of my complaining is just discomfort. This last month and a half or so will be filled with it I am sure. Dan and I share a full size bed and that has been pretty tight lately. I mean, with me and my huge stomach and the pillow for my legs and for under my stomach and I need a blanket of my own since I kick it on and off all night, oh and Daniel is there too.... like I said SNUG! We already have to synchronize our nightly flips from side to side. I also just about killed myself at the grocery store. I went by myself with Ellie (my first mistake). It took a long time and I didn't realize how much I relied on Daniel for bending down and loading stuff and how difficult it is to unload your cart with a huge belly. When we checked out HEB was short staffed so they didn't have sackers so I had to sack and load my own cart. It was so tiring. I was pooped out when I got home for sure!! Don't worry, I make Daniel unload the groceries. I am not dumb, that is 3 flights of stairs!!!

Well, my next appointment is Friday. I am a little off on my weeks as far as appointments go so I am not sure what they will be doing to me this week. I will be 33 weeks. Usually one goes at 32 and then at 34 to the doctors. I am hoping they do an ultrasound because I am thinking this kid is huge already. He feels bigger than Ellie by far! So, it would be nice to get a guess on how much he weighs now. However, they will probably just listen to his heart, measure me and send me off. --- We are starting to get really excited about having Owen. We are pretty much ready. There is some cleaning and organizing I would like to do beforehand but besides that we are pretty ready. Even though Daniel originally voted for another girl, he is pretty excited about having a son. He has mentioned quite a few activities he is looking forward to doing with his son(s). I am thinking about making a video diary type thing for Owen. I think I want to do little interviews with Daniel and myself and possibly other family members. I just want to do something special with number 2. Don't want him to get jipped.