Thursday, January 29, 2009

doctor visit with finn

On Wednesday, Dad & Finn came to my OB appointment with me. It was at the end of the day, so Finn & I were home together & we met Dad at the doctor.


I usually have appointments in the mornings, when Finn is with my parents or Kenton's parents. So this was Finn's first time seeing Dr. Haugen (the doctor who delivered him) since he was a newborn. This was also our first time experiencing how behind our doctor can get by the end of the day. We waiting for quite a while in the play area until it was my turn. Luckily, Finn loved all of the toys - & there were a lot to choose from!


Finn was very interested in my "seat" & figured out right away how to turn on the lamp. He also watched very closely as the doctor listened to the baby's heart. He even commented later on the "lilli (little) soap" that Dr. Haugen put on my tummy (ultrasound gel stuff) to listen to the baby. :)


Finn gets very excited when we talk about the new baby. Today, I talked to him about the tiny diapers that his baby brother will wear & he just giggled, like it was the cutest thing. He likes to pretend to bring things to the baby, like food, toys, blankets. He's going to be such a great big brother!


26 weeks
At the end of the 2nd trimester (2/3 of the way done!)

Everything looked great at my appointment. My blood pressure & weight gain have stayed low & I have a C-section scheduled for May 1st at 7:30 am! We will get to spend the whole 1st day with our new baby boy - can't wait! Finn came later in the afternoon, so our first night came quickly. It'll be fun to have a different experience this time, in so many ways!

fellowship group at our house

On Tuesday, our Bible study group met at our house for dinner. We're more of a "fellowship" group at this point, than a Bible study group, because of the large number of children we have running around...or squirming. :) Altogether, we have three 2-year olds, one 7-month old & one 4-month old...with another little one on the way (our baby #2). So for now, we eat, visit & play...though we've been noticing how well the older kids are managing to play together.


Stephanie & Ethan


Macey & Colin


Finn showing Ethan his Dad's lego robot!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

another before/after

We recently put up some more photos on the wall in the dining "room", so here is a shot of what it looked like before we moved in:


A close up of the photos & the new light fixture
(I just realized, we still need to shorten the chain):


This shot shows the new tile floor that we installed, with help from Kevin, Outi, Brian & Jesse:

more from our weekend

While Dad & Pappa were working hard, Finn kept himself busy helping! He loves to help...he doesn't love sharing the tools, however. :) Good thing there were two pairs of clippers. The little ones were the perfect size for Finn. He managed to cut lots & lots of blackberry branches!


Working on the pile.


Kenton & Kevin using the cool tree pruner.


Finn started to get a little whiney, until I offered him some hot cocoa.


Hot cocoa makes everything better.


Especially hot cocoa made with melted Andes mints because I offered hot cocoa without checking to make sure we actually had hot cocoa. Whoops! Finn didn't mind his minty cocoa one bit!


Splits!
It's Finn's specialty move. He feels pretty proud of himself when he does the splits.


A beautiful bouquet of flowers from my mommy for my half-birthday!


Plus, some lovely spring flowers for my future garden. Thanks Mom! Halfway to 28 - eeks!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

silly faces with mama






What a cool kid.

*********

Finn,

You get cooler & cooler every day! Plus, you're funny. You make me laugh every day. I love you're sense of humor. You're turning into a little person & I love who you're becoming. Keep it up, dude. You're great!

Love,
Mama

Saturday, January 24, 2009

some before & after shots

I've been putting this off for months now because I don't feel like any of our projects are actually done yet. But we've made a lot of progress on the inside & (lately) the outside of our house. The house is already so different than when we bought it, even though there are still many, many things to be done. Here are a few photos of our house, to show the progress we've made.



BEFORE:

The backyard of our house was severely neglected by the previous occupants - renters. The yard reaches to the back fence, where my mom is standing, but there are so many over grown bushes (including blackberries - ugh!) that fill up a huge portion of potential garden space.

The "bush" to the left of my mom is really a massively overgrown blackberry bush. So big, that it has taken over at least 2 large shrubs, if not more. It was pretty hard to decipher what was going on back there. The bush to the right of my mom is as big as a tree & just needs to be pruned a lot.


On the East side of the backyard, the blackberries have continued to invade the area near the back fence & grass has been allowed to grow into what may have been a nice flower bed/garden at one point. (The bush to the left of the photo is the same bush that was to the right of my mom in the previous photo.) We're very excited to have that little shed to store all of our tools & garden supplies, so that the garage can be used for other storage.


I took this photo this morning to show some of the progress that was made before today. My dad made a huge dent in the flower bed on the East side of the lawn months ago. We hadn't done anything else to the yard until last weekend - Kenton & Kevin took the chain saw to the blackberries on the West side of the lawn.


AFTER:
This morning, they worked hard to clear out the pile of branches & debris that was created last weekend + they pruned the giant, tree-sized shrub that needed some love.


As you can see, there is still so much to be done. I love that I can see the back fence now & am feeling hopeful that we can clear it out even more back there & make it look more like a flower bed than a jungle. :) Someday, I want a garden back there. But that might be a little too optimistic for this year, considering we're also having a baby in a couple months.


BEFORE:
Here's a photo taken from the entryway looking towards the living room, dining area & family room in the back. This was taken before we replaced the carpet & installed new tile in the kitchen, but I don't have any photos of the tile.


The wood on the wall was is good shape, but not exactly my style. So we made plans right away to get rid of it!


A photo from the dining area, looking back towards the living room, entryway & hallway.


AFTER:
The wood has been removed, the walls painted, new mantle built & installed, new carpet installed, & our furniture in place. The black squares on the wall on either side of the fireplace are still waiting for their vent covers to be reinstalled. Again, we still have a long list of projects waiting to be tackled.


A close-up of the mantle - still needs to be touched up. But I was very motivated to get it installed before Christmas so that I could hang our stockings. :)


Looking from the dining room into the living room. I painted the trim around the windows & Kenton installed new blinds on all of the windows. (I wish I would have folded that blanket before taking the picture, but whatever...)


BEFORE:
The master bedroom, before.


AFTER:
Not a very great shot of our room, mostly because it's messy & there are still a lot of things that need to be done in the room. But here is a photo of our photo art on the wall & a little glimpse of our new bed from Kevin & Outi (purchased for Kenton in high school).


And just for kicks...
Here's one of the better photos from the first time we toured this house. The house was filled with too much furniture, lots of junk, piles of laundry & too many beer cans for one family. It's hard to see but the tv in the corner is actually in front of another larger tv - I assume the one in the back stopped working?? Not really sure. Anyway, we somehow were able to see through the junk & imagine all the potential this little house held.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

weekend getaway

I spent the holiday weekend in Lincoln City at our friends' parent's condo. It was wonderful! We left our husbands & children at home while we enjoyed a girl's weekend. I've never been away from Finn for this long & I've never left Kenton alone with Finn for a whole weekend, so it felt weird...but kind of normal at the same time. :)


Once we arrived at the condo, we didn't drive anywhere for 3 days. We woke up when we wanted, ate when we felt like it, & made sure to walk on the beach a couple of times. :)


There were a lot of jelly fish on the beach. Kinda creepy, but they look neat too!


I spent most of my free time trying to catch up on my scrapbook. I finished 16 pages from the summer of 2007. It was great to get back into it, after taking several months off while moving/unpacking/feeling nauseated. :) Carolyn worked on a scrapbook of her family history for a class, Aimee worked on a couple of craft projects, Stephanie knitted & did some homework, & Jody did a lot of reading.

We also played some games & watched a movie. Pretty low key.


Carolyn & Katrina
We had amazing weather for January at the Oregon Coast. Mid 50's without any wind. It was so great to feel warm from the sun!


A couple attempts at capturing the sunset.


We had a wonderful view from our room!




Big THANK YOU to Colin's family for letting us enjoy a much-needed, relaxing weekend away in their lovely condo. It was such a treat. And thanks to Stephanie too for making this weekend happen. It was so great to come home, feeling energized & productive. My boys had a lot of fun together & managed to stay busy. Sounds like Finn missed me, so that feels nice too. :)

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

enjoying our break

After Christmas & New Year's Eve, we tried to make the most of the last few days of our break from work. Of course, this is how Finn would like to spend most of his time: "playing" video games with Dad or, in this case, Jesse. Finn always wants to hold "his" controller (the black one) while "playing." :)


On this day, Carolyn & I were attempting to keep him occupied so the boys could get in a little game time on their day off. Finn would have been fine playing with them, but he was very excited to try out his new paints from Memaw. We had already broken out the white board & markers for him to try, but at this point he really likes to have me or Kenton draw pictures for him. So I was glad to see that he enjoyed doing the painting himself. He mixed lots of colors, but in the end seemed to enjoy black the most. I really like black too, Finn! :)


After dinner, I found him set up like this. :P We got a little lazy with the video watching while on vacation, but this was pretty cute. He is very in love with "The Iron Giant" & talks about robots ("bobots") & Hogarth ("Hoggarse") daily! It's pretty sweet, but we're definitely going to be switching it up a bit now that we're back into our regular routing...not that movies every so often aren't nice & sometimes necessary! ;)


Finn got a new trike from Mummi & Pappa for Christmas! The backpack is from us, also a gift for Christmas (we already had the helmet from our trip to Austin). We love this pack! It's the perfect size for his diapers & wipes + he loves wearing it. He's going to be such a great helper when his little brother arrives. :)





Thanks Mummi & Pappa, for such a fun bike!