Pumpkin carving

This was our first experience carving pumpkins with the kids (we slacked off the past few years!) Madeleine was SO excited. For some reason she wore her pumpkin candy bucket on her head....

She was very helpful getting all the seeds and pumpkin guts out! John Paul was content to watch. If you look really close you can see our new tile.


Madeleine designed the faces and told me what to draw. She wanted her pumpkin to be scary and John Paul's to be smiley.

After Buddy's pumpkin was done, he kept sticking his finger in the mouth and saying, "Bite! Ouch!"
The finished product!

32 weeks, 1 day

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Ice's Christmas Hat

I'm 32 weeks today....

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

7 Quick takes (off the record)

1. I did not get on the computer for two weeks! I did have my phone so I could check emails and stuff, but hardly read any blogs and did not post on my own.

2. The first reason was because we got all new floors on the main level of our house. We got new carpet in the family room, new tile in the kitchen, dining room and entryway, and new laminate in the playroom. It took the entire week. We went to Chicago the first day of the week, but the rest of the days we mostly hung out at mom's, went to the Children's museum, and basically stayed out of the worker's way. The floor was torn up and all the furniture was in a room they weren't working on, so basically we had to leave as soon as we came downstairs in the morning - there was no way I could put John Paul down downstairs. I was really dreading this week, but it wasn't so bad! I was able to bring them home for naps in the afternoon, and we all just stayed upstairs. Also mom cooked dinner for us every single night of the week! Thanks Mom!

3. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our new floors! Our whole house looks MUCH better!

4. Last week we spent almost the entire week putting the house back in order from the previous week. I took a HUGE amount of stuff to Goodwill, threw away a bunch more, and rearranged some more stuff. My mom spent the entire day here one day helping me clean out our spare room and getting John Paul moved in there. We have 4 bedrooms upstairs so John Paul is now moved into the last room, using Madeleine's old crib and her old changing table/hutch/dresser. Cleaning out that closet was a CHORE. But he is all moved in, his clothes are put away, his walls are decorated and he made a very smooth transition. His favorite part about his new room is that the previous owners had put glow in the dark stars all over the ceiling. So we read books at night then turn off the light and look at the "tars" for a while in the rocking chair. He loves them. His old room, with the crib, changing table, dresser and all little clothes will be the new baby's room. That room is right next to ours and the other two are down the hall, so hopefully the new baby won't wake them up.

5. We also turned Madeleine's room into her "big girl room." She got a new dresser and bookshelf that I painted white to match her daybed. We got all her too small clothes out of her closet and put them in bins in the garage (I really need another girl someday to use all my favorite clothes again!), took her bed rails off and got her a new big girl chair. The chair is like a chaise almost, we got it at a garage sale for pretty cheap, and she loves it! It'll work for her room til she goes to college. We needed her rocking chair for the baby's room.

6. Speaking of the baby's room, I am working on his room next. I actually have all the 0-3 months clothes in his drawers and hanging up in his closet already, all washed and dried in the sun. I found the perfect bedding,

And my best customer of my knitted items, Mary, totally helped me save to buy it with all her orders. You're the best Mary! By the way if anyone needs a hat for a baby shower or anything like that, let me know - the room is still going to need a lamp and curtains ;) And I can knit some really cute stuff! I'm making a little Christmas Santa hat for little Ice right now.

7. While all of this was going on (for TWO WEEKS) my van was dead in the driveway. Ken tried several things to fix it, including a new battery, but it was doing some really weird things. So I drove Ken to work and sometimes picked him up, and we drove his car. In the end, it turned out to be corrosion in the power control box, which was only a $145 fix - Could have been SO much worse! My speedometer is broken but I downloaded an app for my phone that hopefully tells me an accurate speed.

After all that craziness, I think everything is getting back to normal!! Thank God for normal days!

18 months old!

My sweet baby is 18 months old today! He is totally in toddler mode, growing and learning new things every day. I know this is a bad picture, but this is what he likes to do every morning - he brings his "silky" or as he says, "Kicky," George ("Doge") and his "Juice" to the chair and wants to "Wock" with me. It takes him a while to wake up - he just likes to sit with me for a while when he first wakes up, which is fine with me! Sometimes he even wants to watch the Colts in the morning ;) He says "Go Colts! Kick! Fro! Run!"

He is extremely coordinated (compared to someone else around here, especially!) He runs, kicks, throws, climbs, goes up and down stairs, etc. He is very sturdy and I don't worry much about him falling. We went to the Children's museum today and I loved this picture of him looking in the mirror....
His vocabulary is getting HUGE! He learns new words every day and is even putting 2-3 word sentences together. He loves dinosaurs and goats (I know, goats?) He can name lots and lots of animals. He loves books, especially ones with animals, and Curious George. His favorite is Good Night Gorilla, which he calls "Lilla." I'm so thankful he has outgrown his screaming phase now that he can talk better and tell us what he wants. He is very excited about EVERYTHING. My dad loves to ask him "John Paul did you have fun today?" because he always says, "YES!!!!" He also says Yes whenever I ask him if he wants to eat, and "I EAT!" is one of his favorite phrases. He also loves any kind of water fountains, and pumpkins.
He is still a really cuddly, lovable kid. He loves to sit on our laps and rock, and will randomly come over and hug my legs several times a day. He loves his sister SO much, and she loves him. She calls him "Little Hance" or "Hancey" - short for Handsome ;)

I hope he's ok when little Ice is born - he's still kind of needy and a little on the high maintenance side. I know it will be a blessing for him but it might be hard on him at first.

I was worried about how Madeleine would do with him, and he's been nothing but a wonderful blessing in all our lives!

We love you John Paul!!!

Baby Boy Clothes

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Thank you St. Anthony!

Today we weren't able to be downstairs much because we couldn't walk on most of the floors. SO, we basically woke up, got the kids dressed, and went to Grandma's house. Sometime during the time we were getting the kids dressed and ready, Ken handed me a substantial check to deposit today. I stuck it in my pocket and promptly forgot about it. We went to Grandma's, I went through a bunch of clothes we got for John Paul from friends, we ate breakfast and headed to the Children's Museum (and had a great time!) I paid for our lunch and then pulled my phone out of my pocket to check a text from Ken, which said to make sure to deposit the check. Check? What Check? I checked my pockets. I checked my wallet. I checked my purse, the stroller, the car, went home and looked at the changing table where I was standing when Ken handed it to me, and could not find it. Uh oh. I told Ken I couldn't find it. I prayed to St. Anthony and asked him to help me find it. Not 5 minutes later, the Children's Museum called and said they had the check!!!!! I could not believe it. I had to drive all the way back downtown to get it, but it was totally worth it. ;)


_____________________

In other news, I haven't talked about my ultrasound on Friday. That boy was measuring a full 2 weeks bigger than his dates. I was 28 weeks 3 days and he was measuring over 30 weeks, weighing in at a whopping 3 lbs 7 oz. Whew! The doctor said that he might have had a growth spurt and would even out, when I expressed concern at having a 10 pound baby. She also said I could have another ultrasound at 36 weeks, right before we went to Alabama for Thanksgiving, and also check my cervix, but she thinks I'll be good to go. I have to go every 2 weeks now, which I actually enjoy! I love hearing his heartbeat. By the way, he is just ADORABLE and looks like his big brother. He had his hands up by his face most of the time. I actually can't believe we're about to have 3 kids. I'm so excited to meet him. I was kind of worried before John Paul was born about Madeleine having a sibling, after having us all to herself for 2 years. I wondered how she would do, and if I could possibly love him as much as I loved her? But now that he's been here for 17 months, I see what a wonderful gift he is to ALL of us. Madeleine loves him, he makes her a better person, he makes us better parents, she is a wonderful big sister to him and they play together SO well. It's obvious they love each other. So I'm SO excited to add another sibling to the family. I truly believe what John Paul the Great said, "The greatest gift you can give your child is a sibling." This time I'm not worried about them, or if I'll love him as much as the other two, but maybe a little about my own sanity.... ;)

Road trip!

We are getting our new floors put in this week! I thought about going to visit Lifehopes, which would have been awesome, but the flights didn't look good and also John Paul has a cold so I wanted to stick close to the doctor and his nebulizer. So we decided to take a short road trip to Chicago yesterday to see Cathy and family. We pretty much invited ourselves up and they were very gracious and wonderful hosts! We had some issues in the morning however.

Actually it all started Sunday night when I went to Mikes Car Wash to vacuum out the van. I finished cleaning it all up and then it wouldn't start. Some guys jumped me and I made it home. Then Ken put in a new battery and it started right up, so we figured we were good. The next morning I got up at 5:30am, packed the car with everything we could possibly need - books, toys, extra clothes, pajamas, double stroller, potty seat, snacks, diaper bag, stories on tape and CDs from the library, etc. I was just about ready to get the kids up to leave when I decided to try to start the van. It wouldn't start. DARN IT! I was just about to tell Ken to NOT get John Paul up but he already had. Ken went out and tried to start it (although I didn't feel comfortable taking it,) and it was completely dead. So I moved everything to Ken's car, which was much more crowded, dropped Ken off at work, and left, about an hour and a half later than I had hoped. I was kind of nervous about the 3 1/2 hour drive with them by myself. When I say "them" I mean BUD. But the kids were GREAT. I got them breakfast in the car, and we only stopped once on the way up for a potty break and diaper change. I packed a huge box of books and put them between them and they just looked at books the whole time. Bud fell asleep for about the last hour too, which was awesome since I'm scared of driving into Chicago, and at least it was a little quieter in the car so I could concentrate. By the way, I LOVE my Navigation App on the droid. Took me straight to their house.

We went out for lunch, and Bud showed off his food throwing and mess-making skills. Then we went to Navy Pier, which all the kids LOVED.


Madeleine with the remote control boats. (Which we didn't pay for, but she just liked the steering wheel.) By the way Cathy, thanks for grabbing my naughty girl before she fell in the water!

John Paul on the carousel. (Thanks Joe for the tickets!)

Madeleine and Mary on the chairs - they LOVED the chairs! We were probably there for 30 minutes! They were great friends - playing and holding hands all day.

Madeleine and Mary on Thomas the Train. You can see the start of the meltdown in this pic if you look carefully. She decided she wanted off in the middle of the ride.

3 happy kids with their lollipops.

On the road!

Thank you so much Cathy and Joe for hosting us and for paying for everything!!! You guys are awesome ;)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

My Kids

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.0