Dad's Home!

They unplugged everything except for the kidney tubes, made him stay for 24 hours to make sure nothing failed then sent him home Thursday evening!  Ariel has been staying with him to make sure he's okay and to help him around the house.  His swelling was entirely gone, so he looks much better.  He was most excited about being able to roll over in bed because he's not plugged in everywhere.

He's expecting to go back to the hospital this week to get blood drawn.  If the renal values are low enough they'll schedule his CT scan.  I'm hoping everything goes smoothly!

Keeping Up

About that lock box I mentioned yesterday...

Travis and I gave in and hired a housekeeper.  For the time being we have her set to come every other week.  If we need to push it out to every three or four weeks we might do that later.  She came yesterday for the first time.  I spent Monday evening in Urgent Care, then last night was T-ball.  I was driving home from practice trying to remember what state our house was in when I remembered she had come earlier.  I had to be very careful with my gas foot because it suddenly got really heavy at the prospect of what was waiting for us.

That woman cleaned things I haven't thought about cleaning since before I had kids.  She dusted the top of our door trim!  She took everything off my nightstand and dusted that! (I usually dust around those items.)  She moved a side table away from the wall in the kitchen to sweep and mop!  She cleaned our microwave.  

Seriously.  This is a big deal.  I don't have time to do many things.  Other items get done once a month or sometimes even longer apart.  The only items I take care of every day or week are my kids, dishes and laundry.  Everything else happens when I have time.  I barely even have time to sit down for dinner.  The longest stretch of time I get to sit with my plate is five minutes.  The rest of the meal is spent feeding Mila, getting Aiden seconds, cleaning up the food or drink someone spilled, etc.  But those five minutes are usually filled with guilt.  That's when I sit still long enough to notice the dust building up on my curtains, or the cobwebs that have formed in the corners.  I always wonder, when will I have time to clean that?  

I used to keep an immaculate home.  All my free time, when Travis was at work, was spent cleaning.  That free time is now filled with other more important items, so I feel comfortable saying I am happy to have a housekeeper.  She was super nice, though I will never see her.  She comes during the day while we are at work.  Hence the lock box.  We have a key lock box (like realtors use) to let her in while we're away.  This way she doesn't have our key all the time.

It's magical.  Absolutely magical.

What I'm Thankful For

I am thankful for my job.  If it weren't for my job, we couldn't have handled the Thanksgiving Plumbing Fiasco of 2012.

We have had some plumbing issues at the house for a while now.  The house periodically plugs up and requires serious intervention.  We had our first serious issue in February of this year.  There were a few little clogs here and there.  Then in May, while my dad was here, we had another serious run in.  It was so bad that we had to have a plumber come out and clear the line.  He used a camera and didn't see anything too outrageous.  Just the typical grease build-up that needed to be cleaned.  I figured that since it took at least 4 years for this build up to get to the point that it was causing problems for us, that we would have another 4 years for it to get to that point again.  

So you can imagine my surprise when things started acting up a few weeks ago.  The kitchen sink never completely backed up.  It would just be slow to drain for a day and then it would go away.  This past Thursday morning, Thanksgiving morning, it got worse.  It completely stopped up.  Travis borrowed the neighbors snake and spent hours unclogging it.  We never saw what caused the problem, but at least we would be able to cook Thanksgiving dinner and do the dishes without an issue.  

Then it came back 10-fold Saturday.  The dishes piled up next to the sink all afternoon/evening.  Travis went under the sink to take the pea trap apart and noticed the disposal was leaking.  We wondered if it was not working properly so big chunks of food were making it out and plugging up the line.  Sunday he went to Home Depot (HD) and picked up a new disposal.  Since he was going to be taking the plumbing apart, he figured he'd replace our leaky faucet as well.  I was excited for him to do some work that I could see, so I was all for it.  When he got down there to replace the disposal, one of the pipes fell off when he touched it.  It shouldn't have fallen off.  It should have held on for dear life because it was rusted on.  Well, it was rusted off.  Totally corroded.  

Travis: "Guess I'll replace the remainder of the pipe as well."

Me: "UGH.  Ok.  It HAS to be done."

Travis: "Since I'll have the sink out to put all this together, do you just want me to pick up a new counter top while I'm at HD?"

Blink, blink.

Travis: "And we might as well get a new back splash while we're at it."

Me: "Ummmmm... Yaaaaa.  I don't think that's going to work for me."

Travis: "Just joking!"

UGH.

Travis headed back to HD for more parts and he had to stop at work to pick up some more of his tools.  Total, he spent 12 hours working on that sink.  

In the end, Travis found eight whole pecans caught in a bend in the pipe directly under the sink.

Squirrels have been stuffing their winter store of pecans in the plumbing vent on our roof.  Not sure how they planned on getting them out.  I guess they didn't think that far ahead.

Next step: Put a cover on the roof vent.

Here Comes Halloween

Aiden is LOVING Halloween this year.  He is going to be Captain America for trick or treating and he has his Spiderman bag from last year.  I remember when I was little this was probably my favorite holiday.  The older I got, the more it moved towards Christmas.  Ariel is still obsessed with Halloween.  It's pretty much HER holiday.  She goes all out with the decorations every year.  When I went to her house Tuesday, I decided I need to beef up my decor a little.  Mostly for Aiden.  Last night I made a new wreath while Aiden started working on a Halloween painting.  I think the wreath turned out pretty good.  I'm not sure how well it will hold up over time though (lots of glitter and feathers).

After we were done with our crafts, we set up some decorations around the house.  Aiden is so into it that I let him put a spiderweb up and some other spooky items in his room.  I didn't do much when compared to Ariel, but I took a few photos that I sent to the family:

Every time we go to Target (which is at least once a week), Aiden wants to walk through the Halloween section.  I couldn't believe it when he wanted to push the buttons for the spooky animatronics. 

When I was little, I grew up in an old Victorian home.  Our house was the place to go for Halloween.  My dad put up a giant spiderweb and spider on the side of the house.  Our front porch was decked out in spiderwebs and the candy bowl sat between a papier-mache clown and my dad.   My dad took some of my brother's old baby clothes and stuffed them so it looked real.  Then he stuck his head and hands through styrofoam so his face and hands completed the stuffed clothes.  I hope that makes sense.  It was creepy.  I don't think I'll ever go that far for Halloween.  I absolutely despise scaring people (let alone small children) because I know how much I hate to be scared.

I went to Google maps to get a photo of our old house.  The yard looks totally different and the house has been painted a peachy-pink color, but you get the gist of what we had going for us on Halloween.

I need to buy Nightmare Before Christmas.  That's a good Halloween movie that I could watch with Aiden.

Clothes and Coffee

When Brenda was visiting she left money for birthday presents for all of us. We decided to make a day of it and go shopping on Sunday. I haven't been shopping (aside from the grocery store) in AGES. It was so fun!! Travis got a couple outfits, Aiden got some clothes and a turtle nightlight (we're hoping it helps keep him in bed) and we found several cute outfits for Mila. I'm going to look for toy we had in mind for her as well. (Brenda bought a really nice purse for me.)

I cannot believe we picked out these clothes for our daughter.

At the end of our shopping spree we walked over to look at some coffeemakers. I have been eyeing the Keurigs for some time now. This was a self-congratulatory gift for landing this new job as a safety specialist. We went with the Keurig Elite. It's not the fanciest version, but it's much more so than the pot I was using before.

I had my first cup of coffee from the new machine this morning. Travis opted for Chai tea.

Hail Storm

Friday evening was a bit rough on our house.  A really bad storm came through and ate up all the plant life.  Oh and our gutters.  Yay for being a home owner!  Actually, it is usually a great experience, but then something like this comes along and ruins my day.  It won't be an expensive repair since we have plastic gutters.  I'm more upset about the time to repair.  Travis will have to go to the store, get the materials and then take the time to cut them to fit, get the ladder out and put them up. 

Normally this wouldn't bother me very much but I'm feeling less and less productive lately.  Travis picked up the pace this weekend and really started to help me out around the house and with Mila preparations.  He is on-call at work this week and weekend, which means he won't be around very much as it is.  Meh, I guess that's life.

So, back to the storm!  I tried to leave work a little early Friday in hopes of missing the worst of the storm.  Sadly, it started raining on my walk out to the car.  It was only sprinkling, but the 60 mph winds made it feel like I was being stabbed by needles.  Walking is hard enough as it is, add head wind to that and life gets harder.  It was pouring by the time I reached Aiden's daycare.  I ran from my car to the building (killer on my lower back) and a mom was standing in the doorway with her two kids.

"Careful!" she said. 

Careful?  Because I might fall?  Or because the exercise might hurt me?  I feel horribly guilty all the time about my lack of physical activity.  I know several pregnant women who have exercised their entire pregnancy and they are just fine.  It just struck me as funny.

It was back to a sprinkle by the time I pulled off at our exit.  I had a flash back to after hurricane Ike when the trees were damaged.  There were so many green leaves strewn across the road that I couldn't tell where the road ended and yards began.  Travis got off early, so he was already home talking to our neighbor about the storm.  Aiden and I walked around the house assessing the damage.  All my large-leafed plants look like they were taken out by a shot gun.  I felt like with all the leaves and branches in our yard that there shouldn't be any left on the trees, but they actually don't look bad.  The only expense to us is replacing three gutter sections.  Though I don't think we'll be home free until we see how the roof handles the next rain.  It looks fine, but you never know.  Oh and the garage could use a fresh coat of paint.  Looks like someone went to town with a pellet gun on the siding.

Sorry in advance for the sideways/upside down photos.  I keep meaning to try loading them using another computer, but I either forget or don't have time.  So here they are if you're up for turning your head or flipping over your computer/phone.

Swiss cheese gutters

Everything was coated in green leaves

Aiden wanted to eat the hail.  I used to eat snow when I was little, but now that we live so close to a refinery, I said no.

Shot gun blasted

The culprits



Operation Fit Mila: Stage 4

We finally got the furniture organized in our bedroom.  The big dresser on the left is filled with our clothes and the little one on the right has PJ's, blankets and some onesies for Mila (for easy night time access).  We are planning to have Mila sleep in our room until she's sleeping through the night, just like Aiden did.  He was out of our room at 8 weeks because we had him on a specific feed/sleep schedule.  All I did was stop waking him to eat during that mid-night feed and he slept right through.  We have decided to not put Mila on a schedule and see how it goes.  I am deathly afraid.  I guess if all else fails we can put her on the schedule later.

This weekend we plan to put the crib together and I need to put away the last of Mila's things.  We'll probably wait a couple more weeks before we set up the travel crib in our room where she will sleep at night.  We'll probably use her crib for nap time like we did with Aiden.  I think it helped him get used to sleeping in that room, so the transition to bedtime in his own room was not quite so difficult. 

I am really excited about having that futon in our bedroom.  I use it every morning for putting on my shoes.  It's so much easier than my bed because my feet reach the floor better.  Travis is excited about it because sometimes when he can't sleep he goes out to the couch to watch TV.  Not because he is worried about waking me with the TV (I don't care if its on as long as its not loud), but because he is hot or annoyed with my tossing in bed.  He joked that now when he goes to sleep on the couch he doesn't even have to leave the room.  But he did emphasize he won't do that until we get a flat screen mounted on the wall up in that corner.  THAT will have to wait until we have gotten used to the financial addition of Mila.  HA.

Freshly Addicted to Pinterest

I downloaded the Pinterest app onto my phone and now I can't get enough of it.  I don't know why I never found it interesting enough to sit at a computer and browse through.  But now that I can look through random stuff at random times, I love it!  The only problem is it has shown me tons of stuff I would like to make, but don't have the time or money to do.  Someday, right?  Here are a few examples:

Curtains for the guest bedroom; but I want mine in white, grey and yellow.

Simple baby quilt

I am really not a fan of giant headbands on babies.  (Why distract from the beauty of a baby?)  But I do LOVE these simple ones.  Click on the photo above to be linked to a How-To page.  They are functional (whenever Mila finally gets hair - I'm sure she'll be born bald) and they look comfortable.  I have a super sensitive head so I hate most headbands.  But I think even I would wear these.

Operation Fit Mila: Stage 3

I am FINALLY starting to feel like we're ready for this baby.  Try not to judge me too harshly, but I have started drinking coffee or a Coke around 3 pm so I have the energy to get through the afternoon and evening.  It's been working swimmingly.

Tuesday night I was able to start moving items into the ASPELUND wardrobe.  Wednesday night we tackled a few larger tasks:

1|   I started sorting through all the baby clothes I have accumulated.  I have received hand-me-downs from a few people, but they are mostly 6 months and up.  I also have new clothes from the baby shower and a few random gifts.  With Aiden, I had everything separated by size, so when he reached that size, all I had to do was dump the contents of a storage container in the wash and it would be ready.  That really simplified my life, so I thought I'd do it again for Mila.  Last night I pulled out 3 loads worth of newborn clothes/blankets/burp clothes/towels/rags/etc.  I still need to go through half of Aiden's old clothes to pull out the unisex stuff. 

2|   I reupholstered the dining room chairs.  The last time I did it was right before Aiden was born.  I thought it was time to try something new.  I was bored of the last pattern and I think Aiden has spilled enough milk on it for a lifetime.  I've decided to lay a towel down on the chair he's sitting in hopes of preserving this fabric for as long as possible. 

3|   Travis put together the new dresser, so that's the last of the IKEA furniture for this year.  YA HOO.  This photo shows our old dresser on the right and the new one on the left.

See how BIG it is?!  I am ecstatic.  I moved some of my things over this morning, but I still have a bunch more to go through.  We have a ton of reorganizing to do in our room to accomodate this monster.  There wasn't enough time last night, as Travis did not finish putting it together until around 10:30. 

We are giving Ariel and Robert our old dresser, computer chair and the entertainment center that sits in our bedroom.  The next step is to move all the old items out into the garage.  After that, we just have to set up Mila's crib.  There is no rush on that, since she will be sleeping in the travel crib in our room for a month or so.  I would like to get the crib set up BEFORE she arrives though, for a couple reasons.  One, I'm worried about Aiden being angry or jealous when Mila shows up.  I'm hoping if the crib is in there before she comes, then he won't fight it as badly.  At the moment, he's almost looking forward to sharing his space.  Two, I have a feeling we will have even less time on our hands after this little one shows her face.  It would be nice if we could finish as much as possible before then.

I am extremely relieved with how much progress we have made.  There is still a lot to do, including stitching up a tear in one of the crib sheets and finding the money to purchase a new car seat.  We still have Aiden's, but I've read they shouldn't be used for more than two years after the manufacture date due to updated codes and requirements for child safety.  I think Aiden's is going on five years at this point.  We do have it as a back up though!

I never wrote that list, but I feel like I have some breathing room now.  I only have ONE outing planned for this weekend, so we should have plenty of time to catch up with everything.  I have some errands to run tonight and tomorrow night, meaning I'm not sure we'll get to much at home for the remainder of the week.  At least we're making progress!

Operation Fit Mila: Stage 2

Well, the IKEA wardrobe did not go as well as planned.  Putting it together wasn't that bad.  I think Travis and I make a good team.  I sit with the instructions and pull out the little pieces in advance so it's ready for him.  There were a couple times when I had to help him maneuver a piece, but he did the bulk of the work. 

Most IKEA furniture comes with a wall anchor to prevent the furniture from tipping over on people.  Nice feature.  Since that is a semi-permanent state, we wanted to arrange the furniture in the room the way we want it to be to make sure it will all fit together.  Turns out, it didn't fit.  Somewhere in the mix, we did not measure something right, so our plan did not work.  Instead of putting the futon in the guest bedroom, we are going to put it in our bedroom.  To help make room for that, we moved the rocking chair out of our room and into the guest room.

We still don't have the room completely set up.  We piled a bunch of crap on the bed so we would have space to put the wardrobe together, but you get the general idea.  There is so much room in that thing - I can't wait to fill it!  But at the same time, I get exhausted thinking about rearranging everything in the house.  Pregnancy gives you the nesting instinct - the problem is lately I haven't had the energy for it.  I get stressed every time I walk through my house and see stuff I want to clean/organize/rearrange. 

I need to make a list so I can tackle it rationally.  I just might do that tonight.

Operation Fit Mila: Stage 1

We got the new office area set up.  It used to be in the guest bedroom, but now that will solely be a bedroom for guests.  Well, and for the cats to hide in.

We were a little irked to find that the drawer system we bought does not fit completely under the desk.  Oh well.  More table top space?  Aiden woke up yesterday morning and noticed the new furniture right away.  He immediately wanted to get out his colors (Crayons) and have some art time at the new space.

I'm really excited about rearranging the house and having new furniture, but I'm getting anxiety about how small our house is starting to feel.  This desk makes the walkway from the living room to the kitchen a little more snug.  We moved Aiden's toy chest from this location to another spot in the living room (you can actually see the end of it against the back wall in the photo above).  After it was there, I recalled that this was where Aiden's baby swing used to sit.  The same one we will have to pull out for Mila.  Ugh.  Aiden is going to have to give up some of his toy space.  I guess we can move his toy grill out to the patio?  Meh, I'll deal with that later!

Oh, I checked the other night - the desk name is BESTA.  Travis moved everything he could into the new desk.  There are still some things we will probably end up storing in the wardrobe once we get that set up.

Stage 2: HEMNES dresser, will probably have to wait until a few moments of free time this weekend.  The schedule is pretty jam packed, so I don't know if it will happen for sure.  We have a kid's birthday party, a night at the comedy club and a baby shower.  Ahhhhh!

Making MORE Room

You know what's hard to do?  Pee while having a contraction.  Problem is, peeing frequently sets off a Braxton-Hicks contraction. Being pregnant is awesome. 

We had a full weekend.  Saturday morning I threw some corned beef in the crock pot and we left first thing for IKEA.  Sadly, we got on the road to Houston an hour and half later than I wanted because Travis had some errands to run.  We did stop for donuts and kolaches (which, down here, are basically pigs in a blanket) on the way up.  My new unfortunate craving is cake donuts and coffee.  Mmmm.  I now understand the purpose of decaf coffee.  I used to think it was a pointless invention.  I know better now.

Things went as well as can be expected at IKEA.  I always leave for this store hopeful and excited.  I leave really stoked about the new furniture we acquired, but I am tired from wondering aimlessly through the Largest Store On The Planet and the thought of putting together all that furniture is daunting.  Oh and this time we had Aiden with us.  I think this was his first time there.  I can't remember what we did last time we went.  Maybe he was there, but he was in a stroller?

Anyhoo, I had a game plan going in.  It is easy to spend the entire day at that store and I just wasn't up for that in my 7-months-pregnant state.  We had three pieces of furniture pre-chosen and then there were few items I wanted to keep my eye out for.  I was irritated to find they had discontinued the computer desk I chose online.  It was perfect for what we needed - small, with a hanging file drawer.  This was the first section we stopped in and the area we spent the longest in.  That was partly due to the fact that we had to figure out what we would get in place of the discontinued item and partly due to the fact that Aiden was dealing with some constipation that required two trips to the bathroom.  That place is a complete maze.  I can't believe I made it to the bathroom and back TWICE.

There were a few other minor hiccups.  They didn't have the fabric I originally picked out, and there were a few random items I was looking for and was unable to find anywhere.  Here is what we DID get:

• Wow.  Drawing a blank on the exact desk we chose, but I know we got the MICKE file drawer, a small lamp, a chair and a box to store bills out of sight.
• HEMNES dresser for our bedroom.
• ASPELUND wardrobe for the guest bedroom.
• Fabric for reupholstering the kitchen chairs.
• Two pots for plants on the patio.

I plan to take photos of everything as we complete it, but there's no telling when we'll get around to it.  I think I'm going to push Travis to help me put together the wardrobe this week.  It will probably take us several days, but as soon as that is together, I can start washing and bringing Mila's clothes in the house.  It's rough doing all this while I'm pregnant because I can't help with any of the heavy lifting.  In order to make room for the wardrobe, we need to move the computer desk out to the garage until a friend from work can come pick it up.  We may have to enlist a friend to stop by and help move that monster...

I am thrilled the ball is rolling!

+18 lbs

Just a quickie...  Our tax refund finally came through so we're going to IKEA this Saturday.  WAHOO!!!  Although, I don't know when we'll find the time to put together all the furniture (don't worry Alexa, I didn't forget about you) because I REALLY want to work on the yard Sunday.  I've got a BUNCH of stuff that needs to be planted ASAP.  I'd hate for all our seed planting work to go down the drain because I couldn't find time to complete the task.

Sometimes I wish I could just flip this belly around to my back so I could get work down easier.

31 Weeks: A bathroom mirror impromptu photo

Mug Shots

Get excited.  Here are photos of my photos.

The left mug is Travis' (obviously) and the right one is mine.  I use it every time I have coffee now!  Love it.

Travis' Least Favorite Trade

Monday night I was rinsing off the dishes from dinner and the sink backed up.  I was worried I had put too much in the disposal.  Sadly, there was no clog in the pea-trap under the sink.  Travis closed it back up and we gave Draino a try.  The water drained away, but when we started running water again it filled back up.  Travis tried Draino a second time, just for good measure.  Same results. 

He called our neighbor-friend and asked to borrow his 6-foot plumbing snake.  He was able to get most of the reel out without finding a clog.  He hit a barrier, but it turned out to be a 90-degree turn in the pipe.  While Travis was down there taking a look at what the plumbing does, he noticed a large puddle centered under the house.  He asked me to run the kitchen sink while he sat near the puddle.  Sure enough, water started spewing out of a pipe that was not capped off. 

Travis said it is always really wet in that spot whenever he goes down there.  He's rewired 90% of the house thus far, which requires crawling under the house.  Suddenly we were wondering if that pipe has been open and spitting out grey water for the entire length of time we've owned the house.  The pipe looks like it used to drain something from the bathroom.  Since everything functions nicely in the rest of the house, Travis determined that it was a pipe that should have been removed whenever the previous owners replumbed the house.  Instead, they left it open-ended, letting water drain out when the pipe backs up.  Since there is not a plethera of chopped up food from the disposal rotting under the house, we know that some of the water IS making it out the main pipe.

The next day, Travis stopped and bought a clean-out valve and a diamond-tipped saw blade.  When he got home, he cut that extra pipe off where it meets the main drain.  He then proceeded to put the snake in from there.  He was unable to find a clog there either.  But at one point, he yelled for me to bring him a wire.  He saw something red and solid floating in the pipe and needed something smaller to fish out the round chunk.  By the time I was able to find the wire and bring it down to him, the chunk had already drained away and disappeared.  Travis had me run every single sink and tub in the house and everything ran smoothly, including the kitchen sink.

We thought the fiasco was over, but we were wrong.  Last night, the kitchen sink clogged again.  Travis tried Draino again.  Five minutes later, the water all drained from the sink.  We tried running the water and it didn't clog again.  We're thinking that chunk is getting stuck in the line periodically.  I don't know what the best thing to do would be aside from getting a plumber.  But plumbers cost money and we don't have that. 

Last night Travis tried a new drain opener (potassium hydroxide).  Problem is the clog comes and goes so there's no way to know if it worked unless the clog come back.  No clog yet, so we'll see!

Christmas Break

Christmas came and went in a whirlwind!  I can't even remember everything we did while my family was here.  Here's what I can recall:

Saturday morning (Christmas Eve), Travis, Aiden and I went over to Ariel and Robert's house for lunch.  We went a little early so Aiden could nap there and I could cook.  We ate a lot and then hung out for a few hours.  That evening, Ariel and Robert had to go into work.  Bummer, but they gotta make that paycheck.

That night I made roast beef sandwiches for dinner, then let Aiden open up one gift - his first of the season!

He went to bed right after that and we stayed up for a while.  It was nice to have time to talk to Alex and my mom spent a lot of time outside bonding with Sagira.

The next morning, Aiden woke up to a couple gifts from Santa and a full stocking.  Santa got him a camera and a Dinosaur Train car and dino-shark.  He played with that for a while and we helped him go through his stocking gifts.  He also got to eat some candy before lunch.  Around 10, we let him open some more gifts to play with that day.  He opened the Dinosaur Train tracks from Grandma Brenda and a Tag Junior from us.  We wanted to wait to open his gifts when everyone was around, so we kept postponing opening up the remaining gifts.

When Uncle Alex woke up, Aiden opened a few more gifts, including those from him.

His Great Grandma Margie sent some gifts that he really enjoyed.

He loves the Dinosaur Train tracks, but I they fall apart too easily.  They are recommended for 3 years old and above, so he's not that good at putting the track together himself.  I may have to hide the tracks and keep the cars out for a while so I don't lose my sanity.  It's frustrating when he needs it put back together every 10 minutes.

That evening, Ariel and Robert came over for dinner.  My mom and I made a beef tenderloin.  It was my first time to ever make one, so it was interesting.  We overcooked it a little bit, but it was a learning experience.  Dinner was great, and as you can see, we were not able to get those Spiderman PJ's off Aiden the entire day.

After dinner we let Aiden open his remaining gifts.  We put together his new grill right before bed, which in hindsight, was not the best idea.  Getting him down for nap that day and for bed that evening was a trying experience.  He just wanted to play with all his new toys!

I also tried a new idea for displaying Christmas cards this year.  Linsey saw the idea online and I thought it was really cute.  My bow was a little sad though.  Next year I'll have to look harder for a better ribbon since this one was a bit droopy.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Saturday, Aiden was horribly cranky. Travis was only supposed to work until noon, so I kept telling myself, 'Travis will be home soon.' Unfortunately, he had to work late. Meaning I didn't get to have my break. I was planning to get my hair cut and go grocery shopping while Travis stayed home with Aiden.  Since we had plans for the Yeager's to come over for dinner I knew I wouldn't have time to do that when Travis said he'd be late.  Instead, he stopped at the grocery store for the two items I needed for dinner that night. 

Travis got a ham from work as his "Thanksgiving bonus".  We cooked it for Thanksgiving and then used the leftovers to make ham and bean soup.  It's a recipe my dad usually does with the Christmas ham.  Every time he makes it, the giant pot is gone in one day.  We all have a bowl or two and then Travis and Alex finish it off.  It's amazing what those guys can put back. 

It takes a minimum of four hours to make the soup because you use dried beans and you make your own ham stock using the ham bone.  Travis picked up a loaf of french bread and I have to say it turned out pretty amazing.  For dessert we had leftover pecan pie and the Yeager's brought a peanut butter-chocolate pie.  I don't know how I don't weigh 200 pounds right now.

Luke and Aiden ran around the house like mad men.  Aiden likes to jump on his bed whenever friends come over and Luke likes to shut doors.  Problem is neither of them can open the door to his bedroom.  So we spent a lot of time opening doors.  Kenley is getting so big.  She can sit up well on her own and started crawling the day after their visit.  In the past, she was afraid of strangers.  The only way I could hold her is if she faced away from me the whole time.  At some point she would figure out that a stranger was holding her and she would cry.  I am SO ECSTATIC that she has either gotten over the stranger fear, or I am no longer a stranger.  She left Travis and I hold her for long periods of time AND we got to interact with her.  When she was sitting on Linsey's lap, she kept laughing at Travis.  I think he's funny looking too, so it makes sense.

Sunday, Travis pulled the Christmas decorations out of the garage.  Aiden and I put everything up around the house.  I have a list of a few things I'd like to buy from the store, if I can find it.  I know this is cheesy, but my dad bought us a string of multi-color, musical lights.  They put me in the Christmas mood every time I go pee.  Aiden really likes them too.  Sadly, last year half the string went out and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with them.  I threw them away assuming I could buy more this year.  But now I can't find them anywhere!  I need to search harder on the Internet.  None of the stores near me carry them.  My dad said he got it from a local store.  I may have him mail me some!

Now all we need is a Christmas tree!  We are planning to get one this weekend.  I can't wait to decorate it with Aiden this year.  He is really into the Christmas spirit this year.  In the past it was fun because we were doing something different.  This year, he actually understands and recognizes more.  He does seem more smitten by Christmas trees than Santa.  Which means putting up the tree this weekend should be a blast. 

Last year my dad bought a frame and an ornament for me to place a silhouette portrait of Aiden and a lock of his first hair cut.  I never got around to doing it so it's been sitting on our desk for a year.  I walked by it the other day and though, "I should really take care of that before this Christmas."  Part of the problem was that I didn't have a good profile shot of Aiden from the time he got his first hair cut.  Instead, I used a current photo.  I plan to put both a current lock and the hair from his first haircut in the photo frame.  I still haven't put that all together, as I need to trim his hair first.  But here's the ornament:

I can't wait for our grass to grow back

The wall is coming along!  We started painting the wall this weekend.  We chose a shade that is between the dark grey of the stucco and the light grey of the mortar that holds the "stones" up on the exterior of our house.  If I didn't have the white of the trim to compare it to, I'd say that wall is white.  

We used paint rollers, so we still have to go back through with a paint brush to get the cracks, corners and edges.  I need to do a closer inspection to determine if we need a second coat.  It was really difficult to paint the stucco because of the texture.  

After we're done with the grey, we'll be painting the wood trim black to match the house.  You can sort of see the black shutters and soffit of the house...  

This next photo is the view from the end of the driveway.  I'm hoping the black trim will help give the wall some definition.  We are also planning to put in a walkway from the driveway to the front door and lining the wall with bushes.  That will have to happen next spring since we need to attend to some interior home improvement first.  Now that Callaway is not around to scrape up the trim on the doors and Sagira's not around to scratch off the paint of the doorways, I think it's time to repaint!

This gap in the wall is where that gate is going to go after I bring it home from Illinois.  Man, I hope it looks okay.  Buying a gate in Illinois while I'm in Texas is sort of like planning a wedding in Illinois while I'm in Texas.  Only smaller scale.

We're in the home stretch!

Admiring our work

New Patio from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

All Done!

Well, aside from the decorative metal that I plan to search for this weekend.