Baby Update..

I went to the doctor this morning. After over 2 hours last night of having steady contractions 7 minutes apart and then going to bed, waking up to just a few contractions here and there. She checked me and said I was still 80% thinned but I was progressing and dilated to a little more than a 2. The last two nights my gall gladder has really been giving me grief. I have been so sick, scared to eat much of anything that it wont agree with me. I guess when I got on the scale today and she said, "you lost 5 pounds" I wasn't really shocked because I knew I had been so sick the past week. Anyways, here's to Britt rubbing my feet Friday night and praying for a baby to come this weekend...oh and I just might rub my own feet early, shhh dont tell Britt ;)

Baby, really?? AHHH!!!

Quick Journaling 7/9/11--
I guess since I found out I was pregnant I just kind of forgot about it. Meaning that I didn't think beyond the pregnancy stage. At 34 weeks we had come to an agreement on a first name, working on a middle name still. I have had lots of back pelvic pain and the Braxton Hicks contractions have been as regular as blinking your eyes. I was sure that I was having the baby over the 4th of July weekend. Well last night Britt told me he wasn't sure about the first name we chose... ahhhhhh... ok, I am just not going to think about a name anymore until he is born, then I will just hope we bring him home not nameless :) I have been thinking the last couple of days about a sweet tender newborn and the wonderful spirit they bring, I am ready, I need some sweet tender feelings right now. Last Wed. I felt really good, Thursday night a little rough, and then Friday was my doctors appointment. I am now 36 weeks along and because of all the contractions and sharp pains and feeling like he is going to just fall out of me (and because I had to get my group strep b test) I had my midwife check me to see if everything I was feeling was maybe a big joke...
To my surprise (kinda) she immediately said... wow his head is RIGHT there!! You are 75-80% thinned (more on the 80 %) and dilated to a one. It kinda freaked me out because if I remember right I went in on a Thursday with Kaycen and she checked me and I was 90% thinned and almost a 2 dilated and baby's head super low and then my water broke that Saturday morning. So if I followed tradition my water will break tomorrow morning!! HOLY COW!! Freaking out a little over here.. not sure if its because I don't have a kid in diapers anymore so the whole 'baby' thing is going to feel so brand new again or what.. I guess it means I better get to a store and buy at least a 'coming home' outfit for the baby. I am almost scared to go anywhere that my water will just break! Last night I got up 4 times to use the bathroom and every time I said a little prayer, oh please, oh please not yet! Who says that at the end of a pregnancy?!!lol. When I left the doctors office I told my midwife I would see her next Thursday for my morning appt then I was going to have the baby Friday :) She said good plan, I almost think she thinks I will go before then but doesn't want to freak me out, lol. So, long story short, please pray that baby will stay put for one more week so he can be 37 weeks. Until then, Britt refuses to rub my feet (which put me in labor with Kaycen) while my feet keep swelling like water balloons... I think we need to go to Grandma's today so I can soak my legs and feet in the pool!

Careful what you say..

We were sitting in the drive-thru at the bank and Keyton made this loud noise to get the attention of the person next to us, well I quickly told him to BE QUIET!! The teller was helping that person and not us yet. Well Kaycen then got in on the fun so he started making really load vocal noises. I rolled up my window, in my meanest, strictest, quietest mom voice told them both not another word! As I turned around Kaycen did it again, and Keyton quickly told him, "Kaycen, don't do that, Mom is going to kick you ah (the letter A sound) and then Kaycen quickly responds, "ssss"!! They both bust out laughing! NICE! Well can't figure out where they learned that one, lol. This is one of those times what you sometimes say to your kids quickly bites you in the butt :) The only positive thing is the window was still rolled up so the Stake Relief Society President (teller) didn't hear!!

Keyton is at it again...

Monday night 5/30/11 I had a little meltdown before I went to bed. I just have been really struggling with the boys and their behaviors lately. I know since we have moved that life has been crazy, but I just don't see how we can come to some kind of a schedule in the summer with all the things we do. I am sure that my pelvic pain is not helping my temper/patience either. I have been feeling very much like an inadequate mother. Yesterday was a lot better day, these days I am thankful for and remind me that I can do this and its so worth it. I also have been telling myself how thankful/grateful I am to have 2 healthy, happy, active, loving, mischievous (and the list goes on) boys. Its truly a miracle to carry a baby through term and for them to be born with all their fingers and toes and everything else ok. I had a friend last friday lose her baby when she was 19 weeks along. I just cried and cried every time I thought about it. It can happen, and this I quickly remind myself before I am too hard on the boys. We truly are blessed to have them both and good thing for lots of prayers to help me through tough times.

I wrote this in Keyton's private blog but thought I would post it here as well....

Sunday May 22, 2011 I was in the bathroom getting ready for church and Britt was in the shower when Keyton came into our room and said "Dad there is someone of your phone?" Well I took the cell phone and looked at it and it was an Idaho falls number, weird?! I said 'Hello' when the person on the other end of the phone then said, "this is so and so from the Bonneville county sheriffs office, we just received a 911 call from this number and was just calling back to see if there was a real emergency? I am assuming since the little boy answered the phone that there is not?" I just about died right there, "Um, no emergency, my son must have been playing with the phone, we will be having a very long talk with him about when that number is appropriate to us, so sorry!!" She was very nice, said yes, a good talk with him would be a good idea. Thanks.
I then wanted to KILL him, well of course that's your first instinct, then I quickly came to my senses and don't want him to think he cant use that number is case of a REAL emergency. So we had a talk with him about when its appropriate to dial 911. About an hour or so later I asked him.. "So did you actually dial each number 9-1-1?" He told me that he didn't he was pushing other buttons, well I then knew there was a button that if you held it down long enough it would dial 911 because its the 'emergency button'. I remember de-activating my button as soon as I got my phone, but Britt's we never did this. So then I felt bad, except the talk still was needed.
On May 29th 2011 a few days later Keyton almost got to actually use that 911 emergency number. A few days before that Britt had come across an old lighter and was showing the boys and letting them blow out the flame... I quickly told him... 'NICE! Do you REALLY know what you are teaching them??!!!' He quit doing it and put the lighter away.

Well on Sunday night (5/29/11) the boys had been fighting all day and Britt and I were at our ends with them both. Whining, fighting, not listening!! I was folding towels on the couch and Britt was on the other couch watching a show when the boys went in the back of the house toward the bedrooms and after about 5 minutes I was like... wow, are they really not fighting anymore, actually playing and getting along?? I then got up to put towels away and as I was making my way to my master bedroom about halfway down the hall I heard this sound that I knew exactly which was....a lighter striking!!! I quickly picked up my pace a few more steps to my bedroom door and seen Keyton holding that lighter, flame and all going, to my bed on one of the yarn ties of the quilt. I screamed and Britt came running in and we both FREAKED OUT! After a 'mild' (hahaha) freak-out we both then explained to him that he could have burnt our house down, burnt him and Kaycen to death, and he wouldn't have been able to get out of the bedroom. Keyton was just sobbing, I think after lots of talking he realized that fire/lighters are not something we play with. Of course Kaycen was right there watching and into the entire thing. After they all left my room, I looked at the blanket and he had burnt the ends of at least 7 yarn ties on my quilt. What a miracle/blessing that he didn't catch a fire to the blanket or one of the yarn didn't take off.

One last thing, Britt told and showed Keyton were the switch was to turn on and off our gas fireplace in our front room. I told him what are you thinking? Britt is now seeing that teaching him that was a bad idea as well... Since then we have had to turn the gas off to it because he thinks he can just turn it on anytime he wants...and Britt wondered why the house was so hot the other day!!?!!

The big move...

We have been so blessed to find a home to buy and all the circumstances that happened with it. I would like to tell about it so I don't ever forget!


Britt and I have been looking to buy a home for over 3 years now. The first time we looked we made an offer on a home out in Chester (by St.A golf course) and they accepted it. We put down $1000 earnest money and at the last minute we both had really bad feeling about it and backed out, yep and lost our $1000. We just took it as a lesson learned and maybe we would have lost more in the end. Today we are thankful we listened to that small voice telling us to stay where we were. After that we decided that we better stay living in the rental for a little longer.
Then a year ago we decided we really needed to get serious again, the market was good, we were growing out of our little rental house. They were offering the $8000 tax credit as well. As we looked at homes we quickly came to the realization that in Jefferson County you could get a lot more home for your money. We looked at several homes. One Britt loved...I seen lots of work not only outside but what had been finished inside needed re-finished (it looked VERY do-it-yourself and was obvious they didn't know what they were doing). Well, I just went with it and we put in an offer. So did 2 other people at the same time. Of course we low balled so they told us all to give them our best offer, we decided to pull out. SO glad we did, and Britt is glad we did today as well. We actually put a couple offers on different homes and then the same thing would happen, we would offer $7000 less than they were asking and someone else would swoop in and offer them full asking price and they would pay the closing costs. It was a buyers market indeed, but to be the buyer you had to fight and it just ended up not being worth the $8000 tax credit in the end. So there again, we felt like we were supposed to stay put in the rental...
The last few months Britt and I started talking again about buying and since we have a baby on the way due in August we knew there was no way we couldn't this time. As we looked over finances and such we decided it would be best to wait until late summer early fall. I kept showing Britt the homes that were for sale and the crazy low prices... then one day he said, call Jed (our realtor). I was like, no way, I am not calling him until we are 100% ready to buy. I need to call the bank, get pre-approved again, ect. ect. A couple days later Britt hit me up again, so I put him off a few more days, then just had this feeling I needed to call our realtor. So I did, and the next night he set up 6 homes for us to look at.

Almost ALL the homes we did look at were what we were looking for. A 3 bed 2 bath home with a partially finished basement. All but two had established lawns, which was a plus for the boys. Then we went to the last house of the night. **on a side note** Britt and I had joked two weeks before when we drove by this subdivision that we wished we could afford a home there (nice 1 acre lots and nice homes) and then laughed to ourselves maybe one day when we are rich and famous, lol. This last home was in this subdivision and I was sure it was way out of our price range. It was a foreclosure home and the price was actually on the low end of what we were previously looking at. Built in 2007, vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors, master jetted tub and tiled walk in shower, big 2 car garage. The only thing, no yard and an unfinished basement. This made we hesitate just a little because I really need a room for my office, craft, sewing stuff (or crap as Britt calls it). The insulation is done, and half of the walls are studded in. So our goal is with our next tax return to finish the basement with 2 more bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a 'theatre room' style with a play area. Until then the crib will go in the office until we can move the 2 boys downstairs. Ok, back to the story about the house. WE LOVED IT!! We put our offer in the very next morning and then heard back from them the next day that they accepted our offer!! HOLY COW we just bought a home, we were both a little shocked and excited because we didn't think it would happen this quickly. Because the home had not been lived in for awhile the home owners exemption on the property taxes had been taken off so the taxes were about double what they should be. I did some checking and found out we needed to close on the home no later than friday the 15th of April and go in and fill out paperwork for the next year so we could use the exemption the following year. Otherwise we would be paying those high taxes for two years, yuck! I called the bank and they said, well we will have to work hard to get closed by then. We closed April 14th and in the closing we got back ALL of our $1000 earnest money, and the seller paid an insurance for a year that would cover anything in the house that broke. Furnace, windows, light fixtures, well, ect. That was awesome. Everything just went our way and fell right in to place. It just felt right and Britt and I knew this is what and where we were supposed to be. I asked a few people, how do you know its the right house for you? They told me, you just know... I was skeptical because I liked multiple homes that I could live in and then things fell through. But after all that waiting, I now see why we had to stay in the rental and go through the things we did to get us to where we are now. Here's to our new 2900 sq. foot adventure... scared, but excited :)

Here is a pic of the outside of the home, I am so excited to be able to put a yard in the way that we would want it. Good thing for Britt's awesome brother Brandon to haul all his sprinkler system and landscaping stuff from Pullman, WA to here to put in a lawn and landscaping just for cost! Also, thanks to all our great friends and family who helped us clean, paint, fix, move, and everything else! We couldn't have done it without you!!