Baby one, Baby two

Yesterday Devon did the honors of taking pictures of me. I decided to have him take them yesterday because then they would be at about the exact same time as when we took pictures of me when I was pregnant with Austin. And just for comparison's sake, I decided to wear the same thing. I was really surprised that I could look so much the same a year and a half, and a whole pregnancy latter, but here they are. I hope you enjoy. The first one is of me Pregnant with Austin, the second is yesterday.

Father and Sons

Today Austin is officially a year and a half, and in celebration of our monster getting so big Devon took him last night to the Father and Sons camp out. That's right folks, Devon took Austin camping by himself and I got to spend my night however I wanted! It was fabulous. I ended up spending a wonderfully quite night at home chatting with my sister on MSN which was tons of fun because they finally got high speed Internet and we both got our web cams up and running. I didn't go anywhere, do anything...It was wonderful. I didn't even make dinner for myself. I was planning on grabbing some pizza or a burrito and this wonderful Mexican place down the street but I didn't feel like leaving so I didn't! Nobody ever asked me "when's dinner" "what's for dinner tonight" "can we go out" nothing! It was a nice break. As for Devon and Austin, they came back around 11:00 this morning and Devon said that it went great! Austin slept all night, he had fun running around getting dirty and exploring. Devon enjoyed it and said he would do it again...that's right, it went so well he won't hesitate doing it again! It's music to my ears. Austin really is such a good boy and it will be such a joy to see how he interacts with Kate. I really can't wait. So in closing I just want to give a shout out to my wonderful husband for being such a great dad and a brave father, taking an 18 month old camping by himself at a site an hour away.

Offers

We finally picked 6 houses that we wanted to put offers in on. So last night we signed all the paperwork and are now waiting to hear. It didn't take long for some of them, we are already down to 4 houses. One house has already accepted someones offer, and the other one is not taking offers under their asking price (which is more than we have). So, 2 down 4 to go. Hopefully we will have better luck with the rest. I am just glad we are on to the next step. I enjoyed looking at houses but I am ready to move in to one already! Not much going on other than houses right now. Everything else is pretty quite.

Life

I can't believe April has already come and gone! I swear the last month has flown by. It seems like every day there are 100 different things that have to get done and time is just flying by. All in all things are going well and nothing new is going on. Austin is running around everywhere. He is so content to just walk around the house, play with his toys and chase the kitty. He thinks my big belly is funny. When I am laying on the couch he loves to come over and lift up my shirt and touch my tummy. Then he always runs away laughing. I am so excited to see how he interacts with Kate once she gets here. As for Kate, the doctor says that everything is looking good. We are still set for June 14th to be the due date which is good and bad. Schools around here don't get out until June 13th...so it's good that if she comes when she is suppose to then school and finals will be over...but it's too close for comfort. I am trying to get my students to start prepairing early for finals so if Kate decides to come early I don't leave anyone out to dry.

Devon is doing really well. Work is officially in the full swing of things. He has a lot of projects he is working on and right now he is trying to sell, sell, sell. With the market being in the slump that it's in, landscape isn't the first thing people but their finances toward but Devon has been really blessed and has been able to sell some good jobs. He is getting really excited for me to have Kate. He told me the other day that "If all our kids turn out like Austin I want to have a lot of them...not that I think you can handle it...but I would be okay with it" I was like - thanks - I think I can handle it ...but we will take it one at a time thank you very much.LOL Devon is also the scoutmaster in our ward now so he is gearing up for the summer. They are starting to plan camp outs and different hikes and activities. Over Memorial Day weekend our ward is having a Father and Sons campout and he is going to take Austin and go. I'm really excited, I'm not sure what I will do all by myself but I am sure it won't be that hard to figure out. Devon also was able to get 10 permits to climb Mount Whitney. So the second week of July they are going to take 3 days and hike it. He has been talking about it forever and is really excited for it. As part of his Christmas money he bought a new hiking pack and for our Anniversary I bought him a new mummy bag. It just fuled the fire, he talks about the hike to any and everyone. I am excited that he is getting the change to do it...even though it's like 3 weeks after I have the baby - and over my 25th Birthday - but I am sure he will make it up to me (yeah right)

As for me I am doing good. I feel good although I can tell I am more tired. Some of it is due to me being in my third trimester but most of it is because I can't sleep at night. I am usually awake for at least 2 hours in the middle of the night - just laying there going crazy. I need to find something to do when I wake up but I don't know what. If anyone has any suggestions I would love it. We don't have t.v. which is what I would do before I had Austin. Good mindless t.v. is always a nice distraction in the wee hours. But that option is out and movies never appeal to me. Books don't last because I start them in the middle of the night but then spend all the next day reading it then have nothing left for the next night. I don't know. Tutoring is going well. It was slow this week because everyone had the STAR testing. I know that final project and tests are going to be comming up quickly so I am bracing for that. I finished my first big vinyl project! I finally cut the vinyl for my father in laws truck. They put it up and say that it looks great. I'll post pictures when I get them. I am also inches away from opening my etsy store. I have a few more things to get in order but I am seriously hoping by the end of the weekend it will be up.

As for the family. Right now house hunting is our #1 thing. We finally got our preapproval and have looked at tons of homes - at least 30. There are some that we really like - one that I love and others that would work. I believe we are going to look at some one last time this weekend and then put in several offers. Along with house hunting this past week we were also doing a show with PBS. They are doing a piece on affordable housing options - and the company we are getting our loan through is one of the companies that they were working with so we were chosen to be one of the couples that they taped. We went in on Monday and they taped us in the office with the loan counsler talking about our preapproval and the steps we took to get our loan through them, then yesterday we went "house hunting" with the main guy from PBS interviewing us as we walked through the houses. It was kind of fun. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I believe they are going to air it on PBS on Friday June 27th. It's like at 9:30 at night. I guess it will be on their show "NOW on PBS" - I think that's what it's called. It will be fun for us to watch at least. Austin was really well behaved during both taping even though he was with strangers and weird cameras he did really well. I think that is about it for now. sorry the post was forever long.

crazy

I know it has been a long while since I posted, things have been crazy. They are finally starting to settle down (yeah!). Things started to get crazy when I left on March like 14th to go home early and help with my sister's wedding. I was their for about 2 weeks and time FLEW by. There were never enough hours in the day, we had so much to do. It didn't help that Austin got sick the day before we left so not only was he not used to all the different people, and the new surrounding but he had a CONSTANTLY green runny nose and just wasn't as content as he normally is. All things considered, for as crazy as everything was he did really well, it was just hard on everyone. It also didn't help that 5 days before the wedding mom got sick - ended up with the flu and all sorts of infections. It was hard because there was a lot to do and this totally wiped her out - but on the good side we some how ended up getting all three of us, plus Ashley back home without bringing the germs with us! How that happened I have no idea, it really was a blessing. After the wedding on March 22, Devon, Austin, and I flew home the next day on Easter Sunday. My sister Ashley came with us to spend time with us over her spring break. It was really nice having her here - although I felt bad because we didn't do anything "cool". We just hung out, did laundry, grocery shopping, etc. She stayed with us a week and then went home Saturday afternoon. On Sunday Desirae and her new Husband arrived. They were staying the night with us before leaving for their honeymoon cruise on Monday. Once they left Monday the week was fairly normal. I had a lot of bill to catch up on and a lot of odds and ends that needed to get done. I was back into full swing of tutoring and Devon was supper stressed out because work is starting to pick up but they are in a weird transition - bottom line is that I was tired and burnt out - he was stressed out - it ended up being a long week. To add to the craziness, we are also actively in the process of finding a home to buy. So not only are we looking at houses both online and in person, we have also been meeting with our loan officer several times to get all of our paperwork in order. It doesn't help that they are 1/2 an hour away and every time we meet it's been for a couple of hours - juggling Austin makes it interesting. Almost everything is done now, we don't have to meet with them anymore anytime soon. I have a couple of papers that i need to fax over and our loan approval can go through. We have a couple of houses that we are going to put in offers on but we are still keeping our options open and looking around at others.

With all of that done now, this week seems to be pretty easy. We are back to our normal life and hope that it will stay that way for at least a couple of weeks. We know that in the end of May beginning of June things are going to get crazy again, but we have a little time to breath until then.

mom's vinyl

Pictures

These are pictures of the Wedding Shower invitations I am making for my sisters wedding shower. It is a kitchen theme, and I think they turned out cute....probably not as cute as I think...but not bad for creating the whole thing from scratch. I drew the toaster, scanned it then printed them out on scrapbook paper...the same with the toast.

These are the fabric for all the blankets I either have made, or am in the process of making

this is actually today, forgive the huge mess in the kitchen, just focus on my big belly

so pretty, these are the flowers Devon arranged for me for V-day

he loves his bike

I love austin in these pj's Austin with really bad bed head. He get's the worst bed head! it's so funny

As for news that aren't in pictures, Austin is finally starting to kind of walk. He hasn't figured out how to stand up with out pulling himself up yet, so if we help him or if he pulls himself up on something then he will walk. It's never long lived, but he can easily walk between Devon and I, can walk all the way down the hall, and from the living room into the kitchen. After the last 2 weeks of him being able to keep his balance and walk - yet not walking because he would rather crawl, Friday night I started bribing him. Yes, it's true. When ever he would walk (not take 2 steps and then fall into our arms) I would give him a starburst jelly bean. HE LOVES THEM. THen I started putting them around the house, like an easter egg hunt, but he could only eat it if he walked to it. After doing that Friday night with him, then on Saturday we started using Blueberries instead of jelly beans because I realized that he liked them just as much, they were just healthier, now on sunday he really is walking 100x better than on Friday. I guess he just needed a little motivation. Hopefully he will be walking full time by the time we go home for my sisters wedding in 2 weeks. Wish us luck!

My baby belly is getting large, LOL. I still don't think I am as big as I was with Austin. With Austin I carried so high and I just got big fast. With Kate, she is carring lower and I don't think she is sticking out as far. But who knows. Only time can tell. I still have 3.5 months left. Maybe at the end I will explode.

I think that is all the "other news" I have. Enjoy the pictures.