Ruth on the Slide

Vote for the baby boy name. We want to know what you think! top right corner of the blog.

Hooray

Today we picked out our carpet for our house!!!! We've been looking around at lots of places and today we made our final pick and are so excited! We also found out from the appraiser that we DON'T have to put in an egress window in our basement so we have the money to re-carpet the whole house, yay!

Also, I am very happy because tonight for dinner we had a vegetarian meal; roasted red potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes and roasted carrots with brown lentils and cheesy french bread. Brad was a little skeptical when I told him dinner was going to be vegetarian but we were both very pleased with the flavors and how full we were when we finished! Yum.

Also, Ruth and I have had a rough past few days. She hasn't been napping or sleeping very well, which means I haven't been either...and that means we've both been cranky. Today was the climax with both of us losing our tempers. I decided to try and remedy the situation by sharing some Eggos...and it worked! After we finished our peanut butter laden waffles I cleaned off Ruth's hands and pulled her out of her highchair. As soon as she was out she grabbed my hand and led me back to her room so we could play back there and she could look out the window. I was so touched by her innocence and love and how willing she was to play and be happy and forget the rough day we'd had. I appreciate these simple lessons I get to learn from her, and look forward to many more.

Sleep and other news

Our stupid bed is so stinking hard that I can no longer sleep on it due to pregnancy because I am suppose to sleep on my side which requires me to turn over every couple hours because the stupid bed creates horrible pressure points on my hips and makes my arms fall asleep (thus the necessity to wake up and turn over) which said turning causes shooting pains in my abdomen. So I've been sleeping on our couch, which is wonderfully squishy. Now I only wake up once or twice a night to readjust (and pee) which is a huge improvement over every other hour. The only down side is that I HATE going to bed in the living room, by myself, without being able to chat with my husband. In other words I want a new bed! EDIT: I was re-reading this post and realized how freaking lucky I am that I have another option to sleep on that is better than the bed we have. Hello! I could be sleeping on a mat on the floor, or not even have a roof over my head like I'm sure some pregnant woman in Haiti is doing tonight! I am so thankful for the things I have!

In other news Ruth loves to play with her crayons and is obsessed with bubbles. She asks for them a million times a day. Then when I blow them she makes a blowing sound too, it's way cute.


I went to the doctor again today. I hate this part of pregnancy where I start gaining weight. Even though I keep telling myself that you're suppose to gain weight it's still such a strange mental struggle to go to the doctor every month and hear you're 5 pounds heavier! Baby boy...we have decided to wait on the official name pick because we're no longer certain that "William" is the right name for our guy...is now about 2 pounds and over a foot long and kicking a ton. I have noticed that he's a little shy though; when I would poke and prod Ruth she would always kick back, but this little guy stops all movement if I poke him back! Also, we have just 3 months left and I'm one week away from the 3rd trimester, hooray!

Love

Today Brad surprised me by coming home randomly during the day and bringing me gorgeous daisies!


Brad has been wanting a hiking backpack for the kids so we can do more exploring in this beautiful state. This last weekend we found one for $30 at the used kids store...along with a long over due diaper pail!


Recently we were able to go to Idaho Falls for the weekend to go through the temple with Brad's cousin who is going on her mission! We had a wonderful time hanging out with extended family and eating delicious food. This is Ruth hamming it up in a pair of wings that Nyah put on her!

Two happy girls because of the pretty flowers:


In other happy news the above tired pregnant woman only has 100 days left of pregnancy. And then she will be a tired mom of 2 kiddos!

Me and Rosie

Inspection Day

"Brad & Kate,

I have completed your home inspection report and attached it to this email. I am pleased to have found no major or safety concerns with the home. The home itself is very solidly built, and all the major components are in good condition. I believe you have stumbled upon a great investment that with a little TLC will make a wonderful home for you and your children for many years. Good luck with your new home and please feel free to call me with ANY questions."


So yay! Now we just have to wait until March 15th to get the "TLC" part started. The main things we're thinking we'll do is re-carpet the main floor and paint...along with getting the HVAC system cleaned and serviced. Luckily we'll have our tax return by then so we'll have some extra money to work with.

This house is perfect for us, and we can see ourselves being here for a very long time. It is only 2 blocks from one of the best elementary schools in town, in a very quiet and well established neighborhood. We have a huge quarter acre backyard with several trees for us all to run around in as well as a little garden plot and patio. The house has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths and a nice big basement with the laundry room and a separate family room. We're so excited that we found this place and that it was in our price range!

We feel so lucky that all of this has fallen in our laps, I wrote the following blog entry when we first started this whole experience a month ago:

So today is January 4th, 2010. I have lots of things to be grateful for. This past year has brought us many wonderful things: we moved to Twin Falls for Brad's amazing job, we moved into a beautiful apartment, we got pregnant again, Ruth turned 1, and today we were pre-qualified to buy our first home. I am not posting this today because we want to make it a big surprise for everyone when we're like, "Oh yeah, we just bought a HOUSE today." But I'm so thrilled and feel so blessed that I want to record my feelings before I get caught up in the stress of making this all really happen.

We really weren't planning on buying a house any time soon. We did know that once our contract ran up in our apartment that we wanted to move to a house so we could have our own yard for Ruth to play in. We've been kind of anxious about that prospect so we've been looking at rentals on Craig's List and in the paper for weeks, trying to gauge prices and what not. Well this one ad kept popping up for 4 beds/2 baths in the president streets. This last Saturday we thought, "Heck. Let's just call the guy and go see the house." So we did. Well the owner was great and told us that for the amount of rent we were willing to pay we could totally be paying a mortgage, plus the insurance and taxes! We were totally surprised. We thought owning a house would be way more expensive than renting. And in most places it is, but we happen to live in the wonderful town of Twin Falls, Idaho where housing is cheap!

So, the next day was fast Sunday at church so we knew what we were going to fast about. The next day (today) was Monday and we set off to Zion's Bank to get pre-qualified. We were pretty skeptical about how much we would qualify for since we only got a credit card 6 months ago...aka our credit history is BRIEF. But amazingly enough, at about 4 this afternoon, Brad called me from work announcing that we qualified to buy a house!

When Brad told me this news I immediately started screaming at him over the phone. I really couldn't believe it. This meant that our hope of maybe buying a house was DEFINITELY going to happen! We are going to be home-owners! After I stopped screaming I became speechless...home-owners. I'll barely be 24 years old! And then of course I started crying. I feel so blessed. I have a wonderful husband who is doing an amazing job of providing for our little family. I have a beautiful daughter who is curious, and learning words, and loves to read, she's goofy and funny and amazing. I have a newbie on the way who is healthy and kicking and who we'll get to pick a name for in 2 weeks when we get the ultrasound done! We have great insurance, comfortable furniture, great dishes, new clothes and family pictures hanging on our walls. We're blessed to know our Heavenly Father and I feel so grateful for everything we have received.

Losing to Technology

This is what happens when you try to take a photo when your camera is set to video.

My favorite part is that split second when you think the camera is broken.

More sewing!

So after I worked out Will's bumpers (previous post) I began work on the curtains that will hang in the kids' room. Again, I had tons of left over material from my quilt, lots of it being yellow, and all of it being super colorful. I adore bright colors and think it's the perfect way to decorate a kids room. It took me many, many, many hours to cut all the squares, sewing them together, cut them into triangles, sew them together into the pinwheels, sew the pinwheels into strips, cut the white strips and finally attach them to the pinwheel strips. Oh, and I forgot all the ironing in between all of those steps. I tend to complain while I'm tediously bent over fabric trying to make precise cuts, but the fact is that I love it. I love how tedious it can be to cut hundreds of 3 inch squares perfectly. I love that I know how to do that. I love how my sewing looks after I've ironed open the seams so that they are crisp. And I especially love that I am able to come up with projects, figure out the measurements and execute the design WITHOUT needing a pattern (this applies to both the bumpers I'm working on and these curtains). I love feeling talented, and seeing the finished...or nearly finished...product gives me a huge sense of accomplishment, happiness, and makes me feel talented.


Ruth is also a big thing that helps me feel worthwhile. Of course we have our good days and bad days, but this girl is so cute that even when I'm frustrated with her, it's not for long. She's started to love being in a "cave." She sits under the side table between the couch and recliner to bang on her piano, climbs under my sewing desk while I'm working away so she can read books and sits under Brad's feet at the computer desk so she can play songs on her phone (we got new cell phones in November so Ruth's phone is Brad's old phone which has lots of funky ring tones that she likes to jam to). It's really funny when she attempts to get under the desk because she forgets that she's grown an inch or two in the past several weeks so when she tries to walk under the desk she hits her head on the edge. It's really funny because she gets all confused as to what just happened.


Recently she has started sticking her tummy out. She leans back really far and then pooches her belly out as hard as she can. I don't know what has prompted this but it's really funny, especially when she stands up and does it in the bath.

In Will news, the ultrasound went really well. He is developing well and everything looked "normal." So that's always happy news. Brad joked when the sonographer walked in that we'd get to see if the baby has legs coming out of strange places. The sonographer looked at me and asked if we have any genetic abnormalities in our families. I just laughed, because she was serious...and didn't get that Brad wasn't serious. Will weighs about a pound, is about a foot long and wiggles non stop. I am very much looking forward to his birth and having him as part of our every day lives.

I'm Addicted to...

sewing.


I started this project yesterday, they'll be the bumpers for Will's crib (obviously Ruth's pink and purple bumpers will not suffice for our little man). I had tons of extra fabric left over from my quilt and luckily lots of it was blue and green! So I cut out tons of 3 inch squares, sewed them into columns of three and then sewed those columns together. I still need to figure out the backing, binding, and how to tie it to the crib, but the time intensive part is done! And I just love how it turned out, and I adore the color scheme! (Now I'm working on some (mostly) yellow curtains to hang in the room, yay!)


And to Nutella.


This started out as a snack for Ruth, I thought it'd be fun to give her some popcorn. But then I saw the nutella sitting in the pantry and I couldn't stop myself. It was delicious!

Oh, and to the show called the Community. It's like The Office, but better! Joel McHale is seriously funny.

It's A...

BOY! Now I've got to go shopping, darn!

UPDATE (approximately two hours later):
Went shopping :D. We got 21 items for $25 including jeans, a hoodie, tons of manly onesies and cozy jammers! Gotta love the used kids store! With those items plus the yellow, green and white neutral onesies we have from Ruth we've got this little guy well on his way to a comfy wardrobe. I love the little animal pj's and the cassette tape pj's pictured above.

And this is a picture of big sis and her cute new ponytail! Well half ponytail but I absolutely love it!

The Albums We Liked Most From 2009

Christmas Time

We had a really nice Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas not being with either of our families, so it felt a little strange to just have the 3 of us. The best present this year was the 3-way tent we got Ruth. We had such a blast playing in it with her on Christmas day. It is a surprising ab work out to crawl through that tunnel!


The food was also great! Christmas Eve we had steak and twice baked potatoes and Christmas night we had lamb and roasted carrots and red potatoes, YUM! This was my first time making lamb, and using my new meat thermometer. Sounds dumb, but I pulled the lamb out after 30 minutes because I didn't know how to read the thermometer and I thought it was over-done. After cutting into it and finding it to be completely raw inside we stuck it back in. Ha! But attempt #2 turned out great and we snacked on it all night long. Oh, and roasted carrots are ridiculously delicious...they're practically candy.

Ruth has also become a world-class present un-wrapper. She helped us open our presents: Brad got a Mossburg shotgun and a I got a recliner! One of my favorite parts of this holiday season was reading everyone's family letters that were sent to us. I also enjoyed the music. One of my new favorite Christmas albums is by Aimee Mann.

Pregnancy

I was reading up about being 18 weeks pregnant (nearly half way there!) and found some funny stuff!


First: my uterus is the size of a small melon!


Second: the newbie is the size of a deli pickle.


I've always thought the comparisons made to food were strange...but I guess food is something pregnant women can relate to!

Happy Christmas Eve-Eve!

I really just wanted an excuse to post these pictures of Ruth. She has, for the most part, gotten over her super clingy phase. In the end it really only lasted 3 or 4 weeks! She's once again playing by herself for part of the day and even wanders off down the hall by herself, it's a miracle! She doesn't even cry when Brad leaves for work...usually. And, best of all, she was babysat by friends who live at our apartment complex...(drum roll please) and she did NOT cry the whole time. She didn't even cry right after I left! She played with Finn (their little 1 year old) and had fun!!!! This is a huge improvement over the last time we tried to go on a date, where she DID cry the whole time. So YAY!


We've been letting her open a few of her Christmas presents early...big mistake...now she sits in front of the tree trying to open all the presents. She also loves to pull the shiny blue and silver ornaments off the tree...and put them in her mouth.


She has learned to climb onto the coffee table, her toy car and the couch, throw a ball, and the names of several objects including: clock, book, Christmas tree, foot, nose, Mama and Daddy. She also likes to wander around with her new mittens on.


Anyways here is what she has been up to recently:



If you listen closely you'll hear Barbara Streisand's "Jingle Bells" playing in the background.

Things I've Learned This Year

1. Don't buy a used car before taking it to a mechanic.
2. I hate paying for TV, especially when all the shows I want to see are online now.
3. Don't sign a contract for something like television unless you know how much it will cost to cancel your subscription.
4. Buying presents for your husband is REALLY fun.
5. Buying presents for your child is even better.
6. Don't plug your cell phone in to recharge unless it's already beeping at you, otherwise you end up with an 18 minute battery life.
7. Don't let your child play with your cell phone, they delete contacts.
8. Meet your neighbors, they're usually nice.
9. Don't go running with a stroller unless it is a jogging stroller, your child could end up with a huge bump/scab/tons of scrapes and you feel horribly guilty for weeks.
10. All little girls should have pretty pink toe nails; all big girls should have sexy red toe nails.
11. Keeping record of all incoming and outgoing money isn't hard and is strangely satisfying.
12. Moving is stressful.
13. Losing baby-weight takes effort. Ha!
14. Paying medical bills is not fun. REMINDER: have next large medical expense within the same year so insurance deductible works for us and not against us!
15. Recliners are amazing.
16. Having a loving husband and curious/adorable daughter is the most rewarding thing in my life.
17. Having sister-in-laws is WONDERFUL.
18. Children make a mess: toys, clothing, diapers, food, etc. etc.
19. The temple is awesome. It is relaxing and reassuring and comforting. It's like visiting a good friend who always makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
20. I truly love my Bradford. I realized today that I've been telling him "I love you" for 4 years now. I'm happy to say that it's still true.