updates and milestones

Updates 

*Our stainless steel hood arrived and is mounted for the time being.  I forgot to tell Dave that because I custom built the depth of the cabinet above we needed to hang it slightly away from the wall. We also need to iron on the banding to the edge before we re-mount it as well as get the doors on so we can see how much it needs to come out.

*So I thought I got all the rails and stiles cut that we needed for the custom cabinets and then when I brought the boards in the double check I cut over half of them wrong somehow. Bad news we have no more wood so we will have to order more plus re-cut. Man why can i just not slow down and take the time to make sure I'm doing things right before I cut more. A errrr weakness of my nature!

* We have snow and more snow

*I have a month and a half left and I feel the pressure.  I have about 20 meals in the freezer but I'm realizing that I will not have enough room for all the meals that I want to make for after the baby comes.
I also have about 30 lbs of meat in the fridge that I need to assemble into meals and get in the freezer in the next few days.

* Dave is crazy busy at work and believes he has come to another Fork in the road. What is happening at work right now could take his work life in a very different direction, or things could plug away somewhat the same. He feels the monumentousness of this time and is not always with us even when he's home. It can defiantly have a one track mind.

Milestones

Brielle

* We went an entire day with out any accidents with our potty training. I started this second time around with the every 20 min. method and we didn't have a success all day. I thought about what I needed to do differently and I realized with her personality that she wanted to be in charge and do it her way.

So the next day I let her decide if she wanted to wear under ware. I let her decided when she was going to sit on the potty and for how long. It worked. Yes we are still having accidents but we are having way more successes. She does still wear a diaper during nap time and night time.

She can decide when she needs to go, run into the bathroom, pull down here under ware, sit on the little potty, do her business, pull her undies back on, flush the business down the big toilet, and come out and proudly announce that she "did it!" We are working on using hand sanitizer after but the pump is broken she she comes out with it and asks me to help her with her "hands"

*She continues to be my little mother and a half, often telling Keiton phrases like chew and be soft before I even get a chance.

* Brielle is also starting to say my name Bri-det a lot especially if I don't respond fast enough to mommy.

* Brielle is recognizing more letters, and shapes all the time and can almost count to 10. She is still struggling with 7. She has about 8 colors down.

* when she sings her favorite songs she is starting to add more words to the song.

* I can't believe my little girl turns 2 this week.

* she will do things like tell me she wants a peanut butter sandwich and proceed to get all of the ingredients out of the drawer to make one.

* she loves to peel her own clementines.

Keiton

* He has made a ton of progress with his willingness to help and is almost a better picker upper then Brielle right now.

*He defiantly says Brielle's name now and it is so sweet.

* He is starting to now more animals names and sounds. He is starting to repeat more colors.

* He is stringing more words into short sentences.

* He is getting much better at puzzles and figuring things out on his own.

*He likes to "zip it" and zip up his own pj's

*Keiton wants to sit on the toilet every time we change his diaper and sometimes it's for less then a second but hey will take the interest even when it can be draining.

Twice he has sat down before I could get in and help him and peed straight out in front of him. At least it's in the bathroom and a little easier to clean up.

Crunch time and creative craziness

So I'm feeling the crunch time before Coleman arrives and I have lists and lists of what I need to do to get my life in order and get as prepared as possible for this little guy to join our family.

Then what happens? I come across this "creating with the stars" and I can't sleep and totally want to jump on board. I'm crazy! so here are the details

http://www.eastcoastcreativeblog.com/2013/01/creating-with-stars-on-ec2.html

Should I go for it? or just stick to my lists and lists of baby prep?

A strength and weakness of mine is I totally believe that I can make it to the 12 contestants and maybe even go all the way. My new favorite quote used to describe my type of personality "I see all the possibilities and believe they are all possible"

To be fair I only think I can do this and it be worth it if I jump on the blog world and that is only practicle if I have a few team members namely Kjirsti and hopefully Sabina. Together I think we could have an awesome diy blog with lots of followers.

However timing could not be worse but then life only ever seems to get more complicated and complex so maybe now is as good of a time as ever.

I would use my concrete counter tops as my entry project which from everything I've seen in the blog  and Pinterest world is pretty unique so I think I would have a really good chance if I can get some awesome pictures and have the writers in my family help me write up a post.

should I go for it and just see what happens haaaaaaa/. choices

It would be kind of stressful if I made it but so much FUN!

Jan. 2013

I haven't really taken any pictures I have been so bad. Here are the kids each with their own technology apparatus. They are pretty good at sharing and Keiton is figuring out this technological world more all the time. Brielle has had it mastered for a while. It is incredible what she can do on the "pad" We have to limit the time they both have because that all they want to do.

"Daddy phone couch"
"pad"
"train"
phrases I hear often through out the day. "train is an alphabet youtube video that is helping the kids learn their letters that they are slightly obsessed with.

Keiton is talking more and more and is starting to say parts of the prayer.  He is also getting more coordinated and can finally climb the latter to the bunk bed, climb onto the bench, and most other pieces of furniture in our living room.

Brielle is constantly singing her version of twinkle, lullaby, or the ABC song. She knows about 8 colors and knows all the letters in her name and a few more K for "Keit" and S and maybe  a few more.
She also knows a few shapes: star, heart, oval. she is verbalizing words together a lot but leaves out all of the articles and only says the important words :)

I am really feeling the anxiety and stress of getting ready for this baby and can't believe I only have 10 weeks left. We have been doing lots of organizing, food prep, and trying to finish this kitchen so that I will have the peace of mind to really enjoy this new addition.

Remodeling kitchen

So in the last 2 months we have done quite a bit of updating our kitchen here is the list and pictures

* putting on hardware for all lower cabinet doors and drawers
* adding floor board and trimming for the back of the peninsula
* Painting the lower cabinets
* demo the soffit
* remove upper cabinets
* build floor to ceiling wall tower
* build and install all upper cabinets

Whats left of phase 1
* finish customizing upper cabinets
* build install paint upper cabinet doors
* install crown molding and bottom of cabinet trim piece
* upper cabinet hardware
* wall cabinet installation
* hood ordered and installed
* sand and paint backsplash for now
* caulk, touch up, repair any needed spots

Phase 2
* trim in window
* replace window
* paint bottom of counter and add plywood piece
* move some electrical work
* cobbles on peninsula
*  backsplash
and i'm sure there are things I can't think of right now

December 2012

It's been to long and TONS has happened sense I posted last. Lots of Family time, everyone being sick, and some remodeling.

Our big snow storm left 2 feet of  snow and the kids weren't sure what to think of it. They didn't like not being able to walk through it.

We had a great December with Kjirsti and Scotter staying with us. We are growing more hopeful daily that we will have the blessing of them living close for the next 5 years starting this summer some time. It will be so fun the have the three kids grow up together and have Kjirsti close enough that we could do a music dance theater group together and or the MANY other projects we have talked about.

The latter part of December we spent lots of time with the whole Phil Petersen Crew and enjoyed many days with the 30 of us crammed into Sabina's house. We however did not enjoy the sicknesses that we all pasted around and just recently have felt like we all are better.

It's a boy

So I know I haven't even posted that I am pregnant up to this point on the blog. I am 19.5 weeks and we are having another boy. Way excited. We feel like it will be the best thing for Brielle and Keiton. I think Brielle will be more likely to jump in and play with her two younger brothers as well as boss, mother, and discipline them, then Keiton jumping in an playing with two sisters. Also there will be less comparison for Brielle and she can be her own self with out so much sibling rivalry.

This little guy's birthday is going to be sandwiched between Brielle and Keitons and crazy of crazys the three of them will go to nursery for about 3 months together.

3, 2 and under here we come!

 I think my kids had more fun in the fall then any other time of year in our yard. It was a long warm season.

Then from Thursday to Sunday we got a huge dump. 22 inches. The kids like to watch it fall from the window but haven't decided that it's fun to play in yet.

prayers

Brielle is our little prayer reminder and 9 out of 10 times she will be the first to fold her arms and remind us to pray. She likes it some much she wants to pray every time a second serving or a new dish is brought to the table. She constantly asks why if I tell her we already prayed, so sometimes we just pray again.

Keiton is trying to say a lot more words and makes the animal sound moo for cow. Most of his attempts no one would catch but me. He is starting to be more obedient and even has stopped his bike before it went in the road and turned around and come back home when asked. yeah progress!