Busch Gardens & More

Another week full of busyness (is that a word?). All of us have now gotten sick. Nothing major...just colds, but still not fun, especially when I'm not allowed to take anything. I'll survive! And I only have 34 days left until my due date! Wow!

We have at least one major thing crossed off of our to do list as of last night. We bought a minivan. It is a 2001 Honda Odyssey. Although it has 130,000 miles on it, it is in great shape and the best thing...we have no car payments! I will have to tell you that it took a lot of working on my heart by the Lord to accept that I would be getting a 10 year old car with that many miles. God used an amazing book (Crazy Love) to put some things in perspective for me and made me realize that we are so very blessed to have the things that we have! I guess I feel like I don't want to be standing next to a brother or sister in Christ one day in heaven and have to explain to them that our money was too consumed in paying for a car that we were unable to give so that their family could eat. That's not to lay a guilt trip or conviction on anyone, it's just where God has led George and I with our money. Thank you, Lord, for providing!

And Sarah and I started painting the nursery today...another thing on my to do list! I'll post pictures of both the van and the nursery when I get a chance.

The next two pictures are from when my parents watched the girls a couple of weeks ago during our labor and birth class. They are still obsessed with tu-tus (they literally call any skirt a tu-tu) and they love to dance like ballerinas. You may also notice the flowers in their hands. They love to pick flowers. Daddy loves to pick them for them!

I think the facial expression on Kate's face is priceless!

The last two pictures are from our 1/2 day excursion to Busch Gardens with Sarah & Rachel and my parents. We finally got to ride the train because the children were out numbered. It was warm enough for them to play in the water so Hannah and Kate got to don their new Tinkerbell swimsuits.

Hannah

That's all for now!

Progress

We have had progress on many fronts.

1) These pictures really don't depict any progress other than my darlings. However, their little attitudes have progressed into full two year olds. For people who say they want twins, you can come stay with me for even a day and you may rethink it. I know all kids go through a "terrible twos or terrible threes" stage, but it is kicking my butt. Maybe it's because I am extra irritable with my pregnancy hormones, but I feel like having my own tantrum several times a day! All in all, they are sweet girls and helpful, but as poor Rachel has learned the hard way: stay out of their way if you are holding a toy that is theirs. Some of their newest words include: mine & gimme back. Ahhhh!

In the pictures below they are donning their hats they made at church last week. They were so proud of all of their crafts they brought home.

Kate
Kate

2) Pregnancy progress-I am growing and growing some more. I am actually fairly comfortable thus far. Other than the occasional hard to get rid of acid reflux and some very painful nerve pain in my belly, I can't complain. I'm not anywhere near the miserable point yet. I'll be 35 weeks tomorrow! Woohoo! It's hard to believe the end is so close. I am ready to meet this precious babe (yep-still no name), yet we have so much to do. I'm currently working hard to shopping for a minivan, preferably a Honda Odyssey. We want to pay cash so our choices are very limited, but it's doable. The most frustrating thing is looking on craigslist and e-mailing people and finding out they are just scams. I don't have time to waste with that nonsense.

I am also very excited about painting the nursery sometime this week or weekend. I've decided on colors and am looking forward to getting something accomplished before this baby gets here. We are still no where near ready to move the girls into their new room, but we still have 5 weeks left, right? Maybe...

34 weeks

3) George's progress-he is slowly but surely making bathroom progress. He and our friend were literally up until 3 the other night working on it. Here are some things to note: new exhaust fan in the top of the picture, canned lighting in between the windows, new windows (thank you Matt & DJ)...

all the drywall is up...

new concrete board in the tub area...

There is still much to be done, but it's coming. After having to do a lot of re-wiring in the attic, he noticed that we didn't have much insulation so he is going to be blowing insulation up there. Projects are never as easy or simple as you anticipate them to be.

He had a 3 day weekend this past weekend, but another small hiccup. Hannah and him were sick, which doesn't make for much motivation to do a lot of work. Here is Kate keeping Daddy company while he sleeps. Right before I took this picture she had her hand on his head.

Future Golf Stars

George was very excited when I brought home the girls a set of golf clubs last week. Who can pass up $5 toys that Daddy will gladly take them outside to play with? George had a day off last week and we took the girls outside to play with them. Kate does like to refer to them as playing baseball with Daddy (Krista, I think she got that from watching Sam play), but who cares if she's wrong when she looks so cute doing it. Check out the cute Minnie outfits (on sale, of course) I got for them at the Disney store.

Kate
Hannah

Hannah

Kate

We have already demoted Hannah to the caddy. Not really, but she is much more content to carry around the bag and clubs than she is to hit the ball.

Kate

This is just a video of Kate playing. Forgive Hannah who is throwing a tantrum in the background.

George has been working so hard to get our bathroom done. A friend has been over helping him the last 3 days and has been a huge blessing. They have managed to get a lot done and motivate each other to work until past 10:00 each night. The only bad thing with that is that the girls bedroom is right up against the bathroom and they freak out whenever they hear the drill or a hammer. Therefore, the last two nights I've had to lay with them in our bed until they fell asleep. We've all been exhausted. However, he does have almost all of the drywall up, concrete board around the tub, and is currently working on putting in an exhaust fan and some electrical stuff. He's hoping to be ready to tile this weekend! I am very proud of all the work he's doing. I am itching to get to decorating and painting myself.

P.S. George did get to go to our last childbirth class and the massages were great! I'm looking forward to some more during labor!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Many of you are probably thinking, "Why in the world can't this stay-at-home-mom get her blog updated more often?" I'll give you my very valid reasons:

1) "We" (not really we, but George) has been busy every evening tearing apart our hall bathroom. This is what it looked like about a week ago. It has now been almost completely gutted. It's just a bathtub, toilet, and tiny pieces of tile that need to be thrown away. He's worked since last Tuesday at Verizon without a day off and then been doing lawns, working on our bathroom, and other various projects. Therefore, this mama has pretty much been a "single" parent for the last couple of weeks. I'm not complaining, but I am tired.

2) These two little girls keep me going. As if being a mom isn't tiring enough, I'm 33 weeks pregnant and exhausted. In fact, I'm delaying a nap just to write to you all. Don't you feel loved?

Kate reading books on our bed. Doesn't she look so big?

The girls helping me make the bed

Hannah with a very cheesy smile

We had a picnic at the park earlier this week, spent a couple of hours cleaning out a new refrigerator that we inherited from Matt & Sarah's new house, been grocery shopping, went nursery shopping, and so many other things this past week. And tonight is our 2nd childbirth class. The partners are learning massage techniques and I told George he better not work too hard at work today because I expect a good massage. Then he told me that since we got a very good rain last night, if he got the opportunity to work overtime he was going to. So he's going to send me to our childbirth class alone while I watch all of the other moms get nice massages. We'll see...pray for no call out until after 9:00!

St. Augustine Getaway

Last Friday was my 27th birthday and George "planned" (he brought up the idea, I did all the grunt work) a weekend getaway. We headed over to St. Augustine Friday mid-day and stayed until Sunday afternoon. The girls were traded back and forth between Aunt Sarah, Nanny & Grampy, and Grandma & Grandpa.

Kate donning her "new" backpack
Kate

Kate

The girls actually loved their backpacks so much that they insisted on putting on their shoes and then walked right out the front door without either parent. George and I scrambled to put on clothing and had to run out after them. They got a little over excited. No pictures of Hannah here because she was in the other room. Her backpack is a pink cat. I think we have new overnight bags!

Friday afternoon we spent outlet mall shopping. We got clothes for everyone in the family, including the one still in mama's belly. Then, we tried a restaurant that was brought up by our GPS and advertised on a tourist map. We were literally out in the middle of nowhere. It was one of those happen to come upon it on a dark highway. George got crab and I had a gross chicken caesar salad (Happy Birthday to me!). Think they threw a large piece of chicken on the grill and then just chunked it up. We agreed that it probably wasn't the best choice, but you never know with those types of places.

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed to a golf course. George was paired up with 3 men and I rode along in the golf cart. It was my first experience with a real game of golf. The weather was beautiful, especially when shaded the whole time. 18 holes of golf makes for a long day, but I brought a book along and had fun! It was fun just spending time with my hubby and I know it meant a lot to him. He even played a decent game of golf on a nice course!

One handsome golfer

That night we headed into downtown historic St. Augustine. We walked around for a while and then ate at A1A Alehouse. I'd been there before when we had a girl's weekend last August. We even got to see a real live semi-police chase on foot. We enjoyed this because one of our favorite shows to watch on Saturday nights is COPS. I finally got my birthday dessert later that night at Kilwin's Ice Cream. We walked around for a while longer and then headed back to the hotel to lounge around.

The only picture of me the entire trip

Sunday morning we did a little more meandering and then headed over to Downtown Disney to eat lunch. We ate at Raglan Road. It's an Irish pub. We got the best seats in the whole place. There were two very comfortable leather chairs right around a table for two. Not sure if it's because I was pregnant, but we took it. It's better than our experience at Denny's that morning. The host passed up a booth table for us because he didn't think I could fit because I was pregnant...wow. I wasn't offended, but I think it's funny. I'm not that big! In fact, I'm actually measuring 2 cm less than what I should be. Speaking of, my last OB appointment went well. She said everything in the ultrasound looked great and I lost a pound since my last visit. That was probably due to my stomach flu, but I'll take it. I guess I should actually work on putting a little bit of weight on these last 8 weeks.

George is currently gutting our hall bathroom. He has most of the walls down to studs. The purple tile is almost all gone. We are pretty much replacing everything in there. Not a planned project at this point, but we figure if we had to redo the tile, we might as well just get the whole thing done and over with. He has a lot on his plate over the next couple of months since the majority of the house projects are only things he can do or at least has to start before we can paint. He's doing a good job though!

I think I've got you all caught up. Happy March!