Our Crazy Wonderful Life . . .

  Lately I can't help thinking that I'm the luckiest person in the world. When I step back and look at our life, it does nothing but put a smile on my face. NOT IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER 1-We are building the home of our dreams. Something that not a lot of people get to do, especially at 27 years old. So in that, I'm extremely proud that we are able to do that. A place where our kids will grow up and learn so many things that comes along with country living. Valuable lessons that will help them throughout their lives. 2- I'm married to my best friend and true sole mate (I know kind of sappy). His positive traits truly make up for my negative ones and vise versa. That's why we are perfect for each other and work so well together. 3- The two best kids in the ENTIRE world. I'm not too sure how else to express how great they are. Austyn is the most polite, smart, FUNNY, fun, cute, and sassy 2 year old. She is so brave and adventurous. And I love how she likes to get dirty. I also love how she likes to get pretty and dressed up. Honestly you couldn't ask for any better of a kid. And Quade is my little sweet boy. My mom swears he doesn't know how to cry. And daily she tells me how disgustingly good he is. He really is. Honestly the only time he fusses is when he's hungry, poopy (if I didn't notice him going), or tired. And the majority of the time not even then. He has gone entire days without any crying. He sleeps 6-9 hours and NEVER cries to be feed at night. He only grunts when he wants me to get him up. He has the most loving blue eyes that just melt my heart every time he stares at me. He loves to be snuggled and loved. I get so selfish with him, that I only want him for myself. It's so hard to share him with ANYONE (even Jordan). I don't think any mother could love her children more than I love mine. 4- I'm able to stay home with our wonderful kids. But still able to step right back into the perfect job (for me anyways) whenever I need to or want to. 5- Having family so close to us all the time. With Jordan's work schedule and off work schedule it's a true God send to have the family that I do so close and so eager and willing to help. I wouldn't be able to do it without them. I tried to imagine my life away from my family. Even a few miles away, but it wasn't possible. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for working so hard to create this family circle. It wouldn't have been possible without you. I know in my eyes this is the most perfect life anyone could ever dream of.
  We unfortunately have experienced quite a few deaths lately, but also have had quite a few births. It's definitely the circle of life, but it got me thinking of how fortunate we all are to have each other and each passing day. Some deaths were expected, some were not, and some just weren't fair. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day hustle and bustle of life and take things for granted. For some reason the amount of deaths really affected me and I found myself needing to take things slower, appreciate the little things, and just enjoy life more. Because we never know when God's going to call our name. It was a reality check/wake up call to change a few ways of thinking for me. And for that I'm thankful.

  Enough of the sappy stuff and on with the house stuff. Jordan and his crew poured our garage floor. Thank you everyone for all your help. He also got all the trenching done that he wanted. And my Dad and him are in the process of building our pump house, which will double as a storage shed. We unfortunately came across a few snags and are held up for a week or so (hopefully not too much "so") but there are plenty of things that are still getting done.

The concrete crew

Elliott fell in the concrete

The finished project. Jordan and my Dad stayed

until 11pm to finish 

Late night at the house

The pump house

  The kids are wonderful. Quade had his 2 month check up. He weighed 12 lbs. 4 oz. and was 22 1/2 inches long. They said everything was perfect with him. Austyn is like I said earlier, amazing. She has such a big imagination right now, and is so fun to listen to her version of the stories. And then each time she tells them listen to how they change as the story goes on. She does try to push her limits, but when called on it she will shape up pretty quickly. She no doubt about it is in the "2's" stage, but I think of it more as the terrific 2's. I would hate to think of any stage with my kids terrible or miserable. Don't get me wrong, there have been stages that I like more than others, but never any age that I dreaded. I looked through our pictures and found a picture of Austyn and Quade at the same age in about the same pose. They look pretty similar, but everyone I showed it to could tell the difference easily.

Austyn is top and Quade is bottom

  And I again, am still trying to keep up with everyone else. I started the Insanity workouts a week ago. That is a perfect name for it, because it is so insane. I actually really love it. It is so challenging and also so rewarding to watch myself get better and better. I have only lost 3 so far, but at least I'm doing something in the exercise area. Maybe blogging about my progress with keep me motivated to stick with it. I tend to dwindle if I don't see results or if I miss a day. Wish me luck!

  Sorry about the mushy stuff at the beginning of the blog. I just started writing and that's what it ended up being. Maybe it was my way of a positive vent session. Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for keeping up with us.

Roof, windows, and siding . . .

  It has been awhile since my last post. Busy busy, you know! But since then we got the roof on the house, all the windows in, the plumber and the heating guys came back to finish their next stages, and the siding is  on. Jordan and my family have been doing all the electrical too. They are so handy! Next thing is to do the insulation and then drywall. Jordan still has many extra projects to do like, trenching in all the electrical and water lines to the house, building our pump house, and pouring the concrete in the garage floor. He has stayed very very busy. We also got all of our appliances. They will have to stay in our shop for awhile, but we'll have them ready to go. We picked out the color of the outside of the house (gray and white), and now we just have to pick out the color of carpet and paint in the house. I'm thinking a light tanish color all the way around. We'll see, I'm not good that the decorating part of things. We get a few inspections this week. So if all goes well, we can start the insulation shortly after.

Before siding and windows

Windows being put in

Siding and windows in !!!!

  Quade is doing good. He unfortunately got RSV when he was only two weeks old. We all got sick, but I was so worried about him. It was so sad. Made me want to cry (ok I did a little, maybe a lot. Damn hormones!!). He weighed 9 lbs 4 oz at his 2 week check up. He's going to be a big boy. He is starting to lose his dark hair just like Austyn did. He is sleeping so well already. He will sleep anywhere from 6-9 hours a night. We are all very thankful. It's nice to be rested again. He is quite the little eater too. We can only go 2 hours in between feedings during the day, but I'm good with that if he sleeps good at night. So far he is very easy. Hope he keeps it up. He is starting to coo and smile, so sweet. Here are a couple pictures I took with Jordan's Fire gear. The ones that I edited turned out so good. But unfortunately the file is so big it wouldn't upload any of them. But these ones are still good.

  Austyn is doing wonderful. She is the light of our lives. I just can't get over how wonderful she is. She could stay this age for ever in my eyes. She has become quite the little climber these days. She will climb on anything and everything. I was bent over the bathtub giving Quade a bath and she was in there watching. All of a sudden I noticed her climbing on my back. She was kneeling on my back while I was giving a bath to Quade and I barely noticed. I'm either very tired or very numb. We were in Home Depot the other day picking out bathroom fans and I looked up to see where she was and she was on the second shelf of an end cap on the isle, just looking at people as they walked by her. Yes, we have become THOSE parents. Oh well, at least she was having fun and didn't hurt anything. She is also enjoying working over at the house. She loves to just wander around by herself and climb on the dirt and rock piles. I'll walk around the house to check on her and she will tell me that she's fine and to go back in the house. So cute. She also got sick, she got croup :( It was horrible. I felt so bad for her. That was a rough few weeks at our house, with two sick babies.

  Jordan is so busy. Story of his life. He is doing an amazing job with scheduling all the people for the house and doing all the projects that come up. I know he enjoys doing things like this and he is so good at everything he does. His next big projects are building a pump house for our water system and pouring the garage concrete. I'm sure they will turn out perfectly like everything else.

  I am doing fine. Not too much going on with me. Just trying to keep up with everyone else. Trying to figure out a way to lose the rest of the weight that didn't come off with Quade. It's a little harder now with two kids. Not too much EXTRA time to workout. If anyone has any ideas PLEASE let me know.

Quade Christopher . . .

  Welcome baby Quade!!! So nice to finally meet this little joy. He weighed 8 lb 8 oz, 21 in long, 14 in head, and was born 2-13-13 at 12:04pm. Everything went so well. I only pushed for 15 minutes and got one tiny little stitch. Much better than last time :) We stayed in the hospital for 1 day and then couldn't wait to get home. So different this time. With Austyn Jordan and I both wanted to stay longer. We are all doing good. Kids are doing wonderful. Mommy and Daddy are so exhausted it's not even funny. Another difference than the first time. I never got this tired when we had Austyn. But this time I've never been so tired in my life. And Jordan too. Between the tiredness and the wild and crazy hormones it can get a little interesting in our house. Austyn has been watching Dumbo lately and everytime Dumbo's mother rocks him in her trunk I loose it. Not just teary eyes, full out bawl. :) Poor Jordan. Now we just laugh when it happens but, WOW is all I can say. Hopefully those damn hormones will even out a little bit here soon.

Proud proud Daddy!!!

He's a thumb sucker

Austyn loves her baby brother. She told us "Thank you

so much Mommy and Daddy for bringing me baby Quade"

 
  The house is also coming along just great. We have all walls up and the trusses on. Roof will start at the end of next week I think. Jordan and my Dad have been working so hard over there. Can't wait to see the inside start taking shape.

This is the bonus room over the garage

  Austyn has not even blinked an eye at Quade coming home. She has actually been acting a little less sassy. She is so funny lately. Her imagination and animation are amazing to just sit and watch. I love her at this stage. I have been soaking up every moment with Quade, because I know how fast it went with Austyn.

  Jordan is being a trooper. Between all the house stuff, the baby, no sleeping (apparently I still am snoring), my hormonal flares, and having canker sores in his mouth, I'd say he doing as good as can be expected. He has to go back to work on March 2nd. We will miss him horribly, but I'm sure he will be a little relieved to get back to the boys club with no babies or hormones :)

 

Decking and Walls . . .

  A lot has happened in a week. The decking is on and most of the exterior walls are up! Can't believe the progress. It has been so much fun to watch everything happen. It's really nice living so close to the house so we can come and go as we want to. I hadn't anticipated making any changes to the house since we have spent over a year staring and studying our plans. But it's very different once you see it in real life. We changed a few door sizes and moved a wall a few inches, but other than that everything is the same. 

Here is the heating ducts under the house.

This is the decking.

This is the whole house laid out so we can see all the 

room sizes and window placements. 

The first wall! This will be our kitchen window and

slider door coming out of the dinning room.

More walls.

Austyn and I in her bedroom window. It's so cute,

she knows what room is what already.

Dad got stuck with a bucket full of rock. It's a little 

muddy. So remember if anyone comes to see the

progress, wear your rubber boots!

  I had an appointment on Thursday and I was dilated to 3 cm and effaced to 70% already. The doctor said anytime!! I was thinking anytime as in that day or the next. Obviously that didn't happen. But things are changing and I can tell it's getting close. We are ALL so anxious to meet little Roy. I wish I could remember better the progression of events leading up to having Austyn. But I guess that's probably Mother Natures way of tricking you into having more kids. My guess will be Monday. 

  Austyn is doing great! Enjoying being over at the house. Jordan is also doing great. I think he is also enjoying being over at the house and the projects that he gets to do over there. It definitely keeps him busy all day. 

 I'll keep you all posted on the house and baby!!

Post and beam, plumbing, and heating . . .

  The foundation has been poured and the forms stripped off. The rough plumbing is done and also initial heating will be done on Friday. Things are moving so fast. It's so much fun to go and watch the people working. Jordan and my Dad hauled rock all day to fill the garage to the right level. 12 loads of gravel which is around 140 some odd tons. They were very busy. My Dad hauled it and Jordan moved the rock and compacted it in between each load. We are now calling for an inspection on the the plumbing, and when the heating guys are done on Friday the framers will jump back in and put the decking on (probably Monday). They said that they will mark out each room like Jordan had done and we can go through any changes we want made. I can't wait.

Here is our foundation

This is the post and beams on the foundation

Jordan and my Dad compacting the gravel in garage

Our first load of lumber. It's for the roof.

  Will keep trying to update the blog at each phase.

  I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday and everything was fine. I go next Thursday and he said anytime after that he is fine with inducing me. But I think I've waited this long, so I will just wait for little "Roy" to come when he feels like it. The time will go fast anyways since the house has started and going so fast. 2 weeks!!! I have had a couple of days where I have been so dizzy that I literally couldn't keep my head up and I was bouncing off walls. Ended up being Vertigo. It did go away, but that was really crazy. 2 more weeks for random weird things to come up. 

  Austyn and Jordan are both fine. Austyn has started a real whinny streak. Very dramatic as well. And Jordan is loving (from what I can tell) the progress of the house and all that comes along with it. I'll keep you updated. 

It's Started . . .

  The bank finally went through and we now have a foundation poured!!! Framers come in Friday and Saturday. Plumbers next Tuesday and Wednesday. Heating next Thursday and Friday. Can't believe it's started. This is so unbelievable to me I don't even know what to think. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. Very Very excited and nervous.
Things I'm excited for:
-More space. It seems like we are running out of space by the day.
-A house that is custom made for how we live. Every aspect of the house is tailored in some way to fit our needs and wants.
-A walk in closet, walk in pantry and a utility sink in the laundry room. All things that I've dreamed about having.
-Our own place. Not that we haven't treated our place now as our own, but it will just be different.
Things I'm nervous about:
-Going over budget
-Our inexperience in home building causing more work and money for us
-And did I say not going over budget?!
I know Jordan will do an amazing job as the General Contractor. I can't wait to start seeing the progress.

The foundation crew getting ready to set up their forms

All the forms set up and ready for concrete 

  We also had another event take place recently. Jordan sold his truck and got the truck of his dreams (for the most part anyways, he is a boy and all). He had been talking about selling his truck for a couple of months and I never thought it would sell for the price he wanted so I agreed and told him that if it sells it was meant to happen. After a few deals falling through, it did indeed sell (much to my surprise). So he found this "dream" truck and he made the switch. It is very very nice and it will be so nice to have the extra room. The only down fall is it's extra tall too. I almost need a step stool to get in. But it looks nice and that's what counts right?! ;)

  Austyn is doing good. She communicates her EVERY need, want, frustration, thought, complaint, and emotion perfectly these days. The things that she comes up with are amazing. She loves the movie `Ol Yeller and she will sing "Ol Yeller, come back Yeller, best dog in the west" all day sometimes. It's so cute. She's beginning to roll play now as the mommy of her babies. Very cute to watch. I have moved all of baby brothers clothes and stuff into her room now. And almost all of the baby parafanalia has migrated back into the house. She is as prepared for baby's arrival as she can be I think. I think we all are. Just the last minute things like packing our bag and such.
  I have an appointment on Tuesday and I should find out a game plan for delivery. The doctor had talked about taking him a week or so early since my back is so bad, but I haven't decided if I can be that selfish or not. What's another week, when it's been this long already. I think I'll opt to wait it out. 3 weeks to go! Major things are happening. Story of our life I guess. Jordan told me the other day that come September the house will be done, the baby will be here, (knock on wood) he'll have his promotion, and we will just be fat, dumb, and happy (I told him I wanted to be skinny, dumb, and happy). But knowing us, we will have something else in the works by then. No down time here unless it's forced. We will always have some sort of  project going on at our new place.
  Stay tuned for house pictures. I am going to make it my goal to take a picture at every stage from the same spot so we can have all the progressive pictures of the entire build. Wish us luck!

2013 Here We Come . . .

  I can say Austyn has mastered her pooping on the big potty. No more poppy diapers (for another month or so I guess). We are all very excited she decided to accomplish this milestone before baby brother decided to grace us with his presence.

  We also made it through the holidays. Like always very busy, but so much fun with Austyn this year. She loved it. It seemed like she was getting presents from someone all month long. She got into it a little more than I thought she'd be able to at her age. The cookies and milk for Santa, and him leaving presents in her stocking, turning on and off the Christmas tree was all so fun for her. I almost think the liked all the hype and people around more than the presents. She is her fathers daughter when it comes to any kind of get together. I would notice that when we would go to a Christmas party as soon as we walked through the door Jordan and Austyn would just disappear and I would find myself thinking "I know I came with a family". I wouldn't see them for the rest of the night until I was trying to round them up to leave. I would go and check on Austyn and ask her if she wanted me to play with her or get her anything and she would tell me " No Mama, I'm fine". It was really funny. New Years was also a success. We lite fireworks early in the evening for Austyn, and Jordan and I both stayed up and watched the ball drop. I love the holiday season so much, but it's also so relaxing when it's over.

Austyn in her adorable Thanksgiving outfit

Making a gingerbread house with Daddy

One of her many Christmas dresses

  Austyn is doing great. She is so amazing. I just stare at her in awe sometimes. We went to the coast last weekend and played for a few hours on the beach. She rode a quad all by herself for the first time. She did great. She refused to drive over any kind of stick or seaweed though. So Jordan had to walk in front of her and move EVERYTHING out of the way. She loves to sing and dance. She can count to 11. I'm not sure where she got the number 11 from. I have only counted to 10 with her, but she found/heard it somewhere. She knows all her colors and is pretty good with shapes. And her ABC's are coming along. She knows all of them, but will put them in strange orders. It's so cute. ABC HIJ LMNO QRS Z know my ABC's sing with me! I love how everything to her is so exciting and fun. But sometimes I think it would be so exhausting to have everything in your life be that exciting. We were eating dinner the other night and she looked over at me and said "Mommy, my baby brother hurts" as she was rubbing her belly. Sometimes I just can't believe what comes out of her mouth.

Our first snow. She was so excited to go and play in it.

I usually beat her eating breakfast, but I had to give

her seconds just to have enough time to finish

eating my cereal. I guess I shouldn't have told her 

as soon as she eats breakfast we can go play in it.

We made a family trip up to the snow, so Daddy could

play with us.

And play he did!

We also got to go to the coast with some friends. So fun.

  Baby Brother is doing fine. He is over 5 pounds now and already head down. We had an ultrasound a couple weeks ago and everything checked out perfectly. I only have 6 weeks left. I think we are ready. I can't think of anything else that we need or need to do. Besides name him!! My back is hanging in there. I think I've gotten so uncomfortable everywhere else that I have stopped noticing my back as much. I don't like to complain about being pregnant, but I can't wait to be able to move and breath again. I feel so bad when Austyn wants to play and I can't get down on the floor because it hurts too bad. But it will be worth it and it's almost over. Thankfully Jordan and the rest of my family have been outstanding with all the help I mooch off of them. I would not have made it this far without them. I can never ever express how greatful I am to have the love and support that they give me. I often think that I take advantage of living so close to my parents, but when Jordan works I need help (physically with my back) so I just mozzy on down to my parents. Sorry Mom and Dad, but it will be over soon and my back will get better again. 

  Jordan is doing great and still waiting for someone to retire so he can step into their position as an Engineer. He also is getting ready to build our house. We just have to show the bank we have flood insurance and away we'll go! Should be final in a week or so. We just purchased all of our appliances and were able to take advantage of the End of the Year sales. It did indeed save us a substantial amount. We've been making our final decisions on things and choosing colors, basically trying to pick everything out so we can just go with it and not have to hold anything up with these decisions along the way. Each time we think we've got everything picked out and done, something else comes up that we've forgotten about. But better now than in the middle of the project. MY projection for a finish date is June or July. Jordan says by September. I hope I win.

  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We are going to start this year off with major events. Hopefully we'll have a successful 2013! New baby and new house, hopefully a promotion thrown in there somewhere. It's amazing to me when I look back over the last five years (2009 to 2013, including this year) how busy we've been. We both graduated college, got our careers, moved a couple times, got married, had two babies, built a house, and got a huge promotion. I wonder if the next five years will be as busy.