Painting, Pregnancy and Priceless Moments!

So what did we decide to do this past weekend with three days of sunny temps in the 70s? Yep, you guess it...we painted. I guess our timing wasn't great, but I told Josh I wanted the downstairs painted before Ethan's 2nd birthday party in two weeks, so the clock was ticking! We did still manage to get outside all three days for strolls with Ethan and Daisy. I think we all appreciated the great weather. :) It was also nice to be able to open all the windows while we painted to avoid inhaling lots of extra paint fumes!

We had three rooms on the agenda: the office, the kitchen and the living room. We managed to complete the first two. We're hoping to get the living room trimmed out this week during the week which will leave just the rolling for next weekend. Last year around this time we bought all new office furniture from IKEA to update our office. All of the furniture is white and the office (which is actually supposed to be a formal dining room) has white wainscoting as well. So, we wanted to balance all of this white with a dark color to contrast with it. We finally settled on a dark cranberry red color - "Spanish Tile" (1010-5 by Valspar at Lowe's) to be exact. Neither of us had previously painted a room red, though working with paint daily, Josh knew that it wouldn't be easy. Who knew it would take 3 coats of trim and at least 2 coats on the walls to look halfway decent?? Ugh. The office took much longer than anticipated to complete and also took an extra gallon of paint too! Despite the extra work, we felt the end results were worth it. The room looks fantastic!

The paint we chose for the kitchen wasn't nearly as temperamental as the red was, but it also required two coats. With the lighter maple cabinets we have in this house, we decided we wanted something kind of dark here too, to be sure the walls contrasted the cabinets rather than matched them too closely. So, we chose a color that I would compare to milk chocolate - "Hubbell House Clayo" (2006-9B by Valspar). I thought this room wouldn't be too bad to complete, but then quickly realized how much trimming around cabinets there was to be done! :( We finally finished on Sunday afternoon and enjoyed the rest of our weekend outside and grilling out. We had to take advantage of near perfect temperatures in February! I am incredibly happy with how well the kitchen turned out as well! :)

Next up after the living room this weekend will be Ethan's new bedroom (the new baby will get Ethan's current nursery) and our master bedroom. Once we get those completed I think we will be content for awhile. Eventually we want to hire someone to do the entryway, stairway and upstairs hallway. Being two levels tall, this isn't something Josh is eager to do himself! We already have our bedroom color paint and I have purchased the bedding for Ethan's new room, so we can soon get the paint to match it too. :) I am determined to get as much done as possible before July because I know accomplishing anything with two little ones around will be difficult!

Speaking of the little one...it's hard to believe that I am halfway there already!! Today marks exactly 20 weeks and I go to the OB on Friday for my next check-up. It seems to have gone much quicker this time around, but maybe that is due to having an almost two-year-old to keep me occupied? ;) I am sure these next weeks will start to drag by a bit slower as I get bigger and more uncomfortable. Fortunately so far I have only gained about 7 pounds, but my back is already starting to feel the strain of the added weight to the belly! According to BabyCenter.com the little guy is now about the length of a banana. No wonder I am starting to really feel some movement in there!! :) I am hoping things continue to go well and that I continue to feel good for the duration.

Our other little guy, not wanting to be upstaged, continues to amaze us daily with the things he learns. While taking his bath this morning he correctly identified the letters A, B, C, D and E when I asked for them!! :) We have been working on letters and numbers a lot lately and he is getting better about pronouncing them and now it appears he is starting to recognize them too! It's hard to believe how quickly he is growing up, but then I remember he will soon be two!! :'( I caught a few pics of him playing with my cell phone camera.

Yep, in case you were wondering, the tongue helps him think and concentrate. ;) We see it all the time lately because he loves spending his time doing puzzles and practicing counting everything. He is too cute for words!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from our kiddos! :)

Our little 'handsome dude' has had a great Valentine's Day so far. He enjoyed his extra special PB&J sandwich for lunch today. :) He looks so grown up here!! And he even paused for me to take a pic before he dug in! haha!

We took a wonderful walk this afternoon to enjoy the gorgeous, high 60-degree weather. Little man has now graduated to walking with us sometimes instead of riding in his stroller every time. Yay!! Today, he managed to run at full speed (his full speed, of course, which is a pretty brisk walk for me!) for the entire mile (do we have a runner on our hands??)! He only slowed down to point out each spray-painted number on the side of the road (for utilities I guess?) and to smell the flowers. haha! He is such a goof! :) Speaking of numbers, he is really big on numbers and counting right now. This weekend, when we put him down for his nap, I heard him in his crib, counting away. I turned on the video on his monitor and watched him as he counted. When he was done, he tried to clap for himself (as he normally does, haha), but this was apparently too hard while laying on his tummy. So he sat up, clapped, then decided he was tired, laid back down and went to sleep! He cracks me up daily it seems now! I love this stage where their little personalities really start to show. :)

Hubby and I will celebrate tonight with a romantic meal here at home with our little man. We decided our present for each other this year would be some new bedding for our bedroom. :) Hope everyone has a great day with their sweeties!

Update: Poor Josh. This was the beautiful flower arrangement he picked out that was supposed to be delivered to me on Valentine's Day while he was at work...

But...he got home and noticed that there were no flowers. :( He had been anxiously waiting all day for me to send him a pic of the flowers when I got them and I had even sent him the above pic of Ethan, so he was very concerned when I didn't mention anything. But, he didn't want to call and ask about it in case I hadn't gotten them yet and spoil the surprise!! :( So, he wasn't able to contact the florist until he got home from work that evening. He had been way ahead of the game and ordered them a week ago, but the order got misplaced! So instead of this arrangement, I got what they still had left at almost 8 pm on Valentine's Day (granted it was a bigger arrangement and they threw in an almond tart thing as an apology). It is still very pretty and I will post a pic once the lilies open up, but not quite the same. :( I could tell he was disappointed and he even commented that there were no red flowers, just pink and white, which he said says, "I'm confused about whether I love you or not!" hahaha. Poor guy! I love you dear!!

It's a...

Yep, we're having another little boy!! Though I had to suffer through another full day of waiting to find out when their ultrasound machine went down on Monday (tears!), thankfully I survived and we can now prepare for another little guy's arrival! :) Sorry to the majority who voted for girl on my poll! I would have put money on girl this time...I guess that's why I don't gamble much. ;) hehe. I guess I did have a dream that it was a boy. I should have paid more attention to that!

Funny story. So I laid down on the little bed and she put the gel on and we were just getting started. The screen popped on and viola! This picture is what we saw immediately!! haha! Yep, I was pretty sure I knew what I was looking at on that screen. The tech confirmed it. I guess our little guy must have been anxious to let us know that he was indeed a boy, not the girl that I was expecting. Good thing we wanted to a) know the gender, and b) that I didn't buy that pink bedding I had been eyeing! ;) As my sister said, it looks like he is also giving us a thumbs up too, to let us know that everything looks good! :) Or maybe he's just saying, "Way to go, Dad! Boys are going to rule in our house!" haha! Poor Daisy and I. We are outnumbered for sure now! We are excited about the idea of another little guy. At least I already know what I am doing when it comes to boys and honestly, a girl born under the cancer sign (like myself), may have been too much moodiness for one house to handle! LOL! We think that the boys will be best buds and should be able to share a room well when it comes time to think about the next baby. That will be convenient if we are still in this house.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a great look at the little guy's face. He was apparently more interested in keeping his face buried in the placenta, according to the U/S tech. I guess it's probably nice and warm and cozy there? We tried to get a look on the 3D, but it is kind of hard to see the face behind the placenta. We got a peek at the eyes and nose as you can sort of see in this pic.

Because we didn't get a great view, the tech and doctor said we may just try again later to get a better look! Yay! :) I hope that is the case!!

After we finished the ultrasound, we headed over to the West Georgia hospital for a tour of the maternity floor. Wow. They just opened a brand new maternity area on June 1st and it is beautiful!! It will be quite a treat to deliver the little guy at this facility! :) It reaffirmed to us that our decision to change OBs and hospitals was a good one. We are excited to beginning preparing for this little guy's arrival now. I guess it's time to pick a name aside from 'kumquat'....hmm...ideas anyone?? ;)