House progress. . .

After two weeks we finally remembered to bring the camera to photograph the progress they've made. We now have a garage door, a front porch and walkway poured and stone on the front of the house. Inside the tile floors are done in the entry, laundry room, master bath and kid's bath, The cabinets are installed in the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry room. Trim work has begun and will continue this week. Hopefully the siding and deck will be completed soon too.

Master Bedroom


Master Bathroom

Kid's Bathroom

Kitchen

Joshua's Room

Baby's Room

Living Room

Laundry Room

Giving Thanks

We have a lot to be thankful for and were glad to spend the day pondering all we are blessed with. Yesterday was a day spent with family enjoying each other's company and feasting on some delicious food! Who wouldn't be thankful for that?!?! We started with lunch at my Uncle Steve and Aunt Cher's house which was quite the spread. After filling up our bellies Joshua was in search of trucks to play with. According to his thought processes every house should have trucks for him to play with. Being the gracious host that he is, my Uncle crawled in their attic after lunch and dug out a ton of my cousin Matt's old Playmobil trucks. Joshua was THRILLED!!! He kept telling us he wanted to stay at their house forever. What little boy wouldn't with all those cool toys! The funniest part was that not only was Joshua having a good time with the Playmobil toys, but my cousins Matt, Rachel and Danielle were having just as much fun with them. I think these guys played for over an hour together before we packed things up!

Then it was on to Grandpa and Grandma H's house in the evening to eat some more and for Joshua to play with his cousins. Again, it was nice to have some time with family and the kids had a great time as usual. It was off to bed after a long day as all of us were tired and very full!

Oh and another highlight of the day for Joshua was when Matt asked him to be in his up-coming wedding this summer! Joshua isn't really aware of what he will be doing, but I do know he is very excited because he keeps telling us, "I get to be in Matt's wedding. Mommy doesn't and daddy doesn't, just Joshua. I'm special!" Today I even showed him pictures of Matt in mommy and daddy's wedding so he could start to gather an idea of what is to come. What a blessed little boy to be loved by so many!

"Can we make a pumpkin pie?"

Joshua asked me this question weeks ago. I have no idea where he came up with it since he's never had pumpkin pie. So, when they made a pumpkin pie in preschool last week I thought that perhaps I wouldn't have to do the same, however Joshua took no part in creating the pie at school of course because he was busy doing his own thing while other kids helped. When my aunt asked me to make dessert for Thanksgiving I happily obliged since I can bake and enjoy doing so. Joshua and I set about making a couple of pumpkin pies this morning. He loved pouring, mixing and beating all the ingredients together. Now he can't wait to taste his creation, too bad he has to wait until tomorrow!

Getting out his energy!

This morning Joshua and I met a few MOPS friends at For the Kidz a gymnastics place for young children. It was a Bright Beginnings play group day there so we were able to play for an hour for only $3! It was filled with people which might sound chaotic, but in reality it wasn't that bad. I did stick with Joshua most of the time because he isn't a fan of huge crowds and people in his space and can sometimes freak out over this. He had a blast running around, jumping on the trampolines and into the foam pit and climbing on the big inflatable obstacle course. It was a great way to burn some energy on such a cold day! During our time there he kept saying, "I love this place". When I told him that maybe some night we could go there when they had open gym he got very excited. Perhaps we will have to look into a class for him there in the future when we live closer too.

3 Years Ago. . .

Yesterday was the third anniversary of my mom's passing. She was a wonderful mom and in the last several years of her life, my best friend. I miss her terribly, still. There is still not a day that goes by when at least one thought of her crosses my mind. As the years pass by it gets easier to deal with not having her here, but there are still days once in a while that can be very difficult. I have a feeling one of those days will be coming in a couple weeks when I have my ultrasound. My mom and my dad were both able to be there for my ultrasound for Joshua and share in the joy of that moment. It will be hard not to have her there to share in this new joy. It's also hard for me to think that she will not meet this child until this child goes to meet her in heaven. There will be no pictures of the two of them together which saddens me. Perhaps this little one will get to be her namesake, we'll have to wait and see. No matter what we will share the legacy of my mom with this new little one just as we share it with Joshua. My mom may be gone, but she will never be forgotten!

Maternity clothes are in the near future. . .

So I finally decided I'd better pull the old box of maternity clothes out and remind myself what my wardrobe will be for several months in my very near future. Thus far, thanks to the constant sickness from week 6-11 and losing 10 lbs. during that time, the gaining of weight has been delayed which means more time in my "normal clothes" (YIPPPEEE!! - Oh and this neat little invention called a "tummy sleeve" or "Bella Band" that goes over your unbuttoned normal pants had helped too). However, now that the sickness has waned my belly seems to be expanding more rapidly than the first time around. As I looked back at belly pictures from pregnancy #1 I'm currently expanding about 2 weeks earlier than before.

Okay, so back to the dreaded maternity clothes. As I opened the box I had stored for 3 1/2 years I was immediately reminded of the limited wardrobe I once was so very sick of. Having to face that again doesn't seem like fun, but is inevitable. I have purchased a few new items, but don't want to invest much money in clothes I will never wear again (if you didn't catch that subtle hint 2 kids is it for us). The question for me still remains - how come those maternity clothes always look cuter on the hanger or other pregnant women, but when I have to wear them they just seem like big bags??? This still seems to be true the second time around, but maybe I will feel differently as my belly actually grows into those big baggy clothes.

Preschool Conference

Since it is the season for parent-teacher conferences, Tuesday I had a little informal conference with one of Joshua's teachers. (I remember doing these conferences in November and loving them because it was just a great time to touch base with each parent to see how they were viewing preschool through their child). Seeing as though I talk to the teachers each time I am dropping Joshua off or picking him up we are all on the same page about him. Hopefully someday Joshua will look back on these many posts so I wanted to write down what his teacher said. They have noticed that he is a sensitive and loving little boy (we are working on not being overly sensitive since that drives me nutty). They also noted that he doesn't like to participate in most of the activities they offer during choice time - mostly because he's afraid to get messy (I told them to feel free to push him a little to try things). She mentioned that he is beginning to play with others rather than just participate in parallel play (parallel play is when children play side by side but don't really interact). His favorite activities during choice time are playing with cars (oh, big surprise there), building with blocks (mostly things for his cars to drive in or around) and building with Lego's. His teacher also made sure to mention that they love and adore Joshua, which I am so thankful for and that alone has made Joshua's preschool experience a great one!

Drywall is UP!

Since it gets so dark so early now and seeing as lights are not installed in our house yet we had to put off a visit to the house until the daylight hours this weekend. Insulation is now completed and the drywall is all hung with a couple layers of mud on it. The next step in the process, sanding, will take a while to complete. With the drywall hung the whole look of the house has definitely changed and gives us a much better idea of what will become a reality in a couple of months. Oh and due to the cold weather that is coming they did the final grade on the yard already. They nicely took care of mowing down all the weeds that were in the backyard and grading that which made Cory very happy.

Baby's room

Kitchen

Living room

Master bedroom

Joshua's room

Backyard

Who to vote for. . .

With this being election day the teachers at preschool held their own little election with the kids today. The results were 13 Obama and 5 McCain. When I asked Joshua if he voted for Obama or McCain in their preschool election he had no clue. Per his request, I actually took Joshua with me to vote this morning after preschool. On our way there I asked him who he thought should be president to which he quickly responded, "God". Smart kid who knows who really is in charge of this world!

Happy Halloween!

Oh the fun we had last night! We started out at grandma and grandpa's house for a quick dinner with all the cousins and then it was time to suit up and head out on our trick or treating adventures! It started out slow as the houses with lights on were few and far between but as we got more into East Grand Rapids the lights were more plentiful as were the treats. Joshua enjoyed running from door to door and trying to be the one in the group to make it to the door first. The lucky kids received a few full size candy bars and a full package of Bubble Yum Gum plus a coupon for a free fry and many more yummy treats (for us all to gorge ourselves on)! The VanWesep clan tuckered out much more quickly than Joshua and Owen so we continued to trick or treat and met them back at the grandparents house for donuts and cider. The cousins had a great time together! It was a late night and by the time Joshua's head (and ours for that matter) hit the pillow he was sound a sleep.