Special Person

Joshua is the special person in his preschool class this week which means he got to take the special backpack home that contained Ladybug, the journal, crayons and The Grouchy Ladybug book. Today Joshua dictated a story (I wrote his words) about his adventures with Ladybug and drew a picture to go with his story. It's interesting to look back at his first story from October and see the notable differences. His artwork still leaves a bit to be desired, but coming from two not so creative parents it's not surprising; this being said, his art work has improved as well. Tomorrow he will bring his story back and have it read to the class. He also gets to bring his Playmobil motor home for show and tell. The other highlight of the week (at least for me as a mom) is bringing a special snack. This time there really wasn't anything particular to coordinate the snack with (a holiday, project the class is doing, or topic they are learning about) so I figured something snowy would be good. I of course turned to my favorite Family Fun and found a recipe for sweet tortilla snowflakes. It was a bit time consuming, but fun. Too bad next year won't bring these fun treats as his new school requires all snacks to be store bought.

Joshua's story and illustration.
(click on picture to enlarge)

A sweet, snowy snack!

A blow to the ego. . .

So I finally broke down today and bought a maternity support belt. It made me feel so old to be asking for such an item. However, it feels like this kid is sitting low (much lower than Joshua did, at least until the last couple weeks) and along with that is giving me some delightful back pain. It might be manageable, but with chasing and interacting with a 3 year old all day I seem to be uncomfortable. (By the way, there is nothing wrong with the baby, he is as healthy as can be and my OB doesn't seem to think the baby is any lower than Joshua was, but my OB doesn't live in my body and doesn't have to deal with the discomfort!) The bonus of getting the maternity belt was that I got to visit one of my favorite stores that I haven't been to since Joshua was an infant, Baby Beloved Inc. It's a wonderful resource for pregnant moms and nursing moms! Not only do they carry products necessary for these stages in life as well as adorable little baby items, but they also have lactation consultants on hand to help with nursing questions or troubles. Since I last visited they have moved to a really nice new location in the new Women's Health Center in Grand Rapids. I was surprised to see an old high school friend of mine working there! She reassured me that many pregnant women of all ages use maternity support belts for comfort. So at least I'm not the only one who wears one of these wacky things, but it's still a blow to the ego if you ask me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's our family tradition to give Joshua a little Valentine's Day surprise, but this morning we did things a bit differently than we have before. Instead of just giving him his gift Joshua had to go on a "surprise hunt" to find it. I made little clue with words and pictures and put them all over the house. Joshua had to find and read a clue which lead him to another clue and another, etc. His final clue told him where to find his surprise. It was so much fun to watch him "read" the clues and figure out where to find the next one and finally his surprise! From the smile on his face and the excitement he showed running from clue to clue, I'd say he had a good time too! His Valentine's Day surprise was a new Cars movie car called Wingo, a little Lego set that can make 3 kinds of planes and a small tin of candy cars.

The first clue to begin the "surprise hunt".

Finding the clue on dad and mom's bed.

One of his clues.

"Hmm, what does this clue say?"

His final clue which led to finding his Valentine's Day surprise.

"Is it in my monkey bathtub?"

The surprise!

Little Valentine Creator

Joshua had already created valentine cards for family, but since Joshua is in preschool now I thought it would be fun for him to make valentines for his friends at school. Knowing I had the time to help him create valentines (and knowing this time spent as just the two of us doing projects is fleeting as #2's arrival is coming) I searched for a valentine that would be fun to make. Of course I started my search with http://www.familyfun.go.com/ and came upon the perfect valentine card for Joshua to create; it of course involved a car! Today we spent some time mixing up the right color "mud" paint to drive his cars through and then he drove his cars on his valentine cards. After the paint dried he chose where to stick each of the little chocolate race cars. I finished the cards up by writing the words. He had a blast creating his valentines and is very excited to pass them out to his friends tomorrow at school!

"Zoom, my truck drove fast on that one!"


One of the finished products.

Gorgeous!

Today was such a gift from God! The warm temperatures and continuous sunshine were just what we needed! I know it's just a tease and the snow will soon be flying again, but for today we enjoyed every moment. We went for a walk around our new neighborhood and played outside for a couple hours. The question is, how does a 3 1/2 year old entertain himself when there is no yard to play in? Well, climbing piles of dirt and digging for rocks did the trick for Joshua today. Hope this is a favorite activity for him as we have a couple months until we can actually plant a lawn.

Digging in the dirt.

King of the dirt pile!

Time and patience. . .

. . . is what it took to create the back splash in our kitchen. We started 2 weeks ago Saturday with Cory, myself, Shawn and Erin all putting the tiles up in the kitchen. This past weekend Cory and I sealed the tiles and then finally had the time to grout it all. Man what a pain in the neck grouting back splash tile is (gravity definitely doesn't help the situation)! We now know why we were going to be charged $600 in labor for the professional to do it! It was a horrendous mess and took longer than we expected (oh and we aren't completely finished because we ran out of grout with 3 feet to go). However, we are very happy with the almost finished project (once completely grouted we have to caulk and seal it). I guess in the end the pain of the whole project was worth saving the money.

Adjusting

Moves are difficult for children, but this move really hasn't been easy on Joshua for some reason. (Mind you we do a lot of talking about moving prior and during the transitions as well as reading books about it and yes, we do expect behavior issues regardless.) The last move 6 months ago seemed to go smoother, I mean we still had some behavior issues to work through at the beginning, but it wasn't horrible. This time around it's been a bit harder for Joshua to adjust. He's had issues with not listening and being disrespectful for the last couple of weeks. On top of that his sleep pattern has been disrupted and he is up once a night with nightmares and was waking up earlier than he ever has before. Thankfully he is back to sleeping 11-12 hours a night and is up by 7:45am at the earliest for school (and I usually have to wake him), but the nightmares are still an issue. I'm also not sure if he is still adjusting to not taking naps anymore. He does well most days, but by Friday (at least the last few weeks) he has been unbearable by lunch time and actually asks for quiet time. Both this Friday and last he has fallen asleep and taken a nice nap that helps refresh him. The picture above was taken today when I snuck in his room as I was suspicious of the lack of noise I was hearing. The little stinker had climbed down from his bed and apparently was playing, but he was too tired even to play! Oh and if that weren't enough, Joshua was also sick the second weekend we were in our new house. I'm praying that soon he will be back to his happy little self who has fully adjusted. We keep promising the poor kid that we will never move again!

New favorite place

Joshua has a new favorite place to sit in our house for meals now that we received our bar stools. Cory picked them up on the way home from work one night this week (they've been on order for 6 weeks and finally arrived). Ever since the night they came home Joshua will only sit at the island on the bar stools for meals. We've tried explaining that it's a great place for us to eat if only two people are home, but when all three of us are home we should eat at the table together; however, Joshua prefers to sit at the island for all meals and will even request that one of us sits next to him for dinner while the other has to eat at the table. Hopefully the novelty wears off soon and we can go back to having dinner at the table as a family. He's a funny kid!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

When I informed Joshua that is was both Uncle Dave and Daddy's birthdays this week he immediately decided that we needed to make them each a cake. I tried to explain to him that a card would have to suffice for Uncle Dave as cake doesn't travel well via the mail. Joshua was okay with that once I told him that Uncle Dave has a good friend who makes cakes and he would probably make one. Joshua did decide that daddy needed a cake complete with monster trucks (I think Joshua would like a monster truck cake for his birthday, but since it's not his birthday he figured someone should have a monster truck cake). So today Joshua decided just how to decorate Cory's birthday cake and instructed me where to put the frosting, then he strategically arranged the rocks and the monster trucks (and a Mustang because he and daddy like Mustangs). He was very excited to show daddy his masterpiece when daddy got home from work tonight! Happy Birthday Daddy!

A view of the new house I forgot to share earlier. . .

This is the view out of our living room window into the backyard. And yes, that is a train you are seeing at the back of our property! This was the one thing we were unsure of as we chose our lot. However, all of the neighbors we talked with assured us that there was nothing to worry about since it's not a highly used track. Since we've moved in, we have seen several trains, but there is no schedule that we can tell of. Some days there may be no trains and other days there may be two in a day (I even think there were 3 one day, but I slept through the early morning one coming through). It really isn't a nuisance either. We may hear a low rumbling sound, but it's not very loud. Several times I've actually had to see the train before knowing it was going through - unless you hear the whistle first. However, this past Saturday morning at 6:15 am a train stops right in back of our house and sits there for about 20 minutes - we thought we could see the engineer get out and look around the train (what for, we have no idea)! The engine and brake noises were driving us a bit nutty after a while. Not sure what that was all about, but we hope if the train is going to stop it's not during the hours we are trying to sleep. Low and behold today at lunch time Joshua and I watched a train begin to creep by and then it came to a halt once again behind our house! Joshua was thrilled as he got to take a good long look at all the cars the engine was pulling. I'm sure the train will remain a source of entertainment for years to come for Joshua and someday his little brother!

Picture tour of the new house. . .

Below are some pictures of our new house. Obviously we have a lot of decorating to do, but at least we are moved in and settling in!

Kitchen (we need to install a full slate back splash with black iridescent glass accents yet)

Another view of the kitchen (bar stools are on order but have not arrived).

Living Room (missing our ottoman that is on order)

Another view of the living room.

Kid's bathroom vanity

Kid's Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Joshua's Room

Baby's crib

Baby's Room

Half Bathroom

Custom Built Locker

Custom built boot bench

Whew!

So after much work, energy and time we are mostly moved into our new house! Thanks to the help of our families we were able to move mostly Friday and Saturday with a few other trips here and there. It's a joy to be able to move to a new house, but we couldn't have picked a colder weekend to do it with temps below zero most of the time! We are beginning to settle in and are starting to feel like this is home. We still have a lot of boxes to deal with and things to retrieve from the rental house, but we are loving life in our new house! Once our internet connection is a bit better and doesn't cut out on me I'll post some pictures. Again a huge thanks to Dad and Mom Hager, Shawn and Erin, Phil and my dad for all of your help, we couldn't have done it without you!

Guess what time it is. . . again!

Can you tell what we are doing, once again?!?! I'm taking a quick break from packing up the kitchen, which is just one of a handful of rooms that need to be packed up and moved. Thankfully about half of our stuff from the first move is still packed up in the basement so there is a little less packing to do this time around. Only a few days left to pack before the lifting, hauling and moving begins.

Today there was a final inspection of our new house and the occupancy permit was given! We also did a final walk-through of our new house with the project manager so the painter and others know what to do for touch-ups. Hopefully all will be completed on Friday because the major moving begins Saturday morning. We do hope to get some things boxes over there in the next few days and unpacked in areas that don't need touching up. Let the fun begin (okay so it's not going to be fun, we know)!

Running off some energy!

I know that I should be packing right now, but when Missy invited Joshua and I to join them (Missy, Eli, Lexi, Tori and Matea) at PlayWorld on Friday I just couldn't say no. I haven't taken Joshua to PlayWorld for almost 2 years. Mostly because he was scared to go in any kind of a play structure without someone else with him. As a parent it's also not so fun to be there without someone you know to talk to as children are highly entertained but not adults.
We arrived late morning yesterday and were there until the late afternoon. Joshua had a blast running, climbing, and jumping around with Eli, Lexi and Tori while Missy and I had lots of time to just sit, relax and talk with little interruption(oh and entertain Matea when the scenery wasn't entertaining her). It was so nice to see Joshua climb around without any fear and to know he had friends to play with. He was so tired by the time we got home I thought he would fall asleep, but he didn't. However, he did sleep really well last night and slept in until 10am this morning! Thanks for the invite Missy, we'll have to do it again sometime!

Missy and Matea lock up Princess Lexi and Prince Joshua in the castle.


Lexi, Eli, Joshua and Tori in one of the many play structures.

Eli takes his turn down the inflatable slide.

Joshua slides down while Lexi, Tori and Eli wait for their turns at the top.

The Inevitable!

I knew the day was coming, but to be honest I was dreading it . . . the day when naps were done. Over Christmas break Joshua was skipping a few naps here and there and seemed to be doing really well with it. Then the days he would take naps he would play for an hour before he fell asleep which resulted in a late nap which then had the domino effect and he would be restless and playing for an hour at bedtime before he would go to sleep - this meant some late nights. So, I figured it was time to drop the naps as they seemed to be doing more harm than good. However, for my sanity and Joshua's sanity we have now instituted quiet time for an hour each afternoon - we love each other, but a little time away from one another is a good thing. He gets to look at books and/or play quietly with a toy on his bed for this hour. It's taken a bit of adjusting, but he is definitely into the swing of how this is going to work. The best part is we have more flexibility in our schedule each day without a nap and he is now going to bed earlier and falling right asleep. Guess it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be.

Not as good as it could have been.. .

Old Navy usually has a half off clearance price sale every January. I try to hit this sale every year because with Joshua being predictable in his growth and sizes I can easily stock up for the next winter season. However, Old Navy isn't conducting this sale this year. HUGE bummer! When I called the salesperson assured me that the clearance prices were still really good and had been adjusted down even more that day. So, of course I had to make a trip to the mall and see what bargains I could hunt down. The prices weren't nearly as good as last year which caused me to put back a few items in my basket, but they were still fairly good considering what I would have paid for them if they were full price. It's also a tad bit easier to spend a bit more when I now know if will be worn by the next child. I got a couple sweaters and a number of long sleeve shirts, but only one pair of fleece pants (pants must of been in high demand because there were hardly any on clearance and of course not one pair was in the size Joshua will need for next year. For what you see pictured I paid $60. Not too bad, but not as good as I'm used to with this sale.

DIY (Do it yourself) Projects

Well finally blogger decided to cooperate and let me load some pictures! Last weekend Cory and Shawn spent a few hours laying and grouting tile back splashes in our laundry room, master bathroom, and kid's bathroom. This was something we were going to have the tile guy who did our floors do, but when we saw the price of labor we figured we could do it ourselves (with Shawn's help) for only the cost of materials and some of our own time which was a real savings! We couldn't buy our tile from the place we originally picked it out at since they only sell to tile installers so instead we went to The Tile Shop and picked out some much nicer stuff. It was a little pricier than what we originally picked out, but now we were saving labor costs! We really liked how everything turned out, especially Shawn's creative little idea of putting the extra 12" by 12" sheet of tiles in the recessed box that will house toilet paper in the half bath and master bath. It adds a very nice touch! Check out their handy work!

Master bathroom

Kid's bathroom


Half Bathroom

Laundry room

New year, new car

Knowing our lease is up on my car in March and also knowing there are many good year-end deals my car-hunting husband was on the prowl while he was on vacation over Christmas and New Years. He was really thinking a mini-van might be a good option, but then on the advice of a co-worker decided to look at a Suzuki XL7. It has a 3rd row seat which gives us the flexibility we were looking for in passenger room while still being an SUV. To be honest I wasn't sure I could jump to a mini-van and Joshua was ADAMANT about not having a mini-van. Cory test drove a used XL7 on Wednesday. He liked it so we all headed back on Friday morning to take a family test drive. I liked the car as did Joshua. So, by Friday night we were the proud owners of a 2007 Suzuki XL7 (it only had 7,000 miles on it). Cory was right in that the dealership was able to offer us a really low price because they wanted to include it in their year-end. I gotta say I will miss my Torrent, but am enjoying this new car already! Oh and no more of the two black cars, YEAH - silver will hopefully look a lot cleaner even when it is dirty!