Getting Ready for Baby

 After Matthew, we got rid of pretty much all of our baby stuff...which honestly wasn't much. Most of it we bought secondhand and it wasn't worth holding onto and we had a couple borrowed things. So, we were definitely in need of a few things for this baby. We don't have a huge budget, so I was really excited when I saw several stores clearancing out all of last year's baby items this month. I waited and watched for prices to drop and in the end we were SO blessed. We ended up getting everything we needed (and maybe a couple things that we didn't  :)  ) for super cheap. I LOVE a good deal and am super excited, so I had to share.

 My most exciting find...this Chicco carseat. This carseat is top rated...has all the extra safety cushioning and support and super cool features. It also has a $180 price tag. I saw this seat at Toys R Us marked down to $90. It was still a little more than I wanted to pay so I asked an employee if there were any coupons out that I could use with it. He checked and said there weren't any but that he would give it to me for $55 if I wanted to take it right then. Sweet! So I grabbed it and went to the register. When he rang it up, the system automatically gave me an additional 20% off, bringing the price down to a whopping $44!!! We were planning on buying a bare bones Graco seat for $90, but this one is better (better safety ratings and just an all around cushier seat) AND ended up being half the price. Huge blessing! And the moral to this story...never be afraid to ask for extra discounts. You never know what they'll give you! I have done this several times and more often than not they are more than happy to lower the price for me.

I found everything else at Target, marked down 50-75%. So, for the bouncer, crib set, portable bassinet/swing thing, and Bebe Pod I only spent $62. So, together WITH the carseat we only spent a little over $100. Not bad considering full price it all would have been about $350! And the crazy thing is I paid the same or less for these items as they are all selling for used on Craigslist! So, we feel incredibly blessed! And we feel incredibly prepared...haha...I know I still have 18 1/2 weeks till my due date (but who's counting?) and in the past I haven't even started looking at buying things this early, but when the deal's there I can't pass it up. :)

So, we are basically ready for this little one to come...just need a name and some more clothes (our newborn and 0-3 month stuff has somehow disappeared!) and then we'll be set. I am getting so excited!

Looking Forward

Friday night...hooray! I am so looking forward to this weekend. We have absolutely nothing planned...though we may take an impromptu trip to the beach. Who knows? I love weekends like this. I love spending time as a family. And I love having lazy days together...or at least unscheduled days...when we may just play in the backyard or decide to go ride the train or pack up for a day at the beach. It definitely helps me re-coupe for the coming week.

This week has been absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and 60's. Perfect t-shirt weather. While making my shopping list today, I realized that watermelon season was just around the corner....and then I realized that it really isn't. Sure does feel like it should be. I have to keep reminding myself that it really is January still. I can definitely live with this weather though!

The kids have been on a big MacGyver kick lately. We introduced them to the show a few months ago and Emma is obsessed. Matthew is just starting to get into it. They like to play MacGyver together. Matthew is always MacGyver and Emma alternates between being the bad guy (usually with a thick Western accent) and his friend who's helping hiim get a snake out of his house. It's pretty hilarious. And Jon is one proud dad.  :)

Matthew has gone through several little growth spurts lately...hooray! He definitely looks bigger and he is FINALLY starting to grow into his 2T clothes. He's also finally made it into size 4 diapers...which he will hopefully be done with soon. Hoping...  He is definitely a strong willed little guy. He knows the whole go-to-the-bathroom routine, but you can't make him if he's got it in his mind that he doesn't want to. This morning I got him to sit on the toilet, but he told me he couldn't make pee until he had Smarties, because Smarties make pee. Sure enough, as soon as he had them, he did his thing. So, I'm hoping he comes around before June. Really, really hoping. He also loves doing whatever Emma is doing and he repeats pretty much everything she says. It's like there's a constant echo in our house...makes me laugh.

And Emma...I love the age Emma is at. She has such a big imagination. She's helpful. She understands the rules and wants to follow them. She's also a good little mom, and loves to make sure Matthew is doing everything he should be doing, which he doesn't always appreciate.  :)  She is getting SO excited for Kindergarten. I still can't believe she's going to be in Kindergarten. There's no way she's old enough! I think she will love it though. She's excited to have homework...though I don't think she fully understands what it is :), and she's excited to go to the school with the fun playground. Her most recent obsession has been writing letters. She will fill pages and pages of random letters that are either letters to people, books, or newspapers, and then she will read them to anyone willing to listen.

Pregnancy has started to get better. Morning sickness is tapering off and my energy is starting to come back. I think baby is going through a growth spurt though, because I am HUNGRY all the time! I have been feeling her move more and more...though definitely not as much as I felt the other two. The placenta is anterior (in the front) this time, so apparently it is acting as a little pillow for her movements, and I don't feel as much. But I love that I am feeling those little kicks...this is definitely my favorite part of pregnancy. I'm 21 weeks today...over halfway! Hooray!

A family moved in around the corner from us recently. They happen to go to our church AND have 2 kids who are about Emma and Matthew's ages. They are also expecting a baby right after us. It has been so fun getting to know them...to have impromptu play dates when the afternoon is getting long, to be able to get together for dinner when our husbands are both working late, to be able to do babysitting swaps for doctor appointments and dates without having to drive the kids anywhere. We are absolutely loving it. We couldn't have asked for better neighbors and friends. I feel so blessed.

And that is life in a nutshell right now. It is good....really good.

They Say Money Can't Buy Happiness

 but these things sure make me happy!

This is our new (to us) table that we got tonight. We are SO excited to finally have a real table. Real, solid wood, 6 chairs and a leaf. This thing is big. We are so excited to finally be able to have people over and all sit at the same table. We also love that it fills our dining room. Our last table was so tiny and our dining room/kitchen are one big, long room so it looked really empty. (Now, if we could talk our landlord into replacing that lovely tile, I would be REALLY happy :)  ).

The other thing that makes me happy are the pictures on the wall. I wish the picture was better. Jon got these gerber daisy pictures for me for Christmas and they make me SO happy. I love gerber daisies...they are such a cheerful flower. I love all the bright colors. These pictures make me smile every time I look at them. 

Adding the table and the pictures makes our house feel more like a home and I love that feeling.

A Quick Trip to Tahoe

 So, on a whim, Jon and I decided to take a the kids on a little family vacation. He was taking the day off to go to the ultrasound on Monday, so we figured he might as well take Tuesday off also so we could go do something fun. We have promised the kids all winter that we would go sledding and figured this would be the perfect time. Tahoe is only 4 hours from us and we knew it wouldn't be too crowded this time of year (and during the week) so we found a cheap, but decent hotel, scrounged up some snow clothes (thanks to everyone who lent us stuff!), and headed out to show the kids what snow is. This was Matthew's first time ever seeing it, and Emma hasn't seen it since she was 18 months old....so it was basically her first time. They were SO excited.

Matthew was so excited to go to the snow that he stayed awake the entire 4 hour drive, even though he was obviously very tired. When we got to Tahoe, we checked into our hotel, got our snow clothes on and headed out to the sledding hill. When we got there Matthew had fallen asleep. Jon tried to wake him up, but he was out! So I sat with him in the car while he got his much needed nap and Jon and Emma went to check out the snow.

Emma LOVED the snow, but was not impressed with the sledding....granted we didn't pick a great hill. She did try a smaller hill later and ended up loving it.

Jon was totally in his element. 

Matthew finally woke up and went straight for the sled. He loved it!

He looked SO adorable in his little bib snowpants...I may just have to buy some for him.  :)

There was a pretty big patch of fenced in snow right outside our hotel room. It was PERFECT for the kids to play in. 

This morning we let the kids play outside the hotel while we packed up and got ready to go (and I tried to get over my morning sickness...blah!) When we were finally ready we started driving toward home, looking for another, better sledding hill. We happened to pass a snow play/sledding area that had several really good prepared hills. We had to pay but it was worth it...the sledding was SO much better there. It also started snowing right before we got there, which the kids thought was great.

I went down with the kids a few times, but mostly volunteered to be the photographer. Pregnancy and sledding don't mix well...

Matthew insisted on pulling the sled all the way back up the hill by himself.

One of Emma's favorite things was making snow angels. She told us she was going to make 18 of them.  :)

Such a fun little vacation. I love taking trips with my family. I love experiencing new places and things with them and having time to enjoy just being us. I'm glad we finally got to introduce the kids to the snow...though I still have to say that I much prefer visiting it than living in it.  :)  It was so fun to see the kids' excitement over every little thing....the snowballs, icicles, falling snow...everything was so magical. It was a little sad to watch the snow turn to rain and see all the white on the side of the road turn brown. I definitely think we'll be back next year.

The Results Are In....

And it's a GIRL! We are thrilled...especially Emma, who only wanted a little sister. When I asked her if it would be okay if it was a boy she said no, it had to be a girl. So, that worked out well.  :) Everything on the ultrasound looked great. We feel so blessed!

I am SO excited to start looking at all the adorable girl stuff out there, and I can't wait to meet this sweet little one.

Oh, and we are totally open to name suggestions...we've got a couple that we're throwing around, but I feel like there's a name out there that I'm missing. This is always the hardest part!

18 Weeks

18 weeks...well technically 18 1/2 weeks.  :)  I still have quite a bit of morning sickness, but am definitely getting some energy back which is awesome! And I'm so excited to be coming up on the halfway mark.

I don't really feel like I'm showing yet. I just look fat still...but that's how it's gone with every pregnancy...fat for a long time and then around 6 months I start looking pregnant.

I am SO excited to find out if this little one is a boy or girl. We have the big ultrasound in ONE WEEK! Any guesses on what we're having??? I have absolutely no idea!

Snow Camping

Although Sarah is the primary poster on our family blog I do manage to make my own little contributions now and again. As the father and husband in the family I rarely have pictures or things to talk about on a blog, but this past week I have had no work. My brother Matt and I decided awhile ago that this week we were going to go on a snow camping trip. Snow camping is not for the faint of heart and was just the thing to fuel our need for adventure and to make sure we didn't get too soft. We went up to Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. Here are pictures and captions from our adventure.

I made these snow shoes out of long plum branches from my parents backyard. They took several hours to bend into shape. I just made up the weaving as I went along. The bottom cloth is Matthew's old crib sheet wrapped around the frame and screwed into place. Sarah's favorite part of theses snowshoes was their price tag (free). To keep them on I tied them to my boots, which worked better than I thought.

tied on and ready to go. Walking without the snowshoes was impossible. We tried and immediately sunk up to our crotch in snow. The snow was well over 7 feet deep up at Lassen Volcanic National park. There was a storm when we got there and several more inches fell while we were there.

 

The main entrance to the park. You can get an idea of how deep the snow is from the roof. Most of the snow visible on the roof is new snow that fell in the past week. The park entrance and visitors center are at about 6700 feet.

The visitors center is buried back there somewhere. It is open year round from 9-5 regardless of the conditions. The roads were well plowed up to the parking lot although we still put on chains because we were in our mini van without 4-wheel drive. There was a lot of snow coming down when we got there.

We hiked for about a mile and found a good spot to build a snow cave, near a beautiful snow covered meadow.

The meadow we camped next to. There was a stream on the far side somewhere.

Our tracks to the campsite. Even with snowshoes the going was slow.  When we got there we started to build our snow cave. Time is of the essence when snow camping. You don't want to be caught outside in sub-zero temperatures when night falls.

I packed way more than I was ever going to need in my pack and it ended up being way too heavy. If we had been going further or staying longer I would have packed lighter, but I erred on the side of being prepared.

 

working on the cave. Building a good snow cave takes a long time. We spent almost the whole day on it finishing in the early evening around 5pm. By then the temperatures started to drop dramatically and we crawled inside for the night.

Inside the cave. It was actually pretty warm, especially compared to outside. We ate dinner and went to bed pretty early. I should have brought a generator and the Wii to keep us entertained.

 

The cave ended up being a decent size, although there ended up being a stump in the middle of it. We both slept warmer than most tent camping trips. Despite being warm we slept fitfully at best because of worry that the cave would collapse on us. We later discovered that our worry was not necessary as we tried to collapse the cave in the morning and couldn't, even when jumping on it. This picture is taken from inside the cave when morning came. Daylight was a welcome sight.

The meadow the next morning.

It snowed several inches during the night and was very windy. Lots of snow fell off the trees.

We got up in the morning and proceeded to collapse our cave. This is good snow camping etiquette. Leaving a cave can be dangerous to skiers and other hikers especially when the snow starts to melt.

Here you can get an idea of the size of the cave. The entrance tunnel was about 5 feet long and the main cavern slept the two of us comfortably with our packs as well. You could sit up or kneel in the cave without issue. It wasn't as tall as other caves I've made. The first cave I ever made slept 5 people across and I could stand up in it.

Hiking out the next morning.

The next morning the storm had blown over and we had blue skies. It was really a beautiful landscape. If it wasn't so cumbersome to get around we would have been more inclined to explore. Just hiking the mile or so back up to our car was exhausting and hot. We were both really sore the next day.