Easter

I can't believe that Easter has already come and gone this year. Last year at Easter we had just closed Escrow on our home and were in Escrow on our new home putting us inbetween homes at this time last year for about 2 weeks. So much has happened from moving in to our home & a brand new area to having another baby in about 6 weeks. It is amazing at how the Lord has blessed our family. We are so thankful. We hope you all had a very Happy Easter!

Our girl having fun on her Easter Egg hunt at Gma & Gpa's house. She is our little cutie pie!

Here Chloe is saying that she is 2! (she holds up her thumb & index finger to show that she is 2...so cute!)

Chloe found another egg, her basket is almost full...

The gang stopping for a photo....

What is inside my egg?

Miracles

We just got home from Good Friday Service at our church and I thought I would create a new post. The service really put Christ and His sacrifice on the cross in focus for me...a renewed thankful heart for His sacrifice for me and for you...it is truly humbling. And it made me think of and be thankful for my family.

Chloe is too funny...she loves to sit at her table just like in the photo above. She cracks us up! It is amazing to watch someone grow up. And soon we will be watching another. I am 32 weeks prego now and feel so huge. I had an ultrasound last thursday and everything looks great. He is 5 lbs now and we were able to see some hair on his head (we would not have known that is what we were looking at unless the technician pointed it out to us). It is amazing to see these little ones before they are even born. Life is truly a miracle. Thank you Jesus for these miracles. I was comparing Chloe's ultrasound photos to this newest little guy's photos and they seem to have the same nose. Will he have the cleft chin like Daddy and Chloe? Just some things I think about these days.

Sandbox Fun

Here is Chloe & Mommy enjoying Chloe's sandbox. It is all painted & full of sand. She loves it!! We are enjoying sitting outside with her while she plays (daddy likes to play in the sandbox with her and if I were not prego I would be in there playing, too). My belly continually grows & grows (along with my discomfort). Every day activities are getting harder to do. Less than 2 months to go. I can make it (my little mantra).

Chloe making sand castles & just having so much fun in the sand. I love this time of year!

Jack & the Ducks

The ducks seem to be enjoying the new stair case because they are easily able to come right up on our deck & look in our sliding glass door to our family room now if we are not out early enough to feed them the cracked corn. Little beggars. Of course we encourage this by feeding them so we take some responsibility:). Our cat Jack has found them to be very interesting and will sit at the door and talk to them (it is pretty cute!)

Jack looking longingly out the door...he would love to be outside with them (chasing them perhaps?)

Painted

The stairs are done...

Up close and personal...

Chloe's sandbox is complete...we just need to finish painting the lid, but at least it is full of sand so Chloe can enjoy it!! We are trying to finish up a bunch of little projects around the house before Chloe's birthday and before the little mister is born. It is very time consuming but also fun (and it feels so good to see these projects come together and be completed).

Photos of the Prop

Here are some photos of the prop Dan!!

Rose garden

Side and part of backyard...you can see Chloe's sand box down below the rock wall (Nate made her sandbox, all we need to do is fill it with sand which we plan to do very soon).

The fishin' is good at the pond now...

More local wildlife...a pheasant.

Nate made a fire ring and we made a fire in it the other day. It was fun!

Primed

Stairs are primed and ready for paint.

Nate placed some pavers at the bottom of the stair case as well so that the ground is more even. We will eventually fill in the whole bottom area with pavers and replace the railroad ties with a nice stone or brick retaining wall. One step at a time.

Stairs Complete...Sorta

The handrail is coming together...

Nate sure is working hard...

Some finishing touches...

And they are complete...just need to prime and paint. I have had some of you ask for the prego belly shot...so here it is (30 weeks prego tomorrow). If you click on the photo you can really see the belly up close in all my chubby glory!:)

Doesn't the stairs look great!!?? I am so proud of Nate...he has never made stairs before and he did such a great job! I can't wait to see what it will look like when it is all painted.

Stairs

We wanted more access to our side and backyard (our deck only provides one way on & off of it via the front of the house) so Nate is making stairs to go down from the other side of the deck. This way we will have more immediate access to the lawn, pool, duck pond, & Chloe's outside toys, (we are going to put her playhouse down near her sandbox so that we have more room on the deck for a gazebo and patio swing). So here are a couple of photos of the project. We always seem to have ongoing projects around here. 1st Nate poured the concrete pad for the stair case (he also drew all of our initals and date on it before it dried), he then bought the wood necessary to complete the stair case and measured and cut everything and it was a perfect fit...it is so nice to have a handy husband who also likes to do these projects...thanks babe!

Here he is putting the project together...even in the rain; what a trooper! (he said it was fun, even in the rain)

It is all coming together...

All steps are in place...woohoo...:)

This is still what it looks like from the top of the deck...Nate will finish this project this weekend by cutting an opening in the deck railing so the steps are accessible for going up & down from the deck & he will make the railing extend on either side of the stairs going down.

Here is the team...and boy are they the best team around!! We will paint the stair case as soon as the weather turns nice again and the wood has dried out (we hope to have it painted before Chloe's birthday in April).

Monterey

Nate & I went to Monterey last week for a few days. We thought it would be nice to get a little vacation in before mister is born. Chloe stayed with Gpa & Gma Britting, & boy did she have fun...& so did we!! It was my first nite away from Chloe (& we went for two nites) so that was a little tough on me, but I think it was good for all of us. We went to a couple of movies, ate some great food, went to the Old Fisherman's Warf, went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, visited CSU Monterey Bay, took the 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach, went to Salinas for breakfast at Margies one morning, & walked around the local mall. Below are a few photos of our trip (these are all from the Monterey Bay Aquarium).

Nate in front of the kelp forest tank.

Where's the fish? Pretty cool!

Bat Rays

A photo of the prego lady out on the observation deck.

A diver cleaning a tank (kelp forest tank) just before feeding the fish...we also watched the tuna tank fish get fed.

Spring

I know it isn't official yet, but, it feels like spring and we love it! I just thought I would post a few cute photos of the Chlo-meister...the 1st one was taken a week & a half ago when the weather was a little cooler (in fact not 15 miles from our house there was snow on the ground & it was hailing at our house) & the 2nd photo I just took this afternoon (it is in the upper 70's at our home today). Enjoy!

Update

So, I thought it was time to do a little update on us. Chloe just had her 22 month doc app yesterday & all is good. Her vitals and development are all normal and her doc was really pleased (me too!) She is just under 25 lbs which puts her in the 35% for weight and she is 2' 10" tall which puts her in the 74% for height. She got one shot and didn't even flinch (that's my girl!) She doesn't have to see the doc again for a year now (she is now considered a child, no longer a baby...they do grow so fast.) Chloe's eye prescription changed to bi-focals and we think they really help. We are hoping this will do the trick and correct her eyes, but surgery is still an option. Chloe talks all the time and says new words daily. Her favorite is still being outside wondering all over the prop, feeding the ducks, riding in her wagon, etc. We are really enjoying the spring-like weather around our place. I can't believe she is going to be 2 years old next month.

Except for some numbness in my hands and soreness in my shoulders when I sleep at night, I am feeling pretty good. I am just about 28 weeks (yea...3rd trimester...) and feel the baby move constantly (which can be fun and uncomfortable...mostly fun). 2.5 months to go and we will be meeting the little mister. My belly just grows and grows (you can see it in the photo above). Chloe wants to kiss and touch my belly and says "baby" and "brother" all the time now, it is so cute! I know she is going to be an excellent big sis and a wonderful helper to me. I am glad that I haven't felt sick for about 3 weeks now and am hopeful the nausea has now passed.

Nate is doing well. He is busy working and being a wonderful husband and father (he helps me so much, I am so greatful!!) He is taking him and I on a little vacation next week to Monterey. Chloe will be staying with my folks for a few days and we are excited to get away! This is the first time we have left her overnite, so it will be different but fine. She loves spending time with the Grandma's & Grandpa's!! And they love it, too!!

Escape Artist

I heard a loud boom and felt the house sorta rumble, followed by some crying, last friday morning. I knew exactly what happened and immediately I went tearing down the hall to Chloe's room (I don't think you have ever seen a pregnant woman run so fast; Nate was close on my heels.) I found her standing on the floor in the middle of her room, crying, and I scooped her up and made sure nothing was broken or bruised (thankgoodness she was alright). I had a gut wrenching moment of pure fear that she had broken something on her body. I know it comes with the territory of being a mom and loving our kids so much. I think the fall just gave her a big scare. Nate didn't actually realize what was going on until after we got in her room. He was just running behind me knowing I knew something had happened. We think she climbed up the crib rails and then sorta fell onto her bottom once she was over the rail. She hasn't climbed out of her crib before, but now that she knows how we had to do something to keep her safe. We know she is ready for a big girl bed, but we don't think she is ready for the freedom a big girl bed would give her (she is still just a little too young). This summer will be a good time to transition her over to a bed from the crib, but, in the meantime we decided we would buy her a crib tent to keep her in. We have lots of friends who had to do this with their kids and we weren't sure about it at first, but it works really great and Chloe thinks it is so fun to sleep in her tent (it is like she is camping out!) So, here is a cute photo of her enjoying her crib tent.

This Is The Way We...

Grocery shop! Normally I grocery shop for two weeks at a time and when we come home I load up Chloe's wagon and we walk up to the house (we have a detached garage so the wagon makes it so nice to drag everything up to the house all at once). Chloe and I were out the other day running errands and picked up a couple of items that we were running low on at the store (you can see her holding nutter butter cookies...just some of the snacks that I bought for our bible study group). This time I was able to fit all the odds-and-ends groceries in the wagon with Chloe (she insisted on taking a ride) and I thought it was so cute that I had to take a couple of photos.

Grandma's Visit

Grandma Julie came to visit last weekend. We had a lot of fun!!

Gma reading a story to Chloe...

Gma gave Chloe a bath...

More story time...Gma also played with Chloe's hair and gave her a beautiful hair-do!!

Railroad Museum

We had a fun filled & relaxing weekend. Friday we took Chloe to Old Town Sacramento to visit the Sacramento Railroad Museum and then went out to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack (that is a super fun place for kids with so much stuff on the walls and ceiling to look at and every now and then the waiters/waitresses dance to the american folk song "Cotton-Eye Joe"). She really enjoyed seeing all the trains and so did we. We also attended a birthday party on Saturday & ended the weekend on Sunday with the superbowl (I mainly watched for the commercials:) ). Enjoy some photos from the museum.




Above is a table set with some of the china that was used back in the 60's and 70's in the dinning car trains.

Here is our girl playing with some Thomas & Friends Trains courtesy of Thomas the Tank Engine and the Railroad Museum.

Chloe & the Ducks...Again!

The ducks are back! They left sometime around mid-late summer (probably due to the heatwave or that is just their normal migration pattern), but they showed up last week, begging (it seems) for the cracked corn we fed them over the spring and summer. Chloe just loves to watch them, wave, point and say "duckie...ahhh..." and then gives them an air hug...so cute! Her favorite TV station is animal planet so all the wildlife around our home really thrills her. I counted 13 ducks that come to visit us fairly regularly, 7 males, 6 females, which is more than we had visiting us over the summer so we think some of the new ones were babies from last spring. I also added a couple of cute photos of Chloe in pigtails.