New home!

Hey everyone! We have moved! If you need our address email me at bes02001@yahoo.com. Sorry I haven't posted new pics yet! Super busy! Merry Christmas!

I don't have tons of time lately but here's a quick update. It's Gabe's and Caleb's rooms before and after. Still lots more to do though!

Here are some Halloween pictures. We did the cast of the Wizard of Oz. Josh was very excited to be the tin man. (That is a lie.) It was so cold when we did trick or treating, then like, 3 days later it was so beautiful! We had three days in a row that it was 65 to 73 degrees!!! Why couldn't it have done that on trick or treat day?! We've been feverishly working on our house every chance we get. Gabe's room and Caleb's are pretty much done. Josh is laying bathroom tile today. It's such a huge project! I'll have to post some pictures soon. See ya!

Our new home

I thought about not posting pictures until the "After" was finished, but then I realized we might not all live long enough to see it since it may take years!!! j/k But seriously... you will see.

Today was our last Saturday as non-homeowners so we enjoyed the day by taking the boys to the Little Farmer (a hobby farm in our town that has a pumpkin patch, goats, chickens, a play area with hay stacks and all sorts of fun stuff, and they sell caramel apples, hot cider, etc.) and then we left Caleb with my sister while we took Gabe to see the new HSM3 movie. (That's High School Musical 3 for those of you over the age of 12.) I must say I really liked it. Josh even was into it. When Gabe said his diaper was poopy within ten minutes of the movie's end, Josh was like, "He can wait! Shh!" (Josh wanted me to add that he wasn't even really poopy, which he knew, and that's why he told him to wait till the end.)

So here's some pics of the boys and our beautiful new home! Just keep in mind the things we loved about it were A) The neighborhood, B) The yard, and C) The size/layout of the home - All the things you CAN'T change. Pretty much every thing that CAN be changed (paint, for example) will be. But hey, maybe in a few years if the market picks up and we've got it all pretty we can make a little profit on it. With an ex-carpenter for a husband it's almost a waste of talent to not buy a fixer-upper, right? So, with that said, Wish us luck! I have a feeling we're gonna need it!

Lucky Gabe

So, I have decided that Gabe either has a really good guardian angel or that Heavenly Father must have some really important work for him to do here because I swear that kid has already dodged death like, three times in his short life.

As most of you know, my water broke at 29 weeks pregnant and as I was getting ready to have him the doctors told me it didn't look good and he'd probably have to be sent to Salt Lake for a long time. Then he's born and he does well and they keep him in Rexburg and he's had no lasting health effects from it. Then when he was about 18 months old, we were at a friend's apartment and Gabe and her little boy were playing in a bedroom and after about 30 seconds of them being in there, I went to check on him just as the giant dresser was about to fall onto him and crush him. I managed to catch it enough so that just the bottom drawers fell onto him.

Now here is the most recent bullet he's dodged. As you can see from the pictures, it doesn't look very good and the impact happened right where Gabe was sitting in his carseat behind the passenger seat. I was on my way home from Walmart and I pulled up to a four-way stop heading north just blocks from my house. I saw a large service-type van with a ladder on top of it that was coming from the east approaching the stop sign also. It looked like he was slowing and I proceeding to pull out and cross the intersection. The next thing I knew, out of the corner of my eye, I saw his van speeding towards the right side of my car right towards Gabe. In my mind I thought (and may have screamed) "Oh my Gosh!" and I also thought in that split second, "Gabe is going to die." The impact was so hard I started to fly out of my seat to the left but my seatbelt stopped me and when I landed back in my seat I hit the seat belt buckle pretty hard - leaving me with a pretty bruised right hip. But I just immediately jumped out of the car and ran around the other side to get Gabe. I pulled him through the completely shattered window as he was screaming, but thankfully, and unbelievably, all he had was a large bruise on his forehead. By this time the other driver had gotten out of his van and ran over and I think I screamed (as a crazy mad mom) "You totally ran that stop sign!!!" And he said, "I'm sorry I had my foot on the brake and then it slipped off onto the gas and I couldn't get it unstuck." I noted that both of shoes were untied as he stood there and I thought, "Gee, maybe that had something to do with it!" Caleb was screaming still but he seeemed okay in the middle of the back seat, still strapped in. Lots of people stopped right away and were helping me and the boys. One nice girl whose younger sister I knew from highschool actually pretty much held Caleb the whole time I was answering the police's quesions. There were many witnesses and the other driver who all said the same thing - it was his fault not mine. So at least that shouldn't be a problem to dispute. But sadly, our little old Honda is probably no more. I'd be really surprised if our insurance did not total it. As we went to the ER to get Gabe checked just to be safe, all he kept saying was, "Where'd our car go? Oh no!" He was pretty sad about that. He must've watched the tow truck take it away because when we got home he found a little red SUV car he has that looks most like our Honda and hooked it up behind this Big Bird driving a tow truck that he has, then he came and got me to show me. I was like, "Yup, our truck went with Big Bird."

So that's a bad Monday for you right? But at least we're all okay. It could have been so much worse if the impact would have been even a foot more towards the back of our car. Gabe wouldn't have fared so well.

In other news, we are hoping to close on a house October 31st so we've been running around trying to get things organized with that. Hopefully we canget a decent amount of money to buy another used car so it all works out, but we'll see. You know how these things with insurance go. (Right Charm? :) We're just mainly glad Heavenly Father was watching over us and kept us safe. Hope you all had a better Monday than we did!

Four months already!

Wow, when you're in the newborn months they seem to be going so slow but then you look back and say, "When did my tiny baby suddenly become 20 pounds!?" (yes, I did say 20.) I went to the doctor on Tuesday and Caleb officially weighed in at 21 pounds 5 ounces. I swear I can hardly carry him in his carseat these days. He's changed a lot since he was born (mainly in size) but also in personality. I liked it when he slept 20 hours a day! I used to think, "How will I handle him and Gabe when he doesn't sleep all day!" The answer is - chaos. No, not always but there are definitely moments when I say, "2 kids is enough."

Example: A few days ago Caleb had just woken up and was screaming. Gabe has a way of always needing attention at the worst times. So I hear Gabe yelling, "Mama! Help!" from the living room. He's been doing the little boy who cried wolf thing lately so I didn't run too fast. But then when he got more frantic, I saw he had stuck his foot into his Little Tykes train mountain thing, into one of the caves that is about 3 inches high by 2.5 inches wide and it had gotten stuck! I finally laid down screaming Caleb and was pulling with both hands to try and dislodge it while Gabe's going, "Oww! Help!" I seriously had to stop for a second and just laugh. It was either that or cry with them.

Anyway, back to Caleb. He usually wakes up around 7, sleeps about an hour in the morning (9 to 10?) and then goes back to sleep around 12:30 till sometimes 3:00. (I then force Gabe to take a nap at 1:00 as well so I can get an hour or two of sanity.)
He sleeps pretty well at night. Usually wakes up once around 3:00 and that's all. I know he has the weight to sleep through the night so maybe I will start letting him cry a little. I hate to do that though if we're going to be moving soon. For those of you who didn't know, we have an offer in another house. We'll keep you posted. So anyways, what else. Caleb has a much more easygoing personality than Gabe ever did. He's pretty easy to make smile. He laughed for the first time about a week ago. His pet peeves are when I wash under his neck in the bathtub and when I put his arms through his shirts. He falls asleep to Thomas the Tank (so do I) and me walking around with him on my shoulder and his pacifier. He's been pretty low maintenance. Definitely compared to what Gabe was. Here is a picture of him at one month and now. Definitely balder and fatter! Hopefully his real hair will start to come in now!

Hope you are all doing well!

Changing the Restrictions

Hi everyone!

So, as most of you know, Josh is in the police academy right now because he got hired as a police officer here in Wisconsin. After learning some crazy stuff about child predators, he has informed me that my blog needs to become restricted only to those people we know. I haven't done this in the past because I know I like to snoop on people's blogs who I don't even know that well and I feel like others can do the same to me, but I guess this is the safe thing to do. I will be doing this in about 2 weeks so if you look at my blog ever please post a comment to this update and I will make it so you can continue. I just need to plug in people's specific usernames or e-mails I guess. Even if I don't know you super well that's fine, I just want to confirm that you are in fact a bored mom or housewife such as myself and not a crazy internet pedafile looking at pictures of my kids. Kay? Thanks! On that happy note, have a great day!

Back from Idaho!

Hi everyone!

We were so lucky to have just seen most of you Idaho folks this past week so you probably will remember firsthand some of these moments in the pictures! We had tons of fun picking huckleberries (three times), riding horses, and floating the river - okay I lied I didn't have fun floating the river the second time because it was 45 degrees and raining. But the first time was fun! Now we are home and getting settled in again. Josh will be starting his new job on Monday so we're enjoying the last lazy days of summer. Caleb is huge - as most of you know. I think about 20 pounds according to the scale with me holding him. Gabe is a ball of energy and can be very naughty but also very sweet (when he wants to be). Check back often, we may have house news soon or we may not, depending on the offer we just put in and if the bank gets a response to us soon!

Too busy having fun!

Hi again! It's been a while. I jusify not keeping a journal by saying, "At least I write highlights on my blog!" and lately I've even been slacking at that! It's pretty time consuming keeping a two-year-old and a two-month-old clean, fed, and happy. We've been filling every spare minute lately it seems like. Thispast weekend we went on a family getaway to Madison, WI and stayed at a Holiday Inn with indoor waterpark. Gabe LOVED it and got mad if we tried to go down the big slide with him. Then on Saturday we went to the zoo and the beach that's right next to it and spent more time at the waterpark at night. We came back Sunday afternoon. Our adventure for this upcoming weekend is the Packer family night. We are going to Green Bay to watch the team play eachother and there's some family games I guess too. Josh is pretty excited.

Caleb is getting ginormous. He's not even 2 months old officially and I had to put a 6 month sleeper on the past two nights. I had to re-go through all the stored clothes and get out bigger sizes again! He weighs over 15 pounds! Gabe is still beating on him while he can. His "kisses" are pretty smothering sometimes. Gabe is being a terrible two lately. Everything is, "Mine!" or "I do it!" (Is this the building their independence stage?) He does have his cute moments though. My sister-in-law and neice were in town from Montana yesterday and we all went to the waterpark by my house and Gabe was having so much fun going down the slides and jumping in for me to catch him. He kept telling me to move further back and finally I just let him go under. To my surprise he bobbled back up and paddled to the side! I guess it's good training.

Well I'll post some pics now. Hopefully we will see all you Idaho folks soon. We are planning a trip sometime late August I think. Take care!

Can you tell who's who?

Fourth of July

Hi everyone!
This fourth of July weekend was the first one Josh has had off in about four years (APX Alarm always sells on holidays) so he was so excited to do some fun summer activities. We packed in so much stuff that I was exhausted by Sunday. Here's the summary:

Thursday night: as soon as Josh got home at 4:30 we got everything packed up and went camping on my grandma's farm. Josh and Gabe slept outside in a tent while Caleb and I slept inside. :) It was a bit chilly for a newborn and I did not want to nurse 3 times that night in a tent with a flashlight. But Gabe loved it and didn't wake up once during the night. Then he cried when Josh took the tent down.

Friday afternoon: we got home and repacked for the beach. We went to a Lake Michigan beach which feels like the ocean because it's so huge. (However, it was pretty chilly to swim in.)

Friday night: Fireworks show in our local town on the lakeside.

Saturday: Some home improvements leftover from the flood and swimming at the waterpark that's 3 blocks from my house that night.

Sunday: Church/sleep.

It was such a fun weekend. This morning Josh was like, "I wish it wasn't Monday again!" I just want to emphasize how nice it is that Josh isn't selling this summer. Not that it wasn't fun at times. But he is home so much more now and the holidays off (4th of july and memorial day) are awesome.

Caleb is good. He's weighing a little over 11 pounds these days! Clothes that were too big a week ago are now to small. I can't believe how fast it goes.

Hope you're all doing well. We're kind of planning a drive to Idaho - with 2 kids, shoot me now- at the end of August. See you soon!

Flooding

I forgot! Yes, we did get flooded here. But it could've been worse. We were in the basement because of tordano warnings and then the rain just kept coming and suddenly it was getting the basement floor wet! So I was holding Caleb and Gabe on the steps while Josh and my mom were plugging the drains with old spray paint cans and vacuuming out the water! It was not fun. It was pretty scary actually. When it was all over we had to rip out most of the basement carpeting and throw out a lot of water damaged stuff but our side of town got it the least. Other homes had to be bulldozed so we consider ourselves lucky!

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Still adusting...

So I know it's been a little while. It turns out life with a newborn and a two-year-old is pretty busy! It could be worse though. So far Caleb's been a really good baby - much easier than Gabe. But that's not saying much! Any kid without an oxygen tank, reflux, and a heart monitor would be easier. Plus Gabe's overall temperment was pretty demanding. Caleb's pretty relaxed. He eats only every 3-4 hours (Gabe was 1.5, plus pumping/bottles/burping forever) and he hardly ever cries. He had his 2 week doctor's check up yesterday and the doctor told me he's gaining weight at an above average rate. ("Is this bad?" I asked.) He said it's fine and that my milk must have a high fat content. I said, "Good, better on him than me!" So he now weighs 8 lbs 12 oz after being at his low of 7 lbs 5 oz about 3 days after he was born. He is starting to be awake more and so far his eyes look dark blue. I'm curious to see if they stay blue like Gabe's or not.

Gabe is also doing well. He just cracks me up sometimes. (Then other times I want to beat him of course!) But we go for walks every day and he has this big wheel type bike that he always rides and he's like a little daredevil on it. There's this one road where he zooms ahead like he's going to hit the median then at the last minute he'll turn his wheels and hook it into the space next to the curb that wraps around the median and zoom all the way around and across the road up the ramp onto the sidewalk. (Luckily this is on a quiet cul-de-sac by my house.) He also makes me laugh so hard when the Jonas brothers are on the Disney channel because he has a toy guitar that he jams along with and dances and jumps like they do. He's pretty rockin!
We'll see if he ends up playing football like his dad or being in musicals like his mom. (I'm sure Josh would love that!)

Well, those are our updates. Also, we close on our house Monday and are looking forward to having money! Yay! We're probably just going to be boring and pay off Gabe's dumb RSV shot bill from when he was six months old and got a $4500 shot! (Isn't that like, the average cost of having a normal child - total?!) And then pay off our car and start saving for our next "first home". Not very exciting stuff but it'll be nice to be debt free right? Josh is still plugging away at his online classes. Right now he has a geology and a Media Technology. He actually really likes the geology one. It has a lot of stuff about Yellowstone and Arches national park I guess. I am doing well too - just a little tired. Hope you all are doing well!

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He's finally here!

Yay! I have to say I was pretty bummed after reading some of the comments by fellow preggers or moms out there about being dialated to a 3 for a month, etc. but luckily my uncomfortable last month was very short-lived. I know I shouldn't say, "He's FINALLY here" because he was still technically almost 4 weeks before my due date but when you expect your water to break every time you get up to pee (which is a lot)for the past four months it really seems to go slow! And here's the really ironic part - the doctor had to break my water!!! Wow. You just never know. Well here's Caleb's birth story...

Due to lots of rain this past week Josh had a couple days off, including Friday. This was nice because I had a doctor's appointment at 1:30. Thursday night my sister and friend from church had thrown me a surprise baby shower - where I told everyone I wanted my baby to be born tommorow because I had a feeling he was already eight pounds and everyone told me, "No way" - so Friday morning was spent writing Thank you's, Josh doing his homework, and getting presents organized. We went to Target and Wal-Mart around 11:30 to make some exchanges and get a couple more baby necessities, like a bouncy chair and more diapers, and then we went to my docotr's appointment.

My doctor was again thrilled to see me and told me I could do anything my heart desired, no more restrictions! She also said I was at 4 cm and "so ready" and I told her I'd see her tommorow to have the baby. It seemed like the perfect weekend because both her and my chosen pediatrician were on call and with seven OBGYN's and seven peds that just seemed so lucky it was meant to be!

So we all went to Family Video to rent a movie then to the bank to deposit a check and while we were sitting there at the drive through the pain I had been trying to ignore got more intense. I had been having some cramps the night before but it wasn't regular and then stopped so I wasn't sure this pain meant anything. I told Josh I was so hungry and needed Culver's so we hurried there and I scarfed down all my food in about 10 minutes, nervous I would have to go to the hospital soon and they wouldn't let me eat! So we got home, I laid down, and after about 5 minutes I decided I should go to the hospital just to get checked, after all, it didn't happen this way for me last time! So my mom came home from work an hour early and stayed with Gabe while we went.

We got up to labor and delivery and I told them, "I think I might be in labor" and they hurried to get me a bed. A nurse hooked me up to a monitor and after about 30 minutes it was clear there were regular contractions about five minutes apart. She called my doctor who told her, "Don't admit her just yet, this is just what she wants and she may not really be in labor." (haha, she knows me well, huh?) But then when she finally came to see me at about 5:15 I was at 6cm and she said, "You're gonna have this baby, I'm gonna break your water." I was like, "Really?!" I kind of expected her to send me home!

So she broke my water and immediately the contractions got more painful which I figured would happen to I told her to send for the drug lady pronto- I wasn't missing my chance this time!!! The epidural was put in about then and I was surprised how long it took. I sat on that bed very still for about 30 minutes while she putzed around and made a couple attempts - which made me a bit nervous. Finally, she said she was done and I right away could tell that only my left side was numb. She told me to lay on my right side and it would seep over. I tried that and was in even more pain, feeling every contraction with the right half of my body still. It was pretty strange. I will say though, Gabe's contractions were a lot worse. So even half an epidural is a miracle! Then soon it was time to push. I probably pushed for about 30 minutes - but it definitely seemed like more. Everyone kept saying, "He's right there!" I think they could see his hair like, the whole time. But he just didn't want to come! Finally, at 8:02 Caleb Joshua was born and right away the nurses said, "He's a big boy!" He officially weighed 7 lbs 15 ounces and was 21.5 inches long - thank goodness he was 3.5 weeks early! When they did his tests they said he was actually 37 weeks though. His face was a little bruised and he has a slight cone head but otherwise he's a typical squishy faced newborn! It looked like we adopted our kids because Gabe is so blond and then we have this indian baby! I looked like an indian baby when I was born though too.

So, we stayed in the hospital until this morning at around 11:00 when we were all released. It was so cool taking a baby home with me this time! It was also nice to have Caleb in our room so much. I kept saying to Josh, "Aren't they going to come take him for stuff?" and Josh is like, "Well he IS ours!" They did take him a couple times but overally it was so nice that he could stay by us. Josh had his own hospital bed the whole time (he liked that much better than Rexburg's pull-out chair) and the nurses babied him. He had his own big water mug and I was saying to the nurse, "This isn't fair, he's like a patient but with none of the pain!" and she's like, "Should I check his bottom too?" It was pretty funny. Maybe she thought he was cute...

Well, this is long. Thanks for reading! I better post some pictures now!

Pictures:

Okay, I just have to quick say:

The first picture was at this horse show we took Gabe to. He put his toy horses head down into the dirt and thought it was so funny.

The second picture is what I found when I went into Gabe's room a couple nights ago when it had been like, 20 minutes since Josh had gone in to put Gabe to bed. I thought it was so funny that poor Gabe was like, cuddled against the wall while Josh was all sprawled out in his bed! He's gonna be mad at me for posting it but it's just too hilarious.

The third one is fat me at 35.5 weeks. At least I can take comfort in the fact that it's obvious Caleb is growing bigger every day. (At least I hope he is and it's not just me!)

Still pregnant!

Hi everyone!
It's been a little while and we've had a couple calls wondering if Caleb's here but no, he is still not! I can't believe it! It's like, 75-80 degrees today, my feet are huge, my rings don't fit anymore, my back hurts, and I feel like I'm waddling at 2 mph or less everywhere I go. This is what full-term feels like?! This stinks! I'd say I never want to do it again but I know Caleb will have to go through a lot less than Gabe did - maybe he won't have to go through anything! I'll be 36 weeks in 2 days and there's babies that come home from the hospital right away that are born at that age right? So hopefully I will get to experience bringing my baby home from the hospital with me this time around. Last time it just kind of felt like I had gone in for an emergency procedure or something and left three days later in a wheelchair with an sore body and empty arms. This should be a lot better and totally worth the bloated hands, etc. right? But if this kid gets past 40 weeks there may be some more complaining. How long can you be dialated to a 3? Anyone? It's been 10 days! Well, let me know what you other pregos or recent new moms are going through. I miss you all!

So many exciting things!

So here has been my past 24 hours:

- Yesterday morning: Josh and I decided to list the house, see what happens. Listed for $20,000 higher than our buying price.

- Met with realtor yesterday afternoon, officially signed listing papers. Crossed our fingers.

- 8:00 this morning: get a call from our realtor, house was shown last night to a lady who "loved it, loved it, loved it!" and we received an offer to purchase!

- 10:00 am: go to doctor. I'm 3 cm dialated. Doctor says "Go home and lay down but I won't be surprised if you deliver this weekend."

- 11:00 am: Go to realtor's office (bedrest? what?) Accept offer. Do a happy dance. :)

So that's pretty crazy, huh? We had prayed about it and said, "We feel like this is what we want to do so let's just list it and see what Heavenly Father makes happen." Both Josh and I feel really good about it. It will be nice to get some of our bills paid off and it will give him less stress about working so many hours to make house payments while taking classes. My mom is probably thinking, "When will these kids leave!" No, actually I think she really likes it. We'll see how she feels when Gabe and a newborn are crying at 2am. She said, "I'll just roll over onto my bad ear and smile and go back to sleep, happy I'm just the grandma." Thanks mom! No, but really we will be saving a lot of money the next few months living here. We're scheduled to close June 30th so everyone keep your fingers crossed for us that everything goes through. I'll post some pictures of Gabe at swimming two nights ago with Josh. He was a crazy man! He loves the water. Hopefully soon we'll post some new baby pics and this will become "Gabe and Caleb's page!"