Lets see...

The carpel tunnel seems to have moved from my upper arms down into my hands and wrists. The good news is that I'm not waking up as much at night but my hands are pretty much numb and useless in the mornings. And I can be regularly seen chewing on tums these days. It's been so much fun watching my stomach move around in the evenings. It's one of my favorite things about pregnancy. We feel so blessed to be able to experience this a second time. Still no name (sigh).

On Sunday morning Kylie came down with pink eye. I'm glad Kipton hasn't caught it (yet). So we came home early from church and she didn't go to preschool today. She was disappointed to miss school today because they decorated miniature three dimensional foam Christmas trees with frosting and candy. So I made a quick trip over there and brought the supplies home so she could work on it at home. We made some frosting and both Kylie and Kipton had fun decorating their tree's with candy.

The basement is coming along. We had our four way inspection a week ago and let me tell you I was PUMPED that we didn't fail it outright. There were a few minor things we need to do but we were given the go-ahead to start insulation (fist pump in the air) So we've started putting up insulation and I still need to add a few pieces of blocking near the windows so I can screw our curtain hardware into studs, put some metal plates in front of some plumbing etc. We also added a soffit in the first bedroom kind of after the fact. When we originally had it framed there was a large 6" pipe in the ceiling in the first bedroom that hangs down below the joists. I just had them frame around it knowing it would look out of place. After staring at that for a few weeks I decided it was driving me crazy. So I ripped it down and Jared and I built a shallow soffit  running the entire length of the room that hides the pipe. I'm a lot more happy with how it looks but building that soffit a lot of work! I told Jared that if we were professional framers we would be dirt poor because of how slow we are at building that. And that insulation is so itchy I can only stand to work with it for a couple of hours. So progress is slow but I've been down there working most days 2-3 hours. I need to get busy with the nail gun tomorrow.

Kipton in the car today: "Look Kylie look! Dirt!!!" (and points towards a construction site... such a boy)

What have we been up too this week? Kylie got a haircut... which makes me sad because it's been getting so long :( It's very think and she's been better at letting me brush it than she used to be, but it's still a struggle on many days. She's been asking me to take her to cookie cutters (Jared calls it the cut'n corral) for awhile now and I keep putting it off. Finally last Wednesday night was the last straw. On Monday she got ice cream in the bottom two inches of her hair. Tuesday there was popsicle in the bottom of her hair. And then the next day- hours after she had had a bath she got her jammies on and had pudding in the bottom couple inches of her hair! So off we went to get her hair cut the next day. She had two inches taken off the bottom and had it slightly layered. The hair dresser put it in a cute braid/princess crown and she loved it!

My arms have been driving me crazy this week. I officially have pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel in my hands and arms (lucky me!). Some nights I've woken up almost every hour because one or both of my arms will go completely numb, and the joints in my fingers just throb. My entire arm will go numb. So I wake up, try to move my ams and hands enough to get feeling back into them. And then an hour later the cycle starts all over again. It usually happens when I'm sleeping but it's been happening during the day more and more. Heartburn has been kicking into high gear again so I'm quite the sight at night sleeping at almost a full incline. This little guy has been moving a lot lately and we are sure excited to meet him! All in all I'm glad that we've had such a smooth pregnancy so far with this little guy.

We got our carpet cleaned today. How bout a YEAH for clean carpet!!!

New bundle...

I can't believe I've let this news slide on this blog for so long but...

***surprise!***

We are expecting another sweet little guy to join our family in early January. I'm almost 30 weeks along and am due on January 11th. We are all so excited. The appointments have been going well, very low key and he looks healthy. He is measuring a little bit small.

I'm feeling better now but earlier on I was SO much more sick then I ever was with Kipton. I was throwing up multiple times a day for almost two months. I'm feeling better now and am so glad that the morning sickness is over. It's definately been more challenging going through a pregnancy with two little ones that are still are at a needy stage in life. Kylie is very excited and I know she will be a big help.

Still no news on names. I hate the whole naming situation- it stresses me out. Kylie wants to name him "Kipper the Dog" and I've been calling him buster for now. We'll find something much more proper than that I'm sure. We've been asked this many times, but no we aren't planning on continuing the "K" theme although we wouldn't pass on a name just because of that. It just happens that the top few names we have on our boy list aren't K names.

I've been so consumed with the basement that I've been neglectful in nesting this time around. I've finally made some chenille baby bibs for this little guy because Kipton pretty much wore a bib during his awake hours until he was a year old. I need  to make him his blanket and get a few other things.

We did find out that our insurance is switching (get this) on January 1st, 2013. Of course it had to happen the week or two before I'm due!!! Our insurance has always been non-IHC based hospitals and looks like the new insurance is IHC based. So we are trying to figure out what we need to do to continue coverage with my doctor and hospital at least until this baby is born. On so many levels it would make life easier if this baby was born on December 30th but I'm not counting on that happening.

Basement

One of the reasons we've been super busy around these parts is that we are in the middle of having our basement finished!!! So far I've been in charge of subbing all the work out- Jared calls me the GM of this project. The side of our yard looks like a junk yard. So far we've had the framing, electrical, HVAC and most of the plumbing done. Jared and I pulled the permit kind of after the fact and found out we need to fireblock the basement so after that is finished we can get our four way inspection... and then onto drywall! We were hoping to have it done by January but I'm not sure it will happen by then. There will be a long L shaped family room/ game room, two large bedrooms and a full sized bathroom. We had shelving built in our cold storage and that has been fabulous! We are so excited to get some more livable square footage out of this house.

Gee whiz I've been terrible about keeping this blog up. Here are some updates in a nutshell... a few updates deserve their own post so stay tuned!

-Kylie's birthmom, Abbie and birth-grandma, Tammy came to visit us for a few days over Kylie's 5th birthday. We had a blast and were SO GRATEFUL that they were able to spend some time with us. Kylie has been talking about her birthday non stop and was so excited for her birthday party. We invited eight of her friends and they painted pumpkin pictures, did a cake walk, decorated sugar cookies and smashed a pinata to pieces. I'm really glad we did the pinata- they had so much fun. She has been asking about getting a dream lite f.o.r.e.v.e.r so she's now the proud owner of the unicorn variety, and a little baby that talks. Kipton likes to yank the binky out of the baby's mouth and says "WAKE UP!". We are in trouble :) She received bitty baby twins from her birthmom, and a whole slew of toys from her friends that are fit for our princess. We went to a pumpkin patch that morning with Abbie and Tammy and picked out some pumpkins and got inches of mud caked onto our shoes. The day after her birthday Abbie took her swimming and to the aquarium where she got to feed the stingrays. They have so much love for her and it was so much fun seeing them again.

-Since I've been stressing out about the basement, finding a new vehicle, Kylie's b-day and such I went kind of low key on their costumes this year. Kylie is going to be Snow White and Kipton is going to be a firefighter. They are excited to go trick or treating at Jared's office tomorrow afternoon, as well as around the neighborhood.

-We are on the hunt for a new vehicle since three kiddo's won't fit in my little Corolla. I'm NOT looking forward to driving a larger vehicle along with the gas mileage that comes along with it!! We've really like the GMC Acadia's that we've test driven so far and will probably end up with one. I like that they are built on the inside with captain chairs on the second row. We need a tow hitch and not many of them have them already installed so it's making the search a bit tricky. We are on a time crunch so it's time to get serious about that.

First Day of Preschool

Here are some snaps of Kylie on her first day of preschool this year. She was so excited to go and has miss Amber as her teacher this year at Small Wonders. She brings home letters she has been tracing at school, is supposed to bring a magazine cutout of an item that starts with the letter of that week, and gets to practice a poem to recite to her class every month. She brings home crafts almost every day at school- I love it! This is her favorite outfit of the back-to-school clothes we got this year and insisted that I put sparkles in her hair that morning. She loves going to her class and hardly looks back when I drop her off. These are the many faces I get now when trying to take her picture- she thinks she needs to pose :).

A little potty talk...

I am pretty darn sure that Kipton is on the verge of potty training. Quite often during the day he will notice that he is wet and soon after I'll find him running around the house with nay a thing on besides his shirt. About a week and a half ago we started putting him on the potty in the mornings and right before bed and he will go! He's not quite to the point where I think I can full on go to underpants but it's probably not too far off in the distance.

On good news too Kylie has been doing AWESOME keeping dry at night for the past two weeks. She's been wearing a night time diaper for the past year and a half. When we've forgotten to put her in one at night I had about a fifty percent of whether she will stay dry or whether I will be changing sheets in the mornings. But she's insisted on just wearing her undies for the past two weeks and has been super proud and showing off her dry bed in the morning. So I've been super excited about that.

We had a fun evening walking around the neighborhood and chatting with good friends! The weather has been so nice this past week. It's been nice to have a few breaks from the heat.

I forgot to mention this but Kylie has learned to ride a bike without training wheels- yeah! Only problem is that she still can't ride her own bike. We've tried taking her training wheels off her bike and practicing with her a couple of times this summer. No go. We were at Jared's cousin for a BBQ about a month ago and Jared came in and told me to come to the back yard and that I had to see what was going on. I look back there and Kylie is riding around on her cousin's bike that DOESN'T have training wheels like nobody's business. I couldn't believe it! Only hitch is her cousins bike is much smaller than hers (12" wheels rather than her 16") and the bike is really too small for her. Our cousins were gracious and let us bring it home so she could practice. The bearings on it are shot and it's a boys bike, but she loves that she can ride it around by herself.

Kipton is such a cute little stinker. One of my favorite things about him is when he comes into our room at night. Now, I don't love that he always climbs in bed with us, but he will usually make 2-3 trips to bring all his loveys and blankets from his room into ours. It makes me laugh every time!

outtakes

Last month I finally found my ol' point and shoot that I'd forgotten about in the basement. I was surprised that there were a few photo's I didn't know about on it. It was fun to see them!

 

I about 98% sure that Kylie took these pictures.

Addalee

And here is the third and final niece of my showcase today. I took a few quick pics of Addalee (Emily and Steven) at the baby blessing. I think she's about nine months- such a cutie!

 

Amelia

So lucky us we've gotten two new nieces in the past couple of months. Amelia (Teresa and Matt) was born several weeks after Averi so of course I had to try to photograph her too. I spent hours on the desktop taking out the orange in the baby and they are looking awfully orange again now they are on my laptop so who knows- sigh. You would have been laughing if you saw us trying to get these shots. Chaos going around in her living room, Teresa and I trying to juggle the reflector while Teresa has the hair dryer on her to make her sleepy- ha!

(I can't decide if it looks like she's thinking or is flipping someone off- that's the index finger right :)

Averi

edited: I forgot to sharpen these for web when I first published this post so now at least thy aren't so blurry now!

This is my new niece Averi (Vaylene and Jordan)! Well she isn't this little anymore but thought I better show off these pictures before she's crawling. I wanted to try my hand at taking some newborn pictures (disclaimer- first time I've ever done this) so did a little photoshoot of her in her living room on her coffee table with a basket and blanket I have. Taken with my canon 50mm 1.4 lens next to a window with a reflector. For some reason the colors aren't as showing as vibrant on blogger as they should be. 

Luckily for Kylie we've finally, after a slew of boys had some girls born on my side of them family. Adalynn (Emily) was born this past September, Averi (Vaylene) was born in early March, and Amelia (Teresa) was born in late March. She begs to hold these sweet babes everytime we get together and tries to convince us that she's big enough to walk around by herself with the baby. One of Kylie's favorite shows to watch is "Quints by Surprise" that I've recorded which follows the Jones Quintuplets. So she tells me that she will be the big sister, Kipton will be the boy (like in the Jones family) and that I need to have five baby girls for her. No boys, just girls she says.

 Kylie and Averi

I was doing a quick photoshoot of Amelia in her blessing gown and look who invaded :)