I'm glad this day is over!!!

WOW!!! I would have never guessed that getting prepped for kitchen work would be so much work in itself. We spent all day juggling entertaining our little one and trying to pack things up from the kitchen and the family room. WOW!! I am so exhausted and just ready to take a seat for a while. My thought was that it would only take a few hours to get all of the kitchen cabinets cleaned out and packed away--but boy was I wrong! After about 5 hrs and 6 or 7 bins filled with stuff it still didn't look like I was making much of a dent. We have SO MUCH STUFF just in the kitchen!! Hubby also spent lots of time finding new homes for our furniture in both the family room and the dining room. We are doing work in both of these rooms so everything has to go--it's almost as bad as moving! We are still not done, but I"m so ready to call it quits for today. I think I'll just continue tomorrow finishing up and cleaning up the clutter. I did get some frames put up this morning though--I was real happy about that. Here is the frame arrangement that I put up--now all I need to do is figure out which pics I want to display in these!

Kitchen Remodel -- The "BEFORE" pictures

I promised some pictures of our current kitchen layout. So, here they are. Nothing spectacular to look at, thus the reason we are remodelling. I'm so excited to see the end product and to post the "AFTER" pictures. But not too worry, I will also be posting some "in the process" pictures as well...:)

This is the view as you look in straight from the family room

This is a view from the dining room, facing the stove and laundry direction

This is another view from the dining room, facing the other wall though, towards fam room

This is a view from the back of the kitchen, near the laundry room towards the dining area

This is the view of the laundry room as it currently stands; there will be minor changes done to it as well.

This is the view to the kitchen now--see that wall? it's going to be gone, come next week!

Kitchen Remodel -- READY...

So, for those of you that have visited our blog before, you will notice that I have changed the title. Originally titled "kateli's corner" and dedicated solely to providing updates of our first born; I have decided that this BLOG will need to expand and provide updates on what is going on in our home. So, while you will still get updates on Kateli, you will now also find updates that encompass other portions of the "going ons" in our home....

I've kind of touched on the upcoming major remodel in our home in prior entries, but I have not expanded too much on it as it was still in the "planning" phase. I feel free to start updates on this process now, as we are on the countdown for the work to begin with a desired end date in mind. Our goal is to have a completely new kitchen 3 weeks prior to our second baby's due date--that would be Sept 1. So, demolition of our old kitchen is scheduled to start on Monday--July 2nd! I know, I know, I need to take some "before" pictures of the kitchen and post them so that we all SEE what we are moving away from. Personally, I cannot wait for the carpet to be gone--it will be so nice to actually have tile floor in the new kitchen among the other changes that are coming. We are super excited to have a new kitchen but are not too thrilled about the next 6 weeks--we will have workers in the house from Monday thru Friday from 8am to 5pm. I still am not sure what we will be doing for meals this entire time, but I'm sure that we'll come up with a solution. The fridge is being moved into the dining room in order to store at least milk, and deli meat for sandwiches. We will be without a kitchen sink, a stove, a dishwasher, washer and a dryer for the next 6 weeks so please pray for us as we go through this process. I'm feeling more and more tired each day, and I'm certainly slowing down, so I'll need lots of prayer for energy and strength throughout this process. More updates later and maybe I'll get those pictures posted....Stay tuned for "remodel updates" throughout the next 6 weeks.

Our morning at the park

It has become almost a daily event now, that after mommy goes to workout at the gym, Kateli gets to go play at the park. We go early in the morning, in the hopes that it is not yet too hot out to play. So, this morning as we have for the last week or so, we headed off to the gym and the park. But I was prepared! I had a bag of toys, snacks, food for the squirrels, ducks, and most importantly my CAMERA!!! Kateli played on the slides, the swings, chased a squirrel, a bird, and then spent the rest of the time in the sandbox, filling up and emptying her pail. It was so much fun to watch her. Here are some of the pics that I took. Enjoy!

Updates on Kateli

When I sit down to write updates on Kateli's progress, it is almost overwhelming to try and not leave anything out! She is growing so fast, and doing and saying so many new things each day, that I would really have to do a DAILY update in order to capture and share everything with you--unfortunately, I don't have the time to do daily updates, so I'll try to remember it all!

She is now 18 1/2 months, and so ready to be a BIG sister! I think she finally grasps an inkling of the fact that there is a baby in my tummy--she has been curious of my growing belly since I started to show--but it hasn't been until recently that she actually acknowledges it. Lots of times she will point at my belly (sometimes even raise my shirt) and say "baby" with a big grin on her little face. The sweetness of her voice and the gentleness in her eyes make me melt down each time. She loves to give baby (my belly) kisses--or serberts (spelling?) and gets a kick out of it everytime! I cannot wait to see how she will welcome baby once baby is out my belly--I wonder if she'll understand!?

She is really starting to use her vocabulary, though it seems that somehow most of the words she is picking up are in english. I continue to speak to her in spanish, and tell her the spanish word when she says something in english. Regardless of the language, we are so excited that she starting to communicate better. I feel blessed that her favorite word is not yet "NO", instead she uses her spanish "yes" more often to say what she wants. In fact, she doesn't actually say the word "no", but she nods when she doesn't want something or doesn't want to do something. On the other hand, the "yes" or "chi" is always verbalized! So, let me see if I can remember all of her vocabulary, I would guess she has about 15 to 20 words now and she repeats words well when she's in the mood. So, she says "doggie", "bubble", "hi", "bye", "keith", "mama", "dada", "baby", "head", "eye", "agua or wa-wa", "abu (her word for candy in spanish)", "pan", "aro (which I think is "pajaro" or bird in spanish), and I know I've got to be leaving some out.

Kateli is an on-the go, got to be doing something all the time type of girl!! Her waking hours are full of energy and lots of exploration. Now that it's finally warmer out, and it's not raining so much we do a lot more of outdoors stuff. Kateli plays in the gym play area, while mommy works out in the mornings and usually we go to the park afterwards to let her run around, play on the slides, swings, and chase birds and squirrels. She loves to greet other people at the park or just about anywhere, for that matter, and she finds it distasteful to walk away from people without saying "bye bye". This morning, as usual we were at the park pond watching ducks and squirrels, and there was another mommy there picknicking with her little boy. Kateli walked up to them and said "hi", then she went about her business running around, jumping on my back, watching the ducks and chasing them for while. When we were ready to go, I grabber her little hand and started walking back to the car. She quickly let go of my hand and walked back to the same spot from where she had greeted the mom and baby, just to wave and say "bye" to them--how sweet is that? She has such a happy demeanor about her and such a happy heart. One of her favorite things is MUSIC and DANCING--we have no idea where she gets that from :) (wink wink! must be the latin in her). As soon as she hears music her little dancing feet are going and her hips sway back and forth, her arms go up in the air and she twirls with huge smiles and chuckles! She wakes up in the morning asking for music before she asks for food!! It's so much fun--I know for now it's all fun, but when she's 16 and wanting to go out dancing all the time, we won't think it's so much fun then!! Oh, well I guess it's part of being a parent!

We have to admit though, that recently she has started to show some of those "terrible two's" characteristics that we thought we wouldn't have to deal with--no luck. Kateli is very strong willed--which is not necessarily a bad trait, but in a toddler, I can see the negatives. She is now throwing fits when she doesn't want to be somewhere, or do something or if she doesn't get what she is wanting. It is difficult to keep from laughing sometimes at the things that she does to get her way, but we try really hard so that we are not enabling the bad behavior. She likes to learn lessons the hard way, rather than listening to mommy and daddy's warnings about falling or getting hurt. Just the other morning, she dove off of our bed!!

No VASA PREVIA This time!!

Well, we can take a breath of relief!!! We had our appointment with the high risk OB this morning to check for placenta previa or vasa previa with this pregnancy. After waiting in the waiting area for nearly an hour, we were escorted to the examining room where the dr would see us. Shortly after the nurse left, she came back in to let us know that our dr had to run over to the OR to address an issue and that it would be a little while. So, we waited patiently for her to come back. The dr was very nice and courteous; we'd seen her with the first pregnancy, and it was she who diagnosed me with Vasa Previa and recommended the in hospital bedrest. Needless to say I was a little bit more than anxious to go to this appointment, as I kept fearing that we would walk out of there hearing the same news. However, this time it was different. She did an ultrasound and checked baby first--everything is fine. Then she checked for veins and arteries, where the placenta was attached, the umbilical cord etc etc--and everything is well there too! We were elated to hear her say "I don't see any problems for a VBAC this time...I'm glad I didn't have to send you into shock this time!" so were we!!! So, we got a profile picture of baby, as we did with Kateli about the same gestational age and they look so much alike!! Thank you all for your prayers!! Here are the pics to compare. 1st one is Kateli at 28 weeks gestation, 2nd pic is this baby at 28wks gestation as well.

May Updates

May was a busy month for our family. We’ve done a bit of traveling and have had family visiting from out of town. We were in Houston at the beginning of the month for a baby shower in honor of my sister and I. If I have not mentioned it yet, my sister and I are both pregnant and due within a day of each other!!! “HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?”—God’s doing!! Total coincidence, we were just as surprised as you when we first learned that they were pregnant and due a day before us!! Crazy huh? But exciting at the same time! This is their first baby, so they are in cloud nine as they await the arrival of their little girl—oh, they found out they are having a girl—so we had lots of pink at the shower. As for us, it will be a mystery until the day baby arrives—so for us, we brought home a lot of yellows and greens once again. We had our 20 week ultrasound this month—I can’t remember exactly when—but I’m happy to report that EVERYTHING is well. Thank you all for your prayers for us—they were answered and my nerves were in check the entire time. I was not nervous or scared at all walking into the exam, and we walked out of there with huge smiles on our faces knowing that the baby was growing well, and the placenta had attached in a good place this time—it was not low lying like with our first pregnancy.

We also traveled to Orlando, FL to visit our friends who moved there shortly before we were married. They are expecting their first child as well, due in July!! Lots of babies this year! We took Katherine to Sea World, The Magic Kingdom in Disney World, and we went to the beach one afternoon. Our trip was a lot of fun! Our favorite was Sea World, probably for the simple reason that we went during the week and it was nice and breezy out. Our trip to the Magic Kingdom was on a Saturday and it was super hot, sunny and there seemed to be very little wind that afternoon. We really enjoyed all the shows at seaworld, but our favorites we would have to say were the Dolphin show and the Little Pet show! At the Magic Kingdom, Katherine really enjoyed the tea cup ride and the buzz lightyear ride.

Just this last weekend we had grandma Sue come to visit and that was a whole lot of fun! We had not seen her in almost a year, so we really enjoyed spending quality time with her, and she was amazed to see how grown up Katherine was since the last time she saw us. We also got a great surprise to learn Thursday evening that my sister and her husband would also be here for the weekend. We had a wonderful time with them!! My sister and I got to take pictures together, since this will probably be the last time we see each other before babies arrive. Enjoy some of our latest pictures.

April Updates

We did it!! We signed the contract for the kitchen remodel this month!! And we picked out our cabinets and cabinet color!! I’m so excited to get this project underway and done before this baby arrives. The new kitchen is going to give our home a different feel, it’s going to open up the family room into the kitchen as we are knocking down the wall between these two rooms. We are adding an island at an angle, and some tall dish cabinets that will allow for enough storing space for dishes, glasses and the such. We’re moving a door in order to accommodate the refrigerator in a different place, as well as our new pantry. Our timeline for completion is about 12 weeks out from the date that we signed the contract. Now granted, it was not until almost the last day of the month that we did this, but nonetheless it is DONE!! The cabinets will take 2 weeks to get the color match completed, then we have to approve and the order finally goes out. Once the order is placed we will have to wait about 6 weeks to get the cabinets in, at which time demolition will begin and our kitchen will be out of commission for the next 6 weeks. We’re making progress!!! We’ve got so many other decisions to make—things we never even thought about like the profile of the cabinet doors, the arch on the cabinet doors, down to the grout color for the tile in the new kitchen. We settled on all the decisions about the cabinets this month, so that’s a plus—the rest of the decisions will come a bit later. So we can take a breather right now. We’ve got another busy month ahead so, more updates later!

March Marsh Updates :)

In December we met with a kitchen designer that we really enjoyed talking to and think will be a great person to work with in order to get this job completed. So, we have finally begun to seriously work with this kitchen designer to get the remodel done. We have yet to sign a contract, but we are finalizing the plan and hope to get things going soon. This month we went ahead and purchased our appliances. We bought stainless steel appliances—refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and microwave. We also purchased a new washing machine, a front loader, which I’m sure I’ll enjoy much much more once we get it up on a pedestal—it’s a little too low especially with an expanding belly on the way.

Our little angel continues to grow and surprise us each day. Here are a couple of her newest pics this month.

February Updates

Kateli learns so many new things each day that it’s hard to document each one!! So, I’ve been lazy and not kept up with her journal! I don’t remember what specifically she started doing in January but she is doing so much that it doesn’t really matter when it all started, it’s just amazing to watch her go all the time. She's got the signing down very well—she's picked up the “please” and “all done” excellently, and once in a while finally signs “more”. I haven’t wanted to overwhelm her with teaching her so many different signs, although looking back I think she would have been fine. So we are now working on adding more to our sign vocabulary! I love that she signs “please” when she wants something or when she wants ‘more” of something—you she is such a polite little angel. When we sit down for a meal, she is usually the one to remind me that we need to say grace before we start to eat. She sits in her chair waiting for me to sit down and when I finally do, she clasps her hands together for our little prayer. Thank you for keeping me on my toes!

On Valentine’s day this year she did something that daddy and I were so impressed to see, as we don’t really know where she picked it up from. She and daddy were playing, and at one point Kateli looked at him and winked—it wasn’t an accident either, cuz she did it several times and we could tell in her little gesture that she was winking, it was not just that she had something in her eye. And now, although she doesn't do it everytime that we ask her to “wink” she will most of the time wink back at us.

We just got back from visiting my family in Houston, we were there over president’s day this year. It was such a fun visit! We had so much fun, and grandma and grandpa really enjoyed having us there. We got to visit the Houston Zoo with you for the first time, and boy did they have a blast watching you really enjoy seeing animals and pointing at them. But was most impressed grandma and grandpa was how far you walked and didn’t show any sign of being tired or grouchy!! Grandpa had you walk up a ramp 3 times, and you were still laughing in the end! I think the grownups were all worn out, but you could have continued walking another hour or so! You have really started to “babble” a whole lot more this weekend. You babbled before, but this weekend it was just so different. It was as if you were really trying to talk to all of us, whether we were riding in the car, we were sitting at the dining room table, you were pretending to talk on the phone, and when you actually did talk to your daddy over the phone. It’s fun to watch you monkey!