Joshua is almost 3 weeks old!

Time is flying!!! Joshua is nearly 3 weeks old!! What a wonderful blessing he is to our family! Our little guy is doing great! We are all doing well, now that we've all recovered from a mild cold that came over us last week. We were lucky that little Joshua didn't catch it.

We have yet to see a completed kitchen, yet it's nearly there, I suppose. The plastic wall has come down, the cabinets installed, tile completed, backsplash done, but not grouted, all appliances are in working order--so that's progress, right? There are still things that need to get done, and we are anxious for them to be completed. I'm so ready to have my house back, and to not have to wait each day to see if anyone shows up for work. I want to be free to get up in the morning and walk around in my PJ's if I so please all day long. As it has been the last few weeks is that I have to get up and shower and get ready for the day--this is not something that I'm ready to do early in the morning, especially with new baby who keeps us up half the night nursing!! oh well, I guess eventually (hopefully SOONER than LATER) it will get done! The kids have been doing well with all the kitchen work going on. There is not much loud work being done anymore, so at least we have quiet during the day. Kateli is napping well in the afternoon--I've learned though that she doesn't fall asleep soon after I lay her down. She stays up for nearly an hour playing and talking with her stuffed animals in the crib. Eventually she does fall asleep and gets some rest. As far as Joshua, he's still sleeping a lot. The last couple of days though, he's been going through a growth spurt because he has been wanting to nurse round the clock, it seems. Today has been slower, and he's been sleeping more--so that gives me a break to update the blog as well as get other things done around the house.

We've had a new addition to our family--on Tuesday this week (Aug 28th) my sister delivered a beautiful baby girl!! We were all waiting anxiously for the arrival of my first niece, and third grandchild for my parents. Daniela Sophia was born weighing 7lbs 12ozs and measuring 19in! Joshua is catching up to his cousin quickly in weight. I took him for a weight check on Tuesday (same day as Daniela's bday) and he was up to 7lbs 10ozs (with onesie on). He's gaining weight SO FAST!!! I've heard that it's normal for a baby to gain 1/2oz to 1 oz per day--well, my little guy has surpassed that and is gaining about 2.6ozs a day!!! Our next appt at the dr's is on the 13th, so we'll see what he's up to at 1 month old! Last weekend Joshua had his first photo shoot. Our friends from Edmond, drove up to Tulsa so that Maria could take newborn pics of our little man. You can see some of the shots that she got at her website http://mfphotographybymaria.blogspot.com I'm having a hard time choosing a picture for Joshua's birth announcement. Maria is very creative and talented with photography, and is starting her business--so she's chosen our son as her first newborn project--which we much appreciate!

Here are some recent pics of my babies!

Home from the hospital...

So, it's been a few days since I last updated the blog. As you may imagine, my spare time these days is pretty limited. I thought I was busy with one monkey before, two is a lot more work and that's that Joshua is still at the stage where all he does is sleep, poop, pee, and eat.

Our arrival home with a newborn was great. My mother in law was able to fly in to help us out with Kateli the night that Joshua was born. She stayed with us for a little under a week and what a blessing that was. She was great. She got up in the mornings with Kateli and let us sleep in with our little guy to catch up on our sleep deprivation from feedings and such. It was so great to have her here and give Kateli the attention that my little girl was needing at such a transitional phase for us. I don't know how we would have managed without grandma here. On Saturday my mom flew in to meet little Joshua. She made a quick weekend trip just to meet her new grandson, and went home quickly because she doesn't want to miss the birth of my sister's daughter (due any day now)....who could blame her. Anyway, so Kateli had the time of her life this week. It was all about her with grandmas!!! It is amazing how well she has accepted her little brother, she's not jealous (just a BIT disobedient, I have found now that my help is gone and it's just me and the kids during the day)--she wakes up asking for him, and at the sound of his first cry she is the one to pop up and say "baby"....as I get her after her nap, she looks up at me and smiles, and the first thing out of her mouth is "baby, shhh"....she thinks he is sleeping and we need to be quiet for him.

Joshua has been doing great. He's eating like a champ. Once we got passed the many billirubin tests that the doctor ordered (he had like 4 or 5 done since getting home from the hospital) until he saw a score that was lower than the previous one--we've been doing great. Finally, Monday this week the nurse called us back and said, baby's levels are down so you don't need to take him in for more tests--which was a great relief. At his first doctor's appt, the day after we were released from the hospital, Joshua had dropped 10 ounces from his birth weight. I took him in on Monday to do a weight check and he was back up, just 1 ounce shy of his birth weight...I was so excited!! He gained 9 ounces in a matter of 4 days!! We're doing something right!!!

Here are some pics to share from these last few days...

Kateli's room...

So, the plan was to finish Kateli's big girl room and move her in there BEFORE baby came; but as you already saw, our little guy didn't wait until his due date. Catching me off guard, I, of course did NOT finish the room before heading to the hospital this weekend. Luckily all the painting was done, I just needed to seal the murals (which I've still got to do) and arranging her furniture, as well as dressing her bed. I've still got to get curtains for the room, and a few shelves that I want to set up in there, but the essentials are now in place. Essentially, we could move Kateli to sleep in her big girl room tonight--but given the circumstances and not wanting to make her feel like we are kicking her out of the nursery because of Joshua, we are going to make the transition slowly! I think the best thing to do is to give her the opportunity to choose what room she wants to sleep in each night. Here are some pics of her room...

WHAT A SURPRISE!!

Wow!!! What a whirlwind of a weekend ending!!! Our son made a surprise appearance 3 weeks ahead of schedule! Yep, he's here--healthy and beautiful (ok, handsome) as can be! We were discharged from hospital today, so you can imagine how ready I am to hit the sack, but I wanted to post a few pics. I'll post more later, as well as our birth story. Just to sum everything up, I woke up Sunday morning with regular contractions, went to the hospital to get checked and was admitted right then and there. Our son arrived at 4:41pm, weighing 6lbs 6ozs and measuring 19 3/4" Sunday afternoon!!! I feel so blessed to have been able to deliver him natural through a successful VBAC! Here are some pics....

Kitchen with cabinets and tile....

Here are some of the latest pictures that I've taken of our kitchen in progress. We've got most of the cabinets installed, and the tiling is almost done. Check it out....


These are the cabinets on our range wall. Appliances, I suppose are the last thing to be installed. We have two cabinets that we are still waiting to be installed because they were the wrong size. The range will go in that empty wall space you see on the left side of the pictures, and we've bought a range hood to install above it--those things are still sitting in the garage.


These are our dish cabinets--from floor to ceiling. They are 18 inches deep, so we figure this is going to be enough space for all our fine china :).


Here is the island. The dishwasher goes in the empty space that you see on the right hand side--that too, is still sitting in the garage. Right now the island looks kinda funky cuz it's so white, but once it's painted, the countertop installed and the bar counter is installed we expect it to look much much better.


And here is a pic to show the tile that we are having installed. It's a travertine look but with a ceramic tile--looks really nice. We went with 18 x 18 tiles cuz I just like that look better than the 12 x 12 inch. Tiling should be completed today--maybe even the grout will be done today, who knows! :)

Our visit with Abuela

Abuela was here visiting last weekend, and we had a good time seeing her. She had not seen her grand-daughter in about 3 months, so Kateli really seemed big and changed to her! Kateli is saying a whole lot more words now, and she is doing so much more big girl things that my mom was impressed with her and just had a blast laughing at the new things that she's learned. Somethings, of course not funny to us parents, seemed hilarious to her though, i.e. her fit throwing when she doesn't get her way. Heaven forbid Kateli threw a fit for something that abuela took away--it was immediately given back to her just to see a big smile on Kateli's face. That's not what happens with mom and dad, and I think that Kateli knows that now. Of course our lack of kitchen at this time made for each meal out, which was fun. We went to Panera, Pei Weis, Olive Garden and had some left overs as well. Kateli behaved well each time we went out and really enjoyed walking around the restaurants with Abuela as mom and dad finished up their meals. Here are some pictures of abuela's visit...

It's been a few days since I last updated....

I know, I know....it's been a few days since I updated.

So, without further a do, let me quickly catch you up on what's going on in our home, and with our pregnancy.

Kateli, of course, is by no means a baby anymore--she's such a big girl. And as such, deserving of her new big girl room ASAP, but mommy has yet to finish up! I have made some progress in the room, and I would say that it's about 90 to 95% completed. The mural is done!! YEAH!!! I just need to seal it, which I'll probably do this weekend. I've still got to stencil around the perimeter of her room a poem that I found. I'm hoping to get that done quickly, once I figure out what size lettering will get the entire thing on the walls. Daddy painted Kateli's bed so it's ready to be set up, and I found bedding that I liked and goes really well with the colors in her room. So, as you can see it's just a matter of this pregnant momma getting her act together and hurrying to get things done in there. I'll post pics of the room soon....I promise.

We had a doctor's appointment this morning for an ultrasound to estimate baby's weight. Baby is weighing about 6lbs 6ozs, which is good news to us in terms of moving forward with a VBAC trial for this delivery. Only about 3 weeks to go, unless of course baby has a different agenda and decides to come early. We are almost through with our birthing classes, so we are feeling more prepared for what's in store for a normal delivery this time around. We have another appt on monday with our regular OB at which time she will probably check if I've started dilating or not. I'm definitely feeling a whole lot more contractions now, so I think that something is going on, and I've got a feeling that baby may come early. Then again, I can't really judge by comparison to our first pregnancy. At this point the first time around baby had been born, so I didn't really get to experience the "real", "instense" sensations/contractions that come with labor/delivery! I guess we'll know more on Monday. I'm definitely feeling PREGNANT now!! The weather has been so horribly and unbearably hot lately, and our AC is not working too well due to kitchen work that I feel like I'm constantly sweating in my own house! I'm feeling achy and big, although my hubby says I'm still not at the "waddling" stage--he told me today that I'm really looking pregnant now, but I'm not acting pregnant--whatever that means!!

As far as our kitchen progress--it's coming along and seems to be doing so rather quickly. We think our designer has kicked things off into gear--which is encouraging! We're hoping it's completed before baby arrives. We've got cabinets in place and trimmed. They started tiling today and will supposedly be mostly completed by the end of tomorrow. Granite is supposed to be installed sometime mid next week, after which they can start on the back splash. Then we'll need to get the hardware installed on the cabinets, appliances installed, light fixtures installed and wall outlets trimmed out. After that paint, and I don't know what other finishing touches!!! So, anyway hooray for the progress that has been made thus far!!! We are so ready to have the kitchen done!!!!

Updates...Kateli and Kitchen

The cutest thing (okay, so one of the cutest things that our daughter does right now)--Kateli knows which things (for the most part) are "no no's" for her to touch. She especially knows that daddy's road bike is off limits as well as the power strip that is in our bedroom next to the bachelor's chest. A lot of times when she walks near these things, she will look at me, turn to the item, waves her little index finger and says "no no"....it's so cute. Yes, she finally started saying "no", but thus far it's a nice toned "no", rather than an adamant "NO", which we were afraid we were going to get. We may get that later on, but for now I'm enjoying the gentleness in her voice when she says "no" to something. Abuela is coming to visit this weekend, which ought to be lots of fun for all of us. My mom has not seen Kateli in 3 months, so she'll be amazed at how much her grand-daughter has changed and grown since the last time we were in Houston. She'll be here through the weekend and late into Monday afternoon. I'm hoping that I'll get sometime to finish up in her room--which is about 90% completed (well, the mural is anyway). I still have to paint the bed, figure out bedding, curtains and furniture arrangement, but I figure once I get the mural completed, it will all come together quickly! It's got to, we only have 4 weeks or so til this baby is due!!!

As far as the kitchen--we have cabinets!! They were delivered today, and the guys that were here working hoped to get some hung after sanding the walls. Unfortunately, they didn't get around to hanging any of them yet, but tomorrow should be a different story. It's going to start looking like a kitchen, I think and I'm excited about it. The only thing is that somehow the project has gotten behind and off schedule. We found out yesterday that completion is not estimated until a week before our due date! We were supposed to be done 3 weeks before the due date!!!! YIKES!!! Hopefully baby doesn't decide to come too early! Anyway, this weekend will probably be one that Dan spends painting in the kitchen! We committed to doing the wall painting so we've got to get that done. Once all the cabinets are installed, we'll have measurements done for the granite countertops, and then will have to wait about 2 weeks for that to be ready, delivered and installed....

Sorry, no pictures of the kitchen tonight as there is nothing really new....but hopefully tomorrow will be different and I can post some of the cabinets that get hung!