It's a Boy!!!!!!

I guess I should have known from all the acne and the extra vomiting, but that's a boy alright.  I'm not posting the picture with the actual boy bits so you all will just have to believe me.  Yesterday was a triple whammy, ultrasound, OB appointment, and blood test for genetic testing.  Everything is looking great so far.  My next OB appointment will check for gestational diabetes (another blood test, hopefully the last one).  So now the process for project 'Little boy Anderson' begins with painting of the nursery and other boyish decor and thinking of a boy name.  We agonized so much over Holiday's name that this could take a while, but we will let everyone know when we decide.

Christmas stuff and ZooLights

I've finished my Christmas shopping and have most of it wrapped.  David has a little more to do but I think he's close.  Holly's pretty much moved into her new room now that it felt good enough to check it off my To Do list.  We've done the major grocery run so now we're starting to pick up on the other stuff that needs to get done on the house and the yard.  We even managed to fill the green bin this weekend.  We went to ZooLights at Point Defiance Zoo last Saturday.  It was packed with people, it makes sense that it would be on the weekends.  But it's either that or fight the worst traffic in the state on a weeknight...pick your poison.  Since Holly gets carsick the weekend wins.  They had school busses shuttling people from the go-kart site into the zoo and since Holly is all about school busses right she had no problem waiting in line.  She loved being in the school bus, Daddy drawing on the fogged up windows.  The lighting displays were the best I've seen and once you got out of the main entry gathering area it was pretty easy to get around.  The only animals that you could see was what was in the aquarium.  Holly liked the sharks.  She loved the carosel and cried pretty bad when it was time to go.  The line wasn't too bad for food and Holly ate pretty good in spite of the general bustle going on.  If we go again, we need to get there early before it opens so we can get through the lines quicker.  When I was in line to use the bathroom I overheard a woman say, "They should give pregnant women and kids priority to use the bathroom.  I looked around me and saw three other pregnant women besides myself and about a dozen kids and laughed out loud and said to her, "That's everybody here."  She looked bewildered for a split second and then said I was right.  The line to bathroom was the quickest, people usually go and get out of there pretty quickly...especially when it's cold.

New Bed for Holiday

Holly slept in her new bed for the first time last night and made it through the night like a champ.  We have a baby monitor in there just because we won't hear her from our bedroom or the living room unless she's really screaming.  Before she fell asleep we could hear her tapping on something.  I know she likes to hit her feet on the wall, that might have been what we were hearing.  When I checked on her she was perfectly in her bed, head on her toddler pillow, kicked her blankets off since the heater was going but not tangled in the slightest.  We still need to move her stuff into her new room so we can start prepping the nursery for the baby.  I've pretty much kept everything, most of our baby gear is neutral so we can use it for boys or girls.  If we're having a boy we'll need to repaint the nursery and get a bunch of new clothes and linens.  In either case we'll need new curtains (because the ones I originally made are now in Holly's room) and some other baby items simply need to be replaced due to wear and tear.  Probably when I start sorting the baby stuff I'll have a better idea of what we'll need to get or if anything needs replacement parts.

Remodeling Pictures and Christmas stuff

Before the office was remodeled into Holly's room.

With all sorts of weird stuff in the wall.

That just looks painful.

With the help of his ex-boeing electrician boss, David fixed up the electrical.

Holly loves to help.

Happy new vent.

Happy new light fixture.

Happy new wall.

Closet unit.

Here's the flow from the kitchen to the back door with the door to Holly's room on the left.

This wall was a real bear to build.

Nice shot of all the new walls with door.

Profile shot...after David textured the walls, I could help as I was able with painting.

How many different colors do you see?

New toddler bed...Holly really likes her new room.

Just got the bedding last night.

Matches the lamp from Grandma Linda that we haven't gotten to use till now.

The closet has the doors attached now.

Just need the final touches and move in the rest of Holly's stuff.

Putting up Christmas decorations.  Hey! This sock doesn't fit right!

Holly didn't mind us moving her kitchenette to her new room.  She really liked the Christmas tree.  When I unwrapped all the Christmas ornaments she just seemed to know what to do and started hanging them on the tree.  So I gave her plenty of ornaments to put on while I handled the more delicate ones.  She grouped the sock monkeys together because they're friends.  The crocheted snowflakes are in little groups too.  When the spirit moves her, Holly rearranges them on the tree.  After the tree was done, we went outside to help daddy with the exterior decorations.  Holly helped by pulling out and handing the lights to daddy and then we all hung outside ornaments on the big bushes.  Every time she sees the outside lights or the tree, she says, "Wow! It's beautiful!" or "Bright light", but it's always like she hasn't seen it before.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Holly wearing daddy's headlamp.

Here's my Yule Log cake.

The meringue mushrooms were a hit.  They kind of tasted like toasted marshmellows.

Here's Holly with her cousin Ayden.

Playing with legos and linkin logs.

David's carving the turkey.

Here's cousin Kaylie coloring at the big table.

Holiday and mommy are ready to eat.

Everyone is getting settled.

Last night we went to an event at Anna's school where all the students were presenting their 'family projects'.  Kind of like a student science fair only it's based on family roots.  It was interesting seeing what kinds of family histories were presented.  There were a lot of wartime themes presented since so many had relatives that were either in the military or were affected by war in some way.  Holly was more interested in exploring, going to the library, getting dinner and playing with Anna and Ellie.  She did really well in spite of the short attention span. 

Pictures and Writing

 Mommy's Pumpkin.

Daddy's Pumpkin. Notice the penned decorations that Holly added.  She really didn't want to touch the pumpkin guts.  Messy mommy.

Trick or treating at the mall.

With mommy.

And with daddy.

Pumpkins outside.

In the dark!

Quick! Everyone in mommy's ever-shrinking lap.

Playing with magnets.

I think most of these are on the dishwasher now.

Big news!  Holly started writing out some letters last night.  Daddy called out H - O - L and Holly wrote them out.  She has a big bucket of crayons and colored pencils she loves to play with and she seems to prefer the colored pencils right now.  So civilized.  Not bad for a 2-1/2 year old.  She's totally getting it.

Family Picture

 

We made tons of progress on the house this weekend.  Mostly David, Saturday was a bust for me.  I woke up with a headache and it was making me queezy.  So I decided to take some tylenol and at the thought of swallowing pills sent me into a vomit frenzy.  That's the worst it's ever been.  After that I decided I had nothing left to lose so I tried again and got it down.  I just had to eat again within an hour.  Later I had indigestion and back pain so I was pretty much useless on Saturday.  Yesterday we got our lovely family picture done so I can make Christmas cards now.  David and Holly raked leaves. Got our grocery shopping done and picked up paint.  So the first coats in each of the rooms affected have been made.  Hooray!  I'll order Holly's furniture today.  This weekend we'll be able to put up Christmas decorations and by the time the furniture shows up the painting should be done.  That red in the kitchen took Keri and I three coats so I warned David about that.  It's worth it though, I still think red looks great in the kitchen.  The whole house could use touch ups, the bathroom needs to be repainted.



Lots to do...

David's been hard at work on Holly's room all week.  There's been mostly trimwork, filling and sanding going on.  He has a lot of plastic taped up in there now and is hoping to paint the primer and finish texturing tomorrow.  That's the plan anyways.  We're all hoping that the end is near because lots of other stuff needs to get done too.  All the sanding has kicked up some major dust so the entire interior needs a major scrubdown.  But there's no point in doing that until all the sanding is done because it will be back the next day.  I tried taking Holly outside to rake leaves but she got bored quickly with it, she even had her own rake.  I'll probably do it while she's napping tomorrow, otherwise who knows when we'll be able to do it.  Everything seems messy right now.  But when her room is done, we can move her kitchenette in there and then we'll have enough space to put up the Christmas tree.  I'm also hoping we can get a family picture in this weekend so I can order Christmas cards, there's just been no time.