May Happenings

Here's a little update from the month, I have more pictures on my camera, but don't want to download them right now (so you may never see them).

I spent my birthday* money on a window. Yes, it's totally worth it. Our laundry area was super dark, so I hired a window guy to come cut a hole in the wall and install a window. All the extra natural light is so awesome! (Thank you to my mom, mother-in-law, and Aunt Carroll for funding this project). But, as you can see, Plan A didn't work out (due to some electrical cords in the wall), so we centered the window, instead of putting it over the washer or dryer and having a larger space for a cabinet. The window looks great, but we still need to tape, texture, and paint the new drywall that we installed to cover up Plan A. When it's done, you'll get a picture.

David's parents came to visit last week. They were here a few days and we spent all day just enjoying having Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Laura with us. It was like Christmas for the kids. Rachel and I got sick and spent a lot of time sleeping, so I was grateful to have the extra help.

This was their first time meeting Rachel. We saw them 6 months ago before Thanksgiving and baby David was really shy around them the whole time. This time, he was much more outgoing and loved spending time with his "Papa" especially. 

This is a dress we got at a yard sale for Kathryn. She wants to wear a dress almost every day right now.

Rachel is 4 months old! She is very active now trying to roll over and reaching for toys. She's not content to sit and play in her swing anymore...though she does occasionally nap there still.

                                     

Her face lights up with a huge smile whenever she sees a familiar face (or anyone who gives her a big smile a little attention). She gets really excited whenever Mom comes around. She likes to coo and babble and "tell stories".

This weekend David starting working on our deck. It's rotted and decayed very badly in most areas. A while ago David actually fell through one of the boards. Today he and a friend ripped the whole thing out. We're only going to rebuild part of it, the section around the right side of the house where the door is. I'll keep you updated on that.

*I celebrated my 30th birthday this month, but let's not talk about that.

A (Not So) Brief Update

I've been meaning to post some pictures from Christmas but our other laptop (where I had the pictures stored) crashed two weeks ago and the hard drive was completely fried. Don't worry, I still have the pictures on my cell phone, so you'll see them eventually.

The kids have been back in school for two weeks but David has still been home because the college doesn't start classes until next Tuesday. He's been so helpful and it's been nice to be able to rest when I need it. David spent several days finishing up one of our big house projects. With the help of a good friend and his fancy power tools, David has successfully installed all the baseboards and door/window trims in our house. He also put up beadboard around Sarah's room (at 3 feet high) and the baby room (at 5 1/2 feet high). I love the way it looks! It's so nice to feel like everything is put back together again--our baseboards were pulled off over a year ago when we had the new carpet installed and we decided to upgrade from the plain, flat 1" stuff to something more modern and 4" tall. The next project will be painting all of that trim...but not for a few months.

I'm am growing larger everyday and recently hit an all-time high weight, even though I haven't gained as much as last time, I started out 15 pounds heavier. So, I feel huge and am ready for this baby to come...except that we're not totally prepared with the right car seats (to fit 5 seats in the van) or other things like that yet. My mom is coming out here next Thursday and will stay for a week. She will actually leave before my due date, but I'm really hoping (feeling pretty confident) that she won't miss the baby. Either way, having some help will be great, whether she's helping us prepare (making freezer dinners, etc.) or taking care of the other 4 kids while I take care of a newborn, I'm grateful for any aid I can get. I'm 37 weeks along now and I'll hit 38 weeks on Sunday-ish. We're planning another home birth as long as everything is going smoothly---and I hope and pray it does because the hospital here just seems so yucky to me.

I hope you are all having a wonderful 2012. Maybe my next post will be about our new baby. =)

P.S. Do you have any name suggestions for us? The kids have a name that they call her, but I am still undecided and don't have any middle names on a list either.
For first names, I prefer...
1. Very traditional names, or
2. Names that are part of our family history, or
3. Names of people we admire, and
4. Names with 2 syllables, (three syllable names are too long and always get shortened to nicknames, one syllable names often get lengthened when they are made into nicknames).

I don't want...
1. Ultra popular names (check out the top 10 names of 2011 for a list of names we won't use--at least not for a first name), or
2. Names that are too similar to Kathryn (Katie, Katelyn, Kaylynn, etc.), or
3. Names that don't translate well into Spanish (a kid whose parents both teach Spanish has a good chance of traveling abroad or living in a Spanish-speaking country during childhood, so having a compatible name is useful....my name is completely un-pronounceable in Spanish).

Okay, I think that's most of our my criteria. Middle names don't have to follow all the rules. So....any ideas?

November in Photos

This is how he gets cozy when he is watching a little movie.

He pulls up his special chair and arranges his favorite blanket (aka "deet-deet") on his lap every time.

Sarah's fall festival picture. She is wearing all of her "cowboy girl" gear from Grandpa:

Wrangler shirt and jeans and pink boots that light up.

When we bought our house last year everything was set up for wheelchair access. There was a really nice ramp in the garage that made it easy to move in. But, it took up too much space. When the weather got cold, David decided that he was tired of scraping ice off his car every morning. So, he took out the ramp (it was no small task) and built two steps in it's place. Now, we can fit both vehicles in the garage!

Our first (and only-so far) snowfall of the year.

They rolled giant snowballs to make a snowman, but I wouldn't go outside to stack them.

In fact, I took all of these pictures from inside. 

Yeah, I'm wimpy about the cold like that.

We set up the tree the Monday before Thanksgiving because

Grandpa and Grandma Wiseman were here.

We had so much fun when Grandpa, Grandma, and Laura came to visit!

We even got a semi-decent family photo out of it. =)

David has some amazing concentration skills. 

He's doing some editing while little Davey uses dad for a chair.

When Grandpa Chuck came for Thanksgiving he showed up with a full mustache and goatee. Kathryn thought he was scary and didn't believe he was the same Grandpa that she played with at the lake this summer. Then he shaved it off--they enjoyed watching that--and she declared him to be her real Grandpa after all. 

Thanksgiving dinner (Grandpa with a goatee). He made some awesome potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and pie. I made a sweet potato casserole and attempted to make rolls again (failed). 

Sunday morning before church (sans goatee), right before he left. The kids and I all loved having family come visit for the holiday. It was so nice to have the extra help around the house. The kids enjoyed playing games with their grandparents and sharing their talents (they were constantly drawing pictures for them or singing songs they had learned).

Blog trivia: how many times did you spot Davey's blanket in various photos in this post?

Birthdays and Moving

It's been a busy month. After returning from our trip to California we had just over a week to find a new place, pack and move out. We've been in this short term rental for a couple of weeks now and things are settling down. I'm still behind on the laundry - but what's new? I swear, I was just starting to get that all under control and had everything so well organized and then we had to move again. We're only here in this new place until mid-October at the latest because this house is being sold at public auction.

We found a house in our price range with 4 bedrooms all on one level and made an offer on it. After much price haggling, we've finally got a purchase agreement and we're hoping to close on the house by October 1st. Then, the first order of business is to paint and install new carpet. After that we'll move in.

Now, back to Joseph's birthday... let's start at the beginning.

August 8, 2006 - This little stinker took 4 hours to push out. =( He was 7lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long and had great lungs.

He also was rather jaundiced. Here he is getting a little natural sunlight (just for a few minutes) when he was a couple days old.

This is one of the best pictures we have of him between the ages of birth to about 4 months. Let 's just say that he didn't photograph well during those months for some reason...maybe because he was so colicky that if he wasn't crying when you took the picture he looked as though he would start crying at any moment. Poor kid. (Poor me, actually...I don't think I slept more than 3 hours at a time for a full 4 months).

By Christmas (4-5months), he was sleeping more, I was sleeping more, and he was getting a lot cuter too. =) I decided that maybe we would keep him after all.

6 months old -- look at those chubby cheeks and compare him to David -

Definitely brothers. (That's little David at 5 months)

Easter 2007 - 9 months old. Sarah is 13 months here.

November 2007 (I can't seem to find the files of pictures from his 1st birthday...I'll add those later if they show up).

January 2008

March 2008 (Easter)

June 2008. He got the smalled little scratch on his nose in June that year and picked at it every night while he was falling asleep. It would scab over, then he'd pick it off until the wound covered his whole nose. Bandages on his nose never lasted more than a minute, so we resorted to socks on his hands, with tape around his wrists to keep the socks on. It took a week with the socks to get the scab all healed - all in all, I think he had that wound for 2 full months. He still has a little scar there.

July 2008 - This is when Grandpa came to visit after Kathryn was born. I think it was the first time they ate spaghetti and it was so cute to see them eat it and try to say it.

September 2008

Christmas 2008

February 2009 (Don't ask me what Sarah is doing with that towel).

July 2009 - they discovered the chocolate syrup in Grandpa's fridge and he made that perfect little mustache all by himself while he tried to make chocolate milk and drink it.

August 2009 - 3rd birthday. This is a train cake...kinda hard to see in the picture, but my first attempt at a creative cake.

December 2009

May 2010 - that's his remote controlled car and a new shirt from Grandpa. I love how blue his eyes are -- too bad the picture quality is so poor.

Now, August 2010 - I can't believe he's four. Here's the whole story of his big day (we celebrated a day early, so we could celebrate Krista's birthday on the 8th. They share a b-day but both needed their own day).

Here's the birthday cake I made. Not your typical, fancy blogger fondant cake - but he liked it. That's regular, ol' made-from-scratch powdered sugar & cream cheese frosting.

Here's the poster that David drew using markers. It's a Wiseman family tradition to make a big poster for birthdays. As you can see, this year's theme was Thomas the Train.

On Joseph's big day we went to a huge "castle" park (the kind with wooden towers and bridges, etc.) Aunt Krista came too. Little David was glad to get some attention.

Joseph thought this park was awesome. There were so many new things to see and do. Next we went to feed the ducks and geese, then he got to open his presents. He got soooo many presents because we were at Grandma's house.

The other kids got something too, and that helped them to not be so jealous.

The doll in the lower corner is not one of Joseph's gifts...just thought I should clarify that. =) He got Lincoln Logs, Cars, new Buzz Lightyear shoes and........ (drum roll please)......

A train track set complete with a Thomas engine, of course. =) Grandma and Grandpa had it all set up and did a fun reveal at the end of all the other gifts. Naturally, it was the favorite gift and he quickly forgot about everything else.

In the afternoon everyone went to see Toy Story 3 (except for me and the napping babies). Then he had his birthday day dinner and got stage fright when it was time to blow out the candles. He did NOT like having everyone sing to him while he sat there as the center of attention. He literally crawled under the table in the middle of the Happy Birthday song and refused to blow out the candles until Sarah and Daddy did it with him.

Since I'm posting this on September 8th, (maybe) I have to throw in a picture of little David, because he is 6 months old today!