Bed rest

I've been on bed rest for 6 weeks now.  I still have at least 3 weeks to go until we're at the very bare minimum to have the best possible outcome.  Its another 8 weeks until I'm considered ok to go into labor at any time.  That's a long time to keep sitting and laying down.

Thankfully, I have the ability to move some.  I can sit in the recliner and watch tv with Ethan and I can make simple meals and I can take Alex to school.  There's a lot that I need and want to do but its all just sitting there.  I have some of the fabric for the baby's quilt but its not cut yet.  I've been working on crocheting baby jackets and hats too.  The first one I did was so small, there's no way it could fit a normal newborn so I'll donate it to the NICU.  The second one will be for my forthcoming baby niece at the end of May.  Ethan took off with the crochet hook I need for the hat so I'm still working on that.

I'm also figuring out knitting.  I made a very cute duck hat with some super soft baby yarn I found on clearance awhile ago. Youtube has been my best friend as I try to remember how to cast on and purl and cast off.  Just the basics but I can't seem to remember how to do the beginning by the time I get to the end.

Alex is loving school.  His math teacher wants to put him in Algebra in sixth grade but I'm still undecided if that's the best thing for him.  Ethan has moved out of the crib and is sleeping on just his crib mattress for now as we try to prepare him for the baby.  Eventually, we'll get a twin size mattress for Ethan to use and put the crib back up for the baby in the same room.

Baby is growing well.  His heart is just fine, thank goodness.  I only have to see my dr's every two weeks instead of every week now.  The pediatric cardiologist will still monitor the heart but the chances of anything being wrong now are very slim.  As long as he'll stay put a while longer, things should all be fine.

Project updates

Sadly, the projects still aren't done.  I lost all momentum when the curtains that started it all turned out to be too short.  So I need to make more and I was pretty burned out of making 10 foot curtains.  Then it turned out I was pregnant and all my energy and motivation was sucked clean dry.

Dustin is now working on Ethan's table and chairs for Christmas and the bench will be recovered soon.  I told Dustin that it could be my Christmas present.  I want new fabric on it but don't want to do it.

The pregnancy is going well this week.  Last week I had a small procedure to prevent pre-term labor and the two weeks before that, we found out that one of my clotting issues can cause a heart block in the baby.  My pregnancies are a barrel of laughs let me tell you.

But!  We found out we are having another boy!  Alex and Ethan will enjoy having a little brother to play with, I'm sure.  We can use all the cute clothes we still have from Ethan and I can start looking for quilt patterns.  Ethan loves his blankie and wants to take it everywhere.

I was doing quite well with sewing projects for Christmas.  My mom gave me her old Pfaff 130 and I have a back-up Singer from my mother-in-law.  The Pfaff is a bit easier for me to get the tension right so its become my primary machine.  At least until one of the belts broke.  The problem with having a 60 yr old semi-industrial sewing machine is that some parts aren't available anymore.  I contacted my repair shop and it looks like it will be pretty inexpensive to replace the belt, if they can find one.  So, I'm going to break out the Singer tonight after bedtime and see if I can get the tension figured out.

This is the slow season for Dustin's work so he's been home and working on projects quite a bit.  He took some time off last week while I was on bed rest and has come to realize that he's not the stay at home dad type.  The shed is nearly organized and he's gotten some great overhead storage in the garage set up.

Alex is loving school.  I can't believe he'll be in Junior High next year!  It sneaks up on you, that's for sure.  Ethan learns a new word almost every day. He loves to watch Woody (Toy Story) and Truck (Cars).  He likes Momo (Elmo) too.  He stacks anything.  The other day, he stacked all his shoes in a tower, knocked them over and then became upset because his tower was gone.  Silly boy.

Overall, we're doing well and enjoying life in Las Vegas.  Maybe next year we'll start some home remodeling projects...

Projects around the house

I go through phases with projects. Sometimes I'm so excited about a ton of different ideas that I can't wait to get started on any of them and sometimes I look around and think "yeah, that fireplace looks ok with those cabinets for the garage in front of it."  Yes, really.  It keeps Ethan out of the rocks that inexplicably live in the fireplace.

Usually the summer is too hot to even think about projects as most of them must be done outside to prevent spray paint on your floors or paint stripping fumes from killing your family.  I usually put anything on hold until cooler weather.  Until I found two Pottery Barn drapery panels for $27 each.  They just happened to be the right length to cover my kitchen windows from the ceiling all the way to the floor, 108 inches.  They are lined and a beautiful chocolate-colored weave.  I love them.

And this posed a problem.  I can't afford to go buy more panels at $107 each and I needed a total of 8 to completely cover the wall of windows.  We love our wall of windows  but it lets in so much sun and heat that the kitchen/family room always feel like an oven.  Dustin's solution was aluminum foil over the upper windows.  My solution is to have drapes that fall from the top all the way to the floor.  My solution is utterly more expensive so it had been on the back burner.  Until the PB deal.  So, I called a friend and we went off to Home Fabrics which is probably the coolest fabric store ever.  So many cheap fabrics!  I found a pattern and a solid and bought 17 yards to make the rest of the panels.

Wait, but now I needed to get my old Pfaff 130 sewing machine cleaned and oiled as it hadn't been used in a few years.  I have another machine but Ethan so helpfully lost the thread spindle and I haven't found a replacement part yet.  So, I took the machine down to a local store for maintenance.  Then I decided to make the curtains not only lined but blackout as well.  That means a trip to Jo-Ann's for fabric.

The other pickle?  The wall is 200 inches.  I wanted to make my own curtain rod following this tutorial.  But they don't sell galvanized pipe at almost 20 ft at Lowe's.  I haven't thought of a solution yet.

That project led to a trip to Salvation Army and finding a super cute toddler table and two chairs that Ethan loved.  It had flowers and unicorns all over it and a pretty terrible paint job so I decided to use paint stripper to remove it.  I'll repaint and then decorate it how I want.

We also went to Deseret Industries and Dustin found a great lounge sofa for $10.  It just needed to be re-upholstered.  Do you see where this is going?  Yes, the lounge sofa is now sitting in the back of Dustin's truck until I get to it.  I don't even know where to put the thing but its going to look awesome when its done.

In the meantime, its really hot here.  It has cooled down to 95 the last few days with some rain but now its over 105 again.  And stripping paint is really hard, especially with a helpful toddler.  But if the table is half as cute in real life as it is in my mind, it will all be worth it.

Right? 

Time keeps marching on.  We planted some grass seed in the backyard after some friends gratefully took all the rocks off our hands.  It's still a little sparse but hopefully it will be ready to be played on in another month.  We're also learning about plants, trees and flowers to make our yard beautiful but drought tolerant.  Those things don't really go together very well.  I want flowers that need lots of water and Dustin wants cacti. 

Alex turned 10 last month.  We had a family party at Cici's Pizza and that went over really well.  He was given some new Wii games along with clothes, cooking lessons and money that he's used to buy more Skylander characters.  Unfortunately he also created a Facebook account with his stepmom and didn't tell me so he lost all electronic media for a week and had to write some apology letters and an essay.

I headed up to St. George on Saturday with Mom and Dad.  Dustin's cousin had a baby shower so I went to represent the family.  After a little misunderstanding with the time, it was fun.  Apparently if you send a Facebook invite to someone in a different time zone, it automatically changes the time to what it would be in the other time zone.  Just a little PSA.

Mom and Dad came with me to visit with Gary and Diane and then we hit up one of my favorite stores, Tai Pan Trading.  Man, I could spend hours there.  I like to make a circle of the whole store before going back through and picking up what I really want.  We didn't have that much time there as the day was getting long and poor Ethan hadn't napped much.  He was a trooper though.  After TPT, we stopped by the bread outlet to get some Grandma Sycamore's bread.  It is seriously the best bread I've ever had and you can't find it in Las Vegas. I have to stock up when I can.

Ethan had his 15 month check up last week.  Two shots and 22lb 13oz and 31 inches.  He's at the 25th percentile but I think he's huge.  Until he gets next to his cousin Tyler who is 5 months younger and the same size.  Ethan has about 10 words now and understands a lot more.  He can put his clothes in his laundry basket and put his dirty diaper in the trash and he knows what "No" means.  Doesn't mean he listens every time but he's getting better.  He also has almost all his teeth!  He loves the water so we'll be doing some swim lessons this summer once the outdoor pool closest to our house opens up.

I've been trying to find the time to write more but its hard to do.  I sit at the computer and my mind freezes up so I play some games and check my forums and then my time is up and Ethan is pulling me away from the desk.  I do little bits and pieces when I think of things so eventually something will be finished.

Dustin recently installed two ceiling fans for me.  They look great and help keep the temperature down.  Next step will be to install one in our bedroom and fix the electrical in Ethan's room.  He has a ceiling fan with a light on the switch but also has a plug on a switch too so we need to separate them.  By "we" I mean Dustin.  He's a good worker.  He was enjoying a day off work when I went to St. George and when we got home I noticed lots of changes.  The changing table was put away, the living room rearranged, some light switches were switched to rockers instead of switches and the closet door pulls in our room were changed out from ugly brass plated to nice oil-rubbed bronze.  He works so hard for us.  The house is slowly becoming what we envisioned.

Pics of the new house

Here are some pictures of the new house. We were forced to finish the unpacking to about 95% for Ethan's birthday so here you go! It definitely has the lived in look.

The entry. The living room is to the right of the front door with the formal dining room to the left. We're using it as an office space as the kitchen has a space for a small dining table and we don't need more room yet.

The family room is behind the living room. We've tried to barricade the fireplace until we can get some glass doors or something but Ethan still enjoys pulling the baskets out and playing with the Wii games we keep in there.




The kitchen is behind the dining room. The eat-in area works perfectly for our hutch and little table but its a little tight when we have more then the 4 of us for dinner. It doesn't happen often so its ok for now. The kitchen storage is actually less then at the old house but I love the island. Alex wants us to build him his own kitchen but I told him that he could use mine to practice cooking. Ethan has discovered the fun of drawers and cabinets so we've got child locks on the ones with breakable or dangerous stuff in them. The others won't hurt him, its just annoying to pick up the same tupperware lids all day.

As you can see we haven't replaced the tv that was stolen during the move yet. Very soon though. The little one from Ethan's room looks pretty sad in the family room.

The laundry room is off the hallway and leads to the garage. Its actually a pretty good size and there's a far bit of space across from the washer/dryer that I want to put another pantry to store food storage. There's some cabinets I want and I want cabinets above the washer and dryer too.

Alex's room is straight down the hall. Its a bit bigger then his other one but we decided not to put the futon in there again to give him more space. He's not quite done unpacking yet.

Ethan's room is across from the bathroom (no picture) and is much bigger then his old one. His closet has some shelves and stuff that came with the house.

Here's the master bedroom. There's two closets, a walk-in to the left of the door and a wall closet for Dustin parallel to the bed. Its a lot bigger then our bedroom at the old house and its even big enough for a reading area to the left!

The master bath is huge. The soaking tub and separate shower are sooo nice. After trying a few different cleaning products on the glass shower, a squeegee works the best to keep the glass clean.

There's not a lot of cabinet space though. I have big plans to redo this bathroom and the kitchen but that's a ways off. The yard needs work too. The backyard is rocks and we want grass so that will probably be the first project before it gets hot.

So, there's the house. We love it!

Ethan also celebrated his first birthday on January 31st. We had a small party for him on Saturday with his Utah family and a small party for him on Wednesday with his Las Vegas family. He enjoyed his cakes and loved his birthday presents. We got a package today with a gift from his Aunt Mandy and Uncle Joe and Ethan was very anxious to play with his new toy.

We've moved!

I'll take some pictures once we're unpacked a bit more but we closed on our house on December 28th and we're all moved in! It was a roller coaster there at the end but we got the keys and were able to move two loads of stuff (I didn't realize we had so much) before we were able to catch a flight to Salt Lake City to be in Brigham City for Dustin's dad. He was called to be the bishop of his ward and we were so glad to be able to be there for the announcement and the setting apart.

Alex is still attending his old school and we intend to keep him there through the end of the school year. The drive is quite a bit farther but he'll be able to attend the cool field trip in May.

Ethan is almost walking. He cruises along furniture at a pretty quick pace and is finally adjusting to the new house. He had a rough two weeks during the packing, traveling and unpacking but he's back to normal now. I can't believe he turns 1 in three weeks! He's still the cheery little guy he's always been even if he has a little more attitude now then before. He likes to "help" take the tupperware lids out of their drawer and "help" take the laundry out of the washer. He's discovered all sorts of neat things live behind cabinet doors and tries to kill himself multiple times a day. I'll be buying child safety locks tomorrow and installing them.

Christmastime!

This year we decided to go all out on Christmas. We are going to spend the most money we'll probably (hopefully) even spend on a Christmas.

We are scheduled to close on our house December 23rd!

I hope to never move at Christmastime again. Usually we put up the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving until New Year's day but I'm not decorating while trying to pack. It's counterproductive and sounds like a nightmare with a very inquisitive baby crawling around.

Speaking of Ethan, he has started to stand and let go for the briefest of seconds. He doesn't topple over as much and instead lowers himself to the ground. He has a knack for knowing what he shouldn't play with and makes a beeline for it. He also doesn't say any words yet but I practice Mama and Dada with him every day. He likes to imitate weird noises though and growls at me when he thinks I'm being mean. We could have gotten a puppy and spent less money.

Alex's teacher is back from maternity leave so he is adjusting to her. Class is going well and his GATE program is taking a very cool field trip in April to a camp where they have gourmet chefs that make macaroni and cheese for lunch. I didn't know mac 'n' cheese was gourmet. Also, his pop culture education is sorely lacking. He asked for some potato chips and I handed him the Princess Leia BBQ. He asked me how a princess lays a bbq?

Packing. Packing is the bane of my existence. I want to pack everything but then we just pull it out again because we are, in fact, still using pots and pans and towels. But they are easy to pack and make such a difference in how empty the house looks. The knickknacks are harder because you can pack 50 of them and its like they multiply and replenish the shelf! Pictures are hard too because if I take all of them down, we're stuck looking at ugly empty walls for three weeks.

Wait. Is it really three weeks until Christmas? Crap.