We officially have green grass. New countdown on closing day!

Some friends of ours gave us their boxes since they just finished moving...therefore  our entire living room is full of chaos:) The boxes were neatly stacked, but when you have a 1yr old and 4yr old who love boxes this is what happens! Baby D was trying to crawl through the maze of boxes haha. I've since picked them up again bc I can't handle that big of mess too long!! 

Breyton and I have started packing though and we will be alllll week. Moving out day is still this Saturday...closing on the house is delayed till September 6th though. We will be living at our parents about an hour away for a week. Praying closing does not get delayed even more because I'm too excited/anxious to wait any longer than that. 11 more days!

We still go out to the house about everyday to see what's been accomplished and just spend a little time there:) There are definitely so close to being done if they can just wrap up all these last minute details of course!

Anyways, today they laid sod so we officially have a green yard and grass to run around barefoot in!

We also took Breyton and baby D to their (4 & 1 year) checkups at the doctor today. First time taking two kids to get shots at the same time. Let me tell you that is no fun! I just thought taking a newborn/baby to get shots was bad...nothing compared to a 4 yr old! I had a knot in my stomach the whole time leading up to it bc Breyton kept asking questions about what they were gonna do next:/ He was having such a good time doing all the other stuff it was hard to let him down at the end of course! At this age they can remember very good and he will be milking this for days I'm sure:)

It's hard to believe next time we go to that doctor it will be for Lyla's newborn checkup! Managing 3 kids there should be quite fun haha. Can't wait though!

Neither can Breyton..he is tired of waiting on her lol. Almost every picture Breyton draws he says to save it for Lyla and both boys picked her this flower.

Mason and I were picking the day we would guess that Lyla would arrive...just to see who wins of course! Masons pick is September 28th and mine is October 1st...Or just the first week of October. We will see if either of us is even close! I already love fall so much and waiting on her arrival makes this year so much better!

A quick pic of our freshly laid lawn..(all the rock on the left is one of our drainage beds to re route the water around the house):

That little boy is sooo happy when he is free to be running around. Almost there!

Pregnancy tracker: Week 31

Here is a 31 week shot of the belly this time around!

 

And here is a comparison pic from 31 weeks preggo with Breyton...

Size of baby: Pineapple.

Total Weight gain: 18.5 lbs

Maternity Clothes: Pretty much wearing all stretchy waste bands..as in a lot of skirts and comfy shorts!

Stretch marks: Had one show up on my boob this week:/ Never got any with Breyton...Guess I can't complain though wont be too noticeable.

Sleep: baby D has been teething all week! He has been up every night sometimes for 2 hrs:( I have been so tired all week! His 5th tooth finally broke through and I can see the 6th is about to.  Ready for more than 5-6 hrs of broken sleep.....keep wishing right;)

Food cravings: Fruit, pizza, pancakes.

Symptoms: Ok this is the week I've officially started feeling kinda miserable. I thought I had a few more weeks to go..seems liked it kicked in about 34 weeks with Breyton. Probably chasing two kiddos around-along with million other things- is contributing to the early start. Been having Braxton Hicks(practice contractions) as well!

Best moment this week: Seems like we kept getting bad news this week..not about Lyla!! Just delays with house and drama with dhs and baby D. However, still thankful for so much...and I'm just another week closer to having my daughter here:))

Gender: Girl

Movement: I can definitely tell she is growing! To the point where I can tell there is distinctly her bum sticking out or a knee/elbow during her acrobatics.

What I miss: I really really do love being pregnant and have enjoyed this pregnancy...but I think the 'I miss being skinny or normal' lol has been strong this week. Getting limited on clothing options, stomach feels soo stretched, back pain beginning to worsen. I know wah wah. 

Oddly enough I say this now bc I swear a few months after I'm back to the old me I'll talk about how I miss being pregnant. Just one of those things!!!

What I'm looking forward to: When we ever get to move!!! I desperately want a yard again for the boys...even with having a pool we have cabin fever.

Livin on love:)

As we've had this opportunity to build our dream home and approach moving in I've been reminiscing on our humble beginnings:) and just looking back at the building, trailer, home, and apartment that got us here. 

Mason and I got married at the ripe old age of 19. Therefore we had a lot of love, but little money and no credit. Whenever your that crazy in love no one is going to convince you waiting would be better. I can thankfully say 6 years in I wouldn't have waited, but maybe got married sooner if possible:)

We ended up fixing up two back rooms in an old building in Shawnee. Yes, a building not a home or apartment. Just an ugly building that was right off a Main Street. How did this building become an option? My mom has owned a consignment boutique in Shawnee for over 10 years and this building happened to be owned by her leaser and had been vacant for a long time.

 Except for all the mice that inhabitated it.

 We had planned for me to open and run an extension of my moms store next door when we first moved in, but life happened:)

We had two small rooms in the back and no kitchen, no washer/dryer, and no shower at first. We had to drive out to our parents or to a friends home who lived nearby each evening to shower for the first 6 weeks until my dad installed a small one. I had a  2ft by 3ft area with a small sink, hot plate, and toaster oven to cook with. You would be surprised how much you can cook with just those options:) I carried our dishes in a tub next door to wash in my mom's building which had a kitchen nook. I still remember we were woke up one night by a loud shrieking which turned out to be a baby mouse that had been caught in a trap. If you know me then this was one of the saddest sights ever...I think we had to remove all traps because I was scarred by seeing this poor mouse suffering:/ We managed all this for 8 months before it was time to move!

Wish I could say we really moved on up at that point and at the time it sort of felt like we had. Our 'new to us' abode actually had a kitchen and full bathroom. 

For the next 1.5 years we lived in an old deserted trailer home that belonged to my granny and it was from the 70s. It was full to the brim of junk/storage. Therefore we started the process of clearing it out and remodeling some. Pulling out nasty orange shag carpet and vinyl flooring to replace it with new flooring and cleaning the nasty mess the trailer had become from sitting so long and yes more mice...cleaning mouse poop off every surface and eliminating them before moving in this time...yuck. 

Finally got the place clean although we were surrounded by floor to ceiling wood paneling the place was liveable:) Where the floor met the wall you could actually see slivers of daylight come through cracks. No joke.

 I still had no oven because the old one in there didn't work, but the stove top did! We gratefully had hand me down washer/dryer that shook the whole trailer every time you did laundry.

 Not to mention all of our very classy neighbors. Including finding out our direct next door neighbor was a registered sex offender. Many of friends can remember some 'trailer trash bashes' (as was fitting to call them) hosted at that place:)

Turns out you don't take many pics of your living space when it's just a building or trailer. I have this one pic of all the lovely paneling in the trailer after we got new carpet put in. Fancy huh?

 

In the time we lived there I became pregnant and Mason applied for Edmond PD. An officer from Edmond PD even came to do Masons 'home visit' while living in this trailer. Really surprised he made it past that point in the hiring process haha! We had a lot of laughs in that place though!

Just a few weeks before my due date Mason found out he got the job! 2 weeks after he started police academy Breyton made his entrance into the world while we were under contract for our first real house. When Breyton was 5 weeks old we made the move from Shawnee to Edmond. And yes that means Breyton was born into the world as trailer trash. Luckily he has no recollection of those first few weeks of life:) 

Our first home was an amazing blessing and a gorgeous step up from previous abodes. Everything, beautiful, fully functional, and most importantly no mice! I will never forget the memories made in that house where we watched B grow up in for his first 3 years.

Saying good bye to our first home!

One thing about making the sacrifices to live where we did is we had all that time to save up quite a bit of money to put forward to our home.

Out of nowhere God led us to an opportunity for Mason to do security for some nice apartments and in a matter less than two weeks went from having no plans to sell our house/move to putting our home on the market and immediately having to move into the apartments. Our home sold quickly and the apartments have been nice while they've lasted! We planned to live in the apartments for close to 2 years at least before beginning to build. Then we got baby D and I became pregnant again:) We made it close to one year here haha since we very quickly are outgrowing the apartment life. 

Here we are 11 months later and less than two weeks out from moving to our dream home. I wouldn't change a thing about where we started to where we are. I mean I probably wouldn't be near as grateful for this future home without some pretty humble beginnings. I can't wait to spend (hopefully) the next 20 years not moving again and raising our children in our new home!

Update on house: Good news!

Well we got good news on the house!!! After a very stressful long week we got the 2nd opinion we needed...so things can still move forward with the house! There is still minor foundation problems that are going to be corrected through the builder and an outside company before we can close.

 Our home sits on a down hill slope so we get a ton of water run off...that compiled with the very excessive(yes blessed) rain fall amounts this year led to foundation problems. Thankfully the foundation problems can be repaired and should not continue to cause problems structurally...as long as they get enough drainage solutions worked out for the property. Most of that should be resolved next week!

Despite the stress in the uncertainty I just really felt like God had led us to this location and property and somehow things would work out still. I knew even if the worst case scenario happened and all our plans crumbled that God was still in control...so we had no choice but to trust in his plan. Everything seems to be smoothing out now and we are definitely thanking God for this new perspective, a lesson learned, and ultimately for taking care of us! 

Truth be told without all this excessive rain (unlike any other summer before) we may not have been aware of all the drainage issues until next spring when it was too late to have the builder correct them. Yes, the rain caused issues/defects with foundation, but it also may have saved us  from being blindsided down the road.

God wants to be a part in every detail of our lives if we allow Him. Though we had allowed a lot of fear to creep into our hearts this week about the outcome I know ultimately we have a God we can turn to for guidance and peace in all circumstances!

In other news about the house it is obviously almost done! Everything inside is pretty much complete except for flooring (carpet/wood). Yesterday they were installing kitchen backsplash and appliances...the kitchen is definitely my favorite room in the house. 

Then they have clean up to do and final touches here and there. Monday they lay sod in front yard and finish wood beams on the front porch then outside will be done as well. We close two weeks from today! So excited:))

On top of getting good news on the house today I am so thankful for this perfect weather. The boys and I enjoyed a picnic at the park this evening:)

My handsome little man still hanging out and eating with mom long after big bro was off playing!

 

        Swinging:) 

Nursery is painted:)... and other life updates!

All kinds of madness has been happening this week. A lot of it to do with our new house. Short version is we've had a near perfect experience with building a house until now. Of course things pop up when we are about 2 weeks out from closing!

 

Hoping and praying soooo hard that the problems turn out to be minor ones and everything can still move forward....but until we get some 2nd opinions(and shell out the extra cash that requires) we are kind of just hanging by a thread it feels like. I hate the uncertainty, but trying to not to focus on that. Everything could still move ahead perfectly, so we just pray.....and wait for the professional's to tell us. I won't go into all the details because it would be too long/complicated, however, once I get some news good or bad I'll be updating.

 

Before all this started unfolding we had the boy's birthday party which went well! Plus, something I've been so excited about got accomplished....painting Lyla's nursery of course:)

My amazing in-laws did us a huge favor and came up to paint her room! We have had so much on our plate lately, so it was definitely a blessing that Mason didn't have to go spend a day painting her room himself. It turned out great and can't wait to see the carpet and everything else get in the room!

 

Picture doesn't show true color very well since it was taken with my phone...plus there was no electricity in her room and shade outside the window. It's beautiful though!

 

 

 

 

On to the boys birthday party this past week, so here's the few pics I can post from Breyton and D's double birthday party!

 

 

This is the first year I didn't buy a cake, but made it myself. I chose to make it to save money because obviously you can't buy a cake already made for $5! Anyways, of course ended up being extra work and clean up on a already packed full day.....still glad I did it though and probably will make myself in future years. With 3 kiddos birthdays a year I know they will need to be low key and on a budget:)

Both boys had so much fun and in the end that's what its all about! Still hard to believe Breyton is 4!

                                                                      Big smiles!

                                                          Blowing out his candles!

 

Party  favors~ Dino eggs!

 

Pretty much all the other pictures have baby D in them, so I can't share them:( He will be one August 24th and that is so hard to believe as well. Time is always flying by!

 

 

And here is the boys being ornery in Walmart today. They both wanted to push the cart....and I wonder why any trip to the store takes up so much time! When your a mom just trying to get an errand accomplished sometimes they just have to win. Pick your battles, pick your battles I remind myself. The two of them were meant for each other though. It is always fun to watch them play together:) I hope they have a lifetime of rough housing and laughter in their future....I can't imagine their lives without each other! Love them both so much!

 

Pregnancy tracker: Week 33

We've been packing and moving so no chalkboard pic...it's lost somewhere in the mountain of things we moved.

Size of baby: Durian fruit. Whatever that even is! She is about 17-18.5 inches long and 4.5-5.5 lbs!

Total Weight gain: 19.5 lbs. I didn't gain much this week bc I have worked my butt of all week packing, moving, and sweating lol.

Maternity Clothes: Sometimes.

Stretch marks: Not this week.

Sleep: Ha it's been such a busy week. Very little rest to be had!

Food cravings: Fruit, cereal, milk, pizza, cucumber.

Symptoms: I can tell she is growing and running out of room. Her movements stretch far to my sides and every part of my torso this week lol. Braxton hicks and growing! I'll spare you the other symptoms haha!

Best moment this week: Being finished moving out of apartment. One step closer to our house..though so much work ahead!!

Gender: Girl

Movement: Really big movements this week. She sticks her elbow out really far on my right side all throughout the day! You can just see the pointed ball shape sticking out and rolling around on the outside. Freaks Mason out;) Funny thing is she never does it on the left pretty much only on the far right towards my back almost.

What I miss: Laying on my stomach or back.

What I'm looking forward to: We moved out of the apartment this week. Saying goodbye wasn't too hard with so much to look forward to! It took over 14 hrs of constant work to get that apartment cleared out and cleaned...hardest I've probably worked in one day non stop. Lyla and I were worn out. Definitely looking forward to being in our home next week!!! Plus baby showers are getting close:)

Oh and two more diy projects are finished. Here is a sort of before...started with an old cedar chest that was dark wood with black leather top:

I painted it off white and recovered it...finished product is a window seat for underneath Lyla's bedroom window. The detailing matches the vanity I bought separately quite well!

Then this is a pottery barn knock off growth chart for the kids! That way we can keep track of how they grow without making marks in the house somewhere.

Pregnancy tracker: Week 32

Size of baby: large squash 

Total Weight gain: 19 lbs 

Maternity Clothes: Here and there!

Stretch marks: None other than the small one I got a week or two back.

Sleep: Still not getting good sleep, but oh well! 

Food cravings: Fruit, cereal, milk, sandwiches.

Symptoms: Braxton hicks, feeling more and more pressure or heaviness, and just a growing belly!

Best moment this week: The uncomfortableness is growing with each week....but really still enjoying being pregnant most of the time.  I just love feeling her move!

Gender: Girl

Movement: Lots of hiccups and movement. 

What I miss: Laying on my back or stomach.

What I'm looking forward to: Baby showers are coming up in a few weeks, maternity pictures, and moving into new house in less than two weeks!

Pregnancy tracker: Week 30

I cheated since I'm really 31.5 weeks in this photo..but I keep forgetting to do them... so I figured it doesn't really matter bc I won't remember that later on! Ha

Size of baby: Cucumber- which is just weird and doesn't even make sense. Clearly they must be comparing the length..but I haven't seen too many 16 inch cucumbers lol.

Total Weight gain: 17.5 lbs gained thus far!

Maternity Clothes: Here and there!

Stretch marks: Not really..with Breyton I never got any stretch marks except for my belly button ring piercing got stretched a little and kind of had a stretch mark by it. Anyways it seems that same one is reappearing~ as in its back to being more purple instead of faded.

Sleep: Depends on baby D from week to week. I always get up twice bc I have to pee..really need a bigger bladder! Ha

Food cravings: Pretty much the same! Fruit, milk, cereal.

Symptoms: I just realized I've never gotten the 'linea nigra' line this time around. I had that line on the lower half of my belly with Breyton probably from 25-27 weeks on...this time there isn't even the slightest sign of one appearing. And my belly button still hasn't fully popped out. Kind of fun to see the differences in pregnancies!

Best moment this week: My amazing 
In-laws painted Lyla's room for us this week. I can't thank them enough since we had so much else going on! What a relief to have something else done!

Gender: Girl

Movement: Lots of movement as always this week and tons of hiccups!!! She has them so often..usually about 11 at night she has them for the 3rd time and they can almost be annoying when I'm trying to sleep!

What I miss: About the same stuff..for the most part I'm just cherishing being pregnant these last weeks because I know it's going soo fast!

What I'm looking forward to: Watched our kitchen conpletely come together in the new house this week. I can say I'm definitely looking forward to cooking in the new kitchen and having all the storage!! 

Pregnancy tracker: Week 29

Size of baby: Acorn squash...About 15.2-16.7 inches, 2.5-3.8 lb.

Total Weight gain: About 16.5-17 lbs 

Maternity Clothes: Less and less of my regular clothes are fitting. Shirts are getting shorter and shorts are getting to snug:) I will not be buying maternity clothes at this point though, so ill make due till the end with what I got!

Stretch marks: no

Sleep: Baby D has been sick and teething so he has been waking up more at night. If I ever made myself get in bed before 11 then I might get some sleep...however that is my 'alone' time and there is so much I want to accomplish before we move!

Food cravings: Fruit, yogurt, cereal, pizza....pretty much all food. I've had the munches major this week!!!

Symptoms: Starting to get slightly uncomfortable finding positions to sleep and it's hard to roll over or get up with this belly:) 

Best moment this week: Still feeling pretty good..and I know that wont last much longer. Plus one week closer to meeting Lyla!

Gender: Girl

Movement: Lots of big movement still and hiccups daily!

What I miss: Occasionally miss laying on my stomach or back still! I also can't hardly cross my legs when sitting at this point bc I'm carrying so low my belly gets in the way now lol. 

What I'm looking forward to: The boys double birthday party is this coming weekend and I'm looking forward to all the excitement for them. Also, partly looking forward to getting it over with haha bc it's my last big thing I need to plan before the move.

All the kiddos shirts my super talented friend made:)

Updates on house building and DIY projects.

The hubby and I have been working our butts off on finishing up our DIY projects. 

Since believe it or not we are down to 3 weekends left before we move into the new house! One of those we will be having Breyton and D's double birthday party, so really leaves us with 2 weekends to wrap everything up. My right arm is pretty much falling off from painting so much the past 2 days. I can hardly lift it and it feels dead. Hoping I can use it again by tomorrow since I kind of prefer having two arms!

The hubby had quite a few troubles with the wood putty on our table, so it delayed the finishing of it. Also, he had to cut the wood for and build two benches. Anyways today he finally got to apply the stain! It looks so good, so I'm proud of him:) All that is left is applying the polyurethane top coats to the table and bench to protect the stain and make the dining table 'wipe able'. He will do that the next week we are in Shawnee and then it's complete therefore we will have a place to eat dinner as a family when we move.

And yes he built two benches...one is kind of messed up though lol...the other is perfect at least. Long story short his grandpa has these old antique 'rosé back' chairs in his barn that he said we could have to refinish. They are pretty old vintage chairs, so of course I said yes. Therefore we will have a bench on one side and 5 chairs(3 for one side and 2 for heads of table). I've got to pick out fabric and we will recover the seats and restain them. 

I know another project, right!? 

Main goal is just to have the seats recovered before we move, so we can sit in them. and refinishing them may have to wait till down the road! We are pretty spent on time these days.

While Mason built the bench and stained the table I painted Lyla's entire vanity, mirror, window seat, picture frames, and other wall decor. All in 100+ degree heat. We both smelled/felt/looked pretty bad by the end of the day to say the least! Feels good to have her room stuff done. I just get more and more excited to see it all come together. Now if I can get the paint out of my hair B so graciously put in!!

Here's a pic of some angel wings for one display on her wall.

A few of the other random vintage frames and mirror we've picked up super cheap.

I had already covered the vanity and seat so no pics of them...but I will post pics on here when her room is complete!!!

We immediately left Shawnee and drove straight to our new house because our builder called last minute and needed us to come meet with the company laying the sod.

The exciting part was they had finished painting the inside of our house!! We got to see all the paint and trim colors come together. It truly looked so amazing and I am so thankful for this opportunity to design the inside of our home. The inside is almost complete-Friday they bring out counter tops-then we just have fixtures and flooring left pretty much!

Mason will still go out and paint Lyla's room sometime in the next week or so. 

Then all painting will be done...FOREVER!! Haha maybe not quite, but my goal is to not paint anything for a long while after all this.

2012 was such a hard year with many trials and God is always so faithful when we trust in his timing. God has really blessed us in 2013 and I'm not taking any of it for granted...

especially the two new additions he has blessed us with! Can't wait to be a family of 5 in our home!!!

Pregnancy tracker: Week 28

Not sure why I have been a slacker, but here I am almost 30 weeks and have not taken any chalkboard pics in a few weeks. Oh well! This is a random shot of my belly from my viewpoints I suppose lol.

 And here is a pic of me standing in Lyla's (unfinished) room in the new house!

Size of baby: Eggplant

Total Weight gain: 16lbs is the total currently.

Maternity Clothes: On occasion...mostly stretch regular clothes.

Stretch marks: no

Sleep: Still getting around 5-6 hours a night if I'm lucky. Between being woke up when mason comes home from work, having to pee, and baby D waking at 6 am that's about all I can manage!

Food cravings: Lots of fruit still, potatoes, and milk! ***So I came back to edit and add that it's pretty neat about the craving milk thing... I just read my 'all about week 29' thing and this is an excerpt: "...because babies bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day." Guess my body was telling me what it needed before I even knew:)

Symptoms: Mostly just a wiggly little girl in my tummy:) Though twice this week when we were in the car for over an hour I felt a little car sick-which never happens to me- so it must be pregnancy.

Best moment this week: Just feeling her move so often as a continuos reminder that she's doing good...feel very blessed!

Gender: Girl

Movement: She has the hiccups daily still...then one night I was watching her move in my belly and she kicked right where my belly button is making it pop out for a minute then it went back. Lol It was rather funny at the time:) Strange almost that my belly button hasn't fully popped out yet because I'm pretty sure it had with Breyton at this point.

What I miss: nothing really

What I'm looking forward to: They are painting the main inside of our house currently and I can't wait to see the finished product! This also means once they are done Mason can go paint Lyla's room within the next week or two:))

Breyton and I have been accomplishing more accent crafts for miss L at home this week:) Loving this 'pearlescent pink'!