New House!

On Saturday morning last week (a week ago), we were notified in the morning that although the bank (still) has yet to produce papers for signing, that we were allowed to move in. See we got a friend to buy the house for us and then finance it to us. So he has paid for the house in full and owns it, but the bank still needs to get him papers to sign. Anyway, because it's bought and paid for, we were allowed to move in. So we did. That afternoon. We moved our storage unit into the house and I got half my kitchen unpacked that day. We didn't move ourselves in until Tuesday when I was able to get the water and electric utilities turned on. We moved our bed and clothes in that night and slept in our house. Oh, it is sooooooooooo wonderful! We love it, even with all the kinks that still need to be worked out...leaky sinks and tubs, mostly. But it is fantastic.

Wednesday was awesome. I had 3 Relief Society sisters come over and clean my bathrooms. Let me tell you, that was wonderful. It looks like I got a new tub. Remember the grungy nasty bathtub that I thought might just need to be replaced? Maybe you didn't see it:

Ewww, yuck. Well apparently there is this really nifty steam cleaner thing. Probably not the technical term, but it is amazing! It's like a jumbo spray bottle that you plug into the wall. You fill it with water and it heats up. You flip a switch and steam is forced out through a small nozzle and that's how you clean. It's really slow going but really effective and easy to use. Much easier than when the ladies tried using a razor blade to scrap off the soap scum. Martha brought her steam cleaner over and here is the difference:


Holy smokes! I could not believe the difference.

You know what makes life so much easier? Having cabinets and places to put things when I unpack! My last kitchen has been rightly redubbed a hallway with a sink. There was a fridge, 8 inches of counter space, a sink, 8 inches of counter space, and a stove. With the few cabinets that fit in around those items. It was sooooo hard to get unpacked in that apartment because I had nowhere to put things! That is definitely not the case in this house. I am loving how easy it is for me to unpack and empty boxes every day. I've got my whole kitchen unpacked and still have cabinet space. I've got my bathrooms assembled and have cabinets galore to spare in them. I've got half my office unpacked. I think all we really have to do now is to finish unpacking a couple boxes in our room (well, that's me, really), and then decorate the place. Get my pictures and other decor out of their boxes and up on walls.

Okay, so a few fun things. Tommy loves bath time and he thinks that shower time for Momma and Dadda means bath time for him too. Shad got fed up with Tommy pulling the shower curtain back a couple days ago, and pulled Tommy into the shower with him.


Tommy was a little confused and slightly concerned at first, but then thought it was REALLY cool. And he just sat there the whole time. Talked a little bit occasionally, but mostly just sat there in the water. He was disappointed this morning when he didn't get to have a shower again.

In case you noticed, Tommy did get another haircut a week ago. Here's some pictures and videos from the past couple months to update Tommy's life and show what his hair was like before the cut.


Tommy loves his Ultraman toy. I bought the thing when I was in China. Ultraman is all the rage there with the kids. He's their super hero. So think Superman, but better because he has Kung Fu skills, too. Ultraman ran into a little accident when we were visiting my parents about a month ago. Tommy dropped him on the kitchen floor and his right arm popped off beyond repair. So now we have amputee Ultraman. And still love
him:)


And here is the boy with his mop and his phone.



Tommy loves dancing to the King of the Hill music. He will stop whatever he's doing when it comes on and dance.


Tommy also likes to play with his Uncle Levi's laser gun...










and fall asleep in any available lap...








and play with his Dadda at the end of the day.





We watched Mulan almost every morning while my semester was still going. That's how I got my breakfast eaten and homework done. One morning, Tommy was ready for a nap already and just cuddled up on the floor with his blanket. He was out in 3 minutes.





Dale is one of the young men in our ward and he gave Tommy his first skateboard ride last week. Tommy thought it was pretty cool.










And sometimes Tommy gets to play Magic with his dadda...sort of...






I think that concludes our life thus far...for those of us outside my body, anyway. Our new little shrimp is just 2 days shy of being 3 months cooked. There have been a few times when I think I've felt her moving. No, we haven't had the gender ultrasound yet. But we figure we'd rather call our child by the wrong gender than by IT. I don't particularly feel like putting house pictures up right now, so if you can, check them out on Facebook. If not, send me your email address and I'll email you my Shutterfly link.

Lots of New Things

Uncle Aaron is right--I have been kinda quiet on my end the past few weeks. I've been busy finishing up my two online classes and running around with Tommy and taking naps, etc. School is over at the end of this week though, and we are soooooooooooooo looking forward to being done. For the most part, I am done. I just have to keep monitoring my ridiculous Russian instructor to make sure she has all my assignments. I've been emailing her back and forth for a week and she finally answered the question yesterday after dancing around it all the other days. I'm so glad to be done with her. She's been a headache all semester.

Anywho, happier things: We got a house! i can't say that we bought it...because we have yet to hand over the money and sign the papers, though we do have the key. Weird, I know. We are hoping to be able to move in soon...but we're still just waiting on the bank to produce the papers. I suppose I should get over there sometime to take some pictures so we have the full before/after experience. It is a 3 story house. Huge living room, dining room, kitchen, office, laundry room and 3/4 bath on the first floor with a door to the oversized 2 car garage. Downstairs is a half basement that reminds me a little of Aunt Mary's basement in Fairfield. It's a big long room that's really just perfect for a tv room. We'll get Shad's total gym set up behind the couch down there for a combo exercise room. There is a crawl space and some unfinished space in the water heater room, where we'll keep our food storage. Upstairs there are 4 huge bedrooms and 2 full baths. The master bedroom has it's own full bath and big walk in closet with lots of shelves and hanger rods. We're really looking forward to getting our shirts back on hangers! The house needs a bit of work, but we'll work on it here and there when we can. We're really looking forward to doing the work and making the home OURS.

Part of the fun of me being done with class is that I have time to take Tommy out on play dates and other social activities. Yesterday a lady in the ward stopped by in the morning to leave something for Shad's dad (he's the bishop). She invited Tommy to go to the lake with her and her dad. Tommy turned around to me and waved goodbye! He was not a happy camper when she left without him though, because his carseat wasn't here. He was climbing all over me and I knew I just had to get him out of the house to do something. Our neighbors weren't home...they have a 7 year old boy, 5 year old girl and a 1 year old boy that Tommy loves to play with. So instead we set a play date with some other friends in the ward and Tommy was sooooo happy to play there for somewhere around 3 hours. I was shocked that he was so happy and perky being awake from 9:30 to 3:30 when he finally took a nap. Normally he has 2 by that time! And today we went up to the library for their Reading Corner. Tommy really enjoyed the books and all the kids. And half a cookie:) He let me know when it was time to go home for lunch and a nap, though.

I mentioned before, but I'm second counselor in the Young Women's program at church. I noticed that my 17-yr-old laurel has about 3 or 4 goals done...and that's it. I just started redoing my own goals on Sunday, so I gave her a challenge last night to compete with me and get hers done before me. She thought it sounded like a great deal and we agreed to set rules and a prize for the winner. I really hope this works. I think she's only got about a year left.

Last update to include--we are pregnant! We are due on Shad's birthday, November 17. I apologize to those extended family members that heard it first from my mom. I meant to tell you first, but I've just been busy and apparently she beat me to it. This pregnancy thus far has been a polar opposite from Tommy. With Tommy, 2 weeks after I missed my period, I was throwing up 2-3 times a day. I'm 11 weeks pregnant and I've thrown up 3 times. I almost have a celebration every time because I'm just so thankful that it's not a daily occurrence again. I've been tired, but not as tired as I was with Tommy, and I think I can attribute that to the fact that I can keep food in my stomach. What a wonderful experience that is! Well, I should get off to Tommy who just woke up, and the rest of our things we need to do today.