Helping Daddy

Ava thought she needed to be Daddy's big helper this morning. She was busy helping Luke with his paper work. I'm not sure who got more work done Daddy or Ava.

Burrito

The kids were driving Luke crazy while he was trying to get some paper work done for work, so he took a short break to make a Owen and Ava Burrito. (Rolling the kids very tightly into a big blanket) Luke makes Owen Burritos often, but Ava wanted to join in the fun. I got a doubled stuffed Burrito delivered to me today!

Cabin

Daddy built a big blanket cabin in our living room to keep the kids busy so he could do some much needed cleaning for me. He does not enjoy cleaning at all and usually thinks a lot of the cleaning I do is unnecessary. I know that he loves me bunches because he did all the cleaning I wanted done without complaining and I didn't even ask him to do it. I just mentioned a few times yesterday how gross a few rooms were. I guess he must of agreed with me! While cleaning up lunch he was really bothered by the mess that got on his freshly scrubbed floor. I had to laugh at him because any time I scrub the floor and it gets instantly dirty he always says it's not that big of a deal, or it can't stay clean forever. Oh, he is so darn cute!

37 weeks

Yesterday I had my 37 week check up. I am dilated to 4 now and my Doctor said she would be very, very surprised if I made it to my next weeks appointment on Wednesday. My Doctor put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy and told me to only do things that I am comfortable with. Since last Saturday I have been having major pelvic pressure and then starting on Monday late evening I started having some intense round ligament pains on my left side. So all in all it is very difficult for me to walk around and do heavy lifting and any of my normal daily tasks you know things like cleaning, laundry, carrying kids, climbing our stairs 100 times a day, and standing for long periods of time. I called Luke on Tuesday through my sobs and tears feeling like an idiot I told him that I really needed him to come home and help me because I was in so much pain. So, he has been doing as much of his work from home as possible since Tuesday afternoon and taking care of the kids. He is doing a good job helping me out and taking care of the kids. I thought I would enjoy not having to any thing, but I am going crazy because things just aren't being done the way I do them and when I do them. I have to look at the over all picture though he is keeping things going and our kids are clothed and fed. I love Luke to pieces he is a wonderful husband and father!

Waking Up

Ava took a nice long nap today! When I went into her room I found her dressed like this with a huge smile on her face.

When I walked into her room I should have found her dressed like this plus the smile from above. She was a bit upset with me when I put her all back together again.

Sundays Project

Today's project consisted of removing one of our bedroom window to make make room for the new rafters. Owen had the day off and was hanging out over at Papa John's and Grandma Ruth's house for a few hours. However, Ava was busy helping Daddy out with the hammer and pushing the old window out. She also helped measure the hole so Daddy wouldn't make a mistake when he cut the piece of wood to cover up the hole where the old window was.

Saturday Morning

Saturday morning at 9:30 sharp the concrete truck pulled into our yard. The guys quickly got to work spreading it around and smoothing it out. Owen was of course right there in all the action. He began as the supervisor of the project making sure everything was going as planned but quickly realized the job would never get done correctly if he didn't step in to help. Ava decided to take the day off from working because she worked so hard on Friday. So she watched the guys from in the house making sure they were keeping on task, managing to almost fall out of the door into the concrete only once!

Young Workers

Luke and I have decided that to save money on our addition not only were we going to do a lot of the work ourselves, but that we would also make our children do their share of the work as well. Friday Ava put her plumbing skills to good use. I don't think Pete and Luke could have finished the project with out her. Later that same night she wasted no time getting to work when Kevin came to get everything ready for the concrete to be poured. Owen was busy as well behind the scenes. He was helping Luke in the basement hooking up the plumbing. He also made sure that Pete and Daddy installed the tubing for the in floor heat correctly.

Between jobs Ava took a short break long enough for me take a few pictures of her by our pumpkins!

The Problem

I have a problem in my kitchen and my normally crafty, full of great ideas husband isn't helping me. Here is a picture of the problem.

I want some of these items to be creatively arranged in the corner of the kitchen counter. For lack of energy and creativity from being extremely pregnant I have not done any thing with this stuff that I pulled out of a box from in the basement about three weeks ago. They have been in a box hiding in the basement since we remodeled our Kitchen almost two years ago. And, YES Luke, who just yesterday pointed out to me that normally having this type of mess in my kitchen for as long as it has been there would drive me crazy especially if it was his junk. Which is the truth and goes back to the lazy pregnant thing. But, do you think Luke is helping me with this problem like I want him to oh no.

I mean for Pete sakes look at the above picture. He did such a wonderful job helping me create this awesome arrangement. He made me the shelf out of really old wood that was my Great Grandpa's and from an old building that at one time was at the first house I lived in. Then after making and hanging it for me he helped me decorate it so it wouldn't look like a cluttered mess.

Oh and since I was in my kitchen I decided to take a picture this (ignore the shiny part that is from the cameras flash). Yes, this is a picture of the door to our microwave do you see the tiny white spots all over it. It appears to look like my microwave is dirty and that was my thought too at first. Then I cleaned it and scrubbed it and those spots are still there. They will not come off and then I noticed that they are between the two thin pieces of what ever microwave doors are made of. How frustrating is that. It looks horrible and even Luke noticed it and I think it bugs him just as much as it bugs me. We paid a lot of money to have a microwave that hangs above the stove and not sit on our counter and now it goes and looks like this. How frustrating and even more so that it is not something that we can just unscrew some screws clean it and put it back together because I looked right way. It does not come apart so we have to look at those white spots forever. Well, not really forever because we do not plan to live here forever, but you know what I mean.

In the basket

Ava was upstairs with me when I was folding a load of clean laundry, clean laundry that never seems to stay clean. Any way, as I was finishing and putting everything away in it's proper place Ava climbed into the basket covered herself with her favorite blankie and started reading one of her books that she has been hauling along every where she goes lately. She looked so darn cute sitting in the basket reading her book all covered up and completely proud of herself for getting in there and all situated all by herself. So of course I had to grab the camera and sneak a few pictures of her.

Baby Boy Update

Well I had my 36 week check up this morning. All went well, and just as I have suspected this baby is going to be coming early! I am already dilated to 3.5! She said that this baby boy will be here soon and don't be overly surprised if he makes his entrance before the end of the month. She said if it is not before the end if the month it will be within the first few days of November. I know that I am ready to have this baby out of me, but I would kind of like to wait for at least the 1st of November. After the first I will be pleading with the little guy to come on out! I'm not sure why but I really want a November baby. Mainly because I don't want a Halloween baby. To be honest the whole Halloween dressing up in scary costumes thing creeps me out. So much that when we have been invited to Halloween parties in the past I make up excuses on why I can't go.

Dentist

Owen and I made a trip to the dentist this morning. We both had a really good check up with no cavities. Owen got his first fluoride treatment. We were in rooms right next to each other so I could hear everything he was saying to the lady who cleaned his teeth. He was very talkative and told her all about when his baby brother will be born. He made sure that she knew what the baby's name was going to be and also that when the baby is in the hospital he was going to go visit him with his Daddy. He also mentioned that Ava would go to the hospital to visit with him, and the baby will be teeny tiny. He is just like his Daddy Mr. Social!

Their Back

Our neighbors have been gone for the last 2 weeks and we really missed them. During the two weeks Owen asked about Alana several, several times. So, today we finally got to see them again, we play outside together for a while. That is until Owen started bugging Ava and I put an end to the play date so he could go and take a nap. But, anyway it was great to catch up with Kristin again and hear all about their trip! Oh, and while they were gone Owen was in charge of feeding their turtle and goldfish. He really enjoyed going over to their house to feed them and Luke only set their alarm system off once. He accidentally pushed the panic button instead of the off button oops! So one of the local policemen came over to check everything out.

Owen's Creation

This may look like apple cutter gone bad, but it's not this is just the beginning stages of Owen's homemade apple cake made just for me! He started this baking session while I was up stairs folding laundry. After I stepped in and took the apple cutter away Owen continued the project with a butter knife. I decided just to let him do his thing since he was working so hard at it and it was keeping him occupied for a while. The baking session came to a quick stop once I spotted him with the hand soap dispenser and the water running. I rinsed him off and kicked him out of the kitchen. Then I picked up about a hundred tiny pieces of apple and tossed them in the garbage.

Yummy in Ava's Tummy

We had Spaghetti for lunch on Sunday. Not just any Spaghetti though the sauce was really, really yummy spaghetti sauce that my Aunt Renee and Aunt Jenny made and canned. They sent a couple jars with us the other day so we could try it. Well all four of us loved it. Luke says it's the best he has ever had. He wants me to get the recipe so we can make and can a bunch of jars next year. So way to go Renee and Jenny, you two did an awesome job! The only thing I didn't enjoy about the spaghetti was the clean up. However, I was smart enough to have Ava just in a diaper while she ate and when she was done I tossed her in the tub!

Yesterday late afternoon the hole for the foundation of our addition was dug. As you can see we now have a huge dirt pile in our yard and Owen tries to dig, climb, and play on it as much as possible. So of course our entry way is covered in dirt and mud. Today we had an inspector here so we could have the cement truck come to pour concrete for the footings. We are making progress! Oh, and did I mention that yesterday when our hole was dug we received 4 phone calls from people and had two people stop in to see what we were up too. That is one of our major reasons why we wish the market were different so we could sell our house and be out in the country where no one knows what we are up too. Living in town ,on a busy road, in a town where we both grew up, and everyone knows us is just plain annoying. We love our little house, but hate our location. I guess we just have to keep reminding ourselves that this addition is just a temporary fix for a few years when the market gets better.

Girls Night Out

A group shot!

Aunt Beth, me, Mommy

Aunt Jenny, Aunt Renee, Cousin Ashley

My cousin Carisa Enjoying a huge burger!

I left Luke and the kids at home for the evening for the third night in a row. Mark that down in history I have never done that not even for two nights in a row. Thursday night I went to my once a month MOPS meeting and listen to a professional organizer. I got several great ideas on how to make our household run more efficient with the space we have.

On Friday night my best friend Jenny and I went on a little adventure together. We trusted our lives with my GPS and made it to our destination. We only questioned the trusty GPS several times, but it got us to the cute unique furniture store we were looking for. Once there we enjoyed looking through all the neat things that they had for sale and then made our way to the delicious food they had to offer. We also chatted with other shoppers. I had a blast hanging out with Jenny for the evening and not having to worry about our kids interrupting our conversation.

Then on Saturday night I had a girls night out with my Mom, 3 of my Aunts, and 2 of my cousins. We all met at Applebee's and talked, ate way to much yummy fattening food, talked, and talked some more. It was fun to get together with just the girls and get caught up with what everyone has been up to. I hope we make this a new tradition to have an evening out with just the girls.

Tractor

Owen was in his glory last night when he got to check out a John Deere tractor equipped with a snow blower and a salt machine. This snow blower belongs to the company Uncle Jesse works for. Uncle Jesse was getting it all ready for the snowy winter months and called to see if Owen wanted to come and take a look.

First Snow

Owen and Ava eating the fresh snow!

We woke up this morning to Owen's very excited voice declaring it had snowed. To be honest I didn't believe him at first I just figured there was frost on the ground, but sure enough the ground was covered in snow. We were out the door in all our winter gear to play by 8:30! Owen is loving the snow. Ava not so much. After being outside for about ten minutes Ava was more than ready to go inside! She did not appreciate the bulky clothing that made it extra hard for her to play with her toys. The snow will all be gone in a few hours but fun will be had by Owen til then. If you noticed our lawnmower is out in the pictures it is because as of last night construction on our new addition began! Luke tore out the landscaping last night and as I type our concrete patio is being removed. The same concrete patio that Luke helped make, and we were so excited to get less than 5 years ago.

Ava not enjoying her time outside!

Picking Pumkins

2009 trip to pick out the perfect pumpkin

Owen's fourth year picking out pumpkins!

Ava's second year picking out pumpkins!

We made our yearly trip to a local farm to pick out some pumpkins. Both the kids enjoyed picking some out and checking out all the different types of pumpkins and gourds they had displayed. I thought you might enjoy looking at a few pictures of our little pumpkins picking out pumpkins from years past. It is amazing how much they change in looks from year to year!

Owen's third year picking out pumpkins!

Ava's First visit to pick pumpkins!

Owen's second year picking out pumpkins!

Owen's First visit to pick pumpkins!