15 Month Old Daniel

Hello to my amazing boy!

So today you are 15 months and 6 days old, and it's been another big month of new things for you! The number one main thing has been that you are finally walking EVERYWHERE! And, you LOVE it! Even though you had taken a few steps now and then since the end of May, you officially walked your first four or five steps without assistance on June 30th when Maw-Maw was actually up here spending some time with us! She was able to see you take those steps, and within a week you all of a sudden started going everywhere! It was so funny when you realized one day that you COULD do it and you WERE going to do it, because I was just sitting in my chair doing something when all of a sudden you stood up by yourself in the middle of our living room and with a big smile on your face, you began walking around in circles moving to the music that was playing! It was SO cute! Anyway, you are definitely really good at it now and it has made most of my life much easier, especially around the house, because you keep yourself quite entertained now, although you do still get into some things that are a 'no-no'. Hanging out outside like at Daddy's softball games, though, is a whole different story because you wear Mommy out as I follow you all over the place! Thank goodness for Maw-Maw and your cousin, Vienna, because they help a lot during the games so Mommy doesn't have to run after you all over! :o)

You are still learning more and more words, also, which is fun to see! You have "shoes" down really well, and almost every time you see or pick up your shoes you will say the word! You also love going after almost anything we ask you to get! It's amazing how you know almost everything we tell you now! You also say "read" a whole lot more now, which is fun! Especially when you get into your car seat and say "read" because you want your book to look at!

Oh! yes! You are also working on your catching abilities when is fun! You can catch your soft soccer ball pretty well for the most part, and we are still working on some of your other balls, too. You love playing with Daddy as he throws the ball to you and you throw it back, again and again!

We went swimming this month again with some of your little friends, and now that you are walking you love swimming even more because you can walk all over the shallow area of the pool, although it scares Mommy to death! I think it's about life jacket time for you! And maybe swim lessons at least next summer so I don't have to be as scared for you!

We bought you a swing for the backyard a few weeks ago, which you love a lot!! You would be happy to stay in there for forever, but between the hot days and all the bugs at night outside, you haven't been able to swing too much yet. :o( Once fall hits, though, and after baby sister comes, we'll definitely have to spend some quality Mommy / Son time outside for you to swing!

I love you so much, Daniel, and I'm very, very proud of everything you've learned this month! I'm also thankful that you really enjoy giving Mommy hugs! :o)

Love,
Mommy

Great week!

It's been an awesome week with my boys! :o) The weather has definitely been hot, but I've enjoyed the rain showers we've had from time to time! My little Daniel has been so cuddly and extremely sweet this week, for some reason, and even when we are shopping at a store or something, he will give me random hugs from time to time as he sits in the shopping cart, which is so sweet and fun! Maybe he is realizing how much his mommy LOVES hugs! He is actually 15 months old today, which is so crazy to think of! I love that overall the time seems to be going pretty fast as we get closer and closer to Lydia being here... although I've been getting so nervous about ALL the many things that need to be accomplished before she arrives! Seriously... last night my mind was going crazy as I thought about what we need to do when I go into labor, who to call, what to do with Daniel, and as I try to remember how to count contractions, when we are to go to the hospital, what things I need to make sure are done before I go into labor, what changes will occur once she arrives, and SO many other things! I seriously need to slow my brain down a bit, especially at night, or I'm going to find it very difficult to get much sleep for awhile!

Monday evening, we dropped Daniel off with his Aunt Amanda and Vienna to watch Vienna's gymnastics class, which Scott and I went to the hospital for our pre-registration / tour. That went well, and it was exciting to be the hospital again, remembering when we were there for Daniel's birth and everything that went along with that time! Even though we remember much of the rooms, we did have a quick tour again just to be reminded of everything, which was nice, and it was cool because the nurse actually showed us everything in the room that I had Daniel! :o) Seems like such a long time ago!

We had small group Monday evening after that, which was good overall. For some reason it was a very trying night with Daniel, and Scott ended up having to take him home early since we had two cars there, which was sad. :o( Hopefully that won't happen again! But, I still enjoyed my time overall. I have so loved getting to know everyone in our small group better and better and have really enjoyed our studies through Eccle. lately. God has definitely blessed us big time with such a great group of friends and people to grow alongside with!

Tuesday, Daniel and I met up with several other moms from my Proverbs 31 moms group here in Fruita for lunch and swimming! That was a fun outing and Daniel had a blast swimming and playing with the other kiddos! I have decided that it is about time for me to get him a little life-jacket, though, because he was scaring me to death walking here and there, trying to run, all over the kids' area of the pool! It was quite hard to keep up with him, too, between being almost 8 months prego and having an injured foot that still hurts and is still swollen! :o( But, anyway, it was still enjoyable and made me very excited about this coming Thursday evening which is our next moms-night-out for the group! We are all getting together for a Mexican fiesta and an outdoor movie, which will be tons of fun! I'm just excited to be able to hang out with all the moms with no kids and really be able to talk and see how everyone has been! :o)

Last night we had a family night, which was fun! Scott got home early from work so we were able to hang out some while Daniel napped (SO thankful for how well that boy naps and how long his naps have been!!!), which was nice and very much needed with our busy schedule lately. After Daniel woke up we all went to dinner at Old C's, which was delicious although my heartburn later on that night did not like it so much... We found out that Daniel has a GREAT love for olives, after he got hold of my plate and ate all of my olives that I had picked off of my pizza at a very fast rate! I thought he was going to choke on them or spit them all out, but nope, he ate them all up and was super happy! :o) Lol. After that we went to Farmer's Market, which was our first time so far this summer! I was hoping there was more fruit available now, but it's still not quite the season so I guess we'll go in a few weeks and hopefully by Aug. they'll have more of the peaches and yummy fruits! :o) Anyway, we met up with my sister, Amanda, and had a great time walking along Main St. with her, talking to friends we ran into, and taking a break to drink some yummy frappes at Main St. Bagels! Daniel had a wonderful time - he LOVES to people watch! :o)

Oh, yeah, yesterday Daniel and I also went to Hobby Lobby and I was able to buy batting and some other things I needed to finish Lydia's quilt! I'm SO excited about getting it done! :o) My friend, Laura, will be coming to spend the entire day on Tuesday with me, so I'm hoping that Daniel will take his good naps so I can get quite a lot done to at least pin and start quilting! I also bought some cute baby flannel which I am using to make burp cloths for us and to use for gifts! I made my first one this morning, and I love how fast and easy they are, and it is so cute! :o)

This weekend we are taking our camper down to my parents' in Delta which will be where it'll sit over the winter. We were planning on camping this weekend, but decided against it because of my foot not feeling all better yet, and because of how badly I've been sleeping and how slow I've been moving with the pregnancy as it is. :o( So, we are saying so-long til next summer for camping, which is sad, but I'm already getting excited for many trips next year with my hubby, big brother, and baby sister! :o) Scott and my dad are also going to 'rip' (or cut) some boards for Scott to be able to make a small bench for Lydia's room. I SO want to get that at least built this weekend and then maybe we can work on painting that, the bookshelf, and the quilt rack so maybe by the first week of Aug. we can get everything where it needs to be in her room! :o) Yay!

My hubby just texted and said he is coming home, so I should probably close for now! Sorry for how all over the place this was... Hard to catch up on things when I only write once a week or not even that often. :o( Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Oh, here are some random pics from the last week! The first ones are some of Daniel playing with the laundry basket... he thought that was the coolest thing ever, especially as he tried to grab his toes that were underneath the netting! Then, there is one picture of Daniel helping Daddy push Lydia's crib into her room after Scott made the drop-side unmovable! :o) And, finally, the last two pictures are of the quilt top completely finished - just need the backing and batting - and my 33 1/2 week pregnancy pic! :o)

Early "nesting" times!

So I have been so busy making lists, working on stuff, doing laundry, and trying to get Lydia's room put together lately! A week ago yesterday I rolled my right foot and ended up partially fracturing a bone in my foot (SO tired of all these things happening!), so I ended up having to rest for half of this week, which was extremely hard for me although I got a lot of reading accomplished! Lol. My mom came and helped out with Daniel and stuff around the house Tuesday and Wednesday, which was awesome, and by Thursday I was able to walk around carefully without using a crutch! That meant I was good to work on things again, so I finished the top of my quilt and began researching to see how I want to actually 'quilt' it! STILL haven't decided... I want to do something very simple, but also something that looks good, so hopefully I can figure it out soon. I think I will wait until I have a friend here to help me with stuff, though, because I'm just afraid I might mess it up! I also have been looking online for some other easy sewing projects I can do, especially now that I have quite a few scraps to use up from my quilt fabric. :o) I bought some of those reusable cloth diapers at Target the other night and I'm going to make some burp cloths out of those... something very easy and I think I can do it without messing up too much! Other than that, I think I'll make a pillow or two and once Scott builds a small bench that we are putting in her room, I need to make some seat cushions for it. So much fun!

Last night I finished washing all the clothes that we have been given for Lydia or bought from yard sales/thrift stores so far! They are just going in drawers right now, but I'm hoping to either get some hangers for my baby shower or I will buy some so I can start hanging up at least the 0 to 3 month clothes! Yay! :o) They are all SO cute! On our date night Friday, Scott and I registered at Target for baby and we bought her coming home from the hospital outfit... it is super cute! We also bought a boy's coming home outfit, just in case, because if we do have a boy instead of a girl he definitely needed something manly to come home in considering once he gets home he'll be surrounded by girl stuff until we get new things! Lol. :o)

I had my midwife appointment on Friday and everything looks like it's going great, still! My blood pressure had been pretty high two weeks ago, so it was great to see that it was normal once again! I'm hoping the high reading was just because of extra stress since that was the day we left for camping. Anyway, baby's heart beat sounded great and although she is measuring 1 1/2 weeks bigger still, at least it's still just that bigger and not more! My midwife asked me if I wanted to have an ultrasound at 36 weeks to see exactly how big she is, but I really don't think that's a good idea, first of all considering that those measurements are often SO off that far along (since it's hard to measure a baby when he/she is so tightly packed in) and I'm afraid that if they said she is really big, I'll just get more stressed out about it than I need to! So we are just trusting God that she will come at the perfect time and that God has made my body to deliver big babies, and no matter how much she weighs it will all work out perfectly! :o) I would not be opposed to her coming a bit early, but we'll see... I'm telling myself she'll be past the due date like Daniel was just so I don't get too excited too early about it. :o) For my next appointment I'll be having it with one of the other midwives at the office... that will be good to get to know her, too, but I'm really hoping that my midwife will be available when I have Lydia!

We cleaned the house yesterday, which felt AMAZING! (Not really the actual cleaning, but the results did. Lol.) It looks so much better in here! With all the rain we've had, I have been very tired of the extra roly polies and other buggies that had been getting into the house. :o( I hate bugs! So now that all of them have been vacuumed up for the time being until others arrive, that makes me feel much better! We also worked on putting up Daniel's toys and cleaning up his room, so that's also great to enjoy until he messes it all up again! :o) I went through his closet the other day and put all the things we can use for Lydia, too, in a box to take to her room... It was so crazy going through all his old things we don't use anymore... I can't believe my boy is almost 15 months old already! Where does the time go?!?!

Okay, I should probably go for now. We are going to be heading to church soon... I'm so excited to go because it seems like with camping, hurting my foot, and whatever else we've been up to, we haven't gone much this summer at all! I miss it! :o( I'll talk to you all later!

My Boy is a Toddler!

Daniel has graduated to toddlerhood! I can't believe how fast he is growing, and how many things we are already seeing of his personality! Our little boy is a strong willed toddler, that's for sure, but at the same time he is very sweet and caring and LOVES to share his food, toys, and almost everything else he has with us and other kids, especially! We were hanging out with some friends of ours and their little girls (3 and 6 weeks) the other day, and Daniel was so cute because not only was he sharing things with the older girl, he was also trying to give the baby food, and spent awhile softly 'petting' the baby's head. Although I am still a little nervous about having baby Lydia in just a month a half with him being so young still, I am getting more and more excited at the same time! I know that God had a plan in mind when we got pregnant with Lydia and I know that our two little kids will be amazing friends and I'm so excited to be able to train and raise Daniel to be a good big brother to his little sister, starting right away. :o) I love that he is understanding already what it means to 'help' Mommy and Daddy so that hopefully he will want to continue helping with baby, too! My main thing will be to make sure he still gets Mommy time, because he is a very needy kid when it comes to having cuddle time and time to just hang with us. But, I am realizing more and more that God does not give us more than we can handle, and so since he has blessed us with two kids 16 1/2 months apart, he must know that we can handle them both and still do all that we can to train and grow them to hopefully be children of His one day! It is exciting!! :o)

Anyway, toddlerhood has been SO much fun! It's amazing how although we knew he could take some steps on his own since the end of May (almost 2 months ago), and even though he's been walking more and more since a week ago last Thursday (July 30th), it was this past Wednesday that he decided to really show us that he knew what he was doing! :o) I was sitting in my chair doing something when all of a sudden I realized he had stood up in the middle of the living room and was walking around and around the room in circles nodding / dancing his head to the music I had playing! It was SO cute! He did it for awhile and I ran to get the video camera and was able to video tape some of it which was great! Ever since then he has been walking almost non-stop! He LOVES it! I love how much more independent it has made him and how he is good going wherever now even if we are not with him. He will bring me books / toys from his room, one at a time, toddling back and forth. He is figuring out the whole drinking while walking thing, too, after falling quite frequently those first few days. :o) He already has two big bumps / bruises on his forehead from falling, but I am telling myself that is not over with yet! We do have a boy, and we fully understand that boys like to be adventurous! :o)

I love Daniel SO much! And watching him toddle is one of my favorite things to do right now! :o) He is adorable!!! Especially as he holds his hands up in the air while toddling or holds his hands on his hips or together behind his back as he walks. Lol. He cracks me up! :o)

Camping / Quilt / Other Random Pics!

Here are finally some pictures since I haven't posted any for quite awhile! :o) We have lots of ones from camping and then one of our now walking all over the place little Daniel 'vacuuming' my kitchen! Then, to finish up there are a few pictures I've taken so far of the stages of making Lydia's quilt! I got two rows sewn today after cutting out all the fabric yesterday! It's been so much fun! :o) Anyway, here they are and enjoy!!

31 Weeks ALREADY?!

Goodness! Sometimes I can barely believe that our little girl is already 31 weeks along! It's hard to believe that we only have 9 or 10 more weeks to go, even though I know that usually those last weeks take the longest from our previous experience with Daniel. :o) In some ways I'm freaking out though because I know that we still have SO much to do! I think Scott is going to try to 'fix' our crib that we had bought at a yard sale awhile back, because we found out that it is a drop-side. :o( They had said it wasn't but the lady we talked to had actually gotten it from her sister... and I didn't know what to look for to see what it was. It wasn't one that had been recalled, but I would still feel much better if it would not budge for us! So, since we'll probably just throw it away instead of resale or give to anyone anyway, we figured Scott could always try to screw / bolt it together so that it wouldn't budge and we could see if that works. It's such a nice crib, so I hope it works! Anyway, that's the first step to accomplish so we can get that put up in her room! Otherwise, the beginning of August we'll be giving my parents the couch that is in her room now since I have decided that it would just not fit with everything else very well... :o( Then we can move everything into their places and get the changing table out of Daniel's room and switch it with a dresser that we now have in Lydia's room. Then I can decorate the walls, hopefully soon put up the quilt I am making (YAY!), and add the other things people have been making for her room! Oh! And repaint a bookshelf that my dad had made me when I was a little girl... it is blue right now so that just won't really go with her decorations so we'll probably be painting it a cream color or something different. I really want Scott to build something for her, too, since he had built Daniel's bookshelf for him, so I have been looking up things online built out of wood and think I have found something cool for him to build! :o) I just need to show it to him now!

Other than that, I still need to buy hangars and start hanging up all her clothes we have gotten so far from yard sales, friends, and thrift stores. I'm getting really excited for my baby shower, which will be in just 4 1/2 weeks! That'll be fun to get all the final touches and fun things then! I'm also working as hard as I can on her crocheted blanket, which I am over half-way through. I should take a picture of the progress so far, although just to warn everyone, it is a VERY simple one! :o) Not too exciting, but it'll look better once I do a border of a different color on it, too! I just washed and ironed the material for her quilt today, and I'm looking very forward to getting together with some friends tomorrow to work on cutting out all the material and maybe even start sewing it together! My goal is to get all of the sewing together done by the end of next week and then I'll have three or four weeks to work on quilting!!! :o) I'll try to take pictures at the various stages so everyone can see those, too! I love the material. It'll make her room so bright and cheerful!

I experienced what I think was my first pregnancy vertigo today, which wasn't much fun! :o( I never got dizzy or lightheaded like at all with Daniel, so when I started getting that way this morning I wasn't so sure what it was from! I talked to my midwife, though, after it had lasted an hour and she said to drink lots of fluids and keep my feet up, so I did. My awesome mother-in-law came and watched Daniel for me for a few hours so I could take a nap and after I woke up I have been feeling great so far! Hopefully I won't get it again! The hardest thing is taking care of Daniel while feeling so dizzy! I felt like I was going to fall over just carrying him around! ;o(

Soooo, for other news!!!!

We went on our very first 'real' camping trip (not in a cabin) as a family this last weekend! (The first time was when Daniel was 5 weeks old, but we stayed in a cabin so I don't really call that too roughing it.) We took our new pop-up camper and it was SO much fun! We stayed up at a place 30 min. past Paonia up in the mountains called Erikson Springs and were very thankful that they had spots open considering you can't reserve anything and it was 4th of July weekend! But, we got a perfect spot and enjoyed setting up the camper and then making dinner Friday night up in the beautiful mountains! Daniel loved sitting on the benches and beds inside the camper while I set up all the kitchen stuff and made the camper more like 'home' inside while Scott grilled out BBQ chicken and made mac n' cheese! We also had lettuce from our garden which was fun and delicious and enjoyed eating outside under all the trees! Daniel fell asleep very quickly around 8:30 and Scott and I enjoyed a campfire and read our book for awhile outside until we finally went to bed around 10:30. We all slept until 6:30 when a little someone woke us up, and we began our day with some delicious cinnamon rolls from the Amish Bakery in Delta, bacon, and eggs! (Scott is quite the camping cook! He was amazing!)

We hung out and took a walk that morning and then in time for Daniel's nap we headed into Paonia, driving around awhile to give Daniel more naptime and us a chance to see the area. We went to the Cherry Days festival there and walked around the booths for a little while before playing for quite awhile on the playground equipment. Daniel swung for a LONG time on the swings - his very favorite - and after we were ready for something different (we as in Scott and I, definitely not Daniel), we bought a bag of cherries and enjoyed eating those while we sat in the grass and listened to music. Daniel pushed around his stroller for awhile (he loves doing that - it is so much cooler than sitting in the stroller!) and we left shortly before lunch to head to City Market for more ice and some things for dinner (we got stuff for chili) and then went to the Diner in town for lunch. That was delicious, especially the amazing sundae for dessert!

We drove back to the campsite after that and tried to put Daniel down for a nap which did not work out (either it was because he was in a new place and doesn't always nap well in his pack n' play or it might have been because the camper was SUPER hot inside at that point of the afternoon!), so we ended up just playing with him before making chili for dinner and having that. Daniel had a great time picking up rocks, sticks, etc. around the site and bringing them to us one at a time or putting them in a bowl and mixing them up with a spoon. :o)

He ended up going down for bed by 6:30 which was earlier than we really wanted but he was exhausted after not having his nap. All was well after that until Scott and I headed for bed around 9:30 and something must have woken Daniel up because he woke up crying and screaming for awhile until I finally couldn't handle it anymore so I got up and walked him around until he almost fell asleep on me. I put him back in the pack n' play, he fell back asleep, and then once I was falling asleep he woke up again screaming! This happened at least 3 or 4 times and I have no idea what time it was when we finally could not handle it anymore so Scott moved over to the other bed and Daniel slept with me for the rest of the night. Goodness! It was pretty crazy, but I do love cuddling with my little buddy! :o)

Sunday we basically just ate breakfast, packed up, and then while Scott loaded and put down the pop-up, I walked Daniel around and around while he picked up stick after stick and weed wacked all the plants! ;o) He was too cute! We headed out and although our plan was to stop somewhere for a picnic lunch, we ended up driving all the way back to GJ because Daniel took a LONG, much needed nap in the car! We stopped at a park in GJ because I really wanted my picnic (lol), and ate sandwiches and let Daniel swing some more before heading back to Fruita! It was a great weekend, but goodness, it takes awhile to recover from a camping trip! Being 31 weeks pregnant doesn't make that any better, either! ;o)

Okay, I need to go check my laundry and Scott is about home, so I will talk to you all later! Ohhhh, I'll try to put some pictures on later, too! I know it's been awhile. Just don't have time right now.