30 is here.........

I turned 30 on Sunday. The number has been a hard one to grasp, but wow was it a memorable celebration! One I will never forget. With just moving to Nebraska and also being 7 months pregnant, I didn't expect much of a birthday celebration. Well, I got a wonderful suprise party that Brody and my mom planned! I walked into a house full of people and started crying. I couldn't believe that my mom had flew in from Idaho, two of my aunts and uncles and Dad traveled 4 1/2 hours, and family here had all come to celebrate my life. The crazy thing is they were all there 30 years ago when I was born. The party was Saturday and we celebrated on into Sunday with half of them staying the night. The first and probably only time that my mom and dad both stayed at my house. Kind of weird, but so awesome to have them both here. Brody made me strawberry shortcake for my birthday and bought me an icecream maker. We had homemade vanilla ice cream, my favorite!

My mom gave me this diamond necklace. The really awesome thing about this necklace is that the diamond in it is out of the wedding ring that my dad gave my mom on their wedding day.

Here I am, 28 weeks on my birthday with 12 weeks to go! I feel so big already.

(My mom and Aunt Teresa)

My dad (Pappa) hanging out in Clayton's room. Clayton yelled, "Mommy come see us!" This is what I walked in and found. Sucking on binkies, too funny!

Now I have a couple of days to recover from all of our company and then Clayton and I are heading to California on Thursday to visit our Chico family. (The other part of my birthday present from Brody.) I got so spoiled this year!

A Baby Sister?

At dinnertime last week, Clayton wanted to say the pray. "Thank you Jesus for Daddy, Mommy, Doggy, and BABY SISTER." I was a little shocked by his words. We had talked about a baby brother/sister but didn't know yet what we were having. My ultrasound was a couple days later and we decided we were going to find out. Here is a picture of me the day of the ultrasound at 21 weeks. I feel huge, but then I talk to some people and they are shocked to know I am pregnant, so maybe it is just me.

Yes, we are indeed having a baby girl! The ultrasound tech was pretty sure of it and she even got a pretty good picture. Our little Clayton really did know. I am in awe at how our Father uses our children to help us as parents to love, honor and serve him more. I am so thankful for our boy and the love he already has for his heavenly father. He is going to be a great big brother. These days he is surrounded by lots of little girls and I see a great gentleness in him towards them. I now know the Lord is preparing him for a baby sister. He loves to play dress up with his cousin Jolena and wear mommy's lipstick and make-up. I know he will out grow the dress up thing, but I can see him playing with his little sister one day just because she wants him to.

Clayton picked out this little outfit for his sister this week. (sorry for the sideways pic) The butterfly is on the butt, perfectly suiting since I love butterflies. He was so excited to show daddy the outfit when we got home. He said, "Look at the butt dad", as he was laughing.

So 17 weeks and counting for our baby girl to arrive. I just started to read a book a friend recommended to help us with this transition, From One Child To Two by Judy Dunn.

A vacation to Nuevo Vallarta

Relaxing by the pool. Before we ever knew we were moving; we planned a trip to Mexico to my parents timeshare with my family. So we got settled into our new home and Brody his new job and then we got a little vacation from it all. We sure enjoyed every bit of the sunshine and warm weather! It hasn't been much above 40 degrees here since November. It was just beautiful and so peaceful being at the ocean! I could have been perfectly content relaxing on the beach listening to the waves and building sandcastle with Clayton the entire time. Vacations before kids was defined at sleeping in, an afternoon nap in the sun and a nice quiet dinner filled with good conversation and any sight seeing/adventures we wanted to do. Now they are defined as rising with the sun, playing in the water and sand, indigestion from eating too fast and to bed with the kids. We did do a couple adventures: whale watching and went with the family zip-lining and Brody, Clayton and I hung out by the water. Next time we will do without the adventures because Clayton had to be confined to one spot so we had an unhappy boy and unhappy parents. By the end of the week, we realized we all had the best time at our resort, in the pool or down by the ocean.

Clayton and his cousin Logan. These boys had so much fun!

Brody had to quickly overcome his fear of snakes because Clayton really wanted to hold one! My little man has no fear of anything.

The boat ride out to see whales. We got to see dolphins and whales on the trip. It was short lived fun for Clayton because he couldn't run all over the boat with wide-open rails all the way around.

Clayton loved playing in the sand! Who needs shovels when you can use your head?

He is a little fish; he was jumping in and going under.

I wanted some pictures of us walking down the beach. Of course, I waited until the last day and Clayton wasn't too excited about pictures then. You take whatever you can get with kids.

Quilting

I have never quilted, but am so excited to jump right in and try it out. Brody bought me a new sewing maching for Christmas and it is awesome! Once we get settled in the new place, Clayton's quilt will be my project for awhile. I found this vehicle duvet cover at Ikea and I am going to take it apart and make pillows and other bedding for his new bed. The quilt will be all the solid colors in big squares to fit a double bed. I created the pattern so hopefully it will turn out! Clayton's room is my first priority. I will be painting the room, hopefully doing a car mural on the wall and getting his quilt done so we can move him into his big boy bed before baby is born.

Our new home

We close on our home in 3 days! I can't wait to unpack and decorate. We have been boxed up since the end of October, it will be like Christmas all over again for Clayton.

After Brody was offered his new job in Omaha, I flew out to look at houses with my Uncle who is our real estate agent. We spent 2 1/2 days looking at houses and I didn't walk into one house and get the feeling that it was the right one. So we found a rental with a 4 month lease and continued our house search once we got settled.

We walked into this house and I told Brody and Steve, "Maybe they have cookies for us". They did and they were still warm! Yum! I have to joke now that the cookies sold us.

Here are some pictures of our new place. It is really hard to take pictures to really see what the house it like. I will take more once we are moved in.

This is our living room. I can't wait for a fireplace! To the right is the dining room and kitchen. To the left is 3 bedrooms and stairs to the basement.

The kitchen of my dreams! A huge walk in pantry and lots of counter space to cook and bake. I can't wait to make valentine's goodies in a couple weeks.

My built in desk right in the center of the house. No more sharing an office with Brody!

The basement is unfinished. We are planning on doing all the work ourselves and hope to have it complete before baby is born in July. We will be putting in a bathroom, Brody's office, a guest room and have a family room down there. All you guests that come to visit will have your own private living quarters.

Big Brother!!!

Clayton is going to be a big brother in July! I think he is ready, he is in love with babies right now and stops to see them or points them out in the store. Out of the blue last week he said, "I want a baby sister". Some days it is, "I want a baby brother sister". "Baby in mommy's tummy? Come out soon?"

I just can't believe how much my little man is talking these days and learning. He loves to ride his bike on the hardwood floors. He has rode it more in the house than he ever did outside. He knows his primary colors and it learning to counting to 5 and spell is name. If you ask him how old he is, he will say "four". I guess 4 is more fun that 2? He loves to help me cook in the kitchen and does very well at cracking eggs. One morning I came in the kitchen and he had pulled the chair up in front of the stove and had cracked an egg in the skillet. The shell was sitting nicely to the side in two pieces and he had the spatula in his hand. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "making daddy an egg", "mommy fire on?" Thankfully he hasn't figured out how to light the burners yet! Brody told him to "go make daddy an egg" and he did just that! He is a little sponge right now and takes it all in. He is too smart for his own good!


Clayton loves to paint, color, and play play-dough. It doesn't matter what it is, it always gets tested in the mouth. Him and Brody painted on paper the other night and then it turned into face painting.
He loves to read books. Today he told me he wanted to take a nap in his house (one of our projects during the snow storm last week). I found him laying in there with his blankie, reading books. He is a busy little boy and will find something to entertain him if he needs too, but usually it spells trouble. Today I found him on top of his changing table that is in his closet. He had got the markers off the top shelf and was coloring on his shirts hanging in the closet!!

I am thankful that he takes 3 hour naps; him and I both need that time! He still has his binkie and potty training still seems far off, but hopefully will come before baby arrives. I am excited to transition him into his big boy bed after we get moved and settled. We are starting to talk about giving his bed (crib) to baby and he told me he was going to give his blankie to baby too. Ahh, his blankie is his best friend and goes everywhere with him. This boy just melts my heart. I love him so much! I am so thankful I get to spend everyday with him.

Adjusting

December 6 was our first snow! It lasted for 3 days and amounted to 15+ inches. By day 3, we had to get out of the house, so I shoveled out the car and 2 hours later we were off to my Aunt's house just around the corner.

We were suppose to get another huge snow storm coming in the week of Christmas, so my mom, Clayton and I drove back to McCook with my cousin and Brody followed the next day. He drove in the storm but luckily made it before is was bad and interstate was closed down.

The snow is only fun for a short while with Clayton and then he is too cold! Temperatures have been below 10 degrees for the high since Christmas. This has been the hardest thing to adjust to with us being able to play outdoors almost all 365 days out of the year in California.

I have realized that Clayton and I are just not homebodies! We like to be busy, out doing things during the day. I have found out when it snows, everything closes down for days! We had such a great routine in California: Tues-swimming, Wed-music, Fri-park. We were surrounded by lots of friends. Not having that routine after the move has made me a little crazy lately, but I feel it is coming. I signed Clayton up for gymnastics on Wed. and music on Thrus. We also have the Early Childhood Learning Center that we can drop into any time during the day when schools are open. Lately, Clayton asks to go there about every day. It was been a great outlet for us with art activies, story time, music and a exercise room. I got to know a couple mothers there too with children the same age as Clayton.

We tried out a church the first weekend in January, Vineyard of Omaha. We were at a Vineyard church in California so I was glad to find one here. We like it and are excited to get involved and be apart of it. We have been able to leave Clayton in the nursery the last two times which hasn't been very successful since he has been born.

After church on Sunday the 3rd, we headed over to take some measurement in our new house only to discover we didn't have the house key. It had fell out of Brody's pocket. He retraced his steps back to the place we ate lunch and back to the church only to find no key. Tuesday we recieved a call from the church that they had found our key. I was reminded that day that my heavenly father is the key to helping me through this adjustment period. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding' in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6.