Basement Update

Here are the latest pictures...

This weekend Brett put the drywall up coming down the stairs.  Now all we have left is to finish the mudding, sand, texture, paint, trim, lay flooring, and hang the lighting.  Sounds like a lot, but we feel like we are on the downhill slide!

Quick Update

I've been a terrible mom and haven't taken a single picture since the beginning of February.  I have taken a bunch of videos of Riley, but like we know, I can't seem to figure out how to get them uploaded to blogger.  I'm going to try to upload them to U Tube next because we've got some great videos of Riley over the past couple weeks.  Here's a quick update on what we did the last few weeks of February.

• We lost Brett's Uncle Ned to cancer last week.  Although it's been a sad time, we are happy that he's no longer suffering.  After the past 5 months we've come to realize that cancer really is a horrible disease.
• I entered my third trimester of this pregnancy.  I feel tired all day and nauseous at night.  I'm tired of the progesterone shots, but have another 5-6 weeks.  The 5 inch long welt that I have on my butt is really annoying and itchy!
• We've been working really hard on the basement.  We are now in the "mudding" phase.  We've got one layer up and are really happy with the results.  Brett is picking up the last of the supplies (other than carpet and paint) tonight so that we can work on getting it done this month.  We're both excited.  I'll take some more pictures and post them later in the week.
• We've decided how we want to do the nursery and are going to paint the room and hang a chair rail this weekend.  The room is currently brown.  We plan to leave the brown on the wall under the chair rail and paint the upper wall Oxford Pink.  I hope it turns out as well as we invision it will.  I've also completely changed my mind on nursery furniture.  After turning Riley's crib into a headboard and removing her changing pad from her dresser we realized that it would look much nicer to just buy her an actual dresser and headboard.  So, that's been ordered and should arrive in a couple weeks.  Which means Baby "Popper" will be using Riley's old crib and dresser/changing table.
• We have been working on potty training again.  I would say that Riley is about 65% there.  We are using a trip to Monkey Joes as motivation.  Last weekend she had one accident about 10 minutes before we were going to leave to go to Monkey Joes.  I thought for sure she was going to throw a fit since we'd been talking about it all weekend, but it didn't phase her when we said that we couldn't go.  I think I was more upset than she was.  I just don't know what motivates her, but I know that she understands.  She even surprised us with staying dry when out to dinner Sunday night and waking up completely dry Monday morning.  She seems to struggle during the week at daycare.  I'm hoping that after a couple more weekends at home she will officially be a undies-wearing girl.
• We've learned that Riley has inherited her dad's baseball swing.  This girl can hit the ball!  We bought a plastic bat and ball at the dollar store Sunday were surprised to see her hit the ball.  We're talking homeruns and line drives.  I got it on video so it is the first video that I plan to post on You Tube!  At some point I think you can hear me say "what are we doing letting her hit a baseball in the house??...But, she's so good!"  I swear it's not just a proud mommy moment...she is unreal.  Oh, and she swings lefty! 
•  We have finally furnished every room in our house.  Only took us 2 1/2 years.  We've been on the look-out for the perfect chairs for our front room and found them at Big Lots, of all places.  We bought one around Christmas time and waited for another shipment to come in.  We waited forever and the shipment never came.  Brett called every week for about 5 weeks and no luck.  We thought we had struck out again, until Big Lots called to tell Brett that they had one that had been returned.  Brett used his bargaining skills and we now have our two chairs.  Here's a few pictures of the room and one of the munchkin:

Riley Nicole At 2 1/2

Today is Riley's half birthday.  She has no clue, but I'll celebrate for her by writing about her today.  As Brett said last night "I think that she just keeps getting cuter every day!"

• She is still wearing the same size clothes and shoes.  It seems that she has grown some and her jeans are fitting here perfectly in length.
• She has found a couple new favorite shows...Max and Ruby and her Leap Frog videos (Especially Numbers Ahoy).  I will say that she seems to recognize her letters better and is counting much better as well!  She likes to watch them in "Mommy's bed." 
• Her new favorite line that she says with a nod and a finger in the air: "Just one more ____ Mom." Insert movie, book, or show.
• We've officially experienced the scariest moment in Riley's life.  Riley flipped head first out of a shopping cart while at Costco a week ago.  Literally head first onto her back on the concrete outside of Costco.  Lesson to all the parents out there...never let your kid stand/sit in the back of the cart...even if they scream and cry.  We thought we were avoiding a meltdown, but I drove away thanking God we weren't leaving with a brain injured toddler.
• We've officially experienced the grosses moments in Riley's life.  Riley came down with the flu last Thursday...while we were in a Mexican restaurant.  Our food had just come and Riley asked me to hold her.  While I was getting her out of her chair she tossed her cookies. Thankfully it was mostly on the floor and me.  We took our meals home and apologized several times to the poor waitress who had to clean up our mess.  She went on to puke another 7 times at home.  Not fun!  Thankfully it was over at 1 am and we have cleaned every floor, couch, and bed in the house.
• She is very opinionated about what her baby's name is going to be.  She likes one specific name (which happens to be the name we are going with) and can't for the life of her pronounce it.  I'll reveal the name when we have finally picked a middle name.  Hopefully soon.  I'm getting anxious to get everything ready for her...including her name.  So, here's a sneak peak: Riley's little sister will be called "Popper" by her big sister until she can finally pronounce it right.
• Last night I commented on her tummy being full.  She stuck her tummy out and said "there's my baby in there."
• Favorite toy: balls, dolls, books, paint, play doh, silly putty.
• Favorite veggie: Red/Yellow Peppers, cucumber, broccoli.
• Favorite fruit: Mandarin oranges, apple sauce, blue berries, bananas (only if she can have a whole one).
• Favorite snack: String cheese, popcorn, marshmallows
• Favorite meal: Pizza, mac and cheese, soup, pasta
• Favorite color: blue, purple
• My favorite things she says..."Come here little buddy (to Sam, toys, or balls)" "Just one more Mom!" "Um...I don't think so..."

She is so full of personality and we love her to pieces!  Brett and I agree that she may be trouble in a few years.  She is so quick on her feet and always has something funny to say!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

How long do you think I have until new divided plates, a teddy bear, a sucker, and marshmallows no longer make my Riley happy?  It's true, I bought my candy-hating toddler new plates for Valentine's Day...and she loves them!  Her response this morning was a huge smile and "oh, yes!" She loved them so much that she wanted to take them to Hedy's house with her.  She especially loved the bulldog (aka "hippo") one with the "roses."

Oh, and how long until I can't take her to Target with me and hide the gifts that I buy her in the cart?

Static!

Is it spring yet???  With winter here our house is shock central and poor Riley's hair suffers terribly!  Here's proof:

Not so bad...

 Bad...

 Worse...

Winter Fun

Riley was able to play in the snow some last weekend before we had highs of -10!  We really wanted to take her sledding, but haven't been able to find a sled anywhere in town.  We plan to check Toys R Us this weekend, but seriously, how does Iowa not have sleds for sale through the entire winter season??  We were able to find her some really nice new boots 60% off. Still on the lookout for some new snowpants and gloves! Since we couldn't make it out sledding we did have a little fun in our yard at home. Here's a few pictures...

 Snow Angels!

 Going down the "upslide" - thanks Mickey Mouse!

 Right about now she started yelling: "Dad, get me up!"  And inside we went.

24 Week Update

I'm officially 24 weeks along in this pregnancy today.  Here's a few things to note:

• I'm tired.  Really, really tired.  I haven't been feeling the greatest, even though I've been lucky enough to steer clear of all the winter sickness floating around.  I'm not sure what it is.
• Brett gave me my first at-home progesterone shot.  Since my insurance isn't covering the cost of the injections at the doctor's office and they are $25 a pop, it's a must.  Surprisingly he did great and it wasn't much different than the nurse.  It's nice to not have to fit in one more appointment each week!
• Everything seems to be just about the same as when I was pregnant with Riley.
• We are having a much harder time naming this little girl than we did with Riley. We had Riley's name picked out super early.  This time around we can't seem to find the perfect name. I think it's harder picking out a second girl name.  We were pretty certain on a boy's name, but hadn't spent much time on deciding on a girl's name.  Riley is very open about telling us if she likes or dislikes certain names.  Right now she likes one of the names we like and doesn't like the other.
• The swelling has started already.  Not very bad, but I can see the swelling immediately when I take my socks off.  With Riley I was super swollen around 30 weeks.
• I lost my motivation to work out.  It's been two weeks.  Hopefully motivation will come back soon!
• My weight gain is about the same as with Riley, only 5 pounds less.
• My next appointment is on the 10th and I have to do my glucose screening.  Hopefully my daily intake of chocolate hasn't effected me!
• We haven't made any progress on the nursery.  We are thinking about doing pink and brown.  But, we haven't even really looked into it yet.  We're hoping to get started on that in the next few weeks.
• I have felt a couple braxton hicks contractions, which I don't remember feeling this early with Riley.
• Overall, things are going well.  Now I'm just trying to find the energy to make it through the next 3-3/12 months!