Livingroom decorating continues

On Sunday hubby and I went out to dinner and then Home Depot on our date. Yes, that is what we do many of the times we go out on a date. We go to Home Depot. It is nice not to have to bring the kids with us. We can actually focus on our shopping needs.

This time we bought two area rugs for the living room, a light for the wall in the living room, two lamps, and some non-slid mats for under the area rug. We still have lots to do but this was a good start.

Over the last few days I put the books back in the bookcase and began setting up the living room. We laid the area rugs and have everything laid out the way we want it. Hubby still needs to move his fish tank to the reading corner but that is about it.

We have decided we will paint the walls a pale yellow color. I am sort of considering painting the beams white but we still have to negotiate that. We also need to add base boards and crown molding which we did shop for at Home Depot but will have to buy it in February with our tax return!

Here are some pictures of our progress!

Here is a close up of the two area rugs we bought:

We decided to go with a darker color since we have kids, dogs, and a baby on the way! Should be less stressful for stains!

Stranger Safety DVD

With the dangers surrounding our children today the best thing we can do is to educate them and teach them how to keep themselves safe and watch out for dangers around them. We have always been concerned about teaching our children how to be safe from strangers but had no idea how to approach the subject in a gentle manner as to not scare them.

I had seen John Walsh had made a DVD just for children on the issue. I purchased the DVD and found it to be perfect for my children! Not only is it entertaining, but it focuses on prevention rather than telling your child not to let others touch you and what bad things people could do. It talks about how strangers are like dogs, you never know if they are a good dog or a bad dog so you need to be careful and always have your safe side adult help guide you.

They put a lot of humor in the movie to try and keep children entertained. They also teach children to be aware of their surroundings. They talk about a safe circle and to not let strangers in their safe circle. They address kinda knows too. They tell children to have 3 safe side adults that your parents trust that could pick you up from school or help you. This was great for me to talk to Aly about and have her understand who would be allowed to pick her up from school and why. We also talked about what to do if someone that was not on our safe side adult list try to pick her up from school.

Anyway, for any parent with children I highly recommend this DVD. I think it is best suited for children ages 4-10 years of age. Children younger than four may not find it entertaining as it is not in cartoon format. Plus they may not understand all of the concepts. Children over ten may find it to be cheesy and make fun of it and think it is for babies.

Talking to the baby

Some Internet sites say around 17 weeks the baby can start to hear sound. So the girls have began talking to the baby and giving the baby fart kisses! They find it really funny to give the baby fart kisses and watch my belly move as I laugh! KK reminds me everyday that my tummy is getting "fat" and she finds it quite funny. Daddy came to the rescue today and told her Mommies tummy isn't fat, she is pregnant and has a baby in it.

I have started to feel the baby move and kick and for some reason this past week my uterus is in a huge growth spurt! I am already having a hard time sleeping. I sleep the first 3 hours of the night but then wake up every 1/2 hour the rest of the night and have to change position due to being uncomfortable. I have a body pillow but maybe I need to do something else? Was there something that worked for you to help you sleep comfortably? If so please share!

We have both of the girls sleeping through the night in their own rooms now. KK is hilarious, we thought it might be easier for her to sleep in the same room as her sister for comfort but she wants to sleep in her own room with her own rules and routines. First off she has to have the bedroom door shut! She needs a flashlight, and wants a music CD on. Aly likes the door open and turns her flashlight off before she falls asleep. She doesn't need music but has to have a humidifier on due to her cough. So I guess it makes sense for them to sleep in their own rooms. However, after the baby comes and is past 3 months old we plan on moving it to its own room. So either the girls will have to learn to share a room or one of them will have to share with the baby!

Nothing else new. I will try and post when we have something to share. Now that I am feeling better I would like to keep the blog up and I know this would make my family very happy!

Been doing some baby shopping

After having KK I got rid of most of my baby stuff. So now we have to start all over again! I still had a car seat and that was about it. A month ago I bought a used stroller that was supposed to work as a travel system with my car seat but it didn't. It was missing some parts. It is a very nice stroller though and will work well for the baby so we will keep it.

There are still a number of things on our list that we need to get. We have got some offers to borrow things which we definitely will do but there are still things no one has for us to borrow that we need to buy.

I have been wanting a mini co sleeper to put next to the bed for the first three months the baby is born. I knew I wasn't going to buy it new because they run around $120. I have been looking on craigslist and most of the time used they are running around $65-$70. I called yesterday on one and it was missing some parts. Hubby is getting frustrated with me buying things on craigslist because often times they are missing parts. At least this lady was honest about it though. So we decided not to buy it. It also made me rethink my plan. Why buy a mini co sleeper that will only be good for 3 months? I decided to look at playards with full bassinets since we have plenty of room in our bedroom to fit one.

I went to Walmart and Kmart just to get an idea of price and styles. They are all $100 or more. I found one at Kmart for $119 that I really liked but wanted to keep shopping. I went to TJ Max as you can often find some good deals on products there. Today was my lucky day! I found a great deal on the Boppy Happy Place Playard. Online this playard ranges from $113-$149. TJ Max had it on clearance for $69. I was thrilled! I would have paid that for a used one on craigslist! Of course I bought it!

We set it up and it is perfect! I love it that I will be able to use it in my room the first 3 months or so and then we can use it on trips and such. I also like that it can be used from infant through toddler. I am happy we made this purchase. I love the deal I got too!

Chances Are....

Last night we had our 16 week ultrasound. We paid for a private ultrasound so that we could try and see if we are having a boy or girl. I just didn't have the patience to wait until 21 weeks along! I was assured on the phone that they would be able to tell me the sex of my baby even though I was only 16 weeks along. Apparently the owner has been doing ultrasounds for years and was really good at it! Besides, they said if they couldn't tell I could have a rescan free!

We arrived at our appointment all excited but knowing in the back of our mind that we just may not find out what it is. Our ultrasound tech informed us almost immediately that she has only been doing it for 2-3 months and trying to find out when I am only 16 weeks might be hard for her. Oh great, such a different story then I was told on the phone. Where is the owner? If it is hard for someone new to see at 16 weeks why wasn't I scheduled with the owner?

Anyway, the lady was really nice and did try really hard. She just lacked confidence and didn't make us feel like she knew much of what she was doing. The baby did have its legs crossed pretty much the whole time. The tech spent about a half and hour trying over and over again to get a good shot. I think their equipment was not that great or she had the settings wrong. It was very dark and hard to see anything.

So the tech said she wasn't sure but was going to guess that it was a girl. We weren't entirely convinced especially since it was very hard to see anything. We were given a CD of the images and a few print outs and sent home. The print outs were very dark as well and you couldn't see a thing. Today I decided to import the images onto Adobe Photoshop, lighten them, and zoom in. Based on these images I am guessing it looks like we are having a girl. The only way I would say it could be wrong is if her angle was off at she had more of a tailbone type angle. They didn't look exactly straight on. So, I am going to post the three pics I edited and then at the end I am going to post a picture I found on the Internet of a boy at 16 week ultrasound. I would then love for all of you to comment and give me your opinion. We aren't going to buy anything yet or say we are 100% confident. We have an ultrasound at our Dr. office that will be scheduled around 21 weeks and that tech has been doing it over 20 years and is really good at what she does. So we will wait till then to be positive on the gender.

The arrows are pointing at the genitals.

I think that long line you see is the umbilical cord and the arrow is pointing at the genitals.

Here is a boy shot I got from the Internet.

So please let me know what your thoughts are!

Outside playset lights

During the Christmas season Daddy put lights up on the children's play set. They loved it! It looked so pretty with all of the white lights and it helped to make it easier to see things in the dark! Daddy has a big flood light in his backyard do he often takes the kids outside after he gets home from work. Since it is late, it is already dark. They love it though! The flood light makes it bright enough in the grassy area to run around and see everything.

Pergo continues

Saturday hubby spent the day and night working on the rest of the pergo near the fireplace and into the dining room. It looks so nice now that it is done. Our livingroom and dining room flow together now! I think he was happy to have Sunday to relax as well. He worked on the floors until 1 a.m. in the morning! We are so happy and look forward to future repairs as well just as changing the rock behind the fireplace to sheetrock and changing the wood wall in the dining room to sheet rock as well. We sure are having a difficult time deciding what color to paint though!

Living room update

Here is a quick picture of the progress hubby made on Saturday! Poor guy was working on the floor until 11 p.m. He still had the wood stove area and dining room to do the next day so he wanted to push himself as far as he could. Well the next day he found water damage on the floor near the sliding glass door so he had to work on replairing that. This weekend he plans on finishing the floor. It will be fun to take more pics and move our furniture back so you can get a better idea of what everything looks like. It is not as narrow as it looks in the picture, you know how pictures can be! Maybe I can walk around with the flip video camera and get a better shot! Hopefully Daddy will take a break the next weekend and relax!

Clam Chowder Recipe

I had the best clam chowder in Monterrey a few years ago. They made it in a bread bowl and put garlic butter and cheese on the bowl and broiled it. It was so tasty! So I decided to try to make it myself and it turned out great. Here is the recipe:

3 (6.5) ounces of minced clams

1 cup minced onion--or if you are like me and hate onion add one packet of Lipton onion soup mix

1 cup finally chopped celery

1 cup finally chopped carrot

2 cups chopped potatoes

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup water

1 quart half and half cream

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/4 cup cooked bacon bits

1 tsp. salt

Put chopped onions, celery, carrots, and potatoes in a large frying pan. Drain clam juice over the vegetables in the frying pan. Add 3/4 cup of water to cover the vegetables. Place a lid over the frying pan and cook over medium heat until all of the vegetables are soft.

In a large pot melt butter, add flour and whisk. Whisk in cream stirring until smooth. Stir in vegetable mixture.

Stir in clam and bacon bits just before serving. That way your clams won't become hard and over cooked. Serve in a sourdough bread bowl.

Sour Dough Bread bowl recipe

1/2 cube of butter

6 garlic cloves minced

shredded cheese

Purchase sour dough bread bowls at the store. Mix softened butter with garlic. Spread in the inside of the sour dough bowls. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the garlic butter mixture. Broil on low for about 3-4 minutes. Serve immediately with clam chowder in the bowl.

Home Improvements

Hubby took two weeks off of work and has spent all of his time working on the house! He tore out the old closets of the girls and put in new closet organizers. He tore down the wall in the living room making it larger. He tore up the old carpet in the living room and found old termite damage on the sub floor so he had to put a new layer of plywood down. He cut the concrete fireplace pad and made it smaller with a much nicer angle instead of a rectangle. Oh yeah, and he also filled a 20 yard dumpster with some of this home improvement junk and other stuff from around the house! Tomorrow he is going to begin installing the new pergo flooring in the living room and dining room!

Here is the closet organizer he put in two closets. The second picture shows the living room. It isn't finished yet but I thought I would show his progress. He will install the pergo floors tomorrow and he has some sheet rock to repair and we will need to paint. We are thinking of painting it an eggshell color. I would really like to get an electrician out and find out some lighting options we may have....

He also cut the concrete pad for the wood stove. It used to be a big rectangle but is now a nice shapely pad. In the spring when we don't need to build fires anymore he will take out the rock wall and replace it with sheet rock, plus he will tile the concrete pad. He will also sheet rock that wood wall to the right of the wood stove. I am so excited for all of these changes. Our house will finally start to feel modern!