New Name

Lots of things have happened lately. We put an offer on a different house, the people decided they would rather let it foreclose than answer our offer. Duh, dumb idea I thought, but whatever. We're still not done with them, we are absolutely in love with the house and can see ourselves dying in it. It's twice the size of the one we have now, an unfinished basement that basically needs nothing more than some carpet and wallboard. The bathroom downstairs is finished, and the master suite is big enough for our bedroom set. The master bath has a Dennis-sized tub and a double sink, the bedrooms are a lot bigger for the girls and there's still plenty of rooms to have a playroom and a spare bedroom, plus an entertainment room and an office. It needs about 100 ft of fence and we would be golden to move in. MLS# 833873

We have also made a change in baby's name. Maybe. We don't know yet, but we really like Madalynn Kay. We would call her Maddy. I don't know if we're just getting used to the name Shelby and don't like it anymore, or if we're just in a rut and want to pick something different. We have three more months to decide though, so depending on the day probably depends on what her name is going to be. We just aren't set in stone on anything like we were with Bailey.

Dance Classes!

Bailey had a blast at dance class on Tuesday! They were bouncing to the beat of the music and she informed the teacher that SHE could count higher than eight. The teacher told her they were only going to do eight and she seemed pretty disappointed that she couldn't bounce as much as she wanted to. They're learning their Christmas routine, and of course they got to play the famous Kitty Game. Last week Mommy got to hear about the Kitty Game for over an hour, so this week we tried talking about something else. She's on the front row on the end, and spins in more circles than anyone else. Sound familiar?? :o) She got three stamps for being a good girl.

Wednesday night in the bathtub she was playing with her letters/numbers. She started counting them. We've only heard her count to about 20, she stumbles a little with 16 (most of the time she just skips it) and stops at 20. Not this time, when she got to 20 she kept going (and included 16 in the middle). Needless to say we were shocked when we reached 29 and kept right on going with 30. She got to 36, I asked her if she could keep counting and she informed me that there were no more letters, therefore nothing else to count. I wanted to videotape it, Daddy wouldn't let me. I think that naked in the tub counting letters is still going to be cute when she's 18, he does not.

Baby Shelby didn't really want to have her picture taken today. She had her hands over her face and only moved them when Guy poked her bum. Nana got to go with Mommy to the ultrasound, she was so excited to get to see our cutie!! We got to listen to the heartbeat and see her various extremeties, including the fact that yes, she is still a baby girl. For those unfamiliar with 3D ultrasound pictures, her nose is about right in the middle of the screen. She's facing to the left, her eyes are closed and so is her mouth. That's a hand over her eyebrow, in a fist. Her lips are thinner than Bailey's, Bailey had really pouty lips and chubby cheeks. We still have a few more weeks to add some fat to her though. :o) She's growing big, and so is Mommy. Guy says Mommy had too many cookies this time, but it's also been almost two months since we've seen him, so it's okay. She's big enough to be due January 3, 2009, so we're looking forward to a Christmas baby and having Aunt Jenn in the delivery room!

Great Weekend!

Bailey is loving her dance classes. Everyone who comes to the house has to see her do somersaults. She hasn't insisted on pulling out her tap shoes to show everyone yet, but I'm sure if she knew where they were she would. Yesterday Matthew, Kristin and Axton came to visit. Steve and Kim were here, the girls went to the spa and met one of Kim's friends for a girls day out. Kris and I got pedicures, Amber and Kim got facials. When we got home the boys had commandeered the Wii and had decided they are Mario Slugger fans. Too bad for Blockbuster, they may not get their game back. Too bad for us, if we don't take it back they charge us $50. Then we went to dinner with the Fifields while Bailey got to play at Grandma's house. Thanks to everyone for a great day!

New House

So the people we're buying from decided they didn't want to pull the house off the market without more money. Of course, isn't that what it's all about? So we offered to give them full asking price if they'll pull it off the market at least through October, then put a sale pending on it. We haven't heard anything yet, but if it's supposed to be then we can work out the details. We went to get Bailey from Nancy this morning and drove around it. The sign is still up :o(. They've cleaned out the flower bed under the circular window and planted some bush there. I got upset, don't be planting stuff in my yard I'm going to have to pull out later! I have big plans for that little bed, and they don't include some red bush that's going to get tall enough to cover that cute circle window. I told Nancy I'd pull it out and put it in her yard. She wasn't so excited. Maybe in one of our negotiations we'll have to stipulate that the bush goes with them when they move.

New Feature

Thanks to Jess for sending me the baby countdown ticker!! It sounds like a really long time when you put it in days, but in reality we only have about three more months or so to go. And no, she doesn't have as much room as the picture would lead you to believe, she doesn't bounce around that much. Although at this point I think that's personal choice, she enjoys sitting between my hips and refuses to move for anything.

New House Update

So we put in our offer on the new house last week. We gave them until this Wednesday to counter or accept, since there are four guys who currently own the house we decided it would be a nice gesture to give them plenty of time to talk to each other. We had a bite on our house yesterday, a couple came by and flagged Dennis down while he was outside to ask if they could come see it. He asked them to call Phil and make an appointment, since we weren't really ready to show the house yet. Good thing, I was inside playing upstairs with Bailey, he was digging around in the backyard, and Nancy was sitting downstairs watching the Sox game. The house was pretty much a disaster area, toys and mail and other clutter everywhere. I started frantically cleaning, Dennis helped me when he came inside. Now our house is spotless, it looks huge because we've hidden a lot of the clutter and we haven't heard from Phil on an appointment to see it. Bummer, but there's hope that people are finding it on the Internet and want to come see it. We'll have Phil come by and take more pictures now that it's clean. Our house is MLS#831648, the house we're buying is MLS#826345 for those who are interested in checking them out.

Halfway to Baby Shelby!

Since I am just setting this blog up, I'm going to bombard you with the current events. Today we are 22 weeks pregnant. We went in for our "big" ultrasound on Wednesday. Still a perfectly healthy baby girl (most importantly ONE little baby girl), weighs about a pound even, straight spine and perfect heart, all organs present and accounted for, ten fingers and ten toes. We got some great 3D pictures, I can't get our scanner to work or I would post them. Her little lips are thinner than Bay's were, but they look like sisters to me. She's a gymnast, I think she goes for days at a time without sleep. She'll move and kick and groove all day, then wake me up several times in the night kicking then too. She's sitting really low, so far she has only moved for Dennis, Clover, Nana and Bailey. She's so low I won't let most people try to touch her. Call me crazy, but there are very few people I will move my pants for to let them touch me, even if they're tall maternity pants. :o) Once in awhile she'll move up by my belly button, but for the most part she's uncomfortably condensing herself down between my hips. I guess she's scared I'll let her out and she'll miss it or something. When Clover climbs up on my tummy, lays down and starts purring she goes absolutely crazy. At first the kicks weren't hard enough for Clover to do anything, but now she has much better aim and a stronger kick. She'll sock Clover right in the dead center of where she can feel her purring, Clover will look at me like, "What the hell?" and shift. Shelby will give her another good kick and slowly work her off of my tummy. Too bad, I liked cuddling with the cat. Her official name is going to be Shelby Kay Carter. I didn't want to commit ourselves to a name right after we first found out she's a girl, but by now I think if we changed the name Bailey would insist we take the baby back and bring home her Shelby. The Hill AFB people came to check our CO2 detector, which happened to be in the baby's room, and Bailey marched in there after her and announced, "This is MY Shelby's room. You are NOT allowed to play in here!!" The lady looked at me like, "What's a Shelby?" since there is absolutely nothing in the room. While we were at the Angels/Red Sox games one of the Angel girls was named Shelby. We decided it was cute, and she was number 18 (for those who don't know, 8 is our family lucky number: Dennis's baseball number, date of our first date, date of our wedding, etc.). We have told Bailey that Shelby will come to our house after Santa comes. Oh, please baby girl, don't wait too long after Christmas!!!!!!

Smartest Girl Ever

Nancy called me in shock while I was at work today. She was at our house with Bailey while the new furnace was being installed. Bailey was avoiding a nap at all costs, and insisted on playing with her heart. You remember the peg boards with the plastic beads, you could make designs and when you were done iron them so they would mesh together and keep their shape? I bought one for Bailey awhile ago, a heart shape. She hasn't had the attention span to put a plastic bead on every peg, she usually makes the outline and gets about half of it filled in when she decides she's bored and puts all the beads back in the package. Apparently I've just never let her play with it while trying to avoid a nap, she now has a beautiful melted plastic heart. What we do with it now is anybody's guess, I'll probably add it to her project box. Dennis gets mad at me cuz I save everything, all of her projects from preschool were taking over our house until we found a box to put them in but I wouldn't let him throw anything away. Anyway, that's beside the point. Nancy called to inform me that a three year old should not have the dexterity and fine motor skills to pick up those little pieces and place them on the pegs. OH, so THAT'S why the box said ages 5 and up only. I had no idea why you wouldn't give them to a three year old, I brought it home a few months ago and she's done great. This is also my little girl who was promoted to the fours class a couple of weeks ago in spite of the fact that she won't be four until April. Do I have to wait until she's five to put her in Kindergarten? Tonight we were reading her new library books, she picked one about Sacajawea. I broke it down for her into syllables: Sac-a-ja-we-a, and made her repeat them with me. Then Saca-ja-wea. Saca-jawea. By the third try she can now say Sacajawea, tell you she is a Shoshone Native American (yes, the HR side of me will not allow her to call them Indians) who helped Lewis and Clark across America and has a baby like her Shelby. She was very concerned about the warrior who stole Sacajawea out of the river, we had quite the lengthy discussion about strangers, especially those who ride horses and have a lot of paint on their faces. Whatever, the point got across to not talk to strangers or go anywhere with them.

New House

Well, our house is slowly becoming a new one. Today the furnace was installed, they delivered the shingles for a new roof which will be installed Monday. New appliances in the kitchen, the painting is almost done, and the For Sale sign goes up Tuesday. Anybody want to live in Layton? We're not 100% sure we're going to sell it yet, we're going to look at a new house on Monday night after our realtor comes to check out our house. We've found one across the street from Nancy, 500 sq ft larger, still only three bedrooms but has a 'storage' room we'll use as a play room, has its own master suite (no sharing a bathroom with the girls! Yay!), a flat yard (which, let's face it, is the best selling point ever. Not that I don't love living above the world, I just wish we could keep a live lawn - impossible due to the sharp slope and extreme runoff from the sprinklers), and right across the street from Nancy. We can buy the home in Clinton for the same price we can sell ours for, Dennis feels strongly about it and I have always been one to support any type of intuition. If it's right we'll sell ours quickly and be able to close on the new one before Shelby arrives, if it's not a move we're supposed to make then we will run into obstacles we can't overcome. I have complete faith that our lives will turn out exactly how they're supposed to.

Current Status of Family

For those of you who are unaware, our family consists of three. Five. And a half? We have Dennis: the Daddy, enthusiastic Bees employee, hard-working student, and groundskeeper. Jenna: the Mommy, HR/Benefits guru, cook and maid. Bailey: the "sweetie" as she refers to herself because that's what Mommy calls her, energetic preschooler who just got promoted to the fours class a few weeks ago (although she will not be four until April), Drama Queen, and all-encompassing destroyer of anything that may have once been in order. Fenway: the two year old cockapoo (she just turned two on the 31st of August, don't ask why I remember things like the dog's birthday because I have no idea), and main mastermind of all destructive activities. Clover: the sweet, innocent Calico kitten (yeah, right), clever manipulator who talks the dog into doing things she doesn't want to get in trouble for, whose birthday is on St. Patrick's Day (thus the name), and who regularly gets mauled by the sweetie but never once bites or scratches (thus the reason she is still alive, I think Dennis would have killed her if she hurt our little girl). Shelby: the unborn gymnast who insists on sitting as low as she can possibly get, who refuses to move for anyone except Daddy and Clover (she moved a little for Bailey tonight, and she regularly kicks the cat so hard she moves off my lap), who is sitting so low Mommy refuses to let most people even attempt to feel her move, gestational age of 22 weeks today, due to arrive January 9, 2009 (we're shooting for Dec. 27 while Aunt Jenn is in town because Mommy promised she could be there). Plus a myriad of fish who are slowly dying off. Daddy wants to buy something that has a penis, I told him no more animals and I was sure one of the fish was probably male. He's going to call Uncle Blair when he needs support while treading water in the estrogen ocean.

Opening Day!

I was writing on my Facebook wall and I thought to myself, "Why don't I just blog this?" So here I am. I want to thank Kris and Matthew for introducing me to Blogspot, Jess for encouraging me to actually use it, and Ralcorp for allowing me to blog at work if I so desire. Thanks IT, it really helps that our filters aren't working and I can now blog and listen to Rhapsody and Sirius. :o)