Update

I forgot to give an update on Rheanna...as of yesterday she was finally dilated to a 1 and they have February 6 (I think) set as the date to induce if she doesn't go into labor before then. I think she goes in for another ultrasound tomorrow to check fluid levels and make sure everything's working right! So this time next week we should have a new baby nephew! I'll get pictures on here as soon as I can. Pray for her and Dustin, I know they're excited and nervous. Also, Dustin took a new job so he'll be closer to home so congrats Uncle Rusty!

Too Long

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back on here, we've been busy as usual and I haven't been able to find any spare time...I can't really think of why we have been so busy, just one thing after the next I guess. All the snow is gone and we've been having really nice sunny weather, it's still pretty cold, but not too bad. We don't usually have sunny January's, so it's been a nice change.

Timothy, of course, has been changing like crazy, he's started giving "kisses" now. Mostly it's just him coming at you with his mouth wide open, but it's purposeful so it's really sweet. He mainly likes to try to kiss Dixie, so we have to watch him with that. No open mouth puppy kisses! He did give Brandon lots of kisses at Wal-Mart the other day and he gave Aunt Stacia kisses goodbye.

He's also trying to stand more by hisself. He was totally showing off with it the other day, he would pull up on Brandon and then let go and start laughing so hard that he made himself fall down. Of course, as soon as I got the video camera out to record it, he stopped and just wanted to play with the camera. I have a feeling he's not going to be walking anytime real soon though, he's so good at crawling I think he'll just crawl longer because he knows he can get where he wants to that way.

His biggest accomplishment lately is the complete rejection of baby food. He won't eat a single bite of it anymore. So we've switched to table food and he's pretty good at handling it and getting it into his mouth. Of course, Dixie loves it because she gets to eat all the "leftovers" that hit the floor. So far he loves chicken, canteloupe, and cheese. He also loves yogurt, but we're not letting him use spoons by himself yet! Way too messy!

Aunt Stacia and Hadley and Linden came up to visit last week, it was fun. I was off on Wednesday and then I took Friday off as well so we got to spend a lot of time with them. Of course, that usually meant that all the boys were sick and crying and not sleeping well, but we had fun anyway. They came out to our house on Wednesday and we took the boys to play at the park behind our house. Stacia took some really good pictures of the boys together, but I haven't had a chance to save any of them yet to my computer, plus I'm at my work computer anyway. The only I saved so far on here is the one she took of Timothy taking a bath in my mom's kitchen sink. He loved being in there, and it was such a cute picture!

Other than that, not too much is going on. We're trying out another preacher candidate for our church this weekend, it must be pretty stressful having to come Super Bowl weekend, but at least the Seahawks aren't playing! He sounds good from what I can tell on his website, it's www.drjoey.net if anyone's interested. The guy that came a couple of weeks ago wasn't our favorite, we had some scriptural issues with him and thankfully we weren't the only ones. I guess that's the good thing about bringing someone in that has beliefs different from yours (and the Bible) is that you find out how many people are still standing for the truth! In a way, it was a blessing to have him come up here. Pray for our search, it hasn't gone well so far.

Since Jeff's gone on his "vacation", we're hosting American Idol at our house for the next couple of weeks. It's been a lot of fun so far, hopefully our cable won't go out, it was out last night and I missed all of Heroes! But, I made up for it by going to the gym so it was ok. My goal is to lose 30 pounds by July, I think I can do it! It was a nice to break to get away and work out last night, I spent the afternoon at doctor's offices, first for me and then for Timothy. I found out I have a sinus infection and something called TMJ where I have something wrong with my jaw muscles and Timothy has eczema. He had had a rash for a while and it wasn't going away so I thought we should have it looked at again! So I'm all drugged up and he has to have cream put on his back and legs every night, but other than that, it's been a good month in WA!

Sick of Snow

It snowed...again. That's four times in one winter, usually we only get one. And the worst part is, it hasn't been the kind of snow that hangs around for the morning and then melts off, it's been around for weeks now. I hate bundling up to go outside and I hate everything being so cold and it's cold because it hasn't been cloudy so during the day it's like 30 degrees outside but blaring sunny so it's miserable to ride in the car. Can you tell I hate snow? It's fun I guess when you're a kid, but not so much now. The good side of it is that I have an excellent excuse not to go to work! I actually was planning on going today, but it didn't work out.

Timothy had his nine month check up today. It was so much fun. Our pediatrician does a parenting class for a few hours for parents and kids of the same age (imagine last check up - 10 6 month old babies and their parents, this time there were only four of us...maybe it has something to do with that pesky snow...) so we got there late this morning because a 30 minute drive turned into an hour and a half and we were the last ones there so we did the normal check in and strip Timothy down to get weighed and measured (30 inches, 20 pounds, such a big boy!) and then came back to play with the other babies until the doctor got there to begin class. It was so cute watching him play. We don't really have friends up here that have babies for him to play with so it's so much fun for me to get to watch him interact with other kids. The best part was that they're all the same age, so no one was getting trampled on for being too young or hitting and taking toys away yet like those one year olds have a tendency to do! It was a good class, we talked about normal things like development and nutrition and safety. The best part of it for me was meeting the other parents. This class was a different crowd than the class we usually go to and the parents in this class were so much nicer. We all acually live pretty close to one another so a couple of us are going to try to get our babies in classes at the Y together.

Did I mention I'm joining the Y? One of my New Year's resolutions is to lose at least 40 pounds and since I did not get the part time job I was hoping for, I'm putting this money that I'm making to better use and joining a gym. I decided on the Y because it costs the same as the local gym out here but all the kids classes are free. For Timothy now, they have a swimming class and a gymnastics class, so we might try them out. I think he would have a blast. But back to him appointment, we finished up class and then they take the kids one at a time into the exam rooms and the doctor comes in and does the actual exam and we got to ask our questions and everything was absolutely fine. His ear infection is completely gone, thank goodness, and he checked out just normal! Then the nurse came in and he had a get a couple of shots, but he did fine, thank goodness for that left thumb, he quiets down the minute it goes into his mouth.

So what was supposed to be a three hours deal turned into at least 5 and we didn't get home until close to 2pm and thankfully he went straight down for a nap and I was able to get some work done. But, I can hear him waking up now, one hour is just too short for a nap! Tonitght we're going over to the Oden's for the American Idol kick off party. They have everyone over to watch American Idol every Tuesday night, we all eat dinner and then laugh at the poor people trying out. It should be a fun night!

A Week of Firsts

Well actually we've only had a few firsts, but that's not too bad for only one week! It feels like forever since I've been able to get on here, but we've been so busy. I had to make it through year end closing at work which meant a lot of late nights and bringing work home, plus my eyes decided to reject my contacts that week which meant I had to work and drive all week in my glasses which I hate, and I had a constant headache. Since then, we've made it through year end, but we've had so much snow the past few days that we've been home but busy finishing laundry and cleaning and finally organizing things (like the garage) that we had put off. So here I am. And I have a lot of work to get done today, we have a huge deadline for the tax department at work, but I'm procrastinating and enjoying nap time.

So onto the firsts...on Monday, Brandon took Timothy to the doctor because his cold got really bad all of the sudden over the weekend and we were diagnosed with our fist ear infection. So he's on his first antibiotics and doing much better now. Then on Tuesday, I came home (late) from work and Brandon was all mad and I found out that Timothy had his first busted lip. Poor guy, he's got an ear infection and a fat lip. My mom said she was going to call CPS on us. But the reason for the fat lip was because someone has decided to "crawl" on his hands and feet instead of hands and knees, thus another first. He doesn't do it all the time, interestingly enough, he only does it when he's crawling on the hardwood floors, maybe it hurts his knees. I saw some little knee pads for crawling babies in a magazine, how funny would that look?

He's been eating pretty much anything we give him now. He mastered the fruit star puff things and Cheerios and loves to eat little pieces of bread. He also loves cheese. He can eat a lot of cheese. It's nice to feed him real food even though it makes him feel more like a "big boy" every day. We go to the doctor on Tuesday for his 9 month check up, I'm really excited. Brandon said they weighed him at the doctor on Monday and he had actually lost about a pound but I think it's because he's constantly down on the floor crawling EVERYWHERE!! This is a really fun time with him now. He's starting to play games with us...Brandon will sneak up and try to "get" him and he squeals and grabs onto me and then turns around for more. He also loves the "How big is Timothy" game. He's just now starting to copy me and put his arms in the air when we get to the "So Big!" part.

Not too much else going on up here...I had an interview last Friday for a part time job. It sounds really great, but we'll see. They were interviewing more people this week. She said she would get back to my by Friday, so we've been praying a lot for this one. She said it's only 20 hours a week and they don't care how many days a week I work as long as I work 20 hours. How nice is that? But we've learned not to celebrate too soon! I will keep you all updated though if anything changes...I can't wait to tell my boss if I get to leave! That will be a new best day of my life.

Well I should get to work now...if I get it done then I don't have to worry about it the rest of the day! Timothy's going to have a new baby cousin any day now, so pray for Aunt Rheanna and Uncle Dustin and baby Easton. She said she was having some Braxton Hicks last night...I think they're ready for him to be here! We can't wait to see him! I'll let you all know and get some pictures of him on here as soon as we get them.

Looking Back

This was one of the best years of my life...other good things have happened, getting married, finding good jobs, graduating from college, but this one so far has been the best I can remember. Brandon and I thank God every day for the wonderful family he has given us and can't imagine our lives any different. 2006 was definitely a great year.

Christmas was so much fun this year, Timothy was a little grumpy (I think a certain over-excited 8 year old yelling, "Wake up! It's Christmas!" didn't exactly help) but once he got some food in his belly and got to rip some paper off the presents he was pretty fun. I think his Christmas present to Brandon and I was the four hour nap he took that afternoon. We got some good pictures though and we had so much fun.

Brandon's parents flew in that night and got in around 2 in the morning on Tuesday. They left today (Sunday) so we're busy relaxing today and getting the house back to normal. Brandon had to leave to go help move the HUGE desk that Santa brought for Tyler over to Heather's house so I've been relaxing by baking for tonight's party, doing laundry, and dishes.

Timothy has been a little grouchy lately, I think he might be working on some more teeth. He still sticks his tongue out at EVERYTHING and has started the whole separation anxiety thing. Any suggestions on surviving that? He's fine as long as I leave the room but if anyone else is there and I'm in there too he will only play with me, or he'll play fine and then just out of nowhere break down and cry and crawl over to me. It's sweet but a little tiring. I'm sure I'll miss it someday though, and want him to be close to me and just hold each other.

We're celebrating New Year's tonight at my parents' house like normal. We're just having a small group over this year, but everything else is the same, we'll still go out at midnight and bang on pots and pans to ring in the New Year! Brandon thinks it's a pretty stupid tradition, but we like it. I hope everyone else had a great 2006 and I hope 2007 will be even better. I think my resolutions will be to lose the 30 pounds I've been trying to lose for a while now, find a new job, and sometime around November or December of next year to be pregnant again! Hopefully all will go as planned!

What a Week!

Well we survived the storm, we moved into our new house and we got the Christmas tree set up. We had power in our old house on Friday so we decided to go ahead and move Saturday. We got everything loaded (thanks to Brandon, dad, TJ, and Chris) and headed out to the new house. All the traffic lights were working the whole drive over so we expected the house to have power as well, but no such luck. It was 39 degrees outside and 44 degrees in the house. Thankfully Aunt Heather watched Timothy for us so he stayed nice and warm at their hotel room (because they didn't have power) so we unloaded everything as fast as we could and headed back to Tacoma.

Finally Heather's house got power Saturday evening so we all (mom, dad, Britt, Heather, Tyler, Brandon, me and Timothy) stayed at their house. Timothy refused to sleep, it was great. Brandon's flight didn't end up getting in until 3am Saturday morning, so he was exhausted and went to bed and I stayed up til almost midnight with the baby. SO much fun! We all went to church on Sunday...and with that many people in one place we actually ended up getting there early! After lunch we all drove back to our own houses to check for power, and we still had nothing. It was so depressing, all I wanted was to be in my new house and be able to unpack and put Timothy down to sleep in his own bed instead of the pack n play.

Brandon went back to check one more time during church Sunday night and we had lights!!! We were so happy. So we finally were able to sleep in our new house in our own beds. We're pretty much all moved in, there's a few things at the old house still, but nothing we really need. I spent most of Tuesday afternoon unpacking and Brandon had stayed home Monday to unpack so it's getting there. We did get the Christmas tree up and all our decorations so it actually feels like Christmas now. Timothy loves it, so much room to crawl and play!

He has picked up some pretty funny habits lately, whenever he's crawling or pulling up he has to stick his tongue out, he had done it before, but now he does it ALL the time. We think he picked that one up from Grumpy. He also is trying to clap his hands now. He tries really hard, but so far he keeps missing. It's really funny to watch though. He is definitely saying "mama" now which I love, it's so sweet to hear it. We got his 8 month pictures made on Wednesday, it was so weird to see him standing up and holding onto things and to think that just three months ago he could barely roll over!

Well I should get back to work, we have internet at our house, but I usually don't have to time to sit and think...next week should be better, I have Monday through Wednesday off and Brandon's parents are coming up Tuesday morning so I'll have lots of help keeping Timothy entertained...plus he'll have all his new toys to play with. I can't wait, only two more days! In case I don't have time to get back on here between now and then, Merry Christmas!

Crazy Day

So the weather here has just been crazy...anyone here knows that it has just been bad. I stayed home yesterday to pack and I left at 3:45 to pick up Timothy from the sitter. It wasn't bad when I left my house, barely raining and still light out, by the time I got there at 4:00, it was really starting to rain and the wind was picking up. By the time I got to the Narrows Bridge I was scared. I've never seen rain like that, it was coming down in buckets, but it was nothing compared to what we encountered over the bridge. I could barely see by the time we got to my parents' exit. It was weird, it was pitch black and rainy and windy and things were starting to flood already. Thankfully, we made it safely and spent the night at their house. Mom said the power went out for good around 1:00 in the morning. Of course, she was up, checking her email.

We woke up to no power, I called the emergency line at work and they didn't have power there either so I got to stay home another day. We finally got cold because there wasn't any heat in the house so we left to come see if our house had power. It didn't, so we left and went to the only place we could think of, Chuck E Cheese. Tyler got to play and run out some energy while mom and I got to sit and relax and Timothy got to watch all the kids playing. He even got to ride on the big rocking horse with Tyler, he was pretty excited. Then we had to run to the UPS store to mail those last Christmas packages which we found out might not make it in time for Christmas (sorry Stefan!). We thought we would see if Heather had power, she said she had left her door unlocked for us, but when we got there it was locked because maintenance people had been in there and she didn't have power anyway. She got some really bad damage, a lot of trees fell on her row of buildings and they said hers had some bad roof damage.

We came back to my house to get mom's keys and the lights were on!! So Timothy and I stayed here and he took a much needed nap while mom and Tyler drove back over the bridge to Gig Harbor to pack up some things since they still don't have power, they met up with dad there (who had been picking up branches in the yard) and everyone met back up again for dinner. It was so crowded in the restaurant, we had to wait almost an hour for a table. There's still well over 500,000 homes without power, so not many people can cook at home. So at the end of the day, mom and dad and Heather and Tyler are staying in a hotel, Timothy and I are home, and Brandon's flight home has been delayed 5 hours, which will put him home around 2:00 in the morning instead of 9:00 tonight. It's been a long day.

Tomorrow is moving day, so of course, after the crazy weather we had last night now they're predicting snow for tomorrow morning. And to top it all off, I just got Timothy down a little while ago and someone is shooting off fireworks outside and my lights are flickering. If we could just have an extra day this week, that would be great. I won't be able to sleep until Brandon gets home and then we need to get up by at least 7:00 am to get everything ready before the guys helping us move get here and Brandon has to leave to get the truck.

Pray for us tonight and tomorrow, we'll definitely need it. Who knows what tomorrow will bring...