Update....

A lot is going on at the moment in our lives...here is a quick update on us!  :)

* We are currently in St. Louis at the moment.  We will be flying out in just a couple of hours to head to Florida where we will meet Greg's family, hang out, visit Grandma Bailey, and go to DisneyWorld!!!!  :)

* Chris is having a birthday this week!  He is going to turn five.  I thought that I wouldn't get emotional about another birthday until he became 13 (1 was very emotional for me!) but 5 is proving to be a tough one.  It means all kinds of things...the start of kindergarten in the fall, loose teeth (yes he has one!), 2-wheeled scooters, and quite the vocabulary and ability to state his case!  :)

* Soccer will also be starting soon which Chris is THRILLED about!  :) 

*Daniel is finally learning those colors that I was stressing out about (for no good reason, might I add!).  His talking has gone through the roof lately and his new favorite thing is "Tar Hero!"  (Guitar Hero in Daniel talk!)

* Greg has been continuing to work hard and received an award at work a couple weeks ago.  He loves what he does and he is GOOD at it!

*  As for me, I'm just trying to patiently wait for the arrival of our new little one...it's getting harder and harder to be patient, the bigger I get.  Her room is almost ready and heaven knows Chris can hardly wait for her to get here!  Daniel is finally understanding that there is something new coming soon and he talks about the baby some...we'll see what happens when she actually gets here!  

That is a quick update on us....we will have TONS of pictures to show after we get back.  Keep your fingers crossed that Daniel takes to flying in a plane!  :)

Basement Pictures! :)

Ok...for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting pictures....here you go! :) Our basement is finally finished (with the exception of some trim paint!) and it has been extremely useful and we LOVE having it! The boys can go down there and play without us having to worry about them too much! It's great to have all of their toys down there so that we can finally reclaim our living room! :) Enjoy!

Here is a picture of the guest bedroom:
Part of the kids' end of the basement:

The other end of the kids' area:

The "adult" end of the basement (although things have been rearranged a little because the desk is not back there anymore and we have purchased an electric fireplace that is now sitting at that end with some seating! :)

Greg's favorite part of the basement: THE PROJECTOR! :)

Well, thanks for stopping by and looking! More pictures and updates coming later! :)

What Have I Been Doing??????

Oh my goodness!!!! So I have thought several times about updating our blog and I have even logged in a couple of times but then have drawn a blank as to what to write! Well, here I am...almost a month after my last post and I still am not sure what to write! :) So we'll see what happens!

We can't find the cord to the camera again so pictures are a no go until we find it! :) We even have lots of pictures of our now finished basement, the boys playing around, etc. So once we find the cord I will upload those!

What else is going on? Well, the same old, same old. We leave in less than a month for Florida where we will visit Greg's grandma and DisneyWorld. We will actually be at DisneyWorld on Chris's actual birthday which he is very excited about!

School is going just fine although there seems to be a small outbreak of sickness going around. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I can stay above it...I'm not feeling the best at the moment but I don't think it's anything a good night's sleep won't fix!

We are thoroughly enjoying the extra space we now have in the basement where the boys can be playing at one end and Greg and I can be watching a movie or playing video games, etc at the other end. Or feeling ok about letting the boys play downstairs knowing there isn't anything dangerous they can get into!

The boys have officially moved into the same room and Chris LOVES being on the top bunk. Daniel is just thrilled to be sharing a room with his adored big brother and having a big boy bed with big boy sheets! The best part is that we now have a room free for the sweet baby girl that will be joining us soon. Greg even surprised me one weekend while I was in St. Louis scrapbooking with fresh paint, etc. in the nursery! He really worked hard and the room now is pink and cream, the crib is set up, the curtains are hung and the changing table dresser is now upstairs back in that room! :) It's very exciting!

Well, there is more to told I'm sure but I don't want to make this post too long! I will update more soon (I promise it will be A LOT sooner than this post was!).

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Update!

Ok...this has been the season to lose things!

The newest thing that can't be found...our cable that hooks our camera to the computer!!!!! So I'm going to update about our Holiday season so far and pictures will have to come later!

We traveled to St. Louis on Sunday and spent the days before Christmas getting settled at my parents house and getting ready for the big day! :) On Monday, we went to a Christmas Eve service and then came home and finished getting ready for Santa to come. Chris decorated some sugar cookies for Santa while Daniel ran around and had tons of fun with his uncles!

Christmas morning was TONS of fun....the boys got so many wonderful, thoughtful, fun presents...they didn't know where to start! They ripped into all of the presents and then we unpackaged quite a few for them to play with!

We are currently home but we are leaving tonight to spend some time with Greg's family. We are really looking forward to getting up there and hanging out with everyone. The boys are sooooo excited to see their cousins! :) They also can't wait to give out the presents that they have picked for everyone. My boys definitely love to give!!!!!

I hope everyone has had safe travels and a wonderful Holiday Season!!!!!

Pictures will come later! Promise!

Nicole

Drum Roll Please!

All right. So many of you already know this news so you can go ahead and skip this post if you want! :)

For those of you who don't know, we had our 20 week ultrasound on Monday. It was routine and we heard the baby's heartbeat (a good, strong 153), saw the little arms and legs, saw everything we needed to see. It was fantastic!

We also were able to find out what our new little addition is!!!!! If you don't want to know...now is the time to stop reading. If you do.....

We are having a baby GIRL!!!!! The technician said she had done an ultrasound in the morning where she was 85% sure that she was having another little girl and I asked her how sure she was for us and she told me that she was more sure of mine than the one this morning! :)

Chris is ECSTATIC! He has been confident all along that this one was a girl and he sure was right! He is already talking about what he wants to do with his baby sister and how we should decorate her room, etc. It's really sweet. Daniel thinks it's cool when you ask him, but of course since he has just turned two he doesn't really get it yet. He will come April but until then we will just keep working on it and what happens, happens!

Greg and I are still in some shock...but very excited, can't wait for April kind of shock. I was absolutely positive it was a boy...who would have thought...the four year more right than the mommy. I guess crazy things do happen! :)

We do have pictures and I will post them later on along with pictures of Daniel's birthday party! It's hard to believe that he is now TWO!

Wow...

On another note, I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season and that you are all ready for Christmas to come! If you are traveling, please be safe. Enjoy your family, friends, food and laughter. I know we will! :)

From our family to everyone out there....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Update with Pictures...

Hello everyone! Last week we had a great snowstorm that left us with several inches of snow. The boys LOVED going out and playing in it (which we did as soon as we got home!)

Chris loves shoveling snow! :) Here he is working on our driveway AGAIN!

Then as everyone knows we had an ice storm the last couple of days. So much ice that we didn't have school yesterday and we didn't have it again today. I did venture outside today to hang out with great friends...other than that I have only stepped foot outside to take a couple of pictures. Here are some pics of what the ice storm left behind:

The birch tree in our backyard...it usually stands straight...poor thing!

Now tonight the boys took their baths and got ready for bed at their usual times since we will have school tomorrow. Some of you know how odd Daniel can be about certain things such as his shoes and his jackets and we have added beds to that mix! We are going to be moving him into Chris's room after Christmas so that we can get the nursery ready for the new baby coming in April. Greg and I have tried several times to get him to sleep in Chris's bottom bed (he has s set of bunk beds) but he absolutely refuses because they are Chris's sheets!!!! Are you kidding ME???? This is the same problem that we have with his shoes and jackets.

Anyway, tonight I told him to go into Chris's room and give him hugs and kisses (unknown to me Chris was not in his room at that moment...he was hunting down his dad!). Anyway, I went into Chris's room to find Daniel snuggled all nice and warm in Chris's bed!!!! Chris climbed in next to him and gave Daniel hugs and kisses. I tried taking Daniel from his bed and he refused!!!! So this is how I left them for their bedtime tonight:

This is what I found about 20 minutes later...Chris was completely out and Daniel was well on his way. This made me realize that no matter how rough the day is...my boys will always make me smile!

Snow Day!

Yeah! I'm home with my boys because it's a snow day! :) Actually it's really an ice day...we are getting freezing rain like crazy and the roads are really slick...it seems like everything in town is closed except for the Hospital, Walmart, and Truman. Of course there are other stores open, etc...but the YMCA is closed, the Aquatic Center is closed, the local community college, etc. are all closed. The poor trees are just covered in ice as is everything else outside!

The boys have enjoyed not having to get dressed (they will probably be in their pj's all day!), I'm going to work on the cookies I'm making for a cookie exchange on Saturday with all of my greatest friends...ahhh. Snow Days!!!!

Later today we will probably clean the house and pick up toys, etc. but for now we are just going to enjoy being stuck together in our house while the freezing rain is falling outside....and keep our fingers crossed that no power lines come down and cause us or anyone else to lose power!

What do you like to do on a snow day???? :) Hope you all are having a good day! We will post more later!