New Rooms!

Everyone has a new room or bed! About a week or 2 ago we took down Denver's crib/toddler bed and moved it to the nursery along with the dresser/changing table. We then put up a day bed for Denver. Evan put some extra love into those bed by putting baseballs on the 4 corners of his bed. Denver loves balls so he thinks this is pretty cool. The first morning he woke up in his bed I just happened to be watching on the video monitor and I'm so glad I was able to catch him wake up! He woke up, looked around and immediately went to one of the balls and looked at it and touched in for awhile and then he went to the part to keep him from falling out of bed and looked at that and touched it for awhile and then he went back to where he had been sleeping and just sat there looking at everything and waited until I came to get him from his bed! How precious!

Denver watching ("helping") Daddy take down his bed. Denver and Daddy hanging out in Denver's new bed!

Denver's first night sleeping in his "big boy bed"

My biggest fear of putting Denver in this bed was that he'd get stuck or fall through the "posts/railings". Well, my biggest fear became reality at about 1:30a.m. Tuesday morning! I awoke to Denver screaming and waited a minute or so and then decided I better go check, just in case. Was I ever glad I did as I found him hanging from his bed with his head and shoulders stuck between his bed and his wall. I think this was a little more traumatic for me than him as when I got him out and picked him up he put his head down on my shoulder and immediately quit crying. Instead I was the distraught one of "now what do I do....where do I put him to sleep?". In the end he ended up sleeping with us for the rest of the night. The next day I looked at it and realized his bed could go closer to the wall so we moved it closer and pulled his crib bumper pad back out of its tub and put that around his bed (as you can see in the pictures below). I'm hoping to find a dresser on a rummage sale to add to Denver's room, but until then most of his clothes are now hanging in his closet. Lots of things are stacked up in his room as well and I hope to do a couple more "decorating" things, but we'll see how far I get. I'm just not ready to do anything until I have a dresser and know how I want everything. For the time being this is his room (sorry...no pictures of the clutter!).

Next was the nursery. Her room is not done either as I hope to hang some pictures and put her name up on her wall, but this is what we have done for the time being and I figured everyone would be antsy to see it.

Daddy (and Denver) setting up the crib for our little girl!

All done! (Well sort of!)

Not that any of you care, but in case you do...here's a picture of our bedroom. We moved to the basement which is the biggest bedroom in our house. I wasn't so sure about this move, but I absolutely love it. We have more room to move around in....which is especially nice when you have a big belly in the way and you're trying to find your way in the dark to the bathroom several times a night! It's also lots cooler and I'm HOT all the time....we'll see what I think when it's winter and I'm not pregnant!

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had as wonderful of an Easter as we did! I unfortunately had to work, but the 3 of us got to spend some time together as family when I got home and we had a great time! Denver has to think Easter is one of the best holidays as we got him a swing (as well as some other fun things/toys/candy) that you can barely get him out of! He's always asking to go "een"...or at least that's how I think it sounds coming out of his little mouth. After swinging for awhile you ask if he wants to get out and he'll immediately tell you "no"! We made the mistake of swinging before we had supper so I had to convince him that there were more fun things in the house for Easter and finally he was okay with getting out of his new swing. (Since then he has spent several hours swinging in his swing!) We also did a little Easter egg "hunt". Evan "hid" the eggs and Denver had a great time finding them. I got some great pictures so you luck out if you like the picture part of my blog the best as there are lots that I couldn't resist sharing! Sorry this is no picture of Denver in his Easter outfit as Daddy only thought of taking it on his cell phone (which doesn't take great pictures) and he was out of it before I got home, so even I (Mommy!) didn't get to see him in his Easter outfit.

So much fun!!! "Een, een!"

"Mmmm...Easter is fun Mom and Dad!"

"Peeps are the best!"

"Where is the purple egg?"

"Ah! I found it!"

"Finding eggs under my big boy bed (there will be a post in the switch to the "true" big boy bed at some point too...just too many things happening and not enough time to blog!)."

"I'm so good at finding these eggs Dad!""Mmm.....chocolate!"

Busy, busy, busy

Denver is always BUSY! He never stops moving! Lately I seem to be working a bunch of shifts in a row and then I'll get a stretch of days at home with my little man. I love those stretches at home with him! At the same time...I'm exhausted after those days. We can never stop doing something. I rearranged patio furniture so Denver could play out on the deck, but not get down the stairs and have an open area to play while I'm inside doing dishes, picking up, putting away groceries, etc. While I thought this was a great idea and that he'd love it....I was mistakenly wrong. Of course, that wasn't good enough for Denver. He looks through the spindles while he yells and points to the ground where he wants to go play. A fenced in yard just may be coming our way before we know it!

The other day I was doing some baking and Denver was keeping himself occupied in the kitchen with me. It was a LONG day of continually picking up after him. The same day he also took egg shells out of the garbage and crumbled them up all over the kitchen floor and colored on the wall for the first time! Thankfully everything cleaned up! :) We always have so much fun together, but boy can he be exhausting!

Big Brother in Training

Denver was a "big brother in training" about a week and a half ago. He got to spend about 4 full days with his cousin Jacob! Denver loved spending time with his cousin and loved him up lots. We are thinking one of our biggest problems will be that Denver will smother his baby sister. He also wants to be a big helper which could be troublesome in some ways. Unfortunately I missed out on seeing this, but I guess he wanted to change Jacob's diaper for my sister one night. Also, if we would stand Jacob up he would come and grab him like he was trying to tell him to walk. (He's ready for a playmate!) Denver also wanted to pick Jacob up, get him out of his car seat, feed him, etc, etc. It was pretty cute and fun to watch them together. I hope Jacob didn't mind all of the Denver "torture".

Denver took his wagon to Schmeckfest and let cousin Jacob have a ride with him.

Watching some cartoons and playing together. What fun!

Denver trying to share his toys!

Playing with Jacob's fun toys! (this picture turned for some reason & I can't get it to go the right way, sorry!)

Lots of love for cousin Jacob!

34 weeks!

We have finally made the 34 week marker! This is a huge relief to me being a NICU nurse and knowing what my baby would have to go through if she was born early; and at this point more than likely she'd just need a little help with learning how to bottle and maybe a some oxygen if she was born now! I had a doctor's appointment today and once again everything looked great. This pregnancy has flown by, but we're starting to get a little anxious to meet our little girl. The nursery is almost ready for furniture and probably would be if we had every thing in place for Denver to be switched over. Here is the long awaited picture of how my body has been changing with this growing little girl. Be happy to see this picture as it was a lot of work. I'm afraid my camera is realizing it's almost 6 years old and it didn't want to cooperate very well with me. I also thought you might find it interesting to see a picture of me pregnant with Denver about the same time. Unfortunately I couldn't find a 34 week picture so it's a little different.

34 weeks pregnant with Baby Girl

32 weeks pregnant with Denver John

The Denver Funnies

So we've had a couple of really good laughs here in our house lately and I thought I'd share them with everyone else. Evan and I always say "What would we do if we didn't have Denver?" and "We laugh so much more now that we have Denver."....so here's why! The best "funnies" seem to happen when I'm at work & the boys are at home just the 2 of them: -Evan put Denver to bed and went to bed himself. Around 1a.m. or so he heard Denver cry, but he quit within 10 seconds or less. Later Evan turned the video monitor on to check on him and he couldn't see him so he went to check on him.......Denver was sleeping on his floor! -The lights were turned down so Denver could wind down as this is about the only way for him to understand it's night time and time to settle down. Denver's learned to either go hide or be very quiet and good so we forget about him and don't make him go to bed as early. Well, this night he was crouched down by one of our rocker recliners with his back to Evan. He was playing with something really well, says Evan. After a good 10 minutes go by Denver comes walking to Daddy with a cup (basically empty) of chocolate pudding and a spoon! Needless to say....Denver had been playing with his pudding and it was now all over him, his new blankie, and of course the floor! I won't tell you how he got the pudding and spoon...Evan can share that one. -Evan was doing some painting in the nursery (just so you know...he only did touch up painting in the closet...I did the rest!) and I wasn't home from work yet. Then he realized he hadn't seen or heard Denver for quite some time so he went looking for him and calling his name. Evan eventually found him sitting on the middle of the couch passed out, snoring away! -The one "funny" that I can think of right now that happened when I was at home was when we ordered pizza...it was called Mexican Delight and was pretty spicy. Denver loves spicy food just like us and kept coming back for more bites, but wasn't drinking anything (and we did offer!)....I had 2 glasses of water with mine. All of a sudden he went running and screaming, grabbing at his tongue! We finally talked him into drinking some milk, but once it got better he started eating pizza again and didn't keep on drinking. The next time he was even more dramatic about it and we couldn't convince him to drink anything so I had to get the ice cream out and even that took some convincing.

Family Vacation

We took a family vacation last weekend to the cities. Well, basically to Albertville! We love to go shopping at the Albertville outlet mall and we needed a break from our normal routine and to just get away so we went to shop and get some baby things.

We had a wonderful time. Our time included shopping, swimming at the hotel (which Denver absolutely loved!), going out to eat, and RELAXING! One day we spent at the outlet mall. We made 2 trips to Babies R Us to get our double stroller, a "gate" for Denver's big boy bed, and some other odds and ends and we went to Cabela's which Daddy of course loved. Denver was very interested in looking at all the animals and thought it was great too.

Denver loved every minute in the pool. He loved to splash and splash. Denver also really enjoyed laying on his back in the water and kicking and splashing that way too. He was crazy most of the time. Denver loved being Mr. Independent too and want to get in the pool all by himself by walking down the stairs hanging onto the railing.

Dad and Denver looking at the animals.

Denver's "fishy" face after seeing the fish!

We once again were reminded how much work it is to go on vacation now and not quite sure we're ready to do it with 2 any time soon!!!! We were creative (sort of) on how to keep Denver's milk cold while we were out and about and it was nice to take a cooler along for his milk and snacks so that we could have some water and pop along and not pay so much for all of that! :)

Here Denver's digging in the cooler. He loves playing with ice; he's just fascinated.

Denver was a "big" boy in many ways this weekend in the cities. See how in the following pictures:

Sleeping in a "big" bed (and he never fell out!)

Took showers all weekend long. We couldn't get him out!

By the end of the trip Denver was exhausted. We'd get in the car and start driving and he'd konk out almost immediately.

This is a picture of Denver sleeping in his car seat on the ride home.

There are lots more updates coming....but we've been a little busy and have had internet troubles so be patient.

Twenty Pounds!

Oops, I completely forgot to tell you Denver's weight at the clinic yesterday. We have finally hit the 20 pound mark! Wahoo! Denver weighed in at 20lbs 1oz, but he did have a diaper on...it was dry though, I switched it out right before I put him on the scale....so he's about 20lbs right on the mark. I've also been asked for belly pictures. Well, sad enough we have NONE so far. I felt we did really good with belly pictures with Denver, but this poor little girl is going to have to deal with not much. I keep on meaning to start, but haven't gotten it done. I'm too busy running around after Denver that I don't have time to make sure I look good enough for a camera! :) I will make it a priority over the next week or so and will post one then. You'll just have to wait patiently. :)

Always going to be little? Or is it just reflux?!

Probably a combination of the two! We had our feeding evaluation today. They asked me to explain why we were there, what Denver was doing with his foods, what he liked to eat, and what he didn't like to eat, and then they let him eat and play with the food! After doing all of this they and I kept coming back to it's probably just reflux that's causing our eating problems. They were very happy with his big variety of food and not being bothered by different textures as this can be a problem with kids. They also gave me lots of good ideas of how I can increase calories in Denver's diet by adding different things to foods and other good snacks that are good calories and maybe a little higher in fat than some things. Once our appointment was over I called our pediatrician and asked for another prescription for Prevacid again and he wanted to see us so we then went to the clinic for an appointment there. They did a weight check and to our delight he is up on the growth chart!!!!!! He's a little above the 3% now! It's funny how this was a HUGE deal to us! Our pediatrician was happy with his move up on the growth chart and decided that we'd start him on Prevacid again and he'd see him back at his next well baby check up which will be with his little baby sister (as he will be 18 months around when she's born and she will have to go in to see our pediatrician a couple days after being discharged from the hospital)! We want to thank everyone for all of their prayers for Denver, for us, and for all the people who have been involved in trying to find a "fix" for our little man! We couldn't be happier that they think this is the only reason he's been dropping on the growth chart. (Sorry I don't have any pictures for this post. I've been too busy working, getting stuff ready for the baby, and running around taking Denver to appt's, etc that I just haven't had time to take much for pictures lately.)

Beep, beep, beep!

"Beep, beep, beep" was heard all weekend at our house. It came out of all 3 of our mouths. Needless to say...people were in the road (hmm...I wonder who was in the road the most?!). I'm guessing you're wondering why people were in the road...well, we moved our bedroom to the basement this weekend. Yes, we took the plunge and said ready or not it needs to be done. In order to make room for our little baby girl on the way we decided to move our bedroom to the basement and put the nursery in our room upstairs. Saturday early evening I was voicing my concerns for the little that has been done to prepare for this little girl and how things are only going to get harder and harder to do as time goes on and....our time is running out! Little did I know that I would no longer be sleeping upstairs that night after voicing my concern. Denver has been watching this transformation take place for a couple of weeks or so now as we have been slowly emptying out what used to be our spare bedroom. He learned "beep, beep, beep" when the bed from that room left as he was in the way and since then he's just taken off with it. We've enjoyed many laughs do to this "beep, beep, beep". Denver will realize on his own now that he's in our way and start saying it, or he'll jump on his 4 wheeler and back up on it and say it, etc.; it's pretty cute (and funny at the moment too!).

After the big move of bedroom furniture we started on paint colors. Yesterday Evan took the day off and he went to buy paint for me and when I got up from sleeping (because I worked the night before) I started painting. The plan (and hope) is to finish on Friday! I of course had to make it complicated and am doing several colors so it needs some time to dry in between so I can tape things off and paint some more. That's good though so I don't overdo it...otherwise I probably would've tried to finish it all yesterday! Maybe after the nursery is painted I will get pictures taken and you can see all of the transformations we've made in our house to make room for this little girl.

While I'm on the subject of our little girl, I had another doctor's appointment the other day. Everything continues to look good! I was even told at my appointment that everything is going so well that she felt like the appointment was more for her indulgence than ours. We are getting very excited to meet this little girl, but definitely can wait 2 more months so we can finish getting ready! No prayers for an early delivery this time.....just prayers for a safe, uncomplicated delivery (we are not scheduling a repeat c-section, we are hoping for a natural birth this time, but we're open to whatever happens) and an easy adjustment for the 3 of us adding her into our lives (especially her big brother!). Denver likes to talk about "baby" and will point at my tummy and tell us "baby".

Denver is so confused about the warmer weather and then how it gets cold again. He loves to go outside and can't wait for winter to be over (although as Daddy says...the snow and ice make us money!). We have spent some time outside on the nicer days and had lots of fun, but then the next day when it's cold outside the poor little guy just doesn't get it and gets so upset when we say we can't go outside because it's too cold.

"Hmmm...snow, what should I do with it?"

Finally getting to ride his 4 wheeler outside!

Denver going down the slide all by himself!

We continue to work on going on the potty chair. Denver loves to pull his little seat out and to sit on it, but hasn't achieved the full concept yet. He has gone on it though, so that's a plus. He doesn't have the patience to sit there very long....which is frustrating because it's a lot of work to get a diaper back on the kid so I want our time to be worth while. (Denver hates getting his diaper changed and fights it as much as he can...or at least most of the time.) I started a bad habit with Denver. We have a bowl of ice cream almost every night before we go to bed. The other night when I worked a night shift Denver had been so good for Daddy and then when they were on their way to the living room to go read books before bed Denver had a breakdown and started screaming. Evan went back to the kitchen where Denver was and he was pointing at the freezer. Evan opened it up and Denver pointed right to the ice cream! He was fine once he had his bowl of ice cream for the night! :) Speaking of reading books before bed, Denver has a new favorite book. We signed Denver up for the Dolly Pardon Imagination Library (http://www.dollysimaginationlibrary.com/) after he was born and through this he gets an age appropriate book every month in the mail until he's 5 years old. Last month he got a book called "Mine-o-saur" (it's about a dinosaur that doesn't want to share and takes everything away, but in the end learns how to share) and he absolutely loves it. He runs around saying "mine, mine, mine" which is repeated in the book many times or asks to the read the "mine, mine, mine book". Mine comes out my like "my, my, my".

And the basketball season comes to an end...

Last night we went to our last Freeman Academy basketball game for the season. The boys played a tough game and had an awesome rally back, but unfortunately didn't pull it off. Basketball games were a little different this year for us. Denver likes to run around a lot, so how do we get him to sit still, right? Let me tell you...there are lots of tricks that we pull out of the diaper bag! I take lots of snacks and special toys. I think we actually made it through the whole basketball season without losing anything... other than a sippy cup that Denver threw and it broke and possibly Elmo who MIA, but hopefully he'll be found. For the first game of districts that the boys played in this year I made Denver a shirt. I had been looking all season for a shirt that was school colors, but could never find one so I decided to make my own. With the help of Evan and his co-workers we came up with a cute little saying and everyone seemed to love Denver's shirt. Here are some pictures of Denver's shirt and him with cousin Ethan. We're proud of you Ethan; you played with some great intensity last night!

Denver's shirt reads: "If you think my cousin (#34) is good, you should see ME play!"

and "GO BOBACTS!"

On the drive home last night we talked about how long we've been going home for basketball games...it's been 5 years! We've missed very few games and we always look forward to basketball season and enjoyed watching these boys (and girls) grow and become good basketball players. Now that all my cousins are done playing ball and we'll have 2 kiddos to drag along to games next year we're not so sure how many we'll get to which made the end of the season even harder for us in some ways, but we're glad that if this is the end to our faithfulness to going to games at least we are happy we could watch them have such good seasons this year.