Flipper

Well we went house hunting again today. And we might have struck gold! After seeing a couple houses that we weren't quite thrilled with, we found another house that had been flipped. The man finished about a month ago and so we'd be the first in there since the remodel and it's beautiful! 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and in a perfect location. :) We are hoping to put an offer down on Monday or Tuesday, so stay tuned!

Christmas Festivites

These few weeks we've stayed SO busy! Between my doctor appointment, Alysha's doctor appointment, Loren getting the flu twice, Alysha and me both getting the flu while Loren was out of town, and all of us having head colds, it's a miracle we're alive! :)
2 weeks ago I made the decision to quit my job. I'd been talking about it since before Thanksgiving and the moment finally presented itself. I felt bad at first. I didn't want to see myself as a quitter. After all I'd only been at this job since August, but I really felt like it was the right thing to do. And now I'm even more confident that it's definitely the right thing to do! I love being home with Alysha again where I can teach her what I want her to know and not have all the outside influences teaching her naughty behaviors. And I feel like I can take better care of our house, our nutrition (or lack of...), and myself much better when I work in the home. I feel like I'm a happier wife for Loren and a better mommy to our babies. So now on to January, where I learn how to clean again! ;)
We made the decision a few months ago to stay home for Christmas this year. And I was really looking forward to making our own traditions and just enjoying it the 3 of us! We went Christmas shopping a few weeks ago, drove around and saw Christmas light displays, decorated a Gingerbread Train, and baked cookies for Santa. We did spend Christmas Eve with some friends. Eating pizza, opening jammies, and watching Arthur Christmas. Alysha is having SO much fun with other kids now! I love being able to go over to houses and she can just play without TOO much supervision. Preparations for Christmas were really fun too. She helped me decorate the tree while Loren was out of town for a week, she helped with the baking, and she handed me tape while I wrapped. :). She also LOVED all the Christmas songs and movies that we get to enjoy just this time of year. Christmas morning was pretty smooth...She didn't get a lot of good sleep the night before so she was a bit grouchy. Once all the presents were opened up we put her back down for a nap. And then the rest of the day was fairly pleasant. :) She's really fun to watch with her new baby doll from our secret santa and with her Little People house. Loren did a great job of shopping for me too. He got me some new clothes that I can wear with my rapidly expanding belly. I love that he always tries to make sure I'm comfortable. He's really considerate while I'm just hormonally imbalanced.
It turned out to be a blessing that we hadn't planned to go anywhere this year because Saturday morning our car wouldn't start. A pulley that we'd been putting off getting fixed for months finally bit the dust and the car couldn't hold a charge so we weren't going anywhere. We planned on just settling into our house until Wednesday after the holidays were over, but a friend of our called to check on plans for Christmas Eve, and Loren told her about our van and asked if they wouldn't mind picking us up for dinner instead of us driving over there, and she mentioned that her brother was a mechanic and he was working that day and gave us his number. So lucky us, he had the van fixed by Monday afternoon for much less that it would have cost us other places. What a Christmas miracle! We're discovering the hardships of having only 1 car, but it's still cheaper than having a car payment on a 2nd car each month. :) Loren and I both agree that we'd rather wait until we can pay for a car outright, rather than having to take out a loan.
Speaking of loans, our house search starts again next week. We would really like to move out of the apartment before the baby comes and we're starting to run out of time! 13 weeks and counting!! :D

Welp

Well we lost the house. The bank accepted a different offer, so we are back in the search again. Which I'm a little bit mixed about. I felt pretty sad when we first found out, but now I'm ok. As I think I said before, I didn't feel comfortable with the area of town that the house was in. And it didn't have a garage, or grass...And this kinda gives us another chance to step back and look at where we're at again. We're comfortable here, but we'd like to move for sure. This gives Loren another chance to apply in Utah again and see what we might be able to get.
In other news Aly is growing great. She's expanding her vocabulary like a crazy person. She talks constantly and she's started repeating the words of songs in the car, which is super cute. But it's making me a little bit more aware of what I'm watching on tv while she's awake, or the music I'm blasting in the car. (She loves Tonight, Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae btw) She's also taken to playing with her doll a lot more too. It's fantastic! I'm so glad she's getting more into creative play and not just getting into my stuff anymore. She's going to be a good big sister. And I'm so excited for Christmas. She'll love it! She loves Santa. But she'll love him even more when she see what he brings her this year. :)
The baby girl is also growing fabulously! She moves around just as much as her sister does. I'm very excited for her to get here in just 16 short weeks!

Babies!!

So my good friends had a baby girl on Sunday and that got me even more excited for our own event on Monday! We got to have our 20 week ultrasound Monday afternoon. It was such a good feeling to see the baby squirming around up on the screen. I just feel so blessed every time I feel it move around. I'm so grateful for this baby. And we got to find out that our prayers had been answered and we're having another girl!! It may seem like a silly thing to pray about, but we really wanted a sister for Aly. We're so excited to see our two girls growing and playing together. I'm so excited to get out the baby clothes again and start getting their room set up. But I'm holding off til February. Promise. :)

Now on to Thanksgiving. Heaven help me to make it to Friday without saying something snotty to my in-laws. Everyone's been driving me crazy lately. EVERYONE. And I know my in-laws would take it personally.

A Home

I haven't had an opportunity to blog in a while. I feel like life is moving so fast!
So the pregnancy is going really good. I feel a bit different than I remember feeling last time, so I wonder if maybe it's a boy? But my sister-in-law pointed out to me that lots of things are different this time too. I'm under a LOT less stress than last time so it could just be my body reacting a little bit better to being invaded. :) We find out in 2 weeks the gender and I can't wait! I'm excited to be able to talk more seriously about some names, and plan our next year a little bit more.
Today we met with our realtor and signed a house offer. TALK ABOUT SCARY! Loren and I are real adults now ;). It's a short sale so we might have to wait up to 3 months to hear back, but we're really hopeful. Every time we walk through the house, we leave feeling more like we want to live there. There's another offer out there for it, but we're really hoping we can look more attractive than them. Always accepting prayers in our behalf!
We really feel so blessed right now tho. Loren got a raise yesterday and we are just so grateful that we both have good jobs right now. And that the baby's doing good. Aly's potty training is going ok. She's going about half the time in the potty. But she holds it most of the day. Then she goes while she's sleeping after lunch or at night. She has an iron bladder. But stickers and candy are helping us convince her to go in the potty. And she does like to wear panties.
Goodness I'm so tired all the time. I can't even think if there's anything else worth reporting on right now! Did this post even make sense? I think it was just a scattered bunch of thoughts :). Happy Friday!

Ch Ch Changes

So many changes in our home!
1: Loren and I are expecting again!!! We've had two ultrasounds checking on everything and I've made it to 13 1/2 weeks! We're VERY excited! Our new little one makes an appearance at the end of March 2013.
2: Aly is now in a BIG GIRL BED! She started climbing out of her crib last week, so we had her sleeping on a mattress on the floor to see how she'd do. She is pretty good about staying there. Naps are a little bit harder since it's not dark outside, but she's learning. Yesterday we set up her "new" big girl bed! She had a great night in it last night. It's pretty much on the ground, so when she fell out of it at some point last night she just reached up and grabbed her pillow and blanket and slept on the floor instead. It was really cute :).
3: We started potty training today. She has been sitting on the potty for a few weeks now whenever we can catch her at the right moment, but I'm sitting her on there every 15 minutes tonight so she can get what's supposed to happen. I'm not expecting this to go quickly, but hopefully she'll catch on pretty fast.
4: Loren and I are officially house-hunting :). We have been around to see about 6 houses so far and we think we might have found the one. We're still just a little hesitant. It's scary! So we're going to look around a little bit more and decide for sure.

Welcome to my busy life!

Tomorrow is the first day off I've had in a while. My weekends are so busy now that I'm working full-time again. I love feeling busy again. I'm really enjoying putting together my own lesson plans everyday. I like that I'm teaching four year olds because I can expect them to sit in their chairs and work on a worksheet and they actually can do it! They are actually teaching me a lot too. I've gotten a lot more patient and I've become a better morning person. That was a forced lesson ;). Alysha loves going everyday. She has made lots of friends! Today she actually threw a fit having to leave :). She's learning a lot. Like how to stick up for herself. How to get along with other kids. How to actually sit down and eat a meal. :) And today she pointed out some "A"s on signs. I was so proud :). She's also getting much better at counting. She still counts, 3, 2, 3, Go! But still...it's progress :D. She's really the best.