Sixth Month Check Up

Today I went to the MD for my six month check up. All is well with the baby. I was lucky enough to have another ultrasound and was able to see her face. It looked like she was looking straight at us. She already has chubby cheeks and a long femur, so she will probably be long like Owen. I need to start preparing for her arrival. So far we have a pack of diapers and 1 6-9mo outfit. We still have plenty of time, but it does seem to be going by quickly.

Anniversary Lunch

Today we enjoyed the much anticipated anniversary lunch. We got a baby sitter and went out to a Japanese steak house. I finally enjoyed the steak that I have been craving for a month now and Garett went with some tasty chicken. It was a bit strange sitting there not having to battle Owen for a fork or knife. It was relaxing, I loved it. Garett said he did too. Now that my sister has moved closer to us I think we might go out more often.

I've been thinking back on my past and to me it's amazing how much my life has changed over the past six years. I returned home from serving a mission, met - dated and married Garett. I enjoyed most of my working years, had a wonderful little baby boy who turned our world upside down and have a girl on the way, who I'm sure will follow in the footsteps of her brother.
My life has gone from selfless service, to selfish indulgence - buying and doing whatever I wanted when I wanted, and now as of two years ago back to selfless (and thankless) service. What a roller coaster ride. I can honestly say that my best years are the ones where I give the most. Those are my happiest years. Garett and I have this conversation probably once a week, we both agree that we love our lives. I love my family, I love how I spend my time, I love who I spend my time with, and we have the things we need. Garett is a wonderful husband, father and friend. I feel blessed to be so happy.

What's new?

It's been a while since the last post. There has not been much going on with us. So I thought I would update you on a few of the little things..

Owen: Watches Disney's CARS everyday. He has a lot to say but it is still hard to understand. Although with the right candy as bribery he will try to say anything. We are doing our best to get him to stop throwing things and to listen better. Unfortunately for us he's not interested so he sits in time out a few times a day.

Garett: Still enjoys his job a year later. :) He has been working a few side jobs as well to keep learning and the extra income helps too. And he is really excited for the new "Borne" movie to be released to DVD tomorrow.

April: Me, I'm still pregnant and getting bigger. I'm pretty sure that I'm 5 and 1/2 months now. I constantly lose track. This baby is very active and packs a hard punch. As of Saturday afternoon I now love Swedish fish and I have been craving steak for weeks now. Garett and I are going out for our anniversary and I will be ordering steak. This Thursday will mark 5 awesome years of marriage for us. :)

Family: We have gotten really good at remembering and holding Family Home Evenings. It's one of the best times we spend together all week. We finished our Christmas shopping right after Thanksgiving - this season will be low stress. And we are trying to figure out how to decorate a gender neutral room for Owen and his little sister. Please comment on that if you have some ideas.

We hope all is well with you and your family. We will be decorating cookies tonight and seeing Santa later this week... so I will be sure to post some pictures in the next day or two.

The Big Day!

Today was our ultrasound! We found out that we are having a girl! We are excited, yet still wondering what we will do with a girl. I felt the same way with Owen. :) I figured it out. :) I'm looking forward to buying some pink and purple things.

Wonderful Fall Day

Today we had fun playing outside. The weather could not have been better. Owen joined in on the fun with the neighbors and played in the leaves. I remember having so much fun doing that as a kid. It was fun until one year I discovered that there were bugs in the leaves, that was the end of my leafy fun.

Sliding into a pile of leaves for the first time.

Score! I give it a 10!

He loved the leaves falling on his head.

Baby D has no idea what's about to hit him.

I've learned to say "Cheese" for pictures.

I thought I should include this. It's a tile with vinyl lettering.
I made it at the last Enrichment Day.
I've had so many friends make similar projects that
I just had to make one to. It was very simple.

My Painted Kitchen

So when we moved into this house in June the kitchen was a deep dark red, almost maroon. Nice, but not my style. I prefer lighter colors. So here we are in November and finally have painted the kitchen. We chose green and I really like it. Here are the before and after shots.

I couldn't find the picture I took so this is the one from the listing.

Here it is after the missionaries came over and helped me prime the walls. Notice the stains on the floor. I've tried everything I can think of and they will not come up. I think I will just have to buy bigger mats to cover them.

Here it is freshly painted. I still have touch ups and some decorating to do. I really like the green it will look great with the color we have chosen for the living and dinning room. That will happen sometime next year. :)

Take a Guess

Next Tuesday is the big day. We are having our ultrasound! I'm so excited to find out the gender of the little person growing inside of me. So we would like to hear your guesses.
Boy? or Girl?
The odds are good that you will guess right.

I made sure to enable comments, so click on the comments link below.

Shopping Success!

So I have been trying to tighten up our food budget by better menu planning and the use of coupons. I've been seeing the savings grow each week and I'm telling you it is worth the investment of time and planning. Today I went to Publix and bought $66.15 of food, after BOGO and coupons some doubled some not, I saved 32.28 leaving me with a bill of 33.87. I know there are others who have done much better than that but I still feel good about my savings :) I wish Walmart would double coupons. Anyone know of a store that will triple coupons?

Happy Halloween

Tonight was Owen's first time Trick or Treating door to door. He had lots of fun. We went with some of our neighbors which made it more fun.

Is it time yet?

A little premature. Take off the wrapper kid.

Check'n out the loot.

Owen trying not to smile for the camera.

I'm looking forward to next year.
This year was too much fun to not do it again.
Maybe next year we will decorate the outside of the house.
Maybe.

Our Halloween Family Home Evening

For our FHE fun we carved our very first pumpkin. I don't remember Garett and I ever having a pumpkin for Halloween until this year. It was so much fun carving it, and we love how it turned out. The best part was watching Owen try to gut the thing. He didn't seem to mind the texture or the mess.

I thought it was odd that most of the seeds had taken root.
If I had room in my yard I would have planted some of them.

Dig in!

Tracing our pattern.

The fun part.

Our Bat

Trunk or Treat

Tonight was our church Trunk or Treat. It was a lot of fun watching all the kids dressed up, enjoying games and overdosing on sugar. There was a chili cook off, we didn't enter but we brought corn bread which was all gone by the end of the evening so I'll guess that it turned out well. Owen had fun playing with his nursery friends and loved wearing the dinosaur outfit until it came off then he would have nothing more to do with it. He was a little worn out by the Trunk or Treat time but as soon as he figured out that people were giving him candy he found the energy to go car to car saying please.

Owen sporting the dino suit.

Owen and I in the "Candy Walk"

Fishing for treats.

The Trent's on a hayride.

Multi Taksing

Our sweet son has learned the value of multi tasking. :) Look closely at his mouth in the photo.

That's right, a sucker and his paci at the same time. Way to have it all Owen!

The Apple Festival

Yesterday was our very first trip to the Apple Festival. After all these years in Georgia I've never been. We went early in the morning which was a very good idea since the place was packed with people. There were lots of arts and crafts and delicious food. We bought some Apple Butter and tried it on pancakes this morning...Delicious!

Owen yelling "Hey" at the horses.

Some down time at the small park near where we parked.

Mommy helping Owen to not fall through the cracks.

Daddy helping Owen brave a tall slide.

So tired after a long day.

Berry Patch Farms

Today we spent the morning at Berry Patch Farms in Woodstock. We had fun looking at the pumpkins, animals and especially the tractors. Owen was pointing at them and waving to the drivers most of the time we were there. It was a lot of fun.

Poor Owey

Since Sunday Owen has been feeling bad and running a fever. He had a runny nose and a cough for a week already so I was thinking it had to be something else, but I wasn't sure. I thought it might pass on it's own but Monday night he was still feeling bad with a persistent fever. Tuesday I took Owen to see his doctor and the poor guy has a bad ear infection in both ears. I hope he will feel better in the next day or two. Oh ya, to make things worse, on Tuesday morning Garett was carrying Owen down stairs and slipped and fell down the stairs. Garett's shoulder is hurt and two of Owen's teeth went into his lip. It looks bad. I don't know what to do to keep it from ulcering. Any one know what I can do? Keep in mind this is for a 1-year old.

Our Weekend

This past weekend we went and spent the weekend in South Carolina with Mom, Tim, Wendi and Marilee. It was such a nice visit. We had a chance to relax, catch up and play. Owen did most of the playing. He had lots of fun watching the horses and chickened out when Renegade tried to sniff him. He pushed Marilee up and down the back yard in her stroller and played with one of the neighbors dogs. His favorite of it all was playing on the tractors. There was the John Deer Zero turn big tractor and then the smaller riding mower. He liked the smaller one the best because he could reach the wheel better. Mom made great food as usual and Tim and Garett worked on making the mini van look incredible. It's amazing how much of a difference a good cleaning and polishing can do. Wendi had to work on Saturday, but after that we got to spend the rest of the time together. One thing we learned from this trip is that the back roads are not always the best ones to take. On the way there we got stuck in some back woods traffic and the lower speed limit extended our trip by an entire hour. We won't do that again.

Hurray!

I think she looks a lot more like Wendi now than when she was born.

Owen must have spent hours opening and closing the sliding door.
You can see all the hand prints he left.

Marilee is constantly on the go.

Some how I managed to miss taking pictures of a lot of the fun moments this weekend. Mom and Wendi, send me pictures!

Baby Update

So here I am in my 11th week. I am still super tired but the nausea is next to nothing. I prefer tired over the two, but I hope to have my energy back in a week or two. I am enjoying a 2 to 3 hour nap every day and mostly a full nights sleep too. I'm grateful that Owen is a good napper. I don't know what I'd do if he weren't. I can feel the baby moving every once in a while and my belly is starting to poke out just a little. At about week 20 we hope to find out the gender of the baby and make sure we have what we need and start thinking of names.
We are up for suggestions.

Popscicles!

I just had to post these pictures for a few reasons. First the lighting was awesome and I wish I was paying enough attention to know what was different about this particular day, maybe it was over cast. And the other.. for any mom out there.. I love these popsicles for Owen. They are called Bollitos. I always find them in the Spanish food section at Publix. They are great because you pop them open by breaking them in half (no scissors) and they are made rounded at the edges so it doesn't cut the sides of your mouth. Give them a try!

Owey Outside

The weather is taking a turn for the better here in GA. Owen and I took some quiet time outside and enjoyed some water time. I have so much fun watching him explore all the things around him. And it is always interesting to see how differently he will use the items I give him.

Long Time to Wait

( The ticker was on my friend Gina's Blog - Congrats Ashby family)

My new hair cut

I got my hair cut at this great place here in town, and I love it! It is the the shortest I've had it in a long time. I hope I can keep it looking as nice as how the hair dresser made it look. Check out the fabulous layers in the back!

The Muffin Man

I made muffins the other day and little Owen decided to get the step stool and help himself. He kept going back for more even after he went to time out so I got the camera ready knowing he couldn't resist.

How about another?