Amelia and Joe's "Big Kid" Room

With less than two months until #3 arrives we have finally transitioned Joe into Amelia's room!  Back in May we were generously given bunk beds by a co-worker of mine - all we needed were mattresses!  Once the mattresses, which were back-ordered, arrived we got the bunk beds all set up.  

Once they were up and ready to go we had Joe sleep in there a few times on the weekends (when we are both home) to get used to it.  Two weekends ago he spent two nights in a row in there and he hasn't looked back since!  When it is bedtime, he runs in there are crawls up into his bed.  For the most part the transition has been a piece of cake.  The biggest struggle is getting Amelia to understand that if Joe gets up and starts playing, she just needs to let him be and not yell at him to get back into bed.  Chaos tends to break out in there once she gets into her authoritative mood ;)

Here is a photo tour of the new "big kids" room in our apartment!

View from the doorway

Looking from the doorway

I managed to minimize clothing enough to fit both kids' clothing into Amelia's dresser!  A lot of things, in both of their dressers, no longer fit them and I just needed that "push" to sort through it all and get it organized for the fall!  One thing that I did that helped free up some space was to hang up their sweatshirts in the closet.  Without all that bulk folded up and in the drawers I made a ton of room!

The only thing I am not crazy about is the television.  Around 16 or 18-months old Amelia decided that she no longer was going to nap.  That was all fine and dandy until I got pregnant with her brother.  I work early morning hours and a nap was just necessary for me so Jason started putting her into her crib with a movie.  It bought me enough time to get showered and sneak in some rest that I was desperate for.  Well, it stuck.  She now watches a movie at bedtime each and every night.  I realize there are worse things but for some reason the TV in her (now their) room has just always nagged at me.  I think I just always envisioned us reading before bed and that being that.  I have done an ok job of getting reading time in before the movie is picked out, let alone turned on, so I guess it's a win-win in the end!

Joe still takes his afternoon nap in the crib in baby's room but other than that I have been able to start getting things ready in there!  In all honesty, there really isn't all that much to do but it makes me feel better knowing that the little things I can do to prepare are getting done :)  For example, the dresser drawers are now filled with freshly laundered newborn and 3-month clothing!  I still can't believe we are so close to becoming a family of five!

Birthday Weekend

I turned 28 over the weekend!  We had the best weather I can remember on a birthday in a long time - 50s and rainy :)  I am not a fan of the heat and humidity so I welcomed the chilly weather with open arms!

Saturday we went with my family to the Little Log House Pioneer Village.  There was so much to look at from old buildings (moved to the property to preserve them), antique tractors, a blacksmith and more!  My favorite part, hands down, was the little log house that the whole thing is named after.

Exterior and upstairs

It was built in 1856-57 and was the first building moved onto the property in 1989.  I loved the look into how people lived "back in the day" when times were hard, yet simple.

For my birthday dinner I requested grilled hot dogs, macaroni salad and watermelon - so that is what we had that night!  Afterwards we had a cake batter ice cream cake from our favorite ice cream shop, Izzy's.  

We spent all of Sunday at home.  I did laundry, napped and we hung out as a family.  Sometimes I wish that we didn't live so close to our neighbors so we could enjoy time together without constant knocking at the door by certain neighbors but that's apartment living for you!  

Family photo attempt #692 of the weekend!

Five Photos on Friday

Some pictures of the kids from this month that I never got around to sharing on here! 

Doctor on Call

Amelia absolutely loves the doctor.  She is thrilled to go and she especially likes our family practitioner, Dr. Dahl.  She helps out at my OB appointments by squeezing the goop onto my tummy for the doppler and she always makes sure we all get stickers on the way out.  

Over the weekend she was asking to wear her (too small) doctor costume and I finally just got it out for her and helped her into it.  

 

Next thing I knew "Dr. Dahl" was at my side and I was in the chair for a "check-up" for our baby.  She listened to my tummy with her stethoscope, took my blood pressure and checked my ankles.  

 

The best part was when she was feeling around for baby and he kicked.  

 

 It was her first time feeling him move and she thought it was the best thing ever!  

She has turned into such a good big sister after the rocky start we had bringing Joe home.  She can't wait for her new baby and she tells me all the time it is really hard to wait for my tummy to pop so he can come out.  Yes, she thinks my stomach will explode, at the belly button, and her new baby will come out!

WeHaw's Graduation

Last Saturday my sister graduated from college!  Jason was out of town with some friends for a previously scheduled 5K (I was also signed up but passed my registration on to a friend!) so the kids and I went with my parents and grandparents to the ceremony. 

Joe slept through a good portion of the ceremony - such a blessing!

We are proud of how hard WeHaw worked the past two years!  She was on the Dean's List several quarters and graduated with honors!  Next up for her - finding a job as a medical assistant!

The Big Movie House

This past Saturday, my mom and I took Amelia to see a movie in the theater!  She has gone a couple of other times but has gotten scared because of how loud it is.  We've been waiting for the right movie to come along to give it another shot.  

  My mom saw that a theater not too far away has been showing My Little Pony: Equestria Girls every few Saturday mornings knew that would be a great one to take her to!  There was still the issue of the noise.  That's where Papa's "special ear covers" came in handy!

Yep, the ear muffs my dad wears while mowing the lawn worked perfectly to muffle the noise just enough for Amelia to enjoy the movie!  She sure does love those ponies!
 

 

I'll admit, I also love that she loves the ponies...they were my favorite when I was younger too!  They're a little different these days, more modern, but I've managed to get past that with time ;)

Simple 4th of July

This year we had a very low-key 4th of July.  We went from making a plan to do several things to having the kids spend the night at my parent's house the night before so we could go see the new Star Trek before it was out of theaters...  We slept in, had a peaceful breakfast and went to a movie - which was great by the way!  We got to my parent's house at dinner time, had fried chicken and corn, played outside and caught some fireworks on the way home.

Piled in the front seat to watch fireworks!

Not a typical 4th of July but it worked this year!

Hiking and Biking

This past Saturday we ventured out to Interstate Park for a picnic and hiking!  We got eaten alive by mosquitoes while we ate so we left and quickly ran to the store for some bug spray!  I can't believe we didn't have any up until this weekend but now we are set!

Amelia and Joe are good little hikers - they definitely have the energy for it!  Amelia calls hiking "hunting."  I think she does it because we are always on the lookout for animals, especially deer, so in a sense we are "hunting" for them.

Beautiful views!

When we got home we grilled out hot dogs for supper and practiced bike riding.  We received a bike from a co-worker of mine and Amelia loves it but she is scared of it.  This weekend we cracked down and told her it was time - she needed to learn to ride!

Her reaction when she realized I was no longer holding on!

We went on a walk and she really got pedaling down but still really struggled with steering.

Concentrating hard!

Sunday we went out again and it was slow going but she basically did all the steering herself - with lots of verbal cues from mom and dad!  Pretty soon she will be zooming around like a bullet from a gun!