I've actually been busy so this week I didn't get to post until now. I guess I'll start out with this week's post with a random picture.
Playing on his tummy
So Kyle is participating in some work activities. It's a tennis ladder tournament. Since he missed the first week of it starting and challenging due to moving, he needed to challenge someone. Friday night he set it up and we all drove to a park to watch him play. He didn't win, but he had fun he said.
Kyle serving it up
Chilling in the shade after we had walked around for quite a while, now watching Kyle
Saturday was super fun...not. We went to the old basement and cleaned it up a bit. Kyle worked on the lawn and storage shed. I tried to clean as much as I could, but Dexter didn't last too long. I don't blame him, it smelled pretty bad in there.
On one of our walks
Sunday at church we experienced Dexter sleeping the whole time. Its so much easier to take care of them that way. Later that night we had a visitor come. Kyle learned the difference between Bountiful and West Bountiful when he picked her up, but we were excited to have Aunt Audrey visit!
Early morning yawn, but playing with Aunt Audrey
Giving her a smile for her roadtrip
She left early Monday morning to go on her roadtrip to Nauvoo with her former Nauvoo mission companions. Monday and Tuesday were just spent picking up and cleaning because we had other guests coming.
Do you see this...he's sucking his thumb. Dak turned into a thumb sucker and refuses his pacifiers. In tummy time this large finger goes straight into his mouth and loud sucking sounds come forth.
The determination
See it in there?
He also has finally started to stare and love mobiles. Before this week he couldn't care less.
It's so...so....
Tuesday night my parents came to stay with us for a few nights.
My parents
On Wednesday they helped me clean up the last of the basement. Scrubbed cupboards, mopped floors, etc. We did just a basic cleaning, but it did take a while. After cleaning, and cleaning ourselves up we had lunch with my aunt and uncle at a great chinese restaurant. Chinese is one of my top foods....next to Mexican. Mmm.
Anyways the best part of them staying over was Kyle and I got to have a date night. Not just any date night...but a Dexter free date night. It was the first time that Kyle and I had been by ourselves without Dexter. It was awesome! I mean I love him, but a break like that was great. So what did we do? We went out to Mimi's Cafe and played miniature golf at a golf course.
On hole 1, where I got a hole in one
Well I'll keep writing up until today. Thursday was my birthday! I turned 24, only one more year until that quarter of a century mark. So how'd I spend my birthday? With my parents going to a naturopath doctor in Provo. It was a lot different than a normal doctor's office. They told me some things to change, and gave me some vitamins and supplements. I'll be trying to avoid/go off of wheat cause they said it would help Dexter not be as gassy/crying so much along with some other ones but wheat was the big one. Some of the things are to help my anxiety. My parents also took me out to Cafe Rio for my birthday dinner. I love their steak salads. MmmMMmm.
Later that evening we had some enchiladas (see I love mexican) and played some Dominion. Tis fun celebrating. Kyle and Dexter got me a pizza cutter, a potato masher...not too exciting, but I actually appreciated them. He also got me Emperor's New Groove and Dove CHOCOLATE!
Dexter enjoyed having his grandparents here to play with him.
Grandpa Robert playing with Dex
Another new thing Dexter does... LAUGH! It's only been a little time since he started, and it was hard to capture cause it wasn't consistent. However, when grandpa sings and has Dexter dance to it...it's hilarious to him. This went on for quite a few minutes.a I thought I caught it better and longer time, but this is what I have:
So I did it. With a bit of help from Kyle I managed to get the whole house packed up. Definitely not as organized as the last move, and many things were eventually just thrown into boxes. It was a busy week, with a few late nights. Some caused by packing, others by Dexter. Kyle took off Friday so that some of the things could be finished. We chilled at the new place in the morning waiting for the gas guy. We also did the inspection while there.
So do you want to see the new place?
The entry...upstairs to the right, living room through the hallway
The great room...living room and part of dining
The kitchen, 1/2 bath and garage
Upstairs hallway...laundry in those doors on the left, Dak's bathroom, linen closet
Our bedroom with sweet closet space...
....and it's own bathroom!
I had pictures of the other two bedrooms...but they weren't exciting to look at. They are nice though. Lots of closet space in them too. With all these closets and space, what am I going to do?
Well Saturday morning came. A few people showed up to help out. I walked over to the new place. I and Dex were no help and didn't want to be in the way. This way the stuff unloaded also had a person directing it where to go. They worked hard all morning. I would help unload if Dexter was asleep. While they were gone I occupied myself with napping, or taking pictures of him.
His new favorite thing to suck/drool on
We were so helpful
It took quite a few hours of just going back and forth, but they got most the stuff before they had to leave us. After a short rest and some food...pizza pizza, we went back to the basement. Picked up the last minute stuff, and vacuumed it while waiting for a friend's car to come to haul the last stuff...which was a little too big to fit into ours. We then again crashed and rested. Then hurried over to my aunt and uncle's house for a family game night. There were more people than normal, and we played different games too. Aunt Linda fed us some delicious tacos...learned new tricks to make them good. Also, Uncle Phil stole Dexter while we played. A few times we forgot the two of them were even there.
We played til it was late. Then we trekked home and mustered some last energy. We still didn't have our bed nor Dex's set up...so we quickly did that and crashed. Kyle slept pretty good that night, I still had the normal wakeups with Dex. Although, he was less fussier and only woke up twice. Hopefully that'll continue, and improve. Well our house Sunday morning now looked like this:
The study/guest room with boxes all in it
Dresser blocking doorways, bed in the middle of the room, boxes everywhere...very dangerous for me in mid-nite feedings
Sunday church went well. Definitely getting used to missing parts of Sunday School to feed or calm Dex down. After church a friend invited us over for dinner since she knew we wouldn't really have anything. And she was right...we hadn't even found a bowl or spoon yet. Much less cooking pots and pans. It was fun hanging out with other people. I'll have to start inviting people over for dinners again, it reminded me how good food and conversation is. After getting home we also had our weekly chat with the Las Vegas Hansens. Dex was smiling the whole time. It helps that I do ridiculous faces so he smile and gurgles for them.
Talking with the grandparents and Tyler, and Audrey
Well the rest of the time this week has been unpacking, unpacking, finding new places to store stuff, putting stuff away and cleaning. We also got new washer and dryers. All our previous places have already had them. So we got a nice set that'll hopefully last us forever. I'm excited about them! Wow, I'm growing up cause I'm excited about appliances again.
I'm also loving the quietness...so quiet. Love the brightness of the place. Love the a/c and ceiling fans. Love a garage. Not a fan of stairs, but I'll get a workout going up and down them. So far...so awesome!
Well off to unpack some more...it feels like I'll be unpacking and organizing forever.
Exciting stuff happened this weekend, but you'll have to wait for it. So it's been pretty warm in our house. The mornings start off at 78 or so, then creep up to 83 usually....but lately 85. Even warmer if I use the oven or stove to make dinner. Haven't hooked up the swamp cooler, and probably won't...because of exciting news.
This weekend though did have a few rainstorms. We quickly would throw open all the windows that have screens just to cool the house off. I love listening to the thunder and rain, and watching lightning.
How I found his swaddler on him one time. Reminded me of a Middle Eastern man.
Each evening this weekend we did the same thing. We watched Avatar: The Last Airbender. We've been doing an episode here and there, but it was getting to the intense end...so we really wanted to finish it. It was a good show, but definitely for kids. It's funny how things got resolved quickly and easily, and had many cheesy jokes. Which you know Kyle and I love.
Chilling with dad...probably watching some anime show
Dexter made it a weird week and weekend. Don't know if it was a growth spurt, the warmness of the house affecting him, if he's sick, or a few combined. He was on a great routine for many weeks. Eat and play for an hour plus a little. Then sleep for 2 hours. Then suddenly one day it became more of sleep for only 20 minutes...then be awake and then suddenly turn cranky but refuse to sleep. I even let him cry it out for a while each time. He also wanted to eat every 1.5 hours! Usually before when he wants to eat early, it's more of just his way of being bored/tired, and would be persuaded away with his pacifier. This time though he'd scream/cry at me and he'd really eat a bunch. And then he'd also do his pain scream while grunting. He grunts a lot...it means he's working on something...if ya know what I mean. Every time we laid him down he'd scream. It was so unlike him, and his scream was one that made me wonder a little if something was wrong. There were some happy moments here and there. So...this made for a very time consuming because of working with him few days. Sunday he at least held off to the 3 hours between eating, and was a little better on naps. And overall better. He even was the happiest for the longest during a video chat with the Vegas Hansen Family. Thankfully, since Sunday he's been on the right track and not as weird as he was above.
Saturday morning I took Dexter on a walk all by myself. Kyle was sleeping in, and somehow I was awake even though I was up a few times. It was so nice outside, and Dex took a little nap during it. While walking I saw a sign. Kyle called the number and the guy said he was at the place. We quickly walked over and checked out the townhouse. It looked nice and was what were expecting, they said they didn't have a lot of other ones opening up...so we made a hold deposit on it. I was SUPER excited. We move this Saturday! I have one week to pack.
Dak's big butt from the cloth diapers
I've been pretty busy packing. In two days I got the living room packed. Next up Kitchen. I figure the bedroom and bathroom stuff can just be thrown into boxes when the time comes. We also have our current place until the end of the month, so it doesn't have to be cleaned and completely moved out until then.
On Tuesday Dexter hit the 12 week mark, but at 13 weeks is when I'll count him being 3 months. I did take advantage of the temperature outside being the exact same inside. There was even a breeze to make it nicer. Dexter was being happy...not trying to poop and not crying. So I took pictures. I can get him to smile so easily it's great. Kyle does have a harder time, but he'll do it for him too. Well the pictures are on my other blog with descriptions and such if you'd like to see how big he's gotten.
My favorite from the photo shoot
Well in memory of this place, and in hopes of the new place I wrote down some of the things I will and won't miss. I'm not being mean, but truthful.
Things I'll miss (some compared to new place):
Largish front yard with 2 fruit trees
Not having to use a baby monitor because he's so close to every room
Able to see what he's doing in the crib right from the living room couch
Hearing the rain on our steel overhang.
Things I won't miss:
Carpet that has an oily texture with stink on it (before we moved in)
Flooring that has random holes where the previous renters' dog dug through or large burn marks
Hearing the water drip and leak everytime the upstairs neighbors took a shower or bath
From said leaks, having water drip or pour through various holes in ceiling. Thus far has been the access panel, smoke detector, and pretty sure our living room light shorted out from it too. Usually it has been small to medium drips. One time though it soaked a beach towel and filled an inch of a stockpot. The landlord does know about this FYI.
From said leaks thinking about the mold that would be in this place
The musty and moldy smell...remediated pretty well with our volcano rocks
Having neighbors above and hearing everywhere they walk, them oddly watching us, 2 chihuahua dogs, being able to hear certain family members pee, and the list could go on for a little while. They are nice though.
Not being able to fully reach my hands up (low ceilings)
Being in a basement overall
Things I'm looking forward to:
1.5 more bathrooms, 1 is fine with 2 people but inconvenient with guests
A spare bedroom that will be Kyle's study for when he goes to school
A garage
Ceiling Fans
Sunnier with Large open feeling
and best of all Air Conditioning!!!
I do realize that the new place probably won't be perfect either. There may be crazier neighbors, things might break too, or just not as good as it seems. But I am looking forward to it. I'll be most looking forward to when we buy a house, but that won't be until after Kyle's school.
This fourth of July we again spent it with my family in Duck Creek. We even opted to make this a longer holiday weekend than normal. We didn't do anything outdoorsy really. Playing games and just being surrounded by woods was fun.
Dad getting some consulting
We spotted deer in the lot next to ours nearly every day. Of course there were chipmunk and squirrels galore. They're cute but not as funny since there is no Ty (my family's previous pet) to get all hysterical about them. Kyle can't wait until he can show Dexter the art of trapping the chippers as well. Kyle and I thought we would take Dak on a walk around the cabin's subdivision. We should have skipped this. I forgot how steep some of the hills were, high altitude, and pushing a stroller made it more strenuous than normal.
I did show Kyle and Dak the actual Duck Creek and pond. It was gorgeous. Because of all the snow (some places still had some), all the lakes and streams are full. Not flooding, but full and that makes for lots of green grass and rapids in the water.
Kyle & Dak's first time at the creek
Family picture
The car ride up and back were fine. He's at least a great traveller. It was nice to have family who were willing to hold Dak so we could get breaks, and they enjoyed just playing with him when he was happy.
On our way home we stopped off at the Provo Hansens. We love having them close by. So that was our weekend. Relaxing, playing games, taking care of the baby, and enjoying nature and family.
I've almost finished one of my projects. I had bought a 4 dollar end table thing from DI. It was this ugly green thing with a bad black glaze job. Can't remember if I've mentioned it before. My goal was to strip of the paint and get it ready for when I choose to paint/stain it. I haven't figured out which room gets it, so therefore I don't want to paint it quite yet. Anyways, this tiny little table has been time consuming.
About to start round 2. All you see sanded took me 4 hours by hand. I love power sanders.
About to start round 3, which finished it.
I thought I could hand sand it...nope. So far I've had to get 2 sanders. A regular orbital and then a detail one to get in those corners. The paint was on there heavily. I should have used one of those scraper things first. Well I've at least learned a lot, and had fun doing it. Now onto bigger projects.
Just a random cute picture. Also captures the single fleck of brown in his eye. It's at the left (from this point of view) on the top.
Excited for the changes coming up in the next months. First is that we plan to move. Still waiting for a place to open up in the communities we're thinking of. No waiting list...just first come first serve type thing. Then in August Kyle goes back to grad school....but he won't have to go to work. It'll be a weird, but wonderful adjustment. I'll just have to learn to leave him alone so he can get all the work done. He'll have 12 credits. Full load is 6 at grad level.
