A Premiere 15 Months in the Making!

Before and then After

At some points of 2009, I was not sure I would ever be able to state it....but....THE UPSTAIRS BATHROOM IS FINISHED! I love to give Josh a hard time for taking at least 6 months on a project, but this one was notoriously long since so many weekends went to family time instead of remodeling time. This was the first project that we had a toddler during each stage. To say the least, Davey was not as much help as he thought he was being!

To say the least, there was nothing that wasn't changed in this little room. Older posts from last year showed the nastiness along the way. All new fixtures, vented skylight, exposed brick wall (part of the original 1840 house), new tile on the walls, in the shower, and on the floor (NOT CARPET! AND AQUA PARTICLE BOARD!), and a heated mat under the tile...soooo nice for those 3 am pregnant trips to the bathroom in the winter!

I know I don't tell him enough...and I give him a hard time about taking so long on projects, but my husband is amazing! He has more attention to detail than even I do and it makes projects come out just breath-taking. But don't worry...we are already talking about the next project to undertake!

Christmas 2009

Davey getting ready to board the Santa Train in Madison.

Our little family after we got the tree decorated.

My present to Josh was a weekend in Louisville. Here we are dressed to the nines for supper in the revolving room and then off to the Nutcracker.

Walking in to the Santa presents. The tent was set up with his new sleeping bag laid out.

His new horse (he calls it "May"). He hasn't put it down since!

New sleeping bag

New movies from the Mount family.

Playing in Rachael's Tinkerbell tent that Sarah made her. Davey wants one now!

Matching hand-made hats for Dad, Davey, and one for the new baby, too!

What a wonderful time we are all having on our Christmas Break. Even Josh has had last week and this upcoming week off. Though we have all had the stomach bug, we are glad to be relaxing at home staying in our pjs as long as possible.

I think our total was down by one family get-together this year, but our total was 5 anyway! Davey did as best as he could with the combination of lots of presents, lots of people wanting to love on him, and minimal nap time. He got WAY too many gifts and he loves them all! Santa brought him his own camping supplies, a 2 foot styrofoam airplane, and play-doh. At the other Christmases he got some fun games (he is playing the Curious George beach game right now with Josh), lots of Little People, DVDs, a helicopter, and soo much more!

Josh and I ate ourselves into a stupor, but man was it good! We cleaned up the tree mess yesterday and started the transformation back to normal. I started rooting through the baby clothes to see what might be missing from the collection. While there are a couple things I will need to buy, we are in good shape for Baby Boy #2. I am also figuring out which small clith diapers to buy to complete my reusable diaper collection. Eigth more weeks until my due date, so I know this time will fly by so we are trying to use our time off wisely!

I finished my first assignment as a standardized test question writer for the Arkansas Biology State Test. I hope they like the questions I came up with because that could be a nice activity while I am home with the baby this spring.

Thankful

This year we have so much to be thankful fo. I thought I would make a little list...

-Josh is exactly the person I have always needed to spend my life with. He is patient, thoughtful, and so handy! I will soon be putting pictures up of our new bathroom upstairs. It is gorgeous and worth the wait! We see eye-to-eye on the important issues like money and discipline. He is my best friend.

-Davey amazes me everyday. He is at a great age of absorbing everything and trying to figure the world out. He minds his mama very well for a 2 1/2 year old and is just so adorable. He is excited about being a big brother. Sometimes it is shocking that Josh and I made such a wonderful little boy.

-Baby Boy #2 (still no name)...we had many trials early in the pregnancy and I am very thankful to know that everything is as good as we can expect. God has made us lean on Him many times through the past 6 months. This is very difficult for a strong-headed, nonemotional girl to do! We eagerly await meeting him and having Baby become part of our happy little family.

-Of course, we couldn't go a week without the help of my in-laws. Between Karen's cooking, Dave helping Josh on the house, and Lisa hanging out with Davey at a moment's notice I am blessed to have such a wonderful family within 2 miles of my house.

-Can't forget the Watterson clan. Each day I realize how wonderful my parents are since I get to go through some of the same struggles now. My mother is the most patient and pure-hearted person I have ever met. She is a perfect balance between level-headedness and stright-up goofiness! Davey and Dad are obsessed with each other that just melts my heart when they are together. I am very thankful to have them as my role models. I hope I can live up to their example.

-Grandma Geneva had a rough patch over the summer. I am thankful that her stubborn Kentuckian ways served her well and she survived encephalitis. She has now been cleared by the neurologist and is getting more back to normal each day. I am glad to be able to spend time with her this holiday season.

-I am also thankful for my church family. Since Pastor Don has come to Vernon Baptist, our family up on the hill has gotten closer. It is wonderful to have others from the community to serve with. I am confident that God will continue to bless our church.

-I am thankful that I have a warm (soft of) house that we own. Though it is frustrating to see the parts that need work, I look at from where we came from and I am proud to live here. (Also refers to my pride/thanksfulness of Josh again!) We love the yard that Davey can sfely roam and the river in the back where we can canoe and watch the wildlife. Sometimes it is almost too much for us to take care of, but we will keep doing our best!

-Josh and I both have jobs. That is tough to say in this economy for many families this year. I love my job. Though day-to-day there are frustrations, I enjoy my time teaching my kids the complexities of Biology and help my AVID kids through the college process. Each morning, I wake up and look forward to hearing the crazy stories of life of an MCHS freshman. Josh's job is more stressful and I know he gets pulled in many different directions. However, he is great at it. He loves the days that he gets to solve problems that helps the asphalt plants work better. His company has been good to him (and us) for almost 15 years.

-This year has been a struggle for me to stay healthy compared to most years, but I am thankful that overall we are all in good health. The flu was no fun and the pregnancy has brought struggles of its own, but overall all three of us are well.

I know there are many more, but Davey is tugging at my hand so we can go and look at the 2 Christmas trees in his room. I don't want to miss a moment. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Be thankful!

Halloween 2009

Cowboy Davey

Waiting in line to throw sponges at Pastor Don

Sliding down the slide every which way!



Crying about someone bumping him in the bounce house.

Judith gave these teeth to him. He would put them in and try to scare someone. Then he would quickly take them out and say, "No scared! It's me!"

Blame it on growing up in the country with no neighbors to trick-or-treat to...blame it on never really liking to play dress-up or even pretend games as a kid...blame it on how annoying I think it is the candy greed that comes out in some kids on Halloween. Whatever you take...I have never been that "in" to Halloween. Add to this problem the fact that Davey has no idea what the "holiday" is, has no interest in a character to dress up as, and really doesn't get that excited about candy. Apathetic Halloween was the theme this year. I was busy making sure the Fall Festival at Vernon Baptist Church was planned and organized.

Figuring out what to dress Davey up as was low on the priority list. But of course Mother Guilt set in Friday. I was talking to another teacher who has 2 boys (David is the oldest for her, too!), she was going on about how thankful she was to have those pictures from when they were young. Now they are too old to want to trick-or-treat, but she can still remember what they dressed up as each year.

So Friday night, Josh happened to find a cowboy hat that he had when he was a little boy at his mom's house. Then the costume was set! I bought a red bandana at Wal-Mart and Josh dressed him in jeans and a plaid shirt. He was a cute little buckaroo!

He had a great time at that Fall Festival along with about 150 other people. One Sunday School class pitched in to rent an inflatable bouncy house with a slide and it was a big hit with everyone. There was also a golf game that Davey loved and an opportunity to throw sponges at the pastor. Then we headed over to Josh's grandmother's house (Mamaw), Judith's house (the babysitter), and the spent the rest of the evening at the in-law's. They live on a very busy trick-or-treating street and probably had over 400 kids come through. Davey helped passing out candy with his Aunt Rachael and Cousin Mackenzie.

So now that it is all said and done...I am glad we got Davey into a costume with cute pictures to remember it by. But I am also glad that I didn't spent $20 on a cheaply made costume that he doesn't care about. Best of both worlds?

Reading and TPing!

Here is a little video of Davey "reading" a book about Eeyore losing his tail...at the end he is happy to have found it. Unfortunately, Davey was on a real roll reading last night, but by the time we got the camera upstairs he was over it and didn't do as well with the Pooh book. Still cute as can be!

And I included a belly picture from this morning. Of course the shirt makes me look bigger than I really am...well, I hope it does! I already feel huge...a little over 4 months to go before we get to meet Baby Boy Shaw. And no...no names yet...we are searching the family trees for something that I like. David Lloyd came together so easy...this one is going to be a little tougher. Any suggestions would be great!

Tonight was the annual toilet papering of the Vernon Courthouse. This is when many area families come out with their extra rolls of TP to throw them into the 300 year old trees surrounding the courthouse. It is a hoot! Davey had a great time trying the fling the roll of a broomstick. Of course Josh and my FIL, Dave, was much more accuate with it. Davey called the whole thing "A MESS!" But he loved it and it was hard to get him back home.

It's a BOY Again!

Josh and I returned to the high-risk doctor in Louisville this morning for the 20 week ultrasound. We found out that we are having another baby boy in early March and we are both very excited. Davey doesn't really know what to think at this point, but he will figure it out eventually! But the better news than its a boy is that the baby looks great. No problems that the sonographer or doctor could see that could have resolved from taking Clomid while I was pregnant. This is a great relief to us all.

On the way down to L'ville, we dropped Davey off at my sister's and then met up with her gang plus Mom and Dad at Huber's Orchard. I hope Shannon took pictures, but I am not convinced of it...I promise to post pictures soon. They had a great time running through the maze and riding the tractors.

Davey's vocabulary just amazes me. Of course he still sounds like a little cave man, but he strings 5 to 7 words together so that we get the message. He loves phrases like, "Help, Mama! I stuck" when he wants me to rescue him from whatever disaster he has started. He carries around one of my little make-up brushes so that when he sucks his fingers he can tickle his cheek with it. Any thing small he calls "baby" and anything big he calls "woah".

In other news, I survived the H1N1 flu last weekend. I was pretty miserable, but only had a cough, sore throat, aches, and a low fever. No stomach issues which is good for me and baby. I missed Monday and Tuesday from school, but luckily the rest of this week was Fall Break so it could have been worse. And it would have been a lot worse if I sickened anyone else, but I didn't! (As far as I know!) I snapped this picture from inside my quarentined state...Chloe is enjoying the sun during our Indian Summer. (It was 65 that day and 70 degrees today!)

Before getting sick, a rare occurance happened...my three girlfriends from high school and I got together. With Hannah in the UK, Erin in NC, and Emily in Vincennes it is tough to get us all together. I think it has been almost 5 years since the last visit! Here is a pic of all of us. Emily is due in just a few more weeks here.

Enjoying Fall

He looks like such a big boy in this picture. Helping rake leaves with Mama.

Then, of course, having fun in them afterwards!

Not wanting to wake up on a Sunday afternoon nap....and YES! he is sleeping in our bed. He told me that he takes better naps there on the weekends. And usually convinces me (and sometimes Josh) to join him!

This is the belly a few weeks ago. The maternity top doesn't help, but it is starting to grow!

Camping out in the dining room in your underwear sounds like a great evening to me!

I seriously thought I had updated this blog more recently than what it says...but I must be thinking about putting picture on Facebook. If you aren't my friend yet, befriend me!

Days are flying by quickly since school has started. We are falling into a little routine and Davey has it down. He is learning new words all the time and usually has an opinion about everything. He is still doing well with potty training, though there are times that are very frustrating for us all. Tomorrow he will offically be 2 1/2 which is just amazing to me. Josh and I talk about part-week part-day preschool for him next year and I wonder where the time has gone.

I am starting to feel Baby #2 kicking and squirm. I am 20 weeks and to the glorious half-way point. I am doing for the mega-ultrasound onver my Fall Break on October 22. I hope to find out I have a little girl inside, but either way is great. I will be going back down to the Louisville to the specialist just to make sure everything is okay. My stress level is way down about the situation since the inital tests came back clear. However, I could still use the prayers.

One funny Davey story for the online baby book....each Sunday we head to my MIL for supper with the family. And the food is just awesome! Well, last Sunday Davey was much more interested in playing with the other kids than eating.

On the way home he said, "Mama! Eat!"
I said, "Well, you should have eaten more at Nana's."
Davey: "But Mama! Eat!"
Me: "We will have to see, Davey..."
Davey: "But Mama, it for BABY!" And he rubs his little pooched out tummy.
So of course, he got some food when we got home...it was, after all, for the baby! :)
It wouldn't trade any of it for all the money in the world!

A Story with a Happy Ending

Josh and I have been through a roller coaster of emotions this past week. I didn't want to post until some more info is in...so here is the story...

After having Davey and nursing for a year, my body never got back on track chemically speaking. Of course that was when I was diagnosed with thryroid problems and got that under control with medicine. But behind the scenes, Josh and I started trying for baby #2. Of course, this posed difficult since my body wasn't cooperating. So then after 15 months of trying different schools of thought, we went to Clomid. This is the medicine that forces ovulation and therefore increases your chances of getting pregnant. The first round of the lowest dose was in May, but also got AF right on Day 28. So after checking 6 times with negative pregnancy tests, I started round two in June. And then positive tests! We were thrilled!

I was shocked at how quickly my pregnancy symptoms came on. It was like as soon as I got pregnant, I was sick all day long. And my belly actually pooched out week 4! Well, when I went to the OB/GYN for my 8 week appointment just this past Friday. At the visit it was obvious that the baby was much too big to be 8 weeks and measured 12 weeks! This of course explained the pooching belly and early morning sickness. But the bad news was that this meant that I took the second round of Clomid while pregnant. The Dr. researched and called for about 30 minutes and came back empty handed on when that could do to the baby.

So just to be safe, she had me meet with a high-risk OB in Lousiville. We had that appointment today. They did a high resolution ultrasound to measure the thickness of the skin at the base of the skull. If it was too thick, it is an indication of developmental problem. Lucky for us, all measurements were in normal range. The baby was good and stayed still for the procedure. He/she (though I prefer to think SHE!) had a great heart rate and moved around once the dr was finished. I also had blood work done to check for genetic problems.

I will be going back in 2 months for the ultrasound where they do tons of measuring and when they can see all the organs. That is when we will find out if it is a girl or a boy. Of course, we are just thankful to God that the baby is healthly.

Of course, I have pictures of sweet Davey for recent adventures. I will post them soon.

Josh's B-Day and Potty Training Fun

Potty training has been going well, but we are not without accidents. Usually the only probably is my short temper with the process. Davey is doing great. I loved be able to pack away the cloth diapers for another day. Of course, as a right of passage, he had to run around the house with underwear on his head. And to make sure that I have plenty of embarrassing pictures for future girlfriends, the other one is with the potty chair on his head like a hat! He is a ham.

A big Happy Birthday to my loving hisband, Josh. He is exactly the man that I needed to end up with. Quiet, patient, sweet, (exactly my opposite!) and much more. Have a great 33rd year, babe! (And yes, that is him lighting his candles with a propane torch!) We are heading out in a couple of hours to a weekend away from Indiana and Davey...to my old Kentucky home! I had this one planned a while back and am excited to actually leave! We have kept a pretty low travel profile this year, so I getting the bug again. Planning a little weekend helped a bit. I hope the weather will be nice. Thanks to Shannon and the parents for watching Davey for a couple of nights.

Some More Summer Highlights

Checking out the gorillas at the Louisville Zoo

A huge toilet at the Columbus Children's Muesum (you can actually climb through it, but Davey wasn't quite into it)

The best part of the fair is that Josh and I got to ride for free!

Getting wet at Symphony on the Prairie

Davey and I are enjoying the mild July that we are having. Our days are pretty laid back and include Davey's favorite activity...MOWING! He loves to sit on the mower while I get a portion of the yard finished. I am not sure who attention span only allows us to get about 45 minutes in, but we end up needing to do a small bit each day. It works out well, I think.

Some of his favorite words and phrases are...mow, water, I did it!, Oh man!, I am a mess!, and many more...He also loves to talk on the phone and can actually hold a fairly good conversation.

He can identify his colors and loves to say yellow by throwing his tongue out on the Ls. It cracks us up!

Potty training has had its ups and downs. Yesterday he put me at my wits ends with accidents, yet today he has had a perfect run (so far)...Each day he is dry, he gets to go golfing with Josh.

I had a direct shot with Off to his face and had to pour water over his head for 20 minutes, call the poison control center, and take him to the eye doctor...that was an eventful night. But everything is fine now.

We have been to the zoo, the children's muesum, had a fun time at the county fair, and Symphony on the Prairie. We went to SotP for the 4th of July and you can tell by the pictures that we got a little wet, but it was worth it. Davey LOVED watching/hearing the huge cannons go off during the 1812 Overture and we won a raffle for Indy Zoo tickets! And since the weather was bad, we got tickets to go again!

I am really busy getting prepared for Vacation Bible School at church next week. This is my crazy week and then I get to relax a little bit once the week actually begins. I am grateful for all the helpers and teachers that I have at church. We wouldn't be able to do much without everyone's help.

Getting Used to the Summer Schedule

Family picture at Donnelson Cave

Somewhere in Clark State Forest

Having fun at Thomas

This is my first offical week of summer and I am loving it! Two weeks ago didn't count because I had to go to school Monday through Wednesday. Last week didn't count because I was in Indianapolis for a work session Tuesday through Thursday. So finally I can settle in to my routine of sleeping as long as Davey will let me (this morning 6:30!), going for a walk, going to the park, fixing lunch, cleaning house, and playing outside. It is a tough life, I know!

It has been a while since my last post...I have decided that April and May are the worst months for stress in my house. School is drawing to a close and Josh is at his busiest. We went camping with my parents in April to Spring Mill State Park. I hadn't been there in years! We also managed to pawn Davey off to my parents over Memorial Day weekend. Josh and I completed 12 more miles of the Knobstone trail. Just 10 more to go! We are hoping to wait for a cool weekend in September or October, though...no need to sweat THAT much! It was good to get back on the trail. We hadn't been there since I was 3 months pregnant with Davey. So it was due time!

Then the next big event was just this past Saturday. We went to Connersville to ride on Thomas the Tank! Davey (and Josh) are wild about trains and so everyone had a great time. They had the whole area around the depot built up with fun things for the kids to do. Davey amazed us both with how adventurous he was. He even rode a pony!

We are starting the potty training process. And I think he is doing well. We have a long way to go, but as long as it is finished by August, I don't care!

Davey's language is getting better and clearer each day. Yesterday, we were at the in-laws and my MIL commented on a horrible shot in the US Open by saying, "Oh, man!" Davey picked up on that instantly and it has replaced his "Ah-oh" every since! It kind of sounds like one of the Simpsons characters...but I can't remember which. It is hilarious.

Davey's TWO Years Old!

Wanna hear how bad of a mom I am?? Davey loves to blow out any candle, so I let him do this one a couple of times on the morning of his birthday...later I noticed his massively long eyelashes got a little singed...

Notice the Little Mermaid balloon I found at Wal-Mart!

Getting ready for the Easter egg hunt at church. The first of FOUR that weekend!!

He was very good at finding Easter "balls" as he called them.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all the 2 years! Those are my hiking poles collapse down and fit him perfectly. He was excited to be out of the pack and hiking like Dada. That didn't last long since we weren't on a trail and he tripped a few times! But seriously...HOW CUTE??? ( I am talking about both of them, of course!)

Yeah yeah yeah...I guess I will say it again...can Davey really be this old?? I wonder how many more times I will be quoted as saying how fast these 2 years have gone? Probably lots! We had a great birthday weekend. He turned 2 on Friday, April 3 and Josh and I took the day off to get his new room together. We put together the bunk beds (full on bottom and twin on top) only to realize that we had no mattress for it! LOL We bought the bed off of my sister, Shannon, months ago and I forgot that she didn't sell us the mattresses! So we made a mad dash to Columbus to pick a cheap one up. We put Thomas the Tank sheets on and a great looking quilt my Mom had in a closet. Orange and navy blue! Just the colors we were looking for! I bought blackout curtains in the same blue, as well. Soon we will paint one of the walls orange (his favorite color), but the wall will need some patching first...the plaster is cracking!

Then Saturday we headed to Scottsburg for a birthday trifecta! Shannon, Davey, and I celebrated birthdays with the parents. We ate a lasagna bigger than Indiana! Then Sunday after church we had the family get together again (along with the Shaw side) for a party at our place. Davey was in a great mood and the weather was wonderful. The cousins and Davey played outside with the new sports equipment he got. I need to get it on video, but I am serious when I say my son has got a killer golf swing! He is a lefty and has great follow through! :)

And then this past weekend was Easter and I am not sure if we ever stopped eating! We woke up, went to Sunrise Service in Vernon Cemetery, went back to the church and had a good ole fashioned Baptist pitch-in breakfast (where my breakfast casserole went first, thank you very much!). Then we went on a little hike to finally get a spring picture for the blog (bonus points for those who noticed the winter scene after 2 years has finally changed to spring!). Then went home for a little rest, just to wake up and go to the in-laws for a huge lunch, then go down to Scottsburg for another huge meal. We felt horrible at the end of it!

So I think that is the update right now. Josh is close to tiling the bathroom. I will have to post pictures of that project and Davey's new room once it is painted. I am also to soon have pictures of Davey's new friend coming soon from Kazakhstan! (Yeah...we need to deepen the gene pool around here!) Happy thoughts and prayers go up to Jill and her court appearances this week!