Summer's Come and Nearly Gone

Wow, REALLY?? My last post was in April?! Hmm...I guess time flies when there are birthdays, barbecues, weddings, baby showers and...ultrasounds :)

Shall we go in order then? Nah, didn't think so.

We're having our third baby who's due on January 5th, 2013 :) I'm really curious as to whether he/she will really wait until the new year, though, seeing as how the siblings arrived two weeks early! We found out about our nubbin in April (or was it May? Honestly I used to know these things...and then the pregnancy fog kicked in) and had our first ultrasound in June. We weren't surprised to see him/her or to hear my OB say there was just the one, but we were surprised that I was barely 10 weeks along when I thought I was already 12! No wonder it was still such a...nubbin!

Ultrasound #2 was taken at 12 weeks (for those typical anatomical tests), and at this point our "single fetus" looked like just that--a BABY! I love how clear these 12-week ultrasounds turn out because you see the baby's features so clearly! Look at that neck and nose!

Ultrasound #3 is up next week--just seven more days!!--which is when we find out the baby's sex. Funny how that ultrasound is meant to test and measure more important things, but knowing the baby's sex is all that makes sense to my husband and me ;) Finally, my daughter and I will be able to buy things for the baby instead of having the same conversation at every store:
Aislin: "Mom we need to buy things for the baby."
Me: "Not yet, sweetie. We still don't know if it's a boy or a girl."
Aislin: "I know!"
Me: "Oh, really?"
Aislin: "Yeah! Oh, this is cute!"
Me: Sigh... "I know."

In other news, Des turned TWO in May!! (And I turned 29....)

Cutest birthday boy ever :D When he woke up that morning, we immediately told him happy birthday and started singing to him, and the above was his reaction. He was bashful and happy, and I watched him in adoration. Interesting thing is...he seemed to inherently know what turning two meant because, after that day, he became...a 2-year-old. He's still sweet but he's also more curious, more defiant, more vocal and more...experimental! Let's just say I have more messes to clean.

Just a few days before his birthday, though, we celebrated his and mine...and my dad's (May 21st)...and my mom's (May 22nd) at my parents' house.

 Mmm...cake and fingers...(and hair, pre-Avatar look).

In honor of my personal tradition of documenting my first day--of being one year older. And with chubby cheeks :)

Moving on from the May birthdays brings us to our only other summer birthday: Aislin's :) Yes, my girl--my first--is now 4-years-old; and yes, she has finally stopped asking me if it's her birthday yet. And if she can have a bike, with a bell. And a princess dress.

We decided to celebrate Aislin's birthday the following day so that her grandparents and uncle could celebrate with us, so we got ice cream cones in lieu of a cake. Both days, however, made for a great weekend :)

 Heeheehee

For some reason, I just love this picture. This is us--side-by-side in all endeavors, including little family birthday parties.

Happy Easter!

Love, Aislin and Desmond

September to March

So much happens in six months!

In September I got a job...and in March, I left it. I worked at a child care center where the kids were also enrolled, and I was the assistant teacher in the infant room.

I was happy and it was a good experience for the kids and me.

Aislin in her preschool classroom

Des in his toddler classroom

(Perhaps not his best pic hehe... I think he had just woken up from a nap!)

But after six months I had learned something about myself: I really wanted to teach, not just care for. Although I'm a total advocate for infant curriculum and believing in their potential to learn, I wanted to do more. Even before I had made the decision to leave my job--before I had gotten burned out, before my concerns for what my son was and wasn't learning and what kind of crazy kids my daughter was being exposed to had started to eat away at me--I had started looking at ads for preschool teaching positions.

In the end, it wasn't as beneficial for the three of us to be at the Center as it had been when we first started in September...so we left, and continued our preschool lessons at home!

Check out our other blog (also located on the sidebar): http://sweet-schoolhouse.blogspot.com.

Our House

"...is a very very very fine house,

with two [kids] in the yard,

life used to be so hard,

now everything is easier 'cause of you."

~Crosby, Stills and Nash

My dad used to sing this song all the time, especially after he and my mom bought their first house. After a while he didn't even have to sing it--he could just say the first verse of the chorus--and we'd know he was quoting the song. So, naturally, it's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of our own first house :)

I don't think it's really sunken in yet, we've been a little stressed out these past few weeks, and then there's the fiasco-to-come when we start to move.

*Breathe in, breathe out*

Repeat to selves: We. Are. Homeowners!!

Our house is just a few blocks down the road from where we live now--a good 2 minutes away!--so we're still in Everett, even though we're so far south that we could trip and land in Lynnwood. We take the exact same route to get to work and our friends and family take the exact same route to get to our house. Best of all, it's in a nice little development where the kids can go trick-or-treating and the entrance faces a dead-end street :)

A few phone camera snapshots to document this new milestone...

Of course we took pictures of the keys as soon as we got them! Tore the envelope open and took a picture of them sitting in Aislin's car seat :)

Aislin was my model for the next few pictures :) Des was asleep and Tim was still on the road, so it was just me and her taking pics for Grandma, Grandpa and Tito AJ!

Great story about that fridge: it was agreed upon that the fridge would be bought and installed for us as long as it was under $1,000...but we went with something around $1,300 agreeing to pay the difference afterwards. Our real estate agent (who's also a friend of ours in our ward) took care of the difference up front so we thought we'd owe him that amount, but when we went to pay him back...he said he had planned on getting us a house-warming present anyway so, if it was okay with us, the balance would just be his gift to us.

Holy hefty house-warming present, Batman!

The view from Aislin's bedroom window :)

Enough said ;)

A Kite-Flying Kind of Day

We visited my family in Kent one day, where a shed- and garage-full of treasures abound...including an old plastic kite! My brother and I were disappointments to our dad when it came to learning this skill, but Aislin turned out to be a natural! It must've skipped a generation...

Not the best picture in the world, but just to provide some perspective on how awesome she is at flying a kite :)

Look at that concentration...

:)

Grandpa and Des

Heeheehee

Grandpa and Aislin working together...and Des playing happily to the side with Grandpa's phone!

How cute is this kid?!

Hi!

As you can see, she felt comfortable enough to sit while flying the kite...

...and now she's laying down ;)

After having seen these awesome pictures, just ask yourself this question: Can Chuck Norris fly a kite while laying down?

Answer: Perhaps, but he wouldn't look as cute!