shoes

i started packing things in our bedroom - sort of my last big item... i've been putting it off.  i had no choice.  i had to start with the dreaded shoes.  hopefully weston won't be upset that i didn't wait for him to get home to pack his own shoes ... he's very fond of them.

i, however, have a very strong love/hate relationship with the husband's shoes.  i love them because he loves them, it's that simple.  and i hate them because they are literally everywhere.  i guess it takes something like packing your house up to make you really take stock of how much you have, especially how much of one thing. 

(for example, the other day when my parents were here, it seemed like the photos, prints, and frames were seeping out of the walls!!!  just when you thought you had them all gathered, stacked, even packed in the vans, there was another pile just waiting to be discovered somewhere!  i still think that, come moving day, we'll be walking out with a few more picture frames that went unnoticed.) 

well, the shoes are kind of like that.  everytime i thought i was getting all of the shoes rounded up and put in their correct boxes (i'm not kidding - you'll see what i mean in just a second) there were 3 or 4 more pair or 3 or 4 more empty boxes that i hadn't even noticed before!

just to give you a smidge of an idea of what we're talking about here, i took a few photos along the way.  please keep in mind, this is not the entire shoe collection...

  

most, if not all of the hightops (nike, that is)

  

a handful of the lows

  

some more i hadn't noticed

 

a bunch i couldn't find boxes for ... this is quite suspect as there are so many - weston keeps the boxes to all of his shoes 

don't worry, i don't have nearly the amount of shoes as my husband ... regardless of what my mom might say.

thanks mom and dad

i owe a huge shout-out to my parents for driving to help me out this morning.  as soon as they arrived, they were at work loading both vans FULL to the gills.  we drove to the new place and unloaded ... well, i carried pictures, frames, and 12-packs of soda (come on, there were like 15 of those!) down the stairs.  my mom helped unload the cars and took everything to the inside of the house.  my dad shouldered THE REST of the work - carrying all of those blasted boxes up and down those stairs like a 25 year old! 

then, as if that wasn't enough, they came back to our place and helped me pack up another 12 - 15 boxes to be hauled later.  

thank you! thank you! thank you!!!

and in-n-out hit the spot, thanks for that, too :)

wish me luck

or call me a gigantic wuss, either one...

weston is out of town for the week and i have decided to "stick it out" and stay put instead of driving home to my parents house for some extra help ... i know, i know - i only have one kid, how hard could it be?

i do have plenty of things to occupy my time, it just depends on the 2 year old that lives with me whether or not i'll be able to do any of it.  i have set up a schedule (yeah, i'm a list junkie) for each day outlining the rooms i need to pack up.  very systematic.  can i do it all by my lonesome?  again, it will all depend on miss kate.

i got a really good headstart on the living room last night after kate went to bed - got all of today's job done. 

weston asked me if that meant i had the day off :)  what a punk. 

new happenings

so, quite a bit has been going on lately.

first, and i'm sorry i have no pictures yet, we bought a new car.  after weston got rear-ended in december, we have been looking around trying to replace the car.  as i mentioned in a previous post, we had decided to upgrade to a family size vehicle.  we came across a deal that we couldn't pass up.  we dove in and got a minivan!  weston officially feels like a part of the cottle clan now (5 out of 6 couples have a caravan).  so we got a sweet deal on a 2005 dodge grand caravan and we are loving it.  it's a little embarrassing loading up the ONE child into the HUGE van, but we know we'll grow into it.

second, we are now really moving.  we made the decision last week and it is what it is.  don't get me wrong, we are excited to upgrade our living situation - for SURE - we will be moving into about 2000 square feet.  as i also mentioned before, we are so sad to leave our awesome ward.  it will be a challenge to start over, but we know it's the right thing for us to do at this point.  we were also sad to leave such a great area with just about every shopping/eating amenity you could ask for, but we're only about 10-15 minutes away.  so, needless to say, i have been ultra busy trying to go through all of the stuff we've accumulated in the last 5-6 years (gotta love that purge!), getting my hands on moving boxes, packing and hauling said boxes, and repeating.  what a mess and how overwhelming!!!  but, it has to be done.

so, you ladies out there ... i have a question.  our new kitchen is quite a massive room.  besides the dining table/chairs, what in the WORLD do i do with the rest of the space???  i need another "area" or two in there to feel like it's not a sea of emptiness.  i was thinking of a little nook area to sit and read (read? like i read...) but it's got the great 7 foot windows all throughout so it would make a nice "chill" spot...

suggestions?  i really need some, so please please please offer!!!

stay tuned and maybe we'll be getting some photos up here soon.

oh, and we get to find out in less than 2 weeks whether we'll be having ourselves a little phoebe or a little phoebo!

easter weekend in monroe

since cynthia and her boys and sarah and her kids have been in monroe visiting my parents, i decided to bypass the loneliness that comes with general conference weekend (weston is gone all weekend shooting on temple square) and add kate and myself to the bunch. 

thursday morning, the city held an easter egg hunt.  since they got snow the night before, it was moved from the park to the high school.  we were only about 10 minutes late but missed the entire thing!  thankfully, elsa was sweet enough to divvy out her share of the candy to these 4 sad looking kiddos.  sorry for the blurry photo - it was the best one that was taken!

we let the kids dye easter eggs this morning - thanks to sarah for dealing with the majority of the mess.  they all loved it, naturally, so it was absolutely worth it. 

gotta love those nosepickers!  and no, reynolds did not drink his cup.  it was a close call, though :)  bring on the hunt!!!

and, since cynthia's birthday is on saturday, we decided to take her out for lunch.  this was actually a gift to all of us, since we got a babysitter (elsa to the rescue again!) and had a delicious meal without any screaming mess-makers :)  it was lovely.

new fruit

here we are, a month later, with a new piece of fruit to call our baby.  this is week 16 - the size of an avocado... my favorite. 

i could really go for a fresh sandwich of some yummy whole grain bread, mashed avocado, a couple tomato slices, and some fresh ground pepper.  now i'm hungry...

so kate and i went to the doctor this afternoon and got the little one all checked out (as much as they can "check out" at 16 weeks.)  i had a great weigh in (lost 1 little pound - and no, i'm not trying to lose any weight, but it's always a nice surprise!), great blood pressure reading, and a strong little heart rate of 144 bpm.  for anyone who's wondering, that's 10 bpm less than a month ago...  boy perhaps???  well, time will tell and we'll know (hopefully) in 4 more short weeks.

i honestly don't have much preference when it comes to this baby's gender.  of course it would be great to have a boy - i would love to see weston have a little boy (not that he can't do all of the same things with kate).  part of me feels like i wouldn't know what to do with a boy now that we've had a girl for 2 years.  plus, i would love to see kate with a little sister.  so either way, i will just be excited!

one thing i can't get over is how much faster the weeks are going this time around.  is it just me or did time seem to drag on for ever and ever with that first pregnancy?  weston and i were talking last night about how, in a month of course, we would be at the halfway point.  halfway?  already?  it's a little crazy. 

i am definitely enjoying this second trimester stride.  the nausea is gone, for the most part, and the energy is way up, again for the most part.  i'm trying to soak up every second of the next 3 months because i do remember how old things get by that 3rd trimester.  especially when they decide to tack on an extra 7 days like last time!  maybe a scheduled c-section isn't such a bad idea?  :)

grateful

i'm sitting here thinking "crap, i haven't blogged in such a long time... there's NOTHING to blog abot..."

here goes:

i decided i have been kind of busy and a lot of things have happened that i should be grateful for

i am grateful that we haven't had to move yet.  when we were first told that our building was going up for sale (remember this?) we thought we'd have to figure it out right away.  after sleeping on it for a night, we realized we actually won't have to think about this or make any decisions for months and months, most likely.  so, i am grateful (in this case) for this slow economy when it comes to real estate :)

i am grateful to be pregnant and even more grateful that we finally got things squared away with our insurance.  almost since we found out we were expecting, i was basically told that i would have to find a new doctor in a new health plan and was pretty much devastated.  sure, find a new doctor, get on with it.  i know it's not actually that big of a deal.  but i put it off for the last 3 months hoping and praying (and continuing to see my awesome doctor) that things would open up and change.  i called last week to check on the status and apparently it was the time to call - i was let back in!  thank goodness for that because dr. jones is amazing and did such a fantastic job on my c-section that if i have to do it again (who knows yet) i really, really, really wanted him to be doing it again.

i am grateful for a good man as my husband.  in case anyone was wondering, he's not perfect... but neither am i.  by a long shot.  i'm so grateful that he's working hard and following his dream.  he's pursued photography and he's making it work.  we're in the building stages of a career, so we have to be very patient at this point.  it can be hard to hear people complaining about their "low" salaries or their high interest rates and not want to say "well, at least you have a full-time job" or "at least you own your home."  i am grateful for heavenly father's blessing on me (because it's definitely not anything i'm doing) to be patient and content with our current situation.  a happy husband = a happy home and it's definitely worth supporting him to pursue his passion.

i am grateful to be a mom.  i love kate.  my mom loves to tell me how surprised she is by my mothering.  i take it as a complete compliment (instead of asking, "what, did you expect me to be miserable at it?")  she knows what she's talking about - i've never been much of a nurturer and i was pretty nervous about how the patience and unconditional love thing would play out.  but i am so grateful for this role in life.

i am grateful for in-laws who have let weston drive an old car of theirs for the past 2+ months.  this has allowed us time to start piling money together for a new-to-us "family" car.  we have been casually looking online and talking to the guy we bought our saturn from (hoping he'll be able to find us a vue in our price range and work on it).  however, who knows what we'll end up with because weston went to san diego for a week (work?  really?) and he drove a new dodge caravan and came home saying things like, "that was a sweet car" and "it might not be so bad to have one of those".  everyone in my family except my sister has a caravan (including my parents) and before that trip, weston had never wanted to consider a minivan... it's not my first choice right now either (i mean, we only have 1 child...) we'll see what happens, though :)

i'm grateful for surprises like filing my taxes a month ago, checking the account everyday waiting for that refund to be deposited, and seeing an extra $700 tacked on.  that will go nicely towards our vehicle fund...

i'm grateful for parents who allow me, along with all their kids, to show up and visit for several days to weeks to get a rest from life.  they are so good to their daughters who need a break and help with kiddos.  i'm grateful they live in monroe (even though my dad occasionally talks of moving) because it's the perfect quiet spot to relax and get away from routines of life.  thank you for making me feel welcome enough to bring kate home with me when weston's away or ultra busy!

i'm grateful for random things.  things like after being told my modem is broken (1 week out of warranty) and we'll just have to buy a new one, several hours later it starts working for us again.  things like taking my daughter to have lunch with daddy and then taking her to see a matinee at the dollar theater.  things like birds singing outside when i wake up!  things like not being in that car accident i was next in line for (thank goodness for moments of conservative driving).

if you've made it this far... well, thanks for reading i guess.  it's funny how therapeutic things like this can be - especially when you never set out for that :)  i'll try to start blogging again but i'm not making any promises!!!

surprise!

we had a small last minute surprise party for weston on saturday night.  one of the first things i had asked weston (a few weeks before his birthday) is if he wanted to have a party.  he immediately shook his head and said no.  so i kind of threw the idea away.  but the week before his birthday, mark asked if we could do a surprise party anyway.  i thought it was a great idea, so thanks mark and amanda for making it all happen!

we had a gathering of about 9 adults and 6 kiddos :)  i guess that's when you know you're 30?  when the kids rank in numbers with the adults? 

mark and amanda decorated with the "funeral" theme of black everything and made weston's favorite cake: cherry chip with chocolate frosting.

 

after kate helped weston blow out his candles, we ate and visited for a couple of hours.  it was low key and relaxed - perfect for weston :)  he had a great time and was pretty stoked on the little surprise party, after all.

 

happy 30th, babe!  here's to 30 more :)

happy birthday

weston turned the big 30 yesterday.  here are some photos of the last 10 years of his life, he's such a cutie :)

 
2000

2001

2002
 
2003
 

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
 
2009
 
2010
 

weston, you are a fabulous husband and father.  you work so hard for our family and we hope you have a great year!!! 

happy birthday, love!

kate's big bed

kate graduated from the crib to the big girl bed.  yay!  we have been waiting and waiting on this bed to be in stock.  i started looking through classifieds for it and found a couple but i was a day too late!  finally ikea got it back on the shelves and we picked it up.  the beauty is that the bed is extendable.  since we will "soon" be having 2 kiddos in one room, this bed was perfect because it can be small enough to accomodate a bed and a crib.  right now it's about 4 feet square but when she gets big enough, it will extend to a full twin.  yay for not having to buy 2 beds :)  or a new crib mattress for that matter...

she has been quite hilarious during the "getting used to a new bed and staying in it" phase.  in between shutting her door completely so she's all but locked in, to rules like "stay in bed until mama comes to get you" and "no jumping on the bed!", and rearranging the furniture in her room .... she's been thrown for quite the loop :)  but she's adjusting well and has been really good about staying in bed all night. 

 looks like we'll be learning "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed..."