End of November

Wow, I can't believe that the end of November is already here!  Where did this month go!  I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!  We certainly did.  It was another nice quiet holiday around the Louie House.  Just the way I like it.  The boys LOVED the parade, and actually spent a good chunk of the morning sitting down watching it.  I was surprised.  Of course their favorite balloons were Spiderman, Snoopy, and Jayce particularly liked the Pikachu one.  Daddy and I spent the day cooking . . . well, kinda!  That's the great thing about making Thanksgiving Dinner for Four (two of them children), it's just like any other dinner really.  Daddy made the Turkey (we just got a breast this year, and it was still more than enough), Mommy put the potatoes in the crockpot - so that was low maintenance, the roasted carrot dish I made was super easy (throw it in the casserole dish and put it in the oven), and who doesn't love Stove Top!!  lol.  I didn't even make a pie this year!  Instead we had pumpkin spice flavored pudding pies.  They were the little individual pie crusts (the boys thought it was so cool to have their own - I'll have to remember that), and I just whipped up the instant pudding, spooned it in and covered it in Cool Whip!  They were actually very good!  Simple, but Special.  That's all I need.  I think my favorite part was asking Riley what he was thankful for.  We'd been talking about the kind of things we are thankful for, and we Thank God everynight in our prayers for numerous things, so I was intrigued to hear what he would say.  He did good, things like Food, Friends, topped the list, but in true 5 year old fashion things like "my bunk bed", and TV were also in there!  So cute!

That week Mommy was Thankful for Daddy's Job . . . at least I had to keep reminding myself that.  It was a long week for Cameron.  The plant shut-down for the week, and they had a few projects going on that Cam was overseeing.  That meant 12-13 hour days the whole week.  He even went in on Thanksgiving morning for about 2 hours to make sure everything was taken care of the night before.  And when I say the whole week, I mean Monday-Saturday, he got Sunday off and right back to work on Monday.  Ugh!  He did get some holiday pay for the Friday after Thanksgiving, so that helped make it worthwhile.  I'm just glad we didn't have a houseful of people to entertain at the same time.  Just keeping the boys happy with Riley off school made it difficult to get things done. 

Saturday the boys did get to spend some time with their favorite babysitter Laurel!  I had my last craft show of the year and so she came to watch the boys for me.  It was a well needed break for me, so I don't even really mind the fact that after paying her and my show fees I only made about $3 off the show!  But it was also a new "winter farmer's market" so traffic wasn't anything to write home about either.  Oh well, good exposure, and I'm hoping that by the February 9th one I'm doing too things will pick up a bit. 

This week has been a bit more relaxed - Minus my Jury Duty. Yep, I got called up for jury duty earlier this week.  It was awful too.  I thought about postponing it since I'm pregnant, but then I remembered I did that with Riley and got called up again when he was about 3 months old.  So I figured I would just go and get it over with.  Most trials are 1 day, 3 day at most . . . but naturally the one I was selected for was slated to be a 9 day trial!  ugh.  So I sat there through all the selections, the questioning, etc., and finally at about 3:00 it looked like they were going to finish it that day and I would be in the clear. They gave us a break, but then Selected 16 NEW jurors for questioning - and wouldn't you know it - MY NUMBER WAS UP!  Thankfully, the judge took one look at me and pretty much made up his mind to dismiss me.  So I went through the motions and when he asked if anyone would suffer any "undo hardship" by serving on a 9 day jury I promptly raised my hand and he just looked at me, smiled and said "I thought so!" And I was done.  I served, fulfilled my duty and was free to go.  But oh man was it a long day!!

Other than that we've just been prepping Amara's room for painting.  Cam spent quite some time patching holes in the walls and getting the texturing just right so it would match.  He did an awesome job - you can hardly tell the difference.  he joked that if he ever lost his job he could start his own handyman repair business, and I actually think he would be pretty successful at it.  (Especially with Rodger to give him pointers on the business end of it!)  So now the room is taped off and we are going to prime over the monkeys tonight.  I'm kinda sad to see them go (especially since I was hoping they would stick around for a few more years), but excited to get the Pink up!!  And I did take a few pictures of Jayce with his Monkeys so that he will always be able to remember them!

Hopefully the tiger I'm still working on for his new room with Riley will help make up for the loss . . . if I can ever get them finished!! 

I have a few more projects I'm working on before I feel "ready" for Amara, painting the room first, finishing her crocheted blanket (that can be finished in the hospital though so that's a low priority), and making some "Big Brother Bags" for the boys to get at the hospital "from Amara".  I'm excited for these.  I'm stenciling Big Brother and their names on the bags, and adding a few treats to make the hospital more fun.  Some games, toys and snacks, and a T-Shirt.  I was going to do the traditional Big Brother t-shirt, but then I saw something on Pinterest that I just fell in love with!  Sorry, you'll have to wait until she's here to see them in them!!  I'm keeping them a secret!  But SO CUTE!!! 

Also, we now have an end date for Amara's arrival!!  Yesterday I talked to my doctor again about inducing early so we can be home for Christmas.  And after having one friend ask why, I feel like I should explain my reasoning a little.  Yes, I understand that babies come on their own time, and when their ready, and that I could be bringing up issues by inducing early, However I have still decided this is the best option for EVERYONE!  Reasons: 1. my doctor wouldn't agree to it if she thought there was a big risk. 2. We have no family to call at a moments notice and are relying on my wonderful friends to watch the boys when I go into labor.  It's unfair to them and Riley and Jayce if this were to happen late on Christmas eve or Christmas morning.  3. it would be nice to time this with Cameron's vacation time/time off for the holidays.  It would be a shame to waste all those days we saved so he can have a full two weeks off, just because she came closer to the new year.  4. My induction date is 4 days before my due date, so I'm again not too concerned with risk since many c-sections are scheduled even earlier in pregnancy, and even "big babies" are induced before then as well.  5. My induction date is 4 days before my due date, and Jayce was born 5 days before his due date.  With this being my third baby, There is a high chance that I may not even make it to my induction date (This is the one I'm really counting on!!!)  So really this date is just a "fail safe" to ensure that 6. Our WHOLE family is together, at home, for Christmas . . . which is all I really want!  To know that this baby girl is one of the best Christmas presents I have ever recieved (I have to say one of since Jayce was born on the 14th I consider him a Christmas gift as well!)   (insert uncomfortable pregnancy emotions here) . . . So anyways.  I'm scheduled to be induced on Saturday December 22.  That way even if things go slow the latest she would be born is the 23rd, and we should be home in time for Christmas.  Yay!!!

And that will work out great with Cam's time off.  He can take a few days here/there and get two whole weeks off around Christmas and New Years, and then Grandma and Grandpa Louie are coming the following week to help out with the boys and meet Amara. That's also the week Riley goes back to school, so it will be nice for him to get to spend some time with his new sister, and for G & G Louie to help out with the drop off and pick up routine that I will have to master with 3 children! 

Things are starting to fall into place.  And after learning at my appointment yesterday that she's not coming anytime in the next week (I'm not dilated at all, and 0% effaced as well), I feel comfortable enough to head up to Red Feather Lakes this weekend so we can cut down our Christmas tree!!  Don't worry though, we have some friends coming with us so I don't have to trudge through the (well, possibly non-exsistant) snow to find a tree or carry it back.  Or Try to get it on top of the Jeep!  That's always the fun part!  lol  I'm looking forward to this tradition, and glad that even in my state we can continue this for the boys (and Amara). 

Well, that's about it for now.  Hopefully next week I'll find some time to get up some pictures of the PINK room, and from our Christmas tree.  Just a few more things to get for gifts and we'll be all ready for Christmas!!  I'm getting so excited!!! 

Girl Stuff

So I know you all are anxious to know . . . What are we going to name this Baby Girl?  Well, I'm happy to announce that we've decided!  It took a lot of back and forth, and a LOT of compromise, but we have decided to name her Amara.  I personally love the sound of it, one of my friends said it sounds like a princess's name, and I agree.  And this little one is definitely going to be the Princess of the house!!  ;)  Or maybe the queen who rules over her big brothers!! 

So, once we narrowed down the first name, we turned to Grandpa Louie to help us find a Chinese name for her middle name, just like the boys.  Again, a lot of back and forth trying to find something that wasn't too hard sounding for her soft first name.  The one we like the best is Meilee (pronounced may-lee), it means Beautiful.  So our little girl's name will be:

Amara Meilee Louie. 

It's quite a mouthful when you say it all together . . . but how often do you really say someone's Full Name?  And the two together mean Eternal Beauty, which I really like.  So that's that!  We did it!  We finally agreed on a name!!  ;)  And now that the bunkbeds are done, we just have to paint her room pink and get it ready for her.  Ugh, more to do!

In other baby news, two of my VERY GOOD friends threw a baby shower for me and Amara this weekend.  It was so fun to relax and talk babies with a few of my closest girlfriends, eat yummy treats and sweets, and make hairbows for Amara.  Lacey gave me an adorable frame with ribbons in it to hold hair clips, so all the girls made hair clips and bows to fill it - and they did fill it!!  It's great!  I can't wait to find the perfect place to hang it and put them all to use!!  I'll have to get some of the pictures from Lacey or Cathy to share with you, Amara now has even more cute clothes to wear!  Adorable little pink dresses, little blazer outfits, pink and purple onesies, books especially for girls, and MORE!  Although I have to admit, I think my favorite gift came from my new friend Trista (see previous post).  Trista owns her own business too, sewing dresses and bowties for little girls and boys.  I had already bought a dress from Trista and I absolutely LOVE it, but then for the shower she had made something special for me.  Two bowties and one matching headband bow.  They are made out of pink gingham and SO CUTE!!!  So Amara has a super cute pink bow headband, and the boys have matching bow ties!  How cute is that!!  I can't wait to get pictures of them all together! 

Things are starting to fall into place for this little princess!  We are hoping to get started on her room this week.  Cam has a busy work schedule over the holiday, and will at the very least be working this weekend.  So hopefully we can get as much accomplished as possible during the weekday evenings.  After this weekend though it's just get the Christmas Tree, finish up a little bit of shopping, and Wait for her to Arrive!!  We are so Excited!!  Stay Tuned!!  And have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Bunkbeds and basement

Yay!!!  The Bunkbeds are Done!!!  Daddy did an awesome job on them!  It was his first time doing something like this, and . . . well, Let's just say I may be enlisting his stellar skills for more furniture projects!!  ;)  lol

No really, I may be biased, but he really did an excellent job.  It's the exact style I was looking for, mission, simple, twin/full size; sturdy wood frame (and let me tell you - this thing is Hefty!!!  Built for Boys!!); and we spent a fraction of what the equivalent would cost from a store!  Not to mention it has that cool "made by my Dad" stamp on it that the boys will always remember!!  It was an intense project, made both simpler and more complicated by the instructions I found online (Cam can explain that better).  But he finished them in under two weeks, working nearly non-stop on weeknights and as much as possible on our busy weekends (including the weekend I was gone to Frisco).  Here's some pictures from the process. 

Twin bed (top bunk) painted and ready for assembly

Full bed ready for paint

First Night in their new beds!!

Jayce looks so tiny in the big bed!

As you can see, the boys LOVE them, especially Riley.  He thinks the top bunk is the coolest thing ever!!  We are still working on the ladder (as you can see it's missing in the pics).  Cam wanted to be sure of the angles, so didn't build it until the rest was complete.  He finished it up yesterday and now it's just on me to paint it so we can attach it.  Jayce is still adjusting to it.  Naps have been spent on the floor more than in the bed, and he wakes up frequently in the middle of the night crying out confused and has to be escorted back to bed.  But we knew this would be an adjustment for him, and that's why we are doing it now rather than at the same time baby gets here. 

Also, I know I've been slacking about getting pictures of our other projects up, so here's a couple of the basement. 

Toy side

Mommy's Craft side

As you can see it's still a mess, but at least right now it's cluttered, organized mess.  One side is toy side for the boys to play, the other is my craft side, with my painting table, craft desk and yarn storage.  There's also  some other storage you can probably pick out in the pictures, but those are the main functions of the basement right now.  And we have been using it!  It's great for when the boys are too crazy to play upstairs (which happens quite frequently, go figure!) and I can sent them downstairs where they can run and roughhouse and be loud and it's muted for me just one level up.  An absolute necessity for my sanity these days!

I can't believe it's over halfway through November and this is my first post of the month.  Can you say Slacker!!  Ahh!!  Really, we've just been busy.  Me with the boys and my business, and Cam with the bunkbeds.  I took a girl's weekend to Frisco at the beginning of the month, so much fun!  Our good friend Jan and her family just bought a condo up there and she had me and some other girls up for the weekend to "show it off".  Her family (entire family) teaches skiing at Copper Mountain every season, and pretty much live up there half the week during Christmas-March.  So it was a much needed investment.  I had a great time just chatting the night away, shopping and watching movies with my girlfriends.  Then the next weekend we had a snowy birthday party at The Farm.  There's a public farm in Fort Collins, and a friend of ours had her birthday party there.  Kinsey, who just turned 2 is the miracle baby of my friend Trista at MOPS.  Kinsey has Trisomy 18 (Down Syndrome is Trisomy 21) and less than 5% of babies born with this defect live to see their 1st Birthday.  So we were MORE than happy to go and celebrate Kinsey's 2nd Birthday!!  It was a cold snowy day, but the Men braved the weather to go on a hayride down to the Poudre River.  Mommy stayed inside, she is lacking in warm attire given her current size, and bouncing around on a haywagon didn't sound too appealing since contractions have become part of the daily routine.  Here's a picture of them on the hayride:

I have my last show this weekend for my business this year.  Small business Saturday is the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I've signed up to do a Winter version of a Farmer's Market in Loveland.  I'm hoping it will be good exposure if anything.  I've got quite an inventory lined up, since I'm not taking any orders I'm hoping to sell as much off the table as possible.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm doing another one of these in February, but NOTHING in between.  I consider it my "maternity leave." 

Next Post:  BABY NAME!!!  We've finally decided!!!