Baby Girl

We are having a girl! I am still in shock! HaHa We have lots to do to get ready for a girl. We are very excited. We are pretty sure on her first name and the middle name is between 3 names. It may be after one of you reading this! Hint, Hint! I am so excited to decorate her room...I have had this vision for a LONG time. She was very healthy and everything looked good. She was in the 74th percentile. But Cole was in the 50th and is now is the 11th so we will see how big she is. My adjusted due date is July 2nd instead of 4th. Enjoy the pics! PS: I think she looks just like me! haha Actually, she looked very similar to Cole in the 4d pictures!

Cole Chatting

New House = Never Ending Projects

New bathroom - Color - Liberty Gray. New light fixtures

Old Bathroom. Color - Camel - looked terrible on my skin!

I will be the first to say that we are totally blessed that we don't have huge projects to do but MAN, we always have something to fix up. Right now we only turn on the water for the kitchen sink when we need it because we have a major leak. Unfortunately, we can't get that fixed in a weekend time so it has been about 2 weeks. Ridiculous! So we have a little list going of things to keep up on but with Tax Season underway we have to be patient. Also, we will be doing one fun project a month. Aka Painting/New light fixtures in the bathroom. This was about a 6 hour project for us. I had to finish my report cards last weekend and Kyle had to work.
When I was done with my report cards, Cole was done napping and Kyle got home, we ran to Home Depot and picked out the paint and light fixtures. Then we went to Chili's for dinner with our gift card. We came home, played with Cole and put him to bed around 7:45. The painting and removing of wall fixtures began. I started the painting by lantern light. Kyle had to run to Kmart because it was the only store open and get some spackle because one of the walls needed to be fixed. After church and grocery shopping the next day we finished it up while Cole slept. I LOVE IT! LOVE IT! It is so crisp, clean and spa like. Refreshing! We still need to clean up the trim...not our best skill. Kyle is pretty happy with it too! He didn't really want to do it that weekend but it was my reward for finishing report cards and it was worth it! :) Anyways...since Kyle said I can do 1 room a month I have to determine my action plan. Here are the rooms that need to be completed:

• Master Bedroom - Painted, Create headboard, Paint dresser, Decide on bedding, Accessories. (This may be a 2-3 monther for budget purposes)
• Guest/Kids Bath - Paint, remove rest of wall paper border, create wall art, decide if I want it kid-themed or not. (1 monther)
• Baby Room - Paint and etc...crib, bedding, and so on. If it is a girl I will be painting the top half of the wall yellow and putting white wainscoating along the bottom. (A dream bedroom of mine come true) If it is a boy...who knows! Maybe use Cole's stuff and then update cole's room to the sports theme that goes with his sign. (1 monther or 2 to get bedding)
• Basement - Carpet, Paint - this won't happen until next year. 

Those are the biggest things right now but lots of little projects too like leaky sinks and a weird mold stain on the wall. We will also be pulling lots of weeds and plants out this summer because the previous owner planted too close to the house. 

By the way, not having grad school is a HUGE relief off my shoulders. I feel like I have a moment to think(nap) on the weekends and that is a huge blessing! 

Spaghetti and Boo

Cole loves spaghetti night! I give him two spoons to encourage spoon use but he just can't get it in his mouth fast enough and decides to use his fists! I kind of understand! 

 Cole has started scaring us. It must stem from playing hide and seek in the dark with my family. Here he is in some positions. I should have taken a video but Cole broke that feature of my camera.

Cole is 16 months! I have been meaning to do a 16 month post. He is quite the guy. I love watching his personality emerge! He has a sassy side. Don't know who he got that from! ;) He loves to read. He loves to play outside. LOVES IT! He definitely lets us know when something is against his approval. He loves the pantry and grabbing his snacks out. He loves to be in the kitchen helping me cook. He has his own cupboard with his cooking tools so he can work too. He is sleeping really well.. 7:30/8pm to 7:15 am. He takes a 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon every day. He LOVES his "sisters" at the babysitters. They get home from school and run to him and play play play. Sarah said, " Mrs. D. you really need to have a baby boy cause Cole has enough sisters right now." Love her! Cole loves berries. He has a growing vocabulary. He can say most animals and can point to all body parts. He says Mony for Mommy and Daddy very clearly. We practice all the family members names when looking at pictures. He gives everyones name a try. I think he had Carol and Caden and Papa best from Dieringers. Bumpa and Ashley from my side best. He uses his manners for please. He acts like he is a starved child with how often her rubs his belly for please in sign language. Cole loves Nala, Remi, Scout, and Buddy...Tilly too. All dogs he spends lots of time with. Really any animal catches his attention. He is so active. When it is time to crash, he crashes hard. He saves his crabbiness for me when I go pick him up after school. I am glad he is so polite for his babysitters. I am starting to learn how to redirect his behaviors when they are not positive...how is that for a politically correct comment! HA!  He is just so fun! I love being with him. We live for the weekends when we can play and be together. I am so thankful God blessed us with him! I know he is going to be a great big brother.

18 weeks

I am pregnant again! I never officially announced it on the blog (much to my sis-in-laws dismay). Baby is due July 4th, he/she is measuring 2 days earlier so maybe July 2nd, but my Dr. expects June based on how I carried with Cole. So, that being said, Kyle said that we will for sure be ready this time which means the moment I am done with school on June 8th, the bags will be packed. :)

This pregnancy has went well. Almost identical to my pregnancy with Cole. Exhaustion. Back pain on the left above my hip. Headaches right before 2nd trimester that lasted early afternoon thru evening. I still want to eat Mexican flavors. I think I have gained 5 pounds so far. I was REALLY self-conscious right when my belly started popping. It popped pretty early and hearing the shocking comments didn't help. I got over it and am now embracing the belly. It is true that you pop earlier with #2.  I went back and looked at my weekly pregnant pictures and I just can't imagine being as huge as I was at the end of my pregnancy with Cole.

Baby D #2 18 weeks on Monday

Cole 19 weeks...pretty comparable! Phew!

We asked Cole where the baby was...

Now he has it! 

We find out if it is a boy or girl on Valentine's Day. Since things have been identical to Cole, I expect boy! And would be thrilled! Since we are finding out on V-day I just think it might be a girl...cause it is such a girly holiday! The heartbeat has been around 143 every time. To me that means boy. The Chinese calendar also says boy. We will make the big announcement while baby gets measured and Kyle texts everyone!

Graduation 2011

Jordan and I both graduated this weekend. Jordan graduated from UW-Stout with his Bachelors in Business Administration. I graduated from UW-LaCrosse with my Master of Education in Professional Development. We started the journey to the northwest at 4 am Saturday morning. We went to Jordan's ceremony and then out to lunch. We then headed to LaCrosse for fun sleeping at a hotel and doing a little shopping. Cole got to swim in the pool...wish I had pictures! I graduated this morning and then we were back home by 4:00pm. It was a whirlwind weekend but it was fun to celebrate with family. Proud of Jordan for finishing. Proud of Cole for being so good all weekend! :) And I am SO thankful to be done and to have went through this two years with Nikki!

Fun Fact: Only 1% of the population has their masters degree!
We learned that today! :)

New House Video

We are moved in! My parents and grandparents were here today and we now have pictures hung on the walls. It is really feeling like our house now. The video does not have all the pictures hung on the wall but I think you will get a good feel of the layout. Enjoy! If the Packers are in the Super Bowl...party can be here! :)