So I thought I'd try to catch up on some of the happenings around our place. Life has been pretty busy. Not long after Hannah joined us we decided that we were going try and sell our house. DON'T ask my why because the market is GARBAGE:(   Really it just comes down to our house being a two bedroom. We'd like at least one more bedroom but would really prefer a 4 bedroom home. Yep, we could add one........but Earl is out of project energy.  We bought our house 3 1/2 years ago when we had were a couple of DINKS (dual income, no kids). But obviouisly things have changed. Now we are two kids and one income (what's the nickname for that?) Earl did manage to rummage up a bit of energy so we could list our house. Our upstairs bathroom and kitchen needed to be finished off to a more acceptable condition. Here are some before and after pics of our house. This definitely doesn't show all the work we've done since we have LITERALLY redone every room in the house. But it will give you and idea of where we started from 3 1/2 years ago up to now.

This is the original living room. Yep, saw this and thought we definitely had something to work with:

And here's what we did with that space!

Our original retro kitchen......wall paper and ALL that green (yuck)

Although we didn't replace the cabinets, we freshened them up with new paint, plus new countertops, new floors, new appliances, new backsplash, new sink, new faucet and the most important asset.......a DISHWASHER!!!

This by far was the most disgusting bathroom ever. It was carpet, glued to linoleum, glued to the hardwood subfloor. When we originally moved in I removed the wall paper, redid the mirror, painted and striped the floor down to the sub which I then painted and sealed.  That held us over until now............

Here's my new main floor bathroom.......thanks Babe! Earl put in a new floor, new tile in the shower, new sink/vanity, removed that wall cabinet, installed bead board and I painted. This picture just doesn't do this bathroom justice. 

Earl also finished up our downstairs bathroom this summer. Which doubles as our utility room. I don't have a pic. But it includes a heated floor, large walk in tiled shower, sink, toilet, window, new plumbing and electrical..................tired yet? We are:) So now that our house is all pretty and move in ready, it probably won't sell. I guess that means we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor! 

Here is the link to our listing if you want to see our whole house and all our hard work; http://briansmith.mywindermere.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Listing.ListingDetail&ListingID=66639280

So onto the girls. Hannah is growing like a weed! She came in at 15lbs and 24inches at her two month appointment. She is smiling and giggling, especially when you tickle her. She has gotten really strong too. Likes to lift her head up when lying flat......it's too funny because it looks like baby crunches! Hannah is still a super easy baby. She goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps until around 6:30am. What more can a mom ask for! She's not a big cryer and really just likes to go with the flow. Now that she is smiling, Logan is started to want to play with her more. It's too precious. And as much as I think my girls are growing too fast, I can't wait until they really can play together.

Hannah at 1 month

Hannah at 2 months

Hannah and her crazy bed hair!

Logan continues to amaze me. Of course I'm biast, but I just can't help thinking she is such a smart little girl. Her vocabulary it off the wall. She is always communicating about her feelings or what she needs. She is counting to about 15 now and knows about 90% of her ABC's. She still loves songs, books and coloring/painting the best. She likes drawing happy faces and balloons. The letter's O, L, J and coming pretty easily. She also loves to draw pictures of our faces, although I'm not sure how distinguishable those are yet:) Such an artistic little girl.  A couple of my favorite things that she does: If you ask her if you can have something, she often responds in the sweetest voice with a little "sure"! Love it. Everytime we go out, she pretty much asks everyone she sees "Hi, what's your name.......or your kitty's name.......or your dog's name" This goes on and on until she has them in a full fledge conversation with her.  She also loves to make phone calls and really seems to enjoy talking to those she loves. Anyways, she is just a precious little girl that adds tons of fun to our lives. She demands special play time with Earl every day. It comes exactly between dinner and bedtime and I don't think either of them would miss it for the world. Here are a couple pics of her to enjoy!

 

Big sissy Logan

Nothing like a little chocolate ice cream!

A little ride on my old horse Norwalk. She doesn't have a helmet, so we couldn't actually go anywhere. But I think this was high enough up for her!

She's Here!!!

Hannah Rose Eastman

The wait is finally over. We are so excited that our new baby girl is here! Her birth was action packed and makes for a great story. After weeks of contractions and lots of false labor including a trip to the hospital we decided for induction on Friday, July 24. My water was broke and I quickly went into labor. After a couple hours I told Earl I was ready for an epidural. The nurse checked me and I was a 6. 15 minutes later the epidural was in, but no medicine yet. I had them check me and I was a 10! THANK GOODNESS they started loading the epi because within 15 minutes of pushing her head was out............but we still had those shoulders to deal with. Earl had gloves on cause my doctor was letting him help deliver. A nurse at each leg when we realized she was stuck. In a matters of seconds the  mood changed and everyone went into over time. One of my legs was being pulled this way and the other leg was being pulled that way. Earl had one finger under babies armpit. Nurses and doctor were pushing on my stomach. I was pushing. And then a nurse JUMPED on the bed, STRADDLED me and started pushing on my stomach!!!!!!!! It was crazy. But out she came with only a little swelling and a little black and blue. No broken bones, no dislocations!! And mom, well I survived relatively well too. All that in just 3 hous:) crazy....!!

Logan seems to be taking it all in stride. She likes having daddy home. She'd rather have me hold the baby and play with daddy then anything else right now. So I guess that makes for an easy transition. 

Hannah is showing to be a super easy baby. Not much of a crier. Likes to sleep. Really she just wakes up at night to eat for a few minutes and then goes right back to sleep. So I'm not as exhausted as I expected. She also sleeps through all the noise in the house, which is TOTALLY different than Logan. So all in all we are adjusting well and things are going smoothly.

Hannah Rose Eastman

9lbs. 6oz, 22 inches 

Born 7/24/09

"cheeks"

A little 'cheese face'

And Now We Wait

38 weeks, 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced............come on baby eastman! 

I've been sick for the last week. Caught some terrible virus. Finally at the end of it and happy to go into labor anytime!! My mom says "castor oil"....... I don't know, sounds nasty:( 

Time for a long walk........keep you all posted:)

Just Catching Up

I thought I should post a little just to catch up. 

Things have been busy around here. A couple weeks ago Logan came down with a 24 hours stomach bug. First time ever and Earl had the unfortunate opportunity to get a full puke shower! Ahhh, he probably deserved it considering he avoided getting the stomach bug. Me on the other hand.......yep, I got it. Threw up so much and so hard that I burst blood vessels in both eyes!! Thanks goodness that it was only a 24 hour thing. Now we're trying to be super careful not to catch this new swine virus running around. Definitely don't want that while pregnant!

So about 2 1/2 years ago we tore apart our second bath...........ok, someone called it a 2nd bath bust trust me it definitely did NOT qualify. It's obviously been a slow process but as of yesterday we finally have the shower done, floor in, toilet and sink in and working!! Just finishing up with the painting and then the last bit of lighting/electrical will get finished. It is quite exciting, no more racing up a flight of stairs to use the potty.

Logan is doing great! I've been doing water exercise classes and lots of time on the bike for my knees. But Logan loves it cause she gets to "play with kids" and the gym daycare. She is probably the happiest kid there! She has also started calling herself  "Logy". It's too cute. When I'm gardening outside she is like "mommy's shovel, Logy's shovel". This nick name thing is becoming her trade mark. She calls her friend Brooklyn, Brooky. She calls my mom "nany" instead of "nana". She calls my great grandma "grammy's". It just makes me laugh. She is also way into telling me and Earl "love you" with big hugs! And she is miss manners. Everything is "thank you mommy",  "please", "excuse me" and "welcome"............we have NOT worked on this. She just started talking this way. I guess that must mean we're polite around here. All I know is that this super cute stuff just melts our hearts!!

Our new baby is growing great. I actually feel really good. I think it's all the working out. Plus I swear every women should do water exercise while pregnant. It feels SOOOOO GREAT! Since I've started it all my back pain has stopped. This is especially good because Logan jumped on the scale at the doctor's office and came in at a whopping 33lbs! She isn't even 2 yet!! Trust me, lugging that much weight around while pregnant is tough.  Especially because I feel bigger than last time. When I went to the doctor this week I was measuring big. But I'm hoping that baby just went through a growth spurt as is gonna slow down. Otherwise I'm gonna end up with one gigantic belly.

On one last note I'm going to declare myself a total Copy Cat! Molly is gonna love it:) I'm all about cashing in on the ideas of other mom's. So last trip to Montana I tried our Molly's Ergo Baby Carrier. Yep, got one on order (thank you Debbie)! With Logan being so big after birth I'm expecting the same with this baby. And that Ergo just offered great support for the back which really matters when you have a heavy kid. Second thing is the stroller. I shouldn't jog anymore, just not smart with my knees.  So instead of upgrading from the single Bob to the double Bob I jumped on the band wagon and went with the Phil and Ted stroller with doubles kit. Found a GREAT sale price online. It just came Thursday and we took it our for a test drive yesterday. I LOVE IT! It really is gonna be great for two kids. And it's narrow design really makes it more universal than the Bob double. Now I just gotta copy my sister and get one of those Hooter Hiders!

Drum Roll Please

Well, we had our ultrasound and found out that we are having...........no Earl did not cry.........another girl! 

Pretty exciting. Honestly I didn't have a preference, just want a healthy baby. Earl is a pretty big daddy's girl, so I know he is excited too. 

Two summer girl babies! The new baby should be able to wear most of Logan's previous clothes, so that will be nice. Plus it will be easy having them share a room. Logan is really into her babies right now too, so I think she is going to have fun with a new 'sissy' in the  house. 

I have to say though, that finding out before the baby is here is much less climatic than waiting. It was kinda like "Well, I've looked several times. You know, these ultrasounds aren't 100% accurate, but I'm pretty sure it's a girl." What? That's it? No baby to hold? No crying in the back ground? Just, "these three lines indicate it's a girl"............hmmmmm, I wonder if that means if we throw one more into the mix if we'll find out that time? 

We do however have a super cute pic (that we were unsuccessful with scanning to show everyone) and a DVD of the ultrasound. I always love that part, getting to see the baby. 

Poop in the Potty and So Much More

Logan in our crazy snow we had this winter!

Ok, so I know I'm the world's worst blogger. I think I just lost my motivation after getting a bit behind. But with so much going on around here I just have to share.

Well, as the title says we have poop in the potty. Yep, real poo! No pee yet, but I'll take whatever. Logan gets special "potty treats" every time she sits on her potty. It's pretty good motivation for her. And she is VERY proud of herself and her poos. So hopefully we continue to make progress. My goal is to have her potty trained by this summer........why you ask? Well, did you check out our blog title description? Notice any changes? .....................Yep, it says "and counting". Come this summer we gonna be a family of four! We're pretty excited. With Logan we waited to be surprised. So this time we've decided to go the other way. In just a couple weeks we get to find out if it's a boy or a girl. Yay!

This pregnancy was WAY worse in the beginning. Far more sickness than I had with Logan. But now that I'm in the second trimester I'm definitely feeling better. The baby is starting to move around like crazy. I could feel the "butterfly" movements pretty early on. But now I can feel a solid mass of baby moving around, and pretty frequently. With the baby moving now and my belly showing, I'm definitely feeling more excited about being pregnant. And with the sickness passed, I feel like I can enjoy my pregnancy. 

Unfortunately I have a few ailments that I still have to work through. Last year I hurt both my knees. I swear they wouldn't heal. The pain gets pretty bad at night while sleeping and I have quite a bit of difficulty getting up and down. It kinda went away for awhile so I thought I was past it. But once those pregnancy hormones kicked in it came back. Evidently I've got some tracking issues with my knee cap and some tendonitis.  So I'm doing physical therapy. It is definitely helping which I'm sooo thankful for. I was getting concerned there that pregnancy weight and hormones we're going to send me over the edge. 

Earl has been working like mad. He has been crazy busy and putting in long days. But the minute he walks in that door Logan makes sure he forgets all about it! She gets so excited when he comes home. She is all over him wanting him to wrestle and play with her in her "play kitchen". It's is too cute. These are definitely precious moments!

Logan also got herself a new cousin this winter. Cute baby Ivy! Since being around baby Ivy Logan is totally into babies. She carries her babies all over the house. She likes to tell you "shhh, nigh, nigh (night, night)" as she lays them down and covers them with blankets. She also pats and rocks them. It is hillarious. Babies, her play kitchen, balls, riding her "Coco" horse, jumping, wrestling, reading and going outside are her favorite things to do. 

Logan with her new cousin Ivy.

So I think I've got my motivation back and plan to keep everyone posted on the new "happenings" around the Eastman place.

Some Cute Older Pics

Here are some pics that I love but never posted: