Everything but the kitchen sink

SO the kitchen is no longer! Everything is gone but the kitchen sink (and some of the flooring that I think must have been stuck down with the world's strongest adhesive...). The sink still has some dirty dishes in it which will need attacking tomorrow. The kids are all packed and ready to head to Grandma and Grandpa's house tomorrow so I suppose I'd best go and pack myself. Not that I don't enjoy going to my parents house but I'm going to miss Ben for the 2 weeks we'll be away and I'll miss the routine the kids have, no pre-school etc but it's not like we are going to be on holiday and have those exciting things to do, I'm going to have to have to be on the ball so the girls don't watch TV all day long!
Poor Ben is going to be left at home but thankfully he has the offer of dinner every night (thanks Helen!) so it makes me feel better that he won't be emaciated when we get back!
Dad took some pictures of the wrecking of the kitchen so I'll post them when I can!

Excitedly scared

I looked at my blog today and got a little bit freaked out and alot excited about it being 39 days left till my due date! 39 days aarrrrggggghhhhhh! Anyway, things are on track. Our kitchen is being done next week - we are ripping it all out on Friday, the baby's clothes are out and packed into tubs under the cot (where they will have to live as we don't have room for any drawers), we took a load of stuff to the dump/recycling centre and to the charity shop. I even packed some things into a bag to take to the hospital - I don't think I have everything I need in there but it's mostly done. Only big thing left to sort out is a car!

At last!

After living with our ancient kitchen for the last 5 years we will be ripping it out a week on Friday! I am thrilled and am looking forward to a new look kitchen, I'll go to my parents for 2 weeks and when I come back hey presto everything will be done. Or at least that's the plan! Yippee!

Family goals 2010

A couple of weeks ago for our family home evening (our Monday nights are dedicated to family time usually with some kind of spiritual lesson, fun and treat) we decided to make some family goals for 2010. We wrote them down on a piece of paper which has just been floating around and I haven't quite been sure what to do with it so I'm going to put our goals on our blog and then I can ditch the paper! We had 4 areas:

Family:
-Speak kindly to each other
-Be nice and kind and gentle to the new baby
-Give mummy flowers every so often (Esther's suggestion but hasn't happened yet...)

Church/Spiritual:
-Finish the Book of Mormon (We read 5 verses with Esther and Eliza every night but I'm going to have to work out if we need to be reading more to finish on time!)
-Take some scriptures to church (Esther wants some she can call her own!)
-Go to the temple 4 times (last year we were aiming for 6 but only managed 4)

Home:
-Have our kitchen redone
-Paint every room except the girls room
-Keep our home tidy

Fun:
-Go swimming (something we never do - Esther has been 2 times and Eliza only 1!)
-Do some sightseeing (we are put to shame by all the Americans we go to church with, need to plan a few more things!)
-Go on holiday

So there is nothing too tricky for us there. We have already been to the temple once this year and we are waiting for our kitchen fitter to get back to us on when he can start and I'm working on making our house easier to keep tidy by having a clear and sort, thank you pregnancy for making me do that!

Valentines Day

We had a romantic meal for 4 for Valentines Day! Actually, it was pretty much like out meals most nights except Ben and I had nicer food! Esther had been interested in the concept of Valentines Day when I was picking out a present for Ben and wondered if she was getting a present too! I made some cards at Relief Society and Esther and Eliza were both pretty pleased to get theirs today. During the week Esther cut out alot of hearts and tonight we wrote the names of people we loved on them and made a little Valentines wreath. I would have taken a picture if I had a camera... boo hoo. Ben was pretty thoughtful and bought me a lovely Ruby and Millie compact mirror for my bag and some new eyelash curlers! Nice move Ben!

Christmas 2009

It's just occured to me that I haven't put anything about Christmas on here! Unfortunately when I think about Christmas I think about everyone being not very well! The girls and I were sick just before Christmas, Ben was sick just after and my dad, brother, sister and Esther were all sick New Year's Eve. Poor Esther got it twice in less than 2 weeks! In amongst all that yuckiness we had some good times though!

It was our first christmas at home this year. It was nice being able to do things on our own schedule instead of having to wait for everyone else to get out of bed! We had Christmas dinner with friends on Christmas Eve which was great - especially the leftovers which meant I didn't have to cook everything on Christmas Day! It was an Anglo-American affair - I've never had Christmas dinner with deviled eggs before - so amongst other things we took along some crackers - the pulling type not the cream type! The kids enjoyed it as did we.

Christmas morning was not an eary start, probably came down stairs at about 7 - 7.30, checked if Father Christmas and the reindeer had eaten their treats (they had), then I had taped ribbon over the living room door which the kids had to cut so we could get in - another sign Father Christmas had been and didn't want to kids sneaking in without the parents.

Eliza of course liked to play with each gift as she opened them so she ended up having 'help' from her sister-

Esther had been asking for a Snow White dress for quite a while and luckily I found one in her size in the charity shop for £2! She was super pleased about it but her favourite toy was a Dora the Explorer bath toy she had had her eye on for a while.Here is Esther learning some new moves with her new ballet DVD:

After our pancake breakfast we got ready and went to the park in the snow which we still had - it was pretty cold but good to get out of the house:

We watched some movies and had some food but other than that it was a pretty quiet day. I think we'll stay home again next year but we want some family or friends to come over - we like the company!

We went up to my parents on the Sunday after Christmas with my brothers and sister already there. Ben's parents came too. Ben got sick unfortunately. The next day Adam's then fiancee Alexa came over from Germany so it was nice to spend some time getting to know her a bit better since we had only met her once before. The trip was cut short for us when more people started getting 'the lurgy' so we decided to get the heck out of dodge on New Year's Day and came back home to our iceberg of a house. It took all day to thaw it out! Note to self: when going away in the winter just leave the heating on normal settings or you'll regret it!

So there was have it, our Christmas in a nutshell!

50 days!

Wow, I can't believe it - 50 days left till baby Conway is due! Still so much to do!!! We are currently debating swapping bedrooms with the girls. Our house only has 2 bedrooms both decent sizes but ours is bigger. So we are debating moving them into our room and putting all their toys up there so they don't need to be stored in the living room. At the same time the baby will be in our room for at least 6 months and we are hoping by then to be able to move house so maybe it's not worth the hassle of swapping over. Then there is the issue of the car, not sure if we can fit 3 car seats in the back so maybe we need to buy a bigger car! Then we are waiting to hear when our kitchen is going to be fitted. There are a few houses on the market we want to take a look at too. Ooooh lots of big things going on - or so it feels like!

On the plus side Eliza is doing fab with the potty training! We had our first accident free day on Sunday but having said that she has never had any horrible accidents mostly just teeny tiny ones so I am really glad I bit the bullet and got the potty out!

Esther and Eliza are starting to really play nicely together and enjoy one anothers company - I love to watch or listen to them together.

Right then, I'd best go and do some of my to-do list!

Feeling a bit like a bird

I think I must be nesting. Today I felt the need to rearrange all the toys and clear out the dressing up stuff which has become this ridiculously huge volume of outfits - the girls have more shoes and handbags than me - surely that can't be right. So we cleared some out and I'm taking them to Esther's playgroup tomorrow. I'm also taking 2 bin bags full of stuff to the charity shop with more still to come. I'm also going to make Ben work hard on his day off and go through his clothes and collection of things on his side of the bedroom! Poor Ben has been working so hard recently and is shattered. He went to bed super early tonight so I sewed all my squares together to make the front of my quilt! (I would have taken a picture but alas I cannot.) Now it's nearly midnight and I'm considering making another row of squares as I'm not sure it's going to be quite long enough. Oh well, I'll think about that another time when I shouldn't be in bed.

Good night!

Uh oh

Our camera has died. I went to take a picture of the fact that I actually did some baking with the girls today and they were doing it so nicely together but when I turned the camera on it looked like we were under the sea in black and white. Oh well, we bought it from Bex second hand when Esther was born as we didn't have a camera then. Bex is going to lend us her 'little' SLR camera while she is away so I suppose it gives us time to find the camera we want. So maybe we won't have any pics on here for a while....boo hoo!

On the plus side Eliza is making the transition from potty to toilet! Yippee!! She still has an accident per day but then it is only day 6. You can tell she is reaching the 'terrible 2's' and has an older sister to show her how to strop good and proper -she folds her arms, shakes her head and says 'no, wouldn't' if she doesn't want to do what you ask and then she sticks to her guns. Plus she throws things when she is cross and is a real terror for pulling Esther's hair, poor Esther. Any tips for dealing with stroppy 2 year olds are welcome!

Other things we've been up to

Here is Esther in her black bin bag 'skirt' that we made at our funky fashion activity at church. She liked the idea but didn't want to go the whole hog and have a dress. When we got home Eliza dressed up and the made a really huge tower with daddy's help. It was soon knocked down! More pics of Eliza looking adorable - butter wouldn't melt!

You can see our 'vintage' kitchen in the background there - when we bought the house 5 years ago I was sure we would be getting a new kitchen asap. 5 years down the line we finally are! In the meanwhile cupboard draws and doors have literally fallen off but it has done well - it must be at least 35 years old! We are getting everything done - walls and ceiling skimmed, tiles on the floor, new skirting and coving, new units, appliances, lights etc and they are going to paint it for us too. Hopefully it will be done before the baby is born because I'm going to my parents for 2 weeks while the mayhem occurs!

I feel like I've been quite busy through January - I can't believe we are already into February! Plus, I am getting pretty organised - maybe it's a sign of maturity, or necessity when having baby number 3 - I already have Eliza's birthday present bought with 3 weeks left to go! I've even thought about Valentines Day and a gift for Ben!! Can't think what to get yet but hopefully will soon!

Ooooohhhh on another note, I finished all the squares for my quilt I've been making since last February - I just need some more white now to put them together and then put the whole thing together! I'm excited!

Communicating with baby

Esther asked me the other day if I would open my mouth so she could say something to the baby! Of course I did it but I had to stop myself from laughing my head off! She has asked me again too, I can see how it's logical in her mind - all credit to her for working that one out!

Eliza on her 'throne'.

Here are some pictures of Eliza on the potty - this was day one, hour one. She has been doing so brilliantly! I was a bit worried about taking her an hour away to Stake Conference yesterday so I put a nappy back on her which I wouldn't normally do but she didn't do anything in it -she was great! We have gone back to normal routine today, school run, ballet classes etc and we only had an accident at home later on - so fab. I can't believe how well she is doing considering she isn't 2 until the end of the month. Go Eliza!
I think Esther wishes she could use the potty all the time too.