Kort is TWO!

I can't believe how time has flown and Kort is another year older. He's beginning to get in the fun stage where he just cracks me up with all his facial expressions and the way he interacts with things. Hasn't hit the 'terrible two' part yet, crossing my fingers he won't be in it long, but he starting to say no more often - not fun. Just in the last month his vocabulary has increased a bunch, although I'm sure many people wouldn't be able to tell what he's saying, but I know what he's talking about a lot of times, even if he's only saying like a syllable out of a three syllable word. It's progress. Some new words he's been saying:

bath
shower
paper
yay (while clapping!)
stool/chair
apple/pineapple
milk (mih)
water (wa wa)
bed
house
hello/hola
baby

The list goes on with random words. It's fun to hear him learn new words.

He started climbing over his gate/bed to get out and open the door so we tried leaving the gate open. He'd still open his bedroom door and not go to sleep. Luckily, we had bought those door knob lock thingys and Clay got smart and put one on the door inside his room so he couldn't get out and had no where to go but back to bed :) We decided it was finally time to turn the crib into a toddler bed. Kort did awesome from night one! We'd do our nightly routine and lie him down and leave the room. A few times he'd get out and try to open the door, but minutes later he'd be asleep. Some nights I find him pretty much "praying" at his bedside, or on the pillows on the ground. Most of the time though, he's been staying in his bed and still sleeping through the night. SO happy for this mama! We'll keep the baby in our room in a pack and play for a few months while we get him on a sleeping schedule, then put Kort in a bigger toddler bed and the baby will get the crib.

Kort has also started sitting in a big boy chair for meals :) We've let him sit on the stool at the counter and he's been doing great until recently as he's gotten off it when he's "done" eating or climbs onto the counter. We have all the chairs put away or stacked so that doesn't happen often.

One fun thing Kort has caught onto quickly is letting me know what songs he wants me to sing to him throughout the day. He loves "popcorn popping" and does the hand motion with the popping. He calls it "copkey copkey"! So funny. He also does the little motion of the eensie weensie spider but just moves his thumb/index fingers together. He knows where pretty much all his body parts are and just learned his elbow and heart. I've been trying to teach him "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" which he sometimes does a part of it and also does a part of "patty cake" song motions.

We've also been getting out more to playgroups, the library, etc. so he's learning to do more things and getting better motor skills. He's building with his legos and putting puzzle pieces together. He doesn't quite have jumping down, but he loves moving like he's dancing and he'll copy Clay when he does his Insanity workouts and Kort will run in place!

I know there's a ton more that I'm forgetting, but I know if I don't record this now, it'll be months before I get to it since the babe is almost here! For Kort's 2 year check up, he's pretty much still a bean pole. Tall and skinny. I forget the measurements, but his height and weight were both around the 50%. He's eating pretty good mostly, so it's not like we're starving him! He's a tough little dude, though! I'm just glad he's developing and progressing pretty well before this baby comes so he can be a good helper for mom :)

It's almost time!

I have been so bad on keeping up with this pregnancy. I guess the first time around, obviously you know nothing so you want to document everything. I've only taken pretty much a handful amount of pictures of my belly and that's about it with keeping updated. I suppose it really does make a pregnancy go by quicker when you have a toddler to take care of as well. Clay and I were talking the other day and realized how quickly it has gone by. It seems like we were just vacationing on Catalina Island, which was in June, and that was when I starting figuring out I was prego because I didn't start my period that week. Absolutely no complaints there :). Now it's already the end of February practically, and I've got less than 4 weeks left!

So without further adieu, here's the couple pictures I've taken once I hit single digit weeks.

This was me at 31 weeks. Some worker at walmart thought I was ready to pop any day then. I sure felt like it.

This was 35 weeks. Kind of hard to really see how big I am since I'm wearing all black. I suppose I wanted to hide whatever I could :) 

I will probably not be taking any more pictures until the hospital. ha ha 

This really hasn't been a bad pregnancy. I've been blessed, again. Does that mean this guy is going to be a handful just like Kort is?! My only real complaint is sleeping at night. So uncomfortable! I've gone from sleeping on an air mattress, to our couches, to our bed, to adding an extra foam padding on the bed and it's just so hard to constantly flip over trying to stay comfortable. Suppose I shouldn't complain if that's the main thing.

It's getting down to crunch time. I'm really not all that nervous, at least not yet, I guess. I've been blessed with making some great friends here in Enid already and a couple of them are throwing a diaper baby shower for me since we've pretty much got everything since it's another boy. However, I am a little worried about clothes fitting because Kort and him will be 3 months difference and it's probably hotter here longer during the year than it was in Tacoma. Guess we'll just play it by ear. Really the only big thing left to get is a pack and play/bassinet. We'll be keeping the babe in our room for a little bit until we get him on a good sleeping schedule and I won't have to always be running into Kort's room (that they'll share) to nurse and change him throughout the night. Also, we'll play that by ear because I really don't want Clay to be waking him up with his showers and getting ready in the morning, BUT I'm not as paranoid about that as much as I was with Kort. Obviously I'm a lot more relaxed this time around, thank goodness, because I know more of what to expect as far as raising a newborn. As for that and dealing with a toddler as well, wish me luck! Here's to counting down the next 3 1/2 weeks! Boo Yah!

Swing, swing, swing

Clay wanted to make Kort his own swing really bad. He gathered up scrap wood laying around in the garage and just starting putting it together. We spent one Saturday afternoon trimming the tree and hooking it up. Kort just loves swinging in it now! 

I sure love my handy man :)

Clay's Birthday

I was wanting to do a surprise birthday party for Clay so I was trying to come up with a cool theme for it. It was all last minute sort of thing and the surprise party didn't happen. The reason behind that - well, to put it simple and short, there was a fire at the substation for the wind farm. Clay went out with James late one night because James saw that a bunch of turbines had shut down. Come to find out, there was a fire in the substation! They got everything figured out, but had to stay there over night to make sure everything was working properly and nothing else would happen. Anyway, so it took the whole next week to get things under control so it was a late night every night, including Clay's birthday. Luckily, James was so kind to make sure Clay left early so he could spend it with us.

I decided to do a Duck Dynasty theme :) He's hooked on that show and reeled me in as well. So with little notice, I put crepe paper over the door ways, window, and sliding door to look camo. I had pictures framed of all the guys in the show, and had our own duck calls and duck decoys :)

I bought the first season of the show to go along with the theme. Clay was way surprised and loved it! We were going to have a pizza party, but ended up going out to dinner. It was a pretty fun and relaxing evening. 

Christmas 2012

I failed miserably taking pictures of Christmas. However, I did video a lot of it, but I figured that since I will be printing my blog in a book, there's no sense in putting a bunch of videos on here because they won't show up. So, somehow I'm trying to take still shots of the videos and turn them into pictures? I just haven't found the time to do that. But in the meantime, I need to catch up on my blog!

It was just the three of us for Christmas. I really don't think Kort got the whole fun of it, other than opening up presents, which he did pretty darn well at ripping the paper off. Santa brought him a sport set that came with a basketball hoop, tee ball set, and golfing equipment. I have to admit that we kind of split up presents this year between Christmas and his birthday ONLY because he had no idea what each were about. I don't think we'll be able to get away with it next year :) He got a lot of fun presents from grandparents and a Mickey Mouse blanket and Mr. Potato Head from his cousin Leland. 

Clay always says he never knows what to get me, but in the end, it's always the perfect thing. He got me a huge mirror with a thick frame that I've wanted for a while! Also, he got me, or should I say I got myself, a new diaper bag - Petunia Pickle Bottom had a sale around Thanksgiving so I hurried and got one :) He had been eyeing a new Mountain Hardwear softshell jacket so I surprised him with that. Oh, and he surprised me with a gift to himself - a new gun. Let's just say that was also his birthday present. We didn't do a whole lot since really our couches and vacuum were our presents. 

As for the present Clay got from Caeli . . . there were strict instructions. We had to make sure we were home this one Saturday to receive a package otherwise they couldn't drop it off. Then we had to call her and Tyler and they would talk Clay through the steps. He opened the package carefully and inside were a bunch of ice packs. Finally, on the bottom, was a LIVE LOBSTER!!! Straight from Maine, just close to where Tyler and Caeli live (ok, so Boston). I think Clay has the pictures on his phone because I know we took some, but it was hilarious to be skyping with them while "playing" with the lobster. But because it had been alive out of the water for a bit, we had a couple hours to hurry and cook it, which we did! Pretty cool present I must say.

We had some friends and the missionaries over for Christmas dinner. It felt really good having people over, even though it was nice with our little family. Kort loved Christmas. Maybe it's my fault that he never really got the concept this year though because we haven't even had him sit on Santa's lap yet. That will change this next one, I'm sure. We were extremely blessed to have a great Christmas!

12 days of Christmas

With just having moved into a house, I wanted to at least make sure we had a real Christmas this year, even if we didn't do that much. Last year we had a foot high Christmas tree in our hotel room. We didn't quite have time for 25 days of Christmas, so I went for the 12 days :) Here are a few of the things we did!

1 - Secret Santa with just some basic food

2 - Fruit baskets delivered to the missionaries, or should I say Clay rang the doorbell, ran as fast as he could and jumped through the sliding door opening while I was driving off at the same time.

3 - Popsicle sticks sleigh ornament

4 - Made peppermint chex mix for a treat during movie night

5 - Had friends over to make gingerbread houses

6 - Picked out a Christmas tree and decorated

7 - Kort and I did salt dough handprint ornaments

8 - Below is a video off of my friend's facebook page that they took in front of their house - they did all the lights themselves. When we went to look at them, we couldn't get the radio station to tune it so that's why I'm "borrowing" her video :)

8 - We read the Christmas story out of the Bible

9 - 12 were days/nights of prepping to do the rest of these things :)

It was a little difficult getting into the Christmas mood while trying to unpack everything at the same time while also trying to decorate the house, but in the end, we sure loved having a place to call home to spend Christmas.

A Christmas card for you

I was really bad about sending out Christmas cards this year. I wanted to get professional pictures done but things just kept getting in the way. I was always seeing free cards from websites that I would have done, but didn't have pictures at that time. Once December hit, I decided to just forget about it and just use a family picture we had taken on our Anniversary. So for those of you who didn't get a Christmas card, which is most likely all of you, here you go :)

A quick run down of what happened in our lives this year:

- Continued living in a hotel in Eden Prairie, MN through March

- Flew to Boise in February to see family and for my brother's wedding!

- Moved from MN to Oklahoma in March for Clay's next wind project 

- Went on a much needed family vacation to California and Catalina Island in June

- Found out we were pregnant with baby #2 in July!

- Flew out to Idaho for Quinn's wedding the beginning of November while celebrating our 5th Anniversary!

- Found out we'd be having another BOY!

- Clay left Mortenson Construction and has been settling into his new job with Enel Green Power as Assistant Supervisor allowing us to settle down here in Oklahoma!

- Kort will be turning TWO at the end of this month!

With Clay switching jobs leaving him with no paid time off built up, we sadly couldn't go out to visit my family this year in Boise. However, Clay's family is headed our way for New Year's so we feel very blessed to be able to spend time with family for the holidays. 

Merry Christmas!