Lagoon Day

We headed to Lagoon for the Downing family reunion, which made Devin beyond excited. 

The day started out a little rough for Landon because we had applied sunscreen before leaving the house and I guess he must have rubbed his face and then his eyes, getting sunscreen into his eyes. Burning occurred and he was grumpy, grumpy about this, which is to be expected. We tried to wash out his eyes and then cheer him up with a carousal ride; this was not effective. 

 

We took him to the first aid office and flushed his eyes out more, which helped but he was still pretty grumpy and wouldn't ride any rides until after going to lunch with the family and taking a nap. After his nap, he was perfectly fine and enjoyed the rest of the day. 

 

The boys had so much fun riding all the rides, especially Devin. He was so much braver than I was expecting and was even disappointed at the end when Daddy went on a few rides and he was just a bit too short to accompany him. He can't wait till we go back and hopes he'll grow enough to go on the big rides next year. It was great to meet some new family members and have a fun family day together. The only ride he was nervous about was the Dinosaur Egg Drop, which he'd been waiting to go on with Daddy since I told him I couldn't go while pregnant. Once he got into the seat he was very unsure about his decision to ride. But he did it, and he was proud of himself after going.

 

It was a super hot day--about 103 degrees--but I was impressed with the kiddie area because it was pretty shaded, which helped us beat the heat. We were also very prepared with lots of water and Gatorade. It really was a great day!

 

 

Rich took the boys on the teacups and I am still surprised they didn't vomit. He spun them so fast and they were going faster than anyone else on the ride.

Maura was working that day, so we played creepers and took pictures of her working so she'd have some for her memory book later in life. The boys were happy to see her and were confused why she couldn't hug them!

 

20-Week Ultrasound

***We've been having computer issues, so I'm way behind on posts and trying to slowly catch up when the computer is cooperating. My ultrasound was actually on June 4th, so 20 days later, here's the ultrasound update!***

I haven't taken any pictures of my belly this time around, a lot because Rich is never home to take a picture and I hate doing selfie ones, and a lot because I wasn't really showing much. The morning of my 20-week ultrasound I decided that I better start documenting this pregnancy better. So here I am at 20 weeks and 3 days.

Then off to the ultrasound I went. I was so excited to see this little baby and to make sure everything was okay. I haven't been able to feel the baby move very much, and often a few days would go by without feeling anything, which I thought was weird for a third baby, especially because Landon was all sorts of spazzy starting around 14/15 weeks. I was relieved (if a bit disappointed) to find out that I can't feel the baby as much because my placenta is in the front. Everything with the baby looked great though, which is the most important part!

The gender reveal was a bit weird (this was NOT my favorite ultrasound. Out of the three, it ranks last. The technician just wasn't great, didn't have the best bedside manner, and didn't give us great/very many pictures to take home. There's my whine.) because the tech just nonchalantly said, "Well, it's a little lady. I think. I'm pretty sure. Let's try to get a better look." Ha! In her defense, the child wouldn't sit still and she kept her legs crossed, making it hard to see all the anatomy down there. But after having two boys, it was pretty obvious this baby was a girl! Super excited to have some new clothes!!

Devin really wanted a girl, so I was glad his prayer was answered and that we didn't have to have the alternate lesson of "you don't always get what you pray for." Landon wanted a boy and still refers to the baby as a boy. He's pretty sure it's a boy even though we've informed him differently. I'm pretty sure that this is just Landon being Landon trying to get a rise out of Devin. I tried to make the gender reveal fun for the boys and told them I would bring home balloons corresponding in color with the gender, they actually could have cared less about the big moment because the TV was on and obviously that's more important! Once they settled down, and got to hold the balloons, they were a little more interested--though this still may have been more because of the balloons themselves!

We are so looking forward to adding a cute little girl to this family!

House Before and After: Basement

I've been putting off this post for a long time. Not that I'm not excited to be done--much to the contrary! But I couldn't find all the pictures and then our computer went crazy, and I didn't even have the pictures on the computer. Then I couldn't figure out if I should show the "after" pics with furniture and then there are some things that aren't quite "after" and then this was going to be the longest post ever. Anyway, after too much thinking, what follows is Part I of before and after. I'm starting in the basement and working my way up the house, for no reason other than this is what suits my fancy at the moment.

To start out with, here is the one room in the house that didn't change at all. Even though this bathroom desperately does need repainting (a black bathroom? Really? Combined with a red heat lamp?), we needed at least one functioning bathroom. The tile and the counter in here are in good shape, so at some point the only thing we'll change is paint and the Hollywood light over the vanity (we already have a fixture, this is just a low-on-importance project). Other than these little things, the basement bathroom is here to stay.

The basement really didn't get much changing other than paint and carpet. This what the family room once you come down the stairs looked like at first. 

 

The biggest thing that did change is that Rich tore out those built-ins along the wall and re-sheetrocked it. This really opened up the room and now we don't have weird built-ins. He also stained the wood on the fireplace. Rich really wanted to make sure he had a good place for his TV and hooked up the surround sound before we even had furniture! We used camp chairs for a month or so until we found a good deal on couches on KSL. And, aside from the food smells (the previous owners cooked using VERY strong spices), the couches are Rich's dream come true--what with the built-in cup holders.

From this room you turn left and get this extra family room that someday I'm sure will have a Ping Pong table or a pool table or something. I don't know. The door on the other end goes into the cold storage.

Off the main family room there is a bedroom that we are using as a playroom. They used it as an office and cut a weird hole in the ceiling that Rich had to drywall. He's so very handy, that man. I'm not sure why the carpet in here is two-toned.

Down the hall is the bathroom shown above and the house's 6th bedroom. For now it will serve as a multipurpose/guest/sewing/storage room. It has a big walk-in closet that doesn't have any shelving in it. Clearly it's just full of boxes for now and will probably stay that way for awhile.

 The basement is the least-exciting part. But it is nice and clean down there now, and it feels great to have all the rooms painted and ready for us to figure out where to put stuff!

New Rooms!

After the first night in the new house these boys were soaking in having their own rooms. Devin was happy to have someplace to read!

And just to make sure we knew all the projects weren't over, the kitchen sink started leaking just a few days after moving in. But no worries, Rich can fix anything.

House Before and After: Second Floor

This floor had the biggest changes because of the remodel we did on the bathrooms. Other than the bathrooms, again, the main changes were paint and flooring. The boys love their rooms, and though there is touch-up paint to be done, this floor is complete.

The master bath was by far the biggest project and the project that took the most amount of time (and money!). But the bathroom was so gross. There was carpet in the sink area, which of course I hated. Then there was mold in the toilet/shower room, so drywall needed to be replaced anyway, and I hated how cramped it was. You could barely open the shower door without hitting the toilet. Then there was the huge jetted tub, which was nice, but looked dated. And considering how dirty other parts of the house were I wasn't even sure I dared to use it. I also knew that the tub would only get used a few times a year, but it was taking up so much space. So Rich took out the jetted tub and existing shower, re-sheetrocked the toilet room and the now-shower area. It actually was good we replaced the shower because the shower had failed and when Rich took it out the sub-floor was rotten and pretty soft. Definitely would have had major problems arise from that. We had a plumber move the toilet so that in the future we could put cupboards in there, and the plumber also turned the shower head around and added a second head on the opposite wall. We tore out the tile counter top, turned the doors around by the toilet room and closet so they opened differently, and then tiled the entire floor and the whole shower. The bathroom counter is the world's longest bathroom counter, and Rich couldn't be happier about it. I was super happy when I went to price out Corian that the counter place had a granite remnant just the size we needed, which meant a granite upgrade I wasn't expecting and didn't think we could afford! The shower took a lot of planning and work on Rich's part, and it turned out amazing. I love it! It's so big in there and it looks so pretty. (Prettier than the after pics give it credit. I mean, could I not bother to shut the slightly ajar drawer? But if we wait for the bathroom to be this clean again, this will never get posted.)

 
 

 
 
 
 
 Master bedroom/closet: We love the closet being off the bathroom rather than a separate door off the bedroom.

 

Landon's room:

Devin's room:

Baby's room:

The other big project upstairs was the boys' bathroom, which again had carpet in the sink area, which is just gross. The grout in the shower was starting to fail, so we figured since we were already tiling the floor we should just do the tub surround too. When Rich pulled out the tile from around the tub we realized the tub didn't quite reach the wall but had been hidden by the big bull-nose tile, which meant he had to pull out the wall and re-sheetrock another area. He loves to sheetrock. Once he finished that, he re-tiled everywhere. It turned out great, and I think the bathroom looks bigger because of the larger-sized tile we used.