It's been a while friends! I've had good intentions but no time to post. We've been really busy. Things are good overall, so let me just dive in.
New house - we had our final construction meeting and ground breaking begins in two weeks!! So, so excited! We also met with a security system company and decided to get a system installed / hardwired into the house. We have our blueprints and they even provided us with some 3D drawings of our kitchen which was neat to see. I'll have to scan them in and post them. The timeline is that the house should be complete by the beginning of December and we'll close by December 10th. We'll move in the last week in December, after Christmas and before New Years. The 2 weeks between we'll use to custom paint and slowly move some items into the house.
Work - I've been super swamped with work and recently had my mid year review. I got a really nice raise (very unexpected after last year's company policy of freezing all raises) and I also got the okay to work from home two days a week. That has made a tremendous difference in my stress levels and also the number of times I need to fill up my gas tank each week. Dave's work is pretty much status quo; unfortunately there's been a few later nights which leads to even more traffic and getting home really late. I think Dave is really looking forward to the shorter commute once we're out in Adam's Township.
Trip to CT - We recently drove to Connecticut to attend a bunch of family events. I was really worried about Cori being in the car for so long (it's an 8 hr trip with out considering multiple diaper stops) but she did great. We broke the trip up by staying overnight midway which I think really helped. We woke up early at 4 AM for the straight drive home; it wasn't as bad as I'd envisioned, but I think we were all glad to be out of the car when we pulled into West Mifflin.
During our trip, Cori had her first stint with a baby-sitter; she's always been watched by family when we would go out. I was nervous but Cori did great and we had a fabulous time at the country club! (Agh, that is the life let me say!) Unfortunately, we also had some random car trouble during the trip. The car's powertrain & ESC (electronic stability control) lights would come on and the car would lose power. You could press the gas pedal, but the car would do nothing. This was downright scary when we'd be merging onto the interstate, or driving 75mph on the highway. As soon as you'd shut off the car and restart it, it would work. But yet at some other random time, it would occur again. After having to find a Hyundai dealership that would take it for service, it turns out it was a bad powertrain sensor, and a big inconvenience. Thank heaven for guardian angels and car warranties!
Here are some pictures of Cori enjoying Aunt Karyne's pool during our trip.
Cori - speak of the devil, sleep has been bad again the past few weeks. I have no clue - could be teething, could be trying to adjust from our trip back to being home. But I fear the latter as during our trip in CT, Cori ended up in sleeping bed with us. It was either that or wake the entire hotel with her screaming. And none of us really slept well with Cori in bed, and that just seemed to compound daily. So now we're back at the spot where Cori will go down and sleep for a few hours on her own, but then she screams for us in the middle of her sleep cycle. It seems to be when she enters her lighter phase of sleep, about 5 hours in. She is often awake for 1-2 hours after this, and then eventually goes back to sleep but only if you stay with her.
One night a few weeks ago, we were awake for a few hours and tried unsuccessfully to get Cori back into her crib multiple times. We tried to let her cry in her crib and self-sooth, but the screaming was so intense she actually flung herself out of her crib and fell. We were scared and realized that her crib days were about over. So as much as we hate having her in bed with us (were we wrong to assume that she'd sleep on her own forever??) we also knew this was the safer option.
This past weekend we went out and got Cori a "big girl" mattress set. Her crib converts to a full sized bed, so rather than pay money for a toddler bed or a twin bed, we decided to go all the way to a double bed. That way we can lay with her in her room if need be. So far, it's made no difference in her sleep. She is still waking mid night and up for a bit. Thankfully she is home this week as her daycare is closed, so we're hoping the adjustment will be done by the end of the week. I'll have to take some pictures of her bed and new bed spread from Pottery Barn Kids.
Cooper James - our new nephew finally came into the world on July 2nd. Cooper weighted 8lbs 6 ozs and is 21" long. He is just adorable, and doing well as is our sister in law Kacey. We hope to visit him very soon, and Cori keeps talking about her new cousin.
In the little 4th of July outfit we got him (and he almost missed!).
Uncle Mark makes the very same face!
Hope that you've been well, staying cool in this heat wave, and I promise to update more soon!
We took our bouncey house with us for the kids to play with, and it was a huge hit. It will definitely be making the trip with us again and it had already be worth the money we spent!
Girls tend to out-number boys in the family, and we took a shot of Cori with many of her girl cousins. It was quite a challenge to stay still for Cori (the second youngest) and Jolee (the youngest, about 6 months younger than Cori, though much much smaller!)
Side view showing the bump out for the stone fire place in the living room.
I hope the Amish laborers didn't mind me taking their photographs thinking I was stealing their souls! I guess this means I won't be buying them a case of beer on Friday as I'd planned; Dave said to take them lemonade like in "Witness" instead!
My Dad holding my baby brother at a few months old -look at those clothes!!
Closer inspection showed me that the outline for the foundation to be poured was done, and the back hoe was still working. Here's the house and then the garage shots.
