BillyandAshlee.com

On Monday, the driveway was poured and our wrought iron spindles were installed! Yesterday we got gutters, door knobs, and all the towel/TP holders…and the cleaning crew was in cleaning the inside of the house last night! I talked to our construction manager, Joel, yesterday and this week they are also doing the final grade, deck, and exterior stone (weather permitting)! Then next week we have sprinklers going in on Monday, landscaping on Tuesday, sod on Thursday, and wood blinds on the following Monday and we close on Thursday! We have our final walkthrough with Joel on Monday afternoon (in 4 days!)…it’s a 2-3 hour appointment…we walkthrough the house with him with a 300+ point checklist and create the final punch list as well as him “acquainting” us to our new home, how everything works, the maintenance we should do, etc. It’s so hard to believe we’re almost done!!!

12/17 - first meeting with the builder
12/26 - found out we were pregnant
1/26 - signed our contract with the builder
3/2 - broke ground on the new house and listed our existing house (it was a big day!)
3/15 - 2 offers on our house
3/17 - sold! accepted one of the offers
4/7 - found out we were having a boy, yea! one of each!
4/11 - moved to the town home
4/13 - closed on our old house
8/13 - scheduled to close on the new house
8/15 - move to the new house
9/8ish - have a baby!

All while having a million appointments for the new house, 2 weeks of back to back showings on the old house, busy season at work for me last Jan-April, pregnancy appointments, preparing for a new baby, vacation, daily trips to the new house each evening, and then just “life” that by itself keeps us running 24/7. What a crazy year!! Life with 2 kids will seem like a breeze after the last 9 months!!

Dr Appt

I had a dr. appt on Friday. Everything is looking fine, blood pressure was 116/68, baby measured right on at 33 weeks, and he kicked her HARD the second she put that doppler on him:). I mentioned I’d had an on/off migraine for the last week…and she gave me a prescription for darvocet, a narcotic! All I’ve been using to combat it is sleep, hot water in the shower, and caffeine…I think I’ll try Tylenol before I go for the narcotic! lol She said it’s entirely safe, we just have to worry about addiction as narcotics are highly addictive. Ummm, no thanks! My diet coke addiction is as strong as I’d like to go! =) I have my next appt in 2 weeks (35 weeks), then another 2 weeks after that (37 weeks) and then I start weekly’s! I have them all scheduled out, including one 2 days after my due date, that was mean to make me schedule that one! But given my track record with Lauren (induced 5 days late), I imagine I’ll be keeping the appointment!

weekend

Friday was the usual run by the house and grab some dinner and go home to play for awhile.

Saturday we had our preadmit appt at the hospital, followed by a special treat of Krispy Kreme donuts for being so good/quiet during the 30 min appt, then some furniture shopping, followed by a run by the house to measure for said furniture. Finally we all took a nap to get rested up for the 8pm KC Wizards vs. LA Galaxy (aka - David Beckham!) soccer game…some of our friends frequently get free tickets to their company’s suite which is so nice with the kids as it gives them room to run around both inside and outside in the seats…our kids have no idea what “general admission” is! Finally made it home before 11pm.

Sunday morning Billy took Lauren fishing at Deana Rose while I ran the errands for the weekend (grocery store, etc) and then he went to the caves to work on projects for DefCon (his yearly conference in Vegas that is coming up) while Lauren and I went and spent the afternoon at the pool! It wasn’t too crowded, wasn’t too hot, and the water felt great…we had a really good time:). Unfortunately, that meant Lauren missed her nap, so we got home around 5:30 and we “rested” on the couch for awhile until Billy got home.

During that time, she was watching “Ristycats” (Aristocats) on her little dvd player and when she was done, she turned off her dvd player and then threw it on the floor (like she would a book). I told her she can’t do that, that she’ll break it. She tells me “you just worry about you”. Oh my goodness, the attitude! So I told her, “no, mommy and daddy work hard to make money to buy nice things for you and you can’t break them” and she tells me, “I’m going to call the police”. Where does she get this from?? I ask her what they’re going to do and she said “come here and take you away”. ummm, ok. So then I tell her she’d be all alone and she said no, “the police are just going to talk to you.” By this time, she thought it was funny and was laughing, but oh my goodness. When Billy got home, we went out for dinner and I asked her if Miss Nicole (her teacher) ever tells her “you just worry about you” and she told us “yes”. Well, that one makes sense then…and also doesn’t surprise us…she’s a little busy body and has to know all and be involved in all…both at home and at school (as I’ve been told). But the police? The only thing I can think of is from the 4th of July incident involving Damon and having to call the police/ambulance/fire dept…and also at the pool yesterday, I was trying to explain to her the concept of life guards and how they are there to keep everyone safe, rescue people if they can’t swim, and are like the “police of the pool” and will tell you not to do certain things like run and told her she couldn’t eat her snack in the pool bc it wasn’t allowed and the lifeguards would blow their whistle at her. So, apparently, now her answer when there is bad behavior/choices is that she’ll call the police. Yikes. For not having a nap, the rest of the evening went well, miraculously.

new house

Still no driveway (yet), but the exterior painting is done and the interior hardwoods and carpet are in! We’re excited to see the progress this week…only 2.5 weeks until close!! Here’s some pic’s from Friday:

exterior…there will be stone where the white tyvek is showing and they still need to put the shutters on the window above the garage and top left window:

carpet in the great room (rest of floors on mainfloor are hardwood except the 3/4 bath is tiled):

carpet on the stairs:

looking down the stairs and you can see the hardwoods as well:

grammy/papa’s room (everything upstairs is carpet except bathrooms and laundry room are tile):

our closet:

mirrors in master bath are in:

mainfloor bath shower doors are in:

the baby’s room:

Lauren in her playroom…she thought they forgot carpet in there…nope, hardwoods in there kid, no playdough in our carpet!

dining room:

kitchen:

and with the doors to the walk-in pantry closed:

As promised, some latest pics!

I figured all those “wow, you’re getting close, aren’t you?” type of comments had to be for a reason…definitely some growth in the last 4 weeks! Can we just be nice and say “it’s all baby”?

32w5d:

as compared to 28w4d:

as compared to 32w6d with Lauren…I think I have surpassed the size I was with her (at least I haven’t gained nearly as much weight with this one)!

And then for some house pictures:

floors filled waiting to be stained:

first coat of stain:

our pull down faucet with soap dispenser (it’s oil rubbed bronze, but hard to tell in this pic):

cabinet hardware is on:

Lauren checking out the drawers in my pantry desk:

master shower with shower head and a rain head:

going for a walk on our new cul-de-sac:

which of course meant we ended up in the tractor (no, I have no idea what that thing is called, tractor works, right?):

And some pic’s from last weekend…

playing at the outdoor concert on Friday night:

at Antioch Park Saturday night on the swings:

pretending she was in jail and scared:

playground pic:

Lauren and mommy:

Lauren and daddy:

being silly:

Lauren wanted to pose and say “peace out”…where do they learn this stuff?

Lauren took a pic of us:

Lauren took a close-up belly pic…it looks smaller covered:)

I love this pic Lauren took:

I had my monthly dinner with my girlfriends last night and Billy told me this cute story about when he was putting Lauren to bed. They were reading the “12 Dogs of Christmas” or something like that and there was a chihuahua and they talked about how Nate/Jayna have a chihuahua and then she asked what their 2 black dogs were named (surprised she remembered since the last time we were there was New Years Eve!) and Billy said “Boozer and Drew” and Lauren said “oohhh, Drew…my boyfriend is named Drew, I’m going to marry him and I’m going to get a ring!” in this high pitched squeeky girly voice while wiggling in her seat…hehe. Billy told me “you girls are weird, that starts that young?” hehe Yes. =)

Tonight we ran by the new house and they had put the first coat of stain down on the hardwoods! So, we can’t go in for a few days, but by the empty boxes in the garage, we know we also got our alarm system put in along with the surround sound speakers in the great room and the all house audio speakers in the kitchen, deck, garage, and master bath!! All that’s left inside is to finish the hardwoods, carpet, iron spindles on the stairs, and final paint touch-ups! Then all the outside work. If we can get sun instead of rain this week, we’re supposed to be getting our driveway poured and the exterior painted! Then that leaves final grading, sprinkler system, sod, deck, and landscaping. Only 3 more weeks to go!

When we pulled up to the house, a family that we know from Lauren’s school was on a walk and in our cul-de-sac, so we stopped and talked to them for awhile (Lauren and Kayla are in the same class at school). Then as we were leaving, the couple down the street that is also building (about 1.5 months behind our build) was at their house. We keep wanting to stop and introduce ourselves, but keep missing them, so we stopped tonight as they were outside. Very odd coincidence, but the wife and I used to work together at American Century!! Small world!! They have a 3 year old little boy, Ben, so Lauren and Ben had a GREAT time throwing rocks into puddles of water. We talked to them for about an hour, but in the meantime, there were 3 other neighbors that we met that happened along on their walks (a couple with 3 girls ages 1-5, a mom with her 2 kids and her neighbor)! Everyone was sssooo nice and all the kids loved playing together. We also found out that everyone is just as nosy as we are and pretty much everyone had already been through our house! And I felt guilty just peeking in the new builds windows! We left there tonight very excited by how nice everyone was, how great it’s going to be to have so many playmates for Lauren in our neighborhood, and just really looking forward to moving in and making new friends.

I have new belly pic’s, house pic’s, Lauren pic’s, etc. to post…hopefully tomorrow:)

We had a busy weekend. Here’s the recap with pics.

Friday was dinner, run by the new house, and errands.

Saturday, I had a bridal shower, bridesmaids dinner, and bachelorette party for one of my best friends that is marrying one of Billy’s best friends in October.

first the bridal shower:

then Meggan treated the bridesmaids to dinner at the Bristol in the Power & Light (here’s 3 of them, we didn’t get a pic of everyone):

then it was on to the Power & Light for the bachelorette…from 8pm - 1ish am…I drank lots and lots of water and managed to stay awake…it was fun though!

Here’s a pic of 3 of us…Meggan, Jen, and me:

and the final group who was left at the end of the night (from the left: Jen, Renee, Meggan, Sarah, Michelle, and me):

I finally made it to bed at 3am. Whew.

The next morning, my parents, Shane, and Damon got to our house around 10am…Shane came to KC to pick-up the new car they’d bought the week before and mom/dad spent the day with us and then flew out to Baton Rouge this morning to help Tiffany and Brian with their move to St. Louis.

Damon…he’s just the cutest little boy ever, not that I’m bias!

trying to get the kids to look at the camera at the same time…second weekend in a row, mission failed! =)

Lauren loved having grammy and papa here…showing them our current house, all the things in the new house, and having grammy to have a slumber party with her! She’s pretty excited they’ll be back at the end of the week and then we’re going to their house in a few weeks!

We didn’t get much sleep this weekend, but we did have a lot of fun!

As for the house…our tile is complete and we have lighting, toilets, water heater, some appliances and plumbing fixtures, and power!! The a/c is now on in the house and it feels great! Lauren actually complained she was cold while we were in there tonight!

tile backsplash, microwave, and oven in the kitchen!

close-up of the tumbled natural stone:

view out of our kitchen window into the backyard:

getting ready to pour the driveway:

3/4 main floor bath toilet and faucets:

lighting:

fireplace tile:

view out of the daylight basement:

the toilet/tub in kids jack-and-jill bath:

guest bath:

view of master bath, looking left:

view of master bath, looking right (through door beyond the sink goes to the master closet and on through into the laundry room:

This week they are supposed to finish up plumbing and lighting and do the exterior concrete work, as long as it doesn’t rain all week! The house is getting so close!!

to the new house (5 weeks) and the new baby (8.5 weeks)! A review of our busy week, complete with pictures, as usual!

Billy’s 33rd Birthday

On Wednesday, 7/8, Billy turned 33! Lauren chose a “pirate” theme for Billy, which of course he loved…I think it’s a hacker thing? So cute that she knew what daddy would like. And she’s very into Shrek at the moment, so when she saw this gigantic, musical Shrek card, she had to get it…to the tune of $10. eek. Oh well, she’ll play with it for months to come. We surprised him with a mini-party that morning with donuts. Then we cut out of work/school at 3 and went to see the new Ice Age movie with Jerron and Ethan. After that, the 3 of us (4 including baby?) went to check progress on the new house. From there, it was out to a dinner of daddy’s choice and took a few pieces of cake home to eat…Lauren was rather upset that we didn’t get an entire cake for daddy’s birthday, but we assured her we would have one for her birthday! A few pics:

the spread:

Lauren and “little Brody” or “pretend Brody” right after I woke her up, waiting for daddy to come downstairs…Nate/Jayna gave her that stuffed animal in the hospital when she was born and she’s slept with it every single night since she was probably 1, it goes everywhere we travel.

dancing to the Shrek card (hey now, you’re an all star, get your game on, go, play!):

Pregnancy

Still going just fine. Apparently I must have had a big growth spurt in the last week or two, because every one I see in the last week seems to be commenting on it. Including my manager interrupting me yesterday to ask if my dr. had moved my due date up yet. Nice. 5′2″ equals nowhere for the baby to go but straight out! At 31.5 weeks, I’m up around 27 pounds. I imagine I’ll hit around 35 total…let’s hope that’s all it is! Much better than I did with Lauren! I had a dr. appt today and all was well, blood pressure was 114/66 and I was measuring 33 weeks. My dr asked how big Lauren was (7lb 13oz a week late) and she said this baby will likely be a similar size, but that he would probably hit the 8 pound mark. I’ve been having these “spells” a few times a week where my vision goes blurry and I get lightheaded and I feel as though I’m going to pass out. It’s happened at all various times…while driving, walking, sitting…after I’ve ate/drank water, after I haven’t ate/drank in awhile, etc. My dr. said as long as I’m not actually passing out or seizing, she’s ok with it (my blood pressure is fine, and I passed my glucose test with flying colors). She said her guess is that it’s my body telling me I’m doing too much and to slow down. Working full-time, having a preschooler, and building a house is likely taking a toll, so she said to just do what I can, but it’s just one of those weird pregnancy things. She also said adding some additional protein to my diet may help…which is hard for me as I really don’t eat too much other than peanut butter, beans, a bit of yogurt, and light soy milk in my cereal. So, I added chicken to my salad today. =) I’m on every 2 week appointments now. It’s really amazing how fast it’s all gone, even though it seems like forever ago that we found out we were pregnant. Also kind of bittersweet as it will be our last pregnancy and I’m wanting to savor each moment, but quite honestly, I think I’ll be happy to have the pregnant years behind me and have my body back:). It won’t be long now!

Lauren

Not too much new. She’s very into playing “teacher”…definitely likes being in charge. She spends countless hours putting all her kids to sleep in Billy’s office…she has about 10 dolls and stuffed animals laid out, each with their own blanket, and pretends they’re on their cots and she puts them down for a nap and reads them their story before nap…but it never fails Aiden R. or Piper or someone acts up and gets their blanket taken away or loses a star…good insight as to what goes on at school:).

She had declared long ago that the baby in her tummy (which is a girl) was going to come out on daddy’s birthday (as my baby is coming out on my dad’s birthday…amazed us she made that connection!)…on Wednesday, she now declared it would be on mommy’s birthday. We’ll see if that changes again.

We spend lots of time outside going for walks (she rides her trike or sometimes rides in the wagon), playing at the park, blowing bubbles, playing with sidewalk chalk, and of course making/eating pretend meals. I’m sure she’s ready to have all of her toys back at the new house. She’s very into negotiating for things. She’s had a pretty good appetite lately, and it’s paying off, she’s actually starting to outgrow some of her 2T shorts (now that she’s almost 4!lol) and she can reach things she previously couldn’t, so must have been a growth spurt! Her favorite place to eat at the moment is Chipotle…cheese quesadilla with sour cream to dip. She requested it twice this week. Closely behind that is “the peanut place” AKA Texas Roadhouse…but honestly, who doesn’t like their rolls and cinnamon butter?

She tells really long-winded stories and we’ve quickly learned nothing is a secret, I’m pretty sure she tells daycare 100% of what goes on at home:). At dinner last night, our friend Jerron was being ornery and asked Lauren “what’s your baby brother’s name” (we aren’t sharing, but it doesn’t really matter since we haven’t decided yet, but do have it narrowed down to a handful)…so I was very curious to hear what she’d say since we have run a few by her, but she usually suggests some of her own and she quickly and matter-of-factly answered “we don’t know that yet”. It was too funny! I had to assure him it wasn’t rehearsed! I guess she really does listen when we’re talking! I think she really understands we’re going to have a baby, but as far as understanding the timeline as to when, she’s likely clueless. All she knows is that when the baby comes, grammy and papa are going to come stay at the new house with her and she’s uber excited for that…she tells me that grammy will be sleeping with her in her bed and papa will sleep in grammy/papa’s room. =)

She’s also really into watching “A Baby Story” with me or any show about women having baby’s. She actually watched one being born (nothing graphic, of course, it’s on TLC, haha) and I was very curious to see what she’d ask and she was more concerned with why the lady was hurting and kept looking at me with these very worried/anxious eyes that I would shortly be experiencing the same pain, so I reassured her by telling her that the dr. gives mommy medicine so she doesn’t feel pain like that lady:). She still was rubbing my back and holding my hand, very concerned! After it was over, she said, ok, now I’m going to be the dr. and you are the mommy and she had me lay on the couch with my knees up and then she made a motion as if removing the baby from my stomach and handed it to me…whew! I figured she was too young to ask too many questions! She also watched an episode where there were 2 big sisters and the mom had twins. She was so excited when they showed the girls feeding or dressing the babies and she kept saying “I’m going to do that!” and then also asked if we’d be having 2 babies! lol She’s going to be an excellent, over helpful, big sister!

New House

This week we got countertops, tile, and lighting fixtures! The tile and lighting isn’t completely installed, but it’s getting really close!! I’ve been so excited to see tile, and I wasn’t disappointed! We tried to go out to the house on Tuesday evening around 7:45, but they were still in the house tiling (wow!), so we didn’t go in. We got to the house a little after 6 on Wednesday night and again, they were still working, but we decided to check in. We skipped yesterday and got there about 6:15 tonight and they were still working, but we were dying to go in to see the last 2 days progress. We are getting a quote on the fence next week and our construction manager said it should be in before we move in so Brody can go back to his normal routine of going outside of his own free will! It’ll be very nice to not have to rush home anymore and who knew that he got up in the middle of the night every night and went outside to do his business and hang out? I guess it’s been good training for the new baby…although Billy has been manning the night shift with him, so I guess it’s about to be my turn with the baby:). Here are some new pics of the house!

Lauren was the first to notice the chandelier is in in the foyer!

they were working on the fireplace tile while we were there, so not quite done, and the color in this pic is a bit off.

and they were grouting the kitchen, but you can kind of see this faraway pic I took quickly…and you can see our pendant lights in above the island are in as well as the microwave!

we chose the same tile/pattern as the kitchen for the butler’s pantry, so here you can see it much better (hasn’t been grouted yet)…I *love* this tile, it’s a tumbled natural stone:

and a close-up:

and the chandelier in the breakfast room:

ceiling fan in the baby’s room:

matching one in Lauren’s room:

tile in the kids bath:

the kids separate toilet/tub room with tile:

tiled floor in guest bath:

master bedroom ceiling fan:

tiled master bath jetted tub:

here you can see the sconces on either side of the glass block window:

lighting above master bath mirrors:

walk-in master shower (toilet room on the right of the shower):

laundry room:

and finally, a few things we saw have been delivered and are in the garage…water heater, oven, and dishwasher!

Weekend

This will be a very busy weekend. I am a bridesmaid in one of my best friends weddings in October (1 month post baby…fitting into my bridesmaids dress should be interesting! I ordered it a few sizes bigger than normal and am hoping for the best!) and tomorrow we are throwing her a bridal shower at 2pm and then a bachelorette party at 8. Then in between the two at 6pm she’s taking the bridesmaids out for a bridesmaids dinner. I will likely be gone from 12:30 until 3am. This pregnant girl is going to be tired, but really looking forward to it! Then grammy, papa, Uncle Shane, and Damon will be here around 9 or 10am on Sunday morning…Shane is picking up the new car they bought here last weekend, and grammy/papa are spending the day with us and then flying out the next morning to Baton Rouge to help Tiffany and Brian on their move to St. Louis! Lauren is super excited for grammy/papa to be coming to her house, she’s been talking about it for days and can’t wait to show them her new room in the new house. =) Monday is going to come way too fast.

Chronological order might be best for this post, it’s likely to be a long one!

Lauren’s 3.75 year old professional pic’s

First, here’s a few of Lauren’s pic’s I had taken a few weeks ago, the rest are in the gallery:

and in her “i-hacked.com” shirt:

and with her “hacktop”:

Baby’s 3d/4d sono

We had the baby’s 3d/4d sonogram last week and it was so fun! He was crazy awake and moving the entire time….as opposed to when we did Lauren’s and she was asleep and wouldn’t wake up no matter how many sweets I ate or how much juice I drank! The sono tech said it appears he will be a very busy baby, but seems to keep himself occupied and was pretty laid back…ringing the bell right on my belly didn’t freak him out, lol! Definitely still a boy! At one point, there was a really big jump in my belly and I asked her if that was a kick and she said, omg - that was a punch!! He punched me through my placenta that is on the front of my uterus and still made my belly jump that big! Crazy! I’m always telling Billy that I think he’s giving me internal bruising or bleeding because his kicks (and apparently punches!) hurt so much and she said that the placenta is very tender and that with how hard he’s kicking/punching, she said it has to hurt! Good to know I’m not making it up! Lauren’s never *hurt* likes his kicks do! He also looks very different than Lauren did in her 3d/4d scan! Some of the pics look funny bc the umbilical cord was right in front of his face and he wouldn’t move it! First baby brothers (more in the gallery):

eyes open!

hand and foot:

big yawn!

As compared to Lauren’s pics:

4th of July

Shane, Katie, and Damon came to KC to spend the weekend with us…I have never in my life seen Lauren more excited than to hang out with Damon for a few days!! Their energy fed each other and instead of 2x the energy, it was more like 6x the energy in two little three year old bodies! Here’s the weekend in pics.

heading out to the Lenexa parade (only a block from our house!) in our decorated wagon, 4th of July glitter tattoos, and flags!

waiting for the parade to start:

moving to the “front row” to better wave and get candy!

quintessential 4th of July…red/white/blue dress and pigtails with matching bows!

waving for candy:

one lone pic (self portrait) of mommy and Lauren!

After the parade we grabbed lunch and then headed out to Missouri to get fireworks! The kids took their nap, and then got up to shoot fireworks!

so loud!

Damon watching from the window!

shooting daddy’s homemade tshirt launcher:

playing in the smoke bomb:

lighting fireworks:

playing out back with Katie:

Not long after that picture was taken and while we were getting dinner ready on the grill, Damon tripped over that storm drain and landed on the edge on his chest and lost consciousness for about 30 seconds. We called 911 and he came to right before they got there (ambulance, firetruck, police, and fire chief). They checked him out and he seemed fine…likely it knocked the wind out of him and caused him to lose consciousness. Very scary, but so thankful he was fine.

After that, we ate, played with fireworks some more, and then headed out to watch the Corporate Woods big fireworks show. Given the kids weren’t digging the really loud fireworks, we watched them from a distance and they seemed to enjoy them, but also enjoyed running around in the grass likely just as much!

The next day, while Shane and Katie were out buying their new car (a sweet Rav4!), we took the kids to a park to play. I swear we did not pose them for this pic, they sat down just like this and it was too cute!

I have determined that getting 2 kids to look at you and smile, at the same time, is impossible:

off to do more “exploring”:

this statue kind of creeped them out, especially when Billy was making it “talk”:

again, 2 heads, 1 camera, not working for me:

We had a wonderful time and when it was time for them to leave, Damon wanted us all to come with him to his house and Lauren pouted and begged for Damon to stay. It was so fun to see them interact, they were really playing together and talking and the adults were just in the background for them (well, unless they needed to tattle on the other…but that was fairly minimal, they got along so great!). A very nice 4th:) After they left, we all napped for about 3 hours!

Lauren is very excited to be going to Wichita to hang out with Damon, grammy, papa, Shane and Katie while Billy is at his annual conference in Las Vegas in a month or so. We’ll see if I can make that drive almost 35 weeks pregnant by myself with a 3.5yo and a dog! eek!

New House

We stopped by the new house tonight and we were so excited to see we have counter tops!!

granite in the kitchen!

more granite in the butler’s pantry:

and still more in the master bath:

and on the shower seat in the master bath:

cultured granite in the main floor bath:

cultured marble in the ensuite guest bath:

more cultured marble in the kids jack-and-jill bath:

and all of our tile has been delivered, so we imagine that is also going in this week, we can’t wait to see it! We picked it out 5 months ago, so we really don’t even remember what is what!

Billy’s 33rd birthday is Wednesday, so I imagine we’ll have more pic’s to share soon!