BillyandAshlee.com

For the first time in weeks/months, I got a weekend to relax and it was heaven!!

Friday night, I had girls dinner with 2 of my BFF’s and it was wonderful and much needed girls/adult time. Meanwhile, Billy took Lauren out to dinner to the “peanut place” aka Texas Roadhouse and then afterward, they went to Flamingo Friday (the weekly neighborhood party) at Kayla’s house. Lauren was stoked for it all day, talking about it from the moment she woke-up. She is such a social butterfly and loves a party. I guess she had a great time. Another family in the neighborhood just transferred to Lauren’s school and into her class, so apparently it was Lauren, Kayla, and Katie all night. We are excited to go again next Friday! We really have a great group of neighbors.

Saturday, we ran a few errands and have decided that the table we want for our breakfast nook does not exist. Hopefully when I have time on maternity leave to get out and browse, we’ll find something. Then Lauren and I took naps (heaven!!) while a friend/contractor of ours came over for the afternoon…Declan and Billy do some swap of service stuff (he does stuff around the house and Billy helps with his website)…Billy’s going to redo his website and Declan is going to install our garage door openers and something to do with a hidden shelf behind the tv. After naps, we grilled out and ate at home and that was so great…we didn’t do much of that in the duplex as I have been too tired to cook and it never felt like home and most of my stuff was packed away…it’s so great to have all of my stuff back and I love cooking in my new kitchen. After that, we went for a long walk around the neighborhood, hoping to help the baby along:).

Today, Lauren and I went and bought her present to the baby and did our grocery shopping while Billy ran to Lowe’s and then worked on the garage organizing, hanging bikes, etc and he installed a motion detector into the walk-in pantry in the kitchen which is AWESOME!!! After lunch, Lauren and I again took naps while Billy kept working. Then it was up for a walk around the neighborhood and some peeks into houses being built on our cul-de-sac, some chitchat with some neighbors, then in to make dinner (chicken and mushroom enchilada’s, yum!), followed by another walk around the neighborhood, and now Lauren is headed to bed after her shower. Yes, I said shower. She’s never liked showers, except for the walk-in shower at our gym. Last weekend, she wanted to get in our master bath walk-in shower and that is that…she *loves* taking showers in there…with both the normal shower head and the rain head going. And the way the shower is set-up, since it’s walk-in, she can walk to one side and we can soap up her hair and then she walks back in and rinses herself. My baby is growing up!! *sniff sniff*!!

We had new neighbors move in this weekend around the corner from us, kind of behind us, and we could watch from our windows along the back of our house. Lauren has been *dying* to go meet them (they have a little girl who appears to be maybe just shy of 2)…every night when we got ready to leave for our walk, they went in right before we left. She is totally distraught. As I said, she thrives on social interaction! She has done really well this weekend, so totally happy and high energy and funny and sweet…we think she’s getting settled, feeling more comfortable, and is also probably getting excited for her baby brother to come.

Speaking of which, no signs of labor at all, go figure! I had some crampy contractions over night on Friday, but I’ve had those on and off for weeks. I’ve been drinking the red raspberry leaf tea and using the evening primrose oil capsules and trying to add lots of walks. It’s crazy to think that labor could start at any time, or I could be getting induced in 2 weeks instead. I’m not good with not knowing!! I realized on Friday that I really only have 1 more week of work before my due date since I am due on Tuesday, 9/8 and Monday is a holiday. eek!! I have plenty of work to do to keep me busy, so that’s good. And I’m totally nesting at home, cooking, cleaning, keeping up with laundry, etc just so everything is always ready in case I go into labor. And I’m feeling great, lots of energy (probably thanks to the naps!), sleeping pretty well except the frequent bathroom trips, my back feels good, etc. So, I suppose another 2ish weeks is doable:).

I had my 38 week appt today and it appears this child will be just as stubborn as his sister! I’m the same as last week, 1cm, thick, and high. Fabulous. My dr. said she won’t induce until my cervix is favorable for induction or not until 41 weeks if that never happens. I don’t want to be induced, so that’s fine, but I wish this kid would just come out on his own just around my due date and not make me go 3 more weeks! My dr said we’ll discuss a plan of action next week. I actually feel better this week than I did last week (my swelling is gone, it’s cooler outside, etc). It’s interesting that I wasn’t anxious for Lauren to come at all, I actually talked my dr. into letting me go another week, but I’m ready for this baby to come!! I think I was more fearful of labor and having a newborn at home last time and since both went so well, I’m not as worried about those things and just can’t wait to meet him and for Lauren to meet him!

I guess the good news in that he has waited is that it has given the chance to unpack and organize the entire house and I have even started the “buying of things”, much to Billy’s dismay! Grammy and papa’s room is now ready for their stay when the baby comes with all new bedding and bath stuff! If this baby takes 3 more weeks, I’m going to have to keep myself occupied and it’s going to get expensive!

In one week, I managed to get the entire house unpacked and organized, less the garage which is Billy’s territory and the playroom which is on my schedule for tonight/tomorrow. The baby’s room is ready to go (crib finally being delivered today after it being ordered 4 months ago and the furniture store “losing” just the crib, but not the dresser or nightstand, and having to reorder it…at least we get free next day delivery), everything is washed and put away and Billy will install the car seat bases tonight, which I imagine will make it all seem more real for Lauren. So crazy that in just a few short weeks, we’ll have a newborn in the house again!

We are absolutely in love with our new house, I had no idea just how much we’d love it!! I can’t wait to spend 12 weeks soaking up baby time there:). Well, and doing a lot of decorating! And Lauren finally got to hang out at the pool on Saturday and Sunday…and she’s such a little fish this summer, jumping in from the side to us, going up and down the ladders, etc. It’s so hard to drag her home from the pool! I think having a pool we can go to so easily and her neighborhood friends are there, will only continue to help her comfort in the water. And we should get a pretty relaxing weekend this weekend to enjoy some more pool time. Unless this baby decides to make his appearance, I could only be so lucky as to go into labor on my own and not be induced!! Lauren has declared we should either name the baby “Grant” or “Holler”. Let’s see…I worked at Grant Thornton for 4 years, so I don’t see that name happening (apparently it’s a school friends brother’s name and she “wants to be like Sydney”) and “Holler”? Hmmm, I can’t see that.

A few neighbors this week invited us to “Flamingo Friday”…every Friday, you look for the house with the pink flamingo’s in the yard and that’s the party house that night and everyone takes a turn hosting…after dinnertime, a byob on the driveway where the adults talk and the kids play. Perfect. Walkable. So tonight after we got home from dinner, we grabbed Lauren’s tricycle and Brody and walked up the street to Flamingo Friday. Kayla, Lauren’s school friend that lives in our neighborhood, was there with her family, and the girls had a wonderful time and it was nice to chat with her parents outside of the few mins that we get at school when we pick-up/drop-off at the same time. And we met probably 10+ other sets of neighbors. Most have kids our kids ages, one has a 17 year old daughter looking for babysitting jobs (perfect!!), one had a daycare referral for us that is in a perfect location between home and Lauren’s daycare, and of course Billy bonded with some other techies. Even Brody made a new friend in 7 year old black lab named Maverick:). We left saying how much we LOVE our new neighborhood. It’s so great to have a ton of people in our same demographic…young families. We can’t wait until the houses on our cul-de-sac are finished (we are the first), one is really close to being done and we haven’t met them yet. All in all, we are loving our new life:)

This is a busy weekend, Billy is throwing a bachelor party for one of his BFF’s and will be gone most of Saturday, so Lauren and I have grand plans of spending time at the pool and having some friends over to play. Among that, we have some errands to run, a playroom to organize, and baby stuff to get ready. It’ll be Monday before we know it!

It’s been one week since we’ve officially owned our house and 5 days since we moved in and it already feels like home. That could have something to do with the fact that we’ve spent time at the house almost every single night for the last 6 months! We just love the neighborhood, love the highway access, love all the space and storage (Brody looks small laying in the rooms!), completely LOVE my kitchen, love our new walk-in shower with a normal shower head and rain head, and the list goes on and on. I’m so glad we took years to decide exactly what we wanted in a layout, storage, location, etc., it has definitely paid off. Now the race is on to get everything unpacked and set-up before the baby comes! I have officially finished the kitchen, which wasn’t a small task with likely 15+ boxes of stuff! All I have left is a few boxes in the bathroom and master closet, to organize/purge the playroom, and organize the baby’s room. Then of course all of the decorating, hanging of pictures, etc., but that will happen during my maternity leave I’m sure. After I get the baby’s stuff washed (car seat covers, boppy covers, etc) this weekend and my hospital bag packed, I’ll feel “ready” for him to come. And it looks like the weather will be nice this weekend and we can finally take advantage of the pool, Lauren can’t wait!

Lauren has done really, really good with the transition. The first night that we put her to bed she was kind of scared, but she’s been great since then. The duplex was a much harder transition, she was crying at bed time and getting up at 6am…she’s going to bed w/o a word here and we’re dragging her out of bed at 8am. Yea! I guess the fact that we spent every night out here made it feel more like “home” to her…or the fact that she just went through the transition 4 months ago and she’s more used to the idea of moving. Who knows, but we’re thrilled! She’s definitely ready for the baby to come out. I told her I had a dr. appt today and they’d see if the baby was ready to come out…tonight she was sitting with me and must have remembered the dr appt and suddenly sat up and asked if the baby is ready to come out…she was disappointed when I said no…and then started yelling into my belly that it was time to come out which of course woke him up so he starts kicking me and she’s yelling in my belly and feeling/watching him kick…already interacting in utero, cute!

I had my 37 week dr. appt today. I started having a lot of swelling in the last few days mainly in my feet/ankles (might have something to do with my client’s offices being abnormally warm), but my blood pressure is still great at 112/68, so just normal “end of pregnancy” stuff…I had the same with Lauren. I hadn’t felt the baby move much this morning, which is unusual for him, so they hooked me up to the monitor for about 20 mins and he looked great! yea! I’ve been having a lot of contractions at night for the last few weeks, so at Billy and my mom’s request, I had the nurse midwife check me (my dr. is on vacation this week)…I’m a “good 1cm and 70% effaced”. At about this point with Lauren, I was barely 1cm and 50% effaced and never really made much more progress, so I’m already further along than I was with her! I have my fingers crossed that means he’ll decide to come on his own and I won’t be induced, which I’d really, really like! But, if nothing else, I know they will likely induce 3 weeks from today, 9/10, so only 3 more weeks at most, I can live with that!

I will attempt to take some pictures (house, belly, etc), but I’m pretty sure Billy hasn’t gotten his computer stuff set-up yet, so it’ll be awhile before I can post them.

Closing went really well. Our lender, Bill, actually attended with us, which probably wasn’t necessary, but definitely a nice “customer service” touch and he was able to answer a few of my questions, so that’s good. The lady we closed with at the title company was awesome as well…definitely the first good experience we’ve had with mortgage lenders and title companies!!! Bill even gave us a “thank you” card at the end with a $25 home depot gift card! Very nice of him. I told him we’ve sent a few people his way and he remembered who immediately. Man, he’s good! Overall, I am 100% thrilled with our builder, subdivision, lender, title company…we’ve had SUCH a good experience. And we were warned 50,000 times by everyone we talked to about how horrible building will be…guess there are good ones out there! It paid to do our research!

We should get our keys today after the title is recorded!! yea!!!

Billy ran out to the house this morning and he said there were a thousand people there…finishing up everything…fence, trim, last things on punch list, people in the house cleaning again (yea!!), Joel our construction manager was there, etc. The trim guy had just finished installing the doggy door from the garage to the outside, so Billy asked Joel if he could please, please, please do the one into the house (told us months ago it was against code and he couldn’t…but inspection was yesterday, hehe)…he said “watch this” and called the trim guy over and said, “you have one more to do”…and they’re putting it in for us!!!! =) I LOVE Joel!! =) We want to get him a gift…but haven’t thought of anything good enough yet. Must do that tonight and give it to him tomorrow.

We are going out to the house tonight after work and I can’t wait…it’s ours!!!!!! =)

Wednesday, whew.

Last weekend was a blur…Friday was the usual dinner, run by the house, go get a gift for Ethan’s birthday party.

Saturday I took Lauren to her gymnastics gym’s party they throw every year for National Gymnastics Day (bounce house, dunk tank, open gym, etc) while Billy packed. Then they took a nap while I got my hair cut. Then home to get ready for Ethan’s 4th bday party and we were at his party from late afternoon until (past) bed time. Lauren had so much fun playing with Ethan and Brayden…the 3 of them play so well together…much better than in groups of 2!

Sunday we hung out around home in the morning, then went to the pool for a few hours after lunch, then home for naps while I picked up the house, then we ran errands, dinner, then bed.

And what’s sad is that is the most relaxing weekend we’re going to have for a long time!!

So far this week, we’ve transferred all the utilities at the new house to our name, canceled the utilities at the rental, finished washing/folding the last of the laundry we’ll do in the duplex, finalized our closing (we got the all clear to close from underwriting yesterday!! yea!!), booked the location for Lauren’s 4th bday party (9/26 is the party day for those that can come!), gave Brody a bath, new collar, washed his bed, and brushed about 40lbs of dog hair out of him bc wouldn’t you know it, he’s in a shedding time as we move to the new house! We should get our final settlement statement from the mortgage company or title company late today and we close at 10am tomorrow!! Billy and I plan to move as much as we can by ourselves on Friday and we have to be at the new house for a few hours for the AT&T person to install the cable/internet stuff and the alarm/sound guy is coming by to show us how the alarm works and to install the last few things he has (they won’t install the outdoor speakers until the end bc apparently the subcontractors like to take them for their own house!). The wood blinds were installed on Monday and they look awesome. We should be getting sod and the rest of the fence today or tomorrow…I think the city inspection is today. We have a bunch of family coming in on Friday night and more on Saturday and we’ll be getting started for real at 8:30 on Saturday morning with the help of a ton of family/friends. Here’s hoping it takes less time than it did to move into the rental!! Only 3 more days!! So crazy we started talking about this 8 months ago and now we are almost done! And 3.5 weeks before the baby’s due date! =)

All that’s left at the new house is sod, fence (posts are in), and install wood blinds (being installed tomorrow). We close on the new house at 10am on Thursday. We take possession on Friday and Billy and I are taking the day off of work to do last minute packing and start moving stuff to the new house. Then we officially start moving at 8:30am on Saturday, I think we have roughly 20 people helping us, although I shouldn’t count myself in that unfortunately…but I’ll be good at directing! Any last minute volunteers are welcome! =) Only 6 nights left in the duplex (yea!)!!

We’re very paranoid that Joel (our construction manager) will jinx us as he said no matter what, he has never beat a baby, they always come before the house closes, even if that’s early. Given our track record (having been induced a week late with Lauren), we aren’t too worried, but we are holding our breath until Saturday regardless!

I had my 35 week dr. appt today…blood pressure still great at 120/70 and everything looks good. My next appt is in 2 weeks at 37weeks with a midwife since my dr. will be on vacation. After that it is weekly appts (starting at 38 weeks) and I’ll get my first check to see *if* I’m dilated. My dr. usually induces on Thursdays…so the first chance I’d be induced would be Thursday, 9/10 (2 days overdue) if conditions are favorable, otherwise we’d wait another week. I really want to go on my own with this baby and not be induced, but I’ll see if I’m still saying that in 4.5 more weeks and that much more uncomfortable! She told me to take it easy with the move next week, do lots of directing and carrying of things like lamps, and to just listen to my body and rest. She said I’ll be 36.5 weeks and it’s not the worst thing in the world if it puts me into labor!haha I really hope to go at least another week post-move and given my track record of being induced a week overdue with Lauren, I’m not counting on the baby coming early! I’m still feeling fine, just very pregnant…and the baby moves so much more than Lauren ever did, that it makes it that much more uncomfortable. I won’t be surprised if this kid really likes his space and hates swaddling…whereas Lauren loved it!

The house is *this* close to being done. We had our final walk through on Monday, lasted about 3 hours. Joel walked us through how everything works, what maintenance to do, etc. Lots and lots of notes I need to type up before I forget what my chicken scratch says. We also made the final punch list for them (paint touch-ups, etc) and they’re working on that this week along with the final coat of poly on the hardwoods, the sprinkler system and landscaping went in on Monday, we should be getting sod today, and the wood blinds throughout the house and the fence should go in next week and we’re done! We close a week from today. It’s very hard to believe. Lauren is so excited she can barely stand it, she’s totally on the countdown (probably as much for the new house as for the fact she’ll get to see papa/grammy again!). She can’t wait to get in that pool with her school friend, Kayla, who will be our new neighbor! And I just found out yesterday from Kayla’s mom that there’s another girl (just turned 4yo) from our new neighborhood starting in the girls class in a few weeks! I see lots of play dates in the girls future!

Here are some of the more recent pics.

the front…we *love* how the stone turned out with the paint colors:

the deck:

close-up:

the finished stairs!:

the correct shade of yellow for Lauren’s room “melted butter” =):

Lauren telling each new shrub “hi”: