Kristen & Kaden

I snapped this picture of Kristen last night. Kaden had the hiccups a couple of days ago. We just can't wait for that little guy to get here! We joked with her last night about her tummy. Patrick was over and has not seen her pregnant. He said she looked like she had a basketball under her shirt. I said no - those are nachos. (Like the Taco Bell commercial where the guy is dressed like a pregnant lady trying to get into a game and actually has a round glass case with nachos under his shirt). So then we joked and said, yeah - I'ts Nacho (not your) Baby!

Kristen made me crop the picture.

Spring Cleaning SUCKS!~

Boy would Grandma Hellewell be proud of me! I am once again covered in 3 shades of paint!

We cleaned out the office yesterday and I am de-cluttering, and touching up paint on the walls. My living room furniture was taken back to RC Willey so they can do some repairs (on new furniture go figure) anyway... so there is no furniture in the living room, I was cleaning out the pantry - had stuff all over the counter. Garrett's girlfriend comes over and was like what the heck? Garrett said, "We are moving". She looked at him like.... TONIGHT? Ha.

This week has been fun! We started by celebrating Cinco De Mayo on the 17th (yes - we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by having margaritas and nachos at one of our favorite places... Barbacoa). Then on Wednesday we thought - how can we possibly take advantage of the low house prices and interest rates??? By looking at new houses! We found a couple we are in love with. I think finding two is worse than finding one.... because now I can't decide. I absolutely love my house but Tom and I think it is time to lessen the load.... meaning Garrett is graduating in June and we are going to be "Empty Nester's" so we want to kind of be footloose and ready to take off with a moments notice, not have to do yard work, and maybe get a little less square footage. Our house is just over 2,600 SF and one we are looking at is 1,960 - so it isn't that much smaller... but way less yard - perfect for what we are trying to do.... We will just see if ours sells. If not - well no biggie! But it is exciting.

We made a fire in the fire pit and sat outside on Thursday. The weather is getting so nice. I had my legs crossed and on Tom's lap looking down at the fire....and had this funny idea to take a picture and send it to my mom of my boobs (fully clothed... relax) and have the fire in the background with a caption that read "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire". Well I got no response....come on!!! It was FUNNY!

Friday night we went out to dinner with our best buds Bob & Marcia! Had a few laughs and took them by the houses we are looking at. Kristen and AJ wanted to see, so they came out as well.

Then - started the cleaning weekend! OH JOY! I hope your weekend was as busy (but more fun) as ours!

Request: Jennifer Arthur & Jackie Stone - POST MORE PICS OR SOME UPDATES! Jennifer I know you have some of your weekend with the parents and Jackie - Connor probably doesn't even look like the pictures you have posted anymore!

More baby stuff!

Tom and I decided to surprise Kristen with the crib her and AJ had picked out. I called AJ to make sure he would be home and I told him NOT to tell Kristen. We were almost to the check stand when Kristen called and said she wasn't feeling well and was going home from work.....Oh nooo....Well change of plans! We bought the crib and headed over to their house. We tried to make Kristen go in the bedroom but she figured out what we were doing. Oh well.. it was still a nice surprise.Tom left for home and me, Kristen & AJ decided to get some of the fish and bubbles painted. Um...ok Kristen, why did you paint them aqua blue? OOPS! That color was for the fish stripes! No big deal... we just painted over them. Kristen got the hang of it in no time!AJ did a great job on the fish with stripes!

Painting Baby Kaden's Room!

AJ and I started painting Kaden's room today. The bedding is crisp white, blue, green and some brown.... with fish and bubbles. So we decided to paint the room in an ocean / fish theme We still need to paint the fish and bubbles on the wall. I will post more pictures as we go.

I have paint in my hair and all over my hands but... I wasn't the only one! Look at poor Phoenix's tail!

Happy Birthday Tom!!!!

We had a great time celebrating Tom's birthday. Kristen & AJ, Garrett & Krystal were here to have cheesecake the night of his birthday. Friday night we went out to dinner with Bob and Marcia at Tucano's. We made sure they came to our table to sing to him! You can tell Tom was just thrilled... But that's what you get when it's your birthday!

Congratulations Garrett!

Garrett earned Employee of the Month for February! We are so proud of him! Krystal, his girlfriend was employee of the month for January..... Way to go!

Grandma & Grandpa Hellewell's House

One thing I learned this weekend:

IT ISN'T WHAT YOU HAVE - IT IS WHO YOU SHARE IT WITH!

I am sure we all have very fond memories of Grandma & Grandpa Hellewell's house. This is a request for YOUR memories. Please post on your blog for all of us to read. If you don't have a blog - please email them to all of us or post them as a comment to this post.

I remember when their house was being built. We would play with the bricks and walk on the platforms, and make little houses out of the bricks. One of the brick layers told us to stay away from the bricks and things. Well... I am sure you know how well that went over with Grandpa. He said "Those kids can play with those bricks if they want to".

I remember Susie and Julie bringing boyfriends over. We hung out with them in the basement.

The "Peeping Tom".

Frying cheese

Picking carrots

Picking gooseberries

Picking peas

Eating gooseberries with soda and salt

Grandpa flooding the lawn so we could play in the water

Hanging up clothes on the clothes line with Grandma. Wearing the clothespin holder and running with it - and it falling all the way down my legs.

Riding ATC's around the yard

BBQ's in the backyard

Walking home from 1st Grade to their house after school

Picking apples from the tree

The smell of breakfast cooking while you were still in bed

Fighting for the shower

The blue bedroom, the green bedroom, the earwig room

Mosquitoes on the sliding glass door

Watching grandma & grandpa dance with each other in the living room

Glitter, cardboard, zig zag scissors and new crayons

Ceramics

Painting quilt squares with fabric paint

Listening to Susie & Julie fight over who would wash and who would rinse the dishes

Julie washing her hair in the kitchen sink

Playing with grandma's wigs

The potato cellar

Susie & Julie waking us up to go to work with them - painting the schools

Easters

Thanksgivings

Baking our own bread

Wearing grandma's wigs

The smell of Old English aftershave

Grandpa dressed as Santa

Wall to wall bed in the basement

My kids asking if they could go into "The Store" in the basement

Material

Raspberries

Playing with dolls in the basement

New babies (cousins etc.) almost every time we came for a visit

The swing in the backyard

Grandma and Grandpa waving goodbye as we left for home

I could go on and on ........

Weekend at Grandma & Grandpa Hellewell's

We went to Grandma & Grandpa Hellewell's house this weekend to see the family as they got the house ready for the new owner. It was a great visit, but very sad. I have not seen rooms empty in that house since it was built. Here are some pictures of Kristen & AJ with family. I am glad they came down. This will probably be the only time everyone will see Kristen pregnant with baby Kaden.

AJ, Kristen & Susie

Janalee, Kristen, Julie, & AJ
AJ, Kristen, Beneta, & Danny