IT'S A GIRL!!!!

We had our ultrasound yesterday, and we are having another girl!!! Morgan is very excited, the boys....they were hoping to outnumber the girls, now it will be even! Brian was very upset because there was a big meeting that came up at work, and he couldn't make it to the ultrasound. I tried to re-schedule, but there was nothing open for another 2 weeks, so we kept the appointment, and Morgan came with me. So was very excited at first, then very bored. I don't think she was up for an hour of trying to figure out what she was looking at on the screen. She asked why it wasn't in color. I think she had a different idea in her head of what "seeing the baby on TV" would be like-but she was a trooper!
And our little girl sent a message to daddy who wasn't able to come: I LOVE YOU!!!!
We thought it was so cute that we got a photo of her giving us the I LOVE YOU sign!
All fingers and toes accounted for!

And the good news is that Brian gets another chance at the ultrasound! They want me to come back in 7 weeks to measure the baby again and gage the growth. So, Brian just might actually get to attend an ultrasound!! Yay!

We are all happy that our little girl looks healthy and growing well!

Coming up for air!

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged-life has been pretty crazy around here the past few weeks. We took on some renovation projects, put our house on the market, bought a new van, and sold our house! My parents have been asking for photos of things we've done, so here's what we've been up to the past 3-4 weeks!
We decided to remodel our hall bathroom(which I have always hated) before we put it on the market-it was very dated.
The tub and toilet were a gray, weird blue walls, and mis-matched vanity, lighting, ect. We figured we'd try the least expensive and least amount of work plan first. To re-paint the vanity, paint the tub, tile and toilet with special tub and tile paint, then paint the walls and be done! Well, things never go as planned....The 'special' tub and tile paint bubbled all up after the second coat and looked horrible, so we ripped everything out. In doing that the dry wall was damaged, so we ripped that out as well. It's a good thing the drywall was gone, because it made it easier to get the the pipes that ended up needing to be replaced. Brian worked on that for 2 days on his own before calling in a plumber to come and take care of it. We ended up taking up the flooring as well. We were beginning to feel overwhelmed, and with an open house scheduled in 2 weeks, we called in a contractor to help. Although we had him start on some other projects in the house first, and ended up doing the bathroom ourselves anyway!
We literally put the bathroom together 15 minutes before our first showing! Brian just finished putting the toilet on, and prayed it didn't leak as he tested it before we walked out the door-success!
This is the finished product. I like it so much better than the old bathroom-why didn't we do it 5 years ago!

We also put in a new banister (no before photo-but the old one was black iron and very 70's).

This is my new granite counter tops-no more burn mark!

Our master bath just needed a few touches:
We took out the cupboard above the toilet, and my sister Missy put in new tile on the floor for us!

Our family room used to have hardwood floors that were scratched and worn, and the room just felt cold and uninviting, so we put carpet in here, and it feels like a totally different room. Again...no before photo.
We put the house on the market last Sat., then went out of town until Monday night. While we were gone we had 6 showings and 7 families come to the Open House. Then all last week I had 3 showings a day. It was easy to keep clean, because we were never allowed to be home! I was really tired of having to leave all the time. We then got 2 offers on Friday, which were both really low, and we didn't accept them, hoping that something better would come. Then last night we signed a contract for the full asking price-yay!! We move into our new home the first week of March, and then close on this house March 9th-I'm so happy that it all happened so quickly!

During all of this we also bought a 12 passenger van! Brian wanted one when I was pregnant with Ashlyn, but I said "No way, we still fit in the mini-van, not until we have 6 kids will I consider it!" Well, number six is on the way, and I got a call from the Baltimore mission saying that they had a 12 passenger van for sale this week. We went and looked at it, and it was such a good deal that I gave in and we got the BIG van! The kids love it, they think it's the coolest thing ever. I'm curious to see if they feel the same way when their in high school! :)

So that's the condensed version of what we've been up to the past month!

Christmas & New Years

So, here it is the 4th of Jan., and I am finally getting around to posting about Christmas! I have been colossally behind in EVERYTHING lately! We are hoping to get our house on the market in 2 weeks, and that has been an all consuming project!
Anyway... we did have a wonderful Christmas season, with lost of fun memories. Here are a few..

My mother got the girls matching dresses (two sets actually..I'll have to post the others later), which they have had a ball in. She gave them to us in Nov., and Morgan wanted so badly to wear them them, so they have been enjoying their dresses for many weeks now! Why have I always waited until the week before Christmas in the past to let them were them? From now on the whole month of Dec. will be Christmas dresses!
A friend of mine gave the kids a gingerbread house kit this year. We have never done a kit before, always just did it ourselves, but this was so quick and easy-just what I needed this year! It even came with the icing! We found out though that the kit is great for looks, but isn't as good to eat.
My sister Missy joined us this year for Christmas Eve dinner, and again Christmas morning to open presents. She went home to sleep, and the plan was to meet at our house at 7:00am to open gifts, with the understanding that we'd call her if the kids got up earlier and we couldn't hold them off. Well, Ronan was up at 6:00am, ran down stairs saw that Santa had come, and ran to our room to tell us the good news. We tried to get him to quietly lay in bed with us for a little while to let everyone sleep a bit longer...ya right! How do you make an excited 8 year old stay in bed longer on Christmas morning! We called Missy to tell her (worried that we would be waking her up), to find that she was wide awake and ready. She had been up since 5:50am...she was so worried she'd sleep through it, that she couldn't sleep at all! So, she came, and we had a great time opening gifts!

Here is Duncan with his beloved 'Walker' from Santa. You have no idea what a headache it was to find this gift. They are no longer made, and I had to get it off eBay. This was the first year I was ever stressed about a gift, but as this was the ONLY thing he asked for, I didn't want to let the poor guy down! We explained to the kids that mom and dad wouldn't be giving them gifts this year (as our gift was the new house that we just bought, but aren't living in yet:) ), Santa would bring 1 gift, and Nana & Papa got them each a gift. Amazingly enough 2 gifts to open on Christmas morning was just as wonderful as 10! I think we will continue this less is more thing again next year!

Ashlyn loves her little stroller and baby she got, although she's pretty sure it's for her to ride in too!

After lunch on Christmas day we took the kids to a nearby Nursing home to visit with those that wouldn't get visitors that day. It was a great time. At first the kids were shy and embarrassed, but they quickly warmed up and had a great time putting puzzles together with some of the residence, and playing catch. Ashlyn was a hit, and many of the elderly ladies just wanted to sit and watch her play! It was great to bring some joy to these people, and helped us remember what Christmas is really about, Jesus Christ. We asked the kids "If Jesus were really here, would he stay home and play with his gifts all day, or would he go out and bring cheer to others?" Obviously he would be out visiting, and this was a great experience for us, and something we plan to make a tradition!

We had a wonderful New Years. We had some friends over and played games together, and let the kids play until the fell asleep. It was far too chilly out this year to go out side to ring in the new year (usually the kids bang pots and pans in the street), but it was lots of fun.