We've had quite the busy last few months. Yes, 2 months almost since I last posted. Welcome to my life. We've been having lots of fun, work, and many "firsts" in life. Here are the highlights.
We are finally in our 1st house! Its so nice! After 6 years of living with Jim's family, and 8 years of marriage, we finally have our first house. The boys are having fun with the neighborhood kids, I'm having fun with a big kitchen (and everything else, for that matter - except cleaning 3 bathrooms), and I hope Jim is having fun. He's been working, so I'm not sure he's having "fun" per-se, but I think he enjoys having his own house.
This is an amazing thing: have you ever seen "movers" move? They put EVERYTHING on their backs, loaded up 2 or 3 high, and walk around with stuff. Nothing was broken (that I know of)!
We were blessed to have my mom come out and help me with the move. She came friday night before we moved, helped me do some wedding flowers and pack and clean all in the same weekend. Our movers came on Monday and after quite the ordeal we were in Fountain at our new house. It was so nice to have mom come - moving is stressful but she took most of the stress out of it for me. Thanks so much mom!
1st trip to the school playground, and maybe the 1st time on a teeter-totter for Michael.
We had our 1st visitors to our new house on Tuesday...the day after we moved. Uncle Doug and Aunt Layne came down to help with our moving, and boy what a day! Jim was able to move out of his stinky apt. in Pueblo with Uncle Doug's help. Aunt Layne and Mom-O worked so fast and hard that by the end of the day the kitchen and bedrooms were completely set up and "functional". What a blessing to have family who is willing and able to help!
Here is a sampling and a few pictures of some of our other firsts:
1st mowing our lawn, with our first lawn mower. Thanks Uncle Doug for fixing it up for us so we can actually mow! I had one of those "this is the american dream I'm living" moments as I saw Jim out there mowing our little front lawn. Yes, I am pregnant...no, I didn't cry over it even though it did hit my heart in that "this is my happy little life" way. I must put in my disclaimer here - the following picture (and any of Jim, for that matter) have NOT been approved by Jim (no pictures will ever be approved by him). But, I like this one a lot...I think its a good one. What a quaint thing -mowing the lawn in front of a lovely blue house that is our own!
1st plunger! This is the "Mike O'Neil Memorial Plunger"given to us by Mom-O to help us be prepared for whatever may come and not properly leave. Thanks Mom-O and Papi!
1st bath in the new tub!
1st fresh peach pie of the summer! YUMMY!
1st pictures with my new camera! For Mother's day Jim "gave me" (well, told me I could get) the camera I've been dreaming of for years. I really like it, I just wish I had more time to use it. Thanks Cristian (Suzanne McNairy's husband) for helping me do my homework, and for getting me a really good deal! And, due to technical difficulties, they will have to be delayed until another post...sorry to disappoint, but its getting late and my computer doesn't want to cooperate to add these last few pictures tonight. (My goal was to actually post something so you all know we're alive at least, so something has to be sacrificed to meet the goal) But, they are really good pictures and I love my new camera!
1st "home disaster" - thanks to Best Buy. We had our washer and dryer delivered (my first set, Samsung, which I am enjoying and also got a deal on). Well, the delivery guys hooked it up and turned it on to make sure it worked, and left. Eric and Michael were watching it run and all of a sudden they run to Jim and say "there is water all over". Problem! They didn't put the drain hose into the drain hole in the wall! Water was all over the floor. Jim cleaned it up and by the time I got home from the store it looked ok. Well, about an hour later there is water dripping from the smoke detector in the TV room (the laundry room is upstairs)! So, that is our 1st home disaster, which I still need to finish getting repaired all the way (buy a new detector, one that will work). As my dad put it "welcome to home ownership!" The good news: we still like Best Buy, who is sending a check for our new smoke detector (one that will work and hasn't been drenched in water) and "our time". Here is a picture with a few drops of water showing.
And - we found out on July 2nd that we will be having our 1st girl! Yes, I said GIRL! Our little Katherine Nicole Vinton, who we are going to call Kate, will join us in October! Its been fun to be able to use a girl name for a change! The name is Kate (after me) and Nicole after my inspiring and amazing sister-in-law. Eric and Michael are very excited to have a sister. Eric wanted a girl "because we don't have one of those yet" and of course Michael says he wants one too. Michael is excited to be a BIG brother, not just a little brother. The boys are really sweet about the baby, wanting to know every time we go to the Dr. if today is the day that the Dr. takes the baby out.
Other events in life since the last post:
We (well, the boys and I - Jim had to work) went on a little vacation to my mom's family reunion. It was a great time, despite my not feeling well and worrying about the baby. We went to a place called Hidden Springs Ranch in Altamont, UT. It was a HUGE lodge with a pool and lots of activities, and cows roaming around the range. There were 60 or so of us in the lodge, it was a good gathering! The boys had fun shooting with Papi - both "real guns" and paint guns. Uncle Merrill brought his horses and let us ride for a few minutes. Michael had a great time on the horse with me, but Eric was very worried and didn't enjoy it as much. Michael has always been a cowboy at heart. Mom-O and Papi took the boys night swimming in the jacuzzi, which they really enjoyed with their glow sticks on their arms. The boys also enjoyed Papi's magical light show every night at bedtime, its quite the show if you haven't seen it you're missing out!
Eric's favorite part was probably playing video games all day - both the Wii and game boy. He is really good at guitar on guitar hero, which transferred over to rock band. Eric also got to "link up" with Chris' DS and play 2 player on their games. At one point he was boxing on the Wii with my cousin Jordan, who is quite tall. Someone looked over at them and commented that it was "David and Goliath" over there fighting.
I'm not sure what Michael's favorite part was. It may have been the horse ride. It could have been all of the attention and spoiling from Papi and Mom-O. Or, it may be discovering that he was tall enough to use the urinals, and that Papi could take him to go standing up (because mom couldn't). Thanks Papi for all of the trips to the restroom! And, I can't believe it, but I don't have very many pictures of the reunion - so, family who does, please send me some! Pretend you see below a picture of Michael holding Papi's finger and pal-ing around. Michael is very attached to his Papi.My favorite part was being around my family. They are such a good support to me, and give me a source of strength and love that I really need. It is so comforting to me to be able to be around them, and feel of their love and spend time with them. I always look forward to the next time I get to see them....so when is it?
I also need to mention that Erin (Jim's sister) got married in the last 2 months of craziness in our lives. She was married the weekend before my mom came to help with the move. It was a lovely ceremony, and a good and packed reception we all enjoyed. She looked beautiful, and very happy. We like Dan, too, so that helped make it a more joyous event. Annette (my CO "mom") did the amazing reception decorations, I did the wedding flowers, and we had help with the food. It made for a VERY busy week, but all went well in the end. I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa (Jim's parents) are glad they only had one daughter after all of the wedding craziness!
The boys got to be ring bearers durin the ring ceremony. They were so excited, and got to wear new black zip ties. They didn't know that they were going to stand up front the whole time (neither did we) and Michael got a little inpatient and peeked out from between Dan and Erin. It was a cute moment. Eric did very well standing up there during the cermony - very his personality. Here is a picture of Michael dancing with Erin at the reception. He tried to cut in on Dan during their first dance!
I could blog forever about everything that has been going on, but I'm going to have to break it up into little sections. That was the overview and if you're lucky you may get more ramblings and blogs with titles I've already thought of but need to have time to create. So, until next time...which will hopefully be sooner than 2 months...take care, all!