26

Yesterday I turned 26!  I guess when you get older and have a child, your own birthday doesn't seem quite as exciting.  I'm much more anticipating Kason's birthday (and baby g #2's) than I was my own. :)   Every year when January 30th roles around, I'm just so thankful to God for another year and all of the blessings he's given to me.  So thankful.  

This birthday did seem a little more significant.  It was the second birthday that I have spent with a baby growing inside of me.  It's also most likely the last birthday that I will spend pregnant, so that was something to definitely think about and cherish.  I won't be 100% sure until after I have baby #2, but more than likely this will be our last biological child.  I have a heart for adoption, and would LOVE to adopt once Kason is older.

My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, and I tried to come up with something fun to do with Kason.  I watch my nephew on Wednesdays, so I loaded the boys into the car, and headed to a town an hour or so away.  I was so glad that my sister, best friend, and Kason's buddy Nolan could join us!  We went to a huge indoor playground.  The boys had a BLAST and played for a while!  Kason never ceases to amaze me with his bravery.  He climbed all the way to the top of this huge jungle gym, so problem.  I'm lucky my sister was willing to climb with him.  It would have been a sight to see my pregnant self climbing up!  

After the boys played, we headed accross the street to have lunch at an old fashion ice cream shop.  The food was SO good, and the brownie sundae I had for dessert was aaaaamzing!  Once we finished lunch, I told Kason that all I wanted for my birthday was a nice picture of him.  You know...one of him actually looking at the camera and smiling.  I kid you not, he came running at me and this is what happened.....

He was in rare form yesterday.  He keeps me laughing all day long!

It was such a fun day!

I have been so excited for the architect to finish out preliminary drawings and come show us.  As luck would have it, he finished them Tuesday, and we were able to meet with him yesterday evening.  A perfect birthday present, because, Oh. my. word., I can't believe what he came up with!  He was able to make it so the first floor of our house had a foyer, 3 bedrooms, AND a possibility of a much larger kitchen space that would open up into a family room (if it's in the budget).  And that's just the first floor!  He was also able to come up with a way to finish out attic giving us a large playroom along with an area for an office.  The attic will be partially open to the foyer, making it brighter and more open.  I am so thrilled that he was able to create a floor plan that works for our growing family.  We're hoping to make a couple changes to the plans, and then have final drawings and be ready for construction.  So exciting! :)

After we met with the architect, we headed to dinner.  It was the perfect ending to a great birthday.  So anxious to see what 26 holds for me.  I know it's going to be a great year full of changes! :)

home

This is our sweet little home.  I've blogged about our house before, you can check it out here.  It's an old little house, built in 1896.  It has creaky floors, transoms over the doors, 10 ft. ceilings, and windows big enough to make any natural light photographer inveous.  And I love it.  Like really, really love it.  There is so much character and history here.  Are there problems with the house?  Yes.  It's ridiculously expensive to heat because the walls aren't insulated and the windows are single pained.  There's two entries, the front and the back, and since our garage is detached and behind the house, everyone walks in through the back door.  Coincidentally, this is the laundry room.  So everyone walks in to see that I can't keep up with my laundry.  Not ideal, but hey, it could be way worse.  We don't have a ton of room to host things, and I would love to have more space for that.  The biggest problem of all, though, is the fact that it's only two bedrooms.  When we bought the house 4 years ago, we had no idea that our family would grow so quickly.  Having only 2 bedrooms didn't seem like an issue when we bought it.  

And then Kason was born.  Suddenly, I feel like hot wheels cars and basketballs are taking over my life.

So when I found out I was pregnant with Baby G #2, we knew something had to be done.  We had tossed around the idea of trying to finish the attic and add on an additional bedroom a couple of years ago.  After going and looking at bigger house, with lots of storage and big living spaces, I quickly decided I wanted to just wash my hands of this little, old house and move on.  We were literally about a week from listing our house, and had already found a house we liked, when my emotions took over.  Maybe it's the fact that I'm very hormonal with this pregnancy (poor, poor Duane), or the fact that I realized none of the houses we looked at had near the character ours does, but I suddenly wanted to stay here.  So, I gave in to my husbands request to contact an architect and see how we could make our house work for our growing family.  After all, a remodel with a toddler and large pregnant belly sounds better than packing everything up, only in turn to unpack it all again in a new home. Yuck.

Today we met with an architect and I couldn't be happier with how it went.  He walked through the house with us and was so positive about the reality of adding a bedroom and playroom, as well as giving us some more living space.  He seemed super thorough, and not one to just plop a room onto our house that doesn't look like it matches.  I'm so, so excited to see the plans he comes up with.  I'm thrilled that we will most likely be able to stay here for at least 5-10 more years, and then hopefully build a house that we love just as much.  When I left my full time job to stay home, I knew there were sacrifices I'd have to make.  Staying in a house with 2 closets may be one of them, but I'm okay with that.  After all, I love this little old house, and can't wait to bring Baby G #2 home here. :)

Color Splash

A few weeks ago we finally bit the bullet and had our house painted.  We are thankful the outside of our house no longer looks neglected (minus the brown grass).  We are really happy with the outcome and glad we decided to hire a painter to do this big project!  

Here are a few pictures...