Henry turns 2

But first Clark turned 29!  Clark's birthday is April 4th and Henry's is April 10th.  6 days apart.  When I was pregnant with Henry I really thought he would come on Clark's birthday :)  To celebrate we had Chick-Fil-A for lunch {two of my sisters were visiting with their kids so it was a kids friendly option} and I honestly can't tell you what we did for dinner... I'm a terrible wife!  But look, at least I made him some rice krispy treats.  They are his favorite "dessert" since he doesn't like cakes or cookies.  The night before his birthday my sisters helped me decorate with balloons and streamers.  So I didn't totally neglect him on his birthday.  I just have no idea what we actually did that night.  But by the looks of Henry's messy face we may have had spaghetti? 

On Thursday April 10th, 2014 Henry turned 2!  He actually turned 2 at 12:16am and we celebrated by being fast asleep.  That morning he woke up to find what looked like Christmas morning to me!  He got a little spoiled.  But to our defense, Clark basically made the tool bench for free {but kind of turned out to be thousands of dollars because of the giant wood splinter he got lodged in his knuckle while working on it... that's another story} and the slide was on sale at Target so we couldn't pass it up. And he loves to "shoot hole" which means "basketball" {I guess} so we had to get a basketball hoop.  In his two year old voice it doesn't always sound like "shoot" and when it is paired with hole, it's probably not the best sounding word, ha ha!  

Excited for his tools!  

The slide kept him entertained for days!

Breakfast of champions.  Cinnamon drop bread from Great Harvest turned into french toast. Best thing ever!  He loves the cinnamon bread and points to Great Harvest every time we pass. 

I think he was very pleased with his presents

After he played with his presents and had a quick birthday nap, we had to take Clark to the hospital for surgery...  Basically on conference sunday in between sessions he went out into the garage to sand Henry's work bench so he could paint it and have it ready by that Thursday.  As he was sanding the edges with a piece of sand paper, part of the edge broke off and as it did the sand paper got caught but with the momentum Clark's hand kept going and slid right over the break causing a piece to go straight into his right ring finger just below the knuckle.  He said he immediately knew something was in there.  He came inside and asked me to try to get a sliver out, but I couldn't see anything.  It wasn't right below the skin like most small slivers are.  There was a little spot that was bleeding and that was it.  He couldn't really move his finger so we decided he should hurry and go into urgent care to see if they could get it out.  After waiting for a couple hours to be seen, the urgent care doctor couldn't find anything so he flushed out the wound as best he could and sent him on his way.  As the days went on Clark's finger got more swollen and more red.  He couldn't extend or straighten his finger at all.  It was stuck.  So on Wednesday he went back into the urgent care and showed them his finger and they immediately got him in to see a surgeon.  He had a visit with the surgeon and when the surgeon saw that Clark couldn't straighten his finger and there was pain when he pushed on his palm, he said Clark needed surgery that next day.  So Dr. Wayment was a saint and was able to squeeze Clark in on Thursday for surgery.  He didn't have any real openings, but made room.  It's too bad it had to be on Henry's birthday, but it needed to be done.  Plus the surgeon doesn't work over the weekend, so we would have had to wait till Monday.  So we were glad to just get it done.  Because the doc was squeezing him in they said to come in at 3 and then basically wait until he could find time to cut open his finger.  So I was naive and thought it would just be a quick, numb the hand and be on your way kind of thing.  I was wrong.  Henry and I waited with Clark to get all checked in and into a gown.  Two hours later, he still wasn't close to being ready so we left to eat dinner without poor Clark.  They were actually going to give him anesthesia so he wouldn't be awake for it.  They needed to stop the blood flow to his hand and the doctor cut into his finger and palm, so it wasn't just a little cut.  So by 6ish they took him into surgery.  Henry and I came back to the hospital just before 7 not knowing when Clark would be finished.  About 5 min after we got there the surgeon came out and showed me the giant sliver that he recovered from Clark's finger.  It was just under the tendon so that is why he couldn't move his finger.  The piece of wood was just over an inch long!  By the time Clark woke up and recovered it was 8pm and we weren't home till about 8:30.  Phew!  It was a long day.  And that was a long explanation.  But I had to document how Henry spent his 2nd birthday.  I don't think he cared one bit.  All he asked for all day was "cake" and at 8:30pm he finally blew out his candles.  

Watching TV with Dad while he waited. And waited.  And waited.

Still waiting

Birthday dinner at Cafe Rio with Mom for his favorite "cheese tacos" and black beans.  

Giant sliver

He finally got his cake!  

I know all mom's say it, but I really can't believe my baby is 2.  It feels like he has been in our family forever, but just saying I have a 2 year old seems weird.  He is such a joy and such a crazy person all at the same time.  Some days I think "oh that was a good day!" and some days I can't wait for Clark to get home!  But we have fun, and I wouldn't trade our little Henry for anything.  Within the last month, his vocabulary and verbal skills have really taken off.  He says some funny things.  My favorites are "cheese taco, prize, please, day, baby, bubble, and shoot".  It's only funny when you hear him say it.  I love little kids voices.  He also calls the Despicable Me movies "dad show" and asks to watch them every single day.  Multiple times a day.  I don't always give in.  But when I'm trying to cook dinner the "dad show" is a life saver.  He loves to sing songs especially ones that have actions.  "If you're happy and you know it" is still a favorite.  He still loves his Donkey and other stuffed animals.  He just recently started liking baby dolls after playing with his cousin Savannah's doll.  He now has his own baby doll that he feeds a bottle too.  We are teaching him to be soft and love babies so hopefully by August he will be ready for a baby sister!  I'm hoping he just kinda ignores her and does his own thing for the first few months while we all adjust.  He is definitely a daddy's boy so he probably won't care what mom is doing.  He still naps during the day for 2.5-3 hours which is so nice.  I hope he never stops napping :)  He also loves to play outside and dig in the dirt, kick the soccer ball, and do anything Dad is doing.  They are the best of friends!  He also still talks about skiing and wants us to pull him around when he is wearing socks so he can "ski".  Hopefully he keeps that enthusiasm up until winter!  He also just learned to say "Clark" and will say that instead of Dad when referring to Clark.  It is the funniest thing to hear him say "Clark".  Then we asked him what Mom's name was and he said "Clark" and if I say "No it's Laura" he says "No Mama Clark".  So pretty much anyone is Clark now. Even Henry calls himself Clark.  It's his middle name so he is sort of right.  

Happy Birthday to Henry!  We Love You! 

Family updates {a growing belly and a skier}

Well we've had some exciting things going on in our little family.  The first and most exciting thing is we are expecting baby #2 due the end of August.  I think I was aiming for more of a September/October baby, but end of August is fine with me!  I will live in Maxi skirts and flip flops.  We just found out today that a little girl will be joining our family!  We are thrilled that we will have one of each.  In the beginning I just kept referring to the baby as a boy and thinking boy, but I never had a strong feeling either way.  But a few days ago when we would ask Henry he would always say girl.  He never said boy.  And not that he actually knows what a boy and girl even are, but it made me wonder if I was in fact having a girl.  And here we are with a girl.  Henry knew!  

Back in February after a nice snowstorm we built a snowman family, complete with a little baby!  

Henry giving the baby a kiss

Lately he is loving baby dolls.  He found this one at my sisters house and he would hold it and rock it.  He just started saying the word "baby" and now he points to my stomach and says "baby".  But he also points to his stomach and Clark's stomach and says "baby".  We will see his reaction when there is an actual real baby in the house.  

We are so excited and feeling blessed to be having another healthy baby.  I know friends and family that struggle to have children or have healthy full term babies and so I feel extra amazed at the miracle of birth.  It really feels like a miracle when so many struggle with infertility.  I hope I don't take it for granted or ever seem ungrateful.  Luckily my pregnancies have all been great with not much sickness.  So I really do feel so blessed.  

Another fun and exciting thing was Henry going skiing for his first time and LOVING it.  I kept my expectations low thinking he would cry and be a little nervous.  But I was wrong.  He was constantly saying "down" and pointing in the direction he wanted to go.  He cried when he wasn't skiing down the hill.  Of course Clark was a proud Dad.  I'm glad Henry's first time was at Beaver Mountain where I learned to ski.  It was a nice day and not too hot or cold.  Perfect spring skiing day.  

Riding the 'magic carpet' up the bunny hill.  Henry doesn't seem to impressed. 

Saying "cheese" for the camera.  Ready to go down the hill for his first time

Like a pro

Taking a turn skiing with Papa Bill

Family photo (if you look close you can see my belly that's not quite round yet, but maybe just looks like I'm carrying extra weight.)

I didn't even bring my skis thinking it would be harder for me to bend down with Henry that long, and he usually wants Clark to help him since he loves his Dad.  And I really thought he would last 10 min.  So when he was loving it, I wished I had brought my skis and skied down with him at least once.  But I was happy to watch and snap pictures.  

Here he is with Auntie Katie.  He seriously wanted her to take him down two different times. Katie was a pro skiing with a munchkin between her legs.  

He warmed up to the magic carpet.  

 Clark is still working at coaching a U-17 club team in the evenings.  We are busy with games and tournaments most weekends but by May he will be done.  Then we can get back to house work before the baby comes at the end of the summer.  Henry is almost 2 and has been talking more and more each day.  He says some funny things.  My favorites are "cheese taco" "ball in hole" or "shoot ball" when he is playing basketball and "baby" and "please".  

House Remodel: Before, During, and After (sort of)

The time has finally come for me to take the time and blog about buying our first home which happened to be a "fixer upper".  We have a love/hate relationship with remodeling.  The "after" pictures really aren't truly "after" pictures because we still have things we need to do and updates we want to make.  But this is how we are currently living.  I have big plans this spring and summer.  Here is our journey so far.  


Here are the lovely before pictures.  You will be able to see why Clark DID NOT want this house in the beginning.  He couldn't see the potential at first.  We looked at this house twice and when we found out there were other offers, we decided to jump at the chance to be home owners.  

Ain't she a beaut?  

Henry's not too pleased with the living room

Standing in the living room looking into the back family room

Dining room with door out to garage and stairs to go downstairs.  I will also add that our original plan was to also get rid of that little wall space right there so it would be completely open.  But then I got cold feet and wasn't sure I wanted it so open (especially with a messy kitchen).  So we kept it.  I'm not in love with it, but I do like a little privacy from my front door to my kitchen.  

In dining room looking to the front door.  And yes, the previous homeowners left us a lot of beautiful treasures like that gold mirror and candle holders complete with fake flowers

Family room straight from the 70's.  This family room and kitchen were an addition to the home.  The dining room was where the kitchen used to be.

"retro" kitchen with a disgusting fridge (not even kidding, there was dog/cat hair inside) and some fun magnets.  

Clark taking down the nasty curtains.  Notice how there are just two big windows... we may have added a back door.  Just wait for the after pictures. 

This is the front bedroom, that was originally two bedrooms but for whatever reason they tore the wall down to make one long room with two doors, two windows, and two closets.  We made it back into two rooms. 

Hall/Guest Bathroom

Master bedroom

Looking into the lovely blue master bathroom (that was also added on with the back addition).  Although it is blue, we are happy to have a master bath. 

The random closet in the master.  The other closet was added in the little hallway going into the bathroom.  We fixed that issue...

This is the basement.  I think they were in the middle of "remodeling" because the flooring was torn up so it was just a cement floor.  They did "update" the bathroom, although they put in the ugliest floor.  But it's fine for now.  The basement has a family room, furnace/laundry/storage room, two bedrooms and a bathroom.  It has a shower in it, so it's actually very functional for a guest bath.  

June 2013: We were officially homeowners the last week of June.  I had just finished running Ragnar and was headed to girls camp so Clark's parents came up to help watch Henry and get started on the renovations.  Our initial plan was to be out of the rental and into the house by the end of July so we didn't have to pay rent and a mortgage.  That didn't happen!  But we did spend ALL summer working our bums off.  Mostly Clark and his Dad.  But I tore down wallpaper, painted the whole downstairs and most of the upstairs (with help from my awesome Dad) and chased Henry around and made sure he didn't get hurt in the "construction zone".  I would say it was a team effort from everyone!  

Demolition:

Good bye ugliest kitchen

Terrible picture of me... but I had to show I put in some effort to tear down walls :)

I also forgot Clark got rid of the ugly "popcorn" ceiling in most of the upstairs (minus the dining room, kitchen/family room, and master).  

\

We hired a professional (Ken Raiger) to help us take that wall down and add a beam since it was a load bearing wall.  Ken also mud/taped all the drywall in the house since that is the worst job ever.  

Clark was a superhero and got rid of that nasty wood burning stove and the ugly fake stone that was behind it.  

Goodbye half wall... hello Mom having a heart attack!  Clark did screw an old door to the wood to make it safer with Henry around.  Then we eventually added a nice banister built by my Hubby and Father in law.  

Okay so this is where we moved the wall so we could move the master closets.  So the family room became 2 feet smaller and we put in his and her master closets and got rid of the random closet in the master (which then made it so we could move the doorway into the master so that we had better usable space).

Hard to see but we moved the door about 2 feet.  This way we could actually fit our bed with 2 nightstands on that wall.  

So you are looking into the master bedroom.  It is the little hallway going into the bathroom.  

Proof I tore down wallpaper.  Henry would nap in the pack n play in one of the bedrooms with the fan blasting to keep him cool, and I would tear off wallpaper little by little.  

Basement.  Picking wall color.  We went with the second from the left.  Behr Mineral.  

Henry helped when he woke up from the nap.  

Henry standing in between the 2 upstairs bedrooms.  He is walking from his room to the extra room.  

July & August: The rebuilding begins.  So many things happened, and really I don't even know the half of it.  Clark and his Dad worked so hard.  Even little things like moving outlets and re-wiring stuff, to big things like putting walls back up and drywalling.  Oh and knocking out a window to add a back patio door!  

Goodbye window

Henry loved to "help" Papa and Dad

I LOVE having a back door.  One day we will build a nice little deck.  

They also made the window opening slightly smaller and we added a nice brand new window

Kitchen's are nasty when they are all torn apart. 

Our "fake" wood floor is going in.  I've been happy with our laminate flooring.  I would rather wood floor, but sometimes you gotta go with the "budget friendly" option.  Thankfully my Brother in Law Tyler came up to do our carpet and help Clark get the floor started.  Plus my sister and the kiddos came so that was a fun weekend! 

It's pretty nice for budget friendly :)

Clark helping put the carpet pad down.  Is there anything he doesn't do?  Tyler taught him well.  

Our nice soft carpet! I'm very happy with it.  Apparently I went above budget with the carpet (oops!) but it is so soft and I love the color.

Yeah for a banister!

For the first few weeks we had our "family room" set up in the living room since the floor wasn't finished in the family room.  

This picture stresses me out looking at it and remembering how we were living for the month of September!  Half the floor and dust everywhere! Also notice my "shelving" for our food.  

My beautiful cabinets are going in!  It would be months before I had actual doors on them.  But they were 100% better than what was there before. 

It's coming along.  Which means less dust!

Professional paint sprayers.  They had a system set up to spray all of the new doors.  Money well spent on upgrading doors. 

How many men does it take to install new windows? Just three.  Ken, Clark & Blaine.  

New windows!  It would be months before we had blinds on them :)  haha!  I know Clark had a million and one other things to get done.  Plus when you tare out a window, all the drywall goes with it.  So we now have blinds, but the drywall hasn't been fixed.  Clark just needs to tape and mud around the new windows.  Add it to his "honey do" list.  

We moved in the very end of August.  Over Labor Day Clark went down to Kaysville to finish my cabinets and bring them home.  My mom and sister Adrienne came up to help me finish bringing boxes from our rental and cleaning the rental.  My sister babysat while my mom and I cleaned the rental.  That place never looked so good!  Plus we got our full deposit back!  We are the queens of cleaning apparently.  

So these photos I will label After, but really it's not officially after since there are still little things we need to do and I need to start "decorating".  But that will come eventually.  I try to be patient and remember how far we have come.  I'm just happy to have so much space and have our cute first home.  We have been renting tiny apartments or living in family members basements for 6 years, so we are very happy and grateful to have our own place.  

After (sort of):

We painted the yellow part of our house white since the sides and back were white.  One day I want to paint the brick since it is ugly and is different than the brick on the garage.  Then we will probably repaint the siding.  But for now I like it much better than Davis High colors brown & gold. 

New sage green shutters.  Also this spring I hope to plant some nice shrubs and flowers in the front flower beds.  Our house is in desperate need of some landscaping.  

I added this picture to show you what I did with the little wall between the kitchen and the dining room.  So it is nice to have a place to "decorate" in my kitchen.  

Extra random room that stores Henry's toys and the baby cradle

Henry's room

This is the extra room downstairs that doesn't have a window.  We bought new egress windows to go down in the basement and we will add one to this room on that far wall.  The list of things we need to do keeps getting bigger as I write this blog post!

Basement bathroom.  Not terrible, but I would prefer different floor.  Oh well.  The guests will have to deal :)

Guest bedroom downstairs.  

I added this photo because these are all the drawer boxes for my kitchen that are being held downstairs until Clark has time to install them.  I can't wait for my big pantry drawers! 

Living room with hand-me-down furniture!  The piano is awesome and was my Great Grandmas and had been at my aunt Mary's home.  It is a solid piano, and Clark keeps saying he refuses to move it ever again.  But it's an antique!  The chair is from Clark's parents living room back when Clark was Henry's age.  I don't love the print, but it's actually not horrible.  One day I hope to find someone to recover it for me.  I love wing back chairs!  The couch is an old one that was in Clark's high school bedroom and I just put a cover over it.  I don't love it, but my visiting teachers don't mind :)

Family room off of the kitchen.  We hope to add a big wall of built-ins where the TV is and one day get a nice sectional and move the leather couches to the living room.  Also notice that green thing in the ceiling behind the fan.... yep that's still the exhaust vent where the old wood burning stove was.  We just taped it off with painters tape for now!  Clark will eventually climb into the attic and take it out then add some drywall.... 

My mostly finished kitchen!  I just need drawers, a backsplash and a new light above the sink.  But that's easy stuff compared to what we started with.  Ahh I just love the space.  Makes me actually want to cook... sometimes.  We also chose a "budget friendly" option for our countertop.  Yes I would have loved a stone countertop, but our laminate one is perfect for us.  I love it. 

Hall/Guest bath upstairs.  My plan this spring/summer is to paint the walls, add new trim, and paint/update the vanity.  Also get new fixtures so I don't have a gold towel rod.  New floors will happen eventually :)

Master bedroom.  The random chair is from me blogging today :)  Notice how I didn't get our messy nightstands in the picture!  

This picture is me sitting on our bed and taking a picture of our closets and the pocket door into the bathroom.  I also forgot to point out all the beautiful door trim that Clark made to go around all of our doors.  AND I had to fill all the nail holes in EVERY SINGLE ONE IN OUR WHOLE HOUSE and I will one day have to give them another coat of paint.  I've finished some rooms... I still have a lot to go.  

Our dresser with our computer on it.  This is where that one closet was that we knocked out. 

I also forgot to mention that when we moved our Master bedroom door we had to get rid of the linen closet.  And I HAVE to have a linen closet so Clark added one at the end of the hall.  We had to cut into some of the closet space in Henry's room, but we made a nice closet perfect for a kids room.  One day I will do a post just on the custom closets Clark did.  They are sweet!  Maybe he's in the wrong profession :) 

Oh and notice the beautiful trim around the doors.  You can't see the nail holes either, huh?!  But don't look too close because I haven't painted them yet.  Or any of the base trim.... My summer just filled up quickly!  

Okay I hope you enjoyed the tour.  I'm probably leaving things out.  I know Clark has some pictures that I don't.  But you get the gist of it.  Come visit anytime!  I will even let you come help me do all those projects I just talked about :)

Also, I'm not proofreading after that long post!  Sorry if there are errors, which I'm sure there are. Hey no one's perfect right!