Moving, Part 2

We sold our Minnetonka place! It has been a busy couple of weeks trying to get all the details finalized but we will be closing September 13th. We were concerned about a couple of things that could cause the deal to go through but so far things are moving along smoothly. The inspection found what we had expected that the roof over the addition needed replacing but thankfully that was the only thing they asked to have done. Dan spent yesterday afternoon and evening tearing off the old roof and laying new water barriers so that the Richters could come next week and put down the new shingles. Scott came and helped which was great to have someone with experience in roofing, plus to keep Dan going after a long tiring day!

We're now in the midst of packing as we left the house pretty much fully furnished for showings. Dan and his parents moved everything for the nursery into the baby's room last weekend and everytime we stop at the house we pick up a few things to hopefully make the move next weekend go as smoothly and quickly as possible. I'll post some pictures of the baby's room as soon as I take some - it turned out great! I love the Harvest Brown color on the walls (thanks Monica for painting the rooms upstairs!) and with the sloped ceilings it is such a cute little nursery.

The weather has been perfect for packing and Dan's roofing project and I hope it stays nice through next weekend too. June was cold and rainy, July was HOT but so far August has been pleasant which has been so wonderful being pregnant. Even though I've had a few bad back pain days, this week I'm feeling a lot better and actually have been getting some things checked off my to-do list. Amber came with Charlie and helped me organize the baby's room and get her clothes washed and put away... so nice! It would be great if I can last a few more weeks, not only for the baby's sake, but also to get through the move and hopefully feel a bit more organized and ready.

A couple more things on my to-do list:
PICK A BABY NAME!!! We are down to three first names, but need to agree on the middle
Buy a baby book, 2nd video monitor, noise maker (love the sleep sheep) and a few more things on my registery
Find rugs and toy storage for Bethany's room - I'm thinking shelves with baskets to keep things hidden but cute
Pack my hospital bag - Bethany was born at 35 weeks, 5 days which is next Monday.. what will this baby do?

Lots of other things to do related to organizing and unpacking, but that is what winter months are for, right? I still want to enjoy the summer as much as possible and give Bethany lots of 1:1 attention. She had a hard time seeing the crib get setup and her baby toys be put in the room. We kept making a big deal of her big girl bed, fun new room and toys but I'm sure she is remembering when she had the baby things not that long ago and it is yet another transition. She has been a trooper though and really good about everything all things considered.

I'll need another post to talk about all of her new words, but her vocabulary has just exploded the last few weeks! She came in from a walk with Grandma last week and said she saw a "Derr!" and that the boat "beeped" at her when she waved. She repeats everything we say (better be careful!) and we can understand so much more of what she says which is fun. At almost 22 months, she is growing up so fast and will tell you she's "one" with her pointer finger... good thing she caught on to that before we have to start teaching her "two" in October!

weekend getaway for Kevin's wedding near Lutsen

New Room

Last week was a whirlwind! I had a great birthday, the humidity stayed low on Sunday and Monday last week for our get together with my family and then for Dan and I to go out while his mom watched Bethany. It was fun to go out on the boat and enjoy a perfect summer evening.

They got to work on the baby room Tuesday and Wednesday and then Dan and his parents got some priming and painting started so Dan could lay the wood flooring. It only took him 8 hours starting Friday evening and finishing Saturday afternoon. He cleaned and put her new furniture in and then we showed Bethany her new room. She loved it! Dan thought it would be fun for her to sleep there, but she was so excited it took her awhile to fall asleep so it was a long night. Tonight was night #2 in her new room and she was fast asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. We're hoping that trend continues so she gets used to her new room before baby comes!

We had a few more visitors today with Dan's aunt and uncle from Colorado and then my best friend from high school's family with new baby Freddy! Bethany loves playing with Sophie and the two girls were giggling under Bethany's covers in her new room together... I think it is a sign of my future with little girls :)

so the video has title slides apparently, not sure how I did that!

It's been HOT!

Bethany has found a nice way to stay cool in this heat wave we've been experiencing. The last week has been incredibly warm with record levels of heat and humidity. Much to my dismay this has led to more Braxton Hicks contractions and back pain if I do anything besides sitting in AC laying down... not great for nesting and getting ready for baby!

I'm so excited that Bethany's room is almost done! The sheetrock is installed so we may be able to paint this weekend, yay! I also found an adorable classic bedroom set on craigslist in yellow that I originally was told had sold, but the other buyer didn't pick it up so we were able to get it! It's a 40 year-old trundle bed set from Gabberts so is great quality and has a retro feel to it... I love it! I now need to pick paint and then decide between hardwood or carpet squares for the floors (both for easy clean-up). We may get that part of the project done by the end of July, how nice would that be?

More summer pictures

Close-up of Bethany (20 months) during her fun-filled weekend. Each morning she woke up the 4th of July weekend we talked about the previous days' activities and she jibber-jabbered on and on about how much fun she was having.

This was a little dangerous having two toddlers (Bethany and Charlie) running around with mallets and balls, but they were having fun!

Happily watching Cars and eating a sucker during her first haircut

Warming up in her "Bethany sized" folding chair after swimming at the Momentum Lake Day

My mom, sister and cousin took WAY more pictures of the weekend fun but I haven't gotten them yet. It will be fun to see them and then I'll have to post our favorites soon!

In other news, Bethany is going to be attending a new daycare in a few weeks. She LOVED her time at Westwood with all the loving teachers and her friends, but we're going to try a new place we found closer to home. That way she'll spend less time in the car and it will be easier to pick her up and drop her off the days she attends. It will be nice to get that transition done before the baby comes so she can start to develop new friendships. They just moved to a brand-new facility and the day we visited they were finishing the new playground. It will be so nice that everything is new and clean and they are even opening a new 12-24 month toddler room now that Bethany is enrolling with a 1-4 ratio of teachers to kids so she'll get some extra attention to help with the transition too. One other fun thing is that because they're right on Lake Minnetonka they take the kids on pontoon rides once a week during the summer! I thought it was funny that the materials said to pack the normal things like diapers, wipes, extra clothes... and a lifejacket :)

The weather has really been nice for swimming - the water is so much warmer now! There is a public place with a beach one house down from us that few know about that we've been enjoying. Bethany likes to run in and out of the water on her own and our own lot is about waist deep when you get in, so this is perfect for toddlers. She also loves our boat rides and gets upset if we try to go down to the dock without getting in the boat. We try to go fairly slow to avoid too many waves and bumps for my pregnant belly but Bethany would prefer to go fast the whole time. More, more, MORE she'll say as soon as we slow down.

Still good news from the Dr that there aren't imminent signs that we'll have the baby in the immediate future. I'm almost 30 weeks so 10 left to go! She is moving around a lot and when I relax in the evenings my belly is quite comical with all the motion. We have Kevin and Rachel's wedding the beginning of August in Lutsen and I'd love to have the green light for the drive and make it the full 10 more weeks!

Dan has been busy tearing out the closet in Bethany's new room to prepare for the contractors to come in for the renovation. We're hoping they'll be able to start later this week! My goal has been to have everything done by the end of July so we have time to move in the baby furniture to her room and Bethany's room permanently upstairs. Hopefully things will continue to make progress :)

Summer fun

I should post titles like my last one more often - summer has finally arrived! I still have more pictures to upload but blogger is too slow tonight. We had a great weekend with family and friends. My aunt and cousin from Phoenix came and everyone came over to our house Saturday for a lake day, Sunday friends came by and Monday we went to the Apple Valley parade and later that evening went out on the boat with Dan's parents to watch fireworks. It was a fun filled weekend!

Dan and Bethany at the 4th of July Apple Valley parade - lucky girl gets a yummy sucker
Roger, Monica and Bethany ready to watch 4th of July fireworks from the boat

Bethany playing a frisbee game with Mormor and Morfar at Lake Harriet listening to a band
Aunt Lynette and Bethany - she's enjoying her watermelon

Summer, summer, where art thou?

I haven't posted since the middle of May, whoops! It has been a little crazy around here, mostly due to our move on June 11th, and after a break from blogging I realize that the thought of trying to catch-up on everything is a bit overwhelming so I think I'll just give you little snippets of what has been going on with us.

At the end of May we went on a family vacation to Riviera Maya, Mexico! It was HOT, HOT, HOT and when we arrived the first room had no a/c so I was feeling a little nervous and debating looking up the next flight home. Dan was trying so hard to try and make his emotional, pregnant wife happy while resolving the situation and we finally found a slightly cooler room that turned out great for the week :) Bethany did great and loved swimming in the pools and the ocean and we all enjoyed our last vacation as a family of 3.

Once we got home we quickly got ready for the move and on Saturday, June 11th moved the cabin things from storage and the things we needed from our current place into our new home! It turned out to be a great day and we had family and friends along with 2 movers to make things going smoothly. Even though I was only allowed to carry my purse, it was a tiring day trying to decide where to tell people to put things and make little decisions while walking around. We all slept so well that night.... in fact Bethany spent her first night in a twin bed! We had borrowed a bed rail from Joel and Erin and decided one big transition from a crib to a twin bed in a new house sounded easier than a few smaller transitions. She did great! She has since figured out that she can actually get out of her bed but when she's tired she goes right to sleep and on average sleeps from 8:30-6:30. Bethany has also decided that one nap is just fine for her so that is another big adjustment (more so for us I think!). My mom helped us find some big girl bedding so her temporary room while we get her room upstairs finished is all for her.

We're finally starting to feel a little settled, thanks to lots of help from Dan's mom the first week after we moved. She came over almost every day that week while we were at work and put things away, cleaned and did laundry which was so helpful! My mom helped sort through things one day too and things always go faster with help :)

My grandparents and the rest of our family came over to celebrate Father's Day. I think we're going to enjoy hosting get togethers here even more than the cabin because we can be here all week, not just the weekends!

Let's see... other news worthy items include Bethany's first hair cut this weekend! She did great during the hair cut but didn't enjoy the blow dryer all that much. She looks so grown up now with her baby hair trimmed, and yes, I did keep some for her baby book!

A few big purchases have also occured: Dan's dad found a riding lawn mower at a garage sale and so we bought it after we (ok, Dan) realized mowing our larger lawn with a push mower wasn't so fun. We also got a treadmill and the boat lift is being installed tomorrow. Boat lift is essential so we can start enjoying the boat - it hasn't been out yet this summer; and the treadmill will be key for my maternity leave this fall after the complications and caring for a toddler this pregnancy have left my workouts non-existent.

If I think of anything else I'll post again, otherwise I think we're pretty caught up! My aunt and cousin are coming from AZ next weekend over the 4th of July so we'll have lots of family time and other get togethers with friends to look forward to. I can't believe how cool and rainy this summer has been though this far, hence the title of my post. This week is supposed to be in the 90's and I say bring it on!