Where should we start?

There is SO much to catch you up on! This post will serve to pique your interest and keep you coming back for more! :) 

Chicago Trip:

Fixin' Up Friday Before #1: 

Fixin' Up Friday Before #2:

Lucy's Birthday Party Open House:

A visit from family:

A trip to the zoo:

1 year old:

Second try at the swimming pool, was it a success:

Birthday details, including cake smashing:

Having fun with new toys:

Please check back soon for (much) more details! :)

Fixin' Up Friday: The day I cut my carpet.

Note to husband self: When using spray insulation, cover the carpet beneath you.

  

Source 

Because this stuff will make your carpet look like this: 

 Do you see the yellow spot? Not the nicest decorating touch....

Solution? Well, if your carpet has a nice "pile" (which happens to be the technical term for how long the yarn of your carpet is - who knew?), like ours, just grab your favorite pair of scissors and attack snip away the top of each tuft.

After:

 Because of the lighting in this picture, you can still see a bit of the foam remains - but in person, it is not visible, unless you get down on your hands and knees. 

(If you do that at my house, I will think you are strange)

Warning, snipping your carpet will leave the surrounding area looking like this:

As an extra bonus: 

For those spots that go deeper into your carpet, may I suggest the-best-carpet-cleaner-in-existance?

 

Source

Folex Carpet Spot Remover. This stuff is amazing - it takes out coffee stains, animal "oopsies," and soda stains! I bought mine from Bed Bath and Beyond for about $8, but the container is huge - very worth it. :)

I feel a bit ashamed I only posted 3 times in May. I promise June will be better - mostly because I have a TON to catch you up on! 

The Second Time Around

There will be another post, probably next week, about our trip to Chicago and our anniversary - this post is going to be on a different topic. Can you guess what it is? Perhaps our Tweets from yesterday will help you figure it out... 

Twitter post from Brad yesterday morning: 

“3 years with my beautiful wife Sarah Joy Kidder, what a blessing she is to me, Lucy and Baby Kidder to be!!” 

Twitter post from Sarah yesterday morning: 

“Yet another anniversary I can’t be 100% alone with my hubbie - Lu will be with a sitter tonight but little one #2 will tag along :)”

(Did you get it?) 

WE ARE PREGNANT! :) 

Baby number 2 is due to arrive in December, around the 11th. Well, that date isn’t official, it’s what the internet thinks - we haven’t been to the dr yet, so I’ll update you if the date changes after our first visit. We are 12.5 weeks along.... 27.5 to go! :) 

As many of you know we used a group of midwives in Chicago for both pre/post natal care. I LOVED THEM. I wish I could move the whole group to Pampa so they could help me through this preganancy too, but that would cost a lot of money and just isn’t that realistic. So we are going a different route with this preganancy (after MUCH debate), we are going to be using an OBGYN in Pampa. I have heard great things about Dr. Jill Terry and I am excited to meet her soon. 

Here is a fun video that shows how our baby is growing and moving right now:

Side note: When Lucy and I watched this video for the first time, she had a HUGE smile on her face and looked up at me with a lot of excitement - melt. my. heart. (She has NO idea what is coming)

When we announced we were pregnant with Lucy, we answered some questions that we had been asked frequently so I decided to do the same here too. :) 

Were you trying? Yes. 

Do you want a boy or girl? We would be happy with ether! I think it would be fun if it was a girl, because Lucy could have a best friend growing up (I loved having a sister who was close in age to me!). I would also love it to be a boy - the pressure is on people! If we don’t have a boy, the Kidder name dies. That would be bad. And I don’t want that to happen, so I would love the baby to be a boy, but Brad has a feeling we are going to have a gaggle of girls. :) 

Are you going to find out the gender? Yep, I like to name the baby so that I can prepare for it’s arrival. We will need more clothes, even if this baby is a girl, since the season is completely opposite of when Lucy was born - winter instead of summer. 

How far apart will Lucy and the new baby be? They will be 18 months apart, close enough to be best buds who have to be reminded that “sharing is fun!” 

What names are you thinking about? Remember when “you” asked (well, maybe we just answered...) this question when we were expecting Lucy? We said, “We are keeping it a secret!” but then we spilled the beans? Well, we decided to tell you the name after we find out the gender this time, we aren’t even going to try to keep the news to ourselves because we know we can’t keep a secret.  

Are you feeling ok? YES! I am so blessed (again) to not be feeling morning sickness! I have been tired, but not as tired as I remember being with Lucy (probably because I am not working two jobs and finishing up school at the same time).

Any questions I have missed? Please let me know and I would be happy to answer

We have been thinking a lot recently about how we are reacting to this pregnancy in relation to how we reacted to to the first one. It is strange being pregnant with your second child. It may not be this way for everyone, but in my experience (so far) I have noticed I am not as “on top” of reading the day-to-day updates on what is happening with Little One #2, I still read the weekly updates and marvel at how God has designed life to begin but this pregnancy isn’t on my mind as much as the first one was. This isn’t because I am not excited - I am THRILLED - I have a baby to care for and duties around the house and at church that need to get done. And it is the second time we have done this, so there isn’t as much mystery as there was the first time around. Does that make sense?

So, that is our exciting news! :) We will keep you updated, as best we can. :) 

Michigan Trip

We recently took a trip to Michigan to visit family. It was all around a great trip: the drive to and from MI went smoothly (with the exception of a flat tire on the way home), Lucy traveled SO well (better than Brad and I did!) and we got to visit with a lot of family and friends we don't get to see very often anymore. 

Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Visiting Grandma's Classroom

Mom Kidder teaches kindergarten to two different classes - she has over 50 students total, that she sees week to week! (She is amazing.... how she keeps her sanity - I have no idea.) In the above picture, Lucy is playing with Grandma's microphone - such cool technology. 

 Lucy ate up all the attention - all the kids knew who "baby Lucy" was the moment she walked in. Grandma makes sure to share any new pictures with her classes. :)

 The kids were rolling a ball to Lu, and she would pick it up and "throw" it back - too cute. :)

Amy's Graduation

 The reason we went up to MI was because, after 4 years of hard work, Amy was graduating!

 Proud parents :)

 Lucy was so excited for her Aunt- so much so, that she clapped for the first time during the ceremony. :) 

 Lucy also loved the red tassel. :)

 The kids and grandkid :)

 COLLAGE GRADUATE!

 "I did it!" 

(We have a picture of Brad like this in his cap and gown)

 Amy with the Grandmas - Grandma Buning and Grandma Kidder 

 The whole clan :) 

 Amy receiving her "Lamp." Each graduate at Kuyper receives a wooden candle holder with a light candle - the holder is made of 5+ different types of wood from around the world - the "lamp" symobolizes that graduates are to go and be lights through out the world. It was a neat part of the ceremony. :) 

Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa

 Lucy loved spending time with her grandma, reading was a favorite activity. :) 

 

 Grandpa even got to babysit Lucy one evening! When I texted him asking if everything was going ok, he sent me this adorable poem: 

 

Milk and Cheerios were ate, 

Having great fun but it was gettin' late,

My alone time with Lucy was had,

Reminding what fun to be a dad,

Nothing more needs to be said,

Cause sweet little Lulu has gone to bed.

(Seriously! Made. Me. Cry.)

A Quick Remodel

Our trip to Michigan was different this time, because all of our friends there are "grown up" and have full time jobs and mom and dad had to work all day - leaving us at home. This was nice, because Lucy could take good naps during the day and be rested to spend time with people in the evenings and we got to have a little fun remodeling Amy's room. :)

 

 Not before, but during. I forgot to take a before picture..... (Bad Sarah!) But you can see the color of the walls - blue - and a bit of the carpet. 

 Here is another shot of the carpet - you can't tell from this picture as well, but it needed to be replaced. :) So we found a solution that worked well. Bringing Amy's room from Jr/Sr High Student to Post College Graduate. :)

 After :) We painted the room a nice dark grey - called Flannel Suit from Ace.

 And we replaced the flooring with hardwood laminate from Lumber Liquidators. (Love that place)

So as you can see - it was a fantastic trip! :) From start to finish.

Have you traveled lately?

Eleven Months Old

I feel like I always start these month birthday posts with, "Can you believe it? Lucy is --- months old! Man! Time flies." lol, so continuing on in tradition....

Another month has flown by! Lucy is now 11 months old, one short month away from her first birthday! I can hardly believe our little girl is getting SO big! Brad said the other day, "I feel like at any moment, our baby will be gone forever." I feel the same way.

This months accomplishments:

• Laughing of her own accord, with out prompting from Mom or Dad
• Lucy has started pointing - it all started at the furnature store when we were shopping for couches, we were both FED UP with the choices and we looked at Lucy and asked her "What should we do?" She smiled and pointed (at a VERY expensive couch) and although we did not take her suggestion, she lightened the mood a bit. :) She loves pointing at her dad when he points at her - it is really cute.
• Lu clapped for the fist time! This happened at Amy's graduation. I keep saying she is saving all her important milestones for her aunts - she waved bye bye to my sister Becca when she was leaving and she clapped for her Aunt Amy. :) 
• She has become much more conversational, babbling at you when you ask her questions or "copying" words - I am convinced she said "cat" the other day, but she hasn't repeated it.... She sometimes will say "ta" ("thank you"), "da" ("yes" - I am convinced she is Russian) or "hi" (self explanatory) and she has finally started to say "mama" :) (Much to my delight, although she still calls me "dada" sometimes). We are not 100% positive these words are intentional yet, but they do happen to slip out at the right time every now and then.
• Our little girl has begun to show great enjoyment over some foods - she will say "Mmmmmmm" really loud after having a taste of snow cone, yogurt or anything sweet. :)
• Walking sideways - Lucy can go from one side of the couch/hearth to the other on her narrow little feet. :)
• Attitude - well, we all knew it was coming. Lucy has begun to show her defiance. If she is told no, sometimes (not all the time) she will throw a little fit, making a "mean" face (see picture below) and even trying to bite or hit. Yikes...... Well, we have heard stories from our parents about how we were when we were young, I guess we are getting what we deserve. But there are other times we tell Lu, "No, you need to focus on something else." and she will! The happiness we feel when she is obedient far outweighs the frustration we feel when she is not. Welcome to parenthood.... 

Here are some outtakes from our photo shoot last Saturday: 
 

The horizontal one on the bottom is my favorite. It captures her so well. :) (Remember you can always click the image to see it larger)

Well, we will be back next month to introduce our ONE year old! AUGHHHH

Fixin' Up Friday: New Couch!

Before: 

 We bought these couches right before we got married, for (what we thought was) a good deal. Sadly, time has not been kind to our sofa, the love seat is still in great shape (maybe because we usually use the sofa?). We even tried to repair the broken sofa a few months ago, we turned it over, took off the black fabric and stared in disbelief. Long story short - the couch was made VERY poorly, we added a new 2x4 hoping to prolong the life of our seat, and it worked for about three months. This last week however, enough was enough. We had to get a new couch. 

Before continuing the story, let me illustrate for you the condition of the sofa:

 Boards were coming out :( 

 The back was snapped in two, curving the supports :( 

 There were poky things coming out of the back :(

 That's not what a couch is supposed to look like....:( 

We have been looking for new couches for a few months, we have been to every furniture store in Amarillo, most of them twice, and we were having a really hard time finding something we liked. Here was our mental check list: 

• Quality construction - we want this thing to last 7+ years not 3
• No skirt, clean lines on the bottom
• Couch/Love Seat or Sectional - we went back and forth
• Not too modern (straight lines) but something that looks comfortable
• Fabric, no leather, our thinking was that leather (the shades we liked) would be too dark in our room because of the brick wall.

We ended up finding a sectional that we liked, but we weren't too sure about construction, the cushions felt a bit soft. And as we wandering the store, we saw the same sectional in LEATHER, since we really really liked the shape of this sectional, Brad went and sat down in the leather version and exclaimed, "Wow this feels much more sturdy" - and he was right. I was convinced that LEATHER would be okay in the room after being 1) given permission to repaint the room a lighter color if I felt it was too dark, 2) told I could buy pillows/fabric for the couch (it didn't come with pillows) in a lighter color to lighten it up, and 3) informed about the durability and easy-maintenance of LEATHER. I was hooked,

And you want to know the best part?

It was a floor model and was thus discounted $1000!!!!!

Yes, please! So with out further ado, here is our new couch.

After:

 250 inches of comfortable goodness. :) 

It fits in our room perfectly, like it was made specifically for us. :) 

We are undecided on the color of the room yet, but I'm sure you will know if I decide to change anything. :)

Happy Easter!

Ever felt you have had TONS you need to do and not enough time to do what you want to do? Story of my week. We leave tonight for Michigan to celebrate Amy's gratuation and this week has been full of preparing for our trip and taking care of things around the house - so guess what gets pushed to the back burner? Yep, the blog. But I have squeaked in a few minutes here to share with you some pictures from Easter. :)

I was privileged to make the decorations for church's annual Easter Brunch. They turned out great! My inspiration was found here and here (which I found when googleing "Easter centerpieces").

  The gym all set up. :) We had 10 tables, set for 8 each. Napkins and silverware were put on the tables so people didn't have to carry them with their plate and drink from the buffet.

Here are close-ups of all the table's centerpieces. :) I was originally going to put flowers and three yarn balls on each table, but then I realized I didn't have the budget for all the jelly beans and I was going to need to buy more yarn, so I switched directions a bit. :)

 The buffet table, awaiting food, and my little helper. :) 

The decorations were a success and I had so much fun making them! 

Here are some pictures of Lulu in her pretty Easter dress (a hand-me-down from my cousin Kim).

 

I thought it would be fun to use her little chick (from her room) as a prop. 

  

Lucy fell on an Easter egg while hunting on Sunday morning at church, before I had gotten pictures (of course!), she is healing up just fine so don't worry!

 She really wasn't too sure what to think of the chick, it is made out of a "straw" type sticks and I think it was "pokey."

"My First Easter"

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter too! 

We are off to Michigan tonight after Awana (it's Award Night!!!) - we will drive to Tulsa OK, tonight and sleep for a few hours. We hope to arrive in Hastings at about 9 tomorrow (Thursday) night. We have the Grisham books uploaded to our iPhones and Wonder Pets put onto the iPad. :) I think we are ready. :) 

Oh, and before I forget - results are in and the pom pom banner won! :) I am so excited! I'll be keeping my hands busy in the car making TONS of pom poms! Yippee!