Nesting

So, apparently I am "nesting." I don't remember doing this when I was pregnant with Weston, but I have these incredible urges to get things done before Vance gets here! Although his arrival is probably still at least seven weeks away, I feel like we are going to run out of time! I am tired most of the time, but somehow there is still some motivation to get things done. Here are some of our latest projects that we have intended to do since we moved in and have gotten done in the last two weeks.

1. Michael finally finished painting my paintings for the living room! No more empty wall space waiting to be filled above our couch- yeah! The the paintings symbolize the Trinity. (The pictures are not really crooked hanging on the wall- I am just a bad picture taker.)

2. We finally found and purchased a van to accommodate our growing family. We have been searching for one in our limited budget since we moved and we feel like it was worth the wait because we got a great deal on a good van:) Here is a picture of what my van looks like, but isn't a picture of my actual van. When I sat down to do this post I realized I had yet to take a picture of my van, and since it was dark and cold outside I decided this internet picture would have to do. It is a silver 1999 Chrysler Town and Country.

3. We painted Weston and, soon to be, Vance's room blue. Then, I wanted the same thing on the walls that we had in Weston's room in Texas. This time, however, we omitted the clouds. Michael wasn't too fond of them to begin with and I decided it would be too much on the wall space that we have now. We also added Vance's name to a plane:)

4. I made some valances for the windows in the boys' room. I wanted something similar to the bedding that is currently on the crib, but wasn't having much luck finding what I wanted. Then I thought, why not not just cut off that parts of the bed skirt that nobody sees and create great matching window treatments.

5. I finally got all of my photo albums updated. I only had to get almost 500 pictures printed to catch up! This means that I also finished updating Weston's album, which hadn't been updated since he was three months old.

In addition to these projects, I am also currently working on making a valance for the living room window. Then the only other big project I want to get done is painting our living room trim white. Oh, and ideally I would like to get Michael and my bedroom painted, but I think that may be a little too ambitious.

Michael's to do list is a little different than mine. Here is what he has felt an urging to do-

building a snowman with Weston:) I had a great time watching from the window:)

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so I have been a blog slacker lately, but I have good excuses! One, there was so much to do to get ready for Christmas; two, our internet was down for a couple days after Christmas; three, we still had lots of visiting/visitors the week after Christmas; and four, Weston got his first case of the stomach flu that he so lovingly passed onto me! In fact, I am still recovering as I sit here typing this, but at least now I have some time:).

Okay, with that off my chest, where do I begin? Our Christmas was busy, but nice. We had Santa come to our house on Christmas Eve morning and Weston was pretty clueless about the whole thing. One of my best presents, however, came that morning when I learned I passed the glucose screening test! I failed that test when I was pregnant with Weston and was sure the same thing would happen again. Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to another 3 hour glucose test. However, the nurse called that morning to give me the good news and I was very happy:) (Oh, sometimes it is the simple things when you are a tired, uncomfortable pregnant woman.) After our little family celebration, we enjoyed seeing lots of extended family and didn't let the weather ruin our plans. We did, however, have to do some rearranging of celebrations, but in the end it all worked out. Christmas Eve evening we went to mass and then to my Grandma Luebke's house. Then Christmas Day, we started off at my parents house, then headed over to my Grandma Thompson's house, and finally ended the day in Necedah with Mike's family (I forgot my camera for the last two celebrations). Weston got lots of presents, but by the end he really didn't care about opening them. He was content with the first thing he opened. Next year, however, I am sure will be a different story.

Grandma Luebke's House

Christmas morning at Mom and Dad's house

After Christmas we got to see our friend Susan, who now lives in New York where she is a canidate to enter the Fransican Sisters of the Renewal (I think that is right). She seemed so happy and it was wonderful to see her! (Sorry, no pictures.) Andrea, Andy, and Gianna came back for the visit and Andrea and Gianna then stayed with us for a few days. Then, as they left Beth came back into town. I enjoy having my sisters around so much that everyday I wish they both lived in LaCrosse! At least, however, we aren't as far apart as we used to be:) Knowing how much I love having sisters, makes me very glad Weston will have a brother soon (only two months to go), and I truely believe one of the best gifts you can give your children is siblings.

Our New Years was nice, but us LaVoys are not big New Year celebration people and we were all sleeping at my parents house (where we went to bring in the New Year) before the ball dropped. In fact, I was out with Weston by 10:30pm. I will blame it on being pregnant, but I don't know what Michael's excuse was- oh, that's right, he is one hard working guy and he is taking care of a tired pregnant wife and a very energetic toddler!

Finally, Weston seems to be exploding in his use of language and he now tries to repeat lots of things that we say. Michael and I love his little voice! Here is a video of him saying "baby" for one of the first times. He loves to point out real babies to us and pictures of them on things and in books. What a great word association to know when he meets his new baby brother:)

Oh, and one more video just for fun. Before I started taping Eli was laughing at Weston everytime Weston threw the slinky down. When Eli stopped laughing out loud, Weston felt the need to fill in with his fake laugh.