Peer Pressure

Well my friends, it turns out having a newborn and a toddler is a little hectic. Thus the blog has been neglected. But in all fairness, its better I neglect the blog than one of my children, so I don't feel too bad. Its the Christmas cards that are getting me down. Yes, I did get them in the mail this year and avoided typos (last year I spelled our last name wrong... talk about embarrassing). But with each card that I received it became more and more evident that my card was lacking. We had failed to include a bullet point list of our accomplishments for the year. I wasn't aware that such a list was customary, but I can now see the error of my ways.  To make up for it, I'll fill you all in on what the Andreasens have been up to this year.

Scott...
-graduated from BYU
-got a job with Ford and moved the family to Michigan
-bought a house
-bought a car
-remodeled said house
-served as a ward missionary and counselor in the young mens presidency
-became a father of two

Stephanie...
-graduated from BYU
-followed her love to Michigan
-painted painted and painted our new house
-got in her first car accident (totally the other guy's fault by the way, as evidenced by the fact that he gave her fake contact and insurance information)
-served as a counselor in the Relief Society
-had a baby without any pain medication and it was awesome (birth story to come, I promise)
-completed her summer reading goals on time (book report to come, I also promise)

Ellie...
-had eye surgery
-received treatment for her 30% hearing loss and has experienced a surge in speech development
-had her first hair cut
-fell in love with Barney and Caillou (though Elmo is still her main man)
-started going to nursery and LOVES it
-met and fell in love with her new sister. She really is the best big sister

Ev...
-completed the journey from zygote to adorable baby girl with grace
-made her mom wait an extra week to make her debut, but only took 5 hours once the party got started
-became the light of our lives and just the sweetest baby ever

So that's what we've been up to. Its been a great year! We've certainly reached a few milestones this year and have been incredibly blessed. We've had the opportunity this year to exercise our trust in Heavenly Father on many occasions including the paramount decisions to move to Michigan and to have another baby. Along the way, although we've experienced trials and loneliness in our new circumstances, we've tried to choose faith rather than fear and I know that for me, one of the biggest lessons I've learned this year is that God really does bless us when we put our trust in him. "...yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him" (Helaman 12:1)

By the way...

This little cutie decided to join our family:

Evelyn Valli Andreasen

Born at 3:02 am on November 20, 2011

21 inches, 8lbs. 11oz.

Here are some pictures of Ev's first day at home. I got a little sister shirt for Ev and made a bis sister shirt for Ellie so they wouldn't get confused and forget who was who.

Pretty much my heart is full. I love my little girls! Scott is handling being outnumbered 3 to 1 pretty well and we are just having a grand time together. Ev is a very chill baby as long as her tummy is full and Ellie is handling things surprisingly well- she loves to say hi to the baby, give her kisses and is generally very accepting of our new family dynamic. But she does have a little bit of a jealousy issue where the binky is involved. I promise to post the birth story soon- I went all natural this time with no intervention (except having my water broken) and it was AWESOME. So much better than an epidural! And the fact that labor was only 5 hours long helped too. Anyway, more details to come. For now I'm going to go snuggle my little cutie.

House Pictures!

I have been totally slacking on the documentary of our house remodel. But today I actually remembered to take pictures and had time, so here's the first of hopefully a handful of posts about our new house- a virtual tour of our home if you will. Today Ellie's room and our room happened to be the cleanest in the house, so those are the two rooms we'll start with.

Before pictures:

The master

Elllie's room

And after:

The master

Our bags and (mostly) packed and ready to go for when baby gets here!

I got this cute idea from Pinterest and made it for our anniversary this year

Ellie's room

I made filled this little vase with styrofoam and then added floral studs to clip Ellie's hair flowers on. Cute, huh?

The master

Well my friends, the rest of the house is coming along really well. We finally got a stovetop and oven this weekend, so life is GOOD! I'll try to get some more pictuers up soon.

October was a good month

And here are some reasons why:

My Grizz turned 26!

 And then these two people came to visit:

And we all went to a Halloween party

And, yes, I did win the chili cook off (my friend Amy won for most unique chili, I for best overall)

Scott's best Richard Simmons face

Thing 1 and Thing 2's first play date

Finally we got to some pumpkin carving

And now it is November and we are all (not so) patiently awaiting the arrival of a little sister any day!

My most favorite season

Fall. I LOVE FALL!!!! It has been my most favorite season for as long as I can remember. The weather is cooling down (good news for those of us who don't like skimpy clothing) and the leaves are changing beautiful colors and school is starting (I can't wait to go school shopping with Ellie in a few years!). One of the best things about fall is that it is an anticipatory season- there is so much to look forward to! Halloween! Thanksgiving! Christmas! There's decorating to be done and presents to be purchased and wrapped. And the food is DELISH. Simply the best food is saved for fall. So Ellie and I celebrated my most favorite time of year today by going to an apple orchard. It was sooooo fun! We got to pick apples, take a ride in a wagon pulled by a tractor, pick pumpkins, eat cider and doughnuts- what more could you ask for? Unfortunately dad had to go to work today, but we had a fun girls day with some of our friends from church. Here are some picture treats for you (can you believe how beautiful my little girl is?!?) I only wish I could also send you all one of the amazing cider doughnuts we sampled while there (I may or may not have bought a dozen to bring home...)

Oh Hey!

 How are you doing? We're good. Just busy. Busy with what? Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words:

Yep, that's our kitchen. And you can tell that the grizz and I have been hard at work- just look how happy we are to be having out pictures taken.  Actually, these pictures are about two or three weeks old, so I'm feeling pretty good right now comparing them to what the house looks like now. Maybe if you're lucky I'll find some time to go take some more updated photos. But don't get your hopes up... any free time is devoted to painting, cleaning, organizing, pulling hair out and sleeping.

But I do feel a certain responsibility to keep this dear blog updated, so here I am. I thought today we'd chronicle Ellie's first haircut. It was a pretty big success, I think. Probably mostly due to the fact that the hair place we went to not only had a personal dvd player for each child, but they also had a giant slide in the middle of the shop. AND you get a lollipop when you're all done. What more could you ask for?

 I know you can't really tell from these pictures, but she really does look so much more grown up now. I love it and hate it at the same time. But seeing as I get another little baby in a few weeks, I guess I can let this one grow up a little bit. Life is crazy around here, believe me. Let's just all hope we survive the next few weeks... we're really hoping to have the house finished by the time the baby is born. Keep your fingers crossed!

A work in progress

We've been homeowners for about 2 weeks now! It's been a pretty good journey so far, but I'm definitely glad the relief troops are coming in this weekend- my parents are coming in for 2 weeks! And believe me, we'll have plenty of work to do!

The classic new home owner shots:

Ellie going for a cruise around the new neighborhood

 My pet project: stenciling. Seriously addicting. I got the template for the stencil online, and then I got a stencil gun with one of my Joann's coupons and let's just say we've been spending a lot of time together. Here's the inside of Ellie's closet. Cute huh?

Remember how this house used to have a kitchen? Well, Scott took care of that problem! This is the main reason we are EXTREMELY grateful my parents are coming in this weekend. The demo we can do (obviously). The reconstruction? Not so much.

A couple of my friends from church have been helping out with the painting. They are AWESOME!

So far, we've got all the bedrooms painted and ready to go. Scott will probably finish ripping out the carpet in those rooms tonight (we've been lucky enough to find almost pristine hardwoods underneath). And then the party really gets started next week!