Take me out to the ball game.....

Just in case you can't make out the ad-libs between the real words.... During "1-2-3 stikes you're out" he's asking Rob to throw the ball to him. Then notice how he sets it down gently? He has been throwing his bats when he gets a hit, so we've been working with him on it :) Then when he runs back he comments on how nicely he set his bat down. Then at the end he wants to play ball again!

This is not normally how our furniture is arranged, but I had it all spread out on the walls for the Tupperware party last week and just have not moved it back yet. Justin loves the extra room in the middle for hockey, baseball, football, etc. With it being so hot outside we've been playing in our living room a lot!!!

New Bathroom - and our secret :)

Here are the before and after pictures from our downstairs bathroom (off of the toy room). As mentioned in a previous post - it still needs caulking at the painted edges, but we are waiting for Papa and his awesome caulking skills :)


Before:


Nice toilet topper, huh? Gone!



















Like all of the wood - and who hung that towel bar there??? Gone!













A close up of the beautiful wall paper print - Gone!















Our new, simple, blue boys bathroom! I am really happy with the way it turned out!


















I like this cube organizer. It's nice to hold bath supplies in one and it will be diapers/wipes in the other!











The shower curtain is the same design as our bathroom was in Elgin - we liked it though!
















.......and for those of you wondering about the secret?? You may have noticed the "J" and "M" on the wall?!? The "M" is for Mason Charles Brooks aka baby brother :) We have had him named pretty much since the week after we found out we were having a boy. Rob picked out the name and I really liked it! Mason is just a name we like and Charles is my Grandpa Rosebush's name and my brother Ryan's middle name.

When we were at the doctor last time, Dr. Ish asked Justin if he was going to have a baby brother or baby sister and he told her "I'm going to have a Baby Mason" :) He's so excited.

We were going to try to keep it a secret until he was born, but I'm not good at that! Some people have known for a while, but we didn't put it on here. His name is said so frequently around our house that I almost slipped on some blog posts before. It just seems like people tend to give their opinons more before a baby is born if they don't like it....but we really don't care - he's our son and we really like the name!

So I can change our ticker now to "Baby Mason" instead of just "Baby Brother" :) Have a great day!

31 weeks and random stuff....

Today is 31 weeks! Yeah :) Getting closer. On one hand 9 weeks seems like forever away, but if we think about it; today is the 25th and he's due on the 27th so that is only 2 months. Plus - if he is still measuring big, he might be born early. My doctor said there is no point in going to 40 weeks if the baby is over 8-9 pounds; it just makes for a more difficult delivery. So if he was born at 38 weeks, that would be mid-August....aaah! We are excited though :) We have been busy getting ready!

Justin's new bedroom is almost done! Thanks to Josh's drywalling skills, my husband painting, and me ordering the carpet install (I did the tough one :) ) we are almost there! We are getting new carpet in our house on Monday. The whole upstairs, the stairs and the toy room. So excited! We are just getting the in-stock stuff from Lowes. We decided not to get really expensive carpet with 2 dogs, a toddler and a newborn! We did however splurge and get the better padding with a water barrier. We have the new curtain rod up in J's room & the new ceiling fan. Now all we have to do is put in the closet organizer shelves, wait for carpet, hang the closet doors and put in the trim! Oh, and the furniture gets delivered next week too! We have a queen size matress/box springs already and Justin loves sleeping on the Aerobed because it's a queen size - so he's getting spoiled and getting a queen size bed. Plus it will be nice to have a "spare" room when we have company - Justin can sleep with us. Except when the baby is born...then you get to share a bed with him, mom :)

After we have his room put together we can touch up the walls in his old room and bring up the baby furniture! I am excited for that too - I think it's going to make it all seem more "real". Not that the basketball I'm carrying around isn't real, but you know what I mean! It will be nice to get all of the baby clothes, blankets, etc out too and figure out if there is anything we need. I highly doubt it though!!

Sorry; this is getting long but we have lots going on - or at least it seems like it to us!

Last night we had dinner at Beusters house. They are the family that we are doing the in home childcare with. Jim & Stacey are the parents, Lauren is Justin's friend from PALS and Lincoln is their baby who is 7 weeks old. Ericka and Stephanie (E&S), us and Beusters all sat down and hashed out the details for our new arrangement. I am glad to get this out of the way so we are all on the same page as far as compenstaion, vacation, logistics, etc. I am sure there will be a lot that comes up as we move forward as far as logistics and such, but it will work itself out. E&S are extremely easy going and flexible and we could not be more excited about this!!! We are starting July 6th! We were going to wait until August, but E&S wanted to start sooner so we of course were happy to oblige!

I might be nesting - or more accurately "purging" lately. We have too much stuff. Wwwwayyyyy too much stuff. It feels good to take stuff to goodwill and get it out of my house. I thought about a garage sale, but that's a lot of work and a lot of it goes to goodwill at the end anyways! Our goal is to get the basement cleaned out/organized enough to finish it - half of it....eventually! I have been having a pretty good year sales wise so we are hoping that maybe late fall or winter we can fly Papa here and hire him for a long weekend :) This morning I started going through our kitchen cupboards. It started with trying to empty one cupboard out to be "daycare" food. Me and Stacey are going to do monthly menus and it would be nice to have one cupboard that is the food we buy for the kids. Plus that will be easier on E&S to just have one place to look! It turned into getting rid of a lot of spices, old crap that expired a long time ago, cups we have not used since we moved them in, etc. It feels so good to not have crammed cupboards! Lower ones are next!

This weekend we bought a lawn sweeper - I love it! I hate when we use our rider and then have the grass clipping chunks all over the yard. The sweeper works great! It hooks up to the lawn tractor and gets a lot of the mulched grass. The only problem I had was trying to back the sweeper trailer up behind the shed to dump the grass. I can NOT reverse the mower with a trailer on it. I jack knifed it every single time. Finally I just got it as close as I could each time and then raked it behind the shed. Rob got home and did it with no problem. So guess what? That's his new job :)

Okay - that's enough for now! Most of you probably quit reading a while ago :) I will try to post pics of our new bathroom today. Try :)

ABC's brought to you by Justin :)

Justin has been singing his ABC's for quite a while now, but here is a video of it! I will have to get his other favorites on video; Take me out to the ball game, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the theme song from Mickey Mouse Club House.

Happy Fathers Day!!!!!

Happy Fathers Day to all of the fathers in our lives - we love you so much and wish we could share your special day with you!

To my dad, Justin's Papa - I hope you know how much you mean to us. I wish the miles didn't keep us so far apart, but it's nice that no matter how far apart we live we can still stay as close as we do; especially now since you have facebook!!!! I knew we could teach an old dog new tricks :) I love you so much and can't wait to see you again soon....and you can meet your new grandson!

To Kent - we hope you get to come visit us soon! Justin needs a golf partner and Tracy & Jessica tell me you are a good teacher :)

And Happy Fathers Day to Rob - the best husband and daddy we could ask for. Justin, Baby Brother and I love you SO much!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry about the gift mix-up :) :) :) Yours will be here in about a week! Love you babe.

The Hills 6-21-09

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.... sorry for the lack of pictures lately Dad!!!!

Justin on his first school bus ride. I went on the field trip with them to Wildlife Prairie State Park - the animals were hard to spot, but the kids liked the bus ride!

Attempting to get a class picture. Notice how happy Justin looks?

Last weekend Katie & Josh had an engagement party for our friends Evan & Sandy. It was a fun time :) This is the cake that Katie made. When Justin saw it he said "chocolate cake with raindrops!!!!!" - we couldn't argue with him :)

Evan and Justin playing bags. Justin won.

....but I think he cheated :)

Evan and Sandy - congrats!!!!

Being a ham for the camera

and again :)

This is Justin's stool at Katie & Josh's house...he loves sitting up at the bar.

Photo by Justin.... me with a large round face, Evan, Sandy and Sarrah.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes :)

I would like to introduce everyone to our new "nannies" - Ericka & Stephanie! (Ericka, I stole this from your facebook!).

Rob and I are SO excited about this change!!!! I don't like the word "nanny" though; it makes me think they should be 80 with white buns in their hair :) For anyone who has been reading our blog you know how much we are missing the care that Justin got when he was in their classroom. It turns out they are not happy with a lot of things at PALS either - it's not just us. So we are going to have them come to our house and watch Justin and baby brother 5 days a week! Stacey (Lauren's mom) is going back to work part time after maternity leave, so Lauren (Justin's friend from the zoo pics) and Lincoln (born May 3) will come to our house 2 or 3 days per week depending on the week. Ericka drives right by Beusters house to get to our house, so she can pick them up and then Justin has someone his age and the babies will only be 4 months apart! We still have to sit down and decide when the whole change is going to happen and work out a few logistics issues, but I am so happy to know that at least it's coming! E&S have a lot of their own materials that they bring to the classroom for teaching at PALS, so they are going to keep doing the same lesson plans that Justin and Lauren would get at school. They are going to keep a structured schedule too like they have now - playtime, circle (learning) time, art projects, outside time, nap time, etc.

It works out great for all involved... we LOVE them, they come right to our house, hopefully will cut down on illness (especially with the babies), they will each get a 3 day weekend (we don't need both of them on the Monday and Fridays when Beuesters are not here), etc, etc, etc. We were a little concerned with the kids not getting the social interaction, but there are plenty of activities around town that they can take the kids to - probably more than I even realize since a lot of park district activities and such are weekday mornings geared to stay at home moms. Plus there is a church less than a mile from us that does pre-school for 3 and 4 year olds for 2 days a week for a couple hours in the morning. Lots of options :)

It will be an adjustment for all of us, but I really think that this is for the better! I still feel like it's not real that we will be getting Ericka AND Steph - to just teach our kids and Beusters....we are very lucky!!!!

PS - Please don't post any comments about this on Facebook - there are other PALS people on there and this is not public knowledge yet....only those special enough to be our blog readers :)

The Hills 6-11-09

Hi there! Not too much new going on here, but I thought I would touch base. I have been out of town, so no new pictures - sorry!

*3rd Trimester is here! Today is 29 weeks and the start of the third trimester. I am excited to be a little closer to done, but still quite a ways to go. I had a doctors appointment today and did the glucose test; I'm glad that is done!! Now I start going every two weeks to the doctor.

*Work. I was in Saskatoon Sunday thru Tuesday night. I am so glad to be home :) Flying is not very comfortable and I had a hell of a time getting home. We left Saskatoon late, then there were storms in Denver (where I had a layover). So they diverted us to Colorado Springs, but then they didn't have Homeland Security there and no customs, so it was back to Denver and circle for about 90 minutes. We finally got to Denver, got my bags, went through customs, rechecked my bag and got to the gate with about 8 minutes to spare. They check us through and down a few flights of stairs down to a tunnel to walk out to the plane. Only there was no plane. Our plane was actually at that particular gate in Colorado Springs. WTF? So back up to the main terminal to wait some more. Oh, and not a single TV to watch the Wings :( Finally got our plane there, got on and then we were 14th in line for take-off. Ugh. Oh well; we made it safe and sound so I shouldn't complain!

*Home. The new bedroom is getting closer to being done. Rob and Josh worked on it last weekend and got the first coat of drywall mud on. Rob sanded it last night and now it just needs some more drywall. I really hope it's ready to paint and get ready soon! The new room will be Justin's new room. He's excited. I think we might get a queen bed frame for him. We have a perfectly good queen size matress and he likes the bigger bed (didn't want to give up the Aerobed after his nap with Lauren a few weeks ago!). That way we have a place for visitors to stay too! We'll see what I can find :) I have a vision of a bunk bed with the twin on top and a full/queen on the bottom, but I'm not sure that's in the budget right now!

*Yard. We got one quote for our yard and it was lower than I was expecting! Still a lot of money, but it's doable. I called today and am waiting for a call back to schedule the work. Our yard is dry now (other than the sump discharge), but I would rather just get it done and over with.

*Roof. We knew when we moved in that the house would need some roof work in the somewhat near future. Our next door neighbors had a guy out to do a quote for them and he did ours too. He told her that our roof has shingles lifting, but it's really not that bad and can wait another year or two - yeah!!! Plus the quote for the whole roof job (not just shingles) is under $6K, so I think that's good??? Anyone with experience is welcome to comment!

*Daycare. Still in an adjustment period. It's not horrible, but it's still not the warm and fuzzy feeling we had before the switch. I think I just need to get used to the fact that Ericka and Steph have a gift and not many people are going to stack up to them!

*Tupperware party! Ms. Steph started selling tupperware recently and I am having a party on Wednesday the 17th. If anyone is interested in placing an order, let me know! You can go online and see the catalog and I'll try to post the sales and specials this weekend. Thanks in advance!

I'll try to post pics soon :)

I think that's all for now!

Peoria Pirates vs. Green Bay Blizzard

Last night we went to the Civic Center for a Peoria Pirates vs. Green Bay Blizzard arena football game. We had never been to one and it was fun! Too bad tickets are so expensive, becuase Justin had a lot of fun! We splurged and got front row seats for the game...the seats were awesome and it was neat being so close, but Justin didn't like it when the players crashed into the padded boards right in front of us. It ended in tears the few times it happened :)

The game was great too! The Blizzard won 49-47....which is good because we were cheering for them! Jamie Fossitt's little brother Billy plays for them - it was good to see him! He waved at Justin a few times during the game and he thought that was pretty cool :)

Oh, and another fun note is since the Pirates fired the old coach after a 2-7 start, they recently hired coach Ho from the Chicago Rush! We met him when Rob coached football with Uncle Dave and Coach Ho was a guest speaker at the banquet. Connie and Dave have kept in touch with him since and he recently lost his job when the other arena league folded. I hope he can do good things in Peoria and bring some football excitement to the town!



Justin with some sort of mascot - not really sure...but he liked him!












Billy - I think this was right after a TD got called back for an unsportsmanlike on him....oops!













Billy again :)












And again :)












Justin watching the game












Our family with Billy on the field after the game. All was going fine and Justin was having fun running around until a couple of probably 10 year olds just smoked him - leveled him to the field. He has some rugburn on his legs. Billy offered to take care of the kids for us, but we told him to let them live :)

Rough morning....

Today was probably the toughest drop off I've had with Justin since taking him to KinderCare for the first time - or maybe leaving him at that sleazy daycare for 2 hours on our first day in Peoria....but it ranked right up there. He's in his new room starting this week. When Rob drops him off, he's usually fine. When I do he likes to have a little more drama. Ms. Ericka and Ms. Steph were great at helping me out - they would just take him to pick out a CD or look out the window; anything so I could sneak out and he'd be fine. This morning he was not wanting me to leave and both teachers just looked at me. Not doing anything else - just staring at us. I was trying to pry him off my leg and get out the door without pinching his fingers; the whole time he's bawling and I'm crying and they both just stood there. HELLO?!?!? Care to help me out here? Finally I had to ask one of them to help me and distract him. Wouldn't common sense kick in before the mom has to ask? I'm just sad. I'm sad that Justin is not getting the level of care or love that he was getting the last few rooms he was in. I don't mind paying $200/week for peace of mind so Rob and I can work - but that's a lot of money to be sitting at my desk crying. Plus when I was there, they have this Bob the Builder toy...all the kids love it. Some girl had it and had set it down and was playing with something else. Justin went over to play with it and she came over and ripped it away from him and yelled at him for taking it. All the while two teachers just watched it....nothing said. What happened to teaching sharing? I don't know the kids in his room other than a couple, but they sure seem to be brats. That could be lack of care in the room? Ugh. I'm just frustrated because that is a lot of money to spend to still be worrying about him. I'm thinking about doing a walk through at the daycare right by our house, it's about the same price. It just breaks my heart because we saw how good it can be in his last room - we miss you Ms. Ericka and Ms. Steph! It would probably be easier to take if he had to move because of age, but that had nothing to do with it - they just shuffled kids around for no apparent reason. If he would have moved up with all of his friends it would have been an easier transition I think. I'm going on a field trip with his room on Friday, so we'll see how that goes.

Okay - enough babbling...thanks for listening. I need to stop crying and get some work done.

What a small world!!!

Okay - so remember Lauren from a few posts down? Justin's friend from PALS? Well, turns out she is Kevin Wing's second cousin! (A lot of you know Kevin - he lived on the middle grounds, friends with Adam Hurley - for family people....for college friends he was a Phi Tau). Anyways, I was emailing with Stacey (Lauren's mom) and she asked where in Michigan I was from. Her mom is from Bay City too! Stacey's mom and Kevin's dad are brother and sister. We didn't need all 6 degrees of separation for that one :)