All Around Update

What we have been up to...

Eric-The refueling outage at Davis Besse will be coming to an end soon...yay AND nay! Eric has been busy working, working, and working some more. He is *supposed* to have this Saturday off and it will be his first day off in 14 days. Prior to that time frame he has been working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week since after Christmas. He mentioned the other day that he felt the outage passed rather quickly and did not mind all of the hours. Sadly, I cannot say the same LOL!

The extra income has been VERY nice, but it is time for Eric and I to reconnect as husband and wife (we really need a date night). However, we are in need of family time more. Parker loves spending time with Eric and has been missing him. Garrett has gotten to the point where he only desires mommy's attention...he screams "no" and pushes Eric out the door (literally) when he arrives home from work. He has welcomed Eric home with open arms only one night...the night I told him daddy was bringing home pizza!

Despite all of the hours I am thrilled Eric is LOVING his new job. He has been able to view some rather cool "stuff" that only occurs during an outage. Some nights he arrives home in scrubs vs. his normal work attire and on those days I know he had a good day...he spent some time in containment (yes, he is proud of that!).

Parker-Currently Parker is sporting a black eye. I wish that ONE of us in the family could explain why?! He woke up Monday AM for school and that is the first time I noticed it. With each passing day it has gotten darker and "uglier". Yesterday, while looking at him I noticed it appears as though he is wearing eye shadow. I will say he would make a darling little girl...such a cute little face with delicate features!

He has been doing exceptionally well at school and loves playing with his buddies while there. He will be celebrating his birthday at school on Feb 11th and is looking forward to his Valentine's Day Party as well. Together, he and I have been busy working on his school Valentine's and his Valentine "bag" as well (they decorate a bag vs. a box for their Valentine's goodies).

His 4th birthday is quickly approaching (how is it that he is turning 4?!) and he has FINALLY decided on a Spiderman birthday theme. Choosing a theme for his party was a rather difficult decison. At one point he has wanted a dirtbike party, a monster truck party, a train party, a dinosaur party, a Nemo party, etc. He has given us all sorts of ideas for gifts (what a surprise LOL), but I think we are leaning towards purchasing him a Leapster and various games for it.

Finally, we are registering him to play soccer this Spring. He is in GREAT need of a way to let out the massive amount of energy he has and this is the perfect opportunity. I am really looking forward to him (and eventually the other boys) getting involved in various sports and such.

Garrett- Garrett is 2 and is letting us all know it. He has witnessed countless temper tantrums from Parker is now a pro at throwing them himself (rolling eyes). He loves the word "no" and has no problem expressing that fact!

Since turning 2 his vocab continues to grow on a daily basis. I love to hear him talk and really love the conversations he and Parker are beginning to have. I have been upgraded from "mama" to "my mommy" and meanwhile he continues to call Eric "nana". He can say dada, but for reasons unknown chooses to call Eric "nana". He refers to Parker as "Pop-Po" and my mom is currently "Mimi". He loves to question of "Papa's" whereabouts as well (my grandfather who I have always called Papa).

I love the one on one time I get with him while Parker is at school. We spend most of our time playing with blocks and puzzles (two of his favorites). He is really into learning various letters and can identify (by pointing to and saying) half of the alphabet at this time. I am one proud mommy!

Baby- I will be 24 weeks along into this pregnancy come Saturday. For the most part this pregnancy is passing by rather quickly. I am fairly certain having the older two boys to chase around is making the time fly by. I am thankful this pregancy has been my easiest to date (with a few bumps here and there) and cannot wait to meet my newest son.

This little one seems to know when the older two boys have went to bed for the evening. It is usually at that time that he makes his presence known. Once I lay down for the evening to watch TV and such he wakes up to play. It is as though he saying, "Whew, they finally went to bed. My turn mommy...pay attention to me!" I oblige by rubbing my belly and talking to him. In turn he kicks and rolls around.

While Eric and I have a list of names we are considering at this point we have opted not to name this little one until he is born. The "planner" in me is struggling with this idea, but at the same time it is nice not arguing over names for the next few months LOL!

Finally, Me- Obviously, most of my time is spent tending to the day to day choas of the boys and our house. I have been "attempting" to scrapbook some and would like to get a vast amount of pages done prior to our third son making his arrival...we will see. I forgot how much fun it is to shop for a new baby (not sure how that is possible considering Garrett is only 2 :) ), but I have been grabbing some great deals/finds for our newest son. I will have to share some pictures of a few of my favorite items soon.

Shortly, we will begin working on the remodeling of all three of our bedrooms. Eric and I are moving into the downstairs bedroom, Parker and Garrett are moving into our existing bedroom, and baby boy will eventually be in Parker and Garrett's "old" room. I have spent an extensive amount of time searching for the "perfect" bedding for all of us.

When I became a stay at home mom Eric and I cut cable television out of our budget. For Christmas I was happy to receive digital cable and road runner internet service as one of my gifts. Our entire family is enjoying all of our additional programming options...the boys love Noggin, Eric is happy with the Speed channel,and as for myself there are too many to name. I have become slightly obsessed with DVR as well.

There you have it...the not so short version of what we have been busy doing!