We're Finally Home!!!

Well we've finally moved into our new home! I haven't had much time to take any final pictures, but I have a few of the carpet and cabinets in some of the rooms that I can post until I get some new ones up. We made the transition this past weekend with much help from our family, and we spent our first night in the house on Monday night. The only family members who have yet to join us are our fish and Flash (the turtle). They're still hanging out at Grandmama and Grandpa's house, probably until Sunday afternoon. The baby shower at the church is this Saturday, and we've got lots of Charlotte family coming in as we speak to be with us. So we're hurriedly trying to put a few finishing touches on the house so it will be ready for company. Here are a few other interesting things of note with us recently: this week is my third anniversary working at the County (although it feels like longer), and this week Cody accepted a new/old job, working back with the Witts at G&K Nursery in Ellisville - I told him that maybe the third time's the charm! He worked there in high school, and then went back for three years or so before taking his current job with Chestnut Hill. What seemed like a very stressful situation in the beginning turned out to be a true blessing from God. He's provided for us over and over again in ways that never cease to amaze me. We were looking around for jobs because his current one wasn't working out, thinking all along he would probably have to take a pay cut. But now we've ended up with something where he'll be making more money than he is currently, and we'll be saving money on gas because he's only about five miles from work! I'm excited because that means he'll be able to come home for lunch and spend time with me and the baby while we're home. And he won't have to keep working every Saturday so we'll have our weekends back together. God is good, huh? There's just no denying it around our house these days.

Update

Well I've been waiting and waiting because I have lots of pictures to post, but we are presently without internet connection (due to the fact that we are also without home) and so they're all still just sitting on my camera or computer waiting to be retrieved.......so I thought I should at least give everyone an update on where we are with things. So much has happened since the last post. Everyone always talks about home building as being a 'hurry up and wait' process, but we've been blessed to have everything roll along smoothly since day one. We (by we I mean my Grandpa) finished up all the painting except for a few touch ups, we've got the cabinets finishing up today (I hope), our power is on, the AC is up and running, and all we're lacking is a final inspection and Certificate of Occupancy, which we're hoping for tomorrow. I can't believe we're finally here.

They sold the property where we've been living, so we (and all our pets) had to move out of there this past weekend and are currently staying with my parents (God bless 'em!). So hopefully we can start moving in furniture and actually be sleeping there by the time the weekend is over.

As for Baby Banner, everything is still going along smoothly. We finished up our childbirth classes last week and we've just got a short newborn care class and a breastfeeding class and we'll be fully educated (yeah right!). We're 33 weeks along and still feeling great. God has been good to us to keep me in such good health and spirits because I don't know if I could've done all of this while pregnant otherwise! We've got a baby shower coming up at church next weekend and most of the ladies in my NC family are coming down to visit - I can't wait to see all of you! So it won't be long before we can settle in, relax, and wait for baby. It'll be here before we know it!

We have cabinets!

Here's the view from the front door. The opening on the far right will be for the double oven and the hole to the left of the window is for the dishwasher. The only cabinets missing from this picture are the ones that will be hanging over the bar, which will hang from that small wall you can see dropping down from the ceiling. There will also be crown molding, some trim around the bottom of the wall cabinets to hide under cabinet lighting and the hardware still needs to be installed.

This is where the cooktop will be behind the raised bar. It will probably be wide enough for two stools and that's it. We set it up where we can be cooking and still see into the living room. The place we are now is set up like that and we really like it. The Floyd house kitchen was so isolated from the rest of the house and it didn't make it much fun to cook.

This is the wall to the left of the sink that backs up to the utility room. The fridge will go to the far left and just next to it the microwave will be mounted under the wall cabinet. Cody and I were both worried that once the cabinets went in the kitchen would look so cramped and tiny, but it almost seemed to open it up and make it feel bigger. I think it will suit our needs perfectly! I just can't wait to see the finished product. Our appliances are in, so once we get the cabinets and countertops finished (some time shortly after Christmas) I guess we'll go ahead and pick those up and install them. More pictures to come!

You asked, so here it is!

Alright Tifani, against my better judgement and sense of self respect, I'm posting a belly picture, just for you. Not a very flattering one, but it was while I was thinking about it, so I got Cody to snap a shot. This is me at 29 weeks - and don't I look happy to be having my picture taken! I'm finally in the third trimester, and things are going pretty well. I failed my first glucose screening test, so I had to go back for the three hour test today. Boy, was that fun. I guess I'll hear the results in a few days and hopefully there' s nothing to worry about. I'll let you know when I hear something. I'm feeling more movement all the time, although so far it still hasn't been anything crazy. Maybe the baby is just laid back (translation lazy) like it's mother. We go back to the doctor on the 27th of this month, and then I guess it's every two weeks from here. We're getting closer all the time!

Oh Christmas Tree.....

Well, this is about the extent of our Christmas decorations - our very own 'Charlie Brown' tree. We decided it was best not to pull out all the Christmas decorations when we're supposed to be packing things up (not I said 'supposed to be'). The only thing we'll miss about this place is our fireplace. Especially at Christmas because we'll have to figure out somewhere else to hang our stockings! Cody's become quite the fire maker too, and I'll miss it on cold nights, although they seem to be few and far between these days. Anyway, have a Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy your holidays! More to come soon on the house and the baby, but dinner calls........

The Latest News

Here's the latest photo of the house. Not much has change on the exterior, with the exception of the finished soffits, and the porch posts have been wrapped. Now we need to repaint the exterior trim and paint the doors red. I've got some pictures of the inside with the finished painting, I just haven't downloaded them onto the computer yet so I can post them. We've ordered our new living room furniture - we got a great discount by placing the order the day after Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad are giving us a pair of recliners as our Christmas gift and we are buying a new sleeper sofa that will also be our 'guest bed'. I can't wait to have new living room furniture that actually matches! We've been blessed to have what we do now, but it's falling apart and just isn't fit for a new house. We'll be getting cabinets installed next weekend - I can't wait to see how they'll look! I also have a picture of the tile, but I want to get a better picture after we've cleaned off the grout residue, so more to come on that.

As for the latest baby news, we had our last appointment on Nov. 29th and everything is going along smoothly. I'm now in the third trimester, and we'll start going to the doctor more often from now on. I just signed us up for childbirth classes and we start tomorrow. I was glad I called because the next class doesn't begin until the end of January and wouldn't be over until we're within about two weeks of the due date, which they don't recommend, so if I had not called today, we would be rolling the dice that we would finish in time! I also signed up for a newborn care class and a breastfeeding class - I figure the more information I can get, the better - then we can pick and choose from it what will work for us. So, needless to say, the month of January will be pretty booked up between packing, moving, baby classes, and hopefully unpacking! Let me now apologize in advance for any acts of insanity or general moodiness on my part that you may encounter. But, I figure if we can cram as much into January as possible, that will give us all of February to take it easy and prepare for our little one to arrive!

Crib Bedding

Here are some pictures of the crib bedding we bought. I just love it! There are hundreds of little accessories they can sell you, but right now we just have the crib bedding and a diaper stacker that came with it. It also came with a valance that I think we might use to make a pillow. I might add the mobile and possibly the hamper, but we'll see.

Baby Gifts

Ricky & Keri and Chad & Kim gave us a 'gift tub' since they said they wouldn't be able to come to a baby shower. It was so nicely put together I asked Keri to take a picture - thanks guys!

Chad & Kim said they saw this and knew that the baby had to have this to wear at Grandma Mary's house - or will it be MeMe? She still hasn't decided. In case you can't read it it says "my favorite colors are green and yellow" I love it!

Me & Carson

Here we are at Katie's party - as you can see, I bored her to sleep!

How long has it been?

Well first, let me say I'm sorry it's been awhile since the last post. There's been a lot going on and I've been neglecting the site. Also, we just got our camera back (actually they just replaced it for free with a brand new upgraded model - thanks Canon!) so I've still been unable to take pictures of the house. I've got the day off tomorrow, so I plan to go out and take a few pictures to post because it's supposed to be a beautiful day. Mom and I were talking, and I don't think the picture I've got on here does justice to the color of the house - I just love it! But anyway, we just got back from a weekend in Charlotte visiting our family for my cousin Katie's 16th birthday party who, by the way, is on her way to Raleigh this very minute in her brand new 2007 Honda CRV with her mom - congrats Katie! Speaking of Raleigh, they're on their way to stay with my cousin Keri and her new little girl Carson for the weekend. I finally got to meet Carson this weekend and she is one of the most beautiful little girls I've ever seen! We had a great weekend and it was nice to see all the family, with the exception of Anna and John, Layton, and Granny (and Cody who had to work, but I see him all the time!). We also had an eventful weekend because we were able to find our bedding for the nursery! I've been searching and searching and finally found something neutral that I love - and it was even cheaper than I found it online. It's still more than I would have expected I would pay, but I'm getting so excited about the thought of a new house that I wanted some new nursery bedding to go with it - sue me.

As for the house, the guys are (hopefully) finishing up the drywall this week and it will be time to start painting the inside. We've already ordered our tile, and we're finalizing plans on our cabinets. We were really lucky to have a family friend who's an interior designer here in town to agree to help us pick out some things. She found us a great deal on cabinets - there's a guy who just started ordering a new kind of cabinet in from China that is really sturdy and just beautiful. If we would have gone to Lowe's or somewhere to pick out this same thing, it would have cost us twice as much. And the great thing is that he's ordering them in bulk so we don't have to place an order and wait for them to come in. They'll be here in a week or two, and all we have to tell him is what exactly we want. Then we can either install them ourselves or have them installed. I was really stressed about cabinets because we spend so much time in the kitchen and we have so much kitchen stuff to store, but we didn't budget much money for the cabinets. The way this is working out, it looks like we may be only a few hundred dollars over the cabinet budget, and I was expecting it to be maybe a couple thousand over.

So that's all for now. I'm still feeling great and have no complaints. We're 23 weeks along, and our next appointment is Nov. 29th. Everything is going great for us right now - we're so very blessed!