So, So Close

Well, the remodel of the family room is SO close to being finished. This past weekend Shawn and my dad FINALLY finished all the crown molding!! Yeah!! It looks awesome!!! Now that all the trim is finished, the only thing left in the room is to buy a new door to replace the old, ugly white one. And then, we are finished! The door doesn't seem to be high on our priority list...maybe Santa will see it when he shows up in a few days and feel sorry for us...

We also finished our little "Martha Stewart" project which was hanging up framed fabric rather than finding a painting we could both agree on. I'm pretty sure we would NEVER come to agreement on a painting to hang on the wall. So, we decided to use canvas stretcher which was a dollar, from Joann's, and then picked out some fabric to wrap around it and hung it up! We love it! And what's really cool is that when we get tired of it we just go pick out some new fabric and "viola"! We have a new wall hanging! Clever huh?

Let's see...other happenings this week...

Austin slept on his actual bed and not in a sleeping bag on the floor one time. (for those of you that don't know, Austin has been a bit challenged with the whole "no crib" idea) We're getting closer though. Austin also had some tummy troubles - the spontaneous vomiting which I talked about in an earlier post, continued and landed us yet again at the doctor. Who then sent us to get x-rays. Austin had his stomach, back and chest x-rayed, and thankfully everything turned out ok. The doctor seems to think he has acid reflux and has him on some pills that are suppose to cure it pretty quick. We haven't had any puke since Sunday! Yipee!! I can't tell you what it was like to see my little baby boy up on an x-ray table to be x-rayed. Tore my heart out and made me realize yet again just how much I love that little man. For those of you who are mothers out there you know what I mean - I was so scared for him, but he was the bravest little man and we're all good now!

And now for my biggest announcement - My Christmas shopping is finished!! YIPEE!! Shawn has yet to start his, but MINE is DONE!! I can't wait to see the kids' faces on Christmas morning when there are a zillion presents under the tree (yes, I may have went over board, but how can I not when my kids are so cute!). My brother and his family will be here tomorrow - Austin and Ashlyn can't wait to play with their cousins! My sister and her FIANCE (Nick) will be here tomorrow also. Then Shawn and I are off for the Turner Christmas in Manhattan on Saturday - another fun filled day with lots of cousins for the kids to play with - and lots of good food for prego Stephanie to eat! And then Christmas Eve will consist of going out to look at Christmas lights (with popcorn and hot cocoa) and eating yummy potato soup. Gotta love Christmas!!

Until Santa comes....hope you are having the time of your life!

ST

Settle Tradition

I love Christmas traditions, so it's a good thing us Settle's (Settle being my maiden name) have several of them! A personal favorite of mine (and my moms) is going to look at Christmas lights. Usually we go on Christmas Eve which we will still do, but this past weekend we decided to go look a little early. You may think going to look at Christmas lights doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but that is because you don't do it the Settle way. You load everyone up get a barrel of popcorn, make hot chocolate for the road and of course put in some Christmas CD's. Every year we have a blast. Although, we are going to have to invest in a bigger car soon. Shawn and I's family is growing so quickly that we aren't all going to fit in one car next year!! Maybe we'll rent a limo next year. hmmmm. In case you live close by - we went to the light show at Long View Lake in Lee's Summit. It was awesome (and free!). The kids loved it, as did the adults. Christmas Eve we will be visiting the ever popular Candy Cane Lane and of course the famous-out-of-control penguin house. (let me know if you need directions - quite a site!!)

Well, I must get to wrapping some presents or at least taking a nap. I hope this post finds you all relaxed and ready for the big weekend!

Go have the time of your life!

ST

purple vomit...

So, yesterday was an interesting day. (if you have a queezy stomach you may want to skip reading this post) Austin has started to puke every now and then. Other than that - he's happy as a clam. Yes, he is quite amazing - he can throw up one minute and be jumping on the couch singing "Here Comes Santa Clause" before I can even get his disgusting clothes off of him! Is there some crazy puking illness going around? (Kim - any ideas? ha!) Anyway, I was covered from head to toe in purple puke only to be followed up by chicken nugget puke only hours later. I mopped the floor and lysoled at least 4 times yesterday. I had to call in some reinforcements (my mom) so that I could jump in the shower and rinse off half way through the chaos. Even my mom admits she has never seen anything like it - he can puke and then jump right up and be crazy Austin again right before your eyes. Hmmmm...if anyone has any idea what this is all about please feel free to let me know. As for now, I am going with the natural mom response, "it's just a phase..." and if you don't believe that one then I'll go with "he's teething."
Oh, and now Ashlyn is running a fever too - probably better go dress her in some plastic...Round 2 of vomiting could start at any moment!!

Hope you are having the time of your life too!
ST

I can COOK!!

The remodel continues....I finally got a new stove!! (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Turner!!) If you haven't heard me complain about my old stove (which is nearly impossible since I complained about it daily), let me tell you a few things that I particularly DID NOT like:

#1 - Easy access for hiding when playing hide and seek: Austin and Ashlyn could both easily open up the oven door as it was very light and low to the ground. This made for one of their favorite hiding places - and a bit of a safety issue!

#2 - Easy access to turn on the oven if you are 2 feet tall: All the knobs were down in front of the stove instead of back behind the burners. This made it quite simple for the kids to constantly be turning on the stove burners without me knowing. Just a bit of a fire hazard...

#3 - Burners that had a diameter of about 3 inches: I only had 3 burners that would work and they were TINY!! It would take me an hour to brown a pound of hamburger!! Burners this size would be great if I didn't have all these hungry mouths to feed!

I could go on and on...but I'll stop as those are my top 3. I LOVE my new stove - she is beautiful, black, convection, ceramic flat top and makes me smile every time I cook!! Granted, we had to do some make shift cabinets as the new stove is a lot bigger than the old one, I can definitely make due with it until we get our new cabinets. Plus I think Shawn enjoyed taking a chainsaw to the cabinets to shorten them up and fit them back in. Here's the old stove - if you would like to bid on it - check out eBay!!

Until next time...

ST

And now for some updates...
Now that I have started this blog, I suppose it's time to actually use it...
The holiday season is upon us and I have to say it is so much fun to see Christmas through a child's eye again. Austin is really into Christmas this year - last year he had no idea and wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with Santa Clause. However, this year, Austin can't wait to get hot dogs and a hammer from Santa. Yes, that is all Austin wants for Christmas - a hot dog and a hammer. For the first time ever we may come in under budget after Christmas shopping! Ashlyn doesn't quite get it yet, but definitely enjoys presents - so will have a great time too.

Party Time!
Shawn and I recently attended Shawn's company Christmas party. We had a blast! Shawn ended up doing a bit of karaoke and dancing on stage to "Ice Ice Baby" by himself...I just fell in love with him all over again! What a fun night out - although it took me two days to recover - being 7 months pregnant and staying out all hours of the night do not go together well.

The Best Day Ever
This following picture was taken on Shawn's b-day weekend. I surprised Shawn with what may very well be the best weekend ever! Or at least that's what he kept saying all day. I had secretly gotten tickets to the opening K-State basketball game (thanks to my sister) and also got tickets to the last home K-State football game (thanks to Shawn's brother in law) which were both on the same day. I had lined up babysitters for the kids (my parents) so that Shawn and I could spend the whole weekend in Manhattan together. So, Saturday morning Shawn thought we were headed over to the cabinet shop to pick out new cabinets for our kitchen. We dropped the kids off at my parents and we were on our way! Little did he know that I had packed overnight bags and hid them in the car and we headed straight for the Little Apple! He was so shocked when I finally told him where we were going - and was truly surprised! Not only did K-state end up winning their opening game, but somehow K-State also managed to beat Texas in football that night too. It was definitely one of the best weekends ever!!

28 Weeks Prego!

And here I am at 28 weeks pregnant. I can't believe it's almost here!! We are already on our 2 week appointments - this baby is gonna be here before we know it!! Lately, I've been thinking it's a boy, but you never know. At some point we are going to have to come up with some names for this little one - we can't be calling it Baby T3 forever! Austin wants to name it "balloon", but hopefully he will settle for giving the baby a balloon instead of naming it balloon....

The pregnancy is going really well, no problems, just slowing down a bit and getting tired a bit quicker. Although - today was my day to watch 6 kiddos to give my other two mom friends a break and I'm still alive!! Two friends of mine, that each have two kids, started a "moms time out" idea. Each week one of us watches all 6 kids til after lunch so that the other moms have a day off. So, you watch the kids one week and then you get two weeks off! It's awesome!! And the kids play so good together, they have so much fun and it usually ends up making for a great nap afterwards (don't worry - mommy naps on those days too!)

Makin' the switch

I'm making the switch...I'm becoming an official blogger. Is this a good thing? Well, not sure yet. I really enjoy doing the website, but it takes forever to do as I don't have very good software, and I always put off posting anything because it takes so long to complete. So, I've decided to give blogging a shot - I can keep it updated much more often - and even give you some insight into my daily life a little more often - just what you want, huh?! Plus, I can keep photos updated better so you can see my crazy children grow up right before your eyes. It will probably take me a bit to figure it all out - especially since I will be changing diapers, wiping noses and having a baby at some point...but I'll "get 'er done" as my mom would say!

Until next time...
ST