Loft Conversion

 From the end of June until mid August we survived living through a construction renovation in our house to convert the loft upstairs into a bedroom!

BEFORE

AFTER
(coming soon)

 

As you can see we had a the new room built with a walk-in closet over the entryway. Could not be happier with the outcome! Drew put in the laminate flooring himself. Asher just loved to help! Drew did it all himself and spent a good 11-12 hour chunk of time working on it. It turned beautifully! We now have another bedroom! Yea! It has been a lot of work, but thankfully family has come out and helped paint. Drew's sister and mother came out and painted our bathrooms and some thrift store dressers for the new baby. Then Drew's mom came out again after the room was done and painted that too and all of the trim! Thanks :) I painted the trim again after Drew had to strip it off and re-do the trim after the flooring went in, but I was glad I could contribute one little way.   It is done and we are happy to have the scaffolding out of our house except it only was cleared out days before I had the baby!! Crazy!

Summer and the Legends at Sparks Marina

 Look at this cutie chillin at The Legends over this summer. It was so fun to hang out on my days off just the two of us! Just about 25 months in these pictures.

Happy Birthday Asher! TWO Year Bash :)

 Asher turned 2! This year we really wanted to have a birthday party at our new house, but since our yard still consisted of dirt and newly seeded grass that no kids were allowed to run on we opted to have a small family get together in Gardnerville. Since Asher and cousin Jake's birthdays are only a week apart we combined the birthday celebrations! Jake is one year older and turned 3 this year! We met up at Grandma Julie & Grandpa Bob's House and had lunch then went to the Carson Valley Swim Center. Asher had so much fun! He was a little apprehensive about the water before (he's only been swimming one or two times before this) but as soon as he saw Jake jumping into the water and having a blast Asher was all for the water! All of Asher's birthday gifts from us were water related, swim trunks from Julie & Bob, a new floaty device, and towel, etc. So he had on his arm and chest float combo from Costco and Jake had a matching set so it was a lot of fun. They both would climb up the stairs the come to the side of the pool and jump in after chanting "1,2,3...jump!" and jump into our arms. I had a ton of fun too!  Cousin Everett proved to be a born swimmer too and kept diving in to the water even though he's only 1 :) I think we had a family BBQ later that evening, but I can hardly remember now cause of my horrible memory, but the only pictures I got was of Jake and Asher opening all their presents. See the madness below! Asher didn't last long because of all the very hard playing & excitement that day he was SO tired and way past bed time.... but he got some awesome presents that he was very very excited about. One toy especially he got from grandma and grandpa Hines-- his bubble lawnmower! HE LOVES mowing the lawn with Daddy. He mows right along side of him or usually behind him. Evey time we open the garage he says, "lawnmower, lawnmower!". He loves anything that involves helping around the yard. Great Grandma Brunson gave Asher some money for a Little Tikes Water Table that he's played with all summer too. And of course we had to give Asher some bubble toys because that is his FAVORITE thing right now - BUBBLES!  He also got a soccer ball that he has gotten pretty good at kicking this summer and lots of outfits and shoes! We had so much fun in Gardnerville with family and I'm still in shock that we have a two year old already! He is so so so cute and I think he will make an excellent big brother. We just can't keep up with him as he is growing up so fast! :)

At Costco a While Back

Back in May Asher was being the cutest kid on the block in Costco. Then he decided he needed to get on the floor and start scooting backwards.... Crazy kid! What are you doing on the floor!? 

Asher is really turning into a silly, crazy, energetic boy! 

 

Ultrasound: Baby Boy Hines #2

I could hardly wait for the gender reveal ultrasound early April! Best appointment of the entire pregnancy- filled with so much anticipation and excitement! I love it :) Drew and I had both had some pretty strong promptings that this baby was a boy, but we knew there might be a slight chance it could be a girl. Drew said he "just knew" it was going to be a boy. For me it was only a few weeks before this appointment I was out taking Asher for a walk and I was stressing about the gender, I was praying to Heavenly Father to envision the spirit of this baby waiting to join our family and to know how this spirit was going to fit with our family... and I can still remember the feeling of absolute peace wash over me and the overwhelming impression that this baby would be a boy. So it was no surprise at the ultrasound when we saw the gender reveal image on the screen, without a doubt, it was boy! I was so excited during the whole thing and so impressed with the Fetal Imaging Center. Last pregnancy we went to the imaging center in the hospital and it was pretty dull. This visit was at a specialist's office and everything was made very special... and for the first time we were offered a DVD of the entire ultrasound and a CD of images :) I know this is standard at a lot of other places my friends have gone too, but this is the first time I've had the option of getting those, so of course I jumped all over them. What a sweet, sweet memento. Afterwards we went home and shared the news with Grandma and Grandpa Hines who were watching Asher (who napped the whole time)! I am very thankful for them for watching Asher so Drew and I could go together :) They were excited it was a boy and Julie knew it was going to be a boy too. I hope we at least have one girl down the road though! But at this time we are just taking one step at a time and we might be done or we might have more children at this point. I feel that our family needs to be bigger and Drew might be on the same page, but we'll just have to see when we get there what the Lord has in store for our family. Here's a little peek into the amazing miracle of life. I still am amazed at how much development has already taken place by week 20! It's amazing.

Look at that bicep!

Easter 2013

We spent Easter in Gardnerville this year and put on a good egg hunt for the littles. We all brought plastic eggs and candy and Aunt Charlotte provided the Easter baskets, bunny ears, and little take away gifts. It was such a blast. Drew and I weren't sure if Asher would get the "hunt" but we were pleasantly surprised :) He loved it and knew just what to do finding eggs and putting them in his basket even though it was his first hunt. I esp. loved eating the chocolate :)

Two Front Teeth

A lot of things happened in the second week of April. First, it was Drew's spring break. The Friday before spring break we were planning to go to Costco. I was waiting for him to get home from work... I was babysitting sweet Amelia and we were going to drop her off at home on our way there. Well Drew took a little detour on his way home... to the Bishop's house. I was confused, worried, and a little frustrated why it was taking so long for him to get home. Drew wrote me a text saying he was at the bishop's house. After a lot of waiting we finally agreed that I would go pick him up at the Bishop Donnelly's house on the way to Costco. I picked him up and I knew SOMETHING was up. So I said, "Well, we are either having marital problems or something else is up." Which he replied that he would tell me when "we got there" because he didn't think I should be driving to receive this news. Well, that just freaked me out like crazy so I demanded that he tell me now! I had the feeling though it was about his job so I said, "Did you loose your job?" Yep. Drew's contract is not being renewed for next year. Drew is still probationary (for the first three years) and with budget cuts his position allotment was cut. I wasn't devastated like Drew. (I went through about two weeks of denial and then broke down much later.)  He had been sweating about it for weeks when rumors were going around, but he didn't want to stress his poor pregnant wife out so he didn't tell me about it. He is so sweet, but at the same time I felt bad. I had no idea he was bearing all this weight on his shoulders. Friday he got the news although still not official. It IS however official now (now being May when I am writing this)  because he got his letter of non-renewal.  I immediately went into action mode. I said Dr. Aland and Lisa are hiring a dental assistant and moving one of their dental assistants to the front office. I need to call them now! I called Lisa and I immediately asked, "Have you hired a dental assistant?" which she hadn't yet. I was so thankful at this moment.. and then i said, "Because I need a full time job!" We talked a lot after that, but mainly the biggest hurdle would be to find full time child care. I was able to find child care with Andrea on Monday/Tuesdays and with Heather on Thursday/Fridays. They have been awesome by the by! Lisa and Troy considered me for the front office job and extended the job offer to me later that weekend :) We are SO incredibly blessed. Although I have to work full time and this would not be my choice to be away from Asher so much... this is the opportunity that Heavenly Father presented. And thankfully it is temporary that Asher will have to be in daycare until Drew gets out of school in the first week of June. At which time Drew will be a stay as home Daddy while he works on becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist :)

Ok, So the second week of April we had gotten the news that Drew's job would not be renewed, so Drew started Spring Break with a bit of bad news. However we snapped right into action and that weekend we seeded the yard. Tyler and Charlotte came over and helped and it is starting to grow slowly! That week since Drew was home to watch Asher I started back at work full time. That week happened to be the week the Aland's moved their office to the new building and it was a TON of work! I thought I might go into labor on that Wednesday night because I had been lifting boxes and basically pushed it WAY too hard! I was in a lot of pain that night and had a ton of crazy ligament pain and some crazy contractions! But we finally were mostly moved into the new building.

 It was on the last day of Spring Break on Friday and I was working late that night when I got a call around 7pm. Actually I got about 9 missed calls. I knew something bad had happened. Why would Drew be calling me so many times?  Asher had jumped off the couch and smacked his two front teeth on the corner of the coffee table.. and there was blood everywhere. Good thing I work for a Dentist, right? So I told Drew to bring him down to the office as fast as he could. My heart was stricken for my poor baby! I felt so bad for him when I first saw him... and I was so worried too. Dr. Aland said his teeth and gums were pretty gnarly, but only time would tell if anything was permanently damaged.  His lip and gums were swollen, bloody, and bruising black and blue pretty fast. Also his two front teeth were mobile. I was so worried about the roots of his teeth and that there might be permanent damage. Dr. Aland advised us to give him his pacifier as much as possible over the next few days to help stabilize those two teeth and get some counter pressure there. Asher loved this idea, unlimited paci time ha ha  :) Also we gave him cold things to suck on the help with the swelling and some Ibuprofen for the pain and swelling too.  I'm a little glad I wasn't there when it happened, but I wish I had been there also. Drew said there was a lot of blood. The only thing we could do was try to make him as comfortable as possible and to wait for couple of weeks to see if the teeth might start to discolor and die. Thankfully there has been no discoloring yet and it's been a month since the incident so I am hoping that we are in the clear! ** Note we sold the coffee table the following week! We had been talking for a while about selling it because every time I babysit kids are jumping on it, running into it, and getting hurt. Kids and coffee tables DO NOT MIX. If you are going to have kids just save yourself the time and get rid of the coffee table and everyone is happy :)

I never got  a pictures of Asher, but here is Drew's shirt soaked with blood after Asher laid his head down for two seconds. I had to soak the shirt in cold water and work with it, but I got all the blood out :) It was a little stressful and Asher couldn't eat for days because his teeth hurt. He just was not interested in food other than yogurt or milk. But eventually the teeth stabilized and he started to sleep well again and get back into normal daily life. I guess it was inevitable that something might happen before he turned two!

Anyway, April was stressful all around. I had to adjust to being a full time working mom, securing child care, learning that our once stable life was not so stable, and then Asher decided to knock his two front teeth loose too! The silver lining here is that the timing is perfect so that I will be eligible for benefits from my job starting August 1st just in case we need it for this baby due in August! Also, this opens up some opportunity for Drew to seek out private practice instead of working in education because he is literally being forced in that direction. But he is happy now about it. He says he didn't like working in education and private practice is what he would rather be doing any way. And Asher is doing really well with being with babysitters four days a week. He is around a lot of other kids and it is helping him use his words more. I am so much more grateful for the days I have off with him now, just to enjoy being home with him and enjoying motherhood and appreciating that opportunity I had to stay home with him when I did. I am sad I will miss the last summer with him as an only child... so so so sad about that, but he will have Drew with him and I know they are going to be the best of buds :) Those first two weeks back at work were brutal and a hard adjustment. I was humbled in our situation and it finally hit me that our lives had changed drastically. It finally hit me... reality hit me that Drew had lost his job. That I had to go back to work (ladies, get yourself a great education and a great career, you never know when you will need it). That I would not be able to have that time with Asher over the summer that I thought I would have.  So I had a mental breakdown after book club some two weeks after I started work and I sobbed and sobbed in front of some good friends. Why is it in front of others? I was totally embarrassed about losing it, but it turned out to be amazing because I got to connect with other women and get some really great advice. Thank you friends :)  We are all going through something in our lives at any given time. I think life has come to a sweet normal now, but I still look forward to the time when Drew gets off school and can stay home with Asher full time. That will definitely be easier on our family :) And I am looking forward to having this new baby and being able to have some maternity leave to stay home with all of my boys! 

It's a BOY!

 

Aren't you LOVING these photos that my sister in law, Charlotte,  took for us!? I am so happy with how everything turned out. I knew I wanted to announce this pregnancy with feet... the belly photo was just a back up idea if something didn't turn out .... then Charlotte had the awesome idea to get a photo using the stone that says "The Hines Family Love Here"! Totally spontaneous and it's my favorite :) You can visit her website here :) Love, Love, Love It!