This March weather has been throwing me through a loop! We had a couple of really nice days and then it got all freezing and raining again and even threatened to snow two nights ago! It's been crazy and it's got me daydreaming for summer. Levi has a bunch of super cute 2T shorts and cooler jammies that I can't wait to bust out for him but it just refuses to get warm enough! I am sooo ready for summer. I keep finding myself pulling up pictures on my phone of the last few Julys and Augusts and just wishing it was like that now! I can't wait to go berry picking and peach picking and spending time by the pool. And I am excited to have the summer off to spend with Bubba and baby girl! Hopefully I won't be too too sleep deprived to enjoy it! But thankfully even though it's been cold, we've had enough sunshine lately to enjoy the park a fair amount anyway.
Levi and Lincoln at the park. As usual, Levi looks way more thrilled about life than Lincoln does haha.
Another fun park day! This particular afternoon was even sweeter because we found a little shop in Tigard that sells huge cookies so we got to have a cookie picnic at the park as well. Recipe for success!
So this week is spring break in Newberg (and Tualatin) so I get the week off work! And Levi still gets to go to daycare which means I have two full days completely free! I am super excited to use them to work on baby girl's dresser! We got an old dresser off of Craigslist for $25. It definitely needs some TLC but it's solid wood and the drawers slide easily and it's the right size so it fits my requirements. I've got my wood filler, and my paint and primer and sandpaper so I am ready to dive in to salvaging it into something super cute! I've already taken off the nasty old brass hardware and feel like it looks better already! Haha. So that's probably going to take a lot of my time on Wednesday and Thursday. But I am so glad that we found a dresser that will work before the break so that I have this child-free chance to do it!
I've definitely been hit by the nesting bug lately (even though I still have two more months of pregnancy to go!). Yesterday I painted baby girl's pegboard and I LOVE how it turned out! So good! And Levi and I found a perfect stick for her macrame at the park so I was able to strip the bark off of that and sand it and spray paint it gold and it turned out so good! And last night I prepped the flowers for it and laid them out how I think I will want it to go and I am super excited about it. I think it will look awesome! Also, the spice racks we ordered from Ikea finally arrived so Eric hung those up in Levi's room (except for a couple we will use in baby girl's room) to be used as bookshelves! They turned out great and I am soooo glad to finally have Levi's books put away and up off the floor and arranged so that he can actually see them and have more variety to chose from so that I'm not just reading Sheep in a Jeep 5 times in a row (although granted that is a pretty awesome book) haha.
Levi's new bookshelves up and looking great!
Levi's room is really starting to come together now that his bookshelves are up. All of his toys have homes, his closet is organized and the wall with the window is looking good. Now he just needs his new bed (Eric is going to make him a pallet bed! I'm stoked for it!) and I need to figure out what we are doing with the long wall his bed will be along. So far it's a blank slate and I just haven't figured out what I want to do with it yet. Also, he's going to need another light in there because right now he only has his floor lamp and it just gets too dim in the evenings. We still have his other hanging lamp from his nursery but we aren't sure where to put it because we don't want to put it right above his bed and we also want to find a way to hide the cord for it. So we're still working on that. We're also still working on getting our pictures up on the walls around the house. We're making slow progress, hung Levi's canvas of his 5 month pictures which I love so much, yesterday. But we still haven't mounted our tv or got anything up in the living room yet except Jesus (#priorities) haha.
Anyway, also this week I found out that the district wants to renew my contract for next year! And Ha and I already talked about it a little and she is wanting to renew hers. So now Eric and I have a decision to make about that. We went to the temple yesterday and got to pray about it and talk about it some while we were in the Celestial room. I am leaning towards accepting the position again. It would still be just two days a week which right now feels like the perfect balance for me and our family. I just worry that because baby girl will still be so little I will miss her and I really don't want to miss out on things with her. But at the same time, I feel like Levi really loves getting to go to daycare and that he is definitely benefiting from going. He gets good socialization and he's learning a lot there. Unfortunately, we won't be able to send him back to Kindercare in the fall because they are no longer accepting part-time kiddos. Meaning they would take him back after the summer because he is already a student there but they wouldn't have a spot for baby girl. So that wouldn't work for us! I definitely want to keep them together if at all possible. So if I do decide to accept the position, we will have to figure out new childcare again. And I know it will be a lot more expensive to pay for two kiddos in care instead of just one. But I think it will probably still be cheaper and definitely a lot easier to do center care rather than a nanny. With a nanny, they could stay together but I just HATE the taxes part of it and paying hourly and I think Levi would really miss out academically and socially that way. So there's that. But I would still be making enough to cover the childcare and still put some aside to save for the house which helps me feel more secure financially. We are definitely wanting to shoot for buying a house in Texas sometime next summer which is suddenly starting to feel very soon! Also, I feel like it will help my resume and help me just experience wise to stay with Newberg for another year. And a lot of things will be easier than this year because I already know pretty much all the kiddos who will be on my caseload and I've learned how things work logistically and paper-work wise so that's nice. Ha and I have also been talking about how we want to get things even more organized and congruent between the two of us documentation-wise. So we will be formulating like a blank daily note form, annual report and 3-year re-eval form to make sure that we are both covering the same things and that will make it a lot easier for whoever comes in after us. Because when we came in, things were definitely a mess! Which made it super hard at the beginning.
So yeah, the job thing has been weighing on my mind, but I feel confident that the Lord will direct us to make the right decision for our family. I know that He knows what the best plan is for us, now it's just up to us to be open to receiving that revelation.
Anyway, so that's been life in a nutshell. Work, making plans and decisions for the upcoming year, nesting and prepping for baby girl and just living life! Eric and I got the chance to go up to Portland on Friday for dinner at this cool upscale Peruvian restaurant as part of dining month. That was awesome. It was a unique atmosphere and had some interesting and unique flavors and offerings. So that was fun. I don't know that I would go there again because I liked their dessert and first course better than either of our main courses but it was still a fun experience. We are so lucky to live here where we have so many different restaurants to choose from and so many ethnic food choices! We were talking about it as we were driving home and since we've lived here we've gotten to eat at restaurants that are: Morrocan, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Chinese, Indian, Greek/Mediterranean, Lebanese, Brazilian, Mexican, and now Peruvian. Not everywhere has that kind of variety to offer and I love that we have been able to take advantage of it!
To finish up, here are some random pictures of life lately!
I just love how it looks like the writing in the box is a caption for exactly what Levi is doing "In search of incredible" It's perfect!
Little man is still very much in love with his binkies! He is pretty good about giving them up when he wakes up from his naps or in the morning, but if they are left somewhere within his reach, he will readily snatch them up any time! This morning he found three of them and managed to fit all of them in his mouth at once! Eric said he looked like a baby Bane haha.
Best snack ever! Grapes, pineapple and strawberries! I actually love that Levi loves fruit because it gets me to eat a greater variety of fruit as well. I try to mix it up so we are buying different things every week and I love it.
I love waking up to this face! Eric gets up with Levi almost every day and then on days that I don't work, he and Levi come in and wake me up at 7:30. Levi always comes in my room with a gigantic smile on his face and a "Hi Mommy!" It's my favorite.