Snow in October!

Not really unusual, but we have had quite a storm yesterday and today. So far we have about 15 inches, and it is really windy, so there are lots of drifts. But we don't have anywhere to go, we still have electricity, so we are warm and cozy watching the snow!

This was Patrick's first time playing in the snow since he could walk and be aware of what snow is. We spent more time bundling him up that actually playing in the snow, but that's okay!




He touched the snow for a bit, but he wouldn't leave his gloves on, so it was really cold!


Daddy let him eat the snow, but he didn't like it very much.


This is our patio. Most of it is drifted, but the corner is taller than Patrick!

Family Pictures

Four Years

Reed and I celebrated our fourth anniversary on Thursday. We had a nice evening at hope Thursday, then we went out Friday night. Patrick got to have his first sleepover at Grandma's house on Friday night so we could have a little time to ourselves. It was very quiet around here, but it was nice and relaxing. We slept in this morning and then watched Looney Tunes while we made breakfast, like the days before baby. We love Patrick so much, but it was nice to have a break for one day. Like Grandma keeps reminding us, he's a busy boy! He didn't really even notice we were gone, and I think he was a little sad to go home with us tonight.

The last four years have been wonderful. We feel very blessed to be where we are right now. We have both graduated from school, we have good jobs, and we will be in our very own home soon. I can't wait to see what the next few years bring us!

'Tis the Season . . .

For Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! I have a adapted a few recipes, and I think I have the one! I made these tonight as a little pick me up after have the stomach bug today. It worked! I love the taste and texture of these cookies. Mmmm . . .

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 15 oz can pumpkin**
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 tsp milk
2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp baking powder
3-4 tsp cinnamon (to your taste)
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
4 cups flour
2 cups MILK CHOCOLATE chips

With a mixer, cream together pumpkin, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Mix the milk with the baking powder (which is also a fun science experiment!) and add that along with the rest of the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chips. Use a cookie scoop or about 1 big tsp and put them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 365 for 12 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen.

**For a fun option, try adding 6-8 drops of red food coloring to your batter. This makes the cookies stay orange when they bake!

Update on Patrick--15 months!

I haven't said much about Patrick's skills lately, so here is an update.

• He cruises around everywhere now. He is still a busy boy, and we will be investing in a lot of cabinet locks when we move in to our house. We consider ourselves lucky if we get 15 seconds of accidental snuggle time. He is too busy for that.
  
• He is such a happy boy and whenever someone around him laughs, he does a mock laugh that is really cute. Whenever he hears clapping, he claps.
  
• He is starting to talk a lot more. He has probably 100 words in his own language, but 4-5 that we can regularly understand. He says mama sometimes, but dada ALL THE TIME. He loves looking out the window to see if dada is coming home. He says hot, ball, and this week learned banana.
• We sometimes refer to him as the tornado, because you can see the path of destruction he makes as he wanders through the house, especially at grandma's house. He just opens cupboards or drawers and pulls everything out and makes a nice little trail.
• He can blow kisses when it is time to say bye-bye, but he mostly puts his hand up to his mouth and blow slobber all over himself.
  
• He has really gotten the idea of peek-a-boo and hide-and-go-seek. If I run into his room and hide behind the door, he can come find me. He can use he blanket to play peek-a-boo with us.

He really looks like and acts like a toddler now. We love our boy!

Update on Me

Well, I finally have some sort of solution for my diabetes question. As you know, I took insulin during my pregnancy, and my doctor wanted me to get tested after I had Patrick. We finally got insurance figured out and a doctor assigned to me, so I went to the lab and did the 2-hour blood glucose test about a month and a half ago. The results were high, 288, so that was pretty definitive for me. Well, my doctor said to come in and do another fasting blood sugar, so I did that and it was like 147 or something. She called and thought there could be something lingering with my pregnancy, so she wanted me to do it again in like a month.

Yesterday I did another fasting blood sugar, which came back as 174, so she called and said, yes, you have diabetes, and she prescribed me a medication to try for 60 days. I will start monitoring my blood sugar 3 times a day again, try to be really strict with my diet, and see if this medication helps. I really hope it does, because it is considerably cheaper than insulin, and I don't know if my insurance covers insulin.

So I finally have the official answer that we have suspected for two years now. It is a little frustrating because I am only 23, but I really want to manage this well so I can be healthy for a long time. I am also going to have our kids tested regularly because it seems like the people in our family are being diagnosed younger and younger.

Update on House

We've done the inspection, and everything went well. We are requesting a few minor fixes, like the outlets need to be grounded and the attic needs more insulation. We are hopeful that they will fix all of our requests. We found out this morning that we don't need to do a sewer inspection after all because when the owner was fixing all the structural problems he also put in a new sewer line. So that saved us $99! We met with the lender today and signed everything and ordered the appraisal. Patrick was very patient for two hours, which was a blessing. Luckily, we will get the $395 appraisal fee back when we close, along with most of our $1,000 earnest money. Awesome! We found out today that our payment will be around $855, which I am very happy about because that is only slightly more than we would have paid for a nice 2-bedroom apartment here.

I'm so excited that this process is moving along quickly and smoothly (so far). We hope to close in about a month!

WE ARE GETTING A HOUSE!!!!!!

15 bids . . . and we finally got one accepted! We found a house in Aurora, in an older neighbor, that we think will fit our needs quite well. I think each time we see it we like it a little more. The house is a cute, brick, ranch-style with three bedrooms, one full bathroom, a living room, dining area and kitchen on the main floor, and then it has a full basement that is mostly unfinished (except for a 3/4 bath) for a total of 2,184 square feet. It was built in 1956 and has been completely remodeled. There is a large backyard that I am so excited to get grass in next summer, and it even has a clothesline!






We just did the inspection today, and other than some minor details, everything seems great. There was some major foundation problems that they fixed last year, but they have disclosed everything, and the inspector says that they fixed the problems and as long as we make sure that we have good drainage around the house, we shouldn't have any problems.

We are really excited to almost be out of limbo and into a home. We feel really blessed that we found a great program to give a $10,000 grant for down-payment assistance, and to have a FANTASTIC realtor that has worked so hard for us for the last three months. If all goes smoothly, we think we can move in sometime in the middle of November!