The last week

Well, it has been a while since I posted last so I thought I should take a minute to write up a quick something. There won't be any pictures because we don't have any AA batteries for the camera and I always forget to pick some up at the store, plus since Chris started working I haven't been to a store... It kinda stinks only having one car some days but really, where would I go if I had one? Grocery shopping without Chris? No... We decided long ago that Chris and I aren't allowed to show by ourselves because we always buy too much that isn't on the list and it can become dangerous to our health and our budget!

Anyways, I digress. Chris is upstairs right now putting the munchkin to sleep so I should make this somewhat fast so I can have some nice quiet time before my bed time.

Chris started his job last Monday so tomorrow he will have been working for two weeks. It's payday! We haven't had one of those since October so it will be really nice to finally have an income again. Chris is enjoying his job so far. He has been given a project to do that will keep him occupied for a long time so he is happy. He likes to have a job and I have noticed an improvement in his disposition since he started. I don't think he enjoyed being a bum like me as much as I do. Granted, now that he works, I can't be a bum as much as I used to. I do have to take care of Dallin after all!

Dallin and I play all day. We have had some odd days lately due to his nap schedule. We had switched him to one nap a day and he would sleep for 2.5 to 3 hours but he can't seem to handle that right now so he has 2 naps a day for almost 2 hours each. I am not complaining because it gives me time to myself but I will admit that some days I get bored when he isn't around. But he is so much fun to play with most days when he isn't fussy and stuffed up with this head cold he has right now. He is walking really well these days. He will sometimes surprise us and let go of us and take a few steps on his own. When he knows we are behind him he will walk all the way across the room! He learned about his shadow today and he will open and close his hand and watch his shadow. He likes to feed himself but since it isn't my house to stain and get food everywhere, I don't really let him do it unless it is animal crackers or something dry. He no longer drinks formula, but that was his own choice and he loves his sippy cups but he won't drink water so we always have juice for him. He is pretty much weaned from his pacifier but when we are out and it is time for him to get some rest I will give it to him to help him fall asleep in a loud environment, like church. He is oh so happy and loves to read his books, with us or by himself. Today I taught Dallin when I put a rag to his nose to blow (he has had a horribly runny nose the last two days) and he is so cute when he does it. Not as cute as my niece Catheryn was when she was blowing her "nose" but still very cute.

As for me, I am 26 weeks today. I didn't know how far along I was so I had to go find a pregnancy calculator to find it out! Our insurance starts May 1st and so I need to contact them and see if I will be covered and then get a list of midwives and start calling, mostly to see who is accepting patients. I have been trying to be good on my own and work out and keep track of my weight and my moods and all those routine questions a doctor would ask. The one thing I can't wait to do is find out if we are having an Addie Mae or a boy. I don't know what the name for the boy would be since Chris is picking it this time around so if it is a boy, Chris is going to have to come up with a name quickly so I can get familiarized with it! I do my wii fit somewhat regularly, depending on Dallin's mood. It is how I keep track of how much weight I have gained. Does that make me silly? Anyway, I enjoy the hula hoop and the step aerobics and the yoga. I do the jog too and have Dallin chase me around the room. I have also started sewing again. I don't have many ideas of what I can sew but I did decide I wanted to make me some light cotton shirts that I can wear this summer as it gets hot out. I have also been working on some skirts and I finished one today and I will have to get a picture of it because I think it turned out really well but as I said, our camera is dead. I also made a cover for Dallin's table chair so that it is easily washable. I love my snap press... Expensive but way worth it when you want things that are easy to wash with a muchkin like mine.

So as you can see, life is good and we are looking forward to settling on our house on May 14th and then Dallin turns 1 year old on the 17th and then I leave for Alaska on the 19th to go to Jonathon's wedding on the 21st. It is a busy month next month but we are looking forward to it all!

Busy times

So, Chris got a job, again! It is somewhat funny because he was supposed to start working at Under Armour on Monday... and we snubbed them! haha! Chris doesn't feel very happy about the fact that after we had accepted the offer we told them that Chris wouldn't be able to work there. It all happened so fast last week!

As I had said in my previous post we were going to go look at a house in Finksburg, which would ultimately have been a shorter commute for Chris when he was working in Baltimore at Under Armour. We had seen some pictures online and thought it was a decent looking house with acreage, which we loved the idea of! The listing is here. So, Chris Cull with Coldwell Banker, who has worked with all of the Davenports, took us out to look at the house on Tuesday. We really liked it. And we felt really good about the house. It had been recently redone, new kitchen appliances, new counter tops, new carpeting in the whole house, repainted. Anyway, they made the house look nice. Realtor Chris told us that it has already had a lot of showings on the property and that it had been listed in January and almost was sold but something happened with the listing or something so it had to be taken off the market and then re-listed. Anyway, it was very popular. The next day (Thursday) Realtor Chris called us and told us that the house had an offer and Chris and I had already been talking about how we liked the house and had started praying about it already. We knew we had to move fast with all those people who were looking at it! So we go out and see it again with Chris's family and look at all of the things that need work on it and trying to decide if it was an investment or something else. In the end Chris and I decided that we still liked it a lot and really wanted it so we put an offer in on the house. Then we waited.

While we were waiting, Chris got a phone call from this other company that he had started applying for before we had even heard about the Under Armour position. The boss guy asked Chris to come in and be shown around the next day so Chris said yes! This was on Thursday at the time so Chris was going to go in on Friday. We didn't know if we our offer had been accepted and Chris didn't start with Under Armour until Monday so we decided he should go. But we had a thought, he should take his offer to the meeting and say "make me an offer today or else I start another job on Monday". It sounds pushy of Chris to do that but we wanted this job because it is so much closer to home so a much shorter commute. 15-20 minutes compared to over an hour.

So Chris went in to see the company and as he was there, Realtor Chris called to say no changes, we haven't heard anything about an offer being accepted yet. So Chris looks at the company, decides he would like to work there and shows the boss guy the offer because we have set our finances and needed a certain amount to be able to buy this house with and have a baby in August and still have some money left over to save. The boss guy said at first that he couldn't match it but he came back later after talking to their parent company and said that they couldn't make Chris an offer of $62K a year like Under Armour was, but he could offer $55K and then 3 months later after a performance review it could be bumped up to $60K. That sounded like a pretty good deal. Anyway, Chris finished up there and on the car ride home Realtor Chris called him and said that our offer was accepted!

So now we had some important questions. With a decreased income would we still be able to qualify for our mortgage? Would we be able to pay our mortgage? Would the bigger commute be better for us in the long run? I can honestly tell you I have never prayed so much in a 4 hour time period. We called around talked to people to make sure we were seeing all sides of this decision. In then end though, we said some prayers and then had 10 minutes of quiet pondering. After it was up, we both said on the count of three the job that we felt was the right one. We both said the one in Westminster! We went back and forth, back and forth a few times, trying to figure out what to do and when we finally did figure it out, we felt so much better. Sort of... Now we had to get a signed offer in our hands so that it couldn't be retracted later. Once we had that in our hands Chris had to call the recruiter who had been working with him to get the job at Under Armour the whole time. This was the worst part of the whole day... The recruiter was not happy at all and for good reason, it means he wasn't getting a big pay check! Thankfully, the one that mattered, the guy who was going to be Chris's boss responded in an email saying he was disappointed but he understood that family came first. It was so nice of him and it made us feel soooo much better!

So now instead of Monday Chris starting a job, he starts next Monday, at decreased pay but sooo much closer so that he will still be able to see our kids grow up during the week, not just on the weekends. We know we did what was right in the long run, even if we did snub a very large company... But we are so happy that Chris has a job starting in a week and we get to sign for our house in 4 weeks! I am so glad that we are able to have the Lord on our side, providing for us and helping us in so many ways. All it takes is some intense praying and faith.

New news!

Chris has a job! I haven't posted in a while to tell everyone so I thought I should do that now while Dallin is napping. We are really happy about this job and it feels like it is what the Lord wants us to do for our family right now, even though it is a bit longer of a commute than we originally hoped for. But, such is life!

-Our little family at a picnic with Katie, Roger, Natalie and Anthony

Last Monday we got a call from a recruiter that Chris has been working with for a while and he asked if Chris could do a phone interview in 2 hours and Chris said yes. The phone interview went really well. Chris answered all of the questions in such a way that the interviewer told him that he wanted Chris to come in for an in-person interview that week. The recruiter told him that Chris is the first person that they have found that they truly liked.

So on Wednesday Chris went in for an in-person interview with Under Armour. They really liked him and they told him that they would be contacting him shortly about the job. So on Thursday morning, they called and they offered him the job at $10,000 more than we originally asked for! We were so happy about it. It sounds like a great job that will be beneficial for our family and seems like Chris will really get some job satisfaction this time around. It is so important to have a happy husband so I really wanted him to have a job that he liked and was happy at. He has had a few other interviews since we accepted the job but none of them have felt right or better than this one and it is something that we have prayed about for a while!

So now we are going to start looking for a house. We have found one that will be closer than that Taneytown house that we liked, which will cut the commute in half almost. We are going out there with a realtor today to look at it. It is a 3 bedroom house but square footage wise is larger than the other house we were looking at so we are going to look at it with the idea in mind that we will be adding another room or two into the family room. We are really happy about this though and are looking forward to moving on and maybe moving out soon! As wonderful as Peggy as, I want my own house with all of my things that I miss. The one item that Chris makes fun of me for always commenting on is my masher. I know it is silly but when I make chili or mashed potatoes or I just want something mushed up, I would use my masher, and Peggy doesn't have one so I feel the lack. haha. I know it is so silly, but it just makes me feel like it isn't my house so I look forward to getting a house so that I can have my masher back! haha.

Dallin is almost 11 months now. He is getting so big. He is crawling everywhere now. He can go upstairs and he has learned that if he wants to get off of my bed, he needs to go feet first. For a while he had a hard time getting down from stuff that he was leaning against but he is so good at it now that it is automatic or just gives him pause for a few seconds. He has also finally learned how to sit as of 3 days ago! I know that sounds silly but the silly munchkin wouldn't sit, he would just lean and so ne could never go from crawling to sitting until 3 days ago! It was exciting because now he likes to sit and read books by himself. He is quite the reader! When my dad gave him a name and a blessing he said that Dallin would have a love of reading and that has definitely already manifested itself. It is amazing to see how the Lord blesses our little people! Anyway, he is great but he is going to have a shock next week, just like me, when Daddy is no longer around during the days. I haven't had Dallin all by myself in about 5 and a half months! Soooo that should be exciting.

I finally got Chris to take the pictures off of the camera and on the network so I could upload them so here are a bunch of recent pictures! By the way, I am now 23 weeks along and looking quite large (I think). Still don't have a midwife or insurance, and Chris's work insurance doesn't start until August 1st so we are trying to make alternate arrangements. But life is great and we are happy here!



My two guys, both being happy and cute. We are so blessed to have a happy baby. I think it will make it so much easier to have this baby and Dallin so close in age. Only one school year apart!



My big belly. I feel huge some days, that was one of them.



I made this dress for Jillian, our niece and I wanted to see how it fit and Dallin is still small and she is bigger than Dallin at that age so I thought it was a good way to see what she could be looking like at the end of the summer, when she might fit the dress really well! It still looks good on her now, just really long on her but I like this picture of Dallin in it! haha.



A recent picture of the three of us when we went outside to the park. It was cold out and misting that day but we enjoyed our time out there! And it was nice to get a family picture.



Here is acute picture of Dallin and Chris. I got the walker thingy at a consignment sale a week or so ago and Dallin loves it. It doesn't work so well inside the house but when we go outside he has a ball with it, walking all on his own except that he veers towards one side or the other after a while so we have to correct his course. But he is very cute in his happiness.



Dallin absolutely loves the swings. He sits in it and laughs so much and always looks so happy in the swing, if you couldn't tell.



My baby boy getting ready for bed or a bath or something. He just looks very cute in his cloth diapers. They make him look 5 pounds heavier.



We love to make home made ice cream and I made some this night and Dallin wanted to share but he had to give me a kiss. Isn't he cute?