34 Weeks and 2 Days...

Umm...I'm less than 6 weeks out from HAVING A BABY!  What?!  When did that happen?  Time is starting to just fly by.  I can't belive this baby girl will be here so soon.  She has started to suck all my energy for herself so she can move around in her itty bitty living space...I've been extra tired and extra hungry recently.  But I'm not complaining, she can have whatever she wants.  Can't wait to meet this little one face to face!  I already love her so much!!! 

The Nursery is finally done!

FINALLY.  This has been a long time coming...after procrastinating this project for months, it is finally complete.  I finally got the nursery done!  It is such a relief to have it painted and ready to go.  Everything had to be painted in that room (except the ceiling, though I did have to paint the ceiling in the closet).  It was a daunting task, but one day (Feb. 21st) I just said it was going to get done and I got it done by the next afternoon.  I painted my little heart out.  Baseboards, trim, crown molding, window sills, walls, the inside/back of the door, the closet, and even the closet doors.  What a crazy couple of days.  I was up until 2:00 am the first night and then woke up at 6:30 am the next morning and couldn't go back to sleep...so I got up and kept painting!  But it was sooooo nice to have it done!  My body paid dearly for it, but now I can relax.  Landen finished it up by putting all the doors back up and putting up blinds. It looks fantastic!

This past week I made a trip down to Salt Lake to visit some friends and get all of our big baby gear!  It was so fun to finally get to buy all that stuff!  I knew what I wanted so I made pretty quick work of it.  There just aren't any normal baby stores up here in Logan so it was good to go down and price compare some stuff and to just look around!  I was super excited to get our car seat and caddy for 20% off at Buybuy Baby with some coupons I had stashed away.  It made getting the one I wanted (which of course was one of the most expensive but best in safety ratings) much more easy on the wallet :)  I got our crib and shelving unit at IKEA and also found some cute stuff to decorate for pretty inexpensive.  At Target I found the diapers I wanted for newborns and size 1 on clearance!  It was awesome!  I would say I had a very successful trip. 

I drove home with an EXTREMELY loaded car.  How I got all that stuff in there I'm not sure...and I forgot to take a picture of course!  But I'm sure I was a sight to see trying to get a crib and mattress, shelving unit, car seat and caddy all in the car by myself while I'm 7 months pregnant!  Interesting how not one person offered to help...but oh well.  When I got home Landen was excited to get it all unloaded and start putting everything together.  I had gone back out to the car to put the seats back up and get things back to normal and when I came in he was already opening boxes!  It was kinda adorable.  We spent the next few days putting everything together and getting the room ready.  I let Landen do most of the work...he quite enjoyed himself.  I finally got to unpack all the baby gifts we've received so far too!  We just have to figure out where we want to put the pictures now. 

Then today we went and picked up a swing someone was selling for $20!  STEAL!  It was in really good condition, I just scrubbed the seat cover and washed it really well and Cloroxed the rest of it and it looks great.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a swing because it seems like babies grow out of them so fast or they don't like them...so we got a great deal.  I feel like we got a good deal on everything, which is a huge blessing right now!  Now this baby girl has a way to get home and a place to stay :)

The icicle of impending death...

It has been really cold this year with lots and lots of snow.  Recently it has started to "warm" up a little and the snow is finally melting!  Well, it is melting off the roof and on the northeast corner of the house it doesn't get much sun.  It was a perfect place for the "icicle of impending death" to take up residence!  Today we finally put it to rest before it could do any damage.We will let the pictures tell the story...

 

We bought a HOUSE!

Well, we are officially homeowners as of January 14, 2013...that is exciting and scary all at the same time!  This entire process took waaaayyyyyy longer than we expected, but everything works out in the right timing and we now finally have the house.  Biggest purchase of my life.  Well, probably the biggest purchase of most people's lives...anyway. 

We have had to do a LOT of work to get things ready in the house, but in the long run it is worth it!  I have done an IMMENSE amount of cleaning and scrubbing (the tub, under the stove, the kitchen and bathroom floors, the fridge, etc.)...lots of long hours with my hands in my purple rubber gloves.  But things are coming together and it is becoming ours :)  I found out that Landen hates painting, so that has become my job.  Joy.  Can't you see how thrilled I am about that?  Oh well.  I'm a perfectionist so it's probably better I do it anyway.  All we have left to paint is the nursery, but everything in that room needs painted, so it is going to be a big project...I'm still waiting for the motivation to strike to do it...I just gotta bite the bullet and get on with it.  I guess the benefit of me being unemployed is that I have the time to work on the house.  It seems like when I complete a project it makes about 10 more!  I don't know how that happens!  Oh well. 

We're mostly unpacked, so I call that a success.  The stuff that isn't unpacked I don't have a place for, so in the box it stays.  One thing we do need to get going on is hanging all our pictures.  We have had this picture of the Logan temple that we got for our wedding that has never been put up...we finally have the wall space to do it!  I'm so excited!  Again...waiting for the motivation...

Trying to get all this done and being pregnant has been interesting.  I just can't do as much as I used to be able to do.  Some days I get going and then I end up over doing it, so I spend the next day or two doing nothing.  I feel pathetic sometimes, but I have to remind myself that I'm growing a human, so I guess that counts for something. 

It has been soooooooo nice to finally have our own space, completely.  We don't have to worry about someone living above us and if we're being too loud or if they're being too loud.  Not going to lie, I DO NOT miss listening to the 3 dogs running up and down the hallway at 7 am on Saturday morning!  And guess what?  WE HAVE A STOVE!  The simple joys of life.  Can't believe I lived without one for almost 3 years.  Now I have to re-learn how to cook though!  A stove cooks a lot differently than a hot plate, just in case you were wondering.  I've boiled a pan over and burnt some meat already...but it's coming back to me...  Along with the stove comes a real kitchen with counters and cabinets and a double sink!  I had no idea what I was missing apparently. 

The best part of the house?  THE SUNSHINE!  I can actually see it when I'm home!  No more living in a dark, depressing basement.  I absolutely LOVE all the windows and the natural light.  I hardly use the light switches in the house :)  The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is go around and open all the blinds.  It makes me so happy. 

Well, we still have projects to complete...some of them are much more long term than others...but it is fun to have things to do and to make this place our home.  I'm excited to welcome our little baby girl HOME in a few months!  We are truly blessed that it worked out for us to buy this house.  As my mortgage lady said when we first started, "I've been doing this long enough that if it is supposed to work out it will, if it's not, it won't."  It has definitely been a faith promoting process.  This is where the Lord wants us to be at this time in our lives, that I am sure of.  Still at times it doesn't necessarily make sense to make this move at this particular time, but I know it is what the Lord wanted and He can see the bigger picture and has a much bigger plan than I can ever imagine.  I'm grateful to know that He is in the details of our lives and wants what is best for us and if we follow that path He is guiding us on individually we can be truly happy in the life!

Here are a few before pictures of the house.  We don't have a lot of "befores" but I'm fine with that...there are just some things I don't need to be reminded of...and the pictures don't really show all the stuff that needed to be done anyway.

And AFTER!!!  Like I said earlier, we still need to hang pictures and do the nursery and some other projects (like put the vanity, that is sitting in the nursery, in the bathroom), but this is a glimpse of the house since we've been moved in and working on it!  (Just FYI, not all those couches are staying for long run...)

Happy Valentine's Day!

So, we're not really into the whole Valentine's Day thing.  Never really have been.  It works for us.  And maybe I'm just cheap.  But I was bored during the day so I made Landen a little Valentine's Day card/photo album...

Valentine's Day, Hardy Style:

And then we celebrated by opening these bad boys!  Family size...where have you been all my life?!  Love you, Landen!

Pathetic, I know.

We finally got internet hooked up at the house last week.  Is it bad that I feel like I can't live without it?!  I guess this is the world we live in now.  Today I was so tired from the weekend that I literally sat on the couch all day and caught up on my TV shows.  Glad they're online so I can do that.  And of course there was ice cream involved.  I'm pathetic.

I love these munchkins!

Jared and Megan asked us to watch the kids this weekend because they were going to be out of town.  I love these munchkins, so of course we said yes.  We had a really fun weekend!  Nathan, Rylie and Maya were sooooo good!  It was actually kinda crazy how good they were.  Both nights they stayed in their room, didn't come out once...that never happens.  I'm still a little bit in shock.  No breakdowns made for a great weekend.  Friday night we got pizza then watched How to Train Your Dragon.  Saturday we played games then took the kids to Nickle Mania.  They love it there!  It was really fun to go play!  Maya fell asleep while we were there so we took her home and put her to bed.  During her nap we hooked up our Wii and Nathan played for hours.  He absolutely loves it and pretty much asks every time we come down if we brought it with us, so he was a happy camper.  Rylie and I had some girl time and I painted her nails.  In her words, "They are sooooooooo sooooooo pretty!"  For dinner we took the kiddos to McDonalds because they love Happy Meals and the play place.  We're the funnest Aunt and Uncle :)   I like how I only have pictures of Rylie and Maya...I don't know how I always manage to miss Nathan...

I love this picture.  Maya sat there for the entire movie!  They're best friends.  Landen fell asleep though.  (Maya's not asleep, the flash was too bright)