Pink Eye & First Attempt at Solids

So, I realize the last few posts have been mainly about our new house and we definitely have more news than just that (although, it is BIG news for us.) Here are a couple other "happenings" in the family.

#1 Ben has pink eye again, the poor guy. He had it at the end of September and now has it again. Thank goodness I kept the eye drops. I dropped him off at his last day of preschool this morning and when I picked him up I noticed his eye was all goopy. There is nothing better than spreading acute conjunctivitis to your friends as a final goodbye. Ben is washing his hands constantly now and we are doing lots of laundry. I'm hoping no one else gets it. Emma got it from him last time. YIKES.

#2 (I'm not putting these two events in any order of importance, they are just the order I downloaded the pics... didn't want you to think I don't love my little Joshua.) Josh had his 4-month well check-up today. He is 50% for weight and 92% for height... he's definitely a Schipaanboord! The doctor said he looks like a 6-month old. When she put him on the table on his tummy he was trying to move all over and she said he's a strong little guy... but we already knew that. I attempted feeding him rice cereal for the first time tonight. He wasn't too sure of it (as you can see in the first picture) but then he was okay with it after a couple more bites. He's such a sweet little boy. I'm really blessed to have such beautiful children.

#3 Pictures of the inside of the house are coming, I promise. It took a little bit longer than planned to do Ben's room. We are painting Emma's on Saturday, and I'm trying to do the main bath as well. I don't know if I will get it done soon though, too many projects and so little time (and money!)

All Moved In

Let's just say, it's been a long couple of days. We all know moving is a pain, but you seem to forget how horrible it really is until you go through it again. Jake and I realized this is our 8th move in our 6 1/2 years of marriage. We are hoping this was the last one for quite some time! (The picture was taken the day after we moved in, on our way to church. Whitney was so kind to take it. Emma was a little grumpy because she was cold. Josh looks warm and toasty though.)

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. As frustrating as moving can be, it would have been much worse if we didn't have so many great people helping us out. Thanks to Whitney, who came up for her Thanksgiving Break and got much more than she bargained for (more than just turkey and stuffing!) She made the whole weekend a lot easier on us. Also, thanks to all of Jake's family who are always here when we need them, and so willing to do whatever is needed. Thank you Grammy and Grandpa, Kristen, Teresa, Shilo, Tom Christopherson, and James Harris. If we were rich I would buy you all something real nice, but since we're not, a nice little "thank you" will have to do. ;)

As for the house, we LOVE it! If I would have known owning a home felt this good, we would have tried to buy sooner. Jake and I feel very blessed to be in such a beautiful house. We went to our new ward on Sunday and they were all very welcoming. In fact, the Bishop took us to each of our classes (even the kids' to their classes) and everyone seemed to flock to us, wanting to meet us. It felt wonderful. We learned there are two families just a block away with boys around Ben's age. There are two girls who are almost exactly Emma's age too. I'm excited to start planning some playdates.

The last three pictures are of the kids "helping" me pack last week. I had to throw those in there because it was too funny. They loved playing with all the boxes and Emma actually grew quite attached to one box and was sad to see it go when we finally had to use it. Why do we even buy them expensive toys?? I say 5 cardboard boxes for each kid this Christmas and they will be set!

By the way, I'm working on getting some pics up of the house. Jake's mom is helping me paint the kids' rooms tomorrow, so I will make sure to post pics after we are finished. Keep checking back for more fun at the Schipaanboord's!

Officially HOME OWNERS!!!

Jake and I are officially home owners. We closed on our house today. It was pretty overwhelming, feeling like you're signing your life away. There were so many papers to initial and sign. I just hope we didn't promise the bank our firstborn child (we very well could have!) We are excited though to finally have a place to call our own. We get the keys tomorrow morning and then we are going to start moving what we have packed during the week. The "BIG" move is on Saturday at 9am... so if any of you are totally bored and have nothing else to do, come on over. We promise to be done by the U/BYU football game at noon, and we will have doughnuts and gatorade for everyone... is that bribery or what?!!

My Cute Kids

So, even though I've been feeling rotten, the kids are still here being as cute and funny as ever. They have been very attention-deprived this last week and a half, with me on the couch with a blanket most of the day... but they are troopers and will pull through. :) Aren't they cute?!! (And don't ask me what Ben was laughing at, I have no clue!) As for the pneumonia, I've been on meds now for about 2 1/2 days and I already feel a lot better, still weak, but much better than I was Monday morning. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, groceries, and dinners. We have such wonderful friends and family!

Pneumonia

Pneumonia: an inflammation of the lung caused by infection with bacteria, viruses, and other organisms.

So, here I thought I was slowly getting better. On Sunday night I woke up twice in tears though because I couldn't breathe and was in a lot of pain. Jake had been telling me all week to go to the doctor and the superwoman inside me said "no way, I can ride this out." Well, I finally broke down yesterday and saw a doc and now I have full blown pneumonia, exactly what you want a week before you move. Of course, Jake was right (yes, I did just say that.) Now I'm just trying to take it easy and hopefully by the end of the week I'll have most of my energy back.

My Sweet Husband

These pictures were taken last night. I still have the flu and Josh was being fussy. He wouldn't nurse so I finally put my finger in his mouth and he sucked on it and fell asleep (obviously, so did I.) The best part about this is that my husband was so sweet as to take a picture of me looking like death. Then he took it one step further and used the first picture as our computer's screensaver. It's nice to know my husband has a sense of humor during times like these. :) (love you, honey!)

The House

So, we had the appraisal done last week and found out on Monday the house appraised for 7K less than what we offered. It turned out to be in our favor because the owners negotiated and now we're getting the house for less. It looks like we will be closing on Nov. 19th and moving in the weekend after Thanksgiving. We are excited and know the Lord is guiding us to where we are needed.

Love to all,
Jamie

PS I'm in a drug-filled daze right now, as I type this at 1:26am. I started getting the chills yesterday and feeling nauseous. Hopefully I'll be 100% very soon.

Halloween 2007

Halloween was a success! The kids were counting down the minutes (literally!) until it was time to trick-or-treat. Emma LOVED getting primped. We curled her hair, put on her tiarra, and she even got to wear some of mom's pink lipstick. She adored the "girly" attention. Ben was a little sidetracked all night because he earned a trip to Toys R Us for doing 10 good deeds for Jake and I. So, two hours before we headed out I took him there and let him pick out one toy (of course it was a Pokemon ball with Croagunk in it. He's holding it up in the pic. If you're wondering, just ask!)

We went down to Jake's old neighborhood and trick-or-treated at Grandma's house and a few others in his parents' ward. (I bought a bag of candy from Costco and put it in a bowl and left it on our porch because we knew we wouldn't be around much last night. Well, when we got back around 8:30pm, it looked like not one piece of candy had been taken. Then we only had 3 families come trick-or-treat and that was it. To say the least... we have a lot of unwanted candy at our house right now! If you want some, PLEASE come over!!)