I know I have been kinda cryptic around here and couldn't talk alot about what all is going on. Now that Clayton has put in his 2 week notice at Kimberly Clark as of last Friday, I can finally say it-WE ARE MOVING!!! He took a new job with Kodak in Windsor, Colorado. The house that I posted earlier is indeed ours. We will be living in a small town outside of Windsor called Johnstown. Fort Collins is really close and has tons of cool places to eat and shop. We are so excited! Our move date still isn't set in stone but it will be in the next couple of weeks. :)
And yes, I am aware that the columns need to be painted, lol.
On a sidenote-I have decided to take a trip home today and I will be back next Wednesday. I hope that you all have a great weekend!
I have been dreading today for a while now. It was the last day of the kids' preschool program at First Presbyterian. I was so sad to see the teachers say goodbye to my kiddos. They had tears in their eyes as they hugged H & E. They have been absolutely wonderful this school year and I hate to think that this is my last year with that preschool. For reasons unmentionable, we will be on the hunt for a new one over the summer. I totally hate that. Anyhoo-I will post some pics of the kiddos today or tomorrow.
Another bad thing about today is that it was my last time to chill with my best friend Tracy at the local coffee shop without kiddos. We like to hang out at Terra Nova on Tuesday or Thursday mornings after dropping the kids off. After that we usually run around and do all the errands that we can get done in those 3 short hours. Boy, I am going to miss those 3 blissful hours. Independence is something that you give up once you become a Mommy and so I have always tried to make the most of my free time.
On the pregnancy front, I went to another ultrasound on Monday and everything looked great. My hormone levels were also great so now the clinic is going to try and wean me from all the meds that I have to take. I can't wait to stop taking the intramuscular shots. Hopefully it will only take a few weeks.
I am experiencing horrible problems with my laptop right now. If I don't post in the next week or so it is because my computer is being fixed.
On a sidenote-
We accomplished what we set out to do last week. If you know what I mean and are curious, shoot me an email and I will try to send you a sneak peek. ;)
I went in for the ultrasound this morning and was a bit nervous. My mind kept racing and all I could think was that there had to be a bunch of babies in me. The ultrasound tech immediately found a baby and I wondered if it was the only one. As soon as she started to move around we could see a second one. My tension rose sky high as I was afraid that she might find a 3rd, 4th or 5th baby, lol. Two was the magic number though and I am completely relieved. Two babies I can handle. Three, now that is a whole 'nother story. So congrats to my IPs, you guys are having double the trouble!! :)
Clayton and I are about to head out to Charlotte to catch a direct flight to Denver. We will be back next Wednesday. I hope that you all have a great weekend!
I will go in on Friday at 10am for our first ultrasound. I will try to update the blog as soon as I get home to report what we saw. Everyone is excited to see how many babes hung around (I feel like it could be a litter, lol). My tummy is already sticking out and I am noticeably preggo. It's a bit ridiculous to look preggo at only 6 weeks. :P
Clayton and I will be flying out to Denver on Friday evening and then we will head up to Cheyenne, WY to see his family. His sister Stephanie will be getting pinned that day. She is getting her nursing degree and she already has an awesome job lined up. Congrats Steph!! We will be going out to dinner with Steph, Tom, Christie and possibly Jack that Saturday night to celebrate. I can't wait! We will be flying back on the 16th. In the meantime, my Mom and Dad will be watching the kiddos for us.
We have lots of other things on our agenda to do while we are there. The cool thing is that we will be staying at a bed and breakfast in Windsor, CO. It is a beautiful Victorian home. We chose to stay in the turret part of it (the squared off tower-looking thing) and we get the cute private balcony. Here's what it looks like:
Wish us luck! I will post the results when I get them back this afternoon. :)
****Results are in!****
The beta revealed that my hcg level is 379!! As long as it is above 5, I am considered pregnant. Whoo hoo!
BTW, I got positive home tests beginning last Thursday. That was just 3 days after our transfer. It's the equivalent of 8 days past ovulation so that is pretty early. The day that most tests say that you can get a positive is 14 days past ovulation.
I got back from Denver on Wednesday evening and boy was I tired! The transfer was this past Monday and it went very well. I have a beta (blood test) scheduled for this Wednesday and I will know that afternoon whether or not I have any babies in me. I am able to start taking regular urine tests right now but my IPs do not want to know those results so I will not be posting them. Wish us luck!!
Why, oh why can I not sleep??? I am still on east coast time apparently. I got up yesterday at 6am and today I got up at 5:30am. Ugh! That would be okay if I were at home because the times would have been 8am and 7:30am. By the time I get used to mountain time I will be back in NC and I am sure it will throw me off.
I have great news regarding the surrogacy. We are going to have a 5 day embryo transfer tomorrow around 1pm!! Everyone is excited and the embryos are excellent. I really think that this is going to be a successful cycle. Please send some prayers or positive thoughts our direction. They are much appreciated!
Hayden got to ride his new big boy bike for the first time today. He got frustrated at first because he kept braking as he was trying to pedal. After a few tries, he figured it out and thinks that he is hot stuff, lol.
I need to go back and crop in on Hayden in this one. I will have to take care of that later.
This pic of E would have been cute if it weren't for the snot rolling out of his nose (he has horrible allergies) and my shadow covering him, lol.
E playing with McQueen
I am not at liberty to discuss my surrogacy journey in full detail but I will say that the embryo transfer will be happening on either Saturday or Monday in Denver. Which day all depends on the quality of the embryos. If they are super then we will hold out for Monday. That is when they will be 5 day blasts (they will be in the process of breaking out of their shells). 5 dayers have a higher chance of sticking around. 3 dayers are good too but the embryologist can't distinguish which ones are the healthiest before transfer. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers this weekend as we go through this process to make a baby for some wonderful people. :)
I have other interesting news that I am dying to share but I cannot due to my blog being public. If you are a friend or relative, shoot me an email and I will fill you in. This news is pretty big. ;)
Why, oh why can't my kids smile at the same time? In the top pic Emerson is grinning and in the second one Hayden is. Maybe I need to use Photoshop to get smiling kids in the same pics together. Sheesh.
This is my Aunt Judy donning her cute apron as she fries chicken for our Easter lunch. Let me tell you, she is the bestest cook ever!!
Hayden putting together a puzzle that the Easter bunny gave him
Emerson and a few of his classmates
More kids from E's class sitting in the "buggy"
Hayden is such a cheesehead, lol
H singing and doing hand gestures
The kiddos had their Easter program this past Tuesday morning. They did very well. Hayden knew the songs and did the hand gestures that went with them. My pictures S-U-C-K but that isn't entirely my fault. The lighting in there was atrocious and it didn't help that I was so far away from the stage. Emerson sat in a high chair the whole time and was a good boy.
Ugh, see how old Big E is beginning to look:
Where, oh where did my baby go???Last weekend I finally got to make all of my Disney ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) and I got every single one that I wanted at the time that I wanted. Whoo hoo! You have to make sure to place them 180 days out from your trip start date or you could possibly not get into the restaurants that you want. I believe that they will offer free dining again this year which will make the restaurants dang near impossible to get into without an ADR. I am really hoping that they don't offer it this year but the buzz is that it will offered from mid-August until September 22nd. Even if you check in on the 22nd, you can get the free dining the whole vacation that you have booked. We aren't using free dining because we got 40% off the room and you can only do one discount per your hotel reservation.
I also added a day onto the beginning of our trip. We will now be there on the 21st and we will be staying at POP Century that first night. I didn't want to pay another $329 at the Polynesian (plus another day of dining plan and park hopper tickets) just to sleep in the room. We should be getting there kinda late on the 21st so that would be a complete waste. Our options were to stay outside the gates for around $70 or stay on-grounds for $103.50 ($82 POP room + tax). Since we are staying on grounds, they will move our luggage over for us the next morning to the Poly. Cool huh? That made staying on-grounds totally worth it. What a bargain!
Here's the restaurants that I have ressies for:
-Kona Cafe (Poly)
This place is conveniently at our hotel and has super yummy food.
-'Ohana (Poly)
This place is also at our hotel. They cook all the meats on a huge fire pit and the servers bring it all on skewers to your table. The have limbo contests and hula hoop challenges for the kiddos. There is entertainment provided. 'Ohana means family so it caters to kids.
-Le Cellier (Canada-Epcot)
This place is known for steak. I will definitely be having one there!
-Coral Reef (Epcot)
The walls in the center of the restaurant are big aquarium 'windows' with lots of fish and an occasional diver in the tank. They have excellent steak and seafood.
-Whispering Canyon Cafe (Wilderness Lodge)
The Wilderness Lodge is one of my favorite hotels so I want to eat there to show it to my Mom. She will love it too. This restaurant is known for having silly waitstaff with nicknames like Lazy Susan. The food is really yummy and there are lots of things for the kids to do. They have pony races on stick horses during dinner. If you ask for drink refills, they bring you a cup the size of a bucket. If you ask for catsup, they bring MANY bottles (think 20+, lol) to your table. It's all in fun.
-Chef Mickey's (Contemporary)
We will be doing a character breakfast on our "free" morning. I have no plans for doing a park on that particular day so there will be no rushing. The food looks good (who wouldn't like waffles that are shaped like Mickey heads?) and the kids will love the character interaction.
-50's Prime Time Cafe (MGM)
Oh yum! This place is all about home-cooked meals. Your waitress will be playing the part of "Mom" and she will treat you like family. The tables are in what looks like a individual 1950's sitcom kitchens. It's all very retro. "Mom" may tell the kids to eat all their peas or no dessert. It will be alot of fun.
-Rainforest Cafe (Animal Kingdom)
I really like this restaurant. It is super fun and the food is pretty good. The kids will love seeing the fake animals and the occcasional thunderstorms are pretty cool.
-Sci-Fi Dine In (MGM)
This is my all-time favorite fun place to eat at WDW. You sit in a car and watch clips of old movies while eating. Kid plates are served on frisbees and drinks have glow cubes in them. LOVE this place!
-Garden Grill (Epcot)
I have wanted to eat here since my first trip back in the early 80's. You sit in a booth the revolves around the restaurant. It looks really neat. From what I have read, the food went from good--bad--back to good. I will just have to take my chances. This a character meal so the kids are really going to have a fun time.
We are still debating on doing the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It will be offered on both the 21st and 28th of our trip. We shall see.
Double pagers are a rarity for me but I just couldn't leave out any of these cute pics for a 1-pager. I can't believe how much Hayden has grown since these photos were taken. They are from 6/2005 and he was almost 2 1/2 years old. If you click on the layout, it will show up larger.
The boys made these last week in preschool. Aren't they cute?
I am so sorry that I haven't uploaded any pics recently. My card reader is giving me heck and I can't get some images to transfer off of my card. Ugh. Hopefully, we will get this fixed soon.
I have been working hard to finish my 2005 album. It is almost complete at this point. Yay! Once it is done, I will have 2000-2005 scrapped and put into pretty binders. Hayden's 1st year album is done and I am about 75% done with Emerson's. I have got to get these things done or I am going to go batty. I completed another layout for 3SB today. It is shown at the bottom of yesterday's post. I also re-uploaded the layouts on that post because the colors didn't scan correctly. Now that I have figured out my new scanner they look 100% better!
Hayden had soccer today for the first time. He had to go show off his skills (or lack thereof, lol) so that they could figure out what teams to put all the kids on. He didn't get to do much, but he did enjoy it. We went and bought him a new ball and some cones so that he can practice at home. He is so cute! I can't believe that one of my babies is playing sports. Wow, time sure does fly.
I have some pics to post from Valentine's that I forgot about. I will try to get those up tonight or tomorrow. Hope you all are having a great weekend. :)
I did this layout today in record timing. The mail man dropped it off around 2pm and I immediately took it up to the scrapbook room to create something with. About an hour later, I finished up my first design team assignment for March. I gotta say that I absolutely love this kit!! The colors and papers are so cool. The chipboard letters are a favorite of mine. If you are interested in getting one of these kits (there is also a pastel pink/green one), head on over the 3 Scrappy Boys while they are still available. The link is in my side bar. ;)
ETA: Here's another one that I completed tonight:
**Completed the layout above today (Saturday 2/10).
