I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!

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This Old House

Once upon a time we had a dream. We thought that we could make this little old house (originally built in 1907) our dream home. We put two and a half years of work into it. No, we did not work the entire time. We definitely went through spurts of motivation and bouts of no motivation at all. But when we did work we worked hard. We had no idea that 900 square feet could be so much work. Through all of this work we fought with American Fork City to try and subdivide the property so that we could buy the house. But after two and half frustrating years of run around we finally gave up and decided to move. Here are some pictures of our efforts .

Let's start with the bathroom. I've already done a post on this but here is a refresher.
Bathroom Before

Bathroom After

What we did
Paint
New counter top
New mirror
Gas line for the washer and dryer
New fabulous towels and shower curtain

Nursery Before

Nursery After

What we did
Do you remember this post? And this one?
Destroyed all walls
Moved doorway
Vaulted the ceiling
Insulated walls and ceiling
Added closet
New windows
Beautiful Wainscot
Paint
This room was the only room in the house that we did everything that we wanted to from start to finish. It was my favorite and would have been so perfect for our little babe. It's so sad to think that he never got to see it!

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

What we did

Painted

Baseboard

Added 2 BIG closets

Ceiling Fan

Made entrance through the hall instead of the family room

Family Room Before

Family Room After

We added the fireplace

Finished Fireplace

What we did

Closed entrance to master bedroom

Painted

Added fireplace

Kitchen Before Kitchen After

What we did
Stripped off Wallpaper, then pulled off tile that was under the wallpaper

Put up bead board

Sanded cabinets, painted cabinets RED, replaced knobs

New faucet at sink

New stainless steel appliances

Other things not pictured:
Marc did all new electrical throughout the house. It was still running on fuses and was un-insurable.
He also moved the furnace from the middle of the hallway, into the attic.
We put in an on demand water heater... it was amazing and we NEVER EVER ran out of hot water.
New blinds throughout the house.
Tore down the grainery and Marc built a darling little shed (I can't find my pictures of it... I've SEARCHED! I'll go over there and take some and post them later).
Poured a concrete patio in the backyard
Laid sod in the backyard
I'm sure that after I post this I will remember some more things that we did. But for now this is it. Marc is amazing and did a lot of the work all by himself.

We didn't really do anything to the exterior of the house that we would have liked to do. We had big plans but they involved big money. Now that we don't live there I can say that it was "fun" to remodel and transform this nasty house into our cute little home. I can also say that I truly miss it. We made a lot of memories there and it is really hard to put all of that work into something and then have someone else move in.

If you are still reading this...thank you! But now you should go read someone elses blog that is more interesting.

For the mom who still needs to vacuum, clean, craft, blog, and so much more! It's so nice to have both hands again. And how convenient is it that his sweet little head is always right there for me to kiss and sniff?! I just love it!

Watch Out 10th Percentile, Here Comes Griffin!

At two months Griffin weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz and is 21 inches long! He's doing so awesome! He is so much fun and I just can't get enough of him!He may be small but he sure is tuff! He only cried for a minute when he got his shots, but it still broke my heart. He earned the right to wear those camo bandaids! Here are a few more pictures of the sweet little guy!Hangin out in his jams with Dad Saturday MorningSporting the male pattern baldness faux hawk

Marc is making sure that Ruka knows that we still love her and he gives her more attention than she's ever had before. She is good to Griffin. She just leaves him alone. If either of us is holding Griffin she will come and lay next to us and put her head on our lap or try to squeeze in next to Griffin. She doesn't like it if he's crying so she gets up and leaves the room. She's funny.

This is Funny!

My friend Joanna came over today and brought her baby Grant. He was born only 2 weeks before Griffin. Grant is extra big and Griffin is extra small so the two of them next to each other is pretty funny. (Griffin was having a bit of a meltdown.)

Something else that is funny... I was telling Marc that I think that what I ate for dinner last night has made Griffin a little cranky because it had onions in it. Marc was quick with, "tastes like this cow got into an onion patch." Name that movie.

One Month

When we left the hospital Griff weighed 4 lbs 9 0z. Well the boy is growin! On his one month birthday he weighed in at 6 lbs 9 oz. I know! He's huge! We moved his carseat up a notch and he is too big for the preemie diapers. We are so happy that he is doing so well. I can't wait to see some little fat rolls!

Man, He's Cute

I'm just sayin...

Griffin Patrick South

Here's the story
Weighing in at a Whopping 5lbs 1oz he was born at 11:05am Friday Oct. 2 2009. It was a fairly quick process for all involved. Lindey's water broke at about 3:30am Friday morning, but since she wasn't having any contractions we took our time getting out the door. We made it to the hospital at about 4:45am. Once there the nurses checked her and verified that her water had indeed broken they admitted her and started pitocin. At first Lindsey wasn't feeling the contractions but they were showing up on the monitor. Gradually the contractions started getting bigger and closer, so she called for the epidural. It turns out just in time because the anesthesiologist was on his way to a c-section. The nurse noticed that every time Lindsey had a contraction that the heart rate on the baby would drop considerably, so we were all worried about it, but they were all watching carefully and were ready for anything, they didn't up the dose of pitocin anymore, but Lindsey didn't need it anyway. They gave Lindsey some oxygen to help the baby and did an amnioinfusion to give the baby some cushion these helped a little but there were still large drops in the heart rate. The nurse checked Lindsey and said she dilated to about 5. Not too long later Lindsey told the nurse she could feel some pressure and the nurse checked her again and said WHOA! you are at 10! it had been less than an hour sin she had checked her at 5. She said she needed another nurse to confirm since it had gone so fast. Yup sure enough she was a 10! The nurse called the Dr. and he said to have give a practice push to see how long it was going to take. We waited for the next contraction, pushed for one, ten count and started on the next she didn't make it very far into it before the nurse said, STOP, STOP, we need the Dr. this baby is ready to come out. We watched the Dr. walk casually across the parking lot and then come in and get ready. As we waited for the next contraction after everything was ready Lindsey was... Hangin out and broke the tension with a comedic "how's everyone doing" good move Lindsey. Then the next contraction started and it was go time! She pushed for about 5 counts of 10 and then there he was, tiny little Griffin. The Dr. commented on how small he was and Lindsey brushed it off as All babies are small, until the nurse announced 5lbs 1oz then she thought he is really small. Everything looked great, just small. Thank Heaven.

The Red line is the heart rate. The blue is the contractions



No, I am not cutting her I.V. I am cutting the cord


Welcome to the World buddy



First and only MUG shot Ever!


First bath, I feel the same way when I have to bathe.




Must be mine, I hate putting clothes on too

Having Some Mom Time



Hangin Out




This Long Post is Making Me Tired


I'm Outta Here Man

HERE HE IS!

Griffin Patrick South
Born 10-2-09 5lbs. 1 oz

Mom and Baby are both healthy. We are all looking forward to this new ADVENTURE!

Attempting Baby Creativity

So I ventured into the "La De Da" baby boutique in Highland only to find out that there was not a single thing in the entire place that I could afford. I did get some ideas for things that I could attempt to make. This was my first attempt. Ok, so it's not centered, it's puckered and my stitching is not straight. I don't think the babe will have any trouble spitting up on it though, will he?
Oh, and that's supposed to be a car if you couldn't tell. I will try again and hopefully I will get better!

Party Crasher

My mom, aunts and grandma were kicking it up at the cabin all week so I decided to crash their party. I thought they might need some mid-week sustenance so I stopped by the Sweet Tooth Fairy and picked up some cupcakes. They pretended to be excited to see me but they were REALLY excited when they saw the cupcakes.

It was so fun to be a part of their getaway even if it was for less than 24 hours. We talked and laughed so much that I think the babe has never been shaken so much! I had one of the best nights sleep of my pregnancy! These ladies filled my belly with yummy food and gave me some earplugs and I slept in until 10:30 a.m. It was fabulous!

Fashion at the cabin is always top notch. As you can see my mom has got it down!

Mom, Grandma & Me
Mary, Jen, Denise, Grandma and Mom
There were all kinds of funny stories and great advice. I am glad that I made the last minute decision to head up to see them and I am grateful that they let me in when I got there!