Welcome Baby Claire!

Hey! It's been a while again. We had our new baby girl a while ago. Her name is Claire Lila Welling. She was born August 28, 2016, 9 lbs 11 oz, 19 inches long.

Claire is a really good baby who sleeps 8 hours most nights. She smiles most of the time. She has reddish hair, with hints of gold and light brown, so it will be fun to see what color it is when it grows out. She is adored by all of us. Her brother and sister can't get enough of her. We love having her in our family.
 

Happy 1st Birthday Braden-Bear!

Our little Braden-Bear turned 1 year old earlier this week! He is such a fun little guy. He is cuddly, sweet, happy, determined, crazy, and the best little boy I could ask for. He loves pushing cars on the floor, looking through board books, and spending time with anyone who will pay attention to him. He is definitely a mama's boy. He has a very contagious smile. He makes our house a happier one. I love this boy more than words can say.

Happy birthday little guy! We love you!

Kids' Rooms

Two of my favorite rooms in our house are the kids' rooms, especially when they're clean. So, I wanted to share the cuteness before we have to reconfigure everything for when Baby Sister arrives.

Lydia's room is basically just a composite of girly things, butterflies, pink, purple, Frozen stuff, fairies, ballerinas, etc. She loves it! Even I just want to be in there sometimes to bask in the girlyness.

Lydia's Room

Lydia's Room

Lydia's Room (she had to pose for the pictures)

Lydia's Room (she loves dress-ups) 

Lydia's Toy Boxes (made from diaper boxes, covered in wrapping paper and a fabric liner) 

Braden's room is mostly themed in safari animals. There is a cute monkey decal on the wall above his crib, some fun wooden animals on the wall in the dormer area, some animal prints in frames on another wall. There is also a wall of ABC's that aren't really safari related, but I thought they were fun, anyway. His bed usually looks safari-like. He has some cute sheets with animals on them, but they're not always available. I also made a flannel rag quilt for him with cute animals on it. He has all his baby toys up there. He loves his room, too! I enjoy rocking him in the glider rocker. He loves night time cuddles too. There is an extra bed in his room, but that is for playing on/reading books. I made a fun, fleece blanket for that bed, as well. We all often play in his room because it is safe for everyone, and even Lydia likes his toys.

Braden's Room

Braden's Room

Braden's Room

Braden's Room

Braden's Toy Boxes (made from diaper boxes, covered in wrapping paper and a fabric liner)

Remember how I said I like these rooms when they're clean? Well, that doesn't happen all the time... We're working on a new system to help that:

 Lydia has had a hard time cleaning up her toys, so I made a fun little clean up chart for her. We started it two days ago, and so far she is loving it. She gets a sticker for having a clean room at bedtime. She also gets bonus stickers for cleaning other things in the house, like cleaning up toys in the family room, helping put away dishes, and helping with the groceries. When she fills up a chart, she gets to add some toys. We have a system where she only has one or two toy sets out at a time. Right now, she's earning back Barbie accessories. She has a hard time cleaning them up because she dumps them everywhere, and it seems too overwhelming for her to clean it up by herself, so I hope this will help her to learn how to clean it up. Wish us luck!

Master Bedroom/Bathroom Remodel

In one of my earlier posts, like forever ago, I said that we remodeled our master bedroom and bathroom. Well, we basically just painted our bedroom, and really remodeled our bathroom.

We had some sub-floor damage in and just outside the shower. Apparently the tile worker didn't do a very good job when it was done before. A few other houses on our street had the same problem, so we have all been working on our master bathrooms.

Since we were doing the floors, we might as well do everything we want aesthetically, right? So, here is a list of everything we did:

-shower
-floor
-paint cabinets
-new counter top
-paint walls
-tile around bathtub
-new, elongated toilet (Lance felt like the other toilet was made for midgets... nope, just normal sized people, silly, tall Lance)
-exhaust fan

The bathroom was out of commission for only about three months. We weren't completely done until a few months after that, because we added the exhaust fan.

Lance did most of it himself, but he hired a professional to tile the shower. We didn't want the same problem we had before, with a leaky shower. We also hired professionals for the solid surface counter top.

We LOVE the finished product! It is very bright and happy, yet elegant. I loved being able to choose all the finishes I wanted. Lance, of course had to agree, but we were pretty much on the same page. I love the color combination of yellow with turquoise/aqua and grey. I even got to choose a new duvet cover for the bed. I'll probably add a few accessories here and there, but as for now, it is finished and most definitely a dream suite for us. Oh! I almost forgot! We got a brand new mattress. It is so comfy!

Here are some before and after pics:

Before

Before

Before

After (Bedroom)

After (Bedroom)

After

 

After

So, what other projects do we have planned? We are seriously toying with the idea of converting our huge shed into a sport court. That will probably happen in a few to several years from now. We need a new roof this year. I'd like to update the counter tops in both of the other bathrooms and the floor in the upstairs bathroom. I'd like to paint basically everywhere. Our house is mostly white, and I like color! One day we'll redo the carpets, just not sure when. We'd like to make our bonus room into a super fun theater room. It will need carpet, wiring for a projector (maybe?), and comfy furniture. We also need to figure out where to put the new baby. A homeowner's job is never done.

It's A...

GIRL!!!

We're expecting Baby Welling #3 September 1st, and it's a girl!  Lydia is so excited to have a baby sister. I don't know what she would have done if it were another boy. She has been telling us it's a sister ever since she knew we were having another baby. We're all very excited to have a new little girl. Lance and I are also a little nervous to be outnumbered by the kids, but I'm sure things will work out. It may take a little while to adjust, but I'm sure that we'll figure it out. Braden doesn't really realize what's going on yet. He is just happy as can be.

Here are some pictures taken recently of the kids.

A Year's Worth of Updates

So, it's been a while. So much has happened in the past year.

Last August, I had a dream come true for our anniversary celebration. We went to Wicked! I had wanted to see it for about a decade, so I was very happy and excited for it. I was not disappointed. It was amazing!

 

This is the lobby at the theater.

We got a babysitter (Grandmacita) for our celebration and stayed at a Marriott in Sandy. It was so fun to get away for a night. I had a feeling that something was different, and I was right. I took a pregnancy test and it was positive! Woo hoo! Lydia now has a baby brother! But more about that later.

 

Positive pregnancy test

In November, I did something so brave, I still can't even believe I did it. A friend of ours got married in LA, and we went down to it. Lance was already in Vegas, so I drove by myself to St George to pick up another friend, and then proceeded to Vegas to pick up Lance. It was scary, but not as bad as I thought it would be. However, I really hope I don't have to drive that far by myself ever again. P.S. The wedding was beautiful! Lydia stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Hansen. She had a blast!

 

Los Angeles temple

Also in November, we hosted my family for Thanksgiving. It was great! It was the first Thanksgiving my family has had away from my parents house in over 20 years. I'm proud of myself for taking on such a daunting task while I was pregnant. I'm glad it's over, but I'll probably do it again. It was fun!

 

Our winter activity was to remodel the master bathroom. The shower had leaked, causing the sub floor to rot and crumble. Right now it is finished except for the bathtub faucet and the exhaust fan. I absolutely love it!

We also painted the master bedroom. The brownish color it was before was awful. Now both the bathroom and the bedroom are a bright and happy yellow. Pictures will be in a separate post all about the remodel.

Now for the part you've been waiting for. Braden John Welling joined our family on April 11th, three days after his due date. He is a wonderful baby boy and we can't imagine life without him. He is a really good baby. He regularly sleeps 6-8 hours uninterrupted at night. He has the cutest smile and will charm you any time you talk to him. He's a major mama's boy and is very cuddly. He looks a lot like his sister, except that he's got darker hair.

 

Braden in his blessing outfit. He got blessed July 5, 2015

Lydia absolutely adores her baby brother. She is almost as much in love with him as I am. She is a great helper. Sometimes she is a little too helpful. But she has learned a ton. She is pretty much the best big sister ever. I am so blessed to have two amazing children.

 

I had another dream come true recently. I love playing the piano. I used to teach, but stopped when Braden was born. It's just too hard to teach with little kids around. But I absolutely love playing the piano. All my life I have wanted a baby grand piano. Well, I got one! I love it so much! Now Lance gets to work on his sport court. That will be an adventure!

Here are some updated pictures for you. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Bye for now! Let's hope I can update more than once a year.

"Flowers in the Garden"

I've had a rough week. Just the usual ornery week, but still, I felt kinda down.

I've been thinking a lot about this saying I saw the other day. I've been thinking about it because sometimes I think people misunderstand my jokes or sarcasm as being mean. I don't usually have mean jokes, but weeks like this, they just slip out. When I went through infertility, my humor became a little dark and negative. I had a hard time coping, and my new found dark humor helped me out a little. I've been working on that, but every once in a while something will come out and surprise me. Then I feel terrible for days. I never know who to apologize to, because I don't know who heard it or how they took it. It's supposed to be a joke, but some people are much purer than I am (such an admirable quality), and they get offended by such remarks. I hope to have friends who overlook my "broken fence." I'd like to think I have many beautiful flowers in my garden that are noticeable in the front as well as deep in the back of the garden. Who knows?

Along with these feelings, I've decided on a couple of goals for myself. You know the saying, "In order to make a friend, you have to be a friend?" Well, I'm going to do this. Honestly, it's terrifying for me to make new friends, but I really need to. I don't have any real "hang out" friends. The friends I have are lovely, but I don't regularly hang out with anyone. I don't feel comfortable just calling someone up to talk, except for Lance, my mother, and my sister. So, Goal #1 is to make new friends. I need to anyway, since I just barely moved.

Goal #2: Teach my kid(s) (hopefully we can have more kids soon) to be friendly and serve others. How do I do this? Well, start off by teaching them service, by showing them service, and actually going out and serving others. Also, make sure they have opportunities to invite friends over, teach them good manners and how to be nice, and treat them nicely, too.

I hope that by doing these things, I will have a happier life and make a lot of new, lasting friends who want to hang out with me sometimes.