Sharing my heart...

My Addilyn~
In just a few short weeks little Charlie will be arriving. As much as this excites me, it also makes me a little nervous and sad that it will no longer be just Addi and Momma. I guess you could say I've gotten spoiled by only having to devote my time and energy to you. You alone can take so much time and energy on a daily basis, so I can't imagine what it'll be with two! These past three and a half years have flown by and have been the best ever. Not every mommy gets the chance to stay home with their kiddos every day and I thank your daddy for giving me this opportunity.
I'm very excited to make our family a little bigger, but it has also worried me as to how we will adjust. You will make a GREAT big sister and I can't wait to see all the things you will show, teach and tell your little brother or sister.
Knowing that it won't be just Addi and Mommy everyday makes me tear up just thinking about it. I wonder if I'll be able to divide my attention, time and love enough to still give you everything you need. You have taught me so much about being a mommy that I can't thank you enough. And in doing so, you've reminded me often of how to be a little girl all over again. From playing dress up, you having me put just a bit of my makeup on you before we go out, parading around the house in high heels, dressing a hundred thousand barbies over and over again to butting heads over what you'll wear, how to fix your hair, to wanting poptarts for lunch. And then when I'm not looking you go and remind me of your innocence. Listening to your sweet little voice at night saying your prayers and talking to God and telling me that Jared and Will are listening too. It humbles my heart that at such a young age you understand probably better than some adults where Jared and Will are and why they are there.
I love all the little things about you that make you you. How you come into a room after hours of playing and just run up to me and give me a kiss and say I love you for no particular reason. Or how after bath/shower time you ask me to blow dry your hair and we sit there and do that one simple little thing together and yet have all kinds of giggle time. And at bedtime you have to constantly rub my fingernail till you finally drift off to sleep. And I love how you call yourself Princess Addi, I'm Queen Mommy and daddy is the King.
I look forward to how you and your daddy's relationship will grow in the coming months. I love both of you so much, I'm afraid my heart will get so full taking on another love and yet having my love for the two of you grow even more.
So here's my promise to you Addi Dale:
I promise to still make time for just you and I. To still say our prayers together at night, to have a day here and there that is strictly devoted to just Addi and Mommy. To love you unconditionally as I watch you help me take care of Charlie. And to not let my patience run thin as you try to help be a mommy and learn how to do new things on your own.
I know you are going to make such a great big sister and Charlie will be one very lucky little girl or boy. I hope that you two will become great friends throughout life and will always be there for one another. A sibling bond is something unique all in it's own (belive me, I should know!)
You will always be my Missy Roo and I love you more than you can imagine...around the world, to the stars and the sun and back again!
I love you with all my heart~
Mommy

Building a House

So as most of you know, we are in the process of building a house. We sold our house on Iron Gate Place and are living in a rental on Kay Street. I know this sounds funny, but street names are a big deal to me. Iron Gate sounded so elegant and pretty and now Kay Street, really? I mean that sounds so...blah. Maybe it's from living on pretty much the same road my entire life and the name of that road being 52 letters long (a little exagerated there) and taking up 14 lines on paper work (more exagerrating) and being Rineyville Big Springs Road, but street names are important. So when Josh and I went looking for a lot to buy, the first thing I would do would be look at the road name and if I didn't like it, then I wasn't gonna be a huge fan of the lot. Funny and stupid I know, but hey, everyone has their quirks! So it's a good thing I was okay with Springhurst Court out in Four Seasons subdivision.

Anyway, we started the house building process about the first of June and I was really crossing my fingers we would be in the new house "at the dirt" as Addi calls it by the time baby #2 gets here. My fingers hurt from crossing so much, but it just ain't gonna happen-and that's ok, cause I don't wanna rush things and then not be happy. So we are shooting for Thanksgiving, but really hoping the first of November works out even better.

This is why Addi calls this house "the dirt". For so long it seemed like this was all it was. Removal of trees, staking where the house would go, digging a basement and so many other things, that while we go out to take a look at things Addi would ask, "where we going" and to which I would reply "where daddy is building us a new house" and she'd go "oh, you mean the dirt".

The basement is poured and plumbing roughed in. It kinda felt like the house was at this stage for a while, but then things started to pick up...

and then the framing began. These guys did an awesome job! They unfortuantely worked through what I think was the hottest week and a half of summer. They'd get there at about 6 am every morning and work till about 1 maybe 2 in the afternoon when the temps would be hovering in the 100's and it was just nasty hot outside. Josh would take coolers of water to them, even though they had their own, just to make sure they were staying as cool and dry as possible. My heart really went out to them as they worked so hard to put together our house in the insane heat!

Another view from the basement.

The upstairs getting framed. I guess now would be a good time to mention the layout of the house. We decided to go for a ranch style home. One thing I do not miss from our old house are the stairs!! It was constant up, down, up, down. So with this house eveything is on the main floor and we'll have a basement. It won't be completley finished when we move in, but we are hoping to finish it enough that it'll be useable and then very soon finish it out.

It's getting just a bit closer, but I was having a hard time understanding where everything would be, which rooms would be where, because I will say it now and I've said it 100 times to Josh, I AM A VISUAL PERSON!! Your pretty much have to draw things out for me to understand, and Josh and I have butted heads a few times on this, cause he can "see" it in his head and I just cannot!

What? You think it looks more like a house now? SO DO I!! At this stage, I'm getting a little more excited. I can physically walk through the house and Addi can go "up the slide" (the boards we walk on to get in the house that she loves to go up and down on) and walk straight to her room and then go to Charley's room and then run across the house to mommy and daddy's room. However, I don't know what she'll do when they drywall and she can't run through the pantry in the kitchen and end up in her room!!

Isn't it pretty?! Big shout out to the brick layers for doing an awesome job! They bricked this thing in like a week! Talk about some hard workers! The windows on the stone side and next to it, are garage windows. Then you've got the front door, followed by the dining room and then the last window is Charlie's room.

The garage side of the house. That was my one constant request. I wanted my garage on the side, I did not want it sticking out the front. This picture looks a little confusing, but take away that board in the middle of the garage door. It had a purpose for a while, but can be gone now, so it looks a little funny. The first window closest to the garage door is the laundry room and the next two windows are the master bedroom.

The back of the house. The big hole in the bottom will be a garage door, where we can keep the lawn mower, Josh's tools, where the dogs will stay and things like that. Then the bottom doors and windows are just looking into the living room part of the basement. Above that, is the living room and kitchen upstairs. And the big window in the basement will be either an office or playroom until we have to turn it into a bedroom and above that is Addi's room. She's already picked which is hers and which is the baby's. She picked the back so she could look out her window at the pool!! I've taught her right! Now we just need to convince her daddy on the whole pool thing!

And this is looking out the basement into the back yard. Can't you picture an inground pool running side to side with a diving board and slide? A nice patio around it? It would be great for cookouts and having people over wouldn't it? Addi says we gotta have one just like Aunt Tina and Uncle Tony's! haha My luck, Josh will blow up a kiddie pool and put it out there and tell me to have the time of my life! Oh well, one more thing to cross my fingers on!

So I apologize that this post is sooooo long and has so many pictures, but I kept putting off doing this post for so long, so that's what I get. I have lots more pictures to show, some really cute ones of Addi working with her daddy that I'll post soon. Until then, it's back to picking out things and hoping lots more gets done in the next 6 weeks before Charley comes!!