Bedroom Addition

So to keep up with our ever growing family, we decided to close off our "den" and make it into a 3rd bedroom. This will be Leah's "big girl" room and the nursery will remain the nursery, since it is ocean-themed, it will work for a boy or a girl.

Well you guys know me, when I want something done, I want it done now :) What's wrong with that? I got that from my dad! So I got 4 estimates on Wednesday, hired the lowest bidder, and they started on Saturday, finished it tonight! I thought it would take longer, but it was very quick, and they did a really good job! We still have to paint everything, but that can wait. I'm excited to paint Leah's new room. I haven't decided if I'm going to go with a cowgirl theme or a zebra theme. Either way it will be super cute.

Here is a picture of the final construction. Remember, we will still have to paint. The door next to the green wall is our front door, so when you walk in the front door, Leah's room will be on your right. The room turned out pretty big... 12X15ft. It's still a mess in there, so pictures of the actual room will come later. Here is a picture of the actual wall, looking towards my front door from my kitchen. Leah's room is in that open door...

In other news, I've been very nauseated the past few days. Morning sickness is hitting me hard. I'm living off of bagels, saltines, and ginger ale. Oy. I hope it passes soon. Leah has been such a good girl though. She must know I don't feel well, because she's been very snuggly and then goes off and plays by herself and keeps herself pretty occupied. I can't believe how much she is growing right before my very eyes. Her new favorite thing is to help me unload the dishwasher, she takes all of the silverware out and hands it to me and says "Tank you" (she's getting better at pronouncing it..) because I tell her "thank you" for handing it to me so now she just says it ahead of time. Hasn't quite gotten the hang of "you're welcome" yet. Haha but that will come later. She also now points to her diaper and says "poopoo" when she goes, which I'm hoping is a good sign of early potty-training!

Tim's doing good. He's working a lot this past week, but he has 5 days off this week and we have a few weddings to go to in the coming weekends. We love going to weddings because that means..babysitter, dressing up, free food, and dancing! :)

Well, it's getting late and I'm hitting the hay early! Gotta get all the rest I can! xoxo

Update on the Acorn Trees!

Okay so it was killing me, so I did some research on the weird acorn trees that we found in Julian! Apparently this is done by the Acorn Woodpecker. Here are some fun facts about Acorn Woodpeckers:

• The Acorn Woodpecker stores nuts in individually drilled holes in trees called granaries. The acorns are jammed in so tight that even squirrels can’t pry them out. Some of these granary trees have up to 50,000 holes drilled by extended woodpecker families.


• Acorns seem to be emergency provisions; on mild winter days these birds catch flying insects.


• Breeding groups may contain as many as 7 male breeders and 3 females. All breeding males can mate with any and all of the female breeders of the group.


• A group of acorn woodpeckers are collectively known as a "bushel" of woodpeckers.


• "Woody Woodpecker" was based on the Acorn Woodpecker

Camping in Julian

On Wednesday, we headed out about 2.5 hrs west to a little town called Julian, CA. We were headed up to the mountains for some cooler weather and some camping. The drive was nice... it was a really windy road through the mountains with gorgeous views! Southern California was hit pretty hard with wildfires in the previous years, and you could see the devastation it caused. It was almost eerie to see all of the charred trees, everything dead. When we got to the campgrounds, they told us that the whole place had burned down 6 years ago, and last year they were evacuated for wildfires and that the firefighters had actually stayed at the campground during the fires. Anyways, we stayed at a place called KQ Ranch.

We set up our tent and explored the campgrounds.. they had everything.. playgrounds, a pond, swimming pool, bathrooms, SHOWERS!, a club house. Leah had a ball roaming from one thing to another. She loves to be outside, so it was definately a treat for her! Wednesday night we went into Julian for dinner (we were planning on cooking hot dogs, but didn't bring any charcoal and they didn't allow campfires until November due to the risk of wildfires). The whole town was about a quarter of a mile long and was very old-towny. It was so adorable! When we got back to our camp, we got ready for bed. We put Leah in her monkey footy pajamas and hunkered down under our sleeping bags and blankets. She slept surpringly well but it was quite chilly!

On Thursday we went back into Julian to walk around the shops (they were closed wed night). Then we came back and walked around the campground, played at the playground, fed the ducks in the pond, and just relaxed in the fresh air! We cooked our hot dogs for dinner.. Leah was so hungry that she actually ate a whole hot dog! Around dusk, we decided to go for a hike up the mountains to watch the sunset. Leah fell asleep in the backpack about 10 minutes into the hike. It was too funny! When we got back to camp, it was already 45 degrees, so we decided to pack up and head home that night, rather than freezing out Arizona butts off in our tent again!

All in all, we had a great time! It was good for us to get out in the fresh air!

Mom... maybe you can explain this to me?! It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen! These trees (I think oak trees?) had holes all the way up and down them.. thousands..millions.. of these holes... and the holes were stuffed with acorns! I have never seen anything like it. There were tons of these trees everywhere with the same thing! What kind of animal does this and why??