David's 8th Birthday - Lego Party

Well, it has been a busy few weeks. It is actually July 4th but I wanted to back post David's Birthday before I continued blogging with our Baby News from yesterday.
David chose a Lego Movie theme this year and had a fun party with 5 friends (Joel is missing from the pictures as he had to leave early). Thank you to everyone for coming and for the special gifts!

8 isn't one of those milestone Birthdays that brings tears to a mothers eyes but I am still in awe that my Baby (my first baby that is) is 8 years old! That is only 2 years away from 10! As part of turning 8 David got to move into his own bedroom which he is going to have to share eventually when his new room mate arrives. He love, love, loves Lego as you may have guessed from his party's theme. He has also recently developed an interest in Pokemon. A new age came with a bit of new attitude but he continues to be our loving, considerate, generous & happy first born son. We love you David!

It's A...

Chinese Gender Prediction Calendar = BOY
Baking Soda / Urine = GIRL
Ring over belly = BOY
Sweet VS Spicy= BOY
Heart Rate = GIRL
Cold Feet = BOY
Belly Shape = BOY
Face Shape= BOY
SKIN = BOY
Morning Sickness = GIRL

As our ultrasound date approaches I am finding myself more and more anxious to find out the gender of our newest family member. If any of these predictions were accurate we wouldn't need an ultrasound to find out baby's gender but I thought it would be fun just the same to see what we came up with. There are a few tricks I haven't tried... like mixing urine with drano crystals or boiled water from red cabbage... and I haven't bought an at home gender prediction kit (because again none of these methods prove to be accurate) but here are some results from the few things I have tried. Do I think I am having a BOY based on these results? No! Still waiting to see what the ultrasound tech says in just less then 2 weeks. If you are curious to find out check our blog on Sunday, July 6 (it should be posted by then if not earlier... though I would like to keep it a secret so I can announce it myself at church to those who haven't found out already). We will be having a small gender reveal party on Thursday after the ultrasound.

Samara's Hospital Stay

Thank you to everyone who has been keeping Samara in their thoughts and prayers. We got home from the hospital this morning. Her heart rate was a little high before we left but she was getting more anxious about being at the hospital the longer we stayed. She also refused liquid medicine so she could only take the chewable tylenol they had rather then alternating between tylenol and advil like she is supposed to. Now that she is home we have both in chewable form so pain management should be less of an issue though it is supposed to get worse before it gets better. That being said she is doing well. She is happy to be home. She is currently playing a board game with her siblings.
After her surgery she had to stay in recovery for 2 hours which is a little bit longer then usual. There were no major complications she just had a bit of a hard time waking up, some blood in her saliva and needed some oxygen for the first little bit. Please continue to pray for her since pain tends to peak on day four and she the risk for bleeding is its highest between day seven and day ten.
We are very happy to have her home.

Samara's 1st Operation

Samara is having her tonsils and adenoids removed tomorrow. I will be spending the day and night with her at the hospital. We are pretty much ready to go bright and early Friday morning, just a few more things to pack. Not sure what time she will get discharged on Saturday but once we've settled in at home I plan to update the blog to let everyone know how she is doing. We will be checking in at 7:10am and her surgery is schedule for 9:10am. Please pray that she responds well to the anesthetic and that there are no complications. Thank you.






We spent a fun day together at Bear Creek Park and then to Menchies for frozen yogurt. I am glad it worked out that Jonathan had today off. Once Samara has recovered we will have to celebrate with another fun family adventure. Until then we wish her a speedy recovery.

16 Weeks

At 16 Weeks Pregnant "Pumpkin" is about the size of an avocado (hence the picture) and we are half way through our 4th month. The half way mark for us (19 weeks) is just around the corner. "Pumpkin" is scheduled for a growth spurt... and should be doubling his weight in the next few weeks (which means I am scheduled for another growth spurt too).
I am feeling pretty good... second trimester is everyone's favorite. I have started an iron supplement to bring my iron up and I am having some difficulty sleeping but that is mostly because I have to keep getting up to pee. Nothing truly to complain about.
In just less then 4 weeks we will be having another ultrasound and if "Pumpkin" cooperates we are planning to find out his (or her) gender.
I am beginning to wonder if this baby might be part Mexican (not seriously) because I seem to want the spicy version of anything and everything. I've been adding jalapeno's and hot sauce to most of my meals which has culminated in some very interesting and tasty discoveries.

Summer Challenges

Well... we have nearly wrapped up another year of home schooling... and so I am finding myself in need of another challenge... not that my life doesn't have enough challenges on its own but I think it might do me some good to have a project. I have several to choose from... always things on the to do list I don't have time for but I have decided to choose the challenge of Angeline's Baby Book. David's is done... though I think I may add a few things here and there. Rebekah's is done (because I did her's online... one month at a time). But Angeline's and Samara's remain. I would do theirs online too but I already have the albums, paper, stickers and pictures printed so all I need now is a little determination. I'm not setting a timed challenge because I really don't know how long it will take me to complete it. But I want to have it done by the end of summer if I can manage. The challenge really is to get started and make time to work on it. It is nice to have some uninterrupted time where I can feel like I am accomplishing something. Lately I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the "lather, rinse, repeat" duties of motherhood. To complete her album will be a big check mark off my list, a sure sense of accomplishment.
I am also hoping to host a book club for 8 weeks in July and August on Monday nights from 7:30-9:00pm. We will be discussing Kevin Leman's book, "Have a New Husband by Friday."Don't worry... I'm not actually planning to trade Jonathan in. Truth be told it has more to do with changes we can make as wives to better our marriages but if there is enough interest it should prove to be a fun and informative weekly girls night out.
When I think about challenges there has been one thing in particular on my mind lately that really challenges my heart. Samara (our 3/12 year old) is schedule for surgery to have her tonsils and adenoids removed on June 13th. It is a routine day surgery but because of her age I will be staying with her overnight and I am grateful that they will be monitoring her at the hospital for the first 24 hours. You might say I am struggling with it because she is my first child to have surgery. Or maybe it is because at the adorable age of 3 1/2 she pulls on my heart strings a little more strongly then her syblings. But I think the real reason is I'm afraid my decision could turn out to be the worst thing for her when it is meant to be the best. There is the complication of the anesthesia and the possibility of bleeding for up to 3 weeks afterwards though the odds are in her favour that she will recover quickly and be as good as new in no time. Like any parent I just can't bare the thought of having to say good-bye. Unlike most parents I have had to do it before. I know the reality is that each and every day could be any one of our lasts. I am trying to be logical and remind myself of all the ways she will benefit once she has recovered and somedays I can almost convince myself but my reality remains that sending her off into the hands of her sergeant will be the second most difficult thing I have ever had to do.

Adam and Eve and Peanuts

This morning in the van on the way to David's soccer game Angeline asks
"Mommy why am I allergic to dust mites?"
(Me) "I don't know why but I am too."
(David) "Angeline... you want to know why people have allergies?... Adam sinned in the garden and that is why we have allergies. If Adam and Eve would have obeyed then he would still be alive and I could eat peanuts."

Introducing Pumpkin

For the most part our news is out but I was waiting to officially blog our new addition until after today's ultrasound so that I could include another picture of Pumpkin. The above picture was taken in April at 8 weeks, 2 days pregnant and the below picture was taken today at 12 weeks and 5 days pregnant! We are officially Due November 22, 2014 and as usual we are anticipating an early arrival by about 2 weeks which make's Pumpkins likely arrival sometime around November 8th. I wasn't able to get our scanner to cooperate so I had to take pictures of the pictures which doesn't make for the best quality but you kind of have to use your imagination a bit anyway. Regardless you can see how much Pumpkin has changed in the last 4 weeks. We have our next doctors appointment on Tuesday and we are looking forward to booking our 19-20 week ultrasound then. Which brings us to the big question... Should we find out Pumpkins gender at our next ultrasound OR leave it a surprise for his/her arrival in November?



Here is a picture of how we announced Pumpkin to some of our family members...

David's Dirt Bike

Tad Lake - May 2014

We recently spent a week at the family cabin at Tad Lake near 100 Mile House. It's still a bit cold in early May but the nice thing is there aren't many mosquitos yet (we saw the odd one but no bites). We had a great time and made lots of nice memories.
David had some big highlights this trip. We got him his first dirt bike (YAMAHA PW50) which he spent most of his time on! He also went fishing and caught his first fish, a rainbow trout.
The kids didn't want to come home and are already looking forward to our next rip.
I hope you enjoy these few pictures from our week.

21 Months

Rebekah is now 21 months old. Usually by this time the newest sibling has arrived. She IS going to be BIG SISTER to our new addition in November 2014. These pictures were taken during our week at Tad Lake. She loved spending time at the family cabin. She would have spent the entire time outside if she could have. "Outside" is one of her favourite words to say. She also says "downstairs" often... that is where we have our play room and where her siblings can usually be found. She is now saying small sentences... things like "I want juice." Her best friend is Samara and she LOVES following her around. They are often holding hands off on an adventure together. If Samara is climbing the rocks at the front of our house she has to do it too... same with the run bike etc. We love our Bekah... she is so much fun and adds lots of joy to our family.

Palm Springs

More March...

Angeline's Princess Party

3 Sisters at 19 months

Angeline & Rebekah

Samara & Rebekah


Rebekah is now 19 months old. Lately she has been reminding me a lot of Angeline when she was that age. Looking back at pictures the resemblance isn't as striking as I thought but I think a lot of it has to do with facial expressions. Most often I think they look similar when sleeping. Personality wise they are similar and David and Samara are similar as well. Interesting because Samara looks the most like David out of the 3 girls at 19 months... they both have a rounder face at this age. Anyway, thought I would take these pics as I was making comparissons. Enjoy!

January 2014 Family Portraits

18 Months

Time has not slowed down for us. Was going to post some pictures when Rebekah reached 18 months and she is now 18 1/2 months old. We have been so busy that I actually haven't taken too many pictures since Chrsitmas. Here are a few recent ones of Bekah and her buddy Gunnar taken last weekend.
Not much of an update since my last blog. She hasn't made any leaps and bounds with her words. She is continually working on new teeth and almost has a whole mouth full. She is growing up so much though. I love watching her sing and dance and play with her sisters. And I love watching her with David. He often gets her when she wakes up in the morning... so sweet! The other night when I was tucking him in he asked me if Bekah was going to wake up during the night. I said that she might wake up once and he told me that he would go get her for me. LOVE all my kids.

Happy New Food

All Recipes Pad Thai
This year I would like to make some new recipes. In my mind it would be wonderful to have a designated day of the week be "New Recipe Day"... that would be 52 new recipes for 2014. That is not going to happen. But I would like to make it a point to try a few new things a month.
Yesterday the kids spent the night at Grammy and Grandpa's which made for a perfect opportunity to use the peanut sauce that has been waiting patiently in my pantry. I've linked a recipe for Pad Thai from allrecipes.com which is my favourite site for recipes. I used this recipe for inspiration only which is sort of what I like to do. I didn't use bean sprouts but I did use carrots, celery, sugar snap peas and green onions. I didn't make my own sauce because I had the peanut sauce which needed to be used. I looked at a few other recipes and then through my own together. First new recipe for 2014

Happy Nothing New Year 2014

      As each year comes to an end, in preparation for the New Year I like to make a list of what I would like to do differently. I guess you can call them resolutions. Some of them are typical like loosing weight, which after a month of turkey dinners, Christmas cookies and chocolates really shouldn't come as a surprise. Mostly it just seems like a good time to evaluate how things are going and how one might make some improvements.

      This year I've made a list but there is also something different we are trying. We have committed as a family to buying Nothing New for the entire year of 2014. So, we are now in the middle of our first week. I have to admit, my first trip to COSTCO was hard! And Jonathan has already had to remind me once that it still counts even if it is 50% off. Even though we are only 4 days in we have already come across a few things that we would normally set out to buy. The kids use small glass cups for drinking out of and being that they are kids they sometimes get broken. I've broken a few myself. We buy them in a pack at ikea for a reasonable price. They fit nicely in the dishewasher. They match. I think we lost a few over the month of December and with 4 kids drinking out of them we seem to be out of clean cups before super. I was tempted to just go to Ikea and pick up another set. The other thing is our Brita has had a crack in it for probably more then a year. Some unfiltered water leaks through as it is running its course, not really a big deal but we just finished our last filter and so it was time to say good-bye. We decided we can live with just drinking tap water but it makes for lots of trips to the sink during meal times. So we used a juice jug to bring to the table when we eat. This works fine but I would prefer to use a glass pitcher. So, I made my way to Talize and found 6 matching glasses (49 cents each) and a glass pitcher (2$) for our water. Now I can feel good about saving money and reusing.
      Another Resolution for this year is for Jonathan and me to go on a monthly DATE. That makes for 12 dates a year which probably doesn't sound like much but I think it is about 9 more dates then we had in 2013.
    So, Happy New Year to you and Happy Nothing New Year to us.

"Bekah"... 17 months

Rebekah is 17 months old today. We certainly noticed some big changes in this last month as she journeys from baby to toddler. Firstly she is no longer nursing and subsequently not "needing" mommy as much. She is expressing her  independent spirit as she explores new things she can do on her own. She likes to practise undressing herself but usually only manages to get her pants and shirt half off. This makes for an interesting fashion statement and also a tripping hazard but it is cute none the less. She is using her words more and managed her first sentence "Angie did it!" Her most common words are her siblings names "Dayday, Angie & Mara"... Mama, Dadda, all-done, water, cheese & chocolate are also used often. I can't forget "Gunnar"... Grammy and Grandpa's puppy. When we spent the night at their house the first thing she said in the morning was "Hi Gunnar." She is often singing and dancing. Here are a few recent pictures of her from Christmas. Can't believe our "Baby" is almost 1 1/2!