I really don’t feel like accomplishing anything today, to tell you all the truth. This last little while, I’ve been super motivated and just ready to get this place in order. Today, not so much. So instead of being too choked about it, I decided to roll with it and take the day. For the most part, anyway.

After being completely thrilled with how clean my dishwasher got yesterday, I got back in the groove of life and loaded it all back up with yesterdays dishes. The kids were so cute at breakfast! Laela insisted on wearing a hairband and Dekker pulled a chair as close to her high chair as he could at the small end of the table so they could be closer. He complimented her constantly, telling her over and over how beautiful she was and how pretty she looked.

I joined them at the table for the tail end of their breakfast, and we eventually all finished up and headed down for toys. Well, Dekker did. Laela wanted to doddle a bit upstairs so she hung out with me while I tidied up from breakfast and wiped everything down. I really do have a desire to keep everything in better shape than we have in the past, and that includes crumb-free counters. They are not always clean at all, but sometimes, it just feels better!

We did join Dekker downstairs right away after that, and kept it all pretty low key for the next couple of hours. The kids are learning to play together, which is sometimes smooth and sometimes not, so I feel like I’m up and down a lot, dealing with their little squabbles and the whole learning curve. So often, Dekker is short with Laela when she nears him, out of fear that she’ll take his toys. But then occasionally, Laela’s colors come through and she’ll rip of Dekker’s glasses and he’ll burst out crying and my goodness, it seems to never stop! So I mediate as much as I can, and otherwise, I just let them hash it out. We all had a bit of lunch downstairs before nap time.

The kids went down for their naps surprisingly well, and they have been quiet for two hours. I have taken their downtime as my own as well. I’ve watched a few episodes of Friends while I’ve had a bit of a snack and just rested my body. I think I’ll do a little bit of laundry this evening. Not much, but we’re accumulating enough that I’d rather do a load here and there instead of saving it all for a big laundry day and then going into labour and not being able to do it before I go. That was a really bad sentence. Hopefully it made sense, because I don’t care enough to change it. Either way, I don’t want to bring dirty clothes to the hospital with me, so laundry must happen. Maybe just a load or two tonight though. Also, the curtains aren’t up yet in our living and dining rooms yet, so I could wash those, but I’d rather wait until I know the curtain rods are going up the same day so nothing has to get folded and wrinkled. But I’m not sure today is curtain rod day. Today will hopefully be microwave day, though!! We got a new over the range microwave, but since we bought it second hand and didn’t think to check, the mounting plate is different than our current one :/ But Brady was able to pick one up yesterday, so that enormous microwave can finally be on the wall and off of our countertop! I’ll never appreciate counter space more than I will after this blasted appliance isn’t taking any more of it up! Woohoo!

So I suppose chores aren’t entirely lame. Maybe they’re just lame when you’re on your own doing them. I don’t know. Anyway, its been a really low key day, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Tomorrow is also pretty chill, except for a doctors appointment in the middle of it, and Friday will be fun and full and I’m SO looking forward to it! I’m hoping I’m on the ball enough to even make it into a photo post!!!

Last night, Brady put up the curtains in our room, and I am SO pleased with the end result! Since not everything in back in its place, it feels pretty monochromatic in here, but very crisp and beautiful and I love the little design on the curtains. It gives a little bit of something different to the walls, and I love it. It was nice to wake up with a bit less light this morning as well.

Once the kids were up and eating breakfast, I went into my decently functional kitchen and unloaded the dishwasher. The dishes are just not cleaning the way I’d like them to, and as I mentioned on Facebook a while ago, my dishwasher is turning brown inside, and its getting progressively worse. So instead of loading the dishwasher with the dirty dishes from last night and this mornings breakfast, I put a Finish cleaning pack in it instead and ran it on the uber-load setting, aka pots, as hot as possible. I had my doubts about this method, since the people who recommended it said they used it when their dishwasher started turning brown, and ours has been brown for a while, but guys, it looks BRAND NEW!!! Unbelievable! Easily the best five dollars I’ve ever intentionally washed down the drain.

Then I called and booked a leg waxing appointment for Friday. Best get that in before I have to have my feet in the air in front of too many people whilst having a baby!! One more thing checked off my list of things to do!

The kids ate breakfast for what felt like hours before they wanted to be done and go play. We played downstairs for a while before Dekker decided he wanted to go play upstairs on his own for a bit. He does this sometimes when he wants some space from Laela. I think its great, actually, that he’s come up with his own way of fleeing, and I trust him very much not to get into stuff. Humorously enough, I heard him talking quite loudly to himself at one point, until I realized that Jerilee had made it out and they were bantering upstairs, when I hadn’t even heard her come in!! Friend fail :/ Sorry my son beat me to you, Jerilee!

The kids went down for their nap decently well, and Jerilee and I visited all afternoon, which is something we haven’t done in a really long time. Brady picked up a delicious supper on his way home and we watched The Bachelor and ate with the whole family downstairs. It was pretty fun actually. We rarely eat downstairs with the kids, because we can’t contain them the same way, and they get their dirty fingers on more things. But neither of my kids prefer to be messy, so there is lots of hand and face wiping along the way. Once they went to bed, the three of us visited a little bit before we watched yet another episode of The Bachelor. It was a two episode week, you know!

Now, Jerilee is on her way home and we’re just cuddling in for the night. Tomorrow will be a quiet home day for me again, and I’m trying to decide what jobs I can and should do. I really need to get around to packing at least the beginnings of a hospital bag, and I think I could maybe do some laundry, but we’ll see how I feel tomorrow. With the dishwasher cleaner going through, we have a full days worth of dishes sitting in the sink, waiting to be done, so maybe I’ll do that in the morning. I can only accomplish so much with these popping hips and all these contractions! Wish me luck!

Believe it or not, yes! My husband does have a job, and after a really beautiful stretch of time off that he’s used to help me feel more prepared to have our third baby, he is re-entering the work force for the week! While many people enjoyed spending their stat holiday with their family, my husband went to work. Stat holidays don’t mean too much when you’re self employed. Not bitter at all, honestly. I love the flexibility! But it does mean that sometimes, he has to work on a day that the rest of the world (or province) has off. Such is life.

I’m not going to lie. I slept like a log last night. I was dozing off by 11:00 and I slept solidly until 9:00am. The monitor was on but apparently we had turned the sound off, so while I could still hear them moving around and playing, it was a quieter, slower start. The kids weren’t in the best moods first thing this morning, but seemed really content to be back at home, even amongst the chaos that our upstairs continues to be. They both ate an unreasonable amount of breakfast, Dekker specifically asking for each and every kind that we have available to him, which is usually three kinds. I know that seems like overkill, but besides myself, our family LOVES cereal. We go through it really fast. Laela also drank lots of milk. In the last few weeks, we decided to get Laela off of her bottle. No judging, I know its considered late for her to still have one, but its like her one small comfort thing, she only had two littles ones each day, and it didn’t bother us! But since we’ve taken it away, she’s drinking considerably less milk. I know its an adjustment period, so I’m not too worried, and she’s getting her dairy in just fine. But today, she drank for breakfast what she often takes in all day. Yay Laela!!!

They didn’t finish eating breakfast until after 11:00, and then they were more than ready to go play toys downstairs, where they weren’t constantly being told “Don’t touch that!” or “Don’t drive your toys on the walls.” Downstairs is much more fair game.

I was amazingly tired after my ten hour night, and felt super conflicted about how productive to be. Let’s be straight up. I’m a 26 year old woman who stays home all day. I have every ability to clean or tidy or do laundry or any number of things that need doing around my house. Emphasis on the “need” here. However, while I find my kids to be incredibly easy and user-friendly, I am at the very end of my pregnancy and things like bending down, or chasing, or walking back and forth across the room tire me out and bring on painful contractions. I’m just about at the end – of my pregnancy and my proverbial rope.

Ask Jerilee. I annoyingly texted her throughout the morning, whining about my fatigue, and about the desperate need to get my house back in order. What to do, what to do?! She was really good, and encouraged me to do some little bitty things if I wanted, but that it was more than fine if I didn’t. So thats what I did. I made a short little plan and accomplished some of it.

Dishes. We hardly had any. I loaded the dishwasher but didn’t hand wash the few things that can’t go in, like the travel mugs. Then I planned to do some laundry. Now, we have lots of laundry to do in the way of sheets and towels and such, but everything is still dusty and messy, and that part isn’t quite over yet, so I opted out of that laundry (even though its the laundry that is bugging me the most!) and instead, I washed all of the new baby blankets and burp cloths that my mom recently sewed for baby Jim! Its one small thing I can prepare anyway. My second and final load of laundry was going to be the bedding that fits into our baby cradle, where he’ll sleep for his first few months, but too many things were stacked on top of it and frankly, I just didn’t feel like making a bigger mess trying to get the cradle out of storage. So I didn’t. The one load was enough. At least it was something.

In the afternoon, the kids and I ate good lunches and they went down for their naps pretty smoothly. Even though my chores hadn’t been quite as successful in the morning as I had hoped, I had already decided that I would rest when the kids did. I kept dozing off while the kids were playing, so I knew my body needed some rest. However, funny story. Our curtains haven’t been put back up since painting, and it was glaringly bright in our bed. I was so looking forward to some cozy bed time and some YouTube. I tossed and turned and tried to find a good position to be able to watch, but it wasn’t working out. I started to reevaluate my cozy plan, and thought I should rather make lists about…shoot, I dozed off again. And again, and again, and again. So instead of doing anything, I fell asleep. I literally lay sprawled out on my bed, the sun pouring down on me, like a kitty. I slept like that for a solid hour. I actually really hate sleeping in the day, because then I have a pretty hard time falling asleep at a reasonable time at night, but there was no turning back. I like to sleep in the dark dark, so if I could nap for a full hour in the bright, hot sun, it was necessary.

By the time I woke up, the kids were lulling and the sun had moved a little bit, so I could see again. However, I had slept wrong and am currently still really suffering for it. Dang pelvis. I watched a few YouTube videos to help me wake up and be less zombie-like. Brady came home feeling surprisingly good after his first day back, which was a nice sight for my sore tired eyes. We had grilled cheese and soup for supper, which was unbelievably delicious, and exactly what I wanted. Then we played with the kids for a bit before putting them down for the night.

Now, my loving husband is putting up curtain rods in our room so I can wash and hang our new curtains. I know the rest of the house is still a mess but its on its way! And I mainly just want our room back. I think its important to have a sane spot to go to amongst the mess. At least it is for me. So curtain rods, and then potentially a bit of touching up paint and a bit of cleaning. And THEN a soak and a snack. I made cake batter fudge the other day, which has been a delicious little sweet treat.

Tomorrow, the kids and I will have a date with Jerilee, which is SO much fun! She doesn’t judge our crazy house, and she fits into our family very well 🙂 Plus I’m looking forward to having some company in the day. I love my friends and family so much, and its sad going from having them around so often to having no company at all. Thanks for saving me tomorrow, friendy friend!

We are officially home! After a busy weekend away, Brady and I have ourselves and our kids tucked away at home. Well, it definitely looks like a different home, but I’ll take it happily!

The new color on the walls is beautiful. The Behr paint served us well. It is smooth and rich and the eggshell finish was the perfect choice. *pats myself on the back* We opted for three greys to go throughout the house. The lightest in our room, the darkest in our kitchen and dining room, and the medium shade is everywhere else. The living room, the hallway to the kids room, the stairwell, the entrance, and a few other little alcoves and wherever else needed new paint. I love the colors. I would happily live in these colors for years to come.

If I can be a bit of a Debby downer, the fresh new walls make everything else look so bad 🙁 The mouldings and baseboards are discolored and the doors are filthy. Everything that should be white looks yellow. Ugh. So now begins the task of cleaning everything like crazy in hopes that there is legitimate white under there, and if not, so begins yet more painting to make the whole place look more crisp and clean. We knew there would be more to do after painting, of course. With painting comes touch ups and cleaning and reassembling rooms and dust and general messiness. And thats ok! It just seems like a lot. Perhaps it was our bad, starting to paint in my 37th week of pregnancy, but the whole thing seems to be catching up to us, and it feels a little bit overwhelming. But we will succeed 🙂 Brady and I have come to terms with the fact that we will NOT finish this entire house before the baby comes, and that is more than fine. It would be unreasonable to expect that of ourselves, and its not like we’ll be listing our house the day we come home from the hospital with the baby. Best of all, the baby truly doesn’t care if our baseboard are yellowed or theres a dust bunny in the corner of the room. All we need is some normalcy, and functionality.

So! This evening, hopefully we’ll get the kitchen appliances pushed back where they belong. I LOVE me a functioning kitchen! And then ideally, we’ll get our bedroom back to at least the right things being in the right places. We’ll need to clean as we go, and that can’t all happen this evening, as we’re both feeling pretty whooped, but a general tidy will help me feel better for the moment anyway.

The kids are wired and haven’t slept super well away from home, as is a pretty common thread, I think, so they’ll likely be having snack foods for supper (apples, crackers, meat, cheese, etc) and then going to bed early. These poor overtired kids. I think today is the first day I’ve ever wanted to call them brats. I love them, but my goodness, they are running me into the ground today! We are all tired.

All things said and done, I’m very happy with the colors we picked. They look beautiful on the walls, and I can’t wait to get the rooms back in some kind of order so I can post pictures up here for you guys. But right now, everything is still in the centre of the rooms, draped with old sheets, and draped further in dust. Once its even a little bit prettier, I WILL put up pictures. I’m so very happy with how it all looks with the lighter color. I loved the dark for a time, but its time for openness and brightness.

The boys got up ridiculously early to be among the first customers at Home Depot to buy one last can of the main color that they had run out of the day before. Then they grabbed some breakfast and headed off to our house for another day of painting. Yes, Brady and my dad were each others valentines today. But they worked tirelessly yet again and actually managed to FINISH the walls!!! We were hoping to have them home for supper but they stayed until after 9:00pm so that they could finish and so I could have my house back in order sooner. We still have a few small chunks of ceiling to repaint and lots of little projects to do, but the big part is over, and I can start putting my life and home back in order before the baby comes. I can’t wait to see how it all looks!

My mom and I enjoyed our day at home with our little valentines as well. Dekker and Laela were quite adorable and played a bit more on their own, which was nice, because mom and I actually got in some visiting time face to face! Well, sometimes. The volume level was pretty high at times, but we tried! We practiced music for church, we played Yatzee, we ate good food, did dishes, and even made a little vday cake to serve to our boys upon their arrival home. I had previously bought a total cheater dessert for this day, and it actually was a lot of fun to put it together 🙂 I brought a heart shaped cake pan, and a boxed red velvet cake mix, which included a little pack of cream cheese frosting. Like I said, it was a total cheat for less than five dollars, but it sure hit the spot when the time came!

I have lots I could write about, but again, we’re getting to bed pretty late and I have to be up early tomorrow to make it to the sound check at church. I’ll tell you more about our beautiful house once I’ve actually seen it in person. After todays snowfall, my parents are going to follow us home in their truck so we can borrow their snowblower and actually get into our driveway. And so my mom can also see the color and the work thats been done. Bah! My house is FINALLY painted!!!! One more BIG step towards trying to sell 🙂

Brady and I drove our little family to my parents house this morning. We hauled a few bags inside, as well as our kids, and Brady and dad headed back to our place for a day of painting! I was going to post progress pictures but I think I’m rather going to wait for end result pictures instead 🙂 But I can vouch that our house looks much bigger and brighter and newer now! From what I’ve seen in pictures anyway.

We’re spending the night at my parents so the kids can sleep in and the boys can go back for day two tomorrow. This way also, the kids could go down at a normal time and the painting could continue. Its a good system, and lots is getting done. I wish one coat was enough for everything, but its not seeming like that will be the case, so its unlikely that the whole place will be complete by the end of tomorrow, but the vast majority will be, I think, and that helps.

So for the events of my day, we kept it nice and low key. The kids were very thrilled to be with grandma, and Dekker nabbed lots of story and cuddle time. They played well and ate a good lunch before they napped. I napped them in separate rooms so they both actually slept really well. I got to visit with my mom for about an hour before she had to head out to the city for a few hours, but I occupied myself with some very relaxing Netflix and dozing. No complaints there! The kids eventually woke up and played more toys before I zapped them some leftovers from the fridge. I took a phone call in the middle of their supper, and Dekker proceeded to feed Laela out of his bowl while I was otherwise occupied. He was so pleased with himself, and I made a big scene of celebrating his helpfulness. It was pretty much adorable.

My mom arrived home with only about fifteen minutes to spare before the kids bedtime. Everyone was freshly diapered and jammied, and Dekker had even begun tidying toys all on his own. We finished up the floor, and Dekker surprised me like never before by saying a boisterous “Bye!” and heading downstairs on his own! I took advantage of the moment and went after him without making any big deal of him saying a big, proper goodnight. Rather keep it smooth, right? Upon arriving in his room, he was less impressed with the idea of going to bed, but he climbed into bed anyway, had a drink, and stayed put.

Until I left, anyway. He and Laela partied hard in their room for a good long while. I didn’t even really try to shut it down. Its such a treat to spend the night at grandmas house, and not only that, but its a new place! They’re not going to fall asleep immediately, and they were having so much fun! Both still in their beds, but squealing and laughing out loud at the other. Eventually, they both just laughed themselves out and fell asleep. Best way to fall asleep.

Its been a great day, and while Brady and my dad are tired, they seem to feel like they were productive, and that they’re willing to give it another go tomorrow! Can’t wait to see how it all turns out!

Turns out that priming some of the house yesterday didn’t set especially well with my body, and I woke up in relatively rough shape this morning. I scheduled an appointment with my chiropractor right before my routine prenatal visit that I had booked for this afternoon to clean up all my broken/achy bones. I got to Dr. Mikes a bit early (I always give myself way too much time since we live so far away) but got in right away, as tends to happen. It turns out my body went back to where it belonged pretty easily, so I was told I’m in better shape than either of us thought originally. I’ll still be seeing him weekly, but considering I’m 37.5 weeks pregnant, that won’t be too terribly long. I can’t wait until this blasted Relaxin hormone stops producing and everything that is so freaking “relaxed” in my body can tighten back up. I’d love for my pelvis to stay in one piece again someday.

I had received a call a few days ago to inform me that Dr. Guselle would have some first year medical students with her on our appointment day. I had given my permission that they could definitely be part of my appointment, but today, they weren’t back from lunch yet, so it was just she and I. Everything was very routine. I’ve gained a bit more weight in these last few weeks than I’d like, but that tends to be how I grow my kids. Really big at the very end. Its just always a tough pill to swallow. But my BP was good, babys heart sounded good, I’m measuring right, all seems good. She asked if I was miserable enough to want/request a membrane strip, and I declined it. Am I uncomfortable enough to want one? Yup! Do I want to be in labor this moment? Nope. Our house is chaos, my childcare is organized for much closer to my actual due date, and I am scheduled to be induced by MY DOCTOR on HER DAY, so if I can make that work, I’m going to! Thanks for the offer, but no thanks 🙂 I’m still good.

When my appointment was over, I proceeded to stop in at way too many places. I grabbed lunch, and did a shop through Target. I was looking for something specific, and of course I couldn’t find it, but I found a number of other things. Some things were on the list, and some definitely weren’t. The dishwasher cleaner and toiletries were, but the kids clothes, purse, and earrings were not. After Target, I made my way to Superstore for some groceries, a prescription refill, and a couple of items of clothing for the kidlets. Clearance makes that ok, right? Then onto Home Depot for yet MORE painters tape, and some bitty rollers that we didn’t think we’d need. I love that Home Depot has a parking spot for new or upcoming parents 🙂 And better yet, the symbol painted on the ground is a pink stroller. LOVE that! Because I hadn’t shopped enough, I actually managed to hit our other Target location and find what we were originally looking for, and I only bought that. However, the day bedding is on a sale that is better than 10% off, someone tell me!!! I have my eye on some blankets that I really would love to have, but can’t justify them at full price. Merp. Seriously, I want to be spammed with notifications when Target bedding is cheaper! Hear me, people!! From Target, I hit Costco for a pretty decent sized shop. I only got one frivolous thing but Brady had told me I could buy them, so I snagged a four pack of those EOS lip things. I know, I’m paying for the weird container, but I really like it, haha! Its easier to find a lip gloss ball in my big purse rather than a little stick. They’re cute. I filled up with gas afterwards, grabbed some Tims for tonights bath, and drove home. I tried to condense the story, but it was a pretty solidly full day.

Brady had the majority of the house primed by the time I got home, which was lovely. He helped me carry stuff in and put it away, and then kept on working until we got the kids up for supper. It was right around then that I heard from the girl who was coming to pick something up from our place this evening. She and her crew were on their way over. Maybe fifteen minutes out. I was in a bit of a panic at first, thinking “I thought they were going to come around 7:00!” And then I discovered that it was about quarter to, and I was the crazy one. That is how supper became ham and cheese sandwiches with cucumber slices. We ate downstairs, which we NEVER do with the kids, because its a much bigger mess and just not something we like to do. We like the tidiness of eating at the table and frankly, so do our kids. Neither kid likes having a messy face or hands, and I’d rather they use a napkin than my carpet. But hey, sandwiches are easy, pretty clean, and the kids love them.

And then the crew came, and took our piano. I won’t lie. I’m pretty sad about it. But I knew it had to be done. There was no way we were going to be able to move it to our next home, much less wherever we squat for the months we are homeless if we get to build our home. Plus, its a bit of a project piano. BUT its a gorgeous antique piece, and I’m so sad to see it go. Sad, but relieved in a strange way. One more big thing taken care of, and onto the next thing! It helps that the family who took it was so happy to have it 🙂 They will play it and appreciate it more than I ever did.

Now, the kids are asleep, and Brady is finishing up the priming. I’ve finally picked the set for Sunday, as I’m up to lead worship and forgot about it pretty much until today. I know, I’m just dripping with preparation and responsibility. I try!! But today has felt huge, and I am really anticipating a soak in my tub with the double double I bought earlier. It makes sense to drink a coffee and take a sleep aid, right??

Tomorrow the real work begins. Let’s get some real color on these walls!! The white is making me feel a bit caraaaaazy!

I have a confession to make. I am not a painter. But we all have to stretch sometimes.

Today has been day one of priming our house. After breakfast, I took the kids downstairs so Brady could have the freedom to go crazy and get lots and lots done. He started in our room, which I really appreciated, since the smell is not my favorite. (**We bought very low scent paint and primer, and have fans going and windows open. We’re being safe 😉 ) Unfortunately, cutting in takes a lot of getting used to, and by the time it was lunch, he had finished cutting in our room and nothing else. I could tell he was pretty discouraged. So he came downstairs and took a break with us. Some food and cuddles with our kids can go a long way. The kids went down for their nap right around when Brady finished up his lunch, so I offered to help. I did the very easiest part of the entire job, and basically shuffled all around the house on my butt, painting along the baseboards, the inside corners, and as high up on the doors and windows as I could reach without standing on stools or challenging the tiny bit of balance I hesitantly say that I have left. It took a good couple of hours, but I finished going all around the upstairs and down the stairwell as best as I could. I left out a good chunk of the kitchen, because it was a bit more tedious, involved a bit more climbing, and not everything had been cleaned off of the counters yet. But I feel like I accomplished a decent amount and participated at least. I feel less useless, haha!

I’ll be gone for a chunk of tomorrow, to a prenatal appointment and hopefully a chiropractic appointment as well, so Brady will be on his own with the kids. Nothing is ever quite as productive with two toddlers at your feet. But hopefully we’ll get at least all of the cutting in done today, and maybe even a bit more rolling, and then the rest of the rolling can be fit into tomorrow because after that, PAINTING STARTS!!! Official color will be going up on our walls, and I cannot wait! Already, our house is so much brighter and lively. Granted, it could be a challenge to sleep in our stark white bedroom tonight, with our bed pulled away from the wall, surrounded by all of our other furniture, but I will take that for a few nights in exchange for a freshly painted house.

I tried to take some progress pictures today, but its almost impossible. There are large draped pieces of furniture everywhere, and they are in the way of most of the walls. They look like pictures of nothing. Not worth the tiny amount of space that they take up on my laptop and phone.

All of this being said, these are our plans for the next couple of days, and I’m so looking forward to the end result!! However, my right hand is already totally cramped up from painting, and typing is becoming more and more challenging. Like that last word, challenging. I typed it probably six times before getting it right.

The end. I’m pooped, and we still have a good few hours left in the day with two rambunctious kids! Hopefully just a few more crazy days like these and we’ll be ready to put everything back! Wish us luck!

I thoroughly enjoyed today! I feel like recently, my posts are just play by plays of random events of the day, rather than focusing on a specific topic, but I’m really enjoying my days and I want to share.

Brady set an alarm for me this morning at 8:00. We had agreed the night before to set a snooze alarm for 8:15. I, however, had woken up around 7:30 after a really disconcerting dream, and was just dozing when the alarms went off. Brady turned off the first alarm and took the phone under the covers so it wouldn’t be as loud when it went off the second time. Maybe he does this on regular work days (?) but either way, this time he did it in his sleep. So around 8:15, I heard a very soft song playing and I actually woke him up to tell him the alarm was going off. It was quirky. I like him.

I got up and turned on all the lights in our room so I could get ready. I’m so thankful that Brady is a morning person because he wasn’t phased. I got dressed, did my hair, and a full face of makeup. Today was belly pics day! I left the house at 9:00 to meet with my friend/photographer at 9:30.

I won’t mince words. It was freeeeezing outside! Luckily, Jamie was on it, and had brought little hot hands packs to keep us both warm while we took pictures in the snow. We had a lot of fun, if I can be so bold as to speak for both of us. As soon as I can get my hands (and permissions) on the pictures, I’ll show off a few 🙂 I can’t wait to see them!

After pictures, I dropped in on my mom and we had a nice little mid-morning visit, which doesn’t happen too terribly often. I did eventually leave though, and head back home. I was met by Brady who was taping off the upstairs, and happy kids watching Cars in the basement. I brought their lunch down and tried to entertain them for a little while before it was nap time. They were adorable and fun and full of cuddles.

When they did go down, Brady and I ate some lunch and watched a bit of Netflix. Then, because we couldn’t help ourselves, we installed the baby car seat in our van!!! We moved the two kids’ seats around as well. I like this new set up so much!

Originally, we had the kids up behind the front seats, which makes the most sense.

Now, we have baby boy behind the driver, and Dekker and Laela both moved to the back row. We figured it would be nice for them to go together, since there will be a big adjustment time of us not being able to hear them as well, or reach things for them. Thats not safe anyway, and we’ve been slowly implementing new rules about that anyway. This way, they’ll at least have each other! Plus, we folded down the bucket seat behind the passenger so it’ll be easier to get back there and buckle them in. It was pretty tight before. And if we ever have to take someone anywhere, we can just pull the bucket seat out of its handy stow and go storage, and we have a full seat! Its just a really nice set up 🙂

I felt nice and accomplished afterwards, having been part of the whole new installation, and also having gotten all put together and up earlier than usual in the morning. Brady was feeling pretty tired from continuing his work all morning getting the house ready for painting, since today was taping as well we moving our entire kitchen into the centre of the room. As in the fridge and stove are pulled away, and the microwave is off the wall now. Just more grunt work. But it has to get done, since PRIMING starts tomorrow!!!!!

When it was officially time, Jerilee arrived at our house and she and I drove to concert choir practice. I really like Tuesdays for concert choir. Its so nice to sing in a group! We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to sing our favorite song this week, but I’m sure we’ll get there next time around. We got home earlier than usual, got ourselves set up with freezies, and watched The Bachelor. For those who haven’t seen it, its a super satisfying episode! I think anyone who is actually watching this season will be thrilled. Next week, we have no concert choir because its the schools break, but its also the Bachelor’s two day week, so we’ll still get together for a double feature 🙂 Can’t wait!!

So yes, as per usual on Tuesdays, my post is late, but this is just always such a fun evening that runs late. So sue me. I have great friends and fun stuff going on in my life! Today, I celebrated my belly, my baby’s arrival, we got the house even more prepped for the idea of moving, I watched a movie with my kids, I saw one of my best friends, I sang, I ate yummy food, and now I get to snuggle up with my husband for the night.

*** Its now officially February 11th, so to add to the list, today I can say that it has been ONE YEAR since Dekker’s surgery, and while it was one of the biggest and scariest ordeals of my entire life thus far, I am incredibly pleased with the results and the lively little boy that has been growing in our home since then. He has become a chatty, comprehensive, ever-braver boy who is sure footed and confident. What a year its been!!!

Brady took today off from his normal life and spent it snowboarding instead. He more than deserves the break. He’s been working his butt off for days, while I’ve been gallivanting around from appointment to outing to event. I’ve had a blast, and now its his turn.

With him home a bit more these days, some of my regular chores that I keep up with have been slipping. So when I got the kids up this morning, I felt motivated to get some things back to normal. I cleaned up the few days worth of dishes cluttering our counters, which felt wonderful. Our counter is still a huge mess of papers and garbage, but that will need to be tidied separately. Hopefully still today, maybe, but we’ll see. While I tidied up the dishes, the kids ate an unreasonable amount of breakfast, which is always good. After breakfast, we all made our way downstairs and I made several trips up and down the stairs until all of our laundry was where it needed to be for the day. Ok, not every piece of laundry. I’m really wanting to get all the bedding done, as well as the towels, curtains, etc., but with the painting plan looming over the next weekish, there is no point in cleaning that stuff when it will need to be recleaned almost immediately. Does that make sense, or just make me sound filthy? Hmmm… Either way, I got all of the dirty clothes together and have been doing laundry all day. And its actually felt pretty amazing!! I’m finally back up and doing things, and it feels really good.

So now, here I am, asking you guys what you have found to be most important when preparing your house for sale. We will be painting almost the whole upstairs, and doing a full deep clean. What else? We’ll do little repairs as needed, and be refreshing all of the window coverings and rugs. I know that a big thing is staging, and making it look all new and perfect, but the fact is, we’ll be listing a house that is lived in by a young family of five, and its not going to be easy! As for decor, we took down all the shelves off of the wall, as they weren’t straight anymore and had done a lot of damage to the drywall underneath. So now do I have to buy things to hang up? Is it worth punch new holes in the walls that we just patched and painted? Maybe it will look too empty without it? I don’t know! What do you guys think?? We’ve never had to sell a house before, and appreciate any and all information or tips that you have!

Until I get a good list going of things that we need to do in the house, I’ll continue puttering around trying to be useful. Only to an extent though. I had braxton hicks contractions all through the night and would love to keep those to a minimum if at all possible. Must rest!