My parents gave us the gift of a few hours off today! After church, we brought the littles over to their house and got them settled. My mom had made them some lunch, and as soon as everyone was seated and content, we left to go get our own lunch, somewhere else.

We hit up Chianti, which I’ve mentioned a few times as one of my favorite places to eat. Not super expensive, delicious pasta, and close to our end of the city. Did I mention its delicious? Love it. We didn’t even have to wait for a spot. They just wiped off a booth for us and we were good to go! We ordered our usuals, and had a nice visit while we waited. It was in that conversation that we remembered our last trip to that restaurant.

I’ve been to Chianti a few times in the recent past, but the last time Brady and I went together was the day i was induced to have Laela. Gives me the shivers. I was induced in the morning, and had been sent home after things didn’t seem to take off. We were discouraged, so we grabbed Starbucks, went for a long walk, and decided to take advantage of the day by going on a date. To Chianti.

Brady and I came to this memory while sitting at the table this afternoon, while I had contraction after contraction. Its ok, I found humor in it rather than terror. It was a bit ominous though.

It turns out that its not easy to eat at a relaxed pace anymore! Our food was gone in no time, and we moved on to the next stop. Target. I know, its kind of lame to run errands on our date, but its surprisingly relaxing to run errands sans kiddos! We could hold hands and peruse, taking our time instead of chasing down little ones. We bought some new curtains for our bedroom for after its painted, some for the kids room too, and a few other little things, like a candy thermometer, a mop, a phone charger, and a couple of little kitchen utensils. All things we actually need in the near future. I really enjoyed buying the curtains and a few little cleaning things for getting the house ready to sell 🙂 It makes me really excited at the idea of settling into a new place too, and putting it all together. Yay!

We left Target and grabbed some Starbucks on our way out. We had been too full at the restaurant for dessert, but decided to get something yummy to snack on with our coffee. Everything in the display was a bit weird sounding except the chocolate caramel dipped pretzels, so we ordered two of those to go with our white chocolate mochas. I know, super healthy. With that order came more deja vu.

On induction day, we ordered Starbucks. Pumpkin spice lattes, and those same dang pretzels. I have to say, we never order treats from Starbucks. The coffee is treat enough. There has been only one other time that I’ve ordered more than just a coffee, and it was when I took Dekker on an extra special cookie date. But this stinking pretzel brought me back. It just felt kind of nerve wracking, and similar. But Brady dutifully reminded me that the lack of cervidil present helped a lot in knowing that I was not, in fact, about to go into labor.

We arrived back at my parents to a nice quiet house. The kids were starting to talk, but everyone had clearly rested and the party could begin again. We had a nice chill supper of breakfast together, where we all caught up on everything we hadn’t caught up on yet. Plans about moving and mortgage, painting and cleaning, etc. It was so nice to all be together in each others space again.

We stayed much later than normal, and the kids were shot, but we still ducked into a nearby town before heading home to pick up a new microwave. Our microwave is very much on the way out, and we’ll need to replace it before listing the place. However, over the range microwaves cost at least $300, which I hate shelling out right before we leave. But someone was selling a brand new, never touched, OTR microwave for $120. So we picked that up, grabbed some Tims, and drove home.

Both kids were awake the entire drive home, and Dekker fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Laela, on the other hand, is viciously overtired and has yet to lay down. But she’ll get there. Brady and I are anticipating a soak in the tub, and I know Brady is anticipating finally going snowboarding tomorrow! He’s been working his butt off here at home the last little while, and I know getting out of the house and doing something fun will really hit the spot for him. Our week is sure filling up with work and appointments, so this free day for him will be great, and might be the one and only chill, at home day for the kids and I.

So much leading up to such an incredible time in our life <3 A crazy time, but an incredible time!

A few days ago, Brady and I attempted to have a little coffee date in bed before the kids woke up. Not only were we scared awake by the louder-the-life alarm and knocking everything over trying to turn it off, but the hospital called moments later, telling us to come in for induction. They were a month early and we were quite frazzled. It was a super startling morning, to say the least.

This morning, we decided to tempt fate and planned another coffee date. This time, though, we had no deadline, therefore no alarm, which helped. After a FULL ten hours of sleep, we woke up and Brady brought chocolates and coffee to bed. We watched some Greys Anatomy and had a nice relaxing date in celebration of our six year wedding anniversary. I don’t need to get all cheeseball about it, but it was really nice and comfy and fit the bill perfectly for where we are today. Definitely the best way we could celebrate on a Saturday morning.

Strangely enough, it would appear that I can do very little else today. Brady has been sanding and cleaning for most of the day in a desperate race to actually be able to prime and paint soon. Meanwhile, I’ve been downstairs with the kids, not letting them go upstairs, trying to entertain them. Its never hard to keep them down there unless they hear mysterious sounds coming from upstairs, which are pretty constant right now. So if we can paint a picture of what the day realistically looked like, it would involve me trying to comfort their upset little selves, rocking in a chair, having braxton hicks contractions one on top of the other on top of the other. My stomach was a boulder most of the day, no joke, making it kind of hard to breathe or have any stamina whatsoever. It seemed like I had a contraction with every shift of my body, and unfortunately, that has made today out to be not one of my favorite days ever. But such is life! I’m incredible grateful to be pregnant, and almost at the end, but the last few weeks are where I really expand, where my pelvis really gives up, and where the kids get so sensitive to the change thats about to happen that they need twice as much attention as usual. They’re good weeks, but long weeks.

So as life would have it, the kids are having breakfast for supper so Laela can more easily feed herself. That way, I can be in bed, and Brady is tending to them and periodically washing the floors that are covered in fine white dust from the amazing amount of sanding he’s done over the last few days. I am so pleased and thankful for my family who takes such wonderful care of me.

It hasn’t been the smoothest, most romantic day of the year, but I am still very happy with the decision I made to marry my husband six years ago, no matter how its celebrated. Happy anniversary to us!

I’ve so enjoyed these last few days of getting out of the house. Brady has happily watched the kids and worked on patching the walls up in preparation for painting, and I’ve been able to run around and have some fun, do some shopping, and get to my appointments. However, after now four days of it, I am home and so ready to be! My body is feeling these last few days, and I can’t seem to convince it that it was all worth it. Luckily, I know it was.

I was nervous about leaving today, since the snow has started up again and the highway forecasts weren’t looking good, but I braved them anyway, and they weren’t even slick. I watched very closely, of course, but was comfortable being on cruise. I don’t like winter driving at all, so you can understand that if I was on cruise, you would be too.

My first stop was meeting a mortgage broker and talking numbers for a bit. I wish Brady could have been there too, but it wouldn’t have worked too well with both kids in her teeny little office anyway. After our meeting, I got a bit stuck trying to get my van from its parking space, but eventually surfaced and headed to my next stop.

My much needed hair appointment has finally arrived! However, I was unreasonably early thanks to my morning meeting, so I perused Target. Canada got Target recently and it managed to tank in just under two years, so they’re selling out. The sales aren’t particularly awesome yet, but all cosmetics are 30% off, and I do love some new makeup, if you hadn’t figured it out, so I walked through and picked out a few new things to try. I managed to leave Target with a car seat toy for the baby, as well as a lip gloss, lipstick, an eyeshadow palette, mascara, a nail buffer, and a highlighting powder, and I paid around $50. It definitely could have been worse! I was a grown up and put stuff back even! Go me!

I had about a half hour left before my hair appointment so instead of continuing to shop for things I couldn’t justify buying, I went for lunch. I got a big scoop of broccoli pasta salad from the deli at Safeway and kept with the healthy theme by washing it down with a caramel frapp from Starbucks. I haven’t had a frapp in a really long time, and it was so delicious. I enjoyed my food and made it to my appointment with time to spare 🙂 I love a good hair appointment, and it had been a while, so I really enjoyed my two hours in the chair. I came out with exactly what I wanted, and even though I know lots of you aren’t fans of the style, I really really am, so I’m fully thrilled. I left feeling fresh and pretty.

I quickly stopped to buy some milk before heading home, but then was on my way. Once again, the internet boasted of horrible winter driving conditions, but the highways were clear. I came home to my happy, patching husband and the kids just lulling awake. We had some pizza together and a good bedtime. I’m so happy to be home with the fam, and I think the kids missed me a bit, too. Lots of really snuggly hugs <3 I can’t believe we’ll have another one to hug so soon!!

Until then, my uterus will hug him. Over and over and over again…

I was so thrilled to go on a date with my mom today. We’ve been pretty low key since Christmas and this was our first outing together. Brady even stayed home with the kids to get a bunch more puttying done, so mom and I could be hands-free and get our stuff done as well. The goal of the day was to purchase flannel.

My mom gives us this amazing gift with each baby that we have. We go on a date to the fabric stores, and choose material for about ten oversized receiving blankets. Not only are they convenient considering the size of our children, but they are personal to each kid, and what we like at that stage of life. They’re a great memory. Dekker has pretty demolished his at this point, since he went through a big bad stage of chewing on them, but Laela’s are still in decent, beautiful shape. So I really anticipate this tradition with each kid, and today was no different.

We tried out a fabric store in a nearby town first, with every intention to hit another one or two in the city afterwards. This was just for fun, to see what was available at a store that we had never visited. And we found everything. Everything. The fabric was beautiful quality, and not like any other designs we had found in the city before. Sharp, crisp patterns, and a large variety. I’m sooo excited to see the finished products, and to wrap my baby boy up in them.

We ran a few errands after that. A quick Costco shop, dropping off something for Bradys work, and a quick duck into Michaels as well. By that point, my pelvis was suffering a bit, and my iron supplement was ticking off my tummy, so we headed for lunch.

Good lunch. Red Lobster lunch. I could go there for cheese biscuits, clam chowder, and grilled shrimp caesar salad every day of the week. We had a great lunch, and our server was super sweet to us. Good service makes such a huge difference in almost any experience, I find.

We made one or two quick stops before taking the scenic route home. I came inside and we did sudoku together for a little bit before I had to go. Maybe that sounds silly, but its such a fun thing we like to play with together sometimes. I used to do tons of sudoku puzzles, and my mom is kind of just starting up, and we both really enjoy them. Maybe we’re nerds.

I came home to happy kids, and an incredibly productive husband. The whole house is draped off with sheets, and the putty from yesterday has been sanded. After supper, I played with the kids downstairs while he did some more puttying. There are certain areas that are really loud to work on while the kids are sleeping, so he saved them for the evening. How thoughtful!

When it was that dreaded toy tidying time of the evening, Dekker requested again that just he and I tidy toys. I told him that I was feeling a bit too sore, but I asked for a big hug and he went with it, and then tidied his toys with Brady and Laela. It gets a bit hairy at the end of toys as well, because that means bedtime. To really make him feel special, Brady said to him “It is bedtime, and I know that makes you sad, but I would love to carry you to your room!” And out of nowhere, Dekker came over to me instead, asked for a hug, and requested that we walk together and hold hands instead. Brady and I were both completely blown away! I’m pretty sure I’m safe to say there are no hard feelings about that, but it was a huge surprise. Dekker feels much safer with Brady in new situations, or crowds, or at the doctor, but I felt so honoured that he wanted to walk with me, even though I couldn’t cuddle him the same way. I don’t expect that scenario to ever play out that way again, but I will treasure this one for sure!

Moms are special. Plain and simple.

I have a lot I could write about today. About my spontaneous trip to the city to have my body put back in place. My short but much needed phone call with my sister. The guy who offered me a chair at KFC while I waited for my food to be ready. Paint shopping. I had a good, full, successful day. But I would MUCH rather talk about my kids!

They’re growing up. In a BIG way. Laela has been uttering little beginnings of words recently, or babbling in different tones to suggest language. Its been fun to watch it start! We encourage words, and try to remember to tell her everything, which gets tiring but is how we worked with Dekker on his speech. As lots of you know, he was considered “speech delayed,” which I wrote off to be his shy demeanour, which I still think holds a lot of water. But there was also the issue of his vision, and I think its hard to get everything in working order when one sense isn’t quite operating as it should. I didn’t want Dekker to have to see a speech therapist because I knew it would come. I didn’t want to “put him through that.” For some reason, that carried a stigma for me. But in some research, I learned that a speech therapist would likely start out with more so teaching me how to speak to Dekker in a clearer, simpler way. Thats what we did, and of course one eye surgery and a new sister later, the kid is more than verbal. So that whole rant aside, this is how we’ve been speaking to Laela. Clearly, with simple words, and consistency.

Today, Laela handed me Dekker toy camera and waited for me to turn it on. Its something she always asks for. I said “Say please!” and she did her cute little nod and “ya.” I was about to turn it on, and decided to take a different route. “Say on” I said, and she said “nun.” I praised her up really good and clapped and kissed her and made a big deal of it. She loved that. She toddled off with her camera, until she forgot about it and it shut itself off. She brought it back to me, and waited. I said “Say on” and she said “un.” It was so awesome!!! After that, she would try for the word that I requested of her. No, she didn’t get any bang on, but mimicking is the first step, and I’m so thrilled to see it growing in her!

So far, words that I’ve heard come from her fairly confidently are ya, mom, dad, cup, wow, baby, and on. She tried really hard to say “paper” today, but it either turned into cake or pecker. But she tried! Hopefully we’ll establish things like milk, please, more, etc. soon. She is very accurate with nodding and shaking her head yes and no. She knows when she’s hungry, or wants a diaper change, or sleepy. She’s waaay too smart.

My tidbit about Dekkers development today is about when I got home from the city. I had been gone since they went down for their nap, and I arrived about 15 minutes before bed. He was full of hugs for me, and kept telling me “I just missed you, mommy.” Unfortunately, I came home at the worst time. Just in time for cleaning up toys and going to bed. But I’m their mom, and thats just part of the day! So I mentioned to him that it was time to tidy and, as per usual, if he asked nicely, Brady and I would be happy to help. He very politely asked for help, and then specified “just mommy.” Seriously, kid?! I have a contraction every time I bend down to the floor! But I realized that he was actually just wanting some one on one time with me, so I took him up on it.

Behold the longest and best toy tidy time in our home. We held hands pretty well the entire time, so we each had one hand to bring toys to their respective place. It took seemingly forever, but it was wonderful. As soon as toys were tidied, he put on a bit of a whiny voice and said he didn’t want to go to bed. I suggested we hold hands again and walk upstairs together, but he really wanted me to carry him. I’m sort of at the point where he’s really hard to carry, especially up the stairs, so I came down to his level and gave him a really nice long hug. When we separated, he took my hand and we walked up the stairs together without any complaint. He went to his room without any crying, had his sip of water, and said his bedtime prayer all on his own. He was sooo grown up!!! Blew me away. I could have cried, but Laela was doing enough of that for all of us. Deks kept it together and was totally cooperative.

I love my kids. LOVE my kids. I can’t wait to bring another unreasonably adorable little one into the world! God is sooo good!

I feel like its been forever since I last blogged, because I posted yesterdays as stupid o’clock in the morning and now this one is actually going up after midnight! I’m sorry if anyone is annoyed by the occasional late night post but it means that I have been busy with fun, wonderful things, and that is a good thing so that is the one and only time I’ll apologize. Today ended well, with Brady and Jerilee. The rest of the day was fairly eventful as well.

I was expecting to run into the city for a prenatal appointment, a minor grocery shop, and then home. It wasn’t going to be a big day, and Brady is home a bit in the upcoming weeks, so he agreed to stay home with the kids so I could go about my errands relaxedly. I got all dolled up and felt great on my way out. I listened to music really loudly and even dropped in on my mom for some lunch on my way to the city. After some delicious chicken pot pie, I was off to my doctors office.

The nurse weighed me and put me into a room, and Dr. Guselle was there within minutes. We touched base a bit about everything and she made some notes in my file before she commented that I was 36 weeks along. I confirmed that I was, and made the expected “Its really coming up fast” comment. The funny thing was that it had completely slipped my mind what happens at this appointment. If you have kids, do you guys remember week 36? There’s a pee test, a finger poke, and some less than comfortable swabbage that tests for certain infections. Without going into wild detail, or really any at all, its all fairly awkward and icky. Turns out it was good to leave hubs and the kids at home today.

So my doctor sent me back to the nurse to poke my finger and to tell me to pee in a cup. I’m just gonna say this one. Peeing in a cup already isn’t the easiest of tasks, but lets give the super pregnant women the worlds tiniest cup and see how she does. No good can come of that. And then for the finger poke. Literally, having my blood tested that way is among my top five leave favorite things. I hate that stupid little thing. No matter what, I can’t predict when its going to snap on me. Stupid faced little blood poker thing. I returned to my room for the rest of my appointment. BP is good, babys heart rate is good, as per usual. My uterus is measuring a bit small but, upon the rest of the exam, we learned that baby is definitely dropping, which would cause us to lose a few centimetres on the tape. Not that we are worried anyway. We sat and watched my stomach jump around a bit before she confirmed that he does, in fact, seem to be healthy and thriving. We also now know that my cervix is still nice and far away, so labor is not immediately around the corner. I know you’re all just itching to know about m cervix :/ Sorry. Hopefully you’re all women.

The one downfall of todays tests was that my hemoglobin came back low. It isn’t a huge deal, and nothing that an iron supplement can’t fix, but 6-8 weeks ago, my bloodwork showed a much higher number, and I would have had to get in a decent amount of trouble for my iron to drop quite so much so fast. So that was how I ended up with a lab requisition to go get some additional blood drawn. Not exactly something I had on my schedule, but I worked it out.

Everything else looked good, so I left my appointment and hit up Walmart quickly for a few things before heading to my usual blood-sucking clinic. It was completely quiet, and I was let right into the back, which has not happened the last few times I’ve been there! Five or six people came in right after me, so I was pretty thrilled to have beat the rush. The woman who came to take my blood remembered me from my glucose test and was so sweet to me. I never know if its good to be remembered so quickly by someone in that scenario but I decided it was nice instead of not. Why wish for bad, right?

Post-blood, I brought Subway home for the family, and ended up straight back on the road to go to concert choir. Jerilee and I met at my parents house so we could abandon a vehicle and drive together. Its such a fun weekly date we have now 🙂 Plus, always a pro to drop in on my mom again. We had a really fun practice, and got super excited about a few of the songs we’ll be singing. You guys should probably all come to the concerts in April. We drove back home and Brady made us all snacks so we could watch The Bachelor together with yummy treats. I LOVE these Tuesday nights so much, but I do feel bad, since Jerilee will be lucky to get home at 1:00am. I hear some people, her included, work at jobs that are outside of their homes, and they can’t even wear sweats! Lame. Sorry, Jerilee. One day I’ll trade you off locations.

All of this being said, its been a successful but full day. Its 1:00, and I still need to watch some Greys, otherwise the day feels empty, haha! Brady was going to go snowboarding tomorrow but its forecasted to be the coldest day of the next two weeks, so I think his trip will get bumped to the very near future. It’ll be nice to have him home, too 🙂

Don’t think I don’t know.

Sometimes I see those memes posted on Facebook and otherwise about how insane Christians sound, and how believing in God is something only a gullible person would buy into. Well, call me gullible then. I’m not ashamed of my beliefs one bit. I do, however, want to talk about it all briefly, if thats cool, because I know we sound crazy about a few things, and I’m feeling a bit crazy about a few of those things this morning. Makes for a very early post.

I’d like to start talking about yesterday evening. Yesterday evening was awesome. Do you remember a while back, I was so stressed out about going into labor, and what would happen from there on out? I was very anxious knowing I had to decide between waiting out a late baby, or opting for an induction, or going into labor early. When I finally sat down and made a plan with my doctor, I felt a thousand times better. Bring it on, baby boy!! What a relief! Since then, my peace has dwindled as I have found other things to feel overwhelmed about. But yesterday evening, a couple of friends from totally different places jumped up out of nowhere and offered to help me in the worlds most perfect ways. Anxiety levels were low low low. You could ask Brady. I was thrilled, and felt light, and refreshed. Nothing could touch me.

There is definitely something to be said for finding comfort in tangible things and people.

Then, last night, I woke up a few times with the most painful braxton hicks contractions I’ve had thus far this pregnancy. And I got really, really scared. And then immediately discouraged. Because, as Christians, we are brought up with the idea of putting our trust in God as our number one thing to hold onto. And I fully agree with that! But I also know it sounds crazy. I guess I want to clarify here that being a Christian doesn’t make me less of a person. A human. I’m flawed, and imperfect, and believing that God exists and doing everything I can to live my life the way I believe He asks me too doesn’t mean I get this stuff right all the time! So I lay in bed, scared, while I had my contractions, and went back to sleep.

This morning, I am obviously already up, and have been since about 5:00am. I’m scared. I’m scared of going into labor when I’m not prepared. Everything is all lined up for when the day comes, but not if it comes today!!! I still have four weeks to go! It would be a pretty huge shock if baby came so early, and I really don’t think it’ll happen that way at all, but my mind is whirring and my body is without faith.

Because I’m already feeling weak, the enemy is beating down on me about every little thing he can think of. In the short time I’ve been up this morning, I’ve feared for my baby’s life, my own life, the general chaos of our life going up, not being approved to move again, and seemingly everything under the sun that I’ve been working SO hard to have faith about! God is in control. But it doesn’t always feel that way. Sometimes I just want something concrete to hold! Can’t God send me a letter so I have something in writing?? Or maybe God could just stop the braxton hicks contractions so I wouldn’t have to wonder what my body is doing, whether its “preparing” or actually dilating and getting set up to go! Can’t I have something secure??? Yet, saying this phrase over and over is supposed to bring me peace. While I do believe that God knows every hair atop my head, and every hair atop my baby boys head, and everyone elses, I honestly struggle to find peace in it. I just want an answer.

So to sum this all up, I am a Christian, and I believe that Jesus Christ cares for me, and my family, and everyone else, whether they care for Him or not. He loves me through my disbelief, and he takes care of me when I feel weak. I am His child, and as a parent, He knows I won’t get it right each and every time, or maybe even at all! I am an imperfect person, and while I don’t always feel the comfort in the idea of God having control of my life, I cannot imagine living my life thinking I had no help or support from above.

So feel free to think I’m crazy! I get it! It sounds crazy. But I have seen God’s good works, and I am confident I will see them again. That being said, for those of you who pray, please consider praying for me if I come to mind. I feel weak. I know, in my weakness, He is stronger, right? 😉 I should be finding some comfort in that one too. Working on it over here!

I confess that Brady and I haven’t been to church since Christmas Eve. Insane, right?? No judging, please! We’ve just felt swamped and exhausted, and the break has been nice, honestly. Not that we’ve been happy being away from all of the people in our church, but sleeping in is a luxury that we only get to enjoy once in a while. But it was really nice to be back today! We caught up with some of our good friends, heard a lot about whats going on in people’s lives, and got the kids acclimated again. I also rocked my new lips! For those who asked about the color, it looks like this:

We ended up leaving early, though. My dad is headed off on a work trip, and we all wanted to grab some lunch and have a quick visit before his plane took off, so we snuck out right around noon and hit up a nearby restaurant for food. The kids ate really well, but Laela was trashed and spent a lot of time staring down the elderly people at the table next to us. Luckily they were pretty smitten with her and didn’t seem to mind her lack of social cues.

My dad left straight from the restaurant and the rest of us made a quick Costco stop with my mom on the way to taking her home. If anyone needs any super pretty wrapping paper that isn’t Christmasy, hit up Costco now!

The kids had a decently emotional drive home, but they had a nice 1.5 hour nap once they got into bed. They still woke up at a reasonable time so I’m confident it won’t mess with bedtime too much at all. We’re going to have a quick easy supper and then get some solid playtime in this evening, and then hopefully we’ll do a bit more patching/puttying after they’re down for the night. Gotta keep things moving over here! February is about to get a bit crazy!!!