I like to blog in the afternoon, but when the kids went down for their naps this afternoon, and I set up to write, I had nothing of even minimal interest to talk about! Its not a secret that I have a fairly low standard for that, so this is truly saying something.

I decided to wait, and do something in the evening. The only thing that is really on my list for this week is that I’m going to bake. Some family is coming out this weekend, and I offered to bring dessert. However, besides the sweets I am planning on bringing, I found a lot of baking just waiting to be done. Literally.

FIRST! Laela’s crazy hair. Isn’t it beautiful?

In my fridge was an obscene amount of dough.

First was a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough that we made simply for snacking on. We did once or twice and lost interest. So this evening, I rolled it up into balls so I can bake it soon and very, very easily. Just not tonight.

I also have an entire batch of sugar cookie dough. I had plans for it recently but, as per usual, lost the time I needed and now it sits. I’ve been telling myself that its ok, because sugar cookie dough needs to cool. *eye roll* Not for three days it doesn’t! So I rolled it out and cut it into shapes (mostly hearts) and got them on parchment paper on a pan. Hopefully we’ll bake those once the kids are down for night. However, I think the baked cookies will go straight into the freezer for somewhere down the line when I feel like icing them and having yummy cookies ready much quicker than I would if I hadn’t done all the prep.

Once all of that was done, I actually got down to the baking I was planning on doing! Homemade oreos. It is the worlds easiest recipe, and I think it is for that reason that, every single time I make them, I’m convinced I’m going to mess them up. And they always surprise me and turn out perfect. Yay! So I came out with 48 cookies. In the next day or two, I will make the cream cheese icing centre and they will become 24 big delectable cookies. Nom nom nom.

I had a moment of feeling overwhelmed when I saw how much dough was floating around in my fridge, and how much work it was going to be to get it all prepared/baked/whatever else, but it made for a really fun evening. The kids stood on chairs at the counter and watched it all go down. There was less scrapping, lots of learning, and the promise of cookies tomorrow! I’m so glad we got in the groove and got all three batches to the points that they’re at.

Feeling successful and like the day wasn’t completely wasted like it almost was. Cookies, anyone?

Today, I decided that “Happy Mothers Day” isn’t so much a greeting or a well-wish, as it is the title for the day. My mom and I are both happy mothers, so it was only reasonable to spend the day together 🙂 We blew off church, our husbands, my kids, and our responsibilities, and had a FABULOUS day, just the two of us.

First, I made fun of my mom for wanting to take a selfie with her massive DSLR camera. She was offended.

But not really. We still love each other.

We shopped our first store with GREAT success, finding my mom her ideal pair of jeans. They had them in the wrong color, but the promise of them being held in another location made it a wonderful way to spend our first hour-ish. Also, we bought matching hats, but I’ll show you those in a bit.

We had lunch next. I’ll tell you right now, there is no way to take a picture of a person eating a corn dog that isn’t both filthy and hysterical.

Yup, we knew it was bad as we were taking it.

We shopped a bit right downtown after lunch, and had a bit of success, but nothing too crazy. I did get my first shot at Victoria’s Secret since its come to the city, and I have to say a big WOW to their quality as compared to La Senza. I bought the most beautiful, well-fitted bra I’ve ever owned. Big win there! But we were way more eager to get back to the other Reitmans location to grab her those jeans, so we didn’t doddle too much.

After successfully purchasing the treasured jeans, we hit up Value Village. I’m not sure whether my mom wanted to actually shop, or just watch me do it! It was kind of funny, but we had a great time. We each bought a handful of things, and then headed to Tony Romas for supper.

We love riblings. I could eat them on a regular basis, but then I wouldn’t be able to afford shopping, so I guess going once in while will have to do. We ate our body weight in ribs and shrimp, and then walked it off in Walmart. I bought concealer and underwear with pineapples on it, because I’m cool like that.

After taking one last selfie, we drove home to our husbands. I think we’ll both sleep very well tonight. We ran around a lot today, but my feet and legs are SO happy to be a bit sore. There couldn’t have been a better way to spend today than with my mom.

I <3 MOM

Parcel #2 was worlds apart more exciting than parcel #1. In this box came our baby announcements!! Now, we didn’t plan things out especially well, and we ordered them to write our thank yous out on. We didn’t consider that maybe other people would want in, and only ordered a handful of extras to make a multiple of ten! So, oops. But anyway, THEY CAME! And they look great 🙂 It helps that Rowan is super adorable, but the colors are great, the quality is nice and beefy, and the back is even a bright blue chevron, which is always a selling feature for me. So parcel #2 was a big win. Perhaps I’ll actually write out my thank you cards while I wait for parcels #3-5.

We spent our day shopping around garage sales in my hometown. We made Jerilee come with us, and we traipsed around town for actually a pretty solid number of hours before the kids (and the adults, lets be honest) were finished. In the past years, we’ve come home with our van FULL of stuff, and I’m happy to report than we didn’t spend a crazy amount of money and found some really nice stuff 🙂 We found a few Pampered Chef products, a music stand, a couple items of clothing for Rowan, a great jacket for Brady, and a few other randoms. We found a BEAUTIFUL gift for the next person we know to have a baby girl, and probably my favorite thing – one of those old school chairs that have the flip down stairs to help a kid climb up. It was only $5! The older lady that sold us that threw in a carving knife and twi pronged fork set for slicing up turkey or whatever else. It’ll be nice not to use our big bright kitchen knives, but something a bit nicer.

It was a total success, and we were all pretty happy with our purchases. But now, my feet hurt and I’m feeling pretty wildly hormonal, if I can just put it out there. For some reason, I’m quite overwhelmed, so Brady gave me a bit of kid-free time to blog and rest upstairs while they’re being all comfy and overtired together downstairs. Its really nice for me.

I’m anticipating an early night for the kids, and hopefully for us too. As long as Rowan cooperates, I plan to sleep fairly early tonight, because tomorrow is a very special day that I’m spending with my mom 🙂 I’m a pretty big fan of her, if you hadn’t grasped that in the past, so I’m really looking forward to our date!

It was a good day. My sore feet are accomplished sore, not angsty sore. Successful sore.

In conversation with my mom yesterday, I realized I am waiting for FIVE PARCELS to come in the mail right now!! I may have a shopping problem. Its possible, anyway. When Brady arrived home today (YAY for a short day!!) he brought in a box that had been left outside of our door. Our first parcel.

This one was from Walmart. I recently discovered some amazing jeggings they sell that fit me sooo perfectly! I haven’t bought pants from Walmart in years, but these are awesome. I own a light wash pair of them, but haven’t been able to find my size in the dark wash. So I started looking online and discovered they have my size in all of the colors! So I started putting together a cart, with the dark jeans, and some pink capris. I discovered soon afterwards that Walmarts shipping policy has changed and I needed to sped $50 in order to get free shipping. Luckily, there were a few other things I was going to buy at Walmart in the near future anyway. I filled up my cart with sliced pineapple, alfredo sauce, and a wax pot thing I want to try out so I can maybe start waxing my pits. Anyway, I put the cart together so recently, and was thrilled with how fast everything came!!

And then was sorely disappointed.

What do you know, another pair of my light wash jeans. Sigh. So those will need to be returned.

And some pink capris with ink stains. Also wonderful.

My wax, ripped to shreds. I wouldn’t care if this were the only issue. The product is still fine. But COME ON!

And what the heck, whats one more thing destroyed.

All that survived this order was a few jars of sauce, and two cans of soup. I’m SO disappointed with parcel #1. I hope the others prove to be a lot more fun and that at least 50% of their contents are usable.

Bummer.

I was counting on Rowan to be my alarm clock this morning. Every morning, he gets me up for the day between 6:30 and 7:00. Today, he gave me gift that every mommy dreams of. He let me sleep in. Until 7:50. And I needed to be out the door with all three fed and dressed children at 8:30. I LOVED the gift of the longer morning, but I had 40 minutes.

That is how I ended up on the road with two kids, each with a ziploc container of froot loops in their laps, and an infant who hadn’t eaten since 2:00 that morning. However, they were all well dressed, and we were on time!

I dropped Dekker off to have some one on one time with my mom, and I took Laela and Rowan into the city. We picked Brady up from work and drove across the city to the public health office in the south end. I know its silly to go pretty much as far away as possible, but we’ve been treated really well there in the past, and they also were able to book both kids in together. We arrived on time, waited five minutes, and were taken back. Our nurse was lovely, and asked each question about both kids rather than one appointment and then the next. She liked all of our answers. Rowan was eating enough, Laela was reaching her milestones, etc.

As for their stats, I had to laugh 🙂

Rowan weighs 14 lbs 2.5 oz, so he gained two pounds last month. Woot! He’s 24.25″ tall, which is more than two inches taller than he was at birth! He’s pretty much 75th percentile all around. He took his oral vaccine very well, and while he cried pretty hard through his shots, he recovered incredibly fast. As in I got him dressed right after and lay him back in his car seat, and he was content already.

Laela weighs a not-so-whopping 22 lbs 12 oz. She’s 2’7.5″. So really, she’s not much bigger than Rowan, haha! She was NOT impressed to have her shots, but the nurse was so good to her and just went nice and fast and then gave her TWO toothbrushes. Those toothbrushes are gold simply because they’re individually wrapped in really loud plastic, and make for great noisemakers. After that, she was fine to get dressed and head out.

We grabbed some coffee before dropping Brady back at work, and I took the kids to go join the fun at my moms. We all had lunch together, then playtime, and then all of the kids went down for naps. They all slept great, whether from the crazy morning or the shots, but upon getting up, neither Laela or Rowan seemed to have any lasting discomfort. That always helps my heart feel better. No sore limbs or fevers. We could have a successful and fun afternoon together before a really yummy supper where I ate my body weight in spaghetti and green bean casserole. Yuuuuum.

Everyone is tucked away for the night, and a bath is running. No snack tonight. Except maybe. Oh self control, where are you?

There are so many things coming up in the somewhat near future, and while we’re hoping to sell our house soon, we’re kind of in limbo for that. We won’t want to be gone too much during the build, assuming we get there anytime soon, and we don’t want to schedule anything around any time that could possibly be near possession. I know, that was redundant, but I really mean it. We can’t book much at all, which is a bit nerve wracking for me especially, going into summer. I LOVE a getaway, and I come from a family that made lake time something of a priority, or at least it sure felt like it growing up. So Brady and I have been talking a bit, and while we’re thinking an actual booked off holiday at the lake would be amazing, that might be all we do this summer for big plans. The rest might have to be little spontaneous weekends and such.

All of that being said, I’m SO excited for the next few weeks!!! I have wonderful stuff coming up on so many weekends!

This weekend is mothers day weekends, so that always means garage sale day in my hometown. Brady and I are meeting up with Jerilee for a good chunk of the day at least, to scour the town for bargains. I’ll be the first to admit that I love garage sale day more so for the social aspect. We always run into people who we never see outside of this day every year. We always buy lunch from someone selling burgers or whatever else for some kind of cause. We always get sunburned. Its a great day, and I’m SO excited for it! Then, my mom and I are taking Sunday to ourselves and shopping together for the day. We both need some stuff for summer, and more importantly, we need a date, so this was a great reason to get both things done at once. Dinner reservations are made, and I am planning!

The weekend after this one is when all of my siblings are coming!!! We always like to try and see each other as often as possible, but my brother, his wife, and their boys have been living far away for the last year and haven’t even gotten to meet Rowan yet!! I’m so thrilled that everyone is coming out, not just for that reason, but thats part of it 😉 I love all being together, crammed into one house for a few nights. I can’t wait!

The last weekend of the month technically has nothing scheduled, so we figured we’d sell our house that weekend, hahaha! I can dream, can’t I? Seriously, how marvellous would that be?! Quite. Pleeeaaase sell, house!!

The last weekend I’ll talk about is the one after that, and THAT is a SUPER exciting weekend! Jerilee and I are departing on our second annual Edmonton trip. We will be kid free for a night or two (I’m thinking two this year) and we will eat yummy food, and shop til we drop. Last year, we went in February and it was freezing running back and forth from the car to the box store, then driving across the parking lot, then into another store, and back to the car, etc. This time, it will be June 🙂 AND!!, it will be Jerilee’s bday weekend!!!!! I cannot wait for this trip 😀

I’m sure a lot of you can relate to having exciting things to look forward to. It helps a person get through their days to have something to anticipate, right? Now, if we could just sell our house and get things moving, we could know a bit more about the slightly more distance but still quite near future. There are lots of things we’re invited to, and its so hard to know where we’ll be and when, but we are trying, and would love to participate in as many events as possible. Wish us luck.

As for today, tut tut! Looks like rain…

I know, I know, they don’t all rhyme. Blame the english language, not me!! I tried.

** Before I write what I actually want to write about today, I want to first thank everyone who gave me some feedback yesterday. The general consensus was that I should do what makes me happy, and I really appreciate that! I genuinely enjoy writing this, so I’m grateful that people are willing to take the boring days along with the exciting ones. Thanks for all the support, everyone!

I’ve been noticing lately how my kids are changing. Its rapid and wonderful and unlike anything I ever thought I’d witness. Seriously, how fast does time really go? How would it ever seem to whip by so fast?! I remember specifically feeling like my grade eleven year went on FOREVER. It wasn’t a particularly bad year or anything, but it seems like when something exciting is coming (summer!!) time stands still. So a large chunk of my younger years felt like they dragged by. These years are proving to be very, very different. I guess I just wanted to touch on each kid today, and tell you the changes and development I’ve been seeing in them.

Ladies first 😉

The very beautiful Laela Hazel is SUCH a grown up!! She is learning an amazing amount of things these days, and while she’s still pretty rough with Rowan, and loves to flop on top of him in an effort to hug/cuddle, she means very well, and it shows. Anytime someone is holding Rowan, she goes on the hunt for any way that she can help. Her regular things to bring are blankets, burp cloths, and soothers. Now I’m using plural forms of these words because Rowan doesn’t need one of each. He needs as many as she can get her hands on. My favorite is when we’re downstairs with laundry running, and she will bring me every crunchy burp cloth out of its pile of dirty laundry and present me with it proudly. I love that. I often have a bottle made and ready for Rowan to need it, and the second he whimpers, she’ll walk over to the table its sitting on and point at it like crazy, then back at Rowan, then the bottle, then Rowan, and so on, until I get the message. She takes wonderful care of him.

Another thing about Laela that I’ve touched on recently is her new desire to sit on the potty!!! I know, its insane. Laela has been very clearly requesting to sit on the potty recently, multiple times. While we have yet to see any “fruits of her labor,” its nice to know she’s not scared of being up high or anything like that. She is brave and growing up, and I think her brother is starting to catch on. I hope so, anyway! She takes the celebrations very well, and loves to give high fives, or to pound it.

The last thing I’ll touch on about Laela today is that she’s starting to talk! Just a few things here and there, but she’s SO clear in her communication! But in just the last few days, she’s starting to say certain things without us prompting her to! If I carry Rowan off, saying I’m going to put him down for a rest (nap) she’ll say “Ni-night!” really, really loudly! Its so cute. Or when I tuck her in, as I’m leaving I hear yet another very loud “Byyyyye!” She’s even just begun saying “All done” when she’s full at the table. As I said, even when she’s not saying words, its very easy to know what she wants, but the words just make it so much more fun and cute and, yes, easier.

Onto Deks!

Dekker Thomas is my goofball. He is right in that stage where he can’t sit still, and talks non-stop. And I don’t mean that lightly. I mean he is sort of a constant play-by-play that never turns off. He asks a ton of questions and absorbs a very literal 95% of what we say. Its a bit dangerous, honestly, but we’re learning 😉 As is he. “Mommy, where do scabs go?” Huh.

For those who don’t know, Dekker is not potty trained. Not even a little bit. Honestly, yes, I really wish he was. His poop is no long little baby poop, but thats all I’ll say about that. This morning, he suggested that maybe he should pee on the potty. I told him I would be absolutely thrilled if he would. He asked then “Maybe you could help me?” I agreed that, of course, I would help him. He hesitated a little bit and said “Not today. But maybe tomorrow.” At least its on his mind! I’m very excited to see that all start up.

Today I witnessed something that I was SUPER excited to see!! Dekker was playing with a ball and it went under the couch. This happens often, and he’s learned to just grab a little hockey stick or something like it, and fish it out from under the couch. However, he couldn’t quite get this one, and asked me for help. I grabbed a stick and managed to shoot the ball out from under the couch. When it was free, Dekker reached for the other little hockey stick, and while he was getting it, Laela grabbed the ball and went to run off with it. Taking toys is a big deal to kids, which I think (hope) that other parents can relate to. Dekker always gets very upset if Laela even nears him while he’s playing toys. As soon as she took the ball that had obviously been his first, I took it back from her and gave it to Dekker, telling Laela that this was Dekker’s toy right now. I wanted to finally prove to him that, even if she does take his toy, I will help and get it back. Well, Laela burst out crying, as one would expect. Her little red rimmed eyes cried BIG dramatic croccodile tears as she gave me her best “betrayed” face. Dekker witnessed this interaction, and immediately rushed over to Laela and gave her the ball. “Laela can just have it” he said. “This helps her feel better.” And he was off to the next thing. Now, this is not the usual happenings around here, but I LOVE that it happened, even just once. I know he has it in his mental capacity to put all of the emotions together and find a solution, even if its not 100% all about him and his desires. I love to see that. I’ve been waiting for that!

Last but not even CLOSE to least…

My little Rowan Toby. Ro is growing by leaps and bounds! He’ll be weighed and measured later this week so I can’t speak on that, except that I guarantee that he is chunking up JUST FINE! While he is still obviously small, being that he’s a baby and all, his thighs tell another story. I love my chunky babies.

Rowan is finally starting to react to things around him! He smiles much more readily. Where we used to basically stand on our heads to get a half-second sideways grin, all I have to do is tease his little lips to get a big, face brightening smile! He’s just itching to give them out! He’s also getting super verbal! He is quite chatty in a one-on-one setting, while he’s quite when everyone around him is talking. He may look like my side of the family, but he’s like his dad in that way 🙂

The one biggish update I wanted to share on Ro is that I’m pretty sure we are entering his very first cold. Already!! I’m not sure where he would have picked it up, but such is life. Last night, he was so snarly through his night feeds, and seemed to gag on just about everything. He didn’t go down as nicely as usual either. Poor dude. However, he’s spent a large chunk of today sleeping. If he’s anything like Dekker, he will sleep away EVERYTHING. Dekker was never miserable when he was sick. He just slept a lot. We missed him when he was sick. So let’s hope that Roro gets through his illnesses nice and quickly.

This post seemed important for me to write, for the sake of recording our lives, and knowing who was doing what when. These kids blow me away with how fast they are moving and changing. People will tell you that time goes by so fast after you have kids, and to cherish each moment. This is 100% true. What they don’t tell you is that it gets faster with each one!!!

So I’m just going to put this out there, because I really like blogging every day! Of course, there are days where I’d love to not have to think about it, but a very literal 99.9% of the time, I solidly enjoy it! But I wonder sometimes if the daily-ness bores people. I know that my days aren’t always exciting. Like, today, for instance. I did laundry. The kids played. They were cute, and only little punks once in a while. That about sums up my day. I mean, I could talk about the stages they’re in, and how the bounce off of each other in a big and sometimes very bad way. Dekker is mean to Laela, so Dekker gets a time out, and when he goes at apologize, she clocks him, so she gets in trouble next. Over and over again. Its somewhat entertaining, of course, but its kind of my everyday life.

I also wonder if people struggle to keep up. I watch vloggers on YouTube, and I follow quite a few. However, they all got into daily vlogging a while back and I just couldn’t keep up with them all! I follow two daily vlogging families as opposed to the unknown number I used to follow. Would this be more entertaining if it weren’t every day?

My last question about this whole blogging/vlogging/recording of my life is this: Would anyone prefer video blogs? As in, watching a video on YouTube rather than reading words on a white screen? I’m just curious. That DEFINITELY wouldn’t be daily, as I’m pretty sure thats a ton more work than this is. But I’d consider it if enough people were interested.

Basically, I want to know if things need to change around here. I’m still really happy doing what I’m doing, but I know I have plenty of boring days where I sit in front of this screen wondering what to write about. If I’m bored by my days, I can’t imagine you guys are very entertained. Yes, I do write this all mostly for me, but I like you guys too!! Please let me in on what you’d prefer. I’d love a bit of feedback on this 😀

Guys, I’m not single anymore 😉 As in my husband is home again. After a weekend away to go build a deck for one of our friends at the lake, he is back with me and our tiny brood. After a pretty long-feeling day, its really nice to have an extra two hands available to hold, feed, or tickle a child.

Thankfully, those beautiful children are on their way out for the day, and we can go back to our normal routine of putting Rowan down, running a bath, and having a snack while we catch up or just watch Netflix. I’m not going to delay that much tonight, as we are both quite tired. I’ll leave you with one beautiful picture of Rowan, but then I’m signing off early tonight. Its crazy that tomorrow is Monday already. No weekend for the handy!

Beauty <3

I was obviously pretty weary last night, but Rowan gave me pretty nice stretches, and ate very well when he did get up for milk. I didn’t mind the night feedings, just me and him. It was nice to have such adorable and agreeable company. Because I was feeling so nervous before going to bed, I grabbed a couple of bottles and put four ounces of water in each one. Then, I grabbed our travel formula holder thing and pre-measured out what I needed for those bottles and brought it all into the bedroom. That way, I didn’t have to try and wander the house in the dark alone. I know its silly to be so nervous, especially considering that I was confident I wasn’t in any danger whatsoever. The crazy doors closing on their own earlier had been the wind. I knew that. But it put me on edge. This way, I was closed up in my little safe haven with my baby, and the other two babies on the video monitor beside my bed. It was nice.

Everyone slept pretty lightly and woke up early. I had plans to accomplish all of the laundry but decided instead to just take the day and really be with the kids. I like that I’m more motivated recently to keep the house in order and put together good routines of cleaning and maintaining things, but since I’ve taken a couple of days just to sit on the floor with the kids, I’ve learned a lot about them, and I LOVE that. THAT is what I wanted out of staying home with my kids. To be on their level, with them instead of trying to get around them.

Dekker told me I am the cutest sweetheart today. He brought Laela a dolly when she was crying. Laela shared food with Dekker, and said so many words! Today alone, she said all done, come, a book, hi, bye, ni-night, Dekker, and bottle. Rowan has had a lot of really happy awake time, which we don’t always get, and he’s cooperated well with his siblings. When they have come and offered him his soother, he dutifully takes it, but delicately spits it out as soon as they’re not looming over him.

Something cool that happened today was Laela asking to sit on the potty. She’s started to tell me when she’s pooped, which is apparently a sigh of interest, at the very least. In the last couple of days, she’s pointing at her bum even when she hadn’t soiled her diaper, but she does soon after. So today, when she pointed at her bum, she then pointed towards the bathroom. So we all picked up and took off to the bathroom. She was so ready, but we have no potty stuff out! I know, people say to leave potty stuff lying around to sort of normalize it. Well, we had a little potty and a potty seat hanging around for a solid 1.5 years with no results, so we figured we’d pack it up and when we pulled it back out again, it would be a bit more exciting. Anyway, its all packed away in our storage container!! So I lifted her up onto the toilet and just cupped her bum in my hands. She wasn’t fond of feeling so unsteady but she had no issue being up high or on the toilet. In the end, she didn’t actually use the toilet, but we sang and made it lots of fun, and she did great! I made a very big deal of it the rest of the morning, and Dekker kept asking if Laela sitting on the potty made me happy. I told him I was completely thrilled and we celebrated Laela right up until naptime. Maybe that will spark some kind of interest for Dekker! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Those kids are going to potty train together, I’m sure of it!

Everyone is napping, but Rowan is starting to lull. I suppose the mom hat needs to go back on! I mean, the responsible mom hat, rather than the overtired unmoving tucked in bed mom hat…