I super-dee-duper enjoyed today! It was filled with good food and drinks and friends and family and outings and fun. It was a fabulous change of scenery. 

First, Brady and I had lattes and chocolate cake for breakfast. I highly recommend that start to the day. It was delicious. After breakfast, we got the kids all dressed and ready, and we all drove to a late morning meeting with our mortgage broker, where the kids sat surprisingly well while Brady and I signed all of the official papers accepting the mortgage to our new house! Eek! It made everything so much more real, once again. Rarely have I enjoyed signing my name the way I do when signing house documents. It’s been fun 🙂 

My mom came by shortly after our meeting and picked me up for an afternoon of shopping! We hit Tony Roma’s for lunch first, which is always delicious. We split the lunch sized riblings and the kickin’ shrimp appetizer, and we’re good to go! We then did a bunch of shopping and while we didn’t come out with exactly what we were looking for, we had some good success. And some Starbucks. I highly recommend the mango black tea lemonade.  

 
When our shop was done, we headed back to our place and played with the kids for a bit. 

   Always time for a Paw Patrol break!

We had breakfast sandwiches and watermelon for supper, which was completely delicious, and Tims coffees that we had picked up on our way home. (This was my third caffeinated beverage of the day)

My mom left pretty quickly after supper to attend an event elsewhere and Brady and I got the kids down to bed pretty quickly thereafter. Laela asked to go pee on the potty, which was HUGE!! She didn’t pee, but she hung out on the toilet for a good while, so I called it a success! 

  

 Shortly after 7:00pm, Kim drove by to pick me up for a Starbucks date. I got the new caramelized honey iced latte. Caffeine buzz #4. Then we pursued the mall and I bought a necklace and a mug. 

We called it a night shortly before 9:00 and she took me home. It was such a nice day of outings!! Now I’m home, the kids are asleep, and Brady and I are downstairs working on cabinets. Not for too long, tho. I’m totally happy about the day, but ready for bed soon 🙂 

Its been a really lovely day so far. After printing off the whole shebang the other day, my planner is in motion! Its very basic, but its exactly what I want. I filled in all of the dates today, and started adding appointments and reminders. I’m using pretty gelish pens that I originally had given to me with a coloring book, and I’m SO happy they don’t bleed through!! Its making my pages pretty and fun to look at. When Brady gets home from work, I have a few things to add in my planner that I need his help with. I hope he’s as gung-ho as I am!

We had a great morning of playing toys in the loft around here, and now the big kids are resting and watching Paw Patrol while I do this, and a bit of other research. I didn’t bring any of my recipes with me and while they’re easy to find online, I like a hard copy, so I may find and print a few off. I also would like to find some kind of pretty cover for my planner, so I’m looking for something like that as well. So we’re all in the living room together, resting our brains. Its lovely.

When we were all getting settled to watch, Laela was sitting comfortably on the couch with a toy, in the spot most central in front of the tv. When Dekker had grabbed a toy and came to sit on the couch with her, she moved right over and said “Here, Dekker,” offering him her spot. He turned on his sweet, baby talk voice and said “Wow Laela, thats great sharing!” It was pretty much adorable. There have been fewer sharing struggles today than usual, which always warms my heart. Not all days are smooth, but I’m so thankful for them when they come! Let’s be real, I’m thankful for everyday. 33 weeks pregnant today. Baby will be here SOON!!!

*Insert guilty face here*

I woke up to Rowan kicking the wall shortly before 7:00am. I shushed him through the monitor and he fell back to sleep pretty easily. I heard Dekker close his bedroom door after getting up to use the bathroom, but he stayed very quiet, which is unlike him these days. But I was thrilled, and spent the next while dozing in and out and getting some extra rest. And then that turned into a LOT of extra rest! Laela lulled a little bit, but was just singing to herself very quietly in her crib. Everyone was comfy and cozy. And then I heard the bathroom footstool move. The footstool??

I ventured out into the hallway and, sure enough, Dekker was in the can. Now I had been awake and aware for quite some time, and I hadn’t heard him go in there, which leads me to believe that his door clicking was actually him leaving their room, which I don’t usually hear. Unfortunately, Dekker hadn’t quite made it to the toilet in time, and had peed his pants. On the rare occasion that this happens, he waits for help. I asked him how long he had been in the bathroom, and he hemmed and hawed for a bit before answering “Kind of probably like almost forever.”

*insert another guilty face here*

So I felt pretty bad that he was deserted in there for quite so long, but weirdly, he was in great spirits! Laela was really positive too, though she did give me a very clear, stern talking to about leaving her in her room for quite so long. Hahaha! It was actually hilarious. “Mommy, looooong morning! Door closed, SO long!” Got it, Laela. I know now. I told her I thought they were sleeping, and that I didn’t know Dekker was peeing, and she just laughed at me and said “Oh IIIII get it!” and she laughed at how silly it was. That was it!

The big kids ate a great breakfast and went up to play in the loft. Rowan woke up shortly thereafter and had his oatmeal and yogurt. The kids have all been in awesome spirits today, which I did NOT expect after such a funny misunderstanding this morning! We’ve had a rocky, heavy couple of days recently, and the late morning was exactly what I needed, whether it was “correct” or not. I’ll take it, and I am SO thankful to God that my kids have been so gentle and loving today. He is good, and He knows what I need.

*

On a completely unrelated note, though, have you guys been noticing some words on my blog are connected to links? Something is up with my laptop and I am NOT putting those links on here. They only show up after I’ve posted, and no matter how much I go in and edit, they don’t go away. I’m now noticing some are generating a day or two after. I’m not sure if this is just on my laptop or on other’s copies of my posts, but I would advise against clicking on anything! I will be reloading my laptop in the near future, and hopefully some of the funny things that are happening go away. Too many new popups, and now this. Don’t click!!

BAHAHA! After posting this, I see there is an ad attached to the word “popups.” Nice.

We skipped church this morning after a bit of a rough night, but went to my parents to spend the afternoon and evening, like usual. We had a super yummy lunch, also as usual, and then my mom and I snuck away so she could show me some new clothes she recently bought. There were a few things she was unsure about, so we critiqued them and decided what should stay and what should go. We began toying with the idea of a shopping date sometime this week, and it very quickly grew into us going today.

Now if you knew my family growing up, we would NEVER shop on a Sunday! Not that it was bad or wrong or against God’s plan, nothing crazy like that. But Sunday was always church, good food, good company, all being together. So NOT as usual, my mom and I bailed on the boys and hit up some Sunday afternoon shopping!

We couldn’t be shopping for too long, since it was already 2:30 and everything closed at 5:00, but we only had a couple of places to hit. We returned her one thing and got a double of something she really liked. Then we hit up the small mall in the north end of the city, and perused our way through. I bought Brady a $5 shirt and myself a $2 necklace, but that was it. Nothing crazy went down. Once we had walked the length of the mall, we stopped at Starbucks for a break. My mom got steamed milk with hazelnut and I had the mango black tea lemonade, which I HIGHLY recommend. It was refreshing, and terribly sad when it was over, haha!

After our sugary drinks, we made our way back to the car, stopping at Safeway to pick up cinnamon buns for supper. We usually have something delicious and light for Sunday suppers, like cinnamon buns or pancakes or something of the like. Its wonderful. The kids love it, we all love it. We drove home in the beautiful sunny weather, and arrived home to three wakeful children, two husbands, and a living room COVERED in toys. The kids don’t usually spread out quite as well as they did today, but good for them!

Everyone ate well, as I’m sure you can imagine, and after a quick tidy up, we left grandma and grandpa’s for home. Bedtime was easy and cute and the kids were lovely. Now for bed. We are SO tired, we haven’t even started assembling cabinets yet. Funny how we can be SO excited for it, but we want to enjoy it, so any bump in the road stops the project from even starting. But we’ll get there soon enough. Maybe not tonight, but soon.

The kids ate breakfast this morning while I made a list of things we needed to do (or try to do) today. The small list grew to what felt a bit overwhelming, but once I had it all laid out in order, it seemed much more doable. We had lots of places to hit but just a handful of things to pick up at each place. While Dekker and Laela ate their cereal and yogurt, Rowan demolished TWO of his oatmeal packets! No wonder he’s so heavy! He can EAT.

Our list included grocery shopping at FOUR places. We always hit Costco, and usually Walmart or Superstore, but today we did both, and we even hit up Co-op for a couple of things. We also hit Lee Valley, and went out for lunch. None of the kids napped at all in the van, but they all kept their spirits high. We thought for sure they’d sleep on our way to check the house, but no dice. It was ok, though. We bought a new song on iTunes and that made them all very very happy.

When we got to the house, we were really happy!! I mentioned the other day that I felt like the two trades who were working on our place recently are taking longer than I had hoped, and while I do still feel the way, we saw progress!!

The front of the house is starting to look really really nice, in our opinions!

I’m so very glad that we were able to get the darker siding taken off and the lighter siding put on in its place like we had originally hoped for. Obviously, the siding is still unfinished, we’re without stonework still, and the board and batten will be on the peak just over the garage as well, but I am loving how its all looking together! I didn’t anticipate liking the black trim as much as I do!! I was worried that it would really darken the exterior, but I think it makes everything look crisp and new. And since our stonework is quite dark, it’ll all tie in nicely.

The other thing that made us really happy to see was that the taper was working. We don’t often see people there on Saturday, but since we’ve been feeling like he’s a bit behind, its nice to know he’s coming in on his hypothetical days off and getting it done! There is still work to be done but its coming along.

I was surprised to see that some of the screw holes still haven’t been filled, while some seams have clearly been through a few coats of mud and tape. I’m sure he has a system. I was just very thankful to find him there today.

We drove home, put Rowan down for a super short nap, and unpacked the groceries while the kids watched a bit of tv and played toys. We asked what they wanted for supper (Brady and I had decided to eat later in the evening) and they both requested pb&j sandwiches. So we made sandwiches and I cut up a hunk of the watermelon we bought. Guys! I FINALLY picked a good one! I always follow all of the tricks and my watermelons never have much flavor. But this one is yummy 🙂 So they really enjoyed supper and Brady and I enjoyed the watermelon that they didn’t finish. Now for he and I to find some supper. Kids are in bed, my body is a bit pissed about the busy day, and its time to eat! I hope you all enjoyed the sun today, as well as the positive attitudes in SO many people out and about today. It sure seems that the weather plays a big role in everyones moods, mine included.

I feel ten times better this morning, having woken up to Dekker using the bathroom at 7:45. I’m not counting on this happening every morning, but it was incredibly refreshing to have slept a bit longer this morning! As I suspected, the kids were in MUCH better shape this morning as well. Even though its been Dekker waking all of us so early, he is also completely trashed from the new schedule. In bad moods, extra unpredictable, and he’s only been working in extremes. He will be SUPERHYPER and then he will BAWL if something goes slightly against what he prefers. Its been a huge challenge. This morning has been such a lovely change.

I got everyone up and Dekker set the table while I changed diapers. Everyone had breakfast, and then all three kids played in the loft while I did the dishes. As I was washing dishes, I kept thinking of things I need to remember to put in my hypothetical planner. I asked about the ideal planner a while back, and while I’m still researching, I’ve also slowly been designing my own templates, to have exactly what I want. Its basic layout is finally put together, we refilled our ink cartridges, aaaaand now the black one doesn’t work. Merp. So while we wait on that problem to be resolved, I continue to think of things I want to write down and schedule, and that I’m afraid I’ll forget! So once dishes were washed, I sat down at the table and made a list of things to remember to add to my planner when its finally printed off and in a book.

I was enjoying my listing and my salted caramel latte (seriously enjoying, too much) when Dekker called down in his sweetest voice “Mommy, are you done doing the dishes?” I answered that I was. He offered to come help me put them away, and I thanked him, but told him we’d let them dry a little bit longer. He then invited me up to the loft to come play. “I don’t want you to be alone” he said. This is a recent thing he’s picked up since all of the moving. He never wants us to be alone. So I thanked him and headed up to the loft.

We played in the loft for the rest of the morning! Around 11:30, I went downstairs to make lunch. Pretty quickly after leaving, Laela burst out crying. She came down and told me Rowan had driven the walker toy into her knee. I kissed her knee over and over as she stood with one foot flat on the floor and the other on a tippy toe. When she confirmed that she was feeling better, she stuck around to help me set the table and get the plates to eat spot. We kept it classy with pb&j hot dog buns, and bananas. Its so funny how changing the shape of the bun makes all the difference. The kids think its hilarious, and they eat WAY more, hahaha!

After lunch, Dekker said his thank yous and took his dishes to the sink. He came back to the table and informed me he planned to “stay happy” this afternoon. I told him that would be super awesome! Laela announced “Me too!” from her spot at the table.

Rowan is now down for a nap, but so far, the big kids have keep their promises, and are both doing very well! We’re watching some tv, and I’m on the laptop, blogging, researching some more planner ideas, and trying to figure out how to force my phone to upload its pictures onto my laptop like I’ve asked it to! Nothing has been uploaded since Sunday this week! Lucky for you, there are other ways to put pictures on here 😉

It is a rare occasion to get a picture of Dekker where he’s not making a face, so enjoy this one while you can! Luckily, they’re all still cute!

I’ve been mentioning Dekker’s newfound desire to wake us all up around 6:30pm for the last little while. This morning was our earlier morning yet, and while its been a bit challenging to say the least, I’m relieved that today wasn’t Dekker’s fault! Unfortunately, it was Bradys, haha! Sorry hubs, I have to tell. Brady dropped his aluminum travel mug on the stove top this morning on his way out the door at 5:30am, and that was just it.

We took our time getting up, of course, and Rowan managed to fall back to sleep in that time, so the big kids and I got up and had breakfast together, and pretty much right as they finished, Rowan woke up. So Deks and Laela went to play while I fed Ro breakfast in the dining room. Finally we all migrated up to the loft and played for the majority of the morning.

Ro didn’t last long before he needed a nap, so I hauled him down, and took a break to call health line quickly. I’ve been having some funny vision problems that appear a lot like when you see spots after a dizzy spell, yet they don’t come from dizziness, they are MUCH bigger blank spots in my vision, and they last quite a bit longer. I called mostly for information, to see if anything could cause them that is common, but of course, like pretty much any other time I’ve called, they basically said “Oh, you’re pregnant? Go to the hospital immediately.” Yup, but nope. So I hung out in the loft with the kids while Ro napped, and right around lunch, Kim and the boys came for our afternoon playdate!

It was SO nice to have company over!! They brought lunch, we made lattes, and spent the afternoon in the loft, playing toys and all being together. It eventually got super hot up there, and that paired with my grouchy, overtired children, and their youngest being in desperate need of a nap, we parted ways in the mid afternoon. I’m sure she’ll have some nappers in her van, and my kids are currently half asleep in front of a show, just resting their minds. But it was SO good to get everyone together again! I didn’t manage to get photos of everyone, but these are what I did get, anyway.

I’m not completely sure what the evening will bring at this point. I had hoped to duck out to Walmart to grab a few groceries, but I’m not sure the kids could hack it. On another hand, though, they would likely sleep on the drive, and maybe that would be just enough sleep to get them to the evening without too many additional meltdowns. We’ll weigh our options once Brady gets home.

Lastly, yesterday, our cabinets came!!!!!

Those poor guys had 144 boxes to carry into our living room! But they did it surprisingly joyfully, and efficiently. Brady and I waited until the kids were down before he began the task of hauling them all downstairs, and we organized them in order of where they’ll go in our new house, matching up cabinet boxes to drawers and fronts, all as many other little things that we could. We are SO ready to dig in and start building/assembling everything so we can really get a feel for how things are going to look!!!

However, after a day quite like this, I am already sleepy, so I’m not sure today is the day. Maybe it’ll just be Saturday. Saturday is a good day too 🙂

Rowan is down, and the big kids are up playing with duplo in the loft. I’m on the couch, sipping a latte, listening to the wind, blogging. Its a quiet day. We had an incredibly early start, and all of the kids are in rough shape already. So I sit down here quietly and they play up there quietly, and we try to interact as little as possible. So far, its working.

We all went to my 32 week prenatal appointment at 9:45 this morning. We met Brady at the clinic and were called in right away. I’ve been feeling suspicious over the last couple of weeks that a surprise is coming. I honestly don’t know what I’m waiting for, but my gut has been telling me I needed to ask. So I babbled through my appointment about some weird instinct/gut feeling I was having, and that I was a bit nervous. My student doctor asked for details, and of course, it took me quite a while to gather any info from my unreliable memory. I finally made her a rough list.

I am feeling LARGE. LARGE. A month ago, at my appointment, I had grown like crazy, and it showed in my measurements. I feel like I am larger still, and considerably less mobile.

I am TIRED. I know I’m more than allowed to be tired and feel run down, but I could flop down and nap at any moment, and I’ve never been like that. Ever. Not in pregnancy, not freshly postpartum, not in daily life with three little ones. Never. I feel like an animal who is about to deliver their young. Like right before they deliver.

I have sooo many contractions. Not painful ones necessarily, just braxton hicks, but they go up HIGH and they are SOLID. I don’t notice them until I bump my belly into something, or touch it mindlessly, or rest something on it, and it is rock hard. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but that s EXACTLY how I laboured with Rowan. I was induced in the hospital, contracting like mad, rock solid belly all the way up, and felt no discomfort with it whatsoever. So noticing it happen more and more is a bit ominous.

Basically, to sum it up, I feel full term. VERY full term. I shared these things with my student doctor and she took it all in, but also had lots of reasons for things. I’m iron deficient, so thats something that plays a role in fatigue at least. Also, its my fourth baby, yes yes, I know. Things like that. I was kind of annoyed, but curious to see how the rest of the appointment would go.

I gained less than two pounds, and my measurements hardly changed, so I am back to measuring right on my weeks. Those factors alone show evidence that likely the baby isn’t growing at some unreasonable rate, I’m likely not much further along that we originally thought, and my fluid levels are probably fine. Baby’s heart rate was fine, his movement is still consistent, and I’ve had none of the obvious scarier things, like bleeding or crazy sickness.

So, we called it a draw with the baby and we left. He really threw us for a loop last month, but now, apparently all is back to normal. I don’t know whats going on, and there might still be a surprise in store for us. Who knows? Not us. At least, at this point, we now see our doctor every two weeks, so if we have any concerns, or I still feel quite this nervous, we’ll be able to get in sooner to talk again.

Now, we’re home, and the kids are starting to fight. I think I’ll feed them and throw a show on for a bit while I doze a bit on the couch. The kitchen cabinets for our new house are arriving this afternoon, and I couldn’t be more excited about this part!!!!! I can’t wait to see them all carried into the house, ready for us to put them together and plan out our beautiful new kitchen 😀 Should be a good distraction too!

I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect planner for a long long time, and I think I’m done trying. So for the last few days, I’ve been learning the Pages program on our laptop, and have been trying to create a very basic template for the EXACT planner I want.

I much prefer paper to simply using my phone calendar, though I use that as well. I just get annoyed when all of the things I want to schedule on the same day don’t all show up at once! I have a lot of things to keep track of, and our life is only getting busier, so I need a good, big, useful planner.

Many of the planners I’ve seen are expensive, and contain many pages that I wouldn’t find useful. I’ve slowly been compiling ideas of exactly what I need/want to see, and I’ve done this through looking online, making lists, and buying LOTS of planners that I never used for more than a week. Ask Brady. I love planners, but I want them to be what I need, and they just never are.

Recently, I came across one that is the closest to perfect that I’ve been able to find! It was a bit more flowery and viney than I’d normally choose, but I was more than willing to bypass my personal preferences that way for the perfect planner. Until I discovered that it was about half the size I was hoping for. It was then that I decided to just make my own template and see if I could do it.

I’m very close, and I will show you what I’ve come up with when its complete, as well as tested out. When I know its good, you’ll know. Sorry I’m being so vague, but the reason I’m posting about this is because I would like to know what other people look for in the way of organization. I personally never use the pages that look like standard calendar pages. Do people use those? What do you require to make you feel organized, and like you’re not going to forget something important? What extras would you add? I LOVE the idea of having a space for gift ideas, or maybe a monthly “project” page. Any ideas? What do YOU guys look for? I don’t want to miss anything!

Like I mentioned yesterday, the plan for today was a brief Costco run and then we drove to see the house. We actually stuck to the plan, even though I feel like they always change! The kids were all looking super cute today, and attracted a lot of attention. Lol! I can’t blame people for looking on. I heard one woman whisper to her friend “Look at her coat, and her sunglasses!”

We grabbed the few things that we needed before heading to a nearby Tims for coffee and a pee break. I forgot to pee at Costco and I’m at the point of pregnancy where I almost can’t sit while I’m wearing jeans and have to pee. Quite the challenge. So we drive two minutes down the road and stopped to grab coffees.

We drank our coffees and drove to see our house. We were incredibly relieved, after our Thursday visit, to see some more progress. To be honest, it wasn’t quite as much as we had hoped for, but two different trades were on site, and one had been there last Friday or sometime over the weekend.

Downstairs plumbing had been dug in!!! Now, I believe they just wait for an inspection, then cover it up and pour our basement floor!!! Thats scheduled for next Friday.

The taper has finally arrived! We’re a bit nervous that he’s only coming now, knowing the rest of the scheduling, it seems like he’s late to start. Especially because he is simply a “he” and not a crew. But such is life. I’m still hopeful! If he works through the weekend, he should keep up.

Loooooook! Its a real house!!

Lastly, the siding guy was around, but he was around on Thursday, and we have seen almost no change, so while we’re not sure what he’s actually doing there, he is holding up absolutely no one. So I guess if he’s got nowhere else to be, why rush?? We realized, though, after the siding color debacle, we haven’t taken any pictures! So he’s the REAL color!!! The one side of the house is close to done, but the other is still about a third of the way up with the old color, and the back is untouched.

Its so pretty 🙂 I’m very very happy with the color. So much more what we were expecting.

Our evening ended a little rocky and the kids were in bed earlier than usual, but they really really needed it. Dekker has picked up a nasty habit of waking the entire household on purpose before 7am. Its pretty horrific when you’re not used to it. We’ve stopped napping him completely in an effort to have him sleep a bit deeper and a bit longer, but he is in ROUGH shape by the end of the evening, that’s for sure! Its a new challenging stage we’ve entered, but naps had to be kicked to the curb somewhere along the way, and it appear that now is the time 🙂

One day, we’ll have our next babe, and we’ll be settled in our beautiful new home, and THEN we can find some form of what “normal” is going to look like.

And the moment we find that normal, Dekker will start kindergarten! Bahaha! Oh life…..