Last night was a very special night for me. Dekker and I went on a date, just he and I. Those opportunities are few and far between, so we tried to make the most of it. As soon as Brady got home, I went upstairs to get ready, and then I helped Dekker get ready.

Laela couldn’t be left out of the pictures 🙂

As we began our drive, I asked Dekker if he wanted music or if we should just have quiet. He requested music, as is common on our drives. I made it really quiet, though, and asked him what he was hungry for. He kind of mumbled something back, but I couldn’t understand it. I asked him to speak up, and he got quieter, as usual. Within minutes, he was cashed out. So I turned the music up a little and enjoyed the drive.

I love my sleepy date <3 And yes, we were parked here.

I decided to take Dekker to Montanas. We so often to fast food, but this was an opportunity to go somewhere nicer. Plus, Montanas is loud and there is lots to watch. So I took this sleepy soul in to supper, just the two of us.

Sitting at the table, coloring on the brown paper and talking about school, made me think back to how relationship two-ish years ago. Things were SO different. I would NEVER have taken him out by myself. Not because I didn’t love his desperately, but because he was struggling SO hard post surgery, and could not be in public without screaming in terror (I kid you not) if anyone even looked in his direction, or Heaven forbid, greeted him. That uncontrollable, fearful scream, and the look that went with it are still fresh in my mind. You don’t know until you’ve had a kid who has been traumatized. I’ve had some people suggest that I am depressed, and that if I got some help, maybe that situation wouldn’t have been so hard for me. Let me tell you all that I am no stranger to counselling, and I will NEVER be ashamed to ask for help. THIS was devastating, beyond me being embarrassed that my kid was screaming in a store. It was just awful, for him, mostly. I was just so sad for him. But now, this boy is warm and funny and finding himself. Its amazing to see him so comfortable in his own skin, and figuring himself out. I was SO proud to walk into Montanas with him, hand in hand.

After supper, we drove to Walmart and completed the exciting task of picking out all of his school supplies! I liked letting him be involved, and getting a say in small things, like the color of his scissors, indoor shoes, a water bottle for his lunch, etc. We also snagged a bag of pull ups for Laela, but that was our only non-kindergarten related purchase. Everything else was centred around him starting school. And SOON!

We got home around 8:00 and he went right to bed, but very happily. My heart was and continues to be very full. I sure do love that boy.

Today has been a fun day of celebrating birthdays! My mom and my sister in law, Grace, share a birthday, and that is today! Brady and I made cakes yesterday evening, so I frosted them this morning, with the help of these fine little specimens.

While the morning rolled on, we kept on the potty training train (huh…) and had one good successful pee on the potty! Woot! This is my favorite part of potty training so far. Dekker has designated himself as the supervisor of Laela’s underwear choice.

Dekker: So. Laela. We haaaave stripes and Olaf and Elsa and I don’t know who that girl is and…

Ack! I love them!

We threw a pull up on her for the afternoon, and headed over to my parents for birthday supper! We had pizza and chips and cucumber salad and cake! While it didn’t look even close to as pretty as I had hoped for, I’ll be tacky and say that it tasted pretty good! The kids played hard and got to stay out a bit later than usual, but when we got them home, they were definitely ready for bed.

Brady and I have been setting up some furniture to paint in the garage for a couple of days, and last night we got the first coat on almost all of it. Better get my butt out there and help him with the second one!! Just you wait, guys. Its all going to look SO good!

This morning, being the scattered person that I am, I forgot to change Laela’s diaper. After breakfast, I realized it and took her to her room to change her. Normally, I change her wherever we are, but I thought the carpet in her room would be a bit nicer to lay on. I pulled off her dirty diaper and commented “Another diaper.”

“Uuuuuh…no,” she replied.
“Oh? What about underwear?”
“Uuuuuh…no.”

I proceeded to pull the stack of underwear that we’ve kept stashed for her in one of her dresser drawers in anticipation for potty training. She’s seen them all before, but this time it was totally different. She LOVED them. She chose purple stripes, and off we went!

Those purple underwear were quickly swapped out for pink princess ones, thanks to her first accident. And then her second wound her up in some blue and white Olaf underwear.

And in those she STAYS! Two successful pees on the potty makes for a VERY proud mommy, an equally proud Laela, an incredibly supportive Dekker, and four less wafer cookies to our name. Yes, she gets a cookie for a pee. I know, I’ve been told my incentives are big. They’re also short lived. ALSO, I almost never bribe my kids, so I’m fine with the “go big or go home” method 😉 No judging!

I WISH I could post pictures of Laela in her little underwear on here. Her wedgie is just hilarious, and its in every single picture. But the internet is a creepy place, and I also know a handful of people who would be offended. By baby bums. Which is ridiculous, in my opinion, but to each their own. Anyway, since I can’t post those pictures on here, I’ll leave you with this picture.

THAT is one excited little girl! THAT is the face of someone who just peed on the toilet!!!

Let’s all celebrate Laela’s amazing success! Way to go, Laela! Keep up the good work!!! I love you so much!

I had a lovely afternoon with Kim and her kids, visiting, eating yummy food, watching the Olympics, playing toys, and listening to Solly doze nearby. It was comfortable, as always. Rowan, Solly, and her youngest slept for a good chunk of our play date, but it made it easier for the four older ones to play on their own, I think. Once the littles started waking up, I started hauling mine out to the van. They had had a nice time as well, but didn’t made a big fuss about leaving like they have done other times. We headed out around 3:30.

I picked up the mail, and headed home. Right where our street starts, there is a sign displaying all of the lots on our street, as it is still in development. It shows which lots are sold and which are available. As its a very new development, there are only a few houses on it. I never look at the sign. Ever. But today, it caught me eye, and I actually drove back to look at it closer.

I am SO EXCITED!! One of the lots beside us sold!!! It is marked on the big display, but the sign actually physically on the lot isn’t marked as “sold” yet. But it will be soon, I’m sure. I’m sooo happy to know that we’ll have neighbours! Of course, now the town busybody comes out of me, and I want to know who bought it, and who is building, and how soon its supposed to start, etc etc etc.

Our streets sixth house. Wow. I’m so looking forward to more people moving in!

I know, its still August. Early August, even! I went into this week feeling like it was a very relaxed month, but after cracking out the planner and writing down a few things, I’m realizing just how full this month is! Its full of really great things, don’t get me wrong, but lots and lots of things.

We have some family coming over for a chunk of the month, and those days will be filled with celebrating birthdays, as many of them fall in the summer months. Our family has a handful of appointments to attend this month – shots for two of the kids, an eye appointment, two physio appointments, and likely chiro at some point. We have some house goals around here, which I’ll go into in more detail in a separate post, but we have some furniture to paint and some to assemble, which will basically complete the kids rooms for the time being, and help out the master bedroom a lot. And I have been hoping to do a bit of an overhaul and/or make some decisions about this blog. Again, that will all be a separate post, but I’m thinking about making some changes, and it could be a lot of work. I really had hoped to get that all in order before September.

This is my current list. I’ve already scratched some big things off of my list. They are things that drive me CRAZY but I just know that the timeline isn’t as tight on them, and they can be moved, whether I want them to sit and stare at me for another month or not. But its all good. I’m really anticipating August, and all that comes with it! I just didn’t realize it was so full until I actually sat down to schedule it!!

Bring it on, August! And then bring on September, so I can maaaybe actually sneak a lake day in somewhere! Oh Waskesiu, I miss you…

Brady and I were thinking of going to church this morning, and our method of decision making on the weekends is pretty much always based on Solly and how well he sleeps. Last night, Solly woke up once or twice, but he was generous enough to let Brady and I sleep in until 9:00! We decided then to stay home and do waffle brunch. It was a VERY good decision! Breakfast was delicious, the kids were happy, we all felt very relaxed.

We decided to make our way into the city fairly quickly afterwards to buy some birthday gifts, and some paint supplies for a handful of projects we have around here. Unfortunately, the kids weren’t in the best shape they’ve ever been in, and while we got lots accomplished, I’m feeling pretty drained out and grouchy :/ So I’m taking a bit of a reprieve right now in bed while the kids watch a bit of tv. Whew! I’m just a little bit wiped for some reason. Plus, it doesn’t help that we got a NEW headboard with NEW pillows and NEW sheets and a NEW duvet cover. It is SO comfy in this bed, I never want to leave. Its actually a really good problem to have.

This evening calls for making plans for the week, and perogies. Should be good!

Today, Kim and I celebrated our birthdays together! My birthday was just on the 30th, and hers is on the 28th. And we’re both 25, got it?? 😉 She was away on holidays over her birthday, and I was at a family gathering on mine, and then headed to Edmonton the next day. Weeks ago, we booked this day as our birthdate.

She came over around 1:30, and we got ready together. This was easily the BEST part of the date. We holed up in the en suite and played makeup for about three hours. Brady brought us iced lattes and nachos, We had music going in the background, and we did our makeup and visited the afternoon away. We took a break partway through to exchange gifts, and then primped over our hair a bit. (Mine looked like it always does. Whoops.) We got dressed and ready, and headed out!

 

We drove to the city and shared a few dishes of asian food for supper. It was all delicious, and over far too quickly. In our true form, we left the restaurant and hit the nearby Starbucks right away. We took our coffee and headed to the Safeway in the mall to find some dessert.

Once we had chosen our desserts (eclairs and cream puffs) and bought Brady deodorant (not because he’s naturally stinky, but because he ran out) we grabbed a double double for hubs and headed back home.

Brady was feeding Solly, and the big kids had been down for about fifteen minutes only. I ducked in and got my hugs and kisses, as they were still all awake. Then the three of us planted ourselves in the living room with dessert and coffee, and visited until shortly after 10:00 when Kim headed home.

It had been such a nice day, and evening. I love our friends. I feel like we can just be us with our friends, and they can safely be themselves. Kim and I literally hung out in the bathroom almost all afternoon, and then we celebrated our birthdays in my living room, with yummy treats from the grocery store. It was so relaxed, and it felt like home.

Happy 25th birthday, Kim 😉 I hope we have many more years of celebrating together ahead!

I’ve been looking forward to Friday and Saturday all week, so when Brady was done work early and home around 1:00, my fun began! I visited with Brady for a little while before going upstairs and hiding out in our en suite. It is officially organized and beautiful and USEABLE! I’ve been slowly getting it there, and finally settling in, which has reopened my love for makeup once again. So I took my time, and got nice and done up for my afternoon. I tried out my new foundation, liner, mascara, and liquid lipstick that I got for my birthday, which was really exciting! I know not everyone cares about makeup, but it felt really fun to wear all new products, and have them all be pretty much perfect. Win!

Once I was ready, I headed to Costco in search of new pillows. Thank you all for the tips about the cooling pillows! I purchased two for Brady and I, and we are SO looking forward to trying them out! They feel pretty perfect initially, so we’ll see how the night goes! After Costco, I drove to my waxing place and got my eyebrows waxed. I always go to the same girl, whom I really really like, but I had betrayed her in July, when I was at the point of desperation and she was on holidays. So I went to another girl for my legs, but I only trust Jenn with my eyebrows 😉 So that was a nice little visit in my mid-day outing. Left feeling fresh, as always.

I drove to the mall nearby to pick up a handful of things. I made the mistake, however, of ducking into London Drugs first. They carry a small section of a makeup brand that I like, but since its not super common yet, they’re behind in getting the products that the states have. I’ve been waiting for a few products to make their way over here, so I check every time I’m near a location. And today, I was shocked to see that small section of the cosmetics department had exploded, and there was now an entire aisle, both sides, FILLED with their products!! Sooo I accidentally bought more makeup. Whoops.

After my impulsive makeup purchase, I ventured to buy what I actually came for. Pear cider, and some appies from M&M – mozza sticks, wings, and deep fried pickles. Mmmmm…

I made a few other quick stops before heading home. I hadn’t been home too terribly long before Jerilee arrived for – you guessed it! – Bachelorette night! The season ended a week or two ago but we’re behind!! So tonight was our night to watch the finale! We made our appies, along with a margherita pizza, and sat down to watch. We made it through three of the four episodes before it was just about midnight and we called it. “The Men Tell All” will have to wait.

All things considered, it was SUCH a fun day! And tomorrow will be super fun too, but I’ll tell you all about that then 😉 For now, I’m happy to dwell on today. Good friends, good food, good day <3

But not dish brushes, ironically.

I have a long list of things that should get done today, and if not today, very soon. Basics include dishes, laundry, and floors. Like I talked about yesterday, we have these lovely, enormous laundry machines that will make things go nice and quick, but we also have a TON of laundry to do, so that job feels large. Floors are just dirty like usual, but since Dekker has embraced vacuuming the way he has, I’ve really taken a liking to clean floors, haha! Now when they’re dirty, I notice more. Crumbs stuck to my feet are NOT appreciated. So I have to get floors done. And dishes, because bottles stink.

Kim and I are celebrating our birthdays this Saturday, and she’s going to come over in the day so we can get all made up and dolled up together. This has been the motivator that I need to get the en suite set up. I am thoroughly enjoying that, to be honest, but its really hard to do any of it when I’m home with the kids. They are far too interested in all of the shiny pretty products I have in there, and inviting them up there with me would just be begging for it. For the most part, the en suite has to wait. Also in anticipation of our date, I need to wash my makeup brushes.

With the tidying of the en suite comes the annoyance with our room still being the mess that it is. We have a great dresser set now that I’m really happy with, but it needs to be painted. We actually have a lot of things that need painting, but again, that feels like a bit of a huge job to just start. I’m hoping to keep medicine cabinet ish things in the top dresser drawer, but since the dressers aren’t ready, we have boxes of medicine just sitting in our room. It seems like one job just stirs up another. Eek!

I was planning on making some calls to family today, and also to schedule a few little appointments in the near future, but I haven’t done that either. I haven’t done my physio exercises since my last appointment, either. Come to think of all the things I had to do today, I haven’t eaten yet either. Whoops…

So what have I accomplished today, you ask? I did dishes, and I washed my brushes. I’ve fed my kids, changed their diapers, played with them, and read them books. I’ve held Solly almost all day. Every time I set him down, he either wakes up on his own or someone chooses that exact moment to throw a magnadoodle at the laminate, and that wakes him up.

“Well, Hailey, why aren’t you working on that list now??”

Because there is a lot on my mind that I’ve been researching over the last couple of days, and thats what I’m currently doing, rather than sweeping, sorting clothes, cleaning out my fridge, etc. But I’ll tell you more about that all down the road 😉 Until then, I’ll just sweat over the long list of things I have to do, and then discarding it onto our island for later. #motivated #lies #ibegoogling

I think almost everyone can relate to the relief and comfort of arriving home after a time away. The food is better, the bed is better, having your own space is better than sharing, etc. I hope I’m not alone in this, because I LOVE coming home, even if I’ve had a complete blast wherever we were. This time has been a new experience for me, though. Not only am I happy to come home, but I’m THRILLED to come home to this home! I know I mentioned it yesterday, but I hadn’t appreciated my house to its full extent yet. Now I have, and I am just reminded how blessed I am to have this place for our family.

Our tub was just beckoning to me from the moment we walked into the house. Once the kids were all down, we made popcorn and had a soak. On the note of the kids going down, though, everyone slept so much better!!!!! It was such a relief. I knew they were wiped out from hardly sleeping the previous two nights, but Dekker napped on the drive until 6:00pm!! I didn’t have high expectations for deep sleeps, but the three big kids were down beautifully. Solly also went down very well, and he slept nice long chunks, only waking up once around 2:30am for a bottle. He woke up for the day around 8:30!

We have had a very relaxed morning. I got Dekker and Laela breakfast, and I drank a latte and rocked Solly while the two kids played in the living room. Rowan slept until around noon, no word of a lie. He woke up, ate, and went back down to bed. Not because I didn’t want to see him, but he was just a weepy, tearful mess that I could not seem to get under control. When I asked him if he wanted to sleep, he immediately lay his head on me and said “ya.” So he’s tucked in, Solly is sleeping up in his cradle, and the kids are having a brain break, watching some Octonauts.

Why else do I appreciate this house so much? I am very thankful for my enormous laundry machines. Not only do we produce a ton of laundry on a regular basis, but we seem to accumulate WAY more in a much shorter time span when we’re away. Aaaaand we bought an unreasonable amount of bedding at IKEA that will need to be washed before we actually use it. Thats a LOT of laundry, but these machines hold twice as much in one load as our old machines, so that helps. On that note, if anyone knows where to get really nice pillows that don’t break the bank, please let me know! We have a new blanket coming, we bought new sheets and a new duvet cover and pillowcases, and we even bought a new headboard. These tired old flat pillows need to be replaced!

That laundry can happen another day. Today is a lazy, recover, home day. I’ll adult again tomorrow.

We came home! Our second night was almost as rocky as the first, but we all got at least a little bit more sleep this time around, and felt more ready for the day to begin when it began!

Brady and I got ready for the day before getting the kids up, and then I wrangled them onto the bed to contain them, and they had a really special, sweet breakfast while watching some Netflix. While they were corralled, Brady packed and got everything ready to go! It was really efficient and smooth, and we were out of there an hour before checkout.

We all went down to the lobby together with the baggage cart overflowing with our stuff, and then Brady decided to pull the van up to the hotel rather than try and drag everything and everyone across the rocky parking lot. In those minutes, I was so proud of the kids. I had all four in the lobby, and they were just so very pleasant. Dekker inspected the baggage cart and talked to me about how he’d park it once Brady had unloaded it. “Its got secure wheels, and I’m a pretty big boy, so I’d ‘afer (prefer) to park it myself.” Some of the people also waiting in the lobby smiled sweetly at him, and I made a point to smile at them when they glanced over at me. It was so sweet to see him taking responsibility for a job. Laela sat beside me, and I had Rowan on my lap. Solly lay in his bucket wide awake nearby. They were all on great behaviour. When Brady did arrive, it took some time to load the van properly, so the three big kids helped me find all of the garbage we’ve accumulated in the van, and we took a walk to throw it away. When we got back, the van was ready, and we headed off!

Ikea was the mainest goal (yup, its a thing) of this trip, so we’ve really been anticipating it! The only reason we waited until the last day was because some of the things we were going to buy wouldn’t fit in our van, and we didn’t want to strap them to the roof and then leave them out in the parking lot overnight. So it had to be today. We were a little bit nervous going into the long shop, with Rowan having been so shrieky the day before, and the kids running on a fraction of the sleep they usually get for two nights in a row now, but we were SO pleasantly surprised!!! Rowan did SO well! WAY better than anticipated! He loved all of the lights and fans, and spent most of the shop staring and pointing up at the ceiling. We had a few different cart setups, but when they weren’t working, we put Rowan in the seat in a regular cart, and I wore Solly in the ergo. The big kids walked, as they often prefer. With that setup, we had a GREAT shop! I am so thankful that the kitchen event was on when we ordered our kitchen, because we had a nice big gift card to work with. We definitely still spent a pretty penny, but we walked out of Ikea with a headboard, a bed frame, an absurd amount of sheet sets and duvet covers, a couple of replacement door fronts, a missed drawer pull, a vanity chair, and a few other small things. But it felt so good to get a few pieces for around our house that we’ve been eyeballing for so long. Once we get all of our ducks in a row over here, our upstairs will be pretty close to done! Eek! The whole shop felt very successful, and I was so proud of our kids. Brady left us waiting at the doors to go get the van, so we could once again load up at the door rather than dragging our overfilled carts across the parking lot. A really nice employee had suggested Brady pull up the van, and I made a comment about how he could take the big kids, and I could hang back with the little ones, just because I was feeling a bit aware of how much space we were taking up. He laughed at asked which kids were the big ones. I had never really thought of that in that way! I pointed to Solly and Ro and said “Well these ones are smaller than these ones…Kind of.” I looked at Laela and pointed out that she and Ro were pretty much the same size. We had a laugh, and he hung out and told me stories about his grandchildren until Brady arrived. After forever, we got the big stuff strapped to the roof of the van, and we left Ikea. A quick stop for lunch and we finally left Edmonton.

It was the perfect drive home. Three of the four kids were asleep before we were out of the city. No screaming to get them there, either. Rowan had screamed and screamed on the way to Edmonton until he finally fell asleep. He was asleep before we even left the Ikea parking lot today! It was SO refreshing to have them nap at the beginning of the drove. We listened to good music and got excited about house stuff. Though it was funny to realize how thematic our road trips have been in the past! In the last few years, when Brady and I road trip, we almost always discuss baby names (we’ve named most of our kids on road trips) and we usually buy dvds or seasons of our favorite shows off of Amazon on our drive home. I don’t know why, but those things just usually happen. However, we didn’t buy any movies, and we are so very NOT pregnant right now, haha! So no one to name! Also, we always discuss dreams of what our house will be like when its built. And its finally built!! Our life is just so very rich.

Things got a bit nuts towards the end of the trip. Laela was very tired, and was crying and asking for things incoherently from her car seat. Poor little miss. But all is well now. We have made it home, everyone is in bed, our bath is run and our bed is looking SO comfy! Road trips are so fun, and I am SO pleased that we are able to take them, but coming home is always nice. And coming home to THIS home is just decadent.

Tomorrow, unpacking and laundry begins. Wish me luck!!!