I don’t have a big, impressive idea to talk about today. Really, it would be out of character if I did. I don’t usually. But I have a small handful of things to throw out there, all unrelated to each other, and not a single one can make up a full post. So, a grab bag todays post will be!

Yesterday’s post was about goals/resolutions for the upcoming year. While no one commented on here on on Facebook (those kinds of things are pretty vulnerable) a handful of you guys texted/pmed me later and shared them with me later on. I REALLY appreciated that! Thanks for letting me in on your private goals! I think every one I heard sounded doable and positive! Let’s check back in on them in a month or so and see where we are 🙂

Today is freezing. Like -45 kind of freezing. I’m insane enough to go out in it this evening with Kim for supper, but I’m not surfacing until its absolutely time. Its dreadful out there. Brady drove to work in his snowmobile suit. AKA his onesie. I don’t blame him. I’m looking good over here in my grey sweats and grey sweatshirt. Matching like a boss. But its necessary, because my headaches are back. Not in full force, but back enough that I booked chiro for tomorrow afternoon. Until then, I’ll eat crackers and cheese all afternoon, which I can’t seem to quite get enough of, and lay with my head on a heating pad, until further notice.

Did you guys know there is a program going that is basically  world wide recall for a group of iPhones?? Brady and I ran our serial numbers through and sure enough, our phones are part of it! So we have to make an appointment at only certain Apple authorized dealers. So where we’d normally go to a Telus location, we cannot. Being that lots and lots of people are involved with this recall, we have to make an appointment at one of these places, which are booked solidly, have our phones looked at, and then wait for them to order a new battery on our behalf. Then we’ll have to return and have our phones repaired. As I mentioned, the few places we can go are quite limited, and the only place that isn’t booked solidly is London Drugs. No offence to their employees, but I’m not having them work on my phone. I’m just not confident in it. So we’re booked for next week at Neural Net, where someone who knows their Apple stuff can help us out. Looking forward to having this over and done with, because my battery is sucking worse and worse every day.

An ironic thing to talk about on such a scattered post is the possibility of a series. What do you guys think of that? I watch a lot of YouTube, and maybe people on there have a certain day where they do/talk about a specific topic. Sometimes I get swept up in YouTube and think I make videos rather than what I’m actually doing. I’d call myself a literal YouTuber, but that would be confusing, since I’m not literally a YouTuber, but moreso one who does a similar thing, but in the format of literacy. Am I making sense? Likely not. I don’t daily vlog, but I daily blog, if thats any clearer. Anyway, I think that the series thing is really wise, because when the right series comes along, it does hook me, and I watch those videos through the series very intentionally. Does anyone care about things like that? Would you want to hear/think about anything in specific with me? No pressure on it, I just think it might be fun for readers, and also for me, because it would give me a bit of direction, and an actual plan for posts. Let me know if you like the idea of it, and what you might like it to be about 🙂

Thats it, thats all! A long enough, random enough post for you all? Its time to call it on this one. My crackers and cheese have run out, and that just wont do. Have a great rest of your day! Stay inside!!

I don’t like making official New Years solutions, and if you’ve been reading along with me for a long time, you’ll know I usually come up with a few vague goals for the year. It seems noncommittal, but it actually works really well for me. That way, if I miss a chance or if I “fail” at something or other, I haven’t screwed up some tabulated list of to-dos or let anyone down. I find that kind of thing WAY harder to come back from. So this works for me.

I have a small handful of things I’d like to work on this year. One of them, the most important one, I’ve already talked about on here. I want to try to meet the needs of others without being asked. To just see them, and if its within my grasp, to help them! This one seems like common sense, but I struggle to find the balance, to be honest. I can’t exactly drop everything and go run an errand, or visit someone, or anything else when I have kids who nap, and a kid in school, and whatever else we have going on. Yet, I can make sacrifices sometimes. Yet my family needs to come first. But should my family prevent me from helping others? It doesn’t, but I hope I’m making sense with this. As a human being, I desire to help others, as I think we all do. But I want to be more intentional with it. So, if you know anyone who is in need…..

I’ve been feeling a bit creatively stunted. I think its a natural thing, considering what our last year has been like. I really haven’t had a lot of time to be creative. I didn’t even crochet my kids toques this winter :/ I’ve always loved and anticipated that part of winter, but it just didn’t happen this year. So this year, I’d like to get back on the proverbial horse, and find a creative outlet. Whether thats more crocheting, or upping my game on the blog, or doing more with makeup, or maybe trying something entirely different, I’d like to find something to busy myself with once in a while that is out of my usual routine.

The last goal for this year is to take more ownership in Brady’s business. I technically am part owner, and I do help him pull off the quarterly reports and such, but I’m realizing how much clerical/office work he puts in per house, and its definitely a bit of a time suck. I informed him that I was ready to step up and learn all about it and start taking more responsibilities, and I’m sure you can imagine, he was happy to have me. He agreed to start teaching me what I don’t already know, and how to read the floor plans and purchase orders and get to know how the whole business goes down. I’m actually really excited about it! I can save him some time at work, and I’ll actually earn the chunk I’m on the hook for.

So those are my main goals! I have a few other in mind, but they’re smaller and less notable to really record here on the blog. I think this is a very doable year of goals for me, but they will take some dedication, motivation, and self awareness. I’m looking forward to it.

If anyone has any goals or themes in mind for 2017, feel free to share! Being that we’re a decent chunk into January already, we’ve all had time to think about it!

We tend to fall behind on household stuff on the weekends. Not always, but its not uncommon. Sometimes we spend Saturday tidying the place up, doing laundry, etc., but other Saturdays, we run errands. Now that we’re finally not as diseased as before, we were really happy to take the kids out and show them somewhere different than the walls of their own house. So needless to say, this weekend, housework got pushed back. Which is more than fine with me.

I had a really restful sleep and woke up on my own accord. I had a touch of a headache but Tylenol helped quicker than it was last week, so that was great. I knew there was a good amount of housework to get done, and I felt well enough to dive in.

As the kids were eating breakfast, I started to unpack the dishwasher. I always lay out the bottles on the island, because Dekker and Laela love assembling them. As I was dumping the pieces out onto a towel for them, Dekker asked if he could help with dishes. I told him that I was leaving out some bottles for him to do after breakfast. He agreed, but seemed a bit uncertain. I asked if he wanted to do more, and he answered with “of course I do!” I’ve been thinking about kids and chores and capabilities recently, and this is one I’ve been thinking I could ask for help with more often. So I said I’d have some jobs for him after breakfast, and he was very happy, and finished his breakfast off very quickly. He was ready. I know my kids won’t forever be chomping at the bit to have jobs around the house, so I’m going to take advantage of the times that they are to build some great habits and routines!

The last load of dishes that had run through the dishwasher had been mostly kids dishes. So I decided to leave almost the whole dishwasher for Dekker and I started scrubbing some of the stuck on stuff off of the next load of dishes. Deks did his bottles on the island and then came over to the dishwasher. I joined him and started to tell him what I thought he could do. He held up his hand at me and said “I’ve got this, mommy.” So I left him to it, and he unpacked and put away the entire dishwasher of kids dishes. I thanked him profusely and told him that he had ben so nice to offer to help me, but he wasn’t happy. “I know there is lots left to do…” he trailed off. I asked if he wanted to keep helping, and he did! I’m in no position to turn down willing help, so I trusted Dekker to help load in the glasses and ceramic dishes. I’d put in one plate and put the rest where he could reach them, and he’s stack them all up in the right place. Same with the glasses. He filled the whole top of the dishwasher on his own, and honestly, I didn’t even have to go back and sneakily move things around. He did awesome!!!

After the dishes, I headed downstairs to sort the laundry. Brady had washed a load of laundry this weekend so he had shorted everything already! I sorted the last day or two worth of what had come down the laundry chute, and then went to put in a load. Dekker stood nearby, hands on his hips, still in work mode.

When we came back upstairs, Solly was getting fussy in his jumperoo, and I said I was going to go put him down for a nap. As I took him out of his toy, He spat up a little bit. “I’m on it!” Dekker said, grabbed a wipe, and headed over to clean up Sollys little barf pile. All. On. His. Own.

Once Solly was down, I came back to the living room and Dekker was standing patiently waiting for me, with a book in hand. He asked if I would read to him, and I said of course I would. He came and sat on my lap and we read a nice long book together. It was awesome. A VERY good morning for him, and for us.

I sure love you, Dekker Thomas! Thank you for being SUCH a willing helper, and for not waiting to be asked. Its sometimes hard for mommy to know how much help to ask for, because I want you to play and have fun. Its so nice when you offer. I love hanging out with you. You’re SO special to me.

We managed to get ourselves to church this morning! And we really had no excuse not to, considering how early we were up. Solly got up for milk around 4:30 or 5:00, I don’t remember which one for sure. Being that we had a nice stretch of sleep before that, my foolish body woke up a bit too much and my anxious mind began running. I was officially up for the day. Upon discovering that I wasn’t going to sleep anymore, my loving husband embraced it and went down to the kitchen to pull out and defrost some croissants. He put a pot of coffee on and came back up to bed where we watched Big Bang Theory for the next couple of hours. It was awesome, and while I felt like I dragged a little all day, it was actually a pretty great morning.

So we went to church. It had been a while, which is obvious, being that we have been somewhat quarantined recently, but everyone seemed happy to see us and couldn’t believe how much the kids have changed since the last time we were there. For not being used to church anymore, they did pretty great! Rowan was super exhausted and didn’t quite make it, so Brady stood with him towards the end. Laela sat on the bench and read the hymnal most of the service. Solly sat with me and when he finally got a bit twitchy towards the end, I just fed him a bottle and he fell asleep. Dekker actually went down to childrens church! He was a bit hesitant, so I walked with him to the stairs and then let him go down with everyone on his own. He made a super grouchy face at me while he descended into the basement, but there were four kids from his kindergarten class down there, amidst another fifteen or so kids, so I knew he’d be well entertained. And he stayed down the entire time, totally happily! Win!

We headed out of church pretty quickly once it ended. When we do go to church, we usually end up visiting for a really long time, but we knew that Rowan was pretty finished, and Solly had just dozed through his bottle, but he was ready for a nap as well. So we headed out and drove right on over to my parents house.

After a hot dog lunch, mom and I headed to the city for a quick Value Village trip. It was 50% off for members, and I have a card there. Because they’re free. So you should all get one. Anyway, I managed to get out of there with five shirts for Brady, one for myself, and a fabulous pair of shoes for Rowan (hoping they fit him in summer!) and paying $24. Win!

We grabbed coffees and headed back to their house for a pancake supper. It was delicious, and the kids ate great. Because pancakes. Even Solly got some solid food into his belly. That kid is pro-banana, let me tell you. It was clear he had missed eating.

We packed the kids up and headed home, getting them to bed maybe 20 minutes later than usual at the max, with no argument. I think they’re tired. Its been a bigger day than Sunday usually is, since they’re out of practice with church. It was great though.

Now that the day is done, I’m starting to feel that early morning, and my headache is starting to push behind my eyes. Tylenol is in and I’m ready for a soak! Must enjoy the last few hours of the day before Monday is upon us and Brady is back to work. Its been a pretty nice weekend 🙂 I hope you guys had a good one as well.

For SO long, my only stories about the kids have revolved around their illness. Now that we’re almost out of the woods on that, I figured I’d do a post about whats new with them unrelated to illness. Because its been a WHILE!

Firstly, before I go into it, a quick note about the pictures in todays post! I took them as the kids were getting ready to go out, and Dekker took the longest so I didn’t really end up getting a picture of him in this bunch. Also, the only one I have of Laela is with her and Solly. Basically, as our family grows, I want to say that I know I don’t always get a picture of each kid individually, or it may appear that I take more pictures of some kids than others. I do NOT have a favorite kid, or a least favorite kid. Different stages bring differences, and with that, some prefer to be photographed more or less, alone or with others, etc. I’ve caught myself hesitating to post pictures because I don’t necessarily have the same number of each kid. But its something I don’t want to sacrifice, so I’m risking some judgement here, I suppose. So just know I love all of my kids equally, even on days when I don’t have pictures of one or two. End rant.

How is Dekker?

Dekker is doing great 🙂 I can tell he is totally relieved not to be feeling sick anymore! He is quick to help, seems to be happy to have some routine back, and he is back in full teacher mode, haha! He’s picked up some interesting attitudes, though, which we are actively working on. I think when everyone was sick, we made a point to live a much more relaxed life, and we didn’t push them as much. We still kept to our rules, but for instance, we didn’t feed them meals that we knew they would struggle to eat. Things like that. So now, if and when we ask something of Dekker that he’s not 110% loving the idea of, its met with a big snarky sigh. So we’re working on that 😉 But really, its SO nice to have him back!

Miss Laela isn’t far behind!

In the mornings, when I go get her from her room, and ask her how she’s doing, she replies with “I’m healthy today!!” Its SO good to hear that she’s feeling so much better! Since being sick, she’s started to pick on all of these beautiful little phrases that melt my heart multiple times a day. “I’d love that.” “Happy to help.” “I just want to be nice.” She’s become extra positive over the last little while, which is such a delight after a long, difficult road. On the flip side, I think she’s still coming back from all of the sickness, and some days, she is in rough shape, and needs a nap. Its been almost  year since she napped, but she’s needing one every couple of days recently. But she takes it then, with a bit of tears, and her mood is noticeably better when she wakes up 🙂 Win for Laela!

Rowan has changed SO MUCH since we got sick!

Being that we all got sick mid-November, its felt like we’re constantly backpedalling, but now that we’re on the upswing, I’ve seen the things that have been developing in Rowan finally have a chance to come out! He is 22 months old, and is suddenly WAY more verbal!! He’s always been a pretty clear communicator, so when he wasn’t saying tons at 18 months old, I didn’t give it another thought. But he says and does SO MUCH MORE now!! When someone offers him something, he says “thank you” without prompting. He’ll come ask “Whatcha doin’?” If someone leaves the room, he asks for them by name. He prays before bed (repeating) and requests to pray for meals. He repeats after his talking toys. He says “I love you.” His mimicking skills are just really really good. He even insists on carrying his dishes to the sink, which is a rule than we enforce with Dekker and Laela, but haven’t pushed Rowan on at all yet. He just does it. He’s really surprised us with developing so many skills while SO very under the weather.

And Solly has been changing too!

We’ve had a bit of a journey figuring Solly out in all of this sickness. We were well on our way to sleep training him before we all got sick. He was eating solid food like a champ. Then, when he got HFMD, he didn’t want to drink anything, but he would eat. So we fed him solids more than milk, which was a huge mistake, as he got VERY backed up. It was awful. So we pretty much quit solids altogether and just worked to get him well hydrated again. But with that, he was hungry only having milk in his body, and we couldn’t afford to not feed him in the night :/ So sleep training all went on hold too. It was sad to see that all go, but he is SO much better now, and we are excited to get moving back in the direction of solid foods and sleep training again. He is getting stronger by the day! He has moved up a size in clothing, even though he lots quite a bit of weight, so he is officially in 12 month stuff! Crazy kid is just so stinking tall! Another noticeable change in Solly is his hair! He’s getting more of it finally, and its BLONDE!!! All of our kids start dark haired, but lighten up over time. Solly looks like he might be blonde earlier than others! The hair on top is still a bit darker but the hair on the sides is light light blonde! He’s SO cute!

Behold! Our crew of cuties! They attracted a lot of attention today at Superstore, as per usual. I mean, can you blame people for noticing? They’re all far too beautiful for their own good.

Isn’t it funny how a decent sleep and a boost in health can change a persons perspective? When I get overtired, or when I’ve been sick for an extended period of time, my anxiety jumps. So naturally, the last little while has been interesting. The last few days, I’ve had these crazy zapping, squeezing headaches. I had a chiro treatment, and the day after was awful. And then the next day was remarkably better! Granted, my mom stayed for the morning and did my dishes, played with my kids, and fed them lunch so I could lay still with a hot pad on my neck. The break was amazing, and I’m positive it played a role in how I’m feeling today. Because I feel SO much better! Going to bed at 9:30 didn’t hurt either.

Yes, my nose is still plugged up a bit, but my head is no longer trying to kill me! Its amazing how much better I feel! What a relief! I was able to put my hair in a ponytail even, which believe it or not, is a big accomplishment. I can wear my glasses without them pinching my head. I can do dishes without my head pounding every time I bend down. I could even turn some lights on today! These all seem like pretty dumb details, but they haven’t ben common occurrences over the last little while.

Out of nowhere today, I have some of my gusto back. I’m finally feeling somewhat enthusiastic, rather than plodding along through the days. I’m excited for this next year! I want to take on a bunch more responsibility with Brady’s business. Lets be real. I want a cute rose gold iPad. 😉 I want to get Solly eating solids again (he’s completely quit since we all got sick, as he was drinking way less milk and was getting a bit “backed up”) and I want to get Laela peeing on the potty! I’m already dreaming of things to do this summer! And we need to get on finishing our basement. Soon! Lots to do in the coming months, and today, I feel ready for it. I feel capable. I don’t expect to finish any of this right away, or even start all of it right away, but there is never a shortage of things to do, and I finally feel healthy enough to consider doing some of it!

I don’t promise that this feeling will stick around forever, or even for long. I fear that another bout of sickness coming through here anytime soon would be a HUGE discouragement to me. But I don’t want to plan for the negative. So we’re going to plan and be excited and motivated and hope for the best! Hopefully Downer Hailey doesn’t show her face around these here parts for quite a while now 😉 She’s sure doing her best!

Christmas wasn’t all that long ago, but I want to reflect on a few parts of it. Bear with me, for a minute.

Its not a secret that it was a difficult Christmas season for us. Honestly, I think a lot of people felt this Christmas was a bit heavier than usual. I have a large handful of people I know who struggled this holiday season, all for entirely different reasons. Ours was sickness. The kids all got sick mid-November, and now that I think of it, I remember that Brady had a cold just before that. So it began even earlier. And it lasted aaaaall through Christmas. While we’re all pretty much done with it (knock on wood) Laela and I are still congested, and Rowan is still coughing. But thats beside the point. It was a hard Christmas.

Its not a new concept that its good to help each other out. Its really good to reach out and meet the needs of others, and to help someone up when they’re down. I know this. I’ve always known this. But this Christmas was a serious reminder about just how much of an impact it can make! Its more than just bringing someone some food one day. Its saving the time of prep. Its saving you from the fuss standing over a hot stove while wrangling kids, having to constantly leave to blow your nose, then wash your hands, then return to the food just in time to have your nose start running again. Its providing tomorrow’s lunch. One simple gift of a meal can have a bigger effect than one maybe thinks of at first. And we were blessed countless times in this way, among others.

Brady and I barely cooked over Christmas. We were gifted supper a handful of times. We were given baking a handful of times. A loving neighbour came over and babysat our whole sick brood on Christmas Eve while their entire family was gathered together for a couple of days. Heck, our tire shop gave us a fabulous price on winter tires! Blessings overflowed for us this Christmas, and honestly, we really really needed them.

I’ve said before, I’m very confident in our decision to have a big family, and in feeling that confidence, I’m not too concerned about other’s opinions about us. We’ve entered our decisions prayerfully, and have confidence in Christ. But this Christmas, I realized I do have a bit of a pride issue. It was hard for me to need so much help, and embarrassingly enough, the hardest part about it was my fear that people would think I wasn’t capable of caring for my kids. Because at times, I didn’t feel capable of caring for them. I was SO broken about not being able to heal them up and get everyone healthy. Every time there was a glimmer of health, the next illness rolled on in, and I was SO discouraged.

In stepping back a bit, when we’ve seen some improvement around here, I’ve been able to clear my head and I know that, whether I had no kids or ten kids, seven weeks of sickness is a LOT! I would likely have felt just deeply burrowed in sorrow and struggle as I did with my four kids. I keep privately wondering if this all had to happen so I would realize my pride, and get that business back in check. NO ONE is above needing help. EVER. As my loving neighbour reminded me, it takes a village to raise children, and I have seen just how many amazing people we have in our village!

So as I reflect on Christmas, I have learned that the impact of reaching out and meeting a need without being asked is bigger than I thought, and bigger than I could have known had I not been in a position of needing help. It was quite a big lesson. I learned a lot this Christmas.

Without this being super resolutiony, I want this lesson to ring in my heart throughout the year. And throughout my life. I don’t want to put any amount or time stamp on it, but I want to challenge myself not to wait to be asked for help, but to keep my eyes and ears open always, and meet needs as best as I can as they come around. Because not only can it help in a tangible way sometimes, but I hope I can make people feel as loved and thought of and cared for as I have been made to feel these last few weeks.

To those of you who reached out to us, cared for us, and made sacrifices for us, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am humbled in the best way. Thank you for seeing our needs, and meeting them with love. This Christmas would not have had such sweet notes in it if not for you. 💜

It has been suggested that I always keep my cool around my kids. Well, I do not. Sometimes, I flip my lid, just like everyone else. Today was one of those days.

The kids were fine this morning. Its a pretty normal day. Dekker has entered a new fun stage of correcting Laela at every turn. If she speaks, she is WRONG. And its driving me up the wall! I was struggling hard with it today, because she’s started to fight back. Honestly, I’m ok with my kids figuring some of that stuff out between themselves. I want them to communicate well without me always refereeing. But when they’re both resorting to just saying mean things or screaming, I’m done letting them work it out. Then mom intervenes.

Rowan and Solly ate lunch and went down for naps a bit early, so the big kids tidied up the floor and lay out a blanket to play Lego. I figured they should have a snack first, at least, so I suggested a popcorn party (aka: eating popcorn on the floor while watching some tv) and they were thrilled. While I was in the kitchen putting popcorn into bowls and unwrapping fruit bars, Dekker snapped on Laela again. AGAIN! And I absolutely lost it.

I chastised him for being so mean to someone who he loves SO much, and someone who loves him SO much, and how would he feel if she did that to him constantly, and all that stuff. And then I burst out crying and sank to the floor. I had a good long cry there. I heard Dekker crying a little bit from the living room, where he sat on the blanket they had laid out. A couple of times, I heard Laela ask if I was ok. I told her I would be ok, but I needed to have a cry. “Ok mommy,” she said.

So I took my cry, because I needed one, and then some deep breaths, because you guys know I needed those too. At that point, Laela quietly, very politely asked “Mommy, you want to get some food for us please?” I said I would get them food in a minute or two. I was just finishing my cry. And she followed up with “Want some help?”

I took her up on it.

She came to the kitchen and waited beside me while I got things unwrapped and ready. She brought a fruit bar over to Dekker, which he thanked her for. Then she brought hers over and sat down beside him. I reminded them to pray, and instantly I heard Dekker yell “NO LAELA DONT EAT WE HAVE TO PRAAAAAY!” I looked over and Laela was sitting still, looking at me while Dekker was chewing his bite. Honestly, I don’t even care that he had taken a bite already, but MAN I was angry at him for yelling at her when he had done the exact thing he was freaking out about her not doing! I raised my voice and said “Come on, Dekker!! She didn’t do anything wrong! It was YOU who took the bite!” Laela looked at me and just said “Its ok, mommy.”

So. I don’t love how today went down. And I’m still struggling with Dekker’s new attitude towards Laela. But I really appreciate my kids, and how they handled it when I needed a cry. Dekker and Laela still love me, and they still love each other. Today, though, standards are low. Everyone is alive, and that is all I can ask for.

Wish us luck for a better day tomorrow!

I haven’t gone to my chiropractor too much recently. Weirdly, I feel like I’ve healed up after Solly in a much different, more thorough way than I did after any of the other kids. I never felt like I specifically didn’t recover well after my deliveries, but I feel like my body is in better shape since Solly than it has been for a while. So my need for chiropractic has been less. The last time I went, it had been quite a while, and Dr. Mike was impressed with how trash I was not. Win for me!

However, since this unreasonably long bout of sickness, I have had these headaches that are just unreal! I am the first to admit that I am a headache wimp. But these are unlike anything I’ve ever felt. They have been NUTS. In my research, I’ve come up with the idea that they are tension headaches. Maybe. I’m not sure. But it sounds right.

Brady booked he and I in to see Dr. Mike today at 5:00pm. Brady’s had a twingy neck here and there through Christmas, and now I have these unshakable headaches, so chiro is usually our first stop. While we got there SO late thanks to an accident on Circle Dr, it was very good that we went. Brady really needed a refresher with work starting back up today. And my neck was trashed. I don’t often leave those appointments feeling sore, but that was very very uncomfortable. He said my upper neck was really really tight, and that the treatment should gradually help me get back to normal. I hope he’s right!

After a bit of a crazy day with the kids here, one at school, and Brady have a bit of a gong show of a first day back to work, we are ready for a soak in the tub and some Big Bang Theory! Have a great night, everyone!

It was our last chance to get out today, and we needed to. We didn’t have TONS to do, but we needed to get some groceries and run a few errands. Luckily everything was open, and it was actually possible. Though it was freezing! Not that it bothered us when we were inside. Solly had his first toga party!

All of our kids have done this at some point, when we put them to bed in a shirt with somewhat of a wide neck. Its pretty adorable. At least we think so. Maybe its just a parent thing…

Once everyone was awake (Ro slept until lunch again) we got some lunch and got everyone dressed and ready to go. Rowan finally got to sport the new headwrap he got for Christmas. I LOVE it!!

Then into coats! I had to ask Brady to take a picture of Solly, and then everyone wanted in, so we got a refreshed picture of all four kids.

I ran into Costco first while Brady and the kids went to fill up. It wasn’t a huge shop but I stocked up on some staples, which is always good. And I found season nine of The Big Bang Theory for $18!! We are so behind in that show, and everywhere I’ve looked, the season costs $35. So this was a huge win 🙂

We ran another errand to two before hitting Superstore.

One bummer about having such a big vehicle now is that we don’t fit into underground parking lots anymore. I should say, we don’t fit into most underground parking lots.

Brady saw the numbers and knew we’d fit, so we went for it. It is SO TIGHT!! As in tight enough that we have to fold our mirrors in to fit. Serious business.

So just because we can fit doesn’t necessarily mean we should fit, hahaha! But hey, we made it work. But MAN it was close!!

We did our Superstore shop, and the kids were completely happy the whole time, which was a treat. I love how much our kids love grocery shopping. Drama free, which is HUGE. The cookies at the end are a good incentive too.

I love you Brady!!!

Go back and look at Dekker again, and then Laela again! Their smiles are the same!!!

Rowan was SO proud of how funny he was being here!! He happily held this face while I fumbled to get the camera on my phone ready. It was hilarious.

A quick stop for coffee, and we made it home. Now, everything is put away, and Brady tidied up the floor in the pantry, which is AWESOME! We had a diaper box in there of who knows what, and now its gone, freeing up TONS of space! Soon, I’ll make Dekker’s lunch to prepare for him going back to school tomorrow, and gather up whichever Christmas gift he chooses to bring along, being that he has show and tell on his first day back. Reality begins again TOMORROW! Sadly, I’m not all the way ready :/ Still feeling somewhat under the weather here. But I think its just me now, so I can handle myself. If the kids are healthy, and my husband is strong enough to make it to work, I’m healthy enough to be at home with my kids. We’ve got this.

I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of 2017. I’m really happy to see the new year, and praying that it only gets better from here!