I can’t decide whether I’m surprised that Laela is already five, or that she’s not already a teenager. I’ll get back to you on that. As per usual, you can re-read her birth story here, if you want. She was my craziest, scariest, life changiest delivery ever, and it couldn’t suit her better! Of course it was her who was born like that.

Its been a FULL year! She’s changed so much, but not at all, really. She’s still delicate and playful and soft and silly and all the yummy things in between.

We spent the morning of Laela’s birthday at the zoo, just like we did for her first birthday.

It was a bit cold, and some of our group couldn’t make it, but it was still lovely and fun! The bears, monkeys, and wolves were the highlights! Post zoo trip, we went home for naps, and our guests rejoined us for a supper of perogies and sausage. We were hoping to attend our local fall supper, but most of the kids were completely trashed from the morning out in the cold, and it was better to keep things warm and at home.

Laela got an amazing haul of gifts. Sticker books, bath toys, paints and smelly markers, with more to open tomorrow. Brady and I got her a couple of pretty rings and a comfy sweater that I only wish came in my size!

In Laela’s five year old honour, Cher took some pictures of her the other day. The goal at the time was to show of a cute toque pattern that I had tweaked to make into a kids size, but in my opinion, it turned into a beautiful shoot to celebrate my first daughter, my Laela Hazel. I think I’m going to save those for a different post, because they’re just WAY too beautiful to be snuck in here at the end of post thats already filled with so many pretty pictures, but I’ll leave you with one that just happens to be on theme.

Laela. You are FIVE. You are both SO grown up and still SO little. My heart laughs with yours and hurts with yours. We are cut from the same cloth, my dear. I pray that you always love Jesus, and share him with everyone through that fiery personality of yours. Stay silly, stay warm, and stay honest, even when it sucks. Keep singing and dancing and writing those nice notes you always write. Thank you for being such a bright light in our family. I waited for my Laela for about twelve years, and you are the exact right girl for the name!

Happy fifth birthday, Miss Laela. I love you all the way to Heaven.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I got taken on a date! Woot!

Guys, I said a handful of times that we have to take a nice picture in the daylight, but we forgot once again. I think our most recent nice selfie is from a year ago, and while we both look really nice in it, we had just lost our second baby that year and all I see is my sad eyes. I’ve got to get a better one, but tonight, I forgot. Whoops! Maybe next time!

We started at the theatre. We were hoping to go to that nice new theatre across the city again but Mamma Mia 2 was playing at the cheap seats! So we did that instead. It was cute 🙂 I legitimately teared up through the last song in the movie, and then there was a hilarious encore number with the entire cast, somewhat separate from the movie itself, which I THOROUGHLY enjoyed!!! Was such a good ending!

After the movie, we headed for supper. It was kind of out of order, but we’re old and didn’t want to go to the later show. It didn’t matter. Boston Pizza always tastes good!!! We enjoyed tropical chicken pizza (my favorite) and I had long island iced tea. It sounds so dumb, but I forgot they existed this summer, and I SO enjoy them! The season is all wrong, but I had to get one in at least!! Was SO yummy!

We made it home sometime after 10:00 to a quiet house and our lovely friend walking our twitchy baby through the house. It is wrong that I was secretly relieved that she was still up??

We fed her and tucked in for the night shortly after getting home, and Wavy gave us a solid seven hour stretch of sleep! We woke up feeling pretty refreshed, and dove into our productive day! We’re getting a few things sorted out for Laela’s birthday tomorrow, getting Dekker ready for a party he’s invited to today, and we’re kicking off some electrical in the basement! Go us!!

I hope your Saturday is as productive as ours!! I kid. I actually hope you’re all having a solidly lazy Saturday. Either or is good 😉

Today’s post is a bit of a mixed bag from the last two days 🙂 I have the cutest little office assistant with me, so I’ll keep it short and sweet, like her.

Brady took Dekker to the eye doctor yesterday. Its become their little date. Dekker had the eye drops at his last appointment, so we anticipated this appointment would be nice and quick. While Dekker was super cooperative, they could tell his eyes had worsened.

So, in went the drops, and Dekker belly laughed through them. If you’ve known Dekker a long time, you know how HUGE that is! He handled it, and he and Brady went down to the cafeteria to pass the time with some treats.

Sure enough, they left the hospital with a new prescription. His vision itself isn’t worse, but the shape of his eyes have changed, making his astigmatism worse. So he’ll be getting new glasses soon! Thank the Lord for the “Kids See Free” program at Superstore!

Laela and Dekker were both at school today, but Brady was home! So he and I and the three little ones ran into the city for some errands.

We shopped Superstore, Costco, got a bday gift for a party Dekker is going to this weekend, as well as a bday gift for Laela. I can’t BELIEVE she’s almost five!!! I also got my side shave redone. It was very productive. Though I had to take a picture of this and have a brief ten second rant about it.

Ok. I get it. Sometimes people pump gas on the wrong side because the lines at Costco are long. I understand that. Its ok. And both of these vehicles are technically in the lines. But with the nozzles sticking out like that, it would’ve been very close for us to try and drive out in between them. The man standing there made it impossible. GAH!!! Pet peeve alert!! I’m done now. Its probably our own fault for driving a bus anyway.

When we got back to down, we hit the post office and picked up FOUR parcels!!! I love when everything finally shows up! Lol! In it came Laela’s other birthday present, a little dress for her, some socks, and a couple of different sizes of jeans for me. I’ll pick what fits best and send the rest back. I also discovered the empty magnetic palettes at Sephora were on sale for 50% off the other day, so I bought two to organize all my ColourPop loose shadows and singles I’ve gotten through my sample bags. Yay for having all that in one (or two) places finally! Only one more parcel coming in the mail at this point 🙂 And you guys will definitely know about it when it comes!

Its been a fun couple of days, and likely this evening will also be fun! I’ve been recently informed that I’m going on a date! Yay! I haven’t been as diligent with Operation Hailey and Brady Hang Out as I should be, and I’m thankful Brady made this one happen. Its amazing how intentional we need to be about getting ONE night out a month, but I think its a healthy, reasonable goal. Just have to make it happen! Its happening tonight, and I’m thankful for it 🙂 Friday niiiiight!!

I’m pretty self aware when I post photos of our days that don’t include every kid. I’ve often thrown a disclaimer in there, that I love all of my kids the same and all that jazz, but there are stages where its just harder to get them in photos! Dekker went through that a while back, for quite some time, and I felt SO guilty that he wasn’t in many pictures. But he was too busy running around, or specifically said he didn’t want to be, or just wore awkward fake smiles. Whatever the reason, there are reasons, so it happens.

Maybe you’ve noticed, or you haven’t, but Ro is very much in that stage! He never stops, or he’ll put on a grouchy face when he sees me try to take a picture of him. I can get pictures of him, but they’re phoney and not what I want. And clearly not what he wants. Most of the time.

So when he was having it today, I had to post about him! Just so you guys can see his happy face once in a while at least!

These were dance moves. I can’t tell you what or why, but he was super happy and super hyper!

This is Rowan’s recent photo face. If he’s not grumpy in a photo, he’s usually sticking his tongue out. But MAN is he cute!!

I’m so glad to have some funny, happy, recent pictures of him! I hope you’re glad, too, and didn’t just completely forget that he existed! My phone has officially lost him in my “People” photo folder. Whoops! Hopefully this helps!

We love you, Rowan!!

I’m all for living in the moment, and enjoying each day as I’m given! The day to day is pretty mundane sometime, but I really love my life! However, I like having fun things to anticipate, too! Don’t we all?

October is coming! Brady’s schedule is pretty full with work, but we’ve taken some great steps in our basement project, so I’m hoping we get a lot more done there soon! I haven’t spoken to Brady in detail yet, so I won’t say anything ballsy yet, but I’m excited to set a goal of how much we can aim to complete by the end of October! (I should post pictures soon and show you guys around the basement at this point…) Brady is working through Thanksgiving this year, which is sad, so no big plans for that weekend. Also in October is Bradys birthday! Woot! Birthdays are always fun, right? (Wrong. They are not. Not always.) And then October closes off with Halloween, obviously. We SO enjoy that day, dressing the kids up and going to our friends houses! We’ll have FIVE to dress this year!! I kind of want to put Wavy in some sort of 80s workout gear, with the little sweatbands and leotard, haha! Somehow I just picture her fro making that look SO funny! But we’ll see 🙂 Its a fun day to dress up and laugh at each other.

November holds hopefully a retreat for me!! A friend brought it to my attention today that the annual ladies craft retreat is coming up soon! I went once when I won free admission and, my goodness, it was SO FUN! I knew all of ONE person there, and was kind of nervous about being on my own, but it was such a fun group of women, with such a relaxed vibe, and SUCH good food. I loved it! I wanted to go last year, but we were in the midst of our “hiatus from income” and we couldn’t swing it. This year we’re going to make it happen, and I’m SO stoked! I can’t wait to get a bunch of crocheting for Christmas done!

To branch off of that, Christmas closes out the year in December, and I’m just so stoked. I’ve begun my shopping, and am literally waiting for six packages to come in the mail! I have my list of people written down, with ideas beside almost all of the names. I’m still stumped for a couple, so if anyone cares to brainstorm with me this early, I’d jump at having someone to bounce ideas off of! I’m so looking forward to being set for gifts early in the game so I can just soak up the Christmas vibes, stress free, in December!

What are you guys looking forward to in the coming months? Any fun trips planned? Any occasions beyond Christmas that you’re excited about? Waiting for any new products or music to come out? I’m so ready for Hickory Farms to be back in the malls! Last year I waited too long and missed out on my pineapple honey mustard completely!!! I’m in withdrawal, guys. Mustard withdrawal. Its a real problem…

I know there will be plenty of mornings like this in the coming year, but its still such a novelty to have the little boys on their own! We do have Waverly, obviously, but she’s super sleepy still, and isn’t exactly involved in the play yet 😉

Rowan has picked up one of Laela’s games, where she just plunks herself down somewhere and asked him to bring her all kinds of things. But they’re very specific things that he has to hunt for. So Ro tried this with Solly this morning, and it was SO FUNNY! He would spout of some vague description of one of our infinite number of Hot Wheels cars, and Solly would diligently toddle over to the ottoman, grab a stuffed toy off the top, and present it to a frustrated Rowan.

Over. And over. And over again.

It was amazing.

Rowan took to the comfort of his toy phone, in true teenager style. Though he lamented that the menu button didn’t work anymore.

He lived, and they played well. They’d sneak off to one of the bedrooms and I’d find them looking down heat registers with flashlights. They’d have “sleepovers” in the pantry. They’d race cars across the living room. The list went on. It was so fun to watch them learn to play together! I realized at one point that these two boys are two and three. I’m supposed to hate these ages, right?? Sure, they have their moments, but truly, today the best word for them is FUN!!!

Eventually little miss sleepy face woke up and joined us.

She lay on the floor and flapped for a while, but it wasn’t long before she was wailing for milk and her bed. Such a short little visit with her, but I’ll take what I can get!

These days with just the young ones are so special! With where Rowan’s birthday falls, he’s actually going to be home for another two years before he can enter kindergarten! So these kids will be in my view for a good stretch of time still! I’m so thankful for that.

Thanks to September, we are down and out with colds over here. Again. I didn’t catch the last one, thank goodness, and I hope very much to not catch this one either!

Not everyone is sick yet. Dekker is a bit more emotional than usual, so I can tell he’s feeling a little bit under the weather. Laela has been snotty and coughy for the last two or three days. She actually slept in this morning, and only woke up for breakfast after everyone else was done. Thankfully, today wasn’t a school day for her. Rowan isn’t sick yet! Though he’s looking a bit droopy. Solly is hopefully on the way out of this one, but he’s had it rough. So much snot, tons of coughing, and a persistent diaper rash. Poor dude. Wavy is a bit congested, and while she’s SO sleepy, she doesn’t sleep well. So, its all pretty standard sick kid stuff.

Besides them, Brady is feeling it pretty decently, but his colds usually move pretty quick. I feel a bit extra for him, though, because he just kicked his last illness maybe a week ago. We think he randomly had Hand Foot and Mouth, because he had a BRUTAL sore throat that felt like knives for a good handful of days, but came with virtually no other symptoms. It reached the point where he felt at a total loss, and couldn’t enjoy any food or drink anymore at all. But it finally lifted, and now he has a cold. Which feels considerably better than HFMD, but is still annoying.

I’ve had some colds throughout the last while, but less than usual, I’d say. Especially considering its the beginning of the school year, and thats the time for everyone to be sick! I may be jinxing everything now, but whatever. I realized yesterday that I’ve been sick WAY LESS since I started getting my nails done!

If you haven’t been around for long, I have always been a nail biter. I had gotten my habit fairly under control, that is, until we started losing our babies. When we conceived our fifth baby for the third time (Oy…) my anxiety beat out my self control, and I chewed my hands like crazy! I chewed my nails and the skin around them until I couldn’t use my fingers anymore. It was impossible to ever get them wet, because they would puff up just the smallest amount and would hurt SO BADLY. That meant I couldn’t wash my hands, my hair, myself, my kids, our dishes, our house, etc. It was out of control. I got gel nails not because I think they’re pretty (though they definitely are!) but to save my poor hands from myself. And guys, it has helped immensely. I’m not perfect, and I still pull at the skin around my thumbs sometimes. Hangnails still get me in trouble sometimes, but with the thicker, rounded gel nails, its harder for me to pick at my skin. While vastly unsatisfying, its helpful, and I’m thankful.

Only just recently have I realized that the lack of biting my fingers has probably saved me from illness!! I can’t believe it took me so long to put that together because I say it to my kids every single day! “Get that out of your mouth, please!” Time after time after time. “You’ll get sick! You’ll put germs into your mouth!” Who am I that I’ve missed this lesson for myself??

Now that I’ve written this all out, I’ll probably get sick, haha! But hey, its been a less ill year, and at least some of that credit goes to my nails being well protected. I’m going to back that all up over the next few days with tons of hand washing, tons of lotion (to combat the dry hands that I’ll inevitably pick at,) and Lysol wipes on EVERYTHING! I know they’re not the most natural option, but they’re efficient and effective.

Wish me luck!!! 🤞

Not everyone buys into the whole amber necklaces for babies thing. Some people like hazelwood better. Some people think any necklace on a baby is unsafe. Some people think the whole thing is made up. To each their own, as always. We’ve seen amber necklaces work before our very eyes on our babies, dating back to Dekker. He was a class A drooler, that boy. He was soaking wet down the front of his clothes 100% of the time. That was our motivation to try the amber, not teething. The very next day after putting his necklace on him, the amount of drool he produced was legitimately cut in half. No exaggeration. It was wonderful! Since then, we’ve always used amber necklaces with our kids, regardless of how they drool/teethe/whatever else.

I’ve had this particular kind of amber necklace in mind for Wavy for a while now. I’ve seen them on Etsy, Pinterest, and really all over the internet. Its a basic yellow amber necklace, but it has one small bundle of stones on it that made up a little rainbow. I LOVE this idea for her, for so many reasons! Not only does it follow along with Wavy being our rainbow baby, but she has also added color to our lives like we never could’ve expected. I LOVE this idea!!

We usually get our amber necklaces from the same person, but she doesn’t have the rainbow ones. This is part of the reason I’ve been holding off on buying her one. The ones on Etsy are expensive. I also like going to someone I trust to give me real amber and not the phoney stuff. But over the last little while, Wavy has become just a liiittle bit fussier than usual, and a liiiiittle bit droolier. Placebo or not, I wanted to get this girly an amber necklace.

So I did something I kinda didn’t think I’d do. I gave her the amber necklace we had bought for Jamin.

I’m not sure if it makes me feel warm and cozy, or sad and weird. Still mulling that. However, it does seem to have settled out some of the mad drool action. So I’m thankful. But its different, for sure. I guess Jamin never really had a chance to give tangible gifts, so maybe this is the one time he can 🙂

Lucky little girly she is to get to wear her brother’s necklace. What an honour.

I’m not sure if anyone likes these little anecdotes but I just can’t resist sharing them! This way, I can keep them forever. I know you weren’t there, witnessing it personally, but I hope you can appreciate the mental picture, or the simple amusement.

***

Dekker walked to school on his own yesterday. I questioned whether or not that was “mean,” being that the snow was flying and it all just seemed unfamiliar. But it really wasn’t too cold. I walked all the time as a kid, even in winter. Turns out, he was totally gung ho for it! His fall jacket is fleece lined, as are his splash pants. We pulled out toques and mitts a day or two earlier. He was ready! He headed out happily in the morning. The rest of us went about our day in sweats, tucked away in the warm house.

With Dekker walking to and from school these days, he usually gets home around the same time. I checked the time at one point, and it was a few minutes after that time already. I checked out the front window and didn’t see him. I walked to the back of the house and looked out a back window to see if he was just a ways off. I still didn’t see him. Hmmm. 🤔

In that moment, I heard the little kids cry from the basement, “Dekker is home!” They were downstairs with Brady while he was framing, and apparently Dekker was peeking in the window, waving at them all! I just hadn’t seen him right up against the house when I originally checked out the front window! I heard him clunk onto the wooden front step, and went to greet him at the door. But he didn’t come in. I waited a few seconds, and I kept hearing clunking, but he wasn’t coming in! The door was unlocked. I couldn’t figure it out, so I finally opened the front door to check.

And there he was. In true Dekker fashion. Watering the flowers on our front step.

In the snow.

Isn’t he the sweetest thing?? All foggy and toothless and ADORABLE! He was all wet and red in the face. But he was smiling happily, hauling the full watering can over to our flower pot filled with snow-covered flowers. He chirped a happy “Hi Mom!” when he saw me, but finished up his task before coming in and hugging me.

MAN I love my kids. We should all be as thoughtful as Dekker. Thoughtful enough to water someones flowers, even if they’re probably going to die the next day 🙂

Of course it snows on the last day of summer. Because Saskatchewan.

Facebook memories reminded me that Laela was actually due on September 21st, five years ago. I wrote a Facebook post requesting her to be born that day so I could have another summer baby. Of course, she was not, but what can you do? No big deal. I love her in fall, too.

The floating of snowflakes makes our basement project feel just that much more urgent. Not that it has to be finished ASAP, but that we really need to finish up the framing so we can throw in the plumbing and electrical, and INSULATE!!! Its not brutally cold down there, but its not exactly balmy either. Brady’s been using his few days off to sneak in some framing. He’s included the kids, which has made it SO much more fun for them!

Aren’t they just the cutest things?

Its also more fun for me! I lurk upstairs with Wavy.

When she sleeps, I’ve been getting some crocheting done. Its nice 🙂

Brady and I are so eager to get our basement finish, and we’ve been trying to think of a way to set a goal on the blog so it has to get done. Its always easier to finish a job when other people know about it, right? We can’t really find a way to do it, though, without putting ourselves in a financially straining situation. If you guys can think of a way to keep it fun and not unreasonable, please let me know! Because the sooner we have a basement, the sooner we can have overnight guests, or later movie nights, or just be more accommodating! We can also have another room or two for our kids to sleep in, which would be handy for when Waverly is ready to move out of our room 🙂 Would be a win all around!