I know. All three of these good things on a Sunday! I’m telling the truth.

Brady, Carrie, and I lead music at church this morning together for the first time since May! My goodness, it was SO good to be all back together, leading our church in worship! When it came time for the closing song, both she and I were rocking our sad babies in the back of the church. Our pastor was ready to just blow past it and end the service without a final song, but the amount of arms, outstretched to hold our babies for us was just awesome! I love our church.

After church, we got the kids home and lunching. Mom and I had already made a bit of an afternoon plan, so once she and I had both had some lunch, and she came and picked me up for the afternoon. I know how hard she tries not to do work on a Sunday, but sometimes it just has to be done, so I tagged along on her afternoon of grocery shopping! We moseyed our way through a couple of grocery stores, just for a few things, and I was able to find Wavy a few more sleepers that actually fit her (my first tall/skinny baby!) as well as winter gear for Solly (nothing like two boys who are the same size over winter!) and bananas (because we ALWAYS need bananas.) We had some good visits and good laughs, as always. We doddled a little towards the end of our trip, and made our way home by picking up Pizza Hut for the family for supper!

So thankfully, supper wasn’t a fight with anyone today. Everyone ate their pizza happily, because they’re not crazy. Pizza Hut pizza is the best pizza of ALL restaurant pizza!! YUM!

Mom is already on her way home, and we’re ready to call it over here, too. I want a soak and to go to bed early! This poor little baby just can’t quite kick her cold, and has been waking up far more than usual. C’mon, Waverly. Your parents are tired.

Enjoy the last shred of your weekend, friends!

The plan for today was to try to get family pictures taken, so I booked an early morning hair appointment to get a loose curl put in there. I am useless at doing hair. Useless. However, as we were getting the kids up before I left, Laela told Brady that she felt sick to her stomach. Brady got her a bucket and left her in bed and came to tell me. When I went to check on her, she was indeed folded over, tossing her cookies.

I texted Cher that photos might have to be put off, and I headed into the city for my appointment. I couldn’t exactly cancel at that point, as I was her first appointment of the day. It was great to see Carlinna at her new location, and I enjoyed my little half hour chat with her while she did my hair.

While I was getting my hair done, my phone was blowing up with plans. Laela had asked to eat breakfast after all and was suddenly back to 100% health. Who knows what happened there, but she felt great! Cher had suggested we go forward with a photo shoot we had talked about a while ago, so we made the plan to take some photos together during nap time, and try for family photos after everyone was up.

I got home and made a quick run around the house, pulling possible clothes for the kids for our possible photo shoot. I loaded our bed with options for them, as well as for Brady and I, and made Cher promise to help us. When she came over, she helped me pick a couple of outfits for myself for our own little shoot, and once I was ready to go, we headed into the city.

We were promised clouds today, but we were given the sun instead, which is lovely and bright but not ideal for photos. But we made it work, and did some wandering around by the river. Some were more serious than others…

A couple of hours later, we called it and headed back home. Brady had showered and gotten the kids up from their naps. We made some final decisions about what everyone would wear, and we all got ready! My mom headed over to lend a hand and be someone for everyone to look at while Cher was tucked behind her camera. Once the group was assembled, we made our way to our location – basically just across the street.

Some of us weren’t as into it as others 😂

I’ll show you the real ones another day, but I’m saving a couple for this years Christmas card!!

Overall, it felt like  super full day, but I actually super enjoyed it! I got my hair done at my hair girls new location. I got some pictures taken of myself for a few things. We got family pictures taken, and everyone was looking! I’ve been in good company all day.

Its been a really lovely day! I hope you all enjoyed your Saturdays, too!

I took Wavy to the doctor for a routine checkup yesterday. We were aiming to come around 4 months, but this was a week where both of my doctors were in the office, so we specifically booked in that window. Poor baby girl didn’t sleep on the drive over, and then things were running a bit behind, so once we got in to see the doctor, she was a bit fed up and tired. But we managed. She just wasn’t all that impressed.

We started with Wavy’s weight, as per usual. She’s up to 13 lbs 9.5 oz, which is SO tiny in comparison to her siblings, but puts her in the 50th percentile. Her height is in the 85th percentile at about 25”. She’s been growing like a weed!! No wonder all of her 3 month sleepers are so short on her all of a sudden!

As always, we had a super great appointment. I really, really like our doctors. We started with Dr. Khatra. The first thing out of his mouth was a heartfelt thanks for the card I brought him last time we were through. It was just a thank you card, but he said it was his first, and he was really touched by it. So guys, if you feel the need to thank your doctors, do it! I think they really appreciate it, and probably don’t hear it enough. He went on to run through the whole thing with us, asking all kinds of questions about Waverly’s eating, sleeping, pooping, socializing, and general developmental stuff. My favourite question was “Are you still formula feeding? I kind of just stared and laughed at him. “No,” I said. “I’ve switched to breastfeeding.” He laughed at himself. He liked all of my answers otherwise, and was pretty smitten with Wavy in general. I don’t blame him. He talked about her hair, her super pretty eyes, her smile, etc. She’s just SO sweet! She was definitely tired and got a bit grouchy when he actually physically checked her over, but just barely. She doesn’t cry too often, so I figured she’s allowed to fuss from time to time, just to prove that she can cry.

I was next in line in the appointment, and I had a few questions. I’ve had some strange body changes that I haven’t talked about on here just yet. I was a bit worried I might have a hernia, or something like it, but upon checking it out, I think we’re working with a bit of weakening of the abdominal wall. I have no pain with it at all, but there’s definitely a weird bulge there when I eat or drink. Sooooo thats a fun thing for me to worry about. Lucky for me, I have an amazing physiotherapist who I anticipate will help me with this. I put an email through already today for an appointment. I’d love to address it sooner than later!

Beyond that, we talked about basic health stuff – eating and sleeping, and how I’m doing. I can tell I’m not in the best health I’ve ever been in, so we brainstormed a bit how I can improve my overall health. I could still use some input, however, so if anyone wants to talk food with me, I’d LOVE to bounce ideas off of someone! All things considered, though, I think we’re doing well 🙂

He was about to send me home, but then he remembered that Dr. Guselle was around, and said he’d duck over to ask if she wanted to see us quickly. I overheard the conversation just outside the door where she literally said “Don’t let them leave.” I love that 🙂 He came back in and said it would be a few minutes, but she wanted to see us. He said goodbye and headed in to see his next patient, and I rocked Waverly on my shoulder while she dozed in and out. She is SO cozy.

Dr Guselle came in very shortly thereafter, and just breezed in the way she does, with a big smile and such a welcoming air about her. She commented on Wavy, all sleepy and squishy, and confirmed that my appointment had been good, no big issues, etc. And then she went back and talked to me about this debacle I had back in August. Its another thing I chose not to share on here, but I had a pretty frustrating stretch trying to get a hold of her a while back. I think its probably pretty standard to get the run around at a doctors office, but I’m quite spoiled at mine, so its unusual for me not to be able to reach my doctor. We hashed it out today, which felt SO good, and she put something together for me so I wouldn’t be left hanging the way I way again. If I haven’t said it enough, I’ll say it again. LOVE her!

We have another appointment booked for down the road in December. Its far enough ahead, but I can’t even imagine how different Waverly will be by then! Probably standing a bit stronger when I hold her. Maybe able to be awake longer. Even more interactive, possibly?? She’s already SO fun to talk to, and will coo back and really engage when we talk with her. I love them all little and munchie like this, but truly, I am just loving watching her change and grow and develop.

I’m sure you guys remember that we called Waverly by a nickname before she was born. Did you know we did it for all the kids? Some of you probably remember, but I thought it would be interesting to tell you what each little nickname was for each kid while they were in utero, and maybe why we chose it 🙂

Starting from the beginning, we have Dekker, who we called Bagels. I believe I enjoyed a LOT of bagels in the beginning of my pregnancy, and we just thought it was cute 🙂 Baby Bagels. We joked around, saying we’d switch to Strawberry Bagels if it was a girl and a herby one for a boy.

Laela was next, and we called her Paddles. We had decided on her little nickname before she was even conceived. If you remember, it was a bit of a long road conceiving Laela, so we had time. I remember seeing a picture on Pinterest of a headboard made of paddles. I mentioned it to Brady, and we both went there in the same moment, which was weird, but telling. We LOVED it. It was so much cuter when she finally existed in my womb, and our pregnancy app told us her hands were like little paddles.

Rowan was named Jim, courtesy of Dekker, haha! Dekker was a bit behind in his speech at that point, so he couldn’t say too many things. When we asked him what we should name the next baby, he thought about it and just piped up with “Jim!” So Jim it was! It came up in a doctors appointment, and Dr. Guselle asked if maybe there was a kids show she had missed with a character named Jim. There wasn’t, we told her. He probably knew it from The Office.

Solomon was known as Bobby Baby because, to go along with the theme, it was something Laela could say. Not a whole lot else to that story except for the fact that “bobby” is still a joke around here, for some reason. “Bobby pants” always gets a good laugh. Don’t ask me why!

After Solly, we lost our Theo. He wasn’t known about by too many, so his nickname never came out for the world to know. We called him Schnookums. This one wasn’t as prominent, obviously, but I’ll always remember it.

Do you remember Jamin’s nickname? It was probably my favourite. He was our little papoose. Ugh. I feel sad remembering this. How anxiously we anticipated our little papoose coming home. I remembering writing “Our little papoose went to be with the Lord” on the blog, and just laying in my bed, weeping, admitting all over again that he was gone. We hadn’t nailed down a concrete name for him when he passed away, so while we LOVE the name we chose for him, we had never known him by anything other than our little papoose. He’ll always be Jamin, but he’s Jamin just as much as he’s my little papoose.

Waverly you probably remember 😉 Bambina was easily our most used little baby nickname ever, and oh my heart, how I loved that. If you remember, she was Bambino first, and then when we found out she was a girl, it switched to Bambina. Laela called her Bambina for weeks after she was born. 

I’ve liked the direction the baby nicknames have taken. The earlier ones were fun and cute and exciting, but I’ve loved the cutesy little names for the last few kids! I know this possibly seems like a silly, unimportant detail, but I love nicknaming our kids. Even more so naming them their real names! I’ve tossed around making a post about baby names that we love but won’t be using! Thoughts on that??

I wonder what nickname we’ll end up using on the next one, when the time comes ❤️ 

** I KNOW some people don’t want to hear about Christmas until after Remembrance Day, so if thats you, feel free to X out 😉 No hard feelings on my end!

We all have our own standards of when its acceptable to start talking about Christmas. I’ve obviously talked about it a handful of times already in terms of gifts and money and all that fun stuff, but I really start to think about it right around now, when all of our birthdays for the year are passed. Brady is the last one in the calendar year to celebrate a birthday, so now that its done, I can focus on Christmas!!

I recently picked up a new mug at Value Village. Its tall, pink and purple, from Starbucks, and its FESTIVE! I love it so much! I have a good handful of mugs that I like best, even a new one from the kids from my birthday, but this one has been a pretty significant go-to for me.

I bought a cozy, wintery onesie the other day for myself. Cher has officially rubbed off on me, and she LOVES a good onesie. I’m not a very tall person, but I have a long upper body, and that has left me somewhat hung up, so to speak, while trying on onesies. Once upon a time, I bought an extra large onesie and I still had cameltoe. It wasn’t cute. Turns out, the trick is to buy a mens onesie. They’re WAY longer in the body! The zipper will open from both the bottom and the top, for reasons a woman doesn’t quite require, so be ready for that. Also, be ready for the store to leave the security ink tag on so you can’t really wear it or bring it back for fear of being accused of theft. Sigh. What do people dooooo??

Today, I put Rowan in pj pants with Santa on them. Now, no burn on anyone for doing things how they do them, but we are not a Santa family. Dekker didn’t even know the story until he started school. We’re really open about Christmas shopping together around here, and we don’t humour them with gifts from “Santa.” So its not really a thing around here. But we randomly have this pair of jammie pants with Santa on them, and Ro wore them today. I called him over to me once, and it went like this.

Me: Cmon, Santa.
Ro: I am not Santa, silly!
Me: Are you sure? I see Santa in you. Well, on you.
Ro: No! Santa is fake. I am not fake. I’m WEAL! (real)
Solly: Wheel? Hot Wheels??
Ro: No, Sol. Santa.
Solly: No! Hot Wheels!

It kinda just continued like that for a while…

Just these few little things make me feel like Christmas is in the air! I’m not itching to put up the big tree yet, but I’m feeling pretty ready to put our little mismatched trees on top of our cabinets like always. Maybe soon. Probably soon 🙂

As I sat down to write this, my head was spinning a bit. My thought process went like this:

My goodness, it feels like it should be Friday already!
Kind of like a Monday, too, with Brady back at work today.
Mostly a Frida, though.
How is it only Wednesday?

But, guys. Its Tuesday. I only know this because my laptop told me.

Probably it would help if I took slightly better care of myself. I’ve been trying to drink more water and eat real breakfast in the mornings, but today that meant my water had coffee grounds cooked into it, and my breakfast was leftover movie popcorn. Sooooo whoops.

I’m hanging out with these little monkeys today. They’re doing pretty good so far. Though Solly wasn’t really into Rowan’s snuggles at that particular times. Moments before this, he was insisting Rowan accept a hug from him, and Ro was refusing. So they’re kind of hot and cold.

And Wavy is just being her usual self. Ultra sweet, with a little bit of baby stinky thrown in there. She needs a bath, and she’ll get one. But I LOVE her smell!!! Its a real problem.

I was going to say my brain feels a bit out to lunch today. However, Solly has been watching the street sweeper and sneezed his head into the glass, so its possible his head is in rougher shape than mine currently is. It was secretly hilarious. I should go deal with that, haha!

Good luck this TUESDAY!!! (I typed “WED” before I remembered its Tuesday.) My gosh…

Sorry its been a couple of days, but we had such a lovely weekend celebrating Brady, and I’m finally here to share the details of his party! I say “party” loosely, because it was just he and I. Kid free. All day. On a date!

We left the house somewhere between 8:00-8:30am and headed for breakfast.

We kept it simple, and went to Tims for bacon breakfast sandwiches and double doubles. We drove to the river to find a place to eat. We used to waste sooo much time just walking by the river. Unfortunately, it was a bit too chilly to eat outside, so we parked by the train bridge and watched the joggers, walkers, and people on morning dates. It was cute. We easily killed enough time to get us to one of our scheduled events on time.

I took Brady to Bourbon, a barbershop here in Saskatoon. It looked great, had decent prices, and was not trashy at all! Very classy! We waited for Brady’s turn at a little bar in the middle of the establishment, and within minutes were called over to his spot. In his 30-45 minute appointment, he had a brief consultation, and then a very precise beard trim and clean up. She shaped his beard up really beautifully, and straight razor shaved his cheeks, neck, brows, etc.

Once all of his beard needs were taken care of, she oiled his face up good and proper, aimed a steam machine directly at his face and neck, and wrapped his face in hot towels. It was a look.

I had added a massage to his appointment, so she and I sat and shot the breeze while she massaged his neck, and he dozed in and out under his towels. His appointment ended with a cool towel to close his pores back up. She helped us pick out a beard balm, we paid up, and were on our way. Seriously men, or ladies who have men in their lives, this is SUCH a fun place! Brady is not one who requires pampering, but he’s already informed me that he’s going to be back there for beard trims, and I’m ALL for it! The prices are pretty great, which helps!

Post-pamper, we headed for lunch. Neither of us were very hungry, so we went for an old date night fallback and hit New York Fries.

Our next stop was Long & McQuade. Another place where we’d go to waste time when we had time to waste, lol! He played a few beautiful guitars, we dreamed for a little while, and Brady FINALLY got to buy a pedal thats been on his wish list since before we’ve been married – the Boss delay pedal. he was a happy happy man.

Fun fact about Long & McQuade. If you go to buy a pedal (or perhaps other things) they’ll try and sell you the floor model. I was surprised when he started to ring up the display model for Brady, and I asked if we were buying the floor model. He kind of dodged the question a bit, and said he didn’t know how long it had been out there, so it might not have even been used. He asked “Did you want a different one?” I was just surprised it was even a question! Yes, I confirmed, we’d like a new one. So rather than a pedal, just as is, in hand, we got a brand new one in a box with a manual. I couldn’t believe we had to specify that we wanted a fresh one, so I figured I’d put it out there for everyone as something to watch for.

We had some time to kill after that, and I had a short list of things we used to do, once again, when we had all the time in the world. Brady chose to drive around the ritzy areas of the city and look at all the big houses. That we used to do when we were dreaming of building our own house. Our drive quickly turned into touring old neighbourhoods where Brady had previously worked, and showing me the first houses he ever finished. We looked at previous show homes and home lottery homes. We just moseyed around until it was time for supper.

We hit Broadway Cafe, like we always used to. It was delicious! Though I was shorted my garlic toast. Merp.

We closed off the evening at the theatre, seeing Crazy Rich Asians. Since that movie came out, I’ve been expecting it to be some ridiculous, stereotypical, and somewhat racist. I had been reassured by a number of people, though, that it was actually really good, had a decent plot line, and that going to see it wouldn’t suggest to anyone that I’m racist. Because I’m not. And turns out, it was actually a REALLY good movie like I was told! It was heartwarming, funny, and pretty entertaining! A solidly mixed romantic comedy. We really liked it.

We grabbed ice cream on our way home, and that was it for the night! We came home to stories and pictures of our kids dressed in countless costumes, reading new books, and playing hard. It had been a good day for us, and a good day for them! Wins all around! We couldn’t have swung our day away without the help of our friends who stepped in to watch our littles, so an ENORMOUS thank you to them!

This is the last you’ll hear of Brady’s birthday for now, but I’m really happy with how his weekend turned out. I hope he felt loved and celebrated, and I hope he continues to feel that way every day. I’m so happy my husband was born those thirty years ago.

Yesterday, Brady and I celebrated his 30th birthday! I know I promised that I’d share the whole story with you today, but its going to have to wait for tomorrow. We spent a lovely day today at home with my mom. Yesterday was a full day, and today was beautifully low key. We read stories, played, coloured, etc. We ate leftover tacos for lunch, but supper of croissants, breakfast sausage, and peaches was a delicious win! My mom crushed the “mom of the year” title and made a cake for Brady! I hope he felt solidly celebrated.

Yesterday was his big “party,” today was his smaller one, but every day, he is an incredible person. I love that he’s my husband, and my partner in crime. I love how he leads our kids, raises them, and provides for his family. Apart from those roles, though, Brady as a whole is someone you should all want to know. He is true blue.

Love you, Greggy 😉 Welcome to the thirties.

I’ve been MIA today, for the most part, and that is because I took Brady on a birthdate! He’s joining me in the land of 30 tomorrow, so we celebrated together, just he and I, while some loving friends looked after our kids. We had a full but super relaxed day together, where we held hands, doddled in between locations, ate inside a restaurant instead of in our van, and all kinds of other good things.

I’ll tell you more about it later, but for now, I’m going to keep it short. We had such a lovely time, and are ready to wind down for the night. No joke, we’ve been asleep before 10pm most nights this week!

Thank you to our AMAZING child care for the day!

(I know, aren’t Dekker’s new glasses amaaazing?!)

We couldn’t have pulled it off without you 😘 But more on ALL of that tomorrow!!

What a lovely day! Sleep deep, my friends.

I realized today that we’re pretty much halfway through October, which is coming up on a goal I had made that I may very likely not meet! Whoops! I had hoped to have ALL of my Christmas presents bought and in hand by November 1st. I’m over here, waiting for deals, and time is quickly slipping by! But hey, we’ve got time. I’m not too devastated. And there’s still time in October. I may still reach this goal!

In thinking about the end of the year drawing near, I figured it would be interesting to look back at my New Year resolutions and see what I did and didn’t do! Hahaha! So I just found the post, and I haven’t read it yet. So let’s do that now, shall we? One by one.

Oh. I called them “intentions” this year. I like that. Go you, January Hailey!

So my first intention was to do our Christmas savings plan again, where we set money aside each week and, by October 1st, have all the money we needed to pay for Christmas. We did not do that, haha! We tried, and we have a few hundred saved in a little wallet, but not even close to the whole amount! We took a reluctant “hiatus from income” for a few months last year, and we had a little bit of catching up to do, so it just wasn’t a year of big savings for us. No bigs. But no, this was not a goal we met. And its fine.

My next intention was to improve my blog. I was a bit more specific about that in the post, and intended to have planned, structured posts every Monday and Friday. I didn’t do that, but I can say I’ve tried a lot of different things on the blog this year and I am trying harder to make it nicer to read, with less errors, and fewer “we didn’t do anything today” posts. I’ve also spent a lot of time on certain posts that I really want to get right, and its showed well in my numbers, which is encouraging. Lastly, I actually made an Instagram account for my blog that I post on every day, and its almost always a different picture than you see on the blog. Some of you have found it on your own, but I haven’t put it out there 🙂 I LOVE it when someone follows! Makes me feel so excited every time!

Lastly, I intended to be a bit more organized and “less frantic with busyness.” This one is a big broad, but I think I’ve made headway here in a way I didn’t expect. In all honesty, busyness is still pretty overwhelming, but I’m less embarrassed about my limits, and that gives me more energy when things do get busy! Also unexpectedly, I’ve learned to be a bit easier on myself. Not always, but sometimes. For example, in the craziness of the mornings, I missed sending Laela her first show and tell. Her first show and tell! I was SO bummed, because Dekker loves show and tell so much, and Laela was so looking forward to it! And I forgot. I was SO discouraged, but only for a second. Because mistakes happen. When Laela came home, I apologized to her and she was SO gracious about it, saying her teacher told her she could bring it on her next school day. And that was fine! We put a big bright sticky note on the island to remind me, and life went on! I’m sure it won’t be the last thing I’ll miss. And thats ok 🙂

So let’s be real. I haven’t aced it all, but I think thats just fine. Its been a whirlwind year, and while there have been a lot of circumstances helping it be whirlwindy, I don’t anticipate it’ll slow down anytime soon. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Anyone care to share how their goals have gone this year?