Author: haileyborn

Kissing Ouchies

I know we’re not the only family out there who kisses ouchies. Brady and I can kiss most things better. However, a long time ago, the kids implemented the same concept between themselves. Its not specifically mommy or daddy’s kisses that fix the problem. Its the kiss itself, apparently. Its been SO cute to watch them do that on their own that its sort of become part of the apology when they accidentally hurt each other.

I have a memory from a few years back, where Dekker accidentally hurt Laela in some way, and she wanted him to kiss it better. He got all huffy about it and retorted “I’m not the captain of kissing, Laela.” We laughed SO hard about it, and thats now a known story between the kids that we all can laugh at.

Back to today’s blog story. Yesterday, we opted to wrap up the evening with some music videos. The kids dance and get their sillies out, and it usually means no arguments or disputes for the last half hour ish before bed. We had just begun, and Dekker and Laela were dancing beside each other. It was getting pretty lively, and Dekker accidentally kicked Laela in the knee.

So here’s the thing. These two fight more than any of our other kids. They LOVE each other at school,

and the moment they set foot in the door, they snap at each other, nitpick at each other, and generally try to get at the other. Whether its trying to take a toy because they know the other wants it, or taking a particular color of plate because the other wants it, or just straight up tattling, my two oldest battle it out all day, err day. It loses its charm fast, let me tell you. So if one even kinda sorta maaaybe seamed to hurt the other, they milk it hard.

Laela jumped away from Dekker, but her angry, accusatory eyebrows quickly wrinkled up before she started to cry. She was far more sad than mad. So we knew he had actually hurt her. But a TOTAL accident! They were both dancing rowdy.

She stood tipped over and cried, and Dekker finally worked up the courage to try and help her.

Dekker: Do you want me to kiss it, Laela?
Laela: Ya… (she pointed to her knee) Its this one.
Dekker: (kisses her knee) You know its not actually going to help.
Laela: Yes it did!
Dekker: Its just like, I’m kissing your knee…
Laela: Ya but it goes IN! In the skin!
Dekker: It works better in the jeans that have holes in the knees.
Laela: (looks confused)
Dekker: (looks mischievous)

And then they laughed like maniacs, and all seemed to be resolved.

I liked it, though 🙂

They sat together on the couch after a while, and everything was right with the world. Uuuuuntil the next thing wasn’t. But as I’ve said before, he’s the oldest kid, but she’s the oldest girl, and I think they’re fighting for that spot to be the leader. I can’t wait for them to settle some of those differences out and be just the best older siblings!!

DONE!

I have officially wrapped up blog saving for 2018! All things considered, last year resulted in just over one thousand pages of writing and pictures. Three big fat books! Plus I had half of 2017 that needed saving, and one other book I had previous assembled but haven’t ordered yet. So I have FIVE big delicious hardcover books sitting and waiting to be ordered!

However, they have to wait a little bit. To purchase them outright is decently expensive, and the shipping isn’t exactly cheap either. I’ve previously ordered my books at 40% off, plus free shipping. Promos come around often enough. So now I wait. Which may or may not kill me, haha! Hopefully it doesn’t. If that ridiculous program didn’t kill me, nothing can.

I feel solidly accomplished.

Now what to do with my idle time… 🤔 I guess I’ll change my header photo finally!

Just Call Me Butter

I’m on a roll!

See what I did there? I’m very funny, in case you missed it.

I’ve been catching up on saving my old blog posts for a while now. Not sure how long. Maybe a week-ish? I was hung up on August 2017, when Jamin passed away. You guys encouraged me, and I pushed through it! I believe it was the day after I mentioned it here on the blog that I saved that month of posts and kept on trucking.

In all honesty, it was pretty easy once I passed the initial post announcing his passing. That one was long. But after that, they were easy to just copy and paste into my book format. I was very low and sad, so they were short posts with fewer pictures. I usually have a book for January to June, and then another for July through to December. I quickly finished the second book in 2017, thanks to the shorty posts.

I got pregnant quite quickly after Jamin passed, and I had my series that I maintained throughout the pregnancy. Do you guys remember that? Womb in Bloom, I called it, though Jerilee was the one who coined the name. Those posts were SO long and SO fun to relive as I saved the first half of 2018.

I hit a snag the other day as I was saving posts. I was working with last June, and was adding more pages to the template I was working with when I remembered, in the past, there had been a limit to how many pages a book could hold. Rightfully so, as you need a dependable binding. I scoured the website for the number but I couldn’t find it. So I hopped on to the live chat and asked.

She assured me the program would stop me before I added too many. I was relieved. She went on to ask what kind of book I was making and how many pages I was at so far. I told her.

Long story short, she said the program should’ve absolutely stopped me, and I could NO WAY add as many pages as I had added. I had room for six more pages, and I had twenty more blogs to save from the month of June.

I. Was. So. Mad.

I cried and pouted and cried some more. But as you can imagine, it didn’t exactly solve my problem. Every year has been two books, without fail, and I didn’t want my beautiful system overturned and messed up! I decided to go at it from another angle. I know what really takes up the space in my books is the pictures I add. So I went through, month by month, and counted the pictures. The first half of 2018 had about 450 pictures, and they couldn’t fit into one book. Maaaybe the second half of the year had way less?? And maaaybe we could fit that extra month of June into the second book??

Who was I kidding? July and August alone held about 300 pictures.

So I cried some more unproductive tears and decided my system didn’t have to perfect, and I could just have three books to represent 2018.

Guys. The year of 2018 will be THREE books worth of memories! Because what a year its been! Of COURSE it fills more space than an average year! My pregnancy with Waverly was easily the most well documented pregnancy I’ve ever had! So many beautiful pictures! Plus her birth. Plus our trip to Waskesiu this summer. Plus all the other countless events we took part in! We are SO fortunate to need three big books to keep all of the memories!

I almost feel selfish, having loved 2018 so much. A couple of very important people in my life have suffered great losses this year. Yet I know some people who I also love who revelled in 2017 while we floundered and struggled. So hopefully we can all understand and love each other, no matter the circumstance.

One of these days, I’ll talk to you all about my goals and intentions for 2019. But first, I’m going to finish out saving 2018 into books. I just passed Jamin’s first birthday and am wrapping up summer! Mmmmm. Summer is welcome over here aaaaanytime!

Too Many Things to Talk About

I have at least four totally unrelated things I want to blog about, but that would turn into a very scattered, VERY LONG post. I’m going to save the slightly heavier stuff for another day and focus on the more fun stuff. (I should clarify, the heavy stuff isn’t heavy. I just can’t think of the right word. The stuff that’ll take a bit more thought to lay out in words. Deeper stuff, maybe?) So rather than four unrelated topics, I’m going with two.

Topic number one! One of our many exceptional friends/neighbours came by yesterday and offered our kids quad rides!! He was taking his son out, and they wanted to include us! Quads are a pretty new thing for our kids, but they were excited to try! For sure Dekker and Laela were all for it! Brady helped tie a couple more sleds to the back of the quad, and off they went, one man towing three kids. And WOW did they squeal and laugh as they drove off!

They came back and offered Rowan another chance to go. And he agreed!!! Ro is usually a bit slower to warm up to stuff like that. Brady and I were both surprised he went, but he did!

Meanwhile, Solly hung out with Brady in the passenger seat of his work van while Brady worked on a few things. Did I tell you guys I got him remote start for Christmas? Well, I did. So he’s working on installing that while he has a few days off.

And Wavy and I folded laundry and watched Crazy Rich Asians inside. No pictures of us, though. I promise, she’s still cute.

Yesterday’s quad afternoon just felt like such a win. I love where we ended up building, and the neighbours we have surrounding us. Our kids are well loved by many, which I feel SO fortunate to say!

Topic number two! Sunday is often a day we spend with my mom, but it wasn’t going to work out this weekend. However, she called me this morning and asked if it was too late for her to run to Tim Hortons and bring breakfast over. Just a quick morning date. Knowing that our kids will happily wait for breakfast if they know something special is coming, I agreed, and asked if I could tag along!

We had a nice morning drive together, and brought home a big stack of breakfast sandwiches, hashbrowns, chocolate milk, and a couple of coffees. The kids were thrilled. It was such a delicious morning, and the good company didn’t hurt either. 💜 Thank you for breakfast, mom.

Well, I’m off to continue the job from yesterday of mad amounts of laundry, organizing, and blog saving. Enjoy the last day of the weekend, friends!

Crushing it on Saturday

Thanks to a busy errand day yesterday, we aren’t spending today grocery shopping for once! However, we are in no way sitting ducks. We haven’t stopped moving until juuust now. Well, Brady is still moving. He’s getting lunch moving. And I’m blogging, clearly.

Last night, Brady and I reminisced about our life before kids, and how we’d waste an entire Saturday on the couch, watching tv. Literally doing nothing else. Just watching tv. All. Day. While somedays I wish we could relax a little bit more, I rarely miss those nothing days. Brady suggested that, had we not had kids, we’d likely keep quite busy on weekends anyway, with life stuff and house stuff. But I countered that, wondering if we would’ve even built this house if we didn’t plan to have kids! Who knows where we’d be if things had played out differently! I’m tempted to add my “ten years ago” photo that so many are posting on Facebook, but I have something like that coming up soon 😉

Rather than laying around today, we’ve been busy! We are not only desperately behind on laundry, but we’ve gotten to that point where the kids can’t even choose their own clothes because so little in their closets fit them. They need a shuffle. Its time. Its such a fun job, but when its five kids, its more of an undertaking than it used to be. Most of the kids still had a handful of good clothes that fit, except Rowan. Solly has started to wear Rowan’s stuff, so his closet was dwindling, and nothing was being replaced. Wavy, also, was really starting to need some better fitting clothing. So we decided to make a day of it.

We’ve started laundry. It seems like our dryer has never dried slower, but I think its just because I want it to so badly.

We’ve also dug through tubs for Rowan and Waverly. The things we pulled out for them are waiting in the laundry queue.

Rowan’s stuff moved to Solly’s closet. Dekker and Laela’s closets are still decently well stocked, but we may keep an eye out for a couple of extra shirts here and there over the coming weeks.

This is a job that just feels SO good to get done! But seriously, guys, laundry for daaays!

I’ll leave you with this: a photo of Wavy post-pony.

Because its just too cute not to share.

Have a happy Saturday!

How We Spent the Afternoon

Today did NOT go as planned!! My goodness! Haha! Everything turned out, but it was a long afternoon!

Our plan was to run errands today. Brady’s home, so its a good time to get some of those “one person run in while we wait in the van” errands off our list. Plus we always need groceries. So once the big kids were off to school, we dressed and readied the others, and headed to the city!

We stopped to get another jug of water for our dispenser. Apparently our usual place has stopped the exchange system :/ So we refilled our old one and kept going.

We stopped at Telus to get our chipped/cracked screen protectors replaced, and that also was a flop because they don’t do it in store anymore, and we have to go through the manufacturer to get them replaced on warranty. However, the Telus guy recognized us (its been MONTHS) and was super friendly and helpful, so that was good. He even commented that we were short a couple of kids. True.

We drove to 8th St to hit Superstore. We found most everything we needed, and I don’t even think we bought anything unnecessary. Hmmm. Can’t promise that, but I think we did pretty great, actually! I got a bit of a workout in when we got to the checkout lane and realized neither of us had brought a wallet in. So a run across the store, down the ramp, to the van, and back up worked up a solid sweat! Go me!

Lunch stop at McDonalds before driving across to Westwinds to get Waverly her 6 month shots.

** NO VACCINE ARGUMENTS PLEASE! ***

We always get our kids vaccines a\t the Westwinds clinic during their Friday afternoon drop-in clinic, between 1:00 and 4:00. You expect to wait. Thats fine. But guys, it was a ZOO! I got there around 1:30 and I’ve never seen it so crazy! There were people with nowhere to sit in the entire waiting room, that is how full it was!

They were turning people away by 2:00. And the clinic was “open” until 4:00. THAT is how full it was!

Wavy was such a champ. She didn’t cry even once! She smiled at people and chewed her fingers and laughed and was generally content for at least the first hour.

We ran into/visited with a small handful of people we knew who were there for shots, also, which helped break the time up a little bit. I even got a little chat in with the girl who usually brings us to the back for our appointments with Dr. Guselle. It feels good to have people to chat with and touch base with so often in so many places. I feel like I know someone everywhere I go, haha!

The second hour was less glamorous. Brady took the little boys to Walmart to blow off some steam.

She was still exceptionally good, but she needed to be moved around constantly. You know that stage. Where they want to stand but can’t for too long, but sitting isn’t fun unless they’re bouncing, and even then, its short lived. They don’t want to be held on your shoulder for long, or to face in, or out. Its a seriously game of juggling, but with the cutest little assistant, it wasn’t so hard.

Around 2:45, Brady texted me in a panic that we had to go get Dekker and Laela from school! We hadn’t anticipated it would take so long, and hadn’t even realized how fast the time had gone. So he drove home, picked the kids up from school, and came back.

As ALWAYS happens, Waverly fell asleep mere moments before her name was called. Because why not.

With the amount of people coming in for shots, Wavy and I were led back to one of the doctor’s personal offices. We did everything in there this time around. I got all the info, consented to everything, looked at all the expiry dates, and it was time to get the job done.

I laid Wavy down on my lap to take her pants and boots off, and of course she woke up. She was a beautiful bundle of stares and smiles for our nurse.

She took her little oral vaccine like a champ, no fuss, no muss.

A shot in one leg, she didn’t even flinch. Didn’t even whine. Just sat.

A shot in the other leg, and she let out a cry. And then a second one. And then she was good to go.

I stood her up on my lap and she returned to her wide-eyed smiling at finger sucking. So that was pretty stinking awesome.

My heart is so relieved when things like this go smoothly. She is such a sweetheart, we all know that, but apparently she’s also super tough! And brave!

We love you, Waverly! Sorry your six month gift is so lame…

Morning Coffee with Mom

After sending Dekker and Laela off to school this morning, I sent my mom a text that she was welcome anytime. We had some casual morning plans for a visit, for her to arrive around 9:30. And that she did 🙂

The boys were being pretty cute ❤️ and incredibly distracting while we attempted to visit and catch up a little. Lol! A very good problem to have!

She left around lunch, and Brady made it home nice and early! Woot! He and I spent nap time watching YouTube, eating lunch, and snuggling Wavy. Poor dear is unsettled with teething. She doesn’t really want to drink milk or play or sit or sleep or really anything. She just wiggles and whines and sucks her fingers. But she’s SO stinking cute when she does it.

School is about to let out, and Dekker and Laela will begin their slow motion amble back home. Brady hopes to be working on his van outside with the little boys when they arrive, and I’ll be here inside, working unceasingly on saving last years blog posts! I’m on a role and am SO eager to get the next chunk of them ordered! Or at least set up and ready for order. Don’t want to lose momentum!

If I break from that today, it’ll be to plan tomorrow. So many errands to run! Don’t want to forget anything important!

She Took Me Back

Yesterday evening needs to be remembered and recorded. It doesn’t need a story with it, even. Just pictures.

I don’t remember the last time she slept so soundly on one of us, much less handled the transfer and slept on both of us. What a delicious memory for my heart to hold.

My favorite picture from last night…

Goodness, Waverly, how deeply I love you. You’re SO much bigger than when you were new, but I could’ve held you tirelessly for hours and hours last night. The whole night, even. Thank you for the warm snuggle. My heart is full, and I hope yours is, too.

One of Those “Breath of Fresh Air” Mornings

Dekker and Laela are at school today, meaning its just me, Wavy, and the little boys. Poor guys are often labelled as “the little boys” around here. But sometimes Rowan sneaks into “the big kids,” depending on the situation. But when its him and Solly, they’re the little boys.

Mornings with the little boys aren’t always smooth. Sometimes they are! They’re better than they used to be, when Laela would go to preschool, and they’d fight the entire time she was away. But now, they understand each other a bit better. Plus, that was a year ago. Its ever-changing. But this morning was SO good with them!

Wavy slept a good chunk of the morning, and the little boys played pretty well together! Smoother sharing than usual. It wasn’t perfect, but what is? While they played, I tried to do a few things. Dishes didn’t happen because stories needed reading. I tried to do some exercises but any time my legs were in the air, Solly would shriek “Tippy toes!” and starting pinching and tickling my feet. I did, however, get a chunk of work done on saving blog posts! I’ve saved ALL the pictures from 2018 into folders, which is HUGE! I’ll resize them all next. If I did them for each post individually, it would probably take twice as long. So that felt productive.

When Wavy woke up, she added SO much fun to the morning! Let’s be real. Sometimes, she’s just a lump, and sits and watches and doesn’t contribute too much, but today she was just extra special! She drank her WHOLE bottle, which she’s been fighting recently, and didn’t fight AT ALL this morning!!

She apparently wasn’t done, and opted to lick/chew my knee for a while.

We listened to music together for a bit before it was time to get lunch moving. Now that Wavy is in her high chair, Rowan ALWAYS wants to be next to her. So they played at the island together while we listened.

He would share his precious Duplo with her, and she’s chuck it, and he would first look a bit annoyed, and then totally recover and reassure her that he’d help her. It was pretty adorable.

The boys tidied up toys before lunch and ate lunch way better than usual! Rowan is probably the best luncher out of all of our kids, but Solly not so much. And he did AWESOME today! Wavy tried some banana too 🙂 Since I didn’t have to nag anyone to eat, I got the dishes done that I couldn’t do in the morning. Win!

Wavy started to lose her marbles about halfway through lunch, so she’s been sleeping for a little bit. Both boys went down seamlessly, which is just so great. I’m upstairs, doing this, and I anticipate I’ll work on those blog photos for the books next. My mom is popping by during nap time to look at a project I’ve started! Eek! Ok, its not really at “eek!” level of excitement, but it is for me 🙂 I’ll tell you about it soon enough.

Friend who said you were praying for me today, I appreciate it so much. It seems that was what I needed to get out of my “blah” mode. Thank you!

The Monday After Christmas Holidays

As many of you know, I’m sure, today is the day the kids go back to school! I’ve solidly enjoyed having everyone home, honestly! I used to judge moms who were sooooo frustrated with summer holidays as soon as they started. I don’t judge them anymore, because I do get it. However, these last two weeks have been really good with our kids ❤️ They weren’t without flaws, but they were busy and exciting and it felt like we went a mile a minute, based on our usual pace. Amongst all the busyness, though, it was clear that it was time to go back to school. That structure was just necessary.

So this morning, while he clarified that he’d rather be home, Dekker very happily got ready for school and headed out a little earlier than usual, even. He loves being at home, comfy and quiet, but I know he actually really loves school, too. So off he went. Laela said over and over again that she’d be walking with him tomorrow! She’s SO excited to go back.

Its a very windy day, but it looks beautiful! I hear driving conditions aren’t ideal, but I have nowhere to go and from my spot here in my recliner, its pretty gorgeous out the window!

Yes, I can see out my front windows again! Thats the ONLY downfall of our big beautiful Christmas tree. It blocks pretty much our entire front window, and makes our house a lot darker. We really loved having our tree up and decorated, but no one was sad when we took it down just the other day. It probably helps that we still have other decor up. White lights on the railings, trees and lights above the cabinets, and the mistletoe. I’m toying with keeping that sucker up all year, though 😉 We usually end up taking our tree down waaay later in January, but this felt like a natural wrap-up! For the tree only, haha!

Our first week of school is a bit quiet in terms of schedule, which I’m happy about. I anticipate tired kids, readjustment, and overstimulation. But it won’t all be bad. I’m definitely not saying that. Just potentially needing some downtime.

Brady’s workday won’t be a late one, thankfully! We’ll all be back together soon 🙂

*****

I plan to spend this afternoon’s nap time saving more old blogs into their book format. Thank you to those who encouraged me about getting through the hard patch of blogs around Jamin’s passing. I did it! I saved them! I didn’t get a whole lot further past them, but I saved them along with all the Facebook comments I received around the original post where I shared that he had died. FIVE PAGES of comments. You guys are wonderful. Thank for all of your support through 2017 and 2018. People always say they’re available “if you need anything.” I have never felt more confident that I could call for help and someone would reach out and help! Thank you, Lord, for our AMAZING group of people!!!