Is anyone dreading another six weeks of posts like the LAST time we all got sick for what felt like forever?? I promise, we will NOT have a whole six weeks of those posts because we simply CANNOT be sick that long! However, to update on the kids, they are still all fevered, snotty, and now Laela and Rowan specifically have horrendous coughs. The coughs themselves sound normal, but the breath in sounds pretty crazy :/ It was a bit scary to listen to while they were trying to get to sleep last night.

That being said, we had a MUCH smoother night! I felt considerably more rested, personally, and while 2/3 kids woke up with fevers, they were in pretty good spirits. Dekker was unnaturally upbeat, even though he was one of the ones with a fever, and he went and set the table for all of us without being asked while I changed diapers. It was pretty awesome. They all played quite well all morning, but Rowan started to get pretty sad around 11:00am. It was then that I decided we’d go out for a drive and bring Brady an iced capp. Not only are the kids sick, and myself pretty weak and sore, but Brady is LOADED DOWN this week! He has SO much to do, and sadly, I am not much of a help to him, as most of his busyness is around his work schedule. So I figured he could use a pick me up, and the rest of us could use a change of scenery. I loaded the crew into the van (in their jammies) and we drove to see Brady for a few minutes.

We arrived at his work right around lunch, so he took a few minutes to sit with us and visit. It was a nice rest for everyone. But we didn’t stay long, as Brady has a very tight schedule right now, and we headed home for lunch.

Lunch proved to be a bit of a bust. Dekker ate well, but Laela managed about five goldfish before bursting into tears. I couldn’t coax anything else into her, and therefore, decided it was time for naps for her and her little bro. They both went down tearfully but were quiet instantly. Poor sickies. Dekker is awake and playing quietly in the living room while I do this and try to get some stuff knocked off of our to-do list. Its not looking too promising, but there is still time. Some, anyway. I think I need to rest up these days, to try to stave off this scary sickness that has hit everyone besides me. Knock on wood it stays away!!!

Last thing!!!!! House update from yesterday 😀

I know the one picture is pretty dark, BUT!, the stonework is up!!!!! Eek!!!!! The railings are also stained and finished, but I didn’t attach a picture because they make it look like we’ve had a house fire, which we have not. Its hard to explain. All of the prep work for painting was done yesterday, so I’m sure the first coat of cutting in and rolling will start today, and should finish up by tomorrow! There will be a second stage of painting a little ways down the road, but once there is some color on the walls, I’ll post those pictures too. Its all looking SO purdy!!

It is officially official. Our group is solidly sick again. Its sad, really, because this is a BIG month for us! We both take possession of our house and will be having our baby early next month. This week is a very big week for us, specifically, as Bradys work days are going to be quite long already, and we have important evening things to do as well. Unfortunately, Brady lost quite a bit of time this morning, which only will make his work days longer and his evening work go later. And on days when the kids are this far gone, its SO much easier to have my partner in crime around. Not only is it just a lot of work, and its nice to have my support system with me, but its also less comfortable for the kids to sit with me, as my lap is mostly gone and they can’t snuggle into my body as well. Straight up, mommy isn’t as comfy as daddy right now. Its sad, but logically, its true.

I sure try, though! Our morning started late, thanks to a VERY choppy night, once again. Dekker is feeling better than the others today, no question, but he was fevering earlier this morning. He’s doing good for the moment 🙂

Laela is in the worst shape of everyone, as tends to be the case each time we all get sick. Its not even that she milks it the most. Not at all!! She will look at me through her hair cemented to her face with her own snot, through eyes that are mostly swollen shut, and cough and gag out that she feels “gook,” which means “good” for her. She is a tough cookie.

Rowan slept in until about 10:45 and was also crusted over with snot. He felt very limp in my arms, and lay still during his diaper change. It was actually a little bit nice compared to the usual wrestling match that his diaper changes are usually. He ate pretty well, and it seemed to energize him. He played well with Dekker up in the loft for a good long while.

Laela lurked downstairs, laying with her head on the table for quite some time. She didn’t want to come up and join the fun though, regardless of how much Dekker coaxed her. We all tried, but she wouldn’t have it.

It was a bit unnerving to have her down on the main floor while we were all in the loft. You know that feeling, when you know someone is watching you? I felt it at one point, and sure enough, when I looked down…

She quietly said “Lala poopin.'” I may have almost peed my pants laughing. Almost.

After an incredibly lame lunch (no one was hungry) Rowan and Laela went down for naps and Dekker is sitting on the couch, playing links and watching a bit of tv. He is feeling ok, I can tell, but he can barely breathe. Its that awful mouth breathing that sounds like he’s forgetting to breathe, so he kind of sighs deeply every ten seconds or so. Its unnerving. I hate when the whole house is sick, but such is life! Keep us in your prayers, if you think of it! Brady has a sore throat, so it seems like he’s just a day or two behind, and I haven’t felt a hit yet, but I was last to catch the bug last time too :/ We were all sick for all of February, and I would love for May to NOT be that way. Pray pray pray!!!

Last night was choppy. I got home after the kids were in bed, but it was clear no one was sleeping especially soundly. They all lulled and chatted on and off for the first half of the night. Brady and I woke up with a start around 5:00am to Dekker crying and crying, saying he didn’t feel well. We went to check on him and he insisted that his tummy hurt. We brought him a bucket in case he had to barf, and encouraged him to use the bathroom and get a drink. We couldn’t come up with a solution that pleased him, but he gets so anxious when he feels sick, that is not out of the ordinary. However, in the process, Laela was awakened completely. We got her medicine and water as well, as she was fevered once again.

Brady and I were both pretty wide awake after that, but thankfully, after one episode of The Good Wife, we were both nice and tired again, and were able to fall back to sleep. We did NOT expect the kids to go back to sleep so well, but they did, and somehow Rowan slept through the whole thing.

We woke up LATE. Like after 9:00. Dekker was lulling, but he was on his own in that. We waited a little bit to let him wake up slowly, and we assumed he would wake the rest of the crew gradually. However, after some coffee and Netflix in bed, Dekker was still the only one awake. Brady and I had a quick discussion, and decided to invite Dekker to come hang out with us in bed and watch some Full House and have toast and milk. It was a bit of a hit, knowing how many crumbs would end up in our bed, but I also can really appreciate the comfort of breakfast in bed, and hanging out all cozy when you feel like garbage. So Brady went to get him, and he was hot to the touch. Not complaining, though. He was really happy to come be tucked into our bed, given some medication, and offered breakfast. Pretty much anything we offered, he responded with something along the lines of “I would love that!” He was great company.

At was around 11:45 that Rowan started to lull next. And I say “lull” very loosely. He was laying completely still, with his blanket in his mouth, and we could see through the baby monitor that his eyes were open, but that was it. We decided it was time to get everyone up. Both Laela and Rowan were feverish and fairly limp and tired. We got them changed and gave them meds, and got them to the “breakfast” table. Rowan had his regular oatmeal and yogurt, and Laela couldn’t seem to handle the buttered toast we had gotten her. She rocked an apple sauce and requested yogurt next. Dekker made his way over and asked for a yogurt too, but that was all we got into anybody.

Last time our whole house got so sick was back in February, and it was BRUTAL. I am praying hard that this is not the case this time around. However, I hadn’t kept track of anything very well last time. I knew we had all taken turns being sick for a solid six weeks, but it all ran together, and I didn’t know how long each kid had been sick for at a time. This time, I have my butt kicking planner going, so I’ve made notes yesterday and today recording who has fevered when and roughly how hot its gotten. Trying to be more on top of it so I can look at it more logically and not get too overwhelmed by everything.

It goes without saying, I’m sure, but our plans for today have changed. We were hoping to run some errands this morning, and have my dad over for lunch while my mom is away for the weekend. But instead, we do this…

because no one is up for a whole lot else! Brady might duck out when Rowan and Laela inevitably go down for a nap in a couple of hours, and snag the new playpen, as that was something we were really looking forward to getting in place, but thats probably the bulk of the day right there. Otherwise, we’re keeping the blinds closed, the food bland, and the activity level low. Three poor monkeys need their rest.

I’m not entirely sure what has hit our house, but once again, the kids are fevering snotty little messes. Their spirits are still reasonably up but they are tired. Poor things. We occupied our time well, though, and the kids joined Brady and I in our room as we began setting it up for the baby. I know I’m still a month or so out, but I feel like there is SO much coming out that is out of my control, and this is one thing I can prepare and feel accomplished about. We moved the room around and made the space for the place where he’ll sleep, and we cracked out the brand new playpen we bought for him.

And that playpen is CRAP. Ugh. I’m SO disappointed! I swear, playpens cost so much less when we bought one for Dekker, and we gained another second hand, but both are very worn, and everywhere we look, they are amazingly expensive and come with a ridiculous amount of features that we have never missed with our basic playpens. Anyway, we had found this great looking playpen by a known brand for a decent price, and we had snapped it up! It even came with a few little bells and whistles, so we were very excited about it! But nothing about that thing suggested any confidence in its strength, sturdiness, or longevity. It was just garbage. So back in the box it went. And of course, our room was left in a mess, because I was discouraged. Thank goodness, it wasn’t too long after that that I found a well-rated, better known brand playpen online for us. It was more than the one we purchased originally, but it was down from a MUCH higher price, and still seemed reasonable. Must have just been the design discontinuing or something. Anyway, that is now reserved for us at Toys r Us. We’ll pick it up in the next day or two.

After a bit of an emotional morning, they had a light lunch and Laela and Rowan both went down for naps. Laela rarely naps anymore so she was especially sad about it. Once the two were down, though, I began to get ready for my afternoon/evening away. Kim and I had planned a date, so I had gotten dressed, and just wanted to wear a bit of makeup. I invited Dekker and Brady to come snuggle up in bed and watch Paw Patrol on the laptop while I did my makeup, and they both agreed. It was actually pretty adorable to see Dekker all tucked into bed, in my enormous pregnancy pillow. He was so cozy, and pretty unmoving.

I got my makeup on in good time and actually managed to get my hair up for the first time in a long time! Fun stuff! Kim arrived shortly after 3:00pm with Starbucks for she and I, and even a frapp for Brady.

We did some good damage at Value Village. Nothing too crazy, though. I got a few things for the kids, a maternity wrap dress for myself, and a couple of cute belts. Afterwards, we decided to go to Opa for supper. I’ve never been, but I came at the right time, and took advantage of their salmon promotion. I had it in a pita wrap with all kinds of yummy things, and fries on the side. It was all delicious. Meanwhile, at home, Brady was having a bit of an interesting evening with the sick kidlets.

Its ok though, they went to bed happy.

Though now, they’re all coughing and tearful on and off 🙁 I hope they sleep well. Needless to say, we’re not going to church tomorrow. Hopefully a good nights sleep and a reasonably restful day tomorrow does the trick!

I posted on Facebook earlier today about a sweet interaction between Laela and Rowan over breakfast. The big kids woke up before Ro did, so they were done breakfast by the time he had his. Laela opted to stay and sit at the table with him and I while I fed him his oatmeal and yogurt. She has such a sweet little high pitched voice already, but it gets even higher (and thank goodness, softer) when she talks to Rowan. As he waved some rogue Cheerios around, she reminded him “Don’t throw it!” He then offered her his handful of sweaty Cheerios to which she responded “Oh, no sanks, you eat it!” He stared blankly at her, as if confused why she wouldn’t want them. She just giggled at him and said “Here, I get it,” and proceeded to take one from him and feed it to him. She is SO nice to him, like 99% of the time, which I would say is a LOT!

Later on in the morning, we were upstairs playing in the loft, and Rowan crawled over to me. He very slowly lay down on his belly, and just lay still. I asked him how he was already so tired, and I rubbed his back gently. Aaaaand then he barfed. He crying or fussing involved at all, but he barfed up a big pile of puke. I sat him up right away so he didn’t accidentally inject any of it, and he just looked up at me, heaved once, and puked again. This time, his pants caught the waterfall. All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and suddenly, I had three small children within inches of me, two piles of barf, a sick kid, and a tall mug of hot coffee on the carpet, just waiting to be knocked over. I asked Dekker if he could help, and he jumped to the pump, let me tell you! He put his toys down and said “I’m on top of it! Help is on the way!” He booked down the stairs, and I could hear him whispering to himself, though I couldn’t hear what he was saying. From the bottom of the stairs, he yelled up “Remember to try to stay calm!” I told him I would, and thanked him. He was back up in the loft within seconds with the cloth from the kitchen. I wiped up Rowan and lay him back down so I could sneak his pants off without spilling any extra puke onto the floor. I scooped up the worst of it, and then headed down to the kitchen to rinse the cloth and give it another good scrub. When I went back up, Rowan had already climbed over to the stairs to see where I had gone, and Dekker was standing directly between him and the stairs, with a strong grip on his shirt, doing everything in his power to protect him. I cleaned up the rest of the mess and all was well. Rowan clearly felt better, as he was back into the toys up to his naked knees right away. I think he had just maybe eaten too much to fast. He’s not sick. But I made a BIG show of praising Dekker up. He didn’t get scared when something was out of sorts, like he so often does. He saw a need, and he took care of it. What an amazing boy! I’m SO proud of my little group of nurturers here! They are so loving.

Soon after that, I got a Facebook message from Willa, and ten minutes later, she was at the door with treats and about an hour to kill, hanging with me and the kids. It was SUCH a nice visit to break up the day, and see a friend. We made a plan for another date next week.

We have the afternoon to ourselves, and as per usual, we’re taking these hours pretty easy. Rowan’s napping, kids are resting their brains and watching a bit of tv, and I’m putting my feet up for a bit. As the baby is kicking me in the ribs, he’s also managing to head butt the laptop as it sits on my lap at the same time. Silly goose. I can’t wait to hold him, and have him join our crew. Who am I kidding? He’s already a big part of it! Just can’t wait to have him earth side.

Laela is quite the joker these days, and has taken to calling Rowan “Rowiss.” Thats my assumption of the spelling, anyway. I try to avoid putting the word “ass” into my kids names. Anyway, half the fun is that it drives Dekker up the wall. We remind him that its Laela’s little pet name for Rowan, and that as long as Rowan doesn’t mind, she can call him Rowiss. Of course, Laela milks it for all its worth. As I type this, I can hear from up in the loft “Here, Rowiss. Toy, Rowiss? Come back, Rowiss!!” Earlier this morning, she even tattled on him, coming up to me in tears, wailing “Rowiss pushed me over into a wall!” Don’t worry, the crisis was averted. When I asked what was hurt, she told me it was her feelings, and those seem to heal up pretty quick. She’s such a good girl. They’re all good kids.

Thanks to Kim doing all of my dishes yesterday (Thank you again for that, my friend) the kitchen seemed less daunting to me this morning, so I washed my dishes, and even managed to sneak in a shower! I got a new Lush shampoo bar that is deliciously lemony fresh, so it was a treat to crack that out. My hair is fresh, deodorant is on, and my teeth are brushed. I swear, this is the cleanest I’ve been in ages. I’ve enjoyed the morning, and am feeling refreshed, to a degree. Later in the day, after Brady is finished work, we’ll go see our chiropractor, which I hope will also provide some refreshment, and take away some of my pain. I definitely don’t expect to be pain-free, or even “comfortable,” but I could go for just a little bit less pain.

Until then, we’re going to keep taking it easy around here while Brady finishes up work on this stage of our house, and takes care of a couple of small things with his job. Today, he not only shooed a bird out of our bedroom through our window (without getting a disease) but more importantly, he finished up our closet shelves!!! My fave so far is the pantry.

Its pretty. I really miss having a pantry. I can’t wait to load it up with our food and get it all organized! Eek!

I’ve been informed by Dekker that Rowan is being “super happy and suuuper sweet” so I’m going to get my butt up into that loft and join the fun!

Last night, Kim and I decided to date today 🙂 She is an incredibly gracious friend, and brought her herd over in the mid morning, armed with coffee. I slept pretty well last night but was dragging all morning. Like really really dragging. Feeling very large and out of breath. She gets it. She sent the kids upstairs, we cracked our coffees, and she cleaned my kitchen while I sat in the little breakfast nook and visited with her. She is both the best and the worst. Thank you, Kim, for knowing how to help, and fighting past me to the sink and just digging in. I love you!

Once all was done in the kitchen, we fed the kids and turned on a show for them, and fed ourselves as well. Eventually Rowan went down for a nap, and they headed home to prep supper and get ready for their evening activities. Now, I’m sitting on the couch, looking closer at the pictures Brady has been sending all day. He’s really enjoying working on our house, which is great, because its always better to have happy people doing the work than crusty ones. He finished the entries for the laundry chute, and sent me a picture of the tub, all framed in!!

Ugh. I can’t wait to soak in there!!! Beyond that, Brady has built in carpet wraps, and most recently has been drawing out and cutting shelves for our closets. Another thing I’m SUPER pumped for! Dekker has picked up on my excitement, and in moments of snuggling, or quiet in general, he’ll look at me SO sweetly and say something along the lines of “Mommy, I’m sooooo excited for our shelvin’ to be up!” He’s to die for.

The rest of the day will be pretty uneventful. My mom will drop by to pick some papers up, since her printer is fighting the power and ours that NEVER works is finally working! Haha! But that’s all we have scheduled for the day! I am SO very pregnant, having lots and lots of contractions, so I spend as much time resting as I can, which I think is the smartest thing I can do. If anything, Brady and I will build some more cabinets tonight, but thats it, thats all! These are good days. They are big, and kind of uncomfortable, but they are important, filled perfectly, and exciting!

Todays post will include a house update as well as cute success stories about all of the kids, including new baby! I run out of titles for these posts. I’m pretty I have a handful of posts called “Updates on the kids” or something like that. One of these days, I’m just going to stop titling them, haha! My creativity is lacking.

Firstly, before I start talking family stuff, I’ll share that we have an official possession date!!! I haven’t talked to Brady yet about making it completely public, so I won’t post it on here just yet, but if you’d like to know, feel free to ask and I’ll let you know privately 🙂 I’m just unsure if there is now any wiggle room with it, and I want it to be concrete before I publicize it. You get it. But anyway, we got the date yesterday, and to celebrate, we went out as a family yesterday evening and ordered our countertops. We haven’t picked them up yet, and I discovered that they were no longer in stock in store. (For those who don’t know, we’re doing countertops ourselves, and are purchasing them from Lowes.) We packed up and drove to the store to ask a few questions, and left having paid for the entire order! Now we just eagerly wait for them to come!! It felt like a good celebratory event.

Brady is currently doing his stage one finishing in our house, and is really enjoying putting his skills to work on his own house! He’s currently installing and casing all of the doors. Aren’t they pretty??

I am SO thrilled that we got these doors that I was so hoping for. They have exceeded my expectations, easily. (This is the closet and door in what will be Dekker and Rowan’s room.) Tomorrow Brady will do the shelving in all of the closets. Bedrooms, pantry, linen, entrance, and storage. Selfishly, I am MOST excited for our walk in closet. But you can’t blame me. Just wait until you see it!!!

Time for news on all of the kids!

Starting with kid #1 (in order of age) we had some cool progress with Dekker today! Forgive me, those of you who don’t care to know bathroom details, lol! Skip this paragraph if you’d like. Dekker is very much potty trained, and is more than capable of doing everything on his own. However, after being SO sick at our last rental for SO long, he got pretty poop-spooked. We all know what sick poops are like, and because of that, we had to help him with quite a bit of the clean up over those six weeks. Since then, he is really anxious about trying to take care of business on his own. He insists on us helping clean him up. We did for a while, because we totally get where that anxiety comes from. Its yucky to be messy and poopy. But we’ve finally had to lay down the law and make him do it on his own. He’s struggled really hard with it, emotionally more than anything, but today was a HUGE milestone in getting back to where we were. We were out this morning for a doctors appointment, and upon arriving home, he insisted that he didn’t have to use the bathroom, and went to the loft to play. A few minutes later, he came to the stairs and said he had to poop. I will be the first to admit that I didn’t treat the situation as I wish I had. I wasn’t gentle. I kind of panicked. Dekker hasn’t pooped for two days, which is NOT like him, so I feared the worst. I said over and over again “Don’t poop your pants! Don’t poop your pants!” and I grabbed his sleeve to rush him down the stairs. He assured me he hadn’t, yet, which wasn’t super comforting. He had a truck he had built out of Duplo in his hand, and I went to take it from him. My motive was good, and he never brings toys to the bathroom, but I dropped it in my rushing, and the pieces scattered all over. Once again, I spouted off “I’ll get the pieces, I’ll take care of it, just hurry! Don’t poop your pants!” He handled my freak out calmly and rushed off to the bathroom. I gathered up the pieces and put them on the table, and then waited for the inevitable “I poooooped!” from the bathroom. It didn’t come. I gave him a couple of minutes, and it came eventually. I ducked my head in, expecting the worst. He simply said “I pooped! I cleaned it up, but can you check that I got it all?” This may seem gross or dumb to some people, but this is HUGE progress for us! I made a big fuss over how great he had done to try all by himself first, and that I was happy to check. The goal is always for him to just try, you know? Nothing has to be perfect every time, or ever, but its good to try. Anyway, he had done a PERFECT job, all was in order, and he took care of the rest – flushing, washing up, closing his pants, etc. He did great. When he came out, I apologized for my attitude and told him he had handled the whole situation really well. Then I apologized for dropping his truck, and he forgave me instantly. He assured me he could rebuild it, which he did. He even brought it to be to show me everything was ok. I am SO PROUD of this boy! He has rocked a fabulous attitude all day today! Go Dekker!!!

Hahaha! I just have to say, that could be its own post. I’ve already written almost 1000 words! Whoops!

Laela has been one of the sweetest little things today as well. We’ve had SO many good conversations, and she is SUCH a joker! While I was changing her diaper today, the jokes just kept flowing. She flopped herself down onto Dekker’s bed to be changed, and then rolled up her shirt a little, pointed to her tummy, and quietly suggested “Taste?” So of course, I went hog wild and munched her belly while she squealed and giggled and asked for more. It was SO sweet. Then I pulled her pants off and chucked them on her head. I’m nice like that. We always joke “Pants hat!” when I do that, and today she worked hard to actually put her pants on her head like a hat. When it was time to put them back on, she handed them to me and said “Hat pants!” She figures she’s just the funniest thing on earth, and she’s probably pretty close to right. Finally, when all was said and done, I asked her if she’d like to sit on the potty if I gave her a candy. “No sanks,” she replied. I suggested a cookie, which she also rejected. I finally asked what we had to do to get her on the potty, and she shook her head, heaved a sigh, and as become a common answer around here, she said “Call Paw Patrol.” Sigh. Going to have to get creative with that one. Another sweet thing Laela did today was help me tidy up the entrance. She lined up all of the shoes without being asked, and just told me “Lala nice at helpin’.” She is correct. She is VERY nice at helping.

Rowan has been a good trooper today. I got the kids up and out the door in such a rush, and he choked down his bowl of oatmeal at likely an uncomfortable speed, but he rocked it without complaint. He was completely quiet during our doctors appointment, and handled all of the morning festivities very very well. As I snuggled him before putting him down for his nap, I felt like I got to really just sit and take a minute with him, differently than usual. I could smell him and stroke his hair and rock him a bit. He instantly put him head on my shoulder and cuddled in. It was just SUCH a soft moment. I can tell the kids aren’t as comfortable when I pick them up anymore, just because my belly interferes with the closeness aspect of things, and they end up hanging off of me at a weird angle. But Ro just formed around me SO nicely, and we had a really lovely pause in time together. As I laid him down in the crib, I couldn’t quite decide whether or not he looked so little still or so grown up, but I’m happy to have him either way, or both ways. No rush to grow up, my boy. Against popular belief, having another baby doesn’t bump him out of his role. We’ll just have another. Its going to be SO perfect. I can’t wait to see their dynamic, and how they’ll be together. I suspect Rowan will be a fabulous big brother, as he is a little brother. He loves somewhat aggressively, but his siblings KNOW how much he loves them. He is shaping up beautifully, and fits in amazingly.

As for baby #4 (Ack! I wish I could just call him by name finally!!) he is still cooking up well, as far as we can tell! He’s growing right, as much as they can tell from my measurements and weight gain. His heart rate is steady, almost always in the 140s, though he is NOT a fan of the doppler at all. Now I know all kids are different, of course, but I’m VERY curious about his little self and what he’ll be like. He is the first baby who we haven’t seen via 3D ultrasound, so while we knew Dekker would look like Bradys moms side of the family, that Laela would look more like my moms side, and that Rowan would look like Laela, we have no idea about this little guy! Also, he is the most “patterned.” He has his specific wakeful times and specific sleeping times, which I never noted with the other kids really. I am so ready to meet him, and see how everyone responds this time around. I am 1000% confident that he will fit in perfectly. That is one thing I have felt very positive about since he became a real thing. I know he will fit in just smashingly. I can’t wait! Eek!

Ok, I think that is about enough for one day, hahaha! Lots of information, but there were just too many good things to share today, I couldn’t resist a long post 🙂

Bradys parents are on their way back to Edmonton this afternoon already! It was a very short visit, but it was all good. This morning, we had a delicious brunch of breakfast sandwiches, bacon, with watermelon and grapes and coffee. It was yummy, and huge. We hung out around the house for a little bit afterwards, but when it seemed like Ro was on the verge of a breakdown, we decided to head to see the house. That way, he could nap in the van a bit, rather than napping in a crib for all of fifteen minutes before we started getting ready to go anyway.

So we ended up driving to see the house sooner than we had expected. We were going to eat lunch first, but no one was even close to being ready to eat. Instead, we threw some fruit and veggies into Ziploc bags for Phil and Elvira, grabbed a few water bottles, and headed out!

I think I can safely say that they liked our house 🙂 And we loved showing it to them. The kids showed off their rooms, and pointed out all of the many details we’ve been gushing over the last few weeks. I’m sure we all did our share of gushing 😉 We really really love this house, and love to tour people through it. Seriously, if you’re someone who wants to see it in person, speak up! We’d love to show you around it! We are very excited about it and all of its little details.

After we showed Bradys parents around, we all went our separate ways. Phil and Elvira got on the road, Brady stayed at the house to get some work done this afternoon, and I took the kids home. Not before going to my parents place first though. He forgot to bring any food, so I planned to drop in and petition my mom for an apple and granola bar for Brady. However, she wasn’t home, so I let myself in and stole some apples and water. Mom, don’t you love reading this and learning these things? I forgot to write you a note. I blame pregnancy brain. Either way, I stole two apples and two water bottles. Forgive me 😉

The kids have eaten lunch and are relaxing, watching some tv while Rowan naps. I love this quiet afternoon time. Its my rest time, where I have the fewest contractions and the least amount of physical pain.

Baby boy has the hiccups. Its perfect.

Bradys parents came out for a visit today! We don’t seem them all that much, being that we live about a ten hour drive from each other. However, they were in Edmonton with a couple of days to kill between events, so they drove out to have supper with us 🙂

We fed the kids a bit before they arrived, and when Phil and Elvira did make it to our house, they toured briefly, played in the loft with the kids, and then eventually settled down at the table. I had made beef stew for supper, and while I was preparing it, I went a little hog wild on the veggies and ended up cooking it in two crock pots, since it wasn’t even close to fitting into one. When it had all cooked down, we were able to combine it, and somehow, thankfully, we were left with one Ziploc container of leftovers. Maybe two lunches worth for Brady! I’m very happy that it worked out. We also just made basic Pillsbury biscuits that were super delicious, and went with the meal well.

The kids went to bed pretty quick after supper, but not before grandma and grandpa pulled out some gifts from the trip they had just been on. Dekker and Rowan got cool leather bracelets, and Laela got a pretty beaded necklace. Brady got a Maui shirt and I got a sarong. And of course, some chocolate covered macadamia nuts, because YUM. Once presents were done, though, the kids did their bedtime stuff and went down pretty easily.

The rest of us visited a bit, and we showed them the cabinets we’ve been building in the basement, but they are jet lagged and needing rest, so they headed out shortly after 8:00pm. Once they had gone, we decided to venture downstairs and build a cabinet, just so we don’t fall behind. Now, that is finished and its only 9:30! So its time for a snack and some Netflix. We’ll see them again in the morning for breakfast, and then we’ll grab a quick lunch, take them to the new house and show them around, and then go our separate ways. Them to Edmonton, Brady to work, and myself and the kids back to our place for the day.

Definitely a short visit, but better than no visit at all! Thanks, guys, for making the trip out!