I’m off for the weekend, starting this evening, and this day is just about everything I could ask for it to be! It began by me sleeping in like CRAZY! Brady got up at my usual time and got the big kids off to school, and the others up and fed. I woke up a couple of times but dozed out again very quickly. When I did finally wake up and stay awake, it was 9:45!!! I never get to sleep that late! It was SUCH a treat!

We spent the rest of the morning enjoying coffee and turnovers together, as well as printing out crochet patterns for this weekend. I feel prepared and excited!

My mom had a morning out helping a friend, and dropped by with a gift for me to take along this weekend! SO thoughtful, and SO me! We managed to convince her to stay for lunch and even a movie! It was such a nice way to spend a chunk of the afternoon!

Still left on the agenda is a shower, and packing up the rest of my stuff. I have to charge my iPad, also, to have access to other patterns, and I need to see my kids a bit more!! I just KNOW Waverly is going to cut those two teeth when I’m gone 🙁 She’s barely eaten today, and has slept almost all day, which is usually a telltale sign that those suckers are about to come through! I was hoping she’d do it before I left! Ack!

So consider me officially signed off for a couple of days! Brady will take my place for tomorrow and the next day 🙂 Enjoy him!

I’ve had a couple of wonderful days, filled with dates with friends! Yesterday morning I spent with a girlfriend and her two kids, and yesterday evening was spent watching a movie with Jerilee. It was SUCH a nice day!

I spent the bulk of today with Cher, who lovingly walked her way over, in a raccoon onesie, no less! We had some minimal plans to do one or two productive things, but rather we chatted and drank hot coffee and wasted the day away. It was so nice and low key, which was nice, considering my kids weren’t having their best day.

Wavy, however, was a TOTAL peach!

Isn’t she sweet, all soft and chubby? Eek!

The plan is to close off the day by going for a walk with my mom while Dekker is at kids club. I haven’t seen her in so long, it seems, and I’m about to be gone for a few days myself, so this is our one chance to hang out! Hopefully the weather is nice to us!

As I said, I’m leaving for the weekend, which will be another fun opportunity to be with friends! I’m going to a craft retreat, which sounds fuddy duddy, but its a total riot! I went once a few years back and enjoyed myself so much! I’m excited to visit with awesome ladies all weekend, eat delicious food, and crochet my butt off! I may or may not make a stack of messy bun toques, just to have on hand to gift out, or to sell maybe. We shall see! Mostly I’m just excited to cozy up with other crafty people (ya, I said it) and breathe in some crisp camp air!

Who’s jealous of my weekend plans?!

✋✋✋✋✋

Ya, I know you are.

Sometimes I scramble for things to write about, if I’m being honest. Not right now! While I thoroughly enjoyed doing the mini series on the kids over the last five days, I actually had some important things to write about! So, today I’ll be catching you up in the form of a post about three things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for our tire shop! They never cease to amaze me! Our entire family had to come in for the appointment to get our winter tires on, as we had other errands to run that day, plus evening plans back into the city. Rather than driving in three times, we all went in for our tire appointment, saving ourselves one of those trips. We’re never made to feel a nuisance when we bring the kids, which is so so nice.

We sort of overtook the waiting room, ate some breakfast, and played for an hour or so. It was cute. The kids were pretty patient, which helped. It was pretty smooth!

(To fill in the gaps, for my own record, we also got Wavy her shots that day…

and we saw Footloose in the evening with this fun crew!) SUCH a loaded, memorable day!

I am thankful for our awesome church family! We led music at church on Sunday, and when Brady and I left our bench, Solly instantly broke down. Daddyyyyyyyy!!! We watched as a handful of people flocked our bench and consoled Solly. A loving friend opted to sit with us for the rest of the service, so Solly wouldn’t be nervous of a new person, which was so lovely. And it worked! He cried again the last time we went up, but quieted very quickly. There also was no shortage of arms reaching out to hold Waverly. I LOVE the support and love for our family! We love to lead worship, and we feel its where we’re supposed to be contributing to our church, but facing the facts, we cannot do it without help. Its SO special to know we have that willing help!

I am thankful for our rental van. *sigh* This one feels like more of an effort. I am SO thankful to have a vehicle while our bus is in for damage repairs but MY GOODNESS! A minivan is NOT ideal for a family my size! We have a brand new Dodge caravan currently. Its leather, has seat warmers, and automatic doors. ALL things we’d LOVE to have in our bus but don’t, and thats ok. But my goodness. That thing is not meant for five car seats, three of which are pushed SO close together, side by side, in the back. Also, good thing we bought diapers and wipes recently because we couldn’t do a full, big Costco shop with this thing anymore! Just this week, guys. Thats all we have to handle. But still, I’m SO thankful not to be just without a vehicle at all. What a relief!

That pretty much catches you up on our last few days. Nothing too crazy, but lots of good 🙂 And lots more to come! I have some company coming over the next day or two, and then I’m actually away this weekend! Brady agreed to do a couple of posts, so you can anticipate those! One of them for sure I’ve been bugging him to write for a while, so I’m pretty excited to read what he comes up with. But you’re still stuck with me for a while 🙂 As if you haven’t already been for so, so long, haha!

I was about to type something about it being the last day of the series, and the last kid, but I think we all know thats not the current plan, haha! She’s the most recent baby, but hopefully not the last! So we’ll wrap up this series with our littlest love, Miss Waverly.

(Hopefully this post doesn’t feel redundant with her monthly updates, but I can’t leave her out of this! At least read it for the pictures!)

Whats new with Waverly? Lots! This girl is ever changing! She is cold-free, up to date on her vaccines, and just beautifully healthy and sweet. Her hair is getting longer and longer, and there is lots of new growth around the edges and throughout. She is getting taller and thicker, but she still feels so dainty. The truth of the matter is that she’s probably up in size 6 months now, but I haven’t had the nerve to pull that stuff out yet. I’m not ready!! Lol! She’s very interactive and loves to be talked to and teased. I don’t have any big specific changes to share, I suppose, but everything she’s doing continues to progress and get better and better! Oh and she super loves to be naked, haha!

Whats the same with Waverly? Two specific things come to mind. One is that she still hates her bath. Hates her bath. But she’s totally fine 🙂 I think moving her to the big tub helped a little, but I’m suspicious that she’s going to be one who wants the bath hotter than I’m prepared to make it. So she’ll just have to hate it while I work up to figuring out her preferred temperature. The other things thats the same but I thought would’ve changed is her lack of teeth. She is teething HARD right now. I’ve never felt baby teeth SO close to the surface without them breaking through, but alas, they’re still tucked down there! So we wait. But she won’t be toothless for much longer!!

God has already used Wavy in obvious, exciting ways! I’m SO excited to see what He does with her next!

I have never anticipated a baby the same way that I anticipated Waverly, and she did not disappoint!

***

Thats a wrap, folks! I hope everyone got a little taste of each of our children in this mini-series! These posts mean so much to me, because one day I’ll be able to look back at my blog books and see exactly where each kid was at the exact same time. These are such precious times.

Kid #4, who gave us a run for our money this morning at church, Solomon!

Whats new with Solly? All kinds of things, actually! He talks in good, clear sentences. He counts a little, and sings little bits of songs. (Thank you, Cher, for showing him baby shark, by the way…) The last time we were in the van, he bellowed “I LOVE THIS SONG” when “Gone Gone Gone” by Phillip Phillips came on. He also loves “This Little Light of Mine,” but just the version with the new part in it that he can SHOUT along to. With that being said, Solly is aging juuust enough that he has a bit more comprehension and can be reasoned with! Not all the time, but sometimes. He understands cause and effect. He’s also super helpful! He’s followed in his siblings footsteps, and he likes to be helpful, but its not always actually particularly helpful 😉 But nowadays, it is! He’ll put away diapers, through kleenexes or napkins away. He can tidy toys up and knows what goes where. He can unload just about all of the dishwasher, too! Another change that I actually mentioned on yesterdays post is that he loves to play with Rowan. SO much! If Rowan sits on a chair, Solly tries to squeeze in next to him. Its so fun to watch!

Whats the same with Solly? Really, not a lot. He’s done much more changing than maintaining recently. Sadly, his most significant constant is that he’s still awful at pooping :/ I won’t go back into it, but we had some work to do to get his system functioning properly, and he was on laxatives for about six months. We ever so slowly weened him off of his treatment and within a week, he had quit pooping again. Don’t worry, I have ideas, but we have an upcoming doctors appointment for him as soon as she is back from holidays. I’m scared he has an allergy, but I’m hoping he just needs a little more fibre than the rest of his siblings. Really, beyond that, whats the same about Solomon is his delicious little demeanour. He is SO friendly and chipper and smily. He will just hang his big ole mouth open and laugh loud and happy and its just so good to hear. He sometimes plays shy but warms up pretty quickly. It doesn’t take long to get him goofy again.

He looks SO much like baby Brady, it only makes sense that he turned out to be his namesake!

I hope Solly loves life this much forever! I’m loving doing life with him!

Third day, third kid! Today is all about Rowan!

Whats new with Rowan? Lots, actually! Ro is changing and developing, and is a pretty rockstar older brother to Solly! Those two used to battle it out on the daily, and while its not necessarily smooth 100% of the time, its way better than it was last year. Rowan will initiate games with Solly, and try and teach him things.  While he has always been paired off with Laela as being the most similar kids, he’s recently been pushing harder to be his own guy, with his own say over his style. He didn’t want to wear a Halloween costume. He doesn’t like hats. If he had it his own way, he’d always be naked. He’s a funny kid 🙂 The biggest change with Ro recently is this whole lactose/milk/dairy/allergy/sensitivity/issue. We’re still working on it, and I can make a whole post about that in the near future, but so far what I do know is that swapping out his usual milk with almond milk is making a difference, and we’ve scrapped his yogurt out for apple sauce. He hasn’t fought either of those changes too hard, because he more so likes that he is the exception to the rule. I think he thinks its like treats. So thats fun! Last change with Rowan is that he can finally get dressed independently! It took that kid a long time to learn how to get in and out of a shirt! Haha!

Whats the same about Rowan? He still plays the same way. He prefers to just pick a couple favorite things and haul them around. One of them is always the stuffie he sleeps with, which is currently “Little Foxy.” Ro continues to be one of the freindliest kids I’ve ever met, chatting with random people at grocery stores, shaking hands at church, etc. He is also our must snuggly child! He got extra snuggly right around when he turned a year old. We figured it was because he was aware of my growing belly and he sort of knew instinctually that a baby was coming (Solly) and he wasn’t going to be the youngest anymore. SO I snuggled the heck out of that kid! And BEST thing ever – he snuggles never quit! He’ll happily waste the morning away sitting on my lap, if I let him. I can attack him first thing in the morning in his bed, and lay on top of him, and he just takes it. The best is, if I’m sad or having a hard time, he’ll say “I’ll feel you better, mommy” and come hug and kiss me. He snuggles SO nice. In case you hadn’t picked up on it, Rowan also still loves his long hair. I was regularly asking him if he wants one, and he was getting frustrated with it, insisting that he likes it long. So we made a deal. I told him I would never force him to cut his hair, and I told him that he can ask for a haircut anytime, and he can have one. But we both love his hair, so I’m pretty happy with that arrangement.

Rowan tends to just float where the wind blows. He’s SO innocent and free!

I love Rowan’s gentle soul and the way he pours love out on everyone. He’s already such a little man!

To continue my series of updates on the kids, we’ll go to Laela next.

Whats new with Laela? Lots! Laela is in kindergarten, and it shows. She is always coming home talking about letter sounds, patterns, songs, etc. She is absolutely loving school. I’ve been learning that, while Laela is second in birth order, she is the oldest girl, and therefore often feels like she’s the oldest. Sometimes that results in a power struggle, because she wants to be SO grown up, but it also leaves her quite responsible and helpful to the younger ones. Laela has dropped off some of her reserved nature, and is starting to let loose a little bit. She’ll sing and dance and be silly with everyone, where as she used just sit off to the side and watch. She LOVED preschool, but barely sang or did actions. It seems thats a thing of the past, as she comes home and sings for me the songs she learns at school. Its so refreshing! She’s also continued to ace her letters, learning the sounds without much help at all, and even sounding words out. If there is ever an opportunity to write a note or a card, she is ON it! Just about everything she writes is about how much she loves someone and why. Usually “Yoo are grat.” Stuff like that 💜 On a less important note, but still worth mentioning, Laela is bang on size wise, wearing the standard size 5T at age five. Her hair is suddenly quite long and noticeably thicker. And she let’s me do it! In fact, she chooses what she wants it to look like every day. She’s definitely not a little little girl anymore.

Whats the same about Laela? She’s still super girly. Loves to play with makeup and jewelry, pick her own clothes, etc. She still eats just little bits, and at a snails pace. She still loves babies, haha! Her siblings are cool and all, but the baby always wins. She’ll speak to her younger siblings in an extra-high, squeaky voice, which is hilarious if you’ve ever heard her normal voice. Its already SO high, her “baby talk” voice is most comparable to a dog whistle. But its SO sweet! Laela continues to be our child that pushes back against some of our rules, but I like to think it’ll be an amazing quality as she gets older, where she’ll hold to her convictions and not back down when she truly believes something!

She’s not as quiet as she pretends to be 😉 This girl can PLAY!

I LOVE this little girly so so much! I can’t wait to see what she does next!

My school kids have a five day weekend! I thought it would be nice to throw out an update about each kid over the next five days! Its kind of an odd time to put together a little series like this. Normally, a Monday-Friday schedule would make more sense. However, I’m going on a retreat next week, from Thursday through Sunday, so I wouldn’t be able to finish it. So, Thursday to Monday it is!

I was going to start with Dekker, in order of age, but I remember that sometimes feeling annoying, as the youngest child. My next thought was to go in alphabetical order, but weirdly, thats the same order! I never realized that. We’ll definitely mess that up with the next one, haha! (NOT because the next one is on the way, but because none of our baby names start with X, Y, or Z) Rather than getting a whole lot more creative than that, we’re just going to roll with it this way. Starting with Dekker.

Whats new with Dekker? He’s excelling at school, and continuing to move up in his reading levels. He’s braver in the gym and on the playground. He says his favorite subject at school is math, yet he admits its the most challenging. I LOVE that he likes it, even though its not easy for him! That right there says a lot about his character. He’s very responsible, and loves to be given responsibilities. He walks with Laela to and from school on her school days, and while I thought he might, he hasn’t forgotten to go get her even once! Haha! He’s actually admit he’s gone to pick her up occasionally, and realize upon arrival that its not her day! But he can laugh at himself while he tells me about it later 🙂 He loves to be silly!

Whats the same about Dekker? His size, haha! He’s growing up, but not yet growing up, if you know what I mean. He’s still one of the shorter kids in class, having yet to hit a solid growth spurt in the last year or so. He’s “sit in the front row of the school picture” short, but he’s built like a tank! He’s “grade two football team” tanky. These are very technical measurements, so pay attention, lol! Also, his willingness to help and to do jobs hasn’t changed. I used to fear that I was “making” him do too much, but he often offers all on his own! Just today, I said to Dekker “Honey, thats not a job for you. I’m happy to do it.” And he insisted! He wrapped up a dirty diaper and ran it off to our diaper pail. “I don’t mind, mommy. I’m already up.” I am SO grateful that he’s like this, and puffy proud of him that this is how he’s basically always been.

He wouldn’t tell you, but he’s secretly a leader.

I LOVE who Dekker has been, and I LOVE who he’s growing into.

In a special turn of events, Jerilee came out to visit for the afternoon! We usually hang out about once a week, watch trashy tv, and eat delicious food. Its so fun. I love our tradition. But a day date, free of tv, is so refreshing, and felt much needed today.

We just sat, in a quiet, kid-free, living room, and caught up. It feels like its been a while. We both had fun things to talk about, funny stories we had missed sharing, a few more practical things, and some discouragements. It was a full conversation, and it felt great.

I miss those days. We used to have day dates all the time when we lived in Radisson, believe it or not! She would show up with a tray of Starbucks drinks, one for me, one for her, and two empty cups, complete with lids, sleeves, and the little spout pokey things. Dekker and Laela would head right for her and accept their bevvies, and we would enjoy ours while they played. This felt like that.

While my afternoon was so lovely and uplifting, Dekker came home struggling hard, and has been a ball of tears for most of his time here at home. Lots of needing to go take a break on his own accord. Lots of big emotions. It sounds like some days home from school are timed just perfectly for our little group over here. If you’re looking for us, we’ll probably be at home, in our sweats, watching Christmas movies. (YES! Christmas! I said it! Leave it alone!) I think the doctor ordered some R&R for our group, so I think I’m going to let that happen.

Bring on the snuggles!

This is going to be a pretty weird one. Hope I don’t regret it! Hahaha!

Today I’m going to share with you ten-ish random fact/stories about ME that you may or may not already know. Some of them will depend on how long you’ve known me, or how long you’ve read my blog, or just maybe you’ve just heard them casually in passing. Usually people’s “get to know me” posts are a bit different than this, but I think “different” is a pretty good word for me 😉 I know, by blogging, I put a lot of things out there, any many people feel like they know me very well! Maybe there will be some surprises in here! Who knows! So hopefully this brings us closer together in a somewhat unconventional way.

1. I was born with crossed eyes. At nine months old, I had eye surgery. The same surgery Dekker had, actually. Apparently, post-op, I was an entirely different baby who loved to giggle at herself in the mirror. Around 18 months old, however, I believe I got a fever that messed up my eyes a second time. As far as I know, a second surgery wasn’t presented as an option, so I got glasses, and they helped straighten my eyes. Still to this day, if I don’t wear glasses for long enough, and I get overtired or sick, my left eye wanders in. 
2. I am always cold. I know lots of people can feel with me in this. I’ve always been this way, but I used to be much more of a schmuck about it, wearing flip flops in the snow, wearing capri pants well into winter, never wearing socks, etc. No wonder I was cold. Nowadays, I can wear pants, long sleeves, and socks pretty much every day in my nice warm house, and I’m still chilly. People assume that being pregnant in summer is the most uncomfortable thing but I LOVE being hugely pregnant in summer! I love to be warm.
3. I hate the shower. HATE the shower. I didn’t take a shower for legitimately our first year in this house. I hate when my hair sheds and sticks all over my body. I hate having water on my face or in my eyes. I hate getting out of the shower and being cold. I love my big soaker tub, and have a bath pretty much every single day, so I’m clean. I used to wash my hair in the kitchen sink when I needed to, but thats gotten tricky as my hair has gotten longer. Also, the bright color runs when I wash it, so it only took one time spattering my white kitchen cabinets with purple color for me to give in and *sigh* shower. So I do that now. But not very often. My hair is very used to not being washed, and therefore doesn’t produce as much oil as most. Let’s just say, if I wash my hair every week, that’s pretty impressive! (pats self on back)
4. I never thought I moved around a lot, but looking at it now, turns out I have! I was born in Morden, MB. and moved to my hometown in Saskatchewan when I was one. When I was seven, we moved across the street. Yup. We did. After I graduated high school, I spent the summer at a camp by Swift Current, and then moved to Hepburn, SK for the year. I spent the four months after school at Waskesiu, and then moved to Winnipeg. I lived in a house with a bunch of girls there, before moving to my own apartment. Winnipeg didn’t last long, and I came home after five months or so. I moved in with my parents until I got married and moved into Brady’s apartment in Saskatoon. He and I moved to Radisson and stayed for six years. When we moved, we lived in an acreage south of Saskatoon for a bit, and then a little cabin in Lawson Heights area for another little bit, and NOW we’ve made it full circle, back to my hometown 🙂 I can’t promise we’ll never move again, but I plan to be in this town as long as humanly possible! 
5. My biggest physical insecurity is a little mole that hangs out just below my nose. I super hate that thing. I literally had to look back in pictures of my high school years to see if I’ve always had it, and sure enough, I did, but I was vastly unaware of it. I had no idea it existed until someone made a joke about trying to pick it, because it “looked like a booger.” I’ve tried pretty hard to pretend its not there and not be too petty about it, but since having kids and having more colds, I blow my nose a lot more, resulting in it drying out, and occasionally bleeding. I think I can finally justify getting it hacked off. I’m over having it on my face at all, but also over having it bleed like crazy when I blow my nose. Ugh. 
6. I wasn’t allowed to date growing up, yet I still managed to be part of a plethora of weird relationships. The stories were pretty amusing, if I do say so myself. I used to imagine writing a book about them, where each guy would get his own chapter. He’d be under a different name, of course. Along with the book would come the “soundtrack,” as I had realized I had a song that I associated with every single guy! Lots of the details are rusty now, but at the time, I thought it was SUCH a good idea!
7. You guys know I go for a nail/wax appointment every month or so. I do those things for very specific reasons. I get my nails done because otherwise I chew my nails and the skin around them like no other! My thumbs are scarred so badly that, when my hands get any kind of tan on them, the skin around my thumbnails stays pink. If not for that reason, I wouldn’t put the time or money into doing my nails. But I need them. Pretty sure I can credit them also for not getting sick as often this fall! I wax my legs because for YEARS I tried to shave in the tub or in the shower, and while everyone I knew could stand in the shower for five minutes and come out flawlessly shaven, I would spend 30 minutes and come out just bleeding like crazy. I was HORRIBLE at shaving, and it never improved. And I wax my arms for vanity, if we’re being honest. I held out for a long time, trying to come to terms with being a hairy girl with long, dark arm hair. When I got my wedding pictures back, my photographer had used a filter that left my arms looking dirty, and that was it for me. No more of that.
8. I always knew I wanted kids. My poor guidance counsellor at school just couldn’t handle the fact that I had no real post secondary plans. I just wanted to be married and have kids. Very naive, for sure, but true. And thank goodness it worked out that way for me! Whew!! But my plan was seriously flawed. I “planned” to be married super young, and have a good handful of kids. Four-ish, I figured. But I was going to be done having kids at 25, and I was NEVER going to drive one of those HORRIFIC minivans! 😆 Its possible some of these things have changed…
9. When I graduated high school, I had hair down to my waist. I was NOT girly enough to care about my hair, but I had made bets with a few friends to try and grow out our hair until grad. But I hated having long hair. I made an appointment with our local hairstylist at the time, and the day after graduation, she chopped it ALL off for me into a cute little pixie cut. When I went to school to pick up my report card the next day, no one recognized me. They did eventually, of course, but it took a SOLID double/triple take. I super enjoyed that, and never thought I’d go back to long hair. That being said, my long hair now was entirely accidental. I had a very short style, longer on the top, shorter on the sides, not that long ago. At one of my hair appointments, I suggested we let one side grow a bit and keep one side short. And the rest is history. Unlike most people who have long hair and shave one side off, I grew it out from a shorty cut! The shaved side, and the color, has kept it interesting enough for me to not hack it all off yet, and suddenly, its LONG! 
10. The last story for you today is how I got my guitar. I have a black acoustic guitar that I purchased for $120 out of a pawn shop in Winnipeg when I was 15. It is a Segovia, which no one has heard of, because I think its exclusive to Winnipeg. Or it used to be?? I’m not sure. It has a beautiful, FULL sound, and is pretty much the perfect campfire guitar. I named it Nigel Bogey Lowenstein Friesen. When I got married, I hyphenated his last name to Friesen-Born, but soon thereafter decided to drop Friesen, because I’m not about that.

Sooooo thats all a little transparent, some more important than others! Feeling just a little awkward putting some of these things out there, but it would make me feel less that way if other’s shared something random about themselves in the comments!! Anyone want to add to the awkward madness??