We looked over everything in advance this year, and made a list of what winter gear we needed and what we already had. It wasn’t too bad of a scene. Dekker and Laela still fit their stuff from last year, pants and jackets. Solly fit what Rowan wore last year. We did not have a set for Rowan, so that went on the list. Beyond that, everyone had mitts and toques, and everything else. ALL we needed was pants and a jacket for Ro. So we got them, and everything was smooth.

Until this weekend, when we actually bundled everyone up, and Solly’s boots wouldn’t stay on. They are far too small. We have the next size up, but Rowan is wearing them.

We’re in a tricky situation with the little boys, because they’re SO close in size!! Rowan is pretty average in his size at this point, and Solly isn’t exactly big, but he’s tall, and that puts them in almost the exact same size. Solly is in 18-24 month currently, but if its not a diaper shirt, its too short. So really, if we’re buying him clothes, we’re buying 2T. Rowan still fits 2T, but just to avoid buying all the same sizes and having TONS of 2T stuff, we’re starting to move Rowan into 3T. It fits, but its kind of hangy/bulky. Not my favorite style, but we’re working with it. This all being said, Rowan could wear his stuff from last year, but would be a bit on the smaller side, and Solly would be without, since the next size down that we have is 12-18 months, I believe, and there is NO way Solly would fit that! So, Rowan scored new outerwear but now we need new boots, and we meed them soon!!

Maybe, if this kid would ever walk, I wouldn’t feel so dumb buying him $40 boots. Why, I ask, are boots SO much even from basic, non-branded places?!?! Gah! Winter wear is my nemesis. Every. Single. Winter. WHY do I have to pay SO MUCH for something I don’t even like?!?!

First work problems. I know. Just let me get them out.

…as the street scraper whirs outside…

We had plans to have a low key morning with our sickies and start decorating for Christmas. Nothing too crazy at all, I promise! We have this beautiful vaulted ceiling, which results in big open space above our kitchen cabinets. Last Christmas, we gathered together a variety of mismatched decorative trees and lined them up on top of our cabinets. We ran white lights behind them so they would glow in the dark early mornings and the evenings. And guys, it was SUCH a gorgeous set up! At the end of the season, it seemed such a shame to take them down. If I remember right, they stayed up there through winter, long after our other Christmas decorations were taken down. I wish I could think of other beautiful things to put up there in other seasons, but then I would have to store yet more decor, and my goodness, Christmas decorations take up so much room!! But this little tree display is by far my favorite area of decor in our house!

The goal of today was to start there. The kids could choose which tree would go where, and they all LOVE Christmas lights, so they’d be excited as it was all put together. However, our little angels were not quite so cooperative this morning, and by 11:00, everyone was exhausted and frustrated and needing to rest. So, Brady bathed them quickly before lunch. It was too late for Solly, unfortunately, and he was half asleep during his bath. So he missed lunch completely and went right to bed! Good thing he slept in this morning and ate breakfast a bit later. Rowan had a little rest in his bed after throwing a total fit in the tub, then had lunch and fell right to sleep in his bed no problem. Dekker and Laela ate a little and are playing Lego quietly. Brady is having a shower and I’m in bed. We are tired, haha!

It will be nice to duck out of the house and spend the evening at my parents, for a relaxed supper and a chat. Christmas decorating can wait another day. But not too much longer 😉 We are more than ready!

I went to a Christmas marketplace event at one of our local churches this morning with a friend of mine. My original plan, when we decided to go together, was to walk! Cold weather or not, exercise is a thing that some people do on purpose, right? But then it snowed about 10 cms last night and I nixed my plan. Driving would be fine. I offered to pick her up in the bus, because that sucker can drive through anything.

I still stand behind that, because it was a breeze to drive all last winter, but it also had winter tires last winter, and we don’t have them on yet. And it really shows!! Probably the main thing I dislike about our bus is that its rear wheel drive. I know there are benefits to both ways, but I really don’t like rear wheel drive on such a big vehicle. As if my turns aren’t already fairly wide, now its so much easier to slide right on through! Even more than the size of our bus, readjusting my driving intentionally for the rear wheel drive detail was a pain in the butt. Or the rear. You get it.

Once I got back home, Brady and I discussed the afternoon. I had a leg wax in the city in the early afternoon, and I was a bit apprehensive about driving there on my own. I’m not ultra-afraid of all winter driving, but its this very first chunk that I dislike extra. No one else knows how to drive anymore, and the roads are just slick, with no build up of snow or grip or anything. Not everyone (myself included) has their winter tires on, and just all of the little details like that make me not want to drive in traffic. I could have, but instead, we decided to all run in together as a family, and make a grocery shop out of it.

Brady took the three older kids into Superstore while Solly and I hung out in the van. He snored quietly and I listened to The Rocket Summer and played on my phone. It was so restful and nice. From there, I went to my waxing appointment, which I like more than you would think. Its a self care thing, where I get to be pampered, refreshed, all while enjoying a chat with someone I really like! I say it all the time, but I have the best people, in every field. We hit Costco afterwards, which was a breeze because the kids just love it, haha! Anyone else’s kids LOVE grocery shopping? I feel like I may never use the pick up “click and collect” system, because they’re just so happy in a grocery store, haha! Way to be the odd one, Hailey…

We came home happy but a few in the gang were quite tired. We stretched out on the couches and watched some funny music videos on YouTube while Brady fried up some perogies and bacon for supper. It was such a nice evening! Even though it was cold outside 😉 Maybe winter doesn’t have to be fully miserable…

I realized this morning that Dekker had hot lunch at school! I try so hard to be organized, but the last two hot lunches, I’ve filled out the form and sent money back to school without looking at the date for the actual lunch! Not the brightest, I know. But its usually for the following Friday. I texted a friend and she confirmed it. Yes! I LOVE not making his lunch, haha! Its not like its complicated, or that I don’t like helping him out, but not making a lunch means sitting at the table with my breakfasters and sipping coffee. Its nicer that way. One day, when we have enough school-aged kids to justify it, I’m going to buy a schwack ton of bread and fixings, and we’re all going to make a month work of sandwiches for lunch in one sitting. Its going to be amazing!

I took Dekker to school, all bundled up in snow pants and all of the winter gear he’d need for -50. He was super happy, and happily ran off into the snow with his friends. There’s not much of it now, but the forecast suuuuucks, so we know its coming! Winter tires are going on next week!

While Dekker was at school, Laela asked for her “homework,” and did a couple more pages of her work book from the other day. She is just loving the practice.

She wanted to keep going, but I called it at two pages, and that was ok. She had little brothers itching to play with her, so life moved on. I took that opportunity to grab a shower! Woot!

Parts of my latest hair color have been fading and starting to loos brassy. It was getting to a point where I was actually self conscious, which isn’t me. But a big yellow streak right on the top of my head was hard to hide, whether it was down or tied up. As I was in the shower, I remembered I bought a toning shampoo a while ago that adds a purple/blue tinge to the lighter pieces of my hair. Life saver, right? So I used that today and let me tell you, it saved my hair’s butt! (Yes, my hair has a butt.) Its definitely more blue than purple, but I’m kin of into it.

I had a quick re-shave with my hair girl this afternoon and she lovingly curled my fuzzy freshly washed hair for me. It felt good to be rid of those weird yellow pieces that looked so green next to the blue. This is way better.

I made it back to town just as it was time to pick Dekker up from school. It’s so windy and snowy today, and there is only more to come. But there are positives. Mukluk weather, for one thing. … There’s probably another positive thing, but its eluding me for the moment. But I think we can agree that mukluks count for two. Right? Right.

We’ve all been some form of sick for a little while now. Thankfully, its NOWHERE near as awful as our spell of sickness last year. Its just kind of an annoying, persistent cold. No big deal, really. Yesterday, however, Laela developed a super yucky chesty cough, and while she tried pretty hard to cough into her arm every chance she got, it was probably successful once every five coughs. I decided yesterday already that today wouldn’t be a good day to take her to school. Even though her mood was happy and she seemed capable enough, I didn’t want her to be coughing on everything and everyone at preschool. When I broached the subject this morning, she hesitated, but surprisingly agreed to stay home. She loves preschool, so I knew right then that she was’t feeling great, and she knew it. She was content to stay home and colour.

A few minutes before I left, she pulled out her paper and some markers, and asked me to draw the number 2 at the top of the page. I did it, and she started practicing!

She did great! But lost interest pretty quick. I then remembered that I was armed with education, lol!

I bought these little work books in summer with the intention to casually run through them with Dekker and Laela right before school and preschool started, just to get a good refresh for Dekker and some motor skills with Laela. August turned out to be not our best month, if you remember, so it never happened. Well, today was the day 🙂 I pulled out Laela’s pre-K one and she went to town on it!

She held her marker the right way, even, which was awesome!! Sadly, I had to leave right as she got started, but once Laela got to the letter portion, Brady documented it for me.

I was so excited to see how eager she was to practice letters, and how she herself initiated the whole thing! She’s such a sweet little girl <3 Even when she’s sick, she’s still impressing me.

Way to go, Laela!!!

I had written out yesterday’s post in the afternoon, but I didn’t want to post it until I had a picture of each kid in their costume, which didn’t happen until the evening. I intended to quickly add the pictures and post it right before we went out trick or treating. However, once everyone was dressed and ready, we took pictures and bolted immediately in an effort to avoid everyone overheating in their absurd amount of layers. And I forgot to post. Ah well. I put it up as soon as we got the kids to bed, and now today, I’ll tell you how it went!

Last year, the kids were very shy to say anything to the people giving them candy. My best memory of last year was when Dekker and Laela went to the ONE house on their own while Brady and I stood at the street. It was towards the end of our night, and they were familiar with the process. When someone came to the door, Dekker said in his most stern voice “trick or treating.” We died laughing. It was hilarious. This year, however, all three of the older ones were eager and saying their piece, following it all up with their pleases and thank yous. It was cute. But let me tell you, it was slowww going! Rowan was so very uncoordinated, and it took him forever to get up and down the stairs. Of course, we helped him, but they were being so independent and cute, and we liked letting them just go by themselves sometimes. It was pretty funny to watch. It got a little hairy a couple of times when our slow movers suddenly were joined by masses of larger, faster, louder children on the tiny little entrance steps. Our kids aren’t fans of that kind of thing, but they rolled with it pretty well. Only Rowan got hung up on other people a couple of times.

We drove around and stopped at the houses of people we know, and a couple of other random houses along the way. Our kids had a total riot, and so did we. It was cute and cold and happy and it always helps when the kids are happy. We stopped and talked to a few people, and stayed far too long at others 😉 You know who you are. It was refreshing to get out and about and to see everyone having fun.

We strategically dressed the kids in comfy, pj-ish clothing that they could sleep in, so once we got them home, it was a very quick process to get them to bed. The entire evening, including bedtime, was meltdown-free, and we didn’t have to shush them once after they had been tucked in. The house, on the other hand, was an enormous mess! It was covered with disregarded costume pieces, laundry from getting into the costumes in the first place, tags from the new ones, outerwear was all over the stairs, candy covered the island as well as small handfuls of garbage from the candy that had been eaten along the way. Such. A. Mess. Brady and I agreed to deal with it in the morning, haha!

I can confirm now that it is all tidied up, candy is sorted, and costumes are put away. With that, Laela is napping with the little boys today, and Dekker is heavily participating in PJ day at school. That is going to be one tired group! And I am absolutely part of it!! Everyone either at school or in bed means that I can be in bed too!!!

Halloween is bittersweet for me this year. If things had gone differently, we’d have a three month old going from house to house with us, being adorable in whatever we ended up dressing him up in, and likely sleeping through the whole thing. Would have been wonderful! If things had gone differently still, I’d be about 27 weeks pregnant with Jamin, who would’ve been confirmed as a boy. For some reason, I’ve been really liking the maternity skeleton shirts this year, with the little skeleton baby over the belly. I probably would’ve tried to have one for today. But things did not go those ways. Rather, I’m trying to focus on these hilariously adorable four children I have here at home!! And they are ridiculously cute!!!

Dekker went to school dressed as a pizza slice 🍕 He was SO stoked about being pizza, and even just on our walk from the van to the school, kids were commenting on his costume. He felt pretty cool. It didn’t fit perfectly inside of his jacket, haha! But he rolled with it 🙂

I was able to get my way into his pizza costume this morning, so with that, I’m pretty sure we’ll have someone dressed up in it pretty much every year from here on out.

Laela was totally on board with being a fireman until she remembered that she had a couple of princess dresses in her closet. Game changer. She changed from one dress to the other about five thousand times last week before deciding on the pink one. She said she was Anna. It was a bit of a rude awakening to learn that Anna doesn’t actually wear pink. She settled on going as Rapunzel, even though Rapunzel also does not wear pink. Close enough. So, today, Laela will grace preschool (and the town) as a princess. 👸

After some convincing, Rowan has agreed to trick or treat as a dinosaur. 🐉 But not just any dinosaur. He would ONLY go as a “tiny and funny dinosaur.” He was VERY specific, hahaha! We finally convinced him to try even just half of the costume on, and he giggled like crazy when he saw himself in the mirror. So I guess it passes as a funny dinosaur costume! A funny dinosaur that will only have his picture takes once.

Solly’s costume is my favorite. If you know me, thats not a surprise. He is going as a pineapple this year! 🍍 I am SO stoked!! Its so soft and cozy and warm, and I think he’ll be more than comfortable. Except for the fact that he’s been feeling under the weather for a good long while now. Poor kid! I hope he’s not just a whiny weepy pineapple all night!

Behold! Our little pack of sweeties, dressed and ready to go!!

Have a great night of candy and pretending!! 🍬🍭🍬🍭🍬🍭

My mom invited the kids and I over for the day so Brady could focus on framing our basement all day without any big interruptions or nap times to work around. We have been anticipating a day or two like this for a while now, and it felt so good!

Brady was home while I took Dekker to school this morning, and he had everyone dressed and ready to go when I arrived back. I took the kids to my moms and Brady got to work! He and a guy from work had started framing the interior walls a long time ago, and they had made pretty good headway, but there was a good chunk left to finish. But he got to it, and I didn’t hear from him until he came by my moms and we all had lunch together.

As for my mom and I, it was kind of a weird day, if I’m being honest. We both felt a bit off. A bit out to lunch. Foggy. But we just didn’t push it, and kept things pretty low key as the morning rolled on. Lunch helped a little, and then the two little boys went to bed and Laela asked for a show on.

Brady headed back to work and my mom and I continued our visit. I made a couple of phone calls that kind of set me off into a flurry of annoyance, and it was hard for me to come back from them :/ But, I tried, and I was feeling a bit better when I went to pick Dekker up from school. He, however, wasn’t feeling 100% either.

The poor kid lost his voice! I’m not sure I’ve ever heard his lost voice voice, but it is SO cute and high and raspy and I love it. But even that, I’m not sure what to make of. He has a gross, wet cough that I’m pretty sure indicates that all of the crud building up in there is finally coming out. I don’t think he’s really “sick” anymore. But I feel like he’s going to be kind of miserable having no voice at school! Yet, tomorrow is Halloween, and he’s so psyched to dress up and watch the Charlie Brown pumpkin movie, and do all the fun things! Ugh. Decisions are hard.

I’m chilly and ready for bed. But first, a bath. As always. Seriously, any of you that don’t have a soak every single day, you really should. It feels amazing.

A crazy thing happened today. I went to church alone, without Brady or the kids!! I’ll explain.

I had made a prior commitment to talk to a few people about some music stuff before the service began. With Solly still being a bit of a mess and no one feeling 100%, it didn’t make sense for them to come. Because I was already going to be there, it made logical sense that I’d stay and for the first time in a long time, actually take in the service!

It was incredibly refreshing to sit and listen to the service. Don’t get me wrong. I love when the kids come. Its so important for them to be in our church community, to learn, to absorb, and to make friends there! But let’s be real. They’re pretty distracting! Today was a whole new vibe, and it felt like a bit of a treat. I had my mom on one side of me, and a really good friend on the other side. It felt wonderful to be able to lean back and listen without shushing anyone, whispering anyone through an argument, pulling out or putting away a water bottle, etc. It was just me, and I liked it 🙂

My parents joined us for lunch, and we had a super lovely afternoon spent eating waffles, catching up on each others lives, and talking about the future. There’s never a shortage!

We couldn’t convince our guests to stay, so they’ve headed home, and we’re anticipating a very quiet evening of snacky supper and maybe some music. We’ve made a super cute kid-friendly playlist on YouTube of fun songs that the kids love to dance along to, so we occasionally “do” that in the evening. Mostly on days when everyone is wiped out but we don’t want to bite the bullet and turn on a show for them to zone out to. Music is move fun anyway.

Other than that, I have a few ideas brewing for future blog posts, so I may spend a chunk of the evening making some jot notes and planning out a few posts. I wish I was a “big” enough blogger to need to schedule and plan all my posts out in advance, but I don’t think I have enough to talk about 😂 Maybe one day!

I asked the kids what I should blog about today. I couldn’t squeeze an idea out of Dekker, being that he is FAR too practical, and wouldn’t ask me to write about something that he didn’t feel was important or relevant in the moment. Laela piped up from the dining room, however, with “I know!” I asked what she thought I should write about.

Write about me!
I write about you lots. What should I write about you?
About my letters!
What letters?
MINE!
What letters do you mean, Laela?
The letters in my name!!

So. Todays post is about Laela’s name!

Accoring to the internet, Laela (Layla, if we’re being real here) means “born at night,” which is both boring and also accurate. In my books, it means “best little girl to have ever walked the earth,” but Google and I don’t have to agree on everything. I fell in love with Laela’s name years ago when I first watched the movie, Big Daddy. She was the pretty girl in the park, and her name was SO sing-songy. I hung onto it on my secret list of baby names all through my adolescence, and was SO relieved when my husband loved the name too.

When I was pregnant with Laela, we went on a road trip as a family, and as we drove, we talked baby names. We’ve named a couple of our kids on road trips, actually. I couldn’t tell you why, but its just a fun space to make those plans for us 🙂 We were working on a middle name for Laela, and I threw one out that sparked BIG in Brady’s heart. He LOVED it, maybe even more than the first name we had settled on. I also LOVED the name. It was beautiful and feminine and would’ve gone great with our family’s style. Brady was SOLD, and I love him to death, so we decided to entertain that name as a first name. By the end of that road trip, Laela wasn’t Laela anymore. Her name had officially changed.

Guys, I tried. I called her by name when we talked about her. We thought of nicknames for her. I genuinely loved the name! Except it never ever came naturally. I always had to think about it. I always forgot what name we had decided on. Constantly. I gave it a solid month, if I remember correctly. But it just wasn’t happening.

I finally decided to conduct an experiment. A very simple but telling experiment.

I asked Brady what we named the baby.

“Lae… uh…” and then he said the name we had picked. I was relieved. We both knew in that moment that it just wasn’t her name. Neither of us ever got it first try. It just wasn’t coming naturally. I told Brady that I think the baby’s name is Laela, and he agreed.

That is how our Miss Laela got her name. The spelling is different than the usual spelling (Layla) just because we thought it was pretty and a little big different. Not too weird, but distinct. Like how Dekker could’ve been spelled “Decker.” We like things to be a tad on the odd side 😉 If you know us, you know this.

For the record, I would tell you the name, because I know I’m doing that evasive thing, and I hate when people do that. Its not on purpose! We just still like the name a lot, and it will remain on our list.

I hope you enjoyed the history of naming my girly!! I LOVE her name. Not a single regret!