I wanted to share some cute pictures from yesterday, and conveniently, today wasn’t a great one! So pictures are always a nice space filler 🙂 Behold! Cute kids and date night.

The day began with lots of squishy cuddles with this guy. I love when he rests the full weight of his huge melon against my face 😉 Honestly. I do.

Before we got ready, we bathed the kids so my parents didn’t have to. Laela hates wearing clothes after a bath, despite the fact that he has full body shivers and is obviously chilled. Nope. No clothes. Crazy hair and wet skin.

I went to take a spontaneous date night picture with Brady, but it was premature. He wasn’t quite ready yet…

Then we ate this. Oooooooohmagosh. A bacon wrapped filet, topped with blue cheese and garlic. Its truly unbelievable. And the twice baked potato didn’t hurt either.

We, again, tried to take a cute date night selfie, but this guy totally photo bombed.

We worked it out, though, and this is the best we got…

Not the clearest of pictures, but it doesn’t matter. I love keeping record of things and having great photos and videos of everything I can, but looking at this blurry, theatre picture, at least I know we were having fun. It doesn’t matter if everyone else can tell.

Date night <3 Hopefully see you again soon!

Brady and I were lucky enough to get a date night tonight!! Thanks to my parents for babysitting 🙂 I wanted to take him on a birthday date, and today was it! My parents came at 4:00 and we left shortly thereafter. I have a couple of cute pictures but considering the time, I’ll maybe post them tomorrow. No time or energy to wait for them to load onto my laptop and fuss with getting them on here. But we both got dressed up all cute, and headed to the city.

We went to the Keg for supper. It may seem a bit cliche, but there’s a story behind it! Brady and I went to the Keg exactly one week before we got married. We each ordered a steak, and Brady liked mine better. Not a big deal, though, right? Oh but it was. We have tried once or twice to get back to the Keg over the years, but since they don’t take reservations on the weekend, and since we don’t get too terribly many date nights, it just hasn’t happened. Brady has tried to recreate this steak at other restaurants, but every time he asks for blue cheese, they give him a side of blue cheese salad dressing. And that is NOT the same. So for his birthday, I wanted him to FINALLY get a shot at this elusive blue cheese steak.

Well, myyyyy goodness! We both got that blue cheese, bacon wrapped steak. And we both ate every bite. They were sooo very melt in your mouth delicious. I can rarely eat such a large steak in one sitting, but it was just all of a sudden gone! Who knew! It was SO good. Worth every cent, no question. Our server was great, and the food was better. Thats saying a lot. We didn’t even walk out feeling weighed down, like tends to happen when a person overeats. It was just perfect.

I took Brady to a movie afterwards. I won’t even share which it was. I didn’t read any reviews, and it was SO crude! I knew it was going to be, don’t get me wrong, but it was quite a bit raunchier in beginning than I was bargaining for. One unhappy very old couple left after about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it was right after that where the movie cleaned up and was less dirty. We had GREAT laughs, and enjoyed sitting in a theatre, holding hands, and being on a date.

When we were done with the movie, we grabbed some coffee and headed home. The kids were all sleeping, and my parents were happy, and full of stories from the evening with the kids. It seemed like they had almost as much fun as we did. Or I’ll just tell myself that and try to weasel some more date nights 😉 Sound like a plan? I think so.

Today has been a bit emotional day, but I’m so thankful to have Brady home. He’s back to work next week, and he will be very busy again. A lull in his job is always a treat, but brings the challenge of usually missing one pay period. Not a big deal, but it helps me when he has to go back. I wish he could always be home! But his work makes it possible for me to stay home with our beautiful babies. And he loves his job 🙂 So its really a win win.

Tomorrow will be good 🙂 We’ll have a low key morning, and then my parents will come babysit the kids while I take Brady out on a date. We haven’t had a kid free date in SO LONG! Maybe when Rowan was quite a bit littler, but because he has been such a challenge to feed for so many months, we haven’t felt good about leaving him with anyone, even someone we really trust, like my mom. BUT Bradys birthday date is a good reason to test it out finally 🙂 We’ll go out for dinner and maybe a movie, depending on whats playing. Just getting out of the house together is the priority. To reboot, refresh, and celebrate.

But first, we’ll get these kids to bed and find some supper for ourselves. Perogies are the order of the day.

Brady and I made a slightly more detailed plan about Laela’s birthday this afternoon, which I’m really glad for! I have so many lovely ideas and not a whole lot of time, so I really appreciate his constant willingness to help me put stuff together. My husband definitely doesn’t have the old-fashioned “Thats woman stuff” attitude toward things like that, and I couldn’t be more thankful for that aspect of his love for his family. Win for Brady! A bit of party planning plus five loads of laundry made for a nice full afternoon.

I headed to Kims around 4:30 to be there around 5:00. Upon arrival, I went through the side door of the van to pull the extra bucket seat out of the stow and go storage, so her baby boy can use his own car seat. As I was trying to pull the seat up, with my butt in the air, I head a sexy man voice ask “Excuse me, miss. Did you need help with that?” Thank the Lord is was just Kim in all of her sexy voice sick glory, messing with me from her doorway. It was a good start to the date.

We enjoyed our evening together, as always. We had a delicious supper at Boston Pizza, did some shopping, where I even found a few serving dishes for Laela’s birthday, and then stopped for coffees and brought them back to our romantic little spot under the tree in the *cough cough* Costco parking lot *cough cough*

It was 10pm very quickly, so I brought Kim and her bitty babe home for the night. Brady and I chatted on the phone during my drive home, and now I’m just about ready to crawl into a nice hot (yes, still hot!) bubble bath before bed.

It was such a nice day, with a very nice ending in sight <3

Today was Brady’s birthday. I am a not-so-whopping 2.5 months older than him, so I call him old because he is finally, yet again, as old as I am. We are both 27 now, and I know we’re not old, but its a strange stage for me to be in! I remember when I realized I wasn’t just 20 anymore, but I was in my mid twenties. And NOW, we’re approaching our LATE twenties!! Either way, its nice to have him here with me.

We spent the day at my parents place, laying low and catching up a bit. The kids miss being there (our schedules haven’t made too many visits possible recently) and my parents were gone over Thanksgiving so we haven’t seen them at all for a good long while. So we hung out there while the kids played and settled in again. When my dad got home, we sat down to a yummy supper of mashed potatoes and sausage. It was delicious, and the kids ate really well. Its so funny how different Dekker and Laela are. Dekker likes everything plain and separated, where as I could throw everything into a bowl for Laela and douse it in gravy, and she was good to go! They did great. For dessert, we had the cake Brady and I made the night before.

Ok, story. I’ve had this cake I’ve wanted to make Brady for a few years, but its pretty ominous and I’ve never gotten up the nerve to make it. Finally, I decided this was the year, and I was just going to recruit some help and get it made. I’d need some help just because it involved making a few different parts that were all a bit touchy and new for me, and I have three kids, so ya know, its tough. However, I couldn’t get any help!!!!! So I buckled and told Brady that I really wanted to make it for him but I would need his help. I said I could easily make him a different cake on my own, but if he wanted this one, he’d have to help. Thankfully, Brady is a great sport, and was happy to help. So we worked at it for 2.5 hours last night and served it today. Ive got to say, it looked pretty impressive!

Speaking for the taste, we didn’t get it perfect and the base of the cake was a little bit dry, but it was a huge undertaking and I think it came out super well!! I think I can speak for both of us, too, when I say we had a lot of fun assembling it together. There were lots of things to create and neither of us bake too much, but it worked out! Win for us! And yes, we’re all classy, serving it on a cookie sheet.

After the food and visiting was over, we did a quick tidy of the toys and went home. Dekker slept the whole way home, so he’s awake still, of course. But he’s being pretty quiet. Laela is out, and Rowan is right in the middle of lulling in and out, so everyone is on their way.

Its been a lovely, super low key day. Happy birthday to my loving husband. Thank you for being you. I still love you, just in case you were wondering…

I’d love to recount a few very sweet moments of the day on here 🙂 Its impossible to keep record of everything every day, but I had such a pleasant day with my family today. The kids are just coming into their own these days, and I’m so delighted to take them out and watch them surprise me over and over again. We’ll go in order.

We asked Dekker this morning if he thought he should have a haircut, and he said “yes!” So we called our salon and booked an appointment for noon today. While we all drove into the city, I kind of prepped him. If you remember, his haircuts aren’t always the smoothest of appointments, and we let him get pretty shaggy before we take him again. But he was amped, so we went for it. I figured I’d push my luck and even tell him he had to wear the cape this time. Our running deal is that he gets a smoothie after his haircut, so adding the cape was a gamble, but he accepted. When we arrived at the mall, as we got them out of their carseats, he even commented that maybe she would “put some stuff in it after.” I told him I was sure she would. When we actually got in there, he completely went along with things. He panicked a bit when Carlinna put the cape on but I pep talked him out of it. He then proceeded to have the EASIEST haircut ever! He made faces into the mirror the entire time, and told Carlinna jokes while she cut his hair. She quietly commented to me that he had never actually talked to her before. It was pretty awesome to see him handle it all so well. Towards the end, Carlinna asked him if she could use the trimmer around his ears. He had always screamed about that in the past, to a point where we just haven’t even tried it the last few times. She demonstrated it on her skin, saying “Oh, that doesn’t hurt at all! In fact, it tickles a little!” He gave her permission, and she actually was able to trim around his ears and clean up the back a tiny bit. Lastly, she took his cape off and asked if he liked my hair dryer. He was a bit hesitant, but she said she could blow all of the extra hair off of him so he wouldn’t be itchy, and again, he agreed. He laughed the entire time, with his tongue hanging out. I wonder how much hair he ate today. Either way, it was incredibly successful!! Carlinna had never gotten him to cooperate so well, and we were all pleasantly surprised by how well he did. Win for Dekker!!

Another win for all of the kids was at Dr. Mikes office. We took Rowan in for a follow up after his pretty crazy necessary treatment last week, and everyone did so well! I was just going to bring Rowan in myself, but Dekker had to pee, so we decided to just bring everyone. The kids really like Dr. Mike anyway, so its fun to all go sometimes. Dr. Mike came in pretty quick, and Dekker was full of stories right off the bat. Laela was climbing the chairs like a jungle gym, happily squealing away, not nervous at all. Dekker showed him his toy from his Wendys lunch and everything. All of that being said, Rowan loved his treatment again! He giggled through it, and Dr Mike was SO good to him. And thankfully, Ro is feeling so much better! We’ve seen a significant improvement since his first treatment already, but there was definitely less work to do. At this point now, we just watch, but I’m sure he’ll be more than fine from here on out.

The last sweet story I’ll share with you is from Superstore. The two big kids were in the cart seats, and I had Rowan in his umbrella stroller. While we waited in line, Brady was in front of the cart, and I was hanging out with the three kids. Rowan began reaching out and playing with Dekker and Laela’s shoes, as their feet were hanging right in front of his face. Both of the big kids became enthralled with this, and if Brady pulled them ahead a little bit, they would call me to bring Rowan closer, even if I was less than three seconds behind them. Efficiency at its finest 😉 Anyway, Dekker and Laela were both leaned forward resting their heads on the cart handle, staring at Rowan. Out of nowhere, Laela reached over Dekker and rubbed his back. No one looked up, but I heard Dekker say quietly, “I like that.” My gosh, I melted.

These kids, though. I LOVE these kids. How in the world was I blessed with SUCH amazing kids??!

Its been a strange inbetweener day around here. Rowan had Brady and I up at 5:00am, and he stayed up. Not our easiest start to the day, but we’re working on it. I so hope he’ll start sleeping through the night soon! It’ll come eventually, I know 🙂 But its been a backwards day. Because of the very early start, I’m not feeling 100% at all. Brady probably isn’t either. Yet somehow, the kids are in better moods than they have been the last few days! Its been much easier to deal with being quite this tired when the big kids specifically are in pleasant moods and playing well together. I love when they talk to each other without any prompting or encouragement from us. Just greeting each other, offering toys, helping out, etc. They’re truly fabulous.

Tomorrow has to go off with a bang, though! The whole fam is going into the city for a few things. We need to do a bit of grocery shopping, and while I haven’t planned ahead at all, I’m hoping to add in a few things that we are behind on. Dekker and Rowan both need shots, Dekker needs a haircut, Rowan has to go back to chiro, and I neeeeed to make a concrete plan for Laela’s birthday party! So much to do, and I’m pretty sure we need to do a bunch of it tomorrow. Oy!

Please, Ro, let us sleep in past 5:00 tomorrow!!

I’m sure I’m not the only one remembering the things I am thankful for today. Some people roll their eyes at Thanksgiving because we should always be thankful, and I agree with that. I assure you that I focus on things that I am grateful for most days of my life. I have been truly blessed by many wonderful people and with many amazing things. I have waaay more to be thankful for than I can think of in one sitting. Lots and lots.

I’ll be the first to admit that this year has been difficult on me, though. Sometimes I feel like this whole situation with the house not selling and not selling and not selling is just crushing my insides. I always try to go back to the fact that we really live in a beautiful home! I have a solid house that is more than enough room to fit my family, where we feel safe and familiar and comfortable. Its the only house our kids know as their own. It is a wonderful place. I pep talk myself about this. Every. Single. Day. And it get wearing, if we’re being honest.

As a Christian, I am confident that my life is in Gods hands, and that He knows the plans he has for me. Plans for good, not for disaster, to give me a future and a hope. This, I believe. But this year in particular, I have struggled to find comfort in that truth. I know He knows, but I want to know! However, the last few days, I’ve felt something new on the subject. I still don’t feel very much comfort, if any, knowing that God has our house, as well as our hypothetical next house, in His hands. But what I do feel is thankfulness that its not in my hands. There is very clearly a plan I know nothing about, and there is a reason that we are still here. If it were up to me, we would have been out of here a few years ago. But who knows how that would have turned out. I don’t know the plans God has, and that still drives me bananas. But I am genuinely grateful that it isn’t up to me. I feel burdened still, but I know my load to carry is much lighter than it could be. I hesitate to say I feel peace (?) but I think I feel some, at least.

So. I am THANKFUL that my life is in Gods hands. I am THANKFUL for the roof above my head and the walls that protect us from the wind. I am THANKFUL for my amazing husband and our children than make my heart laugh daily. I am THANKFUL that I don’t feel any bitterness or anger towards my Father in Heaven, and that His big hands have enough room in them to carry all of us, even in our unbelief.

I can’t guarantee I will feel this way every day for the duration of our stay in this home, because I am human, and sometimes I break. I don’t like to pretend I feel one way when I feel the opposite. But today, I am not unbelieving. Today, I am hopeful and thankful and in love.

Happy Thanksgiving.

After a fairly rocky start to the day (I’ll spare you and my future self the details) we got our kids all cleaned up and dressed for Thanksgiving dinner.

Yes, in case you were wondering, they are the cutest kids in the world.

We were recently invited by Kim and her husband to join them for a Thanksgiving feast. It was a truly lovely invite, as my parents are out of town, and we usually celebrate this holiday together. Instead of us just doing our own thing, and likely not making a bird and the whole shebang, they invited us over. They cooked and cleaned and prepared for us all day.

We picked up some buns and drinks and made our way over in the late afternoon. We spread out a bit, and I hung out with Kim in the kitchen. When we got everyone seated at the table, there was turkey, mashed potatoes, buns, peas, stuffing, broccoli salad, and jello salad. It was a huge meal, and it was completely delicious. The four of us adults sat at the dining table with all the food (boo yea) and the kids sat at a little Ikea table just beside us. The last time we shared a supper with their family at their place, Dekker freaked about not sitting with Brady and I, but he did SO much better this time! He still fussed a bit about having to sit and eat, but he didn’t hesitate once to share the table with Laela, Emmerson, and Maddox. Rowan slept through most of supper, and Ellijah hung out at the big table in his high chair.

We ate until we were all pretty overfilled, and then Brady and Aaron went downstairs with the kids while Kim and I tidied up the dishes a little bit and visited. Kim had made two pies on top of everything else, so we brought down the mens servings, which I’m pretty sure were shared with the kids, and we enjoyed ours quietly upstairs in the living room. Well, “quietly.” Maddox and Laela were soon upstairs with us, sniffing out some extra attention and new toys. They were cute.

Before we left, we attempted a quick photo shoot.

Its hard to photograph moving children…

But we had already long overstayed, so we headed out around 8:00pm. Now, we’re home and all of the kids are tucked in for the night. In all honesty, with the morning starting out quite as trying as it did, and with the kids not in the best of moods, I was nervous about how the evening would go. But it was a FABULOUS day, made that way by friends who we are truly thankful to God for.

Thank you, friends, for taking us in this evening. <3 We feel both blessed and loved. We love you guys.

Last night, Brady and I started season eleven of Greys Anatomy. I know, judge away. Its a great show. But for some reason, it sat really heavy with me, and it left me feeling uneasy and thinking too hard about things like the death of my children, or my whole family, or just generally awful things. I told Brady that, before bed, we needed to watch something more light hearted, otherwise I wouldn’t sleep. I know this. It has happened before.

So we cracked out some Brooklyn 99 reruns and I felt way better going into the night. But I proceeded to have this crazy dream that was really stressful in the moment but quite comical in the morning.

In my dream, I was out shopping (?) with Jerilee and Kim. I’m not sure if we were actually shopping, but we appeared to be in some kind of shopping centre, just with no recognizable stores. While we were shopping, a brawl seemed to break out. But it was all over the building. People were screaming like the place was being shot up. It wasn’t, I don’t think. The three of us were nervous, but not like running for our lives, necessarily. It was confusing. Anyway, we were on the hunt for a place to hide out until the drama was over, when we spotted a door sort of off to the side of everything. We opened it up, and it was just a teeny tiny dark room under the stairs. So we snuck in there and decided to wait out the crazy together.

Naturally, once we were all situated in there, we pulled out our phones. It was then that we discovered an ATM in our tiny little room. Without a moment of hesitation, one of us (I forget who) suggested that we pull out some money for coffee. There was a Starbucks one level up, in the lobby (?), and we could get through really quick with cash. So we took turns and pulled out some cash for Starbucks, all the while people running past the tiny window in the door, screaming. Chaos.

Once we all had our cash tucked away in our bags, we ventured back out and clipped along with the crowd trying to flee the building. Once we were on the correct floor, we detoured over to Starbucks and ordered our drinks. The dedicated baristas set to work making our drinks, but the hooligans that were causing all the ruckus came to our coffee shop and demanded to get in the back. We stood directly in their way, telling them NO WAY, not until our coffees were done. The dickheads physically pushed us to the ground, where we all began blubbering and crying and fled the mall with all of the other sane people.

All of that, and we didn’t even get our coffees.

But of course we had tried. I have no doubt in my mind that any one of us would have stopped for coffee in real life.

Sooo note to self: no more Greys before bed. Also, maybe no shopping with both Kim and Jerilee at the same time. It seems to attract trouble…