The Daily Hailey

A pretty exciting thing happened today!

We spent the day at my parents house, visiting with them, as well as my brother, sister in law, and their two boys. We haven’t seen their family in around a year, which is CRAZY! It was super important to catch up a bit as soon as possible, and get them acquainted with Rowan. It was a lovely visit, and all five of the kids did well together. I never put big expectations on that type of scenario, because they are five kids under five, and one can only “expect” so much. Dekker has always been shy, and when he’s spent time with some of his other cousins, he gravitates towards the older ones. This Christmas, he was three, and loved his eight year old cousin. He was more and more timid, it seemed, the closer they got to him in age, which was actually really sad, since he would hug the older boys but not the younger one. Lots of crying.

I know Simon and Grace’s oldest son especially has tried to engage Dekker in the past, only to be rejected time and time again. At once point today, though, he asked Dekker if he wanted to come play downstairs. I actually watched Dekker’s face as he thought about it, and then he said “Ya. I’d like to.” And they went! It wasn’t long before Laela joined them. No one dared go downstairs and watch, or take pictures, or anything of the sort, for fear of disturbing the fun and tempting someone to head back upstairs.

NOT ONCE was there an argument, or any crying. We eventually had to go bring everyone upstairs for dessert, of all things! It was pretty epic, in my opinion. It went SO smoothly, and compared to Dekker being too shy to even speak to his cousins, this was a vast improvement! I’m so excited to see what the future has in store for all of these beautiful kids 🙂

Thanks, boys, for including Laela in the fun 🙂 I know how much she loved it!

This morning, I had all the kids settled playing downstairs, and I ventured upstairs to get some breakfast. I felt a bit weary, as many of us do in the mornings. Nothing new. I decided it was close enough to lunch that I could justify having leftovers, and I warmed up some leftover perogies and gravy. Don’t judge.

By the time I got back downstairs, Rowan was starting to fuss a little bit on his play may. I deflated a little, knowing that time to eat my hot food was already almost over. I’ve never really had this stereotypical issue with having kids keeping me from eating hot food. At least, its never bothered me, really. But today, man, I wanted it! Maybe it was a bad parenting move, I don’t know, but I asked Dekker if he would mind sitting beside Rowan for a minute. Ro loves his siblings, and calms down quite a bit when they come join him. Dekker came over immediately, and sat beside Rowans mat, talking quietly. He never tells me what he’s saying, and if I get too close, he stops. But thats cool. I like that special thing they share.

I ate as fast as I dared, and Dekker stayed put beside Ro, though I could tell he was just about finished. I ran upstairs once I was done eating to go make a bottle, and when I came back down, Laela was sitting to the other side of Rowan. He was in his glory with a sibling on each side, and was no longer fussing even at all. I quietly sat down and waited until they all dispersed, and only then did I pluck Ro off the floor and feed him his milk.

There is this stigma attached to big families that suggests that the siblings raise each other. I almost hesitate to post this because I don’t want people to think thats how we parent. It isn’t! So instead, I’m posting it, hoping to show just how loving my babes are, and how that situation would have been different had I immediately rushed to Rowans side and fed him his milk until he fell asleep. I’m SO glad I asked Dekker to help calm him, because it was a proud moment for my mommy heart!

…And I got to eat perogies for breakfast, which was nice too…

I had a bit of a laugh this afternoon while putting on my makeup. Well, to be fair, I was just about done. I had done everything but the lips, and i was running on a bit of a timeline. I knew how long I had for each thing, those things being getting myself ready, waking and feeding Rowan, and getting the older kids up, dressed, and out the door. I had enough time, but not much extra at all. Anyway, when I had finished my face up, minus my lips, I discovered that I was rocking two incredibly different eyebrows.

Because of my time crunch, I came to terms with the fact that my eyebrows are sisters, but they aren’t twins, I thanked God for my glasses that would camouflage them for the most part, and I kept on moving. I really like my funky glasses, but sometimes I feel like putting them on takes away the “pretty” and changes it to “funky.” I like both looks, but I sometimes get sad when I work so hard to soften my look, only to have it hidden behind my big glasses. Today, though, they worked in my favor, haha!

I took the kids to the city and picked Brady up. We didn’t have too much to do, but getting my back fixed was priority one. For some reason, the last week or so, I’ve had this crazy ache in my shoulder and neck when I’d take in a deep breath. Brady and I both figured it was a rib out. As the days wore on, I found myself more grouchy in the mornings and evenings, and totally unable to lay on my right side anymore. We went to Dr. Mike’s first, and instead of just quickly running in on my own, Dekker was quite insistent that he wanted to come. So he did! He and I went in together, just the two of us, and it was actually really pleasant. He was still a bit shy, so he sat on my lap until I got up for my treatment, but he sat very politely and quietly. Dr. Mike pointed out fairly quietly that he was doing really well, and wasn’t so scared as the last time. He said it seemed like Dekker’s confidence had really started to show, and I agreed. He said under his breath “He really looks good. He’s coming into his own.” I love that someone who sees him so rarely can tell and understand. He’s a good man.

After chiro, we ducked into a couple of stores, and then Wendys for supper. They did great, as usual. Our last place to hit was actually the show home for the builder Brady works for. Believe it or not, I haven’t been through this particular one, and they’re in the process of selling it, I think, and building a new one. Conveniently, it stays open nice and late, so we figured we’d wander through. The kids loved the new space and all the staging. They wanted to go back upstairs at the end and look over it all again. They were sad to leave, but it was nice to finally walk through and see it before it sold.

The kids were pretty sad to head home, but they came in holding hands and actually went down decently well. Rowan has eaten like a little piggy all day, so hopefully he’ll have a good sleep, and hopefully its soon so Brady and I can still have a soak! And a coffee. Because the only thing that can make a bubble bath any better is a double double.

Delish.

Jerilee graced us with her presence this evening, which is always a treat. When she entered our house, Dekker squealed and started jumping in place. And he jumped and jumped and jumped for probably at least thirty seconds before tiring out and actually greeting her with words. In case you weren’t sure, he REALLY loves her.

We had perogies and bacon for supper (I know, classy) and played downstairs with the kids until their bedtime. Once they were all beautifully tucked in, we got ourselves tucked in with waaay too much dessert and an episode of the Bachelorette. I have to say, judge me if you must, but I love the show. No, its not wholesome, and I don’t take anything from it, but its fun to predict what will happen, laugh at the bloopers, and best of all, I love the tradition of keeping up with it with Brady and Jerilee. Yes, folks, Brady watches it with us, because he’s a good sport like that. But I have to be honest. This episode was possibly the least interesting episode I’ve ever seen. There was a good date that I would have loved to go on, so thats something, but everything that I was so confident was going to happen in this episode clearly happens next time. Its so frustrating!! I know, its a pretty ridiculous problem to have, because its a tv show that no one cares about, but for those of you who watch, they don’t even show the rose ceremonies at the end anymore!! You have to wait for the next episode, and watch it in the beginning. This weeks episode ended way before it even approached the rose ceremony! Ugh. Its just annoying. I know they have to keep their viewers intrigued, but I’d come back the next week, I swear!

Ok, rant over. It was a nice evening all cuddled in with sweets and coffee and guilty pleasure tv and my best friends <3

I so rarely see my friend, Hailey, which is sad, but seems to make our get togethers so sweet as well. Don’t get me wrong. I’d rather see her much more often, but I thoroughly enjoyed our evening together.

She brought her boys out for a supper of honey chicken on rice. That has proven to be a pretty kid-friendly meal so I’m usually pretty comfortable serving it. Weirdly, Dekker made an enormous fuss over it and endured a pretty sizeable time out before he was able to come back to the table and cooperate. After supper, we warmed up the coffees that Hailey had grabbed from Tims on her way over, baked up some cookies, and had dessert downstairs where it was cooler.

It was so nice to talk about life. I hadn’t seen her boys in probably a year, and she hadn’t ever had the pleasure of meeting Rowan. The kids all did great together, too. Her boys are SO much older!!! They have so much to say, which is insane! Last time I saw them, Grady was still talking in his own dialect, like all kids, so I couldn’t always grasp everything that he said, but now he’s in school and incredibly well spoken, and Zaden, who was still drinking from a bottle last time I saw him, is making jokes and identifying animals and being a general clown. They were so great to have around!

I feel happy and refreshed after having their family over for the evening, but as usual, I am old and very soon ready for bed. The bath is run and the rest of the cookies are calling my name!

I was actually going to write a post out today, but once I’d gather up all the pictures I wanted to post, it equalled quite a few, so those plus captions will likely equal a longer and considerably more interesting post than usual just on their own. So, behold!! Here are a few of the things I bought from Edmonton…

The other thing I wanted to show you was just a little bit of the kids, because they make everything better.

Thats it, thats all! I’m pretty tired and achy, and I have a lovely but full day tomorrow, so off I go to soak in a somewhat lukewarm tub, hopefully, because this house is boiling!!

Sadly, I didn’t write the book mentioned above, but Shel Silverstein can sure write a great title, can’t he? His poetry is nothing to sniff at either, frankly. Good stuff.

“Where the Weekend Ends” is more like it today. Jerilee and I had a pretty eventful evening and a pretty choppy night. We were both fairly exhausted this morning, and feeling like it was definitely time to head home. But not without Ikea!!! We killed a solid couple of hours there, which didn’t go as smoothly as it usually does. We passed through the  kitchen and dining sections on the top floor, consisting mostly of appliances and table sets, and when we went down into dishes and utensils and such, we discovered that the glasses I was looking for were spontaneously back up in dining, regardless of the fact that every other drinking glass was on the main level with all the other dishes. We had to traipse back up into those stupid sections twice. While I really enjoy the jaunt through Ikea, I didn’t enjoy doing the upstairs level THREE TIMES. Shopping had been great, but we were both sore, and exhausted from the night before. Yikes! Either way, I got just about everything I came for, which was wonderful. We checked ourselves out, which was something of a gong show as well, and drove home as fast as we could in good conscience.

Its so nice to be home. The kids were so happy to see me, and eager to see what I brought home, of course. We stood in our sweaty kitchen while I pulled out each thing. Instead of taking pictures of every single little item I bought, I might just list it off, haha! That way, if you’re bored, you can just skip the next bit.

I bought myself three gorgeous maxi dresses. My fave was from the Gap outlet, and it has pockets. Enough said. I also bought two tshirts and a tank top, all with some lace in and around the shoulders. Pretty. I bought a soft coral cardi, and some skinny sweats from Victoria’s Secret. Everyone should own a pair of those. They’re super light and breathable, and just aren’t as bulky as others. It helps that I got them around 50% off. My one really frivolous purchase was a sexy pair of ankly heels. I’m not sure how to describe them, but they seriously feel like they were shaped around my feet when they were created. I could easily wear them out with all three kids and not miss a beat. Beautiful.

For the rest of the family, I got Brady a muscle shirt, Dekker a tshirt with a dirt bike on it, and Laela a striped dress with pineapples on it. It came with matching gitch and everything. I thought ahead a bit of Laela’s birthday, and snagged her a cute little compact, as well as a lipgloss in the shape of an owl. Maybe its weird that she’ll have to remove his head every time she uses it. Hmmm. Lastly, for the kids, I bought Dekker a Hot Wheels motorcycle, Rowan a Hot Wheels monster truck, and Laela a My Little Pony with a comb. Dekker loved his, and very eagerly showed Rowan all about his. Laela took the little comb that came with her pony and took off. Everyone loves a comb the size of a dime.

As for makeup, I didn’t go too crazy. I bought a lip primer, an eye liner, a concealer, and three blushes. I know that sounds unbelievable, but they were very affordable drugstore products, so no judging. I bought a double-wide foundation brush, and a beauty blender. I also snagged a few little fragrances from Bath & Body Works, and two candles on top of that. I bought a couple of bath bombs from Lush, and a new massage bar that smells like honey. They cut me a sample of the soap from the same line called “Honey I Washed the Kids.” Smells delish!

I only got one little piece of jewelry. They’re a pair of really pretty gold earrings. I’m not sure how to explain them, but they’re pretty delicate and pretty and I love them.

I think thats the most of it except for Ikea. We bought an entire new dish set! We bough medium grey plates, side plates, and bowls. We bought short cups with pears on the sides, and blank tall glasses. I bought a colander, a sugar thing, two cookie sheets, napkins, an apron, silicone muffin cups, and very likely there are many more things I’m forgetting. But it was an AWESOME haul, and I paid way less than I thought I would. It was so fun to walk out of there with SO many things we’ve been wanting, and knowing that we had planned this trip in accordance with our life and finances and were all set up to make some of these purchases!

Besides all of this shopping, Jerilee and I enjoyed our suppers out, our coffee and snacks, hot tubs, watching YouTube makeup videos together, and lots and lots of talking loudly. We seem to excel at those skills.

Now, I am tired. I’m sure you’ve noticed that this is my longest post in a while, and I’m so done. I am home, I am eager to eat supper, and I really want to soak in my tub!!!

Its good to be home.

Same time next year?

The time when you think to yourself “This dress looks terrible. I’m so glad I didn’t take off my jeans to try it on.”

The time when you try to scratch your bum in a public place and end up elbowing your friend in the process. 

The time when you mishear your friend and the tag line of your trip becomes “classic spidey!”

The time when the question “Is your box as weird as my box? comes up. 

The time you ate fish for breakfast. 

There is certainly no shortage of inside jokes being formed this weekend. I’m so thrilled we still have one more day. It seemed as tho yesterday was product and accessory day, today was clothes day, and tomorrow we’ll do IKEA so I’m thinking it’ll be home stuff day. 

So many good days. 

Also, today is Jerilees birthday!!! We celebrated her life by getting up putridly early. We were at the mall by 11:00am, which is gross but is awesome, because we were so excited to get shopping!

Turns out, being one year older than last year makes an enormous difference, and we were sooo tired! We did the main level of the mall until 5:00pm ish before we buckled and attempted the upstairs level. We didn’t last too longer before our feet were hurting so terribly badly. We went for supper at The Old Spaghetti Factory for pasta and sangria. This is a delicious tradition that I hope to repeat many times over. We rested our achey selves for a bit, but we were fading so fast. Unlike last year, we actually decided to be adults and chose our physical health over our desire to shop for new shiny things. 

We got to our hotel around 10:15pm and learned that the pool was still open til 11:00!!! So we rushed as fast as we could (which wasn’t very fast) to our room, got into our stuff, and went to soak in the hot tub for the last half hour. Sooo nice!

Now we’re finally all settled into our room and more than ready to sleep. As soon as this is over, well turn off the lights. Because we’re cool, an old like that. 

Happy birthday, Jerilee. Love you!!

I had a dream a few nights ago about my upcoming shopping weekend with Jerilee. In the dream, I was driving Jerilee’s car, and parked outside the mall. The second I stopped the car, she barrelled out of the car as though I had been taking her somewhere against her will. She booted towards the mall without explanation. Now, in real life, I would have called after her, and laughed my head off, and she likely would have laughed back at me. In the dream, however, I accepted that she was just really, really eager to go shopping. So I only then put the car in park, gathered my things, touched up my lipstick, and exited and locked the car. I made my way to the mall, walking at a leisurely pace. When I entered the mall, I looked around the entrance, I didn’t see her. So I texted her and asked where she was. Likely just in one of these shops nearby, but its a big mall, and I didn’t want to waste time ducking into all of these places that I probably wouldn’t normally shop at. Her response to my text was a quick “I’m at F21.”

I looked around for a mall map. Upon finding one, I learned that Forever21 was nowhere close to the entrance. My goodnatured dream self laughed, thinking how funny it was that she was so excited to get there. I made my way over to Forever21, which took quite a while, being that it was across the mall. And when I saw it, I had my first “gulp” moment. It was a three level store!!! Again, that was just in my dream, I promise. Its just one level for real. I didn’t see her immediately, so I texted again, saying something along the lines of “Oh my gosh, this store is huge! Where are you?” to which she replied “I’M IN F21!!”

Let’s specify that Jerilee is NOT that person, hahaha! But apparently in my dream, I was suuuper annoying to her. Probably because I wasn’t taking a hint. Because I proceeded to scour the store for her, looking on each floor over and over and over again until I FINALLY came upon her, going through the till. She was done shopping, and I hadn’t even started :/

So while this dream doesn’t seem especially positive, I’m completely thrilled to be leaving tomorrow at stupid o’clock to begin our shopping trip bright and early!! I’m pretty close to being all packed and ready. Its funny to look back on our trip last year. We both hardly packed a thing, we didn’t really do ourselves up or anything, and we speed shopped. All. Day. Long. This time around, I feel like it will be SO different! In the last year, we’ve both developed a love for makeup, so speaking for myself, my toiletries bag is actually fuller than my clothes bag! Also, we both have something of lists, so I think we’ll more so mosey through the mall, drinking Starbucks, and talking loudly, like usual. I’m not sure we always bring out the best in each other in that way, but we certainly have a ton of fun.

T-10 hours!!!!!