I feel...

...on cloud 9?
Seems kind weird not really having a big event or experience happen to me to say that, but it's just a lot of little things that are adding up.
Maybe it's because I am fully in the thick of 2nd trimester.  I feel rested and energetic!  For a while I wasn't sure I would ever crawl out of my exhausted hole but now I feel so good.
I'm kind of giddy.
Spring is in the air so I'm sure that is helping too!  I cleaned out some of our flower beds this afternoon with Kellan.  It's fun starting a new (smaller!) yard.  It has lots of potential and we have lots of ideas.  Nothing grand or anything just a cute yard and an outside place to call our own.  I'm pretty sure I will be spending A LOT of time out there this summer being ginormously pregnant and settling into life with this third (fourth) little blessing.
I'm reading a psychology book on families and it is suuuuper interesting.  Learning lots about me and both of our immediate families.
And I guess the BIGGEST excitement for me today was a phone call from a director of a couple funeral homes in the area.  He wants to be the 'Title Supporter' for our Okanagan Walk to Remember.  Seriously, I was blown away!!!  I hope to blog over here soon about it.
I had a midwife appt this am.  She is fantastic!  All is well in babyland.  I hope to write a post about baby progress soon - just waiting until I look decent enough to take a picture ;)
Another great event that happened recently was Brian's sisters wedding!!!  It was a resort/retreat style wedding so we spent 4 days at a gorgeous rustic camp/resort and had an amazing time with friends and family.  And we are super excited to finally have Wendell as our brother!!

Hmmm...what else is contributing to my cloud 9 state?...

We finally painted and finished our living room!  I'll try to get some before & after pics up soon!

Most of the winter driving is over for Brian so I'm enjoying him home an extra hour or two everyday.  It was glorious having him to myself for a couple extra days last week too!

Well, I better finish up my days work and find my way to bed.

I just reread this.  Wow, that was random! Sorry...

It was good

We just spent most of the past 2 weeks camping and visiting.  It was good....really good.
Brian has a few weeks off because of the 'slow season' at his job and since being the lowest on the totem pole, he got cut first.  I try to keep telling him to think of it as a holiday instead of the negativity of being 'layed off', and I think that helped.

We started off with our hot beach camping trip at Sylvan Lake.  We stayed 3 nights.  The weather wasn't ideal for being beach bums but we did get one good afternoon in the sun.

The next day we took a trip into Calgary to the zoo.  We are just entering in to the phase of life where we can go on these kind of trips and the kids (mostly Kellan) actually enjoys and can participate in them.  I love it!



 We did A LOT of biking on our trips.  We haven't biked since having Kellan, but finally broke down and got a bike trailor/double stroller and so far LOVE it!

We LOVE our little camper too!  This was also a perfect year to go camping with our kids.  Little girl is not too mobile and little boy actually obeys :)

We came home for 4 or 5 days because Kellan caught Kalli's mouth bug and was pretty miserable.  Once we saw that he was on the mend we headed off on adventure # 2.  Our fishing trip to Crimson Lake.

This is our setup.  We put the kids in the big bed at the back of the camper, then when we come in to bed later we don't have to disturb them very much.  Our table bed is a little squishy but we don't mind :)

A morning at the park while daddy is off fishing.

One afternoon we headed to a national historical sight.  Pretty fun.

We found a great trail that went all around the lake so we packed up the kids one morning and did another big bike ride.  And we stopped to fish along the way.

Some campfire time

On the way home we stopped at our old bible college and reminisced.  It's been 10 years that we met!!!  Crazy!  We also visited with my aunts & uncles & cousins which was great as usual.

In other news, we *think* our house is sold again.  They want possession fairly soon so if everything works as planned then things could move pretty quickly this next month.

Eek!

Beginning of July...

Lots going on.
It will nice to have a 'normal' life again.  Right now normal for us is living out of suitcases, buying/selling houses, finding new vehicles, working at new jobs, making new friends and missing old ones, going to a new church, figuring out a new town and paying HST.

But we have been trying to enjoy these crazy days.  Leaving them in God's hands.

This past long weekend we went to visit Brian's parents and the rest of the family.  We were able to even go to the annual family reunion so caught up with the cousins, aunts & uncles.

(A small fraction of the cousins)

(Enjoying a warm summer day with the family)

(Sunday afternoon walk)



Winter get-away

We're home.
Oh wait, did you even know I was gone?
Well we were.  And it was great!
We took a 5 day holiday complete with visiting relatives & a good friend, meeting new friends, and spending a few days with my family in the mountains.
It was Brians birthday the day we were visiting my aunt & uncle, so a birthday cake was added to the menu:

A lovely visit with some friend, cuddles with the babies, and possibly even some Dance Dance Revolution...

A sleigh ride through the mountains:

Pedicures with the girls:

We ate lots of good food, did some shopping and enjoyed a break from the humdrum winter.
Oh, and it was our anniversary yesterday too.
It fits!

a little rant on breastfeeding

While at the health unit the other day, there was a poster on the wall giving the price benefits of breast feeding. It's definately not a money issue for me/us, but it is a big perk - especially after reading the figures. Did you know that if you breastfeed for 1 year....you spend $0 on formula. (Haha, k, obviously that was a no brainer) BUT, did you know that if you formula feed for 1 year you spend over $1600 on formula! (And that was 2 years ago!)...And you miss out on SOOOO many other benefits...
I commented on it to the health nurse and she said that I was in a rare group to exclusively breast feed - even a 4 month old!
WOW!
Now, I'm not knocking or dissing those who formula feed cuz I know there are issues that can prevent breast feeding or make it hard, but I am a big advocate that "Breast is BEST".
I think back to when Kellan weened himself at 9 months....I had a tough time with that. Feeling like I was missing out on that bonding...can't even imagine missing out on the first 9 months...
And it is SOOO healthy for them!!!...
K, I'm done. That's my 'shout-out' for the day.

Now here are some more pics to our BC Christmas-

Drooly Kalli and my uber cute neice Anaya:

Waiting so patiently for his traditional dutch Christmas morning breakfast:

Kalli meeting her great Oma (great Grandma):

Bff's with uncle Jordan:

2 + 4

So, I have a 2 year old in my house. Not sure if I'm happy about that, but I can't really do anything about that except enjoy every moment I have with this little boy
We decided to wait until after Christmas to have a little party for him, but we did wake him up with the birthday song - incuding Auntie Corrie over the phone. Funny thing was that he slept through the whole thing.

After a few pokes and moments of confusion, he woke up and opened a little present.



I took Kalli in for her 4 month check up with the health nurse yesterday.
12 lbs 10 oz....which drops her down on the percentile (to the 30% maybe?- can't remember). Kellan did the exact same thing at the 3 month mark. I guess I just have the slim babies. The health nurse was actually really good about it and said "someone has to has to be on the bottom".


We had a GREAT Christmas is BC. An awesome time with family & friends...who we wish we could see more often. Summer seems SO far away!

My families Christmas actually starts tonight. We like to make Christmas last all of December :)