Quality Time and Last Goodbyes

Last goodbye with the kids on New Years Eve

Games and Good Times

I really miss this girl; it was great to be able to spend some much needed time together!

Little Calvin eating his hand.

Deep in thought while playing Boggle, the two of us lost a lot!

I love this pic of Libby!

Even with the kids we managed to get in some game time. Sarah blessed us with a 5 hour nap this day, crazy. With both kids having 7pm bedtimes, we usually had a couple of hours each evening. One day Matt and David went to a Penguins/ Buffalo game and another day they went to Toronto to go to the hockey hall of fame, so Libby and I were home with the kids those nights.

Enjoying the Holidays

Matt and Libby at the Falls

Matt and Libby at the falls, some classic photos but with the snow and ice. David brought them while I stayed home with the kids. We no longer have enough space in the car to all go places (easily). So we rarely all went out together; we were able to borrow a van once, had Sarah baby sat and took turns staying back.

Uncle Matt and Aunt Libby come to Visit

Sarah and Calvin were happy to have Matt and Libby come out for the week. Sarah enjoyed trying to take off Matt's glasses. These are the Dec 26 photos.

Christmas...Opening Presents

On Christmas eve we had the kids open one gift each, or should I say Sarah could open two gifts but keep one (these are from our landlords). The first gift: a new doll, she was pretty eager as you can see.

Calvin's first gift, clothes! He looks pretty excited, eh? On Christmas day my brother and sister in law, Mathew and Libby came out. We decided to wait until they arrived before opening the rest of the gifts so that we had a little bit of that family gathering atmosphere. It was so great to have them out!

Matt was pretty excited!

Sarah loved the unwrapping part of getting presents. To be able to rip and shred paper was just too much fun for her! Her she's looking at her second doll, this one cries and makes sounds.

Calvin and his gifts, he received mostly clothes.

Playing with her new tea set (from us), this has already proved to be a favourite. So many more toys equals so much more mess around the house. Oh well, at least she's happy. If you're wondering what the purplish spot is on Sarah's face, it's a bruise. We do clean our kids, ha ha. Anyways, she climbed up a chair at our care group Christmas social and fell. Poor girl, looks lovely in all our Christmas photos too.

Sarah holding her new plush sheep from Oma. She's standing in front of the Little People airport set (from us for both kids) and the new stuffies from uncle Barrie. She got the polar bear and Calvin got the teddy bear.

At the end of the evening. So many great gifts, we are blessed indeed!

Our not so pretty Christmas tree this year. We only hung some non breakable ornaments, which all made their way to the top of the tree within a day. I simply did not have the care or energy to make Sarah stop playing with the ornaments. Not to mention that it's not so easy to be "on" all the time while also caring for a newborn and nursing. Oh well, I've come to the realization that our tree will probably look similar to this for the next few years.

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's 4:45 and both kids are having a nap (amazing) and dinner is in the crock pot. David is picking up Matt and Libby as we speak...squeee.. I can't wait! Once they arrive we'll eat dinner and open gifts, we'll get our family Christmas get together yet.

Hope your day was wonderful! I look forward to posting some pics of Sarah opening her gifts tomorrow.

30 Years!

Two days ago it was my 30th birthday. Being a "big" birthday, I thought I should post something about it.

The day started off well since David took the kids so that I could get an extra hour and a half of sleep. It amazes me how much better that extra hour can make me feel. With two little ones it's the simple things that often make my day.

We went out for lunch to McDonalds. This may sound lame (kind of is), but I like Big Macs and it's a child friendly place. We haven't eaten there in ages; Sarah loved her tray of fries and nuggets. She's all about "dipping" her food these days. I loved my big mac. We were all happy. I have come to understand why parents eat at places that I once thought were lame and with not great food or atmosphere. If your kids are happy and eating quietly, you as the parent will enjoy yourself and have a good time. Looks like we joined that club. After a tasty McD lunch we we walked around Walmart to pick up some essentials (conditioner, gel, snow boots for Sarah).

In the afternoon I cleaned the house and did laundry while Sarah slept and David entertained Calvin. David insisted that we should just relax and leave the house work, but I reminded him that if I did nothing today the next day would be bad and I already had a list of things to do that day. Oh well, life goes on right?

The highlight of the day was going out for dinner to the Keg with David. We had both kids babysat for two hours, which was amazing!! I am so happy that Sarah doesn't have any attachment issues and loves to be with other people, doesn't even look back (almost kind of sad sometimes). Two hours may not seem like a long time, but it was our first time away from both kids, and therefore the first time in a very long time that I have been able to sit and enjoy a good meal with good conversation. We then picked up the kids and headed home to put them to bed and then we had the evening to ourselves as well.

I'm glad to say that I'm happy to be 30, don't feel old at all and am happy to say that I am without regrets. A couple of friends here were talking to me about how hard it was to turn 30 since they thought their lives would be so much different than they actually were.

I feel the same sentiment but with a sense of thankfulness and wonder that so much has happened in the past 30 years. Perhaps that's why I feel so good about turning 30. I have accomplished more than I thought possible, reached so many goals, have been blessed beyond and experienced so much already. I know that this is due to God's goodness, my faithfulness, the support of David, my personal drive to reach my goals, and the fact that we held off to start our family. Of course, some years have been better than others, but that has helped me embrace and be thankful for the better times.

I know that the next 10 years + will be busy with raising kids and supporting David and our family in this career transition. Therefore I think fondly of the past years and look forward to the years to come. Cheers to 30 years, they've been good!

Happy Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! Here's a bunch of photos of the kids in their Christmas outfits. Last night we went to our church's Christmas production; it was a great service/ show and definetly helped me get more into the spirit of Christmas. Today the plan is to take it easy, get some groceries and finish the last of the tidying up. Tomorrow afternoon my brother and sister in law, Matt and Libby, are coming out for the week. We are all so... excited! Should be an awesome time!

Tonight is our family Christmas get together back in Abbotsford, we sure are going to miss that! With my mom bringing her boyfriend and brother bringing his new girlfriend... it's sure to be a different experience. It's amazing how much our family is growing and changing. It's sad that we're so far away and have to miss so much of it. Thank goodness for modern technology. I can't imagine living far away without the phone and internet.

This dress was just too much fun for Sarah.

Loving licks, yuck!

Little Miss Domestic

Remember that post about Sarah cleaning up and watching everything that we do? Well, she seems to think that her little "corn popper" is also a vacuum cleaner. Whenever I finish vacuuming she takes her popper and "vacuum" the carpets. She goes back and forth to the corners of the room. She even puts her foot over the wheel and tries to press down, just like how I turn on/ off the vacuum. It's just so sweet!

Today when I pulled out the vacuum and started vacuuming she immediately picked up her popper and started "vacuuming" alongside me. The camera was handy so I attempted to get a clip of her being domestic. These are the moments that make me smile, the ones that I'm eager to share with David at the end of the day when he comes home from school.

For the past few days Sarah's been having some jealous moments when Calvin is awake and needing me, usually when I'm nursing him. She is a complete delight when it's just the two of us and then as soon as Calvin wakes up from his nap she becomes "not very nice." She is also very loving towards him, so this is kind of odd. I can tell that she's just missing "our" time together. Thankfully Calvin has good naps so I am able to almost always get a good chunk of time with just Sarah each day. Let's up she gets over this sooner than later, since the not nice moments just aren't very fun to deal with.

Our Cute Kids

A few photos from a photo session we had when Calvin was just 4 days old. These are some of my favourites. I wasn't thrilled with the photos as a whole, so that was a little disappointing, but the photographer did the session as a gift (trying to build her newborn portfolio and wanted to help someone out). Therefore, we were thankful for the ones that we got. I especially love the first photo of Sarah.

So I don't feel like I've had much to post about these days, as most days have seemed to fit the general theme of taking care of and playing with the kids, changing diapers, making food, doing laundry, cleaning, etc, etc. Calvin is sleeping longer and going for longer between feeds which has been awesome. Sarah continues to be a rascal and lots of fun (most of the time). I have to start writing down all the funny things she's doing, there seems to be something new each day. Oh, and I've also been busy completing all the Christmas card orders that I've had.

David's got 2 more exams left so he's been home more which has been GREAT! I think the busy time as far as card orders go is about done or close to being done. I've found that 2 orders a day is perfect for me, fills in the time a little without being too much at all. For the past couple of weeks I've had about 3-4 a day, with the most being 7 orders in one day. That was a busy day! I'm thrilled with how far I've come with this in just a matter of months but already a little freaked out about what next Christmas could be like. Time will tell, at this point there's no sign of things really slowing down. However, I think January/ February will be slower months (no holidays, less births and weddings, etc), so I'm looking forward to the break.

I can't believe Matt and Libby come in less than 2 weeks, we are so thrilled! Anyways, I'll hopefully post more regularly again as Christmas card season slows down. I get to ship my first order to the USA tomorrow, 60 photo cards off to California! That was really exciting for me, not even a referral, just a blind buy through a google images search. Yahoo! God has truly been good to us in so... many ways, we are so very thankful!