growing couches «

So this is our kitten (Thanks again Rob and Andy) and she seems to enjoy food but at the same time have some serious problems eating it. I always thought cats were the neatest creatures alive but it appears we got the exception. My friend, Heather, tells me kittens are actually quite messy and although that should make me feel better I still don’t particularly enjoy cleaning cat food off a cat.

So in the first one she managed to just get one front paw dirty but by the time she was halfway through eating she figured it was better to just climb on in!!

Well at least I know she’s getting food in her. She’s always getting way more active and playful. We don’t have to feed her from dropper (thank goodness because that was getting old) and she now uses the litter box without having to be shown where it is. I guess we’ll be moving from one baby to the next around here.

On a much cuter note here is the my little ladybug. Grandma could not resist the really great deal and cute outfit at Winner’s and I have to agree that it was definitely a good choice. So this will be Lanae’s halloween costume this year and Baby Girl’s in the following years. It’s also just fun to dress up in from time to time in the “pitty dess” as Lanae fondly refers to it.

Of course so many things tend to happen in fall and it’s hard to keep track of them all! I love this time of year so much and now with my kidlets in school it makes it even more exciting.

So here are a few of the things that have happened in the last few weeks since I posted! Sam & Jake both started school! Both love school so much right now which is a relief to me. Jake was more than eager to just get dropped off at his preschool class for the first day without me but thankfully I got to stay and observe. The second day Nana just dropped him off and he waved at the door. He wasn’t even really ready to leave when I finally did come pick him up. Oh well, just goes to show that you never know how your kids might react! Here are a few pictures of the boys on Jake’s first day of preschool.

Then of course Lanae gets some time with mommy and this is how we make good use of our time together, just girls!!

Of course no blog entry will be complete without a report on the status of Baby #4 (I guess I could refer to her by name but it’s much more fun just waiting until she’s actually born). This is me at 34 weeks preggo (taken just two days ago). She’s definitely grown in the last 2 weeks and I’m starting to feel the discomfort of pregnancy but I know it will be well worth it once she finally arrives.

Finally here is the newest addition to our ever expanding family! Thanks to some friends of our, http://imjustdandy.blogspot.com/, we have adopted a tiny little furball who still needs to be fed from dropper! Yes we are suckers and I know we’ll probably wonder why the heck we did it just like every other pet we’ve owned but for the moment she’s kind of cute and the kids really like her. Finally the girls will outnumber the boys in our home! Make sure you check out Andrea’s blog to see how they managed to rescue the little lady.

Okay so here are a few things that have already been going on in September!!! We are in the homestretch for baby to be making her appearance. In this picture I am 32 weeks! As of today I am 33 weeks, 1 day so that means I have anywhere between 5 1/2 weeks and 7 weeks before she actually arrives depending on how early she decides to make her appearance.

We made it to the PNE this year as well. It was a great time with Mom and Dad Neufeld, Amber and Tim and the kids. We haven’t gone since Jake was a newborn so it was neat to go again and see everything that’s been happening. I have to say that it’s really not a big deal to only go every few years though since not much changes.

Another big highlight was that Sam had his first official football game at Rotary Stadium. He was pretty nervous and was a little apprehensive to play but ended up gearing up no problem and had a great game along with the rest of his team. They won the game 32-0 and all had so much fun. Jake was a great cheerleader for his big brother, although he really did wish he could be the one playing!

I am very happy to be heading into the fall and getting back into a routine. Sam has started school although it’s been a little crazy with getting classrooms figured out but he has some good buddies in his class and he is very eager to get started on his schoolwork. I bought him a math workbook tonight that he would have loved to keep going on which is very encouraging to me! Jake is also starting preschool this year. He starts on Monday which can not come soon enough for him. Although I am so excited to have the time with Lanae and of course a quieter house in the mornings when the baby comes I am going to miss my snuggle bunny at home. Jake is wonderful kid despite his tendency to whine. He’s very loving and cuddly and a pretty good listener. I know it will be good for him and he’s ready but it will take a little bit for me to adjust to the fact that he’s growing up so fast.

Anyway, I’ll post some pictures of them going back to school next week! For now I’m caught up and hopefully my next big posts will be of baby Annika’s arrival

Here are a few other pictures of fun things we did! The hotel we stayed in was great. It was very spacious with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining room and living room. It had a queen sized bed and t.v. in the bedroom and a queen sized bed and t.v. in the living room. We really enjoyed the time together as a family and of course took full advantage of the swimming pool on the six floor of the hotel. It’s kind of weird swimming on top of a building plus being surrounded by all these skyscrapers!

We also had the opportunity to visit with some great friends while we stayed downtown. We met Brennan Jarvie, Carmen and Jon were in our caregroup when they lived in Abbotsford. Mike and Debbie Weibe and their kids and Heather and Graham DeGreef and their kids, were also there for a short visit. It was great to see old friends again.

Overall it was the best family holiday we’ve had so far and although the drive home was a little harder (took the same time) but this time the kids, mostly Lanae, knew it was a long drive home and didn’t want to sit still or quietly!

Another great place to visit of course is the Calgary Zoo. It was a little anti-climactic after the amusement park but neat for us to see nonetheless. My aunt Linda came with us and we spent the morning and part of the afternoon just looking at the many different kinds of animals. Sam was our little photographer for the day so most of the pictures of the animals are pictures he took. Not bad if I do say so myself. I didn’t include to many different animals since most people who have been to a zoo know what there is there. But I had to include a few of the baby animals and at least one of our favorite animals, the gophers. I don’t know the kids thought they were so funny but they really enjoyed watching the little gophers popping in and out of their holes and sitting up looking around.

All in all it was a great day!

So if you ever have a chance to get to Calaway Park if you’re in Calgary I totally recommend it. The park itself is completely kid friendly and geared mostly to kids between the ages of 2 and 11! Lanae could ride on at least 5 rides on her own and probably somewhere around 20-25 with a parent. Jake and Sam could ride on at least 25-30 rides on their own and a bunch more with parents! I couldn’t believe how much fun we had. We got to the park at 10:30 and started riding at 11:00. We didn’t leave the park until 7pm (which was closing time).

The kids had such a blast and it was definitely a highlight for them. I would love to do it again in a few years when the new baby is old enough to enjoy and before Sam becomes “too cool” to help his younger siblings on some of the rides.

Sam’s favorite ride was the roller-coaster. Unfortunately it went too fast to get any good pictures so you’ll just have to imagine a similar coaster to the red coaster at Playland in Vancouver. Jake’s favorite ride was the mini-coaster and the mini-hellavator (yes they had one just like the big one at Playland, except smaller)! Lanae’s favorite ride was the boats that went in a circle. I didn’t get a good picture of that one but it was pretty tame and the three of them could ride it alone.

Okay so since we’ve been back from holidays for awhile now and I’ve actually managed to edit all our photos I thought I’d better blog a little! We had a wonderful time and I am so looking forward to doing a big family vacation every two or three years now that James does not have to save his vacation time for new babies (after this year anyway)!

The kids were amazing on the way in and we actually made really great time. We left for Calgary at 5:30 on Saturday morning, August 3rd and arrived at my Aunt’s house at 7:30pm. We probably stopped for a total of 2 hours which means that with the time difference we got there in 10 hours! It definitely pays to leave early and avoid the crazy highway traffic.

We celebrated Jake’s 4th birthday on Sunday with a walk, some family time and a birthday cake. The cake is supposed to be Aipom’s head (for those of you who do not have children interested in Pokemon, that’s one of the characters)! Jake was very happy with his cake but not excited about the walk at all as you might notice looking at the picture of Sam trying to play football with him. We also had the chance to meet with my Dad’s uncle Harvey and Aunt Sarah (whom Jake is playing cards with). We used to visit them when I was a little girl and they still look exactly the same.

So in two sleeps, as James and the kids remind me, we are heading out for our first ever Davenport only family vacation! When Sam was a couple months old we did go on a short family vacation to Kelowna which was very fun but we have yet to do this with just our kids since then.

I wouldn’t consider myself an experience road-tripper, even though I did haul the boys across Canada, through the States, two summer ago when I was 6 months pregnant with Lanae in a trailer with my in-laws. But I would say we have a few things figured out. The kids are excited to go to Calgary and have made maps for us to follow. They are set with their DVD player (thanks to our good friends the Tams) and travel games, books, etc. We’ll see how well these three little munchkins do with 12 hours of driving.

We have a plan to visit my aunt for few days, who lives in Didsbury. Then head down to Calgary for a day of shoppping, a day at the zoo and a little reunion of sorts with Carmen, Jon and Brennan Jarvie along with her sister Heather and family as well as Mike and Debbie Wiebe. A lot of fun packed into 8 days!

We’ll let you know how things go when we return and if you think about it pray for us that it would truly be a great time of family bonding and much needed relaxation before the craziness of the new school year begins again!

So here are a few pictures I wanted to share that were kind of fun.

First of course is the beautiful growth of our dear little Annika! She is still a quiet little one, which remains to be seen if that’s truly her character or just a trick for mommy to enjoy now! I am 28 weeks along which leaves 12 weeks of countdown until her due date. If she follows the same pattern as my other three we should be welcoming her closer to 11 weeks (maybe in time for Thanksgiving)!

Here is a picture of Lanae and I. I was just having fun with the camera and she looked extra cute that day. She loves to say cheese and pose for the camera and now that she knows she can see the result she comes faithfully to stand beside me while I wait for the digital image to come up!

Finally a picture of my beautiful children after a full evening at grandma and grandpa’s house. We had a lovely walk with my mom and dad before my dad headed back to Fort McMurray for his next round of three weeks of work. And yes that is Lanae wearing a cloth diaper held together with duct-tape. Unfortunately daddy got everything except the diaper bag but thankfully we had some fun figuring out what to do instead!!!!

I was reading through my journal today and came across something I’d written that actually just illustrates how I feel about my life right now so I thought I’d share!!!

May 16, 2008

Sometimes being a mom can be so overwhelming and then other times come along when we feel the joy deep into our souls. As I reflect on the last years of the normal trials we’ve faced in child-rearing I can see God’s faithfulness throughout. He’s blessed us with three healthy, active little people and a fourth happily taking residence in my body for the time being. A crazy mix of personalities, ideas, emotions and expressions I wouldn’t change for the world. God’s love is evident to me in the daily forgiveness I receive from my almost seven year old son who fights with me nonstop but is so much like me, I sometimes do a double-take. Or in the giggles I hear coming from behind a closed door and later find all three super heroes wrapped in their “blankies” pretending to be Captain Underpants. One day I know the commradarie of childhood will end and be replaced by teenage impatience, a never-ending flow of youthful “wisdom” and a busyness I can only begin to imagine. But for now I can choose to allow God’s fullness to envelop me and enjoy the memories being created.

One of those amazing memories being created is definitely happening this summer as I watch Sam grow into a young man. He’s playing his first season of tackle football and as a mom it’s hard to squelch those feelings of “my son’s the best out there” but for the sake of his pride and with the knowledge that that attitude will not help him become a better player I’ve managed to quietly watch him practise and encourage without being over the top about it. But I will say this that he’s trying his best despite feeling a little overwhelmed by the intensity of the sport and as an aspiring athlete has already received some recognition from the local paper. Here’s the link to read about Sam’s contribution to history.

http://www.canada.com/abbotsfordtimes/news/sports/story.html?id=ccc036b7-4538-4648-aa0e-5e338a228154

Anyway, as I find myself so content this summer I am being reminded how short-lived these years tend to be and how I absolutely MUST intentionally enjoy them before they pass me by! One day I’ll wish them back only to be hit with the reality that it’s too late and you can only live your life once. And more importantly you only get one chance to be a great mom so make the best of it, mistakes and all!!!

growing couches

Just a few things!

Happenings!

Fall Days!

Tidbits

The Calgary Zoo

Calaway Park

First Days of Holidays

Road Trip!

Just a few pictures to share

Just reflecting…