Sarah's Birthday

Tomorrow is Sarah's 2nd birthday! We celebrated yesterday with family and Sarah had a great time blowing out her candles, eating her cake, and opening her presents.

Sarah is such a fun little girl. She may be small but she packs a big punch. Some of her favorite things to do are:

*eat paper - any kind, size, shape, color, you name it - she eats it!

*climb - this tiny girl can climb up on anything!

*run - her balance is horrible and it is not uncommon to see her bouncing off the walls, but she just keeps on truckin'!

*find trouble - I don't know how she knows what will get her in the biggest trouble, but she is great at finding it!

*smile and laugh - Sarah has an infectious giggle

Sarah is starting to get better at being nice to other kids her age. She had a problem with grabbing and pushing, but is starting to grow out of that now. Sarah is starting to say a few words. My favourites are "C'mon Mommy!" and "Bye Daddy! Have a good day!" She gives the best and tightest hugs ever and loves to give kisses. Sarah absolutely adores her baby brother and is very concerned every time we walk out the door that he is coming with us too. Sarah definitely makes life interesting around our home, but we love her to bits and wouldn't know what to do without her! We love you Sarah!!!

Gideon at 4 1/2 months

Gideon is now 4 1/2 months old and we love him to bits!! He is such a sweet little baby and is very even tempered and easy going. Gideon used to love to sit in his car seat and look out the window, but now he is getting so that he likes to move around a bit more. I had him on the floor the other day and was just a bit concerned when I turned around and found Sarah standing on his chest......... he didn't make a peep and just smiled at her. Granted she is only 20lbs and it was only for about 2 seconds, but I don't let him down where she can get to him anymore!! Gideon is starting to try and roll over, but hasn't quite gotten it yet. He sure is trying though. Here are a few pictures for you!

Gideon loves to look up!

One of his favorite toys

Trying to roll over

All tuckered out!

Gideon loves having a bath too! Here's a little footage for you!

All for one and one for all!

It seems, more often than not, that when one child gets something, everybody else wants the same thing. I started out yesterday morning with Anna wanting braids in her hair for church. So I did that for her.

Then Becky decided that she wanted braids too!

So then I thought, I wonder if I can get Sarah to hold still long enough to braid her hair - and she did quite well! I was impressed. Not bad for a 2yr old!!

Grace really didn't want braids in her hair, but by that time it was me that convinced her that she needed them. She consented and we had four beautiful little girls at church yesterday. We were almost late.......... but we were there in all our braided glory!

I was surprised that I got it done as I am not a quick braider, and I definitely didn't have the time or the stamina to try to get a picture of them all together! I love having girls though - I hope that they will have good memories of their mom doing their hair and won't remember the frazzled mom quite so much!!

What a long day!

We had a bit of a busy day around here yesterday. Here are a few highlights:

*6:30am - I get up and study my lesson for Sunday. It is a long one and it will take me a while to get through it!

*7:00am - Sarah wakes up not feeling well and I get to clean up puke first thing in the morning - hip hip hurray!

*8:00am - Brendan has already gone to school and I trying to get my girls out the door. They have other plans though and just want to play. In between everything, I feed Gideon and try to deal with Sarah who is screaming because she puked again.

*8:45am - Grace and Anna are thankfully gone to school and we are now waiting for Becky's bus to come.

*9:30am - The installers arrive to put in our new windows.

*10:00am - I have to leave to take Gideon for his 4month immunization shots. He is such a good baby though - he cried for about a minute and never made another peep all day! He is now 16lbs 7oz and 26 3/4 inches long.

11:30am - I pick up Anna from kindergarten, Becky comes home at 1pm

1:30pm - The windows are completely installed - YEAH!!

1:45pm - We head to the church to help make compassionate service meals - I was excited to help make them and not be the one receiving them!

3:00pm - We head home and try to get Sarah to have a nap - thankfully she did nap for about an hour!

4:00pm - Grace comes home with a friend, Brendan had been home for an hour to do his homework and by now has a friend over too who also stays for supper.

4:30pm - I start making supper

5:45pm - Matt's home and we can eat supper

6:30pm - My piano student shows up for her lesson

7:30pm - I take off to go grocery shopping. It had been 9 days since I had gone for groceries - we were scraping the bottom of the milk and produce barrel!!

8:30pm - I get home and put away all the groceries (Matt and Brendan helped:)), finished the dishes, and finally got to relax!

I know there are other people out there that have even busier days than I do, but I am really glad that most of my days are a little less stressful than this one was! I really do love my new windows. The installer made a few comments that made me laugh. He mentioned that he had never seen windows put in like ours were and called it "inventive" and "frugal"! Oh well - at least it is done right this time!! Here are a few pictures for you.

BEFORE ............................. AFTER

I also got some really cute pictures of Gideon. You would never guess that he just had three needles that morning. He is one happy little man!

Photo Shoot

When Brendan was a baby, I got a phone call from Canadian Baby Photographers asking if I would like a photo shoot in my home and a free picture. Of course I heard "free" and said yes. And of course they knew I would fall in love (like many many other mothers out there!) with the all the photos they took and would want to buy the rest of them. Since then I have done this for the rest of my kids. I don't always have the money for them, but I couldn't do something for one and not for the rest. So, keeping with tradition......... here is Gideon's Canadian Baby Photo Shoot Debut! And thankfully the LAST one too!!! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love all the cute pictures, but they are pretty dang expensive too!

Enjoy!!

What a crazy life!

Last week I took the kids down to my mom and dad's for the week and it was so much fun! I missed Matt as he had to stay and work, but we enjoyed visiting family and meeting my new little niece Emma. We took lots of pictures of the four little cousins that were born in the last three months - so much fun!! Sarah decided to add to the "fun" and on Friday night she started throwing up. She was pretty sick that night and into the next day --- not so much fun on a 6hr road trip! She ended up wrapped in just a blanket the last half of the way home, her clothes were a little yucky. Well, my kids like to share.... so Grace and Becky started puking Saturday night. I had to teach a lesson on Sunday and Matt was working, so I had Brendan stay at home with the sick girls, and I went to church with Anna and Gideon. That was kind of nice actually!! By Sunday night, Grace and Becky were feeling a bit better, but then it was Anna's turn. We even had a scene straight out of "Cheaper by the Dozen" when Sarah "mopped it up with her back" as she slipped through you-know-what that somebody mis-aimed! Anna had a bit of a rough night and Gideon started throwing up this morning so there were a few sheets to wash today. I kept all the girls home from school and I am hoping they can all go tomorrow. Knock on wood - - nobody has puked since this morning! AND I have ALL my laundry washed, folded AND put away!! It was a crazy busy day, but thanks to movies and the Wii, I was able to bake 8 loaves of bread, wash all the dishes, dismantle the Christmas tree and all the decorations and put it away, sweep the floor, organize the toys, get through 10 loads of laundry, make dinner, and go grocery shopping. Holy smokes, I'm tired!! Here's hoping we are all on the mend!

Christmas 2009

What a fun Christmas we had this year!! We have always spent the holiday with other family either here at home, or away at my Mom and Dad's house, but this year we were at home with just ourselves. It was a different experience for me as we have always shared this holiday with others, but it was a blast enjoying our kids and having fun together! We had Matt's brothers and mother over for dinner in the afternoon and spent the evening playing the new Wii, watching movies, playing board games and just having fun. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas!


Building our gingerbread house on Christmas Eve


The final product! (Half of it is eaten already!)

Santa just arrived!

The stockings are stuffed!

Worn out already!

Brendan's Christmas loot!

Grace loved her Hannah Montana doll and poster!

Anna's favorite was her Care Bear.

Becky loved her new sparkly shoes!

Sarah just wanted to go and play! Going.....

Going.......

Gone!!

Gideon was awake for most of the gift opening but fell asleep as we were finishing. He seemed to enjoy all the noise and smiled at everybody all morning!

It was a great first Christmas for Gideon!

I was there - just spent a bit of time in the kitchen. It was a fun day though!

I am looking forward to going down to visit my family this week. Matt has to work and will be home alone, but I think his new Wii will keep him company for the most part. I am so excited to meet my new little niece - what an amazing Christmas miracle! It should be a fun trip with all the kids - they are excited to play with their cousins. Family is awesome!!!