Ice and Baking

It's felt like a bit of a long week, but that's likely because I don't have my van.  Yep.  The head gasket is shot.  We're going to repair it, but I kinda balk at charging it to the credit card, so it may wait till we get our taxes done.  We'll see.  It would be nice for Hubby to be able to take his truck down to Canmore for Study Conference instead of having to carpool but, again, we'll see.

We went to Ice on Whyte last Saturday with Uncle Peanut and Aunt Jelly and the kids had lots of fun.  There was a bit of a break in the weather.  It was only -20 instead of -33.   So the boys really enjoyed having outside fresh air.

There was lots of sliding down the ice slides.  It was quite a different experience than last year when it was above 0 when we went :)

The Girl has been carrying around the tie for one of my robes and decided she wanted to wear it.  Hubby put it around her middle.  I put it around her head :)

"Very flapper" as Hubby says :)  She loves it!  this was taken while the Boy was in school, otherwise he'd have been hamming it up for the camera as well!

Baby 4 has been super active.  This afternoon it made me jump a few times with the forcefulness of some of it's movements.  I wouldn't trade it, though.  Boy2 told me he loved me because I am "pregnanant" :)  He was expressing some concern that my baby-belly would be gone after the birth.  He wants lots of babies in the family.  Told that to Hubby and his response was "Yeah...... not a chance!"  

The Boy continues to thrive in school.  I think he's having some difficulty discerning fact and fiction, though.  They've been learning about China this month and he was telling me all about dragons that live outside the wall over there.  Oops!  It's amazing how quickly Mom and Dad are replaced by the Teacher as the source of all truth.  Parents just don't know anything!  At least we managed to sort out the whole "#2" thing.  He was convinced 2 was an odd number, so I approached his teacher and she addressed it.  Now we're all good.

I was on for baking this week for Coffee with Matt (a kind of outreach that some women from the church do) and I made Orange Cake Pie.  I didn't bring any home with me!  It was a hit, and I had a few requests for recipes, so I'm going to have to copy it down.  It certainly pleased me!  

Daddy,Dentists, and car trouble

There has been so many adorable things happen this week.  Hubby has had meetings every evening this week (except for tonight).  Last night, before bed time, the Boy told me he had to write his sermon.  So he got out a pen, about four or five pieces of purple construction paper, and sat down at the table.  I was doing up the supper dishes and I heard his voice talking and mumbling as he was "writing".  I asked him what his sermon was about and he replied "grace in the highest, grace in the lowest, grace everywhere."  I smiled.  That's very Lutheran theology :)

And before school, he drew a picture for Daddy.  I didn't see it until I went up to shower.  He drew it on a post-it and it was on Hubby's bedside table.  I texted Hubby to see if he had seen it.  He replied that he had.  It was Optimus Prime :)  And I guess the Boy had "read" his sermon to him that morning as well.  I absolutely love our kids!!!  It was added to our breakfast conversation.  Hubby was still upstairs getting ready for the day, and the Boy and Boy2 just started talking about their Dad.  The biggest, strongest, most awesome Dad in the whole world.  The Boy started laughing and talking about how Daddy picked him up by his ankles, carried him to the couch and made him "flat like a pancake" :)  I love watching them play together.  You can really tell that Daddy loves his boys and the other way around!

Today, Boy2 had a dental check up to assess what work needs to get done.  Two and a bit years ago he fell and his front teeth/tooth hasn't been the same.  The one had to be pulled same day and the second one that broke a day or two later was holding on nicely.  This summer, he bumped it good a couple of times a week or so apart, and now the root is good and dead, so it needs to be pulled.  Add in a couple of molar cavities and a fused set of teeth that have a high risk of rapid decay, and we have a whopping dental appointment coming up for him.  But, as we were getting ready to leave to go to said appointment, Hubby started the van to get it going.  15-20 minutes later we go out and the windshield is still frozen and the thermometer gauge on the dash is nearly in the red.  So, we decide to take the truck instead.  On our way back in, we stopped at the mechanic's to see if they could fit the van in to see what was wrong.  He warned us that the last time he saw a problem like that, the head gasket was the problem.  So we mentally prepared for the worst.  Got the call back- there was an air bubble in the cooling system.  Thank Heavens for little miracles!

The Girl has been a regular goober these last two weeks.  It's not every night, but more often than not she is up from anywhere between 2 and 4 hours.  Not necessarily yelling, but awake.  We've been trying to take our turns being up with her (so we aren't both absolutely exhausted the next day).  But last night she woke up and wanted to be watched.  I don't think she'd had a night mare because she wasn't yelling hysterically, she was just awake and didn't want to be alone.  So I spent 30-40 minutes in the rocking chair beside her crib.  I got cold and was exhausted, so I picked her up and brought her into bed with me.  Did she fall asleep, all snuggled and warm beside Mommy?  No!  Two hours of fidgeting and squirming around and she finally fell asleep.

When Hubby and the kids woke up in the morning (Hubby slept through his alarm he was so tired) he asked how my night was.  He didn't even twitch through everything last night :)  I can't blame him...  He hasn't had alot of sleep in the last few days.  I at least have been able to rest a bit mid day.

With this cold snap we've had, the kids are feeling a bit house bound.  Every day the Boy asks if he can go outside.  But with windchill warnings of-40 to -50, there's no way I'm letting that kid out of the house :)  So we've put tents in the living room, done puzzles, made cookies, done crafts, and read and read and read.  Now the wind chill warning is lifted, today was a balmy -18, and by next week it's supposed to be hovering back around 0.  Crazy weather!!!

Tuesday afternoon, right before Hubby came back from picking the Boy up from school, the Girl and Boy2 were in the kitchen while I was sitting in the living room.  It was quiet.  Too quiet, so I called out to see what they were doing.  They came into the living room looking like this :

Don't they look happy?

Baby has been super active lately.  Well, maybe super active, maybe it's just gotten to the size where feel it more:)  I'm still amazed how time goes during a pregnancy.  The first trimester seems interminable, then the rest of the time just zooms by and before you know it, there's a baby in your arms smelling of poop and spit :)  There must be something to it, though, since I can't seem to be able to say "That's it!  I'm done!  No more KIDS!!!"  Although I may get to that point after this one comes.  Who knows?

window to our home life

If anyone wants a snapshot into the life of this home, just watch the kids play.  The boys got a few little Lego sets for Christmas, and we are working on them one by one.  This afternoon we built an RV that has a bike, surf board, frying pan, and two mugs.  (I built it, they play with it)

There is a male and a female that came with the set too.  They call each other "Honey" and the conversation has alot of "Here's your coffee" and "Where is _____?".  Boy2 just told me that there had been a baby in the Mommy's tummy and it's name was Princess Peach (one of the names they insist we should use if there's another sister on the way).  There is no fighting, no bickering, just alot of pleasant words.  Granted, they are spending just as much time fixing the RV (since it is still lego and they play with it like it's dye cast), but it's very amusing to see our home life played out.

We made a trip into Edmonton today to run the kids and do a little bit of retail therapy (since HUbby and I have felt a bit funky in the last couplle of days), so the boys each got a new shirt, new shirt and jeans for Daddy, and I got two shirts and a pair of jeans (I've been wearing the pair I got when I was pregnant the first time and they were very tired).  So now I have new pants.  Always good, since I do think my skirts and dresses will be worn much until the air decides to get warmer and stay warmer.

Hard to believe I'm at 19 weeks already.  Hard to believe we're doing it again.  There are times when I look at the life Hubby and I have made and it still isn't easy to believe that I am Mommy of these three little persons.  Especially when each of them is so different than the others and us.  I was laying on the floor cuddling Boy2 yesterday and I was brought back to the hospital when he was only hours old.  Time flies way too quickly!

newest addition!

It feels like a long while since I last posted.  I started writing the weekend after we got back from our holiday trip, but didn't finish, so I didn't post it.  We had an ultrasound on Monday, and it took a long while since the little person wasn't being cooperative.  We didn't want to find out the sex, but even if we had, the legs and arms were crossed the whole time and he/she kept moving, doing somersaults and flips.  But we did get a picture to take home.

  The same profile as it's siblings :)

There has been quite a bit going on.  First week back at school for the Boy, back in the office for Hubby.  Pregnancy is moving along.  Lots of baby movement (Hubby has even felt it a couple of times) and fatigue from the holiday let down and trying to get back into a routine.

We spent the first weekend back taking down the Christmas decorations and setting the house in order.  Still have stuff to do, but it's mostly in the basement, so I can almost pretend it isn't there at all.  The Girl is going up and down stairs all by herself now.  She is communicating better too!  I can sometimes understand her words/sentences.  She has "I want" down pat and definitely makes it known what it is she wants.

Boy2 is himself.  We're still working on getting him to slow down, think, and BREATHE when he gets so upset.  His temper seems to escalate at an alarming rate, but he is only three, so I guess it's good that we're working on it now.  In public he's fine (for the most part) and it's worse when he's tired (alot lately since the Girl has been yelling in the middle of the night interrupting everyone's sleep).  But it will get better.

The Boy is loving being back in school.  When it let out before the break, he was spending alot of time playing with some girls he'd gotten to be very good friends with (chasing away the boys who were chasing them.  Defending them :), but the last couple of days he seems to have become better friends with some other boys from his class.  So it's good that he's broadening his base of friends.