Happy Birthday Rob!!

Rob is 30 today! He's been on this earth for 3 decades, he's officially left his twenties and entered his 31st year! This birthday is the reason for his insane diet (on which he lost at least 30 pounds!! so unfair), beacause he said he didn't want to be "fat and out of shape when I turn 30". According to him it's all downhill from here. ;-)

All joking aside, it is much fun to have our birthdays so close together. Usually we do something for both of us in one night, but this year it's all about him. We're having a bunch of people over tomorrow night for dinner and another chocolate cake.
I was planning on doing this post a lot earlier today and I was going to wax eloquent on Rob's virtues and all the reasons I love him so, but that, I think, will have to wait for a later time. You see, Rob had a cold last week, and Ian has a little snuffle and I came down with it harshly the other day. So I'm being lazy today because my head is so thick with congestion I can barely think. (And I can't drug myself to happiness since I'm breastfeeding, so I suffer.) I was planning on making a nice big homemade dinner tomorrow but we're cheating and we got M&M's instead. I'm still doing the cake, because it's necessary on a birthday like this to have a nice big cake fresh out of the oven...

So, Rob, happy happy birthday! I love you tons! May we spend many many more birthdays together.

(ps. I'll also post pics later too.)

Update on Ian

Ian is 25 months old today. Not too much new with him. He does seem to be getting bigger. Suddenly a whole bunch of his pants are too short so we may have to do some shopping soon. His vocabulary grows daily, he can repeat almost anything we say. A new phrase lately is "Oh MAM!", learnt from me I'm sure when I express frustration.
Now here are a bunch of Ian pics...if it doesn't take blogger too long to upload...

Ian's creative expressions on the wall. "Mommy! See? See? WOW!!"


The train set we got Ian for his birthday.


Building a "higher" with Daddy (doesn't Rob look skinny?).
That's all I'm able to show for now. I may be back later to try more pictures.

Update on Jayden

Jayden was 4 months old yesterday. I can't believe that a third of his first year is already past. ((sigh)) The last five nights he has spent in his own bedroom in the crib. We moved the playpen/bassinet out of our room so he is officially moved across the hall. He is such a fabulous sleeper! Only two of the nights I've had to go in around 3:30, he normally goes 7-8 hours with nary a peep. (I wish I could say the same for Ian, who routinely gets us up 1-3 times a night.) So Jayden is thriving, he's becoming more and more smiley though we still can't seem to get him to smile for the camera very easily. I've resorted to tickling since it appears that he is very ticklish. He breaks into giggles just from changing clothes. Other than tickling, the way to get him to laugh is by Ian. When Ian acts silly, falling down and laughing, Jayden thinks it's the most hilarious thing ever. He never laughs so hard for me.
So here are some more recent pics of baby Jay-Jay...


I'm tickling him here.

I've been trying the different effects with our photos.

My parents bought him this bib, he drools sooo much now, and yes he is definitely a breast man.


We spent a ridiculous amount of money on some Canadian Baby photos, but they're so so cute.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am now 28 years old. I don't feel bad about getting older at all. I never have (except for that slight twinge when I turned 15 and I realized that I was half way to 30...ha). Although it is slightly comforting to know that I have two whole years to go before reaching that particular milestone.

Anyways, it was a very nice day. For most of my life I can remember my birthday being sunshiny and spring-like. I was so happy that today was just like that.
We got up early-ish and headed out the door. Our friends Kevin and Shirley (see link to Shirley's World --->) had invited us to go to the Vancouver Aquarium with them and their two little cuties Grace and Braden. The last time I went there was in high-school on a field trip. It was a lot of fun. Grace and Ian didn't seem too too interested in taking in all the sights and displays. They concentrated on running around, chasing each other and any other kid they came across. We then went over to the Fish and Chip place and ate lunch outside at a picnic table while Ian and Grace did more running around. And we had a really good visit!
After lunch we said good-bye to the Bonds. We headed over to the North Shore, did some shopping and then went to my parents house. We had a fabulous salmon dinner with some delicious chocolate cake for dessert. Ian did more running around with the puppy as per usual. Since he only napped for about 45 minutes in the car he started getting sort of cranky so we packed up and headed home after dessert. Surprisingly Ian did not fall asleep on the way home, but did go down pretty quickly. Jayden also is in bed somewhat earlier than usual. Rob and I are also on our way to bed.

It has been a busy tiring day, but I must say one of my more enjoyable birthday's. Even though there was no big party or big gifts, I'm not really into those kind of things anyways. For my birthday I'm going to be booking a massage at Spa Utopia this week. Aahhh, some pampering, my idea of a super good time. I'm really looking forward to it.

I know I wanted to say more but I'm too tired to remember it all, so goodnight...

Oh the hair!

There are many joys to being a woman. Some more joyful than others. Some not joyful at all.
I'm losing my hair. Seriously, it is ALL falling out. The fact that I'm not completely bald astonishes me. One of those joys of pregnancy. It comes out in handfuls in the shower. My lint trap is full of hair after every load. I don't want to even think of my bed, Rob and I both get it in our mouths at night. It it gets all over my children. I'm forever picking strands out of their mouths, and off of their clothes, and out of their diapers.
Suddenly I'm afraid it got into my cooking the other night. I want to get a hairnet. We're having company over again tonight, Rob's sister's family and his grandma. I'm making a big chocolate cake. But I'm really quite frightened that they'll be picking hair out from between their teeth and then will never want to eat my cooking again. If that happens (of if it already has) I'm so very sorry.

Of posts, pictures, dinner, and friends.

I tried posting some pics of bathtime (because my kids are sooo cute when they're naked), but blogger is having some issues. I've been informed that their engineers have been informed of my problem, and they're working on it. So I'll try again tomorrow. I'm sorry to say that there is still no new batteries in our camera so you may have to wait even longer to see the cocoa picture.

Instead of baths, I'll talk about tonight.

Life is funny. Back in January when I started attending Breakaway on Wednesdays at the church here, I discovered sitting at my table a long ago person. Her name is Jennifer. She and my sister Heather were friends way back in Elementary school in Yarrow. I hadn't seen her for 18 years because she and her family moved away. Lo and behold she lives here in Walnut Grove (she used to live here on our street!!), with her husband and two little boys. It was so much fun to connect with her grown up self. On one hand you feel this connection from childhood, and on the other you discover a new person in adulthood. It's very cool. So tonight we had Jennifer and Josh, and little Isaiah and Jacob over for dinner. Ian has a new friend. He and Isaiah were having so much fun playing, and laughing, and screaming, and falling all over each other, it was a blast to watch. (Not to say there weren't the odd moments of tears from things like not sharing and someone, ie Ian, playing rough, ie shoving.)
I LOVE having company over. I'm quite selfish about it. Not to say I don't enjoy visiting others in their homes, but I really really like having people over to mine. My house gets tidied in preparation and I make a meal. Rob will tell you, and I freely admit, I don't cook often, but if we had people over everyday, I would cook every day. I even made dessert. I tried a new recipe for Mocha Frosted Coffee Cake. Mmmm. I think it was good. The company was good too. Exceptional in fact. We had a lot of fun visiting with them, talking about kids and pregnancy (of course), and hockey. Josh and Rob play in the same church hockey league but on different teams. All in all it was a most enjoyable evening, I hope we get a repeat soon. Always sad when it's time to say goodbye, but two certain toddlers really needed to get to bed.

Speaking of which, I think I really need to get to bed too. Goodnight.

Where oh where??

Does time go? It goes by so fast. I can't believe how loooong it's been since I posted. It goes to show how busy life is as a wife and mother. On one hand I'm glad that it shows that I don't completely neglect my family to indulge this new hobby of mine, but on the other I'm a little sad that I'm not keeping you (all my faithful readers...ha) up to date on our happenings. I will try to up date a little more frequently. I know from my own experience that I so enjoy reading some blogs, that when a day, or week, goes by without a new post, I'm sort of disappointed. For those of you that blog, and don't happen to post every single day, please do not feel bad about that. I totally understand that life gets in the way... a lot sometimes. And yet, after a time without seeing new posts, when one suddenly appears, it's oh so much fun, and gives me a little thrill, and only serves to re-enforce the conditioning of myself to check in on these blogs everyday, if not more often.

So...feeling a thrill??

This blogging...it's funny. I find myself watching our lives, the lives of my family, with different eyes. I look for ways to tell the story of daily events that would make, say, taking a bath, or eating lunch, interesting for others to read about. When I don't post for a few days, I find myself feeling let down, a little disappointed in myself for not finding something that I just couldn't wait to share with the world on my blog. Then I'm reminded that I have three boys to spend time with. And they really are far more important than making sure I post on my blog every day. Believe me, at times life is so full that some days this computer doesn't even get turned on. Yes, it's true! I can hear your gasps of disbelief from here. Some days, we get so wrapped up in ourselves and each other that we don't even make a token effort to connect with friends and family through the technology of email and internet.

But I'm here now and here's an update:
It's MARCH!
My favourite month. Spring is coming, I've seen it, daffodils and cherry blossoms and rain oh my! In fact, my birthday falls on the first day of spring. Rob's birthday comes four days after that (it's a BIG one this year). Ian's was supposed to be this month, but he was in a hurry and came 2 weeks early, oh well, he still gets to turn 25 months this year in March. Jayden will be turning 4 months! Oh the anniversaries that befall us next week. I'm going to make chocolate cake... a lot. Hee hee.

Stay tuned, I'll be posting some more...

Funny Ian makes me laugh.

Last night Ian was having a bit of a fit about going to bed. Pounding on the door, crying, yelling for Mommy and Daddy. After a while I went in to tuck him in again. Of course the crying ceased immediately, and he asked for his soosoo. He likes to throw his soother down between his bed and the wall, knowing that we'll retrieve it for him. Sometimes he uses that distraction to run out of the room. Last night he was peering down behind his bed, "soosoo, soosoo". So I dutifully began feeling along the floor beside the wall for the lost soother. Then suddenly Ian yells "BOO! Soosoo!" and there in his hand is his soother, and he's laughing. He really fooled Mommy that time, hahaha! So I tuck him in, and he quietly goes off to sleep. The little stinker. It totally amazes me to see these signs of his sense of humour.

Today while he was eating lunch, I was busy being distracted on the computer (my first mistake). But Ian was being very good, and very quiet, babbling away to himself so nicely. When a toddler is being oh so good and quiet, you must run, not walk, RUN to where they are to avert the pending catastrophe. When I finally went back into the kitchen a gigantic mess greeted me, with Ian in the middle, huge grin, "Hi Mommy! Oh no, biiig mass!" I couldn't help but laugh, it was too funny. I had made homemade cocoa this morning. "Mmmm nummy nummy cocoa." And I gave Ian a cup of it (well watered with milk). But I gave it to him in a sippy cup with no stopper (second mistake), and even though it was nummy nummy chocolate goodness, I guess it was more fun to play with. The whole wall behind him was splashed with cocoa. The floor was covered in cocoa. He was sitting in a pool of cocoa. His tray was runny with cocoa, the remaining apple slices soggy with cocoa. And Ian himself, from head to toe, was wet and sticky from cocoa. He was having a grand time splashing away. I took a picture but then the batteries died so you'll have to wait to see it. So into the tub he went, and then into bed for a much needed nap. Well, I needed it, so I could clean up the big mess.

LOVE...

.....and kisses.
I love all my boys soooo much! (Warning: if you don't enjoy overly-sentimental mush, you should just skip this.) And I really love kissing them.

Rob and I are again rediscovering the art of kissing. Background: Of the past 33 months, I've been pregnant for 18 of them. For those of you that don't know me, when I'm pregnant I puke, a lot, everyday, for the entire nine months. And there were lots of things that made me nauseous, kissing my husband for instance. It was yucky. It was sad. Please feel free to feel sorry for the poor man. But now, kissing is a lot of FUN! That's all I'll say about kissing Rob, I am trying to keep this blog family rated.

Kissing Ian is a lot of fun too. I know that 2 years olds tend to have a lot to say about stuff being imposed on them. Keeping that in mind, I always ask Ian's permission to kiss him. Lucky me, he usually says yes. It goes a little something like this...
"Hey Ian! Can Mommy have a kiss?" Then he approaches me saying "MmmmmmWAH", and presents to me the top of his head to receive my kisses. If we're sitting together I'll occassionally get lucky enough to kiss his nose or cheeks. On the rare occassion my question is responded to by a "NO!", if I start the "Mmmmmm"ing, routine kicks in and I get my kiss anyways. And sometimes he runs away after saying no. And I respect that, it's OK, because I know that next time I'll most likely get that kiss. Of course there are the bonus kisses too. Every little bump and bruise must be kissed to feel better.

And Jayden? Well, he has no choice but to endure the many showers of kisses that fall on him each day. But I don't think he minds them because he smiles, and coos, and never cries while being kissed. We all love kissing Jayden. Daddy and Ian make sure they kiss Jayden a lot too.

Can you feel the love?

The BEST Weekend!

God is good! Sooooo good.
I went on the women's retreat with our church this past weekend, and I had such an awesome experience. We spent two nights at Camp Charis just east of Chilliwack. I roomed with two other Moms who had nursing babies and that was so fun. I met some amazing women. Women of God who displayed such faith and encouragement. The worship was inspiring, the speaking was enlightening, the food was soooo satisfying, and of course all the chatting that happens with women was a total blast. I feel so refreshed.
On Saturday night I opened up to my small group and shared, to be blunt, some crappy parts of my life. Through those women, and their prayers, God gave me such a major breakthrough. Originally I wasn't planning on sharing at all, especially with people I've just met. I'm not that type of person. But suddenly it just all came pouring out, with many tears. Later as I was sharing my experiences with Rob, he told me that while he was at Coquitlam Alliance on Saturday night, he went to the front, and prayed with his sister Wendy that I would be able to open up during the weekend. Talk about giving me goosebumps!
Thank you Wendy for praying for me. Thank you Rob for that, and being a great dad and taking care of Ian all weekend so I could have this time to grow. And most of all thank you God for being so good, and blessing me so much, and teaching me new things, even if they're hard, because through You I am becoming a better wife and mother.