D-Day

Today am officially due to have my baby! So come on Baby come out!

We have been super busy trying to finish the ceiling before baby comes and we are almost done! We only need to repaint to top of the walls and put up a couple more lights. Then the renos will be on hold for a few months so we can focus on baby.

Easter was pretty low key, we stayed home and had no company. Easter dinner was A&W because our stove decided to quit! ( it is now fixed thanks to our awesome friend!)

a few days before Easter Anita asked me 'Is the Easter Bunny real?'

So I old her I could tell her the truth or the fun answer. She wanted both. So I proceeded to tell her that he was not real, that mom and dad did it because it was a fun thing for us to do for her and her sister, because we love them and so little kids can believe in magic. Her response; 'Hahahaha you're not the Easter Bunny!!!"

Later that day she went on an errand with Matt and asked him about it, he told her the same thing I had and she was convinced this time but excited too. 'I didn't know you had easter candy!!' No connection was made that we buy candy from the store as far as I could tell, just super awesome that we have it and hide it! Then she got to help make up the baskets while Julia was sleeping. And has kept up a great front as to not knowing, she talks about the Easter Bunny to Julia and the other little ones we are around like she has no clue as to the big secret! So it is a fun game now to make sure the other kids don't find out. What a smart girl!!

Happy Thought: Some time in the next few days I should be holding my new baby!!

Home stretch.

The last few months have been pleasantly busy. We've done a little traveling, to both grandparents at Christmas and then to Calgary a couple of times to see my sister ( who is due the same day as I am). We have worked on the house, painting etc. and have kept busy with the girls, deciding if we should get a bigger car and growing a baby!

I will have to round up the pictures of the changes to the house, we repainted the bath room and it is 100 times better!

I only have a month left now, it has flown by! I am still a little nervous about having three kids. We will be out numbered. I love being pregnant and have pretty easy time of it. This time around has been a little more challenging, partly because I don't think I am as strong (in shape) this time and I just have less time to enjoy it. Having two other children, Matt has a real job and we own a house. It all takes up more time. But I still really am looking forward to having this baby in our family.

A says 'I feel happy about the new baby because I am so excited to meet her.

J says ' I feel excited about the baby because I will play with her. I love her! She is nice and cute and squishy!

Happy thought: some friends (who know what they are doing) are going to hang drywall on our ceiling so good by popcorn ceiling!! yay!

Pregnancy

So I'm half done already, surprise! The first half always goes so quickly, no one can tell I'm expecting and I don't get sick either ( or at lease sick enough for it to be noticeable). Being pregnant is pretty easy for me. The worst part is the round ligament pain, which started at about 10 weeks. It feels like my pelvis is in two separate parts that grind together unpleasantly when I move wrong, or at all.

We had our ultrasound last week, which I love! Ultrasounds are so amazing, it makes it so much more real to actually see the baby, alive, moving and yawning. It never gets old.

I had been feeling a bit nervous/apprehensive about having three kids. Like, I only have two hands! Lately I have been feeling better about it. Maybe because I'm having another girl. I can do girls. I know how they work. We had been hoping for a boy. But I always felt kind of weird about it. So good thing its a girl I guess. Plus I promised Matt last time that if it was a girl he could use a name he really likes. So he is still happy. ( he was happy any way, a baby is a baby)

Happy Thought: Its Christmas! 16 days to be exact. YAY!

Sunrise

Matt is working this morning, I know a Saturday. This was never supposed to happen! He works at a bank! But lo and behold, it has! So he was of to work just before seven this morning and A woke up right before he left. This is good and bad because the girls get very upset if Matt leaves for work before they see him and it is way to early to be getting up on a Saturday (or any day for that matter!)

So up to my room came my dear little four year old who snuggled her chilly little body up to me to warm up. I asked her if she wanted to blinds closed so it would be darker and she said that was a good idea! As I got up to close the blinds on our east facing window above our bed I noticed the perfectly clear sky and the horizon about to spillover with sunlight. I asked A if she wanted to see the sun rise and with a look of pure wonder on her face she watched the sky for about ten minutes. The houses blocked the horizon so we couldn't see the actual moment the sun came up, but it was so fun to lay there and watch her little face as she talked about the colours of the sky (kinda peachy)and the birds and trees (they look like wind mills). We talked about how beautiful the sunrise is and how blessed we are that Heavenly Father made the world so beautiful for us.

Happy Thoughts: Matt for working hard to take care of us ( plus he gets a $50 gift card to the mall for working today !)

My girls and how fun they are and the silly and insightful things they think of.

Home!

My visit home was so great! I stayed in at my sisters on the friday night and stayed up till 2 am visiting with her and friends for her book club! I forgot my thyroid pills at home so I had to wait till saturday to figure out what I should to about that because it was a little late! As I set my alarm for the next morning to pick up my little sister from EFY (Especially for Youth, a conference put on by B.Y.U I think) My phone told me how long I had until the alarm went. Four hours and twenty minutes! Arg!! So off I went at about 6:45 saturday morning through Calgary ( I don't drive in big cities much) but at least there wasn't much traffic! With only one wrong turn I found where I needed to go , picked up my sister, went back for breakfast and off we went.

By the time I was almost to Red Deer around 10:30 I was falling asleep, so I called my wonderful in laws and stopped in to have a nap. My sister and my sister in law are close in age and good friends and the kids were happy to play with their uncles and grandparents!! The rest of the trip went well too even though Julia couldn't really sleep for the last hour, the poor thing she was so uncomfortable, but we made it and had a great time, quading, picking raspberries, helping in the garden, playing with the cat and jumping on the trampoline. Anita was so funny! Previously she has not been brave enough to try the quad but I took them both out for the first ride and she had a death grip around my waist, as we went down the road and a decent clip she bellowed, ' THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!' it was so funny!!

Plus there is all the yummy garden dinners with green beans and new potatoes with dill butter on them!! yum!!

The only hiccup was the flat tire on the way home! Thankfully we have roadside assistance! Although both the numbers I had/was given were WRONG!! ( how stupid) I finally did get help. and we were able to get a used tire for only $50! It could have been WAY worse than it was! It didn't happen in the middle on no where for one thing, and it took just over an hour for us to be on out way again!

Oh, and I was able to get an emergence supply of pills until Matt could send mine up, all in all everything worked out really well!!

Happy thought: I have a car that I can drive all the way home and not worry about it breaking. My kids have grandparents who love and are interested in them!!

playing catch-up

So, a lot has been going on over the summer, (I can't believe that is almost over either) starting with our move out to Fort Macleod. The move was actually pretty smooth the bank hired movers for us so we didn't even have to pack. I had a bit of an issue with that at first, like, some strange people coming in and touching all of my stuff. Too weird for me! I was having actual anxiety about it! But I had to just get over it because it was happening either way! They ended up being really friendly and great! So moving day came, after two days of packing and we all drove out to the new house!

On our first morning here, Matt's heel went through the shower floor! It was tiny 1'' tile mosaic stuff. So we began out first ever reno! The sub-floor was totally rotten so after much debate and several trips in to Lethbridge we found a shower surround that we could afford brought it home finished ripping out the old shower and sub floor putting in a new sub floor and putting in the new shower. (this really took closer to a week since most of it was being done in the evening)

And by the way this is the short version!! All in all we have a functioning shower and although it is not perfect it's a heck of a lot nicer that the old one but smaller.

Our other projects were painting over the yellow in the dining room and the maroon in the living room. Yep, great colours right? They are much better now! Thanks to all the help we had painting from my in laws and parents! We also put in an attic vent with my Dad's help. But the list is ever growing so hopefully we can get a bit more done before it gets too cold.

Happy Thought: We own our own home!! It is amazing really the blessings we have received in the last year!! Matt got his job at the Bank , we got out first new car, and now we have a house, just to name a few!! Plus the bank payed for all the legal fees etc. for the house!!

Going home!

In two days I will be making the long (12 hr) trek home to visit my parents!! I am SO excited to be home especially in the summer and eat all of mom's yummy garden food! I haven't been home in a few years, due to Matt being in school and having a junker for a car, but now we a have a job and a good car! Matt just can;t take time off in the summer so i am heading out with the girls! I willl be picking up my little sister from EFY in Calgary on the way through so she will be a big help on the drive up.

We will go swimming in the river, go for quad rides, walk through the fields, eat tonnes of raspberries and garden carrots and visit old friends!!

Its sad to leave Matt, he has a hard time being with out us, hopefully he will keep busy and find lots of things to do. I love him for not complaining about us leaving, I know he is thinking it. He understands my need to visit back home. even thought my parents were just here for a few days when we moved ( which I need to write about still).

So I am off to do laundry and try to get the house as put together as I can before we head out tomorrow night.

• Happy Thought: the weather should be beautiful up north next week! And I get to go my sisters famous book club on friday night!!