We're Broken & Not

I've been sick like I have never been before for over 60 days.  Think about that for a second.  60 days feels like forever when you are nauseous for 2/3 of the day and exhausted and not able to eat real food or enjoy the food you force down.  It has been rough and this family has literally been in survival mode complete with cereal, scrambled eggs and quesadillas for dinner everyday.  Laundry sits for sometimes a week in the clean baskets until it is folded and pretty much as soon as Greg gets home from work, I just hit the couch until bedtime.  During my 1/3 time of the day where I'm actually feeling "ok", I've been trying to do more to make me feel normal.  Yesterday I made muffins (which I normally liked to do once once/week), I've been sewing a bit AND I've been trying to actually interact with my kids and not just have them watch t.v. all day while I throw snacks at them.

I've been thinking a lot about this new baby that will be joining our family and wondering how it will affect the dynamic between the kids.  I've been worrying that there just isn't enough of Mommy and Daddy to go around.  Then we had a big lesson on family love the other night.

It started out as a big scare though.  Gavin was jumping on the couch while I was laying next to him.  He decided to make a big pillow mountain and then jump off of it onto the couch.  Our couch pillows are quite sturdy and there was an ottoman in front of the couch so I figured it was all safe.  He jumped several times cracking himself up and landing over and over.  Then one time he jumped, fell, crumpled and just started crying hysterically.  I was so confused b/c I didn't understand how he could've been hurt.  I told Chloe to help him up and give him a hug and I thought we'd just go on our merry way.  But he wouldn't stop crying.  Then he wouldn't walk or stand without crying even harder.  That's when we got worried.  Greg took a look at his foot and it was starting to swell up.  We were sure it was broken.  So he rushed him to Urgent Care while I stayed home with the girls.

While they were gone, the girls were so worried about Gavin.  They were pacing and crying and saying prayers for him.  They kept asking me questions about casts and bones and pain and suffering.  It was so sad and so sweet.  They couldn't sleep because Gavin was still gone and so I had them take a nice, long, hot shower to calm them down and finally they were able to sleep.  Gavin and Daddy came home a few hours later.  Nothing was broken.  Just some soft tissue damage and a bruise.  He still is limping a bit but we were assured that all would be well over time.

For as scary as it was, it was also a really wonderful experience for me, as a mom.  I didn't realize just how much Gavin has changed our lives and changed our family.  It seems crazy to remember a life without a little boy in it.  Without spit kisses and trucks running over your feet.  He has really changed us forever. 

And it made me super excited to see the kids with a new brother or sister learning to love somebody else all over again.

So yeah, we're a little broken right now and disorganized and downright just surviving but we're also going to be ok.  No, we'll be better than ok.

Being 5 makes you feel ALIVE!

Since we were in California for Christmas, I thought I would do Tati's b-day photoshoot at the beach because I knew we'd be heading back to freezing weather where neither of us would want to be outside and plus we would barely see her underneath all her clothes.  We went to the beach by my parent's house with a park thingy close by.

Tati had a friend party this year.  She had lots of ideas but once we had the idea to do a cookie party, she was sold.  It seemed like an easy enough idea:  have some kids over and make some sugar cookies.  We highly underestimated how much work it was going to be.  We had the kids in two groups so me and Greg could help them roll and cut cookies and meanwhile Chloe did some games in the living room.  The little kids loved her.  She did musical chairs and dancing with scarves.  We used some fun cookie cutters from Ikea with forest animals.  The kids all wanted to make the moose but the moose's legs were tricky (esp. since their dough was rolled unevenly) so lots of them ended up with one or two legged meese.  Nobody seemed to mind.  Then they decorated them and ate a bunch of sprinkles and icing and went home nice and happy and hyper.  I'm sure their parents loved us like crazy.

Tati is her own person.  She drives us so crazy sometimes because she is defiant or distracted or overall just wanting to do what she wants to do and not what we want her to do but she is also one of the funnest, funniest, imaginative, energetic and cuddly girls ever.  We love her so much.  Here are some answers to a few of the fave questions:

Her favorite color is: purple and pink
Her favorite food is: raspberries and drumsticks (the ice cream kind)
Her favorite movie is: Madagascar 3
Her favorite thing to do is:  play with legos
Her favorite song is:  Dynamite (Taio Cruz)
What she wants to be when she grows up:  A dinosaur scientist who studies bones.  I'm pretty sure that's called a Paleantologist even if I can't spell it.

Snowvemberrrrr!

We have been getting so much snow lately. I love seeing the snow fall out our big front and back windows.  With the big pine tree in our front yard, it is also super beautiful.  There are some bad things that come with it too though:

-I forget every year how much I hate getting the kids all dressed up in their snow clothes and into their carseats.  It seems like it always take more time and effort AND PATIENCE than I ever think possible.  I dare the most awesome Mom in the world to keep her cool.
-Gavin won't keep on his mitts or his toque (Canadian way to say "beanie") and he acts like his jacket is choking him.  So I keep letting him stay outside and figure it out.  I keep hoping that once his hands get cold from touching the snow and he realizes that I'm actually helping him by putting mitts on him, he'll stop taking them off.  Nope.  When he hands get frozen, then he just looks at me like I betrayed him.
-The floor is always messy because no matter how hard you try and put down rugs and towels, the snow still ends up everywhere tracked in on their boots.  And of course, once all their clothes are off, all they want to do is complain about how they don't want to hang anything up or put it away.  It is an ongoing battle.  

Still there are some fun things about the snow too.  It is beautiful--especially when it falls all day long.  It covers up everything ugly and makes it look all beautiful and it is so quiet and peaceful.  Fewer people are driving around and it feels like you're in another beautiful world.
 
We tried to be festive and make an igloo but it was way more work than we thought so Greg and I only really lasted 1 night.  We keep meaning to go out and do a few more rows but the temperatures have been brutal lately.  We may be forced to try and recruit some friends to help us if we ever expect things to get finished.

My sister sent me a picture of my niece roller skating like Olivia Newton John in Xanadu.  It literally blew my mind because it just happened to be right on the same day that I took the kids out to the front yard and we did sledding and snow angels.  It is crazy.  I enjoy the snow and it is fun at times but man, what would I give to be roller skating around in my mini skirt and tank top?

It has been fun with Chloe being bigger because she is enthusiastic about pulling the kids on the sled.  I want Greg to make a nice back support on this sled but we're not sure how we'd get it to stay on.

Anyway, here are some videos of us pulling the little kids.  Notice how Gavin is laughing with Chloe pulling.

And then a token one of me so I can document that I am still alive and still a fun Mom despite being occasionally mean doing up carseats.  ;-)  I was having some focus problems but it is still fun.


And in case you're thinking that we're outside late at night, this is at around 4:00 p.m.  Yup.

Crunching the Leaves

The kids had a great time this year raking up the leaves because we set the trampoline close to the pile and they bounced right into it.

Greg was sick so it was left up to the girls to pack all the leaves into the bags before the first snowfall.  There's nothing grosser than soggy/rotten leaves in the Spring so we decided we'd just let the women in the family take care of it all.  It was a total "girl power" bonding time.  When it was all cleaned up, the girls even found some sticks and became "deer".  Then we cleaned up and organized all the backyard toys to get ready for Winter.

Fall Break!

(Warning, world's longest post but it does have lots of pics.)

We had some time off for Canadian Thanksgiving and it just so happened to coincide with Fall Break for our relatives in Idaho so we took it as a sign that we HAD to go there.  It was super fun and in the end we didn't want to leave.  They LOVED spending time with their cousins and of course all their pets.  And even I, a proven non lover of the animals had a soft spot for the pets there too just because my kids loved them so much.

Highlights of Travel Day #1: Eating whipped cream filled donuts, driving through the first snow of the year and hearing Gavin finally say Chloe's name. "Looooeeeeee!"  Any excuse I can find to stop at the Donut Mill in Red Deer, I'll take it.  And the strangest thing has happened to me:  I love maple glazed donuts.  I guess Canada has finally gotten to me.

We also had a very confusing travel optical illusion that totally freaked me out because I was driving at the time and thought we were going to die.:

Highlights Day 2: We stopped to pee at Target and fell into a weird time warp where it was suddenly 2 hrs. later. Gavin found a turkey hat there. Ha, ha 

And we didn't even see everything we wanted to see!  We bought some pain relievers in bulk for the kids and probably more candy corns and Oreos than one family should ever purchase.  We just got too excited.  Carmel apple candy corns?  Yes please.  Pumpkin shaped candy corns?  Yes, I love you.  Skull and witch candy corns?  Fine!  We did find them sweeter than we remembered them being.  I can now only eat 2-3 and then be done.  I guess those handful days are over.

Day 3: We went to the temple with my nephew Jonny who is getting ready to go on a mission to Arizona. It was awesome to be there with him and his family.  I had never been to the Idaho Falls temple.  It was gorgeous inside and out.  Here, we only have a small temple so it was awesome to remember how nice it is to be in a full sized one.  It was also fun to contrast it with the new and modern style of the Calgary Temple that we visited a few weeks ago. 

Any down moments, I found myself jumping in the car with Tracy to do a little shopping.  We went to a couple of thrift stores and ran around doing other misc. errands.  It was fun to be with her.  Side note, I forgot how freaking delish those chocolate/almond ice cream bars are at Costco.  My mouth waters just thinking about them now.  It is funny just how different the food courts are at Costco there and here in Canada.  I was so excited to eat the ice cream bar but also missing my poutine.  Anyway, I just love Tracy.  She became my sis-in-law when I was 13 so I've literally known her FOREVER!

Day 4: Greg taught our family and his parents all about lava. There was a rest area close to my brother's house that was labeled "Geological Site of Interest".  The funny thing is that Greg had actually already visited the rest area as part of a school field trip when he was still in college.  

The kids LOVED hearing about the lava bubbles and Tati was determined to find some fossils.  Gavin learned how to carry a hammer and hit with it.  And although he was a little scary, it was pretty adorable to watch him walking around with it. 

Grandpa took a great picture of our family in our colorful outfits.  And he and the kids may or may not have hammered a bunch of rocks and filled our stroller full of them to take home from a rest area. ;-)  
And here is Tati, the future Scientist.


Chloe also rolled down a hill at a park we played at with Grandpa.  She loves this gif her Dad made of her.


After the rocks, we had some time with Greg's brother and his wife.  They are such great people.  It was fun to get to know Heather a little better since we don't know each other very well.  The kids loved playing with her and with Grandma Melton.  Though it was a quick visit, it was still great to be able to touch base with that side of the family.  My big victory was when they came over for dinner the next day.

Day 5: Relaxing & Watching General Conference.  I made some borscht and Joel made some piroshki a la our Russian roots.  When Kirk and Heather got there for dinner, I learned that Kirk hates veggies.  Well borscht is like an all veggies soup.  He ended up liking it and having two helpings and admitting that he really did like it.  Ha, ha. The kids (esp. Tati) also had a hay day playing with the dogs and cats.  Tati's big thrill was that Phillip fell asleep on her.

Day 6:  Plasma Cars.  I have this crazy love for plasma cars.  I had seen them around a lot but my first chance riding one was when we were at the ranch last Easter.  While all the kids were watching an Easter movie, I rode around the basement on the plasma car.  I told Greg how much fun it was.  He thought I was a bit crazy.  My brother has 2 of them.  They were a find at the thrift store which still blows my mind.  Unfortunately, my brother's house is on a serious inclined street so the only place to really ride around was in the garage which was still fun but too small.  So Joel had the genius idea to go to his school and ride around in the cafeteria.  The unexpected bonus of the room was the handicapped ramp because then we rode down really fast.  We all had a blast!  Even Gavin could ride it with ease.  Greg has agreed that once we have a real house, I can have one (or two).

Day 7: Spa Day.  My niece is going to hair school so she had the great idea that the girls could go to her school and get their nails done.  Chloe also really needed a hair trim so she got washed trimmed up.  They loved feeling like grown ups.  It was also really fun to see Meagan at work.  It made me a little emotional because I used to paint her nails all the time when she was younger than Tati and there she was painting my daughters' nails.  Now she's all grown up.  When I see my nieces and nephews, it feels like time has fast forwarded.  I don't know how they all got bigger and more stylish than me.  It was great and we got the family discount on the already discounted rate so the nails and haircuts for both girls cost me around $10.  Yeah, seriously.

Gavin didn't want to be outdone with the day at the spa so Meagan tried to show me how to cut his hair.  As you can tell, he LOVED it.  But I did learn some good tips.

We also took the kids to a corn maze.  We really got to the maze too late so it was dark and the kids (esp. Gavin) was so tired.  Plus, we weren't really dressed for how cold it got once the sun went down but the girls had a blast and so it was worth it for their memories. 

Day 8: Spent a few hours in the mountains today with my big bro playing with our cameras.  He has the Nikon version of what I have on the Canon.  I think we equally know about as much as the other, all different stuff, but he is studying more so I'm sure he'll pass me up quickly.  It was fun to just hang out and experiment together.  My nephew Jason came too.  He really enjoys photography.  He takes quite nice shots actually just staying in Macro and Portrait settings.  He kept saying, "Daddy, I see a picture."  Then we'd pull over and he'd go out and take a shot.  I thought it was so cute.  Jason is 13.  I was trying to experiment with the exposure compensation if that means anything to you.  I really wanted to try and stack 3 photos and do a homemade HDR shot.  Here is one of my trials. 

Then we finally headed home. 

The girls wanted to just go home and get our stuff and go back and live in Idaho.  It was cute and sad.  We would love to live close to them but we're excited at the prospect of where our future will take us.

No Elk Island

(Slowly but surely getting caught up.)

We didn't know how close we lived to a Nat. Park until last Winter when we went out to see the Northern Lights.  We decided we'd go and finally check in out and called a friend to find out some more info about it and maybe some recommendations on trails or places to see when she offered us her park pass.  So that was awesome.  The first time we went, we didn't plan for enough time or bring enough food so we had to go again and then when my parents were visiting, we decided to take them there because we knew they'd love to see some of the buffalo.

I don't really know why it is called Elk Island because we never saw one elk in the three visits that we made.  It should really be called Buffalo Island, then again I'm not quite sure how much water is surrounding it so maybe in general their name is stupid.  But I digress.

We weren't prepared to see all the Buffalo/Bison so close up.  It was both fun and scary and when we took Chloe's friend, Corbin with us, he found it stupid and terrifying!  Ha, ha.  I love that kid.  "Julie, maybe we should go home because there is a bison just right there."  "No, Corbin, we're ok."  "Um, Julie, I think the little kids are afraid of the bison, maybe we should go back to the car."  Over and over, he had some reason to leave but we didn't.  I think once he was home, he really enjoyed the tale of how he cheated death.

We stumbled upon a beautiful overlook of the lake and after planning better, we brought enough stuff to make a campsite.  We layed around eating, chatting and even napping.  We saw a ton of wildlife and Chloe even kept a log of it in a little field book.  Tati had a map from the car that she used to direct us whatever chance she got.  We found and ate some wild raspberries too.  The kids also had so much fun seeing all the buffalo pies.  It was like intriguingly gross to them.  I'll spare too many details but lots of laughter and poking with sticks ensued.

When my parents were here, we had planned on adding kayaking to the adventure but then the ranger told us there was a hideous parasite in the water so that sorta dampened all our desire to get in.  Imagine that. Instead, Grandma taught the girls how to make clover chains and there we also saw a ton of geese migrating in their "v's".  It was fun for them to see since it felt so "Canadian". 

Somehow Greg managed to find some frogs that the girls were mesmorized by and Gavin wasn't quite sure if he should touch it or hide from it. 

There was also some "wildlife fun" that wasn't so wild afterall.  My Dad thought he was hilarious when he told me to watch out for the snake.  To which I screamed and ran away.  Yeah, that snake was a total doozy.

Overall, just such a fun and beautiful place! 

Halloweeny 2012

Strange things happened long before Halloweeny time.  I guess that is sorta festive but I just wasn't feeling it this year.  It's sad and weird because I really do love Halloween.   I couldn't think of anything for us to be and it was such a pain to get all the supplies out of the basement.  I wanted to do a party but then I just got overwhelmed by the prospect of having too many people in our house.  I was even going to have a little kid party but then my friend Rena, beat me to it.  She was sweet enough to invite Tati over one afternoon while Gavin was sleeping.  It was an extra thrill for her too because she didn't have to nap.

A few nights before Halloween, we finally all went to work as a family sorting through our Halloween wigs and costumes and trying to come to a consensus.  With an amazing score of my princess cowgirl hat and Gavin's cow costume (in the exact perfect size)  at the thrift store and of course, the help of Dollarama for Greg's hat, we all came together as the cowboy family.  I really loved how we all turned out.  I had purchased some fake eyelashes for the girls and they looked adorable in them.  They also LOVED the way they looked but hated the way they felt.