Gabriel's 3rd Birthday...

So my little man turned 3 on Saturday... I remember when he was born, it was such a hot summer all he wore was a diaper and undershirt. We would sit in the shade and watch Ava play with her bubble machine and a bucket of water...time does fly by!

Now he is playing with bubbles and running around and playing in the water.... It's the hardest job I've ever had..being a mom but never dull and always keeps me on the toes! It's soo amazing to watch him grow up. Here are some pictures from his birthday bbq.... he doesn't really have many little friends here..so it was just a small family birthday party..

Getting the candle on the cake...

BLLLOOOOOWWWW!

We TIRED to take a family picture.... but not as easy as it sounds with 3 kids... what is it going to be like with 4 kids??? Ha ha! We don't look very happy!

The kids with Nanny and Gumpy/Bumpy aka Grampy (a little side story behind his name... Ava couldn't say Grampy when we was learning how to talk so she called him Gumpy and still does!....and Gabriel couldn't say his name properly either and he calls him Bumpy! kids!)



After swimming in the pool...it was time for some refreshments...and playtime!
And the birthday day ending with having a picnic dinner...eating whatever he wanted .... watching his favorite movie CARS :]

Happy Birthday Gabriel Michael... we love you very much! xoxoxoxo

Death, Heat & Family..

A bit of a strange heading... but all these thoughts are running through my head right now... So Farrah Fawcett died today ~ soo sad! I remember watching a program (probably Entertainment Tonight) about her battle with cancer, all I could think about was my mom and it just made me more and more sad. Cancer is such a evil, hard to understand, hard to accept, just plain crazy illness... I just don't know how to describe it. It was just so heartbreaking to watch her battle because I remembered how hard it was to watch my mom go through so much pain. A very sad day indeed... I pray that Farrah is in a better place.

So I also heard today that Michael Jackson died --- WHAT??? I know totally crazy eh?? I'm still in shock really! I can't believe it. His life was sad too, all the troubles as a child and it followed him into adulthood -- again very sad :[

So I know not a very good segway (sp?)... but the heat has just been crazy here! Today had to be the hottest it's been yet this summer. It was sooo humid this morning, no wind...and I had a friend and her two children over.. oh and she is almost 30 weeks pregnant! So needless to say we were all very hot! So what else to you do when you think you are going to melt as you are standing on the deck?? Well jump in the pool of course! We had a great morning swim. The kids loved being in the water.. and well of course the two pregnant mommies really really loved being in the pool! We had a lovely simple egg salad/peanut butter and honey lunch (with other snacky of course!)... the girls did a floor puzzle and then my friend and her two children were on their way....

Family -- I just have to say I just absolutely love all that our new house has to offer. Watching our kids (and friends with kids) enjoying the play structure or the pool or the decks or just each others company. We truly truly feel blessed by God, he has been very gracious to us. For us to live where we live but mostly to share what we have with others really does just swell our hearts.

I already feel like this summer will be one of many memorable ones!

Last day of school..

Today is Ava's last day of JK... I'm soo sad for her! Sad that she will not see her little friends anymore..(sad that I won't see those sweet little girls anymore..I know all there names..maybe because I've been on all the school trips). Sad that she won't be going to 'school' anymore...sad that she won't ride a school bus..sad that she won't have a 'classroom'.... I'm just sad for her.


I will be homeschooling her in the fall, and we are totally certain that this is best for our family and that this is the path that God is leading us on... but Jay and I can't help but look at our past.. our school years..that's all we have to base it on!

I'm excited (and nervous!) to be homeschooling her in the fall. Excited that I will be teaching her. Excited that we will have the time to do more things together as a family. Excited that she will be home more. Excited that (hopefully) we meet more homeschooling families and their children. Excited that we will just become stronger as a family. Relieved that I can protect her .. maybe more... from teasing, mean kids, bullying and all that other 'fun' stuff you get in school when they are young.


I'm sad, excited, nervous, anxious and sooooo many other emotions for Ava... on her last day of school.


LET THE SUMMER BEGIN! :]

ok.. ok.. one more post :}

So here are just some random pictures of what we've been doing... School is coming to an end... Ava's school had a Fun Day.. and had face painting.. here is Miss. Ava with her face painted, she loved it and I just thought she looked super cute...so wanted to take some pics..

The kids wanted to have a camp out, bonfire and roast marshmallows.. it was rainy last weekend...so no sleeping in the tent outside but we did have a bonfire and roasted some marshmallows. Gabriel had a blast, he was getting a bit frustrated though because he would roast them too much and then they would fall off! Poor little guy! But it was a ton of fun... and more fun watching the kids! Enjoy....

Last picture... I just thought this was soo funny... the kids wanted to watch a movie before bed. So all the kids are bathed...sitting on the couch...and well here is the picture..

I really don't know why Ava is wearing her helmet (and her knee pads ~ but you can't see them in the picture!).. oh man kids really are funny!

Fathers Day 2009

So as you might be noticing... I'm catching up on my posts.... hope some enjoy reading a couple of posts and being in the loop of what we've been up to...

Fathers Day was fun... Ava made Jay a picture frame (and drew the picture too!)... and a card. Gabriel & Grace gave him a card.... they all gave him dress shorts (more fancier than regular shorts, they go to his knee and he can wear them to work with a button up top).... anyway.... so we all piled in on the bed and watched him open the gift and read the cards.

It's the simple moments that are the most fun... everyone in there pajamas having a blast (NOTE: no picture of me in my pj's ... no one needs to see that!! :])... so enjoy some pics I snapped....

... a bit of a late post... but worth the cute pictures...

My hump, My hump.. my lovely BABY bump ...

OK.... so I've FINALLY managed to get some pictures taken of my baby bump! Ok ok... so I'm ALOT behind on documenting this baby... my first tummy pictures are 21 weeks! *sigh* but I'm on it now! So here are some pictures of my lovely baby bump...... and I must say... my preggo outfits are super cute!!! I figure this is my last baby.. and my motto is 'go BIG or go HOME'....

Ok... this last one... I was really tired.. don't like the picture soo much as my cute outfit! :]

WHOA~ I'M 20 WEEKS! Half way there...!

So I just noticed when I was reading up on my week by week pregnancy progression on my fave website... that I'm at the beginning of my 21st week... which means.... I'M HALF WAY THERE! Holy Cow! Well I have to say the first 20 weeks have just flown by... and I hoping the next 20 weeks go quick too!


Don't get my wrong, it's not like I'm not happy about this pregnancy.. because I am.. WE are! I'm just excited to see this baby.. is it a boy? Is it a girl? We always agreed that we wouldn't find out the sex of our babies.. and to date we've always been surprised! I can honestly say when I was pregnant with Grace I was fairly certain I was carrying a girl. I couldn't explain why I knew.. I just KNEW! ... And low and behold - Grace Lilly was born!


So back to my anxiousness... I'm excited to meet this baby, but I've also found each pregnancy harder and harder. I know many factors can affect this 'condition'... I'm getting older ~ I had Ava when I was 29 and now with this baby I'll be 34 (I know, I know I HATE getting older *sigh* but who does like getting older? I don't know!). I've also had my babies very close together, all my babies are either 21 or 22 months apart. And baby #4 will certainly follow into this pattern as well! I'm due November 1st (although I do tend to go into labour early)... and Grace will be turning two years old Jan 15th, 2010 (HOLY COW ~ did I just type 2010???? I thought we would be driving in flying cars and have robot maids by now!!!! Sooo futuristic!!). So baby #4 and Grace will be approximately 22 months apart.


So my age, my babies have been born close together... and I just find it soo hard to sit still when I'm pregnant. It really hits home to me how much I CAN'T do while I'm pregnant ~ and that drives me NUTS! I get tired easily, cannot lift heavy things, no long hours in the garden or painting or doing anything else I like to do. Again, not that I'm complaining ~~ all these things are just adjustments for me.


I am starting to have this sense of completion in my heart - that my family is now whole ~ what we have 'everyone' we should. I truly feel blessed that God has given us this soon to be four beautiful babies! That He has intrusted us with their care and guidance. Jay will likely go for the 'procedure'... we've talked about it already... but I'm sure like most men it's not something they look forward to (but hey ~ do we women look forward to labour? "Yahhh I get to be in the most fieriest pain of my life!" ~ ahh no I don't think so!). So we will likely talk about it again when baby is here... otherwise I would be announces another pregnancy!!!


As for pictures of my baby bump - I STILL haven't taken pictures! I have to get on that!! And it's funny you know.. 'cause I would say with this pregnancy I look the best that I ever have!!! So I really should be documenting it!


Pictures to come! And WE ARE HALF WAY THERE ~~ YEEEAAAAH :)


Happy Monday ya'll :)

Baby Bump??

So you know what??? I just realized I haven't taken ANY pictures of my belly for this pregnancy!!!! I can not believe it! I think I'm loosing my mind! I guess being sick for the first three months and now chasing after the kids for the last two months ... well has taken up most of my time! :)

But I HAVE to get some belly pictures!! I have my ultrasound pictures, so that will go in this baby's first year scrapbook ~ but it's always fun to see how big momma gets! I'm not doing too bad in the weight department; 19 weeks and 13 pounds ~ that's good! (considering it is sooo hard for me to loose weight in general).

So in the next day or two that is my mission ~ get a couple pictures of my belly ..... I guess this should have been priority considering this will be our last... but better late then never!! :)

Belly bump pictures to come!

Ava's Garden: strawberry update!

Well, we've been watching a couple of berries starting to turn red - but today - today is monumental! Ava and I went out to water the garden and two berries were ready for the picking! There are about six other berries half ripen... so we'll be picking those babies in a few days... more sun should do the trick!

So how is a family of five (soon to be six... but this baby ain't gonna taste it first hand yet!) going to split two berries?? Well Jay and I will likely be adults about it and let Ava and Gabriel savour the two berries. Grace... well she'll just have to settle for a popsicle for her after dinner treat!

So just a little update on the garden.. it's doing well, the flowers and blueberry bushes have perked up ~ I think they are looking forward to summer too :)

Ava's Garden

This past weekend we put in Ava's garden. She has been excited about it for some time. All spring she was asking if she could put in a garden, so we were just waiting until the weather was warm enough for the flowers and bushes to survive! This past Saturday was a great day for gardening, it was warm, but the sun kept playing hide and seek behind the clouds. Long enough to give us a break from being in the sun. Although for weeks now Ava was looking forward to putting in her garden... she wasn't feeling very well. She was getting over a cold and just had no energy... she mostly layed on the grass rolled up in a blanket!

Once Jay dug up the garden and raked out all the bits of grass she managed it get up and start to put in some flowers. She really liked wearing her gardening gloves.. they were pretty big on her, but she didn't mind too much! Once the earth was all loosen we started to get the bushes and flowers in. Her garden has 2 blueberry bushes (which is GREAT because Ava loves blueberries!) and 3 strawberry plants! She also wanted to plant flowers too... so there are some marigolds, petunias and a couple other ones that I forget the name of! :(

Grace had a really fun time helping out too! She loved playing in the dirt, bringing over the blueberry bush and basically just dumping the dirt all over herself! She was definitely more into gardening then Ava.. but like I said Ava really wasn't feeling so great!

We decided to put the garden right under Ava and Grace's bedroom window. When Ava wakes up in the morning she looks out at her garden - and the strawberry bushes already have red berries on them! She is very excited... and actually to be honest with you I'm excited too!! I've never planed strawberry bushes in the ground... so I hope we get them every year!!

What Have I been doing?

Some of ya'll may be wondering if I'm still around.. and the answer is ~ yup I'm still here! I've just been busy! With what you may ask me..and my answer would be "I don't know!". I'm just settling into summer, really enjoying the days that are sunny! We are really enjoying our first summer here, it is soo great to just go down to the river and watch the sail boats or just chill on our deck on a Sunday afternoon after church.

I've been feeling really lazy! I've been wanting to have people over on the weekends...and I think about it all week..but then I just don't get around to making the calls! Yikes! I've also been doing alot of thinking about this upcoming fall, this will be my first year homeschooling. I'm really going to have to wrap my head around how much this is going to change our lives and our family dynamics. I'm excited, anxious, nervous, eager all rolled into one!

I've also been mulling some decorating ideas in my head! I am trying to decide what colour I want to paint our dinning room/sitting room/foyer/hallway (I have to paint all in the same colour because it's an open concept room). But I'm ok with that... also trying to decide on what colour I want to have the two accent walls. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with an off white for the main colour...and one accent wall will likely be a bright apple green --- fresh and will work with all the seasons! I also need to plan a trip 'into the city' to get into a fabric store. I want to sew seat covers for my dinning room chairs. We had them reupholster about a year and a half ago... but just want a bit of a change.

I've also been thinking about Gabriel's birthday party... I can't believe he'll be turning 3 at the end of June - craziness! I remember that first summer he was home... he was sooo tiny! Just trying to figure out what we want to do.....

Ava also started soccer a couple of weeks ago. This is the first year she is playing. She is having loads of fun! It's soo great to watch her 'play' :) she looks soo grown up! It makes me sad...but I'm excited to what our family get older too!

Another exciting thing for our family is Jay is starting his boating lessons! He's always wanted to learn how to sail! He is really excited! I'm excited for him! Our dream is to sail around on our boat, he can have his private practice and I can homeschool on the boat! It's a dream.... one day! one day!

So that's the update on what we've been up to lately.... It's going to be hard to sit at the computer and post on the blog when the weather is sooo nice! But I'll try..I really will!

So happy sunny Wednesday to all! :)