Picture Post

Levi's "cheese" smile.  Except he doesn't says cheese...it's just the smile we get when we ask him to smile.

"Levi, do you want a picture with Lennox?" "YEAH!" (Lennox will never sit any closer than this to Levi so I had to get creative with camera angle)

Levi was a little leery of my camera angle choice, not sure how I would get both him and Lennox in a picture at once.

There, both boys looking at the camera.  We'll save smiles for next time...

Levi LOVES to play guitar with Daddy.  And I don't think Daddy minds sharing...!

More "cheese."

Levi gets this facial expression from his Daddy.  I laugh every time I see it.  It's their "I know I'm being silly but I'm going to pretend that I'm serious and not smiling" face.

And last but not least, here's a picture of how the latest "project" is coming along.  I started this pregnancy being about 6-8 weeks ahead of last pregnancy in terms of how big I was.  I'm happy to report that growth seems to have slowed and I'm within 2-5 weeks of where I was last time with size.  And I'm weighing less than I did last time at this point!  Crazy, no?  I think it must be thanks to all the toddler activity that keeps me busy day and night cause I sure know it's not thanks to me resisting my sugar cravings...  Sleep is getting a bit more difficult these days (bring on the PILLOWS!) but mostly I'm still really comfortable and enjoying this pregnancy.  What an incredible blessing this little one is.  It's absolutely unbelievable to be expecting #2 when 3 years ago we were past the 3 year mark of infertility and wondering if we would ever even have one...THANK YOU, JESUS!  May I never forget the blessing that these little ones are!

And the winner is...

"The Hatch's"!  Congratulations, M!  Just shoot me a message with the address I should mail the DVD to and I'll get it out to you in no time!  Oh, and it also looks like we had a similar taste in kid's shows/movies...that, or we just grew up in the same decade...

Today has been a productive yet relaxing day around here.  Levi has started waking pre-7am again (I thought we broke that habit!  shoooot...) so it was an early morning in our house.  But, by the time Levi woke up from his morning nap at 11, I had already fed him breakfast, played, put him down for a nap, swept and washed the floor, done two loads of laundry and folded some more, cleaned the entire bathroom, and showered/got myself ready for the day!  I love to do things that keep our house looking clean and tidy and put together so it's really been a fabulously relaxing day, despite high productivity.  Ok, I should clarify that statement: I love to do things that keep our house looking clean and tidy and put together when I'm in the mood for it so it's really been a fabulously relaxing day.  There, that's better, and far more honest! 

When Levi woke up from his morning nap, we went for a short walk to the post office.  We managed to catch some sun while we were out...timed that one perfectly!  And of course we took Lennox with us.  Now that I take the stroller, Lennox is a much happier dog.  All winter I just carried Levi in the moby and there was no way that I was going to risk walking on ice with a dog strapped to my wrist and a baby strapped to my chest.  No thank you.  He got fairly depressed, I think.  Lennox, not Levi.  He would see me head out the door and yet I would fail to take him with me every.single.time.  Poor guy.  Lucky for him, it is stroller season once again and he is allowed to walk with me.  I did make the mistake of attaching his leash to the stroller a few times, but after a near death experience slight scare with a stray dog, I've learned my lesson and he now walks alongside with his leash firmly in my HAND.

Right now the little man is napping.  Nathan is sitting next to me sighing and reading and wishing he was done his last textbook of his last class of his, as of yet, incomplete master's degree.  Lennox is sleeping blissfully on the floor in front of me, enjoying the fact that his nemesis is tucked peacefully and safely in his crib for a nap and is therefore unable to chase him down nor grab a handful of his fur.  And I?  I am sitting on the floor with a numbbum (you have to say it as one word) from having just proof-read the last paper for the last class of Nathan's, as of yet, incomplete master's degree.  I have a bit more laundry to fold and supper to make, but other than that, my work is done.  It is 2pm and I look forward to an afternoon of playing with blocks and chasing a scooter. (please picture me running down the street after an electric scooter because that is definitely what I mean)

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!  Congratulations again, M!  Let me know where I can send your prize!

Oh, buddy...

Sometimes Lennox loves his toys a little too much...

"Red" had his stuffing loved out of him this morning while I was in the shower...

360 degrees.

I usually don't see myself these days from, well, any angle (except top down as in, from my eyes down to my belly).  And when I don't look in the mirror, I don't really feel that big.  But then I take a picture or walk by a full-length mirror and I am shocked by how big I look!  Wow.  So today I decided to see my 37w5d body from all four sides and I'd say I look pretty good, if I do say so myself. : )

Of course, Lennox had to get in on the pics.  Those eyes of his in the last picture are just pleading me to play with him.  If he didn't insist on my coming down onto the floor to play with him, he would probably be in for more of a treat.  Unfortunately, my trips to the floor these days are carefully thought through and completely necessary when they happen.  There's nothing like sitting down on the floor and then wondering how I'm ever going to get back up again...  LOVE IT!

FINALLY...our new home.

You know how, when you move into a new place, you want everything to be clean and tidy before you take the "after" pictures that everyone is anxious to see?  Well, we missed our first opportunity to take those "perfect" pictures right after we moved in and now life has taken over.  Dog toys are rarely put away as Lennox seems to find new interest in them as soon as they're nicely corralled in a corner or basket.  Homework takes over the dining room table and the nursery is a catch-all of things that are not yet being used and therefore just put in the crib on on the glider.  But hey...this is our life.  And so I decided to take pictures today, just as it is, so that those who are curious can see where we're living these days.  Enjoy.

When you first walk in, this is the entrance that you see.  Normally the washer and dryer would be back a couple feet so that there is more room, but we have some leaking pipes back there that we're waiting for maintenance to come fix so we've been living in some cramped entrance quarters for the past couple weeks.  I am thankful, though, that we do have a decent sized entrance and that we have our own laundry.  Makes up for a little inconvenience now, I'd say!

Pause the tour...little side note.  These are Lennox's dishes.  You'll notice that we have a bowl of water on the left as well as an ice cream pail of water on the right.  We're doing a little experiment with Lennox starting today.  See, we usually fill up his water bowl once every day or day and a half.  And it's not a huge bowl.  But yesterday we were at my parents' place and he drank an entire 4 liter ice cream pail full of water between 4pm and bedtime.  We'd also heard that he drank alot while staying with the people who took care of him this winter while we were in California and Nathan thinks they had water for the dogs in an ice cream pail.  SO, the big question is...do we have a picky dog who prefers drinking from an ice cream pail over a dog dish?  We found it kinda funny, so now we're experimenting with having both available to him and watching to see which one is empty first.  Maybe it'll just make him confused, but we're curious to see if he actually prefers one over the other!  Silly dog.  Back to the tour...

Kitchen.  Basically the same as the picture I took before we moved in except now there are actually things behind the cabinet doors.  Or at least on the bottom two shelves.  The top two shelves almost all the way around are empty because I can't reach them anyway.  These days, with the belly, I find it a stretch to even reach beyond the bottom shelf!

Nursery.  I think it may get re-arranged before baby comes yet.  And I haven't really "organized" as much as I'd like.  But we still have 6-ish weeks before baby is due to arrive so I think I'll be safe if I allow myself AT LEAST 3 more weeks to have everything ready to go. : )

Dining room.  That clutter on the table?  That's a laptop and three stacks of books, each 1.5 feet high.  Nathan has been busy...

Living room.  Pretty self-explanitory...

Storage room.  Because the basement is so humid and "dank - disagreeably damp, musty and typically cold" we've decided to store our not-quite-empty boxes upstairs.  Perhaps, if you come to visit, you will be lucky enough to have this pile of stuff watch over you while you sleep...it is also our "spare bedroom."

And, last but not least, the latest progress on the baby-growing project.  This is McBaby at about 34 weeks.  Not a great picture as far as pictures go, but there's definitely a baby in there.  The belly growth seems to have slowed down in the last few weeks as I'm measuring about the same as I did a couple weeks ago (whew!) but Baby is definitely packing on the pounds!  The numbers on the scale climb almost daily.  Look out!

Picture Post!

I finally uploaded pictures from our camera, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to share some of what we've been up to this past...month and a half.  These were all the "events" that were on my camera.  I just haven't been motivated to take pictures lately.  I hope that changes once McBaby gets here!  I'd hate to miss out on those first few days of prime newborn picture-taking just because I "don't feel like it!"  Anyway, without further ado...pictures!

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When we first arrived back in Canada, Lennox had a close call with a skunk.  Gross.  He spent a couple days outside and got a scrub with a peroxide/baking soda mixture as well as with tomato juice.

The peroxide mixture is supposed to actually get rid of the smell, while the tomato juice apparently just masks it.  It did help alot, but he still smelled like skunk when he got wet until just recently.  Or maybe he still does...I try to avoid wet dog as much as possible these days.  My nose just seems to be extra-sensitive to doggy smells right now...  The white eyebrows in the picture looked so funny!  We put petroleum jelly on him so that he wouldn't get the peroxide in his eyes.  I don't think his eyes burned, but he sure didn't enjoy the cold water from the hose.  He looked at me with such sad, pain-filled eyes and whimpered like I'd never heard before...poor guy.

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The next pictures are from just yesterday.  Nathan and Josh were playing XBOX 360 yesterday morning when one of them (probably that wonderful husband of mine) had the idea to hook up another XBOX to another tv so that they could each play online and be on a team.  Now, our tv was just sitting in the basement, unused, and each of the brothers has their own XBOX, so they shifted around some furniture, hooked up some extra equipment and nerded it up BIG TIME!

Seriously, that was some nerd-fest that was going on down there in the family room.  They each had their headsets on, each had their own tvs and game systems, and they played ALL day.  In fact, they're playing again right now.  I just heard Josh rejoicing quite loudly in what must have been some sort of victory.  Now they're talking through their strategy for what to do next.  Funny guys.  I've been left to entertain myself the last couple days so I've been baking and sewing, which leads me to my next pictures...

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These are the pillows that I've been working on for the past two days!

We had four throw pillows in our old house that were in need of rejuvenation.  They were a bit faded and dirty and, while I could have just thrown them in the washing machine and at least had clean pillows, I felt that they needed a bit more.  Besides, it was something small that I could do already to work toward making our new place our own.
 

Three of the pillows are the grey plaid fabric above.  It was a bit frustrating to work with because the fabric wasn't square.  I would cut straight along the lines of the plaid and hold the fabric up and it would have an obvious slant to it.  I don't really understand, because surely the lines of the print would be straight, but in fact it was the fabric itself that was stretched or just poorly made.  Anyhow, I managed to get all the plaid lined up squarely on the pillows and even matched the pattern on the front and back of the pillows.  If you'd seen the crookedness of the fabric I was working with, you would be impressed.  I certainly am!  I'm just hoping that the next time I buy plaid fabric I won't have to deal with that!

This is the yellow fabric that I used the other two pillows.  When I found the grey plaid, we both liked it, but Nathan felt that it was a bit boring to just use grey.  He's usually the one in this relationship who loves to spice up our decor with some bright colors.  I usually appreciate his opinions, but gently gear them toward classier designs that aren't too tacky (as bright colors can be if done wrong!).  For instance: Nathan wanted something more "fun" than the grey so we picked out this yellow with a swirly white design to go with the plaid.  It's a pop of color, it matches the yellow thread in the grey plaid fabric, AND it isn't over the top.  It's a nice fabric that I can live with so in this case I'm glad that Nathan suggested something bright.  It worked out perfectly and I love our new cushions!

I also tried piping for the first time with this project.  I learned a few things throughout the process of sewing on piping...let's just say the second pillow is better than the first.  And if I were to make a third pillow at some point, I'm sure it would be better than both the first two combined!  I think the piping adds a nice, finished edge and I won't hesitate to try it again.  It does take practice, but I definitely suggest going for it if you ever find yourself thinking about it.  I'm no sewing pro and I did it.  It's always worth a try!

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I also mentioned that I have done some baking in the last couple days.  I baked burger buns yesterday for our Canada Day bbq and also made the following recipe of cookies.  They are SO good.  I suggest only doing a half batch, as the full batch made me 4 dozen good-sized cookies.  And while freezing cookie dough for baking later often works, I don't know that it would work in this case with the corn flakes in there...

Buffalo Cookies

• 1 cup melted margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 11/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 11/4 cup crunched cornflakes
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips.

Instructions

1. Cream margarine with sugars, adding eggs.
2. Add vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and mix.
3. Add flour and mix.
4. Add the additional dry ingredients and mix well.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, till they are lightly colored.

The recipe is from this great site called Mennonite Girls Can Cook....you can find the recipe HERE.
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There...how's that for a long, hodge-podge of a post?  Hope you're all having a good Canada Day long weekend!  If any of you have any suggestions for what kinds of projects I should do next, I'm all ears!  I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting things to make.  Right now I've got a baby blanket for McBaby on the go and I'm re-doing an afghan that I made last summer because I just don't really like how it turned out.  But I'll be done those in a matter of days/hours, so seriously...anything interesting that you've been making/doing lately?  Let me know!

A list (the random kind) - in no particular order

• I love sunshine.  Today there is sunshine.  Therefore, today will be a lovely day.
• I bought a sewing basket yesterday.  My sewing supplies were taking over the denim bag that I was trying to keep them all in so I splurged and spent some of my allowance (yes, we do allowances...best idea ever!) on one.  But don't picture a typical "basket".  Oh no.  This is a heavy duty plastic one with compartments galore!  If you couldn't tell already, I'm pretty excited about my purchase!
• We are now back in Hepburn...for another week.  And then we head to PA!  Time for a visit with Marsha!
• I dreamed last night that my mom was having another baby just a couple weeks before I was due.  I was pretty excited because I would get to spend tons of time with a baby but didn't have to wait ALL THE WAY until my due date.  Random crazy dreams I have these days.  Nathan thinks it's something that I eat before bed (no clue what that would be???).  I just tell him that I've always had random, weird, vivid dreams and pregnancy probably just isn't helping matters much these days!
• We bought our nursery furniture yesterday!  We found a great deal on Kijiji (of which Nathan and I are rapidly becoming fans) and went to see it/pick it up yesterday.  We got a crib, armoire, and small cupboard/change table all for less than we were hoping to spend on the crib alone!  And I really like it too!  It's really simple, but I love simple.  I'll post pictures once we have it all set up.  It'll be more exciting then anyway... : )
• I realized yesterday that, when we got pregnant, I was super-excited but the idea of this pregnancy actually ending one day with a real, live baby was a pretty abstract thought.  Have any other women out there had this feeling?  It just sorta feels surreal and like this pregnancy is a new reality that you just have to live with now (forever!).  Well, I'm over the halfway mark now, almost in the third trimester, and time is flying!  Seriously...there are only 15 weeks left until we meet this little person who likes to punch and kick and squirm in there.  Fifteen weeks is a long time and yet...it's not really that long!
• Nathan and I have been enjoying having our dog back.  True, he does spend alot of time outside, but last night Nathan made a comment about how he's glad that we have such a decently well-behaved dog.  It really is a good thing that I had so many hours to spend training him when we first got him.  For the first few weeks/months (starting September 2006), I would spend literally hours at a time just working with him and training him.  And as a result, he (usually) does listen to me quite well.  I'm so glad for that.  I don't think I could ever keep a dog that doesn't listen!  I've been on farms with untrained dogs (or even worse, been with untrained indoor dogs) who just don't respect and listen to humans and I just couldn't do it.  There are certain habits that, if our next dog had them, they would be out the door in a matter of weeks!  Really, the longer I have a dog, the more convinced I am that the joy in having a dog comes from having a well-trained dog.  There's my little rant.  I guess now I should actually make a point of spending some time with Lennox today!
• I guess I should also give a little update on McBaby.  He/she is around 2 lbs now and 9+ inches long.  I'm definitely feeling the extra length.  When baby lies sideways across my stomach, I am quite comfortable and marvel at the feeling of movement both on my far right side and, at the same time, near the middle of my belly...about 9 inches apart.  When the baby decides to turn, though, and goes into the "upright" position, life is quite a bit less comfortable.  My ribs have been sore the past couple days as the feet/head press and push and try to make room in there.  There's no slouching now when I sit!  Baby needs all the room he/she can get in there!  Sleep is also progressively more disturbed.  I haven't slept through a night in months already.  And some mornings when I wake up, I'm convinced that my hips are only a fraction of an inch away from being dislocated.  Ouch.  But oh the joy of knowing that this pain and discomfort is due to a tiny baby growing in there and needing more space.  What a blessing!
• Let's see...what else?  I mentioned a couple months ago that I love to read during the summers.  Well, I haven't been reading anything interesting lately.  Ever since the end of last semester, I just haven't been able to really get into a book and have it hold my attention.  I used to get lost in books for hours upon hours.  Now my mind just wanders while I read and I end up having to re-read pages over and over again just to track with what's happening.  I think I may pull out some of my old childhood fiction.  Maybe that will be able to hold my attention!  I got a few suggestions back when I last posted about summer reads, but I'm open to more suggestions!  One of these days I hope to stop by the library, pick up a stack of books that you have recommended, and spend a good long time sitting on the deck, with Lennox at my feet, reading the summer away.  Ideally I would be in a hammock, but I doubt it would be very comfortable at this stage in the game. (game being pregnancy and stage being 6 months)

Away...

Nathan and I just got back from a week away in Manitoba.  Nathan was taking a class at CMU last week, so I went along and caught up with friends in our old town.  It was alot of fun to see so many familiar faces and to hear how people have been over the past year since we moved...but it was also tiring!  We stayed with some wonderful friends and their three kids (who have grown up SO much in the last 12 months).  It was nice to stay in an area where I knew people so I didn't just have to sit around a hotel room bored every day.  Thanks D&M for opening your home to us!  You really have become like family to us over the past few years!

A common question that we were asked by people in A-town was, "How does it feel to be back?"  I always had such a hard time answering that question!  Of course it was wonderful to be back and to see so many good friends again, and to be in a familiar place again was oh so nice.  In many ways it felt like we'd never left.  On the other hand, it was a bit hard to figure out what our place was there (or if we even had a place there anymore).  The larger question that came out of our trip for me was "Where is home these days?"  Manitoba is not home anymore.  And California isn't home anymore either.  We have our "stuff" in Saskatchewan, but even that isn't quite home yet.  I joked with Nathan that we had almost as much stuff in our car on the drive back from MB as we had unpacked in our room here at his parents', therefore making our car a close contender.  We joke, but the car is one place where Nathan and I have actually been able to spend a few uninterrupted hours (or days) together without being a "guest" in someone's home.  We very much appreciate the people and places where we have been over the last 3 weeks since coming back to Canada, but I must say...it will be nice to be in a place of our own again!  Three weeks (and another few weeks to come yet) is a long time to be in the middle of a transition like this!

Let's see...what else?  Well, this morning Lennox got sprayed by a skunk.  Thankfully he wasn't right next to the skunk as it sprayed, but to be in any proximity to a spraying skunk is too close and this afternoon he got both a peroxide bath and a tomato juice bath.  I don't know if I've ever heard him whimper so mournfully/painfully as when he was being rinsed off with the hose.  Makes me wonder how I'm going to handle seeing my children in pain when there's nothing I can do to help them...

Well, I think I'm going to take off and do a bit of cleaning.  What is it about traveling that just makes your surroundings into complete chaos?!  Ugh.  And I am so tired!  I just want to sleep instead...we'll see which side wins today...it is Sunday, after all, so perhaps a nap it will be! : )

Life...

It has been interesting to get back into life here in Saskatchewan.  It almost seems like we were never in California at all.  It almost seems like a dream.  Were we actually there for nine whole months?  It seemed like forever at the time...

We have been back in Saskatchewan for two full days now (this is our third).  The first couple days were mostly just exhaustion for me.  I would be doing whatever and all of a sudden my energy level would just crash and I would not want to move!  Haha.  Today I've actually been a bit motivated so I transplanted some of my plants into fresh soil (I do love to plant things and watch them grow - as long as I don't need to get too dirty!).  I think they'll grow quickly now.  Nothing like fresh soil and a bit of water and sun to make something flourish.  Isn't that kinda like life?  Sometimes we just need to get rid of the old, stale dirt and get some new soil around us to kick start our growth again?  I'll have to think more about that...

We got to meet our new nieces yesterday.  It was wonderful.  I got my "baby-fix" (at least for a day or two!) and am now more excited than ever to meet this little person who is kicking me with more and more vigor each day.  The girls are already almost a month old, but thanks to being 5 weeks early (3 weeks early for twins), they're still just "newborn" size.  Newborn Size = The perfect size/weight to be able to hold them for hours on end while just looking in amazement at them (right, K?).  It was wonderful and I look forward to watching them grow up and develop their little personalities!

We were reunited with our dog on Sunday.  It was a great time.  At first he kinda sniffed us, but two seconds later, when he realized that it really was us and not just a cruel fantasy on his part, he went absolutely nuts!  It was so fun to watch.  He just couldn't get close enough.  We were worried that he wouldn't remember us or that he wouldn't want to have anything to do with us, even if he did remember.  But he does remember and he even still responds to our old "commands" and understands what we want him to do.  What a smart cookie.  It's great to have him back...

Some of you may be wondering what we plan to do in the next couple months.  Well, we wonder the same thing some days.  We do have a few things to look forward to in the next couple months.  Next weekend we head out to Manitoba to our old town.  I am really looking forward to seeing everyone again and re-connecting a bit.  We'll be there about a week while Nathan takes a class in Winnipeg.  We'll also spend some time with each of our parents (YAY!) and some of our friends around the Saskatoon area.  And probably as of August 1 (unless we just can't wait), we'll move into our own place - rented, not bought - and then let the nursery set-up begin!  I am just holding myself back from the baby stuff that I know I have just downstairs in a box that has been waiting for years to be used.

Well, there's not much else to tell, really.  If anyone has any suggestions for things for me to do in the next while, let me know!  How would you pass the summer days if you had nothing specific vying for your attention? 

Lennox's Birthday!

It's Lennox's birthday today!  He's four!  Our puppy is all grown up.  We can't wait to see him again...

These are some pictures from our little "birthday celebration" last year.  I can't believe that was only a year ago...feels like forever.  For the whole story, click HERE.

I miss this guy alot...

As the weather is getting nicer here, and in Canada too from what I hear, I can't help but think how wonderful it would be to have Lennox around to take for walks or just to play with outside.

He always loved to play outside, especially in spring, when there were so many new smells and things to explore.  He always got soaking wet on our walks, but it was worth it to have him around.

He's such a goof.  A well-behaved, sweet, cuddly goof.  He was always ready to play.  At the mere mention of the word "walk" his eyes would light up and he would begin his warm-up pacing around the kitchen island.

What a sweetie.  We sure do miss him.  But he is being taken such good care of in Canada.  And we'll see him soon....three months and we'll see this face in real life!  Can't wait!