Now it's the boy's turn... 10 years!!!

Yep, my little guy is not so little anymore.
He's now entered the double digits and slowly we are seeing the signs of things to come. His attempts at sarcasm that sometimes back fire and get him into trouble; his doting on his sisters as the role of "Big Brother Protector" (when he's not trying to kill them himself), and don't forget the teenage boy appetite that is rearing it's head. It scares me to see how fast the last 10 years have gone by, cause I'm pretty sure it was just last week we were walking the halls with the worlds most colicky baby, but now he's a budding comedian and genius.
If this kid doesn't end up as a rocket scientist I'll be surprised (although these days he plans on being a paleontologist, which is a vast improvement from his career goal when he was 5, cause then he was gonna be a bus driver). He thinks so fast that it's scary and in ways that I would never have thought of. Often he has questions that Jeff and I can't answer so he has now become close friends with Google.
Just today, when his pop exploded up through his straw we got a lecture on something to do with carbon dioxide, the density of bubbles,creating a vacuum and something else to do with air pressure ???
His sensitivity and kindness amaze me and while sometimes we wish he would toughen up a little in public, I know that he is the boy who would give away all his toys if he knew it would make someone else happy. Every once in a while I look at him and catch glimpses of my baby, but those are fading and I am so excited to see the young man that he is turning into. So Happy Birthday to my Nay Nay (when does he get to old for me to call him that?)
So sweet and innocent:

Now? not so much:

How did 7 years fly by so fast?

Today Katelyn turned 7! 7 going on 17 that is :).
Anyhow, we normally do a family dinner on their birthday's but, because Daddy had to work tonight we pulled them all out of school and went out for lunch. Afterwards as we were getting into the van, Katelyn turns to her dad and says "Thanks for my birthday lunch daddy," then she turns to me and says "Thanks for giving me birth mommy." I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry! But it got me to thinking about her birth and the blessing that this little girl is in our lives.

When I was pregnant with Katie I had complications: hypermesis gravidium, placental previa, high blood pressure that required me to spend 2-3 hours lying on my left side a day. Add to that a husband who decided to uproot the family and move me in with my parents and live in his car in Toronto until I had the baby and it was a crazy time.
Just about 36 weeks along, I go into labour. Jeff jumps on a plane, his brother drives from Edmonton to Calgary to pick him up and then brings him down to Raymond only to find that the doctors have determined that it's too early so let's give a shot of Demerol and see if we can't slow down the labour. (Forget the fact that they have been telling me for months that this kid is measuring off the charts). Needless to say the next morning I am sent home.
Fast forward to 39 weeks and the doctors decide that I need to be induced because she is measuring too big to go any longer.(DUH!) With the warning that at her size and with the complication's I've had, a C section is likely if they have to induce, I am scheduled for an induction on the following Sunday.


4:00 Sunday morning I wake up in labour, Yay! no induction! By the time we get to the hospital @ 7:00 I am 3 cm dilated, the nurse says walk for a bit, we'll call the doctor and then we'll break your water. At around 7:45 the doctor comes in,excited about the progress being made and the fact that we have avoided induction. She breaks my water and all heck breaks loose.
My mom is backed into the corner, the nurses are calling in the on call ob/gyn surgeon and I'm being prepped for surgery. Turns out that sometime prior to Sunday, I had a placental abruption and blood has slowly been filling the amniotic sac. So I'm rushed into surgery (still in labour mind you) , knocked out, woken up cause apparently emergency surgery is not the time to have an allergic reaction to anaesthetic, intubated awake (not fun!), then knocked out again.
Fast forward to 9:30am, I wake up to a nurse telling me that I have a beautiful baby girl (who weighed in at 9 lbs 7 oz) but that she is in the NICU because she had aspirated the blood, could not maintain a BP on her own and was having seizures. After a few hours I get put into a room and the nurses bring me pictures of Katelyn. I didn't get to hold her until the next day, but then again I'll consider myself lucky cause there were mom's that had babies that couldn't be held at all. When I finally saw her for real it was amazing! Here was this huge baby, squished into her little incubator,with an oxygen hood and IV lines in each arm and her stomach. She was literally 3 times the size of the other babies in there.
I got a leisurely week in the hospital, spending my time getting blood transfusions and sitting in the NICU, praying that she would be able to keep her blood pressure up and avoid additional seizures. On Saturday I got the all clear to take her home, which was great 'cause Nathan's birthday was the next day. I know that it was because of those late night visits that her daddy made, quietly standing by her incubator, giving her a priesthood blessing, that she improved so quickly. She's never had another seizure in her life, and while she does have an auto immune disorder, it is manageable and there seem to be no lasting effects on her health and development.

This is my little girl who, when we went to Palmyra this summer, knelt to pray 4 times along the path in the Sacred Grove, and said "Mom, I can feel Jesus here". The little girl who started bawling in the van one day, so hard I had to pull over, only to find out that she was crying "cause Cinderella got married" on the in-van DVD player. The kid who breaks her arm rolling off the couch on her 4th birthday, and the kid who tells the nurse " I see flying unicorns" while the ER doctor is trying to reattach her finger (oh the wonder's of Valium) after an "incident" with a church door. So today I share with you something very few people have seen, I don't know why, but I've kept it to my immediate family. A then and now of my little girl:
In the NICU

Before Taylor Swift

The most wonderful time of the year ...

It's that time of year again; school starts, the leaves change, here in Ontario it rains and rains (I thought it was supposed to be April showers). October also marks the beginning of the most chaotic 3 months of my year.

Starting with Thanksgiving, we then go on to best friend birthday's, Halloween (which follows directly behind Christmas as my favorite holiday), Super Saturday at church, Katelyn's birthday, Nathan's birthday, dance recital, 'winter concert' at school, Ward party, my birthday (doesn't count this year), Christmas, New Year's, Brooklyn's birthday, and we end exhausted with Jeff's birthday on the 10th of January. Add all the shopping, baking, decorating and cleaning up for these things and I nearly lose my mind. (I know, who'da thunk I had a mind to start with).


However, one thing that does occur is that I plan, and plan, and plan some more. Which means I spend a lot of time on my computer, which means I get distracted and find myself looking at pictures of when these animals used to be little, cute and quiet. Which actually brings me to my purpose of this post. Seeing I have been indulging in a little nostalgia, I figured you could take a look to. Here's my kids from their beginning to now, hope you enjoy, and if you don't, lie to me 'cause my kids are the BEST. (Especially when they are sleeping)

Nathan:




Katelyn:



And my baby Brooklyn (who I am determined to call baby, in hopes that it stunts her growth):

This child kills me!

Nathan is my sweet, sensitive (oft times to sensitive) child, Katelyn is my outgoing, confident child and Brooklyn? Well,Brooklyn is the laugh of my life and the bane of my existence, all rolled into one. The following story should prove that to you:

Brooklyn is definitely a Mommy's girl and has a love-tolerate relationship with her dad consisting of "I love you today, I just don't like you" and "I'll let you have one hug at bedtime, but that's it". (A huge obstacle for him to overcome, seeing Katelyn thinks he's the best thing since breathing). Anyhow, lately she's been actually kind of loving towards him and has started with the whole "I love you this much" routine ... and depending on the mood she is in it could be just a finger pinch or arms stretched all the way behind her back till her hands touch.

So the kids wanted Jeff to make pancakes yesterday morning like he does on most weekends when he's home and so Brooklyn is begging him to make them and he asks her if she'll be nice to him if he does. She stretches out her arms as far as she can reach and with a whole lot of enthusiasm says " I'll love you all the way to Jesus!!!" Needless to say she got her pancakes and showed of the positive side of her personality.

However, fast forward an hour or so, to when Mommy has so cruelly told them to clean the playroom , and mom and dad are supervising, all we say is "Brooklyn, stop playing and pick up" "Brooklyn, pick up your toys" "Brooklyn, if you don't start helping you're gonna be in trouble" and over and over and over again. Finally, Jeff says, with a little foam ball in his hand, "Brooklyn if you don't start picking up, I'm gonna throw this ball at you" (don't worry, key word here is foam) so she picks up a toy cash register, holds it up over her head and says to him " Oh yeah, how much pain do you think this costs?" (WHAT?!?! Did she really just say that and where did she learn it?) Jeff takes a step towards her, she laughs drops the toy and runs to the other side of the room. "Brooklyn, I'm serious, PICK UP NOW!" Assuming a defensive crouch, with her sun glasses on and a pile of toys in front of her (like we can't see her) she then pipes up with "MAKE ME!"

After the subsequent spanking (yes we spank our children, bare handed and only when we think it's necessary) and talking to Brooklyn starts to pick up her toys and we think she's learned her lesson. Then she's standing there with a little plastic plate and a timid little voice "How much pain do you think this costs Daddy?"

ARGHHHHH!!!!! I used to worry about Katelyn and how she would be as a teenager, all prissy and boy crazy, but I think my best friend had it right on the money when figured Brooklyn would be the problem child. And then she put visions of goth and piercings in my head that I just can't shake. HELP!!! :)

Clean, or Craft???

I really should have been cleaning the house seeing I have been baking for the last 3 days getting everything prepped for a baby shower cake I'm making tomorrow, but alas, I decided I needed to craft :). You can blame it on a friend (who will remain nameless ... she knows who she is) who keeps sending me craft links of some super cute stuff. Anyhow, I decided to make a gift for the shower, so after a few blogs and a couple changes I came up with this:
It's a changing pad and wipes case, put a couple diapers into the pad before you fold it up and then instead of having to haul your diaper bag out to the mother's lounge(smacking your husband or the person in front of you with it as you go) you just grab this 'kit' It was so easy to make and rather inexpensive I might add. Here's a few more views:

And for my mom, here are a couple views of the table runner I made:


The problem with me and craft blogs is I want to make everything I see, but if I did, then I'd end up on an episode of horders :(. I've already got a list of stuff to make for Christmas!!!

You are not better than my child!!!

One of my biggest pet peeves is adults who treat children as though they are second class citizens. I often find examples of this when I take my kids to the store with me.
Why is it that an adult will bump into a child and give the kid a dirty look for being in their way while they are the ones who were not watching where they were going. Or worse yet, the ignorant people who will physically push a child aside if they are in their way - that TICKS ME OFF!
I teach my children to be polite, say "excuse me" and I'm sorry" when they bump into people, I teach my children to wait their turn in line, even to stay on the right hand side of the aisle and to step aside if there is some one coming past ... Why has no one taught adults to do this?

I took Brooklyn to Dollarama with me today to pick up a few things and she was pushing the cart (cause it's fun apparently). She got in line to check out and I was standing a few steps away from her looking at something on the end of the aisle. This lady cuts in front of Brooklyn - just squeezes up beside the front of the cart.
Brooklyn says to me "Mommy, that lady butted in front, she went in front of me." You could tell that the woman heard her by the look she gave us, but she stayed where she was.
Brooklyn then asks " Why did she go there, when I was here first mommy?"
I had no other explanation for her other than some people are just rude, so that's what I told her. Well, the lady heard me (oops - not) and she busts out with "Some people shouldn't be parents!"
At that point every one in line looks at me and it was all I could do not to reply "Yeah, like yours!", but Brooklyn was looking at me with those "what's mommy gonna do?" eyes so I kept my cool. (Jeff would have been so proud - then again Jeff would have politely ripped her a strip cause he has that skill :). After the lady left the store, the clerk looked at me and we shared that "Whoa - freaky lady" look and a laugh.

When we got into the van Brooklyn summed it all up pretty well with "Some people are nice and some people are mean, and that lady just liked to be mean". So after the requisite discussion about how we still be nice even if people are mean to us and how we should just ignore mean people we drove home - probably a little faster that I normally would.

I just don't understand why some people feel it is okay to treat kids like that, forget that it's unbelievably rude, but what is their example showing children?
So again I say to the rude people out there "YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN MY CHILD!!!"

*** Thanks for reading my rant, I feel much better now :) ***

Nathan has a feild trip to the zoo tomorrow, so I bought him some treats that I don't usually put in their lunches. No Frills had these on sale:

Brooklyn asked if she could have some for snack this afternoon and I said yes, assuming she would take a handful and that would be it (yeah right!).
Nathan came home from school, saw them and asked if he could could have some. I said "Sure" which was followed by a "what the...!!" from Nathan. He handed me the box and this is what we see:


If you can't tell what's wrong look at this:

The little stinker ate all the cheese off the crackers and put them back in the box!

So I figure next time I'll just buy her this:

and forego the crackers all together. The real question is - do I let the other 2 eat the rest of the naked crackers or is that too gross?

Did you know you have to go away?

Driving Brooklyn to school yesterday I learned something new. We are waiting at the light and all the sudden She yells out "purple car!". Well, Brooklyn loves anything purple so I asked her if she was gonna have a purple car when she grew up. "Yep" she says, "like yours." (Mine's blue, but close I guess)
Then she tell's me that she's just gonna take my car.

"You want my van when you grow up?", I asked her.

"Yep, when I'm a mommy, but then you have to go away"

"Why do I have to go away?"

"Cause mommy's can't live by their kids when they're a Grandma!"

Oops, sorry Grandma Bly and Grandma Woolley. It sucks being so far from family, but at least we can blog about it :)

We Love Our Grandma's

Too Jon and Kate + 8 ???

So I'm jumping on the blogwagon again, (as I didn't really keep up with my first one and blogspot kicked me off). I figure all my friends are doing it now so why shouldn't I. Anyhow, I thought I came up with a great name for our blog (see above), but when I Jeff if he liked it he said "yeah but are you sure it isn't too Jon & Kate plus 8?" Anyone who is around us long enough knows that we don't often call our kids by name when we are rounding them up. It's just "1, 2, & 3" - way easier to holler than the tongue twister that is "Nathan, Katelyn, Brooklyn". So what do you think, is it too "Jon & Kate + 8"? Not that I'm gonna change it :)