Dear Gordon

Dear Gordon,

Christmas was hard this year.  It wasn't the same without your excitement.  We watched the video of you that Uncle Jared made when we first woke up.  It made me cry and smile.  I think we want to watch this video every Christmas.  Then we opened presents.  Neil opened yours.  You got that hot wheels set that you wanted.  Neil and Tegan played with it today.  They fought over the cars even though I bought extras.  After opening presents we went over to Grandma's and Grandpa's house.  We ate Grandma's Christmas trees and eggs.  It was very tasty.  It felt happier when we were over there.  After breakfast everyone sat around and watched movies.  I don't always like to sit around, so I went home and cleaned up.  Aunt Margarita came with me.  She cleaned up the table with all your flowers and cards while I cleaned the kitchen.  Then we went back and had Christmas dinner with all the family.  We sang lots of Christmas songs.  It was happy.  Today I went over and made crepes for breakfast.  I know, you would have loved it.  Then Daddy took Jamin, Harry, and Benson to go play badminton.  Then everyone came over to our house for dinner and we went to see a movie.  We watched The Hobbit.  I didn't enjoy it.  I fell asleep and then the violence really bothered me.  I kept having flashes of the accident.
I love and miss you.
Mom

I Miss You

Gordon -
Gordon was born two weeks late induced.  He loved being in my tummy and did not want to come out.    But when he did, he was so perfect, except for one little squished toe that he had a little too much fun with in my ribs.  We loved him instantly.  He was a very happy baby and had the cutest smiles.  He was always very good at taking naps.  As a toddler, he use to take 4 hour naps.

As he got older, our family grew.  He had a little brother, then a little sister, then another little brother.  Gordon loves babies and each time a new one came around, he loved it.  He was very close with all his siblings.  Gordon wasn't just a brother, he was a friend. 
Neil was closest in age to Gordon, so they shared a room.
Every morning Gordon would start the day singing.  He would sing with Neil and they would talk and be loud.  Then, after some prompting, they would go downstairs and play with blocks, legos, trains, or just go wake up their big brother, Jamin.
He would often help make breakfast.  He loved being able to beat the egg whites for waffles which we have all the time.   His very favourite breakfast was french toast, and he would get so excited when it was made for him.  He would always get so excited about the little things.  Like having a red plate because that was his favorite colour or a new shirt or if I made chicken and perogies for dinner.
Everywhere we went, Gordon was always curious.  He would always say, "What are YOU doing here?" even if it was their house or our house or wherever.  He was not shy.  He would ask a million questions, and wasn't afraid to hug people even if he didn't really know them.
Gordon wanted to be a police officer when he grew up.  I remember taking him to the police station one day to get a police record check and a police officer noticed I had kids and brought some stickers.  Then Gordon started asking questions and another police officer came and another and another till there were about five officers talking to Gordon.  He thought it was the best thing ever.  They gave him stickers and thought they were the coolest.
Gordon loved to go places and do things.  He had this crazy energy.  He would go and go and go.  And then he would ask to go to bed.  He was very bright and I was always amazed how he caught things even though it didn't seem like he was paying attention whatsoever.
I remember going to Gordon's parent/teacher conference.  During the conference, Gordon zipped himself up in his garment bag that he used for his winter stuff with his head poking out and hopped around the room.  His teachers acted like it was completely normal, smiled and said how much they enjoyed Gordon and how he always said the sweetest things.
He loved to draw.  He would tell a story as he drew his pictures.  He loved to draw cars, trains, boats, and airplanes all with their own special gadgets and their own stories.  
Gordon was taking skating and swimming lessons and did music for young children.  He loved all these things.  I enjoyed the time I spent individually with him practicing the piano every day.  It warmed my heart to hear him play.
Every night he always wanted a story and me to sing him Fred Penner's "You are my Sunshine" and his dad would sing his own sunshine song that he made up. It went "Sunshine lollypop, sunshine lollypop, sunshine every day".  Gordon was a ray of sunshine who made everyone smile.  He had the biggest smile and the best hugs.  He had a giant heart and loved unconditionally.
I am so grateful for the 7 years I had with him.  We are all going to miss him so much.  I know some day we'll be with him again.

Tegan's 3rd Birthday!

I don't know how this happened so fast, but my sweet little princess Tegan has turned 3!  Time goes too fast.  

Tegan's birthday was on the same day as her first day of pre-school!  She loved it.  The only hard part was getting Neil out of the classroom because he wanted to stay too and he doesn't start kindergarten till this week.  Tegan gave me a hug and said, "Bye mom, see you soon."  And a good report when I picked her up. =)

 Since Tegan turned three I will say 3 things about Tegan:

1. She loves girly things like Hello Kitty, the color pink, dolls, princesses, necklaces, tea parties and unlike the boys she is concerned about what she wears and needs to be included in this decision making process to avoid a meltdown.
2. Tegan loves her baby brother and always wants to hold him and help take care of him.  It is very sweet.  Of course I am always right there with my hands on the baby as when she is holding him.
3. Tegan is cute.  I love her curly blonde hair, smiles and her high pitched giggle.

It is fun to have a girl.  She is much higher maintenance at the moment than the boys and can be quite emotional.  But she is sweet and fun.  I love reading her princess stories, seeing her play girly things with friends, and I love being able to shop in the girl section!  I love seeing her excitement about little things.  She gets excited when her little brother smiles or when she sees a butterfly.  She got really excited about all her presents.
Tegan's cake this year was and angel food cake smothered in pink whipping cream and strawberries.

 Tegan's favorite birthday presents were not from me...  clothes and a little Hello Kitty doll.  She loved this little Hello Kitty fan that grandma got her and Hello Kitty backpack.

And Auntie Kristina saved me because all Tegan has been asking for about a month now was a pink dolphin for her birthday.  I couldn't find one anywhere, so Auntie ordered one online for her.  Saved the day.  The first thing she asked me when I told her it was her birthday was where is my pink dolphin?  I'll have to post a picture of her with it once I get a better picture.

Neil Turned 5!!

I am a little late, but I wanted to do a special post about Neil.  He is such a sweetie pie and I really enjoy him being part of our family.

Neil turned five, so I'll write five things about him:

1.  He is just a happy guy.  All of the time.  He is always happy and giggly.  He is always smiling... even when he is naughty which makes it really hard to be mad at him.  I love his smile and his happiness.

2.  Neil loves fruit and vegetables.  His love of vegetables can be extreme at times.  He will eat whole cucumbers at a time.  His happy place is in the garden.  The more fruit and veggies we have, the more he eats.  It is difficult to keep my fridge stocked.

3.  Neil is a little fish and loves fish.  

He loves the water and enjoys swimming under people's legs and jumping in.    

He has a toy fish that I bought for him at Bass Pro in Vegas almost a year ago that he sleeps with every night.  It is the one thing he asks me to bring him if it is not already in his bed before he goes to sleep.  Luckily, he is a pretty happy guy and when I tell him I will bring it if I find it, he is ok with that. =)

4.  Neil is very snuggly.  He always wants to sit on someone's lap.  Normally mine or his Grandma's.  And he's almost always happy to give a hug.  

5.  Neil is obsessed with learning.  He loves to practice adding, work on his reading, practice tracing letters.  He amazes me what he is able to do on the computer.  He starts kindergarten this week and he is going to love it.

Neil at Grandma's and Grandpa's pool, happy as usual.

 Neil's birthday cake.  Blueberry cake covered in whipping cream and fruit.  

His favorite color is blue.

 Neil with a couple of cucumbers from the garden.

Cousin Cuteness

It is so fun to have cousins close by now.  Hurray for cousins!  And how cute are these two sticking stickers on their legs?  

So for Halloween we are planning on having all eight of the kids dress up as different Mario characters.  We'll see how it goes, some will need to be made, but check out how cool Mario and Luigi are!  These just came in the mail.  It is all very exciting, I just can't contain it!!

A Birth Story - Dallin

I must say every child I have had has come their own way.  Each pregnancy and delivery have been quite different.  Dallin's arrival was no exception.  My Mom and Daddy Ray came almost a week before my due date.  Every day we would say this would be the day Dallin would come.  So we really couldn't plan very much, but we used the time that we had to do lots of fixing things and organizing.  Cleaned and organized the laundry room, fixed the door on the toy closet and on the downstairs bathroom, changed all the burned out light bulbs(There were lots), trimmed the trees(Daddy Ray spent a lot of time outside in our yard), fixed where the vacuum hose hangs up, cleaned out the broom closet and the main bath linen closet, planted some of the garden.  We've had some fun too.  We went to Kid City, played lots of games, played outside, went for a walk and had a picnic by the river, the boys started soccer, my Mom came visiting teaching with me.
6 Days after my due date I had a doctor appointment(one I never thought I would make it to).  I was 2 cm dilated and the cervix was squishy.  So they scraped my membranes and sent me home.  The next day I had lots of discomfort to say the least, but still no real contractions.  8 days after due date, I woke up feeling fantastic.  Matthew had booked work off that day and the weather was amazing, so we went by the hospital for a fetal assessment and they checked my cervix again.  I was 3cm dilated.  My doctor scraped my membranes again hoping that I would go into labor on my own.  I was scheduled to be induced on Monday(10 days past due date) if I didn't go into labor.  Then we went home and spent a big chunk of the day outside playing with the kids.  At 8pm that night, the hospital called me to tell me that the maternity ward would be closed at my hospital till 8pm the next night.  That is when I figured I would likely go into labor that night, so I did a survey on Facebook to find out which other hospital was a better choice to go to.
9 days after due date, Sunday morning, my Tegan woke me up because she had to go to the bathroom and needed help pulling her pants back up.  I realized I was having contractions and Dallin was coming!  I usually have plenty of time, so I thought I would take a shower before waking up Matthew.  In the shower, I started to wonder if I actually had that much time.  So I finished my shower, got ready, woke up  Matthew and headed to the hospital at around 5:45am.  We got to the hospital at about 6:15, went into emergency not knowing where to go.  I had only been to the children's part of this hospital and it is huge. A car came and escorted us to the women's part of the hospital.  Then we had to register and I got wheel chaired up to maternity.  They took a look at me huffing and puffing and quickly escorted us into a birthing room.  By the time they checked me I was already 8cm dilated.  Much too late for an epidural.  I was sad and scared because I still remember my first two natural births with no painkillers.  They gave me a pain killer that doesn't stay in the blood for very long and some laughing gas.  It made it so I quit shaking and made the pain bearable.  I am not exactly sure what time it was, but things were feeling quite intense, so the nurse checked me again and I was fully dilated 10cm, but my water still had not broken.  So she called the doctor to come.  The doctor broke my water and a few pushes and about 10 to 15 minutes later Dallin was born at 8:44am. 9 pounds 10 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long.
The doctor was a little bit older and was at the end of a 24 hour shift.  She sat down in the rocking chair in between my contractions and rested.  I found that different.  And when I first saw Dallin, I thought he had freckles.  I later noticed that I had a rash under my neck that looked the same as Dallin's 'freckles'.  I think it might have been a reaction to the drug they gave me, but I'm not entirely sure.  The rash went away on both Dallin and myself.  So Dallin no longer has freckles.

Now little Dallin is a little over two weeks old.  We are all healthy and happy and loving our new addition to our family.

Love this Place

We love taking walks by the river. And I love those kiddos. Neil didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay there all day. It took a little convincing to get him back in the van.

Happy Birthday to ME. =)

This was a few weeks ago, but sometimes I can be a little slow at posting stuff.

So I am officially the big 3-0. I have entered a new decade of my life. I do feel older, but it has been a gradual thing. Soon I will be a Momma of 5 kids, we are building our dream house, and I am enjoying being at home and spending time with my kids. God has given us many blessings which we are thankful for. Things are happy. We all have our challenges, but I feel those things make me a stronger person. Hopefully I will keep learning and growing as a person and especially as a mother.

Max the Cat

We have a good kitty. He often scratches the furniture and if the kids leave a small piece of plastic somewhere, he will eat it and then throw up. But he is sweet and affectionate and soft and puts up with stuff like this...

and this...
and maybe a little chasing, but he definitely does not like it when we are away and makes it known when we come home.

We Love Going to the Dentist's Office

It is kind of crazy taking all my kids to the dentist, but they love going there and getting new toothbrushes, stickers and stuff. Jamin was downstairs with our friend from church who happens to be a dental hygenist. I was upstairs with the younger ones, so I didn't get a picture of him in the chair. He was the only one with a cavity, but it was in a baby tooth that has actually already fallen out. I think that may have scared him enough, though, to do better at flossing every day.

Gordon was looking a little worried.

But he ended up doing great. He opened his mouth up nice and wide and held pretty still which isn't easy for my Gordon.

He wanted to show in the picture his super clean teeth and his awesome new stickers.

Neil did great too. He loved wearing the apple sunglasses.

Then, of course, Tegan wanted a turn too. =)

Minor Collision

I have not been in very many car accidents. This one was no biggie. It was kind of funny. It was such a nice day outside. I guess the guy behind was rolling down his window and saw me inch forward when one of the three cars in front of me at a stop sign went. He just didn't notice me stop again since his head was turned rolling his window down. It was so odd to be hit when completely stopped at a stop sign with two cars in front of me. The guy was pretty embarrassed especially when I got out with my big pregnant belly. I guess I basically told him no worries accidents happen. He was like you do realize this was my fault, right. I said, uh yeah.

Just a pain to have to take it in to get fixed, but no big deal.

The culprit.

March Dresses

Kub Kar Rally

Jamin's Kub Kar. A red angry bird car, of course. Jamin designed it, a friend cut it out, and Jamin did the rest. I thought he did a pretty good job. It wasn't the fastest, but it looked cool.

This was Jamin's best race. After coming in 6th the first race, he made some adjustments to the wheels and came in second the next race.

Happy boy.

Too close Neil. The kids were antsy during the presentation. The 150 year old Baden Powell came and talked about his life. It was interesting, but not enough for a 2 and 4 year old who just wanted to chase each other and make lots of noise. Sooo we visited the primary room to listen.

They love pretending to give talks.

Gordon's new friend

February Dresses

Couldn't get her to hold still for this one.

I love this dress. So pretty.

Tegan's choice. I gave her options and this is what she finally agreed to. She is becoming a little more independent in her thinking about what she wants to wear as opposed to what I want her to wear.

Decisions

Who knew there were so many decision when building your own home?

I thought the hard part was done when we decided the layout of our floor plans.

Nope just the beginning. Windows, outside materials and colours, flooring, lighting, plumbing fixtures, and on and on and on. Everything takes forever and every time we make a choice it gets a little more expensive. Don't get me wrong, it is fun and exciting, but exhausting and takes forever! Through it all we are making great memories, though. Like the other day at the kitchen/bathroom store. We were picking out all of our fixtures and Neil helped himself to a display toilet. He peed before anyone could stop him. It wasn't funny at the moment, but it is hilarious now. I can't wait to talk about that at his wedding. =)

We have been taking Neil and Tegan to most of our appointments while Gordon and Jamin are at school, and for the most part they have been pretty good.

No, this isn't the throne that Neil relieved himself, this is one we chose for a couple of our bathrooms. It has the two button flush. Saves on water usage.

It is a big house, so lots of choices to be made on flooring.