Over the Weekend

Friday night.  Doug and I dropped the kids off (ALL the kids) and took off for the evening.  It was the first time since January that we had been away from the kids.  I pumped all week in preparation.  Maybe you can tell-- we weren't excited at all...

Kidding.  We were actually very excited.  Because we went to see Mumford and Sons!  So fun to see them perform live and outdoors in the park!  They definitely put on a good show.

We were feeling pretty youthful that night so we even bought t shirts.  I wore mine all weekend.

Friday was about us-- Saturday was all about the kids.  Doug and I have been talking about buying a trampoline for the backyard for a while now, since Doug had a rare Saturday at home we decided it would be the perfect day to buy the one we've been eyeing and set it up!

You cannot imagine how excited our older two kids were.  They have grown to love jumping on their cousin's trampoline, so the thought of having one of their own was pretty much the best thing ever!

Just look at the smile on Caleb's face.  Can it get any bigger?  I think not.

Since we have the trampoline now we've decided to retire our above ground pool (aka Gladys) for this year.  I was feeling a little apprehensive about setting it up this summer since I have to watch the kids like a hawk anytime they play in the backyard with the pool around and because it's a lot of work to maintain during the summer.  

This trampoline doesn't have any exposed springs or metal bars and has a huge cage to keep them on the trampoline as they're jumping-- so I feel like it is a much safer backyard activity for them.

It's pretty great to zip them in and let them jump their little hearts out.  I foresee many early bedtimes in the near future!  

I don't want to leave anyone out... so I'll just throw a quick picture of little S-dog up on the old blog today.  Just when I think he can't possibly get any cuter I wake up and bam-- he's 10 times cuter than the day before.

Melts my heart.  Especially when he sleeps through the night THREE nights in a row!

The Good & The Bad

The weekend had a whole lotta good moments and some not so good ones too.

Started off the weekend by picking up Caleb at school to have Eme start puking all over the car and herself.  Seriously now... all this vomit talk on the blog is making me queasy-- but it seems to never ever stop around here.  The kids have been tag teaming this sickness thing for far too long. 

Thank goodness for my superior immune system-- everyone around these parts is sick sick sick EXCEPT for me.  It's a good thing too... because I'm sick and tired of being pregnant-- does that count?

(I'd like to interrupt this blog post to thank Starbucks for getting on the drive thru bandwagon.  Sure I had to drive half way across town get to a Starbucks with a drive thru-- but not having to get of my car?  So worth it.)

Anyways...

Friday started off not so hot, but Saturday was awesome.  My friends decided to declare Saturday my 30th birthday-- all over again-- so I'd have a chance to really celebrate! Caleb was quite confused.  He was quite uncomfortable with me deciding to have ANOTHER birthday so soon after my REAL one... but I convinced him that it was totally legit and very necessary-- although I kind of suspected that he might wake up and decide to declare Sunday his birthday just for the heck of it.  If mom can do it... why can't he?

So Saturday began with a sleep in thanks to my awesome hubby, coffee and pedicures at the spa with a good friend, and a lunch date!  All child free!!  In the evening I met up with a bunch of my fantastic friends for a girls night at the Roasted Grape-- such yummy food... and so much fun to see all my favourite ladies-- thanks everyone for a good time and for celebrating the big 3-0 with me!

This morning I took a minute to admire my beautiful, freshly painted toes... and then I pulled on my wool socks (not without a struggle and a few breathless moments) and uggs.

Eme continued to be sick all of Saturday but seemed to perk up on Sunday morning.  So... Doug and I left the kids with the grandparents and took off to Vancouver for the afternoon.  We were continuing on with the belated birthday celebration.  I spent a good amount of time shopping at West Elm and brought home this beautiful lamp for my living room.  Thanks for the birthday gift babe!

Unfortunately we came home to a sick and miserable Eme who was having uncontrollable coughing fits and was  throwing up... again.  She was pretty dehydrated and lethargic so I decided to take her in to the ER.

And that was Sunday night... me and my sick girly.

The doctor felt like it wasn't too serious-- she had somehow managed to come down with yet another form of the flu AND a cold in the same weekend.  Lucky girl.  The combo of the two had left her weak and dehydrated so I needed to stick around until we could get her to keep down some fluid.  They gave her some anti-nausea medication and then I started forcing her to drink pedialyte and apple juice.  And wouldn't you know, after 2 cups of apple juice Eme was jumping on the bed, singing, dancing, chattering non-stop and saying over and over "that's silly!!"

Today she's keeping her cookies down (thanks to another dose of the anti-nausea medication) and is acting very much like herself.  I'm taking her into to our doctor's office later on this week to discuss how she's been sick SO much over the past few weeks-- the ER doctor suggested getting her in for blood work to see if there's anything going on.  That should be fun.

And that was what the weekend held around here!  A lot of fun... and a trip to the ER.  Here's to hoping that my next trip to the hospital will involve involve me become "un-pregnant" and the birth of a baby... :)

Cause then I plan to eat a whole lot of chocolate!  This veggie omelette I'm currently eating for lunch is starting to not be all that appealing...

Busy in the Kitchen

We made some serious progress in the kitchen over the weekend.  Yay!  Doug built the last cabinet needed for above the fridge and installed just about all the finished parts (end panels, open shelves, carrier, crown).  There is a little bit of touch up work to do and then we can start tiling.

I don't know if I've taken a picture from this angle yet... but I'm loving the open shelves... can't wait to get that tile in... it's going all the way up from counter to ceiling...

Meanwhile... there were kids that needed to be kept occupied while we were working.

Rainy day movie?  Sure.

Soon we had to get a little more creative to keep the kids from getting in the way...

(no-- we don't really stick our kids in cabinets and give them scissors to play with... Doug and Caleb schemed up a way to effectively give me the fright of my life and Eme decided to "fix" her blanket... thinking we're going to have to put some locks on these cabinets real soon... )

By the Way...

I've been working on another little project lately...

It's been in the works for about 4 months now... and should hopefully be completed sometime around the middle of February.

Wow, do I ever not enjoy taking preggo pictures... so awkward and unflattering.  Almost as awkward as telling people you're pregnant... Oh well.

Just thought I should officially let the cat out of the bag.  Some of you local people may have been wondering about me lately-- yes, I've been gaining weight... but it's for a good reason :)

I already had an ultrasound at around 10 weeks as I'm not so good at remembering dates and such.  It was fun to get a sneak peek at the little babe... and when we eventually told the kids about Baby #3 we showed them this picture and said that the baby was waving at them saying "hi guys!!".

They totally bought it.  They loved it.

Anyhow.  Onto other things... like fun relaxing weekends!

We did pretty much nothing.  Sat around, played street hockey with the kids next door (they all think Doug's their new bff), had a lot of BBQ's and yummy food, and finished Sunday night off with a hayride at the farm.  I chose to stay off the hay wagon and take pictures.  A ride through the field-- can anyone say hay fever and allergies?  No thanks.

And 1-2-3 everybody look away... Except for Eme-- who's staring at the dogs coming out of the barn in terror.

Gorgeous nights... I love September on the west coast.  One of my favourite times of the year.

And after a day of eating outside, running around in the dirt, and picking blackberries... I had two dirty kids to bathe and put to bed.

But dirty kids are happy kids :)

Over the Weekend

What we did this weekend...  well...

We had a spontaneous surprise birthday party for my little brother-- with homemade decorations and a hand crafted party hat-- complete with pom poms.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Caleb was probably more excited about Joel's birthday party than Joel was.  I guess spending your 22nd birthday with your three older sisters isn't all that exciting.

We also saw Coldplay (amazing!)  My little brother touched Chris Martin's hand as he ran by... surely that should make up for a lame birthday party with your sisters.

We also spent quite a bit of time in the big city.  Gotta take the sisters out shopping.  It's a rough life but someone's gotta do it...

Of course... we dragged the kids along... but they had fun.  Caleb enjoyed being a burger king.

I've been meaning to get Caleb's hair cut... but after seeing City and Colour I'm thinking we should keep growing out the top.  All we gotta do is trim up the sides and the kid would have some serious Dallas Green hair...

And then this morning it was just Caleb and I-- we went out to a local dairy farm for a preschool field trip.  Fun times had by all.  We milked a cow, fed some hay to the cows, pet the baby calves-- but of course, the highlight for all the four year olds was watching the cows make some real live mud pies.

And that was the weekend!  Our out of town guests will be leaving shortly-- back to real life :)

Weekend Picture Recap

This kid had a great weekend...

This kid attended back to back birthday parties for some of his friends this weekend-- after over 4 hours of intense birthday party goodness I had one happy (and tired) little tiger on my hands :)

(sidenote-- I'm used to attracting attention when I head out in public with these kids and all their shenanigans-- but when you're running around town with a kid all painted up like a tiger?  it got a little out of control...)

(sidenote #2-- I knew a real moment of panic when we got home and Caleb dove face first into my white slipcovered couches.  Fortunately the slipcovers survived the attack of the tiger :)

Moving along.

This little lady decided over the weekend that she's far too grown up for her high chair...

All attempts to seat her in her high chair resulted in frantic leg kicking (bicycle riding style) and screaming, protesting, and many many tears.

Sit her in a chair at the table?  Happy as a clam.  Oh boy.

But with a happy smile like this?  How can I object?

You won this weekend my dear.  We'll see about monday...

And...........

Tada!!!  While I was dealing with tiger roaring party boy and bicycle kicking high chair objecting cutie pie-- Doug was building and installing the next few pieces of our kitchen...

I sure do love the weekends :)