Settling In

Saturday was a big day - moving day and Keziah's birthday all wrapped up in one! It was a successful day and I couldn't believe how much we accomplished with everyone's help. I was expecting to still be living amongst boxes for another week or more, but most of our things were unpacked and organized by the end of the day. We were able to relax a bit and enjoy a birthday supper for Keziah.

Here's the birthday girl acting like a goof:

Everyone waiting for dessert in our updated eating nook. (Click here and here to see what it looked like the previous week.)

Ice cream cake from Dairy Queen!

Keziah blew out the candle before Erik even set the cake down. And then she just stared at it.

The kids are enjoying the new house. They seem excited about their new bedrooms and have been sleeping well. For some reason, they are actually sleeping in later than they did before. Wake-up time used to be around 6 am and now we're getting up at 7! I really hope this continues!

They've enjoyed watching the activity from the front windows. In our last place we never had windows facing a street and the only exciting things to observe were squirrels and the odd stray cat :) Now we can see cars and the garbage truck and the maintenance men with their cool leaf-blowers! The kids spent about 30 minutes watching them blow leaves yesterday which is 30 less minutes that they were whining and/or fighting :)

Here are the kids enjoying their new (unorganized) play area. We definitely need some shelving to make this space more functional, but it's nice to have a place for all the toys to live.

Our "backyard" may not be huge, but the kids have been enjoying it. We've had unusually sunny weather this last week or so. We have to get outside when it's sunny because the rains are always sure to come!

Delair Park is just down the street from us and it's a great park. The playground is perfect for the kids - easy enough for Keziah to maneuver on her own and still very fun for Micah.

There is also a walking trail that links to another smaller park.

Micah's favourite part at the smaller park is this cool digger machine. Erik played with it for the first time the other day and was quite entertained :)

A sunset view from the park:

There is still lots to do around here - organizing, paint touch-ups, cleaning, etc... But the house is very livable and it's been fun settling in. We've been pleased to discover that our neighbours are very friendly and welcoming. It's also been an adventure driving around Abbotsford now since we live on the complete opposite end of town. We are figuring out new routes to drive to places and also discovering what kinds of things are close-by.

I didn't want to post any official before/after pictures of the place yet since I feel like things need to get organized a little bit better first. Hopefully I can get them up soon though!

Progress & Happy Birthday to Keziah

What a tiring week and there is still more work to be done. We are hoping to move in most of our stuff tomorrow so hopefully all goes well with that!

I've been spending most of my days at home with the kids since we are pretty useless over at the new place. I think the kids are reacting to the changes and disruptions and lack of one-on-one attention. I'm anxious to get settled into more of a routine very soon!

We've had to think of creative ways to be entertained all these long days at home - like making a slide out of this blue mattress. I had a cute video of them actually sliding down it, but I have neither the time nor the patience to post it today!

Here are some more pictures from this past week...

Erik and Keziah taking a supper break:

Micah enjoying an oreo from the unfinished bathroom. I think he was hiding while he ate it because he thought he'd get in trouble for only eating the white filling :)

The kids hanging out on the staircase:

Erik filling holes:

Dora & Diego chairs - I think Micah's eyes are crossed again...

Dad Toews was a very dedicated painter - a job we know isn't his favourite!

Having supper at the end of the day:

And tomorrow is Keziah's 2nd birthday! I'm afraid she won't get much of a celebration tomorrow other than some cake :) But we're planning some birthday fun for both of the kids in a couple of weeks when my parents are visiting. Thankfully Keziah is too young to realize the difference yet!

A Few Pictures

We've had a productive weekend at the house and have received so much help! It's been great! I'm not really much help there when I have the kids, so I'm spending most of the day at home today and thought I'd take the opportunity to post some pictures from the first half of November (it's hard to believe the month is half over and Keziah will be 2 on Saturday!!)

I've been babysitting our friends' little boy on Mondays and a few other evenings recently. One evening Erik pushed all the furniture aside to create a hockey rink for the kids.

Hockey sticks in the air!

Yep, there you go buddy :)

Erik's been working in Vancouver doing finishing work in the wine cellars of some big homes. Here he is with one of his finished projects:

Micah enjoying a little, er, big Starbucks:

We took Micah to the movie theatre for the first time last weekend. He was very excited to see Madagascar 2.

"Movie Theatre!!"

This is Micah's new habit. I find it revolting. I'm trying not to make a big deal about it and hoping he'll get tired of it soon...

And the work started on our new place on Saturday afternoon! It felt weird - like the place didn't really belong to us. But the more work we get done, the more ownership I'm starting to feel. Here's a little sneak peek:

Typical workers, just standing around:

Me and baby taking a break. I'm sporting the complimentary painter's cap from Rona :)

The kids enjoying their first supper in the new house. Some friends of ours generously provided us with delicious chili! It was a little hectic bringing the kids into the reno zone with nowhere for them to play. To add to the fun, Keziah wet right through her pants and had to borrow a pair from her little friend :)

This quick-drying putty doesn't taste too bad...

Elissa & Dad Toews painting the crawl space:

Walls in the living room prepped for paint:

Erik sanding in the living room:

This morning we decided to get some Tim Horton's breakfast and head to the park. The kids didn't see much of Erik over the weekend and it was good to get a bit of family time in before his day at the house started.

"Cheers"-ing their chocolate timbits:

Geese taking off from Mill Lake:

Observing from the sidelines:

Yay for timbits!!

I enjoyed my bagel BELT :)

Today I hope to get a bit of packing and cleaning done around the house. Easier said than done with 2 busy people running around...

Stress

This has been a stressful week, but I believe that we are actually going to be taking posession of our new place tomorrow afternoon as planned. There was a lot of miscommunication and missed paperwork in the process, but I think things may have finally gotten straightened out. Next comes demo, painting, flooring, finishing, cleaning, last minute packing, and then unpacking... It will be lots of work, but definitely preferable to the stress that we've been experiencing this week.

No new pictures to post today, but stay tuned for some before & after pictures of our place :)

Dress Up Time

On Tuesday night we carved pumpkins and baked cookies with Auntie Rosanna.



Erik asked Keziah if she wanted to put her hands in the pumpkin and this was her reaction:


The finished products (my Thomas the Train looks a little more like Mickey Mouse...):


Ballerina meets pumpkins.


Thursday was playgroup and the kids got to wear their costumes for the first time. Micah's really into doing the "peace" sign for pictures these days. I have no idea where he got it from.



Two very somber zebras.


On Friday night we had our annual life group Harvest Party. For the past 3 years, our life group has used a room in our church to throw a party for the kids in lieu of trick-or-treating. The kids dress up, play some games, decorate treat bags and leave with a bag of candy. Since joining our life group 3.5 years ago, it has split into 2 and expanded, making for a pretty big group when we all get together!



Erik was even convinced to dress up for the event:




Keziah was pretty much done with pictures by this point :)


Playing with their candy stash!


Micah can be kind of anti-social sometimes with other kids (i.e. refusing to play the party games at the Harvest Party) and we get frustrated with the fact that his first reaction to many situations is to whine... loudly. But he has also surprised us recently with some "big boy" behaviour. The other day we took the kids to the playplace at Burger King. Micah panicked when he realized this play structure was unfamiliar and didn't know how to get to the top of the slide. There was another family of kids playing so I asked one of the girls if she could show Micah how to get to the top. Micah followed her bravely, though I heard him call after her a couple of times in a panicked voice, "Where are you?!?", but the next thing I knew they were coming down the slide together. With that, Micah saw another younger boy starting to climb up and said to him, "Do you want to come with me? I can teach you how to get to the top of the slide. My name is Micah." I was so proud of him.


We're also happy to report that Micah has decided to go back to his Sunday School class after some freak-outs at the start of the school year. We had tried putting him in with the 4-year-olds, but after that didn't go so well, we decided to try the 3-year-old class instead. We've made the decision to hold Micah back a year in school because of his late birthday, so we figured we'd keep him with the younger kids at church too. There are a lot more familiar faces in that class, including his teacher. And we heard afterwards that he eagerly participated in the class discussion about David and Goliath :) Yay. It was good to hear that.


I dressed up as a pregnant mother for Halloween -lol :) Here I am at 20 weeks (halfway!) with prince Micah (and his funny smile).