Olympic Experience (The Rainy Version)

I'm not sure how the rest of Canada has experienced these olympics, but here in BC the excitement is palpable! I never expected it to be this exciting. And I actually didn't think I'd even want to head into Vancouver to see the sights. But after hearing about all our friends and family who were going in, Erik and I knew we would regret it if we didn't take the opportunity to experience it for ourselves.

We finally had our chance to head downtown on Tuesday. After many days of beautiful sunny weather, we were disappointed to have to go in on such a rainy, windy day. But we donned our winter jackets and umbrellas, packed extra clothes and off we went! Silas got to stay back with Grandma which was very helpful - and it ended up working out for us to meet up with some friends at the sky train station on the way in.


The 40-minute train ride in was fun - we had never done this before and the kids loved it. Plus at this point we were still warm and dry :)


An awkward picture with a beluga mascot from the Vancouver Aquarium.


Waiting for our turn to get an unobstructed view of the Olympic cauldron. One bonus to rainy, cold days? Short line-ups.


A shot of the olympic rings lit up in gold for the medal we got in women's ski-cross that day.






Micah wondered how the cauldron could keep burning in the rain.


Thumbs up with my XL Olympic mitts - the only size left at Zellers last week :)




We walked around a little bit, getting pretty wet. This picture makes me laugh. At first glance it's a nice shot, but I urge you to take a closer look at the kids' faces.


Posing in front of the CTV broadcast station on Robson & Burrard. I would've loved to stick around long enough to watch them do a live broadcast, but the cold and the wet overpowered that desire.


Security guards manning the CTV centre.


After watching a couple people on the zip-line we found a Chapters and plopped ourselves in the corner to dry out and re-fuel. I'm sure our impromptu family picnic in a store wouldn't have been allowed on any normal day, but thankfully those regular rules didn't seem to apply :) It was at this point in the day when Keziah started melting down - something about her pants being re-wy soaked... And we knew the excursion was drawing to a close.


My future olympic bob-sledder.


My future olympic weird ski/figure-skating type person ??


The lanterns - I'm sure they'd look beautiful all lit up at night.




Up close.




A crazy piece of art. We decided it looked like crumpled up tin-foil.


Gi-normous Canadian flag.


Catching the sky train home. It was a little more crowded on the way home but the kids did great!


Yay Vancouver 2010!

My Comfort Zone Expansion Project

I've spent the past several weeks contemplating a big decision. At least it feels big to me. And no - you Facebook commenters, it is not about whether or not to have 4 kids. (Besides, I think that decision has already been made... :)

No, this decision is more "career" based.

I attended a couple of Norwex parties over the last few months (courtesy of Rebekah) and both times came away with this overwhelming sense that, I could DO this. The feeling grew stronger over time and while I spent A LOT of time hemming & hawing over it all, I think I knew in my heart of hearts all along that I would end up taking the plunge and becoming a consultant.

For those of you who don't know me well, I'm not much of a risk-taker. I'm more of a play-it-safe kind of girl. And while this mentality has served me well in terms of keeping stress and trouble at bay, I would admit that it's been a little bit.... boring. Even lonely at times.

Of course, there have been times when I've stepped out of my comfort zone. Like when I was a worship leader at our church in Calgary (Erik & I have a good laugh when we think about this now), or when I tackled the task of teaching English to a class-full of Peruvians during our missions trip 7 years ago, or when I agreed to join family and friends on a ministry road trip in a small motorhome across the country with a 6-month-old baby (yes, that one really makes me laugh). But, since I've had more kids, it's been easy to settle into a very predictable rut. It's been easy to have a million excuses for not trying new things.

So, while I may or may not use this blog to promote the environmental, time-saving and financial benefits of Norwex cleaning products, this post is more about my journey of getting to this point. It's a decision that has become less about the products and benefits and more about God challenging me to try something new.

I'm not saying that God loves Norwex (though I'm sure I could make an argument for wise stewardship of our money, time & environment!) but what I am sure of is that God loves me. He loves me enough to gently coax me out of my rut and bring me a fresh challenge. A challenge that forces me to rely on him and trust in him (despite the fears and doubts that creep in); to believe that I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

So, yes. My journey to Norwex has been surprisingly... spiritual.

And now, with fear and nervous excitement, I will step forward and push the boundaries of this zone of comfort.

Feels Like Spring

I can recall some January's & February's of years past where we see nothing but rain for days on end; winters where the weather man tells us that our cumulative amount of sunlight in 1 month adds up to less than a day... But this year we've had beautiful warm sunny weather. Yes, not so great for the olympics but really great for the rest of us :)

My tulips started coming up in January and I planted the colourful flowers last week to brighten up our front door.


Despite the spring-like weather, the cold & flu season finally caught up with us last week. Not really any throwing up, but some fevers, lots of coughing and many boxes of kleenex. Keziah even got an ear infection out of the deal.

Keziah is challenging me more and more all the time with her stubborn personality. Something as simple as putting on her socks or washing her hands can turn into an hour-long tantrum. I'm trying to choose my battles, but I also don't want to walk on eggshells around her, and I definitely don't want to give in as soon as I meet resistance. But it is tough going some days. So, when I need a little bit of a parenting boost I just watch Supernanny and it totally inspires me - not just to be firm and consistent but to also give her lots of praise and keep my own emotions under control!

Keziah was a little troubled by the opening ceremonies on Friday night. She was fine up until the part where the "ice" started breaking up and the people were separated from each other. From that point on she asked every minute, "what's going to happen to the people??" with legitimate fear in her eyes. The next day when we saw a re-cap of the ceremonies on TV she panicked and screamed for me to turn it off! Poor girl.

Silas is nearing his 11-month birthday which is hard to fathom! He's growing up super-duper fast. He's still not crawling, but is making some moves in that direction. Erik really wants him to crawl but I'm thinking it's probably easier to keep him immobile! Soon enough he'll be getting into Micah & Keziah's things and we'll have to think about baby-proofing again (and this time we have stairs!) So... yeah. He can just sit for a little while longer :) I'm pretty sure that he won't be walking by a year at this rate. Micah started walking the week before his 1st birthday and Keziah the week after. I'm going to predict that Silas will take his first steps closer to 13 or 14 months.

Micah is turning into such a "kid" already. He honestly makes me laugh and surprises me with what he can do and remember. But with his age seems to come a bit more of an attitude which has required some discipline. But Micah had the idea to start a chart where he would get a sticker for every day that he avoids sitting on the "naughty step". It seems to motivate him to heed my warnings!

Micah suddenly LOVES to colour and cut paper. Our "craft area" has turned into a disaster zone with teeny tiny bits of paper everywhere, but the extra sweeping is SO worth the time that Micah is spending with these activities. I think that once he realized his ability to colour inside the lines and to cut around the lines, it has become a lot more fun for him! His attention span for activities seems to be increasing. Case and point - he sat on this excavator at the park, digging away for a good 20 minutes until I finally had to pull him away...

The end :)

Olympic Fever

I can remember when Erik and I moved to Abbotsford in 2003 and thought about how different our lives would be when the olympics came in 2010. I can recall joking with him that we would have 3 kids and that I would be driving them around in a minivan...

And somewhere in those (very fast) 6.5 years, we did have 3 kids and I am driving them around in a minivan.

Crazy.


So, yesterday the olympic torch happened to be going past the street that our townhouse complex is on, so we had the family over for supper and the chance to catch a glimpse. Luckily, we got a spot right across the street from where they did a torch flame "pass off" from one runner to another. Micah and Erik got some pictures with the runner waiting to start his leg of the run.


Here comes the flame...


The olympic flame gets passed on (I like their little secret handshake :)...

First Haircut

It's haircut day!


Bye-bye baby hair...


Time to don the superman cape and spike up those long locks one last time!


The event was not without some tears (I guess the snipping around his head was a little disconcerting) but here is the new and improved, big-boy-looking Silas acting extra cute for the camera...

White

Erik and I have been tossing around the idea of selling our place already and getting something bigger. We go back and forth all the time - and now we might wait until we know where Micah will be attending kindergarten before we make any major decisions. But in the meantime we're still trying to do some home improvement - for our own enjoyment and for resale value. And also for experience. We would really like to do a tile backsplash in our kitchen but we're having trouble deciding what colour of tile to use. I really like basic white subway tiles but I'm worried that it will be too white with our white cabinets and light-coloured countertops. I love white kitchens and maybe a few accents of colour here and there would break up the white nicely enough. Thoughts? Suggestions?

(I wish my kitchen looked this neat and clean all the time, but you'll have to imagine a fridge covered in pictures and random things cluttering up the countertops :)

Kindergarten Drama

It took me a long time to decide which school I wanted to send Micah to for Kindergarten next year. Unlike some other cities/towns, we can choose any school - which, in some ways, is nice but in other ways, is not. It makes for a very difficult decision.

I knew we couldn't base our decision on the area we're living in because the chances are very slim of us staying in one place for too long. So, I had to base my decision on which school I could stick with for the long haul, and which school I would be willing to drive to even if we were living on the opposite end of town. So, in the end we chose a school where more and more of our friends are taking their kids. We've heard nothing but good things about it and I felt confident in our choice. It's a smaller, tight-knit "country-type" school that felt different from a lot of the other city schools and more like the school where I grew up. The principle is from our church as are many of the students. And once we decided that this was the place to send Micah (and the rest of our kids eventually) I became more and more excited.

I registered Micah on Monday, running around town to make sure I got all of his paperwork in so that he would be sure to get a spot. Then 2 days AFTER Kindergarten registration they decided to drop the bomb that the school might be closing! So, now we wait until the end of March to see if the school (Dunach Elementary) can have a strong enough rebuttal to keep itself open.

In the meantime I was able to register at our catchment school (Mountain Elementary) which is a great second option. The only problem is that it's not in a location that I'm willing to drive to if we suddenly end up living on the other side of town. But I'm glad we have a back-up plan at least.

For now I'm praying and holding out hope that Dunach can stay open!

Thankful

On Tuesday we got one of those scary phone calls that everyone dreads. My mom and sister-in-law Laura were in a car accident that morning on their way into Brandon. I was relieved to hear that they were going to be OK, but my mom needed about 20 stitches on her forehead and Laura had possible kidney damage and a fracture in her back. She is still in the hospital but is hoping to go home this week.

My mom was driving and hit some ice which caused their truck to spin into oncoming traffic where they were hit by another car. Both vehicles were totalled and when the first RCMP officer came onto the scene and saw the damage, he expected to be reporting 3 fatalities.

We know, of course, what that worst case scenario feels like and so we are so thankful to see these smiling faces...

December in a Nutshell

Wow. So many pictures from December to post. Here are some highlights of the end of 2009 in no particular order...

I find it funny that my youngest was the easiest to photograph in these shots while the older 2 had trouble obeying the instructions.


We have a new carpet that we have been thoroughly enjoying. Silas finally honed his sitting skills in December and our new carpet created a soft safe place for him to spend his time. He really enjoyed his newfound point of view!


Having a carpet gives our house a much more cozy feel. I love this picture of my boys (Erik is getting a little bit shaggy in the face here!):


But I think Keziah loves the carpet most of all:


10 points if you can guess what's happening in this picture:



Now for a wider shot...


Erik and I left Silas in his exersaucer while we were getting ready for Micah's birthday party. We've discovered that he can move slowly around the room if he jumps long and hard enough in this thing. There have been days when he is suddenly at the Christmas tree pulling down all sorts of ornaments. On this particular day he had discovered the curtains. Thankfully they are quite sheer (and not suffocating)... And of course I had to run and get the camera before I could rescue him :)

We went to Vancouver Island and stayed in the Hamm's new house which is right on the ocean. Here are a few pictures from that weekend:




Micah & Rosanna celebrated their birthdays while we were there:


We took a few family photos:






Keziah's usually pretty willing to pose for the camera:




One part of my December that was stressful was Silas' milk drinking. At the end of November we were having some nursing issues. Silas was becoming disinterested in drinking as he was eating more and more solids. And let's just say his teeth are... um... sharp. At feedings he would alternate between drinking and teething... ouch. I managed to hang onto the late night feedings for a few extra nights as he was sleepy and didn't seem to bite, but after he bit me 2 nights in a row I decided we'd had enough. I was a little disappointed as I had hoped to nurse at least part-time until he was a year. And it made me a little sad when I thought that this could be my last baby, but at the same time I felt thankful that we had made it to 8 months.

But after I weaned him, it was a struggle to get him to drink anything. He's always been fine with the bottle, but there were some days when he wouldn't drink more than 4-6 oz all day. The boy would just way rather EAT! A lot! I tried to limit his solids so that we didn't lose out on the milk intake, but it's a tricky balance. I also didn't want to cram a bottle into his mouth every hour because I know that wouldn't help either. So, I just chose to make it a non-issue and now we are on a good routine of 3 bottles a day and he's drinking about 10-12 oz total. The kid is definitely not a lightweight so I think we're doing just fine :)


December held other things like gingerbread-house-making with Granny:


A preschool Christmas concert:


Lots of fun new toys:


Some new craft supplies:


And even a little bit of snow!
(Though Micah wishes for more and keeps asking me when it will snow again...)


One afternoon we told the kids that they were going to have a half-hour of roomtime. We used to do this quite regularly but then got out of the habit. So, here was the reaction when we put them in their room: (make sure to turn your speakers extra loud for this one!!!)




And about 15 minutes later...


:)

PJ Poses

Micah @ 8 months:



Keziah @ 14 months:



Silas @ 9 months: