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).

'Tis the Season

Here was the scene at our place yesterday:


And here is the scene today:



We have entered the season of sickness. There has been some form of sickness in our household for the last 3-4 weeks now: colds, flus, fevers... you name it. We're sick of being sick and hoping that the end is near. We talked about getting the flu shot this year after Micah's marathon flu in the spring - does anyone know if they're offering it somewhere in Abbotsford these days??




Thanks for all your kind words in my "fat" post :P I really wasn't fishing for compliments but I thank you for them nonetheless! I had my routine 18-week ultrasound on Friday and got to see little Ju-Jube again. I could feel him/her kicking and moving the whole time the tech was doing her measurements (I couldn't watch on a separate screen this time) and then once she was ready for me to have a look, little Jubie just snuggled right up and decided to go to sleep. His/her head was down and a profile shot was nearly impossible, so I was glad I had already gotten pictures from the first ultrasound.

And here is some evidence of the packing that is slowly happening around here...


It's only 2 and 1/2 weeks until we get possession of our new place - and probably a little longer before we're actually living there. This has seemed like a really long wait to move in and I'm starting to get antsy. I feel like I can't pack much more until right at the very end. Micah has already been asking for some of his things that have been packed away, so I feel like I'm just waiting for the day to get closer before we do the major packing.

We talk about our new house with Micah often and I think he understands that change is on the horizon. We've driven past our new place a few times and I even took him to the park down the street which he loved. I'm not sure what Keziah will make of the move since there's really not much we can do to prepare her at this age. Not to mention all the other changes that are coming up for her - moving out of her crib, potty training and possibly moving into a room with her brother all before a new baby arrives... Poor kid - she has no idea what's in store!

Tonight - depending on the state of my ill children - we are hoping to carve some pumpkins. And Friday night we'll be with care group friends to do a Harvest Party for the kids. Micah is excited to be "Marty" (a.k.a. the zebra from Madagascar) and Keziah will be pretty in her pink ballerina tu-tu. Stay tuned for pictures of the kids in their costumes...

Fall

Sandbox time...

Leaves gathering in the treehouse.

Hydrangea.

Fall sunshine.

Cleaning up fall.

Hugs for the big purple ball.

Can't see Micah's face, but I still liked this one...

Remembering the Huge-ness

Today I'm starting to feel BIG. Bending over is getting to be a challenge and I'm already noticing a waddle in my walk. I'm not even half-way through this pregnancy and I just feel... fat.

I found a picture of myself today from about 2 years ago when I was nearing the end of my pregnancy with Keziah and it started to sink in that I was going to get that big... again.

October 2006:

Misc. from the Thanksgiving Weekend

Erik and Micah went fishing with Doug last Saturday. It sounds like they had a great time despite not catching anything. Doug modified a fishing rod for Micah by putting a small ball on the end. We're not sure if Micah actually expected to catch anything with it, but he had fun casting it into the water.





Erik and I spent a good part of our weekend organizing and packing. We've been packing things slowly as we don't need them, so that it won't be an overwhelming process once we get closer to our move (in about a month). In the process, we emptied out the storage area that was behind our couch and made it into a playroom. This was a brilliant idea as it occupied the kids for many hours while we got some work done!

The first picture is the view from out in our living room, the second picture is taken from inside:



After church, I tried getting some pictures of the kids in their Sunday clothes. It didn't go so well...



On Monday, the siblings got together to learn the game SingStar. I thought you'd all enjoy this little sampling of Erik and Doug singing an 80's ballad:



Keziah actually broke one of our plates during the taping of that video - which I didn't notice until later!

She is extremely stubborn and independent which is communicated by her newest phrase: "do it!" (in other words: "I want to do it myself so don't you dare try to help me!!") And she is full of mischief - she found the baking powder yesterday and this was the predictable result:

Birthday Highlights

Yesterday I turned 29. For some reason, that number seems so much older than 28 :) Next year will be the big one!


The birthday fun started on Saturday when Elissa & Rosanna took me for a shopping day at Metrotown. It was great to have a day away from the kids and the shopping trip was very successful - new maternity jeans and some cute new tops. Plus, the girls brought me into lululemon and told me to pick out a pair of pants for my birthday! So exciting. I love the pants and they just might be my best friend during this pregnancy (and after).

Yesterday was my day to babysit Caleb and all three kids gave me the best birthday present ever by having super LONG naps! I even managed to get them all sleeping at the same time for at least an hour. Long enough to talk to both my parents on the phone without interruption!

Last night was our regularly scheduled clothing group (a group of us girls who do kind of a clothing swap). We decided to go out for supper together at Red Robin (so I could get the mushroom burger I've been craving!) and then have dessert at Rosanna's. I ended up with two desserts since the staff found out it was my birthday and brought me a free sundae. They also made me stand on my chair while they sang. Good thing there wasn't a weekend supper crowd :)

October Begins

I love this time of year. Crunching leaves and crisp mornings. October brings with it some especially good things like Thanksgiving dinner and my birthday :) Unfortunately it also brings the rain and the cold & flu season... Anyway, here are some random pictures from the last week and a bit.

The kids enjoyed a warm afternoon in late September playing with Micah's tractor and trailer:


Micah's hair is getting really long...


The kids have been surprising me lately as they've been playing together more and more. This week we lined our baby bath-tub with blankets and the kids took turns tucking each other in and feeding the "baby" puffed wheat. They spent over half an hour playing together without incident! Here's Keziah all cozied up:


Speaking of babies, Keziah was practicing her big sister skills on baby Ezra last weekend. She was quite pleased to hold him!



Micah being a goof:



Micah generally hates having his picture taken these days and always wants to be the one behind the camera. He follows me and Keziah around the house snapping away. So, here's me at almost 16 weeks holding up the 2% milk :)