Christmas Joy!

Ok so these aren't the best pictures but for once I put down the camera and just enjoyed my kids' reactions to opening their presents. They had so much fun and loved everything. At one point Abby screamed "I'm the queen of Littlest Pet Shop!"

Ethan was thrilled to get his much wanted red and green pirrakas (translation Lego Bionicles) these particular ones are no longer avalible in Canada or US so I found them on ebay in Great Britain of all places. Thankfully they came in time.

Christmas Creations...or what has kept me busy

Lots of pictures sorry.... my cutie Christmas trees...

My clear star hanging...I'll have to add another star for next Christmas when this baby is born :)

My glass ornaments of the kids...again I've left one empty for the baby

and my fun sign at my garage door using photo frames from a garage sale

the giant snowflake that is way too big to put on my tree so its a wall hanging all its own.
the whole star hanging (not sure why blogger put it down here???)
and a cute little gift box ready for cookies to give away...

First belly Picture

Ok, so here I am at 3 months pregnant. Yes, I look like I'm 5 months but give me a break! I've only gained 8lbs and this *is* my 3rd baby. And to answer someone's question, there is only one baby, lol! I'm hoping to post more regular pictures because I honestly don't have more than 1 pg picture for each of Ethan and Abby's pregnancies. This one I want to document because he/she will be my last.

Lots of pictures :)

These are some of the layouts that I've done recently. They were actually supposed to be down at the bottom of the blog entry but for the life of me I can't figure out how to move them. *note* the lettering isn't crooked irl, just the way it scanned.

So I'm trying to decide what picture I'd like to use for our family Christmas cards this year, anyone have an opinion please let me know :)


I'm really happy with these cause I don't look so rolly pregnant. I'll have to have Ron take a picture of me soon and share a belly shot with everyone. Happily some of the exhaustion is going away as well as the nausea. I just can't handle meat too much, so I'm getting my protein from other sources. Watermelon is a current favorite right now, yummy.

Things are going well otherwise, finally getting over the sick phase at our house right now. Kids are doing well in school and I'm thrilled to be finally letting go of some commitments as of next weekend. A huge load off of my shoulders.

And yes I'm going to say it...I'm getting excited for Christmas! New Christmas CDs are in the house and getting played in about a couple of weeks. Most of the shopping is done, just a few things left. I just need to find something to wear, which I will do when I go shopping with my aunties.

why yes! I haven't blogged in a long time ;)

Top ten reasons are:
10. Kids started school and are super busy
9. I just can't seem to say "no" to extra commitments
8. I'm literally exhausted and asleep by 9:30 every night
7. my house looks like a bomb hit it
6. My clothes are way too tight and nothing fits and I've only gained 3lbs!!
5. I'm *really* nauseated :p
4. I'm working and this takes up way too much time, lol
3. New tv shows starting and some are actually good
2. I'm pregnant and don't feel like it.
1. Did I mention how nauseous I am?

Round # 3

:) :) :) :) We're all smiles over here...

it begins...

Both of mine are now in the school system. Heaven help me ;)

I think I'm in love

My wonderful Sil and mil went together and bought me the most amazing coffee pot for my birthday. This bad boy even grinds the coffee before it brews it!! You all know how much I love my coffee 8) good thing that decaf doesn't bother me right now.

new layout

This is one of my creations for my September Design Team at Scrapper's Haven. Come and check us out! We've got a great contest coming up, Iron Chef III, so come on over and sign up to play!

exhaution

Its seriously been too long since I updated my blog. But I'm honestly so exhausted these days that I can barely put a few sentances together on the computer. And to think that I go back to work in 3 days, yeesh, I'm going to be dragging.

So many updates to do. First Abby is starting school sooner than we thought so she doesn't have an extra week at home. She's thrilled, mommy is a bit sad. Ethan is so not wanting to go to school but we've been trying to hype him up about it. You know the rah, rah, rah new teacher, new friends that kind of thing. But I think that he's on to us.

Poor guy had to have two teeth extracted this past week and be put under to boot. He did really well though and had no adverse effects from the anethesisa.

Other news I seem to be surrounded by pregnant friends and family, congratulations to all. Hopefully by Christmas we'll have some news :)

Oh and I turned 30. No biggie. Someone asked me how I was doing with that and I said, well I want another baby, what do you think? lol. No really I'm fine with being 30, because I'm totally better now than I was at 25 or even 23. I'm healthier, not overweight and fell content with myself and the decisions that we've made in our lives. What more could I ask for?

Happy belated Anniversary Honey!

Things have been so crazy busy here, hummm maybe that should be the name of this blog? Sure is a reoccuring theme. Ron and I got to go out for supper on our anniversary (aug. 15) and we had a really great time. Yummy yummy food, way too rich chocolate explosion cake. I didn't even count the calories because once a year it doesn't count, lol! So here's some pictures of us....best that I could do with a timer and short arms ;)

Happy Birthday Emily!

A Big Happy 3rd Birthday to my niece Emily!! One of these days Auntie will get a good picture of you, lol!

so worth the price of 2 slushies

We had some fun with multigrain alphabet pretzels. Planning on using this for a title on a scrapbook layout.
I so love this picture! Abby's eyes are just so blue! Can't believe that my baby is 5!!
The kids had some fun with this and of course the cat had to get involved. She follows them around everywhere.

This on is enlarged and printed in 8x10 format for my living room. I can't get over how much older Ethan looks. Love the coloring of it too.

so apparently

nobody reads this but me! lol. I guess my ramblings and odd pictures don't warrent an audience. Yeah, well I'll get over it.

We've been busy here, isn't that always the case? Had Ron's birthday party yesterday, lots of fun had by all. Gearing up for my niece's party next weekend. Had to recheck her birthday gifts because of the dumb Fisher Price recall. Yesh! Kids' toys no less.

I'm getting psyched up for my anniversary and birthday. So not sure how I feel about turning 30. On one hand I feel like I'm there already. On the other that's pretty grown up and I don't know that this is how I wanted my life to be by this time. Not sure if I want to say, yup done with having more kids, this is the career I wanted, we're just trucking along. Or do I want to go in another direction, possibly more kids (my mom would just be shaking her head at this point) do I really want to stay in the school for the rest of my life? I mean the pay is good, for what feels like glorified babysitting sometimes.

The whole baby thing is really at the front of my mind lately. Probably the bio-clock ticking. We were so sure, so happy to be done with the babies and diapers and all. I was enjoying how much simplier things were getting with older kids. No more babysitters anymore (for work that is) having 2 kids is easy. Ron and I tag team them with surprising agility. We are actually getting time alone, time for trips for the two of us, we can go out more (not that we always do) Do we really want to shuffle things up again? Are our finances able to handle a 3rd? There are things we want to do, trips, renovations that kind of thing. With another baby this all gets pushed aside for a very long time, possibly never to happen. I don't know how another baby would change all our family dynamics. Ethan and Abby need us especially starting school and growing up. Would we take away from them by adding another? Am I ready to deal with the job/maternity leave again? How would that affect my now job? I'm so not sure what to do.

odd ramblings

Lately I've been feeling a little reflective, sad and unsure of what I should be doing. We were at church yesterday and it was a baby dedication Sunday, so cute all those little babies and it got me thinking. Ron and I always said that we were done and I was ok with that. But now looking at all those little ones got me thinking. All day yesterday I thought and figured how things could work, trying to make it right in my head. I know that because my 30th birthday is coming up that I'm feeling those old bio-time clocks ticking. For every reason that I want to have another baby comes 3 more that say we shouldn't. Finances, going through all the baby stuff again, having to do the babysitter thing again. I just can't see it happening at this point. I mean Abby is 5 already. That's quite a gap. I don't think that I can be a stay at home mom, and I don't want to do the babysitter route again.

Then I got to thinking about the real reason I was sad. In some ways I think we missed our chance to have more but in reality I'm sad that I really won't have anymore babies. I'm sad that my kids are growing so quickly. I'm sad, in some ways, that I'm not sure of the direction my life is taking me. Is this what I planned? I wanted to travel and do cool things. Yes, I do get the fact that I can still travel and do all those things but I see old friends that are single with no kids globe trotting and mountain climbing. I have always been a homebody kind of person and wouldn't trade my life for anyones but I wonder if I missed out on something. Sometimes I'm not sure I want to be a grown up. Life just seems so....not sure. I know that all these thoughts are surfacing just because I will be 30 soon. That seems like the peak of grownupness. Not sure if I'm ready for that.

I have the greatest husband :)

heat wave pictures

This is so why I love my dslr! Love the fact that I can capture these kinds of images :)



Ethan always has the weirdest faces when I take a picture, kind of the "trying to look sneaky eyebrow raise" lol!

fun pictures

I picked up a box of sidewalk chalk pretty cheap the other day and the kids love it. They spent a couple of hours drawing on the sidewalk with Ron creating a virtual dinosaur mural.
Got up on a ladder for this shot, very cool.
love the perspective of this shot.