three-kid room fail
We live in a three-bedroom house and I’ve been trying to figure out how to make it work when Preston transitions out of our room. So I had this idea. I’d put all three kids in one room – just their beds – and have the other room as a play room with their toys. They were all for it and Kaylie started sleeping in Liliana’s room (Liliana has a bunk bed in her room, Kaylie a loft bed in hers) to see if it was something she wanted to do long-term. On the second night, she decided she wanted to keep their rooms separate. But she’s still sleeping in Liliana’s room. Both girls hate sleeping alone. Whatever.

So the other day she comes and says to me something about being okay with moving her bed into Liliana’s room. I say something about the other room and she says that she’d like to keep it as her own private room. I asked her, “So you get two bedrooms?” Liliana piped up just then, quite heartbroken, “SO I DON’T GET A BEDROOM?!”

It’s not happening. Funny, though, that the 10-year-old thought she could get away with having 1.5 bedrooms, leaving her sister with half a bedroom while Noah, Preston, and I shared the third one. FUNNY GIRL, THAT KAYLIE. I still don’t know where we’re going to put Preston when (IF!) he (EVER!) starts sleeping through the night. Maybe we’ll keep him in the garage.

holiday time
Noah got home from work last Friday just before noon and does not have to go back to work until next Tuesday. That’s a whole 10.5 days off. It’s been wonderful. I’ve had entire days where I have not had to leave the house. I have not had to drive anybody anywhere. I’ve gotten an entire night’s sleep to myself because Noah took Preston and the two of them slept in the living room. (He offered to do this again, but I have to pump a bottle for Preston to have overnight and I really hate pumping.)(I don’t mind too much getting up in the night with Mr. P, but a whole night’s sleep is pretty fantastic.)

baking bonanza
My friend Melissa and her son Kesler came over a couple days before Christmas and we baked up a storm. We made peanut butter marshmallow bars, peanut butter chocolate bars, Toblerone shortbread cookies, and the Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls.

I’m pretty sure I ate an entire pan of cinnamon rolls that night. And one every day after that.

The girls helped out

and the boys hung out and napped and fought over toys.

I’m pretty sure we have to do that again soon.

baby
A friend of mine had a baby yesterday. Today, Kaylie and I went to visit them.

This little guy was half an ounce smaller than my smallest baby. He is tiny and precious and fits in one arm. I don’t think there’s anything I enjoy more than holding a sleeping newborn baby. I’d have a whole bunch of them if they didn’t go and turn into children so quickly.

and then there was Christmas
We spent this Christmas just like we have every Christmas since we moved to Saskatchewan – with my in-laws. You should feel sorry for them, they just can’t get rid of us, even during the holidays. My parents live two provinces away, and since driving on snowy icy roads is completely out of the question and flying is astronomically expensive, we aren’t likely to spend a Christmas in BC for quite some time.

One of my very favorite things during Christmas is the Christmas Eve service. I can’t remember ever missing one. When I was growing up, we attended a church that also had a Christmas Day service. I’ve really missed that since switching to a different church when I was 15, but with Christmas being on a Sunday this year, I got to attend a Christmas Day service again. I think I’m going to find a church that does it every year because I just really love it. We even sang carols from hymnals. It was very old-school and very perfect.

We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve, because growing up my family opened all our presents on Christmas Eve and letting my kids open one keeps that tradition alive. Since Christmas traditions matter more to Noah than they do to me, we mostly go with what he wants to do, which is open presents on Christmas morning.

Something Noah likes doing that I didn’t do growing up is stockings. Noah and I exchanged stockings on Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed, and first thing the next morning, Noah walked down the hall with the girls stockings saying, “Ho ho ho” in a monotone voice, just like his dad did when he was growing up. The girls aren’t allowed out of their beds on Christmas morning until Noah comes with their stockings.

After the present opening on Christmas morning, we headed to the Christmas Day service and then spent the rest of the day at the in-laws’. Noah’s sisters stayed in BC, but friends came for Christmas dinner, filling the house and making it feel more Christmas-y. I grew up around so many aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents that having lots of people around during holidays just feels right. And good. And merry.

I spend the entirety of Boxing Day packing up all the Christmas decorations and rearranging our living room to accommodate our giant new-to-us TV and and new-to-us keyboard. Hand-me-downs are quite wonderful. As is having everything Christmas-y all packed up. Decorations are festive and all, but they’re also cluttery and once Christmas is over, I just want them gone.

my sick-for-just-a-morning snuggly sleeping boy

This week has been full of eating and play dates and Lego-building and cleaning and organizing and shopping and game-playing and movie-watching and just enjoying being together with nowhere to be. I kind of don’t want this week/year/holiday to end.

“Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”
“Cue the mouse!”
“I’m here, I’m here, the mouse is here!
“What’s the bowl for?”
“So you can see that I am not stirring. Note the hand never touches the spoon.”
-A Muppet Family Christmas

1. The parents of Liliana’s Sunday School class were told of a little performance the kids were doing after the service Sunday. Noah and I went upstairs right after the service and waited while the younger class did their thing. Liliana’s class then filed on to the stage. Liliana decided that her BFF Nathanael was in her way and hip-checked him. He would have fallen off the (foot-high) stage had a SS teacher not been right beside him.

You’ve seen that scene in Home Alone 2, right? The one where Buzz lights up Kevin’s ears during his school concert solo and then Kevin knocks over the entire choir? I couldn’t find the scene by itself, but you can see it in the first part of this clip:

Liliana totally pulled a Kevin McCallister. I’ve compared her to various fictional characters in the past — Dennis the Menace, Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes, the Tasmanian Devil — but this is the closest we’ve come to an exact replica. Except that Liliana is a girl. Anyway, here is her Sunday performance:

She’s the one who can’t keep still. She’s also the one who tells the other kids at the end, “Stand up again!” So helpful, my girl.

2. Preston wants to do nothing but stand. Except when he’s demanding that you help him walk. Or jump.

Or play with Christmas ornaments while attempting to pull the tree down on himself again.

Which is why we re-introduced Baby Jail.

3. We decorated gingerbread houses last week and for the first year I can remember, I let the girls eat them almost right away. Usually we let them get all dry and crusty and dusty and we pick the candy off and throw the gingerbread out. Not this year.

I picked the village of gingerbread houses so that maybe it would keep the girls from bickering over how one gingerbread house was decorated. Kaylie’s friend Abby helped out as well.

4. Noah and I spent quite some time this evening talking with this kid.

She’s dealing with some of the crap that I did at her age and it kills me that I can’t just *poof* solve all of her problems. I know, though, that teaching her to deal with her problems will benefit her much more than if I solve them for her. It just sucks seeing your kid in pain.

I’m glad, though, to have a partner in this parenting thing. I didn’t find single-parenting that difficult — I mean, it was still single-parenting, but Kaylie was an easy baby and a super-fun toddler. This whole parenting-a-pre-teen thing? Hardest thing I’ve done in my life. The in-laws were right when they said that the easy part is over. I’m thankful I have someone very unlike me to share parenting challenges with.

She’s such a great kid, though. She’s smart (her last report card was perfect)(literally)(I’m bragging now, aren’t I?), she’s witty, she knows the right time to roll her eyes at Noah or Russ, she cares about others’ feelings, she makes wise judgment calls. But, she’s also 10, and sometimes I want to send her to her Grannie for a month like I did when she was three.

(When she was three, she and I were living in Caronport, SK and my mom missed her terribly. So, when Nick and Teresa got married, Kaylie and I went to the wedding, and she flew home with my mom while I flew home by myself. I picked her up when I went home for Christmas. It was the worst month of my life. Noah tells me now that I was not a very nice person while Kaylie was gone. Well, DUH, I missed my baby! She was well taken care of, though, obviously, and she even came back completely potty trained!)

5. I got a rare shot of Liliana and Nathanael earlier today and I wanted to share it with you. It’s not blurry! They’re both looking! They’re smiling!

(Nathanael is the son of a good friend of mine.) Don’t they look adorable and innocent? Looks can be deceiving. (Although they are cute.) I’m pretty sure that no kid ever EVER has had as much energy as these two do. They are so hilarious and fun. And frustrating. I’m glad they have each other. They fight like siblings, tattle on each other, and get really sad when they have to part ways.

6. DID YOU SEE WHAT MY HUSBAND DID?

It’s one of those things where guys are like THAT IS AWESOME! and the womenfolk are like THAT IS CREEPY! Kaylie and Liliana love it and I … well … mustaches aren’t my favorite. Noah loves it, though, and I think he should shape his facial hair any way he likes. As long as he’s okay with me not liking it, which he totally is.

7. I’m doing a bunch of Christmas baking on Wednesday with a friend of mine. Since Noah is constantly asking me (nicely) to do Christmas baking (I have done some, not a lot), he is quite looking forward to Wednesday. And so am I. Noah’s more of a fan of the things his mom made when he was growing up, but since his mom lives a mere six kilometres away and Noah feels an entitlement to whatever is in his mom’s freezer (much to his dad’s dismay), I’m making WHATEVER I WANT. Ha! (I may tease Noah about being a mama’s boy, but in reality I’m hoping my son is a mama’s boy, too.)(So far, he is.)

8. Did you know that Christmas is only six sleeps away? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

She went and made a guide with all the lens/film combinations. She didn’t include the flashes, but I never use those anyway.

Do you use hipstamatic? Then go! Read! Learn! If you don’t use it and think that this is just all too nerdy, I’m completely okay with that.

It’s called Organize! and it’s available for a limited time for only $.99! I purchased the app right away and after using it, put it on the front page of my phone. It’s that awesome.

Go ahead and make fun of the apps on my main screen. I DON’T CARE. Catan is AWESOME.

Head on over to her post and read about the app or just head straight to the app store. You won’t regret it.

Congrats, Laura!

I’ve got something exciting for you guys today. A secret mission. Are you ready?

You have arrived at the H stop on Secret Agent Josephine’s Stealthy Book Tour! Did you know that she has three books out? And that they’re incredibly awesome?!

My kids are not too knowledgeable about my blog and I don’t talk about blogging or the blogging world much with them. They’ve met many of my blog friends, but they just know them as my friends, not the blog part. One blog they do know, though, is Secret Agent Josephine. They’ve done (and loved) her coloring contests in the past, BabyBug Alphabet Flash Cards make a border around Liliana’s room, and the girls have kept up with the secret agent crafts thus far on the SAJ Stealthy Book Tour.

Another thing they love? SAJ books!

I usually hand my (or Noah’s) iPhone over to the kids when they’re stuck waiting somewhere, to make passing the time easier. Usually they play a game, but now they’re able to read SAJ’s books instead! Time well spent! Liliana loves the whimsical pictures and Kaylie loves to read the tongue-twisting words. They both love reading to their little brother, too.

Liliana’s favorite remains the “U is for Underwear” page of the SAJ’s ABCs book. She giggles and giggles and giggles, “U starts with underwear!” (Yes, she says it kind of backward.)

Another thing my kids love is crafts. They would craft all day every day if they could. SAJ was awesome enough to send us a craft to do.

Spy glasses! Specifically, Kaylie is wearing the Unbreakable Rubber Night Vision Goggles, as seen on page five of SAJ’s Numbers.

Liliana is seen here sporting the Super-Duper Bug-Eye Glasses That Magnify Everything. Do you want to make your own spy glasses? They’re perfect for spying on baby brothers. They’ll never know it’s you!

All you have to do is download the Spy Glasses template and the Spy Glasses Instructions.

I’ve been a fan of SAJ since the very first day I read her blog, way back in … a long time ago. A header designed by her graced the top of this blog for quite some time (until Preston was born and I felt guilty having a header with just the girls and not him in it) and I’m constantly amazed at how creative she is. I’m so excited about these books of hers and I look forward to what she comes up with next, because I just know she’s got so much more up her sleeve. The polar bear collects spare change.

All three books are available on Amazon in formats compatible with the iPad/iPhone, Kindle, and Nook (for only $2.99 each). They are also available on paperback, which certain family members of mine might find under the Christmas tree this year.

• iPad/iPhone: ABCs, Colors, Numbers
• Kindle: ABCs, Colors, Numbers
• Nook: ABCs, Colors, Numbers
• Paperback: ABCs, Colors, Numbers

Now for the giveaway!

As part of the book tour, SAJ is giving away a print (26 tour stops in all, one for each letter of the alphabet). Today she is giving away a letter H print. To enter, just leave a comment telling me your favorite food or animal or thing that starts with the letter H. The comments will close at midnight on November 30th and I’ll choose a winner on December 1st.

So, to review:
1. Create your own spy glasses
2. Comment to win a letter H print
3. Follow one of the above links to buy your very own Secret Agent Josephine book! Or, you know, one for (each of) your kids.

You can follow along with the book tour on Secret Agent Josephine’s blog or on Facebook.

I left Preston with Kami while Kaylie and I went to the funeral, and while we were gone she got some super-awesome shots of Preston. I really love this one:

She took one of me, too, and she likes it. She made me smile. Forcibly. It’s funny how I took a look at the shot she took of Preston and instantly I was like, “I love it! It’s awesome!” and then I took a look at the one of me and I was like, “meh”. This is not because of her photography skills, but of my inability to like a photo of myself. But, she got quite a few comments on it when she posted it on Facebook, so I’ll just take her word for it that I look half decent in it.

We stayed the night with Kami and woke the next morning to find snow. Lots of it.

We had such an incredible summer and a beautiful fall, that I didn’t cringe at the sight of snow. It’s November, snow is okay now. But, I was not stoked about it because we had to drive home that day and we have not put our winter tires on yet. Stupid, I know. We made it, though, but it took us five hours to do what is usually a two-and-a-half-hour trip. The kids did so well. Kaylie takes pretty great care of Preston and read him his Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book about a thousand times. The dude likes books. And his big sister.

I’m currently sitting on the couch while my family sleeps. My surgery today went really well, and the T3s are taking care of most of the pain, but I’m having a hard time sleeping, so here I sit, typing to you. I have stories about the day, as usual, but I will tell you them tomorrow, as I don’t think my brain can compute any longer. And I think my baby just woke up.

As of right now. Or now. Or … now … I’ve worn my hair down for two whole consecutive days. This may not seem like a big deal, but I never wear it down for a whole day, much less two whole days. I purposely didn’t bring a hair elastic with me to Regina. Just to torture myself. I’m self-destructive like that. I don’t know why I do things like this to myself. And I don’t know why I feel the need to tell you. And I don’t know why …

I have to cut in here with a break, though. Noah just said to me, “I tracked your phone today.” Um … ? I traveled home with Kaylie and Preston today on the worst roads I’ve ever driven on. It took me five hours to do a two-and-a-half-hour trip. So, that is why he was tracking me — to see how far I was — because he was worried about us driving on the roads and wanted to make sure we were alright.

It got me thinking, though, that’s really creepy. I mean, we installed that Find My iPhone app so that we would be able to find our phones if we should happen to lose one again, but still. Is it weird that I’m weirded out by the fact that he can see where I am at any point at any time? I mean, I spend 80% of my time at home, and 20% of my time driving Noah to work and Kaylie to school and Liliana to school and picking them all back up afterward, and there’s nowhere else I go, much less anywhere I wouldn’t want him knowing that I go, but still.

In reality, though, I very highly doubt he would check up on me, and if he did, he’d have to be really really bored and he wouldn’t be able to see if I was on the couch or if I was in the kitchen sneaking chocolate chips, mixing them with marshmallows, and stuffing my face with them (I really miss doing that) (not that I’ve ever done that before) — he’d only be able to see that I was at home. Or at Walmart buying more chocolate chips. Or is there an app that allows one to see through another one’s iPhone camera without their knowledge? I think I need to find some duct tape and cover those things.

Anyway, now that you know how neurotic I am, I’ll tell you that this weekend was bittersweet. Saying goodbye to a friend who lived a too-short life really sucks. But, seeing a friend who is a very pregnant with a very-long-awaited baby is pretty awesome. (You looked great, lady!) One life ending, one life beginning. I guess that’s how life works, doesn’t it?

I get really confused every time I go to Regina, and every time I come back to Saskatoon. I’ve never done an in-province move before. In the past, I moved from BC to Alberta to BC again to Saskatchewan to BC again to Saskatchewan again. This moving-two-and-a-half-hours-away thing is really throwing me off. I ran into someone at the funeral on Saturday and I was confused as to whether I knew her from Regina or Saskatoon. We chatted and it all came clear, but then I said something about Circle Drive when really I meant Ring Road and I couldn’t remember my name anymore. Where do I live? Where do I know you from? Where am I now?

Am I rambling? I’m procrastinating. My much-anticipated surgery is (finally) tomorrow and the way I see it, if I don’t go to bed, tomorrow cannot come. Right? If I don’t do the things I need to do before tomorrow morning, then tomorrow morning will always be tomorrow morning, right?

I’m kind of nervous about tomorrow, if you hadn’t noticed. I just took the battery out of my camera when I meant to take the memory card out and only noticed when the battery wouldn’t fit into my card reader. Um. I think I will put you all out of your misery now and just go to bed. Wish me luck.

Like most of my Saskatchewan friends, I met Laurie through our blogs. She was so welcoming to us when we first arrived in Regina — she invited us to the church she (and soon, we) attended, she introduced us to friends, she recommended the school that we sent Kaylie to, and she babysat my girls for the first month we were there until we could find permanent care for them. She made our adjustment to a new city/province so much easier.

She was on mat leave with her son the first year we were there and I was hoping that when she returned (to teaching) she’d be Kaylie’s teacher (she’d taught grade 3 and Kaylie would be going into grade 3), but since she went back part-time, she was not. I was disappointed, as I knew she was a super-awesome teacher, but she assured me that the teacher Kaylie ended up with was equally as wonderful.

The last time I saw her was right before we left Regina. She made sure that I got to meet her beautiful brand new twin girls, and that I had the blessing of holding one teeny girl in each arm. I was reading through all our Facebook messages back and forth and smiling because she was always so helpful and thoughtful and generous and was probably the only person who could tell me what to do and have me listen. She sent me a big box of boy baby items right before Preston was born and wanted a big fat nothing in return. She always had encouragement for me. Even when she was in the midst of her cancer treatments, she’d comment on my blog or Facebook posts.

I’m heading to Regina this weekend for her funeral, something I wish I did not have to do. When she was first diagnosed back in May, I just assumed she’d make it. That’s what we all want to assume when someone gets that horrid news, right? I rejoiced when she announced that her cancer was in remission and was devastated when she said that her time here on earth was limited. I am clinging to the fact that she knew the Lord and is now healed and with her Maker. She wrote these words, right around the time I first met her:

That being said, death for me is not scary. What is frightening though is the thought of someone experiencing a loss without the hope and understanding of Christ. In the Bible, God never promises that life here on earth will be easy and pain free. It is quite the opposite. He does promise that He will always be with us. He also promises that this “worldly” life is only one part of our living and that our life is eternal. So with earthly pain and suffering, comes the hope of never being alone and this not being the end.

(Thanks for linking to that post, Jill.)

She was greatly loved and she is and will be greatly missed.

Also in the middle of her pink eye, I had a couple super-fun attacks. Morphine, FTW! I’m having an ERCP on Friday, and hopefully I’ll finally have my cholecystectomy very shortly after that. (I don’t know why it has to be done in two procedures, I just want it OVER WITH.)

In other, more fun news, I (finally) edited photos from the last month – our lake trip and our BC trip. I know, right? IT’S ABOUT TIME. (SORRY FOR THE ALL CAPS.) (IT’S JUST BEEN THAT KIND OF WEEK MONTH.)

The week before we went to BC, my friend Lisa invited a bunch of us out to her cabin for a couple nights. The drive out there was under two hours, a perfect distance for my three goobers.

Before we left, I laid out the ground rules for the trip, one of them being that the girls had to be kind to each other in the car. Liliana replied, “Aren’t we taking the van?”

On our second beach day, Lisa brought the boat out on the water and the girls got to go tubing for the first time. I wasn’t sure how Liliana, the girl who is terrified of running bath water, would handle it. She LOVED it. Tubing with my girls was probably the most fun I’ve ever had with them. Seeing so much joy on their faces totally made my week. As we were flying across the water, Liliana says to me, “Remember that Barbie song, Mama? Queen of the Waves?”

It was a full, loud, incredibly fun couple days. Liliana loves the lake so much. She could play in the sand for hours and hours and hours.

We ate, we played in the sand, we swam in the lake, we played lots of games, and we watched movies late into the night.

We left after lunch on Thursday, as Noah’s sister Talitha was flying in that night and we were really looking forward to seeing her and introducing her to Preston.

But, then my dad called with the news about my Opa and I wanted to get to BC as soon as I could. Noah and I worked out all sorts of scenarios, changed our minds a couple times, and finally Kaylie, Preston, and I took off about 48 hours later.

Our first stop was Alberta, to visit friends we hadn’t seen in about eight years.

Carmen and Bobbie have a daughter Kaylie’s age, and both girls were stoked to play with each other. Most of the friends of C & B and Noah & I have little kids, so Kaylie and Zoe were excited to have someone their own age to hang out with.

Kaylie’s biological dad lives in the same city, so she got to hang out with him as well. He took both girls to a movie and to see Kaylie’s cousin she hadn’t seen in a couple years.

Before the movie, Kaylie and Zoe raced down the slip ‘n slide and had a water fight. It was so, so hot, the cold water was the perfect cure.

I’ve had a lot of women take an instant liking to my baby, but it’s rare to have a guy do it. Carmen snatched up Preston and my arms welcomed the break.

The last time K & Z saw each other, it was 2003 and they were this big:

They’ve grown a bit since then:

Our first day of traveling was a mere six or so hours. The next day, we went all the way to my Opa’s house – a 16-hour trek. I’m an efficient traveler, but we had to stop every two or so hours to feed Preston or get gas or to stop for Kaylie to use the washroom EVEN THOUGH SHE JUST WENT.

My family is huge. Both my parents come from Dutch families of eight. It may look like there are a lot of people in the above shot, but we were still missing at least 10 family members. It was great to see everyone again, even if it was under less-than-ideal circumstances.

On the Tuesday morning, we went up to the cemetery to lay my Opa to rest. Everything was done by the family, with no funeral home involved at all. I’d never seen it done like that before, but it was peaceful and intimate.

I don’t do well with grief or people grieving around me. I guess I don’t know anyone who does do well with it, but it makes me incredibly uncomfortable. I don’t know what to do, how to act, or how to react. I was glad I had Preston with me so I at least had something to focus on. We laid our names in Scrabble tiles on my Opa’s casket before it was lowered into the ground.

I hated driving away. I didn’t like the idea of leaving him there, all by himself. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn’t there anymore, and that he was in a place so much better than this earth – singing bass in the heavenly choir, cancer-free.

The comic relief was when someone would say something about Tom & Jerry (Opa’s friend and Opa’s nephew) and they’d have to switch to saying Jerry and Tom.

We went down to the cafe for lunch and then across the street to the church for my Opa’s memorial service. It was packed. He’d lived more than 50 years in a small town and he was loved by everyone. There was standing room only. As I stood there, singing hymns and listening to the voices around me, I’d forgotten what a church full of people singing hymns with all their strength sounded like. It was incredibly beautiful and powerful.

I was surprised to see some Terrace people there, who had come to support my mom. It was comforting to see familiar faces, though, in a crowd of people I didn’t know (besides my family members).

My uncle and cousin from my dad’s side came as well.

The cousins spent a lot of time playing Opa games – games he’d taught us and played with us.

And, of course, we (they, not I) played soccer.

We had a bonfire both nights we were there.

What’s that you got there, Erica? The biggest, most gigantic bottle of super-sweet juice-tasting wine I ever did see/taste?

We spent the day after the memorial cleaning out everything from Opa’s house, choosing what we wanted and giving the rest away. It was weird and unsettling. I felt like a greedy vulture. I justified it by telling myself that (a) Opa wasn’t going to need any of his stuff anymore, (b) he didn’t want anything thrown out, and (c) nobody else wanted the things I took home. I’d be perfectly happy if I never had to do anything like that ever again.

When we were done all that needed to be done, I followed my dad to Terrace and stayed there a couple nights.

I was feeling very anti-social and went there primarily to see my grandma.

I also got to see Ann

and Tamara, though,

and Kaylie got to see her friends Kendra (we forgot to take a photo with her),

Michaela,

and Kessa.

I also randomly ran into Debbie and got to chat with her for 2.3 seconds. I wish I’d had more time (and will) to visit with more friends there, but I just didn’t. As soon as the memorial service was over, I just wanted to go home, but I knew I’d regret not making the extra 4-hour round trip to see my Grandma, and I’m so glad I got to see her. She’s an amazing lady and I wish I lived closer to her so I could visit her more often.

I decided to break up the trip home into three instead of two. That 16-hour day was much too long, and I figured that three 8-ish-hour days were much better. I wanted to make the trip as fun for Kaylie as I could, so we spent the first night in a hotel so that she could play in the pool(s).

To make it as cheap as possible, we got a room with just one queen sized bed. It was … squishy. Kaylie had a lot of fun, though, and inserted herself into a game of piggy in the middle as soon as she got into the pool. Introverted my kids are not.

The next morning we had breakfast with our friends Rob, Jodi, Reece, and Morgan. Kaylie and Reece are only weeks apart in age and Jodi babysat Kaylie for the first couple years of her life. She was the most incredible caregiver I could have imagined. It was so good to catch up with them.

We traveled to Edmonton that day and stayed with my Aunt Daisy and Uncle Roy. We had dinner with them and Aunt Yvonne and my cousins Brett and Darcy, Kaylie played a bunch of Wii, and we had grilled cheese and mango for breakfast.

We finally came to the day we were to go home, but before we left, we hung out and had lunch with my friend Jackie. We hadn’t seen each other since before her oldest (7-year-old) son was born.

Apparently I did a lot of catching up with people on this trip. It was nice to have a lot of fun on a trip that also contained a lot of sorrow.

I’d wanted to quickly hit up Ikea, but Kaylie desperately wanted to go on some rides at West Edmonton Mall, so I caved and let her fit as many rides into two hours as she could.

The Edmonton –> Saskatoon trek was the hardest of the entire trip. We stopped at least every hour to feed or soothe Preston. He cried so much, Kaylie and I were so stressed. But, I wanted to get home before it was dark, so we had to just let him cry sometimes, doing our best to soothe him. We got home just as the sun went down. Noah had cleaned the entire house while we’d been gone. It looked incredible … until I unpacked the van and turned it into a disaster.

In all, we traveled about 4,000k (I forgot to reset the odometer until we were half an hour outside the city). It was a bittersweet trip, but I’m glad we took it because I would have really regretted not going. I couldn’t have not gone.

So, that was July.
Good and bad and ugly and beautiful.

This past week, SPRING ARRIVED. The trees have started to sprout leaves. There is a tree right outside my bedroom window that I stare out at every morning. On Monday, it was bare. Today, it’s got GREEN STUFF on it. I’ve watched the green grow every day this week and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see GREEN.

I mentioned already that Meg made a cake with the girls within an hour of arriving in Saskatoon.

She is amazing, people. She’s also going to need a vacation when she gets home from her vacation.

Even Preston finally warmed up to her. (He’s quite the mama’s boy.) (I love it.) (But sometimes it’s hard on the back.)

On Thursday we set up the little pool. It’s not exactly warm enough here for pooling, but it was easier to set it up and let the girls find out for themselves that it was too cold than to have to tell them a thousand bazillion times that it was too cold.

They had fun anyway, playing in their bathing suits for hours.

The last couple days, Preston has decided that he will sleep in the swing.

I’m not counting on it lasting, as babies are ever-changing, but my back is thankful for the break. I caught him in this thoughtful pose and thought it was hilariously adorable (albeit a little blurry, as I wasn’t about to stop the swing to get the shot). AND, I didn’t wake him with the shutter. SCORE!

Friday we went pottery painting.

None of us had done it before.

Liliana thought it was the greatest thing ever. She made a blue green brown horse and had a blast switching colors and paint brushes. At one point she pulled up a chair at a different table and was directing the lady that was working there on which colors the frog she was painting should be. I think she needs to be more outgoing.

About half way through our time there, we learned that the place had just opened a week earlier. It’s called Wet Paint Pottery and, for Saskatoon locals, it’s on the south side of 8th Street, about a block west of Circle Drive. They have a website listed on their business card, but it doesn’t seem to be up yet.

Their customer service was great, as was their selection of pottery. We’ll definitely be back.

Kaylie painted a chihuahua for her friend (the pieces have yet to be fired, the colors will be bolder),

Meg painted a giant cup,

as did I (I only had enough time to do solid colors, as Preston was hungry),

and Liliana painted a multi-colored horse. The girls were so well-behaved, I was so proud of them. I think they needed something like this, as they’ve been cooped up in the house for way, WAY too long. They needed an outing.

Hey mom, Kaylie would like to go back to the pottery painting place when you and dad get here. Just so you know. And Liliana would like to go to the zoo. They’ve got your time here planned already, apparently.