Month: February 2019

She Changed Her Mind

Waverly has been sleeping through the night for the last little while, and its been SO nice for Brady and I! She is easy company in the night, only ever really waking up once, drinking her milk, smiling SO beautifully, and going right back down to bed. But it appears that the one break in sleep does have an effect. Sleeping through has reminded me what good quality sleep feels like, and I’m so thankful for it.

This morning, Wavy started fussing around 4:00. She wasn’t distressed, just talking. I tried to fall back to sleep, but thats usually completely impossible for me until she falls back to sleep, and sometimes its already too late at that point. Wavy chatted and fussed here and there for a while, until it turned into full blown crying. Now sometimes, that means she’s just about to fall asleep. So I gave her a minute. But it was clear that wasn’t the case this morning. Brady and I had a quick chat about what our next move was. Should we leave her to it for a bit? What if she lulled the other kids? Well it IS winter break, so if they’re going to be tired and grumpy, this is the right week for it. But there are a few extra factors to consider right now. She’s had some emotional days.

Factor number one is that Wavy is teething. There is one tooth thats been pushing for weeks, and some days I can tell its really bothering her.

Factor number two is related to her jammies. The sleeper we put her in at bedtime was SO small! Definitely the last time we could use it. I didn’t think it would cause her too much discomfort, but it was in my mind that it could be.

Factor number three is the biggest one. While she’s been sleeping through the night, she isn’t drinking more in the daytime to make up for the night. Alongside that, she’s eating more solids. All of that is to say she sometimes gets a tummy ache, and she’s not pooping quite as easily. (Not looking for tips on baby constipation! I’m on it, and its improving. Everyone is fine. Promise!) Pooping sometimes makes her cry, and she has a little diaper rash on top of it all, thanks to the more frequent little poops.

I didn’t want to leave her uncomfortable, so we got her up. She stopped crying right away. No extreme drool, so her teeth seemed fine. No poopy diaper, just wet like you’d expect. I changed her jammies, just in case. But she really seemed fine. Brady fed her and Wavy easily went back to bed shortly after 5:00. My alarm was set for 5:45 (shuttling my mama to the airport!) so Brady and I opted to watch some Netflix rather than attempting another half hour of sleep, and I think it was a good choice! That way, I was wide awake at the right time rather than waking up to the shock of an alarm.

After I dropped my mom off, I grabbed some coffee for Brady and I and headed back home. It was still nice and early, so I tucked back into bed and we snuggled in for another episode of our show while I warmed up.

Today will be filled with hanging drywall downstairs and very little else. I suppose I’ll also hang out with my emotional daughter who just started crying. Off I go to do the mom thing! Byeeeee!

A Bunch of Clean Kids on Sunday

Yesterday evening was interesting enough that we didn’t bathe the kids before bed. We always bathe the kids the day before church, but there was just no way. So we bathed them this morning. They’re so cute when they’re clean 😆

I admit, we didn’t get to bathe Waverly this morning. Our poor little dear is SO sweet and SO teething, her sleep is all over the place. She slept beautifully through the night, as she had been for the last week-ish, minus a few minor hiccups. She woke up around 7:00 and she went right back down after her feeding! SO awesome for her, and for us, but we couldn’t justify waking her for a bath when she’s still so little and not stinky or greasy. We put her hair in a curly little pony and called it.

Our kids made it through church pretty smoothly, except Wavy, who we had to wake up for church and who would’ve rather been sleeping. One particularly eager little girl held her through a good part of the morning, and I traded her out for the second half.

My mom came over for lunch and the afternoon. We ate super easy food and chatted our few hours away. We showed her the progress we’ve made in the basement, and talked about whats coming next. Just before she headed home, Wavy woke up, and was in way better shape.

Those eyes!

I’m happier when I don’t have to wear pants, too. I get you, Wavy.

The kids are eating a snacky supper, and Brady and I have a yummy supper planned for after they go to bed. We used to eat after bedtime a lot more, but we’re trying to make some changes. Eating with the kids is nicer for them, and healthier for us. Its a bigger challenge oftentimes, but its a habit we’re trying to set, and its working! But today, we feast on stir fry that we love that the kids hate. Lol! I can’t wait!

Our SECOND DATE in February

It might seem small, but getting two dates in one month feels like a HUGE gift we’ve been given! Last year, I planned to really be intentional about dates, and go on at least one per month. Its proved to be a hard thing to prioritize, and we easily go months without one. So far this year, however, we’ve done better! We’ve now had two this month, and have a NIGHT away booked in March!! I’m SO excited!

Brady and I get one on one time at home every day, so we’re not without chances to chat and be together, kid free. So the “need” for a date out of the house doesn’t always feel necessary. Yet I can honestly say that, going out on these last two dates has been a different kind of refreshment. I slept great, I feel more upbeat this morning, and the kids are happy to see us. I only wish we could date every week like this, haha! But maybe I should keep pushing for dates more regularly.

So, because we had our anniversary date last week, we decided to just be comfy and casual for this one. Not that we were super dolled up and fancy for the last one. We opted to hit a restaurant that we were super hungry for, and ended up at Montana’s. I used to always order the same thing there – baked chicken penne – but guys, the newish menu item, the buttermilk country chicken plate, is SO good! I could drink that country gravy with a straw. So I got that, and Brady ordered his usual firecracker burger. We played hangman while we waited for our food.

After supper, we ducked into Dollarama for a minute before heading to our movie. We had reserved seats for “Isn’t it Romantic.” I have to say right here and now, I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. We went into it expecting a basic romantic comedy, super tame, without much thinking required. And while we did get that, the whole movie was based around making fun of romantic comedies! Rebel Wilson was the lead, which helped. It was SO. FUNNY. I highly recommend it for a funny movie night with friends, or your date. Brady laughed super hard, too, for the record. Wasn’t just me.

We took our time getting home, thanks to a never ending train. But our childcare (childCher?) was happily hanging out, not rushing us at all. We drove home and ate popcorn and laughed about the movie. It was SO chill and SO fun. We felt like a couple again rather than just parents.

I feel like I should say, I know some people really feel like they get lost in their role as parents. I honestly don’t feel like we have. I should speak for myself, I suppose. I don’t feel like I’ve lost myself in being a mother and a wife, but sometimes it feels great to step back and see it for myself. Not just as a memory, but in real time. It was nice to just be Brady and Hailey for a few hours.

Thank you, Cher, and Sandy, for hanging with our kids yesterday evening. What a huge gift!

We’re spending today snowed in! Brady finished all the little nitpicky parts of our basement yesterday so today, he’s begun hanging drywall! I’m SO happy we’re finally at the point of WALLS!! Woot!

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

Valentine’s War 2019

I’m putting the year in the title of today’s post because I feel that this will happen again in the coming years.

Yesterday, a war broke out between Brady and I. A text war. It was in the form of valentine’s cards and gifs. I hesitate to share it on here because of some sexual innuendo, but hopefully we can all laugh about them! Haha! I know Brady and I sure did yesterday!

Spoiler alert. I won.

This was my kick off. We just finished re-watching “Parks and Recreation,” and a valentine with Brady’s favorite character on it seemed appropriate. Brady wants to be this man.
I made it clear that this was going to continue by sending two in a row. Its ON!
This was from Brady, because bacon, and innocence.
This one I actually drew on a sticky note and left on the island, but it was inspired by this.
Brady went the gif route for most of our war. He even did two in a row to try to get ahead.
Very cute, Brady. Very cute.
Again with the “Parks and Rec” references. This one cracks me right up, lol!
He countered with a “Parks and Rec” gif. Good effort. Why is it so tiny?
Thats what she said.
Speaking of The Office…
The Office pretty much always wins, in our books.
Brady went with Christmas in response. Lucky for him, I do love Christmas. And also him.
To Brady
From Hailey
Brady made brownies for us, so I sent him this one. Two in a row, I know. Also, gross, I know.
Bradys gif response made me feel like he was grasping. Dying out. So I closed the contest.
We’re not a phone-addicted couple, so this is allowed to be funny over here. I know not everyone will like this one. But we do.

I think I can safely say this competition was a great success, and we’ll do it again next year 🙂 A funny tradition for a minimally important day. Celebrating love in an unconventional way. And I’m here for it!

Love you, Brady 😘 Don’t hate me just because I can find more questionable valentines online than you can.

Same time next year.

Valentine’s Day was NOT a Work Day

For the first time in a while, it seems, today was not spent pouring over the basement or any other house projects. However, it was spent in Saskatoon, running errands. Because life, haha! And because, as I mentioned a while ago, we ran out of milk. And when our family runs aaaaall the way out of milk, you know its time for a grocery shop. So we did that instead.

Once the kids were off to school, dressed in red and pink, valentines cards in hand, we woke Waverly (man that girl can sleep!) and fed her, dressed her, and loaded her up with her brothers, who were already scratching at the door to leave.

It was a BIG shop kind of day. Though we didn’t have to buy any diapers or wipes! Woot! We did, however, need to stock up on ALL milk, ALL fruits and veggies, ALL bread products, and ALL kinds of other things. Wavy hung out in her bucket through Superstore but was pretty over it by the time we were done in there, and we still had Costco to go!

(Here is where I’m resisting the urge to rant about Dollarama being SO DUMB today!! Gaaaaah!!!!!)

I ended up wearing her through Costco. Her little ponytail tickled my nose the entire time, which was a touch annoying and also adorable. We spent a fortune, and then left for home. We were home by 1:30.

I fed Wavy and put her down, and Brady put the little boys down for rests, too. We checked out the siding and it looks like our crew was back for at least a little while??

Their ladders are still here, so I guess they’re coming back. I wish there was a bit more communication there, but ok :/ I also wish they didn’t leave that piece so obviously askew. Hopefully they fix it when they inevitably come back. Its inevitable, right? Someone tell us something!!

While we were at Costco today, we grabbed a Landmark Theatre movie pass for Brady and I. We were offered a date night tomorrow!!! Just about NOTHING can beat an evening away that is given to you without having to ask for it. Two dates in two weeks feels selfish, but I’m thrilled to accept!! We’ll go out for some dinner, a movie, and maybe even get fitted for the Lulu leggings Brady had ordered for me for our anniversary last week. Yay! I’m so excited!

Brady is lovingly unpacking groceries while I get this post up, and then we’ll take a little breather together before getting everyone up in about an hour, picking up the big kids from school, and heading to my moms for the remainder of the day! SUCH a great way to spend Valentines Day!

Siding and Demo and Drywall, Oh My!

I owe you guys a house update, and I’m giving it to you in this order, whether it makes much sense or not. Ready? Go!

Siding. We found out yesterday that the company who was coming to repair our siding from the summer’s hail storm was coming. Yesterday. We found out by men driving onto our yard and tearing siding off of our house. I won’t lie. I was pretty unimpressed by the lack of communication. No one even knocked on our door or tipped us off. I’m very thankful they came to do the repair, especially considering the cold weather, but had we known the level of noise the job was going to produce, we would’ve likely planned to be away for the day. Brady described the sound as what it would sound like if someone was hammering HARD on our kitchen counter. All. Day. Long. So that was interesting. I could hear the mugs on our shelf rattling hard so I pulled them all down.

Think we have enough?

They’re all still on my counter, since we don’t know when the crew is coming back :/

They did a chunk of the job and packed up around 6:00. We haven’t heard from anyone since, so I’m not sure when they’re coming back to finish the job. But, its started, and the kids were intrigued, haha!

Demo. Sigh. This one is ALL my fault. So when we planned the basement out, we missed the teleposts. We SHOULD have added one so they could move around a little and tuck into walls. As it happens, we have one that was going to be a bit more central than we wanted. I came up with this whole plan to wall in a little space and hide the post after all, but I recently shamefully admitted that I didn’t think the little area would ever get used, and that we should take the wall down and just have a post and WAY more space in the rec room. Brady was SO on board and happily pulled everything down. He rerouted a few things and finished it all off beautifully. He made a plan to make the post not look stupid, too, which I super appreciate. I still feel pretty dumb about it, because the wall was originally my idea, and now I was the one who asked him to remove it. I made ALL the extra work. But the decision to take it down was right, and we have WAY more space down there! Thank goodness!

I’ll show you a picture when it looks like something. Which will be soon!

Drywall! Drywall was delivered today!

Convenient that we have a straight shot from the garage into the basement, hey?

It was due to arrive around noon, but while we were at a school assembly, we were notified that they were on their way!! Thankfully, we were able to stay for the whole assembly and still beat them to our house. They worked up a good sweat hauling our drywall down into the basement! I had gone to prop the door open for them but I was nervous of their truck exhaust coming into our house. I mentioned it to Brady, that he could make a judgement call on that, and apparently, one of them delivery guys, and immediately went outside and shut their truck off. I really appreciated that! The guys worked fast were careful with our materials. They accepted some bottles of water on their way out (how do I not have paper coffee cups??!) and off they went!

We are officially ready to board the basement!!!

Don’t judge my messy basement, haha! It’ll make so much more sense once there are walls!

So since I began writing this post, we got an email back from our siding company letting us know when the crew is planning on coming back. With the weather, it seems its harder to predict their work hours. She addressed another issue or two we had brought forward, and I feel a bit better. I’ll show you the before and after when its all done.

Wish us luck in this next part! I’m SO ready for walls down there! Yet it will still be a while before its done done. The longer than Wavy gives us full nights of sleep, the more its becoming clear that we need another bedroom! And I want the kids to have more room to run! And a cozy place to watch movies! And a soft place for people to fall if anyone needs a night away from their life. We want to be a go-to for people who need some love and support, and I hate that we can’t invite them to stay for a night, if needed. Time to change that. Soon!

Crazy Hair Day

I’m not great at spirit days. My kids don’t care too much about them and we often forget about them until the last minute. When Dekker was in kindergarten, I worked hard to get him all done up for spirit days, almost always having to venture into the city to find something to correlate with the special day. I felt SO sick about it the first time I missed a dress up day, but he didn’t even seem to notice. So I let some of the pressure slide off of myself and I just do my best.

Every day this week is a dress up day. Yesterday was favorite color day. I talked to Dekker about it the night before and we pulled out his orange hoodie and an orange shirt. But in the morning, he opted for a blue shirt instead, just because. So that was that. Pretty anticlimactic.

Today was crazy hair day, and I figured that was a pretty easy one. However, I should’ve had some foresight here. I needed a creative idea for Dekker because he has less hair to work with, and I wish I had picked up some of those spray-in colors in advance! I promised him a mohawk, and he graciously accepted his “bunny ears.”

Laela had more hair and it would be easier to do, but she’s a class A doddler, and I should’ve anticipated needing more time. We banded together in the end, and Brady packed up her backpack for her while I made her her own mohawk. Lol! A bun mohawk.

The whole purpose of this post is this picture…

Aren’t they adorable? 😍

They’re all bundled up for school, wearing oversized toques to not mess up their ridiculous hair, but its ok because it continues to be too cold to be outside and breathe at the same time. At least their hair is done and I didn’t totally drop the ball. They’re happy.

Anniversary Date Night

In case you somehow missed it, Brady and I celebrated our ten year anniversary last week! We went on a date Friday evening. Our across the street neighbours, Rae and Tom, came over straight after work to be with the kids, and we headed out!

This was not the most planned anniversary we’ve ever had, but it was really ok. We didn’t want to put super high expectations on it. Plus, we have some fun things still coming up that feel anniversaryyyyy (you get it) so we thought a date night would suffice. And it did!

We tossed around restaurant ideas for a while, before settled on Cactus Club. We were originally hoping to go somewhere new, but decided instead to go somewhere we knew was good. We had a few options still, but Cactus Club seemed like somewhere we wouldn’t take our kids. Of course we forgot our Mr Mikes gift card back at the house, otherwise that would’ve been an obvious choice! Oh well. We still plan to be married for quite some time, so we’ll use it another time 😉

We waited maybe ten minutes at the restaurant before we were seated. We ordered fairly quickly, and our food was delicious! He had a perfectly done steak, and I had the hunter chicken, which I think I’ve got every time we’ve gone there. SO good!

It was brutally cold that night, but Brady informed me we had to go walk to get my gift. I was NOT thrilled at the idea of being out in the cold, but we were literally just as far from van as we were from the mall!

I won’t make you wait. He got me the brand new sparkle balls from Hillberg & Berk 😍

Pink Champagne

They’re pretty.

We took a walk from there, further still from the van, to Lululemon with the intention to buy me a pair of the new super high rise wunder unders. For whatever reason, they don’t actually carry them in store, but we ordered a pair from there and they’re already on their way. Woot!

(I should specify here that I have a gift for Brady, but its stranded in Saskatoon so he doesn’t have it yet! Ack!! I’ll let you know as soon as he knows!)

The mall was still open when we finished at Lulu, so we made our way back through the mall to be as close to the van as possible. Our plan had been to go find some yummy dessert, but we were both SO full. We rather grabbed some coffee and found a cozy spot to sit and look at the river. The lights were beautiful, the frost was beautiful, and the mist coming off the water was beautiful. It was SO nice to just sit and sip and be together.

We made it home around 10:00. Our house was perfectly quiet. We got a run down of how the evening went before Rae headed home. Thank you again for the night out 💜

Wavy gave us the gift of a full nights sleep that night, and has continued since then! Probably the best anniversary gift I could’ve asked for, haha!

I Promised, but, Priorities

I know I said yesterday that I’d tell you all about our date night. And I really will! But not today. We have different priorities today.

Today we slept through the night for the second night in a row! Thank you, Waverly! Today we led worship, which felt choppy but seemed to be well received. Thank you Lord! And today, we’re hanging out with my mom, eating good food and visiting and being at rest all together. Thank you, mom! We love you SO much!

School starts back up again tomorrow. Tomorrow also holds some work in the basement for Brady, and possibly a trip to the city for a part or two.

But thats tomorrow. Today is just for us. Talk tomorrow!!

Jumped the Gun a Bit

I got my hair redone today! Its a bit earlier than I usually do, but I’ll fill you in on the “why” another day. I really liked the blue, but I needed fresh hair! Did you see my teaser on Insta?

Behold, the real colors!

I spent the afternoon with my hair girl, getting all refreshed and pampered. I love my salon days. It helps so much when you like the people you’re with, and I really do. The outcome isn’t so bad either!

I like it, anyway!

I came home to my beautiful family. They showered me with compliments and love. The basement had been worked on, and there was a plan in place for supper. Everything was beautifully under control, and I could breathe. It was so so nice.

Tomorrow will be another gooder, as we’re spending it with my mom, and yesterday was awesome, too! Maybe I’ll tell you about yesterday tomorrow… Yikes. I have a hard time keeping days straight sometimes, but I want to remember it all! Ok, its a date. Tomorrow. And a basement update this week, for sure, because stuff is finally getting done!!!

Happy Saturday, friends!