After yesterdays raging success of accomplishments, today, the Christmas tree was on the agenda. But we didn’t really want to push it at all. We wanted to enjoy our day. We had croissants for breakfast and played downstairs in the morning. Dekker went upstairs multiple times to check on his bed, which I thought was adorable. He even has started referring to it as “megabed.” We were completely thrilled when he requested to take his nap in it! And guess what. He napped!! IN MEGABED! So that was pretty awesome, considering the fact that he is started to maaaybe stop napping in the near future, and doesn’t always sleep. I figured we’d never get him to actually sleep in the day in that bed. But he did. Two hours 🙂 Go Dekker!

While the kids napped, Brady and I went out to get the tree. When we moved here, there were multiple little ever green trees all over the yard, as if someone just sprinkled them haphazardly. We got rid of the ones around the deck, but kept one that was hear our grove of full sized evergreens. However, as its grown, its in a really poor place, shading the garden. There has always been a reason to keep it though. While it was smaller, my parents were talking about maybe transplanting it to their yard, but it got too big and they thought it would likely cut a huge hole out of our yard and then die anyway. We decided last year that we will cut it down as this years Christmas tree. It is my faith move. We will be out of this house next Christmas. This is our last Christmas in this house, and we are celebrating it by cutting our Christmas down from our yard. And next year, we’ll be somewhere new and can start new traditions. But this is this year.

Pink boots make winter cuter.

So this is our tree out in the yard. Yes, its a bit sparse, and not as beefy as the artificial ones, or even as the real ones you buy from lots of different places. BUT it has no bald patches, and it smells sooo much  better than any other tree we’ve ever had!

Brady used a saw to cut it down, and it was quite a riot getting it into the house quietly without making too huge of a mess. It was harder than we thought, but so worth it. And because the tree is so fresh and yummy, it barely dropped any needles! So the cleanup was mostly the snow and frost melting off of the branches.

Once it was all in and situated, Brady and I cuddled up in bed with the Christmas ornaments and put everything on hooks while we watched a few episodes of The Office on the laptop. It was comfy and relaxing. When the kids woke up, we got them a bit quicker than usual so they could come be part of putting the lights on at least before supper. While Brady lit the tree and the kids “helped” me untangle the strands of lights, I got a text message from a friend asking if I would be her last minute date to a Christmas banquet that started about an hour from then. Brady said I should absolutely go, so I jumped on it and rushed to get ready. I think I pulled it together decently well, so we snapped a photo to show off my baby bump the one time I’m not in sweats.

I had a fabulous evening out! Not only do I never really get to feel spontaneous anymore, but I got to spend a few hours at a table with friends, enjoying conversation, music, and amazing food, as per usual of Oven Scents, our local catering place. (If you were at my wedding, you know how good they are.) We all shared antics of our families, and talked about Christmas, while feasting on turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and salads. As per usual, I was one of the last people out of the building. My date and I visited with another couple about upcoming plans of Christmas, as well as the craziness that comes with kids. It was so nice to spend an evening with people who can relate to all the same stuff! But we eventually parted ways, as it was getting late, and we all had kids to get home to.

I dropped by my parents place first to pick something up but they weren’t home. Guys! Where were you at 9:45?! I didn’t know you were allowed to stay out that late!!! 😉 Jokes. You’re not that old.

I’m obviously home now, and ready for a soak. Not sure I’ll be able to fit a snack in tonight, but my acid reflux is rampant as per usual, and I might need to eat a little something to mask the horrible taste until my Zantac kicks in. All things considered, today was a great day 🙂 We accomplished a really good start on the tree, did some laundry, and I got an evening out with friends. What a treat!

This morning, Brady and I decided to choose one of our bigger tasks, and complete it. We had two specific ones we were to choose from.

1. Assembling the new loft bed we picked up for an unreal price yesterday.

2. Cutting down our Christmas tree from the backyard and decorating it.

Straight up, choice number two sounded waaay easier. We made the plan to let it dry off a bit outside, and then bring it in when the kids were napping. We’d decorate it after supper. So while the kids napped, we went outside to check it out and knock the snow off of it, to give it a chance to dry. Its definitely not a very full tree, but it’ll work.

Afterwards, we decided to draw out the kids room and see how we could fit everything in. Turns out, that is a LOT of furniture in a not so spacious room. However, drawing it all out and planning it down to thin inch made us really, really excited about putting it together. So we nixed the Christmas tree for today and decided to tackle the kids room. They weren’t napping well anyway, so we knew they’d be up and out of their room sooner than usual, giving us more time.

Before:
(Ok, we thought of the “before” picture a little late, so some things are already moved around and extra messy. No judging.)

So we did! We got the kids up and immediately started pulling a few things out. Yes, we actually had to remove things in order to build the new bed frame. Out came the dresser and the change table, as well as the bookshelf that will be permanently relocated. In came a hand broom, a swiffer, a cloth, and the first few pieces of the stairs. Yup, I said stairs. We moved pretty much everything left in the room to one wall and cleaned as we went. Turns out a lot of nastiness happens behind cribs.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t do any of the work 🙁 It was all pretty much enormously heavy and huge. So I entertained the kids, but they actually were really good at entertaining themselves! They went from their room to the living room and in between. I periodically checked on them when they were in the living room but for the most part, I was the designated giver of instruction and moral support. It was fun. And when the kids would visit, I would make they mostly stayed out of the way. But sometimes them being up close and personal was super adorable.

Once the stairs were assembled, Dekker asked for supper. Our table wasn’t exactly anyone-friendly so Brady quickly cleared it while I made some quick decisions about supper.

Ham and cheese, baby. I have to say, we never have sandwiches for supper, except for the occasional grilled cheese and soup. But this was possibly our most appreciated supper to date! Dekker had 1.5 sandwiches, and Laela ate a good chunk of one too. Then everyone had some extra cheese, because who doesn’t love that? Then the kids split an orange and drank lots of milk. Afterwards, Dekker asked for a treat. We’re working down on his Halloween candy really slowly, and if he finished his food, he gets a treat. Sometimes, however, if he’s suuuper whiny over supper, he doesn’t get a treat, which he finds particularly devastating. But today, he EARNED that treat! So he got his first gummy candies and demolished them. True love. He enjoyed them well, and then very eagerly thanked me and asked to be excused before racing from the table to check on the progress.

We worked the rest of the evening away. And fit in everything. As in the new bed, TWO cribs, plus a dresser, change table, wardrobe, plus things like the diaper genie, laundry hamper, etc. Why two cribs, you ask? Because we figure it’ll take Dekker a little bit of time before he wants to sleep so high up, and also because eventually, we’ll have to rock three kids in that room! So we may as well set it up properly!

So we had to take pictures from different angles since, as you can see, this doesn’t leave a ton of wiggle room. Having the crib underneath the bed is the lifesaver we’ve been looking for!! We think it looks completely awesome! And luckily, so did Dekker. It took a little bit of prompting to get him up there, but he didn’t seem fearful or anything. Just a bit cautious, like he is about life in general. Once he got up there, he was thrilled. He wouldn’t stop going up and down the stairs, and couldn’t wait to sleep up there. We were completely happy to oblige, and helped him up and, tucked him in, and got him all comfy.

We expected that he would have a hard time getting to sleep for his first night, but we didn’t even expect that he would be comfortable to sleep there right away. Both were true, as Brady went in to tuck him back in at one point, and when he assured Dekker that he could sleep in either bed, Dekker chose his familiar bed. I don’t expect it will take too much time for him to be comfortable in the new bed at all though, as from his old bed, he is currently jabbering like crazy about the new one. He loves it! But his whole room is new. Even Laela took longer than normal to fall asleep. I’m sure he’ll settle in very, very soon.

Now that its all over, Brady and I are tired and hungry. He’s being so gracious and getting us some supper while I blog from our bed. We have earned this delicious food and our soak tonight, thats for sure!

Christmas tree tomorrow!!

I really loved today 😀 My body hurts in that solid accomplished kind of way.

Starting with last night, Brady and I felt super off and disconnected from each other. I think it was because we spent the evening together at home but doing activities completely separate from each other. I don’t know for sure, but it felt weird. And I was nervous going from that into today, knowing we would be apart pretty much all day, even though he had worked butt off to have the day free. However, it was a really awesome day.

In the morning, Brady went to the city to help a woman disassemble a bed frame for Dekker that we bought off of a Facebook sale page. It was an unbelievable deal, and I’m sooo thrilled that I have a handy, wililng, muscly husband and a van to haul it home in. He went straight from that house to my hometown, where he did another pick up for me. This time, it was a huge collection of Family Circus books, and Melissa and Doug letter magnets. As soon as that exchange had been made, he went to my former high school and gave two presentations at their career day. They were based around being a finishing carpenter, as well as a small business owner. He was asked a while ago, and was pretty hesitant for a while, but came home afterwards very, very happy. A lovely teacher (you know who you are) encouraged him in between his presentations that he was indeed keeping people’s attention and that his information was interesting and well put together. I think that was a huge boost for him 🙂 I believe he said the words “The ice is broken” to me afterwards. Its cool to see this side of him encouraged!

Pretty much right when he got home, though, I left. I had spent the morning with the kids, who were sooo sweet and considerably more agreeable than the day before, but it was time that I headed off to run my errands. I needed to buy Brady’s Christmas gifts, among a few other things for a few other people, and a couple of appointments. I had a super enjoyable day in the city on my own. I completed all but ONE thing off of my list, which is pretty much incredible. People were nice and traffic was good, and I got good parking pretty much everywhere. I went to see Dr. Mike and he said I’m holding up surprisingly well, which is great to hear! I hadn’t seen him in around six weeks, and to see that it hasn’t set me back too far is such a relief!

My big event today was going in for my glucose test. I don’t hate that test as much as so many people do. Ya, its kind of nasty and the wait is long, but it doesn’t make me sick and I didn’t have the kids with me, so it wasn’t a bother. However, the clinic I always go to, that is always very quiet and laid back, was full to bursting with people. I sat for over a half hour before I was even registered. Of course, by that time, the clinic was closing in less than an hour, and I was supposed to drink a drink, wait an hour, pee in a cup, and get my blood taken. But the nurse quietly said it would be fine, brought me to the back, and ever so politely asked me to chug that filthy drink back as fast as I could. Which I did. I sat in the waiting room while everyone around me gradually petered out. I was eventually called up to the desk again and asked if I could “now make urines.” I made urines, and went back out to wait in the waiting room. She came after me though, and offered that I could just come sit in the back instead. I thanked her, and hung out in the back for a few minutes while my hour finished up. As she came and was taking my blood, I apologized for coming so late, and admitted that I thought they closed an hour earlier than they actually did. She was incredibly kind and said that we all have to fit stuff in when we can, and that she understood. Like I said, people were so nice today!

Once that was all over and done with, I dropped into a nearby grocery store for milk and napkins, then picked up an ungodly amount of burgers, and went home. My kids were in bed, and my husband was hungry. Now, the burgers are gone, and we are ready for some tv and bed. Tomorrow is likely another city day!

So Dekker recently learned about “not feeling well.” I’ve talked about it on here before, and have wondered how unwell he actually feels. After a bit of digging and weeks of observation, I’ve decided that he really doesn’t likely feel well, but that maybe that means a different thing to him. He is really working through a hard stage, and I think he feels unhappy sometimes. He also doesn’t feel well when he’s hungry, or sleepy, or when he needs time away from his sister. We all have times that we don’t feel 100% and I think this is just his way of expressing it.

This morning, I woke up around 9:00am. Laela was awake and talking, and I could see that Dekker was awake too, but he wasn’t up moving around or initiating games with Laela like usual. I gave them some time to wake up more, as Dekker has never liked being retrieved before he is wide awake, but nothing really changed. Laela was ready to get up, but Dekker was pretty unmoving. When I went into their room, Dekker sat up in bed and said “I feel sick.” Not that he didn’t feel well, but he felt sick. I put out my arms for a hug, and he came and just plopped himself in my lap for his hug. So I snuggled him for a few minutes on the floor of their room before I sort of did my warp-speed-mom-check. You guys know what I mean. Feeling for temperatures, looking at skin colors, checking fingers and toes for hairs or fibres cutting off circulation, stuff like that. His feet were freezing and his torso was warm, so I checked him with a thermometer but it checked out fine. Other than that, he just had a wet diaper. So I changed that up while he lay limp on the floor. I won’t lie. I was pretty thankful for the lack of fight, and I am always thankful that Laela is sooo patient when Dekker is struggling. She just stood in her crib and watched. Yes, I could have freed her, but I know that it often agitates Dekker how close she’ll stand to his face while he’s laying down. So she waited patiently, and then Dekker waited the same way while I changed Laela. Everything was very quiet.

Dekker sat quietly at the breakfast table while I got his cereal. Normally I give him his options and he can pick, but today I opted for Cheerios, which is the most boring but least flavorful or sugary. Before I even poured it, I heard Dekker politely ask for Cheerios with milk. Perfect! He ate a great big bowl of Cheerios and asked for more. While the kids are their Cheerios, I puttered in the kitchen and unpacked the dishwasher from the night before. Ya, I do my dishes now. Kind of a big deal over here.  But I’m always on mom alert, so maybe 15% of me was paying attention to the dishes while the other 85% was on the kids. And I observed Dekker giving Laela bites of his cereal, talking to her, and playing peekaboo. When Laela takes a drink of her milk, she often moves her cup to the table off of her tray, but then forgets about it and doesn’t drink any more. I observed Dekker putting her milk back on her tray every few minutes so she would remember to take a drink.

At one point during breakfast, Dekker suggested I get a hot drink and come sit down with them 🙂 I love that. It always brings me back down to earth and reminds me that my kids are waaay more important than my dishes. So I did just that. I let him pick my drink (thanks for the tea, Dekker!) and I sat down at the table with the littles for the rest of breakfast. While we were sitting together, Dekker said something about not feeling well again. I confirmed “You still don’t feel well?” He thought about it and said “I not not feel well.” I asked him what he meant, and he said “I feel ok.” I made a big deal of how I was so happy that he felt well, and he confirmed that maybe the food had helped. It was a good breakfast.

However, the morning wasn’t smooth, and Dekker still seemed quite off. When I knew I was right around the corner from losing my cool completely, I told him that they would need to go down for their nap early, and Dekker was fully on board! So now they’re tucked away, and while I can see Dekker isn’t sleeping, he is welcoming the quiet time. It would appear that my biggest little truly isn’t feeling well today. Poor boy.

While the kids rest, I’m in bed, blogging and eating dried pineapple. Hopefully we can all feel 100% soon 🙂

I passed 27 weeks of pregnancy on Sunday, which my What to Expect app tells me means I’m officially in the third trimester!! I never quite know when one is officially into the next trimester, since 40 weeks doesn’t exactly divide into three parts evenly. However, anyone who has been pregnant knows that a pregnancy isn’t counted from the actual date of conception, and the whole 40 week thing is kind of made up. Aaaaanyway, this is unimportant. If my app hadn’t told me this Sunday, I would have said it by next Sunday for sure anyway. Yay third trimester!

On that note, certain things are changing, and I figured I’d note them here, if anyone was interested.

Weight. No, I’m not complaining about gaining weight, or saying one should or shouldn’t more or less. BUT I can tell my body is putting more on. With Dekker, I gained a belly and nothing else. With Laela, I gained a belly and boobs, and that was also pretty much it, but after her, I kept on about ten pounds. I’m actually pretty ok with those ten pounds. I felt I was at a healthier weight at that point. But therefore, I started a bit higher in weight this time around, and I can tell my body is bigger now that it was at this point with the other kids. I’m rocking more love handles this time around, but definitely trying to embrace it all! I definitely look pregnant now, which I’m very happy about 🙂

Pregnancy brain. I am graced with pregnancy brain pretty much out of the gate. I have a vivid memory of being pregnant with Dekker in the very early stages, where I went downstairs to get something, and forgot what it was. We’ve all done it, right? So I came back up, remembered it, went back down, got it, and barely made it back up the stairs before I was too tired to move. A lot goes on in a persons body when they’re building a person! Anyway, I’ve had this the whole way along, but this morning, I lost our cups. Like, the glasses. In our kitchen cupboard. The same cupboard they’ve been in for five years or so. I couldn’t locate them. I opened every door on that side of the kitchen before that one. Not my best moment.

Baby Pelvis. Doctors have this beautiful term for a pelvis in a second (or whatever consecutive) pregnancy. A tried pelvis. Sounds flattering, right? Its not. My body is “tried.” But tried, tested, and true, I do declare! Its worked out, which is a HUGE blessing! My first time around, I had a bit of pelvic pain right at the end, and just toughed it out. With Laela, she basically tried to kill me, and all the good stuff holding my pelvis together loosened really, really early. I rocked a fancy pants belt around my hips to try and keep my body together in one piece from about 23 weeks on, if I remember right. This time around, my body feels considerably more normal. As in not quite so painful. I can feel my body slip out of place once in a while on really big, busy days, but not in my regular day to day stuff. Christmas shopping day was HUGE and by the end of it, I was feeling good and sore, but not even close to the pain I felt in my second pregnancy! I could still enjoy the rest of the day. Like it was more of a rewarding pain, haha! Does that make sense? On the note of body changes though, my tummy is pulling on my back quite a bit already, since my abs can only do so much anymore. So Dr. Mike is still a necessity in this family!!

All things in, I feel pretty good! Part of me actually feels like this pregnancy is going fairly slowly. I still have three whole months to go! Yet, Christmas is upon us! And after New Years, its only two more months!!! I suspect those may whip by, haha! I’ll take them. Whatever I’ve got to do to get baby Jim in my arms!

Ok, not too soon though. We’ll leave him to cook in there a little longer 😉

It was sooo nice to spend some time with Jerilee today, for the first time in what feels like forever! She got up early, brought coffee, and graced us with her presence shortly after breakfast. We haven’t seen each other for an extended period of time in two weeks since we helped her move, and it was probably two weeks before that when she actually was over for a day. So this was really necessary and long awaited.

Turns out we’ve both had lots going on, and we easily filled the day with conversation. I love her. She’ll cross the basement rec room and go lay on the floor to play with Laela while we visit. The kids love that about her two, and while Laela often takes AT LEAST a few minutes to settle in with a newish person in the house, they were instantly friends. It was also fun to watch Jerilee’s reaction to Laelas walking. The last time we were all together, we were still at the point where we would count Laela’s steps. Step counting is long gone, as Laela walks everywhere now. She still bowls over occasionally, but not a whole lot more than I do, and I’m quite a bit older than her, so I think we’re well on our way.

With Jerilee’s visit, she also brought me a recent “order” I put in at Bath &  Body Works. Its nice to have a personal shopper 🙂 So considering that, I think I can juuust about say I have all my Christmas shopping done. I still have to buy for Brady, but some of that is getting done tomorrow (thank you, secret elf. You know who you are!) and the rest I’ll likely do on Thursday afternoon, after Bradys career day. I think Thursday should clear it aaaaall up! I’m so excited for that!

Brady brought some of my favorite pizza home, and we shared a quick supper before Jerilee was off to her regular Monday evening plans. Sadly, Dekker was having a total meltdown/time out as she was leaving, and he asked about her the rest of the evening. But such is life. Laela was sad and ready for her nighttime bottle a bit earlier than usual, which motivated Dekker to inquire about our regular routine a bit sooner than normal. “Dekker clean up toys soon?” So we went with it and got the kids in bed about fifteen minutes early, which is always nice. Now for a downtime evening. Brady and I are both feeling sluggish and tired, so he’s going to go have a nice hot shower and I’m going to catch up on some YouTube videos that I fell behind in when we were without a laptop. Last night, we made up for our recent lack of laptop by online shopping and buying our kids new jammies. Sadly, Cyber Monday wasn’t good to us and didn’t offer us any wonderful sales on the few more pricey items we were hoping to purchase: an infant car seat, a twin mattress, and a bed frame for the mattress. But oh well! We’ll just pick them up somewhere along the way!

It was a good day, and will hopefully be a good night!

I’m sad there aren’t more pictures to share today. I thought I took way more but I obviously did more running around than photographing the sweeties. We took more mental pictures, I guess. But here the few I have to offer, anyway.

This is the part of the day when we took Laela’s mitts off in the van and she promptly pulled off her toque. And then she worked on learning how to put it on herself for the rest of the drive. This was her very first attempt, and truthfully, probably the closest she ever got. But she was sure adorable trying!

This is the part of the day when Laela napped for roughly ten minutes. The kids were total champs, being nap-free. They were pleasant and friendly and Dekker was so much braver than usual! I’m sure Laela’s cat nap helped a little 😉

NEW YORK FRIES!! French fries make both of our kids very happy. Growing up, my family would go Christmas shopping as a group, and we’d always get big orders of New York Fries, dump them out on a napkin-lined tray, and have that as our lunch. Every single Christmas. We haven’t specifically made it our goal to carry that through, but with the way these kids love fries, it only makes sense right now. We shared the largest order of fries, got some cheese to dip in (Dekker opted for ketchup though) and ended the lunch with Booster Juice.

Laela participated in her own way. She was terribly cute, eating fries and doing tricks.

Sadly, thats all I have for photos!!! I can’t believe it, because I could have sworn that I took way more, but obviously the day is just nice and fresh in my mind still, and thats good too. I’d take pictures of everything we picked up but most it, I can’t. BUT here are the super cool mugs I was telling you guys about!

I know, they were on Facebook and Instagram already, but I love them! I love that the travel mugs topper is gold, and they’re both so detailed and cute. Win!

Lastly, I’ll quickly recap today. Brady and I pretty much had tidied up from our big shop all last night, so this morning we had a yummy eggs and toast breakfast, and spent the day doing a bit of laundry, dishes, and not a whole lot else. Over nap time, we watched a bit of The Office on our laptop that FINALLY has a working disc drive, which was actually really nice to finally have back! The kids woke up and played Pants for a while before we went in and retrieved them. (The kids, and the pants.)

How Laela got her pants off, I do not know.

Perogies for dinner, and kids in bed on time. Brady and I did a bit more work on my homemade Christmas gift for family, and now we’re putting some info together for his talks that he’ll be giving in an upcoming career day. Yes, I know, he’s kind of a big deal out here.

Today was waaay better than I could have expected! Like I really had pessimistically expected the worst. Crying kids in the van, Brady angry at the traffic, not finding anything we came for, things like that. But instead, it was a huge success!
Unfortunately, I can’t upload the beautiful pictures I have of the kids from today, but thankfully, that is because Brady is currently setting up our new MacBook!!! That’ll have to be tomorrow 🙂 worth the wait though, I promise.
After we got the kid dressed and fed, we headed straight for our preferred Apple retailer. We got great parking, and were met with a surprisingly empty store. Someone came to greet us right away, and I have to say, he was probably the best salesman I’ve ever been served by. And not because he sold me a ton of stuff, but he listened to what we wanted, didn’t try to up sell us at all, answered all of our questions, and didn’t push us to get any added warranties or anything. He just trusted us that we knew what we wanted, and we did. The entire transaction took maybe ten minutes, and the van was still warm when we got back. Best of all, the kids waited patiently and didn’t get upset when the attention was put on them. We celebrated and bought Dekker a bagel.
I can’t divulge full details on the day, since the main focus of the trip was presents, but we had a lot of success in a few different places. Besides Christmas gifts, I got some makeup and a new coral maternity sweater. I also finally got a maternity hoodie, as well as the elusive white tank top I’ve been searching for. We got a nice big set of cutlery, which we’ve been needing for a while, and it was probably the best set I’ve ever seen. Not necessarily the best quality in the world, but it came with eight of everything: forks, salad forks, tablespoons, teaspoons, eight extra teaspoons, bitty spoons, and then butter knives that actually have a bit of an edge rathe than just being smooth. I’m so pleased, considering we use way more spoons than anything else and they tend to go missing fastest.
Also unrelated to gifts, we got a wonderful snow shovel that will likely last us a solid twenty years 🙂 I got Brady and I some new mugs from Starbucks as well, just because it feels fancy and it’s fun getting new things. We got three mower boxes of the unbelievably biscotti I told you guys about from costco, and a really pretty wreath to hang on our door. I’ve always wanted a wreath.
I’m sure I’m missing a ton of stuff here, but I am totally thrilled to have juuust about everything taken care of for Christmas knowing we still have $600 of our savings left over! That will cover my gifts for Brady and his for me, and then probably a few other things, such as travel expenses and stuff like that.
Amongst all of the shopping, our kids were absolute rockstars!!! Granted, we fed them treats all day, but especially Dekker KNEW it was an important day. He didn’t have one meltdown, or even a need for an attitude adjustment. He had so much fun in all the busyness. He smiled at strangers, and wanted to run and hop, to a point where I had to chase him down and remind him to stay close. But right afterwards, I decided to just run with him instead. It was awesome. He and Laela loved each other, and shared and were friendly. If and when we had to say no to things, no fight was put up. Everything was fun today.
And PARKING!!! We got rockstar parking everywhere we went, no word of a lie! In the one mall, the underground parkade was marked with a sign saying it closed, and full to capacity. We drove around the upper parking lot for a while, but within a few minutes, someone came and opened the bottom one up! We got in line, knowing they would only let in so many vehicles, and we were so thankful to be one of them! We didn’t have to bring coats in or anything! A few less things to haul around 🙂
After all of the shopping and treats and activity, we met my parents at a nearby Wendy’s for supper. Dekker was so excited, he barely ate. He just wanted to run circles, literally. Luckily, it wasn’t full at all, and my mom happily obliged and ran with him. No wonder he hit it hard on the drive home, hahaha! Slept the whole way!!
Sooo many wonderful things worked out today. Guess what guys! I don’t feel wildly overwhelmed!!! I feel organized and super excited to get our tree up, with gifts wrapped underneath it. I’m excited to get some baking in. I’m excited to remember that I’m pregnant, and celebrate that a bit more than I’ve been doing recently. I’m excited to take the kids out for walks in the sled.
I’m excited for Christmas!!!
But first, tea and biscotti in the tub.

The kids slept until 9:15 this morning, which was completely awesome! I, however, woke up shortly before that in tears thanks to some unbelievably vivid dreams based around being rejected. Rejection dreams are just the worst. Luckily, they weren’t about people who are important to me now, like my husband or best friends, but more so reliving parts of my life where I was brutally rejected, or new made up experiences where people who actually were good to me years ago rejected me. It was a really painful dream, and took a lot out of me.
I’m incredibly thankful for kids who run to me when I enter their room, or just jump up and down in anticipation of being lifted up by me. It sure helped this morning.
Sadly, today wasn’t a great day. I know I’m in for years and years of my kids a scrapping and being at each other, but today was long, as they were both temperamental towards one another. It was a challenge. But we got in good cuddles where we could and cried a bit when we couldn’t. I anticipated their nap time.
When they did go down, I again whined a bit inwardly about not having my laptop and the convenience that came with it. However, I channeled my energy into making some calls, so I know where I can purchase the laptop were looking for. Tomorrow! We’re adding “buy new laptop” to our list of things to do tomorrow, on Christmas shopping day!!! Can’t wait for that actually 🙂 I know it will be a zoo but I’m really looking forward to getting a ton of stuff done, and having a family day. Feels like it’s been a while.
When the kids woke up, we opted for an easy mac and cheese supper. Unfortunately, Dekker screamed uncontrollably for a solid twenty minutes from his room while we ate. He was put in for a time out before supper was served and just refused to quit. It took a bit but he eventually made it to the table and enjoyed his favourite meal. Laela loves it too, and always eats way more than we expect her to.
Thanks to Dekker’s insane meltdown, they’re wasn’t much time left between supper and bedtime. We went downstairs and had some good cuddles before we cleaned up toys and headed upstairs. It wasn’t the happiest bedtime we’ve ever had but it also wasn’t the worst. I think Deks knows how finished we all were.
Now that the littles are down, Brady is shovelling the driveway so we can actually get out of it in the morning. I have psycho-planned our day, so if we can’t get out of our driveway, were hitch hiking!!!

While us Canadians have already celebrated thanksgiving back on October, it’s good to be thankful everyday! Today I was thankful for hot chocolate with egg nog in it, jammies, and when both kids want to sit on my lap without getting angry at the other. That makes for a sweet morning for sure!
Dekker always brings his dishes to the kitchen after he’s done eating. He’s done it for months but probably every other day, he puts up a bit of a fuss about it. He’ll still do it, he just wants us to know he doesn’t like it. This morning, he didn’t whine. He made his trips back and forth from the table to the sink, but in the middle of a trip, he spotted a toy under the table that he was excited about. He excitedly grabbed it and brought it over to show me. “Mommy? I found a baseball!” Always having to be the bearer of bad news, I told him that a great find, and that once he was done taking his dishes to the kitchen, he should play with it. He regarded me quizzically for a second before slowly backing up and replacing the baseball to its spot under the table. Then he finished up his trips and raced for it, happy as a clam. I was very thankful for that!!!
After yesterday’s post, our laptop died. As in died died, probably never to be used again. So my usual routine of putting my feet up and watching some YouTube and doing computer stuff once the kids were in bed was sort of shot. So instead, I listed for this weekend. The man who Brady was going to do a private job for during the Saturdays leading up to Christmas recently called Brady up and said he felt badly about the timeline they had discussed and said he’d be just as happy with January. Brady jumped at his offer, which I was also thrilled about, and we can officially Christmas shop!
On the craziest day to Christmas shop. Probably one of the busiest weekends. But I’ll take it! So I got all good and organized and have our whole trip planned out. It’s a bit more specific and neurotic seeming than I would like, but we don’t have a lot of time, and I’m thankful for any time at all!
Not only with Saturday be Christmas shopping day, but it will also be potentially the day we buy a new laptop, and hypothetically a new infant car seat. Only if it’s on sale tho. I feel pretty frivolous wanting a new car seat since ours doesn’t expire for another year or two, and would definitely last us another baby, but our car seat SUCKS. It’s sooo hard to buckle a kid in there, the straps are brutal to adjust constantly, and I swear it weighs a hundred pounds. We just want a nicer one. Is that selfish?
So lots and lots of planning went into the afternoon while the kids slept. Brady and I made soup and grilled cheese for supper, which was actually perfect. The kids ate a ton. Dekker had two full sandwiches. Which is way more than we bargained for, leaving me with only one! But hey, snacks in the bath make everything better. The kids are down now, and Brady and I have done some “maintenance” on a homemade gift I’m making for my brother in law. I have to fuss with it every night, and Brady helps it go so much faster. I’d tell you guys what it is but he can’t know, so maybe in the new year.
Ok, enough for today. I do not like trying to type this out on the iPad, tho I’m thankful we have it! But it’s making my shoulders hurt because of the weird way I’m sitting. Merp.
Happy thanksgiving, all! Don’t forget to be thankful at least twice a year 😉