You Know You're Close When...

...you buy milk that expires on Baby's due date!

But in my sleep- and energy-deprived state it can't come soon enough!

Van-tastic Deal!

Darcy, Gord and Torrey went van-hunting yesterday and came home with a winner!

The upside to a bad economy is great deals on vehicles! Darcy was able to talk the dealer down from around $11000 to $7000. Or something like that.

We had to get a van because we were unable to get a car seat and two booster seats in the back of the Saturn.

We have upgraded Kaitlyn to a booster seat. She will sit in the middle row with the baby until she can put her own seat belt on.

Once she can do that she can join Rachael in the very back if she wants.

Oh, yes, it's a 2002 Mazda MPV (or is it MVP? - something like that) with about 120,000k's. It has two sliding doors, remote keyless entry, AC and a CD player. Plus lots of room in the back to fit the stroller.

Ready, Set....

We're all ready, now we're just waiting for the "go" from baby!

4 1/2 weeks to go (or less, we're hoping). We were able to borrow this crib from our neighbours down the street. I brought back the VeggieTales theme in the hopes that this kid will like them! The big ones don't anymore. How sad. It's complete with the two VeggieTales blankets made by the Grandmas and the bumper pads I made. Speaking of blankets, my neice Amanda made this adorable, super soft blanket for "the bump" as he/she's refered to at the moment. Can't wait to put it to good use! It looks really good in the room with the yellow walls and blue curtains! And the change station is a must in every baby room. Now we're just waiting for "D-day".

Horsing Around on a Snow Day

We got a bit of an extended Christmas vacation this year. The first day back at school was cancelled because of the weather! I didn't think the roads looked that bad, but I'm not complaining. I guess they needed more time to clear parking lots and such. So we went over to Coli's house where Rachael made a snow horse!

White Christmas

Well, there was no denying the fact that we had a White Christmas on the Wet Coast this year! In fact, it was so white, that had we not had a truck with 4 wheel drive we would have been having Christmas by ourselves this year! But after opening up a round of presents at home Christmas morning we headed over to Gord and Shannon's for some Froese Family Fun.

And what did I get for Christmas but a new camera! Just in time for the new arrival in a few weeks. It's very nice - and I don't have to reset the date every time I turn it on! It even has a "snow" feature, so I went outside to test it out! Nicole, Chrisaleen, Rachael and Kaitlyn had hours of fun out in the snow - making forts and tunnels and even a snow horse!

On Boxing Day we went to my parents for some more Christmas - Johnathan's first!

He learned how to sit just in time to get a picture of him with his cousins in front of the Christmas tree. They are all holding their new Webkinz -yes, even Johnathan has one now! And our girls each got 4 new ones this season, bringing their totals up to 14 and 15! Enough already? Not if you ask them!

Kaitlyn even got a Santa outfit for her new horse.

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year!

It's December In Our Town

"It's December In Our Town" was the school Christmas Concert this year and Rachael and Kaitlyn did a great job singing their songs!

First, the whole school came up to sing a song, then Kaitlyn's class came up, followed by Rachael's class, so we didn't have to wait long to see them.

This is Kaitlyn with Caitlin. Also in her class is a Kaylin! Talk about confusing!

Snow Much Fun!

Coli came over to play with Rachael and Kaitlyn in the snow yesterday.

A Whole Handful!

Well, Kaitlyn's birthday came and went - without any snow!!! Yay!!! All but Rachael were excited about this - first time since the year she was born! And now Kaitlyn is a whole handful - 5 years old! Once again Auntie Kendra pulled off an amazing cake - and cupcakes, too! Kaitlyn wanted a Webkinz cake, so not only did Auntie Kendra make an amazing bluejay cake that looks just like Kaitlyn's toy, she also made edible images of all her other Webkinz on cupcakes - plus Bob and Larry, because no birthday in this house is quite complete without at least some VeggieTales. And of course, what 5 year old's party is complete without presents? Kaitlyn loved them all! Thanks to everyone who helped make Kaitlyn's birthday a fun one!

And So It Begins...

...the first purchase for the baby on the way. After having suffered through strollers that refused to cooperate for the last two kids, we decided to splurge on the newest addition to the family. Strollers and car seats have come a long way in the last 5-8 years, and we were willing to pay to allow transfer of a sleeping child to stroller. The car seat locks in place on the stroller, and it comes with a base to keep in the van, allowing for very quick ins and outs. The shoulder straps also adjust with the pull of a strap - no more flipping the car seat over and adjusting the straps from behind. That was most annoying in spring and fall when some days you needed to bundle up and others you did not. "Favorite Baby" tested it out for us to make sure it worked. The 5 point harness is also much nicer than the old 3 point - no more up-and-over the heads of sleeping children. The stroller has a 5 point harness, too. It comes with lots of storage compartments and, best of all after the last stroller we had, it collapses with the twist of the handle. Should be happy travelling days ahead of us - now we just need to wait another 12 weeks or so for the newcomer to arrive.

Webkinz

Wondering what to get our girls for birthday or Christmas? Webkinz are all the rage these days. These are the ones they have, though seldom are they stacked so neatly!

Have You Ever Wondered How Many Leaves Fall The Last Week Of October?

One or two. Yes, this big pile of leaves was all from leaves that fell in one week in our back yard.

The girls came out just in time to help me push them over the edge of the drop off. They wanted to jump in them, but the leaves were wet and we weren't exactly sure where the edge of the cliff was, so it wasn't exactly safe for jumping.

The drop off doesn't look nearly so steep with all those leaves in it!

At least our view of Mission has improved over the last few weeks.

Trick or Treat

It's the day all teachers love... Halloween - when all the kids are already reacting to the sugar high they know they're going to get tonight! Yesterday Kaitlyn's teacher asked me if I could bring 24 undecorated cupcakes for their Halloween party today. Being the Super-Mom that I am, I said No Problem. So Kaitlyn and I made cupcakes that afternoon before we went to get Rachael from school.

Then - wouldn't you know it - afer school Rachael said her class was having a party today too, and she needed to bring cupcakes. So we went and made more cupcakes! But these ones needed to be decorated. After all that (not to mention the field trip I went on with Rachael before lunch and the trip to Superstore to get more icing) I was exhausted. I know it doesn't really sound like a whole lot (don't forget about driving to school and back 3 times and making lunch and supper!), but the baby-making thing really wears me out these days. So Daddy made orange icing for Rachael's cupcakes. Then after supper I found the last few remnants of energy and iced the cupcakes to look like pumpkins. Being so pregnant-brained these days I didn't notice it was gel icing I'd got for the faces, but it still worked out ok. I almost didn't take a picture, after seeing all those beautiful cakes on other blogs (you know who you are!) but whatever. The kids don't care and this icing actually tastes good!

I was with Kaitlyn's class all morning today along with several other Moms. Between the French and English kindergarten classes we had about 15 centres set up for all the kids to go to - from face painting (where I was stationed) to cupcake decorating; jellybean pattern-making (and getting to eat them after) to oreo cookie spider-making; mask and hat crafts to pumpkin seed math and playdough. Plus a few others. It was go go go all morning, and the kids loved it! Then after lunch we carved the pumpkin Kaitlyn got from the pumpkin patch on her field trip a few weeks ago. She wanted it to just be a face this year. I don't remember the last time I made just a face, but it was so easy!

And now Daddy's off with the girls trick-or-treating and I'm home handing out candy. Kaitlyn finally decided to be a lion. I think it's because I painted the nose and whiskers on at school this morning. And Rachael dressed up like a bat. I've only had about 5 groups of kids so far, but it's still early. Though I think we'll have a lot of left overs. Candy anyone?

Can You Believe...

Can you believe we raked leaves just four days ago?

You can hardly see any grass out there! And look how many are still left on the trees! 'Tis the season, I guess.

The girls are excited about trick-or-treating on Friday. Rachael is dressing up like a bat and Kaitlyn's latest is she's going to be a bunny - though that's the fourth costume idea she's had in the last two weeks, so we'll see what she actually ends up wearing!

Family Pictures - More Pictures Added!

Gord came over today and took some family pictures of us. Here's a small sample of what he took:

Here's some more. Gord edited them for us to give it the "professional" look. Sure is nice having a photographer in the family!

Fall

The leaves have certainly started to fall on our back yard. I don't know how many times we've raked already, and the trees are still loaded! But instead of wasting such nice-looking leaves I decided to put them to good use.

Maybe this weekend we'll try and get a nice family picutre back there.

Rachael had her eyes closed in the pic of the two of them, so I photoshoped these two pictures together!

Her head was just not angled the same way to try and paste the eyes from this picture onto the other one.