as promised...

i'm back. amazing, i know. But i wanted to write down some things about life and our summer before i have to pack up the computer and MOVE! yup. i said move. I can't even believe how things have transpired over the past few months. and as things usually work for us, it happend in a whirlwind and i look back and think, what on earth?? but FYI this is pretty boring stuff, i just wanted to document things.

So, to keep it brief. Dick had been getting antsy at work, and was seriously contemplating going back to school to specialize. He had talked about this many times, but never really pursued it much further than talk. As soon as he mentioned it, i felt a pit in my stomach. like i knew it wasnt the right thing. But I have learned sometimes its best to just keep quiet and let him run through the process of figuring things out on his own first, before i open my big mouth. So anyways, after talking with numerous proffessors, getting his official marks back, talking to a few schools etc. It was still on the fence. He could probably get an interview at most schools, but no guarantees, and who knows if he would get in? a huge gamble any way you look at it.

He was waiting to hear back from a lady at UBC, and she was on holidays, not returning calls and so on. When out of the blue one night, dick was at a YM meeting or something, and i was bored so i jumped on MLS in lethbridge to snoop around. Which i honestly haven't  done since we moved here 2.5 years ago.
As i'm looking, prices are getting too high, and i'm not interested in anything, but then i saw the address of a house in sunset acres. which is kind of where dick and i had talked about ending up someday, if we stayed in lethbridge. Its an older area of lethbridge that used to be considered out of town on the westside, but it is gradually becoming part of the main new development over here by the new highschool/church etc. The name says it all, basically they are 1 acre lots with older homes on them, about 15 or so in the neighborhood.

So i looked at the pictures and was intrigued, i showed dick when he got home and he said we should go check it out. Just out of curiosity. My mom was out of town, so i called my brother (another fabulous lethbridge realtor:) and asked if he could line something up. Turns out it was just listed 2 days before i saw the mls listing. So we went out to look at it with the kids for FHE, and it was really nice. older  bungalow style home, but beautiful land. The prettiest trees and landscaping, 35 years of growth. tons of room for a garden, play area, etc. Still, i wasn't even considering that we would even make an offer. just snooping.

That night the tables start to turn, we talk about the options, possibilities, long term benefits and so on. But i knew that this property would not last on the market very long. Larger lots on the west side are hard to find, and the value of homes in that location is quite high with all the new development and city plans. Plus there had already been multiple showings in just a few days. So we talked to the bank, and headed out to look again. this time checking things over carefully. by tuesday night, we knew that if we were serious about this we should make an offer.   We did, they countered, we countered back. SOLD!

Just to clarify: house listed on friday, saw it on MLS sunday, looked at it on mon/tues, bought it on wed.
                         
What??? This will be the 5th property we have owned and i'm certain none of the deals were that crazy fast!! and i guess to say the least, our prayers were answered about going back to school. Things literally fell into place.
 I'll admit i was/am a bit scared of the fact that this could be our house for potentially the rest of our lives, and that we are going to be on an "acreage" with not many people around,  we are moving from a new home to an old one, and we have to leave our fabulous ward. But mostly i'm super excited for the change. A chance to renovate and then one day really gut it and make it our own. To have trees, and lots of them. privacy, a garden space, a hottub(bonus!), lots of storage, and wood burning fireplace and the list goes on.

the best partÉ sorry, i must have hit a weird button. but the best part is we dont have to sell our current house right now. we have great tenants lined up to rent it out. and we have 2 years to contemplate what we want to do with this house. phewf!


So come August 31 we will have our new keys, and start ripping out nasty cat carpets(haha) and are shooting to be in the new house by Sept. 14:)  hopefully:)


Here she is.  #2 Sunset Lane. ill post more pics when we get in there. woo hoo!

so its been half a year. nbd.

I was overwhelmed with guilt when ozzie was complaining about not having a hard copy of any form of baby book the other day. and then i felt even worse when i realized i have not blogged about our lives at ALL in six months. lame lame l.a.m.e

So heres the long and short of it all. Greta first.

Greta finished out her Kindergarten year with flying colors. The girl loves school, is insanely social and seems to get along with all the kids in her class. She also picked up on reading and all of her sounds with no major help from me. It just clicked and she is reading a lot of easy readers now, and can sound out almost any word. CRAZY! I just didnt expect it to all come together for her until grade 1. She turned 6 in may, and had a fun girls only ice cream party with her friends! It was difficult for her not to invite her best little boy buddies to, but i figure its all part of growing up i guess. the big present was a new Bike which she def. needed. She is going crazy fast now on her bike and really loves to go riding with ozzie.

Greta is becoming quite the drama queen these days, i'd like to chalk it up to age combined with being tired from summer activities. but i think its just her. LIFE is generally a big deal for her some days, and if she feels wronged by the world or me or whatever, you defiantly hear about it. She is getting better at watching hazel for me, and really loves her brother and sister a lot. She is also a crazy bug/butterfly/anything little and creepy catcher. She has had non stop bugs in her catcher all summer and she loves it!

And then there's the Oz man. Ozzie is going through a growth spurt/whining spurt as of late. maybe its the middle child syndrome, but he is VERY persistant when he decides he wants to eat or do something. Like never stop asking, drive you crazy all day long persistant. But he is getting really excited to turn 4 in the fall, adn start pre-school. He loves being gretas tag along, and runs around the neighborhood with all the friends like hes one of the gang. super cute. his appetite is bigger than ever, and i think he may have a worm or something in their consuming all of his food. Ozzie is still my little sensitive soul, he gets very sad when hes hurt or if greta does something mean. but he is never mean back to her, and just tattles about it. so at least i dont have to deal with a hitter.

Ozzie endeavored to try swimming lessons this spring, and it may have made his fear of swimming actually worse. but were working on it. He is the sweetest most days, and will give up stuffies from his bed for extra hugs from mommy at night, or come up to me and say, you know what? I love you. So sweet.

Hazel Just turned one on July 9th. ONE!!!! i can not even begin to say how fast this year went by, it is heart wrenching actually. i was super excited when the other kids turned one, but this time around seemed different. slow down time, would ya? Hazel at one year old is a little fire cracker. One thing you could never say about my kids is that they didnt have a mind of their own. She is already wanting to be very independent in almost every way. feeding herslef, pushing my hand away when i try and help with things, screaming when we try and carry her away from something she wants to do/see. etc. etc. Little miss stubborn.

She loves to eat like all my kids do, thank goodness. Her faves right now are spaghetti, any fruit, bread, green beans, blueberries, and mostly mango. the good ones from mexico. loves. them. Baby food is non existant around here any more, she wont touch it as of a few weeks ago. and she just basically stopped nursing over night, right around her first birthday. single tear.

Hazel has a lighnening fast crawl speed these days. i should time her. and she is pulling up on all the furniture, chairs, legs, walls, climbing the stairs, etc. sitting on top of boxes and toys is one of her favorite things, and she loves to take out the vents and dig her hand in there. gross. why do kids like that?

WE had a fun little party for her first birthday at gyro park. Just cake and treats and friends. but it was nice to celebrate her special day. I made her Owl cupcakes because of her beyond massive eyes and how cute little owls are. just like hazel. Hazel has got my heart, maybe cause shes the baby still and cant talk back or not listen, but i want to squeeze her and kiss her all day long. and she is such a great baby, very laid  back, easy to please, and happy. As long as her soother is close by:) thats the next battle coming up.

Hazel is loving summer, all the swimming and outside sunshine etc. she is so brave, and all too eager at the spray park to get in their and get soaked, and she just loves to be outside. She goes to either door and climbs up and starts banging on the door to let me know she wants to go out there. if only i could keep her from eating mud and rocks.

aaaaaaaannnnnnnnd i'm spent. 

coming up tomorrow, update #2. Were moving!? and Vancouver holidays:)

half a year

i havent posted about hazel is awhile. First back to school, then getting ready for Christmas and mexico, and all of the sudden it's january and she's already 6 months old! i can NOT believe it! here's what i know about Hazel at 6 months.

- she is seriously the BEST sleeper ever. from 1 month old until we left for mexico, she slept EVERY night from 10 to 6 at least, and in the past month from 9:30-9. no eating in the night, no fussing, not a PEEP! it was seriously amazing. i kept thinking, is it humanly possible for her to sleep that well? is she eating enough? maybe i should wake her up? but, no. she just likes to sleep.

- she has 2 teeth now, they just popped up last week while we were in mexico. so cute and tiny, and jagged. she didn't seem to fuss about them too much, woke up a couple times in the night while we were there, but thats it.

- Hazel loves to eat, but not like my other kids. they LIVEd to eat, especially ozzie. Hazel jsut enjoys herself, eats slow, and when she's done, she's done. She will NOT however take a bottle of any variety, which is getting a little annoying i must say. but whatever, i figure you only get that special time with your baby for 9 months or so and then its over, so i better enjoy it!

-She loves her bother and sister a lot. especially greta. she will laugh at pretty much everything greta does. even the super annoying things like when she's playing dog ALL day long. but its really cute how hazel watches her every move, and even likes it when greta picks her up and totes her around the house.

-she loves to roll from her tummy to her back, but wont roll the other way yet. and she's totally into biting and drooling all over everything she can get her hands on thanks to those new teeth

Other than that, Hazel is basically the sweetest, happiest, baby around. i am so blessed for such a special spirit to be part of our family. I remember when i was waiting for ozzie to be born, worrying so much that i wouldnt love him as much as greta, and the same when hazel came around. it's amazing to me that you can love your kids each SO much in such different and individual ways. Hazel makes me feel calm, and happy, and her gummy little smile melts my heart, daily. Love you Hazel Felisa:)

oh and here's all the kids at 6 months

this 3 year old boy

late late late. forgetful forgetful. tired tired. this is the story of my life these days. i NEED to get back to the gym or something to give me some energy and a boost! In spite of this fact, i needed to blog about my little ozzie tonite.

It just seems that since Hazel has been born he has changed SO much and has become such a big boy and it honestly breaks my heart a little cause HE was my baby not so long ago.

Birthday!!

Ozzie turned 3 in September, yes, that was almost 3 months ago, i know. but i'm blogging about it today. The weather on his birthday was predicted to be amazing so we planned for an outdoor end of the summer BBQ/party with friends at henderson. It was an amazing night, 30 degrees on Sept 10, NEVER happened in saskatoon let me tell ya. Ozzie wanted to have a Spiderman party, so i obliged of course. It was really fun, and we rented a train astrojump that was a huge hit for all of the kids! On the menu: BBQ deluxe with daddy's special chicken, hotdogs and terriaki chicken pineapple skewers and lots of yummy salads! Ozzie ate mostly vegetables as per usual. I just cant get over how well this child eats, and how MUCH he eats. it is insane.

He did however make me happy and partook of his first birthday cupcake ever! I made the coolest spiderman cucpcakes and he just had to try them. I would show a picture of them, but i got distracted by something just when i was going to take one, and then never remembered to do it later:( but they were awesome!

Ozzie got spioled with gifts, lots of cool new puzzles which his is totally into these days, a new red firetruck that shoots water, an insane green gun that he loves but drives me crazy, and lots of other great things! All in all it was a great day with friends for my big boy!

Potty Time

I contemplated whether or not to potty train ozzie before or after Hazel was born. Boy am i glad i waited until after. Ozzie had it in his mind that when he turned 3 he was a big boy, and was going to use the potty. So even though he was ready earlier than that, i thought i might as well wait till that day arrived and then get rid of the diapers completely and go from there.

So we did the Potty Boot camp right after his birthday and it worked amazingly well! Every day i thought to myself, "could it possibly be THIS easy?" He was peeing like a champ on day one, no prob, he even poo'd on the first day and was SO proud of himself! We hit a bit of a wall a few days later with the number 2 buisiness, but he figured it all out after i bribed him with a new ninja turtles movie! Every night i put him in pull ups because that's what i did with greta, but he never not once, pee'd at night. Dry every morning. i was shocked! So now he's rockin the undies, and has yet to have even one accident, go Ozzie!

Life at home

Since Greta started kindergarten ozzie has really wanted to go to school as well. I did Joy school with greta at 3 but i have had a difficult time getting enough time or energy to pull anything together for ozzie this year. He has been taking gymnastics with ben and briggs which has been so good for him and fun, so he has his own special class. and every day he asks, "Mommy is it gymnastics today?" He really loves it, and is getting more brave and some of the scarier stuff like balance beam and jumping of the high level into the foam pit! its his last class this week so i should take some pics i guess.

Ozzie loves coloring i think because Greta does. He's actually staying in the lines better and not scribbling so much and always asks me what letter "Batman" starts with. I say "B" and then he keeps coloring.

He has started playing pretend with his "Guys" as he calls them. Like batman, spiderman, or any other toy guy that can stand up on its own. its really cute to see him use his imagination, he can play for a whole hour sometimes by himself, which is really nice:)

And i know i already mentioned this, but Ozzie can out eat pretty much anyone in the family. His favorites these days, are cantalope and honeydew, toast with butter, "bunny carrots" which are just any big carrot, meat sticks, boiled eggs( whites only), and hawaiian haystacks. when he is a teenager, i am in big trouble.

Mama's boy

This is actually an understatement. I'm not sure if it's because he's not the baby anymore, or separation anxiety or something? but Ozzie wants to be with me ALL the time. He wants me to put on his clothes, turn on the light, find his blankies etc etc, when normally he would do all of these things on his own. i roll with it most of the time just to not cause drama. But it has gotten so bad that i had to come home one night from something becaus ehe would not let Dick put him to bed and was bawling his eyes out. I get frustrated by it at times, but i looks at it this way, he wont always need me SO much or want me SO much, and so i better enjoy my time with my little guy while i can.

Ozzie and I have a special bond, not sure what it is? maybe its our oversized alien heads, but i am so greatful for this boy. He is so sweet, and kind, and always the first to appologise, and says the cutest things that you want to kiss his face off. and at other times so stubborn, and determined to get his way that you want to do the opposite... whatever that is.

also, he has got his daddys natural hair curl, and deep brown eyes and it is the cutest thing of my life! gonna break some hearts some day for sure. love you Oz man!

its been awhile

i find its hard once you havent blogged in awhile, to start back up. so daunting. like that pile of clean laundry that sat in the bin so long unfolded, that it becomes impossible to fold. so you just use all of the stuff in the bin, un-folded and start all over again........anyone? ok. well, maybe thats just me. but even though a million and one things have happened since the last time i posted anything, i wont attempt a complete catch up.

let's just start with greta.

First day of school!!! she was sick the day before but HAD to go!

My all grown up girl started kindergarten not long ago. and i've read all of these posts about moms being so sad seeing their kids go off to school, and must admit i felt a bit guilty. i wasn't sad really at all. you see my dear sweet greta joy has been ready to go to school for some time now. she is much too much like her mommy, and is wanting to go go go all day long. so school for her has been fantastic so far. She was a bit nervous about making friends, but she actually knows quite a few kids in her class already, so that helped a lot. now, she barely says goodbye when she heads out the door. She was glued to me when i came for snack day, but it was really fun to see her interact with her teacher and chat with her little friends. I guess maybe i wasn't so sad to see her start school because as a teacher i know all of the fun things and learning that can take place, and i was jsut excited for her to experience it.

OR maybe i'm just glad to have a break in the afternoons? or both? now we're a few months into school and i can not believe how quickly greta is learning all her sounds and sounding out and writing so many words all by herself. yesterday she sounded out skeleton all by herself as "skeliton" which is pretty darn close. she'll be reading in no time!

Greta ran the pumpkin run this year again, and she did really well. i ran with her and it was a good thing because she would have never made it otherwise. her shoes were a wee bit too tight and she complained about them the whole time! but i was proud she finished well, and did her own little sprint to the finish line! and of course got her little pumpkin:) the highlight for her actually was FINALLY getting to see one of her best friends from saskatoon miss Halle again. they were darling and a little shy at first, they we caught them sneaking off together to "catch up" we will have to do it again very soon. and i'm so sad we didnt get a pic of them together:(

with her cousins and super red faces after the race! it was HOT!!

she is a very good big sister too, for the most part. she LOVES hazel and is so sweet with her and loves to entertain and dance for her and make silly sounds etc. Hazel full on belly laughs for only greta, so cute. and as far as ozzie goes, they really are best buds. they hug everytime she leaves or comes home from school. and in the morning whoever wakes up first has the other one come snuggle in their bed, and i overheard them playing "I spy" the other morning in their pitch black room. hilarious!

now i'm not gonna lie. there are days, "like today" for example. where i have issues with my little 5 year old. she honestly talks like she is 15, and she is so picky about her clothes/hair etc. she loves to postpone anything i ask her to do so she can finish something on her own agenda. mostly usual kid stuff. but she really pushes my buttons, and i'm TRYING to have patience and remember she is only 5. but some days, it. is. hard.

recently we had out family pictures done by one of my good friends from high school. he does an amazing job, and he put almost all the pics on the disc so we could jsut see the funny ones of the kids playing etc, and well as the good ones. anyways, amongst some of the outtakes we found a striking genetic similarity, that we were not previously aware of. check these two out.

we. were. DYING!!! love this girl so much, who looks like daddy but acts like me:))

adjusting

Hazel is a 3 weeks old now, and is so rad. just sayin. but it is always an adjustment when there's a new baby around. some things i forgot about having a newborn:

- how much time you spend parked on your butt nursing. and how much more difficult it is to do that with kids whining or fighting or needing things at the same time you feed the baby

- how DONE i am with changing not one, but TWO sets of diapers. operation potty train Ozzie will commence VERY soon. i can not stand it.

-how big your other kids seem with a teeny little baby in your arms. time goes by SO fast! Hazel already is plumping up, and doesn't fit newborn diapers, and is losing her hair, and i've even had to put away a couple of outfits already...sniff sniff.

- how much more attention your other kids want. ozzie wants me to do everything for him, where-as usually before Hazel was around he would settle for daddy to do things for him or by himself. he's a teeny bit jealous i think. and greta has decided she is an adult now, and is taking showers, and brushing her teeth all by herself, and has the attitude of a teenager. great.

-how GOOD little babies smell. even when they barf all over themselves( which is often) they still smell so good. if i could drink that smell i would.

-The last on my list was going to be how tired you are. and dont get me wrong, i AM tired. but for some reason, maybe summer time? maybe better recovery? maybe not having a husband in school? i feel less tired that with my other two kids. thank GOODNESS! i was a zombie for like 6 months with ozzie, and so i'm grateful for sleep. so grateful.

In other news, we've been having fun weekend get aways seeing as we're a little bit strapped to the house. From stinky Park lake, to waterton, to the raymond pool, it's been fun! Glad Dick has the weekends off, makes it so nice.

and last, i have to document a conversation i had with my Greta this week:

G: Mom, i just dont know who i should marry...i think Tyce for sure, but then that boy Dillan from the water slides was really fun and wanted to marry me too. Who should i choose?

M: well i wouldnt worry about it too much Greta, you're still very young and wont have to think about that for a long time

after a short pause

G: Well... someones gonna be disappointed.

holy cow. i'm in trouble with that girl. but at least no one can ever say my kids lack in the self esteem department:)

and baby makes 5

I can't believe there are 5 people in our family now. i look back when we are driving in the van and i'm surprised to see most of the seats filled. it's weird to me, i seriously feel like i'm not old enough to have, a husband, an education, a house, a mini van, and now 3 kids. i swear, it seems like last week that i was in high school and my biggest life concerns were what i was going to wear each day, and what songs were playing in my sweet 1984 camero. ANYWAYS.... nostalgia aside, here's the baby story of Hazel, it needs to be documented.

So my due date was July 12th, and seeing as i've never been early before, actually overdue both times, i figured Dick and I were safe heading to Calgary on the 8th to go see Wicked and enjoy some time alone together! In hindsight, probably not the best idea. So we left on Friday afternoon, did a little shopping, had dinner with geoff an nicki and went to the show. It. Was. Awesome. I first saw Wicked in New York and so i was anticipating it to be good, but not quite as good as in new york. but actually, it was quite comparable, and Dick really liked it too! We had a great time, and i was very un comfortable sitting for so long at that point, but not feeling anything out of the ordinary.

So we left to go to our hotel, with a quick stop in at Peter's Drive in for milk shakes on the way. The plan was to sleep over and head out glasses shopping in the morning before we went back home. A half hour after we checked into the Sheraton... 1am, first contraction. I knew it was a real one immediately because i could feel it in my back, not just my tummy. I didn't say anything to Dick because i knew if i did he wouldnt sleep at all, and i thought they'd probably just go away cause they seemed pretty weak.

1:10 am- next contraction....crap.

So i used my trusty little iphone app to time the contractions and they were staying withing the 10-12 min apart range. so while i layed there i started stressing...what if we have to go to the hospital in calgary? which one do i go to? where is it? who would deliver me? what about my mom, could she babysit longer? i think Jill has an uncle thats a Dr. in calgary, should i call him? etc. etc. etc. needless to say it was a LONG sleepless night amidst contractions.

Finally i decided that if the contractions hadn't gotten any closer together by 5:30 am, that we would take our chances and head back home. a decision that was definitely inspired. And so we left the hotel about 6 am, and drove back to lethbridge. scary. i was really worried this was gonna be one of those-side of the road- born in the back of the van-with only the cows as your witness- types of birth stories. THANKFULLY, that wasn't the case. After dick pulled out all of his nose hairs to stay awake driving home(literally), we made it back to our house and chilled for a bit until things progressed further. Phewf!!!

About 10:30am the contractions we're getting embarrassing and scary to the kids at home so we left for the hospital to make sure everything was ok, and hopefully get admitted. After they checked me in, and checked me out, i was still only 2 cm dilated. SERIOUSLY??!! i was so annoyed, it had been a really long night and morning already, but the nurse said to go for a walk and she'd check me in an hour. sure, sure. so i tried to walk, but honestly thought i was going to pass out everytime i had a contraction, so i ended back in my bed to tough it out. and thats what i did. the nurse kept saying when she looked at the monitor, "Wow, thats a big one" or "those are some fierce looking contractions." I was like, thanks tips. super helpful. Anyways, within about a half hour i was DYING, and begged to be checked again and get an epidural so i could have a break. My Dr. was not on call because it was a saturday, so i had a new Dr. with the DRYEST personality, but i was just happy that anyone would check me and get me out of this pain. Sure enough, i had gone from 2 cm to 7cm really fast and they said i could get an epidural...YEAH!!!!!!

so my IV was in, blood work done, just waiting for the anesthesiologist...who they were paging, and paging, and paging, and never showed up. turns out that when there is only one availiable in the entire hospital, he's a pretty busy guy. Dumb. stupid lethbridge. with all the mormons and hudderites around here having babies, you'd think they could get another Dr. for the maternity wing. Well, as soon as i came to terms that i was going to have to do this au-natural, i lost it. I said to Dick, "i CANT do this!" i'm sure a million times, or maybe like 3 times, but still. I was terrified. and the new 'bad personality' doctor i had been dealt, made me super paranoid about rupturing my uterus because i was having a V-bac, and actually seemed bored with the whole process. like i needed to hear this now, when i'm right in the middle of labor. So, they decided to give me some morphine which did nothing for pain and just made me completely out of it, and i began to push. Like i said, the morphine made me so tired and delirious that i could barely hear any of the coaching from the dr. or nurses, but after about a half hour of horror, i was with it enough to make out the words "It's a Girl!!!"

I was SO happy she was here, and safe, and crying, and i was SO happy those flippin contractions were over. seriously. death.

The aftermath of having a baby is never fun. With Greta it was only 2 days of recovery before i went back in for major surgery. With ozzie it was recovering from a c-section. But I'm not gonna lie, even though natural child birth was horrifying on many many levels, the recovery can not even compare to the other times for me. i feel like i could run a marathon (figuratively of course) this time around. I'm healing quick, i'm not so sore that i cant enjoy holding and snuggling my new baby, and i'm not having to take pain meds all the time to survive. and i feel relatively sane because i'm getting decent amounts of sleep. I'm so, SO grateful! I'm not even closed off to the idea of maybe...MAYBE having one more child someday...which is huge for me! When all is said and done, i'm just so blessed to have a loving husband and my 3 beautiful kids!

Welcome to the world baby Hazel!