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!

mixed emotions

wow. 5 days left...technically. can. not. believe. it.

it's about this time in my previous pregnancies that i start to freak out a bit, especially when I actually come to realize/remember that this baby is going to have to come out of my body someway, some how...very soon. i find it hard to remember from each pregnancy, certain details or differences between them. but here's a few things that come to mind this time around.

things that have NOT been helpful this time around:

-having 2 other kids to manage while being extremely tired

-not being in very good shape before i got prego

- being prego mostly during the winter= BAD eating/ snacking habits

- hip pain from Hell. seriously, i feel like a 90 year old

- drinking an entire bottle of rotten FUZE juice, and barfing my guts out one night(i know i shoudn't complain, but for a never ever barfer...it was traumatic)

- breaking not one, but BOTH of my swimsuit straps at the raymond pool due to my prego girth. (granted not my fault, the lime ricki clasps might as well be made from playdough) but it was almost a severe wardrobe malfunction)

- the most intense braxton hicks contractions ever. i feel like i've been carrying a medicine ball in my abdomen for the last 2 months

things that have SAVED my life this time around:

-having family close by to babysit for Dr.s appointments or just when i need a break. dreamy.

- NOT having my husband in school full time, nuff said.

- Mon./ Wed. nap day- just about every time greta had pre-school, i had a lay down while ozzie napped. BEST!!!

- i have been ridiculously heathly throughout the entire 9 months, even in the winter. i think i caught a head cold from my kids once. that's it!

Other small things:

- I feel like i have been carrying really high this time around and really out front, very torpedo-ish.

- this baby has been dancing or something in there from the get go, never still, especially after 10pm

- i can tell this baby is NOT breach, (thank goodness) because i can feel 10 million kicks and movements a day, and with ozzie all i felt was a giant head stuck in between my ribs.

- the kids have been so cute and sweet the last few weeks, giving the baby lots of hugs and kisses, and talking to it, and feeling it move. greta especially, so cute!

- i really have NO CLUE what we are having, and i am dying to find out. it has been torture for the last couple months

- I AM HUGE! it is getting really embarassing.

- i dont know if this may or may not be my last pregnancy. but if it is, i will really miss feeling the baby move around in there, my favorite part for sure.

- last, i feel very very blessed to have such good pregnancies. i know how difficult it is for some to get pregnant, or stay that way, or survive the 9 months in one piece. carrying a giant baby is not for the weary, but i'm grateful for everything that has led to this point. and i just pray for a semi-decent labor and delivery(i feel it's my turn) and a healthy, happy baby!

I really am excited, it's baby time.

one last hoorah!

We had been wanting to get outta town for the last few weekends but it seems like there was always something going on to stay home for. We figured it would be our last family getaway with just the 4 of us, and we wanted to spend some quality time with the kids before baby time turns everything upside down. so finally we escaped to calgary on friday to the Sheraton Cavalier to sleep over. I grew up going to this exact hotel with my family all the time after we went to flames games . it was my brother and I's favorite because they had 2 sweet waterslides, and at the time was one of the only hotels that did. Years later, it is still just as rad, but now the actual hotel is WAY nicer and newly renovated and the kids were in their GLORY at the pool/ waterslides. SO fun!!! we stayed up way to late but totally worth it!

all geared up ready to swim!

yikes, too cute

greta was really brave and after a couple times down with mommy and realizing i was slowing her down BIG TIME, she was up and down those slides a billion times. and ozzie loved the one that had a tunnel and how fast he went with daddy down the slides! he's usually kind of a wuss, but he was just as gung-ho as greta, and Daddy sure got a good work out up and down the stairs!

Late night snack of cucumbers and goldfish and juice, watching max and ruby in a king size bed! doesnt get much better than that for my kids:)

In the morning it was supposed to maybe rain, but looked ok out so we thought we'd have a nice breakfast and head to the zoo for the morning. I'm not much of a fancy breakfast maker so my kids were super excited to have waffles and sausage, and juice all in the same meal. it cost a small breakfast fortune but good because we didn't have to buy gross zoo hotdogs etc. cause we were still full from breakfast.

The last time we went to the zoo last summer we checked out the dinosaur exhibit and ozzie was terrified of the roaring sounds they made! Dick had to take him out because he was screaming so loud! so this year we were hopeful he would like it way more because he's totally into dinosaurs, and so we headed in, and it looks like ozzie wasn't the only kid freaked out of the noises because they removed all of the moving parts, and sounds that the dinosaurs made! so now actually, it is kind-of lame, but ozzie was still happy to see Tri-ceratops!

We usually don't let the kdis do the rides and stuff at the zoo and try to spend most of the time looking at the animals, but they were more than thrilled to hit up the merry-go-round for the first time this year. ozzie chose the bat because we had just seen some, and greta hopped on a froggy, no surprise there.

It was a great trip to the zoo, and the kids were excited that the penguins were coming next year. we used a 2 for 1 cupon and so felt justified in leaving by about 1. and the kids we SOOOOO tired that ozzie barely made it back to the van and was asleep instantly in his car seat, even before we started driving!

The rest of the day we headed over to chinook mall which was a bit depressing for me, i'm not gonna lie. being this prego, and not knowing what were having, and seeing all of the cute summer clothes that were on sale was a bit hard to swallow. but we had fun at the cool kids toy store for like an hour while daddy did some much needed shorts shopping and a rendezvous at the apple store! I wasn't totally dis-satisfied however because i did get my way and we went to Joeys for dinner and i indulged in my favorite lettuce wraps and diva salad. mmmmm, diva salad.

Anyways, all in all it was a great time, and i'm so glad we got to escape one last time before this baby pops out( as greta says)....sigh...if only it was that easy:)

oh, and here's gretas adorable picture she made of the her favorite zoo animals when we got home. (Elephant, giraffe, tiger, and a few birds and a turtle)she is quite the little artist, and she tried to write I (heart) the Animals( in picture form!) so cute!

hot date

On Friday Greta had a busy afternoon planned with a swimming birthday party and a primary party immediately following. She was in her GLORY! to say the least, and completely entertained so i was able to go on a hot date with my favorite little boy.

I already feel like i dont get enough one on one time with ozzie, and with the new baby showing up real soon, its only going to get worse. so i was Really glad to spend some time with him, un-interrupted.

I asked him where he wanted to go most, the pet store or the park? he chose pet store, no surprize there. and i must admit, as lame as lethbridge is when it come to activities for kids and families, they do have a fantastic pet store that we frequent often. Ozzie loves to find the "nemo" fish, and pet the bunnies, and he even got to feed one some lettuce, or "dinner" as he called it. I usually let him roam free in the reptile zone, seeing as i cant be within a meter of a caged snake, but he loves to see the turtles and snakes the most.

After the pet store we went to help Greta change out of her swim stuff, and then we went out for dinner, also known as "Chicken and Fries" according to ozzie. We were at dairy queen, and he was so cute just sitting waiting at the table patiently for our food to be ready. So i took the time to ask him some typical date type questions:

Q- what's your favorite color? - green...and, um.....blue. ya. green and blue mommy.

Q- whats your favorite thing to eat? - juice. (me- well thats a drink, what about food?) um....cantalope and melomelon(watermelon) which is totally true, he can eat half a cantalope in one sitting no problem.

Q- what do you want to be when you grow up? - ........................... a little boy.

Q- do you like being 2? - ya, sure! i'm 2! can i have some more juice?

Anyways, it was really cute. i love how much he talks and hearing his sweet little voice and enthusiasm about everything!

After we took greta to her next party, we got a couple groceries and headed to the park because it wasnt raining for once. I pulled up to the park, and he said, "Were going to the park too!!!??? YEAH, THE PARK!!!!!!! thanks mommy, so so much!! and then, my heart melted:)

We had fun playing and swinging (which is his favorite thing to do, and playing chase, even though i'm pretty slow moving these days so it wasnt much of a challenge for him to "get away" from me.

It was a perfect afternoon date with my Oz. We definatley need to do it again really soon!

In other news, the kids are FINALLY sharing a room. we put it off and put it off only because i knew it would shake things up around here, including our sleep patterns. but so far so good. they go to bed great, which is nice. the only problem is the middle of the night pee breaks from greta or leg aches or bad dreams. she's woken up ozzie a few times already, and once he's awake its difficult to convince him that its still night time and to go back to sleep. anyways, we're working on it, but i love how cute they are when i come in to get them in the morning, just talking, or making dog sounds, or singing popcorn popping. adorable.

one more ozzie story form a couple days ago so i dont forget. we were at costco and i usually make him sit in the cart, but it was pretty dead in the store so i let him walk with greta, which he loves. but he's started this new thing in stores where he likes to hide, and it a) gives me a heart attack when i cant see him and b) makes me so annoyed. So he was hiding and i told him if he hid again he'd have to get back in the cart. so we continue along for a minute and he asks, "Mommy can i still walk?" i said, "Sure, buddy you can walk." Then he asks, "Can I skip to my lou?"..... what am i supposed to say to that? the cutest question of all time? "sure ozzie, go ahead" and he proceeds to do the cutest jump/skip move beside the cart while we shopped. I. was. dying.

life is good:)

Happy Feet!

Tonite was Greta's first "official" dance recital on the big stage! Her group was called Happy Feet, and they were dressed like little frogs with tutu's and did a tap number to a Kermit the frog song. (I say official, because we missed her show last year by about 2 weeks because we moved, it was very sad.) anyways, to say she was excited is an understatement for sure! These were the things(according to her) she was most excited about in random order:

- Dancing on the big girl stage

She did SO good! i'm not just saying that. The kids all came out in a line and were a little late getting to their spots before the music started, but Greta picked up what they were supposed to be doing right away, and was shuffle stepping her heart out! SO cute! i was beaming, and so was she:)

- wearing mommys makeup

I did her makeup and told her that she couldnt peek until i was done and that it was a surprise. She could hardly stand it. When i let her look she gasped and said, "Oh mommy i look so beautiful!" it was really cute, she actually seemed shocked by the fact. One thing i learned putting stage makeup on Greta...i'm gonna have to keep a close eye on her as a teenager, yikes, she liked it WAY too much!

All dolled up, ready to go. She has those Crazy eyes kids get when their REALLY excited about something!

- having "extra" curly hair that bounces

we have only been letting her hair continue to grow until this recital was over because they were supposed to have hair in a half pony tail, curly. It looked really cute, but now we BOTH cant wait for the big CHOP next week! It was funny during her dance though, i noticed she kept flipping her curls back behind her shoulders whenever she got the chance:)

- Having her best cousin Kaiya, and Aunt Nicki, and Grandma and Mommy in the audience to watch and cheer

The timing this weekend was really bad, Gretas class was supposed to perform originally on WEd. night so Dick would have been able to come before he left to vancouver for the weekend. Then they switched the schedule and he ended up being away tonite. Sad. but Greta had her other family fan club, and sweet Kaiya sat thought 19 hundred dances and we didnt get out of there until 10:30, poor thing! Greta was beaming though that she came to watch her, so nice to have the support of family!

-Watching the "Big Girls" do some of their dances

This was probably her favorite part!

All in all it was a great night! I am so proud of my little girl for doing a great job! It brought back a LOT of memories, of dance in general, and the dance "world", how much i LOVEd it and made so many good good friends, and also how crappy the yates is. Come ON lethbridge!!

** oh, and you'll notice i have NO pictures of her in her costume because they are Nazi's and dont let any parents NEAr their kids backstage, even for a quick photo. lame. we'll just have to wait until we get her real pictures i guess.