Not Much New Here

It's been a while since I last posted but honestly, not much new has happened. Greg has started working and on Friday we got paid for the first time since the beginning of January. It was so nice to do our budget for the next two weeks and not have to struggle with the numbers!! It has been beautiful here - the weather is warming up and I can't wait until the backyard is dry enough to play outside. I've been busy preparing tax returns as usual. I don't mind them to be honest - they are easy to do and don't take a whole lot of time. I even finished ours last week - usually we're the last ones that I file so that is a definite improvement.

Our kitchen still looks the same as it did - one wall removed. The cabinet guy is coming over on Monday night to make sure that nothing has changed in our design and then should be back in a few weeks to start the demo of the rest of the kitchen. We have hired an interior designer to help with paint choices and such (as I have absolutely no ability to see the big picture when it comes to paint and flooring and window treatments, lights and whatnot). She helped me pick paint colors - we're going with a few shades of green (green makes me feel good). Then we are getting custom window treatments made to pick up the secondary colors that we chose - chocolate brown and purple. The window lady and the interior designer will be fabric shopping soon and will bring me some samples to look for. If they can't find anything that they like, then they will make a day trip down to Grand Forks to look there.

We celebrated Keizer's third birthday at the end of March as well. Emily and I baked him a cake - the things you do to keep a two year old occupied. It was fun anyway and she had a good time watching him eat his piece of cake!

Other than that, our neighbours put their house up for sale this past week. We knew it was coming but I really like them and will be sad to see them go. They put their house on the market for $205,000 so once we are done with our renovations, I think we will have our realtor come over and give us an idea of what our house is worth these days - I have a feeling it has gone up a lot in five years.

Happy Easter and Other Stuff

This past Easter weekend was a great one - filled with lots of eating and family time! Our kitchen renovations also got under way. On Wednesday morning, the girls and I got out of the house and the walls started coming down! I can't believe how much it has opened up our kitchen even by just doing that. It looks so much better (and I'm saying that with studs showing on one wall). Our new kitchen window is being installed tomorrow and Greg and I took some time to go and shop for new lights for our bedroom, kitchen and hallway. We found ones that we really liked and ordered them today.

Today was also Danica's 6 month doctor's appointment. 6 months already - where does the time go? She is in great health and is now 27 inches long and 16 and a half pounds. She has grown three inches and put on three pounds in just two months. Emily was also weighed and measured. She now weighs 32 and a half pounds and is just over three feet tall. She's only two and is already wearing size 4T clothes!

One of my best friends also welcomed her first child into the world on Wednesday of this past week. Pam gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Jacob Andrew. He is so cute I could just pinch him!

Happy Easter!!

Jacob with Auntie Julie

It's Been A While...

Wow - it's been quite a while since I've last posted. We have been so busy and have had some great things happening here that blogging has kind of taken a back seat. I think that this might be a bit of a long post!

Where did I leave off - my birthday. We had a lot of fun having friends over and then family the next day for lunch. It was nice to be able to see everyone at the same time for a change.

But the biggest thing that has happened is that Greg passed his training course and is now a corrections officer! We are so proud of all of his hard work! He had ten weeks of (unpaid) training and he had 12 exams along the way that he had to pass (and a pass was a mark of 70% or more). He did awesome and we celebrated his graduation this past week. Today was his second day of actually working at the jail and so far he is really enjoying himself. The benefits are amazing too. Some of them we have to wait a bit for but really, working for the government has some definite pluses (the pension plan is my current favourite).

We have also began the long process of our kitchen renovations. We had an interior designer come in and help up choose our paint colors as well as window treatments to make sure that after all the time and money spent on the upstairs that it all looked good. Our kitchen guy is fabulous as well. I had a really good feeling about him from the moment that I met him and he has worked hard to make our dream kitchen come true (well dream kitchen in the limited space that we have and on our limited budget - hehe). He is coming tomorrow to start the first phase of the renovations - demolition and removal of one of the walls. We had a high efficiency furnace and hot water tank installed a few weeks ago so the stack that you normally need to get rid of the exhaust gasses is no longer necessary. The wall that surrounds the stack is being removed, then the stack inside is being taken apart and then the backside of the wall will be fixed up. That will open up our kitchen more and also give us room for a nice pantry. Our new window will be installed next week and we have chosen our flooring as well. So our timeline once the demo is complete tomorrow and the new window is in next week is the first week of May for the cabinet guy to come in, remove all of the old cabinets and tiles, prepare the walls and then install the new cabinets and get all the plumbing done. He tells us that this should be done the first week of May so I am hoping that will be the case. Then the painters will come in and paint the entire upstairs (with the exception of the nursery). Then the new floors will be put in and then just a few finishing touches like quarter round and such and we should be all done!

So that is us for now - I'll leave with a few pictures from the past month.

Emily trying on Daddy's new handcuffs

Greg receiving his diploma

He made me promise that I would take them off right after this picture was taken!Danica loves her jolly jumper (and Emily loves to help her jump)

Have You Ever...

Have you ever had a week when there was going to be lots of things going on that you were really looking forward to? That is this week for me. It started on Saturday night when Greg and I went to a party that my work was hosting. We had a nice dinner and then had a fantasy casino night afterwards. After the roulette table was taking more of my money than it was giving, I parked myself at a blackjack table and spent the rest of the night there. I won a ton and in exchange for my 7 cups of chips, I got 70 tickets for the silent auction draw. Greg and I then proceeded to win 3 of the 8 prizes so it was a great time! Plus we were without children for the night so that was an added bonus.

My birthday is on Wednesday and I am meeting a friend from work for lunch and then that evening my parent's are having us all over for Chinese food. Thursday is our fourth wedding anniversary so we will celebrate that a bit. Friday night is date night for Greg and I. The girls are heading for a sleepover at my parents and we are going to the Keg for dinner and then to a movie. Saturday is my birthday party with my friends. We are having people over to our place and I am really looking forward to that. Sunday after church, we are having family over for lunch. Then Monday is a holiday for us Manitobans so Greg is home for an extra day which we really enjoy.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to a fun filled week!

Missing What Might Have Been

I haven't really blogged about our third child that we lost this past year, mostly because it is a private matter for me, but there are times when I sit and wonder who that child was and what he or she would have become. I wonder how they would have fit into our family and I wonder what kind of relationship Danica would have had with her brother/sister. For the most part, I do feel a sense of peace about what happened - I believe that God knows what he is doing and that we are meant to grow and learn from this experience. Perhaps I feel at ease with what happened because we were blessed with Danica who is just a joy to parent.

Anyway, the other day I was doing some cleaning and came across a poem that a friend of mine had given to me just after we found out that we had lost one of the babies. I thought I would share it with you.

Untitled

Don't fret about me, Daddy and Mommy

I am one of God's lambs, most blessed

I'd have loved to stay there with you all,

But the Shepherd knows what's best.

Many dwelling in Heaven with me,

Waited years to enter in,

And struggled through a world of sorrow,

Their lives were marred with sin.

So, dear Daddy and Mommy, don't you sorrow,

Wipe those tears, and chase away the gloom,

I went straight to Jesus bosom, from my mother's womb.

Thank you for the life you gave me,

It was brief, but don't complain,

I have all of Heaven's glories,

And suffered none of earthling's pain.

As I leave, please do not sorrow,

Do not wish me back again,

From the bosom of my Savior,

To a world of grief and pain.

Another Trip to the Doctor

So today we had a follow up visit with Danica's orthopedic bone specialist Dr. Monson (or as Emily calls him - Dr. Monster). Her hips feel perfectly normal to him still so that was great news. We go back to see him in four months at which time he will take one more set of x-rays to make sure that the hip joints have formed properly and then we should be done!

The other day, I brought Dancia into bed with me once Greg had left for school and we both fell back asleep. I woke up an hour later but she was sound asleep. Emily decided to get in on the action and pretend to sleep as well!

Funny Story

So the other day, my in-laws came home from a vacation and we went over to their place for dinner and to catch up. So Emily and my nephew Noah were playing in the basement after supper and they were having a great time - we could hear them laughing and playing and just generally having fun. All of a sudden we notice that it has gotten pretty quiet down there so my father-in-law heads downstairs to see what they were up to. He finds them in the bathroom together. One of them (and I assume it was my child) had managed to open up a bottle of baby shampoo and spill some of it on the floor. So Emily thought that the best way to correct this situation was to use her socks to clean it up. Once her socks were covered in shampoo, she then decided that Noah's hair needed to be washed so there she is, lifting her foot, getting some soap off of the bottom of it and putting it in Noah's hair. And then she would repeat this process over and over. Poor Noah's hair was so slimy by the time we had caught them doing this! Kids make me laugh sometimes!

And now for some updated pictures:

How Danica likes to sleep during her afternoon nap

Big smileFun in the backyard

Watching Daddy and Emily play with playdoh