Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday.

1. Cuddle babies. I love to snuggle with Gracie Lou while the big kids play. 

2. Movies with Matthew McConaugheyheyhey. Yup I said it. Sometimes you just have to be thankful for a handsome actor in decent movies. I hear he doesn't wear deodorant, so I'm fine to appreciate his talent from afar. 

3. Long pants and cozy sweaters. If you know me, you know I'd prefer summer over anything else, but as I'm getting older, I'm finding fall is a close second for me. We've had a good summer, and that makes it easier to look forward to some cooler, crisp weather. 

4. Potty training. Elliott is mostly motivated, and trying, and interested in the potty. I can feel the diaper freedom on the horizon. Yay!

5. Bubbles. More for the kids than for me, but man do they love bubbles. So does Echo. We had at least 45 minutes of entertainment with everyone playing. 

6. FaceTime. I have a few friends who live far away, that I don't get to see, and with this I can see them, catch up, visit. It's wonderful. It curbs the ache of missing them. 

7. Fall nail polish colors. Every season brings new nail trends, oooooo it makes me giddy. I love nail polish. I always feel appropriately dressed when wearing the right nail polish. Yes it's vain, but sometimes you just wanna feel a little more put together.

8. Peanut Butter. Yum. 'Nuff said.

9. Apple sauce in "drink pouches". So much less messy than apple sauce in a cup. The boys love the novelty of eating it from the pouch, and I love that it doesn't get spread all over the kitchen table like paint. 

10. Fabricland being sooooo close. It's bad, but it's good. I could wander fabricland happily for hours. Might even wander a bit today with the kiddies. 

Chip Chip Chip'n Away

Oh boy, we're 17 days til moving day! I'm not sure who's more excited -- me or the kids?!

We happily got to take some boxes over, and get another look around. Every time we go the place and yard look bigger! (I wonder if we're subconsciously telling ourselves it's a huge downsize, so that when we get there, it won't seem so small. If that's our subconscious plan, it's working!!!)  Getting some of our boxes moved makes room for more boxes to be put in our storage spaces. I can't wait until we can just clean it all out though!

I've gotten a lot of cleaning done, and hopefully all that's left as we leave is a quick wipe down of walls/windowsills/counters. The carpets will get steam cleaned the day after we're out, and hopefully that will be it. *Fingers Crossed*!

The boys are becoming such good friends. Yes, they still fight a TON, but they also get along a lot of the time too. Today they were fighting over who got to hug and snuggle me. Not gonna lie, I let them fight over me for a good 45 minutes! 45 minutes of snuggles and hugs is unheard of with 2 little boys, so I enjoyed every moment. *Grin*

Thomas is such a sweet boy. When Uncle Cam came to pick up Emma today, Thomas exclaimed, "Uncle Cam! I love you!" Thomas keeps telling me how excited he is to have a bunk bed. I'm just desperately hoping he doesn't fall and break something! I'm considering painting the ladder to the top with some sort of glow in the dark paint, so that if he has to go to the bathroom in the night he'll be able to see where he's going. I've started to get nervous about Elliott escaping during the night, since he won't be in a crib anymore... maybe we'll install high railings on the side and end of his bunk to keep him in a night? Like a cage... that doesn't sound humane... hahaha

While I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot for this move, I also feel a little like it's overtaking my life. Good thing moving isn't something we intend on doing again for at least 5 years.

Things we are excited about for the move:

- getting a king size bed (because it will fit in our new enormous bedroom!!!)
- being able to send the boys out to the yard and not having to be out there the whole time with them, because it's fully fenced, and our kitchen and living room windows look at the yard.
- cheaper gas in abbotsford
- super duper close to the border
- close to all the U-pick farms (we LOVE to pick blueberries and raspberries in the summer)
- getting a dog, because we're allowed. Yay!
- getting to see Hannah and Grace every day! We love them!


Here's hoping the next few weeks fly, but are extremely productive!

Thomas and Elliott

Thought I'd do a little update post about my wild things.


Thomas:

4.5 years old.
excited to start preschool this fall
LOVES speech therapy
loves to sing and listen to music
has already picked out his future wife
has a small amount of freckles on his cute little nose
42lbs
still has a massive head
size 10(toddler) feet
still loves Thomas the Train and Cars
is excited to sleep on the top bunk of their new bunk bed
wants to know the day before what they're doing the next day
is very gentle
doesn't like conflict.
he's a lover, not a hater
likes to pray, and always remembers to ask for his blessing at bedtime
is a picky eater, but will almost always eat all of his dinner anyways (for the hope of getting a treat)
adores his cousin Emma
likes coloring, playdough, anything hands on, really
doesn't nap, perse, but if he has a time out in the late afternoon he will often doze off
cleans up all the toys in the living room when asked
empties the dishwasher (with my help), sweeps the kitchen floor and wipes the table and walls (willingly!!)
favorite colour is orange
consistently says he wants to be an astronaut
loves to snuggle
can't do anything without his favorite kitty


Elliott:

2 years and 4 months old
is not a gentle boy
loves Thomas the Train and Cars
instigates conflict
has a great vocabulary
loves to mimic Thomas
has been demoted to sleeping in his crib again because he was peeing in various locations in his room
is ready to potty train, i'm just waiting to we move
loves cats and dogs (but doesn't always know not to sit on them...)
likes to help empty the dishwasher
likes learning his letters and numbers
would prefer to sleep with mommy if he wakes up in the middle of the night
still uses a soother
still drinks his morning and bedtime milk out of a bottle
eats yogurt like it's the only food on the planet
is a cautious climber
naps 2 hours every day still (briefly tried to give it up, but he reinstated naptime)
takes a long time to warm up to other kids
likes his space
can't function without his blankie
prefers to roughhouse with daddy
size 8 (toddler) feet
likes soccer
won't sleep without Thomas at nana and papa's house
loves Hannah


They both love swimming, going to the park, going for walks and digging in the dirt.

Weekends are too much fun!

Wow we sure packed a ton into this past weekend! It felt like a good pace, we didn't rush it too much, and naps were still had, so that's always a bonus. Here's what we did this weekend!

Saturday:
The Rodeo was in town, and we decided to be brave and venture out even though we were told it would rain. It most certainly did not rain, and I got a mighty good sunburn out of the day. I think I've only even gone to the Cloverdale Rodeo maybe twice back when I was a teenager, and I don't remember it all that fondly, but I was probably broke and couldn't do anything fun :P This time around, it was a blast! Both boys were really into it, and had a great time on the rides and checking out all the fun stuff. We met up with some friends who have 2 boys around the same ages as ours, and that just made it even more fun!

We bought enough tickets for Thomas and Elliott to go on 3 rides each, but Elliott only ended up going on 2 rides, as he got scared on the second and wouldn't go on any more after that. Thomas, of course, had a blast, and wanted to go on every ride he saw. His favorites were the Monster Trucks and the Motorcycles.

Sunday:
On Saturday morning Thomas asked me if it was an owl he could hear "hooting" through the night, and I told him that, yes, it was an owl. (Our house backs onto a ravine and there's definitely a lot of wildlife back there!) He was so excited by the thought that there was an owl right out back, he wanted to go see it really really badly! I had to explain to him that owls sleep during the day, and that it would be very difficult to spot one having a snooze. Lucky for Thomas, I knew of a place where we could see some owls (and other birds) up close and personal. (Well, not too personal.)

So we went to O.W.L. Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society in Delta. What a great experience! The boys might have been a touch young to really understand all that we learned there, but Josh and I had a great time and learned a lot! Thomas thought all the Owls were so cute, and really thought the Turkey Vultures were hilarious. Elliott was good at spotting the birds in their enclosures, but once he pointed them out, he wanted to move on to the next enclosure.

If you're looking for something a little different, I definitely suggest checking out O.W.L. :)

I think our next family adventure will be to the Urban Safari Rescue Society.

Maybe I should change the name of my blog...

To something like "I only write on Thursdays so I'm thankful"...

I really need to start planning out at least 1 more post a week. Even I'm boring myself these days. Though, if I have nothing else to say except what I'm thankful for, life can't be that boring. I am at the very least keeping things in perspective.

And honestly, life is far from boring. Taking care of 3+ kids really keeps me on my toes. And getting the house ready to move. And attempting to keep it clean/deep clean it for the move. All very time consuming.

I've started planning out what the boys new bedroom will look like. I picked up some bunk beds (with the help of my big brother) over the weekend, and I'm pretty excited for the boys to get into them. We took them straight over to the new place, so it'll still be 2 months before the boys get to use them, but I'm working on bedding now for them. Below are some screenshots of the fabrics I'm going to use to sew duvet covers for the boys. The Car one will be for Elliott, the Planes for Thomas, and the Zig Zag I'm going to put as the reversible side for both duvets. I've picked out some matching accent colors for pillow covers and curtains. I'm pretty excited. It's going to look pretty cool once it's all put together. :)

Thomas had made specific requests that there be orange in his new bedroom. So this is how I plan to add orange without it being overwhelming. I don't remember what colour their room is at this current moment, but I think I'd like to paint it a nice beige like the background of the cars fabric has. And possibly do some accent stripes in the teal and orange. We'll see.

I'm really enjoying planning this all out. We know that for a minimum we'll be at this place for 5 years, so I can make things fairly permanent. I've got lots of ideas for the master bedroom too. We want to get a new bed (the one we've had has been around for a good 20 years), and we're hoping it'll be a King size. I've got designs for how we want to do the bed frame all ready to go. We're going to make a base out of Ikea shelving units laid on their sides. That we we'll have under the bed storage. I'd like to make a "headboard" out of the same idea too. We both have some nick-nacks we'd like on display, and I think this is the best way to get them all up where we can enjoy them. :) 

I really have to stop looking at puppies. I keep finding puppies I want really badly, but we can't get one until we've moved, and realistically, we should probably get settled before we get a puppy. Haha. :) I found one little girl pup that wouldn't be ready to be adopted for another few weeks, but she sadly passed away, and all of her siblings are spoken for. Ah well. All in good time. I'm really just so thrilled to add a fur baby to our family!

Naps are wrapping up here, and I'd better take advantage of the quiet and unload that dishwasher before I've got 2 more sets of hands trying to "help"!

Sunny with a chance of Happiness!

Oh goodness. The sun is shining. It's over 10 degrees. It's absolutely lovely!

Thomas has been eagerly awaiting for the sun to come, asking everyday to go to the park. We didn't quite make it to the park today, but we did make it to our back yard, which is huge, so it's like a park. They rolled on the grass, we kicked the ball around, we played a little tag, they slid down the slide, we had a picnic, and explored all the places water had puddled since the rain. It was just fantastic. None of us wanted to go inside.

I'm not a fan of winter; I can distract myself with how fun the decorations for Christmas are, but once Christmas is over, I want winter to be done, NOW. We all take vitamin D to stave off the winter blues, but there's just nothing as good as bright, golden, sunshine. We didn't even have to turn the heat on in the house. That's my kind monday!

I feel that Spring time is a symbol of starting fresh. So much more than January 1. I like to make my "New Years Resolutions" as soon as spring starts to set it. It seems like an easier transition to me. I am going to start running again this week, and I'm elated. Nothing feels better than running in the sunshine. Running in the rain does not have the right effect on me. Anything in the rain just hits the mark, but maybe that's just for me.

The change of weather also means our church will be starting softball soon, and that definitely makes me so happy. I'm certainly not the best player on the team, (hopefully not the worst, also), but I sure do enjoy playing softball with our church league. I can't wait for our season to start up and really test my hand eye coordination. Goal for this year: not to throw the bat after I've hit the ball. I may have almost taken a catcher or two out by the ankles throwing the bat... whoops.

I'm working on teaching the boys graciousness right now. Nothing grates me more than when they demand something, without any sort of manners, and then don't say thank you. I want them to be gracious, and thankful for what they have. Obviously, they're very young, so I won't hold the bar too high, but it still would be nice to hear them independently say "please" and "thank you" to me. They have their manners down pretty good with other people, but I guess because I am the one with them 24/7 manners get lost in the shuffle.

Does anyone have an suggestions for a great children's bible? I have a few bible apps that the boys think are fun, but they have limited stories.

We hope you enjoy the sunshine this week, if it's sunny where you are!