December 25, 2013

Playing Catch-up -- the rest of our fall highlights

It's Christmas day… yet, I am going to continue with my update… so back to September we go. (Merry Christmas by the way! )

September:
- only days after my family left for their long drive home, my Grandmother passed away. This deserves a full post on its own…  her death released her from this broken earth and her broken body after many years, and I am so thankful that she is at peace and at HOME praising Jesus, her Saviour. This called for an unexpected trip to PEI, and my cousin was kind enough to join me and the kids on a L-O-N-G road trip… The kids did amazing, and I rather enjoyed our little trip. Funerals bring together many family members and friends that you don't often see, and I'm very thankful I was able to get "home".


Lots to keep him busy...

Happy to be out of her seat. MJ too ;)

Rolling out the kinks after a long day in the car ;)

Day 2 on the road… ALMOST stranded. God was kind to keep us going as we circled back to find the nearest gas station...

On the road about 40 minutes later… Yes.

Couldn't have asked for a better travelling partner… for better or WORSE ;)

Angels in disguise. 

Slightly inappropriately enthused at seeing the digger in action...

Back into Nana's arms after only a few days!

Park time





Had to get a beach day in on one of the only sunny warmish days :)


Clams :)

One last night away from home… a late night stop at a hotel in Quebec.

Finally HOME!! Super happy to see Daddy :)



October:
- Had a week at the cottage over Thanksgiving… it was wonderful.  Amazing weather. Cooked my first turkey. Did some fun fall activities as a family. Relaxed and disconnected from social media for a bit. :)
- AJ helped Daddy carve his first pumpkin… thought it was pretty fun digging out the "goo" 
- My nephew was born!!!!! Early… a wonderful surprise! (Now if I could only get East to meet him…)











craziness



Think I was a little stressed about turkey day? I came prepared. 

And it was good!  :)


My precious nephew. So much love for a little man I haven't yet met.

November:
And the craziness started…
- Bought a house out in the "country" a bit… in a tiny community. So excited. The kids will have a yard!
- Put our house up for sale… eel,l started the process. Lots of activity: Painters, handymen, movers to move stuff within the house, window people, cleaners, lots of packing, decluttering and goodwill runs… lots of time spent on the road, aimlessly driving with the kids to keep us out of the house while people worked in it.
- Put our beloved cottage up for sale :(
- MJ had a fall and broke her leg, so wore a beautiful purple cast for 4 weeks (thankfully only that long!)… didn't slow her down any, but my poor Mama-heart… she's a trooper!
- Did Operation Christmas Shoebox with a bunch of friends at church. Fun way to kick of the Christmas season early! :)
Poor kid's schedule was so messed up with all the chaos… he fell asleep in this position while we signed papers purchasing our new place.

The kids *may* have had a bit more free time to try crazy stunts while I was busy packing...

We'll miss this little place… a lot.

Killing time in Target one day… one shoe on, one shoe off

Visit to Chucky Cheese for the first time… kids needed a reward for practically living in the van :)

Loving the rocket

New place!! It's official! :)

December-ish:
- Christmas parade… it was frigid. But AJ was so into it that he stood there from the very first participant to the last police car closing the parade down… I tried to urge him to go home to the warmth only a couple houses away… but he insisted to "KEEP WATCHING!" :) Fun age.
- a week of crazy house showings and super stressing about keeping everything clean… oh, and lots of driving in circles, killing time.
- SOLD our house!
Christmas Parade… chilled but singing lots of "Jingle Bells" :)

Just a smiley girl in December :)

December 3rd……. the sign went up. Selling his house. Mixed emotions… I came to this home as a bride. I brought 2 babies home to this house. Lots of amazing memories here. So thankful for it, yet looking forward to the next chapter in a new place.

December 12th… house sold FIRM. Amazing. God was so kind to do this so fast for us. I had the honour of putting up the sold sign :)


Once that SOLD sign went up, we were able to relax… the kids could play with their toys (imagine!) and eat cheerios again (haha… always end up on the floor, and always end up crushed on the floor!)… I didn't have to wash the floor on my way out the door… we could plop our coats on the chair beside the door again (Wait… too bad we didn't break that habit!)… but best of all, we could put up some "Christmas" in the house, which made our little man so happy!

December 22, 2013

Testing… 1,2,3… does this still work??

Wow, I can't believe July was my last post.

Life goes fast. Too fast. (though, admittedly, some days seem far too slow!)

Also, I take too many pictures, so it's overwhelming when I sit down to do a quick post. Apparently I've turned this into a photo-journal instead of a place to spew craft words.

Then there's the whole brain issue. I'm pretty sure it's completely mush now, which makes writing content a tad bit of a hazard. I'm a little embarrassed about this zero-brain activity, and that the highlight of my day is often something like seeing our two-year old master a new piece of playground equipment or the fact that our 8-month old ACTUALLY SWALLOWED SOMETHING OTHER THAN BREASTMILK... oops, sorry for the excitement there, but that's a big deal these days! It only took 8 months...

You can see why my husband is excited to get home at the end of his long work day... getting bombarded with big news like that!

Then I remember that my day (...evening and night) job is actually pretty important, and those big little details are all a part of raising two precious little people. And I'm positive my husband is excited at the end of the day to be greeted with a running two year old who gives "big hugs" and a wiggly smiley 8-month old who about squirms out of her skin in joy when she spots her Daddy.

It's worth the brain mush.

And that friends, is what I wrote three months ago…. when MJ was actually 8 months. NOW she's 11 months!

I can see this blogging thing is never going to happen if I try to cover all the months I've missed. So maybe I can sum it up in bullet form and then start fresh??

Summer 2013:
- We had a 45 minute visit with my Dad when he was in the area for a conference. 45 minutes is better than nothing!

- My dear friend CJ and her family were in the area visiting relatives and we got to spend almost a full day together. It was such precious time, and so fun to see our kids together. AJ and her 3rd boy are very close in age. Wish we lived MUCH closer.

- Jersey Girl and I went to the cottage for a couple days with just the kids. Though it got a little loud and crazy with four kids two and under (and we were missing our men), I think they had fun.  :)

- Grandpa and Grandma came for a two week visit AND met MJ for the first time! As per the pattern, they kept busy… drywall removal, drywall repair, tiling backsplash, painting outside trim, whitewashing a wall, yard work, and… some beach time and lots of play time with the kids. We love having them visit and the time always flies by!








- Papa, Nana and Uncle L came for a visit at the end of the summer… and brought a very special guest!
MY GRANDMOTHER!! So So So special to have her with us for over a week. Such a GIFT. x0x0x











Crazy day to be at the beach… Dad helping Grammie keep her ears warm ;)

While most of us froze in the wind -- my crazy mom and brother went swimming in the waves!





A July picture (photo creed to my friend CJ)



And that was our whirlwind summer… Next up, FALL!