Jack Turns Five

 

Boy

Love this little five year old.

 

Not a total waste

Lest you think from my previous post that our little photo session Friday was a total waste of time. There were a few keepers.

 

 

 

Adventures in Picture Taking

"This picture thing may be okay Mom."

 

"Okay, nope, not okay, they're choking me!"

 

"Frankly I've got better things to do. Like right now I'm filling my diaper. You don't know it yet but everything is leaking and you are going to clean up a big mess, hehehe."

 

"Yeesh, now those boys want to kiss me. What's next?"

 

Giddy

If there was a word to describe both Darrel and I on Saturday it would be giddy. We decided to put up one small section of the new kitchen cabinets and they are beee-u-ti-ful! Not only do they look light years better than the old cabinets, I cannot believe how much stuff we can put in them. I love that they go to the ceiling as I hate cleaning that dirty greasy gunge that collects on top of the cabinets.

I still love the yellow in our kitchen but we decided to make the walls a more neutral colour and bring in the yellow with accent pieces like the fruit bowl etc. I figured that once those tall cabinets were up we'd never be able to get to the wall above them so we better make it a colour that will stand the test of time.

Another awesome part of the day was that Darrel and I worked together so harmoniously, not one fight or argument during the whole day! We really have figured out how to work together as a team when doing projects like this as opposed to two people with separate plans/ideas who both want to be in charge. That used to get us into trouble. Hooray for improved communication skills! (These will be put more to the test I'm sure as we tackle the trickier parts of the job but I'm really proud of us.)

We have yet to put the valence piece along the bottom of the cabinet, that is why the side panels are longer than the cabinets themselves. Overall we are pretty impressed with the IKEA cabinets, they are fairly straightforward to put together and install. I will be tiling the backsplash from counter top to the bottom of the cabinets, so I didn't bother painting that area.

This week in the evenings we will build the remaining cabinets and on Saturday we will tackle the lower cabinets. The dishwasher is moving to the other side of the sink so there's some plumbing and electrical changes to happen. (I am going to stake leadership training so in reality Darrel will tackle it and I will waltz in a few hours later -bless him.)

 

 

 

 

Busy Times

Way back at the start of this month I vowed to do what made me happy which obviously includes photo taking and scrapbooking. And this is the first layout I've done since New Years! That is a really long stretch for me, 21 days, crazy.

 

However, I have been busy, but in a good way. Darrel and I designed our new kitchen, the cabinets have been purchased and we are even thinking about installing them sooner rather than later. I've been pretty busy with yearly planning for Young Womens. It seems like at the start of the year there is so much to do. I have also started working three hours a week for MacEwan. This is mainly to pay for my beloved photography course that I will attend in March (and some of those kitchen cabinets!). Julie is teething like crazy so is taking more attention than her normal happy self. On the bright side, I get a lot of reading done as I cuddle and nurse her. I've reread two of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and just started the third. Such a good series! I read it again every few years and fall in love with Jaime and Claire all over again. Sigh. At parts a bit racy, so read at your own discretion, this is what good historical romance/adventure fiction should be. Fabulous.

Also read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See which I would highly recommend. She is one of those authors that can write fiction that is set in another time and place and make you feel like you are living there. Her description of the process of foot binding will put chills down your spine. Yikes. It really does make you wonder if people looking back on our society in 200 years will read descriptions of botox and face lifts and shudder with the same kind of repulsion.

Turtle Girl

Darrel thinks this photo looks funny, and he is right, the really shallow depth of field combined with her turning her head made for one eye in focus and one not. He says she looks like a turtle...
But there are things about this photo I love, like the two little teeth in the bottom and Julie's sweet little muppet grin. And that hair. Love it!

 

Jolly Jumper Fun

Jules loved her first time in the jolly jumper, I think the boys did too!

 

 

 

 

Adventures in Hair Styles

This afternoon we were all sitting on the couch reading books, somehow the boys started playing with my hair. Eric was gathering it up in his hands and then leaned over and said to me, "Mom, I'm going to put your hair in a fairy tale." So cute. That does sound cooler than a pony tail.

Mixed Feelings

After about three weeks of waking up multiple times a night to a hungry baby I have given in and bought formula for Julie. She has always been a fabulous sleeper, giving me 10-12 hours a night. However, for the last few weeks she is waking up at least twice, sometimes three times to nurse. I was used to this with Jack and Eric but now after having such an easy time with her I am dying! At first I thought it merely due to teething, but that has passed and it is still happening. I have tried not nursing her, just putting her back to sleep, thinking it was just waking up and not knowing how to put herself back to sleep, but from the way she gobbles I can tell that she is in fact hungry. I've started feeding her baby food in earnest but it is slow going to get her to like food enough to eat significant amounts. She really does not like baby cereal at all. So in desperation I bought a can of formula and some BPA free bottles. Tonight was our first try, she chugged back half the bottle in about five minutes and then promptly fell asleep.

The plan is to continue nursing her and only give her a bottle at bed time in order to fill up her tummy before sleep. I'm concerned though that she'll give up nursing entirely given how easy it is to get milk from a bottle as compared to nursing. I read the ingredients on the can and the first thing is corn syrup. Does anyone else out there find this alarming? How can this be good for an infant? So I really don't want formula to replace breast milk. On the other hand, I'm really reaching the end of my rope. Can't be good for baby if Mommy wants to sell her to the circus either. I never formula feed Jack and Eric, they went straight from nursing to eating. And in Jack's case continued nursing well into the eating phase. I'm definitely one of those women that is comfortable nursing the baby for a long time, and am willing to follow their cues about when it's time to stop. So maybe all this waking up is Julie's cue that she's ready to move on. I'll be sad though if she's done nursing now. This is probably my last baby and I don't think I'm ready to end this stage yet entirely.

Houseboats

Jack told me out of the blue today it's a good thing we don't live on a houseboat, because "then you don't have a car to go to the store and you have to only eat fish."
I told him that often if you live on a houseboat you keep a car on land so you can drive places. He then asked, "Do you have a bridge to get to the boat?" "Yes, usually you park your houseboat near a dock." "Oh, that's pretty smart. Do you think if Dad wasn't allergic to pets we should live on a houseboat shaped like a dog house?" (To which he started giggling and laughing at his own joke. I LOVE watching childrens' senses of humour emerge...they are rather bizarre in such a cute way.)

New Years

What a fun New Years weekend. Darrel rented the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and after the kids went to bed each night we threw on a movie. I turned the desk around so I could TV watch and scrapbook. So much fun!

We had a great time in Shuanavon for Christmas. So good to see family and fun to watch the kids play with their cousins.

 

 

I've been meaning to do a layout like this for a while. I have a lot of pictures where you can't really see the peoples' faces -and that's fine.

 

Jack soon will be turning five and I wanted to capture all of his little sayings that he has right now. What a cute little man!