Nan's Mother's Day present

I finally finished this gift for Anne, it was supposed to be a Christmas present but ended up being a Mother's Day present...

It was a lot of fun to get responses from the kids -they are quite the characters!


 

Our soon to be newest family member

well, less than 12 weeks to go, hooray! I'm starting to get to the uncomfortable part of pregnancy. I can't get up from sitting on the ground as easily, rolling over is a chore and I have to go to the bathroom ALL the time. On the other hand I feel the baby all of the time, he is very active this one, so that is exciting.

Honestly, this baby is probably going to be the most photographed fetus of all of our kids...three ultrasounds before 26 weeks. It's kind of cool though to be able to see the changes. Particularly I think between the first at 11 weeks and the second at fifteen weeks, what a difference that month made. Baby went from literally being a peanut to looking like a real person with limbs, and even a wierd little skeleton grin. (See middle photo on bottom row.)

Well, off to bed, it's back to work tomorrow. Weekends are much much to short!
K 

The Mint

A couple pics from our trip to the Mint last Friday. Brenda Jones and I took the younger kids, basically just to get out of the house and do something. Yes that is a real gold bar in the picture...worth a lot of cashola, that guard had a real gun strapped in his holster. As you can see from below, Jacob quite liked the Moose Mountie. At the Winnipeg Mint they only make coins, no paper, but this is no small job, they pump out over 600,000 coins a day, and also make currency for more than 20 other countries. It's actually an interesting tour if you are ever in Winnipeg.

I took a few pictures of Jack outside before Brenda arrived, I loved this one of him mid clapping, he was quite delighted with something, I think the flags fluttering in the wind.

After we left here I had to take Jack to the pediatrician. What a hassle, there should be laws about pediatiricians running on schedule. It was almost 2 hours from the time we arrived to the time we left, and we only saw him for 15 minutes. argh. I think that's one of the hardest things about mothering, keeping all of your kids appointments and being patient about it.


 

Busy Busy Busy

yup, a little climber, that's what we have. Thought I should do a layout to commemorate it. (And document it so that in later years I can tell that teenager that he owes me for not letting him break his neck by launching himself off the back of the couch).

Quiet weekend, it's church conference and we've been listening via internet at home. I have to say, I love the internet...I can't imagine taking Jack to the church and trying to sit in a pew for four -two hour long sessions. yikes. It's enough to make a blood pressure go up just thinking about it! We did go out to Home Depot and buy new door handles. Ours are the original 70's black with gold edging that came with the house...yuck. So we moved on up to the $11.98 el cheepies, a huge improvement if you ask me. They don't have any fake scroll work and as a bonus they are actual knobs instead of latches and Jack can't open them. :) (insert the sigh of a contented parent)

The snow is melting fast and furiouser here (Jess-that little joke is just for you). Hurray spring! Although I heard today we're supposed to get a "Colorado Clipper" on Wednesday and potentially snow...oh well we live on the Canadian praries, you almost have to expect it right.

Take care all, Love K 

our outing last Saturday

Last Saturday's outing, now preserved forevor in the family scrapbook. Spring is definitely in the air around Winnipeg. Not that we couldn't get another dump of snow at this point, but it's unlikely to get down to -30 anymore. Hurrah!

A lazy Saturday for us. We went to bed early, some of the girls were over scrapping and I was up till midnight. Darrel was up with Jack until 11 and then at 5:15 this morning Jack decided it was time to get up..for good, no jokes. argh. So Darrel and I are a little slow...Jack has now been napping for the last 1.5 hours, lucky kid!

we'll probably head out for a walk/outing this afternoon, just to not go stir crazy and get some sunshine. Jack was quite sick all week and I stayed home with him Wed, Thurs and Fri so I feel like I need to see something other than my house. Anywho, happy weekend everyone!
K 

Two of Jack's Loves

Yup, what child does not like emptying a laundry basket or putting a garbage can on his head. All in a days work.

 

snow snow and more snow

Yes, there definitely has not been a shortage of snow for Winnipeg this winter...as you can see from the huge piles in front of our house, and the nearly three feet on our deck.

I am getting antsy for spring... the days are getting longer and warmer and already it is so nice to be outside, breathing fresh air and moving about. In the second picture you can also see our '82 LeBaron parked in front of the house, a honey of a car...and even better since Darrel fixed the muffler. He had dubbed it the CattleLeBaron because it was starting to sound like a cattle truck it was so loud. Our neighbours are probably grateful, it certainly wasn't a quiet thing to start up at 7:30 in the morning.

In other news, I got my hearing aid last week and boy do I LOVE it!!! I haven't heard some of those sounds in years...who knew the refigerator kicked in so often! Seriously though, I am really enjoying being able to hear in meetings at work and hear the prayers in church. I keep telling Darrel it's worth every penny!

Jack switched sitters last week, my friend Angela is watching him, she was going to watch him in January but then was really sick in early pregnancy and Somer pitched in (thank goodness!) Things seem to being going well, although an outbreak of chicken pox may be headed our way. Ugggh, oh well, it's gonna happen some time right.

Love to all,
K 

Family Happenings

Yes Jack is a busy little one year old...into EVERYTHING. Darrel had to put child proof latches on the last unprotected kitchen cupboard because he kept going in their and chewing on the raw potatoes. Who could have guessed that dirt and potato sprouts were so irresistable!

Both of the boys (Darrel and Jack) are in bed and I'm up surfing etc. I am finding lately that I almost don't know what to do with myself when I have an hour or so like this without any demands on my attention. It's like I've forgotten how to just do ONE thing at a time. Yikes. I'm losin it!

Darrel's got a job interview tomorrow, say a little prayer for him. Crazily enough it's for my old job at the university -he should be fairly prepared for the job interview. :)

My work is busy busy busy, just the way I like it, the days and weeks are flying by. I will probably work until the end of May and then take the last six weeks before the baby is born off and spend some quality beach time with Jack. I have a sneaky suspiscion that I'm going to be miserably hot for those last three weeks in July Cool lake water here I come!

Baby B is growing and from what we know healthy and happy. I'm going for my third ultrasound next Friday, this will be the most photographed child before he is even born -yes we found out that the baby is a boy. Hoorah -not that a girl would not have been good -either way, Hoorah! and we have all the clothes for a boy and they certainly haven't had time to "go out of fashion" hahaha -so double Hoorah! The name process is coming along, we have at least three that we can mutually agree are fairly decent. The other day Darrel put forth Dexter as a possibility -that got shot down in very short time. All I can think of when I hear that name is sweater vests with pencils in the pocket and nerdy glasses. *shudder*

well, here's hoping that you and yours are all happy and doing well.
Love Kirsten 

another birthday in our household...

Yup, I hit the big 3-0 a few weeks ago. It was ok, to be honest though I've never been hung up on birthdays. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy celebrating them but they don't stress me out. I've been thinking about turning thirty and that maybe it should have been more than it was. After all it's one of those milestones that people use to gauge their lives by -for good and bad I guess. I can say that I'm happy, and enjoying life. I have struggles like anybody else but overall life is good. Well, we will see what the next year brings...or for that matter what my next thirty years bring, you never know what is around the corner.
K 

The Expanded Birthday Post

Ok, largely the same picture and info but I just scrapped a layout of Jack's birthday and thought I would share. We are having a nice Saturday around here. Jack has been napping 1.5 hours (almost a miracle for this kid!) Darrel was putzing outside with a vehicle and I am playing on the computer. I think I may go make some minestrone soup. I have to say that I am having a renewed passion for cooking lately. I find it relaxing (go figure!) and it's fun to try new recipes. Mabye it's boredom talking, I'm really tired of stew and tacos, so that means getting more ambitious and finding other things.