Giveaways

Alright, as Christmas is approaching, there are so many giveaways going on in the Mom Blogosphere right now. Some of the best are through our friends at 5 Minutes for Mom. Jump point can be found here: http://www.5minutesformom.com/10606/christmas-giveaway-2009/ or there is a button on my side bar. There are also some other buttons to other Christmas Giveaways. Check them out.

Today - November 30, 2009

Today…

Outside my window: It's dark out, but it was sunny this afternoon, which was gorgeous and refreshing. Duncan even got to play outside, which was awesome.

I am hearing: I have the new Celtic Women special on PBS. But I'm not even a huge Celtic Women fan, but there was nothing else on, and it's nice background music.

I am thinking: Not a whole heck of a lot. It's 9 PM and I'm winding down.

I am hoping: That Duncan sleeps better tonight. Last night he was up at 3:30, 4:45, 5:50, 6:40... I'm a wee bit pooped. On the other hand, Cordie has been sleeping through the night, which is awesome.

I am reading: Well, I haven't read anything in the past week, but still working on Echo!! Don't get me wrong! It's a great book, I'm just not taking time to read.

I am creating: Quilts for my sister in laws. I've only got 24 days left, better get on that.

I am wearing: My pjs.

In the kitchen:

* Monday: tonight was chicken and dumplings and spinach salad

The rest of the week, in no specific order - I believe a meatball dish, something with steak, something with chicken...

Around the house: Today I went through both kid's dressers. Tanya, I have a bunch of size 3 stuff for Warren when you're ready... and eventually for Xavier. *grin*.

Plans for the week: Well, tomorrow is my sweet little boy's 3rd birthday. Wow. 3!! We had his little party on Saturday, but Bill has tomorrow off (which Duncan doesn't know yet). We're going for lunch with Oma and Opa after school. We'll give him his gifts after nap b/c if we do it before then he'll not want to a. go to school b. take a nap. We got him 2 books, a puzzle, the new Backyardigans dvd, and a nifty addition to his railway set. Yeah, we're suckers. Otherwise, Friday night I'm heading into Vancouver with my Mom to get my hair done, do some shopping, and then we'll come back here, drop Cordie off, and then go out for dinner. This is a belated birthday present from Mom, and I'm looking forward to it. On Saturday the church is providing free babysitting during the day so parents who want to go Christmas shopping, or whatever it is you want to do. On Sunday I'm planning on going with my parent's to the Singing Christmas Tree at Broadway Church. I haven't been in years, so that will be cool.
A few of my favorite things:

A picture thought:

Today - November 23, 2009

I totally admit 1/2 the time I forget to do this and then I read it on Nancy's blog and I copy her. It's because Nancy is awesome. *grin*

Today...

Outside my window: it is cold and rainy. It's been like this a while. It's November. I don't mind the cozy weather, but if it could stick to it at night time, that would be awesome.

I am hearing: the music from Duncan's room over the monitor.

I am thinking: not a whole lot. I'm tired and it's time for bed.

I am hoping: that Tanya has her baby soon because I know she wants Bun now. I am also hoping that our wee birthday party for Duncan on Saturday goes well.

I am reading: Still Echo. I have barely read at all this past week.

I am creating: I started cutting out fabric for the next quilt. Turns out I don't have enough for the focus fabric, so I am going to need to work around that somehow.

I am wearing: Jeans and a purple t-shirt

In the kitchen:

Monday night was spaghetti and meatballs
In no specific order we also have pork chops with apples, Old fashioned chicken and dumplings (as opposed to that new fangled chicken and dumplings you often get). We have One-pot California chicken, and Friday night is Turducken at John and Amy's.

Around the house: Trying to get the place in reasonble shape for Saturday. I got upstairs scrubbed down pretty well today. I need to go through the kid's clothes, again. They are growing, growing, growing. Love it.

Plans for the week. Tomorrow more cleaning (perhaps). Wednesday I am helping decorate the church for Christmas in the morning. I'll need to get my act together for Duncan's party. On Friday we have Christmas class (which is fun) and then Mom is baby sitting while we go to turducken (kids are welcome, but we figure this way we can take our time). Saturday morning we have Christmas pictures being taken and then Duncan's party. And on Sunday after church is Meaghan's birthday party. I think things are going to be busy from here on in.

A few of my favourite things: Cordie laughs. She laughs and laughs and laughs. It is awesome. I also love her sleeping through the night. I love Duncan figuring stuff out, and his complete sentances are awesome.

A picture thought: Cordie is going places with her rolling around. She often gets stuck :)

Sunday night

Good evening everyone,

About time to retire for the night. Cordie has slept through the night the last 3 nights, which has been wonderful, and yet I'm still beat. I think it's because my body has been realizing what it has been missing. But it is funny that the day she started solids she started sleeping through the night, just like Duncan did.

We had a fantastic weekend. We celebrated Dad's 70th birthday on Saturday and had a wonderful afternoon doing so. We ended up, basically, getting him dinner at his favourite restaurant in Maui for when they will be there in January. He was very happy with that. We had relatives fly in from Holland and from Ontario, and it was great to see some of my aunts and uncles I don't get to see too often. They also loved having Duncan and Cordie as surrogate grandchildren while they were away. My cousin had a baby girl only about 3 weeks before I had Cordie, so my uncle, I think, was missing his grand daughter quite a bit. At one point on Saturday he walks up to me "she is far too heavy for you, let me" and took her from my arms. How sweet that was. And later she fell asleep on my brother Jeff, which was also just so cute. Erik, Katherine (my nephew and niece) and Duncan also did awesome for an afternoon filled with "old" people. Erik is so awesome with Duncan, and Katherine has just learned how to read, and was reading me her books. That was awesome.

We had bought "Up" this past week so in the evening we popped some pop corn and sat down and watched it. I loved it. Later we watched Star Trek, which was also good.

This morning was church. The last time Duncan went to Sunday school I had to stay, but this morning I just dropped him and left and he did awesome. "I had fun" he said. Did you sing songs? Yep I did! What songs did you sing? Happy Birthday. (they are learning songs for the Christmas program, but apparently Happy Birthday stuck with him more).

I slipped down the stairs yesterday. Yes Mom, I'm fine. I was hanging on to the rail and my heel slipped out from under me and thump thump thump I went. Bill's reaction time was awesome. I thought I was going to be quite sore today, but I seem to be fine. Tomorrow will be the true test.

Alright, I am ready for bed and I need to get Sweet Pea up to feed her once yet.

Nancy - your weekend sounds exhausting. But cool on the furniture, enjoy your trip this week, and yay Alex on a good baseball game.

Tanya - hang in there honey!! I also had to do the non-stress test. I really hope Bun shows up with out being induced because being induced sucks. Love you lots dear.

PS - this sucks. I was really behind on my blog reading this week and I won something, but I missed the deadline to respond, so they had to draw another name. D'oh!! Easy come, easy go.

Friday night

Good evening!

It's 8:30, the kids are in bed... ahhh...

How are you? Well I hope. We're doing good. Now that Duncan has returned to routine, so has his behaviour, which is so refreshing. Our little man turns 3 in a week and a half... crazy! He is doing awesome in school, and verbally and skills wise he is just doing awesome. Not to say that he's ahead of where he should be or anything, but he's certainly not behind either. We're just keeping it super simple for his birthday - as usual. Next week Saturday we'll have some friends and family over, have nibbly food out, let the kids play, cake, presents, we're good to go. Quite honestly he is still young enough that he's not aware of what birthdays are or mean, and so you can tell him you're goign to have a party, and he knows it means cake and presents, but if we didn't tell him when his birthday was he wouldn't even know he'd missed it.

I'm trying to ramp up Christmas this year too. This is going to be the 1st year he might really get into it. So we're talking a lot about Jesus' birthday (he understands that we pray to Jesus and thank him for what we have), and we give gifts to each other to celebrate this. But we also have fun with the Santa aspect. He wants to ask Santa for the Take-Along Thomas set, but I have a feeling when it comes to seeing Santa he won't be comfortable actually sitting on his knee yet. I also want to make a Santa key (since we don't have a chimney). We're also doing this Christmas Fun on Friday's thing through the community. Cordie stays home (alone, no big deal... ha ha, just kidding, either with Bill, or today my Mom watched her) and we make crafts and stuff. It's fun. I talked our neighbour into signing her daughter up too, so we get to see them. It's supposed to be a drop your kids off for an hour kind of thing, but I stick around. I like helping Duncan - or other kids too if needed.

Cordie is good. Well, tonight she fell on her face (yes, she's fine Mom), and that was quite traumatic for her, but otherwise, she's good. She had a cold this week, and teething, so we had a few rough nights, but those have both settled down again. I also started her on solids this week. Kind of funny because she just turned 6 months, and I didn't necessarily feel that we needed to start the minute she turned 6 months, but that's just how it turned out, and so far she's taken to it quite well! And, bless her, she slept through the night last night, until after 6:30 this morning. I remember when Duncan started solids that when when he started sleeping through the night, so I won't complain if this is a trend!

Tomorrow is Dad's big 70th birthday celebration (his actual birthday is tomorrow), so that will be both really nice, and good to be over with - just due to the planning involved. The following week is Turducken at John and Amy's. Kids are welcome, but I'm hoping Mom can baby sit Duncan because their place is pretty tiny, and it also means we can hang out a bit longer if we don't need to worry about getting home to bed. We'll see how that all pans out. Then the next day is Duncan's birthday party, and the day after that is Meaghan's birthday party... phew! I think from here on it we're going to be busy - but that's alright.

Well I hope you all have a good weekend and that Tanya has a baby. Bill thinks you're faking it Tanya :) I still vote for yelling "FIRE!" and seeing if that works. *grin*.

Today - November 16, 2009

Today…

Outside my window: It's overcast. We've had some pretty good "fall" weather over the past few days. Doesn't bother me - it's fall!

I am hearing: Bonnie Hunt. The dryer. Two children sleeping (which is to say nothing)

I am thinking: I should be doing something, but I'm too tired

I am hoping: Cordelia sleeps better tonight. Between teething and her cold, she has had a few rough nights - and therefore so have we.

I am reading: still Echo in the bone. What can I say - I don't take enough time to read.

I am creating: Just washing fabric to start on my next quilt top.

I am wearing: Jeans, t-shirt, socks. Exciting!

In the kitchen:

* Monday: pork roast (and seeing as this is Tuesday, this got a "phenomenal" rating from Bill.
* Tuesday - chicken stir fry. Chicken is expensive. That frustrates me.
* Wednesday - Sloppy joes variation
*Thursday - some oven baked chicken recipe
* Friday - some steak based recipe.

I won this membership to Relishrelish.com which helps you with meal planning. So this is my 1st week using it. I like it! But that's why I forget the exact names of the recipes I'm going to be using.

Around the house: I need to clean. I'll get there.

Plans for the week: Dad's birthday on Saturday. This is the big 70th party. I still don't know what to get him. *sigh*. And I just found out my brother Tim has H1N1 and has been knocked off his butt by it, and there is concern my brother Sean may not be able to make it due to bad weather on the Coquihalla. We'll see later in the week, but it was be a total shame if he can't make it due to weather. Oh, and I have MOPS tomorrow.

A few of my favorite things: sleep.

A picture thought:

Weekend Update

Well we all seem to be on the mend. Duncan, Bill, and I all still have a cough. Cordie has not come down with one - I hope it stays that way. She is snuffly, and she has a goopy eye - I may need to get it checked out tomorrow. She is also teething, so miserable none-the-less.

Yesterday we were about ready to sell Duncan. JUST KIDDING. He was being very 3 (although we have a few weeks before we technically reach that designation). We totally understand that he had this cold, had been mostly couped up in the house for an entire week etc... but he honestly threw an hour long temper tantrum when it was nap time. He was over tired and just refused to settle down. We eventually let him get up because, honestly, there was no point in us trying to continue to prove our point. Today though, he was awesome. Well behaved, normal fun Duncan. Tomorrow he heads back to Nikki's and I think that will be good. It will help him burn off energy with the other boys and get back into things. He missed all day care and all school last week, so I think he's wanting to get back into it.

I plan on taking Cordie to Peek-A-Book at the library tomorrow, but it will depend on her goopy eye and if I need to take her to the doctor. I think it's one of these simple prescription for drops kind of things. So I'm not worried about it, but it likely does need to be treated.

My Dad's birthday is next Saturday. 70 years old! Go Dad! I need to come up with something extra special to get him... bah, we won't even go there right now. Long story.

Mom is safely home from her conference. I happened to catch her in her room one night, so that was fun to chat. We'd been hoping to go over with this kids this afternoon yet but her flight was too far delayed getting in (some fellow who checked his bags but never showed up for the flight, so they had to unload all the luggage to get his bags off) before our dinner time for us to go over. Too bad too as Duncan was really looking forward to seeing Opa and Oma. When the weather is not pouring like it is today, we often go for walks at a local park on Sunday afternoons after nap.

I need to finally start making an effort to pump and get Cordie to take a bottle. I have several things coming up that I need to be gone for up to 6 hours. I'm just so lazy!! Nursing is so much easier. Can you believe our sweet little Cordelia is 6 months old tomorrow?! I guess I need to think about solids at some point too. She's quiet content with the boob, but we can't do that forever!

Alright, yawning here. No news on Bun's arrival yet from Tanya. Thinking of you dear!