Life As We Know It

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Once again Blogging has Eluded me!

HELLO everyone!

It has been a while... March...6months to be exact. And as usual excuses by me... This time its pretty legit though!

As many of you know, in April after more the 2 years of 'anticipation' Clayton and I were surprised to find out that we were expecting our 2nd Child. And did this child 'surprise' us. After initial reactions of shock, happiness and yes some anger on my part, we accepted that our lives are about to change... exponentially!

Also because nothing can be easy, (and life has made sure to prove this point to us time and time again), I have been pretty sick... and this is maybe a bit of an understatement....

After a hellish first trimester, with two emergency room visits for IV fluids and handfuls of medication everyday that kept me vertical until 6pm; my Second trimester started... and although the hospital trips stopped not much else did, I slight decreased in medication was achieved and I was able to stay vertical until 730pm!
Luckily with my feet planted in my THIRD TRIMESTER... I am able to stay awake until 830pm :). And I function almost normally during the day... Amazing how the human body can tolerate constant nausea and heartburn! Luckily like most pregnant ladies sleep is ridiculously uncomfortable (why cant we just sleep on our backs!), and women are not lying when they complain about summer heat! I love summer but this year I can NOT tolerate the warm weather... so I'm so very happy that its September and I only have 3 months until this thing... I mean BABY... arrives.

So according to all the professionals, the "baby" is healthy and happy... (the same statement has not been used when describing the mother.. And in my opinion the professionals are using the term 'healthy pregnancy' a bit loosely when they describe my situation.) we haven't found out what gender, as we both agree that there are too few TRUE SURPRISES in this life time... And in all honesty finding out you are pregnant after accepting the idea that you will probably only have ONE child is SURPRISE enough! SO beginning of December William will be promoted to BIG BROTHER and I hopefully will be nausea and heartburn free:)

Anyway enough complaining....for now....

Although the last 6months are bit hazy, some exciting and memorable things have happened...

Williams Last Day of 3yr old Playschool... May 2013

At the end of May, mom and I went to NYC for 5days! It was a great mother-daughter trip, and we had lots of fun!

In June... some yard work, a great Wedding and at the end for Canada Long weekend My brothers, Parents and us went to Mabel Lake for the weekend...

Williams "golf cart"

Me and my grouchy child at the wedding reception... He was not too much fun this evening.

Williams First time on a real GOLF COURSE... We maybe in trouble, his Grandpa Rick bought a set of little kid golf clubs, which have been sent home for William to practice with... and he practices a lot!

WHAHAHAHA, I'm in control of the boat! Watch out DAD!

In July work during the week and lots of time out with our holiday trailer, camping, My birthday, family reunions...

Yes, this is our very spoiled dog... after 7 years she is finally allowed up on the couch.

In August, we got to go to BIG VALLEY JAMBOREE with my In-laws! It was lots of fun... I maybe wouldn't take a 4year old next time but he did pretty good!

Hair Cut time... He charges $5 a cut...non-refundable!

24 weeks

Now September we have a 4.5yr old starting Preschool this week. He is very excited, and doesn't understand why he cant go to school every day... I really hope this attitude continues for the next 13yrs!

Williams "school supplies" We may have a theme here... And he opted for the Mario bro's DS backpack instead of a new Lunch Kit... Priorities.

Preschool Orientation day... He choose his outfit... and packed the grocery bag full of toys after I refused to let him take his DS Mario game... sigh.

Well that's a bit of our life this year... I'm not going to promise to blog again anytime soon, I'll try but we will just have to see what life has in store for us this fall and winter...

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Amazing William's 4th Birthday

THE AMAZING WILLIAM TURNS 4!

Here is a photo tribute to the great SPIDERMAN birthday party we had for our special little boy!

I am very proud of this party as I had to be creative as I had a strict budget for the party and was not able to splurge like I usually like to do.

The invitations I hand made, with help from my large stack of scrapbooking supplies (that never get used) and my handy dandy printer.

(SORRY CANT FIGURE OUT HOW TO FLIP THE PICTURE)

As many of you may have noticed I tend to run with a theme and go big when it comes to birthday decorations. This year the budget made me have to be more creative, and instead of buying high priced spiderman theme decorations I decided to use the colors RED, YELLOW and BLUE to harness my INNER SPIDERMAN. Why Red, Yellow and Blue you ask... I was going for RETRO Spiderman instead of the newer movie Spiderman (which in my opinion is way too advanced for William, a boy who cries during Charlie Brown).

As you can see Ballons and streamers! I also found these 'sticks' for the balloons so I didn't have to purchase helium filled balloons this year at $1.50/balloon. My hubby who has become more accepting of my anal-retentive decorating ways even designed a great spider-web in the living room out of streamers! It looked really neat!

Two days of birthday celebrations again this year. A 'kids' party on saturday and the family party sunday.

For the kids party we had acouple different activities lined up. A craft (for the girls... as my boy tends to lack the attention span for sit-still activities). The kids used paper plates and black yarn to design there own spiderwebs. (Supplies found around the house so cost was minimal!) Then I made a 'Spiderman Villian Hunt' where the kids each got a "Web-slinger" (dollar store gun toys) and got to hunt Villians!

As you can see I printed pictures of different Marvel Villians off and hung them from the ceiling on balloons. It was pretty fun, the kids liked it and even Aunty Anna was in on the 'web-slinging' fun! Unfortunetly the guns I bought at the dollar store broke after a few uses. But FUN while they LASTED!

And what birthday party doesnt have a Pinata? Well ours was not lacking this essential piece of Birthday fun! Clay and I made it out of a balloon and paper-mache. A messy little project but let us reminse of our childhoods!

The Pinata survived until sunday too, as we used ribbon pulls to open it on saturday. Here you see William and Cash trying to beat it open. I only put 2 layers of paper Mache on it, but boy it was sturdy! We finially had to get William to jump on it to break it!

Now the Food. Simplicity for this year, Hotdogs and chips for the kids birthday! With some other sweets and goodys mixed in. and of course the cake!

Designed and made with love and some foul words by me! :)

William was spoiled by his friends, he got some amazing gifts! And he got to visit and play with some great Friends who travelled from Whitecourt! It was a great day!

(PHOTO BOOTH... My NEW FAV THING!)

I used $1.00 plastic table cloths from the dollar store, and printed some "Spiderman" related signs then raided the dress up box!

On to DAY TWO, Sunday, Family Birthday Celebrations!

As we dont have many little kids in the family (yet... WINK WINK to clay's siblings!) Sunday was a busy day of food and visiting! A build your own sandwich bar with salads, fruit, veggies and chips filled our guests belly's. And William of course entertained!

Once again he got totally spoiled with gifts. This is him opening up his favorite new thing, MARIO KART FOR WII, courtesy of his aunties and uncles. He asks to play it every single day... and a strict time limit has now been implemented! (a Quick shout to all the Aunties and Uncles... your time is coming... Im a 'cool' auntie too...just wait to see what I get your kids!)

And Cake for this day too!