August 28 2010

It's been a while since I've posted last... we just got back yesterday from a trip to Nova Scotia. We celebrated my Oma and Opa's 55th wedding anniversary there with our family. My mom's sister lives out there and so that's where we all went to celebrate. It's been about 10 years since I last went there so it was nice to see everyone again.
The trip down was awful, Wesley just did NOT want to be in his car seat and just cried and cried. But we made it and we had a really good time. We camped our trailer out in my Aunt and Uncle's yard along with Maria and Steve and a trailer was set up there for them. We went to a zoo one day, went on a hay ride, saw the pigs, tractors, went to see the tides/Bay of Fundy, and swam in their pool. It was a really nice vacation and the anniversary dinner was made by my cousin who is a chef and it was AMAZING. My cousin James and his wife Amy have a son, Jackson, who is about a month older than Austin and they had a really good time playing together as well.
The trip home was much better, I bought some formula for Wesley and so he took bottles on the trip home which was much easier than stopping every time to breastfeed him. And he seemed much more content. Last night he slept again for 12 hours, only getting up once to eat. That was great since he was up ALOT while we were away. I guess it's just hard for kids when they get off schedule.

We left at 7pm and drove for 20 hours straight, only stopping to fill up on gas, bathroom breaks, and once for a lunch break. We took turns driving and sleeping in the back with the kids and it went really well, Austin woke up around 11 pm when we stopped to get gas and just watched the dvd player until he finally fell back asleep at like 1 am... but he slept a lot during the day on the drive to make up for it.
Today Nate took everything that needed to come out of the trailer out and put it away in the garage. I don't think we'll be doing any more camping this summer so it's nice to have it back in the garage. Nate also cleaned out the garage which was really needed so it looks so nice and clean now. Austin of course had to help with this so it took a little bit longer than what Nate had hoped :) I managed to get most of the laundry done but it still all needs to be folded, which is the WORST job ever.. I hate folding laundry.

Tomorrow we hope to go to the peach festival in Winona with my sister Maria and her family so that should be fun!

August 10 2010

This past weekend Nate and I had a pretty relaxed couple of days.. went for walks, took Austin to the park, had a barbecue and fire in the back with a few couples from our small group, and just hung out. It was really nice. Austin didn't want to leave the park so we just started walking away saying bye, thinking that he would quickly run to catch up. Nope.. he just stood there waving bye to us. lol, too smart for us already...

Austin has been watching Nate kill flies with the fly swatter and so yesterday he ran to our cutlery drawer, grabbed a spatula, and started saying "bees" (which is his way of saying flies) and swatting at the coffee table. It was really funny.

I was on the phone earlier and apparently wasn't paying attention to Austin because I came into his room and found him with a mountain of wipes on the floor, attempting to wipe his blue bear's bum. I think he emptied out 2 full things of wipes onto the floor... lol


My sister Maria came over yesterday with her kids and they all played outside together. They are way too cute together and sat outside at the little kids table for lunch eating their pizza. It looked quite comical.

Olivia and Wesley hanging out while the kids ate lunch

Wesley is officially "scooting" all over the place. He's 5 months old today! It's crazy but SO cool to see.. he just scoots on over to whatever toys are lying around only to have Austin snatch them and run away saying "No, Autis" hahaha, poor Wesley, no wonder why us "middle" children are the way we are, lol!!

Today when I was changing Austin's diaper on the floor, Wesley scooted over and started grabbing at him... so Austin tries to swirm away, laughing and saying "no baby". They were both giggling at each other and then Austin would run away and come back, lie on the floor, and they would both do it all over again. It's so cool to see them playing together and giggling at each other.

Here's a picture of Wesley

scooting... he started off on the mats and

then wanted to get to the garden hose, lol

My parents are back from their business trip/vacation so they came over to visit tonight.. Austin loved to see them again and of course, has to drag them around to play with him and look at books with him.

August 6 2010

This morning Nate and I actually got to sleep in, Wesley slept through the night again, 7pm-5 and then went back down until 8. Austin got out of bed at 7:30ish but then watched tv in our room and let us go back to sleep for another half an hour. It was very nice. Wesley also went to bed tonight at 6:30 pm... so we'll have to see how long he sleeps tonight!

Today Nate finally hooked up the outdoor speakers that I got him last year for his birthday! lol, took a while but they are really nice and it's great being able to listen to the radio outside on the deck now. Austin was right in there beside him trying to "help". Nate is really good with letting Austin help and sure has a lot more patience than I do... he always lets Austin do everything with him and Austin just loves it.

I made homemade butter tarts tonight and they turned out really good... thanks to my sister Maria for her fabulous recipe! I'm pretty sure Nate is going to eat them all within the next day which is why I try not to bake very much, lol.
Wesley got up on all fours today trying to crawl rather than creep which is what he was doing.. it is so cool to see how fast babies grow up, it's crazy that he's already almost 5 months old!

I still haven't heard anything about my job come January so I'm still kinda worried about that.. but I guess I will just have to find something else if need be. We've been really praying about it and know that God will see us through. Sometimes its hard to trust and I'm really struggling with just letting it go and giving it to the Lord.. what a wonderful thing to be able to do!

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to proser you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart"

Luke 12:22

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear"

August 5 2010

Last night Wesley slept through the night again, woo hoo! It was SO nice and I've feeling quite refreshed which is awesome. Today Nate and I went to my Opa and Oma's for coffee and lunch and had a really good time with them. Austin loved playing with all "new" toys and Wesley was very well behaved. We then went home, the kids napped, and then we went to my sister Maria and Steve's house for supper and the kids played together. That was also very nice and the kids are now finally both sleeping. Nate went out to visit his Opa in the hospital, so that leaves me with some alone time! I never thought I'd be excited about alone time but it is very nice and I think I'll read my book some more!

2 weeks until we leave for Nova Scotia!! Woo hoo! I'm really excited but also nervous about driving with both kids for that long... it takes about 20-24 hours to get there and we're going to attmept to drive it straight or stop for just one night depending on how the kids are! It'll be kind of a pain to have to stop every 3-4 hours in the day to feed Wesley but unfortunetely, not much can be done about that! At least he will have Austin in the back with him to be able to watch... hopefully that'll be alright. Austin also has a bunch of stuff from his birthday that we're saving for the trip so it'll give him something to do, colouring and stuff.

Wesley is starting to really find his thumb these days and it looks way too cute when he lays there sucking on it, lol. He is a really good baby for the most part and I am REALLY enjoying the baby stage again... I may even do it again some day :) lol

August 4 2010

Yesterday night Wesley FINALLY slept through the night... he went down to bed at around 7/7:30ish and he slept until 7ish this morning, only getting up to eat once at around 5ish!! It was awesome! Hopefully he keeps this up but I'm not getting any hopes up! lol
Today was pretty uneventful, I went to baby group this morning, then the boys napped for a while and then we pretty much played all afternoon/evening.. it was a nice relaxed day.
It looks like its going to be an early night... Nate's just reading Austin his bedtime books and I'm breasfeeding Wesley but he's already asleep on me and it's only 6:35... yikes... better go try to wake him up a bit so he's at least not up all night!

August 3 2010

Today I went to my sister Maria's house in the morning to hang out with the boys. It's always hit and miss with how much time we'll actually get to talk seeing as how there's 5 kids, all 3 and under. So today was one of those days that the kids just didn't want to play nicely and Austin was being quite the bear today. Oh well, such is life with children, lol. I want to enjoy the stage in life that I'm at but I do have to admit, I'm looking forward to the days when the kids are old enough to go play without needing so much direction or care... I'm sure that'll come with its own struggles as well. :)
At least the kids napped nice and long today and were in much better spirits when they woke up. Austin played on his own this afternoon after his nap and loves "tucking" his blue bears into bed, singing to them, covering them with a blanket, and giving them hugs and kisses. It's pretty hilarious.
The other day Nate shaved off his goatee, which was quite the shock because I think it's been about 10 years or so since he's been clean shaven. It took a while to get used to it but I like it. The morning that Austin first saw him with a clean shaven face, he cuddled into bed with him and was just stroking Nate's face for the longest time. It was really funny.

August 2 2010

Today Wesley has really started to creep like crazy.. he is scooting on his belly to get to toys and stuff now. I didn't think I would have to baby-proof this early but it looks like I may have to keep a close eye on him. Austin has some toys that have little pieces so I'm worried about Wesley getting ahold of some of them. Austin doesn't quite understand that Wesley can't have little toys or things. Here's a video of his creeping...



I pretty much spent today playing outside since Austin really wanted to play with his new "fire truck" so badly. lol He did NOT want to nap today, he was having way too much fun with all his new toys. Other than that, I cleaned up from yesterday and read some of my book while the boys napped. It's so nice when they both nap at the same time and today their naps overlapped for about an hour which was awesome.

Austin was playing on our bed this evening, he would grab all the pillows and pile them up as high as he could and then fall into/over them and just laugh like crazy. Wesley was on the bed too just watching and giggling as well. It was really cute, I love seeing the two of them interact, it's so neat how early they develop a bond already.

Austin's party today was a huge success and he has SUCH a great time. He loved every minute of it. We had a huge lunch, sat outside because the weather was beautiful, and the kids all played. There were a lot of people: 20 adults, 7 kids, and 2 babies! It was a wonderful time and Nate and I both said afterwards that we are sure blessed with some wonderful family and Austin is extremely lucky to have so many people who love him and who want to celebrate his birthday with him.

Austin had so much fun playing with all of his gifts and it was hard getting him to go to bed tonight because he just wanted to keep playing. He got a firetruck from Grandma and Grandpa, which actually sprays water so he had a lot of fun spraying people with that. He also got bubble blowers, a t-ball set, a truck, a bunch of puzzles/scissors/books/crayons, and I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting... he was spoiled rotten and will be kept busy for the next month with all the stuff he got!

Austin loves doing puzzles and colouring right now... especially if mommy does it with him. He sits at his little table in his room for about an hour straight every day just colouring and drawing. It's so cool because he's actually starting to draw pictures, he can draw a set of eyes and this morning when he was colouring, he drew a couple of candles and said "happy day" and pointed to them and said "hot". They were just a couple of lines but I was amazed that he had done that... kids sure are smarter than we give them credit for sometimes!

The cake turned out pretty good except that Nate had to cut the licorice with scissors in order to cut it. I was supposed to just use icing for the cake but I ran out of red food colouring so the icing just turned out pink. I could not let myself make Austin a pink cake for his birthday so I ended up using the licorice that was supposed to be for the fire hose to coat the entire cake. So it worked out alright after all, lol.

The kids loved it so that's what counted :)

The cleanup actually didn't take that long because I have some wonderful family that helped clean up and so it was a pretty stress-free day. I'm looking forward to playing with Austin tomorrow with all his new toys, I'm sure he'll be pretty busy all day tomorrow.

Wesley was really good today as well and he enjoyed attempting to grab at all of Austin's toys before promptly being told "No baby.. Autis.. mine" What can you do? lol

Nate also got the washing machine hooked up this evening and it works great so there's a lot of laundry to do in the next couple of days, hopefully the septic system handles it alright, lol.