{ sun love }

I grew up in Winnipeg, so on sunny snow filled days, I truly am happy. I love the sun shining on a cold crisp fresh day!

The sun shines in just perfectly through my back windows into my family room. I love the way that it fills up the house, as it's a great reminder of how truly blessed we are.

We love our house. This has been our third house in eight years in a four block radius. Clearly we love the area! we started out in s townhouse which still is one of the best out there we've seen. We made great friends there! Moved up the street to a detached house at the right market timing. That was still a great move, but we knew we just needed more for our family! We literally moved down the block, almost s stones throw from our old house! But what a move it was! We now have our kids on a culdesac with literally 25 kids! It's the way we grew up. Kids outside playing hockey, riding bikes, drawing with chalk. Parents sit outside every evening in the summer (dads drink beer! Moms chat!) what could be better! We are truly blessed!

It's our second house by the same builder. Someone my family has known for thirty years stemming from Winnipeg. Ironic in a way. My dads biggest competitor back in the day!

But they've truly built us a great home. We are beyond happy here! It's almost been a year in this new house, and although it's still got my builder finishings, we're slowly making it feel more like us with the little upgrades!

In a few more weeks we'll be adding another bundle to this home! Another great addition to this move!

I love sunny days like this, where they remind you to be thankful for all that you have! I truly am!

{one of those days}

Today I'm having a feel sorry for myself kinda of day...

I've reached 29 weeks in pregnancy today! Down from the 31 I truly think I should be at!

I'm happy with the weekly reports and updates on the little one, and they truly keep me going but I'm feeling extremely frustrated!

At work I'm seeming to explain myself over and over again that I'm:

A) not 19!!! I wish I was, but I'm far off from it! - meaning customers give me this shocked face when they see I'm pregnant and constantly say, " you look like you just graduated high school! You can't be having a baby! " then I proceed to tell them this is my third, and they look at me like I'm for sure a teen mom who just keeps on reproducing over and over again! With a look of disgust!

B) this is not my first so I don't need to hear congratulations a million times a day! Especially from high school Korean boys! What's with that??

C) I don't want to hear anymore that I'm having a boy! And the only reason of this would be because it's the year of the dragon... Or alligator, or whatever the calendar says this year will be magical for! We knows it's a girl, and I'm beyond thrilled!

All in all.. Having to repeat myself thirty times a day with this conversation is getting old, and I really don't want to work tomorrow!

Not only is this bad... Having to get out of sweats for work is starting to bum me out... The constant reminder that nothing fits is beyond annoying! I typically gain 60+ lbs.. Only being around the 25-30 mark at seven months just shows I have another 30 to go, and honestly.. My underwear is already leaving red marks on my hips! And buying clothes isn't really an option as this is my last!! VV probably won't even have what I need! Ugh.

I'm at the point of realization this is indeed my last and am worried I may not get to do all the fun things I've never done before! I've never had maternity photos, I've never had newborn photos.. And I don't want to miss out on these things either! But finding the time and money to arrange for them seems to be a task on their own!

And lastly.. I'm really realizing I have zero patience left for my kids.. An this hurts. I don't want to be this way but I'm finding it hard to change! I'm very overwhelmed with everything these days.. And don't know how to fix it......

Thx ladies. There's my rant.

{Valentines}

I typically dont decorate much for Valentines Day around the house. It's not that I wouldn't had I been given the chance, I just don't have a lot of decor to put out.

I'm really trying to stick with a budget these days as I'm going off work in another two months. We've just finished the reno of the basement, and I'm trying to get everything in order for the next year of me not working.

The kids are getting just a cute little basket of a few items. Nothing more than some cute Valentine straws, some pencils and notepads (which is honestly their favorite thing these days!)

If anyone knows me ... they know that I love Cupcakes!! Cupcakes Cupcakes Cupcakes! They are truly delish!

As my last post stated, I do like to be as hands on as I can for the kids activities. I signed up to bring something for Riley's Grandparents Social tomorrow (so cute that Grandparents are the ones being invited to schoool for Valentines Day this year!). When the teacher asked for decorated cookies, I was a bit worried.. cookies are not my thing! unless they are my oatmeal m&m ones.. other than that.. cookies and I dont get along. Thankfully, she has allowed me to bring cupcakes ;)

I'm quite last minute these days and it hasn't really caused me any trouble until I hit about three stores yesterday looking for ANY Valentine decorations.. I mean.. ANYTHING! there were no sprinkles, no liners, nothing! They've all moved onto Easter already.. which meant I had to hit my bins. Thankfully I had a few items that seemed to work for the event.

I've made both large cupcakes and mini's, because really. Who doesnt love Mini Cupcakes?! And.. I of course had to test them to make sure they were decent ;)

{inspired}

I must say Moms inspire me!

I'm truly amazed at the creativity some of the ladies I know have. The blog world is so funny.. I've made friends through this interesting following, and feel as if I truly have great insight as to who they are and how amazing they can be!

Some ladies I've met once or twice before through mutual friends, some only in passing. But they still inspire me! Some I know through old high school friends who I've unfortunately not had enough contact with, but again.. The blog world keeps us connected!

I'm so amazed at the creativeness that some of these wonderful ladies hold. I've always dreamt about being a designer.. But I think that ideally I'm too cheap to follow this path. Maybe that's why I now do nails.. A little bit of design work in my own little way.

I look at this house that we now live in and besides being entirely in love and beyond thankful that we've had the luck along the way to finally be here I always see room for improvement.

I think my husband would kill me if I mentioned yet one more time something I'd like to fix or do! Deep down he hates these ideas and whims I come up with! But... Thanks to some great mamas I'm always reminded perhaps I can do it myself!

I get deep gratitude when I look at something I've accomplished for my kids or my household. I love to make my kids birthday cakes, I love to fully hand make every part of their parties... Even if its not picture perfect, I know that I did it myself and that makes me happy.

I truly enjoy just the little things I can add!

After someone clued me into a cute little etsy photo, I figured I could do my next little project again.. On my own..

Fabric Poms for baby no. 3s nursery.

Now.. This nursery is half completely out of my comfort zone. If anyone has been to my house you'll know it's alllllll white! White walls, white blinds, white curtains, white tiles, white moldings, white carpet! White white white! This came after living in two houses that we feel we made bad color choices on... Not really bad... But not the best.

So the nursery has a color that in actually have never truly liked.. Ever! Yellow!

Yellow and Grey seem to be the in color scheme these days.. And I will admit, I'm in love!

Etsy and pinterst have such cute ideas that I wish I could replicate.. But my true interior designer isn't nearly crafty enough to pull any of it off..

But these fabric poms were definitely easy enough for me!

I wish I had taken step by step photos as a few have asked how I did them.. But.. I didn't.. Maybe in the future I will remember those things!

Each pom cost me less than $5 to make.. Well worth it in my mind!

All you truly need is fabric, cut into circles.. I used a yard in each pom. I made my inner ball out of paper towel and wrapped it in packing tape as I wanted them to be super light! (and cheap)

I glued all the circles to the ball, hung with ribbon and voila! Seriously easy!!

{cutie}

There is a fun side to being high risk this pregnancy! I get to see this little cutie over and over again!

Having an ultrasound every two weeks does provide a lot of photos! We've seen the twists and fun movements she's been doing! Feet over her eyes with hands holding them there was the latest move!

She weighs in at 1lb 14oz at 25 weeks... I'm amazed at the technology and what I've learnt this time around!

Seven more ultrasounds to go! Can't wait to watch her grow!

{third time not so lucky}

It's funny how you can actually take something like pregnancy forgranted.

we've had our share of ups and downs in the past, but overall the last two pregnancies have been for the most part uneventful.

People have told me before, the third is always the most complicated.. I never really took it to mean anything, until of course.. my third endeavour.

I feel very thankful that I'm someone who is strong enough to conquer the mind battle on whether or not I should take the 'sips' test (formerly known as the triple screen). I've done this with each of my pregnancies as I think knowledge is power. Of course with this knowledge comes along a lot of issues, whether it be a falso positive issue, or the true issue at hand laid out before you.

I took my test as I usually do early on in pregnancy only to be told that this time a marker came back. Being told this, by a covering doctor for your OB who doesn't know you, and is quickly going over a bunch of doctor lingo, as you sit in their office, alone.. really isn't comforting to say the least...

So, back in the fall I left the office, with the knowledge that I had a low PAPP-A. and what do we do now a days? except google.... this has got to be the greatest invention ever, but also the worst invention on what it can do to your brain! too much information when you don't know your true situation is detrimental.

Thankfully after a long two months, with more testing, more ultrasounds, and more doctors visits, I'm am finally comforted in the fact of knowing what my situation is.

We are four ultrasounds down, and most likely have at least eight more to go! I will have an ultrasound every two weeks down at the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine. Which honestly is a blessing and a luxury! I'm able to have fantastic care, paid for by the government due to my situation, and a beautiful facility, but a very caring OB and maternal specialist, in a location that I feel guilty about being at. ( people are paying thousands for reproductive intervention to attend PCRM ).

I will have to take bloodtests every two weeks to also ensure nothing is going on within my body that we cannot see... and we just hope that I go full term without any problems! and I know this IS a possibilty!!!

If I did NOT take my sips test, I would never have known the true issues at hand... many women chose not to take this test because they are scared to find out there is a downs or trisomy problem.. my recommendation would be to anyone to TAKE the test.. even if you dont want them to test for the downs section, please be tested for the protein level in your placenta! if you never know this, you will never be tested! ultrasounds do not examine your placenta level... therefore you're at great risk of a lot of unfortunate things.

{my fun new adventure - my standing order at BC biomedical! at home checking of my blood pressure, and an advil a day to add to my other vitamin intake}

{photos of the babe!}



{the start}

I've always been interested in reading other people blogs... I tend to find them full of great ideas! It's also a neat look into other peoples lives, which tends to remind me of how normal our lives are. It's a great grounding at realizing we aren't alone in this crazy world of raising children.


Recently we've decided on taking our family of four and expanding it to become a family of five. We were two girls and two boys, so we knew soon enough one side would outweigh the other!


Two days before Christmas 2011 we found out we would add another little girl to the mix! Thus creates our pinky blue family!