An Update on Life

Not sure how time keeps flying by so fast, I'm still barely keeping up!
With Jaxon starting preschool 2 weeks ago now I thought I would start teaching Alivia the alphabet (just like I did with Jaxon last year). So we started with the letter A, she tried her first attempt at tracing the letter. The one on the far right I helped her with but a couple were pretty close. I bet you also noticed it appears to be super crumpled- she tends to want to hold on to her paper and play with it instead of putting it up for display.

We also did apple prints, which quickly turned into 'just' painting. Still learning to let my kids have the experience without the end result having to be perfect.

We also made an apple tree, cutting out their hands/ arms to be the trunk, and glueing red circles to be the apples.

Alivia and I have been singing many songs to and from dropping Jaxon off at preschool, she now sings the entire abc's by herself without forgetting any letters. Growing up too fast!

Not quite sure what I'll do once it starts to rain as the kids are outside most mornings riding around on the deck, most of the time they're still in their jammies and it's still dewy. They play on the deck all the time, and I'm so thankful to have yet another area that keeps them entertained!

The next 2 pictures just make me laugh as Hudson went from this super happy boy to the super pouty one below in about 1 second! What a guy...

We have some big changes going on in our life right now, mostly concerning Jordan's line of work. His company was bought out by a bigger company and he still has his same job, but the potential for income (which directly relates to supporting our family) is not as great as it could be if he were in a different field. Considering going back to school and becoming a pipe fitter, he's been talking with my cousin Todd and potentially could get on at his work place. Jordan's current employer also doesn't offer any overtime (which we always relied on for a bit of extra income every month), so thankfully he has the opportunity to work for some friends of ours in the evenings and on the weekend. Feeling like we don't see much of him these days is tiring for everyone, I feel like (and I know) we've been through this before and I know there will be an end. SO thankful for friends and family to help keep us busy!!

Our lawn mower broke earlier in the summer, so Opa always comes to mow our lawn. Last time Jaxon and Alivia both had a turn driving.

Hudson also hit the 18 month milestone on the 14th, somewhat is disbelief my youngest is already a year and a half. He's suddenly grown up almost over night, no longer eating the crayons or felts when colouring, he plays with the trains for hours without destroying the track and he's started building with the mega blocks, stacking them together. He's just as much a monkey as his siblings and races around the deck on his trike- I seriously can't believe how fast he goes. He also rode around for the first time on Alivia's balance bike, slow down baby, quit growing up so fast! He still has almost no words and sounds like a cave man grunting most of the time, but of course Momma still knows what he wants.
He's got a mouth full of teeth, just finished getting his canines (only ones left are the 2 year molars). He has definitely been the most amazing baby during teething (not trying to boast, just amazingly thankful and wanting to remember). From the moment he's put to bed at night I don't hear a peep out of him until 12 hours later, the opposite of his sister who still wakes up at least once every night and usually crawls into our bed. But the other night he did wake up (not sure why) but I got to have cuddles with him, before he fell back to sleep. So thankful for my sweet baby Hudsy and his 18 months with us!

He just might be my craziest dare devil yet (which seems pretty hard to top his sister) but last week at Oma's He rode around on her balance bike. (I do have a picture but have to figure out how to get it off my phone).

A 'New Year' and New Adventures

A 'new year' starts...
I've always felt as though September is more of a new year then the actual new year especially now as Jaxon heads into his first year of 4 year old Preschool, Alivia is in gymnastics and the regular activities at church and in the community are starting up again.
Alivia started gymnastics this past Tuesday and is in a class with 6 other little girls, she's on her own while I sit and watch with her 2 brothers. That is also a strange feeling knowing my 2.5 year old is already in a class by herself. One of the sweetest moments happened after Alivia was finished and the coach brings them back to the parents, Jaxon ran up to Liv and said with the most excited voice, "Great job Wivy, you did really good in gymnastics!". He then gave her such a big hug her feet came off the floor and he said again, "That was such a god job Wivy!", it melted my heart and made me super thankful that even though they have their sibling squabbles they still care so much about each other and are so encouraging!
The rest of the week wasn't too eventful, hanging out at home and somewhat preparing for the coming weeks. We had another SUPER productive weekend building the deck, all the decking is on and the stairs are almost complete. Now we just have to stain it and put up the railings. The kids have been so excited since the decking was finished Sunday night as we pulled out the bikes and trikes so they could ride round. Alivia was pedaling for the first time (since she has a balance bike she's never had the chance to pedal before) she didn't even need to be shown just went off and did it. The next morning all 3 kids were outside in their jammies at 8 am riding around for at least 2 hours- and I'm not even exaggerating!

We had what will most likely be our last campfire of the summer, roasted hot dogs with Grandpa & Grandma and had ice cream cones.

The day has come that Jaxon starts preschool!
To say he was excited would be the understatement of the year! After counting down for the last week he woke up this morning and said I get to go to preschool today, there was no question about it, he knew for a fact. After packing his snack and getting his binder ready he wanted to wear his fancy clothes for the first day. When I dropped him off he hardly had enough time to give me a hug as he was so eager to get inside and start playing. He did give Alivia the biggest hug and kiss ever and said good bye to her. When I picked him up the first thing he asked was if he could come again tomorrow, I think he liked it!

This series of pictures just cracks me up and shows Jaxon's personality SO well. First picture his 4 year old fake smile when I take a picture, second one I told him to think of something funny to make him smile, third one he cracked himself up thinking about something funny, last one was the tail end of the funny thought. When I asked Jaxon what he thought about that was so funny, he said 'I was thinking about tooting!' Oh this kid!

Our garden is pretty much done for the year aside from our pumpkin's and squash, we've grown some gigantic pumpkins that we're pretty excited about!

My children are convinced that a chalk board is called a 'chalk bed'. As I was writing on the chalk board to take the above photos of Jaxon he said 'Mommy why don't you lie it down, it's a chalk bed so it has to be on the ground.' I did tell him it was a board and not a bed, but he perfers it to be called a chalk bed!

A Week in Westbank

Home from our week of camping in Westbank, this past week had ups and downs just as life always does. Our week leading up to camping was absolutely ridiculous, no ridiculous doesn't even begin to describe it. With the truck still not running properly and being the vehicle we were taking camping (to carry our 'new' camper) Jordan spent hours upon hours out in the workshop after working all day. He was up until 1 or 2 am every night to try and get it finished, my Dad came over to help for 4 of those nights also staying up way too late to try and get the truck going. I had to take Hudson to the doctor twice for an infection in his foot, he had an x-ray to make sure nothing was stuck in there then on antibiotics for a week. Thankfully my amazing mother in law was on holidays and watched the kids for me on countless occasions so I could clean the camper or go grocery shopping. She also sewed up all the new curtains for the camper and made it feel a little like home. Even Saturday morning trying to pack up to leave something else went wrong and the truck wouldn't start, my Dad coming over again to save the day they got it going and we left about 2 pm. When it was finally time to go and the kids were buckled up in the truck Jaxon had to pee, so we let him out and he went off and did his business but as soon as he cam back he had to go again. This happened 4 or 5 times and the last time he started to cry and say his throat hurt, I think he was just so excited to go camping and there was so much build up to it all week he had some kind of panic attack when it was actually time to go. I think I probably also passed on some of my anxiety and stress as I was so nervous about the pending trip ahead. Grandma came to the rescue with some candies and a special pillow and we were on our way.

Hudson fell asleep before we even left the driveway and not even an hour into the trip all 3 kids had crashed

BUT that was not the end of it... I don't exactly know what was all going on but needless to say the extra electric fans Jordan put in to keep the engine cool weren't working properly which lead to the truck overheating. We made it to Merritt after stopping 2 or 3 times and tried to find a Walmart so Jordan could try to rig something to keep at least one fan going but the wires had totally melted and fried the fan so we had nothing. We let the kids run around in the parking lot for a bit before continuing on our way. We didn't make it very far before needing to stop 3 or 4 more times just outside Merritt to let the fans cool down, there were lots of tears shed (mostly by me) as I was reliving our adventures with the van and feeling very discouraged, stressed and upset as there was so much time put into the truck and it still didn't work properly. Thankfully the kids fell asleep and slept until we made it to Westbank (Kelowna) at about 10pm, we were able to put them to bed in the camper and were SO relieved we actually made it!

One of the many stops on the way up, we did get this amazing view as the sun was setting...

Crazy hour set in before the kids fell asleep, even in the midst of tears and stress these goofs can make me smile!

The first morning at the campsite Jordan went into town to try and find some parts for the truck so we would be able to make it home at the end of the week. We had a beautiful sunny morning so the kids and I headed down to the beach with our camping buddies the Stoker's, it felt just like we were at home as Daddy was out and about working on the truck and me and the kids were having all the fun.
First morning camping (notice Jaxon's arm around Liv)

As long as Hudson had his diggers he was a happy boy!

We found this floaty boat free on the side of the road a week before camping, we had so much fun in it all week, the kids loved it... and so did I!

Daddy was able to join us that afternoon and our vacation felt like it could finally begin.

Unfortunately rain came Monday and it poured while I tried to make pancakes, the kids of course didn't mind the rain and thankfully it never stayed long. It was a bit cloudy the rest of the day but we still managed play time at the park and a walk around the campsite.

Tuesday was another dreary day, not too rainy but not beach weather so we headed out to Armstrong with the Stoker's to visit their relatives dairy farm. It was much nicer out there and we had tons of fun exploring the barns, riding the atv, seeing calves (even one right after it was born) and swimming in the pool, the kids held some kittens and got to see baby chicks and baby bunnies as well. There were 2 dogs that the kids adored, especially Hudson- he just loved them and chased them around as he growled at them, it was so funny to watch.

Wednesday was another morning of rain, we helped it pass by with colouring and adorning each other with stickers. The kids and Daddy also played in the dirt with all the diggers.

It cleared up enough that we headed to the beach for the afternoon... YAY!

Thursday was yet another rainy day where we actually had thunder and a huge down pour. Jaxon and one little girl were playing at the playground for so long together completely unaffected by the weather. We were able to dry off in the Stoker's trailer for a bit and then it thankfully cleared up and we had some sun again.

After the thunder storm Hudson and Liv played in the puddle until they were soaked, happy as ever though as it wasn't cold out. Like I said if Hudson had one of his diggers he was a happy boy.

Friday was absolutely amazing and we had a full day at the beach, Hudson went up to the camper for a nap but everyone else was at the beach from 10 am until about 5 pm. Chris and Erin were up for a few days on their way to Calgary, after spending all day at the beach we played cards and games all night.

Then is was already Saturday again and time to check out, after not having too many amazing beach days though we packed up our campsite but stayed at the beach until 2. It was hard to leave the beautiful sunshine after being stuck in the rain most of the week.

Jaxon and Alivia did amazing on this trip, they played together and got along so well I don't remember any fighting. Jaxon is of course a social butterfly and was making friends everywhere he went, at the beach, the playground and the camper's next to us. I didn't think at just 2.5 and 4.5 years old my kids would be off playing at someone else's campsite but they made so many new friends and were always off playing with somebody. I loved listening to Jaxon's conversations with other kids (especially when they were his age) asking each others names and telling their ages, asking about siblings and such. Jaxon always introduced Hudson as his baby brother and was very protective of him if an older child didn't want him to play, Jaxon would say 'it's ok, he's my baby brother he can play with us.'
Alivia always introduced herself as 'Wivy' if someone asked her name, and always said she was 3!
Hudson was of course attached to Momma's hip most of the week, he did venture off sometimes and one day ventured off a little too far almost escaping from the campsite (he made it to the far side from us before we could find him) that was insanely scary and made me sick to my stomach. He's practically running now so we really have to watch him, he's definitely a wanderer and after his first attempt he kept trying to sneak off.
The kids stayed up until 8 (sometimes later) and thankfully slept until about 7:30 most mornings. Only one day did I get Alivia down for a nap and everyone except Jaxon was napping too. He just wandered around the campsite and played with his toys- really responsible for a 4 year old.
We had a wonderful week (despite the weather) and it was so amazing to have Jordan with us and spend so much time together. Swimming and playing and wrestling with Daddy, Hudson is right in there with the older 2 now and the one day he kept tackling Livy to the ground, it was so hilarious!

These 2 really seemed to get along this trip, they're turning into best buds and it makes me so happy!

Robbie gave the kids treat bags for the ride home and Jaxon fell asleep with his hand in the candy, I thought it was just too funny!

Thankfully our ride home was uneventful, with 2 new fans installed we made it home in about 4.5 hours instead of 8, feeling blessed for family time and wonderful memories together!
Already looking forward to next year!