Quick Update

Just wanted to get a couple newer pictures of Dani up. These were just taken today. She's getting so big! She was 6 weeks old this past Friday. She is getting pretty strong too - strangely enough, she seems to always want to stand up, keeping her legs as straight as she can. I think it's a sign of what's to come... She has a pretty stong neck too, with good head control, most of the time.

Zac and Chris went to Scouts camp this past weekend, and had a really good time. Unfourtunately, there were no pictures taken because the camera got left behind. But I hear they were too busy playing flashlight tag, looking for the Dads hiding in the trees, and building swords and getting badges to have time to take pictures!Here is Zac's attempt at making silly faces... he actually said that he 'didn't know how', so I showed him a few to get him started. He got to stay home today because of the weather. It was 40- all day long with the wind chill factor. Brrr. I wouldn't want to go walking to wait for a bus in that, and neither of our cars would start. The kid has only missed 4 or 5 days of school the past 3 years, so a snow day couldn't hurt!

Stuff

So, this past Saturday Chris went paintballing with my brother Jeff and the rest of the crew that work for him as a Christmas party. Lucky for them, the temp was about +10. If they were going this weekend, I'm not so sure Chris would've shown up since it is supposed to be about -25. They had a good time though, and it gave Chris a chance to get out of the house and do 'man' stuff instead of baby stuff. Amy and I packed up Zac and Dani and headed to Bragg Creek for their Christmas art and craft sale. All the artisans in Bragg Creek set up their stuff and you just wander through and pick up whatever you want and then pay at the end, so it's really a lot nicer then having to pay at each stand. Some stuff was pretty rediculously priced, like a lamp for $950 or a wooden fairy statue for $275. But I got a few things for stockings, and it was nice to get out and about. The drive was really nice, Dani slept the whole way, and Zac was next to her peeking in to make sure she was doing good. After that we had lunch there and headed back. We tried to make it to a craft sale at Turner Valley on the way home, but that town is surprisingly bigger than we thought, and we couldn't find the church it was being held in until it was over.

Sunday night I found myself hugging the toilet for some strange reason. I'm sure everyone is very interested in this! I woke up about 15 minutes before Dani did around 1 or 2 in the morning, and had to make Chris get up to feed and change her as I spend the following 3 hours being violently sick. Haven't thrown up like that since the first trimester! Think I musta ate something bad, but all I had was stirfry and salad for supper and so did Amy and Chris and Zac and none of them were sick. Oh well, what can you do. And Monday morning we were supposed to have a meeting in the city with our insurance guy, but I had to cancel since I just didn't feel up to it. But that afternoon I had another appointment for the window guys to come finish a few things they had left to do. They got a missing screen made and put in the living room window, and fixed the weather stripping on the front door. So now, all that is left for them to do is to get the front bay window replaced. I don't understand how they can measure the thing on 3 different occasions by 3 different people and still get the window made wrong, but they did. Hopefully the fact that I held back the remaining payment will get them back here with it pronto. They said to expect it around mid-January.

And now it's Wednesday and there is nothing going on for the rest of the week. Lots of napping I hope! Chris and Zac are headed to Scouts Camp Gardner this weekend. It's out near Bragg Creek, and they were there last year with the Beavers. This year should be a bit different since the boys are older. Zac is super pumped about going. They get to sleep indoors this time at least, thankfully since the weather is going to be so cold. But they have to do badgework, so will be outside for some of the activities. And this time it's 2 nights, so that will be interesting to see how they do. I know Chris came back last year with a sore back after having to cram his 6 foot 3 inch body onto a tiny bunk bed, but hopefully this time it goes better.

And since Amy headed off last night to the Dominican Republic for her friend Tracey's wedding, it will be just us girls at home all weekend long. Me, Dani and Maggie. I talked to my sister-in-law Allison and I'm thinking of going into the city to her and Jeffs place on Saturday. She says they will pamper me with a nap and a bubble bath, followed by a movie night. It's pretty tempting, so it most likely will happen. I'll just hope Dani doesn't keep them up all night!
So, here is Maggie's new dog bed. Or so she thinks! It's actually what we got for Dani, along with a snugli, from my brother Scott and his familys gift certificate. Seems like whenever there is anything on the floor, the pets have to gravitate towards it. If Dani isn't on here, you can find Maggie or Okee chewing a bone, or Abby just laying around on it. Weirdos.
We have discovered that Dani had curly hair like her Momma. For now anyways. So after she gets outta the bath, we can give her a curl right on the top of her head.
Here is Zac and Dani after I got her ready to go for a walk. She looked pretty cute in her snowsuit, so we snapped a shot.

Scenery

So here is a bunch more pictures...We woke up to this frosted spiderweb outside our bedroom window.
This is down at the river this fall.
Amy took this of some daisies in the livingroom. The sun streaming in looked so nice.

This is a tree in our front yard in the summer time...
and then in the winter time!

Procrastination

Ok, so this is how I avoid doing, yet again, another load of laundry or another load of dishes. I've already done one load of each today already, so I figured I would burn some time checking out some pictures that I haven't looked at for a while. These are some of a drive we took last year, just after Christmas time. Chris knew of an old trunk road that heads through the mountians SW of Okotoks that hooks up near Blairmore and Coleman, so we thought we'd take a day trip. Turned out that the road was gated and locked at the end, about 10 kms or so before Coleman, so we had to turn around and head back about 2 or 3 hours. But even so, without reaching our destination, we still had a great day! Crossed paths with a few animals along the way.
This is a shot of where we had just driven through, right between those mountains.

Here's Maggie taking a pee break. I liked the way the shadow and her paws looked in this picture.
Chris thought it was a good idea to run and slide on the ice with his hands in his pockets. Lucky for both of us, he has good balance - we were a far ways away from a hospital of any kind!

Brrrr... I remember I was cold in this picture.
Sometimes, because of being perched on top of a mountain I guess, it felt like we were incredibly high up, and able to look out forever. The picture doesn't quite cut it.

Check ups and other stuff

Dani turned one month old yesterday, and today we headed to the doctor to have a check up for her and Zac both. Zac is in the 75th percentile for his age group, weighing in at 66 pounds. I'm not sure how tall he measured, but he's tall. He is more the same height as most 9 year olds anyway. Dani is growing well; today she weighed 10 pounds 8 ozs. So right now at one month old, she is basically the same weight as Zac when he was born (10 lbs 3 ozs). That's nuts. This is Dani today, snoozing in the swing. Compared to the picture I posted in October, of the first time she was in the swing, she looks huge!Maggie is in love. She thinks its great when Dani is on the floor, because then she gets to snuggle. She looks a bit sheepish in this pic, but thats just because she was laying right up tight against the baby, then when I got the camera out, I think she thought she was gonna get into trouble, so she scooted away and put on her "Im not doing anything wrong" face on.This is my friend Beckys baby Jacob. Becky is the other pregnant girl in my shower pictures posted previously. Our due dates were 9 days apart, but he was born one day after Dani. We were at his shower on Saturday. What a cutie, he was wearing dress pants and a button up shirt with a tie. Here is a shot of Chris and Dani and me, about a week ago.And heres one taken the same day of my mom and dad with the baby.
Here is happy Zac and buddy Nick in Zac's bedroom, playing gamecube on the new tv in his room. Even though I said I wouldn't ever put a tv in his room, well, what can you do... every kids gotta have it at some point. And I made rules, so its not all bad!

More Visitors

Well, this past weekend brought family from all over to meet Dani. Great Gramma Vonny from Ontario flew in to Gramma Yvonne's place in Edmonton. Auntie Cara came down there from Fairview AB., and all together, along with Auntie Kaitlyn and Uncle Dallas drove down to our place. It was a great weekend, even though the house at times felt rather similar to a daycare... with Zac and Dani, and Cara's 2 kids Kylan (who will turn 2 in February) and Tyla (who is 15 days older than Dani). They all seemed to enjoy themselves, and it was super nice to see the new babies together for the first time. Here's Gramma Yvonne getting help feeding Dani from Kylan.
Here is Great Gramma Vonny and cousin Tyla.
Kylan, in all his cuteness!
Gramma Yvonne (or should I say Gramma Eve, because the "on" is "off") and Auntie Cara.
Auntie Kaitlyn and Uncle Dallas. Strangely enough, neither of them has a baby in their arms at the time this picture was taken. Weird...

Babies babies rah rah rah. Babies babies ha ha ha. Ohhhhh, we love babies! Here are the girls! Dani is on your left, and Tyla on the right.
This is our attempt at getting the girls pic taken while they were both awake at the same time. Dani had just woken up, and was unimpressed with the fact that she was getting a camera in her face instead of a bottle.

Trick or Treat

Scooby-Dooby-Doo! Gramma was in town, so she was able to take Scooby here out for some trick or treatin'. I'm realizing that besides the cold weather making you not want to take a newborn out for a stroll, the other reason not to have a baby in October is that there is entirely way too much chocolate hanging around the house! How am I supposed to lose the rest of this baby weight!? ;o)

Estelle and Kayla

So my friend Estelle finally made it over for a look-see at the baby, after her family returned from a holiday in Hawaii. Here is us, with Dani at 3 weeks and her daughter Kayla at 8 months.

Winter has arrived

Here are some pictures of the Z-man outside in the front yard on Sunday. I have a severe hate-on for the winter, so these shots were taken through our front window, from the comfort of the warm, pre-window takeover, livingroom. Not too sure why the boys chose to use the stairs as the sled run, but I guess it worked!
Contrary to what it looks like, Zac was not struck by this car, nor was his sled run over by it. He simply sledded (is that a word?) down the stairs into Gramma and Grampas car. Love this one. Something funny must of happened, cuz if you enlarge it, he's bustin' a gut.

New Windows

Yuck. We are getting in our new windows, and is it ever a pain. They were supposed to be installed in September, but of course, as with everything construction in this area, it was delayed. And as if it isn't a big enough pain having all our windows popped out and tools and construction guys all over the house, it had to snow 8 feet the day before they came, and its been -50 outside, which means its about -48 inside. Ok, so thats maybe a slight exaggeration, but its how it feels. So me and Dani have been banished to the basement, which thankfully is done its renos, with new flooring and paint, so its not so bad. But still, I cant wait to get back to my living room! At least the computer is down here, hence the frequent postings the past 2 days... Anyway, baby is napping, so mom should too!