a little after dinner dancing - thank you Jack Johnson

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girls room!

Here are the 'before' shots. Not very exciting. Dark green curtains, blue bins in the dresser that were bought for when Isaac used it.














The dark green armchair, so nice to have, but not so pretty in a girly room.










AFTER
- we didn't paint, and we're not quite finished yet, but it's a difference!






New baskets for organizing things. Now to get a label maker to keep the labels attached...


















New bed linens - thanks to Tammi for helping me pick them, and especially to Lyn (my mom-in-law) for replacing the trim. The empty space on this wall is just waiting for me to paint the girls some 'name canvases', like I did for Isaac. Just to find the spare time...




New curtains, and the pink wall lamp that I hung last night. Norah is over the moon with the new lamp, and decided to 'go to bed' with her books when I took the photo. :) New rug too, and throw pillow on the chair. The chair was supposed to be slip covered, but Ikea did change the chair shape somewhat, and the slipcover I bought didn't fit. bummer. Now the girls have matching bedspreads, and girly curtains. It gives the room a much warmer feel. Maybe we will paint, but not yet. We're also talking about painting Norah's bed, and the toddler bed (not out) to match so that they are the same white. But since we don't even have Ruby fully in the crib yet, the toddler bed is still a ways off.

family!

The next few posts are all from our trip. We had a great time, but it still feels so good to be home again. Lots of pictures!

Visiting with family was so great. It was really wonderful to spend time with everyone, and so great to finally meet Katie. It's not always fun to be so far from family, so it's a challenge to fit 18 months worth of time into 2 weeks. But we tried! How on earth did we not manage to get shots of the kids on the trampoline though?



Ruby, Katie and Uncle Jinx, living it up in Poppy and Nanna's backyard.















All 6 cousins on the couch. Not easy to get them all there, and looking at the camera at once.

Katie, Jack, Grace, Ruby, Isaac, Norah.











Ruby, Grace and Katie. Grandpa Tom in the background, and Nanna on the right. Our last night in town, so lots people came by to see us. It wasn't fun saying goodbye to people. Thanks to Jenny and Joe and the kids for making us feel like home, away from home.








Ruby and Katie, meeting for the first time. Katie giggled, and Ruby tried to attack (hug) her.

dinner with Kristin's uncle, aunt and cousins

Ruby and Rayanne. My cousin K's baby. The 2 girls are 2 weeks apart.







This photo is K and I last September, just weeks before the girls were born.
















Ruby, posing beautifully.













Isaac, Norah and Ainsley rocking out to Music with Marnie. This was after Isaac's issue with his pants, that resulted in him wearing a diaper (better than the dress that was his other option).

the road trip

Rob's view from the passenger seat. Norah was our noisiest passenger by far. The van was so packed on the way home! The kids were great travellers, but the last hour or so on the longer of the 2 days each way was rough. Especially on the way home, that stretch through Jasper park was, well, long. We were stuck behind an RV that was going under the speed limit. Way under.





Mt. Robson, on the way into Jasper park. We saw 2 deer (yawn, we see those here all the time), 4 moose (really close to the road too) and a black bear on our trip. The bear was the most exciting by far. We highly recommend driving through Jasper first thing in the morning, as the sun is rising over the mountains. Not only is it beautiful, but there are way less slow RVs out!

camp day!

We we so happy to be able to make it up to camp for a day. A long, long day. Great to see people, see the changes...yet bittersweet to know it isn't 'our' camp anymore.

Norah at the entrance to the chapel. She was totally dancing to the music, but then wanted a drink. Got the drink, and the camera. She refused to go back in.














Norah, Ruby and the 'camp kids'. They are SO big! I remember when T was Norah's age, that first summer we were permies. Now she is almost 8. Crazy. Isaac wouldn't come out for the pic.














On the boat on the way home. A long trip, started out late, long stop at Sunset Marina, kids hungry. They mostly held it together though, it was so nice to have Cindy on the boat with us for extra kid amusement and picture taking! We left the house at 7:15 am, and got home at 9 pm, with all 3 kids asleep in the van. Good thing we changed them into pj's before leaving Horseshoe Bay.

playdates and visits

Grace, Ruby and T with L. He's such a fun baby!










Isaac and A at the park, great playdate in Steveston. So good to see C (A's mom). What a change from our 'playdates' at the mall between classes!















Science World with K, her DH T, and their boys J and R. Isaac and J had a blast.















As did Ruby and R. :)

from the post-baptism bbq

Look at all the kids! There are even 2 missing from the shot, one ran out of camera range, the other was getting cleaned up after she played hard. :)














Norah and the 'cake incident'. Apparently, the icing is the good part. That was quite a mess. For the record, spray and wash did get most of it out of her dress.














The group shot. Not unlike the photos we took 8 years ago between Paul and Tammi's wedding and reception in the same spot. Just with kids.

we're home

wow. trip was longer on the way home. we're back. lots to unpack, as anyone who saw our van can attest to. can't sit down yet, or we'll drop. back soon.

almost ready to go!

we head out in the morning. lots to get done before we go. packing and organizing. Rob has a wedding today, so he's busy for half the day. Norah and Ruby have somewhat runny noses. I tripped coming up our front steps yesterday, and partially ripped of a toenail (ick!), and the kids keep stepping on it (OUCH!!!). Isaac, who is SO his father's son, freaks out ever time he sees blood. So I'm limping around the house because of that. Funny story about Isaac and blood - He had an appointment at the medical centre the other day, so he and I walked over. While I was there, I had to stop in at the lab for some bloodwork, so brought him along. Got him to sit on the floor while they did the blood draw. He stood up to see what was going on, and promptly turned completely white, and said "mom, my tummy doesn't like this". I told him to sit down again, and then he was fine. It was just funny that he had a harder time with the blood work than I did. Although, I shouldn't be surprised, the kid has a really quick gag reflex. He started gagging when he was watching Ruby ooze some drool. Guess he's not going to be a doctor.

We're all really excited. Isaac keeps talking about our big drive to 'bancouver' too see everyone. He really can't wait to see Jack and Grace, and Garth and Mary too. Norah just gets excited because Isaac is excited. Hope they can all handle the car rides in the next few days.

bad timing

ug. Norah woke up with a really icky, crusty nose today. Lots of sneezing. Now my nose is feeling that 'pre-cold' itch. come to think of it, Ruby was sneezing up a storm last night too. Hopefully this moves quickly....