Different Kind of Playdate

Gary and I attended a memorial service for our friend's dad yesterday. It was a beautiful service. I always feel so bad for the kids as I know how bittersweet it is. Thankful that their loved one is not suffering anymore, thankful they are in heaven, and thankful for the awesome example of parenting they had. However, it sucks too. As Andrew said, and I've said of my mom, his dad was his biggest fan and supporter. It's tough. Really tough. However, hopefully my kids will see that I am their number one fan and that example that I was given will be passed on.

I am very appreciative of my family and close friends. I know I have a lot of really solid people in my life and I am so thankful. I don't know how to say this but I'm very hesitant to make new friends because I feel like I can't even invest enough in those that I do have. Does that make sense?

So talking about those we are close to, today we had our first sisters playdate with all sisters in attendance and just Kai was at school (Ani is still recovering from her appendectomy). That means 5 mommas and 7 kids (and 3 in utero). The `big kids' just played upstairs and the little ones just got cuddles while the mommas chatted. Good times. We are planning on getting together weekly so we'll see how it goes!

Sami's `cheese' face. She's adorable. And a monkey. I love it. She will be a big sis in April!!!

The `little' ones. With lots of aunties to hold and cuddle them, it was a fuss free time:)

There was a whole lot of kids clothes swapping going on. A whole lot. I think we're all good for a while!

Hannah is about 5 or 6 weeks old now. So strange to be thinking I will be having a girl because it does feel more `normal' to be holding Isaac. I'm just used to lugging around big chunky boys.

Tummy time for two!

I'm thinking that by the time Maria and I have our kids, no one will want to hear anything about diapers or breastfeeding or sleep as our conversations are just saturated with it these days. So thankful for these babies, those inside and out. Praying for health all around.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Love, Louise

PS Did you know Gary is pretty much done basketball after this week?! Yippee!

PPS Kai and Koen are playing together so well these days! They play soccer or football for about an hour every night after dinner. Kai is so incredibly encouraging of Koen (mostly because he knows he has to or Koen won't play with him). This isn't to say that there isn't a lot of contact, because there is, but I love to see them playing sports together:)

Whistler

(**First off, thank you so much for all of your comments in the last post! Now you'll just have to see whose advice I take...ha ha!**)

Oh my goodness. So much fun over the last two days. I am so happy and so tired:) Whistler with my side of the family. The days have consisted of; exploring nature, hiking, geocaching, a whole lotta pool time, biking, seeing bears, and eating together. Good times.

{Brandywine Falls. Koen stayed asleep in the Ergo, so unlike him! Kai's `I'm totally not going to let you get a nice picture of me' face.}

{Murrin Lake Provincial Park}

{Sami}

{Kenzie}

{Lost Lake Loop where Maria led us power walking around it this morning:)}

{Kai is suddenly so comfortable in the water! He'll jump in (without a life jacket) and go under. He'll go down the waterslide on his own. He's working on his back float and swimming (with a life jacket). I'm so incredibly proud of him. He learned a valuable lesson that you must tell an adult when you are going down the waterslide without a life jacket as it's over his head.}

{Koen is fearless in the water and doesn't realize that he needs to make sure we're paying attention when he wants to jump in.}

{Our family takes up the whole pool. Please note the waterslide, it is Kai's highlight by far.}

{I think we found 3 geocaches so far...}

{We are staying at a beautiful place and each have our own suites which keeps us all from going crazy in the chaos:)}

{Giant family photo that kind of worked out?}

Thanks Dad and Joanne for such a great trip!

Bon nuit.

Louise

Christmas| Part I

Just a few things from the past two days...

{An attempt at a family picture before heading out for Christmas Eve festivities with my side of the family. Poor Koen just woke up.}

{All the Dekens grandkids. I can't imagine how many more there will be in 10 years from now...5 girls with maybe an average of 3 each...I guess 15 kiddos!}

{Finally put up my Uppercase Living thingy. Cute huh?}

{Giant cupcake I made today (using a mold from Bed, Bath and Beyond). I put Kai's head in there so you can see how big it actually is!}

{Sami. Cute.}

{Koen's first time bowling. He doesn't have an ear infection but is on antibiotics for his chest infection. I really dislike what it does to his digestive system but so far we are not having too many crazy diapers by giving him lots of probiotics. He has slept through the night the last two nights so that is a relief. I think Kai might be getting sick again. I'm so tired of germs.}

{Opi and Nana Jo with the littlest girls.}

{About a year ago, Uncle Steve wouldn't even come within a foot of a baby and look at him here! Good job Uncle Steve.}

{She's too cute.}

Now, I must rest up for all the festivities on the Chapman side! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

Emotional

{Sami came over today so there are some pictures of my super, duper, adorable 8 month old niece in this post.}

So, I am most definitely an emotional person. This week I'm feeling a little extra emotional because it would've been my mom's 58th birthday on Friday. That's still not that old considering she's been gone for 4.5 years. I'll probably have more of a post later this week but ya, she was in incredible shape and took excellent care of herself. It just really shows that anything can happen to anyone, at anytime. That's one of the reasons I blog so much about my boys. Well, let's be honest, I'm a journalizer (is that the word?). I wrote in my journal every day from grade 7 until I got married. Then I just talked to Gary every night. However, if anything happened, hopefully my boys would have a lot of the details of their childhood recorded and they would know how much their momma loved them.

I think when you experience any loss, it just makes you appreciate those you do have a bit more. I love Gary and the boys so much. I look at my boys each day and get teary eyed. They are so incredibly amazing and I just can't believe that they are ours! How do I have a 4 year old son? How do I have two incredible boys?

Lately I just look at them in disbelief. Kai, who has grown up in so many ways these past few months. He looks huge to me. He has such a great imagination, a huge desire to learn more and more (he loves learning about artists lives and styles, and is also really into rhyming), and a great understanding of complex ideas. He demonstrates some great empathy (Poor daddy, he must be so cold getting gas right now!) and a great love for his brother.

Koen is just adorable. He talks non stop all day and is growing up so quickly!!! He is my monkey...he broke an ornament today (after being up for 20 minutes) and his face is currently covered in grease. But man, is he ever cheap entertainment. So many squishy hugs and kisses.

The boys are at an age where we can go out for dinner together and enjoy our time. This is an incredible stage and I am LOVING it. I may have even looked into tickets for Hawaii for over spring break:) I don't think we will go, we will just continue to save that `extra' money for when the boys are older. I cannot wait to go to Kenya and just travel North America with them. Good times for the Chapmans!

{Koen is so infatuated with Sami!}

I'm pretty sure we made a choice about Kai's schooling next year. I should've been more clear about one thing; it wasn't public school vs. Christian school (although I had it set up that way). It was comparing two particular schools, one being a Christian one. I will post on our decision later but I do want to thank you for your input and suggestions. I respect all of you so I feel a bit like I'm disrespecting some people's opinions by not following your suggestion:) Our decision is not final because Gary still needs to `think about it' a bit more...if you don't know him, Gary really, really, really takes his time:)

Okay, time to work but I hope you had an excellent weekend. I have my weigh in tonight and I'm just hoping that the scale shows I haven't gained any weight this week. I don't care if I lost anything, I just want to maintain this week. The holiday baking is the hugest test of willpower ever!!!

Love, Louise

Thoughts On Having A Baby

First of all, Kai does not colour. In Sunday school, where they `make them', Kai will do a quick scribble and then have his snack. I thought he actually didn't know how. Well, I was wrong. He has been very interested in Transformers lately. He watches with Gary from 7-7:30pm every night. Anyway, printed some off and he coloured. For one whole hour. Wow!! So awesome. I can't believe that construction vehicles, dinosaurs and Transfomers are such a big part of my life. Never imagined it, but I love it.

Okay, on to having a baby. My sister Jantina and her husband went on a holiday. My dad and Joanne had Sami (7.5 month old) and then I had her for about 24 hours. I really love spending time with her, the boys (and Gary) love her, AND I wanted to see what it was like to have a little one in the house.

She didn't want to be put down on the ground to play. We don't have our exersaucer right now so I carried her a lot. The boys, especially Koen, were so interested in her and entertained her. I have to say that because I was carrying her, dinner did not go so well (Gary was gone). I did manage to get some work done when they were all in bed at night, but it was impossible to do during the day due to napping differences.

It reminded me that when you go from one kid, to two, you have less time for yourself. Then, going from two to three kids, you have even less. I was also reminded how time consuming it is just feeding and changing and holding a little one. My boys are so incredibly easy right now and it will be quite the adjustment to go to the sleep deprived state AND running around more each day.

When I was outside with Sami, several neighbours asked if it was our new daughter:) When we first started the adoption process, we were going with the mindset that we would like a baby that was closer to the age of one. However, in most cases, the child is a newborn so that is just where are heads are at right now. I kept imagining if Sami was my daughter, how it would be to have her in our lives, almost 8 months old. It would be good.

Sami gets along well with the boys because she has the perfect pteranodon call:) Koen tried to copy everything she did (jump in the sink to have a bath, try to eat her yogurt, test out a soother...). I did have one hour by myself, with just Sami. I took her on a nice long walk and she almost fell asleep in the Ergo. That was nice. When I was with the boys, I was feeling bad that I couldn't give them 100% of my attention as my hands were full. That will be tough, but they are quite understanding.

She slept in our room and slept for 11 hours straight. I could hear her soother fall out, then she'd search for it and I could hear her put it back in. She did this every two hours or so. My kids never used them so it's a whole new thing to me. She was up for the day at 5:30am. I'm tired now. I think I will remember to appreciate my full nights sleep now!!

So ya, not too many thoughts except:

1. I totally look forward to having three kids.

2. It will definitely take some adjusting to think about meal times. Right now, I just think about it at 4pm and put something together. Not so easy when you have a newborn strapped to you and you're super exhausted and your kids are whiny because you haven't given them enough attention.

3. Totally trusting God on the timing of this. I know we could do it, and do it well, now. But, it's likely not the perfect time and it will happen at the right time..whenever that is. I keep wondering where I will be when we get `the call'. Will Gary get it? Will I? Will there be a message on the machine?

4. I'm a bit nervous about the first 6 months. The sleep exhaustion mostly. When I'm tired, everything that Gary does it super annoying. Maybe we'll get a super sleeper?! I think I will be asking family and friends for help, especially the first month or so. Just helping with the big boys, meals etc. I want our transition to go as well as possible.

Looking forward to it but doing well where we are right now!

Love, Louise

Thankful

What a perfect weekend! We had thanksgiving dinner with Gary's family on Friday. Had a wedding on Saturday. Had a WONDERFUL family day on Sunday going to church, Redwood Park, and then a pumpkin patch. I have been reminded that being outside, in nature, with my family, is the most relaxing and enjoyable thing for me. Today we painted our basement and had my whole family over for thanksgiving dinner. It was great.

Thankful for living in a city of parks.

Thankful for two boys who love exploring nature, even more than I do!

Thankful for dimples and an a very animated talker that lights up my life.

Thankful for the conversations with my four year old which usually make me smile. Thankful for forgiveness so that we can move on after difficult days.

Thankful for ample family time and being silly together.

Thankful for kisses and hugs. Especially from a husband who always thinks I'm hot, no matter what my belly size.

Thankful that my kids love me so much, no matter how frustrated I get with them, or how many times I ask them to do something. They still want their momma. Usually:)

Thankful that the boys love playing together. Such an incredible blessing.

Thankful for a belly full of good food (cupcakes made by my sister Trish)

Thankful for family that is always there.

Thankful for nieces who I can hold and cuddle and giggle with while we await another baby of our own. And seriously the skirt on Sami was incredibly cute.

Thankful that my kiddos have so many cousins (Koen ran out of the picture), on both sides, that we see regularly. The furthest one (Sami) is just 45 minutes away.

(Do you like how Koen is holding a baby too? He's also sucking in his lip because he now has a fat lip/bloody nose. Poor bubs. Please note that Kenzie-1 month and Sami-7 months, are less than 5lbs apart:)

Thankful. Blessed. Content.

Love, Louise