White Rock

As soon as the weather starts to get a bit nicer our first day trip is to White Rock.  With Michelle and Jesse out, and the fact that neither of them had been to this location, I thought it was a necessary stop on their visit out.  We arrived in time for the tide to be on its way out, giving us a great amount of sand to run around and play in.

The kids go straight to sea shell and treasure hunting.

The big kids buried their feet in sand.

I just love how vast it is there.  As far as your eye can see there is sand, water and beauty.

Jayda was pouting on the chair so Uncle Awesome picked it up, put her in the water and went into a funny voice as he gave her a royal princess pedicure.  :)

Self portrait as Ebony assumed her fav position.

Walking the pier for another view.

Goofy

Who doesn't love a romantic kiss on the pier?!

The seagull must have known I was taking a picture. Perfect timing.

Three

It was the most memorable birthday I'll ever have.  I woke up to cramping and knew that labour was starting.  Three years ago, on my 27th birthday, Malachi Chase was making his way out into the world.  I was determined to still enjoy my birthday, go out for dinner with Andrew and hang out before meeting our second baby.  Dinner got cut short, midwives got called and the home birth supplies transformed our little bedroom into a birthing centre.  By 3:25am Malachi had made his final push into the world and we haven't turned back ever since.  He has a glimmer in his eye, a sweet infectious smile and enough mischief to keep me running all day.  I feel my heart hardly able to bear the joy that I feel when thinking about what he means to us.  His presence in our family adds so much life and laughter.  Malachi is always on the go, ready to dance, chase, jump, swing, run, giggle and move about until his body physically can't take more....and then he manages to move some more!  Keep smiling, laughing, and loving this life, Malachi.  We're so glad to have you in it! 

A birthday just wouldn't be complete without friends, the park and some dinosaur themed fun.  Malachi choose his party theme, helped pick the decorations and was extremely eager to get going and have this party already.  We had a beautiful sunny day at the park.  A great day to celebrate turning three!

Gotta love the guiding sisterly hand on the shoulder

Quick snack break

The spread

All dressed up!  The most darling little dress from Grandma B

Sorry for the mid chew pic Jesse!  It was my only photo and I needed proof of the surprise 'toba guests.

Pull out the presents and kids swarm

This picture actually highlights what I'm talking about.  Sweet smiles and total joy.  He was thrilled to have 'happy birthday' sung to him.

30!

It happened!  I turned 30.  Yup, that's right.  According to one of my friends I'm a 'big girl now'.  I know that 30 can be a pretty big deal to people.  In fact, one girl asked me if I was going to cry when it happened.  I didn't realize that this was supposed to be a traumatic thing.  From most of the older women in my life I've heard that each year it just gets better and better....oh, until menopause hits but I'm pretty sure I've got some time before that happens.  The person pampering this milestone the most is my hubby.  He has planned so many things for me that I am starting to feel embarrassed, overly spoiled actually.  But I'm just going to roll with it in true princess fashion and soak it all in before its gone.   A big thank you must go out to Michelle and Jesse.  They flew all the way here to surprise me for my big day.  We went out on a fabulous double date, more laughter at a table then most waiters would know what to do with!  Spent a day in White Rock playing at the beach, had lunch at Cactus Club and enjoyed each others company for the five days they were here.  Andrew took me out for drinks and to see The Hunger Games!!!  Some girl friends took me out for dinner and now we are heading away for a bit of R&R, without the older kids.  Seriously the best month ever.  As I look forward I'm expecting 30 to be full of laughter, self acceptance, wine, dancing and people who love me for me.  I'm thrilled to have my family complete, three darling little kids to love and cherish and a husband who gets me and my many quirks.  Loving life in the 30's!

Back logged

We went away a couple of weekends ago and when we got back I uploaded all of the pics (from our trip) on to my computer.  At that point I realized that I actually have taken loads of pictures/videos of the kids this year.  It just happened so casually and interspersed that it never felt big.  Now I have them all on my computer just waiting for my attention.  I've slowly been adding videos (which you can scroll down the blog to see in their proper timeline- see February and March) and will add the pictures and more videos as I find pockets of time.

All in a days mischief

Malachi has done his fair share of trouble making so far in this life.  It seems to go in waves and today was a biggie.  Jayda has been pretty sick the past three days so the kids and I have been cooped up in the house.  Ebony is happy to just play, sleep and hang with the rest of us but Malachi is going crazy.  He is used to going to open gym to run while J is at preschool, be out in the yard with sis and our neighbourhood friend and get out of the house daily.  With Jayda being on the couch Mal has been forced to be here too, all day. So here is what he all got in to today.  It will sound like I didn't spend any time with him but this guy is just that fast.  Any minute I had to be with one of the girls he would be bored and quietly and quickly get busy.

While I was in the hallway spring cleaning a closet (yay sun, thanks for coming out and finally motivating me!) Malachi went into the pantry, took out three boxes of Annie's noodles and dumped them on the living room shag rug.  I was just happy he didn't open the cheese mix because we would have been in the market for a new area rug.  It took a lot of vacuuming and running the shag through my fingers before I found all the little noodles.  I'm sure we'll be finding random bits for the next while.

Then he found some of Jayda's lip gloss and decided to draw the gooey paste all over my glass coffee table.

In the pantry, where we house our magnetic schedule, Malachi removed every last date, activity or note and randomly through it all over the floor.

By the end of the day everything turned in to a fight for my attention.  At this point he didn't care if it was negative attention, he was just tired of hanging around, not playing and having to be second fiddle.  He was jumping on beds, throwing stuffies at chandeliers, teasing his sister and last but certainly not the least pooping on the floor!

Poop was on his bum cheeks, feet, the rug and the hardwood.  When he got brave enough to show me the dump zone instead of getting mad I actually burst into laughter.  Behind the couch, right in front of the low window for all the neighbours to see, Malachi had laid the hugest log I've ever seen come out of him.  It was absolutely disgusting and smelly but I was in total shock and my first response was laughter.  I'm glad I had the grace to not over react and see it from his perspective.  I knew he was looking for some attention and boy did he get it.  We both stood laughing at the poop for a bit before I made him clean in up....sounds mean but I needed him to solve his problem.  He was pretty grossed out so hopefully it won't be repeating itself.

So tonight I'm feeling totally exhausted, hopeful for a better day tomorrow and thankful that my kids are normal, mischievous and active children.  I wouldn't want it any other way!

It's a BOY!

We are so thrilled to welcome the arrival of another cousin to our Loewen family.  And this time it's a boy!!!!  Malachi finally has a boy cousin on his team.  Don't get me wrong, Mal loves every minute of dress up, pink parties and nail polish (the remnants of our last polish session are still on his fingers...) but he, and the rest of us, are excited to welcome Ryder Lane to our family.  I almost posted this right after Ryder's birth but then wanted to give time for the announcement to be made on his personal family blog.  Then I left it too long and now he is a couple weeks old.  So without further ado here is the sweetest little addition to our family.  A huge congratulations to Jer and Tash and their lovely little (or not so little!) family.  Only wish we could hold, hug and snuggle Ryder before he's not so little anymore.

Born March 5th

8 lbs 10 oz

Photo taken from www.obabyphotography.blogspot.ca

Hammy and on the move!

Ebony has mastered crawling and standing and is now teaching herself balance, going into the squatting position and then coming back up to standing.  She is also quite the ham and loves to be funny and laugh at herself.

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proof

Here's proof that life really does fly by.  Ebony just made her way up our winding staircase all by herself! She also stood for 4 seconds without any assistance and is busy standing, crawling and climbing at every chance she has.  This girl is on the move and has no plans of looking back!

Phone

I haven't been taking many pictures these days.  With little down time during the day I find there is always something to do or someone to hold.  My hands are rarely free to sit with a camera and capture moments.  So lately I have been pulling out my phone to take pics.  The other day Malachi fell asleep on the couch (doesn't take a nap during the day, usually, but was up way too early to make it to the evening) so I couldn't help but snap a shot of him in dream land.  I have a neat app on my phone that allows me to play around with the pic so I had fun tweaking it for a fun picture.

Thought this one was kinda fun too.  Shows off his luscious lashes and infectious smile.

Stairs

It has been hard capturing a good video of Ebony climbing the stairs.  When I stand behind her she just wants to turn around and watch me with the camera, causing her to tumble down, but if I don't stand close I can't catch a possible fall.  I stood back for as long as I felt comfortable and tried to recruit Jayda but the timing didn't quite work out. 

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Love the sweet encouragement from big brother.  Melts me!

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Get cozy and let's read some Dr. Seuss

So, there might be excessive nose picking in this video but I had to snatch a moment of Mal with his dad, reading a bit before bedtime.  Nice and cozy in that little toddler bed!

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Say "Daaah"

Teachers trying to get Ebony to talk.  And watch for flying melon!

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Giggle fest

These two make quite the giggle team!

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Stages

Ebony is growing up too fast!!!!!!!!!  I remember the other kids stages flying by but for some reason, maybe because this is our last baby, it all seems to be going by in the blink of an eye.  Two weeks ago I was filling the dishwasher.  I turned around to get something out of the sink and when I turned back Ebony had pulled herself into the standing position.  It was slow and wobbly then but in a matter of days she has mastered the skill and doesn't want to do anything else but stand.  She is obviously very proud of herself and wants nothing more then to run around with her older siblings.  I should note that she is only 7 1/2 months old.  Here are milestones as of a late:

-two bottom teeth: cut early to mid January

-started solids

-sitting on her own: can easily put herself into the sitting position from her tummy

-crawling: mainly the body drag pulled with her hands but she is starting to master the typical knee crawl as well

-says mama and dada: if I've left the room I can hear her scooting around saying 'mamamamamama'

-pulling up on absolutely everything so that she can be standing

-anything two feet and lower is now in reach, trouble is a brewin' :) 

Ebony's smiling face brings so much joy to everyone she meets.  She is a delight!  

Faker

For a week Ebony thought she had a really bad cough.  This was her trick and she couldn't stop doing it...probably because we kept laughing and thought she was hilarious.

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Food

I've never been one to rush the start of solids on my babies.  I guess it feels like the beginning of the end for breast feeding and it's my small way to control the weaning process.  Jayda, however, couldn't wait for Ebony to start solids.  After days of asking I finally pulled out the portable high chair and set out to give Ebz her first encounter with food.  Obviously J was in charge of spooning and I got to sit back and watch it all unfold (and subtly parent from behind!).  It was so cute to listen to Jayda encourage and mother Ebony as she took her first bites.  Sometimes she didn't quite understand why everything she put into E's mouth kept coming out but she tried to be patient and help her along.

Chunks of harder food actually went over better. 

We are now three weeks in and the eating is going pretty good.  Ebony definitely prefers a thicker consistency or chunks of apple or cucumber.  Prunes have been a favourite so they get added to all sorts. She has also tried squash, carrots, apple sauce and rice cereal.  As you can see by the grin, she is pretty thrilled about the addition of food.  She gets whiny when she knows I should be feeding her solids.  Keeping me on a schedule:)