Moving!

Just 3 more short little days and I will be the proud owner of my first house!  Wow, I think as any first time house buyer would attest, 10 million emotions going through my body.  Which is resulting in insomnia.  My mind is turning around in circles with crazy nonsensical thoughts.  Excitement, nervousness, anxious, worry and more excitement.  I can't wait to get into our new place and start projects.  I already have tons on the back burner in my brain which is what has been keeping me up as of late.  Yup, can't stop thinking about all the things i want to do such as.....

Powder Room-
Wainscoting and wallpaper (playing around with the stencil idea in my head, like below)

New light fixture

New Hardware

Wainscoting love, bathroom inspiration

Kitchen-

Paint kitchen cabinets white

Kitchen Inspiration, love me some white on white action these days!

Re-laminating the counters

Adding a bucher block to the island

Making the island bead-board

Beadboard Island, I die!

New Kitchen hardware

New kitchen lighting

Whole Main Floor-

New curtains

New trim

Paint out brass lights, yuck (eventually replace all lights)

Replace brass hardware, also yuck!

Paint whole house, ugly colours...and boring colours in it now

Put new flooring upstairs

Don't even get me started on the bedrooms...new paint, find fantastic old dressers, upholster bed headboards for the kids, chandelier for Emy, New vanity for upstairs bath, tile bath floor.....yup, and this list goes on and on and on.  I know it won't all realistically get done, but I can dream can't I?

My Emy nursery colour and style inspiration

Yup, I have been researching every little detail and have tons of photos saved and projects saved for inspiration.  Bad part, I now can't sleep because I am itching to start these said projects!  Uggg...I need help shutting off my brain!

Lucky Me (No Sarcasm involved)

Just loving and appreciating my kids lately.  I don't know if I have ever really expressed how much I adore my children, but my plan for this blog is to print it out one day as a kind of journal of my life and bind it for my children.  So it seems appropriate to let my children know how very much I appreciate and love them.  They both teach my so much on a daily basis!

Sterling, what is there not to like about this little guy?  He has so much spunk and character!  Everyone that meets him can't help but fall in love with him.  I can't blame them (as I am head over heels for the little guy).  He is so determined and independent.  Trevor always tells me that his independent streak comes from me whenever Sterling is being difficult about getting stuff done on his own terms.  He is so defiant that I can't help but love it!  Everything must be done his way and there is no compromise.  I know this will take him far in life and help him get to where he needs to end up.  He is my curious little devil.  He can't help but talk to everyone, everywhere and ask them all about themselves.  I constantly have people coming to tell me in the store that he is such a great little guy and don't ever let him change.

The thing about Sterling is that nothing will change him, not even prompting from his own parents.  Everything has always been done in his own time on his own way.  The physical therapists have always shown me ways to help Sterling to learn to crawl, to sit without support, to climb stairs because he has to do everything a little different then the rest of us.  Every time I showed him how to do these things he refused to do them the way I was showing him and did them completely differently to show me he wants to do things on his own.  So I have learned to follow his lead and am loving every minute of it.

Sterling has so much energy that I can hardly ever keep up and I am not even 30 yet!  He wants to try every new sport and can seem to pick them up so easily.  He is constantly doing new tricks in his chair and showing me his skills.  I love his daring side and admit that I get a little thrill when he goes off the curb in his wheelchair to show me his newest trick.  I see a little wheelchair extreme sports in his future!

Such a sense of humour on this little man.  He is constantly making new jokes and making up songs with funny lyrics.  We were singing Twinkle Twinkle little Star and in the middle of the song he sung it in tune and pointed and said 'like a little stinky sign'.  So smart!  Just turned 3 and able to make up words with the same amount of syllables on the spot to the same tune.  Love this boy!

I have been told a few times that I am doing an excellent job of raising Sterling.  The thing that everyone doesn't understand is that Sterling does everything himself.  He is so smart, so independent, so thoughtful and loving and it all comes from him.  In this relationship I am the one constantly growing and learning from him and not the other way around.  I wouldn't have his hot temper and constant stream of defiance be any different, I love it!  Having Sterling has been such a great blessing in my life and has made me a better person.  I would have never joined the Spina Bifida Association and done so much volunteer work if it was not for him.  He made me realize that there are so many other people in this world that have it worse and are still living life like it isn't any harder for them.  I can see Sterling teaching and showing people things about life that are life changing.  I am a very lucky person to have him and to learn so much from him!


Emery...I am so in love with this little girl.  She is my sweetheart.  I can already tell that she has such a big heart.  When I am upset she comforts me in a way that no one else can comprehend and understand.  I was visually upset and worried the other day and Emery crawled up to me and signalled for me to pick her up.  Which I did and she just cuddled me for 30 minutes straight.  This is such a big deal for her because she doesn't sit anywhere for more than 1 minute at a time.  She knew I needed some cuddles and after this I just couldn't help but smile for the rest of the day.

She is constantly chattering and telling me all her stories.  I love hearing them and they make me smile.  She put her hand on my shoulder the other day and waited until I looked at her.  When I did, she told me this story for 30 seconds, stopped and then started laughing uncontrollably.  It was so cute and I love that she wanted me to know what was so funny! Emery has such a great sense of humour.  She always seems to have a big smile on her face.  Every time I looked at her she just has this huge happy smile for me.  I can't help but be happy in spite of anything when I see this.  Her and Sterling are always in a constant state of either laughing at each other or yelling at each other.  She just follows Sterling around talking to him.  You can tell the love that she has for her big brother and it just warms my heart.  I can see her taking care of her older brother in the future and it makes me feel such a sense of relief.

Emery is such a smart baby!  She is already giving us high fives and waves and says buh buh.  Whenever Papa gets home from work, she gives the biggest squeal and yells Papa!  She dances whenever she hears music and smiles all the while.  Whenever she does something like get from her belly to her feet she looks behind her and waits for one of us to 'celebrate' the accomplishment.  It makes me laugh so much and she loves the attention.  Such a cute little girl!

Emery is a shy child just like I was and am.  When people talk to her she shys her head away and hides it in me.  I can see so much of myself in Emery and even more kindness and love emanating from her.  It makes me happy to have such a beautiful little girl that has so much spirit.  She is my little nurturer.

I am just really feeling lucky to have the worlds best children.  Now I know I might just be a little biased but I can't help it!  Yup, world's luckiest Mama right here.

A little Humour.

I need a little humour in my life today.  I am extremely tired of packing and I am only about 5-10% done and only have 2 more weeks in which to do it.  I also am mad the the stocks because the value of them has dropped at least $1000 in a couple of weeks :( Boo to me for not taking them out when I knew I should have.

I was telling my sister-in-law Dana about the wheelchair that T's parents got the Sterls build-a-bear whilst in Utah, and she made this genius suggestion that I see if Emy could fit into it.  Yup, we roll that way here.

Her little thunder thighs did make it a little bit of a task but she did eventually fit and she absolutely loved it!  She may not be the perfect fit but it did make me have a morning laugh.

My aunt Carolyn, uncle Jerry and Cousin Sally and her fam. came and visited us from Utah.  We had a big ole' family potluck at above said sister-in-laws house and it was super fun!  I always wonder why we don't have big family things more often as it is just enjoyable to be around each other.  My favourite story of the night involves me of course.  I must admit that it didn't really surprise me that I was a weirdo from the start of life because not much has changed.  Well, maybe just that most people don't know that I am a weirdo because I usually confine it to the walls of my home.  Now what I am talking about is that when I was about 2-3 years-old I decided that I was a puppy.  I totally was committed to this act.  I was so committed in fact that for 4 months straight I was a dog (which Trevor says is no surprise that I would be stubborn enough to keep the act going for so long).  I walked on all fours and when spoken to only answered in a bark.  I played ball in which I would bring the ball to someone in my mouth and they would throw it and I would crawl to it fetch with my mouth.  I even went as far as licking my brothers' friends feet when they came over and only eating out of a bowl like a puppy.  Now, you may think that it was cute that I would pretend I was a dog once and a while at that age, but what is weird is that I pretended I was a dog ALL THE TIME, meaning 24/7 for 4 months straight.  I would talk, walk or do anything unless it was in dog form.  My sister told us that about that time the goldfish started going missing.  Nobody knew where they were going.  One day my sister came down the stairs and found me biting the head off of one of the fish and proceeding to eat it.  I guess about the time everyone was starting to think I had psychological problems I just stopped one day.  Yup, I'm that weird.

I will leave you on that note.

P.S. Note to all the people that I am friends with now and are reading my blog and are thinking that maybe they should stay away.  I don't pretend that I am a dog whilst in the confines of my home anymore...I swear!

The Great Ol' State...

of UTAH!  Yup, that is where we went last week.  And I actually had a really enjoyable time.  I don't know what it is about Utah, but I always seem to have these negative feelings about going there and then when I get there I have a good time.  First and foremost, I love my parents and always love to visit them.  Although, hint hint, they need to get here so I don't have to endure a 14 hour drive just to talk to my mom.  Secondly, the heat can't hurt.  It was really nice to get my heat and sun on.  Third, it was like a vacation from my kids.  Yes, I love my kids more than anything but it was super nice to get some time away from them.  My sister ventured down to Utah at the exact same week by coincidence I might add.  Her son Corbin and Sterls are really good friends, well at least some of the time.  So consequently for the whole week Sterling decided that I didn't exist and decided to play with Corbin the whole time.  Yup, I didn't mind that at all.  Although, they did have a little mishap that resulted in making me laugh for days.  They got ahold of an old razor, thank goodness no one was hurt.  But then they decided to shave off each other's eyebrows.  So hilarious, they looked pretty freakin' funny!

My dad can't travel right now so we made the trip so they could make sure to see little Emy before she is all grown up as I have been told and have witnessed first hand, happens really fast.  I also decided that it would be a really good time to start helping get the house ready to sell (fingers crossed it will be really soon).  I took on my parents 'Home Teaching' room as I like to refer to it as.  Unfortunately, I had the misfortune of forgetting to take pretty much all before photos except one.  So just have a really good imagination and that should help.  I painted the bare white walls in a very pale grey.  I am really into that colour right now, so that is what they got.  After that I decided that the painting pictured below needed an update.  It had this really pale pink frame and it screamed 80's.  It just took some trim paint and 10 minutes and now it is an updated painting, yay for simple things!  Then, I bought a $3 clearance lamp shade and replaced the old yellowing lamp shade.  Which then, begged for me to spray paint the base a more modern colour.  As you can see this is the only item I took a before and after.  Lastly, I added a couple of pillows to the space and voila.  Simple, room makeover.  Actually, had some fun (for the most part, who really like to paint walls) and it only took a couple days.  Total cost to me $30 but it really made a world of difference, if only you could see the before :(

This is after it was all done

Before Lamp

 After Lamp

Trevor and I took the kids (mine and my sister's) on the Heber Railroad.  Which yup, it really lives up to its nickname the Heber Creeper, yup it's a creeper train.  Although it was a really serene and nice time was had by all.

ALso took the kids to Veteran's Pool which is always a favourite in the summer heat.  Love Emy's new cute swimsuit that I bought to the tune of $3!  Sweet!

My parents gave Sterling a small Birthday Party.  The funny thing was that we all got him these little dollar store items (he is going to have a huge party here in Calgary in a couple of weeks with all the goodies and whatnot) and he loved them so much!  Who needs to get their new to 3-Year-old child anything else, geeze!

Emery decided that our last 10 minutes there she was going to put on a show for her Grandma and Grandpa Gibb.  She finally decided it was time to learn to CRAWL...which is so cute by the way!  She does this little crab shuttle walk on her hands and feet.  I think she is really determined to walk because she always has to be on her feet, even while crawling.  She just follows Sterling around annoying him to death.  Which I love because he has annoyed and poked and hit her for 9 months so she is now starting to get her revenge.

Oh yeah, had I went to all my fav. eating joints as per usual...OH how I miss, Beto's, Los Hermanos, Kneaders, Gandolfo's, Costa Vida and Cafe Rio.  Be still my beating heart if one day of these lovely restaurants decided to creep its way across the border!

IT'S OFFICIAL FOLKS!

It is finally official.  What?!?  Yup, we bought a house!  We went from looking to buying in about 1 week and are so excited.  I know it isn't much but so excited to be able to do whatever I want to my own house.  So hopefully after we move in there will be alot more progress on the projects and blog postings.

Now just to pack and move in only 2.5 weeks, ouch!