My kiddies

I love my kids so much.  I am pretty sure that I couldn't have picked out better suited kids for myself.  Even though 90% of the time, Emery is showing all sorts of attitude (don't know where she got that one from....) and has to make sure everyone knows she is the one calling ALL the shots and I have to clean a vomit up once a day for the last 3.5 years (Sterling pukes so much that Emery knows his puking signs and will run and get his puke bucket for him, if that isn't sisterly love...) and deal with even more attitude from my little man.  They both seem to have inherited my feisty and attitude filled demeanours.  Going to be some fun teenage years ahead of us.  Yup pretty lucky!

Don't you just love the converse shoes on the little one?  Our whole family has a couple pairs each...I swear one day I will get a photo of us all in our 'chucks'.

She looks so peaceful while sleeping.  This photo is oh so deceiving of the chaos that follows this little girl everywhere.  Who knew one little being could cause so much trouble in such a short amount of time!  Yes, I love every little fat roll on her little chubby legs...So adorable!

This is what happens when a certain little boy phone naps your Iphone...

I get little gems like these on a constant basis.  Love that my 3-year-old is proficient in using technology, almost better than me!

 

My Little Girl!

I have such a little sweetheart.  Well, sometimes....Actually most of the time she has a such a bad little temper (Don't know where that came from....).  Seriously, she is violent and hits and throws things at Sterling on a constant basis.  She hits me and random objects if I don't give her what she wants.  Yup, this one is a little bully, but I do love her sooooo much.  She is such a cute little bully as the evidence as seen below:

Sitting here with nervous energy.  Going to my 20 weeks ultrasound in a couple hours and will find out: If I am still having uterus haemorrhaging problems and If I need to be put on permanent bed rest (BOO :( ), if the baby is healthy and the haemorrhaging is causing growth problems and the gender.  Whew, I hate these things.  I have only had like 30 of them between all three pregnancies and have such poor feelings towards ultrasounds due to this fact.  This will be my 5th ultrasound with this pregnancy and hopefully the last (probably not but I can dream).

 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

We celebrated Emery's 1st Birthday this last Friday!  How does that happen?  They really do grow up so fast and I can't believe it has been a whole year since I gave birth to that little girl.  Oh how I love her!  Her official Birthday was November 15 but my Mom was flying down for the weekend so we postponed her party so she could come to it.  I quickly whipped up this little number in her party colours (pink and green):  

And yes, that pink square used to be my address but it seems kind of creepy to leave it up on the net for the whole world to see.

I made these sweet pom pom tissue balls from here.  They are super easy peasy to do and they really added a lot of festivity to her little party.

 I also made this little banner by finding some spare scrapbook paper and printing letters onto them.  Love it!  Think I might keep it for years to come even though it only took 30 minutes and some spare goods at home.

 I  made little cupcakes for the little girl and a smash cake all for her little self.

 Ooooooh smash cake, all for me?

 But her fear of so many people at once ruined her fun.  She was so focused on all the other people around her and looking at her that she just couldn't eat her cake.  She did manage to make a mess but only a couple bites made it to her mouth.  Anyone that knows Emery, knows that is abnormal.  She is a eater and always wants to be munching on something.  I don't know if I have ever expressed the depth of shyness that this little girl possesses.  She hides her head and refuses to look at anyone that is trying to talk to her.  She sits and clings in my lap for hours so no one else will touch or look at her.  I do feel sorry for this little girl because she takes after me and being shy is no fun!

 I just had to share this photo of her in her new church dress!  Love love love it, so cute and got it on a steal for $4.

Love my baby girl and can't wait to share another year with her.  She seriously brightens my life with the amount of smiles that she gives me on a daily basis.  

 

Halloween Part 2 - a week late

Sterling carved his pumpkin last weekend the day before Halloween.  He decided that he wanted a pirate  pumpkin.  Which resulted in me, taking out all the inside and carving it myself because he didn't want to do either.

 He did decide that he wanted to paint his pumpkin like Mama painted hers.  So I thought that was pretty cute.  He was super intense and was not even answering my questions or looking at me while at work.

 This was his pirate pumpkin masterpiece.  Love it!

 Got the kiddies dressed up and ready for Halloween.  It was a little bit chilly, of course it was the coldest day of the week.  Naturally, this is what Emy thought of her costume for the first 10 minutes.  SHe just laid there and cried and cried and then cried some more.

 Love the behind shot.

 FYI- Trick or treating in a wheel chair = suckiness beyond belief.  Yup, not so much fun.  I really can't imagine Sterling wanting to go when he gets a little bit bigger.  It was a lot of work for such little reward.  He usually will absolutely NOT let me touch his wheel chair when we are out.  Even if he is dead tired and has wheeled for hours.  But after 2 houses he asked me if I would push him the rest of the way.

We had some fun and of course we all gorged ourselves on candy.

A good end to summer.

The weekend before last has amazing weather.  So we made sure to have a last summer adventure before all the nasty weather started rolling in.  Went to Canmore and the weather was amazing!  It was 29 degrees Celsius.  Ahhhhh!  Took a bunch of photos of the kiddies.  Sterling is  now in the 'I don't want to pay attention in order to let you get any photos of me' stage.  Which is alright, but that is why there is a lack of photos of him.  

Grassi Lake, in all it's turing into fall glory.

This little girl is getting so big, despite the lack of hair!  She loves posing for the camera.  What a sweetie!

Her infamous stinky face.  

Sterls started doing  somersaults down the hill at the park in Canmore.  So much fun!

Tons of fun!  But sadly it is just making me miss summer more.  I love summer and I am really sad to see it go.  At least we let summer go out in the correct way.  Spent the morning at Grassi Lake and the afternoon in the river park in Canmore.  Then we had a picnic for dinner with the fam. (Ang and family, Stacy and family and Colin) in Bragg Creek.  Yup, love me some summer.  Now to get my fall on, including the Spina Bifida Conference in Edmonton.

The cloth Diapering Cronicles

You want to know one of the questions that I have gotten asked the most this last couple months?  Well, here it is:

How is cloth diapering going and how do you like it?

Well, I never knew that my babies diapering experiences could be so interesting.  So in an effort to let everyone know in one place...I LOVE IT!

I never thought that I would be the type of person that would love it so much.  I mean, I HATE laundry.  I hate it so much that I usually go weeks wearing clothes that I hate in order to deftly manoeuvre not doing laundry for a little while longer.  I mean right now I am still wearing my PJ's because I don't have any clean clothes that make me want to change for the day.  I don't actually get bothered about throwing in a load of diapers every three days.  It is just one load and then goes onto the drying rack to dry for a couple of days.  They are so super absorbent that it takes me two days to dry them fully, but they last longer if you don't put them in the dryer.

Why I like them?  Well, they are super easy.  First things first, I just change them like a normal disposable diaper and once a day when I get the lovely number two, I take it to our bathroom and quickly spray it out with a diaper sprayer.  THen I throw it in our diaper pail with all the others to be washed twice a week.  Below is a picture of what they look like inside:  

Secondly, so freaking cute!  I mean look at that little bum below...Yup adorable!

Third, so super absorbent.  I mean every morning the first diaper change after the night my kids diapers are almost bursting.  Yuck!  They are still dry in some spots in them in the morning.  Plus, you can also get these microfiber pads that make them even more absorbent.  But the best part about this is that Emy hasn't even come close to having a blowout since I changed.  She always has them with disposables.  The diapers being so absorbent has also come with another unexpected benefit.  My kids don't stink horribly after they have gone number two. I literally have to bring their butts right up to my nose to smell.  And who doesn't like a less stinky kid?

One of the great things about changing is that we now call them underwear.  All of Sterling's friends are now out of diapers and he is really feeling left out.  The poor kid doesn't seem to have any sense of going to the bathroom which equals not being able to be potty trained.  He feels like such a big boy now and loves picking out his 'underwear' each diaper change.  That fact alone makes it completely worth it to change to these.  

Sterling also now has less pressure sores from the diapers.  The disposables gave him horrible pressure sores on his skin.  Love it!

Lastly, the reason that I changed in the first place is to save money.  And I can already see how much money I am going to save.  The Spina Bifida Association helped pay for some of them (the ones Sterling wears) so it is only going to take 2 months worth of diapers to pay these babies off and I will be able to use them for all my children down the line.  Our washers running cost says it is $6 a year, so yup.  Counting our savings and loving it.  Who likes wasting precious money on things like diapers?  

Like, I said.  I never thought I would be one of those Mama's that loves and supports cloth diapering.  But I am definitely a happy woman with kids with cute little bums.

Now to leave you with some bum shots:

 *Side note, doesn't Sterling back scars look soooooo much better these days?

 

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!