Not Sure how old, the box spring had mold and I lost in a fight with a dog.

I am entering to win a new mattress from this awesome blog I love. I really don't know how old this mattress is. My hubby got it before we were even married. We had a King size mattress handed down, but kept this one just in case. Good thing as the King size got mold, along with the box spring that was supposed to be with this one.

Also before we were even married, this mattress also got into a fight with a dog and lost as you see in the picture (the nice hole circled in green). We are using plywood for the box spring now and we are hoping that it will hold up for a bit yet so we can save for or win a new one.

I would love to win the Tempur-pedic mattress right now as it would be heavenly after having another c-section in a couple days!

Here's hoping, you can vote for ours on the blog! :o)

One Thousand Gifts

It has been a while since I posted one of these. I am still counting and have so much to be grateful for! I am also counting down the days until our newest little 'Gooch' arrives! Only 5 more days and we will meet this little miracle.

We have been busy this past month. The move went so extremely well, we were both amazed at how 'good' God truly is. He was always one step ahead of us every inch of the way. It was truly incredible. We still have had little glitches here and there, but that is to be expected. We still have a lot to get organized as well, but I am learning to let go and just focus on what we have accomplished and what really is important (hard for me as I have this 'nesting' thing going on full bore!).

So over the past few weeks, we have had so much to count:

81. Safe travels and perfect weather for our move.



82. Affordable hotel rooms, when we needed it most.

83. A nice, new place to call home for the year. It is quaint, but nice and affordable for us. Not to mention the neighbourhood is really nice and quiet.

84. Finding a doctor, in the most bizarre, God orchestrated way.

85. Family outings and the love these two have for the outdoors, the beaches, the mountains, and just exploring!



86. A husband who keeps me sane or my sanity in check!



87. Amazing sermons.

88. Reconnecting with friends!

89. Meeting new additions to the family and seeing family we haven't seen in a while.

90. Baby bellies! :o)



91. Seeing my nephews and of course my dear sister again!

92. Knowing that I have a year off with these three. I love being at home with my sweet hearts!



93. Hanging with our friends from Regina in Canmore! We are beyond blessed to have the Paille's in our lives. So many fun times with this family and we are so grateful for the ways they helped us out!

94. A backyard (even if it's small) and the trampoline! They love it and could spend hours on it!

C is for Cookie - long overdue post

I have had this sitting in the 'draft' for a while now and just needed to format and post some pictures. So here it is, our little Princesses birthday!

The theme for Gigi's birthday was Cookie Monster. One of her favourite songs is "C is for Cookie" and she belts it out. It is so cute! She also loves the Cookie Monster Alphabet DVD that we bought and will sing the Alphabet along with Cookie.

I thought I would share a few things that we did for her party, and there were definitely a few things that I would have done differently. Oh well, live and learn.

I made two different types of Cookie Monster cupcakes due to allergies. Genesis is allergic to eggs and I thought it would be challenging to come up with a cake that had no eggs. I almost went out and bought an ice-cream cake. However my friend found this chocolate cake recipe that did not have eggs. I was a little nervous, as most chocolate cakes I have made by scratch are dry, but these turned out amazing! I will share the recipe.

I made 12 eggless chocolate cupcakes and used Oreo's (they don't have eggs in them either) and then I made 12 white cupcakes and used Chips Ahoy cookies. I used buttercream icing and blue gel to make it blue. I also bought the bulk, long unsweetened coconut and used the food gel on it as well to dye it blue. The coconut with the buttercream was really nice! For the eyes I bought white chocolate 'circles' and black icing for the pupils. I had to experiment with the cupcakes to find the best technique. I actually cut a slit in the cupcakes for the cookie, stuck the cookie in and then iced around it. It seemed to work the best.

For the gift bags I found the brown paper gift bags at the dollar store. I made labels that read:

Genesis's birthday is brought to you by the letter G and the number 2. Thanks for celebrating with us (found this on a website).

I also bought bubbles for the gift bags and put new labels on them that read "B is for Bubbles". I re-did all of the water bottle labels as well. They read, "W is for Water, as refreshing as can be."

I made cookies and had the kids decorate cookies when they arrived. I also gave Cookie cutters in their goodie bags and I wanted to do 'cookies in a jar' for each guest, but I ran out of time and ended up loading them up with pre-packaged cookies and candy (something I would have changed).

We found a Cookie Monster pull-string pinata at Bulk Barn on sale. I also filled a jar of cookies and had all of the adults and older kids make their guess. At the end the closest guess took home the jar of cookies.

We ended up having the party inside, rather than outside at the park. It was a little cramped, but we survived. It would have been much easier outside! I know that Genesis had a great time and was so excited for her Cookie Monster birthday and that made everything so worth while. I will admit that I had fun doing the different things and making the cupcakes as well, even though it was pretty time consuming. I am on the look-out for ideas for Zech's birthday now! :o)

Here are a few photos:



Recipe:

Chocolate Snacking Cake

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup warm water

· In mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients; mix thoroughly.

· Add liquid ingredients

· Stir with whisk until blended

· Pour into lightly greased 8 inch square cake pan

· Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until tester comes out clean

We've moved!

It has been a while since I posted because we have been without internet for two weeks now, and without a phone as well. It wasn't a bad thing to be without the internet for this long---kind of a technology cleanse! However, it is a little more stressful when you have just moved, are still trying to get things sorted and settled and need to look something up. John put unlimited web browsing on his phone so we could at least check emails,search addresses, etc. But it is pretty hard on the phone. None the less we have our internet and phone access now--yay (I really missed pinning too--hee)!

The move went well. We were both amazed at how smoothly it went and how God orchestrated so many incredible things and just really took care of us. We are where we are supposed to be for now and that is so evident. We are slowly getting settled and back into a routine. No, we have not unpacked everything and it will be a slow process. We try to do the unpacking, and getting settled business in the mornings and then take the kids to the mountains, beaches, etc. in the afternoon. They love the mountains and the beaches and get to go nuts. Zech also loves having a backyard that he has free reign (although very small) in. Every day he is outside with his swords and lego guns checking things out, getting the bad guys and the bad bugs too! It is nice that he can go out on his own and I don't have to worry and can see him from the kitchen. He is also the loudest kid in this block, so we find ourselves having to tell him to tone his outside voice down a little bit. He is all boy!

I will post pictures and more updates soon.

One Thousand Gifts

So much to be grateful for! I am blessed beyond and seem to forget this more often than I should!

On and on I count, and it seems this week has been so much easier. A break through perhaps, I don't know.... but whatever it is let's hope it stays!

61. My last day of work for just over a year!

62. Well wishes and lunch with some great colleagues!

63. Meeting my friends newest addition, spending time at their acreage and watching our kids play and interact together. Seeing my kids go nuts over the tractor and wagon ride, the animals on the acreage, and their garden! They really want a 'farm' and that is definitely a dream of ours--to one day have an acreage!

64. Birthday pedicure. My gift from John and the kids was a pedicure--that is all that I really, really wanted. It has been 5 years since the last one! I was falling asleep in the chair, it was so nice!

65. Knowing that God always provides for us, watches over us and loves us more than I can possibly imagine!

66. Countdowns and excitement as we embark on a new journey.

67. Knowing that in a few more weeks, we will have our third little monkey with us, in our arms!
(pray that I find a doctor in Calgary though--lately I feel like I am switching countries not 'provinces')

68. Great friends who are willing to help out for this move and take our kids for us while we get everything packed, loaded and sorted.

69. Fun in the park, just the 4 of us.

70. Watching my wonderful husband with our kids and feeling so incredibly blessed for how involved, interactive and silly he is with our kids. They simply adore him and he gets the best giggles from those two!

71. Feeling in awe how everything has really come together. God is so good!

72. Listening to the cousins talk on the phone and how excited they are to be able to see each other more often and 'live' closer to one another.

73. Letting go and letting my kids help me clean. I gave then each a sponge and a pail of water to clean the cupboards out. The whole pail of water was gone by the time they finished, but they loved helping and I just let them be and praised their work!

74. Singing songs with my angels and hearing them sing their new 'made' up songs too!

75. The RCMP Heritage museum with my two bundles of energy (we were giving Daddy some 'quiet' study time).

76. Prayers from my little ones and hearing how they pray for one another.

77. Walks.

78. Ice-cream.

79. Confirmation from the Lord on areas that have been difficult, that I have questioned and wondered about.

80. New friends.

The timing of it all....

We are exactly one week away from moving, and I only have 2 working days left until I am off for a year. Some days I wonder why things happen when they do.... you know the timing of it all.

As if moving, packing, cleaning, changing addresses, ensuring deposits are received, arranging dates and times to pick up and drop off keys, confirming moving trucks, wondering if we have enough boxes, whether or not the truck will be big enough, trying to down-size more, isn't stressful enough. All of a sudden you throw this into the mix:




We had a big storm Tuesday night and at 1:00 am we looked outside and found that the tree outside our place split off. At first we thought it landed between our van and our neighbours
truck, but upon closer inspection we realized that it had taken out our back window. Our neighbours happened to be up and saw what happened. They also happened to have a tarp that we borrowed to tarp up the broken window until morning. The rain was unbelievable!

Talk about timing! The window is fixed now, but we are still sorting out the details as to 'who' is responsible for the damage. It is a city tree and two weeks ago our neighbour phoned and complained about it. The city came and 'trimmed' it. It also has some metal posts that are 'bracing' the tree. So obviously this tree had some issues and the city was aware of these issues. We will have to get the rest of the repairs completed in Alberta when we get back. For now the window was the main priority. The timing of it really stinks, but all we can do is pray that God will sort everything out and that the City will take responsibility for it so that we can get our deductible back.

One Thousand Gifts

I am not doing so well on my counting these days. I think of things, but am quickly distracted or overwhelmed with the not so pleasant things in my life, that I find I am spending more time stressing, worrying, lamenting in my own pathetic pity party, that I quickly forget what I was counting, and how much I truly am blessed. Oh, there are so many things that need to change, but I need to start with my heart, first and foremost. I am struggling, I am negative, I am frustrated and unfortunately my poor family takes the brunt of it, especially my husband.

Part of it is just wanting, wishing to be done this pregnancy. I don't do the whole 9 month thing that well. In fact I wish that the 'stork' would seriously just drop the baby off and I wouldn't have to go through the 9 months of well I won't say the word that I am really thinking here. I know that there are women who go through far worse than what I do and have had. In all honesty this one has been quite a bit easier than the first two, but still has its own unique issues. Plus this heat wave hasn't helped much. I made the mistake of taking off my shoes today at work and couldn't get them back on. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, but things are a little more strict where I work and dress code is highly emphasized and enforced. I will get off my little pity party now and get to the real blessings, the incredible ways and things that God does for me and my family.

45. A new place to live within our budget, in a decent (from what we have seen) neighbourhood, with all of the things that we were looking for (especially a fenced yard--even if it is small, it's better than nothing).

46. Great friends who are willing to be our references, check into things and complete a viewing for us! We love you guys and appreciate it more than we can say!

47. A school for my boy. We have been praying about this a lot. We knew that we did not want to put Zech into the Public School system, but found that the Private Christian Schools were quite expensive. Not to mention I was really late applying, he was on a wait list, and there was no guarantee he would get in. We also strongly believe that home-schooling is an option for us and we are extremely open to it, however, the timing is not right. So after a bit of praying and searching, I found a public school that offers a Christian program for free (well there is the $25 registration fee) and they even supply all of the school supplies that he needs. Plus it is close to our new home, he can take the bus home and it offers everything that we are looking for! A true blessing indeed.

48. Meeting family I have never met before (John's side) and feeling so incredibly blessed, encouraged, loved and supported. They are such wonderful people who are such an amazing blessing in our lives. It is so amazing how God works sometimes!

49. Counting down the last days of work (only 5 more left).

50. Air Conditioners. God truly came through for us today! I had maybe three hours of sleep last night as our place is an OVEN!! It has been so hot here and this has got to be the most poorly insulated place we have ever lived. All of the stores have been sold out of Air Conditioners, but after a quick prayer asking God to help him find one, John did and he also got a really great deal. I am one happy prego lady tonight and even the kids are asleep at a decent hour!

51. U-pick strawberries and seeing how much my little ones loved picking and helping us out. They want a garden so bad and that is definitely one of our 'Sun Stand Still' prayers.

52. Sugarless freezer jam.

53. Frozen strawberries for smoothies.

54. The arrival of many new babies, safe and sound and hearing, seeing the immense joy and love these families have for their new additions!

55. Hearing this little one's heartbeat loud and strong and seeing how excited its brother and sister are when they hear it too!

56. Zech writing letters for the first time. He wrote a Z, H, M and C. He was so incredibly proud of himself. I was pretty impressed as I haven't been spending any time with him on this, he just started doing it.

57. Hearing and watching my kids read the Bible. Zech has some of the stories memorized and he really does a great job 'reading' them!

58. BBQ's with friends.

59. Emails from friends who I have neglected and knowing that they forgive me, even when I don't deserve it!

60. New adventures that we are about to embark on and the peace of mind knowing that God is the only one we truly have to please!