Christmas

Hello Everyone! I pray you had a wonderful Christmas this year, and will have a blessed New Year!

This week of holidays has passed by at a rather slow rate. However with having Orlund home I find I'm not needing a nap, which helps have more hours in the day.

Christmas we were spoiled rotten by Orlund's family. My Parents were in Thailand, and my brother in Edmonton. So we will have Christmas with my side later. We spent Christmas Eve at Hazel and Hugh's, along with about 4hours on Christmas day around noon. We had our own little Christmas here in on Christmas morning opening our gifts. And had the Norstrom's over for goodies and games Christmas night.

We haven't been to any parties this year. We didn't hang out with many people this year (due to moving, trips etc etc) so weren't really expecting much. However sure makes you realize how much you miss the parties. We've decided this next year we wont be so 'self' involved and get together with more people throughout the year. We also will be hosting a small group at our home, one through our church. We don't have to teach anything, just provide the house. I'm looking forward to that. It's every sunday night and I like meeting other people. The small group is about raising children so will be interesting to see who comes. We went to a small group before about raising kids and really enjoyed it. There were some couples alittle older than us (kids not in nursery) so it was nice to visit with them and get to know them on a more personal note.

Well I know, I didn't write much however I have some other things I need to get to. One last thing I'll write, we bought a dishwasher! That's right. I'm getting a dishwasher! I LOVE DISHWASHERS!! I always laugh that Orlund and Joy already had a dishwasher, but now it's Mommy's turn to have one :) I called the store and it arrived so we just need to pick it up, and it gets installed on monday morning. I think sunday night I'm not going to do the dishes just so I can try it out right away.

God bless you all and I'll post pictures soon...I hope ;)

Catching up

Last night Orlund came to me and mentioned that I hadn't updated our blog in a while. He has 2 websites and seems to keep them relatively up to date.... ugh... not me. I have two blogs and my mom's website I'm supposed to keep up with, so far...... falling farther and farther behind. So here I am writing on our blog, what to write? I'll just catch you all up.

Since my last posting in May ~

June~ Joy and I left on a 20hour flight to go visit my mom and her kids in Thailand for 2 weeks. Yes a 20hour flight, just me and my 1year old.. Actually I found out just how good of a kid she is *smile*. Joy played in the basinett the airline provided, slept in it, ate in it, and only came out to nurse the occasional time *bliss*, no movies for mommy but I figured it had to be all about her so was prepared for that. We arrived safe and sound and in good spirits *tired*. It didn't take us long to settle into Mom's busy life *busy busy busy* up at 5am, down at 10pm. While we were there we went shopping *yippee for mommy!*, got massages, got our nails done, took the kidlets to the Pattaya waterpark, tiled their new kitchen, went to the strangest wedding I've ever gone to, and generally had fun playing with Gramma/Mom and the kidlets. Joy was ALWAYS entertained, 16kids that love her will do that. After the two weeks flew by we jumped on the plane to head home. Not so much fun this time. Joy and I both apparently had gotten a cold (probably due to not switching time zones so didn't sleep good), and with altitude changes your nose doesn't stop running... My 'one' weakness ~ boogers! I just put myself into "mommy mode" and dealt with it. Joy also decided to get a few more teeth in on the flight. She still did wonderfully, didn't cry more than 10minutes if you added it all up. Me on the other hand, needed a break, could have cried the whole way, but I made it through. Then we waited at the Vancouver airport for 9hours because Mom was also flying home the same day, just at the end of the day not the begining (luckily I'd packed in our carry-on extra clothes for Joy and I, gotta get outta the booger ones). Joy and I locked up our luggage, found a quiet corner and slept. I rocked Joy back and forth in the stroller while I layed on some benches and 'slept'. It wasn't long *cough* before Poppa/Dad showed up then Gramma/Mom was arriving and we got to come home.

For the next while when Gramma was in Canada we made as many trips to see her as possible, and helped tile their house here in Canada.

So what else? Oh, My husband knocked me up again! lol (he said to say that). That's right! after many many months of trying, after Joy and I returned from Thailand I got pregnant. We are due April 10th (day before my birthday). We thought we were due April 5th, however I had some 'spotting' so the doctor wanted to confirm everything was alright and for the duedate. So I went in and had a dating ultrasound, found out everything was fine and we were due 5 days later. so I am now 17weeks along and, well, doing great *gag*, okay so I'm sick. And tired. But that can't take away the excitement that I have a little baby growing inside me again. I've been able to feel baby move for a few weeks now, and last night Orlund got to feel it for the first time. Tuesday we go in to hear the heartbeat for the first time *exciting*. Then in the next couple weeks we'll get another ultrasound *excited*. At the first ultrasound I got to see what looked like a peanut with a little spot that 'flickered' *heartbeat*. This time we'll get to see a BABY! yippee.

Oh and I don't know if I mentioned but this past April we moved into our new house, a 1/2 duplex. Love love love it! We are finally all settled in, now we just have to figure out how to fit a baby in too. It's much nicer and roomier than our little trailer. Well I think that's enough rambling, I'm going to attach one of my favorite pictures of our girl.

God bless and I'll try to post more often.

Protein?

Our Doctor suggested feeding Joy more protein...
My mom suggested Peanut butter as a source of protein...

"THANKS GRANDMA!"

Ava Elisabeth

The Proud new Daddy holding Ava.
The two proud Aunties! Ava was born March 19th.

This picture is only on here purely so you can see little Ava!

Hi Grandma!

Look what I can do!

Hehehe ~ time to lower the crib!

Joy and her Lion.

Roar!!
Joy started Giggling soon. She loves her Lion.

Painting for Daddy.

Joy getting more Paint from Uncle Jay.
That 'blurp' of paint Joy's holding is the picture she painted!

trying to eat the newspaper

Orlund turned 30 Jan 14th and so as a specail gift I had Joy paint him her first picture. I then got a picture frame and put this last picture on one side and her art work on the other. He was a very proud Daddy, so took it to work and showed it off to his co-workers.

Playing Dress up.

Okay apparently I am not all that talented at uploading pictures, I always upload them backwards :( So these pictures are of Joy trying on a few outfits for mom ~ I was trying to decide what she should wear to a special get-together. This first outfit was the last one I put her in ~ hence the coat hanger, she was getting bored!
This is what happened when I took the coat hanger away ~ she played with her skirt instead.
And reaching for the coat hanger.
She got it!
'Next' outfit.

And 'next' outfit. It's a summer dress, but it's cold so I added the T-shirt and leggings.

And this was the first outfit she tried on.

Oops, just deleted one picture...oh well it was similar to some others on here, she has just started to be able to sit by herself (with mom near by to catch her). Here she decided to play with her wipes container....... it apparently was very fasinating!

~Pumpkin patch~

Isn't she cute?

These are just some fun pictures that Orlund and I thought of taking. We did this at home, I carved the pumpkin and gathered all the other stuff. She really got into it exploring the inside of the pumpkin as well as the plastic bag she was sitting on :)