We spent Christmas this year all around. It started in Kamloops where we opened gifts from Grandma and Grandpa (in Mexico). The kids loved the things they got, Disney pillows with little story books, puzzles, new jammies and more! It was fun to open them early too.

Since it was Graedin's first Christmas and he is only 3 months old, it was harder to buy for him. We managed to find him some cute little toys- a Fisher Price zoo train, and a Fisher Price gumball thing that you drop balls into, and then it plays music and such. The kids recieved many other great things from everyone this year.

My mom had gone shopping right before Christmas and bought them Christmas outfits from The Children's Place. We dressed the kids up and took some pictures:

It was great to have some family time with Chris and Camille just before Christmas. We stopped in there and crashed at their place around 3am on Christmas Eve morning. It was about a 10 hour drive to get to Lethbridge from Kamloops. When we left Calgary and started to go south, Scott tried to remember a shortcut so that we could maybe get there a little sooner. We ended up turning way too soon, and were driving in the middle of nowhere! We found dirt roads, and -30 weather, but soon found the other highway that goes near their house... It was a little scary at first, but we were pretty confident that we could find it!

We had a short sleep and then had a wonderful breakfast, and got to meet our new little niece, Kate. She is sooooo tiny, and hardly cried the whole time we were there. She is very loved by her big brother Hayden, and cousins Taryn and Levi.

After visiting Chris and Camille for a short bit (way too short!) We drove to Saskatoon to spend Christmas with Babba and Opa. We had a wonderful time snowmobiling, shopping, opening presents, baking, cooking and spending time with family. It was great to be there again after a long busy summer.

We will not be heading out there again for a while, probably July, as we will have a wedding to attend.

Christmas Time!

Well, we are almost there- Christmas is about a month away, and I am not ready at all!!! We just got the tree up this weekend, and my colours this year are brown and green. I seem to recall having more decorations than I found, so either I am mistaken, or they lost some boxes....not totally sure!

Anyways, here are a few pics of the tree....I need to get some ribbon in a brown I think, to finish it off. And we put the tree in the basement this year in the family room, so it touches the ceiling....so no angel, or star. I think a big bow or flower arrangement like this. Any ideas?

So far we have all the gifts for the kids done. We are not buying stuff for each other, since Scott got a leather chair, and I got a sofa. And Scott also bought a new car, a 99 Cavelier. It's for work. He got it for a great price too - $2000 bucks, and it only has 170,000kms on it. Not too bad for a newer vehicle. Everything else in that price range was a money pit for sure.

He just got a $2500 bonus for his year end review, so I guess that pays for the car, and the rest of the gifts we need to buy!

We bought Hayden`s gift this year. Hope he likes it....can`t let you all know what it is though, since his mommy reads this from time to time!

Graedin was really hard to buy for since he is only 2 months old. But I thought of a great idea. A look and find blanket. One of the mommies at my mommy group had one. It was a great idea, and was wonderful to have since there are about 9 babies on the floor!

When the baby is older, you can play games like Do you see the tractor? You use bright fabrics with pictures, and bright colours and it is a great little thing to tote around to Babba and Opa's or friends places. I already picked up some fabric for Graedy's- some trucks and such on one, solid blue, green with circles and some other cute ones....so we will see what happens with that!

Now I just need to find my sewing machine....!

Random Pictures from October 08

Our first Thanksgiving not celebrated with family was this year. We were unable to travel back to Saskatchewan because Scott had to work on a major project.

This was the result of my hard work (not really...) Yummy roast with potatoes and carrots!

Scott and Levi and Me and Graedy at our favorite restaraunt, Amsterdams this past Sunday after Church. Great little place with traditional dutch food, the most wonderful little dollar sized pannekoek(pancakes) for the kids and the world's best chicken burger...I'm drooling thinking of it...drool....

Taryn did get one picture taken but her eyes were closed...she looked a little drugged!

House Update!

Well, soon the days of hotel living will be behind us! We move into our new place on Wednesday provided the lawyers can get it all done...you would think 1 whole month to complete paperwork would be enough, but in these last few days, I think they are sweating a bit.

We finished signing some more papers today, just more legal mumbo-jumbo. We found out that total legal costs and title transfer taxes and everything else is going to cost us an extra $19,000....gulp!!!!!

The Gov of BC takes $5000 alone just for us buying the land/house!!!! I personally think it is pretty ridiculous...the lawyer is another big huge rip off....gets a whole lot of money for not a whole lot of work...

Anyways, that is my little vent! I am very thankful that we found something so perfect for our family. We laughed yesterday as we talked about how we always come back to the first decision we make in different areas of our life.

For example, when we bought our first car, we (read "I") wanted a Grand Am. We looked around at a few, but were not totally sure that was what we should buy, so over the next few weeks, we looked around at other cars too. Guess what we bought? Yep. A Grand Am. I loved that car....If I did not have 3 kids and dogs and cats, I would still have it...:)

Then when we decided to buy another vehicle that would be bigger for us, we (this time it was really both of us!) wanted a Yukon or a Tahoe. We looked around and thought we should look into other vehicles as well....we looked at Blazer, Santa Fe and others, and bought....you guessed it, our Yukon! I love that thing more than the Grand Am...I think it is my favorite thing actually....which makes me worried God might take it away from me :(

Anyways, we are all very excited to get into the house, we will try to paint the bedrooms at least, maybe the whole upper floor. These are the colours we chose for the kids rooms:

Taryn's Room: Green ( with pink accents and white wainscotting) The picture is the source of our inspiration.

Levi and Graedy's Room: Blue (with deep red and tan accents, and white wainscotting) I am going to go darker than this pic shows, but you get the general idea!

This is the couch that we are trying to buy- We bought a brown leather storage ottoman thing- it is a large rectangle shape and opens up for storage. We are going to buy a leather chair and ottoman (smaller, square one) from the same store. We figured it would be cheaper than buying a whole set, and with my antique 1913 upright piano, we need a bit more room than a 3 piece set would allow.

Thanksgiving 08

And of course, my biggest kid :)

The two adorable troublemakers:)

I know this picture did not turn out, but it was just so perfect...you get the idea at least!

Taryn, our little princess!

Levi, being all boy and adorable at the same time...

Those are just a few shots of our Thanksgiving weekend. We were unable to make if back to Saskatoon as Scott was swamped and had to make a deadline of Tuesday. He ended up working all weekend, and we had a nice meal on Monday night of Roast Beef, potatoes and carrots. Not nearly as good as Mom's turkey and stuffing, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, turnips, gravy and pie would have been....drool..... :)

Our New House, Kamloops BC

So it is final. We are homeowners again after 5 months of living out of our suitcases!

We removed the conditions off the house that we had an offer to purchase on today. It is a nice little rancher bungalow in a great area of Kamloops called Juniper Ridge. When you tell people where our house is, they say "Oh, so your one of THOSE people" Apparently we have entered into a new social bracket....of course, we look at the 600,000 dollar houses in Juniper and we call them "those people"

The house is wonderful though- Completley updated little 1974 3bedroom with adorable little flowerbox planters on the front windows. New beveled laminate in the living room, dining room and hallway, great tile in the kitchen/back entry way and bathroom.

There is a full basement that walks out in the back to a great flat yard....there is grass and apple trees and a fence that needs tearing down...:( That part is not so great, but it is something that we will tackle next year. We love spending time in the yard, and with the lack of mosquitos here, we will be doing a lot of that in the new year.

The view from the deck is AMAZING- looks over the mountains and biking hills, with a great shot of downtown Kamloops. We are very excited about bbq's on the new deck!

I posted a few pictures, but if you want to see more, just log onto Facebook to see more!

Graedin Ryker MacDonald

Well, it seemed like it took forever, but he is finally here. Cute and cuddly, soft and pink, Graedin entered our world on September 23rd, 2008 at 5:33pm. Weighing in at 9lbs 4oz, we were shocked that he came out in only 3 or 4 pushes!
Taryn is loving her new little brother, and is always concerned with him when he cries or fusses. She puts his soother in when we are driving in the truck, which is a huge help- I was always the one that had to do it previously....:)

Grandma and Grandpa were here visiting before Graedy was born. Since the due date was Sept 9, they came for that day, and after we reached the 20th and still no baby, earnest prayers were sent up that he would come soon!
They had to return to Mexico after a month and a bit of being away for family time.

As for the birth, I never imagined it could be as bad as it was. I was simply not prepared. As someone who had an epidural with each of the other births, I thought that this one would go as smoothly as Levi (8 hours, start to finish!)

We arrived at the hospital 8am to have my water broken. After 2 hours of nothing happening afterwards, they started me on an iv drip. The iv was wonderful- took 2 tries to get it in, not to mention the technician on the other side taking blood- took her 3 tries....so 5 pokes in all when it should have been 2!

Once the drip was started though, it did not take long for the contractions to start. After 4 hours, I asked for an epidural. I was given something else- can't remember the name now....- anyways, it was powerful, and soon I was dozing off and on between 5 min contractions. After 40 mins, I asked for an epidural again, because the drugs were wearing off. She gave me more drugs. :(

After only 30 mins, that one was gone, and the next one did nothing at all....by that time (around 2pm) I was begging for an epidural, but they said they needed to contact the doctor. I asked them to do that...from 2pm to 5pm, I was screaming in pain with every contraction. It most likely did not help that they turned up the drip more in the meantime so that the contractions would get stronger....!

I was told at 4pm that it was too late to give me anything! DUH! I am glad that we are done having kids. If I knew Kamloops was going to be such a hick town setup, I would have driven back to Edmonton to have Graedy.....

Oh, and being told by the nurse to "get it together" and "calm down" does not make me want to do either of those. It made me want to beat the crap out of her....good thing I had the laughing gas thing to beat on the side of the bed.... ;)