10 days left!

Well today I had my muchly anticipated Doctor's appointment, had to wait an hour before even getting called in, but we wont go there!  This was the first time getting the lovely 'sweeping the membranes' done than she told me I was "2 almost 3 centimiters dialated!" WOOHOO! All that pressure and aching I've been feeling actually means something is happening!  Dr. wants to see me again on Monday.  She is going to let me wait for the c-sec until June 11th when I'm 41 weeks.  I cant even imagine being pregnant that much longer, so i'm not!  I'm beyond tired but plan to do alot of walking and cleaning from here on out and when I say cleaning I mean on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor:) hhahaaa right mom! ;)

Ultrasound

Well I will be 38 weeks tomorrow! Hurray. Get this baby out of ME!  We had an ultrasound yesterday due to my measurements being on the big side.  My Dr. said I think your baby is bigger than her gestational age...I was like um, yeah...I feel huge!  So the ultrasound confirmed that our not so little Grace is already 'approximately' 8lbs7oz.  That would be a good birth weight in my books, but if she decides to stay in for the next 2 weeks until my due date she could be anywhere from 9.5-10llbs!! Just like her brother! oh joy.  Doing it naturally doesn't seem very appealing now:(  I see my Dr. on Tuesday next, she will be checking me, so we'll see what she thinks.  I am soooooo grateful that our little girl is a girl AND that she is healthy.  Her cheeks are so pudgy, and you can see that she has lots of hair:)  We got a good shot of her sticking her tongue out and than shoving all her fingers in her mouth and sucking on them for a bit!  so cute!  I cant wait to meet this little girl...

This pic was a week ago..

10 years together!

Wow! I cant believe 10 years ago today I asked my husband if he wanted to be my boyfriend!  Yes that's right, I had to ask him out:)  Everybody knew we both liked each other, but I guess we were too shy to do anything about it, plus we were good friends at the time, so it was getting really awkward.  We were at a Track and Field Meet in grade 10.  I remember walking up to him while he was resting under one of the tents and being like "so do you wanta start going out with me?" he said yes and on the bus ride home we held hands:)  At the Track Meet I was signed up for the 4 by 1 relay that we came in 1st place...Matt was signed up for the 4 by 1 relay, hurdles, javelin which he came in 1st place for and high jump was 2nd place...he was very athletic to say the least, if he could have been in every category he would have.  He went to City Finals for javelin and came in 1st place...for hurdles he fell asleep and missed it! I was so impressed with my new man:) haha
We dated for 5 years before we got married, and every summer Matt would leave me to go home to Alberta, he spent his summers up at his parents cabin.  It was a heart breaker having just starting dating mid May and Matt leaving me when school ended at the end of June...we would be apart for the WHOLE summer! I  don't know how we did it, I think it's safe to say Matt would call me everyday (seriously) and somehow that kept or love growing strong:)  We definitely had our ups and downs during those years with all of Matt's family living out West and all mine out East.  It was a hard decision for Matt to decide to stay in Ottawa with me after 4 years of dating.  It would always be a huge loss for one of us by being so far away from our families.  Matt got a job and later his own apartment in Ottawa, I'm not going to lie I was sooo happy to have him in Ottawa.  That was about the time that I decided to start looking into Matt's religion as a Mormon.  I met with some really nice Sister Missionaries and started going to church and within less than a year I made the decision to be baptized into that religion.  We had been dating for almost 5 years at that point, so it took me awhile to take that step.  I'm so glad I did too, being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has helped me become a better person in so many ways.  It has helped to realize the importance of family and to always put them first over material things.  It has helped me to be more grateful for the little things in life.  I'm so happy to have the Spirit in my home and know that God is watching over me and that he exists.  Matt has always had this sweetness about him that made him so different from the other guys I knew, I now know it has to do with our religion.  10 years with Matt has been amazing, I have a binder FULL of love notes and poems.  He is my best friend, I couldn't imagine my life without him.  It is so fun to sit here and remember things that have happened in our past, our relationship has become so strong.  I love you babe.

The ZOO

This is Parks' favorite one, the rest of them scared the crap out of him...but in his defense the other ones move and groal at you when you walk by, i was a little freaked with some too:)

See! That thing is HUGE! lol

So I'm 37 weeks here, and walked the ENTIRE zoo! Even the BORING Canadian part, it was worth it though...it was the first time Matt has walked through the whole zoo since he was a kid. I'm such a good wife;)

Keeping busy

Here is our new path in the front yard! We love it and hate it at the same time:) We cant decide whether to let grass grow through it or if we should start spraying weed killer...I dunno but it looks WAY better than the cement things that were there before!

Our backyard is underway, Matt and his dad used the skidsteer to scrape all the rocks/gravel away, they filled up the truck 3 times and dumped it at Matt's parents land...than later got 2 trailer full piles of dirt.  Matt and Parks had fun spreading that as you can see:) Hopefully our grass will start to pop up soon!

Lots of work

I'm so proud of my nice CLEAN laundry room, it took 2 full days of laundry non stop...but I can officially say I am all caught up now:)

I wish we would have taken a before and after picture of our basement, it was a bomb and sooo unorganized, so we spent 2 days slowly picking away at all our junk and getting rid of ALOT! Now it is all ready for you mom and dad:)

It'll be so nice to have a finished basement once we can afford it, but for now this is working just fine. Parks brings toys down (loves playing on his roller bike) and has a good old time PLUS it is nice and COLD all the time...basements, who knew:)

Our newest purchase, sit and stand stroller...found it on Kijiji, a girl in south Calgary sold it to us for $75...regularly $170+ I'm sooo happy!!

This is Parks' bed, these usually stay on the floor in his room, but to my surprise this is what he woke up in in the morning. Too funny.

It only lasted about a week, but if any fell off while he was sleeping, he would wake up at some point and put them back on...he's crazy! and yes those are the wooden dolphins that he absolutely loves!

My Mom

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

I've been trying to figure out how i could explain to the world how amazing my mother is...watching the slideshow we put together is perfect because in every picture you are beaming with love towards your family. You always say that you were put here on earth for one reason and that is for your children. You say it all the time, and what's even better is you act on it. You really would do anything for us and have! You've hopped into your truck past midnight still in your nighty and stopped a bar fight, saving your daughter and soon to be son-in-law among others. Something I will NEVER forget that you've done for me is during those crazy highschool years, you always allowed me to have (what seamed like hundreds) of friends come over to our house after school, weekends and sometimes, in the summer, for weeks. Our house was a second home to many of my friends. When there was dances, you would help all us girls get our hair curled and makeup done and always had yummy food for us to eat. Sleepover dances that probably kept you and dad up so late, but you never complained. Always waiting up for me to get home before you could go to sleep...still never complained. You made it to every rugby game with oranges for us girls to eat afterwards! I've always felt like if I needed to I could tell you anything. I am so grateful for the way you raised me, I hope and pray that I will have the same patience and love for my children when it is most needed in their lives. I know Jeff feels the same way, we are so blessed. The touching stories of things you've done for others in your life, selflessly, are endless. Dad reminded me of when you had taken time to be with Nanny during her last days. Not only would you take many trips to pick her up and bring her to the hospital for treatments, but you would stay with her through the whole process. But very importanly, you took time away from work, being at home with Jeff and I, and representing Dad you gave care and support and love to Nanny and Pappy...and relieved Uncle Bryan and Aunt Fran for awhile. Those were very hard times as you gave care and support to a mother-in-law you loved and respected. It was hard and sad to go through that i'm sure, but so comforting to know that you were willing to help, and as a result, Nanny was able to pass away knowing she was well cared for, comforted and at her home surrounded by people she loved and who loved her.
Matt reminded me of the time you helped him hang and skin his first deer that he shot. He says he'll never forget it! He had nobody to help him as everyone was too busy and it had gotten too late at night. He had the deer in the back of our van already cleaned out...and knew that if it didn't get hung asap the meat would go bad. There was NO WAY Dad and I could even look at the deer in that state, but you were a different story. Always willing to help when needed, no matter what. You helped hang it in your garage AND skin it! (without one complaint).
I know Robyn will agree with me when I say you are a hands on Grandmother that loves her 2 grandbabies more than life! You are such an amazing help. Giving us a break, always willing to change diapers...even clean up puke! On my last visit with Parks to your house, he got so sick in the middle of the night, somehow you heard his cries from all the way upstairs and in a few short seconds you were downstairs helping clean up throw up and put new fresh sheets on his bed. The next day we went for a LONG car ride trying to get him to fall asleep, so he wouldn' t be exhausted on the plane ride home. There are sooo many times you've gone out of your way to help, I could go on and on. We all love you so much Mom, I hope this Mother's Day year we can continue to show you how much you mean to us everyday. I love you so much and we miss you everyday.
Cant wait to see you soon!
Happy Mother's Day
xo

36 weeks!

Pregnancy is still going really well!  I am tired now and ready to meet our little girl:) so as of next week its go time, i'll be walking ALOT and doing whatever else needs doing!  I'm sure hoping she is going to be 2 weeks early! positive thinking right.  My doc said she'd do that stretch and sweep thing at my 38, 39 and my 40th week checkups...so i'm hopeful the first time will do the trick:)  Gained 37 lbs so far...I feel pretty good about that, all thanks to Parks keeping me off my butt this time around:)

Book your Blog!

I found a website that turns your blog into a book....blog2print.com 
The prices seem reasonable and I think it's such an awesome idea! It pretty much does everything for you.  Let me know if anyone has a better website, I haven't finished mine yet, but i'm excited to keep these books as journals:)

Too much SNOW and stuck inside!

Just last week this is what it looked like out our kitchen window! It all melted in 2 days or so, but man the weather is flip floppy here! This week it is just cold and windy.
Thankfully Matt comes up with great ideas for Parks to stay entertained...

This is his bed mattress:)

The plastic bag made him fly! hah

yes, Matt actually put him up there...

 He loved it!

Our kid has thrill issues:)