Scavenger Hunt & Birthday Rukkus!

Getting some BIG hugs from Big Brother Kael.

We celebrated Naveah's Birthday as a family little early. Evan wasn't going to be in town on her actual birthday. While searching around online to figure out a fun but cheap activity I came across a Scavenger Hunt list on a Bragg Creek website. What a great idea!!! So in the morning we printed off a couple copies, dug out a couple buckets for them to bring and made a quick picnic lunch. But before we left we gave Naveah one of her birthday presents. She sat on the bottom of the stairs and eagerly waited for Daddy to bring it down to her. She was SO excited to see her new baby! She demanded that it come out of the box immediately. I couldnt do it fast enough. But finally baby was out and Naveah insisted baby come with us. (baby wont be a boy or girl until Jevne 3 is born)

Waiting for Daddy to come downstairs.

You cant tell, but Naveah was actually quite noisy

about the Baby being stuck in the box.Mommy rescuing Baby from the box.
Happy Girl!!!

We went first to Elbow Falls. We were originally going to do the scavenger hunt there but the sun hid behind the clouds as soon as we got there. It was cold, windy and BUSY! I couldnt believe how many people were there having BBQ's and just hanging out. But I guess thats kinda what we were there for right? We walked down to the river, had some lunch and then made a quick walk up to the falls before deciding to have the treasure hunt somewhere a little less--well "fall-ish". With it being so busy and very rocky and cliffy, we thought it best NOT to have a scavenger hunt with them running lose. So we headed to Allen Bill Pond. Of course the moment we got back in the truck the sun came shining through only to have it go back behind the clouds upon arrival of the pond. This day was turning out to be quite a chilly one! So we got started right away hoping the kids would stay warm running around hunting for whatever. They were really excited at first. They got to look for wild flowers, smooth rocks, berries, pine cones, clovers, rotten wood, moss, ants and "Y" shaped sticks. It was cute to see them trying so hard to look for an object. It was hard to keep Naveah looking for other objects other than flowers. I would tell her that she could pick only one, then id turn around and see her in a pile of dandilions quickly picking them and hiding them in her bucket. If it wasnt flowers it was rocks. I looked over at her at one point to see Evan snapping pictures of her trying to shove a rock the same size of her bucket IN the bucket. When we ran out of things they could easily pick up and put in their buckets we moved onto bigger things like finding a dead tree, or garbage on the ground that shouldnt be there, and the river. Poor Naveah would get so excited when she would find something and as she'd race towards it she would lose everything in her bucket so she would constantly have to stop and put everything back in. I was surprised at how well she new the items she had. Even the rocks that would fall out amoungst other rocks, she was still able to find those certain ones and return them back as well as the tiny clover and blade of grass! Kids are amazing.

Happy when she found a blade of grass!
Trying to stash a rock to big for the bucket!
Chasing after birds

We walked all the way around the pond. How much fun it was. The excitement over finding things you'd never think to look twice at. I loved hearing Naveah randomly starting singing "Happy Birthday to YooOOOu" while trotting along the path swinging her bucket.

We decided to call it a success and headed back into Bragg Creek for some late lunch and store browsing then it was time to head home. Not too long later we headed off to DQ for birthday cake and presents with some of the family. Thanx everyone for coming!!! Naveah loves her gifts.

Blowing out her Candle.

Chowing down on her Bday cake. She ended up giving up with her fork and going in full force with her little hands. Her clothes stayed surprisingly clean!
an unexpected surprise! We ran into good friends while at Dairy Queen. This is Corbin. It was cute to hear Kael and Naveah call out Corbin's name and his little head would pop over the bench.
Naveah has a thing for books. Whenever she opened a present with one in it she would just plop down on the spot and start reading. Not caring that she still has lots more to open! haha.
She was thrilled to get a phone! Now she can call Astro Boy all she wants!
Kael ended the party with his Break Dancing skills.

I threw Naveah a pot luck birthday party for her and some of her little friends the day after her birthday. Because of the TERRIBLE weather this year we were forced to stay in the house. That was hard but the kids still managed to have a lot of fun in between the fighting, melt downs and temper tantrums. Naveah got lots of fun gifts and so far has had lots of fun playing with her new stroller and reading her books. Thanx again to everyone who came!

The Ladybug Cupcakes I made for her party.
REALLY excited to get her cupcake.
all lit up and ready to sing.
"happy birthday to you!"
trying to blow out her candles
standing on her tippy toes trying to see inside the bag!
maybe you'll find what you are looking for better this way...
ended the day off with movie and popcorn!

Happy Birthday my Baby Girl! We love you!

We're so Glad When Daddy Comes Home...

I Decided to start this one out a little different. Nobody knows just how long Naveahs hair is and everyone has a hard time believing me when I tell them JUST how long it actually is. With it being SO curly it sits just above her shoulders. Actual length will be revealed at the end!!!...

The kids are always super excited when their Daddy comes home. Naveah has been taking his working out of town really hard and hasn't been coping very well. She wakes up in the night crying for him and also does so numorous other times of the day. Whenever someone comes to the door she goes rushing to it yelling "Daddy's home!". Occasionally she cries when she realizes its not him. It breaks my heart to hear her cry for her Daddy so hard and there is nothing I can do about it. When Daddy does come home, she is sure to get in as much snuggle time as she can.

Kael isnt taking it quite as bad but I can still tell he misses him when hes gone. We've tried to explain the process with him and he seems to understand it enough. Randomly Kael will say throughout the week "Daddy's in Red deer. Daddy's trucks at work" then he'll ask "Is Daddy coming home?". I tell him 'Yes, but not for (insert number here) days'. To which he responds "Oh, okay".

As Ive mentioned before Kael has a thing for Transformers and recently has talked about Daddy's truck being a Transformer. So I thought it would be fun to take Kael to find a little transformer decal to put on the truck. No such luck. Cant find them in stores anywhere. So Kael helped me pick one out on Ebay and it just came this past Friday. Kael was crazy excited when he saw that it came in the mail and wanted to put it on the truck right away. But I was on my way to dropping the kids off with Nana and Papa so I could go up to Red Deer to look at houses and hang out with Evan. I promised Kael that as soon as Daddy came home he could give it to him. Seemed to be a good enough answer for him. So! sure enough, after I picked up the kids and came home I handed the envelope with the sticker in it to Kael and told him to go give it to Daddy. Before Evan got a chance to open it Kael says "a transformer for Daddy's truck!!!". He was so proud. This morning we put it on and Kael (AND Naveah) is pretty darn excited about it! Daddy's truck is OFFICIALLY a transformer. Now we just have to think of a name for it. Haha.

So, Just how long IS Naveahs hair? Believe it or not.......

Zoo and Park Fun.

"Childhood is the most beautiful of all lifes seasons. We could never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it."

So its been nice enough lately to take the kids OUT of the house! Yay for spring. This week however is another story. (Thank you snow for raining our parade once again).


We did a Spontanious trip to the Zoo last week with friends Lisa, Makenna and baby Addison. It was the first time the kids got to see the new dinosaurs in the prehistoric park too! I guess they are finally updating so they added dinosaurs to the park that move and make noises. Kael loved them but made sure to stay cautious. He wouldnt let me take him too close. Naveah however was practically falling out of the stroller trying to get a better look! (no fear). Afterwards we headed to all the animals and Kael did SO good walking around the whole time. Not once did he need to take a break in the stroller, and we were there for a long time. It was so fun to be able to get out of the house finally and get doing something I know would be so exciting for them. The zoo will never get old.
Naveah loves pink flamingos!

Showing me where the dinosaurs were hiding!

This is one of the dinosaurs that moved. Kael wasnt too fond of standing with his back towards it. he kept turning around to make sure it wasnt coming any closer. haha

The next day I needed to get out again. So we met up with Trina and Hailyn at South Glenmore Park to fly kites, dig in the rocks and play on the playground. They all had so much fun! I only with the warm weather would have kept up so we could have gone on more adventures!!!

Taking a rest in the swing. I thought she was actually going to fall asleep.

Kael had SO much fun flying the kite all by himself!

Playing peek a boo...

Catching up....

Their Outfits for Easter...

I know my blog is way overdue for an update, but once you hear whats been happening around here, I hope you'll understand the delay! These past two months have been some of the busiest months ive ever lived and believe me, I cannot wait for it to slow down. Im exhausted.

Here is our Jevne update...

EVAN....

Some of you already know the struggle Evan has had with finding a job he is comfortable with since having to leave Amaritech Electric due to the hard hit from the recent recession. He went to a company called Magnaflo for a couple months but working conditions were not up to Evans standards and he decided it was best that he look for another company. Him and a friend then joined the Union so as they would have a place to fall if they ever found themselves out of a job. Evan was then persuaded to try something a little different. Power Systems Electrician. He took a position with Rising Edge Technology hoping that this might be a huge step in a promising postition. He would be dual ticketing which meant a high chance one day he could work in BC. For those of you that dont know, Evan has his Journeyman certificate in Electrical and has focused on Industrial and Oil Field for the past few years. If you dont know what that is, basically he builds the brains of the Rigs. Power Systems Electrician is something quite a bit different and requires more schooling and a completely different ticket. Power Systems is what you might see while driving down the highway or freeway. You know those huge powerful looking contraptions that are surrounded by huge fences and barbed wire and millions of signs warning you that you could explode with a single touch? Yah, well thats what he was about to do! He was only 2 weeks in with this company when he was approached by his old Boss from Amaritech and was offered a postion he couldnt refuse. His own brand new shop. In Red Deer. WOW! After a week or two of talking it over we decided to go for it. After all, we both wanted to get out of Calgary and Evan loved working for Amaritech. So lately is been a bit of a gong show around here. Evan has been working in Red Deer for the past few weeks and comes home on weekends. Hes been having fun setting up shop and getting it organized. Luckily Evan will be working in town for the next couple weeks so we can finish up everything we need to get done in the house and get it on the market.

BRITTANY...

Ive been finding life a bit of a challenge lately. Trying to stay organized amongst two very VERY busy toddlers, a pregnancy, house work, house 'renos', single parenting when Evan is out of town, packing and everything else that involves this thing called 'Life', has proven difficult and draining. There has been an incredible amount of disappointments on my end it seems. As much as we want this move its also coming with sacrifices. A lot of you know by now that I had opted for a home birth this time round. I was able to get a midwife and had redone my room so it was a comfortable to place to be in when Baby Three decides to come. One of my sacrifces with moving is that this just isnt going to happen anymore. Evan would like to move by summer and after searching and searching I found only ONE midwife in central Alberta. Shes not available and Calgary midwives wont travel to Red Deer. The desicion to have baby in Red Deer or Calgary is still up in the air. It makes the future pretty stressful on my end because things this big I like to have a plan for, and unfortunetly there cant be one right now.

We hired a friend to help with some of the work in the house that was still needing to be completed in the basement and outside like the t-bar ceiling, trim, door, new front stairs and completion of the back steps. THANK YOU JARED, you're Awesome! Ive been just as busy with packing up all the the things that dont need to be here, patching and painting the entire main floor, as well as spot patching and painting in the basement and upstairs. Re-organizing the kids' bedrooms, running arrands....honestly Ive been doing so much I cant even remember it all. Just recently I had my, very Pregnant, friend Trina tile around the fire place for me. It looks fabulous! (please dont tell your midwives what I was making you do 3 weeks to your due date!! haha)

Lately ive been trying to take it easy. All this work is beginning to take its toll on me and am finding it more and more difficult to stay awake throughout the days, which also is putting me on edge. Im trying to change my focus back onto the kids and keeping them happy. I pretty sure everything that is going on is beginning to get to them even though im sure they dont truly understand whats happening.

KAEL...

Wow has Kael ever changed since his 3rd birthday. He went from being a kid I never thought would talk to constantly talking! He has a huge passion for space. The previous post shows that he knows all his planets. He reads his space book all the time and he goes through page by page and tells me whats on them and whats happening. He likes to assign people to the space shuttles in the book. He'll say things like "this is Bo-bins (corbin) spaceship!". Or it may be Dawsyns, Naveahs, Mommy's or Daddy's. He also likes to tell me what planets they are going to and who can come with him. His favorite movies are Toy Story, Transformers and Astro Boy. He actually thinks he is THE Buzz Lightyear. He likes to stand on our coffee table, put his wings out and then jump off while at the same time quoting "to infintee, an eeyon!!" (Too Infinity, and Beyond). When he isnt "Buzz lightyear, space ranger", he is the transformer 'Bumblebee'. Evan bought him Bumblebee's robot arm for him and he likes to run around shooting bad robots and monsters. While watching movies he jumps at the opportunity to help fight the bad robots by shooting or punching at the TV. It is by far one of the cutest things ive ever seen.

Kael is still a very affectionate little boy. I blogged once before about his tearful moment while watching "Where the wild things are" (he cried at the end). Well the other day while watching "The Ugly Duckling" it happened once again. As Ugly Duckling was being mocked and started crying, so did Kael. Embarrassed, he ran over to Daddy and cuddled in. He is also very intuned to how Mommy, Daddy and Naveah are feeling. When one of us gets hurt or is upset or frustrated, Kael is the first to run over to give us a hug, rub our back and ask if we are okay. As much as he love to tease Naveah by taking her toys he also loves to find her toys to play with when she is upset, even resorting to giving her his own if there isnt another around! He then says something like "there you go Aya, see Aya's happy!!!". Kael has such a passion for life and all things in it. I cant wait to see what the little man will accomplish in his lifetime. I know they will all be great things.

NAVEAH...

Ive tried to describe her before and there are still no words to describe her fully. Shes incredibly independant. Shes loud, shes sweet, shes sensitive and very demanding. She loves animals. Her favorites being birds/ducks and Cats. However she gets pretty excited over seeing any other kind. She loves playing with her big Brother. They wrestle all the time and chase eachother around the house. I love hearing them laugh and giggle together. In the mornings I lay in bed waiting to her Naveah call out for her brother to come let her out. We keep a baby gate in her doorway cause she doesnt like the door closed but she also doesnt like to stay in her room. But every morning I hear the creek of her door open all the way and she stands at the gate babbling to herself then calling out "boy" so Kael comes and gets her. She cant say 'Kael' yet so she calls him 'Boy'. Something she came up with on her own!

She loves reading books, or rather, looking at the pictures. Her favorite is a disney storybook that has a combo of stories inside. She likes to find the pages that Nemo is on. Her favorite movies are 'Finding Nemo', 'A Bugs life'. and 'Astro Boy'. I love listening to her little voice as she watches the movies and points out everything she sees. She lists off all the fishes, sharks, turtles and Nemos she can find or all the bugs and plants....in Astro boy its her mostly doing her cute little dance below the TV repeating over and over "Asso BOY, asso BOY!" then points and tells me to look. (I think she might have a little crush!)

MAN does this girl love to eat! Im thinking she might get her love of carbs from me. She could eat and eat and eat and have no problem having more. She is the reason I need to keep a child lock on the pantry! im in trouble when she learns to open the fridge too. In the mornings we have a pretty large breakfast and a few hours later its snack time. Its never usually enough for her. In between snack time and lunch she makes numourous attempts to raid the pantry. I cant tell you how many times this girl has laid down in front of the pantry screaming and crying at me cause I wont let her have anymore and tell her to 'wait for lunch". Its mostly bread she is after! Whenever we have finished a meal you can count on Naveah to go around picking off whatever anyone else may have left on their plates, or dropped on the floor! (ew).

Naveah talked very early, her first word was spit out at about 10 months old and it was "Downstairs"!!! Since then she hasnt had much of a problem trying to repeat whatever you say. The last couple weeks I cant believe the conversations we can have with her now. AND shes not even TWO! Its such a strange thing for me as Kael didnt really start getting into his vocabulary until he turned 3. But Naveah is such a parrot!

They are both very excited about Baby Three to come. They are always lifting up my shirt to try and look at it. Kael will say "Mommies baby is growing in there? The babies a little one?" (I show him all the time roughly how big baby is). He sometimes even comes up to me sometimes rubs my tummy and says "Mommies tummy a BIG tummy, see its a big one!". I say "you aint seen nothing yet!". Then theres Naveah, always good for a laugh. When she sees Kael checking out my tummy she will sit back lift up her shirt and say "baby's growing" while pointing at her belly button.

As of Wednesday April 21 our house has been listed on the market. You can check it out here (and pass onto your friends please! you never know whos looking!) http://mls.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=9406977

We are hoping for a quick sale so that we can get the ball rolling on finding the house for us in Red Deer or Sylvan Lake.

"See Im a Spaceman!"

Kael got a space book for his birthday. He loves it. He reads it everynight. It only took a week or two before he new all of his planets! Finally got it on video I usually have to help him out with Mars, but thats cause in the pictures Mars looks very similar to Venus and it confuses him... check it out!

Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus aka Urvenus, and Neptune.

A Day Smothered in Hearts.

Oh Valentines. The day everyone loves to hate. Its funny how when you have no one to share the day with you hate it, but as soon as you have someone it becomes of the most important days of the year. And heaven forbid if that special someone doesn't plan it out just right. Well i've never been a 'romantic' person but i've always liked the holiday to be acknowledged in some way or another.

I got the Kids excited for the day by cutting out cards for them to decorate for a few friends and family members. They had lots of fun coloring with the felts. I only usually let them use crayons. Naveah reminded me why I only do that when she started to color all over the table, then her hands, then her face -instead of the paper. But it was still fun and they had fun picking out the colors they wanted and scribbling all over the page.

Evan and I celebrated the night before. We dropped the kids off at Nanny and Papa Jevne's and we went out for supper to the 'Cattle Baron'. One of my favorite restaurants. We were going to go out to a movie but by the time we were done dinner we were so incredibly full that the thought of sitting in an uncomfy movie theatre was quickly becoming a not so good plan. Instead we rented a movie and decided to cozy up on the couch in some jammies and our tea.
In the morning it was so nice to be able to sleep in and just take our time getting ready for the day. We headed out and went for breakfast and then went to go pick up the kids. From there we took the kids the Calgary Humaine Society. They just love it there. Naveah gets so excited to see all the kitty cats and rabbits. She goes from window to window looking at every single one. Occationally she would run past one then stop in her tracks and back up. She makes sure not to miss one! After moving on the the next bunch of animals she would yell back "bubye dee dats!!!" or "bubye radat!". All the dogs must have been out training or something cause there were only a few of them in their rooms. We went from window to window looking for a puppy. Every room that was empty they would say "mmmmm nope?" and move onto the next.
Afterwards we headed to South Center Mall to let the kids play at all the play places there. Then it was time to go home where we hung out a bit, had a quick dinner and dessert then it was time for tired little kids to go to sleep. OH! and I also made Naveah a pretty cute little skirt for Valentines Day. She looked adorable!

Today was Family Day and it was indeed a good day. Evan took the kids downstairs this morning and let me have some extra time to sleep. It was another lazy morning. When I came downstairs I worked on our weekly meal plan and then made the grocery list to match. We didnt head out the door till after lunch. We just headed to superstore and got our groceries then it was back home so little miss cranky pants could sleep! We stayed in for the rest of the day. Visited with our neighbor, put away groceries, hung out then Evan took the kids downstairs to watch a movie while I made dinner. We had home made pizza! I even made the dough! It was my first attempt at pizza dough and it was a great success! I think ill definitely be doing that again.

I am so thankful for my little (growing) family. We have every element we need. Kael is our adventure. Naveah is our determination. Evan is our provider. And me? Well im the Mother- need I say more? I cant wait to see what this next baby brings.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Whoever Said 3's a Crowd!?

Baby Jevne #3 is in the making!

I am currently about 8 Weeks along and am Due September 10, 2010.

We have tried to explain it to Kael and Naveah. Kael says " mommies baby in der?" then he points at his own tummy and says "See bigger monster in Kaels tummy!". Naveah usually just points to my belly button and then points at hers and yells "AH da dun!" (belly button) with total excitement. But the other day it was pretty cute when I asked Kael where Mommies baby was. Kael then started to look under the couch, in the toy drawer and then looks at me like "what!?". I showed him again that baby is in Mommies tummy and its only this big!(showing him about the size of a coffee bean) Kael and Naveah both came over to my tummy and said "HI!" and then kissed my tummy. It was very cute! Im sure once the 'bump' comes they will both be very excited over having a new baby brother or sister!

This time around is a little more exciting for us. Alberta Health Care now covers Midwifery service and I was able to find one very quickly! Yay for no more dealing with text book Doctors! We are also excited to explore the option of a home birth!