Birthday!

My serious three year old: 

I really can't believe that he is three - and I know I'll feel this way at every birthday. It's been three YEARS since that special day in a Vancouver hospital when I first met him? It's so surreal. He's talking so much now and is very bossy. He's stubborn and determined. He has his moments of sweetness, little glimpses where he's kind to Rachel or says a very precious bedtime prayer. All he really wants is to be able to help Mom and Dad with whatever we're doing - cooking, cleaning, building, vacuuming, packing. He is the happiest boy in the world when he's able and allowed to help us do chores! He's also really into play-doh right now and still loves the sand table at Stay and Play. He's just discovered Curious George on Netflix and mostly alternates between that and Mighty Machines. He also loves Cars 2 which Grammy gave him for Christmas, and has watched Toy Store too many times to count.
We absolutely adore him and love his helpfulness. He doesn't see every day things as challenges like I do, he sees them as something fun to do. He loves all things green and eats frozen waffles by the sleeve.
But I still remember this...

My precious son sent to me from a loving Father in Heaven.

Christmas

The night before Christmas - kids opened their new Christmas jammies and left cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer:

Christmas (middle of the night):

Christmas morning:

Grant's most favorite gift was his toy vacuum. Rachel had great fun with the wrapping paper. We spoke to a few of our relative on Skype Christmas morning during present opening. It was very fun - Christmas is much better with kids!!! 

Finally

It has been another long absence from the blog. I read a long time ago, when I first started blogging, that there is an inverse relationship between how busy real life is and how much you post on your blog - although I think that a lot of people simply make time for it and are just as busy as me - namely, the busier you are in real life, the less you post on your blog. The article said that the inverse is also true - the more boring your life is, the more you will be posting on your blog. If your life is actually interesting, you'll be out living it instead of sitting on your computer writing about it. At least, that's my excuse. I know plenty of people with interesting lives who blog frequently, and I'd like to be more like them.

Two/three main things have affected why I haven't posted since December. Number one - Trevor won an iPad through a work photo contest (which came as a shock to us, since the photo is crap). The iPad has greatly reduced my need for the computer - I use it to go on facebook, check email, play games. It's so handy, and since we don't have a laptop, it's much easier for me to use while being on the main floor or in the basement with the kids than the upstairs computer room.

Another thing - I returned to work on January 16th at St. Therese Villa (assisted living facility - mostly elderly people). They offer a five week long course that you get paid $10/hour to complete. It was full-time, 8am to 4pm, and mine was Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday. The kids went to a fantastic day home but Grant had a tougher time adjusting than Rachel. Since then, I've been working a couple shifts a week, in the evenings. Trevor comes home early from work and then makes up for it by doing a little bit of work after the kids are in the bed.

This week and next I'm not working much since we are MOVING. We were hoping our landlords would let us stay here until our house was finished, but they want to put it up on the market - totally empty - right away. Trevor's dad, Les, graciously offered to let us stay in his house which is empty right now. We are very grateful to be able to live rent-free for the summer. It's out in Raymond, 20 minutes outside of Lethbridge, with plenty of room to store all our stuff in the basement. Also, Raymond has a brand new outdoor swimming pool and I plan to make use of it this summer! Rachel hates swimming though, so maybe I can convince her that it's not so bad.

Currently, the kids are sleeping on their mattresses in the old computer room upstairs - we cleared out the computer room and moved what was in it to Raymond - and mostly cleared out the kids' room since we need to paint it at some point before the 30th. The computer is hooked up to the TV, so right now Grant is watching Mighty Machines on one half of the screen while I blog on the other.

A lot of things have happened this year that I have not blogged about yet.

Next post: Christmas.