Peek-A-Boo Cait-Bear

Our little Caity is enjoying her last months as "the baby" in our family.

She doesn't know what's coming but the rest of us do.

All of my kids have been through it, the de-throning process, when baby has to unwillingly hand her/his crown and title down to the new wrinkled crying person in Mommy's bed.

It's funny to think about how it might go.

I always feel so guilty to take that baby role away from my littlest one.

But the other funny thing is,

every time;

as soon as "new baby" gets here,

"old baby" handles it with grace and joy!

I am excited to see this sweet little girl turn into a big sister!  

I am already a mom, baby won't change that.

Grandmas and Grandpas are already holding those titles.

All the other kids are already "big sister/big brother".

Cousins are already that.

But Cait?

She's getting a new title!

This baby will make her a BIG SISTER!!!

How fun!

Some of Cait's newest cute words...

"ee-ee" (sissy)
"baddy" (Maddie)
"beep beep" (car)
"bookie: (book)
"ree" (read)
"pay-pee" (paper)
"coke" (coat)
"creek" (Grandma Crick)


Caiters is all about peek a boo these days.

"Where's Caity?"

"Peek-A-Boo!"

{girlfriend is STANDING in her highchair}

(this is about the 4th time in a row, she has the full attention of myself and all the kids...)

I see you sweet little baby-big-girl!

The Banmans: Five Kids And Counting

I watched an episode of the Duggars last night.

They have 19 children.

I am amazed at how happy, sweet, smart and loving their kids are.

And how calm the mom is!

We also watched The Sound of Music this weekend.

Seven children!  

Wow, that always seemed like so many.

 We were at the airport today picking up Mike and I noticed that a handful of the rest of the people waiting for their loved ones were watching my children with curiosity.  Seems like when we leave the house and are around strangers this happens frequently.

Then they look at my pregnant belly.

Then they count the kids up.

Then, if they are really bold, and you'd be surprised how many ARE that bold, they come up and ask

"are they all yours???" 

My kids position themselves in order without being asked or prompted because they know the routine.

"Yes, they are all mine"

Then the stranger wants to know their ages...

(turning to kids already in line) "11,9,6,4,2"

"And one more!  you must be so busy"

OR

"And another on the way, wow you are so brave"

Busy?

YES!

Brave?

Really?

Not at all.

Many times I am afraid;
afraid the quantities of food I need to prepare will keep growing as they do
afraid I will never pee alone
afraid the missing sock basket will soon be a closet
afraid to forget to do my tooth fairy duty *again*
afraid someone will slip through the cracks and feel unloved or unnoticed
afraid to pay for just about anything x's 6
afraid to raise selfish kids
afraid to realize one day that they are all gone
afraid of the orthodontist's bill
afraid to let them drive
afraid to let them date
afraid they might find me annoying
afraid I might lose my temper *again*
afraid when the girls reach my size they might wreck/lose my clothes/shoes
afraid when the girls reach my size they won't think my stuff is cool enough to wear
afraid what might happen if they question their faith
afraid of spiders and accidentally eating a cookie with nuts- gross!
afraid I will regret wasting time on Facebook that could have been spent with them
afraid of who I will be when raising kids is done
afraid they will blame everything unlovely about themselves on me one day...

...and it might be true.

Brave is not a word I would use to classify myself.

{unless we are talking about childbirth}

But my fears are not something that I focus on.  

I am resting in the peace that my Saviour chose me to raise these babies, they are His children. 

 I believe that through His grace I am equipped to nurture and guide and love them exactly how they need to be!

{He even left me an instruction manuel}

I do not think I live up to this potential on a daily basis and that is so frustrating!!

But I am going to keep trying to.

So can you!

A mother with one child has all the same joys, responsibility, and high calling as one with 5 or 7 or 19 kids.

 What you put into it is going to determine what you and your children and their children will receive in the future.  What is more immediate than that?  What is more important?

I can't think of anything.

Mommies, stand up!

Take control of your time and your amazing opportunity to be brave and raise awesome kids!!

Embrace the "busy" years.

Have another baby if you want one!

You won't regret it!!

**Disclaimer:  I am not in any way suggesting that I would like to or am planning to have 19 or even 7 children.  I am quite happy with the soon to be 6 that we have been blessed with.  It's a nice even number and we can all fit in our vehicle.  But I admire the women who have LOTS of children and do it well :)

**Also:  I find it funny that I look at the Von Trapp family as having sooo many kids because we are very close to them in numbers!! Especially funny because I knew myself back when I was certain that I wanted 0 kids!!

**On another note:  I dreamt last night that this baby came out as triplets and yikes, that was certainly NOT my plan!!!  My biggest struggle when I found out there were three?  C names or M names or a mixture??

How Can I Resist?

Our tiny girl has started saying words this week!  She called me from her crib the other day with a cute little "mommy".  Sooo sweet!  Today she was saying "baby" and "hi" and "bu-bye" and "da-daee".  She says "oof" for food and a few other cute little words.  

Sometimes she can be a bit of a diva.

Just a bit.

Well, maybe a lot.

But how can I resist this little baby of mine?

She is my baby.

My Caiter Gator

My Cait Bear

My Cub

My Dolly

Who am I kidding, she is all of our's. 

We love her up and down all day long.  The kid gets more kisses daily than the Blarney Stone.

What a fun exclamation point at the end of 10 years of sweet baby blessings!

Okay, off to bed.  

Rambling about my kiddos on the blog at 2 in the morning is probably not the best use of my time:)

Potatoes Taste Best Fresh From The Garden!

We harvested our potatoes!

Some were tiny!!  I guess we could have waited a while but they weren't green and the plants were shadowing the rest of the garden so they had to be taken out!!

Wow!  Look at those tasty potatoes!  The grey one is the seed...root...?  hmm, not sure what you call that?  We didn't eat that one:)

We really enjoyed our yukon potatoes.  Next year we will plant them on the hill so they don't take over our cute little garden.  I heard you can grow potatoes almost anywhere!

Today each of the kids got to eat a strawberry out of the garden.  I didn't get any photos but it was a very exciting moment!!

Canada Day 2010

Yesterday was Canada day.  If you live in the States, did you realise that?  I never did until I married a Canadian!  Anyways, the kids were happy to sport their red and white and they even look semi happy to be posing for my photo. (their Daddy, standing behind me, may or may not have been quite as thrilled to stop in the middle of the sidewalk to do this:)

After a long relaxing day of bike rides, crafts, gardening and even a visit with an Aunty, we headed out to the Olympia Greek Taverna for dinner with all the Banmans.  Don and Linda have a new student living with them named Michelle and it was her birthday!

My only photo from the restaurant.  Beautiful Meghan holding Cait.  It was major tag team with the baby.  She was on fire.  She was cranky and acting like princess of the palace!

 We watched the fireworks from the hill by our house, across the lake from downtown.  All the kids were asleep except for Mailee.  Our little night owl.   I guess I need a different lens to capture fireworks from far away and perhaps a bit more knowledge about my camera:)

Oh but here's something I am good at capturing.  The little people!  I love them!

Happy Canada Day!! {one day late} Go hug a Canadian!

Poupee Party Pics

I did a full run down on all the party details on the party blog but I thought I'd share the photos of us here:)

The girls were so excited to get to come to a grown up party!

 Usually for the Auntie's birthdays, us girls go out or have a dinner or do something fun.  My girls are always curious about what we are doing and they beg to come along.  When they found out they were invited to this party, they were thrilled.  They were very helpful and well behaved.  It was a pleasure to have them along!

They especially liked the candy!!

They tried on lots of accessories.

They tasted some delicious appies.

Just Hanging Out

 

 Here is Caleb counting his Rescue Heroes.

I'd better set the scene:

It is 6pm on Saturday night.

Mike is sitting on the couch watching the Olympics.

I am doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and making party invitations.

oh- and snapping these photos of the kidlers just hanging out...

My favorite thing about this set of photos is all the "real life" going on in the background.  

Our home is never quiet.

There is always lots of action!

 

Now Caleb is recounting the heroes because he put them in order by what kind of job they have.

"seventeen, nineteen, twenty,twenty two..."

Again: notice the background.

 

Now he is lining them up "better" because some of them were not right next to each other.

{background}

 

 Maddie is giving Cait-bear a ride in a tub.

She seemed to like it.

She has no choice in the matter really so I think she is learning to just roll with the punches:)

 

She is also learning what she can do to frustrate the kids.

Here she is coming in to destroy Caleb's hero lineup!

He looks happy about this, dontcha think?

{Notice: sock, arm hold, mischievous look }

 

And lastly, here's a photo of baby with her new front teeth!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We won't be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, we did that in October up here. We will, however, be taking advantage of the big sale at Michael's craft store this weekend and be thinking about all the special people in the States. And just for good measure, I dressed the kids up in fancy clothes for a Thanksgiving photo :)

Happy Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for YOU!

Snow Days Are Here!

It snowed today in Kelowna! We have our snow tires on, everyone has jackets, boots and mits that fit and we are excited! The kids had fun introducing Caitlyn to her very first snow.

Pretty snowflakes!

Giving the baby a sister squeeze!

First taste of snow....brrr, it's cold!!

Our little crew!

Maddie was wearing the "wrong shoes" and did not want to get in the picture.

Before They Rake...

...We had to get a photo with the amazing beautiful colors of fall!!!

Watermelon Munchers

The girls were wearing their watermelon outfits today and Caleb was in a cooperative mood so I got him in his green and red too. They were thrilled when I handed them each a HUGE slice of watermelon. I guess I have never given it to them like that before. They had a blast chomping down the juicy melon and I had fun watching them!

A tasty first bite...

...even for Caitlyn! Oops, I guess she has had her first "big people food" now!!

Lemonade Girls

The girls decided to have a lemonade stand during the garage sale. They made some cute signs and even mixed the lemonade by themselves. When the traffic to the garage sale was slow, they hit the streets with their lemonade and sold it door to door.








Lovely ladies; my girls and their cousin Jenaya...they even dressed in matching shirts for the occasion.

I got a big kick out of their sign.

They ended up making close to $40, not counting the other "donations" that included gum and sunflower seeds.