This and That

Here is what "Baby XY" is looking like these days. He is growing large and it is getting a bit tight inside. I still feel him move around and I get the odd kick through the day... more at night. He lets me know in the morning that he's hungry with a few good kicks, but after breaky... it's lights out!! I must say he is not as active as Emma was. Maybe this means he won't have "Red" hair and he'll be a bit more mello...

Those of you who were around when Emma was born can appreciate what I am saying!

A couple of weeks ago we were in Edmonton for Maren & Brooklyn's Baptism. Dann was Godfather to them both. Unfortunately, I had to step down as Godmother as I am not Catholic, and this is a requirement within that religion. No big deal, as Dann and I will always be there for these two special little girls!!

Emma was playing downstairs while Dann was busy with the renos. She has taken a new liking to her blue tutu, which is suprising, becasue she lives for pink! She decided to put some wings on and be a "Ballerina Ferry". The imagination never stops.

There will be some more "Before" & "After" photos coming of the basement as Dann started there a few days ago. He is on a stretch of 5 nights, so not much will get done. Oh well, we take it day by day. Eventually it will be completed!

Bathrooms and more...

BEFORE

The old basement bathroom was a pinky taupe color with a cheap sink...

AFTER

Dann put in the new sink & cabinet, white wainscotting and painted the walls a light caramel brown color (Bluff). The digital camera did not really pick up the true color of the new paint.

I accented the room with light sea blue towels, rug, and a flower photo with the sea blue in it.

Overall, we are very happy with how it turned out!

Dann worked hard, and it shows!!

Now we (Dann) will conquer the basement TV area and Rowena's bedroom!

BEATING THE HEAT!!!

Emma decided she had a new way to beat the 35'C weather... some might say she is a bit weird, but I figure what ever works!

She thought she was pretty funny and also figured if she washed her hair outside in a bucket, then we could skip that part at bath time (she is always thinking).

BEFORE & AFTER

Dann completed the baby's room,

thus here are the "BEFORE" photos....

"AFTER"

I found this stencil while I was in Powell River (thanks for the tip Helen).

We really love how it turned out!!

The photo of the window is a bit dark, but I think you can get the idea. We are still going to hang up white shelves above the change table and put up some finishing touches.

Dann made the bottom moulding, put up some chair rail and then prime/painted it white. The upper portion of the wall is a light teddy bear brown colour. I love the colour, Dann is trying to warm up to it (he says it looks mustardy... I think his eye surgery effected his visual on colours)!

I am pretty lucky to have such an awesome handy-man for a husband!!

Numerous Items

Here it is... my growing belly. I am 27 weeks or 6 months along now and "Baby XY" seems to be doing well. His heart beat was 150 beats/per minute on Tuesday when I was at the doc's.

We have been taking photos for his scrap book, but I am not sure if I am bigger or smaller this time around. I will have to pull out the old photos when I was carrying Emma and compare.

Either way... I am getting big!!

Dann went to home Depot yesterday to pick up a few more items for the basement and they offered him a "Home Depot" credit card. He wasn't interested until they mentioned that you get a "Disney" lamp for just filling out the application.

Dann thought of Emma immediately and knew she would love a Jasmine Princess lamp, thus he waited 50 minutes in a line up.

The things Dad's do for their little girls!!

Emma gave her Daddy a HUGE hug for this special gift!

As you can see, Emma has a new pink dance outfit (I picked it up for her while I was in Nanaimo). Emma calls it her "Ballet Tutu" and she lives in it. We found a second blue one for her this past weekend @ Giant Tigar for $5, thus her and her friend were ballet dancing all afternoon. The red carpet in the living room was their dance mat and no one could step on it unless you were a ballerina.

The two of them managed to stop for a few seconds with their babies so I could take a photo, then it was back to the dance mat. I guess you could say they were cuttin' a little rug!!

Baby XY

Just thought you would like an update on "Baby XY". This photo is taken at 24 weeks and I am coming up to my 27th week, thus Emma's baby brother is already past this point, but it gives you a good idea.

I am feeling well over all, but I am starting to get tired again! I think it is more because my nights are not as restful and of course, Emma's 6:30 a.m. wake up calls don't help. Truth be known, my left hip is usually pretty sore by 6:30 a.m. (from lying on it) and I don't mind getting up to stretch etc. Come 1:00 p.m. I am looking to lie down like a beached whale. Truth be known, I am just getting old... hahaha!

Our Big Adventure

Our big adventure consisted of going to three different hardware stores in search of some new bathroom fixtures. We decided that we needed to "spice up" our basement, which included the bathroom.

Dann found this floor model sink & cabinet and the lady was willing to give us a racey deal. Although the cabinet looks black in the photo, it is called "chocolate brown", and the lady threw in the faucet set for half price ($50.00 value). This new sink & cabinet will replace an exsisting white mini pedestal sink (which is all scratched up & not from us). The cabinet will offer some storage space for towels etc. and the larger sink will offer a place for soap or whatever. The faucet color is called "distressed rust", appearing dark brown/black with a flake of lighter rust color around the handles. It looks pretty sexy and I will accent the bathroom with "distressed rust" towel rack etc.

We also decided to put up some white wainscotting with chair rail in the bathroom along with a new color of paint on the upper portion. It will look a million times better. The last owner thought he knew how to build things (developing a basement), but Dann calls him a "hack" and is kept busy fixing the backyard carpenter's mistakes.

After arriving at the hardware store, Emma asked for popcorn and then started to entertain herself while we looked around. She found a new love for a toilet plunger and was having fun walking through the aisles, squishing it down and pulling the suction cup off the floor.

When it was time to leave, Emma asked if we could buy the plunger for her, as she thought it was the best toy ever. This behaviour resembles the "box" story... a child opens a large present and the parents are all excited about what is inside the big box, but the child is more taken with the box than it's contents.

I guess the simple things are really better!! We did not purchase the plunger, but I now know what to buy her for Christmas!!

Dann is busy working on the bathroom as we speak (or I write). I have taken before photos, but I will wait to post them until it is finsihed. This may take a week or so, as work really cuts into our remodeling time.

Lazy Me...

I just realized that it has been a week since my last post... stay tuned, we are heading out for the day and I am bringing the camera!!

Happy Canada Day

Happy 139th Birthday Canada...

We hope everyone had a terrific day celebrating our Great Nation's Birthday!

There were a few things going on around town, including a mini-fair, thus we went to check it out. All Emma could talk about was riding the ferris wheel, but you guessed it, as soon as we arrived she announced that she would just like to watch... OH BOY!

Anyway, we strolled through the park and looked at all the exhibits and of course made a pit stop for a little swinging action.

I was away this past week with work, thus Dann and Emma were under Rowena's care! Needless to say, they both got spoiled rotten. The temps got into the +30's, so Emma and her friend beat the heat wading in the mini-pool and playing on the swings with the sprinkler going under them.

It would appear my gal had a little "silly" time with her daddy during my absence. We owe this great look to Sarina and her first Birthday. Emma received these fun glasses in her party treat bag and they managed to move with us and everything!! Every so often, Emma digs them out of her dress up box and sports them around the house!!

Emma also got "another" princess dress just before I left for the week. Truth be known, it was cheap at Winners (like 5 bucks). Emma could not wait to get home and try it on... she does look darn cute, but I am biased too!

Happy Summer

I took these photos the evening of the first day of summer. So what right?? Well I took the photos at 10:45 p.m. Yes, it is still that light out at 11:00 o'clock, no wonder Emma is all confused about bedtime. It is completely dark by 11:45 p.m. and it starts getting light again around 3:45 a.m. - 4:00 a.m. I guess we are living further north than it seems!!

We were suppose to be going to a picnic at a campground with my crew today, but Emma woke up at 2:30 a.m. and got sick. She continued to do so the rest of the night and into the morning. She has nothing left in her stomach, but still tries to bring up something. Poor chicken!!! I told her that if she feels better later, Daddy, her and I could go have our own little picnic in the park, but we should not give her little "funk" to the other kids that would be at the watch party. Emma is sad about not going, as she was looking forward to holding "Baby Bella"... hopefully the "bug" passes quickly. As it is, I only got 5 hours of sleep and at 3:45 a.m. I was scrubbing Emma's rug with carpet cleaner (she did not make it to the bathroom in time). The washer is now on and hopefully I will not have to do another load!! The joys of parenthood!

Father's Day and More...

Although Dann worked nights and did not get to bed until 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning (supposed to be 3:00 a.m.) we still managed to have a great day. While Dann slept, Emma and I baked him oatmeal/raisin cookies, banana bread and made his favourite breakfast... Crepes!! After Crepes, Emma gave Dann her card & present (new white t-shirts and a bag of chocolate covered raisins) and then it was off to the playground for a little Daughter/Daddy time.

Overall, we all had a great day and Dann got to enjoy his little girl!!

Here is Emma dunkin' the cookies we made... YUMMY!

When we returned from holidays, Rowena presented Emma with her first pet... a Fish. Emma promptly named it "Max", and she loves him. It is a Chinese Fighting Fish, with a purple/blue tail and a bit of red in it's front gills.

Emma feeds Max every morning before she has her breakfast and talks to him all the time. We decided Max needed a bigger "fish bowl", so we got a cool glass vase and jazzed it up with some polished rocks. We decided we would get some tiny fish for the small blue tank, but we still have to head to Petland this weekend to pick them out.

Aside from Father's Day and our new addition... Max, I have been busy becoming an ebay user. I decided it was time and made a few bids this past weekend. I managed to win one of the bids and now we are proud owners of a "slightly used, but in excellent condition" Baby Bjorn - City Black Baby Carrier. I was excited about my purchase!! I think I will have to limit my time on ebay, or I could get addicted!!

Cousins

Here are a couple photos of Emma and her cousin Ashley.

The girls had a blast playing together... only wish we lived closer.

The Final Leg...

We headed to Calgary for our last stop before heading home. It was a quick visit, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Emma warmed up to her Uncle Wayne right away.

She was busy eating "cheezies" and cuttin' a little rug. Needless to say she was not too interested in dinner after all the snacks!




Emma got a new
3-D Princess book from Auntie Phyllis and she loves the glasses...

We decided to stay at the Hospitality Inn the last night of our trip, but when we went to book in the front desk gal told us they over booked. She went on to say that they had a room for us at the new Deerfoot Inn & Casino Hotel, and it was on them, so we took it.

Turned out that the pool & water park was very "child" orientated and Dann & Emma had to go for a little dip the next morning before we left.

Emma loved the water slide, but I think Dann liked it even more!

The Hotel was beautiful and the water facility was great... even better since it was free!!

That's it for vacation photos!!