Which will it be?

A big girl who can sing songs (sorta) or a baby who only knows 5 words of her favorite song?

I don't need more

babies to be happy. Really the ones I have are so precious. And still so baby.

I'm feeling pretty certain this is one of the cutest things you've seen all day. Except if you have kids of your own. Then me and my bias's are hooped! :)

Did I say babies? Maybe that's only when they're sleeping. Do babies read books together and give great running commentary for the duration?

I also can't but help smile at all those pink piggies in a row.

And to think...

I was only worried about me wanting another baby. Big oversight!

I think the picture exagerates it but isn't that the darlingest, chubby baby face? This is Brynlie!


I do hope she doesn't suffer any permanent physical or emotional damage from the lovin' these two gave her. (Promise, she was yawning. They didn't pry it open that far!)
She wants a little sis to cuddle. Really badly. You think Leanne wants her to come be some live-in "help" for the next 3 months and see if she gets her fill? :)

This boy loves babies. He's cute.

I got a turn too. But barely! :)

Sam wasn't as convinced but he'll come around on a day he's not so tired.

Hooray!

I am delighted to tell you I have a new niece as of last night. Brian and Leanne had a little girl Brynlie Willette and I hear she's really cute. :) I'm hoping I can stop by to see for myself in a short while.

In the meanwhile, Cam couldn't believe he had been a little baby at one time so we went looking for proof.

My insides are now officially in a jumble. Those were precious days. All those first days of all five. My heart is overwhelmed by the enormity of the grace God has shown to us just in the safe delivery of five healthy children.

Well, this is my Cam. Who came out wanting to be grown up and could hold up his head for 20 minutes or more at a time before he was 24 hours old.

He was such a cute baby, even if the curtain is pink. (Leanne fixed these pictures for me once but in my typical organized fashion I didn't locate them fast enough to use them.)

Cam's birth was also a milestone event for me in that this picture is probably the last picture I have of Steve wearing his wedding ring. True story. I realize you can hardly see it but believe me, it's jumping out at me as we speak. Oh, we weren't speaking.... as I type. He put it on especially for Cam's birth and took it off the day he came home from the hospital and hasn't worn it since. He doesn't even know where it is. Even the twins' birth couldn't coax him into wearing it again. I don't really blame him. Even if he could get it on
he would have to remove it daily for work and it's currently too mishapen to fit over his working man's hands/finger. It bothers me somedays but I'm learning to deal with it. :)



It's a good thing Cam was born with his indendent streak because it really wasn't that long before these two came along.

And then they came home.

And then I sat on the couch and snuggled them. Man, even your insides are probably doing that baby jumble now! :) I really was more happy about the arrangement than I appear.

Now the days are flashing by and all five of my babies are reaching their teenage years. Like, it might just be tomorrow if I don't pay close enough attention.

They are such a blessing but come with such a burden of responsibility too. May God give both Steve and I all the wisdom and grace needed because if we look at ourselves we are certain of failure.

So, now I'm going to get to scampering to go snuggle "my" new baby.

Bits and Bites

Cam would like you to know cherries are delicious! I would like you to know that so is he :)

Sam had his first day of swimming lessons today. He didn't like it any better than most other days he's been in or around water. Hopefully a steady diet improves his appetite.

Actually, he'll do well to remember to keep his mouth shut and not do any water sampling. In the meanwhile, I'm hoping I can watch the last 3 lessons at least from the bench and not the pool side. Today I was almost in there with him.

She did it!

And when Nana Lynn slipped the lead rope off Leaf so Leah could ride by herself, she said in a small voice, "Nana Lynn, can you please lead me again?"

Cody got a ride, he stopped screaming after the first 1.5 minutes. Okay, probably sooner or the poor horse would have started heading for the hills to try and get rid of the noise!

Cara also got a turn but her picture is MIA.

Grandpa Kerry promised Sam a seat in the race car if he got on the horse. So he did and loved it.

We moved from there to Grandpa Kerry's race car.

Sam didn't get too much of a chance to check it out uninterrupted.

There are certain things that just define boys as boys.

I think that look is translated.... "think we can make it go any faster!?" They had so much fun there together.

This boy had a few hours short of a turn. He could have stayed a "bit" longer yet.

Then because my blood pressure and stress levels were not able to take any more worrying about scratches in the shiny white paint we went inside and had some ice tea. Seriously, it's way easier to see Cody pick up a knife he found in the shop and watch Cara dump her ice tea on the kitchen floor than worry about Cody trying to climp up the side of the car or watch as the door comes flying open to bump against who knows what! :)

And then Leaf got a few treats from those brave enough to feed them to him.

It was a special time. Thanks to Lynn and Kerry for so lovingly have us over!

Should I be Getting Worried?

Leah was hoping to do some horseback riding tonight (it was postponed until tomorrow morning) but she has horses heavy on the brain right now. This afternoon on the way to Gramma's we passed a horse farm and she announced, "that's where I'll start work when I'm nine.") She has admitted that she'll probably be stuck with important but not so nice jobs like mucking stalls but she is pretty confident the owner will let her "just exercise" some horses some of the time. I guess there's a difference between expecting to be allowed to ride the horses and just exercising them.
In prepping for this experience she was told she needed to have a helmut in order to be allowed up on the horse. I told her a bike helmut would have to do and she was horrified, "can't you buy me a riding helmut?" She asked if she could wear her black pants (corduroy!), jacket and boots so she could be like a real horse rider. Yes, we were just visiting Spruce Meadows with their dress code :)

Tonight I was driving with just her and Sam and she informed him that Nana Lynn would probably allow her to ride all by herself. I reminded her she didn't know how to ride and so wouldn't be allowed but she insisted that she had ridden 4 times already and was sure she could do it by herself now. "Four times," I questioned? Yes, she had been led two times around the yard and once around the field when we lived by Gramma last year and she had been on a pony at the fair once too (she was still 3). Four times. And that experience was surely qualifying enough to make her a bona fide horse rider.
So, I decided a little scare tactic may be in order rather than arguing. "What if you want to stop," I asked, "how are you going to make the horse stop if you're by yourself?" She looked at me with the classic for-a-mom-you-sure-don't-know-much look. She crossed her arms, "I would say 'whoa'." "Well, what if the horse doesn't know about 'whoa'", I pushed. And then she rolled her eyes to the back of her head. "Of course he'd know 'whoa', that's horse language. All horses know that!"
I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself, I retorted with, "what if you accidently say 'trot'"?

It's for her own good, I'm sure she'll be safer if she has just a bit of fear!

Special Times

We went for an afternoon visit to the best leisure center ever with the three oldest. They had an indoor water playground and 3 water slides just for the kids. The one was huge and all little kids had to be with an adult to go down. It worked great for us. One adult + kid first, Leah, one adult + kid last. We went up and down, up and down. It was way better than the water slide in our hometown leisure center and the kids could all enjoy it. Try the Calgary Southland Leisure Center if your ever out that way. We had been there a couple of hours and Leah somehow tripped and scraped her leg. They took good care of her, got rid of the blood and we ended our afternoon watching Papa dive off the diving board and fly down the big people slide. Special.

It was a beautiful afternoon to play outside so we did.
Opa and Nana have a couple great climbing trees in the back yard! (See all Leah's band aids?)
Finally, a game of tennis after supper.

Too bad there were only 2 swings. Taking turns is hard work!

Had a little campfire and roasted some marshmellows.

It's a good one.

Got to enjoy some pop!

It tastes the best out of a can.

Ended the wonderful day with a bit of camping in the back yard. Lucky for Leah, Sam, Opa and Papa!

Mama's taking us to the Zoo Tomorrow...

If you were raised with Raffi at all you may just have that song in your head for the rest of the day. :)

Calgary Zoo, a beautiful zoo on a beautiful day.

A ride on a zebra
on a lion

and on a bear. This time around they actually wanted individual shots... sorry Sam!

I have never seen hipos this close out of the water before. There really was only 10 feet between us and seeing them so up close and personal like made me stop in wonder. They are such funny looking, HUGE creatures. I couldn't help but wonder why God would have created these beasts.

Such a beautiful day, such amazing creatures to see.

These two stayed here (in the stroller) for quite a bit of the day but don't worry, Cody is quick to assure you that he can see the lion back there.

And then he moved and came nice and close. Compared to the hipos this is one magnificent creature. He was so regal.

We took pictures like these.

And then we saw them for real. You think my kids are the only ones who climb on the rocks and teeter and totter nearly landing in the kangaroo exhibit? I doubt it and the zoo keepers obviously don't mind or they wouldn't make it quite so accesible. For example, the lions cage was a little more fortified than this :)

Cody and Cara were glad to get a stroller reprieve and they made it last a while.

We also took pictures like these.

And yes, Laura, right about here we lost sight of Leah for 5 minutes or so. Thankfully I was pretty sure she had probably moved off to find Opa who had gone ahead to find a seat for the elephant talk, only I couldn't find either her or Opa to confirm my suspicions.

Obviously, by the time the zoo lady started her info session we were all happily together again.

We cooked there sitting under the blazing sun in the bleachers and we were very thankful for the icecream treat from Opa and Nana a little while later.

This was the prarie dog (gopher) exhibit. My kids thought they were hilarious and could have stayed there a good long while enjoying these rodents' antics. More hilarious was the mother beside me who wasn't sure if she should be embarassed or proud of her country kids. Her kids were horrified at the idea of these land destroying pests having their own special spot in the zoo. They were beside themselves thinking about how many they could eradicate with the arsenal at their disposal back home on the farm/ranch. (Later on I saw these same kids excitedly stuffing quaters into a bubble gum machine for a grain of some sort. They were lovingly feeding the Canadian geese thronging about. I laughed at the irony and told the mom her kids were welcome where I live to take care of our goose population with said arsenal.)

Our last visit was to the dinosaur population. They have quite the extreme exhibit with every beast being to size as they imagined they might be. Some of them roar and move their forelegs and jaws as you pass. It was a little scary if you let your imagination go.

Especially if you let that imagination take over and set you up for a grand game of dinosaurs back at home. There was some heart pounding suspense...

dinosaur searching...

and run-for-your-lifeing. Especially when the dinosaur is Papa. His roars are ferocious and he can run fast! Can you hear the screams?!