Ohhh cinnamon buns!

I came across this recipe and decided I HAD to make them today. They are soft, fluffy and delicious-looking! I at least have to wait until after dinner to try one!

The blessed arrival of baby #4!

My due date of May 18, 2014 was quickly approaching. I definitely felt ready to have this baby. A little nervous in the weeks preceding the birth because Dave was out of town here and there, but not close enough to my due date that it would have been a concern. A note: ALL of my babies were born before the designated due date. This must be remembered later on 🙂

Monday, May 12, Dave needed to go over to Vancouver Island to do some site visits the next day. He planned to stay overnight on Monday, then drive up Island to get the site visits done in order to catch a ferry back later on Tuesday. Monday night I woke up and then couldn’t get back to sleep other than drifting off here and there. I felt like something was going to happen, so I started thinking about it and couldn’t sleep. I didn’t have anyone lined up to help me out should something happen. My mom was planning to come over on Tuesday, but not until the afternoon. I fretted about it and then paged the midwife who told me she would check in with me later in the morning.

I called up a friend who had previously volunteered to help me out if it came to that. She spent the morning with (all I wanted to do was SLEEP, but really ended up just resting). No regular contractions, but pretty good ones when they came.

My mom ended up coming straight from the ferry to our house. As soon as she arrived, the midwife came and checked me. No dilation yet, but pretty much ready to go. She told me to check in with her if I needed. It was around 1:30 pm.

My mom made me walk around the back yard, which was nice, but had to stop fairly often for contractions. It was one of our first really nice days of the year so I was getting pretty hot outside and wanted to come inside and lay under the ceiling fan in my room. I hung out there for a bit; the contractions were pretty strong and told my mom we should probably leave for teh hospital. The funny thing is that it had only been over an hour since the midwife had left and I thought things were moving pretty fast. Just before 3 we left for the hospital. I called (or maybe texted) Dave on the way there to let him know we were headed to the hospital. He was just getting on the ferry to come back to Vancouver. Great timing. Mom dropped me off so she could go park (I honestly think there should be emergency birthing parking so you’re not stuck attempting to make your way in the hospital on your own while in labour. Just a thought) and I didn’t get too far in the hospital. The very kind older Information hospital ladies ended up putting me in a wheelchair and taking me up to the maternity ward. Thank goodness, because I couldn’t even remember where to go!

I’m grateful my midwife was already at the hospital so I didn’t have to wait for her to get there. She, unfortunately was in the midst of getting ready to deliver another baby and so called the other midwife to come and help me out. It’s a good thing she did call someone, because she wouldn’t have made it for my birth! They chekced me and I was already 5 cm dilated. About an hour mroe of contractions, then I felt like I had to push and out came Rowan! Always so happy to be done! I FaceTimed Dave right after he was born. He told me later that when he got that call he knew he had missed the birth. I was really happy to have my mom help me out. If I could have chosen any substitute, it would have been her! So Rowan ended up being born at 4:30 after 3 hours of labour. Pretty quick and so grateful for that! He was 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

Dave finally got home and brought the kids to see me at the hospital. All went well and we are so happy to have Rowan!

Earrings I’m loving

I figured it was high time to update my earring collection. Most of my current earrings are pretty plain or going-out fancy. I wanted some that were cute and classy but could be worn everyday. I ordered these earrings today and I’m excited to see how they are in person!

Personal Fundraising Page for Jennifer and David Vadocz

Personal Fundraising Page for Jennifer and David Vadocz.

Family food…and school lunches

I have to admit that lunch is my least favourite meal of the day. I’m also not a very creative meal planner or fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants food creator. I like recipes and steps and measuring and having things all planned out ahead of time. I am also the worst at looking at the ingredients I have on hand and pretty much coming up with….nothing. It’s like a great big blank block in my brain. So we often have breakfast for dinner among all kinds of other things for meals. I do try to make them as healthy as possible, though. I have started keeping those veggie tray containers from Costco and buying a bunch of different veggies to have chopped up and ready to go all the time. The kids grab it out all the time and munch on all the vegetables in there. Any time of day. I never say no to that!

I recently was catching up on one of the blogs I follow and one entry was showing all her favourite cookbooks. There was a couple in particular that caught my eye, but one I investigated further and ended up ordering it through iBooks. (It was cheapest that way). It’s called Weelicious.

I also pre-ordered her Weelicious Lunches book because school is beginning for Maya and given that lunch is already my least favourite meal of the day, I figured I could use some extra help! It arrived yesterday evening, so I downloaded it right away and read it last night before bed! There are a TON of ideas in it so I’m excited to try them!

 

These books are really great, creative and healthy. I’m looking forward to trying the recipes in them and hoping that my kids will be excited to help me make food that they will enjoy eating!

There is also a website with recipes, videos, and tips weelicious.com

Birthday boy!

We’ve got a new little 2 year old around here. Gavin just celebrated his second birthday.
We celebrated it a bit late because Dave and I were away but decided we should do a little something after we got back.
I really wanted to make a cake even though Gavin can’t eat it. Sorry little guy 😦

A new venture

I decided to take up knitting and teach myself how to knit. Thank goodness for YouTube and all the videos/tutorials posted on the internet. It also helps to have an mom who can pretty much do anything crafty and already knows how to knit and crochet. I’ve tried to learn how to crochet before and really couldn’t get the hang of it, but knitting I learned when I was about 10 years old, made a bit of a scarf, and that was the extent of my knowledge. The basics were already ingrained, but I decided to tackle a small project (literally. It was for a baby!). I got out a Debbie Bliss baby knitting book from the library and these were so adorable, I just had to learn. What’s neat is that I learned how to do cables and they weren’t too difficult. They turned out cute, but I still have a ton to learn!

Entitled Children

I began reading this book upon seeing it on a blog? I think. It’s really very interesting because it deals with how most children (and people!) nowadays feel that everyone is there to serve them or that they are entitled to things simply because. They aren’t prepared for the real world, most especially the definition of work.

The author of this book did an experiment with her 5 kids (ages 14 to 4) and each month introduced a challenge that began with keeping rooms tidy with beds made and clutter at bay. Then, in subsequent months added more responsibility and teaching opportunities to help them realize that clothes don’t just magically appear washed, folded, and put away in your drawers. She taught them to plan, prepare, and provide meals with cleanup included. She taught them yard care and outdoor maintenance.

I’m about halfway through the book and it’s very enjoyable. She has a good writing style and is humorous. She is also quite normal with the same feelings as many of us moms with regards to wanting to do things for her kids because it’s just “easier” and “faster”.

The kids and this mom learned a lot of neat lessons about themselves in this experiment. She learned that her kids are very capable of accomplishing so many things if you just give them some room and responsibility. The kids obviously learned to work, but also teamwork and empathy, amongst many other things.

It makes me think about the things my kids can do now. Clearly I’m not ready  for my kids to be chopping up veggies, etc, but I know they can make their beds and keep their stuff off the floor. They can help sweep and vacuum and unload/load the dishwasher. They like to help me put the laundry in the machine, and I’ve been teaching Maya how to fold clothes. It makes me feel good about teaching them some useful skills. I’m determined to make sure my kids know how to cook a variety of food before they leave home!!

 

And finally…my birthday!!

Since I was already into the swing of things, having done both Maya’s and Rylan’s birthdays within the past couple of weeks, I thought I’d just keep it going and make myself a lovely and delicious cake for my birthday. I had a selection of 5 cakes to decide between and settled on this one. A dark chocolate layer cake with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and a chocolate glaze. Heavenly!

Maya’s Christmas dance recital

Maya started dance this year. She is doing “Triple Threat” where she does ballet for a few months, jazz for a few months, then finishes off the year with tap. She is really enjoying her dance class, so that makes me happy.

I guess at the end of each session, there is a recital so they can show off what they’ve learned the past few months. We were able to take photos at their dress rehearsal a couple of weeks before the show, since you can’t take photos at the theatre. She looked really cute and she did such a good job, we are proud of her!