Our Family of Five

I know it's been a while since i've posted anything. There have been so many moments that I have wanted to record, to write about and always be able to look back and remember sweet moments with our munchkins. However, I am flipping busy and definitely tired! I've tried to snap more photos lately of moments instead of just those fake cheesey smiles (even though I love those too). Anyways.. here is a bit of info about what's going on in our lives right now :)

Our Summer was busy but sweet. We did a lot of lovely things with friends and family that I will hopefully remember though photos because I was a tad sleep deprived to remember them otherwise.
The kids and I spent a week at my parents, we all spent a few weekends at Jeff's parents cabin, we attempted camping with a very young baby at Port Renfrew and failed miserably.. well.. I thought so at least. Lots of cute little trips to the beach, petting farms, sprinkler running, picking berries from the garden, bike rides to the park, and tons of time in the backyard pool where Landon learned to swim!

Since Summer ended we have been getting back into a routine just as most families do I assume. Landon is back at preschool three days a week and has also started Judo lessons once a week. I have also been taking Hudson and Elena to Music Together class once a week. Jeff has been playing Ultimate Frisbee but definitely not as hardcore as he was this past Spring and Summer.. thank goodness! It's so nice to have him home more often in the evenings.  I've also started this super fun DnaceFix class that's very high energy and makes you sweat like crazy! 

On to our little baby girl - she's a sweetie pie with an adorable smile. The boys love her and enjoy holding her every once in a while. As she grows and changes they become a little more interested in her. However today I told them that she would soon be crawling around taking their things and they didn't seem too impressed.
Hudson is at an adorable age where he is slowly moving out of the tantrum phase and becoming a good listener, helping clean up after himself without being asked, and often asking for hugs! I love it!
Some cute Hudson sayings as of late:
- There's a tummy ache in my throat
- Talking to the someone broken tv he says 'come on TV! You know you can do it!"
I knew I should have written them down :( More to follow! He says the cutest things.

Landon is one bright little boy who definitely does not let on to everyone around him that he is. He's been very physical lately, lots of crazy sounds, and definitely acting out a bit. However.. It seems that this is pretty par for the course in terms of 4 year old boys :) He has also been showing us his very sweet and thoughtful side lately. He has just started to get a bit excited about learning to read, learning new information, and learning French.

Oh right... I did also just go on a big trip to Australia to visit with my Sister and her partner Nev. Elena and I went for 2.5 weeks and left all the boys back at home to spend lots of precious time with Grandparents.We went to Melbourne, explored the city, spent lots of time with my sis, saw where she lives and works, and overall had a lovely time :)
And yes they are expecting their first baby in January! I wish she lived much closer but I know she is happy there and her and Nev have a wonderful life together. I can't wait to hear about the arrival of my little niece or nephew! It was such a treat to be able to see her pregnant and also bring her lots of maternity clothes and baby paraphernalia :)

I suppose that sums up the basics of the past 5 months or so :-p  Life is good.. it's fun, it's silly, it's special, it's frustrating, it's a little chaotic at times, but I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world :) I definitely wouldn't mind for time to slow down a bit. 
 Maybe one day i'll be a fantastic writer.. but until then you will have to suffer through my crappy writing :) Thanks for reading!

 

   Off to Summer camp!  

 

                                                               Trying on cute outfits

                                                              Me and my three munchkins :)

                                                        One of many ice cream moments

  

The boys love lying in the crib with Elena

                                                                  More crib cuddles :)

                                               Loving the matchy matchy at the water park

 

 On our way to preschool one morning in September - Hudson is in the front seat  

 

                                        Elena chilling out at our camping spot in Port Renfrew

                                                    The boys on a ride at the Saanich Fair

                                     Jeff wearing the sweet baby sling while eating :)

                                                 Baby bed for the weekend at the cabin!

                                            Lazy pool afternoons.. I think this was one of my most favorite moments from the Summer. I must have snuck in about a dozen of these with the boys while Elena napped. It was especially nice during a hot spell we had when the pool temperature rose to 90 degrees.. hot tub fun in the sun!

Buddy Bear at the pumpking patch with his preschool Puddle jumping!  

Adidas track suits are back in!

Happy Halloween 2013!

                                                              The Great Ocean Road!

                                                A day at the races with my sis and Elena :)

 

Our little five month old! Where did the time go!?! Oh right.. I spent it bouncing and patting this little difficult sleeper to sleep :-p Thank goodness she seems to be turning in to a pretty good sleeper as of late :) 

 

                                                                   Our family of five :)

Baby Elena is Here!

Our beautiful baby girl has arrived! :) Elena Ann Mottishaw (Pronounced El-ay-na). I feel so complete. She is beautiful and the boys are doing so well with everything. I know I'm just going to get more and more tired, and she is probably going to get more and more fussy over the next year.. but it's okay. It feels so good already knowing about all of the crazy stages that she will be going through and also that I won't be pregnant again!  These three beautiful children are ours and now we get to attempt to raise them without the influence of a crazy pregnant mom! :-p

Birth Story!
Elena arrived in a hurry on May 29th at 5:38pm. I was 8 days overdue and therefore I had a non-stress test and ultrasound at the hospital at 2pm earlier that day. The two tests thankfully went great. As I was walking out of the tests I called Jeff to let him know everything was okay. During our phone call I had my first contraction(at 2:45) and had to stop walking during it :) Pretty neat that it happened at the hospital.. but of course I had to head back home to get Jeff, find somewhere for the boys to go and most of all to see if this was the real deal or not.

I timed the contractions on the way home while I noted the after school/work traffic that was starting to pile up... eek! I gave it an hour of contractions every 4 minutes before I called the midwife at 4pm.. she said  - get going! (The day before I had been checked by her and was already 5cm dilated and had had 5 stretch and sweeps).  We pawned the kids off on our very helpful neighbors! Thanks guys :) Jeff's parents headed down to help out, and Jeff and I headed to the hospital.

Jeff and I got to the hospital by 5 due to crazy traffic - thank goodness my water didn't break in the car and my contractions really weren't bad at all - My midwife checked me and I was 8cm. She said that she might as well break my water to get things moving.. But of course, knowing how fast things might go once your water breaks and you're 8cm already, I asked her to wait so I could finish my chocolate bar :-p After she broke my water I got in the shower - still not feeling too much pain (very different than the other labors!!) Within 10 minutes I was thinking 'WHOA!!", "Now I remember this pain... MAKE IT STOP!"...

All of a sudden I couldn't stand the shower and thus got out and went on all fours on the very clean hospital floor :-p Our midwife insisted that she was not going to deliver the baby on the floor so her and Jeff got me up on the bed  - within seconds I was ready to start pushing and by 5:38 (it felt like an hour had passed but I think it was only 15 minutes- I have no idea how in the world I pushed for 3 hours with each of the boys' labors) our baby girl was born!

So the entire labor and delivery was a whopping 3 hours for number 3! With Landon it had been 26 hours from start to finish and with Hudson it was 9 hours. 

She is now two weeks old and I am starting to feel like myself again :) The afterpains are gone (Super crazy with #3!!), my body is feeling a bit more 'normal', and now all I am dealing with are the very crazy night sweats.

Elena is more awake each day and has a lot to watch with her very busy brothers running about :)

39 weeks and Ready to GO!

These back pains are driving me crazy! I've tried massage and the chiropractor plus rolling on two different sized balls and now nothing is relieving the pain! Ugh! Besides these back/hip pains I've been okay, just super hormonal and tired from yucky sleeps(due to back/hip pains!).

Baby girl is due this coming Tuesday (T-minus 5 days) and I wouldn't mind her arriving a few days earlier. Partially because I can't wait to meet her and also because I'm hoping that my body will start feeling better :)

Still no carseat installation.. but due to the layout of our van I don't want to move the boys until she arrives. It looks like I'm going to put one of the boys in the very back seat and keep our eldest next to the baby so as to help out with dropped toys, singing songs, etc. We could fit three across but then we wouldn't be able to stick any extra passengers in the very back too easily. I think I'd rather keep our options open.

I guess I'm pretty much done the nursery. All that remains are a few finishing touches that I won't be able to put up until after she arrives as we are keeping the first initial of her name a surprise :) Oh, and the mobile is half done.. I need to go buy some white felt and make some cute stars to go with the little pink birdies :)
Here are a few pics!

 Loving this fabric I bought online to make a change table cover!

To the right: Some of the tissue paper pom poms and my button artwork!

So glad I splurged a little bit ($100 off ebay - Thanks hunny!) and bought this adorable chandelier. Kind of funny though.. Jeff had to saw part of it off to make sure he wouldn't hit his head on it. 

 Here are the cute sleeping birdies that will be on the mobile. Just waiting on buying some white felt to make little stars and a moon.

I sewed pink pom pom trim to the curtains to spice it up a bit.. happened to have just enough left over to add to the lamp!    

 Yay for adorable girl accessories! Some of these were bought, some made by me, some made by friends.. i love them all! Can't wait to try them out on baby girl!

I couldn't bring myself to paint the inside of the closet before we added the closet organizer... but boy oh boy do I love how many goodies you can fit in when you have it properly organized!  No that is not a real baby in the baby seat :-p The boys have had me swaddle her up and have been playing with her like that!

It's pretty strange waiting for a little person to arrive when there is already so much going on in your life. Every night I try hard to organize the house a bit, make sure the dishes are done and things for the boys are organized, just in case I go in to labor in the middle of the night and someone has to come take over. I'd rather they walk in to a somewhat tidied/organized house than a crazy mess. Don't worry.. I'm not cleaning.. just tidying :-p Let's not get silly here! I think my cleaning phase has long passed. The nesting is complete.. I'm exhausted!The boys' bags are packed and ready to go because my Mother In-law is coming tomorrow to take the boys up Island for the long weekend! So exciting! I'm thinking it would be perfect if Jeff and I got one or two days with just the two of us and then baby arrived maybe Sunday or Monday :-p One can dream!

Full Term!! 37 weeks :)

Looks like I've made it to the end! Well.. sort of. Throughout each of my pregnancies I always worried about having our little ones join us too early, having to spend weeks upon weeks in a NICU somewhere or something. Hopefully we have bypassed that experience :) Supposedly baby should be fully developed by now and will be weighing in over 6 lbs at this point. In my pregnancy with Landon, he arrived 4 days from now.. so really it could be any day now. Or.. it could be 5 weeks from now! AHH!

Now that my busy birthday planning for Landon's birthday is over I feel so relaxed and I'm not really feeling too rushed to get baby out. I'm enjoying the boys so much lately. I just want to kiss and hug them and tell them I love them so much :) Maybe I'm trying to get in as many extra cuddles as possible before I'm too busy with a little babe. Of course I do get up between 3-7 times a night to pee or roll on my yoga ball because my hips are crazy painful.. but the days are still nice :) Tiring.. but nice :)

I've been working hard on our baby girl's nursery and I'm almost done! I've got a mobile to create and a few more photos to stick on the wall. I've also covered baby's first initial in yarn and will hang that up once she arrives - no name guessing!

Here is a photo of one side of the room :) I love how bright it is and how many Pinterest things I attempted!  I made the tissue paper pom poms, the tree button art, the Staples engineering print on the wall (obviously did not take the photo though), sewed pom poms to the curtains, and made the change table cover! I will definitely post more detailed photos when I get a chance.. but this is all I had for now and I wanted to share it!

35 Weeks with Baby Girl!

Wow, the last few weeks have flown by! Yahoo! I'm feeling pretty ready for this baby girl to join our family :) Of course it will be my luck that because I'm feeling so ready and somewhat organized that baby girl will stay inside the cozy warm belly for as long as possible.

Oh well.. I do enjoy being pregnant, minus the crazy hormones and lack of sleep due to hip and pelvic pains. Oh, and don't forget the back/purple leg due to varicose veins! I am SO sick of these prescription stockings.. ever have a pair of socks that cost $100 and were super hard to put on? It's oh-so-fun!

I know I will miss the belly, and the amazing feeling of the baby stretching and kicking. Right now I can feel the babe's bum and feet sticking out. She holds her feet in place often and you can feel the entire foot.. seriously, my hubby says he can practically count the toes! She's feeling pretty small still but I'm good with that. It will probably be another five weeks until she enters this world and by then she'll be just the right size.

The hospital bag is packed, the car seat is in the garage(so easy to install), floors have been scrubbed, parts of meals have been prepped, and the nursery is almost complete :) I've got some big brother kits ready to go for the boys, and we've asked a few friends if it's okay if we call them in the middle of the night to help us out :-p

Oh! And we've agreed on a first name!! Yahoo :) Of course you won't be finding that out until she's born but it's so nice to have a name.. it just makes me feel a lot more ready:)

We had a lovely maternity photo shoot over Easter weekend and here are some of my favs :) Thanks Jenn Foik from Foik Photography :)

 Loving the light in this one with me and my beautiful boys :) 

 Two of my sweethearts! 

 Listening for baby sister :) 

 I think I'll get this on a canvas to go with my pregnancy photos from Landon and Hudson

Love my hubby so much! Isn't he hot stuff?! That's my Hottie Mottie ;)

Emotionally Ready for baby?

Well, I am now 33 weeks preggo with babe numero 3! In case you missed the big reveal, it's a GIRL :) 

It's exciting and super scary at the same time. Exciting that I will have the three darling kids I have always wanted (the ones that I dreampt would behave so well, would never fight or yell, would never defy me, and would always sleep when they were supposed to).. Okay, so parts of that are true.. others, not so much. These boys are BUSY! People always comment about busy boys.. and some days I don't notice it so much until I see how the girls at Landon's preschool act. Calm, slower moving, and definitely quieter.  Does this mean that I'm going to have it easy later on... ?

Landon has been changing so much over the past few months. It's so neat to watch his development, and also hard to get a grasp on it. His imagination has really taken off. He is constantly making up stories using animals, tractors, dinosaurs and tupperware - you name the object,he'll work it in to his story.  He has also started being CRAZY! He is loud, uses wild new voices, talks back often, and flops to the ground randomly rolling around and making goofy faces. He has so much energy, yet he truly also enjoys playing on his top bunk for an hour with random toys or lego building. I love him to bits and can't wait to see how he deals and adjusts to this big life event of getting a baby sister. He has been coddling a baby doll lately - placing her in the swing, talking and singing sweetly to her, and telling me all of his responsibilities. We'll see how this goes :)

Hudson has also been changing so much. He has turned from the tantrum screaming munchkin to a super sweet chatty little boy. He gives kisses, lots of hugs, asks for more books, follows his big brother around and doesn't steal many toys, dotes on the baby doll as well, and is really starting to listen well. I'm tempted to think that he has somehow already experienced the terrible twos (16-19 months) but I think that would be very naive of me.  Lately he has been enthralled with trucks, dinosaurs, space ships, worms, running everywhere and jumping off of everything :) I'm so glad that this little guy gets along so well with his big brother and doesn't appear to get jealous at all when I hold another child/baby - i'm hoping that his transition to Big Brother will go okay.

I think what I'm more so worried about is how to give each of the kids the one on one time that they really crave.. especially Landon. I know how much time and attention most newborns need and I know that it will be an adjustment for everyone.

Alright so that wasn't the most exciting blog post.. I guess it's just what's been going through my head lately.

The next post should have some maternity photos in it!

Playroom Progress Reveal!

I've been wanting to post photos of the playroom updates for a few weeks now. Even though I'm not totally finished all of the fine tuning I just cannot hold back any longer!

Let us first have a look at what the playroom used to look like. This is the room that I spent the majority of time in over the past three years, 5 days a week... between 3-8 hours a day depending on the age of the children and their schedules. There were always things I wanted to work on, to fix up, or to paint. I did some of those things, but nothing too major over the years.

Yesterday was my last day caring for children other than my own! I plan on providing daycare in the future, but not full time, and only to two other children.. maybe a year or so from now, we'll see. I won't lie..I enjoyed caring for the other kids, but I'm soooo excited to move on to another chapter of my life. It must be some nesting instinct with #3 on the way.. for some reason all of a sudden I was in a huge hurry to change things up!

Here is the before photo. Of course it doesn't show everything.. but it you get the idea. It doesn't help that this was right after most of the kids had finished eating and we hadn't cleaned up yet.

 What it looks like now!

What you see when you walk in the door!  Would love these fancy chairs from Land of Nod but I'm pretty sure they're not in the budget :-p  I painted the walls (Stonington Gray), ordered some new storage furniture from Ikea (Expedit 16 cube), bought some hooks (JoAnnes), and found a $20 wood table on UsedVictoria and had Jeff cut the legs down in height.  Oh, and I ordered that fabric for the curtains online and somehow managed to whip them up on this past week!

 Hanging out the dress-up clothing instead of sticking it in a bin. The kids actually see it now and go to it. Still in need of a few bins in the shelving unit.. not quite sure what I want yet though.There are two small play tables & one main table - the one with the Little People on it I would love to turn in to a light table one day by following Play At Home Mom's instructions.

 Little play table in the corner for whatever they're interested in at the moment. Would love to find this table in white to go with the rest of the furniture and perhaps a little red, teal or white stool instead of this pink garage sale find :)

 Looking at the other half of the room. Train table gets used daily by both boys and the little kitchen has always been a hit.

 Little reading area with books displayed instead of just in a bin. I find they ask me to read to them more and/or go pick out books to look at more often. Finally have some of Landon's artwork hung up too!

 Cute little A & Z bookends holding some lovely books I scored from a school I worked at. They are all This is ______  books that are from about 40 years ago describing European cities.

 Letters, map, chalkboard, felt board, nothing board (what do I do with this!? Would love to make it a magnet board), and toys bins! Toy bins need some new labels one day :) 

Hands and feet of the boys :) Need to be hung but I'm not in a hurry...

There are still a few more things I would like to do including hanging a few more pieces of art and some family photos between the two main windows. However, I'm pretty happy with how it looks right now! It's so nice to have finished this inside project just in time for March - which means more time to concentrate on the garden :)