KRISTA!!!

Macie's incredible sitter. She is in love with her and the moment we pull up to her house she smiles and giggles with glee and loudly says Krista's, Krista's yay!!! When I first went back to work there was still those feelings of is this the right thing for my kid, and as I see how social my child is, how she listens well to others, goes to nursery with excitement and has a huge smile when I drop her off at Kristas all those doubts have gone away. Also how I know it gave me more patience with Macie having those two days a week to do a job I love and interact with adults. As I have been done work since July and won't be going back for a good year and a half Mark and I decided to keep Macie at Krista's one day a week. I got some weird looks from some moms when I would talk about Macie being at the sitters, but frankly I don't care. Today I was able to have a 2 hour nap which was needed from the only 3 hours and awful sleep I got last night and every night the past month. As well got my house tidy, some freezer meals made and some stuff done in the baby's room. People can judge me all they want for putting my kid in a day home and working or putting her in one when I am even not working but she loves it, I love it and that is all that matters. 

Thankful for

As we celebrated thanksgiving today (yes it is tomorrow) but we filled our bellies today and had many wonderful talks and lessons in church on being grateful I feel like today was the day we think of all we are grateful for. Although there are hundreds upon thousands of things I am grateful for today I want to really say thank you to my Saviour for one thing in particular. As I was lying in bed the other night in tears as my body was in so much pain, I was able to think a lot about how lucky I am to have such a healthy body. Besides being pregnant, messing up my ankle a couple of times or maybe being soar after a sporting event my body is healthy. It doesn't deal with constant pain, I get to enjoy all 5 of my senses and use and have all of my joints. I can run, walk, bike, swim, play with my daughter, cook, clean and drive. I get to do all of these things and many more and not feel constant pain or have so much pain afterwards that I have to relax. While I was pregnant with Macie I remember feeling the same way, so grateful that my Saviour although he has given me trials has not taken away my health. With this pregnancy being way harder on me physically it has become even more heightened. I have become even more grateful. It makes me want to work that much harder to maintain a healthy active lifestyle. Do all I can to keep sickness from falling upon me and taking away my ability to enjoy doing anything I want. My compassion for those with MS, arthritis, diabetes, Parkinson's, deaf, blind, lose of an arm or leg has increased that much more. When I think of some of my amazing friends and family that despite being in pain still play with there children and grandchildren be as active as possible and try and do the things that bring them joy, and still find time to get on there knees to pray to there saviour for all he has given them, it almost sickens me how much I have complained these past 9 months and how I have pushed my Saviour away a bit for making me feel this much pain. This weekend though brought it all back to me and got me on my knees to thank my Saviour for all I have and thanking him for putting me through this so I can have more compassion towards others who struggle everyday with pain and know it will never go away. I am also so grateful for an incredible husband, I know that despite all the efforts I put in to stay healthy I could still have something happen to me that takes away my physically abilities to do anything I want. Mark has been incredible these past 9 months and has been so patient with my constant complaining, and demand for things I need but don't have the energy to get. He has been my rock and I love him so much. 

Autumn Days

What a beautiful autumn day, a bit windy but the sun was shining and the leaves were gorgeous. I had started are weekend last night by telling my husband that I wanted the whole weekend to rest and relax and not have to parent, but after hearing all the fun that Macie and Mark had together last night and getting a good sleep I couldn't resist spending the day with my family. We started by heading to the Barr colony centre with the Swendsens. Macie and Luke were so good and really loved seeing the taxidermy animals. A little creepy for me but they loved it. Then we headed to McDonalds for some food and letting the kids play at the play centre, Macie is obsessed with the slide there. Next was grocery shopping then a beautiful fall walk. The sun was gorgeous and beating down on our faces the whole time. Macie was a little bit tired from our full day and fell asleep on our walk, until the last 1.5kms where she insisted on walking the dogs all the way home, so cute to watch her do that. Such a great day and so excited for the rest of our thanksgiving weekend. Dinners, friends, and church, can't get much better then that.

I love kids honesty

Little boy at McDonald's play centre "your belly is big" 

Little sister beside him 

"Yeah your belly is big"

Friend beside her

"Wow that is a big belly"

Me smiling

"That is because there is a baby in my belly"

Kids

"Oh yeah there is a baby in your belly, my aunt had a baby in her belly too."

Me in my head

"I am so glad there is a baby in my belly right now or I might have started crying."

Mommy/Daughter Date!!

Mark ditched mommy and macie for the day so I decided to take my little girl on our first date. We started with getting all dolled up in the morning and then headed out to look for new shoes for Macie. Unfortunately we ended up empty handed and found nothing good, so we then headed to Tony Roma's for a delicious lunch. Next was the big event, Macie's first movie at a theatre. She loved it and was so good, she was to little to sit in the chair so she sat on my lap the whole time and munched on our small bag of popcorn and was loving the show. Despicable Me 2, I wasn't a huge fan on the sequel but didn't care as I just loved being there snuggling with my little Macie. Can't wait for more of our mommy/daughter dates. The pics I got are terrible but still want to post them for memory.

My Kid Rocks

Tonight we went swimming at the Vermilion pool as the Lloyd one has been closed for the past month and a half. I was very impressed with the pool there, they had two slides a big one and a little one a Tarzan rope a diving board and a sweet hot tub. Macie was of course being a fish in the water and swimming all over the place with her water wings on. She can swim with no help easily from one side of the pool to the other. We were there for two hours and for the most part treaded water all on her own with occasionally holding onto mom and dad, and then near the end went down the little kid slide all by herself about 30 to 40 times no jokes. We helped her out of the water and she would then climb the slide go down it, go fully under the water and then bring herself back up and immediately say more. She was crazy and everyone there thought she was amazing. She out lasted every other toddler there. This little girl always has such fun energy and loves to play hard but seriously get her in the water and she is nuts. It is like the water gives her crazy endorphins. It will be fun to see as she gets older if she keeps her love for swimming and how far she could go in it if she wanted to be competitive. I love this little girl so much and the joy she brings into our lives. Her love for life and vibrant personality is one you can't help but love and want to be around. 

Tempting Mommy

I had my 5th ultrasound today for the baby because of concerns with the babies kidneys, everything with baby is good however he/she is just torturing mommy. I had my regular 20 week ultrasound and was strong and didn't find out the sex, then 30 weeks to make sure I was not going into early labour, and the cysts on the babies brain had gone away, then again at 35 weeks because the baby was breech and he wanted to check to see if the baby had turned which it did, then today at 37 weeks to make sure the kidneys that were swollen had gone down, which of course like all the scares we have had with this pregnancy everything is A OK. I was so close to saying yes when the ultrasound tech asked if we would like to know, but I was strong and didn't find out. Even Mark almost crumbled today. But through all these ultrasounds we have stayed strong and get to experience the awe of finding out in the delivery room. On a side note I wanna thank my Heavenly Father for answering all of our prayers with these little worries and stresses and protecting our sweet healthy baby.

First curls

Today for church I got out my skinny curling iron, set it on low and curled Macie's hair for the first time. It was so darling and she looked so adorable. I can't wait to do this more and more for her as she gets older and her hair gets longer and thicker. 

Another visit to the petting zoo

This girl definitely likes her animals, she is getting so good at being able to name or point out the most popular ones, and can say what noises they make. So with Mark at stake leadership training on Saturday I decided to take her to the petting zoo again and have her see these animals she can name in a book in real life. She loved it and was especially fascinated with the water buffalo, pot belly pigs, and the macaws. The macaws scared her to death though when she was walking to them they jumped and scared a bunch of small birds that went flying at Macie, she jumped so high and ran to my arms. Thankfully they didn't scare her too much that she still wanted to see them and say hi to them. It was so fun and so cute seeing her watch them, say hi and bye to them and make the noises they make back to them. At the end of the day though the kitty still won her over and she would have stayed there all day and played with it.

A full day with Macie

From the time Macie woke up till bedtime it has mostly been me and her, as Daddy teaches class on Wednesday night. There was some rough moments, but all in all it was a great day with my munchkin. We started with Cheerios and bananas for breakfast. Then went to Explosive Gymnastics for 2 hours and let Macie run, jump, balance and play on all there equipment. Then we headed home to meet Dad for lunch. I tried to give her a nap after that but she wasn't in the mood, so no nap today and an early bedtime. After our failed attempt at a nap we decided to carve a pumpkin. She was hesitant on putting her hands in the muck, but would help mom clean it out with a spoon. What she really loved was helping mom pick out the seeds and washing them, next we coloured all over the pumpkin. While Mom cleaned the mess Macie played in her room, and when I went in to check on her she was sitting on the floor reading books, so precious. Next we went and did a little shopping and got macie some fun window markers, while mom made supper Macie coloured all over the windows. When dad got home we had some crazy fun in the basement as we always do with Daddy, once Mark left I had a good hour still to fill the time so we went in the backyard and had races, went on the swings and slides and drove around in our play car. Next was snack then bottle, snuggles and reading lots of books. It was a long day and she had a couple meltdowns, but a great day with my sweet Macie there will not be many days left with just me and her and I want to try and remember some of these wonderful moments.