Ho Ho Ho. & PSA

Look what I did Mommy!!

Katie is very much enjoying helping with the Christmas preparations.
We're heading south within the week. Andrew will be off a few days before we thought he would, so we're not sure now where we'll end up when. I believe that we're still planning a few days in Idaho before we head on down to Portland, but I'm not sure where that puts us.

The nieces and nephew have a school program on Wednesday, so I think we're planning to attend that, then leave sometime after. Not sure now if after means nighttime or morning. Then we'll drive as far as Katie allows each day until we get where we're going.

In the meantime, I'm cleaning up the house for Kristy, who will be Baileys temporary roommate and the official feeder of the critters. Biggest item, make sure that there is food in the fridge and make sure that all the food in the fridge is edible food. Hope to tackle most of that tomorrow.

Katie's 1st Christmas

I got Katie's 1st Christmas ornament at the Butterdome Craft Fair on Saturday. I love it.

Miss Morgan

I just realized that I've never really spoken about poor Morgan except to say that she's fat. So here's Morgan's story.

Andrew decided one day that Bailey just wasn't keeping up with the mouse population, so we needed to get a cat. So we called the people who'd put up the "free to a good home" poster and they had one kitten left. She was approximately 4 months old. When we got there, they couldn't find her, so we told them to call us when they caught her and we'd come pick her up. Then, just as I was getting into the car, she peeked around from behind a bush and then she was ours.

She's a sweetie, and an excellent mouser. She loves Bailey and Bailey loves her. So happiness abounds with the two of them. Except when Morgan catches a mouse, then they fight over who gets to eat it. I'm not sure who wins that arguement.

She's pretty too. Here she is the day we brought her home.The second day, she'd already claimed Bailey's bed and toys.
And the girls cuddling.

Here are the pictures.

Bailey!

Charlie Horse!

And, the Christmas tree.

Just because

Katie isn't the only cute critter at our house.

Here are some more recent pictures of Bailey & Charlie.

Okay, well...

I was going to post pictures of them and of our Christmas tree, but apparently Blogger isn't letting me do that right now.

Oh well. My Charlie pictures aren't that great. One makes him look like I'm starving him, and the other one makes his head look deformed. His head is actually quite shapely for a horse, and he is most definitely not starved. In fact, he's the only horse I know in real life who gets to eat grain. Well, Jack probably does, but not every day I suspect.

Rest assured, all the critters are doing fabulously. Morgan has gotten so fat that if I wasn't certain she'd already been spayed, I would swear she was pregnant. Bailey is loving the snow, as always, even though in most places it's higher than she is. And Charlie is loving this grain-every-day, spoiled life he's found himself in.

Life, love, and the pursuit of happiness

Why do birds keep running into my window? They do it even when the curtains are drawn, so I'm sure they're just stupid. Actually, I think it might be the same bird that keeps doing it. He came inside for a visit during the summer, because that particular window doesn't have a screen. Not sure why, but hopefully it will within the next couple weeks.

Morgan is fat. She's going on a diet. She now gets fed once a day, and if she wants a snack in between, she can catch mice. That's her job anyway.

We started feeding Katie a bit of rice cereal last week. She's pretty funny with it. She doesn't like the first bite. It's cold, and that's just not okay. But the second bite is good stuff, apparently.

More comparison pictures

Here we are. 1 week and 5 months +1 week.
Thanks to Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa for the adorable dress.

Hard to believe she's gotten so big.

another picture

Well, seeing as we're having some sort of developmental or physical growth spurt, or teething or I'm eating too much sugar or something... Katie isn't sleeping well. I suspect the teething and am desperately hoping it doesn't last too much longer.

But how can you resist this face?
This is how she greets me when she wakes up. I think I'm in love.

Look for another comparison shot soon. Just waiting on our photographer (aka Andrew).

Quick update

Just a photo montage today.
Maybe I'll update later if I get a chance.

Musings from the frozen north.

I happened to find a cooking show that I didn't know was on. CBC, go figure. So as I eat my kraft dinner, I'm subjected to mouth watering video of a greek community in Montreal. A bakery with a wood oven, fresh melons, grilled seafood, fresh herbs.... Hooray for boxed noodles. I need a good cookbook with recipes from other cultures. Thai, Greek, Indian, whatever. Something with lots of spices and herbs. Yum.

I have to laugh though. We got a phone call early (okay it was like 1030) this morning from my mom. Telling us how cold it is there and they got snow! Okay, the snow is exciting, but it's not cold there. Not a chance. There is currently over a foot of snow on my truck, and it was -30 when we woke up this morning. (that's -20 for you imperialists) It's cold. If the horse didn't need to eat, I wouldn't leave the house, but I have to take him hay. So I cover my mouth with my scarf so my teeth and lungs don't freeze, and march through the yard to bring him some breakfast. For those of you who know the layout of our yard, the hay is next to the garden and I feed the horse a bit behind the propane tank. By the time I got from the house to the hay to the gate, the steam from my breath coming over the scarf had collected on my eyelashes and frozen them.

But Andrew, Katie & I are nice and warm in the house, as is Bailey, Morgan is happy and warm in the garage, and Jose is as warm as ever in his bowl (though I may move him to the table so he's not so close to the windows. Only Charlie has to be outside, and he's tough. And he's got a nice coat. Horses, after all, were designed to live outdoors in all weather.

Oops, almost forgot pictures.

New diaper!
So cute.

Katie's new favorite toy is...

Anything that crinkles.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth.

It's funny how fast time goes. Katie is already 5 months old. Every day she becomes more of a kid and less of a baby. It's hard to imagine life without her. She loves the shower, thinks it's hilarious when the water sprays in her face, and loves to try and catch it. She's started "talking" to her toys as she chews on them. I wonder what she's telling them. She adores Bailey, won't even look at me if Bailey is moving around the room. She's also very excited about Daddy. We're going to find her a new carseat tomorrow, she's outgrowing this one rapidly, and I don't want to be stuck with one that doesn't fit. We'll probably move her up before she's too big for the bucket. My car now lives in the garage, so it's not quite so cold in there as it is outside.

I'm very excited for Mom & Dad & my Grandparents to see Katie again. As much as I want to visit for myself, I can't wait for them to spend time with her. The last time they saw her was September, and she's changed so much since then. Only a month left till our big trip. I'm so not looking forward to the drive though.

And can I just say how much I love cloth diapers? Even without the economic and environmental considerations, disposables just don't come near to the absolute cuteness. Not to mention how much happier she is in them.

Toes!

Katie's found her toes. She actually found them a while ago, but she's decided now that they are great for sucking on. She now rolls both directions too.

Cruisin' right along.

Katie pushed up onto her knees this evening. Yikes! This means crawling could be not much further down the road. I'm not ready to have a mobile baby! But she's so cute trying to push up, and she was so excited about it. She stayed on her belly longer tonight than she ever has before, and she was really working those legs. She even managed to spin herself around almost 180 degrees.

Of course, as with all great developmental leaps, this comes with crazy sleep troubles. Still not as bad as some babies though, so I can't complain too much.

Pictures!

Here is what Bug looks like when she's up past her bedtime.

Peeking over Daddy's knee

Leave us alone, Mom. We're snuggling.

Driving Miss Katie

Andrew's been home, so I haven't been updating like I should. Silly me not spending so much time on the computer. Our morning routine seems to be fairly settled at the moment. We wake up about 9 ish, play with Katie for a while, then Katie & I usually have a shower while Andrew eats breakfast. Katie loves the shower. Then after Katie goes down for her morning nap, I head out to feed the horse. This is a good routine to get into, because he will now need to be given hay every day. He's grazed down all the grass, that's what happens in a small yard. If I get used to feeding him during her nap, then I don't have to worry about forgetting like I do with the fish.

Katie is growing so fast. Hard to believe she'll be 5 months old in only a few days. We're on the hunt for a new carseat, she's almost too tall for the bucket now. I'm going to miss the convenience for those quick trips in somewhere, but most of the time I have her in the sling anyway so it won't make much difference.

This is the most recent picture, we were playing with her (go figure) while we were waiting for some friends to get home. She is so much fun. No teeth yet, but soon enough, I'm sure. She's chomping on everything she can get her hands on. And she feels the need to yell while she's chewing. That cracks me up.

Oops, she's waking up. That's all the update for now, I guess.

In horsey news.

We (I), after much thought, decided that Jack and I are not meant for each other. We just don't have enough experience to be a good match. So I had to make the decision to let him go. Had I held onto him, he would have either become a pasture ornament, undoing all the training we just paid for, or one or both of us would've gotten hurt. It was a hard decision, but I definitely feel it was the best decision to make, and I am very much at peace with it. He is a good horse, he will go on to be a great horse, and he will make someone very happy.

Dwayne (very generously) offered to trade one of his horses for Jack. Jack is going on to cow horse schooling. When he's there, he'll be worked/trained in actual ranching work. Dwayne thinks that Jack is a rare horse that will be excellent for that work and in very high demand. I'm excited for him and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to have him in my life and bring him to a place where he can realize his potential.

In return, I have a nice, well-broke 11 year old gelding in my life. His name is Charlie, and he's a registered Quarter Horse. (I still can't figure out how I keep getting registered animals.) Charlie has been used for team-penning competitions, dressage competitions, english lessons, western lessons, trail riding, etc. He's a well-rounded horse with tons of experience and I am very comfortable with him.

Andrew built me a fence here, so I even get to see Charlie every day. Katie has petted him a couple times but as yet is fairly uninterested.

Wow.

Apparently I got distracted. It's been ages since I updated this blog.

I guess I'll start from 4 months ago, the day our lives changed.

Katie Elizabeth was born June 23. No, Katie is not a nickname. We figured if that was what we were going to call her, we might as well just make it her name. She has been an absolute joy, and we now cannot imagine life without her.

We had an adjustment period, of course, but as soon as we learned to adapt to her schedule, life has been smooth and easy. She's growing like a weed and learning so fast. She's amazingly smart, and strong. Has had good head control since the day she was born, and has no problems walking around for hours in her sling. She loves to walk around holding our fingers, yes already, she's been doing that for over a month now. She's sitting under her own power and is almost stable enough to call it "unassisted", but she still needs a bit of balancing a lot of the time. She started rolling at 2.5 months, but only when she feels like it. Hehe. Today she figured out how to pick up her soother, turn it around and stick it in her mouth.

Will add pictures later.

8 weeks left.

Can you believe it?

Time flies.

We've been busy the last while. It's been a month and a half since I updated this.
We bought a house from Andrew's brother and his wife, it's definitely not our ideal house, but it is nice enough, and has good potential. We also know all the things that need to be updated and replaced and all that, so we're a step ahead that way. And the vast majority of it is cosmetic, so no worries. I managed to get all of our stuff moved in before Andrew got his days off (had tons of help though), and most of it unpacked and set up, so he didn't have nearly as much to do as he thought he might. We have the master bedroom, a second small bedroom and an addition that we will use as a guest room/office/entertainment room. Also has a decent garage for Andrew, and a cement pad that we can park vehicles and our trailer on.

Our first project is to get the addition finished to our specifications. We haven't unpacked anything in there yet, but there are a lot of boxes in there that need dealt with because they will eventually be unpacked in there. We're going to rip up the linoleum and lay down new plywood and laminate flooring (that will be extended to the bathroom as well), paint (probably before the new floor is laid), and redo the ceiling because it sags a little.If we plan things right, we can have all that done before the baby comes.

MxPx

Well, baby got to go to its first rock concert on Friday. MxPx played in Cold Lake.

Baby was very quiet for the first 2 bands, but once MxPx started, it was having a party in there. Not sure if that's because it's familliar sounds or what, but it made me giggle.

Of course, between the glucose test in the morning, and the concert at night, baby was real tired the next morning, and much more sedate than usual. All is back to normal now though, and we had the usual morning calisthenics today.

What a great show! MxPx put on the show that I knew they would, and wowed the crowd. 90% of the people who were there may not have known who they were before, but they certainly do now. And the fan base that they're touring for.

Housekeeping.

The low salt thing is a precaution, not a requirement. It's not anything serious at this point in time. Nothing to worry about.

Baby is doing good. It's kicking the heck out of me most days.
We get to see it again tomorrow. Can't wait. Hopefully it'll settle down at least when we're having the ultrasound so they can get proper measurements this time.

22 weeks.

What a nightmare.
I won't get into it here, suffice it to say, if you ever have the urge to buy something off eBay from a seller called tc_seller, go jump off a bridge instead.

Not only have I not received the item I paid for, but he can't fathom that there is more than one city in Alberta, and now he's trying to charge me a second time. Neat, huh?

Besides that... everything's going great. We got to go to a Junior A hockey game last weekend, that was a ton of fun, even if they weren't playing to their usual standard. We're hoping to go again at least once before the season is over, they're in the playoffs so that gives us a bit more time....

Baby is doing well. I'm getting a lot of kicks now, mostly early in the morning when I don't want to be awake. It's not strong enough yet to wake me though, so I suppose that's a good thing. The only time I'm having problems with my blood pressure is when I'm at the Dr.'s office, but I have a home monitor now, and am tracking it that way, so Dr. is happy about that. Next ultrasound is the 21st. Need to get some measurements that baby was squirming too much for last time. We're excited to see the growth. Should be some pretty major changes.

almost halfway there.

Well, Thursday makes 20 weeks/5 months. Halfway there.
Anyone who tells you that a pregnancy lasts 9 months is full of it. It's 40 weeks, which makes 10 months by my calendar.

Anyway, I have another ultrasound appointment on the 21st, because apparently little Sue was too squirmy for the tech to get good measurements of the heart and spine. So more pictures to come. It'll be 5.5 weeks after the last one, so there should be some obvious growth.

I can feel the baby now almost all the time. Andrew hasn't been able to feel it except once, but I suspect that'll change quickly in the next couple of weeks. I'm getting quite the belly now, but I'm going to run out of available space at some point and baby is going to start getting cramped in there.

18 weeks = 4 months done.

The ultrasound is tomorrow. We can't wait.

Still haven't decided if we're going to find out gender or not. Not sure that it's really an option here. In Westlock, we probably wouldn't have any issues with anything, but the hospital here is lacking in more than just doctors. I'm preparing myself for a thoroughly mundane medical examination, because that's what I've come to expect here. And, because we want Andrew to be able to come too, here is where we get to have it.

Either way, we'll have a photo to share!

I went to see Jack today. He's looking great. Soooo fuzzy and cute. I took some photos, but they're not digital, so I can't share them here. Obviously feeling well too, he was running and bucking up a storm. He's still definitely the very low man in the herd, even though their herd is only the 2 of them. Sorrely didn't want to have anything to do with me, but he didn't want to let Jack come play either.

But Jack so wants to be cuddled. He cracks me up. His personality is so unlike what I expect from a horse. He was trying to play shy, but then every time I'd put the camera up to take a picture of him, he'd come running to see what that thing was. So i have a bunch of good shots of his face... Not so many of his whole body though... Finally managed to get him to come in the pen with me & shut the gate so he had to stay. He wasn't thrilled about that, because usually that means work. So he wasn't being very cooperative at first. I just made him run around the ring a couple times each direction and then stopped him and called him to me. And he came and cooperated. I love that. Then I brushed him out well, and turned him loose again. Hopefully, if I can keep this up, he'll figure out that being caught isn't such a bad thing and he'll get easier to catch. And then he goes out the gate and bucks and runs away. But when he sees that I'm leaving, he has to come running back to say goodbye. What a great feeling that my horse doesn't want me to leave. :)