Thursday 30 December 2010

Last family day of 2010.

Tomorrow I have some commitments during the day so, today is our last family day of 2010.  After the events of earlier this week I decided we needed to have some fun.  So, I declared today to be another Birt family fun day!  We loaded up the kidos & headed downtown on this beautiful FREEZING cold day.

1st stop:  Holiday Carousel
2nd stop:  Pike Place
3rd stop: Nordy's and Pacific Place








After evening baths L took me shopping.  It was her first time using a cart - she could barely contain her excitement.  As you can imagine, the trip took twice as long but, we had such a fun time.


We ended the day trying out a new (super easy) decaf chai tea recipe.  J & I sipped away all night until all that was left was the spices...  Let me know if you want the recipe, it's a goodie.



Wednesday 29 December 2010

So very thankful for prayer warriors!

A few nights ago our son come down with a serious & sudden case of croup.  It was nothing less than terrifying.  It still feels like such a blur because it all happened so fast.  We went from "maybe we should call the on-call pediatrician to ask what we should do about his funny sounding breathing?" to "CALL 911!!!" within 5 minutes.  We've never experienced croup or stridors before & we aren't experts but, please read this link so that you are more informed than we were.  If I knew then what I know now, we would have called 911 sooner.

Thank God he is now almost back to normal.

I am so thankful for:

#1 praying g-parents - God is our Healer & I know that he recovered so quickly because of all the prayers for our son.
#2 g-parents that live close & are willing to help at a moments notice (even in the middle of the night!).  It was such a blessing that we didn't have to wake Laila & take her to the hospital with us.
#3 speedy medic units
#4 Children's Hospital
#5 that a few months ago we happened to change the dates we would be in Canada (so thankfully, we were at home for this scary event.)
#6 that Jason was home - (it was his normal shift to work but, he decided to keep it off even though we didn't end up going to Canada...)  It would have been close to impossible to give Axel the care that he needed let alone do that while calling docs, g-parents, 911 etc...
#7 & finally that our son is alive & well!

By the time the medics arrived he was getting more air & looking better.  Daddy rode with him in the medic unit,  g-pa drove me & we followed.   Here are pics that I took once we knew for certain that my Axey was okay.

 His sweet little noggin in the bottom R corner of the window on the L.  
As usual - all smiles...

Monday 27 December 2010

Mmmmmm.

After a family walk to the market in the POURING rain we made a yummy dinner & L got to try her first mug of hot chocolate.  It was a hit.



It should also be noted that Axel signed his FIRST word this week!  Take a wild guess what it was.... "More!" (of course) - he wanted more food... :)

Saturday 25 December 2010

Christmas memories (100th post!)

~ Christmas Eve ~









~ Christmas Day ~






 our very own Christmas rolls & buns!  







Lai finished off her day with a walk around the block to look at Christmas lights with Gram (carrying her new umbrella, of course) while I cuddled with Ax before putting him down.
When L came home, we had an hour to play in her kitchen with many new goodies to bake & then we cuddled & read one of our favorite books.  


The tomten and the fox

Thursday 23 December 2010

Ready!

Tomorrow is going to be our family's Christmas morning.  
The "stockings" are ready & I'm giddy with excitement!

Nativity.

My buddy Scott posted this on his fb page.  
I loved it!  
Haven't shown it to Lai yet but, I'm excited for her to see it tomorrow.  
She's been singing 'Away in a Manger' for weeks now.  

Please take 4 minutes to watch this darling & fabulous reenactment of the Jesus' birth.  
'It's the most beautiful visual interpretation I've ever seen...'  
(And, who doesn't love a good accent now & then...)

Click here & enjoy!  

Wednesday 22 December 2010

2nd annual trip to see the reindeer.



This year Melissa & I braved the crowds with our 5 kidlets at Swanson's (sans the hubs').  We had a nice little time.  The kids (of course) loved hanging out.  The other day Laila told me that she was a twin, when I asked her who she was twins with she said, "Derek & Brendan".  I'm pretty sure she's right...

(You know me... this being the 2nd year we attended this fun little event, here comes the stroll down memory lane.)

SO happy to have Axel out of my belly this year!  


                                                         Love this recent pic of the boys.  
                                              (I bet this is what they'll look like 70 years from now.  
                                                Hands in pockets, a goofy hat & just hanging out...)  


Where'd Derek go?  
 the girl still loves her koi
Next year Ax will squeeze onto the bench with the older kids.

Friday 17 December 2010

Our gift guide.

As most know, this is the first year we've had a Christmas tree.  This is the first year that we've felt our oldest can really start to understand the holiday & enjoy all the decorations & traditions that come with this holiday.  Years ago (probably before we were married) J & I discussed what this holiday would look like for our family.

It included things like:
-only giving the kids 3 gifts each (for J, a bit of parallel with the 3 gifts from the wise men; for me, because I feel 3 is plenty...)
-limiting the amount of gifts from the grandparents
-using an old pair of daddy's fire boots instead of stockings
-doing outings or traveling on the holiday instead of sitting around eating all day, (& that is of course only if J isn't working on the holiday, as we all know he tries to do each year).

Really, I feel like we haven't strayed too far from our hopes for what the holiday looks like for our family.  As we were discussing holiday traditions at MOPS, one of the gals at my table also has the "3 gift rule" & she mentioned the wise man thing but, also had another great idea:  of her 3 gifts for each of her boys - 1 gift is a practical gift, 1 is a special gift, & 1 gift is to share with the other sibling(s).  I loved this idea!  So, we'll be now giving our 3 gifts with those rules in mind.

I also started a new tradition this year, each of my children will give a gift to each other from the World Vision catalog.  Obviously this year Axel is too small to pick out a gift to give Laila so, Laila picked them both.  For Axel she definitely wanted to give him some ducks.  She's convinced he's going to LOVE the ducks.  For herself, she fell in love with the picture of the cow.  She's sold on the cow & is awaiting it's arrival any day now.  She of course doesn't understand or appreciate that the ducks are going to a poor family across the globe to help bring them hundreds of eggs to eat/sell & the cow (or part of a cow that we purchased) will be supplying much needed protein & dairy to children as well as offspring etc... I'd like to keep track of what the kids give each other each year.  I hope they will look back & be grateful for how God has blessed our family & be eager to spread the love each Christmas & all year long.



Now, regarding the fire boots...  It sounded like a fun idea at the time but, I forgot what those boots walk in, & through, & on at every shift.  YUCK!  So this year, my big tall rain boots will have to do.  I'll keep my eyes open for the perfect stockings or we'll just have to come up with another idea...

What are some of your special traditions?