The Reveal begins...

As you all know, Doug and I have been slowly renovating our house... we've been at it for just over a year now. I've had many people ask me to post some pictures of the transformation... so here it goes! Instead of doing a huge post to show all of the changes, I thought I'd do it one room at a time. I've decided to do it this way for two reasons-- one-- they're all not finished yet (rooms in my house are ever evolving and changing as I dream up a new project) and two-- I really don't have the energy to clean the entire house, photograph it, then write about it :)

So... I figured it would be fitting to start with the nursery! Let me start by showing you what we had to work with. What a beauty, eh?  I'm sure this room was well loved by it's previous owner... but I had something a little more sophisticated in mind.

Nursery Room Before

The people who lived here before us had quite an obsession with colour-- bright colour, in every shade, and lots of it (stay tuned for more images of shocking paint jobs).  When we first moved in a year ago, we knew that we couldn't tear the entire house apart all at once since we didn't have the time or money.  But I could not live in a rainbow house.  So we primed everything twice, and then repainted the main floor.  It took a week.

The nursery was a special case.  Not only was it painted in a shade of purple I could not live with, but the picket fence/garden mural was painted on so thick that even after covering it with a different colour, you could still see and feel the picket fence.  Thankfully we had a friend who was willing to spend several hours in that room with a palm sander (Go Brent!!) to get rid of the sun/butterflies/birds applied to the top half of the room.  The picket fence would have taken months to sand down-- so instead we had to find a different solution!

Nursery after demolition-- oops!  Forgot to take the pictures down...

Doug installing the wall panelling late into the night!

Fast forward to the fall-- Doug and I have now torn up all of the flooring on the main level of our house. Remember this post?  After installing laminate throughout the main floor, we decided to tackle the MASSIVE job of re-doing all of the baseboards, casings, and crown moulding.  As we didn't take any time off from work to do this project, we ended up spending every evening and weekend working in our house together till 11 or 12 each night.  Doug was in charge of cutting and installing, I did all of the filling, sanding, and most of the painting.  Took us weeks... no... make that months.  Some of you may be wondering how our marriage has survived projects such as this, but we actually have a blast working together.  Those late nights were hilarious at times...  

To solve the picket fence dilemma-- we opted to install style and rail panelling to the bottom half of the room.  As we were finishing up the panelling in the room, we discovered that room would soon become a nursery.  We figured that the panelling would look great in a nursery, but decided to repaint the top half of the room a beautiful blue (the right blue can be gender neutral, eh?)  After spraying the the room and doing some repainting the picket fence was a thing of the past, and the room looked beautiful.  

To make the room more conducive to housing a small child, we decided to tackle yet another project in this room-- the closet!!  This room has the smallest closet in the house.  

Before shot of the closet

While babies have small clothes, they also come with lots of other stuff!  How I managed to store and organize all of Caleb's baby stuff in our tiny condo still remains a mystery-- actually, it was more of a miracle.  We didn't want to spend a lot of money on this project.  Actually, we didn't want to spend any money on it-- we're a little bit cheap at times (blame it on the Mennonite heritage:)  So, Doug creatively managed to find pretty much all of the materials needed to build custom closet shelving lying around in our garage.  We had ripped a few cupboards off of one wall in the kitchen, so Doug was able to re-use one of the tall pantry boxes for the closet.  After cutting it down a bit and making a few modifications he installed it in the closet along with a few more shelves he built out of scraps of material.  After a good paint job and some new closet rods-- project completed!  For less than 10 bucks (we had to pick up the parts for the closet rods) we put custom shelving in the closet.  Here's the finished project!!  Don't I have a wonderfully creative and handy husband?

So, that's the miraculous transformation of the nursery!  Keep in mind... this did not happen overnight.  All of the major grunt work happened last fall, while the organizing and decorating was finally finished recently.

If I had a few more dollars to my name, I may have made a few changes.  But in the end, creatively using what you already have and searching for good deals (and I mean REALLY good deals-- the as-is section in Ikea, MCC Thrift store finds, or clearance section in Home Sense kind of deals) is more fun in the end.  Once the baby arrives I'll make a few more adjustments depending on whether we have a boy or a girl.  But as of now, it's ready to go... 

When it's hot outside and you need some ice cream... where do you go?

White Rock... of course!  My second favorite thing about summers in BC is the fact that White Rock is just a short drive away.  My favorite thing is about BC summers is no bugs and mosquitos-- duh!

Here are some picture of our adventure.

Caleb was VERY excited to see the train go by... after briefly freaking out... he recovered and thoroughly enjoyed watching it go by.

My boys... And I thought Caleb was the king of making faces when I try to take pictures.  Like father like son :)

And the roles reverse.

A very exuberant "cheese!!!"

This one's a bit scary... but it cracked me up when I went through the pictures this afternoon (didn't know what we captured in our many self portraits)

And here we're all cooperating.

Poor Caleb... promised ice cream, but forced to wait while Mom takes off for yet another bathroom break.

Finally... what we've all been waiting for.

Baby's first trip to White Rock.  Doug wanted to make sure it was documented.

And finally... time to head home.

That's it!  Yet another post... I'm on a roll!

just 3 more weeks...

Oh how time sneaks up on you...  Went for the hospital tour today... No turning back now...

Celebrating Caleb's 3rd Birthday

Those of you who know Caleb will understand how important and exciting July 21st is at our house. Caleb absolutely LOVES birthdays. He sings Happy Birthday to anyone and everyone all year long-- at birthday parties, while we're driving in the car he'll create a birthday medley for everyone he knows, he'll sing to people he doesn't know, to his stuffed animals... it's a big deal. I woke up that morning to find Caleb staring at me... waiting for me to wake up-- "It's time to start my birthday Mommy".

First activity of the day-- Caleb and I went out for a birthday breakfast. When I was a little girl, my Dad would often take me out for breakfast on my birthday. Since breakfast is Caleb's favorite meal of the day, I figured we should carry on the tradition. So off to ABC we went!

Caleb's birthday smile...

Beginning to get impatient... come on Mom! It's time to get going!!

Finally... chocolate milk. It always saves the day.

Instead of colouring with the crayons... Caleb does something much more fun. Peeling the paper off of the crayons. It keeps him quiet and entertained for quite a long time as we wait for our food at restaurants. I fully support this activity :)

My breakfast is finally here! When I asked Caleb what he wanted to eat for breakfast, he said "Bacon". When I asked what else he wanted to eat... "Sausage". Am I surprised? Nope. If you read this post from last week you wouldn't be either. Caleb happily dug into his breakfast and enjoyed his processed meat.

Next stop-- shopping. Caleb needed to pick up a few little treat bag gifts for the kids attending his party, so we stopped by a dollar store. Not a easy task. Taking small children to dollar stores is quite stressful. There were way too things at Caleb's level that could be pulled off the shelf and then discarded on the floor. As I struggled to bend over and pick up the discarded items (not an easy task at the moment), Caleb was already running around the corner to start on the next aisle. We survived... the store survived... and we managed to make our purchases.

Caleb stopped by his favorite ride... the train. As we pulled into the parking lot of this particular shopping centre he made sure to remind me, "Don't forget your money Mommy... the train's in there."

After a little stop at the pet store (no pets were purchased-- just observed) we headed home for naps :) When Caleb awoke, it was time to hit the pool!!!

We spend many summer afternoons in our backyard pool. I'm loving the pool these days because it gives me a chance to cool off, and for hour each day... you don't feel pregnant as you float in the water! Caleb also loves the pool. After a liberal application of sunscream (aka sunscreen) he will happily swim the afternoon away until his "cheeks start chattering". Caleb always wants to play pretend games in the pool-- "I'll be a shark and you can be the alligator Mommy." or "I'll be the alligator and you can be the duck Mommy." Lately I've suggested that maybe I should be the whale. So now Caleb pretends to be a baby humpback whale who is lost searching for his Mommy (inspired by an episode of the Diego cartoon).

There are no pictures of me in the pool "pretending" to be a whale-- nor will there ever be.

Here's Caleb and Daddy enjoying the pool during the party.

Caleb and his buddy Isaiah floating in their "boats".

And finally the guests have all arrived... time for dinner! Caleb and Isaiah had their own kids table (as the one other child at at the party was only 3 months old... much too young to sit with the boys!)

Blowing out the candles! After many attempts, Mommy stepped in the help out.

Time to open presents! Caleb was quite spoiled this year-- he received lots of gifts a three year old boy would love-- puzzles, lego, a track for his cars, games... many things that will keep him occupied in the next few weeks!

All in all it was a fun filled day for our family! Caleb had a great birthday, and since the party I have enjoyed many quiet mornings as he is quite enthralled with all of his new toys and games.

One more thing... as I put this post together I noticed something quite remarkable. Caleb is wearing the same shirt in every picture-- can't remember the last time a shirt has survived the entire day on that kid. Maybe a sign of new 3 year old maturity?

We'll see :)

3 Years Ago...

My baby boy was born...

Happy Birthday Caleb! I love you...

Staying Cool

After many rain filled months, we're finally experiencing summer around here! My first official week at home was a warm one-- so we did what we could to stay cool. It began with the kiddy pool on the deck. Caleb enjoyed the water, while I enjoyed my new lounge chair.

Pretending to be cool while trying to stay cool :)

And we finally set up our fabulous above ground pool in the backyard. We had to wait a bit longer than normal to set it up-- as Doug's back wasn't up for lugging the pool out-- and let's face it, I wouldn't have been much help. Some of our friends took pity on us and came over to get the process started. It takes quite a while to fill up, but it was so hot that we ended up taking a break to have the first official pool party when it was just half full.

And... we had a day at the lake! Last Sunday we decided to head out to the lake to enjoy the warm weather with some friends. Caleb had quite a fabulous time-- he started the afternoon off with some lake swimming. He was quite brave-- I was not so brave (I stayed on the beach).

Warming up after a long swim.

When I told Caleb that we would be going to the lake, his first question was "will there be rocks that I can throw Mommy". Yes. There was. Typical boy behaviour.

Pregnant lady sitting on the beach which is actually a bit of a hill... trying to look and be comfortable.

Classic summer photo... kids enjoying watermelon. One word comes to mind-- sticky.

Caleb had fun hanging out with one of his new buddies. I discovered that trying to get a newborn and toddler to both look in the same direction for a photo is impossible. I shall continue to work on this in the upcoming months.

Who knew towels could have so many uses? Caleb's sporting his brand new hat.

So many different hats... so little time.

Well... there's another update for you all!

My Boys

As some of you may already know, Doug was off from work for a few weeks as he strained his back at work. He's back on the job now as his back is slowly starting to heal. While I was still at work however, Doug and Caleb would spend the days together and I would often come home to discover interesting things. I've come to realize that for some reason boys seem to do things a bit differently than us girls. (Did it really take me that long to figure it out?) Here are a few of my observations:

1. Bacon and breakfast sausage alone are in fact a complete meal. And the grease splattered all over the stove, counters, and floor? Totally not a big deal...

2. Contrary to popular belief, the best way to clean a toaster is not to take it outside and shake out the crumbs... nope, not even close. You take it down to your garage and blow the heck out of it with your air compressor. Any other way is simply inefficient and ineffective.

3. Hotdogs can be fully cooked in the microwave in just a few seconds... and then enjoyed by children young and old. Whenever I question this practice, I am always reminded that the package does say "All beef"... whatever that means.

4. What do you do when you have lots of free time on your hands? You take all the sharp blades and knives in your house out to be sharpened... of course.

5. Who needs a daytimer or calendar when you have the Fifa World Cup Soccer schedule tacked onto the fridge?

6. Swimming in the pool = bath time.

7. Kids clothing can do double duty. At bedtime, just rip off Caleb's shorts leaving just his T shirt.... instant pajamas.

8. And.... sometimes the way Daddy does things is just more fun. Caleb's still upset each morning when he realizes that Daddy has already left for work.

Now you may be thinking... what have I learned through this experience? Just gotta relax... and learn to enjoy processed meat.

Up until this point in my pregnancy, I haven't been too concerned with whether we have a boy or girl... now I'm starting to lean towards a girl... starting to feel a bit outnumbered :)

But WHY!!!

Caleb's been quite obsessed with "matching" (rhyming) words lately. It all started a few weeks ago when I sent Doug and Caleb out to get me a blizzard from Dairy Queen (half price blizzards = pregnant woman heaven). While they were waiting in the drive thru line, Caleb all of a sudden exclaimed: "Hey! Blizzard and Lizard! (which sounds more like wizard coming from him) They MATCH!" Ever since then, he wants to come up with matching words with me. Sometimes he gets a bit cheeky and asks me if two very unalike words match... and when I say the don't match, what does he ask? "But why?" Hundreds of times a day I struggle to answer that question-- if I don't provide an adequate answer I often have a frustrated 2 year old on my hands. So last night as we were driving Caleb asks, "House and dirty... do they match Mommy?" Nope, they don't match. But why? he asks. Struggling to find a decent response that will avoid him getting frustrated with me I finally say, "Caleb, those words don't sound the same and they are two different kinds of words-- one is a noun and the other is an adjective." The car is quiet. After a long moment of silence Caleb says, "That was a really good answer Mommy."

A Week of Lasts... (at least for now!)

Well, well, well... I must say I was quite surprised to discover that there are people out there who still faithfully check this blog for updates! Thanks for the comments everyone-- I shall try my best to not let this blog die!

This past week was a big one for our little family-- Caleb had his last day of daycare, and I had my last day of work and am now a lady of leisure on maternity leave! Let's just say that things are going to be quite a bit different around here now that we actually live at our house... not just keep our stuff here :)

Caleb was quite excited about his last day, because I promised that he could have a party at daycare. We've talked about it for weeks... on Caleb's last day, Mommy would come in the afternoon for a party, she would bring cupcakes (aka "pup"cakes in our house to those who are still learning to talk... Caleb... if you're wondering) for Caleb to enjoy with all of his friends, we would pack up his backpack, say goodbye to his teachers, and then he would stay home with Mommy everyday. Well, that day finally came! Doug was around that afternoon, so we both went to his daycare to surprise him. We snuck into the room while he was playing a game with the other kids-- when Caleb turned around and saw us he was SOOO excited!! He yelled, "Mommy... it's time for my party!!" and ran to give us huge bear hugs. The party went as planned-- although I decided to bring timbits in place of the cupcakes and iced caps for the adults (that's what happens when you're a working mom... baking = finding the nearest drive thru... with coffee). As can be imagined, the timbits were a smashing success-- 2 year old heaven. Caleb said goodbye to all of his friends and gave hugs to all of his teachers. I must say, I felt a little bit sad for him at the end when it was time to leave... he's been there for quite a while now and has had fabulous teachers. I could tell that he felt a bit of hesitation when it was time to say goodbye. But... Caleb is quite excited for this new chapter in his life... he's now a stay at home kid.

Timbit time...

Realization time... you mean I'm not coming back?

The next day was my last day of work. It was a good day-- but it felt so strange to pack up my office, clear out my inbox, quickly try to bring people up to speed on the last minute projects I had been working on... so different from the last time I went on maternity leave! My co-workers threw a great little farewell party for me... and gave me an awesome gift. When people have asked me what I plan to do with my time off before the baby arrives, I tell them that I plan to lie in my backyard on a fabulous chaise lounge chair and relax the day away!! A great plan... although I was still missing the lounge chair. Not for long! At the party, I was presented with a gift card to go out and purchase that all important lounge chair-- something I plan to do quickly in light of the upcoming week's forecast.

The best part of my last day occurred when I arrived home that afternoon. When I walked through the front door Caleb and Doug were waiting with a mini-party for me! As I walked through the door, Caleb yelled... "Mommy! You're all done work!" Then he pointed to the "party" and said "Ta Da!!" Doug felt that Caleb needed to learn about the importance of celebrating the accomplishments of others (not just his own) so they picked up timbits and ice caps for me, flowers, and a balloon-- as Caleb decided that it was something I would REALLY want (funny... I'm not the one playing with it). We had our little party, went out for dinner, and went to bed early :)

And now we relax! And play at the park! And wait for what's next... in just a few weeks things will be changing around here again!!

It's been almost a year...

I pulled up my blog today and realized that I haven't posted in almost a year... A YEAR!!! So to quickly recap... here's what the year has looked like in our household...

went to the island with my family where we decided that scooters are a great mode of transportation, Caleb discovers that Cars is his favorite movie and watches it twice daily, decided to apply for a new job, got a new job but kept the old one and took on another one for about 2 months (in case your not following-- did 3 jobs for 2 months... very fun), come home each night to a fabulous above ground pool in our backyard, Caleb becomes a good little swimmer, friends with a buddy for Caleb move into our house for a few weeks while they are between houses-- good times hanging out eating nachos in the evenings, friends move out, had surgery on my shoulder again, 1 week after surgery-- decided to renovate the main floor of our house, moved all of our belongings into the basement, started ripping apart the main floor during evenings and weekends, poor Caleb has to go to bed each night to the sound of demolition/saws/air compressors, a few weeks later, the main floor is finally bare and destroyed, cramped and tired in the basement, got pregnant :), started putting the main floor of our house back together, dishwasher uninstalled and sitting in the middle of the kitchen for 3 weeks, at work all day everyday then working on the house every evening to make it liveable before Christmas and before morning sickness begins, Christmas arrives, the house is livable, morning sickness arrives, leave for Sask for Christmas, Caleb has fun telling the family that he will be a big brother, back to work in January, morning sickness continues and extreme hunger begins, house may be livable but is still not finished, weekend house projects continue, I become less helpful in completing the projects, finally tell my bosses at work that I'm having a baby (the third associate director in our department to have a baby in a year... I get to be the last to announce... fun times), start getting fat, Olympic fever hits Vancouver, parents come to visit, siblings from Sask come to visit, go to John Mayer concert, go to Atlanta for a wedding, keep getting larger, extreme hunger continues, projects in the house continue, Caleb getting bigger and has the vocabulary of a 4 year old, still at work, moving slower, internal temp is rising while the temp outside decides to drop, still working, starting to waddle, house is looking better, baby room is looking cuter, 1.5 weeks of work left, and the sun is shining today...

Here's what we look like now...

Hopefully more posts will continue... in a more timely manner...

I should have more time to blog in the next year... right?