Canada Day and Other Stories

Canada Day was a really fun day! At first I was a little bummed to find out that Marko had to work for the morning but, once we got a plan together it really went well. We went with Marko out to his office, dropped him off and then headed off to King's Castle Provincial Park. The kids had a hoot running from one thing to another. There was so much to do, Sean hardly knew where to begin. Poor Emma-Lyn got eaten up by the flies but that didn't stop her from having a great time!

After that we picked up Auntie Bernie and headed to Cardigan for the Canada Parade. Sean was ecstatic! We realized that our kids are definietly parade rookies. When I showed Sean the piece of candy that was thrown to him, he picked it up and promptly threw it back!! Too funny! Emma-Lyn also enjoyed the parade and the free freezies! We dropped Auntie Bernie back at her place then picked up Daddy to go have lunch at Gillis'. It was sooo yummy!

We trucked back into Charlottetown for the BBQ at Mike and Nancy's. The kids had a great time playing in the yard and with our friends Kevin and Stephanie! The kids slept soundly that night!!

Yesterday I had another dr's appointment and all went well! :) Oh, and now since all the folks know we've decided to let the whole world know (or at least those parts of it that are interested) that we are having a.....BOY!! :) Apparently quite a few people were guessing that was what we were having.

Marko' mom came home last night and Sean has been so delighted to have her home! :) Sean was so cute last night. He enjoys praying at bedtime and last night he prayed that God would have a happy Father's day...okay so the timing is a bit off..but how cute is that? Emma-Lyn was also cute the other morning...she found the toilet paper and tore a wee bit off and proceeded to attempt to wipe her diaper covered bum...after which she managed to lodge a bit up there and wandered around with her new "tail" Too funny!

Tomorrow we're off to the mainland. My grandmother ( we called her Beppe...Friesan for grandmother) passed away on Tuesday and the visitation is tomorrow. Marko and I are going over and Grammy is going to look after the kiddos while we are away. We're going to stay overnight and do what we can to help out. Beppe would have been 92 in October. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and visiting with friends of Beppe's.


Fun on the merry-go-round at King's Castle.

Sean at the top of the tower.

Swinging Emma-Lynny.

Sean watching the parade. He stood throughout the whole thing, waving his flag and having a ball.

And Sean's favourite part of the parade!! :)

I Think I've Finally Recovered From the Weekend..

It was such a great time! I went to a Ladies Retreat for the whole weekend at Emmanuel Bible Camp. It was spectacular. Jennie, Jana and I got a director's cabin, which meant that we had our own bathroom! Yay! The teaching was amazing and the fellowship was fantastic! I had so much fun getting to more ladies from my church and from other ones across the Maritimes! I tried to learn a new card game and failed miserably at it but it was still a lot of fun. Jennie, Natalie and I went canoeing together which we thought might be a bit disastarous but we did great! It was a lot of fun. Then we tried out the paddle boats and I managed to get my butt soaked! But again still a lot of fun. I laughed and talked and just had a great time. Oh, and we were in a skit! It was hilarious! So many wonderful memories. I can't wait for the next retreat!!

Marko and the kids survived quite handily but Marko would still like to know who's big idea it was to have the Ladies Retreat on Father's Day weekend!! :)




This is the view of the main lodge, where we had our meals and meetings.

Jennie all set to tackle the paddle boats...would you believe we had more problems working out these boats than the canoe?!!

Oh, and another fun activity was decorating our table...Our group decided to go all creative and make a model of the camp itself on the table!!


And this is Jana and I enjoying the chocolates they left in our beds!! Other more normal people would eat them...we on the other hand, decided to stick 'em in our eyeballs instead! Good times!!

Okay, So Now We Have A New Official Due Date..

And it is October 24!! That being said the doctor that saw us yesterday informed us that babies can come 2 weeks early or 2 weeks late and that really we're due anytime in October...How helpful!! :) It was a good appointment, although we didn't get a good look at the little critter's face. The baby was lying on their stomach at the time.

We've really been blessed with some lovely weather lately!! Soooo warm and sunny! The kids have loved spending so much time outside and playing in their little pool. Today even Emma-Lyn walked down to the park...she's such a little trooper!

This weekend I'm really looking forward to the Ladies Retreat that my church is hosting! My friends Jennie and Natalie are coming too! Hopefully I can find someone to babysit for couple hours so we can get to the camp in good time! And then the weekend after that we're hoping to take the kids to the Moncton Zoo. I think Sean will really enjoying seeing all the animals up close! We're meeting my friend Mary and her family there for a visit. They're home from England for the month and this was our best opportunity to get together. I'm really looking forward to that too! :) And then of course we'll be super excited to have Grammie Peric back on the Island in July!! And then at some point we might even get a wee visit from some of my relatives from Holland! I'm really excited about that too!

And I just thought I'd end with a few pictures I took when Jennie and I went for a wonderful walk on the beach. It was so nice to walk on the sand and breathe in the salty sea air.

Kiddie Pool Fun!!

With all the warm weather it was finally time to pull out the ol' kiddie pool and let the kiddos have at it. They sure had a blast! Emma-Lyn wasn't quite sure what to make of it all and spent much more time running around with a towel on her head...Good times...apparently for a 1 and a half year old!

We've had a pretty relaxing weekend. Had some friends in on Friday night and then Saturday we did our usual running around doing groceries and such. The surprise for me was when Marko was able to snag some babysitting for Saturday night and then all of a sudden there we were on a date!!! I was sooo excited! And for our date he took me shopping to OldNavy and bought me a really sweet outfit! Then we went to Rum Runners for the best Nachos in town! Soooo yummy! I have to send out a big old thank you to Nancy C. who broke up her boredom and came over to our place to babysit for us! It was such an unexpected ending to a wonderful day!

And today we went to church and in the afternoon we went to our favourite park and let the kids run wild! They had a blast. Sean actually managed to make his way up the climbing wall and back down the other side! He was sooo pleased with himself. Needless to say Marko and I were more than impressed ourselves!



Where is Emma-Lynny?! Oh, just playing ghosties under the beach towel.


What a cutie pie!!

Hmmmmm, I wonder what Sean is thinking...Look out Emma-Lyn!

Having a splashing good time!

Such a smart looking lad!!

Loving the Warm Weather...

Finally we are getting some super nice sunny days here on the Island. The kids and I are outside a lot! They love playing on their toys in the front yard and then going around back to play on the swing set. Emma-Lyn loves Sharon's flowers. She'll walk over to a tulip and bend right over to get her nose in it and take a big whiff. So cute...then today she was inspecting some of the dandelions...some of the white kind of dandelions. And instead of leaning over to smell it, she leaned over and attempted to eat it!! Mmmm, yummmmy dandelion fluff! Needless to say she wasn't all that impressed with the taste and spit it all out.

I had a great and amazingly quick appointment with my OBGYN today. Normally I wait for what seems like hours but today I was in and out in no time! It was great and everything seems to be going well with baby #3. We have our next appointment at the IWK for our follow up ultrasound on the 16th of this month.

I guess other than that, not much else is new here. :) Hope you all have a great weekend :)

Just a Bit of This and A Bit of That

Things here are staying fairly busy. We've finally been getting some nice weather so going to the park has been fun. The kids and I even made a trek all the way up to the mall and back. Sean walked the entire way himself and didn't complain at all. I was so proud of him! He slept like a rock that night.

Had a really great tool moment not that long ago. The day seemed to get off on the right foot but about by the mid point you could tell that things were quickly unraveling. I went into Sean's room only to discover that he had gotten in touch with his artistic side and coloured all kinds of lovely designs in black crayon all over his closet doors. Joy... Then Emma-Lyn grabs the box of baking soda I was using to help clean off the decorations and proceeds to dump the entire contents on the kitchen floor. And the moment that was the icing on top of this cake of a day: When I sat down in the tub with my book and my drink...okay so that part wasn't too amazing but as I gazed around the bathroom I said out loud to no one in particular, that I really should give the bathroom a good cleaning soon. And would you believe that mere seconds later the shower curtain rod fell and smashed my glass into many, many teeny tiny pieces...Some fell into the tub with me and others managed to slip behind the toilet...Great! I was never so pleased to fall into bed as I was that night! :)

Our latest adventure has been with Emma-Lyn. Yesterday she was unusually cranky and it didn't occur to me to check her temp until close to bedtime, poor little thing had a fever. We gave her some Tylenol and sent her to bed. Well this morning she woke up early with a temp of 102! We were more than a little shocked at that but we gave her a bit more Tylenol and put her back down to sleep. At 8 we checked her temp again and it was still hovering above 100, so off to the doctor's we went. Thankfully Jennie was free and able to take us over there. Turns out baby girl has a swollen throat and an infected tonsil. She had a rough day today and was fairly clingy but by supper time (after her first dose of prescribed meds) she was almost back to her happy go lucky little self.

Sean was funny tonight. He insists these days to brush his teeth himself...that means he does it and you are not to be anywhere's near the bathroom. Which is fine he's a fairly proficeint little brusher so off I went to the kitchen to get his glass of water. And as I was heading over to his room I heard him praying in the bathroom. He was praying that God would take care of his little sister...how cute is that. What I loved was how he talked to God, "And God, you take care of Emma-Lyn, okay?!." Just like he was having a little chat with a friend.

Emma-Lyn learning how to go down the slide by herself. She still thinks that she should be able to just walk down the slide.

Happy girl.

I love this pic! I mean, could she stick that lower lip out any further?!! :)

If Only We Could Count...

Our trip to Halifax went really well. Marko was a little nervous about getting lost since he's never been to Halifax but he did great!! We even managed to make a stop for his work without messing up! We were so pleased with ourselves. We got in town in time to stop at Subway for lunch and then head over to the IWK for our appointment.

The IWK is a very, very large hospital. It has a Children's section and a Women's section. We had a little map to get us through the parkade and into the women's section. We thought we were in the right place and jumped onto the first elevator we found to the 7th floor...And that's when we realized we were definetly in the wrong place. Thankfully the nurses are very friendly and understanding and directed us to the correct elevators and off we went. Up we went again only to realize that we were supposed to go through admitting first to get our IWK card. Down we go again to get the card and then up, up, up again! Just as we made it back to wait in the crowded reception area a doctor had come in to find us and off we went again to a case room...only to find that it was already occupied. So we were left in the hallway while they searched for another room. They ended up having to use a records room to talk with us. They discussed everything with us and that there would be an ultrasound first to see if anything popped up and then we had the option of having an amniocentisis done.

The ultrasound went very well, it was great to see our little baby for the first time! The tech said that everything looked great but that the baby was a little small for the projected due date. She asked if we were quite sure of our previous dates and we definetly we'ren't one hundred percent about this but thought it was a pretty good estimate. The doctor came in and she felt that we were most likely off on our dates and that everything else looked great with the baby except for the size. With that information we opted out of having the amniocentisis done but we do have to go back to the IWK in three weeks or so for a follow up ultrasound to make sure that the baby is growing properly.

After our ultrasound we had to make a mad dash for the blood collection lab in the basement of the hospital to redo the maternal serum screening. We got there just in time but also realized that we had forgotten to leave our appointment card with the receptionist back on the 7th floor. Marko decided to take care of that while I had my blood drawn. It didn't take them any time at all to take my blood so I left the lab and thought my best bet was to wait at the elevators for Marko. We're not sure how we managed it but somehow Marko got past me and to the lab again. Thankfully the lab isn't far from the elevators so I heard him talking and we managed to make our way back to the car without getting any more mixed up!!

We met up with my friend Sarah at Kempster's Cookhouse for supper. It was a lovely visit and a very tasty supper. We decided at this time that we would take the 9:30 boat back to the Island which would give us just enough time to stop in to see my folks. Another lovely visit! It was short but so nice to see them! They even sent us home with some yummy goodies!!

The drive home went very well and we were very happy to be home again! Jennie had a great day with the kids. It was such a comfort to us to know that the kids were so well looked after. We don't know what we'd do without Jennie!! Thanks so much Jen! :)

So yeah, I guess if we had gotten our counting done right the first time we wouldn't have had to make the long trip to Halifax. That said, it was a really great trip. We got to see the baby and got two free ultrasound pictures of them and we visited with friends and family!

So are you wondering whether it's a boy or a girl? Well, Marko would like to keep it a secret yet so I guess ya'll will have to wait to find out a little longer...;)