Lately

My goodness. I promise I have the best of intentions! I had a Thankful Thursday note written in my phone with some of the things I wanted to note this week, and then time got away and it's suddenly Sunday again! This has been the busiest week of the year for me, and next week will be busy too. On November 5 we had our annual Complete Champions Reception which was a 12 hour work day for me. A normal work week right now (on maternity leave) is 5-6 hours of work. This last week was 31 hours... Ya... I'm toast!

So I have to share this first, because I love them... I got the kids' school pictures! Last year Dom looked very nervous, but cute in his. This year he looks mischievous. I didn't have high expectations for Emilia thinking she'd be quite shy and nervous, but we practiced a nice smile before school that day. She did not disappoint. Now if you ask her to do her "preschool smile" she will hit you with this beauty haha!

Dom's from last year <3

Anyway, last weekend, was the $1 sale at church. I had a few good scores, including winter boots and a nice winter jacket for Emilia. $1 each! 

Your Story Coffee had a booth set up in the church, and every drink was just $2. The church covered the rest of the cost. Genius!

I threw the jacket in the wash after this and it came out looking brand new!

Oh hello Phoebe Renee! <3

Then of course we had Halloween, which was awesome, but I already blogged about that. Halloween was an absolutely gorgeous day though. Exactly what you'd want for setting up your yard or going trick or treating. That's 5 years straight we've had beautiful weather on Halloween! Go Vancouver!

Seriously - so gorgeous!

The day after Halloween everyone had a bit of a candy (or in my case, people and beer) hangover, so it was a chill day at home. Kids watched a movie, Dave cleaned up all his Halloween stuff, I survived. Good times. In fact, most of the week was sort of survival mode. Here's some pics of the kids throughout the week.

She had a rough day last Wednesday, and seems to be entering into that phase of "Please don't leave me, Mommy!" I think I have some PTSD from when Emilia hit that. It lasted 10 months (or so) and she literally would scream any time I wasn't holding her. She wouldn't even go to Dave for a while. It was beyond exhausting. For Eva it seems to have mostly been a couple days where she was super cranky. Incidentally those were also my busiest work days, so maybe it had something to do with that. Let's hope she doesn't develop as much separation anxiety as her big sister did!

Gulp. Be cool Renee. Be cool. I'm so grateful we reorganized their room, because cleaning this up takes less than 5 minutes. Everything has its own spot! Whew!

Almost exclusively bottle fed now. I breastfeed 1-2 times per day. If I do twice, I have to top her up for one or both of them. My body weans itself, so don't come to me for advice on weaning from the boob!

When Emilia was this age I feel like I finally started making memories of her. I remember her in this vest so vividly. Love that I'm getting to reuse some of these clothes!

Emilia tried to fight her quiet time, "I'm not going to sleep!" I said, "Okay. here are some toys," and gave her a basket of Paw Patrol. I guess she set them up to watch her sleep haha.

She's changed a lot this week. Starting to play little back and forth games. She's started wrinkling her nose and huffing like this, clicking her tongue, and doing other random repetitive things she thinks are funny games.

Crepes at Opa and Oma's yesterday for brunch! The girls really acknowledged each other this time. Lots of smiles, and Phoebe footsy-ing Eva. I feel like Phoebe looks a lot like baby Scott in this picture

Another "Be cool, Renee. Be Cool." moment. Gave her a mango pit, cottage cheese, meatballs and eggs and let her go for it. 

Notice her hair

I don't know how this doesn't stress people out.

Luckily Dave cleaned up after dinner and I could bring her straight to the bath to hose her off. At least she had fun! Haha

Eva kept scooting around on her butt in the tub trying to get closer to Emilia, and then would just stroke her arm, or try to steal her beautiful hair, eyes and teeth. (That's what I told Emilia at least as Eva's poking and prodding was annoying her).

And today we FINALLY got Dom into his booster seat! We could hardly get his car seat buckled up anymore. It was a real feat. We have a booster in both the van and the car, and managed to fit 3 across in the van still. Thankful for that!

I don't have any picture proof, but another thing I'm so thankful for this week is that we had TWO meals delivered to us! Rhonda from church called one day to check in on us, see how we're doing, and asked if there was anything we needed. Initially I said no, but thanks. Then I very reluctantly asked if someone would be able to bring us a meal last week since I was drowning in work on top of regular busy life. She brought over an alfredo casserole the next evening, and Emilia had three helpings of it! It provided enough for leftovers too! 
The next day, Natalia also out of the blue offered to bring us a meal, and we cooked that up last night and will have leftovers tonight again too! Having these meals has just given me a chance to catch my breath and I'm so grateful! It gives me an extra hour or more of my day, not having to stand in the kitchen making dinner. 

I like cooking when I have time, but when I'm pressed for time or don't have a plan, feeding people is the bane of my existence. 

This week we had the strangest weather. One day we had intense rain storms, followed by beautiful sunshine, and then a double rainbow on one side, and moody sunset on the other. 

Then yesterday there was a TORNADO out by the airport/UBC. WHAT?! I will just not tell Dom about that one. (He gets nervous about natural disasters like floods, fires, big storms, etc. I remember being like that as a kid too, and my parents assured me that tornadoes don't happen here). 

It was so vibrant. I stared at it for the whole 20+ minutes it was visible. I can't recall ever seeing such a huge, bright double rainbow

And then this moody orange sunset! So strange. 

Alright. Then on Friday was the day of the Complete Champions Reception. Everything went really well and smoothly. We had one embarrassing technical glitch which resulted in hundreds of people seeing my desktop background for a few seconds on the projector and livestream, but that's okay. At least it was just a cute picture of Dom and Emilia. 

Our fundraising goal was $650,000. Our record is $562,000. We have raised over $800,000!!! I'm excited to go in next week and get a more final tally, as donations are still rolling in! Amazing to see our hard work literally pay off like that!

My post for the evening. (No those wines aren't both mine)

Was sent home with two nice bottles of wine. Perks of the job :)

Last night Jesse and Kirsten came over for a game of crib wars and we ended up hanging out past 10. Also past my bedtime, but it was worth it haha. 

Today we're having a relaxed day at home. Getting some stuff done around the house, got some groceries for the week, walked the dog, vacuumed, ordered a Christmas tree... It's gutting me to get a fake tree. Honestly. I feel like it's probably better for the environment and our pocket book (assuming it lasts many years). It should... It's a $600 tree. We got it on sale, but as far as fake trees go, it's the most realistic looking one I could find and will also likely fit all my ornaments. It's still more than I wanted to spend, but when real trees ring us $100 each time, it'll pay itself off pretty quick. Dave's lucky it won't come til November 23rd though... Or else I'd be setting it up next weekend! He gets his Halloween. I get Christmas :)

This week is going to busy, but a much less stressful kind of busy, and more celebratory kind. On Wednesday I work, then have a celebratory work lunch for our event, and then Gramma & Grandpa are bringing dinner over for the kids so Dave and I can go out for our anniversary! 9 years!! Wild.