Monday, January 30, 2012

Relaxing

The Dad was out of town all weekend. The mom tried to make the weekend fun and exciting (which has NOTHING to do with the fact that the 4 year old told the Mom that "Dad is more fun", nope, not at all related). The Mom may have finally reached her exhaustion point (she is pregnant you know), and very nicely asked the kids to quietly watch a movie on the computer while she relaxed. And they did. It was nice.






Sunday, January 29, 2012

31 (point 5) Weeks

So, this pregnancy is quickly nearing it's end. YIKES!! I'm so not ready for a Baby. Like NOT at all. We have NO idea what we're thinking of with names (probably because we have no idea what whether there's a mini-Meagan or mini-Ben cooking). I'm not 100% where the baby girl clothes are hiding in this house, and I'm 100% sure there are NO baby boy clothes hiding in this house. Paige is still happily occupying the crib...and if this baby comes out needing a diaper size smaller than a 5 (Paige's night time diaper size of choice), then we're in trouble too.

Anyway, I'm not too worried, because I've got two months to think about this stuff. And even if I don't get around to it, what harm can it do? I'm sure we can stop by the store and grab a few diapers in the right size. I'm sure Ben can dig out some baby girl clothes....or if it comes down to it, someone can go to the store and get me a blue sleeper (or ten). The baby probably won't even sleep in it's crib for a few months anyway. And I'm sure Paige has a soother or two she can spare. So now that I think about it, I'm totally READY!!


Except that I'm not at all.

Anyway, here's my BELLY at 31.5 weeks! It's getting B-I-G! And not a single person hesitates to tell me so.







Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Fresh Air

We finally got some fresh air this last weekend! We've had a VERY mild winter followed by some brutally cold weather...the kind of weather that has you crawling inside your burning fireplace and setting up base until the world returns to normal. I know I live in Canada, so some cold weather can be expected...but it was so nice when the cold spell broke and we were able to venture out into the real world again. Breathing real air was such a treat for my deprived lungs. Eating snow was even more of a treat for my deprived children.

To celebrate we got together with Ben's Family for a day of ice fishing. It was CHILLY but so much FUN!! I kinda LOVE living up here...

All Bundled up sitting inside the ice fishing hut...it was dreamy and warm in there


Ben and I...we LOVE each other


Ooooh...someone is 30 weeks pregnant, and looks every week of it!


Sisters vs Sister in laws...can you tell who's who? Our hats are a good indication!


Silly Hailey and some of her cousins...in the sled waiting to get pulled around


It looks like we're having fun right?


So pretty....so fun


Paige...of course... fell asleep in my arms, and then I...of course...transferred her to Ben's


It was such a FUN day and we hope to do it again!

p.s. I have opinions on stuff...did you know that? One tiny little thought I had during the week of cold - when EVERYONE who grew up here was complaining about how cold it is - is that THIS is what we signed up for!!! This is NOT the first time in my life that the weather has dipped to minus 30 (C) PLUS windchill...and it definitely won't be the last! So why were so many people so surprised?? This is what life here is like! It gets a little cold from time to time. But life here also comes with so many benefits...such as: Family, Friends, Great Church community, beautiful LONG summer days, Sunny Sunny winters, and those miraculous, magical things called Chinooks that melt EVERYTHING in site allowing us to handle just one more week of winter (or maybe one more month...or two)







Monday, January 23, 2012

A LOT of nothing

We've been up to a LOT of NOTHING, and that's just fine with me. I was VERY busy before Christmas, and life has seemed to slow down significantly since then. I'm just loving every extra minute I get to spend with these crazy Munchkins of mine. I'm also enjoying watching them play together. My closest siblings growing up were 4 and 5 years away from me, and although I LOVED playing with them I've never experienced a sibling close in age. So it's kind of interesting to see what kind of bond two years apart creates.

It apparently creates some weird-lings...


But it also brings out extreme levels of concentration when doing crafts together...

Maybe a little paranoia that some one's stealing her mom time?

And it also brings out some cute angelic profiles when there's a little quiet (and finally ALONE) time to be had...

But mostly, having these two little girls has brought on a LOT of adorable little cuddles like these..


They've created quite the little club...and I'm not sure if anyone else can even try to join. We'll just have to see what happens when we throw a third kidlet into the mix. If it's a girl, will she gain access to this exclusive club? Or if it's a boy....will he even care??





Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Favourite Activities

I've been pretty beat up these last few weeks...cold/cough/stomach flu etc. I even spent a few late night hours in Urgent care here in town getting Fluids through IV to treat my dehydration. I'm getting pretty wiped out and as a result my girls are getting GREAT at playing on their own...which is good training for when the baby does come. We play lots of games that involve Mom hanging out on the couch doing nothing. One of our favourites is painting. Santa brought them a paint easel for Christmas (along with every accessory imaginable) and therefor we've been creating a LOT of masterpieces around here. The girls LOVE it and I love that my only involvement is opening paint bottles and squirting it onto their plates (along with singing praises to them and their beautiful artwork). Hailey usually paints pictures of people following the star to find Baby Jesus, and Paige just paints lots of fireworks. Totally indicative of their personalities.






Saturday, January 07, 2012

Our 2011 Video

I LOVE putting together our yearly family video. It's just so neat to see all our memories and pictures in one place. Most of these pictures have already been used on the blog, so none of it's really 'new' but it's fun to see how much we've done all year.







Untitled from Meagan McCance on Vimeo.



Another thing I REALLY love about making these videos is the music! Music is sort of a passion of mine. I LOVE finding music that's new, cool and maybe not super common. I also love popular music and oldies and every sort of music you could possible imagine. My rule is that the song has to move me to sing or dance along.

Both the songs in this video bring certain feelings to mind when I hear them. I heard the first song on this video months ago on a commercial and fell in LOVE instantly. The starting lyrics "Ah yes this is powerful stuff" reminds me how powerful and undeniable the love is that I have for my family. It's so powerful that I know I could never 'give this up'. I had to think long and hard about what the artist meant when he wrote this song...and I'm pretty sure he was talking about LOVE and all those sorts of GREAT things! Right? At least that's what I think of when I hear the song. The second song also means a lot to me. Since I'm not a big fan of change...and although I'm VERY excited for this new baby in our family, I'm also very anxious. This song just reminds me that even though things will change when the baby comes...we'll still just be our family! Nothing can get in the way of that kind of LOVE!




Friday, January 06, 2012

28 Weeks

So I'm officially third trimester. Which means I've got to start thinking about this pregnancy ending soon. I'm getting a bit scared! I know how much work a newborn is and how little sleep I'll be getting. I LOVE to sleep and regularly get 9+ hours a night. So it's going to be a hard adjustment for me. BUT...this isn't the first time I've done this! So if I got through the sleepless nights twice before, I can do it again!

I'm also a bit sad to not have Paige as my baby anymore. She is so much a baby to me. I still cuddle her and rock her like she's a newborn. She's just so sweet and I don't want to disturb her perfect life in anyway. I'm not worried about Hailey at all...poor girl! But I know that she'll be fine! She's done this before.

Even with all my worries I'm still so excited to meet this baby and fall in love. I KNOW it'll be just as great and rewarding as my other babies were. And I know that Paige will be fine...especially with Hailey there to play with. We're going to have some good times!

But I still have about 12 weeks until I really need to start thinking about these things. Until then I can just focus on getting all the sleep I can. Maybe try to eat less junk. And mostly just LOVE on these two perfect girls I've got right now!



Tuesday, January 03, 2012

The Christmas Post

These last two weeks have been divine! Seriously, I have loved every single second of this Holiday season. My favourite part of it all was having Ben home ALL week! Life was getting just a bit 'out of control busy' so it was nice to see him regularly and to not have any other commitments/responsibilities. I slept a LOT this last week. A LOT. Our kids figured out that their parents were exhausted and let us sleep in every single day (i.e. 10:00am). I'm honestly not sure if I could ask for more.

We spent Christmas eve with my entire family (which is something we haven't done in years). Christmas morning was at my home (Sarah, Nick and my parents spent the night and Santa got the message). We opened stockings and then all headed off to church. After church Sarah and Nick disappeared to his family's Celebration, and my parents came back to our house to open gifts. It was so NICE and so LAID BACK. I LOVED it!! Then Jeff and Yuka and Alisa came over for Christmas dinner with my parents and us. That was also so nice and so laid back.

We got together with Ben's family a few days later for a gift exchange (and of course I forgot my camera...so I'll need to borrow some from someone else). Santa came to visit us. The girls were mesmerized! They've been lucky this year and have gotten a few surprise visits from Santa. Lucky Lucky girls!

Then we got together with my WHOLE family again so the cousins could exchange gifts. We had a TON of fun...I was sick though (what's new?). My camera didn't make an appearance here either.

Then in New Years eve we got together with my cousins on my Dad's side. It was a sweet day. We ate delicious food, played games ALL day long, went swimming at the hotel, and played some more games. It was a GREAT New Years Eve!

It was just so nice to be with family so much this Holiday.

It was also so nice to have no plans in between all these family gatherings...my poor pregnant body needed some serious down time. And that's what I got! I feel so regenerated and ready to go! (maybe that's just the iron pills I'm taking to deal with the Anemia I was FINALLY diagnosed with). Whatever it is, I'm feeling so much healthier...and a million times less tired!

Now onto 2012! This is going to be a GREAT year!

And the pics:

A nativity reenactment...The Angle giving Mary the news of Baby Jesus


Something clearly had this Angel Embarrassed...she still delivered the message to the Shepherd and his lamb

The whole crew, Mary, Jesus, Joseph, Angel, sheep, shepherd, wisemen. Cute kids hey?

A "masterpiece" painted on a gift from Santa

Opening Presents with G-ma and G-pa

Daddy got some presents too

Oh and we can't forget G-ma

Or G-pa (and his fancy transformers wrapping paper)

The girls gave each other gifts...and hugs

And I got hugs from them too! Nothing better than that!