Feelin Ready to POP! POP! POP!

Ooooooooooooooooooohhhh the heat here in the Okanagan Valley is sickly crazy. Actually whoever thought it would be a good idea to get pregnant when we did is crazy.. :0) I feel so swollen and tight and fat and heavy and just all around ready to pop. I don't know how much more this belly can grow. Actually it scares me...eek. So far I have gained 35 lbs which in the end isn't really that bad since I did gain over 60lbs with Emily. I think if I could be anything for one day this summer I would turn myself into a slurpee machine. Oh how I love ice. I have a bit of a confession. I feel like such a bad mom cuz whenever the kids would ask me for cookies I would say they just had a snack or cut them up some fruit or something...but then I would turn around and shove half the box of cookies in my mouth. *sniff sniff*. How horrible. Oh and the guilt I feel for eating well now the entire box of cookies....I shared two of them but ohhhhh I ate the other 500. I have just discovered the wonderful technique of roasting my marshmallows on the bbq. I was craving it so bad that Justin plopped open the bbq and away I went. Anyhoo I could go on and on about food...haha no wonder the weight is creeping up. However I am on a HUGE watermelon craze that's healthy right. I sent my hubby out to pick me up a watermelon but the rate I'm going we almost need one for the family and one for the belly :0) Anyways here are some pictures of my big belly.

31 wks and Counting

Still pregnant is all I have to say....ahhhhhh with a little scream. You know something, I love being pregnant I really do. There are just so many quirks to enjoy and there are some not so enjoyable quirks also and I am just getting to the point where I feel done and I want my baby and I want my baby now. Well after we move and after I'm 35 weeks so i don't have to get shipped off. I just got out of the hopsital AGAIN!!!! I went in Wednesday night because I was having regular and painful contractions so I thought better be safe than sorry. When I went in the contractions just kept coming so they did the Fetal Fibronectin test which predicts preterm labour and that came back negative which is good but when your body continues with consistent contractions the test can have no relevance and labour can still progress. So my contractions stuck around and the doctors decided to keep me in for observation. Over the night I had some more contractions so they gave me medication to stop them...all that did was make me feel fluish. The next day my contractions were every couple minutes and painful so they gave me a different type of medication to stop the contractions and it did but also gave me pins and needles in my hands and feet. That felt awesome.....:0( So I had to stick around for yet another night. They decided to let me go home this morning on the condition that I come back in for fetal monitoring on the weekend due to a little heart rate drop after some contractions...nothing to worry about yet just to be on the safe side. And this is the best part.....I'm back on HOUSE ARREST....yikes, well I could be on complete bedrest again but that would be nasty the doctor said and probably put me right over the edge. So she's says she doesn't want to find me wandering around costco in Kelowna or anything silly. Which I do plan to behave somewhat. I will do major outings with my husband and a wheelchair and small outings like visiting Justin's mom at the nursing home and taking the kids to the library...but not running into Safeway for milk and the craving of the day...that will be back to Justin's duty. For the next few weeks anyways. We also have to get ready for our move so we've decided to hire a packer and I'm going to randomly or Justin will randomly price some things and put them on the front lawn for a mini yard sale....the kids are going through everything that they don't use anymore and are excited to make some extra money to buy something new for their new bedrooms and playroom. Whatever doesn't sell of course will just go on to Sally Anne. I am going to post some pictures soon...my belly is getting huge. It's fun cuz I can feel little feet push again my stomach and everytime the kids talk or Justin talks the baby responds with a boot. I better get doing my kick chart...I accidentally ate half a box of chocolate digestive cookies and a pancake...the baby is sure to be kicking away now. Stay tuned for some pics. I'll try and have them up by tonight!!

"Happy Anniversary....lalalalala la lalala"

One thing I didn't mention about the weekend is we spent it house hunting. Not to buy because the property cost out here are sick. So we were looking for something newer, modern, reasonable and something to rent better suited for our family. We found a nice big home in Naramata which in Saskatoon the distance is comparable driving from lakeview to silversprings. It doesn't feel like we actually leave Penticton. It's a small little hamlet stuck right in the middle of orchards. This house has small kitchenette and living room, two bedrooms and a bathroom, living room and laundry area on the main floor and upstairs it has a big oak kitchen, dining room, living room w/ gas fireplace, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, double car garage and central air and a gigantic grassy back yard. The house itself was built 8 years ago so it's still nice and new. We were up against 7 other families and ours was the lucky one picked. We're so excited. The news came last night on our actual anniversary date which was even cooler because we weren't supposed to find out until Tuesday night. This house is totally worth all the stresses that come with moving too. It's just so nice and it's right by the town school for Emily and closer to the beach than we are in Penticton we can actually just walk down to the beach from where our new house will be. We need to move before the baby comes which is soon. The baby is supposed to be here probably mid August when they remove my stitch so we gotta get packing. And the moving expenses is something we would like to make invisible but we prayed about this house a lot and asked for God to take it in his hands and if it was meant for us then by his will it will be done if not then to lead us in the proper direction or somewhere else. Well by God's will we got the house so I'm sure everything else he will help fall into place as well. Anyhoo I need some breakfast and I got tons of phone calls and planning to make not to mention the doctors appointments and Emily's reading program today. But here are two pictures of the outside of the house. We're going down this weekend to give the landlord the damage deposit and we'll take more pictures of what the inside will look like.
This is a side view of the front of the house of course 730 Wiseman Place in Naramata, BC This is a back view of the house. Right now the landlords are fixing the grass to make it green and deweeding it to get ready for our move in date. So we'll have a nice backyard. Unfortunately the people that rented it before would never water the lawn and that's what happens to unloved grass.

This is the big backyard.....again it doesn' t look that appealing right now. The landlord just hired someone to go in this week and start tending to the grass. At the very back is a fire pit...ooooohh roasted marshmallows. Along the fence are fruit trees. The landlord said anything that hangs on our side we can pick...especially because they used to be his fruit trees but the tenants of the place didn't like the fruit and never watered the trees so he dug them up and gave them to the neighbours...but they are kind with the fruit and share....oh yum yum.

Well there you have it.. I'll post the pics of the inside this weekend. Keep us in your prayers for everything to fall into place for the move and especially that the baby decides to wait to come out until after we move. Emily is so excited about moving she cried. Carter well his health is getting bad again, his acid reflux has flared up so if you could pray for that as well. Thank you thank you. Our move date is August 1st only a couple weeks away.

Remembering "I do"

Since our 1st wedding anniversary falls on a Monday we decided to celebrate tonight. Justin planned a wonderful fun and romantic evening. Oooooh was I impressed. He started the night off by bringing me a beautiful bouquet or ivory green roses and a card and had dinner reservations at Casa Ouseria. After a scrumptious unique greek/itatlian dinner we went on to the penmar to watch Click. It was awesome, funny and sad. See Justin and I have been together for almost 6 years and in those six years we went to 1 theatre flick and that was when the Notebook came out...any other movie theatre excursion was with friends or kids. After the movie we went to Timmy's for a beverage to take to the beach and sat cuddling by the glassy water and watched the sun go down. It was so nice to be able to spend some quality time together. It's funny how we get so wrapped up in everyday life and activities with the kids that we forget to treat ourselves to little dates. Being alone with Justin tonight reminded me of all the reasons why I married him. We always have fun together and tonight we just had a blast. I love this man with all my heart and every day I discover a new piece of him and my love just keeps expanding. Every time I looked at him tonight which was "ALOT" even at the movie theatre, (I think I watched him more than the movie), I just kept thinking..."wow am I lucky...thank you God for this man". Every up and down we have makes us more complete as a couple and strengthens our love. I absolutely love this thing called "Marriage"....and Justin Thank you for loving me so much. You truly are my "forever".

Farmer John's Adventure

Here we are during our family adventure on Canada Day. We found this neat place in Keremeos which is just outside of Penticton about a 30 min drive. It was absolutely gorgeous. We were deeper in the valley than we are normally and the orchards and the way the farm was set up it was really pretty. It was a super hot day and walking around the farm would have probably ended me up giving birth so the owners hooked up an apple cart to a golf cart and let us drive around the farm. That was super cool of them, however I was so worried for the first 15 minutes of driving that I was either going to hit something or tip my family out of the apple cart. The petting zoo was a great idea for the kids. The place just opened this summer and for 5 bucks a person and a golf cart and freezies afterwards it was so worth putting up with the heat for 2 hours. The kids were given a bag of bread to feed all the animals and I'm not sure who had more fun doing it...Justin or the kids. He made better friends with the llama's and donkey and Emily was hooked on pretty much everything from the bunnies to the ponies and Carter well he just kept asking me how the motor was doing on the golf cart and trying to sneak in to drive it.

After we left the petting zoo we headed straight for home to lay down for awhile. Then we packed up again and headed back to Okanagan Lake for a dip in the water. I finally bought a bathingsuit so I was able to sit in the water a little....oh did it feel nice. Then after a few hours at the beach we headed back for home for another rest until it was time for fireworks.

The fireworks out here are something else. They are pretty amazing. We sat down by the lakes edge and it looked like the fireworks were going to fall right on us half the time...and then crack..bang...boom it was soooooooooooo LOUD. It sounded like there was a war going on around us because of the echo of the fireworks through the mountain valley. Carter finally got too scared so Justin had to take him back to the car and Emily she was just in aww until a big crack and went off and she went flying backwards on her tooshy. When the fireworks were finished it wasn't a zoo to get out of parking or the downtown area either which was nice. People just sat all over the town to watch them...and in all reality we could have just walked to the corner by our house where there is a ravine and watched them from there but we decided to get right upfront and personal.... GOOD TIMES.

Anyways it's breakfast around here so I better go munch.