Phillips

Grace's birth story:

2011-09-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the birth story and update of our little Grace.

I had moved into the city and was staying with our friends Leah and Ryan (note: Grace's middle name is named after Leah) because Liam’s labour had been so quick and they didn’t want me to deliver in Bonnyville. Well it was a good thing I was in the city because this labor was quick! My contractions started around 1:50 in the morning and were already 1 minute a part. I had no slow start into labour. It just hit, and hit hard. I woke up Leah saying that we should probably head in because they lived a good drive from the hospital, and called Josh who was in Bonnyville, 3 HOURS AWAY!, telling him to get his butt in the car and drive. Leah and I hopped in the truck, and drove to the hospital running through most red lights and counting and breathing through the contractions. They were already unbearable even though they had just started. I am so thankful Leah was there for me in this whole experience. She was amazing. I would definitely say our relationship has deepened from this experience…she has definitely seen me at my worst :)

When we got to the hospital we were a little discouraged by the staff at first cause they didn’t seem to have any records of my pre-natal appointments and it was frustrating having to tell them things that we assumed they would already know. Not an easy thing to be explaining the last 3 months of your pregnancy while you can barely breathe. Again, Leah was so great and made sure what I had told her in the past weeks was being asked or done. When they realized how quickly my contractions were coming they put me in a room and measured me but I was only 4 cm. I was so upset because I was in so much pain and was hoping to be closer. They measured me probably around 2:40 but by 3:00 I felt like I had to push. So they measured me again and realized I was already fully dilated! They had stuck me a few times to get an IV in my hand but had no time to give me anything because I was ready to push. My water hadn’t broken yet, and the doctor didn’t want to break it himself as they had found out from our many ultrasounds that I had a higher level of amniotic fluid. So on my 2^nd push, my water broke and it flew halfway across the room. It was actually quite funny and the doctor was walking by just as it happened and had to dodge out of the way. I then pushed for 17 minutes and Grace was born at 3:18am. She came out crying which is always the best sound in the world. She weighed 7lbs 6 oz which includes the tumor so her weight will drop after the surgery. I got to hold her for a couple minutes before they brought her to the NICU. I called Josh who was shocked to hear that his little girl had been born so quickly. I of course hoped that Josh could have made it for the delivery, but was so happy that Leah was there. God knew what I needed in that time, and I was very fortunate to have such a great friend helping me get through the pain.

They brought me to my room on level 2 and told me I could go visit Grace (on level 4) whenever I felt stable enough. I rested for a couple hours and waited for Josh to arrive. We went to visit her around 8 o’clock that morning and she was in a little incubator with tubes and wires all over. They had her on C pap to help her breathing so you could hardly see her face. It was very hard to see her like this. We found out the doctors come around 9 to do their rounds and we wanted to make sure we were around for that. They let me hold her after the rounds and they took off her C pap and it was great to finally see her face. She looks so much like Liam but also a lot like my baby pictures. I got to also breastfeed her and she feeds so well! She was supposed to be transferred to the Stollery right after she was born but they had to wait for a bed to open up for her. It was actually such a blessing having her at the Royal Alexandra for the extra night since I was also there recovering. They could page me down in my room at any time and I could go up and feed her or see her. My sister Sarah was able to come and help out and she stayed overnight for my first night. It was such a blessing having her there to bring me up in the middle of the night since I couldn't walk too well. Grace was then transferred to the Stollery on Friday around noon and it’s a lot harder not having her as close.

The last three days have felt like 3 weeks. They have been very exhausting as they are always up in the air for new things we learn or places we need to be. Sometimes I feel like I need to be in 3 places at once while trying to also be with Grace as much as possible. It’s very hard to have any sort of schedule as we never know what each day brings. It's also been very hard being away from Liam so much. We try to see him as much as we can but he's hard to have at the hospital so he's been hanging out with Leah & Ryan. Again, another thing that these two amazing people have been helping with. Liam has a great time with Leah, Ryan, and Tyson but I know that he is definitely ready to be home. We are all ready to be home.

Grace has been doing amazing. From the first time we saw her in the NICU with wires and tubes everywhere to this morning where they got to take everything out or off of her. It has been amazing holding her without worrying about any of the wires. Her MRI is booked for tomorrow. They don't know the exact time as they could call her down early if they have a random opening so I will be at the hospital all day waiting to go down with her. I am definitely nervous as she will have to be on anesthesia so she doesn't move at all during the MRI. Please pray that the MRI goes well and they are able to get good images for the surgery which is booked for October 3rd. They are hoping the tumor isn't growing above her pelvic area. If it is, they will have to make an incision on her bum as well as her tummy area and remove the tumor from both ends. If the tumor isn't growing that far, they can remove everything just from one incision on her bum. This is what we're hoping for as the surgery won't be as complicated.

Wow, didn't realize this post would be so long. But I guess there is a lot to update. I had been hoping to update this more often but am so exhausted by the end of the day when we get back from the hospital, I just want my bed. Again, we want to thank you all for your prayers and support. Grace has been doing so well and we know it's the power of all your prayers. Thank you!

To end off here are a few pictures of our sweet little Grace:

Happy Birthday Liam

2011-09-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today is Liam's 3rd birthday. I can't belive my baby is 3. He's grown up so much in the last couple months and surprises us constantly on the new things he is learning and doing. I am so proud of him and am excited to see him as a big brother. He is going to be so great with his new baby sister.
Because we had to head into the city sooner than expected, we threw Liam a last minute party at John and Tam's last Saturday. We invited some friends and family and had a little pool party. It was nice to be outside and enjoy the last hot day we'll probably get this summer.

Swimming in the pool with Papa Phillips

Liam telling us how old he is now. 3!

Liam ready to hit his pinata.

Autumn enjoying the yummy cupcakes

Isaac and Liam. Cousins and best friends.

Liam was also able to stop by Tina's last Monday for a little party and cake. All his daycare friends packed him a little rubbermaid of toys and activities to bring to Edmonton.

Then today Josh was able to come up for Liam's birthday. I had a little false alarm yesterday at my doctor's appointment so Josh ended up coming to the city last night just to be safe. But it's nice to have him here for Liam's birthday. We went out to Cora's for brunch this morning and Liam had his favorite...waffles. Thanks Jason for introducing us to such a great restaurant :)

Josh excited to dig into his crepe :)

Then we just hung out for the afternoon. Liam catching up on some cuddles with Daddy

Tyson, such a cutie!

Leah painted Liam's face like a tiger and he was very excited.

She also decorated her house with Cars birthday decorations and made one of Liam's favorites for supper. Kraft Dinner and chocolate milk :)

Happy Birthday Liam! Even though there has been so much going on lately that you don't understand, you have been such a brave boy and I am so proud of you. There are no words to describe what you mean to me and what you bring into my life. I love you. Happy birthday bud.

Another Update

2011-09-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

I want to start off by thanking everyone for all of their support and prayers for our baby girl. They mean so much to us and as I have mentioned before, have given us a lot of peace throughout this time.

I wanted to add a quick update on our baby. We have been continually going into the city every two weeks for ultrasounds, fetal echos and prenatal appointments. On August 10th, we had a video conference meeting at the Children's hospital in Edmonton. Our doctor in Bonnyville was on one TV, our doctors and nurses from the Royal Alexandra hospital were on another TV, and we were at the Children's hospital with the neonatal specialist, a pediatric surgeon, and a social worker. This meeting was to make sure everyone was updated and on the same page with our baby. It was also a time for us to get a lot of our questions asked and to prepare us for what would be happening after our baby was born. We were very grateful to be apart of the meeting and all the effort they put into it. The main thing we learned was that everything is still up in the air until she is actually born and they can do a proper diagnosis of the tumor and what it's affecting. We do know that she will need an MRI after she is born for the surgeons to have a better idea of what will all need to be removed. She will also need her tailbone removed as this is where most of the mass is. If they don't remove the tailbone, the tumor has a better chance of returning. After the meeting, the social worker gave us a tour of the children's hospital and the NICU. It was very overwhelming to walk into a room filled with babies knowing ours would be one of them soon. But it is nice to be prepared and have a picture in our mind of where our baby will be recovering.

At our last appointment on Wednesday, our doctor decided he wanted me in the city right away as he thinks I'll be delivering early. Our next appointment is this Thursday so Liam and I are moving into the city tomorrow. Our good friends Ryan and Leah just moved to Edmonton this summer and are letting me stay with them until the baby is born. We are so grateful for Ryan and Leah and the hospitality they have shown to us. They have been such a blessing! Josh will stay in Bonnyville to work until the baby is born and then we will move into the Ronald McDonald house as it is closer to the Children's hospital.

Our doctor is still wanting me to deliver naturally and go full term, if this baby lets me :) I am currently at 35 weeks and I praise God for every week that she is continually inside me. We want her to be well developed and healthy so she can endure the surgery. She is measuring in the 95th percentile of weight which is also very encouraging. At our last ultrasound they estimated her weight at 6lbs 8oz.

As I've mentioned, I will try to keep this blog updated as I'm in Edmonton. Again, we appreciate all your prayers and support!

Here is a belly picture of me at 35 weeks:

Blessings

2011-09-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

We've been so blessed these last couple months from our family and friends. When we returned home from our summer holidays in Vernon, Josh told me to come look outside in our backyard. John had dug up our whole yard and got it ready to put new grass. It was in a pretty bad state so John came over with his tractor and removed old trees, old cement blocks and ordered new sod to be laid for our yard. We had torn down our old deck last year and hadn't done much to it since so John tampered the ground and got it all ready for us to lay our stone patio. Another thing we are hoping to do this summer.

We then walked into our garage to find that it had also been cleaned out by Tammy and Marie (a friend and youth from our church). It had been another thing on our to do list, but was never getting done. I don't even want to think of how gross our garage was so I was very thankful to Tam and Marie for cleaning out all the of junk, dirt, and loads of pop bottles out of our garage. Josh's grandpa also came by and fixed our garage door which Emmett had torn a hole through a few years ago. It was such and unexpected surprise and we are so grateful for everything they've done for us.

Here are some pictures of our yard. Liam has loved having his Papa Phillips over all the time. I have to try and distract him or get him to just watch John work from the window otherwise he can be a little nuisance and it's a little tough for John to get any work done. :)

Liam watching John from the door.

Of course he didn't last too long at the door and was down there helping out too.

The sod took awhile to come in, so we were very excited when it finally arrived.

Grandpa Brown, John, and Josh all helped lay the sod.

A new fence is another thing on the to do list :)

Yay for new grass!!

As well as re-doing our whole back-yard, John, with the help of Josh and Marie, has also been over here on his days off re-shingling our garage roof which was also in a pretty sad state. As you can tell, our house needs a little maintenance :) It's been wonderful to have all his help!

And then yesterday, we had another blessing from our other friend Marie. She is an amazing cook and offered to come by and cook us some meals to put in our freezer for when we get home from Edmonton. She made us soups, casseroles, chili and meatballs. It's going to be hard for me not to eat everything right away...it all looked so yummy. Thankfully she made too much of one soup so we got to have a little sample for supper last night.

Liam helping Marie make one of the soups.

We`ve had so much support from our family and friends and we thank you all so much!

Our Summer

2011-08-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

This post should be a whole bunch of seperate posts but I got a little behind. So here is a little recap of what we've been up to this summer.

Our trip to Vernon in June

Kevin and Laura Shaw's wedding

Visiting with the Vernon Phillips Family

Liam's new best friend...Laura :)

Going on a date night with my hubby to Scandia.

Taking Liam to the Peanut pool

Having fun at the park with Grandma

Visiting with Weglo family in Vancouver

Liam and Great Auntie Katharine playing with his new Cars book

Liam having fun on Great Grandma Weglo's chair

Grandma Wolfe with her Great Grandkids

4 generations

Boys only Camp-out:

Trip to Davison Orchards

Bowling:

Tired out from all the fun in the sun

Cuddles and bed time story with Auntie Shelley

Liam's first movie theatre experience. Cars 2!

July 1st

We got back to Bonnyville just in time for the Canada day celebrations.

Liam and I at the parade

Liam and his 2nd cousin Gavin waiting for the parade to start

So there you have it. Our summer so far. Ok, I guess that's not all of our summer. We've been busy in July and August as well. I'll post more summer updates soon.

Update on our family

2011-08-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot going on in our little family these last 2 months. I’ve wanted to share some news about our current pregnancy. I think it will help me to journal out what we've been dealing with in these past couple months and this blog can be a good way to keep our family and friends informed of all the new updates on this little babe. First of all, we wanted to share the news that we are having a little baby girl. It was something we needed to find out because of the following complications.
It all started with my first routine ultrasound that was scheduled around 19 weeks in Bonnyville. They found a small cyst on the baby’s back so they scheduled an appointment for me in Edmonton to find out more information.

Our appointment in Edmonton told us news that we were not expecting. Our baby girl has Sacrococcygeal Teratoma, which is a tumor on her tailbone. It is a cystic teratoma which explains the cyst that the Bonnyville clinic found. There are different types of teratomas and our baby has type 4, which grows fully on the inside of the baby. Some of them can grow on the outside or both the outside and inside as well. After they told us the condition they started to let us know what would need to happen. The first thing I had done that day was get an MRI since the doctors needed better pictures of the tumor to see if it was affecting anything. They also set up a Fetal Echo which is an ultrasound for the baby’s heart. This would let us know if there was any extra blood supply going to the tumor and if so, the heart wouldn't be able to keep up.

They also let us know that our baby will need surgery when she is born to remove the tumor. We will have to relocate to Edmonton for probably 1 to 2 months. I will need to be in Edmonton a month early so I don't go into labor in Bonnyville since Liam's labor was so quick. They would like to deliver me naturally and not too early so the baby is developed enough to endure the surgery. Once she is delivered and stabilized, our baby will be transfered to the U of A children's hospital for surgery. We are not exactly sure at this point how long we’ll be in Edmonton after she is born but there are a lot of questions and things still up in the air and we find out more week by week as things can change so easily.

We have been going to Edmonton every 2 weeks for them to monitor the tumor and its growth and to monitor the baby’s heart. Our last few appointments have been very positive as the tumor has not been growing enough to affect anything serious and the heart is still doing well. We have so much support from family and friends and we know a lot of people are praying for us. I truly believe that these prayers have been keeping our little girl healthy and have made the tumor stay the size where it's not affecting anything.
We want to thank all of our family and friends for their support. As I said, we know there are a lot of you praying for us and we really appreciate it. I have truly felt a peace knowing that God is in control of our little girls' life.
We'll make sure to keep you updated on any new information we receive and we'll continue to update you as we are in Edmonton.

Here is a belly picture of our little girl at 28 weeks:

Liam loves to talk to his baby sister and give my belly kisses.

More news

2011-05-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

There is more exciting news that I have still not shared…Josh and I are expecting our 2nd baby this fall! I am due October 15th so I’ll be 20 weeks this Saturday. So far this pregnancy has been a lot different than Liam’s. I was very spoiled with Liam and had pretty much no sickness. This little baby has decided that wasn't right, so I was very sick from about week 6 to week 14. I am feeling great now, and I finally have my appetite back.

I had my ultrasound this past Tuesday and here are some pictures of our little babe. We decided not to find out the gender cause we'd like to be surprised again. We're hoping for a girl though because we CANNOT decide on a boys name. If it's a boy he may be nameless because of how stubborn Josh and I are. We asked Liam's advice on boy names the other day and he thinks we should call him Tires :) So, no help there...

My baby belly at 18 weeks

And just for fun here's a picture of Liam on his way to church last Sunday.

Our past month...

2011-05-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

This past month has been busy but somehow I have not managed to post any of it. Here is what our month included:

Easter was spent at our place this year and Auntie Shelley was able to come up. We had a very relaxing weekend and did a little easter egg hunt for Liam. He had gone for a walk with Auntie Shelley and returned to the house to find that the Easter bunny had made a visit. He was quite excited!

I'm pretty sure I ate most of this bunny. Oops :)

At the end of April, my parents flew into Calgary after being in Israel for over 3 months. Our family (minus Jason and Darcie) was able to meet them at the airport and we all spent the weekend in Calgary. We stayed at Rachel’s seminary in Cochrane (Thanks again Rach!) and filled our weekend with visiting and shopping and making a trip to the Calgary zoo. I forgot my camera but here are a few pictures that Sarah took.

Liam was VERY excited when we got to the entrance and couldn't wait to see all the animals.

Isaac and Liam looking at the Lions.

Family photo at the Calgary zoo

We had never been to the Calgary zoo and we were quite impressed. We would definitely like to go back someday!
The rest of the family headed home on Sunday but Josh, Liam and I stayed in Calgary for the rest of the week. I had a leadership course to do with my company, and their main office building is downtown Calgary. We got to stay in a very fancy hotel though we felt a little out of place. Let’s just say our type of hotel is usually a Western Budget but it was a nice treat since my company was paying for it.
On May 6th Josh and I celebrated our 5th year wedding anniversary. It’s crazy that it’s been 5 years already. We had just gotten back from Calgary that day so we ordered in Chinese and spent the night at home. It was just what we needed!
We also did the MS Walk with our family on May 7th for our friend James Purdy. It is our 3rd year doing the walk and it was definitely the coldest. We only managed to do the 4k instead of the 10k because Liam was getting too cold ( and me too!). Thanks again to everyone who supported our family for the walk. We raised over $700.00 and our team, "MS Ain't Purdy" raised over $30,000!

Liam getting his face painted before the walk. He looks so old here!

I am also excited to say that Liam is Potty Trained! Whoop Whoop!

Cute bowtie made by his Great Auntie Terri!

SaltShakers Reunion

2011-04-11T08:14:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I headed to Canmore for a Saltshakers reunion. For those who don't know anything about the Saltshakers here is a little history.

We are 6 girls who all grew up in Vernon and went to church, school, and youth group together. In 1999 we decided to start a little singing group and we called ourselves the "SaltShakers". We based it on the verse in Matthew 5:13 & 14 where it talks about being "the salt of the earth and a light of the world" and we spread our salt by being a singing group. I don't think any of us knew how special and close we'd become over the years. I always think back to my highschool days, and I know that these girls were a huge reason I didn't get more caught up in the 'bad crowd' at school. They were my accountability and they all challenged me to grow closer to God everyday.

There is so much I could say about each girl in this group and I have so many memories I could share. We have all gotten married except for one, Laura Davison, who got engaged this past December. We have a little tradition in our group to have a hot tub party when we get our first boyfriend but because we all live apart, we didn't have a chance to have a party for Laura. So we arranged a weekend away to celebrate Laura's engagement and to have a little reunion with a hot tub party. Half of our group live in BC and half in Alberta, so we met in the middle and stayed at a beautiful (and reasonably priced) resort in Canmore. It was such a great weekend. We had many hours visiting and laughing over old memories, we prayed and cried together and just enjoyed being with each other again. We are definitely friends who make it seem like we haven't even been apart...we just jump right back into everything. I don't have too many pictures from the weekend as Carey (a professional photographer) took all the pictures and is sending them to us. So here are a couple from the years past and one of this past weekend.

We used to sing, "Oh Canada" at the Vernon Vipers games. We look so young.

A little photoshoot

Christmas 2005

Singing at my wedding, May 2006.

This past weekend in Canmore, April 2011.

I love these girls and am so blessed to have them as friends.

Liam's last day

2011-04-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Liam's last day of daycare. His official last day should have been March 31st but Tina wanted to throw him a going away party so she asked to have him yesterday too.

With Josh not working, we couldn't afford daycare so Josh will be watching Liam for the summer until he goes to school in the fall.

I was actually a little emotional when I dropped Liam off knowing it would be the last time. Tina has been so wonderful and I know Liam has loved it there. Their family attends our church and I know we'll still see them a lot, but we were very thankful for Tina and their family for watching and loving our little guy.

I made a chocolate bar card for Tina titled, "10 Reasons why Liam Loves Tina".

10 Reasons why Liam Loves Tina:

1. You always greet me each morning with cuddles and Kisses

2. You are a Wunderbar dancer (they dance every morning to Just Dance 2)

3. You make me Eatmore fruit if my tummy hurts and change my diapers.

4. You are no Airhead and are full of Smarties

5. You help me Excel on my letters and numbers

6. You have a Bounty of toys at your house

7. You are one Hubba Bubba

8. You are never a Turtle and are always full of Pep

9. You’ve put up with all my temper tantrums since I was a Junior.

10. You love to read books to me but I don’t consider you a Nerd.

Not the best quality picture but here is Liam and Tina on his last day.

And we're back...

2011-03-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

My brother informed me the other night that it’s not New Years anymore so it’s about time to update my blog. I’ve been meaning to post for a long time I’ve just been lazy, and unmotivated.

Here are some updates on our family. First of all, Josh quit his job about a month ago. Wow, I can’t believe it’s already been a month. It’s a long story of how and why it all happened, but it’s actually a very good thing. He’s been at home trying to decide if he wants to go back to work. He’s accepted for school in the fall for Power Engineering, and he wants to do some projects around the house this summer (re-building our deck, shingling the garage) so he’s not sure if it's worth finding a job for only a couple months. Josh will then be a stay at home dad with Liam for the summer. Lucky guy!
Liam is talking more and being an active 2 and a half year old. He’s new favorite thing is the saying his alphabet. He hasn’t quite got the song down it’s more like “A B C D G K LMMM P Q R S T U V W X Y Z” It’s pretty cute. I’ll have to get a video of him singing it.
Everything else is going good. I’m still working full time, and helping out at youth group when I can. We’re all really looking forward to all the snow melting and for spring to finally come so we can get outside more. We’re definitely done with winter so thankfully it’s starting to warm up!

Here's some pictures that were on our camera from the last couple months.

Liam and Josh goofing around at bath time

Liam zonked out on the couch.

I also have some Christmas photos still on my camera. Christmas at the Phillips.

Having a cuddle with Auntie Rachel

Liam showing off his new Cars collection from Grandma and Papa Phillips

New Years at the Rempels:

Grandma Weglo and Auntie Shelley braving the cold. Liam didn't last too long :)

This past weekend Sarah came up with the kids for a visit. We hadn't seen each other since New Years so it was nice that she could come up for a couple nights.

Bathtime!

We headed to the Phillips for a soak in the hot tub.

Autumn and I watched from the sidelines :)

Autumn is so photogenic. Such a cutie!

Liam is getting to be such a big boy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2010-12-31T17:22:00.000-08:00

Liam's 1st Oilers Game

2010-11-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

Working in an oilfield office definitely has it's perks...like getting tickets to Oilers games! So last Friday we took off early from work and headed to the city for Liam's first live NHL game. We were hoping to bring Liam to an Oilers game this season but didn't realize it would be so early. Let's just say I'm glad the tickets were free cause we were only able to watch the 1st period. After that, Liam was bored and decided he didn't want to sit anymore. It was definitely an interesting experience. Josh and I tagged teamed taking him out and walking around the stadium. We got a lot of those "looks" from people that either sympathized with us or were wondering "why would anyone pay that kind of money for a 2 year old". I've found that this age with Liam gets me a lot of those looks :) We were hoping the whole excitement of actually seeing the Oilers play would make Liam sit for the whole three periods. I think we had our expectations a little too high :)

I brought my little camera to capture Liam's first Oiler's game.

This is during the practice...where Liam actually sat for more then a minute. He wouldn't take his eyes off the ice :)

They played Detroit and lost 2-1. I managed to get one shot of the game :)

And I did manage to get a t-shirt. I've decided my current favorite player is Eberle. Hopefully we'll be able to catch another game this season so I can wear it.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

Our Little Football player.

Liam all dressed up and ready to go out for Halloween. We have a candy carnival at our church every year and since we live so close, we took Liam to a few houses on our way. I was surprised how well he did. He couldn't quite say "trick or treat" it was more..."teat teat" but I think they got the idea.

Seriously, this guy totally cracks me up. I don't know where he gets these poses from he just does it on his own...so funny!

I decided to dress up too this year. Makes it a lot more fun.

At the candy carnival. Getting a balloon animal from Matt.

Liam loved this!

Of course we had to try Josh and John too!

Liam also had a party at daycare during the week so he got to be "Emmett"

Such a cutie!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-10-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

This year Thanksgiving was held in Bonnyville at our house. Most of you already know that my sister Shelley has returned from Africa for a while to figure some things out. Her flight to Canada was booked right before Thanksgiving so we decided to spend the weekend in Alberta. Jason was able to come from Toronto and my parents drove up from Vernon so we could all be together for Thanksgiving. It was so wonderful having everyone at our place. We took advantage of the gorgeous weather on Sunday and did a little family photo shoot.

Grandpa & Grandma Weglo with the grandkids.

Love this one of Sarah and Autumn

The boys being male models :)

My new favorite picture of Liam. Such a little poser.

Just for fun!

September 14th

2010-09-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Last year on September 14th, we started a tradition of going to an old train bridge we had gone to the night before Liam was born.

Here is our post of last year. I wanted to keep this tradition going, and head back every year to get some family pictures.

Here we are in 2008, waiting in anticipation for our baby to come.

2009

And this year.

Liam likes the part where we get to throw rocks over the edge.

September Long Weekend

2010-09-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Now going backwards because I still need to post about our September long weekend...

This year, we headed to Drumheller and Banff with the Phillips family. We all arrived on Friday night in Cochrane and stayed in one of the guest houses at Rachel's school. It was the perfect size for all of us and central to everything we wanted to do. Thanks for letting us stay with you Rachel!
On Saturday we headed to Drumheller for the day. I'm pretty sure I had never been before and was quite excited to see all the touristy sites :) It ended up being a beautiful warm day and we got lots of great pictures.

Our first stop was at the World's Biggest Dinosaur.

The most used phrase of the weekend was, "Liam, what does a dinosaur say?" followed by Liam's animated, "ROAR". Pretty cute.

We walked all the way to the top of the dinosaur's mouth. Liam was quite excited with all the dinosaurs on the walls!

It was actually a little scary at the top. We could really feel the wind swaying us back and forth, so we didn't stay up there too long :)

John and Tam bought Liam a dinosaur shirt and we wanted to get a picture of him with it on. So we told him to smile and all of a sudden he lays down on the ground and starts doing model poses. It was SO FUNNY! Can you tell he's used to the camera :)

Our next stop was the suspension bridge.

We then headed to the famous Hoodoos. They looked a lot smaller in real life but were still really neat to see.

Liam, with Uncle Jared, holding onto his new dinosaurs.

Our final stop of the day was at the Dinosaur museum. It was definitely worth seeing!

On Sunday, we woke up to rain and very cold weather and we were debating if we should just stay inside. We finally decided to brave the cold and head to Banff...and I'm so glad we did. We didn't bring our camera along, since we had 2 great photographers with their cameras, so I'm stealing a few from Rachel's facebook. Hope that's okay Rachel. You get better pictures anyways :)

It was definitely a fun weekend!

Happy Birthday Liam

2010-09-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Liam, today you are 2... TWO! Early this morning, you had crawled into our bed and so we slept in a little together. I was watching you sleep so peaceful and thinking of how much I love you. Then all of a sudden, you turned over in your sleep, put your butt towards my face and let off a huge fart. And then another. Oh Liam, how you make me laugh.

Taken this morning. This is your "cheese" face.

God decided to give you a little birthday gift today too...SNOW!

You and Isaac watching the snow fall.

We had a little party for you tonight at Grandpa and Grandma Phillips' house.

Opening your presents. You definitely got spoiled.

Playing with your new toys.

Opening Great Grandma Weglo & Great Aunty Katherine's present. You actually opened these a couple days before because you just couldn't wait (actually it was daddy who couldn't wait) until your actual birthday :)

You LOVE your new Buzz Lightyear shoes.

You insisted on wearing them right away :)

We love you more than words can say! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Race the Base

2010-08-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went to Cold Lake for "Race the Base". The day was full of very expensive cars getting a chance to drive very fast. Jason, I'm pretty sure you would have loved this! We watched cars drive down a runway trying to beat their target speed, usually going over 300km an hour! We saw some Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Ford GTs, Jaguars, and a Maserati...yeah, it was pretty nice.

We were freezing the whole time but we held out for the final event: A CF18 Jet race a Ferrari Enzo and a few other cars. Pretty sweet!

Liam was in Car heaven!

That's us...wearing toques in August!!

We met up with our good friends Greg and Meg

The Maserati

This Ford GT made the fastest time: 344 km/h

The main event was the CF18 racing the fastest production car, Ferrari Enzo, from a stop. The Ferrari had no chance against the Jet. The Jet then came back around to race other cars and took it easy on them.

This was the Ford GT (above) and Maserati (below) racing. I was actually able to get these in the same shot unlike the Enzo.

Liam with his "big boy" haircut wearing Daddy's headphones. We had brought them in case it got too loud but never had to use them.

Back from Vernon

2010-08-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

And we're back. Ok, I guess we've been back for 2 weeks already. My apologies again for slacking on this blog.
Liam and I headed to Vernon a couple weeks ago to soak up some much needed sun and have some good visits with family and friends. Josh wasn't able to come this time cause of work but hopefully next summer!
So Liam and I headed out on our adventure Friday after work and spent the night in a hotel in Red Deer. It was nice to break up the driving, especially since there was SO MUCH construction. Liam did great for the drive, even though it took us an extra 2 hours. I finally caved and turned on the DVD player (which I vowed I would never do as a parent) but all the stopping and going just wouldn't end. We were very happy when we finally pulled into my parents driveway!

We had a very full week and I took lots of pictures so I tried to sum it up as best I could. Here it goes:

On Sunday, we headed back to my parents after church and spent the afternoon in the yard... soaking up some sun, playing soccer with Grandpa, and running through the sprinkler. It was wonderful!

It didn't take long for Liam to lose the clothes :)

The water was a little colder then he was expecting :)

Liam has learned how to drop kick a ball and connects really well a lot of the time.

My future soccer player.

We had the chance to go to the Peanut Pool a couple times during the week. The first visit was in the evening and we were the only ones at the pool! Liam loved it!

Our 2nd trip to the peanut pool was a little more busy. Liam brought his blow up car and he was a big hit with all the other kids.

He even managed to pick up a girl who followed him around the pool. It was pretty cute.

We also made a trip to the water park in Polson Park. It was so fun to bring Liam to all these summer things that I used to do as a kid.

Of course we made a couple trips up to Davison Orchards. Can you tell is was HOT?

On Tuesday, we headed to Kelowna for the day to visit Great Grandma Wolfe and do some shopping.

We also had a chance to see the Vernon Phillips clan. Gerry and Terri had everyone over for supper and it was such a fun visit. Liam loved Uncle Gerry, and just hung out with him all night.

Liam going around tickling everyone. I think before we left he made sure to give everyone hugs... at least 4 times each :)

Liam loved to read books with Grandma & Grandpa Weglo

One of the highlights of my trip, was finally getting to meet Tyson, Leah and Ryan's baby. Leah and I made a trip to a little beach on Okanagan Lake for a little play date.

Tyson just chillin' on the blanket. Such a cutie!!

Friday the 13th was my mom's birthday. I was so happy that Liam and I could be there to celebrate with her.

Liam's gift to Grandma:

"Grandma's house is full of love"

Liam excited to eat some cake. So excited he couldn't wait long enough to cut a piece :)

"Happy Eirthday Grandma"

Our drive back to Alberta went much smoother! My mom was able to come back with me and we decided to go through Jasper instead. I'm so glad we did! Hardly any traffic and no construction. Yay!

Taking a break at Mount Robson for some ice cream

We stayed overnight at a great Hotel in Hinton called Nova Lodge. Such a beautiful hotel and such great prices! Liam was excited to go swimming after the long drive.

Only a few hours from home, I gave Liam a little piece of kit-kat and I turn around a minute later to see this. :)

haha...love the look on his face.

Wow, what a post. Well you there you have it. Our wonderful trip to BC. Now we're back in Alberta where my tan is quickly fading and I've already had to turn up the heat in my house a couple times. Oh, how I miss BC!

An update on our not so little guy:

2010-07-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

Liam is almost 2 and is as active as ever. If he doesn’t have a ball, Oilers hockey stick, or toy car in his hand you would probably find him watching the Disney movie, Cars. He would probably watch it 10 times a day if we let him. His vocabulary is getting better each day and we’ll find him randomly saying words we didn’t even know he knew. He loves to read books, especially ones with farm animals so he can tell you what they say. He’s decided to hit the “terrible twos” early and will not be too happy when he doesn't get his way.

He is now in a big boy bed and loves the freedom of getting out (when he’s not supposed to) whenever he wants. He’s definitely turning into a little boy and I’m not sure how I feel about that. At least he still likes his cuddle time with mommy.
He loves to look through hockey cards with his daddy and find all the Oilers. He gets quite excited when he sees one and does a little “Oilers dance”.
While we’re driving, he makes sure to always point out all the tractors, horses, buses, and Ford vehicles. Every time he sees Ford on ANYTHING, he says, “Dadda”.

What a cutie!

Toronto!!

2010-07-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry that this post is very overdue as we've been home for over a month already but it is definitely worth posting about.
Josh and I were finally able to make a trip out east to visit Jason and Darcie in Toronto! We sent Liam off to Grandpa and Grandma Weglo's in Vernon for the week (thanks mom and dad!) and flew to Toronto. We got to see and do SO much thanks to our wonderful tour guides, Jason and Darcie. Thanks guys for letting us stay with you and showing us around the beautiful city. And for letting us have the better bathroom :)

We flew in Thursday night and this is how our weekend went:

Friday:

Friday morning we got a chance to see where Darcie goes to school and where Jason works. Darcie is in her 4th year to become a chiropractor at CMCC and since she had clinic that morning, we were able to get a tour.

After the grand tour of the school, Jason had a chance to show us where he worked. I never got any pictures but it was great to finally see in person what Jason does. Now it's a little easier to explain to people :)

Then we headed into the city.

Our first stop was the CBC building. They had this huge FIFA World Cup soccer ball in the entrance. Liam would have loved it :)

Our next Stop: The Hockey Hall of Fame

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around downtown trying to take in all the sites. We were hoping to maybe see the "Cash Cab" but no luck. Maybe next time :)

At the base of the CN Tower.

Subway Station

On our way to pick up Darcie from school, Jason also took us to see the "rich people" houses. They were incredible! I didn't take any pictures though cause that would be a little creepy :)

That evening we headed to an amazing Teppanyaki restaurant for supper. This is where they grill everything right in front of you. The food was amazing!

Saturday:

Saturday we decided to make the 2 hour drive to Niagra Falls. Josh and I had never been before and it was definitely a highlight of our trip!

We had a chance to eat lunch with the falls right behind us. The picture is quite dark, but this was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. Enjoying lunch on the patio of a good restaurant with NIAGRA FALLS!! right behind us :)

After lunch we went shopping in town. This was outside of the Hershey store. I think it was meant more for kids. Josh's head was a little too big :)

Saturday night we headed over to Jason and Darcie's friends house and played games for the evening. Lots of laughs and lots of fun and it was great to meet some of their friends!

Sunday:

Sunday we headed into the city again to catch a Blue Jays game. We made sure we went to a game against the Yankees. We got great seats and were only 8 rows up from the field. We took in the whole experience by getting a footlong hot dog (well Josh did) and popcorn.

Monday:

Our first stop Monday morning was a little area of Toronto called Unionville. It was such a beautiful little community with little shops and historic houses and restaurants.

For lunch we headed to another area in Toronto called the Danforth. This is known as the Greek part of Toronto. We had a great meal at a little Greek restaurant.

Our great Tour Guides!

Thanks again guys for letting us come visit you. We loved Toronto!

My Future Male Model

2010-06-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

Lock up your daughters!!

MS Walk

2010-05-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend our family was able to participate in the Lakeland MS Walk. Our good friend James Purdy was diagnosed with MS a couple years ago so we participated in the walk to support him and his young family. His/our team was called, "MS Ain't Purdy" and we were able to raise $30,000! Here are some photos from the walk:

The Purdy's:

James, Terina, Griffin, & Stella

All ready for the 10km walk

Our cool shirts

Thanks to everyone who supported Liam for this walk. He met his goal and raised just over $1,000!!

Our weekend getaway

2010-05-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

Josh and I were able to get away for the May 1st and 2nd weekend to the beautiful town of Banff. We were there for a marriage conference and were able to stay for 3 nights in the Banff Springs hotel. It was definitely a treat to stay in such a fancy hotel and with great rates too because of the conference. It was nice to get away for the weekend and reconnect away from the busy routine of life.

Beautiful waterfall right by the hotel

The view from our room

The group from our church

If you look really close, you can see our hotel on the left of the mountain.

We were able to car pool with our good friends Lorne and Gianne. Thanks guys!

As nice as it was to get away, we were definitely excited to get back and see this little guy :)

Thanks John and Tam for watching him for the weekend.

Snapshots from our Weekened

2010-04-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Easter was spent in Bonnyville this year and it was great to have Rachel and Jared home for the weekend. They had both brought their roommates, and Sarah and Brad came up for the day on Sunday. It was definitely a full house at John and Tam's.

We had a couple days of beautiful sunshine and Liam loved being outside. He never wanted to come in.

Riding Grandpa Phillips' mower

Drawing chalk pictures on the cement

"Hey Emmett, come get the Frizbee"

Grandpa P. stuck Liam in the wheelbarrow and he loved it!

Chasing Uncle Jared around.

Brad, Sarah, and Isaac came up for the day on Sunday. The boys were thrilled to play hockey and soccer together.

Issac playing with the airplane. It was going to Africa to visit Uncle Jackson and Auntie Shelley :)

The Easter Meal :)

Had to get this shot of Josh helping with dishes :)

haha...I love this picture of Liam. One of his favorite things to do at Grandpa and Grandma Phillips is play on the Wii.

The boys getting Horsey rides from John

And to end off here's a funny picture of Liam. On Saturday morning we got up to find him filling up Emmett's dog food. I guess he thinks we don't feed him enough :)

We hope you all had a great Easter weekend.

2010-03-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Liam is starting to talk more everyday and is saying more words than just "ball". Even though his mama, grandma, and Emmett all sound the same. :)

Now he can repeat a lot of words we ask him to say. They're not always the easiest to understand but you can tell he's trying.

Here's a little video of me trying to get him to say some words.

2010-01-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

Liam's new thing is to take things from the cleaning closet and copy what mommy does.

I'm training him early :)

Sweeping...

Vacuuming...

And cooking :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2010-01-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

I know, we're a little behind...this week has been quite busy as we are getting back into the swing of things. We were out every night last week, so thankfully today I could finally update our blog with our Christmas pictures.

(Side note: This post was started a week ago, and is finally getting posted today :)

Here are the rest of our pictures from Christmas.
After the cruise we headed to Vernon. It was funny going from one extreme weather condition to another in less then 24 hours. The night we got there, our church was putting on "Bethelehem Star" a real life nativity.

Waiting in the cold to see "Bethlehem"

Liam saw his Uncle Gerry as a shepard and pointed at him thinking he was Grandpa, with a beard :)

Melissa, Kyla, and Julia selling necklaces.

Inside the church. It was turned into a Winter Wonderland and looked so great. They had a children's choir, and Auntie Terri was there handing out hot chocolate and cookies.

Getting in a quick visit with my good friend Megan

The rest of the week was getting all set up for Christmas. Here is Jason and Jackson helping decorate the Christmas Tree.

Christmas Eve: All ready for the candlelight service

Shelley & Jackson

The boys making silly faces :)

Christmas Morning:

My mom made all of us pajama bottoms. Liam and Josh in their matching pajama pants

Darcie's were a little too big :)

Opening presents...

Uncle Jason reading the boys a book they got for Christmas.

Starting a new tradition: Feeding the ducks at Polson Park on Christmas day.

Four Generations:

Our Holiday

2010-01-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

We are back from our wonderful family holiday, with lots of pictures and memories to share. The first week was spent on our cruise and the second was spent relaxing and celebrating Christmas in Vernon.

There are so many pictures from these 2 weeks, so this first post will be about our cruise.

Liam watching the planes in Toronto

Heading to the cruise with our enourmous amount of luggage

Leaving Miami

Dominican Republic, our first stop

Liam was scared of the ocean at first so he just played in the sand.

Our Next stop: St. Thomas...our favourite!

Liam eventually loved the ocean and we had to chase him around so he wouldn't just run right into the waves :)

Tortola: The British Virgin Islands

All dressed up for dinner

The Mexican restaurant, so yummy!

The main lounge. Can you see the HUGE screen TV?

The slide on the cruise: Looks like I'm having a little more fun then Liam :)

Our final day. Waiting to leave the ship :(

2009-12-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

Here is a funny video of Liam that I've been meaning to post for a while. It was back in September while my mom was up for a visit. We were eating supper and Liam started throwing his vegetables at Emmett and thought it was so funny. Sorry, it's a little long.

It's kinda dark, but you might notice he has a black eye. It was when he was just getting used to walking, and fell right into the corner of the coffee table at daycare. Not too fun.

What, it's already December?!?!

2009-11-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

How is it already December tomorrow? I'm very excited about the fact that it's almost Christmas, and we leave in 2 weeks for our Weglo family cruise, but where did November go? Oh yeah, and for those who didn't know...we are going on a Caribbean cruise!! Whoop Whoop!

So in 2 weeks we'll be soaking up the sun here:

And hopefully doing some of this :)

Oh, I can't wait!

I apologize again for the lack of blogging, things have been pretty busy around here. You think that would give me more stuff to blog about, but no.

So here are some pictures of Liam to keep the family happy cause that's all I got for now :)

He's getting so big...and already needs another hair cut :)

So happy and content. And then 2 seconds later...

haha...don't worry, it didn't last long. It probably didn't help that I was taking pictures either :)

While eating supper tonight, Liam showed us what he's learned

Must have been something he picked up from daycare ;)

What a goof :)

Halloween

2009-11-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been over a month since our last post. Well here is a fun little post to hopefully make up for the lack of blogging.

Our Halloween day this year was a pretty full day. We had 2 different functions to attend and one party to host. We dressed Liam up as Elmo and he was super cute!

I loved having Liam still young so I could eat all his candy :)

Our first event for the day was at Liam's daycare. Tina had decorated her whole house for halloween and had a fun little party for all the kids. She had mini pumpkin coloring, cookie making, apple bobbing, costume wearing, haunted house fun! Liam was still pretty young to enjoy most of the games, but he still had lots of fun watching and laughing at all the older kids.

Liam making his halloween cookies with Tina

After that, we headed to our church for their candy carnival. There were lots of kids, and lots of little games to play. Liam had a little pumpkin candy bag (thanks auntie Shelley) to fill with candy. When he realized he had candy in it, he started to take it out and hand it out to everyone. It was pretty funny.

"Hey Guys, who wants Smarties??"

Then we headed home to get ready for our own party with our College and Career group. We had a Star Wars themed night, where everyone had to dress up as a star wars character and then we watched the 3 older movies. We soon realized that we might not be such "young" adults anymore. By 10:00 most of our group were either falling asleep or ready to leave. Our youth pastor Morgan and his wife Joelle were the only ones that made it through all 3 movies which ended up 2 AM. Josh and I were there too, but I think we both fell asleep for most of the 3rd movie :) Thank goodness for the time change :)

Joelle (Qui-Gon Jin), Alicia (C3P0), Me (Princess Leia), and Tracy was just dressed for Halloween.

Qui-Gon Jin (Joelle) and Darth Vader (Morgan) battling it out. The force was strong with these two :)

2009-09-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

The night before Liam was born, we went to an old train bridge near Cold Lake with John and Tammy. I was about to pop and I remember every step felt like a watermelon pushing on my bladder, but it was still such a beautiful site :)

Here we are in anticipation for the baby to come, and me 50 lbs heavier :)

I thought it'd be a fun tradition every year on that same day, Sept 14, to get pictures of our family on the same bridge.

It was so weird to walk these same steps that we had walked only a year earlier but now with a beautiful baby boy.

It was definitely a special memory!

We like to Party...

2009-09-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

For Liam's birthday this year, he had 3 parties. One that I organized in Bonnyville, one on his actual birthday at daycare, and then one in Vernon. His birthday was right before we left for Vernon for Josh's cousin's wedding so it worked out perfect. I'm assuming/hoping that this will be the only year where he has 3 different parties :)

His first party was in Bonnyville at Grandma and Grandpa Phillips' which turned into a pool party because the weather was so hot!

The Birthday Boy

Some of the party guests:

Opening Presents:

Isaac loved helping Liam with his presents

The Cake:

My friend Lillian made it. She did such a great job!

"Hey, this is pretty good!"

"But I think I'd rather throw it..."

Isaac wanted to get in on the throwing fun too.

I love this one with his Aunty Sarah

On Liam's actual birthday, I went to visit him at Daycare on my lunch break but of course forgot the camera. All the kids each brought him a gift and he got very spoiled. One cute gift was from one of the young girls who got him a box of kleenex since she knew how much he loved to take them out of the box. She said it was his own box and he was allowed to take out as many kleenex as he wanted. Too cute.

Then this past weekend he had his 3rd party in Vernon at Grandma and Grandpa Weglo's house.

Helping daddy put his garage together that he got from Grandpa and Grandma Weglo.

I think Josh had more fun with it then Liam :)

And now we're all partied out! Until tomorrow, and then it's my birthday. Whoop Whoop! :)

For Liam

2009-09-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

We can’t believe you are 1! I remember this night a year ago so clearly, driving that quick trip to the hospital. You came so fast and we were so excited to finally meet you! When they placed you in my arms, the love that came over me was so overwhelming. I didn’t know that I could love someone this much. I barely slept your first few nights at home as I kept listening to make sure you were still breathing.

Liam, I hope you will someday know how much joy you have brought into my life. You are such a blessing, and I thank God daily for you.
Happy Birthday, sweetheart.

Love, Mommy

Liam's 1st Haircut

2009-08-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Liam's hair has always been so thick and was getting pretty long so we decided it was time for his first haircut. This morning I still had a baby....

But now I have a big boy.

Weekend Trip to Jasper

2009-08-14T08:13:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, our family went to Jasper for the weekend. It was a packed filled weekend going to all the beautiful touristy sites. I had driven through Jasper so many times, but this was the first time I actually went to places and stayed overnight.
Jasper is so beautiful and we're so glad that we had the chance to go with John, Tammy, and Rachel for this little weekend getaway.

Mount Whistler: We went up the tramway and then hiked up the mountain.

Josh and Liam overlooking Jasper

This is the hike.
We forgot to bring a backpack for Liam so Tammy and I only made it this far :)

Josh, Rachel, and John went ALL the way to the top.

Then we headed to Athabasca falls for Lunch.

After heading to our little cottage for a rest we then to Maligne Canyon. So gorgeous. This is at the bottom of the canyon cause we were now pretty close the the water.

The next day we headed to some hotsprings by Pocahontas. I had never been in any hotsprings before and it was a wonderful experience. I never got any pictures as I was too busy enjoying the water so I stole this one off the internet so you get the idea :)

The whole weekend we played the licence plate game where we tried to find as many states and provinces as possible. We actually found a plate from Hawaii! We would always drive around the parking lots a couple times just to make sure we didn't miss any :) Brought back some good memories of growing up.

Week in Vernon

2009-08-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Liam and I headed to Vernon for a wonderful and very eventful week. From weddings, to forest fires, HOT weather, and huge storms we definitely had an action packed week! We got there on the Friday to +38 degrees and it felt nice to be back in the Okanagan soaking up the sun!

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma Weglo. As soon as we got to Vernon, the clothes came off!

The week started off with my good friend Megan getting married. She was a gorgeous bride and the wedding day was so beautiful.

The Saltshakers reunite!

The next day we woke up to the smell of smoke in the air and found out that Kelowna had a few bad fires again. The smoke never got too bad until later into the week when you couldn't even walk outside. It felt like we were in a campfire.

Of course we had to make a couple trips up to Davison Orchards. The boys loved it!

I love this picture of Liam with Laura Davison

Going on the wagon ride. Last time Liam was only a month old. He liked it a lot better this time

Isaac Checking out the animals

Hanging out with Auntie Shelley and Uncle Jason

Going to the Peanut Pool. I used to swim there when I was a kid and it was very neat to now bring Liam. He didn't like the cold water too much, hopefully he'll like it more next summer!

Liam enjoying the yummy BC fruit

Our crazy week

2009-07-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

This past week my mom and Isaac have been staying with us and we've been having lots of fun. It's been quite a crazy week! Tomorrow we'll be heading to pick up Sarah in Lloyd and then heading to Vernon for my friend Megan's wedding. I can't wait. Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Going for a walk in the wagon. If you look closely Liam didn't like being too close to Isaac :)

Having fun at the park

We finally got a hot day so we were able to go in the pool for the afternoon

Opening gifts from Great Grandma Weglo. Thanks Grandma for the books and hockey stick wall hanger!

Isaac likes to chase Emmett around. This is how we found him...hiding from Isaac :)

Happy Father's Day Josh

2009-06-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Josh, you are an incredible father to Liam. Happy 1st Father's day!

9 months

2009-06-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

Liam is 9 months old today

We were outside for most of this past weekend for different events and Liam loved it! It's going to be a fun summer!

Going for a walk to playgroup

Our life lately...

2009-06-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Uncle Jason made these letters to be put up in Liam's room. Thanks again for making these Jason, we put them up above his closet doors and it looks so cute!

Enough pictures already mom!

Another frame that I love in Liam's room.

My flower beds!

I can't take credit for setting up the rocks that make it look so nice! My friend Lillian had surprised me (with the help of Jesseca and Rachel) a couple summers ago. I got home from being in BC for a week and they had made beautiful flower beds that used to be a whole bunch of weeds! Hopefully I can keep up with all the weeding and watering this summer :)

Liam being introduced to bubble gum

I put my head band in his hair...I think he looks like a girl in this picture :)

Our little guy who is almost 9 MONTHS!!

That's all for now!

Jackson and Shelley Part 2: The wedding day

2009-05-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the big day:

Liam and Isaac the morning of the wedding

Weglo Family

I never had to worry about Liam the whole night. He was pretty popular and got passed around all night.

Lance Holding Liam

The Bridesmaids

My Drime friend Lillian who I went to Ethiopia with and who Shelley went to Kenya with. It was so good to see her and catch up!

Dancing the night away!

We were able to spend an extra day and enjoy the beautiful Okanagan weather before heading home.

Jackson and Shelley Part 1

2009-05-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

We have been home for a week now from our wonderful trip to Vernon for Shelley and Jackson's wedding. Sarah and I headed to BC a little earlier then our husbands to help out before the big day. So here are some of the events leading up to the wedding.

The boys did pretty well for the drive down. We left at 5am thinking they would fall right back asleep but they hardly slept the whole trip. Sarah and I were pretty happy when we finally pulled into Vernon.

Driving 13 hours with 2 babies can make you a little crazy :)

Isaac just relaxing...too cute!

Liam meeting his Uncle Jackson for the first time.

On Thursday night, Sarah and I planned a bachelorette party for Shelley. It was finally our turn to pay Shelley back for all the embarassing things she had made us do for our parties. My parents made the night even more special and rented us all a limo to drive around town. It was a great night!
The theme was 80's. We thought it might bring back some great memories for Shelley:

Getting her ready for the eventful night

We made Shelley carry around a "ghetto blaster" with 80's music playing

Shelley and I sipping gingerale in the limo

Friday morning we all went to get pedicures. It was amazing!

To be continued...

The month of April

2009-04-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

Liam has had a few friends over for playdates:

Liam and his girlfriend Eliza

Liam and his friend Kaleb. He's only 3 weeks older than Liam.

Liam got a cold right after Easter for the week. Poor little guy.

At least he was still in good spirits :)

Liam LOVES his toy train from Grandpa and Grandma Weglo. I've memorized the songs that it plays cause it goes all day long :)

Grandpa and Grandma Phillips stop by for a visit

Photo shoot on a lazy Sunday afternoon

Liam's moving around so much and finding whatever looks interesting to get into.

Love his crazy hair :)

Josh also finished his fourth year of school today and is now a licensed mechanic. He did so well throughout the whole program and is happy to finally be done!

Josh and all his excitement :)

This coming Tuesday, Sarah and I are heading to Vernon for Shelley's wedding on May 2nd! It's only 1 week away...Can't wait! I'm sure I'll be posting lots of pictures soon :)

2009-04-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Our Easter Weekend:

We had great Weather on the Saturday. So we soaked it all up!

Uncle Micheal (not too impressed that he's getting a picture taken) and Jared

Emmett loving the sunshine. Look you can see some grass...finally :)

Tammy's siblings were all able to come up for a visit. Good photo opportunity!

Liam's first time with a balloon. He loved it!

The annual Easter egg hunt at John and Tammy's. Josh always gets the most...thankfully he's willing to share :)

Brad and Sarah were able to come for Sunday's lunch and Isaac got his own Easter egg hunt too.

Liam has now discovered his tongue and loves to stick it out. Too cute.

Today is just a lazy day. Liam woke up with a cold and is pretty tired and cuddly. Not that we mind too much :)

Weekend in Grand Prairie

2009-03-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

I returned from my trip to BC, unpacked, did some laundry, and repacked for our trip up to Grand Prairie for a wedding. My college roommate was getting married...so exciting! We stayed with Uncle Jared (thanks Jared!) and had a great time reconnecting with friends we hadn't seen in a while. Liam was a big hit at the wedding and got passed around as we danced the night away. It was a wonderful wedding!
Laura Davison, my good friend from Vernon who was also at the wedding, was able to come back to Bonnyville to see our place and hang out for the day. We then drove to Lloyd for the next night to visit Brad and Sarah, and then to Edmonton today to drop Laura off to fly home. The past few weeks of travelling have been so wonderful, but I think I'm ready to be home for a while and have life back to normal :)

John and Alaina cutting the cake

First Dance

Alaina doing the Limbo...she was Amazing!

Visiting with friends

The Beautiful Bride

Roommates.

My beautiful friend Tracy

Dancing the night away!

Tracy was actually able to get Josh on the dance floor. :)

My crazy friends!

Liam was pretty tired at the end of the night

Another wonderful trip to BC

2009-03-18T10:10:00.001-07:00

I've just returned from another visit to BC. I was able to catch a ride back with my parents who had come to Lloyd to watch Isaac for their spring break. It was so nice to be able to have my parents and grandma here for a week and then be able to head to Vernon for another week. I was also able to make a trip down to Vancouver while in BC, to see my grandma and family. It was definitely a great trip! I took quite a few pictures...enjoy :)

Alberta:

Chillin' with Great Grandma Wolfe

Liam's first time eating solids.

Cuddles with Grandma

Vernon:

Visiting with Laura D.

Playing "Peek a Boo" With Auntie Shelley

Trip to Vancouver:

Liam did so well for all the driving. He is such a good traveller

Meeting Auntie Katherine and Great Grandma Weglo for the first time.

Uncle Jim was very good with Liam and put him right to sleep :)

Uncle Jim, Auntie Leslie and Heather

Liam loved the full length mirrors at Great Grandma's.

Isaac reveals his True Colors...

2009-03-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Isaac has been staying at our house for the last couple days with my parents and grandma. Today he walked into Liam's room and saw the Oiler's jersey and made me put it on him. Sorry Brad, but Isaac has seen the light.

Our chubby little guy...

2009-02-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

He loves to be naked

Liam and all his chubbyness :)

Just like his dad :)

Our weekend

2009-02-16T08:47:00.002-08:00

On Saturday night (Valentine's Day) we got together with a bunch of friends and had a "murder mystery night" at Morgan and Joelle's. It was quite an amusing night. I was the secretary for the husband who's wife was murdered and Josh was someone he worked with. Josh was in love with the wife who was murdered and I was having an affair with the husband. haha such a soap opera. But it was really fun, and I ended up being the murderer!! Good times.

My 6$ dress from the 2nd hand store definitely came in handy :)

Liam was very excited to see his Auntie Rachel who was home for the weekend!

Liam is 5 months old today so I'll leave you with a few more pictures of him.

Jumping in his Jolly Jumper...his new favorite thing.

Fell asleep while we were watching a movie.

5 months old!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

2009-02-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

Today is my sister Sarah's birthday. I was going through some old photos on our computer and thought it would be fun to post some pictures of her and I throughout the years for her birthday. We've have some good memories together!!

Happy Birthday Sarah! Hope you have a great day! Love ya!

2009-02-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple videos for the family. The first one is for Jason and Darcie. This is the Christmas gift that Tammy got Emmett. Sorry it's kinda long, I couldn't edit it.

The 2nd video is of Liam giggling again. He would laugh everytime Emmett would walk by. So cute!

4 months

2009-01-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

Liam is 4 months old today.

Giggles

2009-01-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

We were playing "Peek a Boo' with Liam the other night and he was quite amused with the whole game. He was also very tired, and gets very giggly when he's tired.

Sorry if you're a little dizzy with all the rocking :)

It's Christmas Time!

2009-01-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas was spent in Bonnyville this year with Josh's family. It was a wonderful holiday! There were many games played, many munchies eaten, and lots of relaxing and visiting with family. Christmas is definitely more special once you have children to celebrate it with...not that Liam really knew what was going on :)

Our House all decorated for Christmas

Rachel took these two great pictures.

Christmas Day!

We played LOTS of games over the holidays.

The wonderful game of Quelf

Having Fun with John's Ford hat.

Happy New Year to you all from the Phillips Family:)

Vernon...

2008-12-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

My week in Vernon was wonderful. First of all, the weather was amazing. It was +6 pretty much the whole week. Knowing the temperature was -30 back home, I definitely enjoyed being in the "warmer" weather. As always, I was also able to visit with lots of family and friends. Liam did very well for being passed around all week.

Visiting Family and Friends

Grandma and Auntie Donna were able to come for a day.

Liam smiling with Auntie Shelley

Visiting with my friend Megan.

Liam relaxing at Grandpa and Grandma Weglo's.

haha... I love this picture

Our little Oilers Fan.

Thanks for the cute outfit Grandpa and Grandma Phillips!

Catching a few smiles...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2008-12-08T15:01:00.001-08:00

Josh turned 24 today and Liam wanted to wish his daddy a happy birthday!

We love you and miss you!

Chillin' in Calgary

2008-12-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

This past week Josh and I have been hanging out in Calgary. Josh has a training course with Ford and now that I'm on maternity, I can tag along. So I'm just chilling in the hotel, it's been very relaxing! Then on Friday, I'll fly out to BC to visit Grandma and Grandpa Weglo and Auntie Shelley. I can't wait!

Liam has been growing so much lately. He had his shots a couple weeks ago, and the doctor was very impressed with his weight. He is becoming so interactive with us and is always full of smiles. This past Monday Liam also had his first giggle...one of my favorite sounds! Now that we know he can giggle we're trying to get him to do it all the time. Here are a few pictures of our little guy from the last couple weeks.

Liam all ready for our College & Career Christmas Party

I can never get enough of these pictures...they are so cute. This was the night after Liam shots. Thankfully he didn't have a fever, he was just really sleepy.

Liam looking a little stunned :)

Watching hockey highlights in bed with Daddy

Love those chubby cheeks!

2008-11-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from this last weekend in Edmonton. We drove down on Saturday to meet up with my sisters and mom. We shopped the weekend away. Christmas shopping, wedding dress shopping...lots of fun! The mall was PACKED full of people and having two babies makes things a little more hectic, but it was still a great weekend. Hopefully we can make it an annual event!

Hanging out in the hotel

Liam's first time swimming

We tried to go swimming every night...it really made the boys sleepy :)

Another way to tire Isaac out... we let him crawl all the way to our room from the elevator. :)

Isaac gets bigger everytime I see him!

Liam's photoshoot with Daddy

He's getting a lot more interactive with us and is always full of smiles.

Trip to Vernon

2008-10-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

Well we've been home for almost 2 weeks since Vernon, and I still haven't posted about it...so sorry.
Our trip to Vernon was so much fun! It was great to finally be able to introduce Liam to many of our family and friends. My Dad and sister Shelley hadn't come up when he was born, so this was their first time meeting him.

Bath time for Isaac

Liam meeting his Great Auntie Terri and Great Uncle Gerry

Ryan wants to make sure Amanda isn't getting any ideas :)

One day, we took a trip up to Davison Orchards for their pumpkin festival. Sarah and I got to take our boys on a tractor ride up to the pumpkin patch. We waited in line for quite a while, so as soon as we got to the pumpkin patch it was Liam's feeding time. Sarah and I felt like the worst mom's. My kid was screaming his head off as we try and take a picture, while Isaac is left on the ground filling his face with mud! It did make for some pretty funny pictures though...

Liam's thoughts: "Give me some food!!"

Isaac's thoughts: "Hey buddy, it's alright. Try the dirt, it's good"

Yay! Finally a good one.

Sarah and I were able to make a trip to Clearwater to see the Paquettes for an afternoon. It was so nice to finally visit with all of them.

The day before we left, some friends came over to my parents to throw Liam a baby shower.

Liam all dressed up for his shower waiting for the girls to arrive

They were all very willing to hold Liam and he slept through it all.

It was definitely a great trip. This coming weekend, Sarah and I are heading to Edmonton to meet up with my mom and Shelley for some wedding dress shopping. Should be fun!

The many expressions of Liam...

2008-10-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

What a cutie! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

2008-10-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

The past 2 weeks have been so wonderful. Here are some updates of what our little family has been up too.
On the Saturday after Liam was born, Tammy and Rachel organized a baby shower for us. We got SO spoiled. It was so nice that so many friends and family were able to celebrate with us.

Rachel made this cute diaper cake

A couple of our youth in the church made a diaper changing kit for Josh.

Our family and friends

My mom, sister, and grandma were such a great help for us when Liam came home. It was very hard when they had to leave. They were always there to take Liam when I needed a nap, made wonderful meals, and left my house so clean. I can't say it looks that way anymore :)

Grandma burping Liam

Four Generations

Cousins

Josh's first diaper change. It was only a "pee" diaper...he still hasn't changed a "messy" one. Hopefully soon :)

Emmett getting to know Liam...

Our new favorite passtime: Cuddling with our little guy.

I forgot to congratulate Auntie Wanda in my last post for winning the Baby Poll!! She guessed the right day, Sept 16th. Thanks again for all your guesses!

The story of William Enoch Phillips...

2008-09-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe he is here! It has been incredible. I thought I'd quickly let you know the story of our little Liam, while he is happily sleeping in his daddy's arms.

I had been having small contractions all week but they were not very strong or regular. On the Monday night Josh and I went for a walk and I had a warm bath to try to get things moving. At 1:30 I woke up with some contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. I didn't actually think that I was in labor so I decided to try and fall back asleep. The contractions started to get closer together and more painful so I ran a bath thinking that I still had awhile until the "real labor" was going to begin. I was in the bath for about an hour when I realized that my contractions were really close and VERY painful. I called Josh into the bathroom and we timed them and realized the contractions were only a couple minutes apart. We quickly piled into the car, and drove the quick trip to the hospital. The contractions were pretty much non-stop and my water broke just as we pulled into the parking lot. I was still thinking that I was only in the first stage of labor because it had only been a couple hours since I had my first contraction so all I wanted to do was get into the hospital and get some drugs. We rushed into the room to find out I was fully dilated and ready to push! I pushed for about a half an hour and Liam was born at 4:34. He came out crying and didn't stop until he was safe in his daddy's arms. I am so thankful for the quick labor, only 3 hours from start to finish and that I didn't have to take any drugs.

While in the hospital and at home, we've been very spoiled with many visitors and gifts from family and friends.

The newlyweds Tim and Jesseca

Lillian and Madison

Alicia

The Phillips boys

Great Grandma Wolfe

Great Grandpa and Grandma Brown

My sister, mom, and grandma have been here to help since we've been home from the hospital. It's been such a blessing having them here and cook and clean my house.

Well I'll leave you with a few more photos of our little guy.

It's a BOY!!!

2008-09-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Liam Enoch Phillips

8 lbs 3 ounces

Born September 16 at 4:34 am

Such a cute little boy!!

First Diaper Change

Proud Mom

Proud Dad

First family picture

Proud Grandpa and Grandma Phillips

Due Date

2008-09-10T10:00:00.001-07:00

Today is the due date....weird! I'm not sure I'll ever get to the point of my pregnancy when I just want this baby out of me. I have loved being pregnant. I am definitely getting more and more excited to meet this little guy or girl and I do hope it comes sooner than later, but I'm still ok with being pregnant. I have started to get more braxton hicks, but nothing very regular or too strong.
Today my friend Megan came over to keep me company and to keep my mind busy. We did some scrapbooking, had a lunch date...it was so wonderful. Tomorrow I have my weekly doctor's appointment so we'll see if he get's this baby moving...I'll keep you updated :)

40 WEEKS!!

No baby yet...so here's another update

2008-09-05T15:37:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty bad at blogging lately, especially since I've been off work for the past 2 weeks :)
There is obviously no baby to report as of yet, otherwise that's what this post would be about. Instead, I'll let you know what we've been up lately. A couple weeks ago, we made a trip down to Cochrane for our good friends Simon's wedding. He was one of Josh's groomsmen and it was so nice to be able to share with Simon and Kathy on their special day. It was also great to see and catch up with friends we hadn't seen in a while.

Josh's sister Rachel had just moved to Cochrane for her first year of Seminary so we also got to visit with her and see where she is living. On Sunday, the 3 of us took a trip up to Canmore to walk around and be touristy. It was definitely a highlight of our weekend.

Then last weekend we attended Tim and Jesseca's wedding. Thankfully we didn't have to make an emergency trip to the hospital (even though Jesseca was hoping we would). The wedding was at her parent's house on the beach and it was so beautiful. And of course, Jesseca looked gorgeous!

Friends!

Greg and Meg

Lillian and Shaun

Sam and Rae Ann

Jesseca and Tim surprised their guests with a funky routine during their first dance. It was really cute!

The following day, we had some special visitors...Shelley and Jackson! It was so great to finally meet Jackson! Rachel had a chance to take some pictures for them and they turned out so good...no surprise there :) I stole this one from Rachel's blog.

Jackson got to try out his golfing skills on the Wii

Everyone enjoying a relaxful morning. As you can see, Jackson wasn't used to the colder Alberta weather:)

Isaac getting to know his cousin.

It was definitely a wonderful visit!

Well that's the update for now. I'm sure one of our next posts will be to introduce our baby to you. Only 4 more days till the due date... not that I would mind if this little guy or girl wanted to make it's appearance before then... :)

Maternity Pics...

2008-08-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Josh's sister Rachel is an amazing photographer and offered to take some maternity pictures for us last weekend. We were so pleased with how they turned out! Here are a few of the many good ones that she took:

Thanks again Rachel! We love them!

One More month...

2008-08-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

The Countdown is on...only one more month until the due date. Everyone keeps asking how I'm feeling. I'm very excited but there's also a little fear of the unknown. I keep realizing how quickly the day is coming and I feel like there's still so much to do. We ordered carpet for our baby room so we can't set anything up till it comes in. Hopefully baby Phillips doesn't decide to come too early cause it might not have a crib to sleep in :)
I have 2 more weeks of work until I go on mat leave. Crazy!! I can't believe how quickly it's come. I'm very excited to be done work and have some time at home before the baby comes, but I'm also sad to leave. I've been working with this Oilfield company for over 2 years and I've loved it! I think next Friday will be a hard day....
Well that's the update for now. Here's a list that I put together of the baby poll starting at the earliest date. Thank you all for your guesses! There will definitely be a prize for the closest guess. Josh and I still have to come up with what it will be, but I'm sure it will be a fabulous prize :)
If you would still like to make a guess you have until August 30th (the first guess). Our friend Jesseca is hoping we have the baby on her wedding day, while on the dance floor...then she can come to the hospital in her wedding dress :) Wouldn’t that make a good memory…

Jesseca: August 30th Girl (7lbs 14oz)

Great Auntie Lois: Sept. 1st Boy (7lbs 4oz)

Uncle Jackson & Auntie Shelley: Sept. 4th Boy (8lbs 4oz)

Sarah Kuhn: Sept. 7th Boy (8lbs 12oz)

Uncle Jason: Sept. 8th Girl (6lbs 3oz)

Lindsay: Sept. 9th Girl

Auntie Darcie: Sept. 9th Boy (8lbs 5oz)

Grandma Weglo: Sept. 10th Boy/Girl (9lbs 2oz)

Grandpa Weglo: Sept. 11th Boy (9 lbs)

Auntie Sarah: Sept. 12th Boy (8lbs 3oz)

Hailey: Sept. 13th Boy (7lbs 13oz)

Alicia: Sept. 13th Boy (8lbs 12oz)

Lillian: Sept. 13th Girl (6lbs 8oz)

Alison: September 14th Boy (7lbs 12oz)

Great Auntie Terri: Sept. 14th Boy (7lbs 5oz)

Karen: Sept. 15th Boy (6lbs 10oz)

Great Auntie Donna: Sept. 15th Boy (8lbs 6 0z)

Great Auntie Wanda: Sept. 16th Girl (7lbs 1oz)

Andrea: Sept. 18th Girl (7lbs 8oz)

Baby Poll

2008-07-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Family, friends, or anyone who reads this blog….please make your guesses. We want to know your guess for weight, date and gender of course :)

Here is my current belly picture at 34 weeks:

Just a reminder: My due date is September 10th...Guess away :)

Maternity Dress

2008-07-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

While we were in Vernon, Shelley had been cleaning out my parents house and found this lovely piece of clothing. This is a maternity dress my mom wore with either Sarah or I, and of course I had to try it on.

What do you think? Should we bring it back in style?? :)

Houseboating Holiday

2008-07-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

Our Houseboating trip will definitely be a highlight of our year. It was one of the most relaxing vacations ever! We didn't have the hottest weather but we still took advantage of the beautiful lake and scenery.

Our Houseboat (Ketch 23)

The water was pretty chilly so we definitely put the hot tub to good use!

One night we docked by Albas falls and walked the 6km hike to the 4 sets of falls. It was gorgeous.

We finished our holiday with a couple days visiting with my family in Vernon. We came back to their house to find that the huge tree in the backyard had split in half during a storm earlier that week. We had felt the storm out on the houseboat but hadn't realized how bad it actually was. It's sad that this beautiful tree will now have to be taken down, but we did get some fun pictures of the damage.

On Monday while everyone was at work, Josh and I took advantage of the beautiful Okanagan and brought Emmett to Pebble beach. It's a little dog beach with such clear water and was the perfect temperature. I wish we had something like it to bring Emmett to in Bonnyville, he just loves the water!!

Then we said our good-byes and headed back to Bonnyville. Now we're starting to realize just how quick the due date for baby is approaching. So our life is now revolved around getting ready for baby Phillips' arrival.

I lose…

2008-07-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

If any of you had read the post about our anniversary you would know that I lost the bet with Josh, since Pittsburgh didn’t win the Stanley Cup. So for our anniversary get-away I decided to do something a little simpler and we headed out to Josh’s grandparents cabin. It’s about a 15 minute drive out of town and we stayed for Friday and Saturday night. It was amazing! We did pretty much nothing for the whole day Saturday. Just soaked up some sun, played card games, took a nap, went for walks…it was exactly what we needed. And it was a cheap little get-away too :)
Then Sunday we headed to John and Tammy’s to swim in their pool. We've had amazing weather for the past week, and it was great to soak up some sun for the afternoon. Brad and Sarah also came up for the afternoon and we even had a little pool for Isaac :)

Tomorrow Josh and I head off for BC with the family again for a week of houseboating. Can't wait!!

Trip to Vernon

2008-06-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

Josh and I had a chance to head to Vernon this past weekend for our cousin Amanda’s wedding. It was a wonderful weekend spent with lots of visiting with family and friends and of course getting to share in Amanda and Ryan’s special day.
Their wedding was so beautiful. Amanda looked amazing in her mother’s wedding dress, and everything went very smoothly. The reception was held outside and we got through most of the program before having to move into the gym because of the rain.

The Phillips Family

Amanda and Ryan dancing in the rain…so romantic :)

On Sunday we took advantage of the hot weather and went for a hike. It was so nice to be in the Okanagan again and enjoy all the beautiful lakes and scenery.

Driving down and back we saw a total of 5 bears!! I had never seen a bear in real life until this past weekend…

The weekend went by way too fast but we'll be heading back to BC in a couple weeks again for some houseboating. Should be a nice relaxing vacation...

2008-06-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

26 Weeks

The fun and not so fun changes that pregnancy brings:

Having an excuse to eat more and not feel guilty :)
Heartburn
Feeling the baby kick and move more everyday...such an amazing feeling!
Getting to wear new maternity clothes
A hairy belly...yuck!!
Cravings: Milk, and Subway :)
Getting amazing deals on baby clothes and toys at garage sales. The best one yet: A baby swing for 5 dollars (regularly $160). They were selling it cause the motor for the swing wasn't working properly...but everything else was perfect. Josh fixed the little motor and now it works great!

The Month of May

2008-05-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

Seeing as May is almost finished and I haven't posted since the beginning of the month, this is going to be a post all about our month of May....
It started off with us buying a new car. We were already looking because we knew we’d need a 4 door and something bigger for when the baby came. So one day a 2006 Ford Five Hundred came into the dealership where Josh works to be traded in. The guy that had owned it had worked at the dealership and taken really good care of it. We had to decide right away so we took it for a test drive and had it bought by the end of the week. It’s quite a fancy car, not something we would have normally picked, but it has so much more room and a lot of great features.

Our New Car
Also this Month Josh and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary on May 6th.

It’s crazy that 2 years has already passed. It’s been a very busy month so we haven’t had a chance to do anything to celebrate. So we decided on this: We both have different picks of who is going to win the Stanley cup. Josh says Detroit and I say Pittsburgh. So whoever loses this bet has to plan a get away for our anniversary. The way the series has been going, it looks like it's going to be me planning something :) Well that’s if we can find a weekend before the baby comes where we don’t already have a wedding to go to, a baby room to get finished, a deck to take down and build…wow it’s going to be a busy summer!
We also had a couple great weekends of family visits this month. First Sarah and Isaac came up to spend the weekend while Brad was in Edmonton for hockey. It’s been so wonderful having Sarah close especially with the baby coming. She’s been so helpful with tips on buying baby things, and lending me maternity clothes…it’s been so wonderful!
On the Saturday morning, Isaac woke up a little earlier then Sarah so we had a little photo shoot. I love all of his expressions

For May long weekend we had my whole family come up for a visit. Jason flew from Toronto and Shelley and my parents drove up from Vernon. It was such a wonderful weekend relaxing, eating my mom’s wonderful home cooked meals, playing lots of games, and just hanging out as a family.
Here are some pictures of us playing "Quelf". Such a fun game!! It brought lots of laughs....

We were all pretty pooped after the weekend...especially Emmett!

This past Monday, Josh and I got back from a weekend in Edmonton for YC. It’s a big youth conference of about 16,000 people with bands and speakers and all that fun stuff. It was an amazing weekend that I know impacted a lot of our youth.

There were many great concerts and the baby was definitely dancing and kicking through lots of them. Let's just hope he/she doesn't come out addicted to loud rock music and greasy food because of this weekend :)
Well that's the update for now. Sorry about the long post. I’ll try and split it up a little better next time :)

Happy May 1st

2008-05-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

What, it's May already!! Wow, so sorry about the lack of posts recently. There's been a lot to post about, but I've just been a bit lazy :) First of all, we'll start with baby :) Here are the pictures from our ultrasound a couple weeks ago. It was amazing to see how much the baby has grown from our last picture...

Here is the outline of the baby's face and belly.

Here you can make out the little toes and legs.

Here is the updated belly picture. People keep telling me that I'm pretty small, but I'm beginning to realize that it's not such a bad thing. As long as the baby is the size it needs to be (which he/she is) then I'm happy. At least I'm bigger then Josh now :)

21 Weeks (Over Halfway!!)

We also have some sad news...Dr. Pepper, our goldfish that we've had for a year and a half has passed away. We're actually surprised that we had him that long so we're pretty proud of ourselves for keeping a goldfish alive for more then a day. Now we'll have to move up the scale and get something a little more tricky...any suggestions?

Paul Brandt Concert

2008-04-03T10:34:00.001-07:00

Last night we went on a triple date to the Paul Brandt concert with Brad & Sarah and Tim & Jesseca. It was amazing! We had such good seats, only 4 rows from the stage!

Tim and Jesseca

Brad and Sarah

Josh and I

Shane Yellowbird opened the concert. Loved his shirt and his concert :)

Then came Paul :)

He played all my favorites...Alberta Bound, Convoy, small town & big dreams, and a lot of other good oldies.

April

2008-04-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Happy April Fool’s day everyone. Not that I actually do anything for this day but I’m still happy it’s the first day of April. Josh and I went for our first spring walk last night but it didn’t last very long cause it’s still pretty chilly. I can’t wait for “spring” to actually come!! It’s been a very long winter…
Well there hasn’t been much new in our lives these past couple weeks. The pregnancy has been going great. I’m not too big yet, but it's slowly growing. We’ll just say that Josh still has a bigger belly then me :)
Here are a couple pictures...

Baby at 10 weeks

Baby at 14 weeks

Josh is still bigger :)

I'll be 17 weeks this Wednesday and I've grown a bit since this picture. My pants have started to feel pretty snug lately. I actually went to church on Sunday without my button done up because it was just too tight. Thankfully my zipper stayed up:) We'll have to make a trip into Edmonton soon for my new wardrobe...how exciting!!

Tomorrow night we’re heading to a Paul Brandt concert. He’s actually coming to our small little town of Bonnyville and I’m very excited to see him live. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures...

A Weekend in Saskatoon

2008-03-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I headed to Saskatoon with Brad and Sarah. Brad had to do some scouting for a hockey game, so I tagged along. It was a fabulous weekend. We got to Saskatoon for supper on Saturday and we ate at Bonanza! Sarah and I were so excited because we used to eat at Bonanza all the time when we were little. So it brought back a lot of memories! Here are some pictures for our family, and anyone else that has some memories from this oh so wonderful restaurant :)

Look they still had the old brown cups :)

Me enjoying the wonderful buffet. All it needed was perogies, and I was satisfied!

Sarah and Isaac. He doesn't look too impressed with me taking so many pictures :)

Sunday we took Isaac swimming for the first time. He loved being in the water!

Then we did a couple hours of shopping and headed back home. It was another wonderful relaxing weekend.

Hope you all have a great week!

Surprise!

2008-03-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

I’m pretty sure that most of you already know that Josh and I are going to have a baby! For those who didn’t, Surprise! Ha-ha. To tell you the truth, this was actually a big surprise for Josh and I. We weren’t planning on having kids for a while, but God definitely had something else in mind :)
So here are some details:
I am now 14 weeks pregnant, which makes the baby’s due date in September somewhere between the 10th and 14th. Because this baby was a surprise, we were a little unsure of the actual due date, but I’ve been telling people September 10th. So I get to be pregnant in the summer time!! I’m usually a cold person, and I love the heat, so I think it’ll be good :)
For the most part I’ve been feeling very good! I’m a little sick in the mornings but I feel good as soon as I eat something. It’s been a blessing not having to miss any work because of being sick. I've also been having pretty bad back pain already. At first I didn’t think it had anything to do with the baby because I thought you only got pain once the baby got bigger. But the doctor said that my muscles are all expanding to make room for baby, and so that’s probably the reason for my back pain. If anyone has any tips or exercises for relieving back pain, please do share :)
Other then that everything has been going really well. I haven’t started to show yet, but when I do I’ll make sure to post some belly pictures.
I’ve already had 2 ultrasounds, the first one was when I first found out we were pregnant and the baby was only the size of a little bean. Then last week, just to make sure everything was still ok with the baby, I had another one. So here is a picture of baby around 13 weeks.

2008-03-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Josh went to a men's retreat with his grandpa, dad, and Brad so I got to have Sarah come and spend the weekend with me. It was wonderful getting to spend some quality time with Sarah and Isaac. We went shopping, watched movies, ate junk food, watched more movies, and just had a great girly weekend.

Of course I had to get some pictures of my cutie nephew, who's getting so big!

Thanks for the great relaxing weekend Sarah!

A Night with Friends

2008-02-25T09:32:00.001-08:00

Our good friends Greg and Meg had us over for a fondue night on Saturday. We had a great time hanging out, eating fruit and chocolate, and getting to play “Rock band”. For those who don’t know the game too well, it’s like guitar hero but with drums and a singer too. I tried as hard as I could to get Josh to sing, but he stuck to the drums and guitar. Even though I’m not a huge rock fan, the game was still so much fun!

Greg and Josh enjoying the Fondue

Megan forgot about the chocolate in the microwave, so it got a little burned. The house was a little smoky :)

Rockband!! Good times...

A day off...

2008-02-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

I am loving Alberta today....We have a day off for Family Day! It's been such a treat to sleep in, do some shopping, eat at Timmy's and enjoy the beautiful weather. It's only been -2 the last couple days, and it's amazing how warm weather and sunshine will put you in such a good mood.

What we do on a lazy day off:

Josh works on the house:

Me admiring Josh as he works on the house. Apparently guys like that...when you watch them work. It makes them feel powerful :)

Emmett soaking up the sunshine:

Our other pet, Dr. Pepper who is never mentioned, probably because he's a fish and we're quite surprised he's still alive.

Well that's all my randomness for today.

I hope you all have a great week :)

The month of January...

2008-02-04T10:01:00.001-08:00

Wow, I am getting really bad at this blogging thing. It’s almost been another whole month since I’ve posted anything. For those who do read this, I apologize for not keeping up with it more, and I'll try my hardest from now on to give you some good posts.
I guess one thing that's worth blogging is that we got a new camera. Josh and I decided for Christmas this year, instead of stressing out over what to buy for each other, we’d put that money towards a nice camera. So of course, we’ve been having lots of fun with this new camera taking lots of pictures. So here is a collage of our life in the past month. Sorry, some are very random and silly but we were just so excited to try out our new camera :)

Jesseca, Lillian, and I threw a surprise birthday party for our friend Charity. Good times!

I also got a chance to visit with my little nephew a couple times this month. He's getting so big!

This past week we had a drive-in movie night at youth. The kids had to make their own cars out of cardboard and then sit in them as we watched a movie on the projector. It was a lot of fun!

Ok, here is where it get's random. It's a new camera and I know everyone of you has taken pictures of yourself before :)

The many facial expressions of my wonderful husband.

Our dog, Emmett!

Well Happy February everyone, and hopefully I won't wait till March to post again :)

2008-01-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. Life has definitely been crazy this last month. Good, but crazy! Christmas was wonderful this year. This was our year to spend with my family so Josh and I headed to BC for Christmas. The holiday was filled with lots of relaxing, which was much needed, lots of eating, lots of cuddling with Isaac, sleeping in, eating, visiting with friends….you know the usual holiday stuff.
It was a great time but we’re now happy to be home, and back to our normal busy life in Alberta.

Before we left for BC, we got to celebrate Christmas with the Phillips family. It was so nice to have Jared and Rachel home even though we didn’t get to visit with them too much.

Then on the Saturday we headed to BC for Christmas!!

Family picture with Grandma and cousins on Christmas

Josh with Isaac.

Four Generations

The only time Brad and Josh were in the kitchen the whole holiday. They wanted to bring a tradition from Brad's family and so they made a birthday cake for Jesus. It was very yummy!

Well we hope you all had a great Christmas and we wish you all a Happy New Year!