My gosh… Our move. We’ve now been in Vernon for a little bit more than a month, and while I wouldn’t say we’re ‘settled in’ just yet {there’s still so much to do!}, we’re certainly settling in. Thankfully, this move has been one of the more low-key moves we’ve done, and let me tell you – we’ve done quite a few moves in our time.
My gosh, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I didn’t mean to just disappear for the summer, but despite my best intentions, I just never really made it onto my computer for any length of time other than to write my posts for CBC Parents.
It was a crazy couple of months.
Very quick recap. Back in the spring we decided we wanted to buy our own home, but with the Vancouver real estate market being what it is, that meant having to look elsewhere. I wasn’t happy to be leaving, but we agreed to look in Victoria, West Kelowna, and Kelowna. I’m pretty sure we both spent several hours a day looking at house listings, but when we hadn’t seen much of anything we liked within the budget we had set out for ourselves mid-June, a wildcard option was thrown out. Vernon. My hometown. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the idea {and I’m still not sure I am}, but after much discussion and several pros and cons lists, we decided it was the right move for right now, as so we went with it. We made several trips back and forth to see houses, ended up putting in an offer on a house at the very end of June, went back and forth with the homeowners for a week, had our counter offer accepted on July 6th, had just over a week to remove our subjects, and took possession at the end of July. {I’m exhausted just replaying all of that in my mind.} We spent 10 days or so camping out in the new house at the end of July / beginning of August, had my family from Alberta up, got a bunch of work done in it, organized some trades workers to come in while we were away, and headed back to Vancouver on August 8th to begin the task of packing up our rental home. With some help from a few of family members, we got that done in just over two weeks, stayed in our empty Vancouver house for a few days to soak up as much of the city as we could, and then headed back up to the Okanagan on the 28th. Brad had an orientation for his school district the next day, we needed decide on a schooling option for Miss G, and then it was September.
Whew.
And here we are.
In Vernon, getting settled in our new home.
Wish us luck.
My goodness… After several weeks of postponing our visit due to the field still being green and then several more weeks because of rain, I wasn’t sure we were actually going to make it out to the Abbotsford Tulip Festival this year {which would have been a shame given we enjoyed it so much last year}. But this morning, on the very last Friday of the festival, I took a peek at my weather app and despite it showing nothing but rain, rain, rain for Vancouver, Abbotsford showed sun! Surely it was a sign. All plans of school were quickly called off, snacks were packed up, kids were loaded into the car, and we were Abbotsford bound in no time.
Today we hosted our 6th {or 7th?} annual Valentine’s Tea… The tradition started in Kuwait when Miss G was just 5 and a half months old and has happened every year since, except for last year. Last year our sweet Sam was fresh out of the NICU and as much as it pained me not to follow through with tradition, having people over just wasn’t worth it with our bubba’s health. We were well warned by our NICU nurses to make it through cold and flu season without him getting sick, so we weren’t taking any chances. A little family celebration over the weekend it was.
I’ve been a terrible blogger this year… Between adjusting to life as a mama of two and having a baby who cried for the first several months he was home and hasn’t slept for longer than a couple of hours at a time {at most} for the last several months, some days I feel like I’m just keeping afloat. These days I’m lucky if I get my post into CBC Parents each week and post something here every week or two, but I’m hoping that’ll change this year. We’ve got a new plan in place to help our sweet boy master the art of sleep and if we’re successful, I should finally have a little bit of extra time during naps and after bedtime. We’ll see, but I’m hopeful!
So with that, I’m kicking off 2017 with a peek at our New Year’s Eve… Doing so means I can’t soon forget all the fun we had today – the insane snowfall we got here in Vancouver, how much our girl adores reading at 6 years old {and how much her baby brother looks up to her}, our first ever outdoor silly string fight, and the deliciousness that is our annual NYE fondue night {yum}.
Here’s our NYE in iPhone photos…
plans in place
This whole sneaking away for a quiet, low key Christmas thing… Can we do it every year? Pretty please?? We only just arrived here on Salt Spring yesterday, but I’m already in love with Christmas 2016. We have both of our babies at home with us this year {best feeling ever!}, we really have nothing to do, and there’s little to no holiday stress involved. Love it.
When my {amazing photographer} sister-in-law tagged me in an Instagram post letting me know that her good friend {and fellow photographer} was going to be in Vancouver and had time for a couple of shoots, I jumped at the opportunity. Now truth be told, I sort of detest having photos done, but with our last portrait session being when Miss G was two and this being our first chance to have photos done with our sweet Sam, there was no way I was passing it up.
We met Amy of Modern Nest Photography {based out of Calgary} down at Kits beach – one of our family favourites – early on the morning of Brad’s birthday and sort of just hung out and walked around while Amy snapped away. She was absolutely lovely and despite Sam being on the verge of a total meltdown the entire time {poor guy fell asleep in the car about 10 minutes before arriving and was not pleased about having his nap cut short}, I just adore the images she was able to capture… Us, as a family of four, in Vancouver – our current home and one of my very favourite cities in the world.
Here are my favourites…
Oh my goodness… What a whirlwind weekend! While there was a time in my life when i headed to the island every other weekend, with two little ones it tow, having what’s essentially a day and a half away feels too short. That being said, we had a fabulous time in Victoria this past weekend and managed to sneak all kinds of fun into our mini getaway.
The best part? Undoubtedly seeing Grandma Sue! While my family moved to BC while I was still in elementary school, over the years everyone – my dad, my brother, and my mom – eventually made their way back to Alberta, leaving me here alone in BC {though truthfully, I spent most of those years in the Middle East}. Either way, it’s so nice to have my mom back and just a ferry ride away! {I see many island trips in our future.}
After 8 long years with the same entry-level DSLR, I finally splurged and bought myself a new camera last week. And oh my goodness… I had forgotten how fun it is to take photos when you don’t have to run to your computer and upload your pictures every 3 snaps in order to reformat the card and get your camera working again. Ahhhh…. Freeeeedom!
To celebrate, my littlest bubba and I had a bit of an impromptu photo shoot this morning and thank goodness we did! Other than the photos taken for his 3 month, 4 month, and 5 month updates, I’m pretty sure these are the only proper {read: non-iPhone} photos I have of him to date, and that’s just sad. Unacceptable, really. By this time in her life, I’m fairly certain that I’d taken at least 50,000 real camera photos of Miss G {not that I was a proud mama or anything}, which I guess means one thing – it’s time to play catch up with my little Sam Sam! ☺
I’m absolutely not a photographer, but these pictures pretty much sum up what I love so much about the delicious baby stage… Bright, curious eyes. Wispy lashes. Tiny little fingers. Folded hands. Thigh rolls. Chubby toes. Mmmmm… I could truly just eat him up.
After being flagged during the vision screening routinely done in Kindergarten classes, Miss G and I recently visited an optometrist for a more in-depth eye exam. Though our optometrist did suspect that Grae was farsighted in at least one eye, he had us com back for a second appointment several weeks later, just to be sure. She was desperately hoping that she’d need glasses {sort of crazy, but I remember feeling the exact same way when I was little}, and better yet – she was hoping that she’d need both glasses AND a patch. A fancy patch with a sparkly unicorn on it or one with an eye with long eyelashes on it, to be exact.
I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to have them both with me under one roof, if only for half an hour. Gosh, I love them so.
