Backwoods Wife

A much needed rest

On Tuesday, Aunty Hilary called me and offered to have all 3 of the older children sleep over at her place that night.  I was so tired that day, an accumulation of Emma having a growth spurt this week plus all the usual day to day stuff of life.  I was so thankful!  Dwayne took me out for supper and then we came home and relaxed while Emma had her longest and most alert awake-time yet. :)  (Earlier that morning my fatigue was temporarily forgotten when she woke up beside me smiling.  She tried on about 5 different grins!)

Wednesday morning Emma and I were able to have a sleep-in.  So nice!  Then my dear friend Alison called and asked if she could have the kids over in the afternoon for a play date with her 3 kids.  Perfect timing, as Emma was scheduled to have an appointment in the afternoon.  My mom offered to have the kids over for lunch in between Hilary's and Alison's.  Lovely!  In the end, Emma had a fussy, hungry time so we ended up postponing the appointment but I was able to run a few errands with only one kiddo in tow.  

To top all of this off, I got to have coffee with Alison and Mom made us delicious stew for supper!  I also got to talk with Lindsey briefly in the morning, and saw Christen & Andrew quickly as well.  We got a box in the mail from Amazon with the first season of Doc Martin in it as well as some new books for the kids.  The four kids and I read bedtime storie upstairs while Dwayne got cleaned up, and then Dwayne, Emma, and I settled in for some laughs on the couch.  Ahh...

Thank you to all!

Our heavenly Father knows what we need and when we need it...

This is a scream...if only I knew how to knit!

You can find a copy of the book here at Amazon.ca or here at Amazon.com.

Photo via the Ivy Press Bookstore (for those of you in the U.K.).

To think on...

I came across this post today over at A Holy Experience called "The Gift of {Strong} Words".  The post is continued here at Heart to Heart with Holley.  The gist of the post is this:

.

 

Only speak words

that make

souls stronger

.

Ephesians 4:9 (NCV)

When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger.

Someone is one month old!

Here she is!  I know we have a lot of pictures of Emma snoozing, but she does this a lot.  This week has been a week of almost constant feeding and sleeping.  One growth spurt in the works!  She is now at the end of her 3 month sleepers.  We'll have to break out the 3-6 month sizes by the end of the week I think.

10lbs!

As of yesterday afternoon, Emma now weighs 10lbs!  That's 11oz gained this week.  Not too shabby at all!  She is having a nice long nap right now, see? Oh look, we even caught part of a grin...

 

Unplanned nap...

Riley and Abby decided to hide while waiting for Grandma to drop Hendrik off this afternoon.  I tried to explain that they might want to wait to start hiding as it would likely be 20 minutes or so before they got here.  Hiding couldn't wait though so they got out blankets and crawled underneath.  At first, they were both under Riley's blanket, but that wasn't working out too well - too many arms and legs under one little blanket.  After some convincing Abby hid under her own blanket next to Riley.  All was relatively quiet for several minutes, and when Mom and Hendrik arrived I realized that it had actually been silent in the house for the previous 5 minutes.  I went to check on the girls and this is what I saw.  Toes poking out from underneath blankets.  They were both sound asleep!

Birthday kids!

Happy birthday to sweet Hendrik and sweet Abby!  Time sure flies when you're having fun!

 

 

Abby really, really wanted a pink cake with a bird on it.  A particular bird from a special postcard sent to Abby from Aunty Hilary while she was away in Australia and New Zealand.  Here is my first bird attempt!  Abby was pleased so that is all that matters. :)

 

Here is Hendrik's cake this year.  Initially he wanted a bug cake.  Then a cake with a stinky, lumpy, bumpy frog and toad.  Then a cake with a racetrack and a motorcycle.  Then he decided a racetrack with his Lightning McQueen car would be fine but it would have to be a dirt track because he has dirt track McQueen.  Done!  This was one of the least complicated birthday cakes ever.  He loved it!

Thanks to Dwayne for baking Hendrik's second cake.  The first one I baked wasn't fully cooked but I didn't realize it until too late...

Thanks to Mom for making the icing and spreading the "backgrounds" on the cakes so I could tend to Emma and get the decorating done in the same day.

Proud big brother

Eyes open!

She looks very serious here! :)

You can't make this stuff up.

 

Hendrik: "Why do only ladies have babies?"

Me: "It is a special job that only ladies can do."

Hendrik:  "Is it a sort of construction job?"

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Riley:  "What are those called again?  Veggie-o's?"  ~ In reference to the package of Fudgee-o's...

 

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Abby: Oh, Old Woman?  Old Woman?

Me: (Wondering if Abby is referring to me and trying to figure out if I should answer.)

Riley: I'm busy.

Abby:  Oh.  I wanted to ask you a question because my baby doesn't have her clothes on. (For those of you not versed in Abby speak - her baby is her doll, not Emma)