Ahhhhh, the joy!  I love watching my children feel the excitement that I used to feel when I was a kid, it brings me back there.  So precious!

My family is getting old enough now for me to start setting our own traditions.  We usually spend Easter dinner with either Slade's family or mine, but this year I wanted to add my own flare, so I prepared a nice dinner on the same day that we decorated some easter eggs the day before Easter.  It was so much fun!! 

Every child has one.  You know...that laugh?  The one that instantly makes you feel like you need to go see what's going on?  Usually, it's a "bad" thing.  The child that is laughing is witnessing, party to, or doing something that most mom's don't like.  Sometimes though it's not, but through my experiences...they usually are.  Well...today, Summer's Maniacal Laugh surfaced for the first time.  This is what I found:

So, I've read lots of stories of these sorts of things happening to other children, and all the mom's feel tons of guilt and blame.  I felt the same, but then I realized that children do things that are out of our control, even if we have taken the necessary steps to make our homes safe, they always seem to find something that we didn't think about or that we even thought was dangerous.  So I stopped blaming myself and focused on the miracle that my son is still with me today. 

Here's my story:

In our previous home, we had 3 windows in our living room that were quite low to the floor.  I love letting in the sunshine, so I always pulled the blinds right up, and having heard of children being strangled by blind cords, I tied it up so it was out of the way.  I went on with my daily chores while my boys did their usual which is wrestling, playing, and anything crazy.  They were playing in the living room on this particular morning.  I pulled out the vacuum and was in the living room getting it all hooked up.  Normally I can just slip the hose into the power head without any problems, but this time, was struggling to get it together.  With my head down and focused on the vacuum, I remember hearing a noise that sounded different, and wasn't a noise that I had heard before.  I just ignored it and finally got the vac together, I was about to turn it on, but the something clicked in my brain and I had a really STRONG feeling that I should look up and see what that noise was.  I looked up and there was my sweet Ronan hanging from the blinds cord.  He had somehow managed to climb up on the window sill and looped the cord around his head.  I don't know if he slipped off or jumped off not realizing the placement of the cord, but there he was.  The image that is burned into my eyes of my little boy literally hanging to death will NEVER leave me.  He was grabbing at the cord above his head.  This all happened very fast, from the time I heard the noise to the time that I ran over and lifted him off the cord.  I have never been so incredibly scared before in my entire life.  My first reaction was to hold him and cry.  But I remained strong so that I wouldn't scare him further.  Checked out his neck, and comforted him.  This is the damage:

He was about 3 years old when this happened.  Now he is 6 and of course doing fine.  He talked about this for awhile, but has since forgotten about it, I think...

My reason for blogging about this is to share my experience, but also to share my growth.  I am a guilt ridden person.  I feel guilty about everything, even things that I shouldn't feel guilty about.  I beat myself up for quite a while over this, saying how I wasn't a good mom, that I was careless, that I wasn't very bright, that Ronan should and would hate me.  But then I realized...that I had done what I was supposed to.  I had tied the cord up and out of the way, I was a good mom for doing that.  Although I did learn that I should probably tie them up higher so that if one of my children did manage to climb up on the sill the cords would be out of the way from that too.  But children are curious and like to explore.  Ronan thought it would be fun to get on the window sill, and these things happen.  So, I just want other moms who have had these similar experiences to know that you are and always will be good moms no matter what may befall your family.

Anyways, there you have it.  :)

Yes...it has been awhile. 

Mid January I started feeling really off...dizzy, headaches, fat, hungry, moody, and then nauseated. 

Once the nausea started, things began to click in my head and I kept thinking that I should take a pregnancy test.  Slade and I were planning to start trying for our 4th addition in March, so I was pretty positive that the test was going to come out negative...

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Yeah...it only took a couple seconds!!  We are expecting our 4th!!  Shocked, very surprised, but VERY excited!!!! 

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VERY sick.  I have since become more and more nauseated to the point where hauling my butt up off the couch is next to impossible.  I have been taking diclectin to help, but it hasn't helped at all and it costs a mint.  This is the most sick I have been in all my pregnancies and it has been quite the challenge.  Between 3 kids, Kindergarten, Preschool, church and my somewhat new calling as RS 2nd Counsellor, it has been difficult.  But I know in time it will let up and I will be able to start functioning at a normal pace again.  Hopefully only one more month?????  I hope.  SO, to simplify and to ease my own guilt, I am not going to be blogging until I am feeling better and can manage the everyday business.  THEN I will catch up on my blogging.  haha  I love blogging and I think it is a great way to journal my life.  Pen and paper have proven time and time again to NOT work for me.  Blogging is a quick fix to scrapbooking and I love being able to incorporate pictures into my "journal".  SO, I will be back, I don't know when, but hopefully soon.

Oh!  We are due September 13, 2010!

We headed out to Vancouver for some Olympic fun with the Leavitts!  The weather has been AMAZING!  Good for tourists and sight seeing...BAD for competitors!  It has been so warm, we hardly needed our jackets until later in the evening!  It was a pretty fun day, but poor Summer got car sick on the way out and threw up all over herself.  She was a bit smelly, but was fine for the rest of the day.  Poor girl!  Ronan and Mason had so much fun checking things out and really taking in the scenery.  They soaked it all up and have been building Vancouver City with their lego ever since!!  So cute!!

Vancouver was selected to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games!  So exciting!  The Winter Olympics is something that I have always enjoyed watching and to have it here so close to my home town is so amazing and SO much fun! 

Ronan's school has focused a lot of their attention on the Olympics since December.  They have done all kinds of crafts and projects relating to it.  To kick off the start of the Games, they had their own Opening Ceremonies and Olympic Games in the gym.  Ronan was SUPER excited for this and, only on the way to school on the day of, did I realize that he thought he was ACTUALLY going to go to the real Olympics and participate in an event!  Eeeeeeeeek!!  He's so precious!  He asked if they were going to go up the mountain (technically yes, since his school is "up the mountain" haha!).  I tried to down play it a bit and help him to realize that it wasn't actually the "real" thing and thought I had got my point across gently...

Apparently not. 

When Slade picked him up from school that day, he was informed by ours truly, that Ronan was the Gold medal winner of the two-man bob sleigh!!  He had a "gold medal" around his neck (streamer with a chocolate coin attached).  He was paired up with one of his buddies and they came in first.  He was SO proud of himself and his team-mate.  When they got home he came and found me and immediately puffed out his chest with his fists on his hips.  I of course puffed up his ego some more. 

He posed...

and, phoned Aunty Irene to tell her all about it...this guy is so funny!

 I guess my subtle hints about it not being the real Olympics didn't take, because he really believes that he was an Olympic Champion for real!

 And to me...he really is. :P

Ronan's party always sneaks up on me. It is right after Christmas (well...sort of...it feels like it is REALLY soon after Christmas because I usually start planning about a month in advance), so I always feel unprepared for it. Not to mention on top of that I have been really nauseated with this pregnancy. It has been so hard to wrap my mind around being pregnant and planning a party. Ronan had been asking for a "Big Truck" party and I just didn't have the energy to try and come up with anything creative on such a broad theme, so I...uhhh...sug...gested...with a hint of convincing power added in, that he has a pool party! I'm not a huge fan of these pre-planned parties hosted by an event center or a "boxed" birthday, but on occasion, they are definitely life savers!! They always turn out fun too, and I'm sure I'll do it again someday. The kids love them! I had been to a party before at the Mission Leisure Center and really liked what their birthday package had to offer so that is where we booked his party. It was GREAT for this sick momma! All I had to do was send out invites, bring cake, goodie bags, and a few treats for adults and extra munchkins running around. The Pool's party committee took care of all the decor and food! It was EXACTLY what I needed! The kids had a really great time and we all went swimming after. It turned out really great and very relaxing and simple. And of COURSE Ronan had a blast!

How does...

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this....

this....???

We decided that it would be fun to go to the Langley Events Center where they were holding their Torch Festivities.  So we packed everyone up and headed out.  By the time we got there things were already starting to finish up.  We had missed all the big stuff, but there were still a few things going on.  I've been pretty sick with this pregnancy, so I wasn't up for much.  The kids had lots of fun as usual and even got to hold a torch!  Pretty exciting!!

There was this big inflatable slide which was a big hit and had a long-ish lineup, but we couldn't miss out.