Merry smiles

It would be so nice if we had one picture that featured everyone smiling, but Corrina's the only one trained right now.  But we all like variety, or at least i do, so here's a bunch of pictures with different grins!

So christmas was great!  Lots of time spent with different friends, and so many treats and games.  But its nice to be back to the everyday life too.

Sisters

I have been trying to upload a video for about 4 days and it's not working at all, so here is a link to see a little movie of Corrina entertaining Annika.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q76McYO3H_o

As Christmas draws near we are busy keeping ourselves busy with smiles and giggles.

I made a delicious bread today for Christmas morning.  Right now Corrina is "a cook at a school making orange soup" while Annika sleeps beside her snug in a car seat, ie. the downstairs bed!

For Christmas Eve we will be snacking on some simple appetizers and treats while reading and learning from the story of Christ's birth, amid the glowing lights on the tree.


Wishing everyone a warm, safe, healthy, meaningful Christmas.

We are actually ALIVE!

No smiles here, but this is pretty much what Annika looks like most of the time!

Corrina is "helping" Annika to smile.

We've been doing family activities to engage in waiting for Christ's birth, or Advent.  We started with thinking about the Angels in the story.  We make glitter angels, and painted angel cookies.  Painting cookies rocks!

We are alive, and slowly becoming well again.  This fall/winter season has been riddles with colds, infections, aches and pains.  I'd like to think we are just getting it all out of the way for the year to come.

Life has been busy, and Annika fits right in perfectly.  She is smiley and social, eats amazingly and sleeps great for her age.  She is easy to entertain, cuddly and patient.  You can imagine why I might say patient as you've had a sample picture above of the little "helper". 

I'm not on top of anything at home!  Maybe that's the way it should be.  I am enjoying each day though.  Its nice to focus on caring for my home and family right now.  We've been crafting, baking, building, and as of late Corrina has asked that we teach her to read! 

I've been brainstorming some newish hobbies to focus on in the coming year, as I need to get myself out of the kitchen away from the butter and sugar that's created so many delicious Christmas cookies if I'm ever to be a healthy individual who lives past 30!  Seriously, I've been going a little nuts... After Christmas I'm only baking muffins and biscotti! I'm going to become a master at those two!

Anyway, I think I will take up sewing again.  There are some moments when Corrina is at school or playing happily, the chores are done and the baby is sleeping and I NEED something stimulating to do.
I'm also going to increase my crafting with Corrina.

Anyway, I have nothing important to say, so go look at those cute gals again!

Into October with Family and Pumpkin Butter

We just had a great visit with my mom.  We've been spoiled this fall, with a fantastic visit with Dave's family.  We accomplished so many projects when they came, spent really fun times together watching favorite shows and doing some Winnipeg activities.  We had delicious meals, and lots of laughs while waiting for the baby.  We would not have made it through September without them!

Just after they left we all came down with pretty horrible colds.  Dave and I didn't know how we were going to make it through the nights with a newborn, let alone the next day.  Thankfully we healed, as we knew we would, but in the moment it's rotten to wait for the healing to begin.  Many people from church brought us homemade meals during this time which kept us going and coping!  We are thankful!

And than my mom arrived and cleaned my home top to bottom, caught us up on nutritious meals again, did every bit of laundry, held and rocked Annika every chance to she had.  She brought a nice replenishing zen feeling to our home with a hint of ginger as she constantly brewed rich chai tea to keep her energy up!  During my mom's visit we had phenomenal weather and were out and about in summer clothes most days.  I like having a baby in fall alot more than in bitterly cold January!

Through it all Corrina has been doing well as a sister.  She continues to love helping and holding Annika.  I'm not worried about Annika being dropped when in Corrina's arms, I'm more concerned about her being squished!   

All in all we are doing well.

And just for fun, here is an amazing recipe I found for Pumpkin Butter.

I've been using mine to make Pumpking Lattes, pancakes, and just mixed with our Homemade Granola (I'll post that recipe soon too)! 

Annika Meredith Grace

Yes, our newest little one has arrived.  Annika Meredith Grace was born September 15th at 12:39am.  She weighed about 8lbs4oz, and was 20 3/4 inches long. 

 Annika will make it into the Top Ten for most mauled child!

Her labor and birth went really well.  Lots of hard, intense work, but I was able to birth her naturally and we were blessed to avoid any special circumstances that might have changed that.  When we recalled that Corrina made her way into the world in 15 minutes, down the birth canal that is, we were flabbergasted that Annika was birth in about 5 minutes.  Not to be confused with the long labor!  In less time than her big sis, Annika took about 16 hours from start to finish.  Luckily for me only about 3-4 hours of that was active, hard labor.  A neat thing about Annika's birth is that she actually crowned in her bag of waters.  Once she crowned the doctor tore the membranes so Annika could breathe the air of her new world. 

I had awesome support from Dave and from our friend Gloria who is a trained Doula.  As well, another friend who is also a Doula passed along information and her experience with Hypno birthing.  Hypno birthing in essence is practicing meditation to achieve focus and relaxation during labour and birth.  The positive messages and soothing guided breathing and meditation made a complete difference in relaxation, and I think progression of labor too!  I actually put on my meditation throughout early labor and took naps!  Love it!  I highly recommend at least looking into Hypno birthing if you are hoping to have a manageable natural labor and birth. 

She is a darling!  We are quickly developing a great routine with lots of eating, playing and sleeping (thank you Baby Whisperer).  We are much better at giving Annika what she needs than we were with Corrina.  it's great to have a head start.


And Just for fun, a little Who's Who?

Picture One

Picture Two

Picture Three

Picture Four

Picture Five

Snuggled Inside

At 39 weeks today, our little Pippi is still snuggled up inside.
Perhaps the next post will include us snuggled up with her cute little face!

Lately...

Here's a few quick photo updates on the lives of us:

How to get your kid to eat Tofu

What to do with fresh-picked raspberries

Janie and me at the natural Manitoba garden at the Forks.

Corrina and I have been playing Muppets a lot lately. Like, a lot.