The wait is over.

At 1:55PM on May 26th, at a most impressive speed, we welcomed our little(big) man
into the world, weighing in at 9lbs 9oz and measuring 22" long. 

 James Daniel Reese Court has joined his big sisters and they absolutely adore him.

Dear Baby,

Could you please come soon! I am dying to meet the little creation that has taken up residence on my bladder so as to cause me to feel as though I need to go to the bathroom all of the time. I want to hold you in my arms and feel your warm breath on my cheek instead of your feet in my ribs. I want to cradle you in my arms, not with my hips, they are really starting to ache. I want to rock you till you are asleep when you are awake in the middle of the night, instead of rocking you in my bed as I toss and turn because I can't find a comfortable way to lay. I can't wait to see if you are a boy or a girl. I have made you some
beautiful things and I want to know if I get to use the boy set or the
girl set. I am so excited, I can not stop thinking about you. Your big sisters are also very excited to meet you. A word of warning, but don't let this slow your arrival, your big sisters will likely smother you with hugs and kisses. They won't be able to get enough of you, and will likely never leave you alone. But it's just because they already love you so much. I know you will be here soon, but do you think you could come sooner, rather than later? The anticipation(and discomfort) is killing me.
Love, your mother.

A mother's day gift

I had just opened the Mother's day gifts that Kathryn and Tansley had made me, and then about an hour later, out of nowhere Kymberly came to me with a diaper and a box of wipes behind her back and she said to me "Mom, I have a present for you" and then she tossed the diaper and wipes at me. I laughed so hard....and then I changed her stinky bum. Happy Mother's day to me.

Tansley's new toys...

For Tansley's 5th birthday she really wanted her very own camera that she could take pictures with whenever she wanted. I wasn't really fond of this idea at first, Tansley has a way of destroying things, unintentionally. But, if she had her own camera, then she wouldn't always want to use mine or Kathryn's, and maybe the unreasonable tantrums that she can throw when she doesn't get her own way would at least be eliminated in this one particular area. So I set out on Ebay to see what I could find. I had to keep going back and looking every few days and finally I came across this used3.2MP camera with the latest bid at $7, and there was only 15 minutes left in the auction. I quickly googled it to see what I could learn about it.

It looked perfect for little hands. The reviews all said that it was a battery eater, no big deal, we use rechargeables. Some reviews said that the camera took terrible indoor pictures, others said that it was great. Most of them agreed that it took great outdoor pictures. Overall consensus was that it was a good camera for beginner, which sounded perfect for my Miss Tansley. So I put a bid in for $7.50 and sniped it at the very last second. Shipping was a whopping $3. I was pleased with myself and hoped that when it actually got to me that it would live up to my expectations and it did...in fact, even more so. It is such a simple little camera, with very few gadgets and dials for her to play with. Just the basics, and not only that but the seller also sent a 128MB memory card and batteries to get us started. Tansley was over the moon with her new camera and had to test it out right away. Here are the images she captured of her birthday party.

Tansley's Birthday Party

Tansley's other new toy was the bike that Kathryn had out grown. That too she loved, but didn't have time to ride it that night...and then it snowed like crazy and she hasn't had a chance until now to give it a try. She'll be working on figuring out how to ride with out training wheels for the next little while, but she is a determined little girl and I know she will get it figured out before too long.

Oh what do you do...

...in the spring time, when all the world is white...and school is canceled, and you have no power?
Do you wait for it to stop snowing, and the crazy wind to stop blowing and the sun to come out, and then...
Do you try to build a snow fort?

When that ends up being too much work,

Do you try to make snow angels?

When your arms and legs get stuck,

Do you just dive into the deep wet snow?

Or do you just pull an empty sled...because that's easiest?

or maybe you go wading through belly deep snow, and end up stuck.

Hey Ranford, your brown spots give you away!

 Is that what you do? So do we!

Storyteller

Kymberly just climbed up on my lap and the following conversation took place

Kymberly: "Mom, I have a story in my mouth"
Me: "You have a story in your mouth?"
Kym: "Yes, You want to hear it?"
Me: "Sure."
Kym: "Once upon a time there was a big mom walking in the forest, in the dark. The end."
Me: "Wow, that was a good story."
Kym: "You want to hear it again?"
Me: "Sure"
Kym: "A baby one?"
Me: "OK"
Kym: "Once upon a time there was a baby mom walking in the forest, in the dark. The end."
Me: "hahaha, you are cute."
Kym: "You want to hear a scary one?"
Me: "Sure"
Kym: "Once upon a time there was a scary mom walking in the forest, in the dark. The end."
Me: "Kymberly, you make me laugh"
Kym: "You want to hear a scary ghost one?"
Me: "Sure"
Kym: "Once upon a time there was a scary mom ghost walking in the forest, in the dark. The end."

I sense a theme here. I wonder how many different versions she could come up with.

Living through my children

I never win anything. I have the worst luck when it comes to winning prize draws and the like. Although I remember once in Grade eight I did win a pair of canvas shoes for the "Know-it-all" contest. I had been admiring these shoes that had a cat face painted on them, and I just happened to have earned enough points to qualify to win them, and then I was lucky enough to have my name called to claim a prize before somebody else claimed them. That is the last time I can actually remember winning anything. I used to love entering different give-aways on the many crafty blogs that I visit, but I never win, so I no longer enter very often.
So when I received a phone call informing me that Kathryn had won first prize in the Milk River Watershed Poster Contest for her age group, I was super excited! The prize...her very own 2 man Coleman tent! When I told her she was almost as excited as I was. We both couldn't wait for the next few weeks to pass. Well today was the day that Kathryn was awarded her prize at the Milk River Watershed Council.

Kathryn and her poster

Kathryn receiving her tent from the ATB sponser

Kathryn and the ATB Guy

Take care of the river by picking up garbage

At first I was a little disappointed because it is way to windy to set up the tent outside. But then I decided that we have a big enough basement that we'll set the tent up for the girls to sleep in tonight. It's always important to test these things out before going camping. Now we are both looking forward to camping trips this summer, Kathryn can't wait to try out her tent...like really try it out in the woods.