A Celebrity in the House

On Sunday I had Kendall dressed in a solid red sweater dress with red tights. For the rest of the day whenever I would enter the room with Kendall, Cole would say "Elmo" usually followed by "baby Ken-all". I guess she sorta did look like his favourite little red monster. The minds of 2 year olds are very amusing.

In Transition

So the Brown family has been M.I.A. as of lately.

Since my last post ...

We sold our house in Alberta (one week from the day we listed). I packed all of our belongings in 2 1/2 weeks in the midst of farewells and good bye visits with friends.

The moving truck was loaded up Sept. 7th and sent on its way while our family drove to Edmonton, put our vehicle on the train and then flew to Ontario.

Once in Niagara, Dave, Kendall and I headed to Kingston for 5 days, in which time we bought a house.

We returned to my Mom's in the Falls and then Dave flew back across the country a couple of days later to attend his Arrow Leadership course in BC for a week.

After his return he headed back up to Kingston to start his new position as Lead Pastor on October 1st.

In the mean time the kids and I crashed at my Mom's place until we got possession of our house October 29th. A couple of days were spent painting and setting up Cole's room and then our moving truck arrived on November 1st with everything we hadn't seen for 2 months.

So here we are ... officially residents of Kingston, Ontario. There are still boxes piled all around the house, and Kendall's room is still in the midst of being painted, but our house is already feeling like a home and not just because we haven't had one for a while either ;)

In the meantime the kids have continued to grow. Kendall has begun eat cereal and then refuse to eat cereal. as well as sitting up on her own. Having Mommy out of her sight is always a cause for great distress, and she will always demand to be in the center of the action rather than be sitting by the sidelines in any exersaucer, jumperoo or chair. He favourite and only word is "Ma ma".

Cole is still working on his 2 year molars and drooled through 4 shirts today and seems to permanently have his hand affixed to his mouth these days. However, when all 5 digits are removed his speech is improving every day and he loves to sing more than anything. He also loves his new room and has been sleeping in a twin bed since being at Grandma's. Upon seeing all his toys once again after a couple months he told them all "I missed you" as he excitedly examined each one.

So as you can imagine there's a whole lot of stuff to be blogging about these days, but since we've been so busy, time to do so is scarce. Currently keeping the kids fed, clothed, clean and happy on top of unpacking and painting is about all I can handle, and with adding Dave's new job on top of that, life is pretty full. However, stay posted. I will try to update. Maybe even some pictures of the new house as I managed to get a room or two completely tackled. For now I leave you with a picture of the front exterior taken in much warmer weather :)

The Next Chapter ... For Those Still Reading!

Okay, so usually I have some lame excuse for not keeping this blog up to date but this time I think my reasons are pretty valid. Here's a re-cap of the last month and-a-half.

• I had some day surgery that took a few days to recover from.


• The day before my surgery Cole came down with a nasty case of croup and spent 8 hours in emergency.


• I packed for a trip to Ontario


• I cleaned my house in order to have guests stay at our place while we were gone


• I was doing a baby clothes exchange with those guests, so I organized 5 diaper boxes of Cole's old clothes.


• Spent 5 days in Kingston candidating at a church


• Spent another week in Niagara visiting my family


• Returned home and unpacked everyone


• Got our house ready, cleaned and organized to list and sell


• Been keeping the house clean every minute of the day ... just in case

Oh ... and I have the normal "look after a 2 year old and a 2-3 month old" stuff in there as well. I'm sure there were a few other things I forgot too.

And just for clarification ... YES we are moving away from Grande Prairie. Dave has accepted a position as Lead Pastor at a church in Kingston, Ontario. This of course made my family back home very happy, but all our friends here in Alberta very sad. However, they are awesome friends and very supportive. Of course this is a decision we have spent a lot of time in prayer about and is very bitter sweet. We know Kingston is where God wants us to be, and knowing we will be close to at least one side of family is a wonderful thought. However, we love our home, friends and church in Grande Prairie so we will be very sad to leave them all behind. No moving date as of yet, but Dave's last day of work is August 31st. Please keep us in your prayers, especially when it comes to the sale of our current house.

And now for a few pictures ...

June Miscellaneous

Here are just a few snapshots from this month. During all the busyness of a new baby and an active 2 year old, I've been trying to remember to pull out the camera to capture a few photos. Even when I've had the opportunity, this endeavour is quite difficult considering the infant only spends an average of 20 minutes awake and happy when she's not eating, and the toddler is more inquisitive about investigating the digital camera and looking at the images on the screen than sitting still and posing for the camera. Despite all these obstacles, I've even managed to catch the rare instance of Cole taking an interest in his new sister ... or at least whatever apparatus she's resting in or on at the time!

Hats

After a long winter of wearing only toques, Cole decided he was not keen on wearing something to keep the sun off his face. That is until he got smitten with the idea of wearing Mommy and Daddy's ball caps. Here are a few pictures of our little man sporting his now favoured headgear.

Cole's "-Ouse"

Thanks to a fabulous sale at Zellers, us along with my mom, were able to get this wonderful little playhouse for Cole (and eventually his sister). Cole loves it. We set it up on our deck where Cole can see it from his booster seat at meals. These days breakfast, lunch and dinner end with the words "house" and "all done" meaning he wants to go play.

Outside is a working door bell and inside is a digital phone that makes noises when you press the buttons. Cole also loves going in and out and opening and closing the shutters. There is also a mail slot but he hasn't figured that out yet, mostly because we don't actually have a mailbox on our house but a locking one up the street.

An added bonus is the extra large box it came it that Cole likes to climb in and out of in our basement. However, I think we'll need our office space back soon.

My Shadow My Friend

Pictures of Cole

Pictures of Kendall

She's Here!

Kendall Ann

Born May 7th, 2010

At 3:50 AM

7 lbs 14 oz 19 inches

40 Weeks ... and still here

Most of you probably thought I would never make it to my due date ... but here we still are. I must say my current tenant has quickly run out of room, yet she still remains, not seeming bothered by her rather cramped surroundings and my general discomfort.

My mom arrived late Saturday night from Ontario and so I now have peace of mind about having to leave Cole for a couple of days. My OB who was moving this weekend and unavailable should also be settled and our friend the lactation consultant who was away this weekend should also be back. In other words ... from now on all things should be a go :)

So now we continue to wait. My next prenatal appointment is Thursday afternoon after which I have an induction date of May 8th. So by Mother's Day I should be a mother of two.

Stay tuned ... we'll keep you posted ...

P.S. Our friends who most recently had their baby Sunday morning, and thought they were most likely expecting a girl, had a boy. So one never knows what surprises Baby Brown may hold. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

39 Weeks

So I'm 39 weeks pregnant now. This is a new record for me since Cole was born exactly a week early. So this is officially the longest I've been pregnant (woo hoo). I don't think I look much bigger than my last belly shots but I'm sure the baby is definitely growing and putting on weight. At least that's what my terribly sore back is telling me. Baby Brown could come any time now and my mom comes late Saturday night. Just a matter of days before there is an extra person in the house ... if not two. Let the stalking begin, if it hasn't already!