birthdays!

on saturday susie had her baby! YAY! so exciting. she had her a few days early unlike me who had the joy of experiencing 8 beautiful extra days of a growing babe inside. i think now, james was just teaching me some patience, because thats what i need these days! anyway here is a couple of sadie jane tilleman. (i'm sure there will be more to come) she's so cute and little, 7 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches. when james was born ( over 8 pounds) i could for sure picture a smaller baby, but i cannot beleive that alli was 2 pounds smaller and 3 inches shorter than sadie. susie's husband ryan said now you know why i was scared to hold alli. i know susie has some super cute pics on her camera, and since she cursed herself with a blog she better put up some pictures soon...so if you are reading this sue and i know you are, get on it! (ok ok i'll give a ya week or so)



all day saturday alli was asking for susie. she was chanting her name. alli LOVES susie. i'm pretty sure her love has something to do with the fact that when ryan had to be in calgary for may and june and susie was still teaching, she came over everyday to play with her. and since james was new, alli was a little low on attention. we didn't take her to the hospital on saturday ( i didn't want her and james to contaminate the moment, haha) so she got to go see her tonight. alli was right into the baby...for about a minute. we'll see how she handles less attention from susie now. who knows she might have already replaced susie because when we left tonight she was bawling for ryan...



now on to the other birthday...
it was derek's birthday yesterday. the big 29! i rememeber like 3 or 4 years ago when derek was jumping around different faculties in school picking a major and we would laugh and joke saying you better be done by 30! at the time it really was funny and i sure didn't think he would be finishing school 3 months before he turned 30. but time flies...really...it does (note the last sentence had a tone of a sarcastic nature) we had a quiet birthday with just the fam. derek bbq'ed, (i would have cooked but he does the bbq) and i did do the rest. and if you are wondering yes that is a german chocolate cake, and yes i made the icing myself and yes the cake was from a box (grandma baldry would almost be proud! haha)

derek got a golf club for his birthday a few weeks ago. but i wanted to give him something for his birthday on the day. well, golf stuff isn't cheap and the funds are low, but i still went ALL OUT. he got a dr. pepper. i know what you are thinking, i'm so nice that's too much, the things i do. the deal about the soda is ryan and derek are allowed 12 cans of soda a month and then they are allowed to go on a golf trip next summer. so getting an extra soda IS a BIG deal. (especially considering how much he used to drink on a daily basis)



i'm just loving derek as much as ever these days. he is so good with the kids and so good to me. i cannot imagine life without him. i'm so glad that he is so happy these days. he is really liking his school, loves coaching football of course (his man time) has the funnest time in his calling at church with the young men and of course he comes home every night to a spotless house where his perfect wife has supper on the table when he walks in the door and the litte ones smile and are shiny and clean and never raise their voice. i smile and sing as i do the dishes while he reads the paper then we all go to bed on time and we talk about our day as i am giving him a massage, and nobody wakes up all through the night...oh how happy we are!



and speaking of birthdays, here's alli swimming in her birthday suit!

cousins

alli and grandma


had a great time in raymond on the weekend.
derek's team lost. but austin's team won! haha. it really is crazy how a tiny little school can beat a school almost the size of the town.

we took the 9 kids to the park on saturday while the boys went golfing. what a party, hence the messy faces on all the kids.

Alli


Logan


Ava


Natalee- this is the ONLY one she was looking at the camera, the rest weren't even close, so it's a blur


Brigham- he would NOT look at the camera, those twins were tough!


Rueben- he was the BEST poser. i love this picture


Caroline


Nash and new mama Brooke, he's a month old


James and Christy. he was really liking his aunt christy at the park.


James is a HUGE 14 pounds! i thought for sure he would be above 50th on the percentage scale with that weight, he seems soooooo big with his double chin and all. but 19th percentile for weight, so much for doubling birth weight by 3 months let alone 4 months. and he's 25 inches long, that's 38th percentile, so almost average! haha, it's fun to compare, but i really don't care about all the numbers, i'm just glad my baby is a little happier and eats without an ordeal.

things

Notice the hanging drool? Haha, well I'd rather have a drooler than a spitter upper. And let me tel ya, James is a drooler for sure.



I don't know what I have been doing lately, but I've been slackin I guess. A certain child has been behaving like a VERY NEEDY newborn for the past week (mostly during the night of course) and does not allow me to sit here for too long before he starts calling, and at the end of the day I am usually BEAT.

Few things i'm excited for these days.

1. I started my gym goal this week and am loving it!!!! and am VERY stiff right now( I'll keep you posted on the results when and if they happen)
2. Susie is due with the baby 2 weeks!!! eeek!!! I vote girl 6lbs 10oz
3. Derek is done work and now helping coach high school football at Harry Ainley (i'm not sure that i'm excited about football, but i know derek is)
4. Since Derek is coaching we get to go to Raymond tomorrow. What are the odds that Ainley is playing Raymond in an exibition tomorrow?! So I'm totally gonna cheer for Ainley and boo Raymond, haha. But i won't boo Derek's little bro Austin.
5. School started last week, done school in June FOREVER, can't wait.
6. Derek is taking the bus everyday so I still have a car all the time! (we are giving our second car back to dereks brother this weekend)
7. Derek & Ryan are cutting waaaaaaay back on their soda intake, which i am super excited about.
8. Going outside lots because you never know when the snow could start, gross!
9. Alli starts a music class in a few weeks.
10. Enjoying the last of the goods from my parents garden as you can see!





I also quit the 3 and a half month long battle with breastfeeding a couple weeks ago. I only had to fight with Alli for a month or so and then she was good for a year. With James anything that can go wrong with breastfeeding went wrong and was NOT getting any better. Now James is noticiably happier (at least during tha day that is) and is GROWING like CRAZY. He grew almost 2 inches in just over 2 weeks! I don't know his weight, but he is starting to get rolls in his legs, the little chub! We'll get the stats this weekend from Dr. Grandpa in Raymond. I'm feeling really bad if he was just hungry ALL this time...

So, I still kinda cringe at pictures of me these days. I'm ok if I don't go all the way back to my pre prego weight, but i would like to start wearing my wedding ring again! I'm coming up on 4 months now so no more excuses. I say that because Susie was so kind to venture out with us to take some pictures last week. The setting was wrong on her camera and we didn't know, so there were soooooo many almost cute ones, but they were blurry, sad. But no worries, we can just try it again later! So here are a few of me favs.






So to lose all my baby weight with Alli I did a 21 day challenge. Ever heard of those? You know, you do someting for 21 days and it becomes a habit. I worked out 6 days a week (I didn't go crazy, 3 days for an hour or so and 3 days for 30 mins) and it was great. I kept up my habit (and kept off the weight and more) until I got prego and gave up completely for some reason that I am paying for now. Anyway, I'm saying this because I want to do it again, but I don't know what I'm going to do this time. So I'll be thinking of what I want to do, and so will you right?

And just in case you were wondering, last week my pay it forward fell right into my lap. I was in line at the grocery store and the lady behind me was getting a jug of milk. So I was about to let her go in front of me, but then I remembered. So right at the end of my things I just handed the cashier her milk and said, "I'll get this for you" to the lady. Of course the lady protested, but i said, "No worries just pay it forward." Simple as that!

are you ready...

for a TON of pictures? Derek always says he likes the posts that have lots of pictures with just a little writing, so this is for him. (if he even checks it!) I don't know why he is surprised I have a lot to say. When we were driving to Raymond once we were (or was it just me) talking about how certain personalities make good couples and some do not. The Derek said, "Yeah, not everybody could listen to their wife talk for a 5 hour drive!" It's only because Derek doesn't have a lot to say, so I just talk because it's too quiet.

Here's the random pictures.
My parents were up for the long weekend, had a GREAT time. Miss them already.










these bubbles were the best dollar i spent all summer!




I really wanted to pay it forward a little bit ago, but I never did do it in the real pay it forward way. So I donated to the food bank instead. I'm still going to find an oppurtunity to do it though.