Zoe is Three-teen

Is my baby really three?  I know I still treat her like she's my baby.  But she's super chatty, has a crazy attitude---that of a teenager, and is hilarious.  She can't possibly be a baby, and yet, why can't I put away the size 24 month pants that I still make her wear???  (In my defence, they are stretchy).  Yesterday as we celebrated her birthday, I think I finally realized that she's a lot bigger than I realized.  She may still snuggle me and want to be by my side every two seconds of the day (she was on my lap the entire time I was posting these pictures), but she has definitely grown up a lot these past few months.  I may have even bought her size three clothing finally (and pulled out Ellie's old hand-me-downs).  And they fit.  That's a sure sign she's three.

We celebrated her day by starting out with a pancake breakfast that Jackson made.  And since it was Jackson, he made chocolate chip happy faces on them, and we had whipped cream in the fridge.  There would be NO healthy stuff for us that morning.  But mostly because Joe and I just returned from Toronto the night before and we had no groceries in our fridge.  Haha!  So we spent the morning at Costco playing catch up and treated ourselves to lunch there, which I don't think Zoe minded as she scarfed down not only two of those huge chicken tenders and fries but also half of Jackson's hot dog that he couldn't get through (only because he was also "helping" with the chicken and fries.  We are such a helpy-helperton family.  Or help-yourself-family.  I, on the other hand, was swatting away their hands from the fries.  MINE!).  Joe's Mom popped by on her way back from Southern Ab to drop off a gift and it was so nice to see her.  The kids were all pretty excited about it too.  And thank goodness she came because I was trying to put together a doll house without Joe while Zoe was napping (and without instructions) and I'm pretty sure Joe was getting annoyed of my phone calls.  "Where are the allen-keys?  Okay thanks.  Bye!"  "Which screws do I put where?  Some are longer than the others?  Oh?  Okay.  Bye."  And just then Colette came and saved the day.  Haha!  Perfect timing.  Unfortunately she couldn't stay, but I'll take the short time that we got.  It was a nice visit and Zoe was happy to receive an early birthday gift before Daddy got home (Bubble Guppies book and toys).  Once Joe got home from work, the real party began.  We packed up a picnic dinner and went to a nearby park that is right beside Sheep River.  So we got the best of both worlds as we played in the playground and got to throw rocks into the river and see how far out we could walk.  I love me a good river.  It's always so peaceful.  And Zoe could throw rocks for hours.  After the park, we splurged and got ourselves a DQ ice cream cake to bring home.  I always stress out about presents.  Since we got Zoe a doll house (thanks to Kijiji), we got a few tiny presents, like colouring books, and since she needed new clothes, I wrapped up a couple outfits.  You can imagine how impressed she was with those.  Her greatest reaction was upon opening up a Peppa Pig book (her fav show), which we read before bed.  Jenny also spoiled her with a ten-pack of princess dolls for her doll house.  As you can tell from the last pic, she loved them.  Far more than her measly doll house.  Haha!  The older kids, on the other hand, had a blast deciding where to put which furniture where.  I can tell her presents will be a happy addition to our very empty basement!  Ellie was in heaven this morning as I could hear her playing.  Even the boys took their turn!  Ha!  Yes.  A happy addition indeed.  Thank for having a birthday Zoe.


I think one of my absolute favourite pics of Zoe is watching her stand proudly in front of her cake as we all sang Happy Birthday to her. That face.  She had the same one right after blowing out all the candles.  So.  So.  So proud.

Zoe, you love to make people laugh.  It seems to be your goal throughout the day to be the clown and say whatever shocking or funny thing that needs to be said in order to make people laugh.  Often it is at the expense of you being super weird.  For example, last night because it was your birthday you decided you were Queen of the house and therefore decided you could make up all the rules.  "Zoe, can we stay up till ten?"  "Yes."  "Can Jackson wear a dress to church this Sunday?" (That was Joe being a tease of course)  "Yes."  "Can Daddy have more birthday cake?"  "No."  "Can Noah have more?"  "Yes."  You love to tease.  Ellie is usually your number one victim.  Now that you share a room with her, Ellie is constantly coming out at night to tell me that you are being super chatty and won't let her sleep.  And then YOU come out and say the same thing about her, which makes her furious.  It's hilarious.  You're learning how to push buttons young.  It's actually quite scary.

These days your favourite things include watching your two very favourite shows, Peppa Pig and Bubble Guppies.  Peppa Pig is a British show and just the other day you said, "Mummay" and "Dadday" in a proper British accent.  It was so cute/funny.  You also love playing catch with me with our big yellow bouncy ball.  You get a thrill out of actually catching it, and when you don't it's almost more fun to go running after it.  You are also obsessed with books!  You are constantly wanting me to read to you and would choose a book over a bed time song any day.  You'll even hang around to listen to Dad read Harry Potter to the older kids before bed even though there are no pictures and you have no concept of plot.  

We've been pretty good at reading scriptures and saying family prayer every night before bed, mostly because your siblings are so good at not letting us forget.  But YOU are the one who makes sure we remember to have a big group hug directly after prayers by shouting "Grou-hug!" nice and loud after the last "amen."  It's awesome and probably my favourite time of day.  You are also a climber, and love to climb all over me and Dad during prayers.  We've raised you to be quite the little reverent thing.  Ha!  Honestly, of all the kids, you remind me most of Noah at this age because he's always been an active little chap, not to mention fearless, and you are pretty much right up there.  At least when it comes to climbing and jumping off things.  Constantly.  I got a taste of your fearlessness yesterday at the river when you waltzed right in, not worrying about your pants or shoes or how deep or strong it might be.  Yikes!  And you both give the same tight-lipped smile (although your lips look nothing alike).  But honestly, Noah's Junior Kindergarten pic is identical to your proud cake shot.

You will not be left behind.  Nor will the older kids leave you behind.  Especially Jackson.  He has become your little mini-Mom this Summer.  Since you all still wake up so early (and I believe in sleeping in over the Summer), Jackson and I have made this little deal that he takes care of you and feeds you breakfast and makes sure you're happy until about 9am.  It's not so much a "deal" as it is a command.  But you're so cute that he does it willingly.  I think.  Honestly though, all of the kids jump at your command.  You've lost a spoon to the kitchen floor?  Noah will jump up and get it!  You need a stool for the bathroom?  Jackson will get it.  This just screams Ellie all over again.  It's hard to teach you to do things for yourself (ei, you're not a "real" princess) when you have so many servants willing to make you happy!

Above all Zoe, you make me so happy.  It will be interesting to see how you respond to a new baby brother or sister this February (yes, we are pregnant!  I'll post about it soon).  You will no longer be the baby, which I think will be a shock to us both.  Until then though, I look forward to all of our one-on-one time that we will get once the kids are all in school and it's just you and I.  Apart of me I'm sure will be sad that Jackson will no longer be your mini-Mom in the morning so I can sleep in, but that is the price I have to pay I suppose to have a little order and predictability in our home again.  I think you will miss them though and be immediately bored when you realize that they will be gone all day (Ellie every other day).  In two years you can join them, but for now, you're mine.  And I'm all yours.  Until February.  When I bring you a brand new very life-like doll.

Fam-tana!

I up and took the kids to visit my parents in Whitefish! We had such a fun time.  Much needed, too.  The weather was so nice, so we got a lot of swim-time in, and almost every morning we went on some sort of walk or hike before it would get too hot.  I felt spoiled all week long.  The only way I feel like I can do these sorts of trips without Joe is because my Mom takes such good care of me and the kids, so it doesn't feel so overwhelming and makes the trip absolutely worth it.  Constant yummy food and treats and games with the kids almost every night before bed (Old Maid).  There are absolutely zero pictures of Jackson.  I didn't bring out my camera that much I guess this time around, but when I did he was always inside playing chess with either Grandpa or Jayden.  Ha!  We lucked out and came when Sarah and her fam were in Echo, AND Jared and his fam overlapped a couple days too, AND I got to visit with Shannon for an afternoon and see Jake and with girlfriend at the Farmer's Market.  It was such a fun trip.  And so nice to see so much of the fam within one week.  Kicking myself for not taking more pictures, but here are the few pics of our fun time!

Highlights:
Jackson loves playing chess with Grandpa (thanks Dad!).  He also learned how to play the card game "War" among many others,
Noah was a fish and only left the water to eat treats.  He also kicked our bums playing Old Maid and didn't lose once.
Ellie swam mostly without her floaties this trip and actually obeyed by staying in the shallow end of the pool where she did lots of diving down to retrieve objects.
Zoe has a love/hate relationship with water.  She either clings to me for her life, or sticks to the stairs.  And she loves Grandpa, even though it was my Mom who spoiled her the most!
My love for tuna-fish sandwiches has returned, and Mom introduced me to cans of whipped cream which I promptly bought when I got home.

Canada Day!

What? I'm only a month late in posting. Moving into a new house and trying to unpack and make sense of your life will do that to a person! All while still being a Mom. Canada Day was super fun as per usual, and instead of making a bunch of different posts from our week in Glenwood, I am attempting to fit it all into one giant post. Lucky you!

We may or may not have made a zillion trips to the ice cream store.  I mean, it's right across the street and is basically the only thing to do in Glenwood.  Other than go to the park with the giant slide.  Which we also did.  This was also the year that ALL the Burnhams were here, so we attempted family pictures.  I didn't include any in here because I haven't had a chance to edit any just yet.  I might need to learn how to head swap with that many kids trying to look at the camera, that's for sure.   And where the kids look good, someone is always blinking.  And this is why I prefer taking portraits over family pictures!  I'm not gonna lie, it turned into a very stressful morning but we got 'er done.  I also ended up taking some shots of my kids.  They are weird.  And cute.


As per usual, we started Canada Day off with the parade. And as per usual it lasted five minutes.  But five minutes was long enough to collect candy, so that's all that matters to these chickens.  It was Zoe's first year to do races.  And. She. Hated it.  She couldn't understand where everyone was running off to and why I wasn't there to rescue her.  I did eventually.  After taking a picture of course.  And in news of crying, this was Jackson's first year where he did NOT cry due to not coming in first place.  My baby is growing up.


Mother killed it this year with her brew. I feel bad because Celeste and Rob also had an awesome brew, but submitted a bad batch.  Now that they know how to make a winning brew I'm sure this plaque will be theirs hands down next year.  Joe still likes to add "secret ingredients" which kill his brew.  I keep saying stick to the recipe (as he likes to tell me!), but he wants to make his special.  Haha!  He didn't submit a brew this year because we were in the process of moving, but it sure is fun to taste all the yummy (and sometimes nasty) submissions.  We also got to celebrate baby Harvey's first birthday.  Noah LOVES babies.  He was right there into it until Harvey's last bite.  The other kids lost interest after a minute or two but Noah stood right there by his side encouraging him all the way.  It was so cute.


The next day we all decided to go to Waterton with the whole family.  All except for Joe.  Sometimes owning your own business stinks.  At least up until you can start hiring employees to help you out.   but we are not quite there.  Joe is one of the hardest working people I know.  And I love him for it.  And sometimes I want to guilt him into enjoying these moments with us, but I know he can't.  And I know he WANTS to and would rather be with us, but it still stinks packing up the car with your whole family and no husband there to enjoy the day with you.  I almost didn't go because those days are so much stinking work, but I am so glad I did.  It was the highlight of the trip for me!  For one, it was the least-windiest day I have ever spent in Waterton and to have it be that nice is near impossible!  We went on a small hike with Grandpa, Taylor and Bethany and their crew and Celeste and Rob and Harve.  It was a nice easy going walk to a waterfall with lots of cool bugs that each child had to hold along the way.  We also saw a black bear!  In fact, I had hung back with Noah and Ellie because Noah dropped his caterpillar somewhere which was devastating and the group went ahead.  That bear was right in their path!  About 20 meters in front of them!  And all I could do was watch it all happen from afar as Grandpa was holding Zoe and Jackson was standing right in there.  The Mama bear inside me was panicking!  And thankfully the group was big enough that the bear wandered off.  Oh man.  Never been that close to a bear in my life, but since we're all still whole from it, it's a pretty cool experience to talk about!


We met the rest of the family in town for lunch at a Splash Park and then decided to cool off at the lake.  Mike Olsen rents out standing paddle boards and gave us a super deal on a few.  I loved watching the kids excel at this.  Especially Ellie.  She surprises me sometimes.  She likes to act all fragile, but she's actually pretty fearless and will try most anything.  She didn't hesitate at all with getting right up on those paddle boards and going for it.  She couldn't wait for her third, fourth, fifth, tenth turn.  She loved it.  I got to go out too, and it was so relaxing.  I've always loved canoeing, it actually reminds me of camping with my Dad, and I feel like paddle boarding is a lot like standing up in a very sturdy canoe.  And it helps that we were on such a beautiful lake!  When we weren't paddle boarding, we were dunking our heads, throwing rocks into the water, jumping off the dock, visiting and snacking.


On our last day of the week, Celeste and I were trying to be ambitious and put together a Carnival for the kids.  We delegated a bunch of stuff so it wasn't too much work, but it felt like a lot of work because it was such a HOT morning!  I thought it would be better attended, but it was kind of nice having it be a little more controlled and not too long!  The best part for the kids was of course choosing their candy at the end with all the points they collected.  Wait.  I lied.  The best part was that Jeff Whitehead put on a magic show for all the kids while they each got to snack on their very own bag of popcorn.  It was a perfect way to end the carnival.  He was a legit magician too!  I had no idea how he was pulling off these tricks.  The kids loved it, and each of my kids got to have a turn at the front.  Jackson almost got his finger cut off, Noah got to check to see if the thumb-lock worked, and Ellie got to see a  sponge ball appear right before her very eyes.  And while all this was happening, Zoe discovered an unmanned table full of left over candy.
I'd say it was another fun year of Canada Day goodness.  I missed Melissa and Stacey this year, and I sure as heck didn't get to spend enough time at the farm with Connie and Larry's girls this time around.  Sometimes, one week is just not enough time!  Good thing that as I get older and busier with kids, the year slides right on by without me realizing it, and we will be right back in Glenwood ready for another Canada Day!