Tiegan turns eight!!!!!!

Poor Ms Tiegan has been sick and feeling really crummy all week long, including on her birthday. We still managed to celebrate in style, with a big waffle breakfast and a trip into the big city of Kanata for a sushi dinner and birthday cake with Nana but I think the rest of the day was spent resting on the couch. She got some pretty snazzy shoes that sparkle and glitter blindingly every time she walks, some stuff for her doll, new books, horseback riding lessons and a new nintendo ds - she's pretty excited by that, as she's been coveting her sisters' for about 2 years now!!!!! Though, of course, now her sister is jealous of HERS, as it's newer and able to do more things. Man, this sibling stuff gets so complicated!!!! Though luckily Tiegan is happy to let Kea 'show' her how to use it, so they're both happily figuring it all out, recording songs, making videos and taking photos!

Happy Birthday my love, it's such a joy to have you in our lives!!!! xo

LIfe around these parts has felt, well, like it came crashing to a halt for a bit.......I think essentially Jamie and I felt the many many months of 12 hour days working on house building, and seem to just sit still and stare at our walls for a bit. And nap, watch movies, and avoid anything that takes any energy at all. I'm hoping we snap out of this soon, as there's still a few things we need to finish up, but for now we're just acknowledging we need some serious down time.

Ryland went through a bout of pneumonia, and was quite sick for a couple of weeks, but he seems to be recovering from that. Nothing breaks your heart more than seeing your seemingly tiny child hugging a big x-ray machine, and a usually so athletic little kid lethargic and wanting nothing more than to sit on my lap and cuddle all day long. However, after an intensive round of anti-biotics, he's back to torturing his sisters and jumping all over any piece of furniture that he can find, so I'm assuming he's all healed up!

Tiegan now has the cold (minus the pneumonia, thank goodness) so we had to cancel out on our trip to Upper Canada Village, something we were both really looking forward to. Luckily friends of ours were going as well, so they were able to take Kea along - I hope she had as good a time as last year!

Kea had a bit of money from her birthday, so decided to go into the antique stores along Almonte's main street. I LOVE that that is her idea of shopping - I mean, don't get me wrong, she loves a chance to go to the mall for sure, but rarely finds the opportunity as her parents don't share in that passion AND it's fairly far away. So antique stores it is! And she found this great little hat that she absolutely adores - I think she has such a great sense of fashion, if only she had the confidence to wear it out and about in public!!! But I suppose that's normal in the eleven year old world!!!!!

I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow, super excited. A week without kids, such a rarity! The first half will be with my mom and sister on Salt Spring Island and the second half in Princeton with my grandparents. Then Jamie and the kids join me, and we embark on trying to see as many people as we can in a short period of time, in our usual chaotic way!!!! I'll definitely bring my computer along, and hopefully will feel inspired to blog while on the road!!!!!!