Soooo Trace is 6 months!! I can't believe how time flies and how I seem to have less and less time to blog! Here is what has been happening around here... Trace is eating! Yup as of last Saturday he has started his cereal. And man was he ready, he was so excited when I sat down in front of him with my little bowl. Tonight is the first time we give him cereal for dinner as well. We are pretty excited with all of these new things and know that next on the list of things do is get him mobile. Trace loves to roll around on the floor to get to different toys around the room.. you turn your head for 2 seconds and he has rolled across the room.. I can't believe that my little man is growing up already!
We have been lucky enough to have a wonderful snuggly little man.. who when he wakes up gives the BIGGEST hugs and open mouth smooches! Still sleeping through the night too which has turned out to be a HUGE blessing to me! I don't work well on no sleep! haha!
As December and Christmas approach we are planning our vacation. First we drive down to Vancouver, then we fly to Playa Del Carmen Mexico for a family vacation.. all 19 of us will be there. We are so excited and feel so blessed to be heading to a nice warm area for Trace's first Christmas. After we come home from Mexico we stay in Vancouver for another week to visit with Kyle's family and friends and then he takes off and I get to stay for 2 more weeks!!!! I am so excited. My best friend is getting married and I am her Maid of Honor! Sooo a busy few months are coming up for us and we are hoping to make it through. And once we finally come home we hope to relax and watch Trace grow and develop even more.
Well I hope to update again soon.. but who knows things get busy!!! Will post pics of our vaca once I get back!! Trace at 6 months just finishing his very first meal!

YUMMY!!!! He was pretty excited!

HEY! Check me out standing in my crib!

Trace sitting all by himself!
Look at me!!!!!

Dressed up for halloween as a teddy bear!

Dad with Trace

Me and the little man

Granny and Trace.. love this picture.

He is ready for his closeup! He was grabbing at the camera

Trace being a ham!

First Halloween

Well it again has been a while since I have written on here. A lot has happened... my mom has come and gone (she was such a big help too I miss her!!), we had our first Halloween and my cousin had a little baby girl!

My mom visiting was so much fun... we had a blast, I kept her busy and she showed me easy ways to cook new things, K is pretty excited about that. Trace just loved spending time with Granny as well, she got him to really giggle for the first time and his eyes just light up whenever he hears her voice on the phone. Thank goodness for speaker phone!

Halloween was a lot of fun as well, we had a few neighborhood toddlers visit our door and Trace got dressed up as a bear and handed out candy with us. He was such a trooper and we had a lot of fun.
Things have been pretty good lately... we are hoping to start Trace on some rice cereal in the next few weeks... maybe at 5 and a half months. He is reaching for our food when we are eating but still sleeping through the night so I know he is not quite ready yet. I don't know if I am ready for the next stage! I have a book with a bunch of recipes and I am hoping to make most of my own food for him. We will see how that goes!!!
I am posting some pics in the next blog to show some updates... enjoy!

28?????

Ok so I am 28 this week... this Friday to be exact. I know that this sounds silly and I am still in my 20's and should feel young and vibrant but all I can think of is... I am 2 years away from be 30... CRAZY!!! To top things off I have decided to make a turkey for all of our friends for thanksgiving this year. It is my first one so I am more than a little nervous... I am having everyone bring a little something and I am making turkey, stuffing, and I made some fresh buns tonight! They are sooo yummy!!! And if that doesn't make me crazy enough I painted half of our kitchen, our dining room, living room and entry over the weekend and the last couple of days. Now we are hanging pics and trying to make our house look like our house by the weekend. I was so excited that Kyle had hockey tonight, Trace is in bed and I can finally sit down and blog and relax for a bit.
Trace seems to be a little on the fussy side today, drooling lots so I believe that he has started the whole teething process. Who knows guess we will see. I figure mom can help me out next week when she comes for a visit. I am still so excited about that! We had out 4 month check up this week at a new Dr... that was a useless visit. She did nothing for me and I was not impressed, and it was a bit of drive to get there... luckily I got on the phone the next day and found a Dr taking patients just down the street from me. That means in the summer time we can walk to regular check ups! I just hope that I like this Dr as it is so hard to find ones that are actually taking patients.
Anyways thought I would post some pics of Trace.. he went to his first birthday party on the 4th. One of my girlfriends from high school also lives in Edmonton and her little girl turned 1!! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait until Trace can actually play on the equipment at Gymboree!!

K and Trace hanging out.
"Standing" in his green inner tube.
Getting tired at the end of the party.
Sleeping on his side like a big boy after the party... he was sooo tired!

Finally!!!

Well Finally is right! We are finally getting Trace on a bit of a schedule!!! yipeeeee!!! He is currently fighting sleep so I thought I would come downstairs, with my cup of coffee and new pics in tow and blog since it has been so long. We are finally in our new house and making it ours. I am unpacked except for the house decorations and candles and stuff, we actually have a spare bedroom with a bed.. no more air mattress for guests!!! Trace's room is finally finished and we have moved him in. Last night was his third night in his new room and he seems to love it and sleeps in a little bit more than before. So we are going to start putting him to bed a little earlier and actually have time with just K and I!!!
Our trip to Vancouver was amazing, it was busy and at times overwhelming but it was so nice to see everyone and I swear I have enough clothes to last Trace's first year. Although shopping for him is always nice too. My parents were great too, we always stay at their house and usually I am ready to go home, not this time, I wanted to stay longer. To have just a little bit of help and company during feedings, while changing diapers, while bathing was so nice. They really were an huge help. We also got to meet most of our friends little ones and that was great. They were all different ages and sizes and just to watch either what Trace had already gone through or where he was about to be was pretty cool.
In current news, tomorrow we have his second round of shots... yuck I am not looking forward to that at all. Kyle will be out of town and so it will be just me dealing with the little guy. I always feel so bad for him. Oh and we have started cloth diapering!! I love it! I have 12 pocket all in one diapers and those will last just under 2 days. So we still use a couple disposable ones here an there but if we are at home it is cloth all the way. They are so cute too, we bought Fuzzibunz and LOVE them. They don't leak, and they are so soft. When we go to Kyle's hockey games we use them and he stays even warmer!
In terms of milestones for Trace, he was 13 pounds 11 ounces 3 weeks ago so we will see what he is at tomorrow when we measure him. He is raspberrying and chatting lots especially when he is getting his diaper changed. He rolls from his back onto his side so hopefully soon we will be rolling onto our tummies! And he loves to watch his daddy play hockey.. he even follows the plays around soo cute! He is trying to sit up and pulls his head forward while in his car seat, while laying on the ground and when sitting on the couch with us. I can't believe how fast he is growing and what an amazing little man he is! Trace watching his daddy play hockey for the first time!
Hanging out in his bumbo chair while we plot out our new kitchen cupboards.
Me and the little guy .. he spit up all over me after this pic! lol
Making bubbles... he loves to do this now!

On Vacation

Ok so yes it has been a long long long while! Trace is three months this upcoming week.... CRAZY time flies! He is turning into mr independent, only needs me for feeding and cuddles haha. Well maybe a little more than that. Trace in the last 2 days has flipped onto his side, and found his tongue. He is Gene Simmons I swear it! My mom says by the end of Sept he should be flipping over onto his tummy... can't believe that. 

We are currently in Vancouver visiting my parents K's dad and a bunch of our friends. I have finally met my beautiful niece and all of the other children born to our friends this year. Trace has been carted all over the place in the last week and is dealing so well with everything we really are super lucky to have such an amazing baby. He is sleeping a bit longer every day and we are just loving him. Oh we also got our first family pics taken. If you go to www.frozenreflections.com and go to featured and under Trace you will see our family pics. We love them! Maria is an awesome photographer and now my brother and sister in law want to do the same thing with our little niece. 

So many things have happened since I last posted that I don't even know what to write. We have moved to the Edmonton area and love it, the animals seem to be adjusting well, K is loving his new position at work and already doing quite well. Here's hoping I don't have to go back to work!!! Or I can do something at home or part time. Oh and the boys have gotten together and decided that since we all had babies around the same time this year that we should do the same for next year. So we are supposedly starting to try again next Sept... well at least I get our 2 year anniversary preggers free! haha!

I will update more and with more pics once we are home. I have so many pics!!! 

Smiling!

Well Trace has been smiling at me for the past week or so... trying to catch it on camera seems to be a whole other hurdle! haha! He has also started to talk to himself when he is sitting in his swing or in his crib, I take out the video and yup he shuts up! Ahh well I will get him one of these days! His smile is so precious and I can't believe that he is already 6 weeks! Time is flying and I already want it to slow down!
In good news I am sleeping through the night which is awesome and we are moving in two weeks and I feel prepared! I have all of our extras packed and a list of other things that I need to pack in the next week, then the last couple of days will be spent packing up our dishes and glasses. I still can't believe that we are leaving. As excited as I am this is our first house, and so many other firsts happened in this house, first child, first dog, all the building we did (well K did!) and just feeling pride of ownership. I am super excited for our new house, it is bigger and I get a garage yipeee!!! But I have grown pretty close to some people up here and it is going to be really hard to leave them. You know who you are lol!
Well I have posted more pics below. I got the end of a smile and some pics from Uncle L's visit. That was pretty precious. To watch my little bro with Trace was so special! Plus he is the bro that we think Trace kinda looks like! The end of the smile! 6 weeks!!!!
Uncle L after napping with Trace (who is obviously still napping!)
His very first bottle of breast milk.
Just chilling, he was so cute I had to take a pic!

New House!

This is how he likes to take his naps!
In his SUPERCHARGED hot rod car shirt!
In one of his sleeping outfits.... so precious!
The swing! I love it! So does he!!!

So we have finally, after 3 weekends in a row of going to Edmonton, found a house! The inspection is done and the mortgage is approved and we are goooood to go! I am so excited to move and so relieved to finally have it done! I have started packing up this house and find it sad walking around and seeing all of our house decorations and paintings not there anymore. It is just strange.

In other news my brother is finally going to come out for a visit. He is in Edmonton with his wife and is coming up for two whole nights to visit with Trace and who knows maybe he will feel the need to move a few boxes that I have packed down to the basement. I am hoping to pack a little more this weekend, but who knows.

K and I have invested in a swing for Trace, it is the rain forest fisher price swing and my goodness do I LOVE it. I can get ready in the mornings and he is just so content to sit and look at all the bright colors that he no longer fusses when I am not holding him. The other nice thing is that I don't have to worry about the cats trying to sit on his lap while he is in it as he is off the ground. Such a relief and I can't believe we didn't buy one before.

Well I have posted some more new pics of Trace so enjoy!

Time Flies..

Trace in his outfit from Auntie Mel and Uncle Nate
Not so happy about the family pic!
Lukas (3 months) and Trace (3.5 weeks) my son seems to be punching the other kids already! lol
Tummy time with his new buddy!
His bath in Auntie Lisa's sink!

Wow I can't believe that it has been a month already.. tomorrow is Trace's one month. I have been a mommy for a whole entire month and I have made it. Trace is doing well and I am loving it! We have finally bought a house as well... signed the paperwork today. Our house sold in 3 days and ever since we have been looking down in the Edmonton area for our new one! I love it. We are going to do a little work on the kitchen but other than that and a little paint in the bedrooms it is perfect! BIG back yard, double car garage and over 2000 sq feet of living space! yipeeee to a lot more room!

We went down to Edmonton 3 weekends in a row and I have to say that I am excited to spend a weekend here... haven't done that since Trace's very first weekend. Last weekend was our long weekend being Canada day and we stayed with friends of ours and got to catch up with other friends and meet their little one as well! I posted some pics of the weekend. Well Trace is fussing so I should go but enjoy the pics!

More Pics!

So I don't have a lot of time for a post right now but I thought I would put up some new pics...K and I are heading back to Edmonton again this weekend (3rd weekend in a row) and I have been promised a house this weekend so here's hoping! I am tired of doing the 4 now 5 to 6 hour drive every weekend. Trace seems to love the car rides and enjoys his nice long naps while we are in the car. He is such an amazing baby and continues to amaze us daily. I feel so blessed!!! Whiskey babysitting Trace for us! haha
Now he loves his baths!

Our little happy camper!

Busy Busy......

Grampa and Trace having a nap.
Trace at 13 days old!

First family pic!

Mmmmm babies breath, love it!

Grampa and Trace at WestEd Mall

Grama and Trace cuddling time!

Ok so as expected life has been a little busy these last 2 weeks! Trace is home and healthy, and a wonderful baby. I only get up once during the night for a feeding and then I am up again around 8 am for his first morning feeding. I am spoiled and I know it but soo thankful for added rest! He is getting more and more alert during the day and I am loving just looking at him.

Grama came for a visit last week for a whole week... what a huge help! She even got up and kept me company during my 3am feedings. We were still working on the whole latching thing and things were getting very frustrating and painful at times and it was nice to have her there... even if I did lash out at her a couple of times. Although after talking with my dad about a few things I am looking at approaching difficult situations better and asking God for guidance to do so.

K and I have been looking at houses in Edmonton, last weekend we headed down and Grampa H flew in to meet up with us! It was amazing, to have both of my parents around for a weekend was such a huge help. Especially since we were looking at houses and constantly getting in and out of the car. Trace was a real trooper!

I have posted some updated pics as well, as instructed by Anns! lol! I promise I will try to keep them updated!

Trace Pictures

Trace all ready to go home!
In Granny Janny's going home outfit!

Just the cutest thing EVER!!!

That is one proud Daddy!!!

BLUE BOOTIES!!!

So I will go into more detail later but K and I want to welcome the arrival of Trace Gordon 8 pounds 9 ounces born on the 4th of June!!! We were sent home from the hospital 2 days later and found ourselves back there again last night as Trace was a little on the jaundice side. Lots of feedings later and 2 big pees and we were let go without light therapy!
Well maybe I will go into the detail of the birth... for those of you who are slightly squeemish please skip.
So thought I was getting contractions every 5 minutes on Tuesday night... go into labour and delivery and turns out they were false. AGAIN! Since my dr had already said she would induce me on Wednesday I stayed the night. I was 4 cm dilated and the baby was fully engaged. My dr broke my water around 930 am and I was told to go for an hour walk... umm yea 15 minutes later I was back upstairs with some intense contractions. Since my blood pressure was so high they decided to put me right on the epidural to bring it down. That only made it go higher. So by 230 that day I was ready to start pushing Trace out. Turns out he was face up... yuck... and did not want to turn. By the then the Epidural was not working as well... it was pretty bad. After 2 hours of pushing and 3 strong contractions while pushing and having the vacuum Trace was born. So awesome the feeling of finally having him out. Well after that I had a little trauma of my own, had a post pardom hemorrhage and had to go the OR as my placenta wasn't releasing. I lost quite a bit of blood and they were starting to talk about doing a transfusion. Luckily I didn't have to and am now on iron supplements to get my blood levels back up.
Well we are home and doing fine... feeding is a bit of a challenge but we will persevere! Thanks to everyone for your prayers I am just so happy to have met my little man after all this time!

Yea for the Long Weekend!!!

So this weekend is the long weekend... sooo excited as it is also our one year wedding anniversary! I have been promised a trip to the Keg for dinner mmmmm prime rib and crab legs!! And maybe a trip to Dawson Creek on Sunday for some White Spot. K is still out of town but returning tomorrow around 4ish and I am pretty excited about that to. This week has gone by pretty quickly as I had prayed it would and pretty uneventful. As in no trips to the L and D and the baby has stayed in! yipeee!!!!!
Wednesday I hung out with a good friend in the afternoon and it was so nice to get out of the house. I relaxed and chatted and as usual laughed my head off with her, it was such a nice way to pass the afternoon. In the evening there was America's Next Top Model of course so I went over to another friends house (who made an amazing blue cheese dip yum!) and watched the best girl win! Sooo happy that Whitney won ... cheers to the first full figured Top Model! Keeping busy really made the day fly by and being midweek gave me something to look forward to all week.
Today I had my going away lunch from my work, as tomorrow would have been my last day. It was a nice turnout! I really enjoyed myself and the food..although I always enjoy food! haha! They had a nice card that everyone signed and it was just nice to see their faces. I am really going to miss some of the people from work. Who woulda thought! lol.
So now I just have one more sleep until my hubby is home and we celebrate our anniversary... and one week until my bestest comes into town. So many things to look forward to. I know that these next few weeks will fly by and then I finally get to meet my bean!
Anyways that is all for now... I am heading back to my rocking chair and my cross stitching and magazines... oh what an exciting afternoon I have planned!!!

An Update... yea I know it has been a while!

Ok so I thought it had been a while since I posted pics... for those of you that don't know I have been taken off of work by my doctor because of my feet and the risk of toxemia. My blood pressure for now is fine so I am not too worried... just bored haha! K and I went to our prenatal class on Saturday and although it scared the living daylights out of me it also put me at ease. So many things that K and I had discussed and talked about and decided on were things that the nurse said we should talk about. There was a whole mix of people there all shapes sizes and ages so it was nice to see that as well.

So went into the L and D twice these last two weeks, first time was because of my discomfort and the second time was due to some really bad cramps in my stomach. Both times the baby was doing AWESOME, and it was nice to see layout of the L and D ward. Since my dr was out of town I had to go into her fill in dr on Friday to get a prescription (gotta love bladder infections) and he had an ultrasound machine in his office!!!! So I got a quick peek at the babe. He also (K WARNING TMI FOR SOME PEOPLE) did an internal and found out that the baby was completely dropped (I believe his words were "oh there is the babies head!!") and that I was 2 to 3 cm dilated. So of course I got excited as this is part that I don't have to go through later... and I can be like this for a month before I go into labour. It just means the baby is pretty much ready and raring to go! Anyways so I called my mom and of course freaked her out... oops... sorry mom! And then got an email from dad saying to hold onto the baby until after they go on vacation... so sorry dad! haha! Of course he was joking and it was nice to get a laugh.

So K is going to Minnesota this week Mon-Fri... so gotta hold onto this little one until after he gets back, then we celebrate our one year wedding anniversary yipeee!!!! Can't believe all that has happened in a year!

Ok will update more later but below are some new pics.

This is me at 35 weeks 3 days!!!!

Purple Feet... Is this bad?

Ahh the start of stretch marks... 33 weeks 1 day!

Front and somewhat centre... 33 weeks 1 day!

Side view 33 weeks 1 day

The Cankles

Well in regards to the title... yes my feet are swollen and sometimes purple... after a shower my legs are purple too. I am guessing that this is not a good thing and should be brought up at my next dr's appt. I know that it is probably the water retention in my legs cutting off my circulation or not allowing circulation so I try to keep my feet up as much as possible. Now this is hard because there is always so much to be done.

In regards to baby bean things seem to be going well, he/she is constantly moving and shaking it up in my belly and making its presence known. I am seriously getting excited to meet the little babe! I am also ready to not be preggers anymore, I know I will miss the feel of the bean moving and stuff but right now I feel like a cooked turkey.




Some of my friends have made plans to come out around the time of birth which is awesome! My bestest A is coming out late in May and I know that she will try everything in her power to get me to go into labour that weekend! haha! Then as soon as I do go into labour I phone my mom and dad and they are jumping in the car for the 12 hour trip up here to help us out!! So awesome! Now the even greater thing about having all of these visits is that we are planning a move to Edmonton area after the babe is born and everyone seems to want to help me pack... what nice people. A friend from Edmonton L even offered to come up here after the baby is born and help me pack and stuff. Plus she would be a person to help me unpack on the other side. I am just blown away by what amazing friends and family I am blessed to have!




Anyways just thought I would do a quick update, other than strange swelling things are going well and I have my next dr's appt next Friday!!! I posted some pics of myself this week too... oh and of my cankles to all of you that are curious! You know you wanna see them! haha!