we are still alive...and kickin..

I thought since its probably been a year since i blogged, id just tell you what we have been up too.  i do miss blogging, but mostly miss going back and looking at all the great blogs i have done, and reading updates on my precious little kiddies.
well, our family is now 18 weeks pregnant and loving life.  things are going fairly well and uneventful for the most part which is the most you can ask for in any pregnancy.  but we are already eager to meet our new babe. the hardest part this time around, is thinking of a name.  when it has to go with two other names it makes it really hard.

 We had a great Christmas in Telkwa and my whole family got to be together once again.  We gave the kids a puppy for Christmas and "Willow" is a great little addition to our family. She gets along great with the kids, and they just tote her around everywhere with them.  She doesn't often protest. 
Did I mention my kids are not babies anymore? Eli is 2 1/2 and Maya will be 5..yes 5 in May...just 3 months away.  5 YEARS OLD!!!
boy. . how did this happen??

Eli is doing great, he is finishing up potty training, and has very few accidents, and is making it to the toilet about 80% which i can live with for now.  We are going the potty chart like we did with Maya and it seems to be working great.  he enjoys picking his own stickers and putting them where ever he wants :)

 Maya had an accident a few weeks ago, and fell UP the stairs, yes you read that right, she was walking upstairs from downstairs, and tripped on a shoe and bashed her face right in to a stair.  What i thought was a small cut on her lip that just kept bleeding and bleeding and bleeding, turned out to be her whole inside top of her mouth, where your top lip seals with your gum was completely ripped open,from one eye tooth to the other,  and the little dangle thing that connects your lip and gum was ripped open as well.  the blood..oh the blood..

a few days later Maya and I went to see BACKYARDIGANS live! you can see her lip is still healing but, boy, did we have fun!! we were able to keep it as secret for her until we were standing in the merchandise line :)  She got to pick a few things out,  and then we settled in to our super fantastic seats.

This has got to be one of my fave pics of all time.....I was trying and trying to take a picture of the

 two of us and always cutting off someones nose, fore head or missing one of us completely, so the kind lady in front of us offered to take our picture.  although neither of us look especially fantastic, take a look at Mayas face..just as the lady clicked the picture the curtains opened and the show began.  can you see the wonder and excitement on Mayas face??? i love it!!

Maya was "yell singing" all of the songs, and dancing and jumping in the isles! what a great day!!! Hope we can have another super date soon!!

that is all the pictures i have for now, and it updates you a little bit of our life.  As of now, the kids are both super duper sick and have fevers for about 6 days now.  took Maya in to Emerg last night to see what the Dr had to say about a fever for 5 days, he kindly let us know she has......a cold.....

so glad we went!!

Thankful beyond measure

As i lay here in bed the Christmas lights streaming in through the window i can't help but feel thankful. Christmas always seems to bring the thankful out most. Tonight i am thankful for having a warm house, a warm bed and my husband snuggled beside me. My two babies sleeping soundly just down the hall and the beautiful new life growing inside me. sometimes life is simply about being thankful,and being thankful to our powerful Savoir who makes lives biggest and smallest things possible all praise and thanks to our Lord!

How i Know...

How i know I say "NO" too often:


MAYA: Hey Mom, can i play a game on the computer?
ME: sure, one game.
Maya: Really?
Me: sure, but one game
Maya: really?
Me: yes!
Maya: are you saying yes?
Me: hah Yes!
Maya: Are you tricking me?
Me: no, you can play..
Maya: you mean it?
Me: Yes.
Maya: (totally confused) ummm....ok...  (sneaks away...)

the difference

I have a serious post I've been working on for a while, but here's something funny:

Conversation with Maya at 2:

Mommy: Whats your name?
Maya: Maya Pisha (Patricia) Poelman
Mommy: Good Job!!


Conversation with Eli at 2:

Mommy: Whats your name?
Eli: Me!
Mommy: No, its Eli Poelman
Eli: Eli Poelman

Mommy: Whats your name?
Eli: Me!
Mommy: No, its Eli Poelman
Eli: Eli Poelman

Mommy: Whats your name?
Eli: Me!
Mommy: No, its Eli Poelman
Eli: Eli Poelman

Mommy: Whats your name?
Eli: Me!
Mommy: No, its Eli Poelman
Eli: Eli Poelman


****forehead smack****

SCCCREEEEECCCHHHH....back up the preschool train!!!!

This is not my daughter.

 This is not my daughter who is not super proud of her Dora backpack.  and this is not my daughter that is not wearing an outfit she picked out weeks ago.  She is not wearing meticulously chosen jewelry for her first day.  nope. no shes not.

 this is not my daughter who packed and repacked her backpack all week.. This backpack does not have new inside shoes, nor does is it packed with a new lunch kit filled with yummy snacks.

 this cant possibly be my daughter running to her class so excited she cant even hold my hand in the hallway.

 this is definitely not my daughter ready, willing, and super eager to start her first day of preschool.

And I'M CERTAINLY NOT the mother scratching at the door for one more hug..nope. that doesn't sound like us at all....please excuse me while i finnish off my box of Kleenex. 

i may need one more....box.

PS: this is kinda a joke, I'm super proud of my newly independent daughter who was off playing with the other kids in 2 seconds flat.  She was so brave and did great on her first day She even had fun!! can you believe she is in school already?!!? where did this time go?? :) :) :)

Kitchen Reno Part 4- THE REVEAL!!

Before you look at all these wonderful pictures, i just want to take a huge minute to thank my hardworking husband and fatherinlaw.  They worked SO hard to get this done for us, and i am so pleased with the results.  They worked endlessly until it was all done, and they should be very proud of what they have accomplished!! Thanks again men, you did a great job!!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE

AFTER:

Kitchen Reno- Part 3 putting the pieces back together

after all the fun was done, it was time to start to put our life back together.  Because Dad and Jon took some of the wall off the floor, we had to replace it with some laminate.  Thankfully we had some extra boxes in the storage room.  We found some really interesting flooring underneath..it actually would have matched our colors pretty well ;)

So, in order to put this 2in by 2.5 ft of laminate......

we had to rip out all our dining room flooring....Talk about a big job for a little reward...

but, it didn't take much time with the 3 of us...

We found this gorgeous stuff underneath, and we super quick to cover it up again!!!

The next morning, we started to get things ready to put the new counter top on..the kids were totally enthralled that they could peek up in to the counter.  We had removed all the drawers so no dust would get in to it, and they totally loved it!!!

Myself and Jon loading up the new counter..IT WAS SUPER HEAVY!!!!

There she is..new counter and flooring looking great!!!!

***DISCLAIMER: Pretty much the only thing i helped with was loading up the counter..when i say "we we we we " i really mean "them them them"!  :) :) :) :)***