Warning: Cuteness Overload

I know these are just gas smiles but I like to pretend that they are real. He is sure is going to have cute smile when he does start to smile though.

Everett is kicking it old school in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles towel. Right on Everett.

One Proud Mom

I meant to post about this last month but was kind of busy with other things. Then today I was at Rawley's school assembly and when they handed out the June awards I remembered I never posted Rawley's May award. Rawley got the Student of the Month Award in May in honour and Recognition for being a Scientific Expert.
I also got Rawley's report card today for grade 2 and am so impressed with him. Because he is a primary student in an elementary school he does not get letters grades. He gets number marks on 44 different skills in all the different subjects. The numbers work as follows:
4= Exceeding Expectations
3= Meeting Expectations
2= Approaching Expectations
1= Not Yet Meeting Expectations.

Rawley received
10 fours
29 threes
and 5 twos (all of which were behaviours related not academic)

This is exceptional for him... last report card he only had 2 fours and at least 10 twos. I am so so happy. I am very appreciative for all the help that he has received in the last 2 months. Rawley has had great success with reading and social studies in the grade 3 class. I am so glad that my voice was finally heard and Rawley received some different care than before. It made me the last part of his year more enjoyable for everyone involved.

We Have Somewhere To Live.

Finding a place to live in Brandon has been a major stresses for us. There are not a lot of options out there. Maple Leaf has a huge plant there and they rent out most available places for the workers that come into town to work for them. We have been looking in the papers for a while to see what kind of options we had and it did not look good. Specially because I really want a 3 bedroom so that the boys do not have to share a room. Everything I found online was either out of town or way over our budget.

Last Thursday I emailed Ryan's mom, Pat, to ask her if she could look into some places for us to live when we get there.
Later that day she called the manager of some townhouses right near them and got an application for us to fill out. We really want to live near them on the east end of town.
She brought the application out with her on Saturday and we filled it out over the weekend. This morning Ryan faxed it to the office. A few hours later they called to say they have a 3 bedroom available for us to go look at. Ryan's dad went on his lunch to look at it, he gave them the deposit and the townhouse is ours. Not only is the townhouse ours but it is on the right end of town, it is near mom & dad's house, Rawley will go to the same school Ryan did, we have a little fenced yard, and the complex is full of families with kids so Rawley should have friends to play with. Oh and the 3 bedroom there is cheaper than what we pay for our 2 bedroom here.

Done! I am so so happy. One major stress is taken care of....Now if Ryan can just find a job so we have some income once we move.. I guess that is what we will work on this week.

I have no pictures to show but will see what I can find online to post.

How Are We Doing?

We are surviving. Everett still has very bad gas and we use a combination of gripe water, Ovol, and Pro biotic drops to manage it. Some days are better than others.

I decided that me not eating dairy was not making a difference so I had a huge milkshake the other night.... Needless to say I think I was wrong because Everett was up most the night and half the next day screaming with gas pains. I felt awful. I am staying away from Dairy now!

Rawley is doing really well. He is still very much in love with his little brother. He only has two days left of school and the last month has gone well. He has been spending time in the grade 3 class learning about Canada and reading chapter books. He has had less detentions and he got the Expert Scientist Student of the Month Award. Yay Rawley.

We have come to the conclusion that we are definitely moving on August 1st to Manitoba. We booked our truck and have started packing. The packing is unfortunately going very slow as I have little spare time.

The biggest and best news is that Ryan's mom arrived today. I am so happy to have her company and her help. It is very nice to have someone to pass Everett off to after feeding so I can get up and do something. It is also nice to have someone else try to rock and pat the gas out of him. I am so so grateful she is here. Dad shows up on the 1st and then we will have a full house.

Here are some recent photos of my cute little man.

Weekend of BBQs

Yesterday was Everett's first BBQ and he was a huge hit. A friend from Ryan's work had us out at his place in Yarrow for a BBQ. Everett got some new cuddles and slept very well out in the fresh air. He was such a good boy.

The cup holders in Everett's stroller sure came in handy for us.

Once we left that BBQ we headed over to my dad's friend's pig roast. There were 4 babies under 3 months old and a 20 month old toddler there. It was fun to see all the babies together and exchange stories with the other new parents. I even got to hold a sweet little 2 month old baby girl.

Today after church we headed out to another BBQ at my cousin Kory & Tina's house in Surrey. It was their daughter's third birthday. We got to visit with lots of family and Everett got to meet cousins and second cousins and see great grandma & grandpa again. This time they each got to hold him instead of just looking at him in his incubator. It was very sweet.

Everett seems to really enjoy being outside. The fresh air agrees with him.
Being in the house tonight......not agreeing with him at all. I can safely say he has found his big boy voice to cry with. wow! He has Finally fallen asleep while I bounce him in his vibrating chair....but his next feed is only 20 minutes away so I better end this quickly so I can go finish the boys lunches for tomorrow. Daddy should be home from hockey tonight just in time to shower and feed Everett at 12:30.... Yay for tag teaming.

What Can You Get For....

$150.00?

A baby swing
A crib
2 tanks of gas for a moving truck
11 packs of diapers @ $12.99
6 months worth of wipes
4 dinners our with the family
Groceries for a week
New shoes for all of us
Clothes that fit me...........

OR

My car back.

My car got towed again last night and I am so mad at myself I want to scream and cry. We are only allowed to park one car outside after midnight and Ryan's car has the decal. I park out there during the day because it is faster, more convenient and the parking garage is too dark to see what I am doing. So yesterday I parked out there because we were going to go eat out last night. Our dishwasher was being replaced and the kitchen is not big enough to have us cooking or cleaning in there while he works. We hoped to let him in first before we left or find out he was coming later and be back before he got here. Problem was we didn't hear from him and we got hungry so we ordered food in instead.....then I forgot my car was still parked outside.

I hate the rules here. I figure if we live here and there is a spot available we should be allowed to park anywhere. Or at least get a warning or a discounted tow rate. I mean they have all our vehicle information....They can see that I am a resident.....

I am not sure if I am more mad at the stupid rules that I forgot to follow or at myself for forgetting my car was outside.

Gas Gas Go Away

Everett has been having a lot of tummy troubles. He has the worst gas ever. After every feeding he experiences bad gas and then at about 4pm and 4am he has little episodes that last for a couple hours. The 4pm one is easier to handle as everyone is up and Ryan is home so we can hand Everett off. The 4am one is exhausting for me because I am up alone with him wishing for some sleep. Poor little baby. So far he is on a pro biotic drop that the doctor said we should try and gripe water. We have not really noticed if either of them are helping at all.

Everett does not really have a full blown cry yet. I am not sure if that is related to being premature or not. He grunts, groans, whines, whimpers.....but we have not got a full cry out of him yet. I am not complaining either. It is a lot easier for Ryan and Rawley to sleep through whimpers than it would be to sleep through crying.

Other than dealing with the gassy baby we have not been up to too much. Everett attended his first event on Saturday. We walked down the block so Rawley could watch the dog show for a bit. Yesterday we took Everett to church with us to show him off to everyone that had been praying for his safe delivery and health. Other than that it has been fairly low key around here. Auntie Merry, Melissa and Owyn visited on Friday night. Then last night my friend Tommy and his girlfriend Jeannine came and visited.

This is the first outfit that Everett has grown out of. I am realizing that although he is only 5 pounds he is very very long. The preemie clothes are all getting a little short when he stretched out. Long fingers, long toes and a long body.... I wonder if he will be tall?
I am posting this one just because is melts my heart.
This is his cousin Owyn who has met him only this once and is in love already. Owyn has a fascination with babies and he is so gentle and kind. He rubbed Everett's head and kissed him a bunch of times. Then he just stood there saying "baby" over and over with a huge smile on his face. Owyn you are so cute.

Everett chilling in his stroller on the way to the dog show. It was quite hot here on Saturday and he seemed pretty relaxed just lazing in the stroller.

Daddy took these pictures for the guys he plays hockey with. They wanted to know how small Everett was in comparison to something they know.

Everett had another bath last night. He does actually enjoy his bathes but this picture does not show it well. We have nothing better to bath him in right now because he is too small to put in the sink and we don't have a bucket big enough.

Jeannine was open t holding Everett right away........

Tom took some convincing. He was so scared to hold Everett, but once I swaddled him really well and we all encouraged him to do it he finally caved. Then he got all teared up. Tom is such a sweat heart. I really love this photo of him and Everett.