House Pictures

Here is a house tour.When you walk in this is what you see....well, usually the vaccum is not there! I was lazy today and did not clean up before taking the pictures! When you come in you can go up or down. This part of the house was an addition and was poorly built. This part is not heated but it doesn't get too cold either.
When you walk up the stairs on your left is the toy room, it is part of the addition. The door leads to a deck. This room is heated.

The trampoline comes from my mother in law, it works great when the girls start running around I tell them to go jump! They really enjoy it, I will have to use it after the baby comes!

I didn't bother with a picture of the kitchen, but here is the dinning room. I have some curtains waiting to be hung but I need some curtain rods. I love how the sun comes in here every morning! It is such a bright and cheery place to work and play!

This is from the other side of the room, leading into the living room.

This is the little front porch, it is closed in but not insulated. We are looking forward to sitting in here this spring and summer!

The living room. THe stereo is in the corner, it makes the whole house so cozy!

The stairs going down when you come in the side door. All of our hats, mittens, and scarves are in the drawers. This area works very well for all that stuff!

Our storage area and hanging area. I still need to go through all those boxes and things, I just made enough room to hang the clothes. I now do a load of laundry everynight after 9pm and then hang it in the morning. I have just enough room for one load. It works well and hopefully saves some money!

My new washing machine!! I did mention that we are living a more oldfashioned life right!! My wringer washing machine is a great addition to this new life! But I must confess I have never used it yet! It is fun to look at and I do hope to try it out, but my front loader washing machine is to the left of it!

The hallway upstairs. To the immediate right is the bathroom. To the immediate left is Cassia's room and then the door on the right that you see is Bryan and I's room and the door on the left is the girls room.

The girls room, the 2 sets of bunkbeds fit rather nicely.

This is the newer set and yes that is Mr. Bingley having a nap on Alicia's bed!

The only closets in the whole house! The right side has the girls dresses, the left Bryan and I's hanging stuff and in the middle is a dresser for cassia's clothes and her hanging stuff on top. I do enjoy having one place to hang everything.

Cassia's crib just fits so we decided to leave the closet and not go with wardrobes.

That is the end of the tour for now I did not include the bathroom, Bryan and I's bedroom or the kitchen, maybe next time!

The girls are about to come home, I hardly did anything today! I didn't even do the dishes yet! I did make a skirt each for V and M and I spent lots of time catching up on the blogs I like to visit! Back to the real world in a few min. It was nice to have a day off but all this sitting around has made me tired too! I miss the girls and look forward to them coming home and hearing all about their day! And I look forward to Bryan coming home too, but he is playing hockey after work so he won't be home until around 8pm!

Remember you can always come and visit!!

Life in the Country

Before the snow came the girls and I enjoyed a daily walk in the fields. Then the girls discovered mud puddles!! They really enjoyed splashing the puddles. Now they are enjoying the ice and snow! It wasn't that long ago that the outside looked like this! Victoria and Moriah enjoying 'our' field. We have a little piece of field! It was not the plan, we were at first going to own the grass part, but found out that the weeping bed is in the field, so we will own (as of January 15th DV.) a small piece of farm land. We told my uncle to let the farmer continue to use the field until we are ready to do something with it, which probably won't happen for a few years. We dream of a orchard............but we will see!! :-)

Alicia Joy enjoying some sunshine, I was trying to get a glimpse of her muddy boots, but it doesn't really show up!

Cassia boo, running down the drive way! Notice the trailer in the background, it was very handy for moving. My dad has it for work but it was empty when we moved so we used it to move, we also borrowed a friends smaller trailer. Everytime we went to visit the house we would take a load of stuff, but I was still amazed at all the stuff we had!!

Victoria, she is loving the outdoors and has even tried to climb some trees!!

Moriah playing with her new cell phone!! All the girls got one and they just love them!! Bryan's work got new phones so he brought home the old ones and there were just enough for each girl, even one for Cassia. Cassia has to have and do everthing her sisters do! At the bottom of this picture Cassia and Alicia are playing!

What a see when I look down!! I think I have grown since this picture was taken! The baby gave me a good kick the other night, it really suprised me! The girls can't wait to feel the baby more, one morning Moriah was snuggling with me in bed and the baby kicked her. She was pretty excited about it! The girls continue to enjoy the pregnancy too!

A favorite place to play in our new house! It took me a little to get use to Cassia playing on the stairs, but so far no one has fallen down. I was doing school with the older girls and wondered what these two munchkins were up to as I heard them going from the pots and pan cupboard to the stairs! They were playing 'birthday party' on the stairs! I did take away the really big pots as I could see them falling and either someone getting hurt or the hardwood floors getting banged up. The girls love the pots and pans and I will often find a little toy in one when I go to make supper! They also like to play 'train' and slidding down the stairs on their belly is oh so much fun!!

Daddy and his girls sitting together!! This is when we first moved in so it looks rather boring!

A few weeks later I hung a picture!

And then I made curtains!!

I have rearranged since then but it does look better with curtains and a picure. The couch is a favorite place for reading and watching a movie. I love how Cassia sits with the girls now, she loves reading too and is usually up and down for the movie. In this picture she is doing her usual thing sucking her thumb and playing with her hair! It has only been in the last few months that she started sucking her thumb during the day. Ever since she was a few days old she has only sucked her thumb in bed, but not anymore!! It sure is cute though!!

This is Christmas at Bryan's mom's. She had bought the girls these dresses the month before and she wanted them to wear them to her house for Christmas. They all look so grown up!!

Our beautiful 6 year old!!

Our crazy almost 5 year old!!

I use to be so thankful that we never had a mouse in our house, but life has changed now that we live in a country house!! Here is the second mouse that we caught. We gave Mr. Bingley a few nights to catch it, but he didn't so we had to get a trap. In the last few weeks about a week or so after we moved in I noticed what I thought might be mouse poop! It was just a very little bit and I never noticed a mouse getting into our food! But then lately there has been more and the favorite place was under our stove where I keep all the cookie trays! But still Mr. mouse was not getting into anyfood! The first night we.....well, I mean Bryan, put out the trap he put one by the stove and one in the pantry. Both had peanut butter. Mr. mouse was pretty smart and licked the peanut butter right off without setting off the trap by the stove. The one in the pantry was not touched. The next night Bryan wedged a chocolate chip on the trap by the stove and left the peanut butter one in the pantry. Mr. mouse was still pretty smart and got the chocolate chip, but he or his friend was not so smart with the peanut butter in the pantry, we caught him there! I was so happy to have caught the mouse and thought we were done, but Bryan was smarter then me and said that where there is one mouse there is probably another! So last night he set the trap by the stove, this time with a noodle! Sure enough we caught another mouse this morning! I let Bryan take care of the mice, and while he was getting rid of this one he commented on how he wants to get rid of the mice before they have babies and I couldn't help but comment to him that 'we know how quickly that can happen!!' I think one person, who shall remain nameless, once commented on Bryan and I being like mice, multiplying quickly!! :-) It was said in jest..........but I think that person was also hoping we were about done with the multiplying!! Though Bryan and I have enjoyed our babies, we would prefer to not allow the mice in our house to do so!! :-) By the way, I thought I would be so grossed out to have a mouse in my house, but it isn't that bad since they have not got into our food! Alteast not that I have noticed!

There is a glimpse into our country life!!

A day to catch up.........

My mom took the girls today and let me borrow her Internet as I had some banking and some other stuff to do. My iron has been low again and I have been very tired so I also had instructions to get some rest and not be too busy. I have been up since about 6:30am I stayed in bed and spent some time praying for my husband and girls and then I got up with Bryan to get his breakfast and lunch. Bryan told me to go back to bed and so I did, but I could not sleep instead I laid there for a while thinking about something coming up. And for the last hour I have been catching up on blogs! I read one that brought tears to my eyes, the writer just had her 12Th child and wrote about how important it is to rest and just enjoy the new baby. So often woman are expected to be up and going right after giving birth but really our bodies need time to recover. I tend to be the one running around with the new born (I went to a church service less then 24 hours after Cassia was born) but I have noticed that with each child I am getting a little more tired after giving birth, so I have resolved now that this time around I am going to take it easy and just enjoy this baby and my girls! It was such a good reminder for me!!
Anyhow, I am looking forward to getting some things done today and to get some pictures on here so you all can see just how much we are loving our new house!! We really are loving it here but there is one thing I don't like and have really been struggling with and that is Bryan coming home later. He was not home for supper at all this week. I make supper for 6pm that is about as late as the children can wait and the earliest he was home was 6:30. On Wednesday night he was only 10 min. from home at 6pm and got stuck on the 401 as there was a major accident and did not get home until 9:30. As frustrating as it was knowing he was sitting there so close we were just so very thankful that he was not part of the accident (he was only about 20 cars back from the accident) and that he had a cell phone so I knew he was okay!! Needless to say we are really looking forward to Bryan's time off for the holidays. I really don't mean to complain, we are also very thankful that Bryan has work and the overtime pay is nice, but we did just move, I am have been struggling with being tired, I don't have a vehicle, it his busy time and I don't know about everyone else but I just enjoy having my husband home and being together as a family!! But even in the hard times God gives grace and last night my parents surprised us and took the girls. Bryan and I got to go on a date, we went grocery shopping!! Also I was really having a hard time at the beginning of the week and by Wednesday was feeling much better and had peace, of course that was also the night Bryan was almost home early :-) God knew what I needed!
So besides not having Bryan home, which happened even when we were in Chatham, we are loving this country life. Our house is so bright so I don't feel closed in on the days Bryan is gone and we don't go anywhere. The girls were thrilled to have snow this week and we got out and did some sledding on our little hill in the back yard. The girls went out by themselves yesterday, I am always amazed that they take the cold so well. They get snow up there sleeves and pants and no complaints!!
I am dreaming of spring, I want to get to the library to do some reading on gardening I would love to get an apple tree and strawberries this year along with a veggie garden. Lots of dreams, but I do have to remember I am having a baby in April, so that might just slow me down!! :-)
The girls and I have been home a lot lately, and I do love that. Victoria is learning to sew on the sewing machine and is making little bags to fill with candy to give to her friends for New Years. I have been sewing a lot, there is nothing cozier then sewing away at the kitchen table while the girls sit around coloring! I made a nightgown for Moriah and let her help me, all she did was put her hand on top of mine as I guided the material through the machine, but she was so thrilled! The girls get so excited over such little things and it is such a pleasure to see that excitement. I would like to make the girls each a skirt for New Years, but will have to see if I have time!
Something new in our country life is the radio!! We don't have TV. though we still watch movies on the laptop once in a while, but we do have a radio! Each night around 7:30pm the house is all cleaned up, the girls are in their pajamas and we all sit down and listen to Adventures in Odyssey. I am not a big fan of this series, but I don't mind it and it is so cozy all sitting together. Usually the 3 youngest get books and quietly look at them, Victoria is the only one of the girls that really listens and understands. The radio is on pretty much all day, the girls love to turn on a Cd. too. It is a big radio with 5 disk Cd. and tape player and 2 big speakers. The only station that we listen to is the Christian one, sometimes I have to turn it off because the music is a little too rocky for me then the Cd. 's work, but we do enjoy the programs, last night Bryan and I sat and listened to one on marriage that was very encouraging. We hope to catch the continuation tonight. I love the background music and the sense of peace it brings to our home!
Well, that is all for now I had better get dressed and do at least some work!! :-) I need to find the camera and upload some pictures to put on here. So stay tuned, I am not sure how many posts I will do today but I do hope to give you some glimpses into our life!!

Where have I been..........

I am sorry to those of you waiting for picture updates on our house or an e-mail from me telling you about our new house, but we do not have internet anymore! When I called to switch the internet to our new address they never said it would be a problem, but then the day after we were suppose to have it we found out that where we live it is not available. The first week I really missed not checking all the blogs I like and my e-mail, but now I am very use to it and am enjoying the extra reading time, well, reading books instead of blogs! :-) I do hope to update with pictures of our life in our new house, but that will have to wait for now!
We are loving our new house! I just love being in the country, I love having no neighbors and I love our house and all the big windows and how bright and cheery it is! I have not minded being home with no vehicle, no internet, no tv., and I haven't even missed the dishwasher yet!! I have not been gaining as much weight now that I have to walk upstairs to go the bathroom! We love having everyone sleeping on the same level and well, I guess we just love everything about our new house!!
The pregnancy is going very well, I do think my iron is low again I have a midwife appointment tomorrow so I will find out then. The baby is moving and growing and now that we are settled into our new house I think about our babe more and am looking forward to having him or her. I still continue to be nervous about the possibility of having aboy, but am also getting more use to the idea! We do not know if it is a boy, it is just that everyone thinks it is a boy and the heart beat is lower then my other babies.
I am sorry to all those waiting for an e-mail from me, but I figured this would do for now!! :-) If you want to come for a visit we would love that! I am mostly home so give me a call and please come visit, I would love to show you are new house!!