nineteen days

today is olivers due date. the twenty-seventh of march is the day i had in my mind for the arrival of my little one. honestly, i didn't even think baby would come until the first week of april. but baby ollie decided he would throw himself a surprise birthday party on march the eighth.

in a couple of days, i went from being very pregnant and expecting to be very pregnant for at least 3 more weeks, to instantly falling in love with the tiny boy the nurses placed on my chest.


cuddles; a couple days ago.

although the timing of his arrival was very unexpected, he came at the right time. i look at him now, watching him grow each day, and i'm so thankful that we've already had nineteen days with our boy, and that we get to keep him forever. as soon as brian & i laid eyes on him, there wasn't a doubt in our minds that he belonged to us. we love you, baby ollie.


for auntie erin, so she can see how gosh darn cute he looks in the sleeper she bought him.

can you believe he's ours? the thought makes me smile everyday!
here's hoping he continues to pleasantly surprise us for the rest of forever.

time

time is fluid. it moves so quickly; there is hardly a definition between night & day. little oliver changes every day. we took him to the doctor today and he has hit six pounds! go ollie! he is a rockstar at breastfeeding and we are so darn in love with this little man. we sit around and stare at him all the time. there is laundry in the living room and dishes in the sink, but can you blame me? look how cute he is. its ridiculous.


sleepy smiles.


cutest yawn in the world.

keep up the good growing, baby boy! you are cute & sweet & the best baby in the world.
seriously.

he's here

our little boy has arrived!
oliver douglas was born on march 8 at 5:14 pm.
he weighed in at 5 lbs 7 oz and is 20 inches long.
he's our itty bitty ollie.



and we are so in love with him.



welcome, precious boy.

i mean it

weekends like the two gone past shouldn't go undocumented. so even though i am sleepy and feeling a little lazy, i need to post some important pictures from the last nine days or so.

a dear friend of mine from days of youth dances got married in the temple and i was able to be there for it. how incredible is it to be reunited with friends on such a happy, happy occasion?





and might i add that she was a stunning bride? so timeless.

baby belly grew a little bit more. here i am at 34 and a half weeks.



the other day i closed the fridge door and hit baby belly on the way. woops. sorry baby, but your home is getting rather large.

we had last monday off work for the delightful canadian holiday deemed "family day." awesome! we went out ice fishing with our friends, and since the small lake was aerated, we also got to do some cast fishing. it was a gorgeous day and we had lots of fun, despite jenny being the only one to catch a teeny tiny fish.



here's the proof that i went fishing at 8 months pregnant. and also that i look like the stay puft marshmallow man. awesome.



brian & john made friends with this guy out there who was laying on his stomach over the holes in the ice, using a homemade contraption to catch fish. he lent some to us and we had fun watching the fish swim around under the ice, totally dodging our bait.





although i wanted to, i didn't last long down there. turns out trying to lay on your belly on ice & snow while largely pregnant isn't as fun as it sounds.

and this past saturday, we finally did some apartment re-arranging in preparation for little one to come. brian set up the crib in the second bedroom...



...wait. what?



this is for real. i'm still a little shocked when i walk past the second room and spot the pretty crib and the glider next to it. the countdown is on.

my valentines

we had a lovely little valentines day. i worked late, and brian came to pick me up with flowers in his hand. sweet man. we came home and made dinner; breakfast for dinner. is there anything better than pancakes & sausages at 8:30 pm?

i made him a heart shaped pancake.

and he made me a fruit salad.

i felt profoundly blessed last night as i flipped pancakes and snuck fruit out of the bowl before dinner started. brian and i are happy to have eachother, and baby kicked energetically within me. i love my family so much.

happy love day to the boy who took me on my first date, eight years ago on valentines day, and to the man who spent the night online shopping for a stroller and diaper bag with me. i love you, best friend-husband.

a few hours

my dear sisters baby drew was born on friday, so brian & i drove to their home to meet the sweet little man. it was a really quick trip. i wished i could've stayed longer to snuggle my nephew, but it was worth it. it was so worth it.





welcome to the world, baby drew! we love you.

one more time

we shared brians birthday weekend with so many family members and friends. it was wonderful! and totally exhausting.

brian and his friend john went ice fishing on friday, but unfortunately, didn't catch anything. so john and his lovely wife jenny bought some fish and brought it over to our house for a fish fry, complete with french fries and coleslaw. delicious! we were then joined by more friends for brians favourite ice cream cake.

here's the recipe. because its so good.

* * * * *

butter brickle ice cream cake

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup margarine
1 cup chopped pecans
1 jar caramel sauce (i made this caramel sauce.)
1 pint vanilla ice cream

melt margarine. stir in flour, oatmeal, brown sugar and pecans. spread in 9x13 pan and pat thin. bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. be sure not to burn it! crumble with a fork while hot and let cool. half of the crumble stays on the bottom of the pan, take other half out. drizzle with half of caramel sauce. fill the pan with ice cream. (the ice cream should be left out to melt a little; it makes it easier to spread.) top with the rest of the crumble and drizzle with caramel. freeze. and enjoy!

* * * * *

on saturday morning, my brother jess and his wife jayna and their crew came to edmonton to go to the temple. brian and i babysat the kiddos and gracie helped me bake brians birthday cupcakes, found here. later in the afternoon, brians sister jen and her husband robert and their two little ones came over and we all feasted on roast and mashed potatoes, corn and green salad. our apartment was full of people, mostly little people, and we had such fun celebrating with those that we love.

happy birthday, brian! hope you enjoyed your party weekend!



p.s. i'm not sure why that one candle looks like its about to put the whole plate of cupcakes up in flames. we didn't light anything on fire. i promise.

quarter of a century

twenty five years ago, brians mom & dad brought a little man home from the hospital in this adorable little toque.



in a couple of months, me & that man are going to bring home a little one in the same head gear.

happy birthday, bri! i'm so glad you're mine. here's to your 25th year and to the two of us becoming parents in the very near future. you're going to be the best daddy. i love you!

a staple in our home

i am a big believer in soup. warm, hearty, delicious soup. there is nothing a bowl of soup can't handle. which is why this soup has become a staple these past couple of months. it reminds me of a soup my mom used to make, which is probably why i love it so much. i just finished making a giant pot, and i hope you'll use this recipe sometime soon. its so easy to make and super delicious! i promise!

barley beef soup
(john hair, "sensible cooking")

3/4 cup pearl barley
2 1/2 cups salt water
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups diced celery
2 cups chopped onions
3 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
8 cups beef bouillon
1 quart tomatoes, pureed
1/2 cup apple juice
salt & pepper to taste

cook barley in salt water. brown ground beef. add remaining ingredients to pot. simmer until vegetables are tender. serve with a dollop of sour cream in each bowl.

enjoy!

the warmth rang true

i feel like the days are rushing by at an increasing rate. i want to stop and listen. pause. feel the happiness of each & every day as it comes.

there are so many things i want to remember about this past week, the last week of january.

our niece joviah made us a collage of pictures of babies. its so cute and now hangs on our fridge!


there is a little car seat sitting in our living room. its waiting to be washed & loved & then it'll be ready to have a baby put in it. when we went out to buy it and put it into our backseat, we both kept looking back at it in disbelief. a car seat! in our backseat!

i got my hair cut! so refreshing.


eating maple walnut ice cream right out of the box is one of lifes greatest pleasures.

the nesting continues. i finally went through the boxes of stuff my mom delivered to my house; boxes full of books & papers & pictures & little doo-dads from the past 15 years of my life. brian & i were ruthless yesterday; i've purged our second room of everything useless. and i'm so glad. its all gone, and the room is starting to look a little more liveable.
plus! i found a small piece of granite from the regina temple; from the temple in our home town, from the temple i took care of as a summer job, from the temple we were sealed in. its nice to have in our home.


i got to go to a prenatal yoga class on tuesday night. it was just what i needed. i felt grounded & relaxed when i left. baby moved around happily while i did the same. it was so nice.

i washed this adorable little sleeper this week. it may not fit for awhile, but i'm excited to put baby in it.


i got a letter in the mail that began with these words: "congratulations! your student loans are paid in full." ah. sweet freedom.

we're really enjoying our canned peaches from the summer. thanks to my brother & his wife for pointing out the most delicious ones in salmon arm, and to my mama-in-law for helping me can them. we really, really love them.


listening to lots & lots of ben howard and brett dennen.

i'm pretty sure baby doubled in size this week.


...its getting really hard to see my toes over this bump!


while i was putting this post together, i ate a grapefruit. in my bed. life is good.

and it grows

here's the belly at 31 weeks. baby is about 16 inches long and three and a half pounds (according to various pregnancy websites.) at my last appointment, doctor said baby is head down!



we're down to single digits in the weeks countdown!
see you soon, baby!

minus / plus

well, it finally happened. winter has arrived. the usual temperatures that we endure from december until february have happened upon us. i am not loving the minus 40 type temperatures we've been facing, but they're only supposed to stay for a few more days. and here are some things i am loving.

#1. i got on the bus the other day to come home from work. the girl who got on after me took a seat across from me. she then promptly removed her winter jacket, settled into the seat, and pulled an ice cream sandwich out of her purse. what?! it was seriously minus 38 out, and here this crazy girl was eating ice cream. weirdo. i feel like things like this only happen in canada.

#2. now that i talked about ice cream, i want some.

#3. i love my husband. kind soul that he is, he has sacrificed his winter jacket so that his ever-expanding wife has a warm jacket to wear that zips over her belly. baby & i are so, so grateful, bri. (don't worry. work provides him with a jacket to keep him warm.)

#4. i am beginning, with the help of baking classes at the bosch store, to truly realize the full potential of this masterful machine. last weekend i made pizza buns and they were the bomb. delicious.

#5. its official. i am pregnant. yes, we've known this for a long, long time, but i think my mind & body are finally getting the memo. i am so dang achy. my joints are loosening. i feel...heavy. sometimes when i stand up i feel like i'm going to fall forward, i've become so front heavy. and i'm nesting. i've gotten the sudden urge to clean and organize and cook and bake. thats all i want to do. all the time. oh, and sleep.

#6. we got a glider & ottoman on freecycle (thanks to you, jenny!), and now its sitting in our living room. its hard for me to believe that in about 10 weeks, that chair will be occupied by me & our baby. unreal.

its gonna be a good one

i can already tell that 2012 is going to be good to us. the first week alone was pretty spectacular.

brians parents and little brother came to edmonton for Christmas, so they were here when we came home. brian got to hang out with his brother while i worked and we spent the evenings eating delicious food and playing games. we rang in the new year with games and food and cute kiddos and english trifle. it was wonderful!







we got a memory foam mattress topper for Christmas from brians parents and the first night we put it on the bed, i slept for 11+ hours. my hips are no longer achy when i wake up!

i turned 24. and baby & i entered the third trimester. on the very same day. it was awesome. we celebrated with the best pasta in the city and a dark chocolate raspberry ganache to follow. baby kicked in approval of the deliciousness.

brian got new speakers for the computer. so schnazzy. now we just need to work on re-vamping our apartment to put baby in the second room.

we saw a kid put hot water on his hot dog at ikea, thinking it was the ketchup dispenser. i stared and laughed while brian ran towards the kid, almost stopping him from ruining his perfectly good 75 cent hot dog. even though the little boy was disappointed, we couldn't help but giggle. funny.

brian started his new job, and is really enjoying it. he brought some coal home from work! he's been doing good at getting up early and making the over hour long drive to get to work on time.

i started taking the bus to work again. i was so tired the first day that i fell right asleep. like, really asleep. when i woke up i realized i had missed my stop. it was still dark out and i was extremely disoriented. i'm sure the other people on the bus and the driver got a good laugh at the crazy pregnant lady looking around wildly!

also on my birthday, i made my very last student loan payment. we are very happy about this event!

i relived my childhood by going to see beauty and the beast in the theatre. (it was the first movie i ever saw in the theatre!) it was a delightful morning with good friends. thanks, rachael!

our good friends had their baby girl last friday. we're so excited to go meet her this week! and we're so excited for our baby to come be playmates with baby clara!

2012; you've been fabulous already. keep it comin'.

we learned to share

my sister and i have shared a lot. as the youngest in the family and the two girls, we kind of had to. we had our ups & downs, but we learned to do it pretty well.

we've shared a room, we've shared crushes (upwards of 30 posters of JTT, right?) we've shared meals and hugs, laughter and tears. we've shared photoshoots and lots of late night talks. we even shared a name for much of our lives, because i got called 'erin' so often.

its a close one, but this might be the best thing we've ever shared.





our babies are due just 7 weeks apart, hers coming in february.

now we talk about kicking babies and sore bones. i call her for pregnancy advice and we've ordered a bulk load of cloth diapers together (which i will continue to call her about after baby is born and i am learning to wrangle baby into them.)

we're both pregnant. and its awesome. and when we're not pregnant anymore, our little bambinos will be buddies. its the best.

merry & bright

our Christmas was so wonderful. it was all things i believe a holiday should be; lots of food, too many sweets, staying up really late to hang out with family, snuggling sweet babies, wrestling kids, playing silly games and just being. Christmas is the best!

brian, finally reading "the hunger games" and snuggling cute baby sam in his Christmas pjs.


the lovely Christmas tree.


the cast of the nativity on Christmas eve. it was adorable!


joseph leading the donkey in with mary.


the angel that announced the birth of baby Jesus.


for a little while, mary was more interested in harassing the sheep than in her baby.


but then she decided baby was pretty great.


we finally got meet baby violet. she's so sweet.


and brian & haylen rocked some matching shirts.


i surprised brian with settlers of catan! its hard to keep secrets from him but he was very happy.


Christmas morning madness. this is what it looks like to have more than a dozen kiddos in one room on Christmas morning. it was awesome.


we got to ride & feed the horses, too!






i'm thinking this was one of the best moments of haylens young life.


these two are the best of friends.


and christian (and all kids) love dirt piles. good thing tim has lots of them.


we had a wonderful Christmas with our gigantic family. we love them so!