Painting - August 22-25

We had our new house painted. The entire top two floors. The basement is not the best colour, a bit too yellow but it'll do for now. 
The top two floors of original paint had a mocha colour for trim and doors and peachy walls. 
Not us, at all!
We chose a grey as our main colour and a dark brown as an accent colour. We also had the trim changed to white. A huge job! 

I'll try to keep the pictures to a manageable number...

Peachy main floor, look at how the fireplace stands out. 

Trim going white

Main floor looking better.

Before 

After- My new grey back entry!

So much better. 

+30 - August 21

So while C and I have been busy moving things from the old house to the new one, my in laws (Grandparents 21) have been wonderful and have been looking after J and E for us during the days ... and usually very late nights. 
We took a day off moving, we had gotten possession Thursday, moved a bunch of kitchen stuff in Friday, moved our furniture with the help of great friends and family Saturday and Sunday we tried to take the day off. 
It didn't exactly happen but C and I were able to stop around 1pm and enjoy the hot afternoon by playing with the kids in the backyard slip and slide pool. 
J had a blast, lots of screaming! E did not. I think she was worried about J, she seemed terrified he was screaming so much. 
She loves the water table and loves her baths but pools seem to have her a bit freaked out. 

E didn't even want to be near the pool. 

Enjoying the shade, away from the pool. 

Warming up on the hot rocks.

Cousins E and E arrived for the fun too.

E trying to get her toe nails painted. She's so ticklish, it was so cute!

What a beautiful day to help give us a break from house stuff and to enjoy some of the last few hot days of summer .... and the only day this year above 30 degrees. 

Possession day, how we got here! - August 18

Finally, the day had arrived! After all the lawyer stuff Tuesday, I can say that by Thursday, my 3 month long anxiety attack finally was feeling a bit of relief. 


Moving is stressful. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
First, you decide if you can afford to move ... yes? Okay, now to find a house. 
We looked for houses first having been told our smaller sized house would likely sell fast. 
So we looked and found a house we loved. Put an offer in and didn't get it. Luckily, there was the exact same floor plan, down the street, also for sale. Bigger lot and central air but needed a lot of paint and the yard needed work! 
Done, we found a house. We put an offer in, they said yes. Then we had to sell our house. 
Easy right? No! 
Did you know, even if a home owner says yes to your offer, they can still continue to show their house and look for ether offers?! Talk about stressful!
We had a professional home stager come in and essentially tear our entire house apart, and put it back together with about 25% of the stuff in it to look like a show home. 
The rest was packed (in about 3 days) and the professional photographer came in to take pictures. 
Lucky for us, our neighbours house went up for sale the same day and their realtor had a buyer for us. 
One showing only. All that work At least it was sold. 
Then the packing began/ continued. 
Then Elise started to crawl. Oh my! 
Bank stuff, appointments, calls to transfer phone and internet and gas and water and power ... blah blah blah. 
Finally on August 18, the house was ours. Trina let us in, showed us around and then left us with the keys. 
Amazing. 
Now if only my house would repopulate itself.
Because now we have boxes and boxes to unpack!


At least there isn't a timeline this time around. 
Except I head back to work right away!

Drama queen - August 17

I'm not sure who teaches little girls how to add so much drama to their lives, but someone taught my little girl ... and I don't like it. 
Between teething and generally getting more aware of what's going on, we've been seeing this face a lot more often! 

 Every little thing is a huge deal. A kiss and snuggle usually does the trick but this melodrama is moving into bedtime too. Not fun! As if I don't have enough to do at the moment. 

A few last pics - August 17

Here are a few last pictures from our yard at 31 Chestermere Road. Aside from Elise's gorgeous room, it's really the only thing I'll miss about our old house. We put so much effect into it, it's hard to think about it being someone else's yard. 

Our new yard needs some TLC. It'll be a while before we can hangout on the grass and just relax. 

Kim 

Bad mood - August 30

J was in a mood! 

This was what I dealt with all day. 

My poor teething baby - August 11

This last month with little E has been - a challenge- to put it lightly. 
In addition to being a general mess maker and handful, she appears to be teething, big time. I think there are either 2 or 4 bottom teeth coming in at once. 
She's always taken teething well, a bit more clingy but nothing a few extra cuddles couldn't fix. 
This month she has been refusing naps and then bedtime can be a chore too. 
I can't really get much packing done in the day so on top of packing until all hours of the night and a baby who won't sleep, let's just say I'm beyond exhausted. 
Four days last week I had to have E nap in her Mei Tai carrier on my back. A nice break form the whining to have her sleep, but man, she's heavy. 21+ pounds of dead weight hanging on your back add quite the extra dimension to packing. 
I took pictures one day of her nap progression. ** Just a note, she's hanging out a bit in these pictures, I had forgotten the "hop" you are supposed to do with MeiTai carrier to get them in the pocket nice and snug. The deeper she feel asleep and the more she fidgeted (she's definitely C's daughter, the more she swung to one side). I have since been "hopping" and she's in good and deep. 

Tired but refusing to nap in her bed.

Yep- I told you you were tired!

And -out! 

Really out, starting to lean.

But still one hand on Momma :)

I don't know how she possible napped like this for an hour! 

This Mei Tai really is  a life and sanity saver. I wish I didn't need to be using it for her to nap in but holy cow, has it ever been a great help this week ... or three. I've lost count.

My littlest trouble maker - August 11

Our lives have gotten much busier and much messier these past few weeks with E's ability to crawl improving by the minute! 

My newest little trouble maker. I don't get much packing done in the day light hours. She crawls after me and unpacks what I am trying to pack, pulls folded laundry out of baskets and groceries out of the cupboards about as fast as I can tidy. 

 Her brother was the same way. 

Birthday already?! - August 4

So it only occurred to me this week, I have some birthday parties to start planning! 
I had planned on making E's birthday invites when we got in our new house and unpacked ... then realized that leaves me pretty no time to actually make the invites. 


I found a program where I can make digital invites online for free. 
I decided I'd take a few "pre-birthday" pictures for her invite. 
During the shoot, there were a few pictures that her expressions and manners made her look so grown up. Like a true toddler. 
A few to share. 

Summer shade - August 5

Our patio umbrella broke this summer, right at the beginning of the year. 
Yes, it has been a horrible, wet, mosquitoey summer but on the odd occasion, Mother Nature surprises us with a beautiful day. 
We hadn't replaced our umbrella because our new yard is North facing so the patio should be shaded but today I broke down and bought a new umbrella anyway. 
They were on sale, 50% off. 
This one was just so pretty, I couldn't resist. 

10 months - July 29

As our summer weather has improved and our move date is getting closer, it has been harder to take pictures and harder to come up with "stories" to share that don't just involve packing. 
With that being said, I did take the time to get E all gussied up for her 10 month birthday pictures. Getting a good picture, is harder than it should be. My auto focus lens is acting up and so I have been having to use an old manual focus lens. Shooting pictures of a moving ten month old is difficult to say the least. 


Here are a few to share from her 10 month photo shoot.