My little Christmas Presents

I took some pictures of the girls Christmas Eve (day). For some unexplainable reason they didn't want to cooperate very well with me. But a few turned out... here they are. Ask Sofie why the Christamas tree looks so bare on the bottom.

The newest addition...

Well our little family has grown again. Our second daughter Avye Dawn Mestinsek was born November 23, 2007. She weighed in at 6 lbs 13 oz and was 20.5 inches long. (her name rhymes with Abbey, if you are curious how to pronounce it)

Sofie has adjusted quite well to little Avye. In fact she absolutely adores her, a little too much at times.

Jason is writing his final exams for his first semester this week. He'll be finished on Dec 14, same day that our Saskatoon house sale finally goes through, which is the same day that Avye was due. It's kind of ironic how the three things that we stressed over so much the past 4 months will all be done by Dec 14. Only 3 more days to go!

Pike Lake

It's been hot... too hot in fact. So Wednesday we went to Pike Lake with Kristina and Evan, and Corinna and her two kids. Sofie enjoyed eating the mud.

Sofie was exhausted by the end of the day!

Sofie's Birthday

I know it's been a long long time since the last time I blogged. Please forgive me we have been very busy with the house.

Anyways Sofie turned one on the 12th of July. I'm still in shock that she is one! Here are some pics from the birthday party we had at my mom and dad's.

Caiden

For those of you who are interested in updates on Caiden... my little nephew(well kind of) who was diagnosed with leukemia last summer. He is doing great. He's been home from the hospital since the beginning of Jan and has remained cancer free. Though he did break his arm last night, so had to return to the hospital for a few hours. But as you can see his hair is back, and he looks great!

Life Changes (Again!)

Well our life has made another turn, for all of us. Sofie's first tooth broke through sometime last night. I believe it must have been on Thursday or Friday around the time her nose stopped dripping, but the little tough kid wasn't grumpy at all. I found out on Monday when she pulled my finger into her mouth and it hurt!
She also is standing all the time now and took a tiny step the other day. She figured out somehow that she can go down stairs now if she turns around. She likes to turn around though about a cm from the top of the stairs. Makes her mommy a little bit scared, but she hasn't fallen. (yet!)
Jason found out last Friday that he has been accepted in the Kings University College in Edmonton for his Bachelor of Education. It means that we are moving again! So right now Jason is extremely busy trying to get our house ready to sell. Sofie and I went back with Jason's parents on Monday to get out of the house. We aren't much help with the renovations at this time as Sofie is a terror and well this leads to the next change... as I can't seem to keep my head out of the toilet. Yes, that means that another little Mestinsek will join our family sometime in December.
Sorry no pictures this time around.

Sleeping

Sofie has recently decided that if she sleeps she will miss something. And so every nap time and bed time has become a struggle of wills. Most of the time I win the battle, but sometimes I must admit I only have so much strength these days and she gets put down to play again. In the end though, I always do win as these pictures show.

Sofie's New Little Cousins

Zoey Louise Losoncy

Drew Eldon Service

Calgary

Last week we went to Calgary, the trip was not intended to be the entire week... but life is very flexible in our world. So it became a holiday instead of a weekend trip.

It really was wonderful, we got to spend two days with Caiden (and Lisa and Rob). He is such a vibrant, active little boy. A person would never know that a few months ago he was fighting for his life. It is so great to see him climbing the monkey bars, and wanting to swim by himself in the wave pool.

We stayed at Mike and Yvette's house (and Caelan and Makenna). Sofie seemed to really bond with Argo. She didn't mind being licked on the face, in fact she seemed to seek it out as she would follow him to his water bowl, would crawl up on him if he was on the floor.

All in all it was a great trip, except for the fact that on Wednesday Sofie got a fever that lasted 4 days and on Saturday broke out in spots all over her body. Poor thing she was not feeling good. She really was happy to be home finally on Sunday.

WATER!!

We finally had the new plumbing hooked up last week. It is so glorious. I love having a dishwasher again! I love being able to put water in the tea kettle without going upstairs. I love being able to put water in Sofies bottle without going upstairs. I love being able to wash her bottles. All in all I'm in love with the fact that I have water again!!

No pictures of the water... sorry

Zoey Louise

Sofie had another new cousin born this morning. Derek and Cathy Losoncy (Jason's cousin) had a baby girl at 5:13am on Easter Sunday. A wonderful little present weighing in at 6lbs 5 oz and 19 inches long. Mommy and Daddy are doing fine though a little tired, and baby Zoey is very healthy and normal. Sofie can not wait to meet her, and to be honest neither can we!!

Food vs Sofie

Sofie has found a new love.... the love of food!! You would never know if you looked at her as she is very tiny for her age, but she can pack away food!! And her new favorite food is... of course... spaghetti!

Sofies and The Red Carpet Crawl

On Saturday Sofie took part in the "Market Mall Baby Crawl 2007"

She as many of you know... can crawl quite fast... key is only when she wants too. And this time she didn't want to. She was more interested in posing for the cameras. So she would take one crawl step, look at the cameras, smile, take another crawl step, sit, look at the cameras, smile. And there was nothing I could do to persuade her otherwise. Very cute though.

Renovation Week Continued

Jason taking another coffee break.

Here I am... hard at work again!

Sorry for the long wait for some of you, to see what we did next in our exciting renovation project. Well mom and dad left us on Sunday (coming up two weeks now) and so Jason and I continued on at the frenzied pace somewhat. On Wednesday I took Sofie over to play with Spencer so that Jason and I could finish laying the floor. We also painted the living room and dining room and Jason tried his hand at putting up crown moulding. And then upstairs to the bathroom we went. The bathtub finally came in on Friday morning (a week late) and Jason realized that the beautiful tub enclosure that Darcy helped him build was the wrong size. So the weekend was spent rebuilding the tub enclosure and taking out the bathroom window. Since the plumbers wanted another $2000 to set the fixtures. This weekend Jason will spend his time setting the fixtures in the hope that on Tuesday the plumbers can connect the water to the new kitchen and the new bathroom.

The beautiful crown moulding going up.

The floor going in... YEAH!!

Renovation Week Part 4 and 5

We have been so busy the last couple of weeks that I have been way too tired to blog at midnight when we finally finish for the night. And since Sofie likes to get up at about 7:30 its an early start to the day as well.

Anyways this is what we have accomplished to date. Jason tiled the bathroom. And the kitchen is all done... well all done except for the last coat of mud on the ceiling and painting the walls, tiling a backsplash and the plumber still needs to hook up the water. But first we need the tub to arrive. As both the kitchen and bathroom have to be hooked up at the same time.

Heres some pics of the house so far.

Renovation Week Part 3

Wow, another crazy busy day! Lets see now... most of the day was spent drywalling the bathroom. Darcy came in the evening to help mud it. And then the exciting part of laying the laminate in the hallway and kitchen... Oh it looks so nice!!

Before (well this morning)

After (this evening)

Dad and Jason still at it at 10:30 pm. This is them trying to make the floor level.

And the dirty little helper!

New Cousin for Sofie

Sofie had a new cousin born today. A little boy was born to my brother Greg and his wife Michelle. His name is Drew Eldon and weighed 8 lbs 2 oz. I don't have a picture but please check him out by hitting the link to Greg and Michelles Blog. As he is quite a cutie, and so are his older brother and sister.

Renovation Week Part 2

Wow, another extremely busy day. Today we (by we I really mean mostly Dad and Jason) took the window out of the kitchen, drywalled that wall, mudded the kitchen, and tore out the wall between the dining room and the living room. It makes a big difference!

Dad starting to take out the wall.

The wall half finished. The circles are the dust particles landing on the camera lens.

The wall finished... well somewhat. The water pipes going up to the "old" bathroom" are still there and have to remain so as the bathroom is our only source of water right now.

Renovation Week Part 1

Last Thursday, Sofie and I took a bus trip to Edmonton. Where my mom picked us up so that we could go to IKEA to get our new kitchen. I then convinced mom and dad to come out this week to help put it in! They very kindly agreed to do so. We started yesterday (tuesday) and a lot got accomplished the first day. Jason had already tore out the old cupboards the day before and the old flooring. So bright and early Jason and Dad built a new ceiling, a new wall, put in pot lights for the kitchen, rewired the entire kitchen (I of course had to change the entire kitchen), and then drywalled the ceiling and the wall.

Thankfully Darcy came over in the evening to help put up the drywall onto the ceiling.

Mom and I cleaned up after them and started assembling the kitchen cabinets. And started screwing the old hardwood down so that the floor doesn't squeek anymore. A lot of work, but oh will it be worth it!

Sofie's Friend Spencer

We have made a few really good friends in the short time we have been here, and so has Sofie. Meet Spencer, Sofies little friend. Well since he's 3.5 months older and a boy he's not little compared to her. In their own way they get along famously. The other day in the car they were looking at each other and talking. Though sharing is a few months away, I would say they do quite well. Spencer was also born at Rockyview General Hospital, so they have quite a bit in common.

Perogies!!

On Monday we made perogies!! Our friends James and Kristina invited us over to their house for a perogie bee. All afternoon we sat and crimped perogies. 20 lbs of potatoes later we had 500 perogies. Then was the feast!! Ummmm... my first home made perogies and boy were they good. I ate till I hurt, and that is a rare thing for me.

Ben Mulroney

We ate lunch with Ben Mulroney on Sunday. Well we didn't quite eat together, but we ate at the same time in the same restaurant. I think he is the first 'celebrity' I've ever seen, so it was kind of cool. He looks exactly the same in person as he does on TV, fake tan and all.
Sorry we didn't have our camera with us, so no pictures.

Swimming

We took Sofie swimming for the first time on Friday. Well first time if you don't count the time we took her to West Ed Waterslides. So really it's her second time, but the first time in a few months.
She didn't quite know what to think of the water. I was thinking that she was going to squeel with delight as she loves her bath. But she cried instead when a wave hit her. She was almost scared as she wouldn't relax her head in my hands and let herself float. But she loved looking at all the people bobbing around. So at least one good thing came of it. And she looked really cute in her bikini.

Edmonton

Jason had a KA shindig to go to in Edmonton this weekend so we all went with him. To Edmonton that is... not the KA thing. We stayed with our friends Kyle and Tami and their two year old daughter Neko. I don't think I have ever seen a two year old with as large and extensive vocabulary as Neko. For example she says 'anemone' like its a common place object, instead of just a sea shell. Our friend Pat was there as well. He is moving to Spain and Libya in the next couple of months so it was really good to see him one last time before he left.

Sofie absolutely adored Neko, she tried to follow her everywhere she went. I don't think Neko appreciated it to much. But Neko has a baby sister on the way, so I think she's going to have to get used to it.

Sofie Crawls

First off, Sofie would like to say congratulations to Zach Morden on the birth of his little brother, Reid.

It's been another busy weekend. Actually really it's been the first busy weekend that didn't involve house work. We went and visited with new friends, Amanda, Kevin and 10 month old Spencer on Friday night. And then had James and Kristina over on Saturday night. It felt good to have conversations with someone other than

ourselves and Sofie.

Sofie decided to do everything at once. She started crawling on Thursday. Crawling on her hands and knees instead of a tummy crawl. She now sits up by herself as well, though it is a rare moment when she actually sits before crawling off to a new adventure.

Music Class

Sofie had her first Music Class today. I've never seen her as happy as the moment when we all sat down and sang and clapped hands. She absolutely loved it. And then as probably typical of all babies she grew bored of sitting and clapping and crawled over to the tamborines and bells and starting playing. And then she noticed a BOY!! She was enthralled for the rest of the class. It was quite cute and well quite unnerving at the same time.

I finally finished painting the french doors today. It felt so good to get one small thing done. Hopefully I can get more done in small steps in the coming days.

And the Toilet Fights Back...

Well we fixed the toilet (by we I mean I watched Jason fix it)... but the toilet didn't take kindly to it, and leaked. It was a sneaky leak too, you wouldn't even know it leaked in the bathroom. We finally figured it out when I was downstairs in the basement (two stories down) doing laundry and stepped in a pool of water. So it got fixed a second time.... this time it retaliated by being noisy, but at least it doesn't leak, and we don't need to turn the water on when we go to the washroom. Thanks for the offer of the reading material though Michelle.

Sofie has a very busy week ahead of her. Today she had a play date with a 10 month old boy named Spencer. She didn't know exactly what to do with him, so stole his toy instead. She's going to go swimming with him again on Friday night. Tomorrow is a program called Mommy's Time Out. I go for breakfast with other moms and Sofie gets to play with other kids with a babysitter for two hours. And then she has music class on Thursday morning. So it's a very busy week.

This Old House

One thing that I can say about old houses compared to new houses, is that they have character. It's not always good character, but character nonetheless. A person can't sneak up the stairs or from one room to the next as the floor will always tell you the exact location of where you are. And it's very romantic... Jason and I are always cuddling now, with a blanket wrapped around our shoulders, and our teeth chattering away. Which brings me to our furnace. Now our furnace could be said to have a certain antique quality to it. I don't know exactly when it was built but I do know the last time someone came to look at it (according to the sticker) was in 1987. It takes up a quarter of the basement, and well to put it nicely, it is past its prime. But it has character! It pumps out heat when it feels like it. Which would be fine in the summer, however it never feels like pumping out heat when the temperature has dropped below -20. (and since we live in Saskatchewan...) It speaks to us, with loud bumps. Which actually according to the furnace guy are little explosions, as one burner doesn't work, or works intermittently, and so gas builds up until it ignites and a sonic boom rips through the house. If there were any ghosts in this house they would have been scared off long ago with the gun shots going off in the dead of the night. (Just wish it would have happened to the robbers.)

And then there's the character of our toilet. A lovely toilet, I'm sure it was, but well time hasn't been kind to it. No matter how much I scrub at it, it is always looking dirty. I've bleached it umpteen times, and it remains looking past its prime. I think all the cleaning has taken it's toll as I think the dirt was holding it together, so this past week it decided that it had enough and broke. So we have had to resort to turning on the water to the toilet when we are sitting there in the hopes that enough water will be in the tank to flush it when we are done. But what the furnace and the toilet don't realize is that soon... oh very very soon, they will be reliving their glory days with other friends in dump heaven.

Needles

Today wasn't the best of days for little Sofie as she recieved four immunization needles. In fact, I think, her life was entire chaos for a few seconds, and if looks could kill, I would be dead now. I think her screams were more because she was mad at me for letting something, like getting a needle (or four needles), happen to her.
She now weighs a whole whopping 13lbs 12.9oz. The nurse charted it and she is in the 10th percentile for weight but 25th percentile for height at 24.5 inches. Small like her mom and dad i guess.

Jason is busy studying for his final exam tomorrow morning. This time it is the life insurance exam for the province. He will be so excited to be done, and so will I!!!

Blizzard!!

Two weeks ago Saskatoon was hit with a blizzard, and boy was it ever a blizzard. The entire city shut down!! No buses were running, businesses were closed, the mayor came on the news and told everyone to stay home. Over a hundred people were stuck in the Costco overnight. It was in one word. CRAZY!!

I took some pictures of it, though the pictures were taken before the worst of it hit so they don't show exactly how bad it was. I think this picture shows what it was like though.