Back at it

You see that little jogging counter on the right hand side of my blog? It's been inactive for a long long time, with good reason of course (although maybe not the entire time). I never took it down because I wanted the reminder that yes, I used to run and heck, I ran 10 K!

This week I hopped back on the running bandwagon. It felt great. This time instead of distance my focus is on my speed. With 2 little kids, I just don't have the luxury of long slow runs anymore. I'm doing the couch to 5 K program which takes you from lazy bones to 5K in 9 weeks and you can download podcasts from itunes for free. After that, I'll stick with the 5K and just try to increase my speed. Brent has even started the program and we are heading out for our first run together today! Last time he was plagued with shin splints so hopefully he can stick with it this time around. I prefer to run without the kids but when that's not an option, I'll push Hana in the stroller, and Brent will push Eli in the chariot. He's got the much harder job, I think Eli is 33 lbs now. Wish me luck!

Halloween

Just a couple pictures from Halloween. Eli really had fun this year and could not believe that we were going up to peoples houses. When we were finished at a house he would point to the next house and say "And that one?" in disbelief and excitement. He especially liked if people had a dog. He would talk and talk all the way up to the door, and then go mute when people talked to him and asked him questions. The only thing he would say is "thank you". Our neighbour had quite a scary house and Eli was talking about it for days. The downside is that he was waking up at night for a few days afterwards scared of Vampires.

I dressed Hana up for a very unhappy 5 minutes. Her costume was a beach bum. She hated the sunglasses. I even had a novel and martini glass set out for props for her costume but she disliked it so much that I never got to take a picture of the whole thing.

One super happy Astronaut and one very unhappy beach bum.

Still smiling after a long night of trick or treating.

Backyard fire

Brent and Eli have been having fun building fires in the backyard. They even ran out to the grocery store for marshmallows one night. Eli of course, loves the roasted marshmallows and they both enjoy the "guy time" by the fire. I can picture them already, camping together, fishing, sitting by the fire.

Using his very own roasting stick (supervised of course)

The boys

The marshmallow aftermath

Here she is!

Hana had newborn photos taken at 8 days old. Michelle Wells took our photos for us and had her work cut out for her. Hana woke up that morning with a blotchy face and was awake for most of the session (which is not what we wanted). She did not like to be naked and made lots of grumpy faces. I remember Eli slept through his entire newborn session and it was so easy! Michelle still managed to get lots of great pictures though.

Here's our sweet girl:

LOVE

Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words. This one is Eli and his Dad to a T. I absolutely love it.


Photo credit: Michelle Wells Photography

Big news in a little package

Our daughter, Hana Kathleen Nancy was born on September 13th. She weighed 7lbs 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She was born at 6:21 am. Everything went really well and she is perfect and healthy. I got to come home from the hospital the same day and have had a nice easy recovery. Having Brent home has been wonderful!

Eli is in love with his little sister and adjusting very well. He just loves to hold her and tickle her hands.

Hana will be 2 weeks old tomorrow and she has already outgrown her first sleeper. I find myself wishing time would just slow down. I know this newborn phase doesn't last very long so I'm trying to soak up every minute. She's a very easy baby so far and I *think* that some of my genes might actually show up in her features. I know newborns change a lot so I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I think there is a chance that she might at least resemble me a little bit!

Parental Leave

As of today, Brent is officially on parental leave until January 10th, 2011. Right now he's at Home Depot with Eli and then they are going to the bottle depot. I am laying in bed, relaxing! Hopefully I can get a little more R&R in before our newest addition arrives. I'm feeling a little bit like a ticking time bomb that could go off any minute. It's hard not to expect the delivery to go like it did last time. At this point in pregnancy with Eli, I had him in 4 days from now but I'm showing a lot less signs of impending labour this time around. I am still a week and a half away from my due date, so I'm trying to enjoy the last days of pregnancy as much as I can.

We are looking forward to the family time together. Our zoo passes will get lots of use! Eli and Brent are also signed up for gymnastics and a sports classt his Fall. Hopefully that keeps them a little bit busy as the weather turns colder. We are excited for Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas this year. Our only major project is cleaning out the garage. We still can't park 2 vehicles in it because it's full of stuff. Last time Brent was on parental leave he was renovating a basement and doing landscaping, so it will be nice for him to not have any big projects on the go this time.

On the vehicle front, we just bought a minivan. It will replace Brent's car. I can't believe it, but I'm actually looking forward to driving it. It will be nice for longer trips and fitting in all the stuff that goes along with 2 kids.

Hopefully my next post will be a baby announcement. Wish me luck!