A serious fellow

A serious fellow
Originally uploaded by Sarah Dzines

It was high time I took some pictures of the older brother. I was a cruel mother and made him wear a white dress shirt even!!

Life's a beach

How lucky are we. I mean, we live in a place where people pay to go on vacation.
This morning we raced out the door to make it to the early church service. It ends before 11am and then we had time to quickly eat an early lunch, head to the fruit stand to buy fresh peaches, cherries and blueberries and then go to the beach. We had packed a supper and stayed right til bedtime. My sister was there, and eventually my brother came, and G's parents, my mom, our friends and on and on. It was a party. The water is awesome and warm. Baby Shea gets passed around and loved and snuggled by all the family.
Yes, this is why we moved.

Me and the little gaffer

Shea decided it was time to party last night from 2am til well after 4am. He was all smiles and cooing away. Pretty hard to be mad at him as he's so darn cute. So yawn...this morning I got Riley to take some pictures of Shea and I together for a change.

Liam
Originally uploaded by Sarah Dzines

Sweety Boy

Sweety Boy
Originally uploaded by Sarah Dzines

8 weeks old yesterday!

Let's get happy

There has been this overbearing cloud of sadness around the area for the past while, so I was very happy to get some good news tonight.
Our friends Andrew and Lisa (who we went to Maui with)...had their baby boy finally!! He was due on July 13th I think and stuck around til they finally induced her tonight. So he weighed in at 10lbs. Poor Lisa. His name is Sawyer Easton. (I'm not sure yet if my spelling is right.)
YAY for healthy boys! Shea is 8 weeks old today, so they aren't far apart.
CONGRATULATIONS!! I'm anxiously awaiting photos.

Grief

There are huge tears rolling down my cheeks.
Phil has gone to heaven.
It just doesn't seem fair that four little children are without their daddy.
And one sweet girl is without her sweetheart.
Oh to make sense of it all.
We know that God is in control, so how is this what He wanted? What happened to all the millions of prayers that were sent up to heaven that asked of Him to heal Phil? If God can move mountains and raise the dead...hmm. Just dealing with some anger right now. I can't imagine how it is for the family. I don't know if we'll ever understand why God wanted to take him right now. To have him live and be healed, with his level of brain injury, would have been the biggest testimony to the hospital who saw the family praying non-stop, and to his friends who are unbelievers. How can they understand that our God answers our prayers, is all-powerful and amazing, in a situation like this one?
Greg is supposed to head off to do some work in Calgary this week. He will most likely leave early in the morning, so I'll be flying solo for awhile. Thank goodness for grandparents!!

Water and Wheels

Today we really made the effort to have fun. We all decided, even though things are really looking even worse for Phil, to go ahead and celebrate my nieces' 6th birthday at the waterslides. My brother and his wife are in Kamloops again, to be there as the family said their goodbyes to Phil. There doesn't seem to be much more that the doctors can do. I haven't heard that he has passed yet, but we're all sitting on the edge of our seats wondering what his outcome will be. It is just nasty anyway you look at it.
Anyway, after cancelling it initially, the party was decided to go ahead for the sake of the children, and we went to Atlantis. We hardly saw Riley the whole time...he just went up and down the slides a million times. I did my best to keep up, and took Liam on my lap down quite a few. We were there with a large group of family and friends.
We also got a new van this morning! We found a 2004 Honda Odyssey. It's pretty sweet. We've never had a vehicle that is so new with such low mileage. Now we need to avoid giving our kids leaky Mr.Freezies in the back seat I guess. That's the only problem when you have something new and expensive!! try keeping it looking that way when you've got kids!!
Last night we also had a good visit with our friend Jessica who was passing back through Salmon Arm on her way home from Vancouver. It's always good to have yummy rich ice cream and strong coffee along with good conversation. We've enjoyed having so much company already and have many more who have said they are coming by!
The summer is flying.

Could use some extra prayers

Things have been heavy around Salmon Arm since Friday. There was this sudden little wind storm that arose on Friday (the 13th), putting the power out at our house. The surrounding areas, such as Kamloops, were hit a little harder with more powerful winds and even some hail I believe. My brothers best friends were out camping around Kamloops at the time. The dad (Phil) had driven to the corner store for some supplies and was on his way back when this storm knocked a tree down and it hit the top of his truck while he was driving. Phil ended up with major head injuries. His 3yr old son and nephew who were also in the truck, managed to escape without injury. They had to remove a portion of Phil's brain that was too damaged to save. He remains in hospital in Kamloops and no one is sure of his outcome at this point. Please send some prayers on his behalf for us. He has a wife (Jocelyn) and four kids who are aged 7 and under. It all just seems so tragic and unbelievable at this point, but our hope is in knowing that God is in control. My brother has been out every night to see them after work, and could use your prayers too. We know that God can do miracles and he really needs one at this point. Thank you.

Smiles

Shea has been smiling since 4 weeks, but I hadn't caught it really until now. He's 7 weeks now, and he's already smiling lots and trying to talk. SO cute.

Busy hot summer daze

Hi everyone. I haven't been on my computer more than 10min. a day, if that. And usually those 10min. are while I'm busy breastfeeding at the same time. Life is crazy! We are doing well though. Our days are just so full, that we feel like we need a few extra hours. We've had 2 families from Calgary come and stay this week overnight. We tried our best to show them the beach life, by bringing dinner to the lake and staying til bedtime. It is the best way to spend the evenings, as it has been well over 30 degrees in the house by supper time. HOT. I think yesterday was 39 outside.
The boys are getting way too little sleep as it takes awhile for them to settle down in their hot rooms, and then they wake at the crack of dawn. I'm thinking of forcing naps again. I know I sure could use one! Riley has been having a great week at the church daycamp which occupies our mornings coming and going.
We haven't done much more in the way of unpacking, just because we don't get the chance, or we'd rather be at the lake! I haven't been willing to go shopping with the 3 boys alone yet either. We also need a few more pieces of furniture so we can put some of the things away. Finding time to get groceries (without kids) and take care of the yard etc. is impossible, and so has been left for the weekend. It's all good though...we kind of expected that life would be a little nuts until the fall.
We're also getting used to Greg working right at home. It is quite tempting (and has happened a few times) for the boys to run over and show daddy something. They think he's actually "home"...so that will take a little while for them to understand. His office is well out of the way though, and I think he would say that he likes it over there. It's nice to have him here for lunch and home right at 5.
Shea is doing awesome (as usual). I just found us a new doctor, and got an appointment for his 6 week check-up today. I'm anxious to hear how much he weighs and how he is doing from a doctors' perspective.
Oh, baby is calling....that's all the time I've got!
Update: Baby Shea is a whoppin 11 pounds 13oz!

Almost 6 weeks

His hair is rubbing off on the sides now. He's smiling more often. He only wakes up once at night. He's doing great.

Beach Day

Baby crocs
Originally uploaded by Sarah Dzines

We spent the day at the beach today. It was heavenly. The weather was perfect. Most of my family (even aunts and cousins) were there with us. I had my first trek out in a kayak. Riley swam out to the buoys in his lifejacket.
These feet are those of my little niece Callie. Too cute, hey?!
It feels like we're on holidays...not actually living here yet. I have a feeling that it'll feel like that until fall comes.

They grow so fast!

Here he is today, just over 5 weeks old. Man, time flies, and he's getting so big.



Asleep in the buggy...check out those chubby cheeks!



This picture makes me laugh, as right when I took it...Shea started blasting a large poop in the pants and this picture shows how the boys reacted to that!



One of the flowers in my new back yard.

loading the uhaul

loading the uhaul
Originally uploaded by baergaj

Here's a picture that Lisa took for us...there are a few more on Andrews Flickr site. I haven't uploaded mine yet!
Doesn't the van look bigger than the house? It was a 26 foot van, and we had room to spare thankfully.

We made it!!

We're here! Somehow we managed to connect to some neighbors internet, as ours isn't quite hooked up yet. Our TV isn't either. How weird to be off the web for nearly a week!
I have to be quick, as it's already so late, but I had to tell you that we made it, and we're all alive. We have been so BUSY, obviously! so I guess it's a good thing that we haven't been hooked up to the net.
Mom arrived on Wednesday and went straight to work packing and cleaning away. It was also Riley's last day of school. We were expecting to pack the moving truck the next day. But our U-haul didn't arrive on Thursday as planned. They make no guarantees, so you just have to hope that the size truck that you had reserved comes available. We sat by the phone all day, while we packed some more. Nothin. We were getting nervous and stressed out a little, but thankfully the new owners were in no rush to get into our place and were ok with us being there still. Friday we waited around again, and packed and cleaned. Finally around 3pm, we got word that a truck was available (at that point we were almost going to fork out the dough and go with movers). We got a crew together and they went to work loading the truck. It was a busy night. My mom worked her tail off, as I mostly hung out with the boys. The day was kind of "heavy" as we had the looming "goodbyes" to say to our best friends. If I would think too hard about it, the tears would come. So we kept the goodbyes quick and had our little cry. Then we locked our door and said our goodbyes to our house around midnight that night. We stayed the night at a friends and left for Salmon Arm the next morning. My mom drove the entire way for me while I cared for 2 in the back seat, and Greg drove the u-haul with Riley. The drive went smoothly with no probs. When we arrived here, our families had been in the new house all day cleaning and doing yard work. My father in law even got the fountain working in the back pond! I have to take pictures to show you! They helped us unload the van in less than an hour and set up my entire kitchen and all our furniture. We slept in our own beds that night. It was wonderful as we were all very wasted. So the last couple days have been spent unpacking and visiting with family and friends who have dropped by to check out the new pad and the new baby. It is feeling like home and the weather has been wonderful. Riley and Liam have been slightly crazy and out of sorts...mostly due to such a shock to their schedules and I think they miss me as I'm so busy unpacking and otherwise busy feeding Shea. Shea is great through it all, and loves having all the grandmas and aunties around to hold him.
Greg is starting back to work tomorrow and so it'll be our first day of somewhat normalcy?? Life has just been so crazy! Anyway we're happy to be here and I'll catch you up on more later. Pictures would be good too, I know.