We started out with just an empty lot in Langdon Alberta 9 months ago and now we have a beautiful house. We take possession tomorrow the 22nd. I am so happy I will post pictures of it completed once we have everything set up.
It has been a wild ride. I had a lot of fun picking out the finishes on the house with my mom.She is our next door neighbor and took possession on the 9th.
Today is our 7th anniversary. Happy anniversary to us we bought a house.I look forward  to many happy years together in our new house. I am excited for this next chapter in our lives. 

today is Tyler's 4th birthday, Seth and Tyler will be 4 for the net 3 weeks. I wanted to share some funny things that happened today. I told Tyler this morning he was 4 now and he was so excited he wanted to tell Norman ( one of my moms foster children). Then he was telling Seth and Seth asks me am I 5 now? lol I said not till next month and he goes ok then says to Tyler let me check, he stands by him and says nope I'm taller.
I had sent them to their room because they were not listening, and Tyler pops his head out knocks on Seth's door and says trick or treat, lol then a few minutes later pops out knocks on Seth's door again and goes ding dong! lol crazy kids.
Zander and I are doing great, I can't believe how different a 3rd child can be. It is wonderful, if I had known it was going to be like this I would have 10 more lol! He has been sleeping through the night since he was 5 weeks old. He sleeps for about 7 hours.

I am a stay at home mom and in my experience for the last few days I have found a new respect for stay at home moms. ESPECIALLY my mom, she is a foster mom and for the past 4 months she has had 6 full time foster children. 4 of the six my mom has have been with her for many years. The other 2 for the past 4 months. I had the siblings of the 2 that my mom has had for the past few months, they stayed with my since Friday night. They are awesome children, I had 5 children under the age of 6, it was busy here. They were not needy children at all, but there was still all the concern that I would have with my own children. Such as you have had enough juice today, no more candy, eat your vegetables, why aren't you eating today, did you go to the bathroom.... ect. I am sure you get my point. These two children were not eating (which child doesn't like peanut butter and jam?) my mom looked in his mouth and you can see they are rotten, which has resulted in him stuffing food in his mouth cause it hurts him to chew. I was not able to keep them because I am not a registered foster home. This all came about because there was an emergency where a foster home was closed. They asked me to open my home as a foster home but until then the children could not stay with me. So all though my mom is full and they are not paying her for the 2 children I had, she has 8 foster children plus a sibling to the 4 she has had for years, 9 children in all. AMAZING!! as if 9 wasn't enough 2 of them are special needs. The dynamic of the children is really good they all play well.
I have to admit it was a little hard and stressful on me, there is no me time, not even at night because the baby is awake and if he isn't I am holding him, yes I love holding him but again no me time. Also the nightmares of what I know had happened to these children was hard to wake up to. You don't want to think that stuff happens to little children and then when it is on your front door it is hard to deal with. I pray God keep these children safe. Above all I am happy I can be home with my children so something awful doesn't happen to them, I promise when I am complaining about being stressed again I will look back on this last week, and realize it could be so much more stressful.

I am sitting here awkwardly typing as baby Zander sleeps in the crook of one arm and the wireless keyboard is propped up by the pillow supporting my arm. I carry Zander around everywhere. On Monday Rob was home and I think I put Zander down for an hour. I am going to need some serious massage therapy when he gets older. I am loving every minute and wish it would slow down. That is the advice every new mom gets, hold them while you can and enjoy it all. Of course we all stress and don't get to enjoy it, but this time things are so different. Every time I look at Zander I remember what a little miracle he is.
I feel like I don't know how to function these last couple of days, there is no drama right now, I am used to things being so stressful and full of drama. To just sit back and relax and to just do the normal day to day stuff seems so calm. I can take twice as long to do the normal day to day stuff because there is no drama to deal with when I am done.
Our Christmas was fantastic. The boys got some much needed toys, they have kept busy with them. We had breakfast at my dads and supper at my moms. At my moms dinner was lasagne and chicken manicotti with alfredo sauce. We like to do something other than turkey for christmas dinner because most people have more than one christmas dinner they go to and then sick of turkey. Clean up is so much easier too. Every year we find a price point for each person and get one gift that is from all of us. Usually they give me the money and I do it for everyone, but this year because I was pregnant and then busy with a new baby we drew names. They got me the cake pops maker. I tried it out after dinner, it was pretty cool, I couldn't figure out how to get the sticks to stay in the cake, because it is all fluffy inside and not dense like the other ones I make. I think with chocolate it might work better. It did taste good though. My mom got the mini cupcake one, it takes 5-7 minutes to cook the cake pops.

I feel so blessed to have a man like my husband in my life. He is so amazing, he works hard at his job and comes home and still manages to have enough energy for us and the things that need to be done around the house. If you have read the twilight saga he is like Jasper, as soon as he walks into the room I am calm, it doesn't matter how stressed I have been. He is my best friend and the first person I go to when something is wrong. I couldn't imagine my life without him, Happy Birthday Robert Mairs.

Zander and I are doing great. We went to the doctor for our 2 week checkup just because he was jaundice and he is good now. He has passed his birth weight and he is 10 pounds and 1 ounce. I don't know if it maturity or the that he is such a miracle, but things are so different this time around. I think it is maturity. Having a baby in the house made me look at Seth and Tyler and I was shocked, when did they grow up?? Tyler said to me I'm not the baby anymore.

Well we have made it though 2 nights, Zander has done really well, he slept for 4 hours straight both nights.

If you are a guy I would stop reading now, seriously stop now. Well we finally made it home. It has been a very long week. We went into the hospital on Monday night at 8PM, it started at 6PM at home I had this really long cramp and it was so painful to walk it brought me to tears and I would stop and lean on something. I called the health link and they said I should go to the hospital immediately. When I got there the contractions started and were consistent of every 10 min. Because there was a plan to induce me anytime after the 27th, they decided to keep me and see how I progressed on my own and if I didn't they would induce me. I did progress on my own till 2 1/2cm but then stayed there. They do not consider you in active labor with your third child until 4 cm. They induced me at around 5AM and turned it up every half an hour, they start at 1 and end at 20. I ended up at 20. I still didn't go past 3 1/2 cm so my doctor was going to break my water but didn't cause she didn't feel comfortable with how high baby's head was. The OB team came in to assess me and he broke my water and guided babies head down to ensure that the cord didn't slip out first. Then they left me and I went into hard labor right away and within 3 hours I was ready to push. The epidural DIDN'T work at this point, I was told it did work and I was just feeling the peak of the contraction which lasted about 20-30 seconds every 3 minutes. I couldn't imagine what that would have felt like if I felt it all. They gave me a stronger drug for the last hour and that seemed to help. During the contractions the babies heart beat kept dipping the lowest it dipped was 80 once, so they knew there was an issue. They kept me on one side and that seemed to work for the most part but baby was not coming down even though I was fully dilated, meaning there was a problem we just didn't know what it was. The OB was there again and quickly assessed and said he was going to use the vacuum. They told me when to push and the doctor used the vacuum, when the babies head came out the doctor was right on him, he suspected the cord was around his neck, he cut it right away, and we kept on. When babies shoulders came out one of them got stuck behind my pelvic bone, the doctor helped baby get unstuck. After the placenta came out the nurse took a closer look and saw there was a true knot in the babies cord, not just a kink. This most likely happened early in the first trimester. He couldn't come down because his cord was so short, since it had a knot and was around his neck. We are so lucky and blessed to have Zander Joseph Reid Mairs join our family. He was born on November 29, 2011, at 3:33PM, he was 9.8oz. and 21 inches long. Thank you God for having the right team on duty that night and for watching over Zander right from conception. He had low blood sugar after which is why we were in the hospital for so long, but he is ok now and there is no concern for low blood sugar at this time.
As for me I can't believe I did it, I hadn't slept for over 36 hours by the time he was born. There was so much adrenaline going through me, I was shaking for a couple hours after he was born. I was up within 2 hours of him being born and felt great. There was no stitches, swelling or pain. I am so thankful. I do feel the pain of my uterus contracting but thats it.
Seth and Tyler came in to meet Zander and got to hold him for a second. Seth and Tyler asked if Zander was my baby and I said yes, and your baby too, Seth then asked can he sleep in my room, lol it was so cute.

I went to my Doctor yesterday and she offered me a c-section. It is not offered to everyone but because I had gestational diabetes and the baby is estimated over 4.5 kg they offered it. The other option is to induce me early. The cons for inducing are if the baby is as big as the ultrasound says his shoulders could get stuck and cause nerve damage in his arm, sometimes the damage might be for a couple hours sometimes it could last a life time. The other problem that could occur is the cord might get pinched when his shoulders are stuck and cause brain damage. There are also many cons with having a c-section, infection, longer recovery, lots of bleeding, mostly the problems that could occur would effect me. I have chosen to be induced and if something goes wrong to have a c-section, because with them being warned that I may end up with a c-section the team will be there and be ready. Also I choose this option because they told me of a study that they did with women who were estimated to have big babies. They asked the mother, the doctor and the ultrasound to guess the weight of the baby. It turns out the mom was right most of the time the doctor was second and the ultrasound was last. So there is a good chance that the baby is not 9.2oz. I feel that the baby is around the same size as the boys were. I will be 38 weeks Sunday and the doctor said anytime after the 27th I could be induced, I told her that it would have to be December 3 because I had to many appointments this week, lol!! I am not joking either, but also why not wait as long as possible.

Well I just came back from having yet another ultrasound. They are estimating that the baby is 9.2 pounds..... oh dear!! I asked the doctor that saw me at the ultrasound if he was going to recommend they induce me and he told me they did a study of women with larger babies of inducing them or waiting. The results were if they induced early there was a higher risk of having to have a c-section. So I think I will wait, also there are lots and lots or contractions so they are actually doing something good.

Yesterday was Rob's 6 month check up appointment. The doctor said everything looks good. His platelets are a little low. His immune system has come up. Rob doesn't have any symptoms that some people would be having at this stage. The doctor said there was new research and treatment for Rob's type of Lymphoma. It is just a really strong antibiotic that is not as hard on your body and really simple to take. It was mainly used on older patients, and after following them for 3 years there was a 90% success rate. This research would not have changed anything they did for Rob, but could be helpful in the future. They will continue to follow him every 3 months. for the first year.
As for me, I am very ready to have this baby, yesterday was the first day I finally said I was ready, not just cause I am sore. I am ready and excited for everything that comes with a new baby.

Well today is the first day I am officially on Maternity leave. I thought I was supposed to work yesterday, I had the bus still. I called in to say I was working and I got a call from the manager saying there was a mix up and that they had someone else on my route already for yesterday and he said they would still pay me. I was all dressed up yesterday with no where to go, I didn't know what to do with myself so I folded 2 loads of laundry did the dishes, showered, looked at the clock and it was only 9:30AM. So today I sit here thinking of the things I can do today the list is exciting, lol! Clean the bathroom, fold the other 3 loads of laundry, dust, sweep and mop the floors, and make pumpkin muffins.

Halloween was great last night. I didn't go but Rob and my mom went out with the 5 younger ones and the older ones went on their own. Seth was a penguin and Rob said for the first few houses he would knock say "trick or treat, I'm a penguin". lol! he was so proud of the fact that he was a penguin. Tyler would yell "trick or treat" when he was half way to the peoples door. lol! Rob also said that at a couple houses Tyler said "more please" lol! and they gave him more.
I also had my ultrasound yesterday and the cord and baby have moved into a good position. They said it is highly unlikely the cord will move again to a wrong position. The baby gained .7 ounces in a week. I gained 6 pounds????? how did that happen? lol they are saying it was fluid that caused the weight gain. It looks like there will be one more ultrasound and thats it. That takes some stress off of me to know that things are ok, he is just a big boy, God help me!!

I am stressed beyond words. I am in so much pain. My family is going through the flu. Currently Seth has it and Tyler and I just finished it and I still have a cold. Also other stuff going on that is stressful.
As I said in the last post I was in the hospital on Sunday and they sent me for an ultrasound Monday. The doctor called me today to tell me that the baby is head down like he should be but the cord in hanging between his head and my cervix. It should have moved by now, so they have to give me weekly ultrasounds to see if it has moved. The next ultrasound is Monday. The options from here are to see if the cord does move and if it doesn't then I can have an induced controlled delivery or a c-section, around 38 weeks. The risk is if I go into labor he is likely to not survive, because the cord will slip out first and he will pinch the cord on his way out and cut off his oxygen supply. They told me that if my water breaks at home to lay on my back, stick 3 pillows under my hips and call an ambulance. WOW!! how do you even process that, when I had the boys the goal was to go into labor and have your water break, now my goal is to not go into labor, so my water doesn't break.

There is a line when you are blogging and sharing information with your readers, it is make sure your parents know first. They shouldn't have to hear it from the blog or someone else who read the blog that told them.
On Sunday I was in the hospital because I caught the flu that was going around and being pregnant I got dehydrated really quickly, also I was puking up blood. The blood was just a tear in my throat, so it is sore but at least it wasn't an ulcer or something. When they hooked me up to monitor the baby, I was having contractions every 4 minutes, they went away as soon as I rolled to my side. They are always like that, and have been for about a week. The doctor scheduled me an ultrasound for yesterday, to make sure the baby wasn't coming early and if it showed he was they would have given me a shot of cortisone which would have developed his lungs quicker. They did a full ultrasound again which I don't think was necessary and it showed that the baby is 7.1 pounds and everything is developed so I am thinking he better come within the next 3 weeks or I am hooped, he will be a very big baby. If he does come within the next 3 weeks it will be the right timing for the first due date.
My mom is awesome and had the boys Saturday night anyway so she just kept them till today, so I could rest and rest I did for 12 hours straight. I am still tired, I had to force myself to go to work Monday afternoon because when I called in sick Monday morning 2 minutes after they turned the phones on 9 people had called in sick.
My last day will be November 7, there is this one student on the bus that stresses me out. He squeals at the top of his lungs for no reason and it is random, it makes my heart jump into my throat, keeping in mind I am driving, if he isn't doing that he is banging on the window, or tapping his seat. I can handle him tapping the seat if that keeps him busy and quiet but the other students don't like it.

I went to the doctor today and Seth and Tyler came with me. Seth was really grumpy and when the doctor came in she said uh oh someone having a bad day? I then said to her yeah he is getting sick, and she chuckled and said and then the next day when they get sick you look back at the day before and think you are a terrible mom for getting upset with them and you didn't know they were getting sick. lol! my comment was I feel like I am bi-polar I couldn't understand why I just snapped at them, I am sick too. I really hate these times I feel like crap but still have to go to work and drag them along with me and I still have to do all the stuff that needs to be done.
The doctor said that the baby is measuring two weeks ahead of what they are saying I am. I am not worried about it though because Seth and Tyler were the same way. The ultrasound last week said he was 5 pounds. I still haven't gained any weight since the last appointment. I think that means I am way to busy lol! I have been doing really good with the gestational diabetes. I know that when I drink milk my sugars go high and when I eat corn with any other carbohydrate. I stopped testing for awhile and I told the person at the clinic my excuse is if I don't know what my sugars are at I wont eat the cookie but if I know they are low then I will probably eat 2 cookies, and my fingers hurt from testing, she chuckled and said we still need you to check them. So I'm back to poking my fingers.

I wish I could tell you everything I have been up to but I can't. It is definitely taking it's toll on me though. As you know I have gestational diabetes again. I seem to be doing really well with it. I look huge but I am measuring exactly the same as I did with the boys, two weeks ahead. I almost gained a pound from my last appointment 2 weeks ago. I am excited for next weeks ultrasound, I want to know that baby is healthy and a normal size. I feel so unprepared for this pregnancy or maybe it is just life is going by so fast I am having a hard time catching up. We don't have a name yet, but the diaper bag is packed and waiting in a safe spot at the top of the stairs, lol! the baby will end up being called the baby, just like we named our cat and never call her by her name she gets called kitty. The baby is so active all the time, for instance last night for 1.5 hours he took a 15 min break. Active as in you can see my tummy move for an hour and a half.
So a couple of weeks ago, Tyler was talking non stop for a week how he was a big boy and he was going to ride with no training wheels, lol! so Rob took them off and Tyler just started riding without them. WOW! I am so amazed makes me think we should have taken Seth's off a year ago. So Rob, Seth and Tyler go for bike rides and I get alone time.... :):):):) oh wait thats not my point. Tyler was so proud of himself he had to show mommy, Grandma and all of her kids. The only thing is he couldn't start out on his own. I am extremely sore from this pregnancy so if I want to do anything it has to be in the morning, but I decided to push myself the other night. I knew Rob wasn't going to be home till after 8 and the kids would be in bed. They were really bored so I decided to walk while they rode their bikes to the park, the only thing is I can't help Tyler all the time. So I thought I would show him how to do it and after a little of "I can't" he did it and then wouldn't let me help him. There was a guy standing there while I was teaching Tyler and his mouth dropped and was like I can't believe he can do that.
The boys are doing really well in school. Tyler goes twice a week and Seth goes Monday to Thursday and every second Friday.

Well I think it is time for an update. I went to the doctor yesterday and was happy with the weight gain from last month, only 2 pounds, right on schedule. I have gestational diabetes again, and low platelets. I asked what caused low platelets and they said it is just a side effect of pregnancy and that it is not too low so they will just monitor it by testing every month. As for the diabetes I went to a clinic that is going to follow me for the rest of the pregnancy. They were shocked that no one did for the first pregnancy. They gave me a blood glucose machine to test myself and make sure I am ok.
I asked the doctor why I am so sore and she nicely looked at me and said "Because it is your 3rd pregnancy in 4 years"..... lol I was like yeah that would do it, I haven't been able to recover from the 2 in a row, I thought I was just getting old, lol I guess not.

We went out to my Aunt and Uncle's camping spot, it was an hour and half away from Calgary. My Grandma and Grandpa from Ontario were here to visit. We had a great time out there. We went for a walk to see the water, we couldn't get close because there is a cliff and there was no way down, but the view was really nice. I thought I would take the opportunity to take pictures of everyone while they were here.

Rob and I worked all day yesterday and we wanted to take a break with the boys so we went over to the water park before dinner. It is a small water park that is close to our house. It is fenced and there is a small park in it as well. Rob played with the boys in the water and at the park. There was this one time Rob was filling his hands up to splash the boys and this other little boy just splashed him with his bottle of water on purpose, lol!! I was laughing so hard Rob was shocked and I couldn't believe the little boy did that. So then it became a game and this other little boy joined in the fun with his squirt gun. They were chasing Rob around the park trying to splash him. The mother of the first boy came over to me and asked how all of it started and I told her and she was shocked because the little boy is an introvert and mostly keeps to himself. She quite enjoyed watching him play like that. I loved watching it all too, mostly I was happy to see that Seth and Tyler were able to share Rob, it didn't even bother them. They were happy to play on their own and didn't feel like they had to be right in the middle with Rob.

As for baby update...... I saw the specialist last week and it seems the due date has changed AGAIN!! it is now December 11, 2011. The reason for all the date changes is I had gotten the first ultrasound in the hospital and didn't go back to see the emergency doctor, so we just used the dates that I had said. Then when I spoke to my family doctor he hadn't received the ultrasound from the hospital either. Then when I went for the 18 week ultrasound the technician looked ordered the first ultrasound and then said I was 17 weeks at the time. Then when I saw the OB they only went of off the first ultrasound and said that my date was December 11. I am low on platelets which can happen sometimes, so they will test again and if it is low I will have to go every month to get blood work. I asked for another ultrasound and they are going to give me one for about 32 weeks, I want to make sure it is still a boy lol!! JK! and they want to make sure that things are ok because of Rob and because I am fat, no really not joking. My BMI (body mass index) was high before I got pregnant. I have lost 3 pounds in the pregnancy, I think it is because I haven't stopped moving I am so busy.
I start work on Thursday and Seth starts school I am so excited, I am able to take Seth to school and pick him up and still get to my route on time. My first pick up is in my community.

We went to play paintball at Capture the Flag out by Cochrane yesterday. It was really neat to see Rob play for the first time. I asked him if it was like a live video game and he said pretty much. He didn't get hit too much, lol! he has 3 small welts on him, all in the chest area.

Donovan let Gill and I shoot him, with a paintball, I got him in the back of the arm and Gill got him right in the back. He had a few other welts from hits out in the field. Donovan was pretty sore when he left, lol battle wounds.

The picture of me is so wrong a gun and my purse, lol! I took Donovans gun to the target area and shot off a few paint balls, that was pretty cool. I hit all the targets I was aiming for, a few of them took a second shot but I did get it. While we were out there we saw at least 6 bachelor parties. They always had the groom dress up it was funny, one of them the groom was in a white costume, so it was easy to pick him out. I asked a couple of the guys before I realized why they were out there if they lost a bet is that why they were wearing a dress and they both said a bachelor party and someone in the group piped up same thing he lost a bet, lol! It was a great day!