I Know, I Know, It's Been Too Long!

What can I say, life has been very busy lately!  A few days after we got home from Australia back in January, we were given the unfortunate news that we had 8 weeks to move out of our basement suite.  Within the four weeks following that news, I was transferred from one location to another for work, Hannah ended up back in the hospital and we ended up moving early!  It was a stressful period but we survived! 

  

Since that time, Hannah ended up in the hospital once again but luckily didn't have to spend the night this last time.  Is it a surprise that a hospital is where she ended up taking her first steps on her own?  She is now very confident on her feet and loves running around our new (but temporary home - I'll expand more on that later).  The doctors still aren't diagnosing Hannah with anything but it's looking more and more like asthma.  Every time she gets a cold she struggles with breathing.  We do give her medication at home before going to the hospital but for the amount that she has needed, the doctors recommend that she is under medical supervision when taking such high doses.  We are praying that this is something she grows out of as we've heard many kids do.  In the meantime, we've been visiting our naturopath, doctor and paediatrician!

As for our living situation, when we heard we had to move we were actually already on the house hunt.  We've been looking for a place to buy in the Cloverdale/Clayton area and have had two offers on two different places since January, but it seems our budget isn't quite stretching as far as we had hoped.  In the meantime we have been blessed by being able to have a whole house to ourselves!  We are temporarily living in a family members home which will be going up for sale shortly.  We are hopeful that the right place with the right price will come up at the right time :) Here is us enjoying the snow in our very own back yard!

As of this week I am now 34 weeks pregnant!  Time has gone by way to fast!  I had planned to work until May 2nd as baby isn't due until May 21, however due to the nature of my job (sitting all day), I was experiencing a lot of discomfort, including back pain on a daily basis.  My doctor agreed that it was good idea for me to stop working, so as of last Wednesday, I am on maternity leave!  Since stopping work, my back has been feeling quite a bit better.  The baby is measuring a bit bigger than Hannah and is already head down and ready to go!  I feel him hiccuping almost on a daily basis and from what I remember, he seems to move a lot more than Hannah did.

With baby number 2 almost here, we decided it was probably a good time to welcome another addition to the family.  No, we did not get a dog, but we did get a minivan!  After some hard negotiation, we drove home our black 2012 Dodge Caravan 2 weeks ago!  It feels like a lot of vehicle right now so Carl says we definitely have to have a third kid now…We'll see about that.  We are ready for camping this year though!

And now I'll leave you with a few recent photos of our girl!

Someone is a Starbucks addict already!

See what I mean?

Cousin Love!

Funny Faces!

Australia

We've been back for just over a week so I thought it was about time I wrote about our trip to Australia!  We left December 30 and were in the air for new years!  Our prayers were answered in that there were empty seats on the plane, meaning that not only did we all get to sit together but we got seats for Hannah and Avery as well!  Although that helped, I'm not sure that any of us got much sleep during the 15 hours we were in the air but the girls slept a bit and did very well!  We arrived in Sydney in the morning where we met Ryan, Alanna and Cody!  It was already hot outside!  We checked into our hotel where the cousins started bonding!

We took it easy on day one, went for food and had a nap!  During our 3 days in Sydney, we went to the same place for breakfast every morning!  Not only did we really enjoy it, but it was the only place we could really find.  It seems that a lot of restraints in the area we were staying either had weird hours or weren't open during the holiday season.

The clan walking for breakfast

Our favorite breakfast place!

Day 2 in Sydney we ventured to the Opera house, saw the harbour bridge and walked along the waterfront.

During our final day in Sydney we went to the Torongo zoo where we got a nice view of the city including the opera house and harbour bridge.

That night for dinner we decided pizza in the hotel sounded like a good idea for dinner!

Mamo and Papa with all their grandkids!

Hannah practicing her standing

Then, it was off to New Castle where Ryan, Alanna and Cody live!  We took the train which took about 3 hours!

Once in New Castle we got set up in our accommodations, we stayed at a family friends house about a 5 minute walk away from Red Head beach!  Our first morning there, before even changing out of our jammies, Carl, Hannah and I went to check out the beach!

We loved spending time at the beach!

21 weeks pregnant 

Although we would have loved to spend more time at the beach, Hannah ended up catching a cold and we had to spend a day at the hospital :(  It seems that whenever she gets sick, she gets short of breath.  We brought a puffer but it wasn't doing enough so we decided to take her in and we're glad we did!  Although she is to young to diagnose it, it's looking like she may have asthma.  So for a few days we stayed away from the water and did other things…Like tried the famous Australian meat pies!  Yum!

We also ventured to Black Butt Reserve to pet some koalas!

And we got the opportunity to see some wild kangaroos!  We pet them too!

 

Our final night was spent eating pizza with friends, overlooking the beach.

 

Two weeks flew by and next thing we knew it was time for the long dreaded flight home!  It wasn't great but we survived!  And when we got home, it was family nap time!

Overall, it was a great trip!  We wish we could have brought the sun and its warmth home with us!

Christmas 2013

Well let me just start by saying we hope you had a very Merry Christmas!  We had a great Christmas season!  Since we were all so very sick last year at Christmas, it made me appreciate being healthy this year!  We started celebrating Christmas back in November with Christmas parties and during the month of December, had something going on every weekend.  It was actually very nice how all the family events ended up being spread out and on different days.  In early December I won VIP tickets from work for the Santa Claus Parade in Vancouver!  We got seated on bleachers and were served snacks and hot chocolate as we waited for Santa's arrival. 

Grandma and Grandpa Funk got Hannah and her cousin Avery matching shirts for Christmas!  At the Rempel family Christmas it was fun to see them interacting with one another!

 

Hannah also spent time with her second cousin Elizabeth, at the Balback family gathering!

 

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house and opened presents there on Christmas morning!  Hannah got a little spoiled!  Although she wasn't too interested in opening the presents, she likes playing with them!

But her favorite toy is still my cell phone!

 

And although she gets to see my parents 3 dogs every week, her favorite dog is my brothers Golden Retriever, Poppy.  Poppy gets lot's of love from Hannah!

 

Here is Hannah eyeing up the Christmas goodies!

 

We had a lot of late nights and our routine was thrown off for a few nights but Hannah did really well!  She's sleeping great, even though she's cutting 3 molar's.  She's started saying bye-bye and waving, blowing kisses and loves to "find her belly button".  She is starting to stand on her own so we don't think it will be long before she is walking! 

One Christmas gift that we received this year was finding out the gender of our new baby!  I found out before Carl, so I bought a few gender specific outfits and gave them to Carl as a Christmas gift on Christmas eve!  Here is our little boy!

 

So last night we packed up our Christmas decorations (had to make room for all of Hannah's new toys) and are now in packing mode!  We head off to Australia on Monday with Carl's family!  We are really looking forward to spending time with his family...The 15 hour plane ride with Hannah, not so much!  Prayers for sleep, safety, health and fun are appreciated :)

Wishing everyone many blessing in 2014!