Nothing Goes as Planned.

We are still in the middle of moving and have rented a post pounder to put proper fencing in for the goats. The first one spewed hydrolic oil everywhere before we were even able to pound one post so that set us back a day and the rental company gave us a free day. Fast forward and they rented out a brand new one to us. Halfway through pounding posts it won't move anywhere and again we are at a standstill with Frank having to leave for work tonight for a 3 week hitch. 

I am hoping to at least have posts pounded to be able to put up fencing because I can't just stand around outside and chase goats to where they're supposed to be (the grass is always tastier where you're not allow - goat logic) With fencing at least I can do it without Frank but as for pounding posts I am not confident in myself enough to use the giant machine. 

At least the last landlord finally came to his senses and stopped hounding us because we couldn't get everything done on his timeline. He told us we had to move (after promising another lease renewal until May 2015) because the house is sold. The house isn't sold yet and he hasn't given me ANY written notice but I moved about about month and a half later. He gave us free rent for August (whoopee...we didn't get a chance to save ANY money due to such short notice) and then assumed because he did that that we could just move on out a couple weeks later and have everything finished...with eight kids in tow and no time to find any babysitters. 

Basically he wanted us out as fast as he could push us because there was a hold on his funds for the house until we moved out. All of this is very illegal. He cannot try to kick me out until the house is sold and then only then can he issue the notice to move. From there I have 3 months (starting the 1st of next month) to move and the buyer has to agree to renters for those three months. He acts like he's doing is such a huge favour. He got really mad because I was able to save a livestock trailer rental (nice neighbour let us borrow his for free) and move the animals a day early pushing the cleaning of the house a day later. Hello! I'm BROKE I have no money and a bunch of kids to feed. I moved as soon as I could but I need some time! 

I'm so angry over this. He gave us the impression we could say for several years  and then tried to claim he did not say that. We put a giant garden and bought fencing to pound posts and put fencing in. Thank The Lord we weren't able to do the fencing but all that work and money on the garden WASTED! Not to mention business licenses need to now be transferred and my business cards are now garbage. 

Sorry for the long rant but I am stressed to the max. 

On a positive note I am living closer to my family and will have some help from my mom :-)

Moving On

In the next week or so we are moving. Not because we wanted to but the landlord has sold the house so we don't have much choice. Although it's a lot of work I am happy to be moving closer to my family. On the other hand Frank will be working away from home again. I with be on my own for 3 weeks at a time. 

With me starting up my goats milk soaps again this upcoming month I'm hoping to have that off the ground and running sometime in October! This isn't a new business for me as I was making and selling it about 4 years ago :-) I have been making goats milk soaps for about 7 years now! I'm really excited to start this journey once again. 

The Children!

Here is a peak at a my children! I took these pictures a few days ago while my mother was visiting. 

From left to right it's Syrena (7), Jordan (4), Gabriel (8mon), Lillian (2), Breanna (8), Elijah (8mon), Kaitelyn (6), and Isaiah (3). 

Enjoy! 

Welcome back....winter.

Apparently, my welcome of spring was premature, haha! Here's what is at my place right now!

Spring Has Arrived...FINALLY!

Spring has finally arrived here in Canada (yes I'm aware first day of spring was a few weeks ago). After a cold snap of -20c I can finally let the kids roam outside without worrying about kids coming inside screaming their hands are cold. Although with spring comes soaking wet kids wanting to come inside and walk all over the house and a lot of "Stay out of that puddle! Nooo, don't splash water everywhere" and "UGH you got me all wet!" Lol. I'm happy it's finally getting warmer up here in frigid Canada!

With spring comes new baby animals! I'm excitedly awaiting for my goats to start having their adorable long eared babies! With new goat babies we also can look forward to goats milk and all the products that comes along with it! I'll be documenting a few of the things we make with the goats milk now that I have internet :-) We will also be getting a few more chickens to replace the ones we lost in the coyote massacre during the winter.

This year we will also be having a fairly large garden and my children are so excited to start growing things! We will learn all about plants and how they grow along the way! They helped me pick out all the veggies we are planning on growing and we are still deciding on flowers :-) They have expressed interest in growing sunflowers so far but that's it!

So many interesting things going on here and it will be a really busy spring and summer this year!

Here's a quick video of Gabe laughing :-) It was taken in the truck so it's not the best quality. Enjoy!

Rollin, rollin, rollin!

Thought I'd do a quick update!

Yesterday (I think yesterday? My days mesh sometimes, ha!) Gabe decided to show me his new trick! The twins are 9 weeks old now and Gabe has already started rolling! I'm in for it when these babies become mobile, haha! I'd like to enjoy their infant days of staying where I put them a little longer but I guess they have other plans!

Here is a short video of him! Excuse my terrible voice and Isaiah asking for boy pants, lol.

Hello again!

Hey Everyone!

Whew! It's been awhile, hasn't it? Quite a bit has happened since I last posted on my blog. We have moved away from our previous crazy German landlord and moved into a smaller acreage. We are further away from my family but the landlord is amazing and its in our price range. Lets see, I was blessed again with another pregnancy that ended up being twins! I'll talk about the twins for this blog post :-)

I found out were were expecting in May and had terrible morning sickness. I was in and out of the hospital because I couldn't keep anything down. In my ninth week I was at the emergency room in the small town close to me and the doctor decided to do an ultrasound on me. We clearly saw two, babies in their separate sacs with two hearts beating.

 My pregnancy was pretty uneventful and we were blessed with a pregnancy free of any problems. Fast forward to 39 weeks and I go into spontaneous labour with them. I declined induction at 38 weeks. I was supposed to be driving to Edmonton when I went into labour but apparently my boys had ideas of their own on how there were going to come into this world. I have written my birth story out and I will just paste it onto it.

Here is a picture of me the night before I went into labour! I could barely walk. Really trying for a smile but apparently failing miserably, haha!

Birth Story

I woke up around 4am with back pain and laid in bed for a few minutes. It turned into contractions so I woke Frank and said I think I'm in labour and got up to go to the washroom. Sitting down on the toilet I realized something was off. I still hadn't had a strong contraction so I did a quick self check and felt a bulging bag of waters. I thought "what the?! How is THAT possible?!" And as if my body flipped a light switch I got my first VERY strong contraction. I called Frank and said I think the babies would be here very soon and we decided to call 911. About 10 minutes of him talking to dispatch my water broke. I kept saying "this is so bizarre!!, how can this be I'm so far?!"  I was in transition contractions. The ambulance showed up at my place around 30 minutes after Frank called them. They came up the stairs (the one tries to hurry me up by saying "okay we can't have this baby in the bathroom!" and thought dude if only you knew I had my last FOUR babies born in a bathroom at home, LOL) and I went downstairs with them and outside. They had the gurney waiting and were debating how to get me to the ambulance like I was a freaking 600 pound lady :-/ so I got off the gurney and walked there. Everyone follows me and I say bye to Frank (I almost starting balling over having to leave my main support person and go by myself) and got  into the ambulance. 

We had had a few snow storms and that night we had also been hit with ice rain so our driveway was narrow and icy. I live on an acreage so the city or county only plows range roads and highways. The ambulance would have to back out. I got on all fours on the gurney and ignored the paramedics requests to lay down or sit. Eventually they gave up and told me I would have to face the front of the ambulance if I wanted to be like that. It felt like forever before we got out of my driveway and it turns out it took the driver 15-20 minutes to get out, lol. I just remember being jilted forward and then back a bunch of times and the lady saying I wasn't going to be able to sit like that for longer because of how rough the roads were (I stayed on all fours most of the trip ;-) ). Apparently she had been timing my contractions and informs me they're only 30 seconds long to which I tell her that it doesn't matter how long they are (this isn't my first rodeo lady!)  She tells me they want to put an IV in and turns and tries to stick a IV in my arm during all this jolting and I stood up for some reason sending blood shooting out of my arm everywhere, lol. She hasn't finished apparently and both paramedics lunged at me to try and stop the blood. I remember looking up towards the roof of the ambulance looking for something to grab and hold onto. Giving up I got back onto the gurney and got on all fours again. I left the house wearing a nighty so no one could see down below. The male paramedic tells me he needs to look to see if there's any baby parts come out (I thought what?! Are you serious?) I quickly told him no there was not a baby coming out, lol. All of a sudden a couple minutes later  I felt Elijah drop into the birth canal and start pushing. I had two people in front of me and no one notices me pushing! He is born breech onto the gurney (I wish I could have felt him when he came out but the ambulance was extremely bumpy. He had some butt bruising that confirmed a breech entrance) and I sit up and proudly tell them the baby is born. They FREAK out and yell at the driver to stop the ambulance because a baby was just born. I grabbed Elijah and cuddle him to me while I wait for Gabriel to make his entrance. Three minutes later I feel him drop and tell the paramedics that baby 2 is on his way! They must not have listened to my answer when they asked me what baby number this was because the guy says "baby 2?!" I look at him and put Elijah down. Get back on all fours and start concentrating on getting him out. I felt his body come and thought I was done because Elijah had come in one push so I thought Gabriel would be the same. I realized he head was not out yet so I quickly push his head out and he arrives exactly 3 minutes after his brother. The paramedics help remove soaking wet blankets and put new ones down for me to sit. I had told them to leave the cords connected and when they were flaccid I tell the male paramedic he can cut them now. I sit down on the gurney and ask them to help me put my babies to me skin to skin (they kept trying to cover them with blankets) I open my nighty and its loose enough to cover them up :-) the rest of the ride was the paramedics being hyped up from what they just saw and talking about it :-) 

I got to the hospital and the placentas came out fused together. Doctor came and looked and everything looked good. He said babies look extremely healthy and huge for twins <3 

I think I got everything! It was definitely quite the entrance but everything turned out great! 

From me waking up to Elijah being born was only approximately an hour and twenty minutes. Fastest labour and delivery I've ever had. 

Another interesting thing that happened was the male paramedic that kept trying to take charge and tell me what to do (said the thing about not having the baby in the bathroom) actually apologized when we got to the hospital. Said sorry for being that way and clearly I knew what I was doing.

We were blessed with two beautiful healthy baby boys. We named them Elijah Rylan 6lbs 14oz (lots of hair) and Gabriel Oliver 7lbs 1oz.

This is about 30 minutes after they were born. I didn't have my cell phone and had to wait for Frank to come take a picture, lol.

I look mad here and I'm really not mad, haha.

This was shortly after we got home :-)

With that I'll leave you with some gorgeous professional photos done by Heavenly Portraits when they were 4 days old. Candace can be found at https://www.facebook.com/AdminCandaceHeavenlyPortraits