...and Baby makes four!

We have a baby on the way! Yes, I am indeed pregnant. Our little bundle of joy will be arriving somewhere around Aug 26 (Marcus Birthday!). ~ Sarah we could be in the hospital at the same time!~
We found out on Christmas morning, a fun little present for us ;) It has pretty cool symmetry because we found out we were pregnant with Liv on Easter, so both on holidays. I'm not thrilled about being huge in the heat of the summer, but it might be nice to see the difference between being due in winter as opposed to being due in summer (I'm trying to think positively here!).
I've been feeling pretty craptastic as the morning sickness has been hitting me hard, worse than with Olivia. I couldn't be more grateful for my wonderful, caring husband! The dishes have been especially hard for me, instantly hits my gag reflex, so Marcus does them as soon as he gets home and after dinner with no complaint. It's been so nice to wake up every morning to a glistening kitchen. He's so great about making sure I take naps when I need them and just being all around amazing. I'm hoping that the morning sickness doesn't last for too much longer (I don't know why they call it morning sickness, as mine gets worse and worse as the day goes on!).
We are really excited for Liv to get a little playmate and wanted to share the news with you all! Hope your Valentine's weekend was a lot of fun!

Thug Life

Liv really likes rocking out with her Daddy. He will play music and she will dance in front of the mirror to the tunes. It's a lot of hip hop (Beyonce "All the Single Ladies" being one of her fav). Lately she started added in the hat, she will hold it and then put it on her head, usually sideways or backwards. I walked in once with it on backward and she was, well check out this link: She isn't as professional looking as this kid, but close ;) She bounces her head and moves her hands up and down to the beat.

Olivia loves to stand in the windowsill above our bed and look at the world outside. Most of the time the blind is closed, so anytime she is on our bed she tries to rip the blinds down so she can crawl into the window. She just laughs and smiles to herself~she totally loves it. It's been a while since I posted about my little cutie, so enjoy!

I know I've been delinquent

We have been VERY sick in these parts this past week! It is the first time that EVERY member of our family has been sick at the EXACT SAME TIME!!!
Olivia started with teething issues on Thursday, Thursday being the day Santaija (my sister) made the trek from Edmonton all the way to Vancouver to see us. So she screamed most of the way through Vancouver (this Mom hadn't connected the dots before we left home and was without pain meds, for me or her as she was crying and I was getting a headache from said crying). Then we both got hit with that nasty bug going around (Olivia + teething+ fever +cold+mommy's sick too= Worst week ever!!).
Marcus was only a day behind us with the nasty bug but made it seem like it wasn't as bad so he could take care of us. Sunday I was so out of it that my Mom had to come over and help me while Marcus was at church (he gave a talk on Sunday and filled in teaching my class for me). I could barely drag my feverish body out of bed! Luckily it hit us fast and furiously, we are now on the mend with some extra teeth floating around in Liv's mouth. My Mom for being of such amazing service to me is now being blessed by having the nasty bud herself and has been bed ridden since yesterday.
Any other time we've had sickness it has hit once at a time so it's easier to deal with, this was like a hurricane-crapstorm ran rampant through our house and we are picking up the pieces. (Quite literally as the house work has fallen very sub par, I've barely got it above dumpster status and is now almost livable).
On the bright side we didn't have to make any trips to the hospital, just heavily medicated ourselves, other friends of ours had it much worse -glad you are feeling better Kaitlyn!-.
I promise to be better at blogging now that we are on the mend ;)

Sorry for the Gross Out!

So in my excitement for homegrown meats, I may have given too much information about the fate of "blacky". Especially for the unsuspecting pregnancy bunch, which just happens to make up half of my friends! I will try to be more PC in the future :)

I did have a hard time growing up with a couple of the animals that "went to greener pastures", but I just learned that if I wanted to enjoy all the work put into them that I just had to remain de-tached from said beasties. So I purposely kept distance from these critters.

I have to say that it was a very enlightening experience when "They" came to our house to get said animal. Maybe it's from watching all those episodes of Dirty Jobs from discovery, but they didn't mind if I watched (from the comfort of my warm home) but I felt like I was watching something from National Geographic or something. It's like it makes me appreciate the goods more when I know how much hard work goes into not only the raising but in the.....you know.

So sorry for the upsets stomaches, but it was a weirdly fun day for me! I hope you guys don't think I'm some crazy b/c I shared this :) But this was a big day for the amateur farmin' gal!

Tomorrow is Meet Your Maker Day...

Some of you might remember my post from the summer how four little piggy's came to live at the Radder home. We have gone from four to two. One of them, the runtiest little one, died unexpectedly in the night a couple of months after we got them. It got sick or something like that, which sucked b/c we lost out on the meat. It now rests in the field behind our property. Piggy two became.....................................

........... the wonderful main course for our ward Relief Society/Priesthood BBQ Social. Holy cow (er, Pig) was it amazing! It was slow roasted all day, courtesy of Marcus, My Dad and Cory Everton (Cory's magical spice rub!). They rigged this contraption to cook it on.

So then we were left with two. They have been living in blissful ignorance of the fact that one of them was going to be heading to our deep freeze. But the time has come, after the butcher being overbooked for weeks, the lucky (or not so lucky) black pig will be meeting it's maker tomorrow. I'm pretty used to eating things we raise as we did this a lot while I was in High School and still living with my parents. I am so excited to have my freezer stocked to the hilt of bacon, pork chops, ribs, roasts and ham! It's such a satisfying feeling to know that we have meat to last us for the future! And not only that, but the meat is chemical and hormone free, as we have been the only ones to feed it.

That leaves us with one little piggy whose story has yet to be concluded.

The Big Two Five

After I graduated high school it kinda didn't matter anymore how old I turned on my birthdays. I would actually forget what age I was and would have to stop and think about it whenever I was asked my age. 18 wasn't that big of a deal b/c I wasn't a citizen then so it's not like I could vote, legally that is. Then 21 wasn't a big deal b/c I don't drink, which drinking for a lot of people is that years focal/exciting point. So they all just blended together.
For some reason I am very AWARE of the fact that I am now 25. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I am lamenting about being SO OLD or anything like that! I totally understand I still have TONS of living yet to do ;) It's more like it's gut check time. Is everything thing in my life the way I had pictured it would be at this point? If not, then what am I falling short on?
Before I was blissfully unaware of the time flying past, but now I am more hyper-aware of it. I also didn't expect to be this reflective about this birthday either. I just always figured the next birthday that would be a big one for me would be the big three-oh, not the big two-five. That's what has been on MY mind lately!

Girly Girl!

So she got this car for her birthday. She pushed it around a couple of times (after ripping the doors off) and then after a few days of not playing with it, when she picked it up again THIS is how she uses it. No prompting or nothing. I just looked over at her one day and she was using her car as a purse. She likes to add extra things for effect. Like in this picture it is keys, sometimes chapstick or her cell phone (my old phone). She just crawls around the house like this, pauses and then poses for me!

She also loves to talk on the phone! I guess if they mimic you, it must mean it is something that you do A LOT! Oops, my phone talking can be a little excessive ;)

She will just stand there with this phone or her cell phone for like 1/2 an hour and talk to herself. She even pauses, like waiting for a response, and then kicks up the talking again. She loves doing this so much that my parents even have a "Liv phone" at their house. The one over there she especially loves. It has an antenna and she pulls it out before she talks on it.

It is so fun to see what new and interesting way she thinks up to use her toys next!