Delayed Update!

Wow! It's been a while since my last post! A lot has gone one in our little family. This is a pretty major post, lots of pictures! I just went through October, November, & December and made a little slideshow for each month.


We have settled into our new home in London and are doing well. It's been about 2 1/2 months since we made the treck to Canada with our two Penske trucks. We had about 20 guys help us to load them up, which made for a very smooth packing. It's crazy to think we loaded up our entire house in 2 hours! It was wonderful. We arrived in Canada in a blizzard but since January have hardly had any snow, only a couple of dustings. NE has gotten hit so much harder than we have, we haven't even gone sledding!! Bummer!

Things with the business are going well, getting our name out there and networking like crazy in all the hospitals and around the city. We're settling in very nicely, the kids are doing great. There are a ton of kids in our townhouse complex so they are loving that. Other kids come to the door to see if they can come play which is so precious. The parking lot is constantly filled with boys playing road hockey and they love to sit on the steps and watch them. I've connected with some other moms and have had plenty of playdates to get to know them. I got involved in a great bible study at a church here and we are starting to build some relationships there. We miss NE, the friendly midwest is hard to beat, but we are making a new home here in London. We didn't think there would be much culture shock just moving to Canada but there definately has been some adjustments, even for James. I will get some more recent slideshows together but, for now, I thought I would post this one for a little catch up from the past!

All of you that we left, we miss you so very much! We realize now how amazing our community was and how we have been shaped so much in our roles as husband & wife, and mommy & daddy through you all. If you ever want to come to Canada you have a place to stay, we're not too far from Niagara Falls so come on up any time! :) If you do, bring some ketchup and chocolate!!

Please, if you have a minute, check out our website for Home Instead. The more clicks we have on our website the better it does for our google rankings. If you want to browse around on our site we would GREATLY appreciate it. That way, if someone here in London is looking for service, Home Instead will be closer to the top. www.homeinstead.com/london-on

Thanks and we'd love to hear from you! If you want our address or phone number let me know and I can e-mail it out to you.


OCTOBER

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November

This free slideshow personalized with Smilebox

December

This digital slideshow made with Smilebox

Roman's Newborn Pictures

Our friend, Teri Wehrbein, came over and took some pictures of Roman. I LOVE them and here they are. Enjoy!

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Roman James

Well, our little guy has arrived!!

Roman James Chalmers
October 9, 2009
1:12am
8 pounds 10 ounces
21 1/2 inches long

Everyone is at home and doing great. Natalie and Michael are doing a wonderful job with him and we're all adjusting to life with a baby. James is home all week so that is a huge help and I'm a little curious as to how I'm going to do all this alone when he goes back to work on Friday!!

We are in awe of God's blessings in our lives. We watch Natalie & Michael play together and laugh and run around and our hearts melt. The way they treat Roman with such tenderness and love is awesome! I know it won't always be that way and they will probably have their moments of frustration but to see their hearts towards him and each other is so special. Natalie seems so mature and is so helpful. Michael seems, to me, like a giant now. My little guy went from being my baby to seeming so big and grown up in a matter of days!! So many emotions come into play when you watch your kids grow up. It's fun and exciting and sad and heartbreaking all at the same time because you realize how fast time goes. I'm trying to enjoy all the moments with Roman - the snuggling, crying, late night feedings, rocking, bouncing... all of it because I know how fast it flies by! I have been asked how labor/delivery was so I'll write the story below the slideshow.

Well, that's about it for now, here is a little slideshow of Roman's first couple of days of life. Enjoy!

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Okay, for you (probably moms) who are interested in the labor/delivery, here's the short story:
Started having contractions around 7:30 so I took a bath while James put the kids to bed. After that James had to put up 2 handrails for our home inspection so I just layed in bed and went through some contractions. After he was done we went downstairs to watch The Office and James started timing the contractions and writing them down. They were VERY inconsistent, 8, 10, 11, 7, 9, minutes apart for a little over an hour. I was fine on my own, breathing through them. From 9:45-10:45 they started to become a little more consistent, between 5 & 6 minutes apart and more intense where I needed him to rub my back to get through them. Because I tested + for Group B Strep I was supposed to go into the hospital when they were consistently 5 minutes apart for 1 hour to get an IV of an antibiotic. We went upstairs and laid down around 11:00 and I actually fell asleep (Bradley birthing techniques at their finest). I woke up 2 times with contractions that were VERY strong between 11:00 & 11:30 and told James we should call the midwife to see if we should go in. We called and she said we could stay home a little longer since things weren't really consistent, if we wanted to. I decided that I just wanted to go in so we didn't have to call our friend Sonya in the middle of the night to come over for the kids and so we didn't have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night. James called Sonya and I got out of bed and then, BOOM!!! My contractions were on top of one another, 3 minutes, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2!! I went and waited in the van, once Sonya got here we were off and James was running red lights to get us there. It was a difficult drive! Once we got there, around 12:20, I was admitted and dilated to a 5. Marilyn, the same midwife that delivered Michael, was on call so that was awesome! I labored about 15 more minutes and was dilated to an 7. She said that there was no way we would have the antibiotic in for long enough (it needs to be in for 2 hours to be effective) so if I wanted her to she could break my water and I would have the baby a couple of contractions later. That is exactly what happened with Michael so I believed her. She broke my water around 12:55, I had a couple more contractions and Roman was born at 1:12am! It was crazy fast, intense, and amazing! It is pain that is indescribable but so amazing how our bodies were created! So, that's the story for all you other moms who love hearing labor stories as much as I do!!

Big Move For The Chalmers Family!

Well, this post is a BIG one!! Below I have written about a MAJOR decision that we've recently made. Following that are some summer highlights and then a slideshow of some of our favorite summer pictures & memories. Quick pregnancy update... 6 weeks till baby #3 is due and I'm feeling great. Things have gone very smoothly and we are SO excited for another baby. On to the big news......

James recently read a quote saying ““If the highest aim of a captain was to preserve his ship he would keep it in port forever.” Well, the Chalmers family is setting sail! We have a made a very big and difficult decision to leave Omaha and buy a Home Instead Senior Care Franchise in London, Ontario, Canada.

As many of you know, James has worked at the home office of Home Instead Senior Care for the past 3 years. His role has been working directly with franchise owners in Canada and 5 states in the US. An opportunity to purchase a franchise became available in London and we’ve decided to take the plunge and open our own franchise, implementing what he’s seen on a daily basis for the last 3 years. This is a business model that he has seen work and that we STRONGLY believe in, it is growing at a rapid rate because it is an extremely valuable service that can change the lives of seniors.

This is an extremely bittersweet decision, as we love it here in Omaha. James loves his job and the people and company he works for are incredible. My family is close, we have wonderful friends, deep roots, and a church community that is a constant encouragement to us and a place where we are challenged to grow daily. We love our home and the life we’ve made here for our growing family. It’s crazy to think we are leaving but there was an opportunity and we felt like we had to take it. We don’t want to have any regrets and this is an opportunity to build something together, as a family.

We will be moving to Canada in January, if all goes according to our plan. We will then open the doors of our new business in February. It will just be James & I and a little office looking for seniors who need assistance and support staying in their home so they don’t have to go into a nursing home. This requires networking and getting out in the community letting others know of the services we provide. As we are doing this we will be hiring caregivers who will be the ones providing the service to the clients. James will be the one driving the ship and, since I still get to remain home with the kids, I’ll be helping him with whatever I can, mainly bookkeeping and office/administrative tasks. James’ family will be an hour away and has offered their support wherever we might need it.

This was a tough decision but, after all the prayer and counsel we have sought, we feel at peace with our decision. There will be a lot of changes! Nothing like having a 3rd baby, attempting to sell or rent our home, packing up, moving to a different country, opening a business, and starting over in a new city and new surroundings!! But hey, we’re up for a good challenge and we’re confident this will be an experience that will grow our faith and trust in God and his provision for our lives.

Summer Recap!
May -
* We took a weekend trip with the kids for our anniversary. We enjoyed the country and relaxing together.
* We took a couple of camping trips
June
* Natalie turned 3
* James and I took a trip to Sarasota, FL for 6 days of bliss!! It was wonderful!
* We've enjoyed working in the garden often, reaping the produce has been fun for the kids, they just eat the tomatoes off the vine!

If you're wondering why, in the majority of pictures, Michael doesn't have a shirt on, it's because he is always HOT!!! Natale & Michael are both hot all the time, although I usually put a shirt on Natalie! :)

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Natalie riding her bike

Here is a little video of Natalie riding her bike. We picked this up last year on Craigslist for $15. Sometimes she wants to ride this one and sometimes she wants to ride her tricycle. She is pretty independent and can go down to the end of the block by herself and then drives into the grass to stop. She turns her bike around and comes back, it's fun to watch her. I love Spring. We have been able to spend so much time outside, playing in the dirt, riding bikes, picking lilacs, and just swinging on the porch swing. It's lovely.

Easter

Here is a video of Natalie searching for her Easter basket this year. She was so cute when she was looking for it. I didn't actually tape her finding her basket, James got that part on the other video camera. Michael is not in any of our pictures/videos from Easter because he was sick and slept all but 1 hour the whole day. Last year Michael was just a couple weeks old so he was sleeping the whole day then. So, we have gone through 2 Easters without evidence of Michael but he was with us. :)

Catching Up

So, I decided to make a slideshow of pictures dating all the way back to Christmas,
I haven't exactly been on top of everything lately!! For those of you who don't know, we are expecting baby #3 in October!! We are very excited about adding another baby to the Chalmers family and are excited to see if we'll have another wild girl or boy. We'll wait to find out till the little one arrives. We're thinking through names and I think we've decided one for both a girl and boy, that will be a surprise too. :) Things are going well so far. Natalie talks about the "new little sister/brother in her tummy", she doesn't have all the details correct yet but she'll get there. Well, hope you are all doing well and take care!!

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I decided, after looking at the price of some maternity jeans that they are so crazy expensives, to attempt to make my own. So, I looked online, found some instructions, borrowed a pair of a friends to copy and went to work with James' mom to make my own maternity pants. I used a pair of American Eagle and a pair from The Limited. They were a huge success and fun to make so, here are the pics. :)


Here is the pair that I copied:


Here is one of the pairs that I made:

Michael's 1st Birthday!

That is the video from Michael's party with my family. I think he was tired and couldn't decide if he was excited to eat his cake or if he wanted to go to bed, it was pretty funny.

We had multiple parties for Michael's first birthday. We had one with Michael's friend Sam Clatterbuck, who was born 4 days before Michael. They had a lot of little friends over to celebrate with them, and for a morning of mommy time. :) We also had a party with my family and it was also Christian's (my nephew's) birthday the day before Michaels. The kids played at the pool and had a great time. The last party we had was tonight, just our little family of 4. This is a picture of Michael with his gift from us, a Philadelphia Flyers mini hockey stick. He loved it and started chasing Natalie around with it which was hilarious.
Here is James giving Michael his cupcake.
Michael didn't waste any time getting to work. I think he might have mommy's sweet tooth. Natalie on the other hand, asked me to take off her frosting. Who does that??Michael was really frustrated when his cupcake was gone. He ate the entire thing!!


Here is a picture of the kids in the hot tub with Grandma, taking a break from the pool. Caroline, Natalie & Michael.

Here is Michael's first birthday cake. I decided after making this cake that I'm going to take a cake decorating class because I need some help!! It was fun though.

Here is Michael & Sam, getting ready to dig in to their cake.

Here are all the kids that were over to our house for the morning. It was so much fun!! This picture was hilarious, there were screaming babies, I guess that happens when there are 14 kids on one couch. :)

Here is Natalie "helping" me make Michael's cupcakes. Yeah, she is in her pj's, meaning it was about 9:00 in the morning. Oh well, she had fun!

5-5-5

Ha! I love this one! I was tagged (by Christi) to post the fifth picture in your fifth folder and tag five people. Love it.

I can not believe what picture it was!! It was a picture from Rothenburg, Germany in 2004 that we took with Jared & Christi and Brent & Kerri! I loved this little walled city, oh it brought back memories!

1. Michele Senkbile

2. Tracy Krelle

3. Mindy Bednar

4. Chad & Maria Kruse

5. Elizabeth Lewis

Here is a little video of what my days look like at home. These two crack me up and love eachother so much. They each think the other is so funny and have these great conversations with eachother.

Messy Boy

Yesterday Natalie wanted to feed Michael "all by myself". So, I walked out of the room and let her do her thing. It was so cute watching when she wasn't looking. She would try to wipe the food off his mouth after every bite and he was loving it. She dropped the spoon on the floor so I went in and wiped it up and left the cloth on the table. When I came back a couple of minutes later she had wiped his face and bib off. Oh, I wouldn't trade the squash all over the floor, highchair, Michael's outfit and in his hair for anything. That was such a sweet moment.

Wow!! Major update needed.....

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It has been way to long since my last post. It seems like it always happens that way. I figure that pictures can tell way more than I can write so I made a pretty lengthy slide show for you at the bottom of this post. You can scroll through the pictures at your own pace so you can look quickly. A couple of highlights:

• Michael is crawling all over the place, standing up on everything and actually taking some steps behind one of his toys. He also climbs steps and moves from one piece of furniture to another if they are close enough.


• Natalie is talking so much now, a million miles a minute. She says the funniest things. Like tonight...."Natalie, I love you. Do you love mommy?" "No" "No, you don't love mommy?" "no" "Well, who do you love?" and with so much excitement she screamed "I love JESUS!" It was so cute and I cracked up. She later told me she loved me too, phew.


• Natalie is such a mimic of us. For example, if we tell her to do something we say "Natalie, you need to put your toys away. You say 'okay mommy' and obey" She knows that she has to say okay and obey us right away. So now she says to Michael if he's doing something he shouldn't be doing "no, no, Myny. You obey mommy, you obey!!" Poor little guy has 2 moms!


• James was traveling for work for a week so I went back home to Randolph for 5 days. It was a wonderful time of visiting with family and friends. There are pictures of our time there in the slideshow.


• We have a friend living with us. His name is Dieudonne and he moved in about 2 months ago. He has been attending our church (http://www.cdomaha.org/) for about a year and half. He is a refugee from Burundi, Africa and is going to Central High School. It has been so much fun and such a blessing to our family having him live with us. We've had some great conversations and Natalie loves playing with him and talking to him. We celebrated his 19th birthday with him in October.


• Our church, Coram Deo, is celebrating it's 3rd Birthday next week. We have grown so much spiritually through the teaching and community of people we are around. All of the sermons are on the website if you are ever interested in listening to one.


• I am absolutely LOVING my job of a stay-at-home mom. I look at our kids every day and am so thankful I get to spend all of my time with them and friends. I get to use all of my energy on my family and watching it grow is so wonderful. We spend our days doing whatever comes our way. Natalie will wake up and say some of the following statements "are we going to the woo... are we going to MOPS... can we go on a walk... are we going bye-bye in the car.. can we play with coco "or names other kids"


• I'm starting to work on sign language with Michael so he stops grunting when he wants another bite. We did it with Natalie so that she could communicate with us before she was able to talk. We started with the sign for please and she would have to do it before we would give her food or anything else. So, I would say to Michael "do you want more" and then take Michael's hand before every bite and sign "please." Natalie would laugh and then a couple minutes later said to me "mommy, may I have some more milk please." Amazing what a difference 21 months makes.


• I've been making baby food for Michael. It's been great. It cost 1/2 the price to make my own organic food than to buy non-organic!! And, not to mention the difference in the food. Gross. Here is a picture of green beans that I bought and food that I made. Yuck. I think I'll stick to making my own. I'm not sure what they have in their "green beans" but why isn't it green???

Some Videos of the kiddos

Here is a video of what some of my conversations look like throughout the day. Michael and I are engaged in a very deep conversation here. He is so much fun. Having problems downloading the video, i'll try later.

Here is a video of Natalie and James while we were camping over Labor Day. She loves when James plays keep away with her. Also, she learned how to do a somersault so she defers to that when she can't get the ball.

Updates...

Here are some of the major updates going on in the Chalmers' Family

1. Natalie is potty trained!! Here's her new favorite face!




2. Michael is crawling and potty trained! Just kidding, he's just crawling. He can go from crawling to sitting up.




3. Michael started eating rice cereal. Natalie loves feeding him so he often has food on his forehead. Oh Well, what are you going to do.




4. Natalie & Michael are sharing a room now.




5. Natalie can count "1,2,3,8,9,10!" We're still working on the middle numbers.




6. Natalie's favorite songs: "Jesus Loves Me", "Zaccheas"


7. I gave Natalie her first haircut since she was born. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it but she did great. James just fed her chips the whole time. I kind of miss her wild, crazy, and out of control hair but I suppose it was time.




8. I'm playing in a fall co-ed softball league. Go "The Masterbatters"

Michael's Dedication

We had Michael dedicated on August 3rd. It was a very sweet day. Here are the verses that we choose to have our pastor, Bob, pray over him.

Romans 12: 9-13
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Ultimately, our prayer for Michael would be that he sincerely loves others, clings to Christ, honors others, serves the Lord with zeal, is joyful, patient, and a prayer warrior, serves those in need, and shows hospitality to all he comes in contact with.

Michael's Personality: He is so sweet, cuddly, and laid back. He has this huge smile that lights up his entire face. His eyes just light up. He loves his big sister. Anytime she talks to him he will laugh and smile at her. Anytime she does "big sister" things (i.e. trying to help him crawl by pulling his arms forward and he hits the floor with his face) he doesn't even mind. He just goes with the flow in everything we do. He doesn't cry when I lay him down for a nap, he just starts to suck his thumb and goes to sleep. It's crazy how they come with their own little personality and how it manifests itself in everything he does. He's going to be the silent, sneaky one. He's starting to crawl already but he does it so quietly. One minute he's where I laid him down and the next he's moved across the floor to something that caught his interest. I'm going to have to watch him closely because of how quiet he is. He'll probably be in great mischief before I even realize it. Natalie will probably keep my on my toes because she watches him pretty closely.