A Little Late

A late one, but a good one!

Until next time...

Happy Birthday, Supernana!

Good morning everyone! This is a very special day in the Vance household because it is the birthday of Nana Vance, also known as "Supernana."

The Vance kids thus decided to fashion a Happy-Birthday video appropriate to the magnificence of its subject.

Happy birthday, Supernana!

Until next time...

Journey to New Brunswick: Part 1

As everyone knows, travelling with several indefatigable children is itself an adventure. Chrissy and I could literally just sit with them in the car and be overwhelmed by the sheer glory of it. But it is even more glorious when you are travelling with them for many, many, many hours.

Onwards! Tune in for part two... soon.

Summer 2015, Week 2

That's a horrible title, I know. But what do you call a week with so much stuff packed into it? We had VBC (vacation Bible camp), a pool party, a beach day, friend visits, not to mention just trying to function as a family of six human beings under one roof.

I think if I were to chose another title, I would call it "Splash." Just to be creative.

Hope you enjoy the vid!

PS. The worst thing is a typo on the word "until" at the end that I don't have the motivation to go back and fix.

PPS. I hope that these videos are conveying what I'm hoping to convey - not so much a "look at how awesome we are" (though we are on the awesome side of things), and more a sense of thankfulness over the time that we've been given to spend together as a family this week. I hope that thankfulness comes through.

Just One Wife, Four Kids, and an iPhone

Dear Eleven Followers,

I love you. Here is the first of what I hope will be weekly instalments of Apartment 1004: Video Edition. A snapshot of our family in the year 2015, if you like.

Thanks for being interested in who we are. Feel free to comment. We'll be in touch.

Until next time...

A Bunch of Things and the Beginning of Summer

It has been busy! What has kept us busy? A bunch of things.

Thing 1: VBC, also known as Vacation Bible Camp, a more light-hearted twist on the old Vacation Bible School idea. I have literally been looking forward to Jesse's being able to go to this at our church since he was born, five years ago.

The time has come! Consider me a proud father, and to commemorate the event, I signed up to be a crew leader, which is extremely fun and incredibly exhausting.

Thing 2: Gardening. Honestly, the vegetable and flower gardens we inherited from the Hummels were so beautifully tended that they have required very little work, but even the simplest of garden needs a little love (ie., weeding and watering), especially on these scorching hot days.

"Home grown carrots... are so... crunchy..."

Thing 3: Robyn. Our beautiful little girl has been keeping us moving with her intense ups and downs.

I honestly don't remember this photo being taken. But I think, judging by the clothes, that it was yesterday.

Thing 4: Home-made Jam is a beautiful thing, I think we can all agree - especially when the raspberries come from your own garden. Thanks to Wendy for coming over and teaching us how to make our own jam.

Thing 5: Building Jesse a toy sword. Ever since I saw my Dad finish a basement at our old house and watched my Papa building little wooden toys for me as a child, I've wanted to take up woodworking. In my high-school shop class, I made a wooden chest for my uncle, but I've never had the space to be able to actually create anything since.

Until now!

Jesse protects the innocent with his trusty sword, King Arthur style (using strength to protect the weak and fight for goodness and justice, etc.).

For any woodworking enthusiasts, here are the close ups. Jesse seemed pretty happy with it.

Found out that staining wood is harder than I thought.

Also, this was my first time using a router and circular saw. It was scary.

Thing 6: I'm training for a half-marathon in September. Personal goal: Run it in less than 2 hours. This means about five good runs a week.

Thing 7: Prepare for a new baby. Mystery Vance #4 will likely arrive in September as well. As school has traditionally also started in September, I think September may be a busy month.

(Side note: Chrissy is my hero. I don't know how she manages to do all the things she does, while looking after three (or more) kids, while also growing a small human being inside of her.)

She's tired, but she's making it happen.

So things have been hopping here in the Vance resident. As I finished supper today, I reflected that while my state of chronic exhaustion may not compare to that of Chrissy, I do feel a little tired. In that light, I'm going to begin simplifying things and cutting in order to get some rest in before school starts up again.

Part of this will involve signing off on my beloved Apartment 1004 blog until next summer. It's been fun, and now it's time to put down the keyboard and pick up a book.

I hereby declare this to be the beginning of summer!

It's been good, blog buddies.
Signing off...
Until next time...

Kids Make Us Tired But They're Worth It

My story of the past couple of days begins with a camping sleepout with none other than Janna "I Like to Talk A Lot At Bedtime" Vance.

Campfire before bed. Janna enjoys a freshly roasted marshmallow. This is before she sears her fingers on the hot poker and wails about not appreciating campfires.

Strangely, in the 8+ years we've been together, I think this is just the second marshmallow I've ever roasted with Chrissy. I was curious. Was Chrissy a lightly-browned marshmallow-type girl? Or a fully charred marshmallower? To my surprise (and, evidently, hers), she enjoys marshmallows barely cooked at all. I guess she's a naturalist.

Janna smiles at me in appreciation as we tucked ourselves into the tent for the night. She smiled at me, stroked my hand, and quietly murmured, "You're beautiful, Dad."

I should have known better than to believe that that would be the end of the night for us. You see, Janna comes alive at night. After lulling me to a false sense of peace and security, she innocently unleashed her inner reserve of social energy, talking to me about nearly anything that crossed her mind until I felt compelled to document these interactions with my camera.

Long story short, eventually she did fall asleep, and then I did too. Only to be woken up by her intense shivering the next morning at 4am. I had forgotten that Janna is also unable to sleep motionless. She strays in all kinds of horizontal directions while she sleeps,to the point where she rarely wakes up under her covers. In the warmth of the house, this is ok, but in twelve-degree weather...

Eventually, I invited her to sleep in my sleeping bag with me. Which was fine, except it meant that I couldn't role over. I found myself lying in an extremely awkward angle, perpetually fearful of squishing flat my incredibly small three-year-old daughter. Which was fine, until an incredibly articulate bird perched itself just outside of our tent and cried, "WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP!!!!!" Repeatedly.

By 4:30am, I surrendered to the overwhelming forces of camping and both Janna and I retreated to the safety of Chrissy's nicely warmed bed.

She forgave us eventually, I think.

Next morning: Janna miraculously has energy and is taunting her older brother with a game of "pretend to sleep on Jesse." 

O, the hardships of being an older brother!

Robyn, amused, decides not to play but instead to smoosh her mashed potatoes across her chest.

Other fun things occured the following day; of particular notice was the excellent pool party put on by the Oueises, which unforgivably, I did not capture on camera. However, good times were had by all. At the end of the day, Chrissy and I were left with the overall feeling of complete exhaustion, but we had to admit that the crazy times are worth it at the end of the day.

As long as they stay in bed.

Bemused,
Until next time...