Noah's 3rd Birthday

Oh how I love birthdays! Noah started requesting a super hero party for his birthday just after Christmas, that is until he changed his mind at the very last minute and thought a Diego party would also be nice :) luckily, he is still easily persuaded and we went ahead with plan A. Thank goodness, as I'd already had everything prepared for the super hero party - why do kids do things like this to their parents?

Here is my 3 year old sweetie on the day of his party. How can he be 3 already? he seems to have changed so much in looks lately, losing any "baby" look he had and starting to look more like a "big boy" by the day. Three is such a challenging age but it is also so much fun. His personality is blossoming and I find myself fascinated at how quickly he is learning these day. He's still my shy, sweet, cuddly, loving baby boy, but he definitely has some spunk! he's silly, emotional, feisty, and takes his role of being "Owen's guard" very seriously lol. Don't mess with Owen or you'll have to stand up to this little shorty :) He's a great little brother to Owen and follows Owen everywhere, but he is also a great big brother to Grayson. He loves his baby brother, a little too much at times, almost smothering him with love :) he likes to help me care for Grayson, and loves to entertain him, and keep him happy. He loves everything to do with crafts, particularly colouring, enjoys books (his favourites are his new super hero books, and seek and find books. He's becoming a picky eater, sometimes turning his nose up at an entire meal - makes for mealtime somewhat frustrating and loooong. Yesterday he had his 3 year wellness visit and he is close to the 50th percentile for height, and he is now 27lbs ( about 15th percentile for weight). I know how much kids change from 3 - 4 years so for now I'm going to soak up every last bit of baby he has in him. I love you Noah! my sweet sweet baby :)



Owen dressed in his spiderman t-shirt for the party. So many people participated in the theme by dressing in super hero clothes - it was so fun :)


I saw some similar cupcakes on pinterest and knew Noah would love them! It was my first time using fondant and it was tricky to find the time to bake/decorate with a baby at home, but I am really happy with how they turned out. I think Noah really liked his cupcakes :)





Cake time! This was the first birthday that Noah was excited about. Things must've suddenly clicked and he realized the party was all for him. For the days following he could be heard singing "Happy Birthday" to himself - so cute. His happy spirit lasted for days afterwards too. At first he seemed a little overwhelmed, but I was proud oh the way my usually shy boy handled himself. He made sure to thank people for their gifts and he was cheerful all day, no tears at his party - success!












Hopefully he'll be able to reach the pedals on his new bike soon. We were hoping he'd be able to use the bike as a balance bike, but Noah is smaller than we realized :) oh well - I'm sure his determination will pay off and he'll learn soon enough.


Happy 3rd Birthday Noah!

Boxing Day

We spent Boxing Day with Gavin's side of the family, we had a great time visiting with family and watching the kids play together.

It never takes long for all of the kids to gang up on someone - usually Jeff ;)


Gavin with his boys


Noah opening a gift from Jeff, Theresa and Kids


Papa opening his present from everyone.


The next day we the kids enjoyed playing with their new toys, Owen finally was able to use his Blizzard Maker and make us all an ice cream treat. Santa hadn't read the directions and we were missing a few key ingredients - oops! Owen was great about it though and was very patient until we could go shopping for the ingredients we needed. He was so excited to try out the Blizzard maker and wanted to do all the steps himself. That is until he realized that churning for 10 minutes was ridiculously long, then he handed over churning duty to daddy :)


The ice cream didn't turn out quite as thick as it should have - it was kind of like eating melted ice cream. The kids declared the ice cream "delicious" and we all smiled and praised Owen for making us such yummy treats.


Playing with a few other new toys. Such fun! but it amazes me how the boys naturally start speaking in a scary creepy voice when dressed up in costume. Noah's new line is "haha I've got you now, you'll never get away!"


Owen with his new toys


The helmet was huge on Noah's tiny head:) he kept yelling "Help! I can't see a thing!"

Christmas Day

Grayson was the first to wake up Christmas morning and the three of us lounged in bed while we waited for the other two sleepy heads to wake up. Noah woke up and joined us for some cuddles, and finally Owen woke up around 7:30 and came rushing in to announce it was Christmas morning :) I really don't think Noah knew what was going on. We waited while Gavin went downstairs and put the lights on the tree and got the video camera ready.


We didn't have to be at my sister's house until 3pm so we had a good part of the day to enjoy our time together, open gifts, play our new toys and have a yummy breakfast.

Our Christmas Tree













We attempted to get some cute "first Christmas" photos - and while they are cute, not all of them are happy :)




Family photo in front of the tree


The boys playing the "drums" at Maegan and Bill's


We had a great Christmas with family!

Christmas Part 3

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed getting together with Gavin's sister Meggie and her boyfriend Liam. They were hosting an open house and joked that we are always their "earliest" guests, arriving in the morning hours all the time :) Just a reminder of how different our lives have been since having kids - oh well, we wouldn't change a thing!

I love this photo of Noah and his Aunt Meggie! you can just feel the love!


The kids attacking Liam :) what a good sport he is!


More gift opening! The biggest play doh gift pack ever! the kids loved playing with it once we got home :) They also received a Mr. Men story collection - how fun! who else remembers those awesome books? they were my favourite growing up :)


A cute photo of Noah just before leaving for Aunt Meggie's!


After visiting we went home and played with the new presents, made pizza and attended Christmas Mass. The kids were so well behaved during church this time! we really need to make an effort to go more often. I've found that the times we attempt sitting in the pews as opposed to going immediately to the 'crying room' things always turn out better! I think the kids sense that they should behave, when we are in the 'crying room' with other kids things can get a little crazy! Afterwards we stopped home to pick up some hot chocolate and cookies for our annual Christmas Eve Christmas light drive!

Our favourite decorated house - a little blurry


Someday I hope to live here...lol! I can just picture the shiny marble floors now :)


After setting out the cookies and eggnog for Santa, and some carrots for the reindeer the kids were fast asleep after our busy day! dreaming of Christmas morning I'm sure!

Christmas Part 2

After our family Christmas brunch we prepared for a friend's Christmas drop-in party! I love the idea of an open house around Christmas to get together with family/friends that you may not otherwise be able to see near the holidays. It's starting to become a tradition for us to attend this annual party and we love it!

The kids especially love playing together and playing the drums downstairs. I didn't get many photos of the fun evening, but plan to next year :)






We made such special friends during our adoption wait, we are always so happy to spend time with these friends - especially during the holidays!

Christmas Part 1

Oh man I'm so behind in blogging! I'm going to try my best to get caught up within the next couple of days, but of course that all depends on how much the little ones sleep :)

Christmas parties started early this year for us and we didn't stop until we rang in the New Year! My brother, SIL, and Niece were home the week before Christmas so we hosted a gift opening brunch that day with my side of the family. It was nice to sped time with my brother's family and especially nice to spend time with my sweet niece. This year she kept up with the boys and is running all over the place!

Grayson's first gift opening experience :)


The last couple of years my dad has taken it upon himself to purchase gifts for the women of the family - hopefully that tradition continues as it's given us some great photo opportunities and a few laughs along the way :)








Gifts are always crazy with my side of the family - this year a total of 29 batteries were needed for the kids new toys! It was great spreading out some holiday parties because it gave the kids some time to actually enjoy their new presents :) This year I tried out a new recipe I found on pinterest - think we've found a new Christmas breakfast tradition! goodbye pillsbury cinnabons and hello pillsbury biscuits smothered in warm syrup, brown sugar, butter and pecans! Yummy! you can find the recipe here. No photos as those sticky buns didn't last very long!

What a great morning we had!

They Still Love Swimming!

A few weeks ago we we're invited for a swim at Aunt Meggie's. The boys were excited about swimming "inside Meggie's house" and decided that it wasn't a good idea for us to have a pool inside our house because the carpet would get wet :) smart boys they are. We invited ourselves for lunch, so after swimming we enjoyed Liam's perfected grilled cheese sandwiches. Yummy!

At first Noah was a little timid, but he soon remembered his love for the pool. Owen just continued to jump over and over - he was exhausted on the ride home :)

Halloween!

We started our Halloween fun by having Catherine and Hannah over for dinner. We served our usual halloween meal 'pumpkin spaghetti' the kids love it and it's easy to prepare ahead of time. This year the trick- or -treaters started arriving at the door at 6, and they came in big numbers! I was glad we made the last minute decision to pick up more candy "just in case". We had lots of candy left over, but I have no idea how many kids we got they came too fast to count!



Grayson dressed for the holiday by wearing a borrowed halloween sleeper :) super cute! Grayson and I stayed home to hand out candy, but we enjoyed watching the kids trick-or-treating-from the porch.


Our collection of mostly disney themed pumpkins. Catherine and Hannah carved mickey, and we carved goofy and "a ghost with flames" as per Owen's request.


Trick - or - Treat! Gavin said this year was much easier because the kids could go up to the houses on their own! no carrying any young kids up and down the stairs, next year he will have Grayson to carry around :)


It took Noah a few houses to figure out what was going on, but after he did he was so excited! he would run from house to house saying "candy! candy!" heh- I don't think he realized just how much candy he'd be given.




Thanks to Catherine she caught these videos of the kids :)


This spooky house set Owen off for the rest of the night. He wanted daddy to go up to the houses with him after that. He had wanted to come home but stuck it out for the love of candy :) I'm glad he mustered up enough bravery to finish the night and continue to have fun.





Pirate Owen!


Cutest little strawberry, dragon and pirate around! here they are enjoying a treat.


My three trick- or- treaters


My three cuties!


We checked the boys candy to make sure it was safe and took out the candy we don't like them to have (really hard candy and gumballs) then we helped ourselves to some of our favourites :) Grayson snatched this lollipop as if no one would notice, but I was sure to snatch it back just after I took the picture:)


Happy Halloween!