We celebrated our 4th "Forever Family" day this past tuesday January 17th! Can you believe we've had Owen for four years now? crazy how fast time goes! I just love my little boy and can't begin to imagine life without him, our lives sure changed forever that day in January. Such a frightened little baby he was, yet he opened his heart to us and is such an amazing kid! I get teary whenever I think about our time in Vietnam, and can't wait for a return trip someday!
My mom helped me take the kids out for lunch on Tuesday. Owen was excited to leave school for an hour and have a "date" with mom :) we went to McDonalds for something fast and easy with the kids, but it was still special for Owen. Later, we met up with Gavin at Chuck e Cheese for some family fun and dinner! Owen loved it - now he wants to have his birthday party there! oops.
The kids were excited every time they won "tickets" and ran from game to game wanting to play everything :) What a fun night! Happy 4th Forever Family Day Owen! We love you soooo much!
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!
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!
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 :)
This year we started the Elf on the Shelf family tradition and the boys love it! Owen named our elf 'Frosted Flake' and I think the name is a perfect choice considering he is from the North Pole:) Each morning they race downstairs to find our elf doing something silly. Sometimes he's just hiding in a silly spot and other times he's up to no good! The first night Frosted Flake took Owen's digger for a spin, another time he got into the halloween candy and some popcorn, and yesterday morning we found him sitting on the couch with the remote control watching the Swiss Chalet channel!
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!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Thanksgiving monday turned out to be the perfect day for our annual trip to the pumpkin farm! just mentioning the word farm sends my kids into excitement mode:) The weather on monday was great and we were sure that everyone would have the same idea and the place would be packed. We went early to avoid most of the crowd and much to our surprise it wasn't really that busy!
Again no photos of Grayson :( that boy slept the entire time we were there and I wasn't interested in waking him just for a photo op. Obviously sleep is very important to me these days :) The big boys had a great time and enjoyed the wagon ride, tractors, farm animals and searching for the biggest pumpkin in the field.
I was reminded of the Mid Autumn moon festival after seeing a t.v commercial - oops! luckily we didn't miss it and planned a very last minute get together with some friends that have children from China and Vietnam. We are so glad to have friends that are up for anything last minute and we enjoyed a great evening together celebrating the holiday!
Our fun began early evening with some lantern decorating. Trying to take photos while keeping the glittery mess contained was no easy task, but we managed. Some little kids preferred minimal glitter and placed each decorative spot carefully, while others preferred their lantern to be covered in glitter (Owen and Hannah).
We ordered Asian from a local restaurant and Catherine made some delicious cookies for dessert that represented the moon.
Catherine ended up holding both of the new babies while we got the kids ready for the lantern parade outside.
Owen with his lantern during the parade - he kept calling it the "Automatic Moon Festival". It was cute so we didn't bother correcting him :)
Noah with his lantern
Check out that beautiful moon!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Last wednesday we took the kids to the CNE, I was worried about how Grayson would do but it turned out to be a great outing. We stopped by Gavin's work to show off the kids and to pick our tickets up :) and finally made it to the CNE by lunch. It started to rain just as we got there and Grayson also needed to be fed, so we waited out the rain while I fed him in the car :)
First stop was to get lunch. It seems that having another baby puts us behind schedule a little :) Then it was time for the kids to go on some rides. This year there were lots of rides that both kids could go on together so we didn't bother buying extra ride tickets for an adult to ride with them.
Owen and Noah loved this Mickey Mouse Bounce Castle
A favourite ride was the dump trucks - Owen took the job seriously while Noah sat casually with his arm out the window.
When asking for volunteers to be in the "backyard circus" both Owen and Noah put up their hands to volunteer. Owen didn't care what part he got chosen for and kept his hand up the entire time until he was finally chosen to play a tiger. Noah wasn't chosen because he was a little too young, but I think he would have done fine. At one point while they were choosing butterflies for the play Noah went up on stage. He was quickly booted off by the people organizing the play - but I think he would have been a great butterfly :)
After the play Noah was able to put on a tiger costume as well and pose for a picture.
Grayson was perfect the entire day! he woke to nurse and then went back to sleep. I was worried he wouldn't sleep that night but he slept as usual. I think the fresh air made him exhausted. Check out his cute little pose :)
Owen and Noah were so cute holding hands while waiting in line for a ride. The "love" didn't last long though, as soon as the ride was over Owen got himself off the ride and left Noah behind! Gavin was on his way to help the boys off of the ride but for a short while Noah looked pretty scared stuck on the ride by himself!
Owen was a little freaked out by the talking and walking tree.
Daddy caved and both boys were able to choose one treat before we went home. I think Owen was disappointed with his decision to buy a candy apple but he wouldn't admit it. Noah loved his huge lollipop and I couldn't believe how big of a mess he could make with it! This picture makes me laugh - so many photos of the two of them turn out like this :)
