Birthday Video

Happy Birthday Owen!

Today our little guy turns two, I can hardly believe how fast the year has gone. Walking turned to running, jumping & climbing. Baby talk turned to simple words, sentences & mini conversation. Crying turned to fussing, whining, & many opinions. Snuggles turned to hugs, kisses & "I love you's". The year has been fun, busy, & full of new exciting things. We are so lucky to experience life with Owen. Happy 2nd Birthday, Owen we love you!

Last night we decided to take the kids to Canada's Wonderland for Owen's birthday. It was much more fun this year than last. Owen loved the rides, he wasn't afraid of any of them this year & wanted to keep going on rides over & over. Here are some pictures from the day.

update - when owen goes to bed we usually talk about our day and the fun we had. I'm listening to him on the baby monitor talk about wonderland & all of the rides he went on, he's been at it for 45 minutes! he's just starting to settle down now and it's 9:30pm.

Camping Fun

We just returned yesterday from taking the kids camping for a couple of days. Packing up our stuff & getting everything in the van must have taken a few hours at least, what a lot of work! No surprise as we had to take the high chair, play pen, bassinet, & wagon. We had lots of fun though, & Owen was worn out by 8pm and asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. The rain held off for the most part despite a few short showers & we were able to enjoy most of our mini vacation.

I was impressed by how much confidence Owen has gained this year, it was a completely different camping trip than last year. He was eager to get in the water & swim, he tried blowing bubbles in the water & even dunked his head under water. Gavin & Owen took a paddle boat ride ( as suggested by owen), it was short to say the least. The boat cost about 5 dollars a minute, Owen wasn't scared he just got bored really easily & wanted to swim instead.



We ate lots of marshmallows. Owen had to practice patience while waiting to toast his marshmallow before eating it!



Noah and I lounged under the umbrella at the beach. I was very thankful we stopped to buy a big beach umbrella because it rained twice while we were at the beach.


Owen collected rocks when we went for walks.


Noah slept whenever he was in the carrier, so we tried to plan hikes around his nap time.

Owen's 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated Owen's 2nd birthday on sunday. The entire week before the party Owen kept talking about his birthday coming soon, it was nice to hear him excited about it. This year we planned to have his party at a local park so the kids would have lots of room to run around and play. However, just as we finished setting everything up we could hear thunder & knew a storm was on the way. So plan B it was - cram everyone in our house!. It was great fun though, and worked out despite the cramped quarters.

We had each kid decorate their own cupcake to take home. I think only one or two cupcakes actually made it home, the rest were eaten up - before the cake.



Owen loved sprinkles apparently.


Birthday Cake


Every gift that was opened Owen wanted to play with right away, he didn't really understand that there were more gifts to be opened! I'm sure next year will be much different.


The party was a success because Owen mentioned more than once that it was a "fun day". That's all that matters.

1st Solid Food

Today we gave Noah some rice cereal. He kept opening his mouth for more, grabbing the spoon & shoveling more food in his mouth. He loved it. The doctor suggested trying him on cereal when he turned 5 months so that if there were any feeding issues we could discuss things at his 6 month appointment.

5 Months Old

This past month Noah has been full of smiles, giggles & non stop chatter. We have definitely loved witnessing all of the new things he is learning lately, he seems to be doing new things almost every day. He's a very cuddly baby & wants to be held & snuggled all of the time. Holding him so much makes it difficult to get anything done, but I know that once he's older the snuggles will be less frequent so we are loving our time together now! Noah loves to look at himself in the mirror, he gets the hugest grin & babbles away at himself it is so sweet. But really can you blame him? I could stare at him all day.

checking himself out.


practicing sitting by himself! such a big boy.

4th Wedding Anniversary

Wow four years already and what an exciting four years they have been! I wonder what fun things are to come in the next few years? I am so lucky to have married a man that has so much love for his family, a man that was excited to start our family through adoption with adopting Owen, & then excited to experience the birth of our second son, Noah. We have done so much in the past four years, while I expect the next couple of years to be slower paced, I'm sure we will experience many exciting times raising our kids together. I look forward to what is to come!

Family Get-Together

This past saturday we enjoyed an afternoon with Gavin's family. We don't get to see his cousin's & aunt very often so we look forward to the annual get-together at his aunt's place. It poured rain in the morning & we feared that the weather would put a damper on things, but the rain held off until dinner & it was actually a really hot afternoon. Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

Alex taught Owen how to 'gamble'. He looks like a pro doesn't he?


Tanya & Aunt Meggie lounging with Noah & Kian


playing peek-a-boo with papa


Noah with his cousin Kian

1st Date!

Last evening Gavin & I went out for dinner for the first time without the kids attached to us since Noah's been born. My mom watched the boys while we had almost two peaceful (quiet) hours to enjoy. It was a much needed escape. We don't get out very often without them, we left Owen with my mom for the first time after we had been home for ten months & this was only the third date since having kids! Noah has been showing signs of separation anxiety, every time I put him down he cries & scans the room looking for me. Amazingly he didn't cry once for my mom ( i think he's learned how to get my attention quickly), & Owen was great as well. Noah didn't sleep while my mom was here & you could tell he was tired when we got home. This picture was taken after we put him in his jumperoo to say goodbye to my mom.

He fell asleep in seconds! maybe he was just waiting for his mommy to come home?

Canada Day Party

This year friends of ours hosted a pool party for Canada Day. Unfortunately as we were driving we could see the black storm clouds directly over where we were heading!. We drove straight into the rain & it was obvious that plans for a pool party were out the window. Once the storm was over the kids enjoyed the pool, but the weather wasn't hot enough for any of the parents. Chris & Sarah have a huge backyard, there is a pool, wooden climber, other climbers, a fire pit & still plenty of room to run around. It is a kids backyard heaven for sure.
With the bad weather we were inside so pictures are limited, in fact I only have one picture of Noah from that day, he slept most of the time we were there. Here are a couple that I do have:



I started to look at photos from Canada Day last year & realized I didn't post the photos. Here are some from 2008:



I could stare at baby Owen photos all day. It's so hard to believe that was only a year ago.