CNY/Tet party with friends

We celebrated Tet/Chinese New Year with some fellow adoptive families and what a blast we had! Aren't they cute all posing for the camera? I think they were yelling "happy new year!" None of the boys had any Ao Dai's that fit - but Gavin solved that problem with a last minute trip to the Pacific Mall in search of some traditional clothes for the next party. I guess while leaving the mall Owen announced " There are a lot of Chinese people in there!" ;) too funny.


Catherine planned a craft for the kids - they made their own paper chain dragons! Here Owen is helping his friend with her paper chain.


Of course Owen made his dragon the longest he could and at first I thought he was going to follow a "pattern" as patterns seem to be a big thing in his kindergarten world.


Enjoying some Asian takeout - A medley of Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese foods.


Waiting anxiously for some cake. I was inspired to make a dragon cake after seeing this beautiful one - I couldn't find any single coloured M&M's around here and opted to use these gummy candies instead.


After dinner there was our very own dragon parade ;) Super cute - and the kids were so proud of their creations :)




Happy New Year! Hopefully the year of the Dragon is a lucky one for all!

4th Forever Family Day

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!

5 Months Old

Grayson had a wellness check -up on Monday, just shy of 5 Months old the little guy is smaller than I thought :) He weighed in at 13.9lbs (10th percentile), height was 68.5cm (75th percentile), and his head circumference was 40 cm - not even on the growth chart the Doctor had! so he's tall and lean. The Doctor commented on our rough winter with regards to illness (mostly nasty colds etc) and I had to agree that it's been a long winter so far- seriously it seems like one of the kids is sick with a cold every. single. week. I recently read an article that children tend to catch 1-2 colds a month and I believe it! Poor Grayson's immune system has been working in overdrive this first winter of his, hopefully that means less colds in the future :)

This past month Grayson has lost some of his "young baby" look and suddenly looks much "older" to me. I think he looks older because he is getting more hair, it's coming in quite blonde. He's taken an interest in toys and so far his favourite toys (besides his hands) are his sophie giraffe, the jumperoo and the exersaucer. He's been reaching for toys and putting them straight into his little mouth - causing him to drool everywhere! I tried at least 3 times to get some video of him enjoying his jumperoo and every time I was recording he started fussing! so I don't have any proof - but he really does (usually) love his jumperoo :)





Some exersaucer play


and 1 more super cute photo of my boy - I couldn't decide which photo I liked better between the top one and this one - so I'm sharing both :) These photos also prove that Grayson gets to wear actual clothes once and a while, & not just his pajamas ;) Catherine mentioned that she rarely sees Grayson in clothes and I had to admit my laziness to her ;)


Happy 5 Months Grayson!

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!

Grayson Rolling!

Grayson rolled from his belly to back for the first time yesterday! My mom was here to witness the milestone and we all cheered and clebrated with a very proud baby! He probably hasn't gotten the tummy time that Noah did, but I try to remember to do tummy time whenever possible. Up until this past week Grayson hasn't shown very much interest in rolling over, whenever he was placed on his belly he'd just appreciate the change of view and look around :) all of that changed yesterday! He hasn't rolled from his back to front yet, but I know it's just a matter of days until he does, he is getting so close. I've also found him squirming around his play mat and I sometimes find him in the opposite corner to what he started out - meaning I need to keep a closer eye on him :) Oh baby you are growing up way too fast!

We were sure to catch a short video of him rolling over last night. Way to go Grayson!

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!