Canada Day 2009

We celebrated Canada Day this year by joining our friends Leanne, Colin and Lucas at our town's parade. Kyra had lots of fun laughing at some of the sirens, watching the horses, scooters and drums come past. She also enjoyed one of the suckers she received which she made last through the entire parade and beyond. Jayce had a nap in the stroller for some of it(totally surprised me because he fell asleep while the sirens were blaring - guess he was really tired) and when he woke up he was totally enthralled with the motorcycles and scooters when they came by. It seemed as though he wanted to jump off my lap and go after them! Here are a few snapshots from the day.

Kyra in her chair, ready for the parade

Jayce chilling in the stroller

Kyra copying Lucas. He thought the sirens were too loud but Kyra thought they were kind of funny.

Flag waving time! This is the best picture I could get of the 2 of them:)

Laughing at the sirens with the ever present sucker in her hand.

Jayce sleeping in his stroller. I can't believe he's still able to do that at 11 months.

Horses

Jayce enjoying the scooters

This is what you get when a)you give a child a blue sucker and b) then let them lick the beater covered in chocolate cake batter:)

In the evening we had a BBQ with friends and this is a shot of some of the kids digging into the cake. Dessert is definitely the best part of any meal:)

Hope all your Canada days were just as much fun!

11 months old

Jayce turned 11 months old yesterday. I cannot believe that next month my baby boy is going to be a year old! I need to slow down time. Somehow, someway. I could just smush his little cheeks, smother him with kisses and tickle him all day long. I love him so much it hurts sometimes. It's hitting me more and more lately, especially with Kyra going to preschool, that time goes by so quickly when our children are young. Right now I know everything about Jayce's day. What he does, what he eats, where he goes. Even with a baby-sitter, I get all the details about what he's done and eaten while I was gone. When he's a teenager, out and about on the town, he's not necessarily going to want or need to share all those details with me. I'm going to lose a part of the precious relationship I have with him right now. I'm going to lose the ability to know everything about him. It sounds controlling and I'm not meaning it to.

It's just that right now I am his provider for everything(and Eric as well but to a different degree). I was playing with him at swimming lessons tonight, watching him sitting up on the edge of the pool and was struck anew at how big he is getting. It hurt to think about the day he won't need me as much. He'll be making his own decisions, driving down roads I won't know about, driving with friends instead of with me, dating(ahhh!) All I can do is hope that I am raising in a way that he'll make good decisions and we'll be able to work together through the bad ones. Is this making sense to anyone? Can I blame it on hormones? 11 months after having a baby they must still be going crazy, right? These emotions and thoughts hit me at various times, today is one of those days and since I'm blogging you all get to read about it.

Since I could literally burst into tears just writing this I'm going to move on to what Jayce has been up to the last month. He plays peek-a-boo by himself now(so cute!), loves, loves, loves to climb. Everything and anything and is very scarily getting much better at it. He always wants to be on the move and is starting to dislike the stroller and car seat if he's in them for extended periods of time. Even swimming lessons was hard tonight because he just wanted to move on his own power and didn't want anybody holding him. He desperately wants to walk and we've been practicing with him, trying to get him to take a few steps on his own. He can do 1 or 2 at a time before he falls into us. Maybe he'll be walking by his 1st birthday! He loves to bang on our coffee table with whatever makes noise. His palm, toy hammer, trucks, phones . . . it's a little surprising since he really does not like loud noises. I guess it's different if he's the one making the noise:) He's also a big fan of the trampoline, especially if Kyra's on it with him, bouncing him around.

Kyra is still his favorite person in the world although lately we've had some times together when I can get him laughing just as much as she does! Some of the best moments are when I'm chasing him around the house and he turns around and crawls as fast he can to me and then attempts to climb up me to get into my arms. Warms my heart everytime. Too bad he's not a cuddler and I can hold him for 2 seconds before he's off again. Have I mentioned that I love this boy?

Enough of my babbling. Here are some pictures of my favorite little guy.

His favorite place to sit. I'm pretty sure he does it because he knows it gives me a mini-heart attack.

How can I be upset though, when he's so happy?

Love, love, love. What more can I say?

Snacktime. Sitting at the picnic table like a big boy.

Not sure what was up with this expression. But since it's the opposite of what he normally expresses, I had to put it up.

Yes, he climbed up there all by himself.

And incredibly proud of himself for it. Another mini heart attack moment.

Figuring things out on the gate.

Favorite place to stand when we're outside, especially if the cats are on the other side.

So happy to be walking

Chilling on the bike with daddy

"Don't worry dad, I got this"

If you're not going to let me out and climb, I'll just do it in here.

Jayce loves the buttons on his truck.

Hammer Time:)

One of his favorite places to stand inside.

There you have it folks. My one-of-a-kind, handsome, smiley, wonderful, squishable baby boy. Good-night!

Jayce Video Session

Jayce doing one of his favorite activities - bouncing on the trampoline:) For those of you who don't get to see him, you can see his crawl. It's normal to us now and I love it but we often have people commenting on how funny it is:)

Look who's walking!(with a little help)

(check out Kyra's video session below)

Kyra Video session

Video for Bryan:)

Singing Happy Birthday - finally caught it on film!

Stay tuned for videos of my boy:)

My Birthday: Part 3 - the Finale

Friday morning dawned bright and "early" as usual. Don't remember anymore what I did with the kids that day but it was something outdoorsy. Oh! I took them to the waterpark for the first time. I was thinking Kyra wouldn't be into the water very much because it sprays so high and so big but she was right in there splashing and running and happily screaming. Jayce kept a safe distance from all things water, as he usually does, and enjoyed crawling around and eating some snacks. It was a fun morning and I was excited to find out what Eric had planned for my birthday dinner.

That afternoon I was heading over to the farm to take pictures of my sister, Kaeli, and her friends in all their graduation splendor so I was also making a list of things to remember. Spare batteries for the camera, bring the camera, deciding if I was going to bring Kyra or not, looking through my wedding album to see if I could get any ideas of different angles and different shots for the girls, packing everything I would need for myself and for Kyra(I did decide to bring her along, Lisa had agreed to watch Jayce - thanks again!)

After Kyra's nap I packed everything up and over we headed to the farm to do some pictures. It was lots of fun and Kyra had a great time playing with Auntie Chrystal while I was busy. We then headed to the hotel and banquet center where the dinner for Kaeli's graduating class was being held and took pictures of the girls and the processional. Kyra even had a chance to ride on the truck with them and loved it! Things ran a bit later then I thought they would so Kyra and I didn't get home until almost 6pm. I was distracted thinking about the fact that I missed Jayce and desperately wanted to see him, needing to feed Kyra some dinner, have a shower before Eric and I left so I was totally with it when I first pulled onto our street and saw this

parked beside the house. It finally clicked in that this might be part of the surprise when Kyra asked "whose car is that mommy?" and I said "I think daddy got it for tonight." I said this all with a huge smile growing on my face:)

Another angle

My handsome driver:)

Of course Kyra . . .

. . .and I had to have our turn sitting at the wheel.

I think it was 7pm before we actually left the house for the night(did I mention I was starving by this point? Supper couldn't come fast enough!) But before we left Eric told me to grab a movie because the car came equipped with a DVD player. So I ran inside and grabbed 2 choices: Celine Dion's Las Vegas show(since it was my birthday, I was wondering how much I could get away with) and Celtic Thunder.

Eric let me pick but to be nice to him, I picked Celtic Thunder:)

Some interior shots for those who care and because after spending an afternoon taking pictures I was in picture taking mode.

Heated seats:)

Classic driving shot

Once I figured out the direction we were heading in(it takes me a while) I sort of guessed this is where we were going. The Boathouse is the restaurant Eric took me to when he proposed and it's a favorite of ours to go back to on special occasions.

The view from our table.

Love you Eric!

I hate my hair in this picture, it was majorly windblown after driving to White Rock in a convertible, but I figured I should post a picture of me on my birthday night:)

It was a fun drive out. That car was soooo fast and Eric had a little too much fun passing people:) It was a great dinner, just the 2 of us, and an attempt to walk on the pier. It was so cold though we didn't make it 2 steps before deciding to head back to the car. Yes, I am a wimp about the cold but Eric actually said it was cold too, so you know it was bad. Eric let me drive the car a little bit on the way home and that may have been a mistake. The power of that machine was incredible! Definitely a rush:)

This is the shot I got of the ocean as we were driving back home. We'll have to head to White Rock again to take that walk on the pier.

There you have it folks. All of my birthday week celebrating and the most I have ever blogged about myself. We shall now return to our regularly scheduled blogging . . . . about my kids:) Have a good night!

My Birthday: Part 2

My birthday continued through the week with a card arriving in the mail on Wednesday(so much fun!) and then it was on to my actual birthday which was Thursday. As any mother wishes on her birthday, I was wishing for my kids to sleep in(so I could follow suit) and then for them to be perfect angel children the rest of the day. Unfortunately I was woken up bright and early at 8am(yes, I realize to some that IS considered sleeping in, for me sleeping in means 8:30/9:00am).

Eric actually waited around this morning instead of jetting to work early as he usually does, so that he could give me my present. Something which he ordered weeks ago, told me he was so excited to give me and was a present that he actually wanted to keep for himself. I love my husband but our tastes usually run in different veins so as hard as I wracked my brain(which wasn't hard at all) I couldn't figure out what my gift could possibly be. So I waited(unpatiently) and almost got Kyra to sneak a peek at what my gift was. I refrained and was glad I did because I really do hate it when surprises get ruined.

Anyways, I woke up bright and early to Kyra chattering in her bed and Eric went to get her so she could help give me my present. She loves doing that. In my fog-filled, still sleepy brain I barely registered them coming in the room but managed to wake myself up enough to accept morning birthday kisses and to finally get excited when I saw I had a gift to open:) I was incredibly shocked and wonderfully surprised to open my gift bag and see this

inside.(It's an iPod Nano, 4th generation to those who care, but I don't understand it) I had mentioned that I wanted an iPod for my birthday but never dreamed I would actually get one! It was actually a Mother's Day/birthday combined gift but since I place such high regards on birthdays, that's when Eric decided to give it to me:)

I was told that my iPod could be used to watch videos on(who knew!) and so I proceeded to download this

onto my iPod so I could watch it during my sister's convocation, I mean, just because I could:) (That's Jone & Kate Plus 8, btw, in case you care). I am so happy with my iPod and I've been having so much fun figuring it out. That's right, I am still getting used to it and figuring out all of the functions. My sisters laughed/rolled their eyes at me when I told them I was still getting used to it. Besides my mom and dad, I am the most technology illiterate person in my family. I think Kyra knows more than I do:D I've already enjoyed it at my sister's convocation(I couldn't get the video to work so I listened to music), used it in the van, played games on it and yesterday took it outside with me as I was weeding. So fun!

I have gone a bit of tangent so back to my story. I finally dragged myself out of bed when I heard Jayce talking in his crib and was prepared to get on with my normal morning activities, of medicine, breakfast, diaper change, fight to sit a certain little miss on the potty and getting everybody dressed. Little did I know that wasn't the plan. Kyra had run down the hallway ahead of me and was already playing when I came carrying Jayce only to hear "Auntie Tasha is here! Auntie Tasha is here!" My initial thought was "no, she's not" but proceeded to check out the window anyway. Sure enough, there she was getting out of her car. Really confused as to why she would be up so early on her day off(it was just after 8:30am when she showed up) and was thoroughly surprised to find out she came to cook me breakfast!!!! I was so thrilled because as much as I like shreddies, they're not really a true birthday breakfast. Tash came loaded down with batter for pancakes as well as whipping cream and strawberries to go along with those pancakes! Unfortunately, I was still in a bit of brain stupor so I have no pictures of them but they were delicious! Kyra and I definitely enjoyed them. (Yes, Jayce was fed as well. His normal breakfast of baby cereal and formula):)

I had already decided the night before that I wasn't going to make lunch on my birthday was instead going to spend the morning at the mall(great way to beat the heat) and then enjoy some food from the food court. I had a birthday present to buy for one of Kyra's friends and after a bit of searching found something (I think) she'll like. It was almost lunch time but not quite so after a quick trip into Please Mum(Kyra's choice, not mine) I decided to pop into HMV to see what I could find. I had some birthday money to spend and thought I would see if they still had the Celine Dion Las Vegas DVD there. I found it at the very back of the stack(yay!) and along with that I also found these prizes.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was on sale for $6 and My Fair Lady was $10! I love finding deals especially when I actually have money to spend so I snatched them up.(If you haven't seen My Fair Lady, you should. It's a classic.)

After these finds it was off to the food court where Jayce had his baby food and bottle(or ba-ba as he's started calling it) and Kyra enjoyed some chinese food. I discovered that she loooves chinese food and will quite literally clean off her entire plate. All in all it was a fun morning! The afternoon was a bit more low-key with naptimes and a bit of movie watching with Kyra, playing outside and then it was off to Kaeli's convocation so my birthday dinner with Eric was put on hold until Friday night. Stay tuned for that tomorrow night . . . .

My birthday: Part 1

I figured tonight I would do my birthday post(part of it anyways) because birthdays are so much fun and this year it was especially fun, a week long celebration to some extent:) I have pictures to post from Kaeli's graduation but I figured since she hasn't seen them yet, I should give her first chance plus I need to get permission from her friends to put them on my blog.

My birthday started off on Tuesday night with family dinner being a birthday celebration!! I love my familiy and it was definitely a fun night. I was completely spoiled with perogies

and sausage for dinner plus my favorite chocolate cake made my wonderful mother(we couldn't wait to dive in):),

a Celtic Thunder DVD(love those guys!),

money to go shopping for clothes, a present yet to come and at the end of the month Tash and I are going for a night away to Vancouver to spend said birthday money:) My birthday dinner was filled with lots of laughs, fun cards and a chance to enjoy being family.

Below are some pictures of the celebration.

Kyra helped my mom bring in the cake and then proceeded to blow out my candles for me:) Who could blame her - it's so fun!

We re-lit the candles so I could blow them out and proved that my daughter is better at it then me - I still had a candle burning!

Birthday slap from my son:)

Kyra digging right in:)

Mmmm . . ..

Traditional family shot

A much enjoyed gift which isn't actually mine:) Tasha got this iPod dock station for HER birthday but it was well-used at mine as well:)

Opening presents made twice as fun with help:)

Me being completely excited to receive Celtic Thunder. Thanks Chryssie!

Popcorn for an evening snack

My sisters and I enjoying said popcorn(minus Lisa - one of these days we're going to have to get you in a picture too!)

Stay tuned for Part 2 . . .

P.S. Here's a sneak peek at my gorgeous sister's grad photos.

Everyone Wins!!

Sounds great, right? Just head on over to Lewa's Designs and check out her giveaway. I found this blog through Alexa and am glad I did. Lewa's Designs is all about vinyl wall art and I may be purchasing some of her products in the near future to decorate my kids rooms. This is exactly what I've been looking for! She's doing a contest right now called "Everyone Wins Giveaway" and this is her explanation of it all.

"Do you have a blog? All you have to do to win is blog about us! That's it! What can you win?
Your choice of:
Medium Caterpillar Wall Decal or
Baby Swirly Bird Wall Decal or
Baseball Wall Decal
In your choice of color!"
If you want to win 2 items just add her badge onto your blog sidebar(it can be found on the lefthand side of her blog).
She adds:
"Make sure to tell your friends as well, because hey, let's face it, they aren't going to decrease your chance of winning- everyone wins :)" This contest is available until June 10, 2009.
I would encourage you all to head over and take a look at her products - like I said above I think they're great and could really spice up a room.