Cannonball!
12 May 2012 Leave a Comment
I have wanted one forever and now our family can enjoy one for many years to come! I look forward to the summer’s of spashing and having a great time with everyone! THE best addition to our yard EVER!
James and I went in it the other night – it has been really cold, rainy and windy here so the heater has been working overtime and has barely been able to get it warm – in fact, it’s not really! We are getting closer to having it a good temperature and if it would stop freezing at nighttime it would probably work a lot better! In time, I guess, but for now Anika and Brianna did enjoy it today at Sierra’s birthday party, and we had the hot tub to warm up in after! And tommorrow is supposed to be nice too!
Brianna was found like this in the night – and was in the position quite a while while I grabbed James, we watched, then I went to grab the camera, before I finally laid her back in bed!
Anika making a “silly” face
And a cute one of Sierra!
Happy First Birthday Sierra!
09 May 2012 1 Comment
It is so cliched, but they really do grow up way too quickly! It seems like it was only yesterday that we were heading into the city, me in labour, James with his foot that had just been operated on! He hadn’t yet drove so while we were driving to the hospital just before midnight was his first time since his accident. As we hobbled into the emergency room, he on crutches, me with strong contractions, we were quite the pair! With a fairly quick labour, we welcomed another baby girl into our family and we were so excited and blessed she was healthy and happy! Brianna and Anika were thrilled to welcome their new little sister!
Sierra is such a sweetheart – so laid back, happy and generally very quiet. She is much like her dad, sitting back and taking it all in! But she is also very mischevious and into everthing! We are so lucky to have her and wish her the very best first birthday ever!
Here are some pictures from our Cake Smash – so adorable! And an insane amount of fun for any camera junkie!
Happy birthday Sierra!
Summer is coming…
02 May 2012 Leave a Comment
And with it comes some nicer weather. The kids love to be outside, doing whatever kind of mucking or mess making they can find – we often go through two or three outfits for each of them before the day is through! What a pile of laundry, but boy do they have fun.
Brianna loves to ride her bike and can basically keep up with James and I for the most part (which is pretty hard with gravel roads to content with).
Sierra loves to mess around in the water table and usually within about 5 minutes she manages to dump an entire bucket of water on herself. She comes in, teeth just a chattering, but still smiling!
And Anika would spend all day outside, pushing strollers, playing in the sand and most of all, swinging!
We also went to my grandma’s 90th birthday this past weekend. It was really nice to see most of the family together and made for some great pictures.
All of the family that was there (only a few were missing)
My parents, grandma and the kids
My mom and grandma
And a cute one of Sierra and mom
Sierra also got into a black marker – although this is definately not the first time (thank goodness they are non-toxic), this was the first time she actually ripped the top of the marker off and spilled all of the ink in her mouth! It must taste good because she was sure mad when I wiped it out (after the picture of course!).
And Brianna and Anika are playing hide and seek – Brianna has the hang of it as you can’t see her under the Rubbermaid tote. Anika, not so much!
Happy Easter
12 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
This year, Easter was a hit! Brianna and Anika loved the Easter egg hunt and the presents the Easter bunny left for them. Anika was not too sure before he came and seemed a little scared of him and Brianna was definately not about to go check things out without us, but once they saw the things he brought, they were both very excited!
They found one!
Brianna posing with her eggs
And Sierra absolutely loved her new wagon – it was actually supposed to be for their dolls, but this little doll fit perfectly!
Decorating the eggs
All dressed up in their fancy dresses for supper.
And a picture of grandma and grandpa with the girls and Jack
And Sierra loves being outside so much, especially the swing…she just giggles!
Zip-ah-dee-do-dah!
02 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
Brianna has entered the world of dance and absolutely loves it! She loves to practice, she loves to perform for whoever will watch and she loves the tu-tus and tap shoes. Her first competition (yes, competition, seriously, they are 4!) was this past weekend so she was able to get all fancied up and perform in front of a lot of people. Her reaction when she was done “MOM, that was SO FUN!”. Then “can I do it again?”. So she is definately enjoying the world of dance – I have a few things to learn (not a huge fan of the hair and makeup but oh well) but she loves it so much I think it is worth it all! And she was absolutely ecstatic tonight when she had her class and learned that she won a ribbon for second place! They were so adorable!
And I just realized it has been forever since I have posted anything so here we go…
Before the snow melted, there was a really warm day and we were all out in shirts and boots playing in the snow! Lots of fun!
Then, as the snow was melting, we had plenty of wet days, splashing and playing in puddles! The kids loved it, but oh the laundry!
When we got back from our trip we had some friends visit from Ontario. The kids had a ball playing together and we really enjoyed catching up and visiting.
A couple of princesses:
This was a feat on its’ own getting all of the kids sitting together, let alone looking and smiling!
And Sierra is doing well – she is moving around like crazy, eats like a horse and loves to stand on her own. She walks if you are holding her hand, but doesn’t have the confidence to try to move on her own. She is a ridiculously happy kid, but very mischevious and into absolutely everything (yes, this morning she did start playing into the toilet while I was upstairs for a minute – yuck!). She loves to be outside and is content if she is moving around and exploring.
Anika is doing good too -she is talking like crazy and can basically have full and complete conversations with you. Today we were outside and she was worried about the flies getting into her playhouse so she had to shut the door so they would stay out…and she was able to explain all of that to me! She loves to play with her friends and is definately an outside kid…she is going to have a blast this summer. She is a total clown and whatever she does, if you laugh she will repeat it!
On the weekend, James made her a phone out of a piece of foam – when she held it up, the marker rubbed off on her face – it was pretty funny and then she hammed it up good! What a charachter!
Giving that cute little girl some nice kisses!
Florida Finale!
05 Mar 2012 1 Comment
Well, we are back from our trip and had a great time. The kids loved all of the activities we did and we confirmed what we already knew – they are way too young for Disneyworld and all the action! They had a lot of fun, but were running on about a 4 hour limit everywhere we went. We knew this going into it and our days were planned to be short and we only did something every couple of days. It really didn’t matter though because to see Brianna’s eyes light up when she saw the castle at Magic Kingdom for the first time or to hear Anika’s giggles over the rides was well worth it all! Even Sierra had a great time, whether it was playing in the pool, eating sand on the beach or watching all of the sights on the rides, she was content and thrilled to be experiencing it all! Here are just a small sample of the billizions of pictures we took!
Brianna loved all of the lego structures at the Lego store in Downtown Disney
By far, Anika’s favorite was the Merry Go Round – she was so enthralled with it and loved riding the horses.
The family at Downtown Disney
One of my favorites was hanging out at the pool at our house – whether it was family time during the day or the late night swims with beer, we all had a good time.
James’ favorite moment on the trip – the Dayonta 500 – he sat in the rain all day to have it cancelled but said it was well worth the wait!
We went to Aquatica, a water park at Seaworld and absolutely loved it. Brianna is a serious speed junkie and was going on waterslides that I was freaking out over and Anika loved the lazy river (so did I!). We all had a great day there!
We checked out Cocoa Beach again and had a great day, loving the sand and water!
And, of course, the Magic Kingdom day! I thought Brianna would be more excited when I told her but she really didn’t get what it was. She did love the tram ride over and was laughing hysterically!
We had a great day there and I was surprised that we could all go on all of the rides together, even Sierra. That made it really nice and we all enjoyed ourselves!
Brianna with her new beautiful Minnie ears from Aunty Eliza and Uncle Dave
And to end the trip, we went to Mickey and Minnie’s Backyard BBQ – it was an absolute blast and the kids enjoyed it so much! Their eyes were absolutely glowing with excitement over dancing with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale! What a fun night!
And all of that trip wore these two girls right out! On the plane coming home, they were both asleep within about 5 minutes!
Florida Fun!
25 Feb 2012 3 Comments
Well, we are in Florida and having a good time. The kids travelled well and our house that we are staying in is beautiful – its a 7 bedroom, 4.5 bath with its’ ow private screened in pool and hot tub! The kids are loving the sun, swimming up a storm and having a great time. So far, we have checked out SeaWorld, which the kids loved, Daytona Beach and an orange orchard. It was all a lot of fun!
A picture of our house…
Brianna feeding Anika ice cream after a busy day at the beach
Two adrenaline junkies at Sthe rides at Sea World
Watching the Shamu show
The orange orchard
The big ride at the orchard that took us through the grooves
A quick stop to feed fruit to the cows…Brianna thought it was hilarious, especially when she hit one on the head
And of course, the main event, Laura’s wedding. It was a beautiful day, a great spot on Cocoa Beach and a wonderful meal at a local restaurant after. The wedding was short and sweet, but quite nice! Here are some of the pictures…
Walking down the aisle
Kitchen Renovation
11 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
I have always loved my kitchen – it is a wonderful place for me to cook and entertain and enjoy one of my favorite things – spending time with friends and family! James has never been thrilled with many of the finishing things on the kitchen and decided to fix them all. Most of the things were little and in general you wouldn’t notice, but they were all things that drove him crazy. In the process (as with any renovation), one thing turned to the next and before you knew it we were installing granite countertops, undercounter lighting, soft close hinges on the doors, and tile backsplash. The end result – my dream kitchen that really could be in a magazine! I absolutely love it and am so happy with all of the work that James put into it – he rocks!
The before pictures…
And the afters!
Thanks again James!
Bathing Beauty!
05 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
Here is one of Sierra in the tub and basking in the sun before her bath!
And playing around a bit more with the lighting…if only I had time to self-teach on the Internet! Oh well, we are getting there!
And my three little girls looking so cute after naptime!
Winter fun!
29 Jan 2012 1 Comment
The girls have enjoyed playing outside lately with the warm weather. They like to build snow forts and toboggan down the hill in front of our yard. It is especially fun when we are in the back yard and they are on opposite sides of the yard – I am constantly running back and forth to put on a mitt, pick up a fallen kid, or check on someone (and then there is the need to grab my camera to catch a shot)! Who needs to work out when you have a big yard with lots of snow!
Here’s Anika being a goof as usual (in Jack’s carseat with his hat on)!
And it is so hard to believe that Sierra is already almost 9 months old! Where has the time gone – her latest tricks are climbing and crawling everywhere, eating every shred of paper or miscellaneous small thing she can get her hands on, shaking her head no (constantly!), and just being an absolute doll all of the time. She really is such a sweet girl!
