light speed

if my last post was nearly two months ago, it is safe to say that my priority has NOT been on this blog!

wow.



Kiara was only 16 months when i started this blog. Aidan was barely past 2 years old. my days were intense and busy. yet they were calm and relaxed. in reality day to day was exhausting. yet it was still nice to have the freedom to create our own schedule. when i think of how life has changed since then, i am really in awe.

Kristian had changed jobs and was working ridiculous hours. we thought it would be short-term and a move in the right direction for us. we couldn't have made a worse decision! now we know.

Kiara was so sweet. still is. but she certainly has had her 'moments' since then!

Aidan loved life. still does. he still has so many of the same expressions he had as a toddler.

me. where to start?! for one thing, life has not slowed down a whole lot. but my present place in life is more secure than ever before.

we. new home. new church family. some old friends. some new friends.

it has been an adventure! some parts i wish we could have avoided. other parts have been more incredible than i could have possibly envisioned

here we are today.



Kristian. still not working at his dream job. but sometimes the dream job is not always what we though it would be. however he has a high standard and his company values his work. there are still some rough edges. i am proud of him and the decisions he makes. unless it involves house cleaning....ha! the kids still race to the door when he gets home from work. definitely the hero in our home.



Aidan. our firstborn of two firstborns. the child who has parents who are too hard on themselves. it is no wonder he is the same way! he still has the same smile on his face as he did when he was a baby. eyes that are full of wonder and excitement. the only person in our family who wakes up with a smile on his face (most of the time!).

i think he has more introvert in him. although he is more outgoing and adventurous as he grows. he loves to learn. loves it like his daddy. in fact they even look more alike every day. kinda freaky at times! i am in awe over how quickly he catches on to concepts at home and school. yet he can't remember to "make his bed, brush his teeth, comb his hair" every day without being reminded.

it has been neat to watch him grow and make his own decisions. lately he has had a lot of questions about God. he is eager to learn more about faith at church and at home. we have some interesting conversations. some are challenging for me too! i love that he is not afraid to share his faith daily with his friends. he is so brave.

he - for the most part- makes some amazing decisions too. choosing friends. choosing activities. we are proud of him for this, and pray that he is always strong, brave and confident.

this year we found some jeans that actually fit! skinny jeans. he will hate me for it later...but i have to take a photo of his butt in them. adorable. the last time i said that about that body part....he was probably 18 months....wearing jeans and had diaper bum! baby bums are so cute.



here he is on the first day of school. he just found out who his teacher was. and which friends are his classmates. he has 25 kids in his class. there are still 4 classes in total. that, my friends, is the size of MY entire elementary school when i was his age. my high school graduating class only had 20 of us. i know what it is like to be on the teaching side of having 50 kids in a grade...split into 2 classes. this. this is a whole new world. i will never know what it is like for him. of course he will never know what it was like to have my school experience either.

he adores his teacher. she is very sweet. she says this is a great class and comments how smart they are and how well they listen in class. i am envious!



one of his oldest friends. they met in kindergarten. i think they met at school, then got acquainted at our local park one afternoon. they are BUDDIES.



can you tell?

as a result, i met his mom. found out we have a ton in common. lots not in common. but we hang out when we can. we are happy for our boys. and happy they introduced us too.

my sweet baby boy is now a cool and smart kid. some days it takes my breath away. i'm excited for the future. sad that the years have sped by as quickly as they did. i was warned. i did my best to enjoy that time. now i wonder if it is even possible to savour those days as much as we wish.

as he gets older, life gets more complicated with him. so many choices. the best we can do is love him, nurture his confidence and passions in life and encourage him to be who he was created to be.

he is Kristians' "mini-me".



Kiara. amazes me. she can be complicated. at times i believe that she is very intelligent and am in awe of her abilities. then other times i am frustrated at her lack of abilities! she is stubborn, like me. she is outgoing, like neither of us. she has grown up so much lately. she has matured into this nearly 5 year old body that we had hoped for!



since she was 2 years old, she has begged to go to school. cried when i dropped Aidan off and did not leave her too.

she told me this week that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. to be honest, i have often thought that she will be a teacher. i just was not sure what she would be teaching! she loves to direct activities. she is starting to think through situations and what she needs to be prepared. like the time she was upset that she forgot her purse at home. why? because you never know when you may need it. so funny!

she is different from Aidan. Aidan clung to me on his first day of kindergarten. he wouldn't say a word. just cling. Kiara ran ahead and told me she could go to school on her own. wherever Aidan would stay silent...Kiara is vocal and loud!

i have worried about her lack of and hyper-sensitivity to details. hoping that she could find a balance. praying that she would. praying that i could help her. we continually pumped up kindergarten and the maturity that she would need to be a part of it. i think she will be fine. she is so vocal, that i fear her extrovert nature may make her stand out and she will have to take the blame for others. then i think perhaps i am shadowing her with my own struggles. then i pray that i can find the balance.

when i picked her up after her first day, the teacher had nothing but praise for her actions. "Jimmy" could not speak English and he missed his mommy. he cried the entire time. Kiara covered her ears and complained about his crying hurting her ears. then she tried to calm "Jimmy" down and cheer him up.

she may land in trouble that was not just her making. but i am thrilled that her character to be brave and help a child she never met is present. now i need to pray for wisdom for her as she makes her choices of who to help.

she is my mini-me. she is who i wish i was and also who i wish i wasn't.

then there is me. where to start? as Dr. Seuss said, "There is no one alive who is Youer than You." and that is OK. back when i first started this blog i had compared myself to the character in L.M. Montgomerys' book, "The Blue Castle." i can related to Valancy on so many levels. the background story is so sad. i remember nearly crying as i read about her life. then for awhile, it seemed that the ending would not be so victorious and wonderful. thankfully the book ended happy. the Valancy at the start of the story and the Valancy at the end....were the same person, differing only in acceptance.

so many times over this last stage of my life i have wished that i could have passed through it 20 years ago. it would have been so much easier. but i did not. instead i got to drag my husband and children along with me. some days i feel bad that they have the company in me that they have....other days i am simply happy for the company!

i had never dreamed that i would be working at my favourite little scrapbook store. sharing company with artists i admired. teaching regularly. art. getting published. making the front cover of one of my personal favourite magazines. meeting scrapbook celebrities that i never dreamed i'd be in the breathing area of. i still think of teaching. but i can't imagine teaching without continuing what i am doing now.

my valleys have never been so low. yet my mountain top experiences have never been so high.

God is good. we pray for good things. i don't know anyone - yet - who prays for bad. sometimes the answers to our prayers are not exactly what we expected. and sometimes it is better. in the long haul.

my favourite song these days:



We pray for blessings
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching(s) of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise


and if we got down to it. i am very blessed. i need to get on this blog and share those things more often. such as the kindness of my babysitter to treat me to a tea latte when i picked her up at work. i know i would never have thought to do anything like that when i was her age. sometimes it is the small things in life that matter the most at the end of the day.

me. still growing. ha!

i don't think a blog is the appropriate place for me to share right now. maybe one day. but i am open to sharing my story with you personally if asked.

we. it has been a journey. one day at a time. leading us to today.

we would not trade today.

the kids hate it when i do this....but there is one song that i have to play once in a while. and sing LOUD.
it was a hit back in the '90's. it was written by Steven Curtis Chapman. before their lives took a journey they never expected. or wanted.

Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for

We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams

i used to think it was about someone who never read the Bible until that point in time. now, i think that it is about those of us who do read it and think it was not written for us.

so the phase of having preschoolers and toddlers in our home is now past.

the future of having school age children is upon us. 

so i remind myself that the adventure is far from over. it is still going. we just turned on to a new road! and that is a good thing. a very good thing.

i am debating on ending this particular blog. i tend to be sharing more of my art related activities on my Projects blog than i used to. i may print it out into a book format. to keep. for my kids to read one day. 

i may start a new blog. fresh start. 

i may keep just one blog and simplify!

for the first time in the history of this blog...i have not gone back to edit. so sorry for any mistakes you most likely encountered!

randomness

this poor blog gets so neglected these days. sigh.

there were TWO hills of snow in our backyard for the last {and final!} part of winter. hills? hmmm.... no. MOUNTAINS!

it was the best part about the winter. it's doubtful {i hope!} that we will have sled-worthy hills in our backyard again.

but then the snow melted.

the worst part about winter in the prairies....i've always said...is the kids get all excited thinking about snowmen. however the snow is so dry that putting a snowman together takes patience at the best of times. other times it is not even possible.




initially i had no idea why they had scattered the snowman hat and buttons on the pile of melting snow. then i actually looked at it from the right angle. my kids are hilarious!! this is so definitely going in their scrapbooks. {when i have the courage to scrapbook winter again.}

don't you love how there is a bike in the photo as well? only in Edmonton.



the kids are outgrowing bikes like pants these days. Kiara took a trial run to see how she would do without training wheels. if she could have focused, that would have helped. it also didn't help that she hit the brakes whenever Kris let go of her!

it is kind of interesting. Aidan totally breathes cycling. Kiara enjoys it. just not to the same level. in this way, the kids are the mirror images of their parents.



this was the nasty surprise of the season. note that we did put on a plastic bark protector. never would we have guessed that the snow level would be so high and cause some issues.

the culprit? Killer Bunny!



they didn't just rip off part of the bark. they ripped the trunk to shreds!

bunnies are no longer considered cute and funny in our home. they now get yelled at and run off the property. ha!

what is with the bunnies down here? we always found a bunny in our central city yard....never did they do any damage. it was the squirrels who caused the problems. maybe we need more squirrels?

so much for getting a few apples this year. i told Kristian that it would probably bear terrible and sour apples anyway. that stopped his tears for a few hours.

since this is just a random post. here is a total change in topic...



2 months ago i spent a day putting a scrapbook class kit together. Kiara was home. she wanted to help. actually she was a great help. i had bingo numbers and pins and brads for her to sort, then put into bags. it was awesome! for both of us. she got to practice counting. and sorting. then she had the fun to put it all into bags for me. she must have worked for an hour on it. i could have done it in less time, but i was beside her working on other parts of the kit. in reality she totally saved me some time.

it was a massive kit to assemble. Kristian and Aidan - and Kiara again - helped me a few days later with the rest of it. apparently they enjoyed it. Kristian and Kiara enjoyed it enough to help me last month. you can see the pile of filmstrip ribbon that was waiting to be cut and added.



this time around, the work for Kiara was much less. i think she knew it.



i do think she loves this embellishment as much as i do!

i thought i had created a simpler kit to assemble. sigh. so far from the truth. but it was fun to have help. it's fun to chat and let my family share in my work.


i am FINALLY taking time for myself to exercise. i find it hard to believe that i once had the strength and endurance to run a half-marathon. complete short triathlons. never fast {right, Carol!} but at least i could complete them...and manage to improve a bit. i have joined up in a Core Strength and Balance class. i should have been doing this long ago. better late than never! now to add in the running.

i was pretty good when Aidan was younger. it was Kiara who hated being squished inside the running stroller. it came to a point that i dreaded taking them out....it was not a matter of "if" there were tears....it was always "when".

my last run with the two of them had me at a poorly planned night race at Hawrelak Park. Aidan wanting to run, but totally slow. Kiara screaming. then Aidan screaming when i told him he had to be a passenger. i ran half the distance, with several runners lapping me. then discovered that all 3 tires were out of air. how i missed that earlier, i'll never know. surprising how i found that discouraging?! it was a course that involved 2 laps around the lake. i stopped halfway. i was nearly out of energy and completely out of patience!

in all the irony...it is Kiara who will point out my jiggles.

here he is!

my little sunshine.




we've been chatting a lot about "when we were young" in our house. there is a bit of confusion though. Kiara thinks she remembers what i {her mother} was like as a baby. they love to hear stories of things they did before they can remember. it has been a reminder to me how important it is to get those stories written down. the only problem is that time seems to be moving along more quickly than i can write and document!

the above photo was taken when he was about two and a half years old. how i would love to be able to have that old truck as a prop in a photo now. in 2006 my parents sold the farm i grew up on. the following spring they held an auction for anything that did not move with them. since my younger cousin and his wife bought the farm, this was not a problem. it was all a good thing. but it felt so odd to drive up to my childhood home that day, and have the main driveway roped off. i had to park in the field with the rest of the deal seekers.

that rusty old truck had been a part of the farm as long as my memory goes back. i even remember my dad remodelling the interior in the mid-70's. red vinyl. with brass studs. he was so proud of his work. he must have done a good job, because that is exactly what it looked like when it was sold at the auction! my parents spent many days preparing for the auction. i was asked about what i wanted, but it was hard to remember what was at the farm that i would be able to have. as it turns out a great deal of "junk" was taken to the community dump. towards the end of their clean-up, they apparently got tired. which is totally believable considering how many years worth of things they had to go through. there definitely is a lot of junk that accumulates in a farm. instead of hauling the junk to the dump, they massed it together onto a few flatbeds and sold them in groups. to their complete disbelief many people came and paid a lot of money for the junk. ha!

ok. got a bit sidetracked!

it is incredible to believe how big his world has become. {and don't remind me how it is still quite small!}




Kris took him skiing today. i wished i could have gone. not to ski, but to take photos! truthfully, skiing has not been something i want to do. i've done it. but there is no love. Kristian enjoys a good day of downhill skiing now and then. it appears that Aidan may just follow in his Dad's footsteps in this area too.

i got iPhone photos updating me on the excitement of the afternoon.

apparently Aidan was quite miffed at a few of Dad's rules:

he didn't think he needed to practice on the little bunny hill. {as it turns out, they ended up on the chair lift and went on the "steepest" hill. i guess our son got his Dad's skiing genes. took to skiing quite quickly.}

he didn't think it was wise to use the snow-plow to glide down the hill in a zig-zag pattern. {it made more sense to Aidan to go straight down the hill, and pick up speed.}


the few hours of skiing they managed to sneak in today was a dream come true for Aidan. he has been asking to ski for a few years now. finally! i'm glad to hear that they both enjoyed themselves.


since i couldn't get photos if him skiing, i had to take one before he left. Kris was outside just scraping up some of the ice, and getting the melting snow moving away from the sidewalk. usually Aidan would be right beside him. offering advice. asking to help. not this time. he was in the car and waiting! i can't say i blame him.

six more weeks of winter....

...ha!

last Friday we got some more snow and Kiara cheered. Aidan too. they were alone in their enthusiasm. one thing for sure is that if there are still snow piles in the backyard in June....there just may be unified groans from everyone in our house!

at least the days are getting more obviously longer. i like to see the sun still in the sky at 4pm. the sunsets are also very pretty at this time of year.

we have had a few days' break with warmer temperatures and the kids have been able to play in the backyard mountains.



all smiles. until the snow got in her boots!



as long as Kiara didn't get in his way, he had big smiles on his face too.



it took all night for his winter clothes to dry out in time! i think i threw them right in the laundry. figured they were soaking, they may as well drip dry after being cleaned.



both of the kids have been growing like weeds in the past few months. i lost track of the number of times Kiara had wet socks in the last two weeks from snow getting trapped into her boots. we managed to find an incredible sale on a new pair. then i realized that she also needed longer snow pants. we had a two sided problem on our hands! new boots, larger snow pants and she is much more content to play longer.

i played a trick on them a few weeks ago. we set out their clothes for the next day and they leave them on their beds just before bedtime. after they were asleep, i swapped their pants. it had been a cranky few weeks and we desperately needed a good laugh. a good laugh was had. Aidan just figured he grew overnight and Kiara thought she shrunk. okay, maybe i was the one laughing.


i was proud to hear that Aidan and some of his classmates would be reading a special poem in their all school assembly today. it meant that Kiara missed an entire swim lesson, but it was worth it to be there.

he looks so grown up standing there with his hands in his pockets.



every kid, teacher and some parents were in attendance. approximately 700 students from K-9. he was a bit nervous, but he did it. even managed a bit of a smile.



can't believe this is the same kid who refused to participate in a little church Christmas concert when he was 2 years old. okay, i know 2 is young. but the same trend continued as he got older! i'm proud of him because i know that i could not have done this at his age. i could barely stand in front of my classmates...and there were only 10 kids in my class at the time.


well off to ballet class with Kiara. should be fun!

catching up

it has just been one of those seasons!

i remember laying in bed one morning a few years ago and thinking that soon enough my mornings would not be off to a slow start.

i'm not a morning person. it was a treat to not HAVE to get out of my pj's every day. sometimes it was nice to cuddle with my babies and read books in bed. or talk about teddy bears and dreams. or just lay in bed quietly while i could hear the kids rustle around. {i knew i was okay as long as i could hear them....it was when it was quiet i knew i was in trouble!}

after the kids had their breakfast and diapers changed i'd take care of myself. they would be fed, rested and happy. i had coffee and some breakfast, my laptop or magazine or television. and i could slowly come to life.

there were many days these past few months when i wished myself back to those days....

then i realized that those "quiet" mornings were really only an hour in length.

i had forgotten the toy clean-up duty. diaper duty. missed the toilet duties. not napping grumpies. or just plain ol' grumpies.

but if i could just turn back the clock to enjoy that one hour again....

i enjoyed having babies and toddlers more than i ever thought i would. here my kids are today with plans and thoughts all their own. no more short stubby legs. no more big diaper bums.

as much as i have fond memories of those days, i am thankful for where we are today. they are older. more independent. make me laugh. cry. scream. but i don't have to worry as much about leaving stuff laying around. {note i said 'as much'. yes.}

one activity i heard about last year was Rainbow Pancakes. as it happened it was shared on another mom's blog. a blog who happened to have a lot of readers. some with some very vocal opinions! she got a major backlash from some who could not believe she fed her kids food with food colouring. it was quite the event!

the day after Halloween, Aidan did not have school. once Kiara was home from preschool i suggested rainbow pancakes as a lunch idea. it came up after Aidan asked me if i would eat green eggs and ham. see? life gets interesting as they get older!




i can't remember how the blogger did it. {can't recall which one she was...sorry! but i did find her link on a post on NittyGritty Jody's blog}

for my method, i mixed the batter up first. then separated it into bowls.

added a few drops of food colouring to each one. you really only need a few drops. then stir.



you can see they got golden brown on the sides. but the colour is still apparent. we each got one pancake of each colour.



some syrup and chocolate milk kept us happy and flying high the rest of the day. not really. but we enjoyed them and made some great memories. Kiara was determined to eat ALL of hers. not sure where she found the space!


we also had a pleasant surprise that week.



yup.
first tooth is outa' there!
i do believe that it was the first tooth that grew in too. it took nearly as long to grow into place as it did to loosen enough to pop out. it popped out at the end of the school day. as he was walking to meet me. after i cried, i shook my head at the thought. we had just checked the tooth the night before and figured it still had a few days or weeks of life left!

today was another school holiday. a good day to remember the freedom that was fought for us.

the community school had a great presentation yesterday. the kids made wreaths as a class and hung them in the gymnasium. i have video but no photos. each child traced and cut out their handprint from green construction paper. then they made poppies and glued them on top. there were different variations of the wreaths. Aidan was thrilled to be able to read a poem with his classmates.

we had a somewhat quiet day. the kids spent several hours making cards for their upcoming fundraiser. can you believe it is their third year an a row doing this? Kiara surprised me that first year when she joined in. she needed a lot of assistance, but did very well. she loved glitter glue. ha!

after each card Aidan will come to me and ask, "do you think i need to stop here?" it's really funny. he has been saying a lot of funny things lately. last night he prayed that God would keep ALL his teddy bears on his bed, beside him, all night long. too too too cute! he said something else today, but it has slipped my mind already.

i am not sure if life is slowing down, or if i am getting used to the busy-ness. there is still a long list of 'to-do's. i've reached that point where i am ready to paint some walls and make some decisions on picture placement. considering it took us several years - without children - to take action on that in our last home....i guess we aren't doing too bad. painting that house would have been delayed too, i'm sure. but those cotton candy pink walls had us crazy the day we moved in!

for now i remind myself {when i can} that the walls and laundry and cleaning will ALWAYS be here. but this special age of my kids will not. some days are free enough to sweep up the dust bunnies. other days, we'll just have to ignore the hand streaks on the bathroom mirror. {among the list of many things you find in a lived-in home.} such is life.

then and now

the day before school started, the kids and i took one last summer fling. we met some friends at a corn maze halfway between our homes. the kids are still pretty young for a corn maze...but the other activities kept them interested for the day.


the last time we went, Aidan was Kiara's age. some days i wonder if Kiara will ever get out of her 'trying three's' stage. then it helps when i recall the 'fantastic moments' Aidan gave us at the same age. he had loudly and tearfully protested leaving the car to come and play. neither of us can remember what exactly he had a problem with.

this time, there were no tears. just happy, happy, happy children!


this was then...


Kiara was not even two years old in this photo.


this is now....


she still loves to jump. but i cannot believe how much she has grown!!!


this was then...


it is true that the second child is eager to grow up quickly. at least in our family. we rented a wagon for her, but she was so desperate to walk with the big kids. we allowed her to do this in the kids maze.

this is now....


no problems keeping up at all. in fact, it was amazing to see exactly how independent she has become. a typical parent moment - happy and sad, all at the same time.


i wrote about our trip on this blog post....just over 2 years ago...read it HERE.





why is this ride not in every park? recycling. unique. entertaining. definitely not expensive. the only drawback is that it requires 'human power' to keep it moving. now that i get more than 5 hours of sleep at night, a little physical exertion is necessary! laugh!!



the barrel train!



driven by a man with a corn cob hat. it tours the outside perimeter of the maze. which suddenly seems very small.




i just love this photo! one day, i want a family photo of all of us doing exactly this. how fun!



i am sooooo blessed to have the most amazing friends. Stacey has been an awesome supporter and co-conspirator of mine for several years. it was no coincidence that we both had our first babies only 17 days apart. it was a sad day when she told me that they were moving away. even sadder when they locked their house for the last time. i still remember it raining the day they left. we had their daughter and Kris drove me around looking for the last garage sales of the season. i got some great deals that day, but not enough to cheer me up.

i mentioned to Stacey that the summer just went by so quickly and i was disappointed that we didn't get out and do more things. she quickly reminded me that we were kept busy and did some new holiday travels that we did not do usually. she's right. perhaps it is just that we were having so much fun, that i was disappointed to see it end.


reading the entry from 2 years ago...i shared a bit about scrapbooking. here i am today with a new class being designed and taught each month. more time to scrapbook. less time spent actually shopping, yet spending more time at the store! lots of new products arriving that still make me swoon. i like where i am at right now. the past two months were very slow with lots of the customers busy on holidays and not spending time with paper, photos and glue. but i had a full class last week with some new faces. all at different levels of scrapbooking. my favourite part! i learned that one of the girls has a blog...and came across this post from her. check her out. and leave a comment. bloggers blog for ourselves. but comments are always appreciated!

okay, got to go. my youngest and i have a day to ourselves. lets hope the weather is as nice today as Environment Canada says it will be!!

for today

this has been the highlight of the summer so far.



i think he would be at the library nearly every day if he could get me to agree!



he has also decided to challenge himself to read more difficult books. it is amazing to watch him. once in awhile i catch a glimpse of that little baby boy that smiled at everything and said nothing! had i only known that he was just soaking in life during those first few months.






his top question these days is:

"how do you know that?"

drives us crazy!




he finally got his hair cut. it was getting so long.

he started going to the same salon where i get mine done. it was getting to be really inconvenient to take him back to the place where he first got his hair cut. he had a little boy crush on his hairdresser too. i still remember him looking through one of the gossip mags in the waiting room and seeing a blonde woman....he thought it was Simone (the hairdresser). i convinced him to show her the photo....totally made her day! he was only 2 1/2 years old at the time! a little charmer.

this time he sat off in the chair, while i waited in the waiting room and read my own gossip magazine. and Kiara read My Little Pony in French! not really. since she can't read yet, it is the pictures that are bilingual! i think the only thing he would have changed was getting some blue dye put in it. so far none of the salons we've taken him to have such a thing available.

they are growing so quickly. it really is unbelievable how much more independent they both are. today we went to Toys'RUs. neither of them fought, cried, whined, ran away or did anything stressful. i'd love it if it happened all the time. still, it was a glimpse of what we have to look forward to with them. what did we buy? water balloons, pop rocks and a game. perfect combination!

Happy CANADA day!

this was the first year in a long time that we had a low key Canada Day. last year was a disappointment in celebration compared to the year before. celebrating with small kids there are just three things we look for.


small crowds. inexpensive. entertaining.


last year we waited in line for face painting for over an hour. only to make it forward a couple of feet. then to discover that they were charging something like $10 for a partial face paint. it looked like another couple of hours of waiting, so we left.


then the kids had to wait in long lines to enjoy the jumpy tents. we had a few scares because the kids decided to leave and move to the next one. and we missed them leaving the first one! wearing red and white turned out to be a big mistake!! talk about blending in.


thank goodness for Cap'n Arrr! and the firetruck hoses. 


this year....we all missed Cap'n Arrr!....if he was even one of the entertainers. perhaps he'll return to another venue around here this summer. we hope.


instead we decided to delight the kids with late night fireworks.







with the long days, the kids have slowly been falling asleep later at night. and waking up later. bonus!





we played a board game. watched a movie. {they LOVED the Adventures of Clutch Powers. actually we all enjoyed it!} then we packed up our cameras and headed to a community nearby. 





it was a treat. we loved to hear the kids giggle. i had never taken firework photos before. Aidan and i had fun. mine were the top 2, and this one is Aidan's. he was very proud of the effect he achieved! i would say we did rather well considering it was new to us.




we enjoyed a short visit with Kris' brother and met his newest family member. i was thrilled to be allowed to take some photos of them all. 920 and a totally full image card later. my niece was shocked when she thought i had said 120....she was speechless when i corrected her. ha! well, it isn't difficult to get some amazing shots when you fill a card! when it was time to leave, Aidan decided to hide in his aunt and uncles' closet. lovely. we didn't make a big deal of it. we left him in his hiding spot, said our good-byes and piled into the car. it wasn't long before he decided to join us. maybe it was some coercing from his uncle? not that he wouldn't love to have another kid to make their days more interesting! ha!!


then we enjoyed a little BBQ in our own backyard. i picked up some Chicken Burgers sold by the LoonySpoons and CrazyPlates ladies. {Janet and Greta}. they are sold at Costco. we were impressed. except Kiara. she is already tired of hot dogs and hamburgers. tough luck for her!


in the evening light, we took some family photos.





and i can't take just one. fortunately my family is fairly cooperative. although this was the best one from the evening. 


the next photos are the ones that did not make the 'top 10 good' list. but they made the 'top 10' in other lists. you'll see why.





i have a remote for my camera. it is sometimes difficult to hide. i can choose to delay photos. this time i tried the immediate function. of course Kiara is the only photogenic one in this photo!





not sure what is going on here? maybe a exaggerated 'cheese' smile?





okay. just being plain silly. mom and dad are not always cooperative either!





Kiara's favourite thing is to "HOP" on our lap. 





we will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary soon. we were laughing at ourselves in some of the photos. just because we look like we have been married for 15 years!!! this was not one of those. apparently we have now perfected the 'ball-cap-kiss".





then we were a family of three. this is a nice photo of us. 





and now there are four. she certainly brought some 'spirit' into our lives!!


this is where i ask myself: how difficult can it really be to have 4 people smile NICELY at the same time? should it really be that impossible?!





one of the last photos. i think it captures "us" rather well.





of course the best family photo of the night was taken by Aidan. go figure!