I am on the move

September 2013

We traveled on our first family vacation with the kids to Seattle and Victoria. We had so much fun and made some great memories. We stayed in a great hotel in Lake Union Seattle, complements of Aunty Sue and Uncle Ken (SOOOOO NICE of them!) and visited Pikes Market (saw the fish being thrown), went to the top of the Space Needle, rode a 4 person bike in West Seattle and hopped on a ferry to bring us to Victoria. We stayed in another amazing hotel in the heart of Victoria and visited the Parliament Building, the harbor, ate some good food and played at some awesome parks by the water.

Harper started walking and is getting comfortable cruising around and keeping  up with her big brother!

I can say my name!

Owen's Skills Development Camp

August 2013

Miss Harper Adele is officially ONE, and let me tell you does this little girl have quite the personality and a little fire in her belly to along with it. Owen's near future is in trouble if he thinks that his cute baby sis is going to allow him to run their show. She has already made it clear on who is the boss in this household. She voices her displeasure constantly with an extremely high pitched scream and will give you the stink eye to show you how serious she really is. I took her to the grocery store with me the other day and she has typically been that cute, adorable little smiley baby sitting in the cart, smiling and waving at all passerbys while her mom looks for that perfect apple in the produce section.

Well...these days, not the case. The cute baby giggles have been replaced with the ear piercing screams and the sweet smiles with the one and only stink face. Everyone still got a kick out of it but I think they were laughing at my expense.

Owen and I took Harper for her one year old photos and she was a holy hellion without a smile to be seen for miles. The only photo that was a possibility is the one posted above with her lifting her dress up. The photographer was able to snap at least one before the dress went over her head and before she started to do the squirming back bends to get down from the pedastle she was placed on. Even my sidekick Owen, who can ALWAYS make her laugh was unsuccessful. It was just not going to happen that fine morning. :)

She is still a two finger sucker and I have a bad feeling will be until she is 20. Her left hand is in her mouth while her right hand is twirling her hair (she takes after her mother with the twirling of the locks). She also has a sadistic side to her and yanks on her hair, we have noticed a bald spot on the right side of her head where she is pulling her hair out. We have nick-named her 4 tooth mullet - hahahaha! She has four teeth in her sweet, baby mouth and she is definitely sporting the party in the back, business in the front hair-do.

But with all joking aside, Harper is really a total sweetheart. She is full of belly laughs, smiles and is our sweet baby girl. We love her to pieces and it is amazing how she has completed our family.

Our big boy starts kindergarten on September 4th. He is really excited and can't wait to play with all his friends,learn science and taking the big boy school bus. I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up and he told me a Toronto Blue Jays baseball player. I caught him the other morning watching Sportsnet by himself, catching all the baseball highlights from the night before. Darren is rubbing off on him! Owen has had a super fun summer hanging out with his dad, Grammo and Gramps and Nana now that his momma had to go back to work. A HUGE thank you goes out to the grandparents for helping us out with the watching of the monsters while we are slaving away at our jobs. We seriously could not have done this without your help. Sometimes it is like Where's Waldo trying to figure out where Owen and Harper are!

Do the Locomotion

June 2013

We are officially moved in and settled into our new home. It is such a wonderful place and we could not be happier.

The kids play so good together and are always laughing and giggling. The other night I was listening to the two munchkins loving life and I said to Owen, isn't it nice to have a little buddy to play with?  He told me, well mom I really wanted a brother but it is really good to have a sister. And Harper is the cutest little baby so that makes me happy. So at least we know he will keep her for a little bit.

Owen gets all squimish now whenever he sees a girl and a boy kiss on TV. He hides his eyes and gives the notorias, "gross" comment. I asked why he gets all "grossed" out when someone kisses and asked if he was grossed out when his girlfriend Isla kissed him the one time after school. He said, "No I just feeled a little bit nervous". Awwww, don't you just want to eat him up! TOOOO CUTE!

OMG in addition to his love story above, today at soccer Owen was running around with his fellow "greenies" they are on the green team and Owen's girlfriend Isla is on the red team. Before practice started Isla ran over to Owen to give him a hug and Owen's friend Rowan was standing next to them. I then heard my sweet little heartbreaker of a son say to his friend Rowan, "Rowan do you think you can give us a moment?" He needed to spend some quality time with his girl. I just love him to pieces. 

We had our first camping trip of 2013. Owen had a blast and got to hang out with 13 of his friends unsupervised all weekend. They rode bikes, played cops and robbers, tag, sword fights, gopher chasing and terrorized all the other campsites around us from 8am to 10pm, while his parents drank beer, ate food and hung out with their 12 friends. Harper was a perfect camper and enjoyed herself with a smile on her face and a giggle in her belly, everyone was her friend. We went with 5 other families, making it a group of 25. What a great weekend!

Harper is officially on the move (see video below). She waited for her Mi-Mi to arrive to show off her one legged crawl. She is scooting around all over the place that Darren and I had to make a trip to Walmart and purchase a baby gate to block the munchkin from taking a header down the stairs. She gets so proud of herself and when you tell her she is doing a good job, she stops to clap, give a big smile and scrunch up her nose and snort to show you her happiness.

We are enjoying our visit with Mi-Mi and have been spending a lot of time hanging out and playing. Owen has made her play with every single game and toy he owns and Harper has christened her with a few poopy diapers. We spent an afternoon swimming at the indoor pool, having an evening fire outside on our patio, watching Owen tear up the soccer field and watched a very special evening of Owen graduating from preschool. Grammo, Gramps, Nana, Aunty Deb, Sarah, Aimee, Darren and I were entertained over an hour and half with renditions of Micheal Jackson's (or Jackson Michael as Owen likes to call him) Man in the Mirror, Debbie Gibson's Locomotion (see video above), Lean on Me and their cap and gown march to Rod Stewart's Forever Young...tear, tear. It was pretty adorable and Owen made us proud.

We have some pretty wonderful kids...I'm not going to lie.

Down By the Bay

Watch me crawl

May 2013

The start of spring has brought us some sunny and warmer days, which has allowed us to get outside and enjoy the day. Owen has started soccer, which keeps us very busy on Tuesday and Thursdays running from school, swimming lessons and then soccer practice. He seems to enjoy it but we knew he would since he basically can run for a straight hour, the kid has so much energy so this is the perfect sport for him. Harper sits on the sidelines, soaking up the sun and cheers her big brother on. She might be the cutest cheerleader around.

Owen is enjoying school and learning so much that Darren and I might have to go back to school for a refresher course just to keep up with his smartness! He is pretty good with numbers and can add and subtract with the best of them. I just asked him what 2 + 4 is and he said 6 (not bad) and what 5-3 is and he said 8...hmmmm. I asked him to tray again and he told me 2. Much better, its a work in progress! :)

School has also brought other distractions such as cute girls dressed in pink. Owen is in love with a girl named Isla (the doctors daughter..good pick O Dog). He has told us that she has kissed him and that he is going to marry her. He saved his ring he got from the dentist office and brought it to school the other day and gave it to her.  Seriously how sweet is that. At least he is off the thought of wanting to marry his sister.

Harper is now sporting two pearly whites in her mouth and likes to show them to you when you ask, she also likes to take a bite of your finger if you decide to put it anywhere near her mouth. She is kind of like a snapping turtle! She also scoots backwards while encouraging her to crawl forward. If you leave her long enough you will find her underneath the couch. Fishing her out is a pretty funny task in itself. She loves to sit up in her stroller and grocery cart giving all passerbys her cute smile and spreading her happy go lucky personality. She truly is a sweet, sweet girl. Such a happy baby, just like her brother.

We are looking forward to a visit from my mom and dad the end of June! Yay!

Harper Time

Damn Canadian....geese in Spokane

April 2013

Harper celebrated her first Easter and Owen celebrated his last Easter as a solo egg hunter in our household. Next year little Miss H will be scooting around giving Owen a run for his money in search of hidden treasures. Owen found all the colorful goodies in record time and was kind enough to share some his chocolate with his mom.

I asked Owen where he thought the Easter bunny lived, which actually is a pretty good question because honestly I have no clue where that cute little bunny resides. Santa lives in the North Pole but where on earth does "EB" live? Owen told me he thinks he lives in New York and that he can get to Trail by jumping down in his hole underground. He knows he is in Trail because he uses the map that is on his cell phone. These modern age bunnies, keeping up with new technologies.

As I am sure all of you heard, but we are going to be homeowners! We bought a great house in Sunningdale, the same neighborhood where we live now. It backs up to a mountain and has a great yard that the kids are going to love spending time in. We are all looking forward to our closing date of June 1, and starting the new chapter in our life.

All of our neighbors are sad that we are moving. Jackie next door said that Owen can't leave, he is after all the major of our block!  I told them not to worry, we are only 5 blocks away and Owen and Harper will be back for a visit often!

Harper is growing up quickly. She is still such a smiley little thing. She does the funniest thing with her tongue, looking like a lizard moving it from side to side. Each time she does it she gets a giggle out of all of us. Owen can still make her belly laugh and you can tell she is going to be a daddy's girl on how her face lights up when Darren walks into the room.  She got her first tiny bottom tooth and as before has no interest in crawling. If you put her on her belly she automatically flips to her back.  She is working on her own time, Miss Harper time.

60 Month Update

Time is flying by. Can you believe our baby is already 7 1/2 months? Weighing in at a hefty 18 pounds, she sure will be able to give the Michelin Man a run for his money with all the baby rolls she has on her legs and arms. I love to put a pair of tights on her, just to see the indents of her very squishy, lovable legs. It might be the cutest thing I ever did see!

Harper loves to eat and when she does eat she makes the funniest grunting noises. A noise so loud that it would startle someone seated close by. She also thinks she is hysterical when she blows raspberries while just devouring a huge spoonful of green beans, thus covering you with a lot of green goodness. When you show her her bottle she starts to do the shakes and gets all excited. Letting you know that this girl is ready for lunch! Though she is not a fan of all fruits and veggies, check out the eating peas video below. (Ummm yeah, not a fan.)

She still has no interest to crawl. When placed on her belly she rolls right over to her back. And like a beached whale (no pun intended) she cannot seem to work her way back over to her belly. Every once in awhile she will do the backward crawl and push with her feet while on her back, but that is about the extent of her movement. She is a great sitter and loves to show off and smile while in a seated position. She is proud that she can sit up all by herself and will let you know by showing the biggest smile a little baby could give. You just want to eat her up, she is so cute!

Owen had a big morning today. He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. It was a long time a coming but we finally got there. This morning I totally bribed him with any treat he wanted he could have, if he could stay on his bike and peddle across the park by our house. And he did it! We were proud parents today! He will have a great summer now, being able to cruise around on two wheels!

We just got back from our first family vacation of 4 to sunny San Diego. We had an amazing time and saw everything the area had to offer. We ventured to SeaWorld, Legoland, U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier, Coronado Island, Old Town, downtown, Del Mar and La Jolla. We spent some days at the beaches and soaked up the sun. It was so much fun and relaxing too! A successful trip!

I can do it!

No peas please

Fun in the tub

Blowing raspberries

Happy 5th Birthday to Owen

Owen's 5th Birthday at the Rink

My first words! Da - Da....go figure!

GiGi and Harper Adele

Xtreme Trampoline

58 Month Update

Time is flying by and the kids are getting so big. Harper is already 6 1/2 months and Owen will be turning the BIG 5 in only a few days.

Harper has learned some new tricks. She can now roll over with ease, she still doesn't enjoy tummy time and will scream every time you try and make her practice, she can stand up holding onto the couch (with assistance of course) and she can sit up pretty good all by herself. She is pretty much the happiest baby and wakes every single morning with the biggest smile on her face. She spends her days laughing, cooing, talking and being a good baby. Owen is still in love with her and could possibly be the best big brother.

Owen is super busy with life. He spends his days learning at school and playing with his friends and his weekends at ski lessons (which he is getting extremely good at) and at Hot Shots (the hockey program) flying around on the ice in his full gear.

We just got back from a week long visit back home and had such a wonderful time with everyone. The kids were great travelers. I always tell Owen that I would take him anywhere...he is the BEST traveler. Harper was pretty good on the plane, slightly annoying but not too bad! She will have to learn from the master. The kids got to spend some quality time with Grandma, Papa, MiMi, Uncle Jason, Ashley, Jenna and Gigi. It was so nice and I look forward to the next trip home.

Skating in our friend Karis's outdoor ice rink

Snowshoeing

Skiing with Dad, Mom, MiMi, Chad and Dayne

Hockey practice-Owen is in the red Chicago Blackhawks jersey