Wednesday, December 31, 2008

new post soon

We have been very busy lately. I will post Christmas visits and new years photos tomorrow.
(I hope).

Happy New Year!!!!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Meeting Natasha Ruth Reid - Through Matthew's Eyes

This afternoon (after a fun 4th birthday party for Matthew's friend Kai Haikonen) we dropped in on Darcey and her sweet new baby girl - Natasha Ruth Reid (born 12/12/08, 10.05 lbs). Darcey and I had a lovely visit, chatted about life with 2, labour, Christmas plans, etc... Michael happily rolled around on the floor, had a snack and a brief nap. Poor Matthew though had no playmate (Robynn was out shopping with her daddy, Russ), so to keep him busy I allowed him to take photos with my camera. We ended up with a unique view of our visit. This is adorable Natasha, and all her glorious, soft, brown hair. The highlight of the trip for Matthew - 0ur beverages - a water for me and an eggnog for Matthew (notice that the glass is empty). Matthew loves eggnog - he even tried to drink those few remaining drops later in the visit.The memory can that I made for Darcey.The moms and their babes - not a bad shot of Michael. This was an abbreviated version of his actual photo session. There were a few fingerprint shots, many close ups of feet, breast pads, and couch fabric, and a few whole room shots that would have actually been good if he had used a flash. I will hopefully have a nice photo of Michael, Matthew, Natasha and I to share when Darcey gets a minute to send it my way.

In any case, we were thrilled to meet Natasha and see that Darcey is doing well. Matthew and Michael both greeted Natasha with big smiles. We are looking forward to Natasha's dedication - tomorrow (weather permitting).

Early Christmas

Since Auntie Heather and Uncle Corey will be spending Christmas with the Gauthier's we decided to get together early to exchange gifts. We had a nice (very loud) visit with them. Matthew LOVES his Uncle Corey and their playtime. Matthew took his time opening his gift and didn't know what to make of the Monkey Mouth until he saw the drill - then the fun began. I hope he doesn't become a dentist when he gets older! Corey also had a good time with his little helicopter.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Sledding

This snow has been so much fun!( Can you tell I don't have to go driving anywhere?) Wednesday when it was snowing pretty hard we played in the driveway building a snow man, climbing the piles of shovelled snow, and trying to use the shovel. John had 2 big cups of hot chocolate waiting for us when we came in after an hour and a half of snow play. Yum! Sambucca also got a snowy treat that night, John walked her to the Lacrosse box at the school and let her run free in the deep snow.

Today, Santa's elves delivered an early gift to Matthew - a ski-doo sled.
We all walked over to the school and went down some of the great hills.
Even Michael went for a couple of rides.
Matthew's first run on his own was fun, but ended in a shrub. We will be out there everyday until the snow is gone. It is a win-win situation, he has fun, it's free, and climbing back up the hill tires him out so he sleeps well at night. John and Matthew stayed out over an hour sledding. I took Michael home after about 15 minutes, the sweetheart was getting a bit chilled despite being all bundled up. He was much happier once we got home and all warmed up.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Run, run, GLIDE!


Despite the cold weather lately, we've been taking advantage of the sunshine to go use Matthew's run bike at the park. He has been practicing really hard running fast enough to pick up his feet to glide. I think he has finally mastered it. His balance is so good now that he glided from the far end of our complex to our driveway without putting his feet down! By next spring he should be able to graduate to a pedal bike - no training wheels. Yeah Matthew!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My sweet (gingerbread) boys

3 days, 5 cups of flour, a bowl of icing sugar, a bag of smarties, christmas carols, and a hyper 3 year old, but in the end we have gingerbread. Matthew and I worked during Michael's naps to make the dough, then we let it chill overnight. The next day we cut shapes and baked them. Finally, the day Matthew had been waiting for - decorating (read eating) with Smarties, gum drops, and m&m's. Our decorating day was fun- but maybe too exciting for Matthew. We ate some candies, created a mini Matthew and baby Michael, had a surprise visit from Grandma and Poppa, and got to eat the T-Rex gingerbread cookie that John & I had secretly created for him. (I forgot to take a picture of it!)

For those of you who got to eat some of these cute creations, I hope you enjoyed them. If you missed out, I think we are baking sugar cookies next week.


Saturday, December 6, 2008

Tree Trimming

Everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. This afternoon we went to my sister's house to help her decorate her Christmas tree. She has a gorgeous tree all decorated in silver, white and a touch of blue. Nana and Papa came too. Corey even came home from work for a while. Matthew was thrilled to get some play time with his Uncle Corey!


Matthew also got a Santa hat from Papa today - which made him very happy since he was upset that Michael has a Santa outfit (which was Matthew's for his first Christmas) and he had nothing.

Dear Santa

Last week we went to Photo Express to have the boys see Santa. We got the photos back yesterday. Aren't they cute!?

This is the first year that Matthew wasn't scared to sit with Santa (he doesn't really like guys with beards and/or mustaches). I think he was able to overcome his fear because he really wanted to ask Santa for 2 specific gifts - sunglasses and a Buzz Lightyear doll. Lucky Matthew, Santa had already made arrangements for those things to be delivered.






Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Merry Christmas!!


We decorated our Christmas tree this morning. Matthew had a great time looking at all the ornaments. He especially likes the one of Opus on the jet engine powered toboggan (sorry no picture, yet). After John went to work I took photos of the boys in front of the tree. Michael loves the lights and then feel of the branches.

Moving Backwards

Michael is on the fast track to crawling. For the past week he has been pushing up onto his toes and yesterday he finally got the knees bent. His arms are still stronger than his legs though so he only manages to shuffle himself backwards. Once he backs himself up against the coffee table or the wall he can use those to push forward. It shouldn't be long now before he is crawling all over.

The Good with the Bad

As many people who have large dumpsters know - rats and mice love garbage. This has been a HUGE issue in our townhouse complex, especially this past summer. Tonight we got to see the up side to having rodents around. Owls like to dine on them and so not more than 4 feet off the ground one sat waiting for his dinner to scurry out when John took the garbage out this evening. He came back, bundled up Matthew and they went to bird watch. Matthew thought it was pretty cool.