Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year. The kids were so excited and were spoiled rotten. Here are some of the highlights.

The festivities started on the 24th with a delicious dinner at Uncle Dean's and Aunty Meghan's. Here's Kelsey wearing the dress she picked out while shopping with Daddy. She took it off the shelf at Carter's and didn't let go until she got it home. Looks like she's going to be a shopper. :)

Aunty Megs and Kelsey checking out all of the sparkling lights below.

Here's Garrett setting up a nice display of toys for Santa.

Garrett insisted we leave chocolate milk, cookies, and 'dirty' carrots for Santa and his reindeer. I'm still not sure why the carrots had to be dirty but according to Garrett that's how they like them.

The kids checking out their loot.

On to part two of the day. A yummy breakfast/lunch and Gran's and Grandpa's house and another round of opening gifts.

Uncle Dean and Aunty Meg's checking out their new photobook staring themselves and the kids.
Kelsey and Bella testing her new couch.

After an afternoon nap Kelsey is happy to start opening more gifts from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa. Spoiled rotten once again!

Christmas thank-you kisses.

Round four of opening gifts at Grandma Debbie's.

Garrett and Austin having fun and playing with some new toys.

This photo depicts a typical Kelsey moment. She has stolen Garrett's special Simba and his favourite two monster truck Maters (the dinosaur hat is just a nice touch). She will then go and show him and run as fast as her little feet will carry her. Poor Garrett.

Thanks for a great Christmas everyone!

Hide and Go Seek Champion

Kelsey has learned to love playing hide and go seek but unlike her brother she is really good at it. Garrett can't contain himself and will go and hide while we count but by the time we say, "Ready or not, here I come," he is running out of his hiding spot and yelling, "Here I am!" Kelsey on the other hand disappears and sits silently until you find her.

Here she is hiding in our closet. She sat in silence until I found her then she pretended she wasn't there.

Now she's telling me to "Shhhhhhhh" so that I won't give up her hiding spot to Garrett.

Hiding in the tunnel. She wouldn't even look at me when I found her. She likes to pretend that I can't see her.

Hiding under a blanket. She actually keeps this up for too long and usually walks into a wall or two.

Guess who helped decide what she wanted to wear today?

Grouse Mountain

Garrett, Kelsey, Gran, Aunty Megs and I went up Grouse Mountain today to play in the snow. Garrett loves the snow but Kelsey thinks it's too cold.

Kelsey finding her 'snow legs'.

"Mommy! I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Santa's reindeer.

Garrett's got pretty good aim and just hit Gran with a snowball which ended up down her shirt. Brrrrr....

Kelsey enjoying the sleigh ride with Aunty Megs. This is her "Cheese!" face.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! It was a great but busy day. The kids are in bed and Cary and I have eaten way too much candy.

Garrett and Daddy went for a little farm visit to allow Kelsey to nap (which never happened!!). Garrett is in love with this little calf and was very excited to find it in the goat pen where he could go in and pet it.

After an unsuccessful nap attempt we headed over to the mall to do some trick-or-treating. Garrett and Kelsey were adorable in their matching dragon costumes and got quite a few admiring glances and smiles. Kelsey walked around like she owned the place and handed people her open bag waiting for treats.

After collecting bags full of treats both kids couldn't wait to sit down and eat some of their loot. Would you believe that the first thing both kids wanted to eat was the orange?

After dinner Garrett and I went trick-or-treating. He did great! He didn't get nervous at all and we encountered some very scary houses. He even thanked people and said, "Happy Halloween!" I was very proud.

After dumping out and examining his goodies Garrett was allowed to eat what we considered a reasonable amount. After he was told that he had enough this is where we found him sitting quietly. Take a guess as to what he was doing behind the couch?? He was sneaking candy!!!! Where does a 2 year old learn to sneak candy?? Yikes!

We had a delicious dinner (thanks to Uncle Dean and Aunty Meghan) and the kids were ready for bed. Okay, Kelsey wasn't but we were ready for the kids to be in bed. This is Kelsey's "cheese" face.

One tired bumblebee.

Our Little Ball of Energy

Kelsey is growing up before our very eyes. She is such a happy little girl but she sure keeps us busy. No cupboard or drawer is safe. She loves sock drawers and can't keep her hands off of toilet paper rolls and goodies under the bathroom sinks. She is starting to talk which is fun and actually asked for, "more nanna (banana)," at breakfast the other day.

Shopping with baby and of course a camera.

Morning tea with Teddy.

Kelsey loves the tunnel. Especially if you chase her into it.

She's turned into a lover of books. She'll pick up a book and then approach you butt first so you will put her on your lap and read with her. She loves pictures of animals and growls every time she sees a tiger.

Oh dear...Kelsey loves yogurt. The funny thing is that she doesn't really eat it. She dips her hands in it and plays with it but as you can see very little makes it into her mouth.

Kelsey's words include: Momma, Dadda, Ga (Garrett), Nanny, Teddy, apple, banana, turtle, night night, bye bye, more, and of course her absolutely favourite word right now is, "No!"

Other tidbits: Kelsey finds shoes around the house and demands you put them on. The second she gets into the car, however, she takes both shoes and socks off. She also loves wearing or carrying her jacket around the house. If she wants to go out she'll hand you her jacket, have you put it on her, and then will stand at the gate on the top of the stairs and say, "Bye bye." I'm not quite sure where she thinks she is going. She is not impressed if you don't at least let her go downstairs.

September 2010

Boy time flies. Another month without posting on my Blog. Sigh...

Here's what we've been up to.

Hanging out with goofy cousins.

Fine dining!

Kelsey is learning to feed herself. Messy, messy, messy!

Some back seat driving.

Kelsey has discovered bubble baths and loves them.

A little gardening.

Helping Mommy with the dishes.

The Downside of Home Ownership

So our lovely house seems to be falling apart. We have to replace the tiles in both upstairs bathrooms and kitchen because of cracking grout and tiles and we also had a pinhole leak in our copper pipes which left a moldy mess in the roof in our downstairs bathroom. Ugh!

My lovely ensuite bathroom.

Our guest/kid's bathroom. Notice the horrible fact that the plumber had to break through a shower tile to get to the pipes.

Our downstairs bathroom ceiling. Anyone feel like doing a bit of drywalling?

This is where you have to take a bath when both bathtubs in the house are currently storing toilets. Garrett and Kelsey didn't seem to mind.

Fun in the Sun!

What is summertime all about?

Sharing freezies with Daddy.

Eating carrots from Mommy's garden with Austin.

Hanging out in our new bouncy castle with Mommy.

Acting like a scary dragon. Or at least laughing at Austin acting like a scary dragon.

A naked ride on a slip and slide.

Climbing anything you can.

Hanging out with family.