May Long Pictures

Since my e-mail will no longer send pictures I'm just going to have to post them here or on Facebook.  So here are some pictures from the long weekend.  Joe is really enjoying the exersaucer that Auntie Lisa, Uncle Colin and Kaden loaned us!  He is also loving his jolly jumper, Daddy got it put up on Sunday!  Alex had lots of fun outside on Monday.  She played with her new slide, in the garden, and with Bruce!  Enjoy!

Catching up with life

After I finished year end in April I figured it would only take me a week to catch up on the house work, paperwork, craft work, yard work...  and about 10 other types of work.  But it has been almost a month and I am having a serious problem finding the time to do anything!  I chip away a little everyday but sometimes I feel like I have a toothpick and I need a jackhammer.  But I do know that I will prevail and get everything done!

It doesn't help that I started to sell Alexandria's clothing.  I kept everything she ever wore and would have gotten rid of it all after we found out Joe was a boy, but my silly sister had to be stubborn and wait until Keiran was born to find out that he was a boy.  So the clothes spent some time in Mom's basement and then they spent some more time in Des's basement.  But now they are back to haunt me and get in Pats way.  I could just take them all to Once Upon a Child and get maybe $50 for 9 Rubbermaid containers full, or I could just give them away, but I'm taking the time and energy and being a tad bit selfish for my kids.  All the money that we are getting for the clothes are going to either by new clothes for my growing duo, or is going to buy them a slide for the back yard.  And so far the money we have made has bought Alex and Joe an entire summer wardrobe :)

So my new little store on Facebook takes up quite a bit of my day.  Then there is the constant "Mom I wanna do this, and Mom I wanna do that".  The other day she would not leave me alone, so I sent her outside with a bucket full of water and about 7 other containers and some spoons.  "There play with this water!  Its lots of fun!"  I put allot of effort into sounding super excited, in hopes that she would be excited as well and leave me alone for 20 minutes.  Well 3 hours later I had to force her to come inside.  The water was a huge hit!  She has a plastic table and chairs with an umbrella that sits out on our deck.  So she spends almost every nice day out there.

Hopefully we will finish our back yard soon and then she can play in the actual yard.  We are going to be working on that soon.  Just some gravel, grass and a big rock for Bruce to pee on ;P  Oh and maybe a tree or two. 

Joe is getting so big!  He weighs 14lbs 3oz!  And he is a big happy boy!  He would weigh more but he stopped gaining so much weight right after his first set of shots.  Before April 20th he was gaining over an ounce a day but between then and May 13th he only gained 14 ounces.  That averaged out to 0.6 ounces/day.  When I expressed my concern to Doctor Keller he giggled and said "he is in the 76th percentile for his weight and the 95th percentile for height...  I think he is doing just fine."  But just to be sure I went and weighed him today and he's back to gaining 1 ounce a day lol.  Along with his being good and gaining weight he is getting really good at sleeping during the night.  He usually goes to bed around 9pm or 10 and then sleeps until around 4am.  He only gets up for about 2 minutes, for a little snack, then he goes right back to sleep until 7 or 8am!  The only thing he is not good at is sleeping during the day.  He will fight sleep for hours until I can't handle it anymore and I leave him to his fussiness lol. 

Both of the kids have been having a ball going to all the May birthday parties!  we've had 4 parties in May so far and I'm kinda glad they are done!  I love going to them and seeing the kids excitement, but oh I am so tired afterwards lol.

We have a very busy rest of May, June, July and even August ahead of us.  Lots of birthdays, a baptism, 2 bridal showers, 2 stagettes, 1 bachelor party, 2 weddings, Grandpa and Grandma's anniversary party, a family reunion, lots of yard work, and hopefully a trip to the Tyrell Museum (Alex LOVES dinosaurs), a trip to the Calgary Zoo (Alex LOVES animals), the Westerner Days, maybe even a quick camping trip in the mountains (that all depends on if Mom(Danielle) can handle it with an itty bitty, a monster(Alex) and a spaz (Bruce).

Here are some pictures of Ally and Joe.  They really enjoy taking their baths together.  Joe just stares longingly at his big sister and Alex tries to poor water over his head lol.

Have a wonderful long weekend.  Hope everyone is out camping, think of us.  We will be cleaning out the garage :)

Our Sweet little Faces

I wanted to take a really nice picture of the kids today, so I brushed Ally's hair (I could brush it a hundred times a day and it would still be messy), made her sit so nice on the couch, and placed Joey in her excited arms.  I took about 30 pictures of this beautiful duo.  Most of them were silly ones.  But as I flipped through them I came across this one and I almost cried.  Here are the two sweetest faces I have ever seen!  They are such wonderful little people, so full of love for each other and their parents.  Alex is getting so big every day.  The way she comes into our room every morning with a wonderful bright smile and the cutest greeting for her little brother.  The way she bosses EVERYONE around.  Her OCD tendencies, everything must be where she wants it or all hell will break loose.  Try to tell her that both of her shoes don't need to be pointed the same way on the shelf.  If you have the guts to do this you will get the "look", you know the one "oh gawd Mom you know nothing!".  She is 3 going on 13!  She is getting so much better at the whole potty situation, but it is still a daily struggle with her and us.  I never thought the hardest part of parenting so far would have been getting a stubborn, willful child to use the potty.  She is so resistant she will order Pat and I to change her diaper!  But we are praying it will just click one day!

Now Mr. Joseph is almost 3 months old and I can't believe he is that old.  I have to remind myself to write everything down, and take lots of pictures because it is going so fast!  He always has a smile on his face.  He smiles and talks all day long.  To his sister, dad, mom, toys... I even caught him talking to the floor one day.  He is growing so fast, last Friday he weighed 13lbs 11oz and is 25 inches tall!  For the past two nights he has slept from 11:00pm until 6:00am!  Seven wonderful hours of sleep!

Here he is playing with his gym mat.  Auntie Robyn, Uncle Nolan, Connor and Charlie were so sweet to pass this on to us, and we are so grateful they did.  Joe loves this and it will keep him entertained for quite a while.  He also loves his bouncy chair and swing.  He is really content to just sit there and watch me while I fold laundry or wash the floor.  He especially likes when I put on hip hop music and dance while I clean. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful May!

Sweet Sweet Freedom!

I am only a accountants meeting away from being done year end for 2009!  It has been a very hectic and frusterating month for us.  I have been working 8-13 hour days and it shows.  There are no clean clothes, no clean dishes, every dvd is missing its case and all the "good" toys have worn out batteries.  It took all I had to even feed the kids during the day.  But it is now done and I have never been so happy! 

Joey is growing in leaps and bounds!!  He is over 13 pounds now and is 24 1/4 inches tall!!  That puts him in the 90th percentile for height and the 76th for weight.  He is such a big, happy, beautiful boy!  Every day he changes and gets so interactive and alert.  His smiles are no longer sparatic but are a constant.  You just have to look at him and he grins!  He is starting to laugh as well.  Not too many full vocal giggles yet but they are coming.  He mostly just opens his mouth wide and no sound comes out.  Another of his cute little trick is his coy little smile;  he tucks his chin down and to the side, smiles so sweetly and looks at you through his eye lashes!  I almost cry everytime he does it!