September Fun!

I'm not sure about every where else but Red Deer has been enjoying BEAUTIFUL weather in the past week or so.  On Monday it was a balmy 27 degree's!!  So we of course took full advantage of the playground.  In fact we have taken quite a few trips to different playgrounds around Red Deer.  Mostly ones where they have the rubber surface instead of sand because Joe likes to play too and I don't want to spend the whole time keeping the sand out of his mouth.  We love fall so much, it is too hot in the summer to do anything, we are all really heat sensitive so even if we have to bundle up (which we did last week) and go out and play we are more likely to do so than brave the heat in the middle of the summer.

On September 18th we really had to bundle up when we took the kids to the Lacombe Corn maze for Ally's birthday.  Since we had her party so early we wanted to do something nice with just the 4 of us to celebrate so off we went to the maze.  Ally enjoyed the maze part.  She got to tell us which way to go and she did a really good job, we only got turned around 2 or 3 times.  But it got old really quick and by the time we were done the 1st part of the maze she was done with it and wanted to play on the playground. So off we went to see the many things they had to do. We went to the "corn" box, the little houses, the playground, the speedway, the farm, the "corn"er store, and then ended up at the giant pillow.  Mom and Ally jumped on that thing for 5 whole minutes and had a great time.  Mom just about had to beat up some teenagers that were jumping a little to vigorously, but the "look" made them move away very quickly.  Of course I forgot the fully charged battery for the camera at home so we will just have to remember the experience in our imaginations.

We have spent the rest of September going to park and the doctors office for Joe.  I have been paranoid about his weight gain since he was born and when he dropped off in august I freaked and proceeded to drag him to the doctors office every 2-3 weeks to check his weight and confer with Dr. Keller.  Well at the last appointment he suggested a referral to the pediatrician.  So my meddling and anxiety got me just what I didn't want!  I figured I could keep up on his weight and then we could avoid tests.  And when the dr's office phoned with a Nov 29th appointment I figured Joe would have more than enough time to get back on his growth curve.  So when they called yesterday (Tuesday) and said there was an opening on Wednesday (today) I freaked!  I was so scared they were going to want to do every test imaginable and they would tell me I needed to start giving him formula, something I refuse to do (note; I have no problem with formula, it is great for people who need to use it).  I just don't feel that we need to use it, I worked very hard to nurse both of my kids and I plan to nurse Joe until he is a year.  So having to give him formula would be like taking something away from me.  So I spent half the day yesterday typing out all of his recorded weight and length measurements, the dates of all his milestones (crawling, standing and such) and his daily schedule.

Well we get to the doctors today and two interns were helping Dr. Mahood by doing the initial examination.  So I explained our whole situation to them and showed all of my recorded info to both of the doctors, who were, to be honest, a little amused at my level of "OCD".  It might have been the growth charts, or feeding schedules or even the point where I showed them Alexandria's growth chart.  But I could tell they were both impressed and amazed.  What a nut!  is what I'm sure they were both thinking.  And when they took the information to Dr. Mahood I'm sure they told him they thought I was nuts too LOL!  So he came in and told me that Joe is perfect.  He is just a tall, skinny boy and will probably be that way his whole entire life (and YES Pat did say "I told you so!" when I repeated this info to him).  The good doctor also said that I need to calm down and only weigh Joe at his appointed doctors visits and immunization appointments...  So there, a doctor confirmed it, I'm a anxious, neurotic, nut job with obsessive compulsive disorder .  So Joe weights 16 pounds 9 ounces and I will not find be weighing him until his 9 month checkup in November...  Hopefully!

As for Mr. Joe he is still astounding us all daily with his antics.  His new "words" this week is ba ba ba, and da da da.  And he loves to scream them while walking, yes walking, around holding onto the furniture of course.  All he does is crawl to something and pull himself up standing.  Fall down after a while then crawl to something else, stand and walk around it.  He also likes to "run" away from us when he goes somewhere he is not supposed to.  He will look over his shoulder, see us coming, turn really quickly and crawl away like a mad man.  Pat and I also pee ourselves laughing when he does this.

And Ally is adjusting well to being 4.  Although one morning she did tell Dad that she didn't want to be 4, she wanted to be 3 or 5.  Because at 5 she can go to school.  Dad then told her "well at least your not old like me!  I'm 30, now that's old!"  She looked at him and said "Dad you're not old, your tall...  Mom is old!"  HAHA funny little kid, she gets her mouth from her dad.

On another note, Pat and I are celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary this Saturday!  Yay for us!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I know we will enjoy our anniversary supper, kids free thanks to Grandma Jo!

Ally and her best friend Alyssa enjoying the leaves!

Alex got really brave and went to the top of the jungle gym and couldn't get down, she was yelling at me to come and get her!

Joe LOVED the swing, he giggled for 5 minutes straight

Sweet little Joe drinking his juice, which we HAVE to give him to keep him regular ;P

2 Weddings and a Birthday Party!

Hello September, boy am I glad to see you!  Although I will miss the summer I am all about the fall colours and cooler temperatures.  The air is so crisp and clean.  And I have to admit I LOVE wearing a heavy sweater and a toque when we take Bruce for a walk.  But before I get all crazy about fall I should update the craziness that was August.

We had a bridal shower & stagette for Des at the beginning of August.  It was a lot of work but it was SO MUCH FUN!!  We rented a limo for Des's stagette and it was my first limo ride.  We got to drink champagne and sing at the tops of our lungs while a very nice man in a suit drove our drunk butts around.

Then we had Alexandria's 4th birthday party, a month early.  Why? Well because she really wanted to go swimming for her party and the Collicutt was closed all of September so we decided that August was a good time to have it.  And it was a little cool but Ally and Connor both had fun playing in the pool.  Not as much fun as Pat and Richard but lets face it, what is funnier than two, fully clothed, 30 year old men jumping into a child's swimming pool.  Not much I'd have to say.

Then we were so lucky to celebrate Richard and Danielle Bohn's wedding!  Pat was the best man, I was a bridesmaid and Alexandria was the flower girl.  It was SO SO SO much fun.  Pat and I partied late into the night while Linda was so sweet and spent her birthday looking after the kids for us.  Matt and Zac even came down for the wedding so Matt and I spent A LOT of time on the dance floor.  Zac even danced with me a couple of times lol.  I'm not sure when, but I stole Pats tie at some point through the night and it ended up on my head.  Rich and Danielle said it was the party-o-meter LOL.

And then we celebrated Des and Matts wedding.  I was the married maid of honor (I hated being called the Matron of Honor) and Alexandria was one of the flower girls.  Pat got the not so fun job of looking after Joe for the whole day.  But Mr. Mom is really good at it lol.  I did a pretty good job of giving a speech, which I was VERY nervous about.  We couldn't stay very late at Des's wedding because Joe was very tired and Pat had to work the next day, but Alexandria threw a fit when we tried to get her to leave so we just left her there with grandma and she partied the night away lol.  It was a beautiful day and Des's looked beautiful!

And now that all the craziness is done we are not doing ANYTHING!  We are trying very hard to take a couple of weekends off because we are all exhausted.  Poor Joseph is so out of sorts that he is getting up 3-4 times a night, which is almost killing his mommy.  I have been so tired that its been a chore to pull myself out of bed to go to church on Sundays!  So we are going to spend some time just doing some stuff around the house and not taking any trips until we go to Camrose for our nephew Charlies first birthday.

Here are some pictures from August!  Enjoy!

And now t