a couple of pics from Christmas
Birthday Boy!!
Beautiful Cakes that Grama Linda made. Joe LOVED them and tried to eat them both all by himself.
everyone had lots of fun at Cabin Fever, and the best thing was Mom didn't have to clean up afterwards!!!!
We have had a very busy couple of months and now that spring is here, it was 8* today!!, things are hopefully going to slow down a little bit. Year end is done, yay, and this was the last year that it will be all consuming and long! I'm working 1 day per week in Calgary now trying to get my work done on time. And even though its taking a bit getting used to for all of us, it will be great in the long run. We are so blessed to have my wonderful friend Alanna who is looking after the kids, bless her! They both love her and her oldest, Alyssa is Alex's best friend and her youngest, Krista is only 7 months older than Joe, so everyone gets along really well. And my wonderful husband is helping me out even more than he already did. He drops the kids off at Alanna's on Tuesday because I'm up and gone by 6:00am.I'm not sure that he gets enough credit for all the things that he does. Or maybe people assume he is like a lot of husbands/dad who do just enough to not get in trouble. Pat is my partner in every sense of the word. He comes home, after working 10 hour days and does dishes, does laundry, feeds the kids, gives them baths, reads stories, plays barbies, cuddles, kisses, slays dragons/ghosts/giants. He never goes out drinking or partying, and he spends his weekends spending time with his family or working around the house. He is an amazing father and the best husband. I just wanted everyone to know how much he does and how hard he works at work and at home :)
We really can't believe its April (this post was written over a couple of days). There is SO MUCH snow here! We still have 2-3 feet of it in the front yard, but I did see green grass on a neighbors lawn yesterday so it gives me hope! We have lots of plans for the house and yard this year. I know, I know when are we ever not working on the house or yard! It does seem to be a never ending job lol. We are planning on re-doing our kitchen next year so in preparation of that we are moving our back door and creating a mud/laundry room. Right now the back door opens right into the kitchen and I really don't like that. There is always a lot of dirt and the boots and shoes make it look very cluttered. So when we get back from Vegas we will be extending our deck, in prep for moving the door.
Some sad news, in February we made the very difficult decision to surrender Bruce. We felt terrible that we had to do it, but in the end it really was the best thing for him. He was stuck in our little back yard and our little house, and even though he loved nothing more than being around us we really couldn't find the time to be there for him. It was a huge issue for us and we felt very guilty that there were nights when we didn't have time to walk him. So we made the heart breaking decision and even though it has been hard we are so happy for Bruce because he is now living on an acreage with 2 other dogs! An acreage is what we had been planning along for years for our whole family but we made the decision to not over extend ourselves and stay in our tiny, but affordable, little house. It is very nice to know that Bruce is somewhere where he can run around with other dogs to play with.
So since we no longer have our 120lbs yard destroyer we can have a yard! Remember the sod from last year? Well Bruce had almost killed it by the fall and I think the only thing that saved it was the winter. So we will be able to have flower beds and the kids can roam free without fear of doggie bombs!
Alex and Joe are growing like bad weeds and can't wait to get outside! Pat and Alex were outside yesterday building a snow fort. Poor Joe wasn't feeling well so he was stuck inside with Mom. Alex has been having some rough emotional moment for the past couple of months. We can't pin the exact reason for her behaviour but we think its a build up of a number of things, Joe is able to get anything he wants and he ALWAYS wants what Alex has, I was very busy with year end (done now!), and it has been such a long cold winter we really haven't been able to get outside much. I'm sure once all the snow melts she will be outside and right as rain in no time. Joe is... well Joe. He runs, screams, laughs, cries and talks about everything!! most of his words are recognizable to only him but he does have a couple that he pronounces very well. That, This, Uh Oh, Yes, Joe, Kitty, Grama, Bye Bye, Soose (soother), Mum, Daddy, Baby, those are the only ones I can think of right now. But he uses them lots. He also discovered how to shake his head no and yes. It's pretty fun to watch him walk around the house vigorously shaking his head no. And when ever someone leaves the room "Bye Bye Bye Bye!". Right now his favourite toy is a Ken doll that Des, Matt & Keiran gave him for a birthday present. He loves his doll and kisses him lots lol.
We are excitedly getting ready for our trip to Vegas and our family road trip to Vancouver at the end of June. We decided to camp, since Alex is all about camping right now. So we bought a tent, that is really more like a fold up cabin. And are int he process of gathering and buying all the stuff we need. I'm not sure who is more excited, Pat or Alex, but it should be a very fun time!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!