oh crap

I've been taken by the stomach flu.

I'm pretty sure it hates me, it would also like to kill me.

I'm on my death bed as I write this...

send...help...

Ode to Autumn

A little contest tag here.... Thanks Lace!

1. My favorite fall colour is Burnt orange or deep red
2. The fall meal I am most looking forward to enjoying is Homemade Pumpkin pie, with real whip cream, EXTRA whip cream!
3. My favorite fall activity is We got married in the fall.. does that count? I would love to do that every year! If that doesn't work, I really enjoy taking long walks with the family.
4. I am looking forward to wearing comfy sweaters and Ugg boots again.
5. If I were to fill my thermos/coffee mug with any beverage, it would definitely be a pumpkin/cinnamon spiced steamer.
6. My favorite fall tradition is raking leaves into a big pile in the yard. Then jumping, rolling, kicking and crunching through them.
7. My favorite spot to "take in" fall colours is any beautiful park, as long as my family is there to enjoy them with me
8. My favorite fall sound is the wind blowing the leaves to the ground
9. My favorite fall smell is fresh, crisp air!
10. Fall makes me feel refreshed, renewed, grateful to be alive

it's a tough life

It was a typical morning in our house. I was straightening up, Noah was whining. I swear... the kid doesn't have an off button. It's constant. I think someone is trying to get back at me for all the whining that I did growing up. I personally don't think I did it in excess however my Mother, bless her heart, assures me that I most definitely did.

Any old how, I've just come to accept the fact that my days from now on will be accompanied by a healthy dose of baby whining. Most of the time I try to tune it out. It doesn't always work. This particular day I came into the living room investigating the source of even more whining than usual to find this...

The poor little duffer hardly knew what to do with himself.

I was thinking a little something like this.. I wonder how long he would last under there and exactly how much I could get accomplished while he was otherwise "occupied". Hmmm

No, I thought... Surely he would just whine even louder (if that's possible) And so I freed the little captive and he went on to do great and important things throughout the rest of his day...

Like looking super cute...

He's really really ridiculously good at it

For Sale

Anyone looking to buy a cute little boy??

This week Noah decided to start growing some teeth. And when I say 'start' I mean we haven't seen any physical evidence of it, besides this...

and this...

and even more of this...

They say it will last how long?? At this rate, I might not make it to the end of the week.

Cuteness

he crawls, or scoots... or something

FINALLY!

He actually started this almost a month ago, but I haven't gotten around to getting it caught on video until now. As you will see, he still needs coaxing, because well... he's a baby and thinks he needs to be picked up and carried around everywhere. Ha. Nice try kiddo.

He's stubborn though... real stubborn. Hmmm, he must get that from his Daddy. He could sit there all day and whine and whine at me until I finally give up and go pick up his cute chubby little body. It's true. He's done it on several occasions.

Thankfully now that a couple of weeks have passed, he is tasting his independence a bit more, and well I think he's likin' it. He now will venture down the hall into his bedroom, uncoaxed and unchaperoned. This is big folks.. BIG.

On a side note, the quality of the video isn't all that great, sorry!

snug as a bug

So call me a bad mother, but when there are important things to be done around this house, like laundry and dishes, I need a moment to myself without a whiny baby right on my heels.

Yes, his new thing is 'whining' every second of every day it seems. I'm learning patience and understanding and that the odd drink now and then never hurt anyone.

I kid, I kid. Drinking doesn't help the problem. But the Backyardigans do. It's the only TV program he will watch. And when I say 'watch' I mean, he will sit there from start to finish, without a peep, except maybe to shout some excited baby babble when they start singing.

Bless their beautiful creative cartoon hearts...

I love you Backyardigans. And so does my Son...

family home evening

We decided to switch FHE to Sunday nights at our house. Just because we can. Oh and we hate all things about Monday, so it was an easy decision.

Ya right. Although I really do hate Monday's. Except for in the evening when some of my best tv shows are on and I dont do anything but sit on my couch with a pint of ice cream and get fat. Wait, that's every night. My bad.

Noah and I are headed to Strathmore on Monday night to help my poor blind sister Janay. Who as of tomorrow will be glasses free! Woo hoo! Congrats - it's a long time coming. Hence the reasoning for Sunday night FHE.

Lucky for us, Noah is at that wonderful age where he would rather be tortured than sit through a lesson, and where sitting through a lesson with him is torture for us. So for now, we skip that part and get right to the good stuff. The activity! We took a short walk and spent some time at the park.

Clearly the kid does not get out enough. He was thrilled to be leaving our house. I hear ya buddy, I hear ya.

He liked the slide, although he didn't really know what to do with it, you know besides bang his little heels against it to make some neato noises.

Here he is discovering the icky, dirty playground rocks that were just so interesting.

And here I am lunging forward to grab a fistfull that was rapidly making its way to my baby's mouth.

His new love, the swing. He didn't want to get off of it...

...and neither did Ed.

hot hot hot

Our main goal this summer is trying really hard not to melt as the temperature has been ridiculously high. We've been successful so far but it was touch and go there for awhile. C'mon, 37 degrees?? This is Canada. Seriously.

Two words. Knee Sweat. You know, when the back, inside part of your knee gets all damp and sweaty? That's a huge indicator that it's waaay to hot out. Anyone else know what I am talking about? No? Well it's gross, and now that I have confessed to having sweaty 'knee pits' I hope to never speak of this again. Ever.

Moving right along...

Aside from the heat exhaustion, we have managed to lead relatively normal lives.

We've been snuggling with our Daddy...

Splashing around in Mommy's homemade 'water park'...

Playing the Wii...

Reading highly educational books...

Showing Abuela how to play with toys...

Playing Hide and Seek (a personal favorite)...

And all the while, staying good and hydrated...

In more fun news, Noah decided to start crawling the other day. After only 9 1/2 months, I say it's about time little monkey! Now I have to figure out how to baby proof my house. Woo hoo. The first thing on my list? An entertainment center with cupboard doors. Until then however, I have the lovely job of picking up piles of DVDs from the floor and placing them neatly back on the shelf... 100 times a day.

I gave up putting them back in alphabetical order after 2 hours. sigh. If he wasn't such a handsome little toot, him and I would be having some words!

I'm 24?...

Yesterday I was sitting in the Doctor's office and there was a cute little old lady sitting next to an even cuter little old man. As they were fresh out of the latest People magazine in the waiting room that day, I had to entertain myself with other things, so I started listening to their conversation. Here's how it went...

Little Old Man: "How old are you Dear?"

Little Old Lady: "Who me? Why I am 91 this year, next year I will be 92. I have a friend named Ronald, he and I are the same age."

Little Old Man: "91? Is that all? You're just a spring chicken"

Little Old Lady: " Well I would certainly hate to see what an old Hen looks like!"


I nearly wet myself. It was prossibly the cutest thing I have ever eavesdropped on. Sigh. I hope to be as cute and fiery as that when I am 91. Fonrtunately I have many more years until that birthday.

This weekend we celebrated my big 24. Whoo Whoo! It will go down in my books for being one of the most memorable I have ever had. Not because of any extravagant gifts or over the top surprises. Because of family. I had such a wonderful, relaxing time and I was able to enjoy it with lots of close friends and family. A huge thanks to everyone who helped me to celebrate and made it a birthday to remember.

One gift in particular was the highlight of the weekend. My handsome husband thought about this all on his own and with the help of Janay, Mom and Amber, orchestrated so I didn't know a thing until the unveiling. (not for lack of trying on my part though)

So without further ado, I give you... my birthday cake...

































It was brilliant, and I loved it! It took me awhile to cut it, because I didn't want to ruin it. In the end my hungry tummy won, and it was satisfied with rich dark chocolate cake and white chocolate raspberry filling. Yumo. Do they know me or do they know me?? It was DE-lish.

And now I have the pleasure of working off all the extra poundage I gained by eating 1 or 3 or 8 pieces.

Thanks again everyone - it was fantastic!

Love,
Kevyn