Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From our family to yours... Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!

Umm... well... here's the tripod I got for Christmas... weird kids!

Brothers...

How to torture a 2-year old!

Alex - "Hey Connor, want to play hide and seek?"
Connor - "yes!"
Alex - "Okay, I'll hide, you count to ten hundred!"

(Connor covers his eyes and begins to count...)

Get 'em while they're young...

So, you know how they say that the passion dies after you have children? Hehe... well, I used to be really passionate about scrapbooking. I've been working really hard the last couple of weeks to try and rekindle my love affair with paper, stickers, cutters, and of course, my beloved photos. The problem is, of course, that if the kids are awake, then it's pretty much impossible, not to mention inappropriate, to indulge myself, and when the kids are asleep, I'm either too darn tired, or I have a "headache"...

I've had a couple of really productive nights, which has spurred me on a bit, and got the creative juices flowing again (see my other blog http://bcandabcroppers.blogspot.com/ ) if you're interested. So when Alex asked me today if he could scrapbook again, I thought, "What the heck". I figure if I get them started young, they'll develop a lifelong love of the hobby and I'll have a steady source of crop buddies. :) Alex showing off his page... and Connor showing off his album! He's pretty proud of it. It has an imprint of Mickey Mouse on the cover, but you can't really tell in the photo.

There we go, there's his layout! (and yes, that is Connor hanging out in his diaper... guess what he's just learned to do, and has perfected? Stripping! It's pretty challenging these days to keep clothes on him. Yesterday I found him sitting naked in the bathtub waiting for me to come and fill it with water. Wish he'd given me a heads up, I'm not sure how long he was sitting there! :)

And, can't forget Kirstin, of course. She watching the proceedings from my arms, and just waiting to get her hands on the camera. Someday soon, she'll be scrapbooking along with us.

"Bye Bye!"

$%#&... I hate when I turn the camera to take videos! Grr...

Connor waved to Cory and said "Bye bye, Daddy". Then Kirstin, looking right at Connor, waved back! It was so cute. We got all excited and over-reactive, and said "Connor, you just taught Kirstin how to say 'bye-bye'!"

So, if you're charmed by clips of babies being coached to do spontaneous things by parents who missed it on film the first time around... tilt your head and enjoy! :)

Family Portraits...

It's been a while since I've posted some updated photos of our family, so this morning we posed the whole family on the couch and snapped some impromptu family photos.

I have to say, I'm very pleased with how our portraits turned out! :)

Our family of 5! :)

Here we managed to get the dog to sit still for the picture too... quite a feat, if I do say so myself (especially since she lives with Cory's parents, but the boys insisted she be in the photo).

Cory and I (Mama and Daddy)

Kirstin

Alex

Connor

I love it when I can capture all three kids with smiles on their faces, enjoying each other's company! :)And last, but not least, Willow (Connor's contribution to the family photo). Dinah, our cat, who actually does live with us, isn't represented because the boys ran out of spuds.

My Valentines!

Valentine's Day... fun, cheesy... a neat excuse to go overboard with hearts!

Cory picked up some stuffed animals and balloons which we decorated the table with for breakfast. The kids were thrilled (well, one of them, Kirstin and Connor could care less).

Here's Connor contemplating a bag of chocolates Cory picked up for me... Cory gave me a dozen roses. He gave them to me on Friday (the 13th) because, apparently, the flower store isn't open on Saturdays. Huh! You'd think they would make an exception for Valentine's Day! He said "Can I give you your Valentine's gift early?" and I said "Why, is it a puppy and you can't leave it in the van?" Close... roses would have died too!

Pretty, eh?

And, because it's a fun holiday for kids too, here is my early morning attempt to go "Martha" on this family! I made heart shaped pancakes. This is the second time my children have had pancakes in my house. I do not cook pancakes. Not sure why, I just don't. Anyway, I only burned the first two, the next 4 turned out really well, after I'd trimmed them with scissors. (I have to remember to make a note in my cookbook that this recipe only makes 6 pancakes)

And lunch... peanut butter and jam. Okay, there isn't really any good way to make whole wheat bread look exciting, but I gave it a whirl. I remember when we used to come home from school for lunch on Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day and my Mom would serve heart shaped, or shamrock shaped, sandwiches. They always tasted a little better that way.

Goofy, I know... but it sticks in my memory! :)

And a cute story... cause my kids crack me up.

Alex took it upon himself to name each of our new stuffed animals. Kirstin's pony is "Princess Dash", Connor's lion is "Roary", Alex's tiger is "Stripey". I bought Cory a stuffed dog puppet... strictly because we thought it was cute and it made my kids laugh and say "again, again" (yeah, we're long past the romantic gifts and mementos - now if it's funny, go for it!) He's up in the first photo holding the Chocolate Orange, Cory's favourite. When you open and close the puppet's mouth, he sings the lines to that song...

"Why do birds suddenly appear,

Every time you are near?

Just like me, they long to be

Close to you!"

... and so on... Later that evening Alex was "introducing" the stuffed animals he'd named to Cory. Cory said "What's my dog's name?" And Alex said "he already has a name. He tells you himself"

You know how sometimes you hear a song over and over and you're convinced that you know the lyrics, but when you finally find out what they really are, you're way off and you're embarassed for every time you've ever sang them out loud in public?

Cory's dog's name is "Basil Jibee" according to my 4 year old. Works for us! :)

My kids are hitting new milestones daily!

We're very excited with her new ability to crawl... it's sooo cute! She can also pull herself up to standing if I sit in front of her and hold my hands out for her. She hasn't quite mastered furniture yet.

I think that I find the crawling stage so endearing because Alex only crawled for two weeks. He used to roll around the house to get where he wanted and then he went from crawling to walking so fast, we kind of missed it. Connor was a champion crawler, crawling for three months before he decided to take his first steps and I just adored it. Kirstin is about the same age as him, so maybe we'll get a couple of months out of her, too. I guess we'll see what happens.

Connor - on his second birthday. He has mastered the art of, well... tooting his own horn, I guess. He's talking up a storm, and while it's still pretty unintelligible, he has a huge vocabulary now and can get his point across quite well! :)

Alex can print all of his letters. Here's a Valentine he made for me today. It says "Happy Valentines Day". I figure that he'll learn spacing and stuff when he gets to Kindergarten. I'm just tickled that he can print letters.

And drawing!!! Just a few short weeks ago Alex was still a scribbler. Suddenly, he can colour (almost in the lines) and draw picture after picture after picture. This one is a boy and a Mama in a house eating caeser salad and ice cream cones at the table.

And, for your viewing pleasure... here's another one. And, yes, I do know I sing off-key... blame the the Martin gene. I'm okay with it, I have other talents!