Daniel - talking now...?

Daniel is starting to talk but sometimes things don't come out just quite right...

This is what he says when he wants 'Mommy to come to the beach'....

Daniel and mommy's favourite sign

Daniel learned a few words in sign language when he was younger and this is my personal favourite - I wanted to video it before he stopped doing it and started saying it - since he talking lots and lots these days.

Manatees returned to the canal

Waahoo... we saw the manatees again in the canal - here are a couple of the better videos. It was almost sunset so the light makes for grainy shots - but they are still cool!!!! There were 3 big ones out there swimming together.

Merry Xmas - Tante Andréa

This one took a few tries... :) can't post them all, but it took 5 takes.

Daniel showing off the 'tree'

Well I didn't want to spend $50US on a real tree brought down here from Michigan so this is our first tree so far (I have a second one but don't have pics yet.. they will come later).

Daniel is pointing out the features of the tree and showing off his counting abilities... 'one.... two.... one... two...".

Daniel's 2nd Birthday (Dec 6th)

Daniel celebrated his 2nd birthday in the sun and surf of Florida. Luckily we had some friends visiting so we had some other folks to wear sponge bob square pants hats! Mark, Lisa, and their little guy Riley helped sing Happy Birthday and eat some birthday cake and cupcakes (most adults ate the cupcakes after witnessing Daniel put the last candle out with a bit too much 'gusto' and saliva!).

Merry Xmas - Levesque's (lower)

Merry Christmas to Karine and Beatrice - have a wonderful first Christmas together! :)

Merry Xmas - Levesque's in Montreal (upper)

Merry Christmas to Tante Ghislaine and Oncle Andre - via Nathan.

Merry Xmas - Landry's

Merry Christmas to the Landry's via Nathan.

Merry Xmas - James's

Merry Christmas to the James's in Pinawa - via Nathan.

Merry Xmas - Grandma and Clough's in Ontario

Merry Christmas to Grandma Peake, Great Aunt Pat, and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa in Ontario from Nathan.

Merry Xmas - Grandmaman

Merry Christmas to Grandmaman from Nathan.

Merry Xmas - Kinley's

Merry Christmas to the Kinley's from Nathan (and Daniel... sort of).

Merry Christmas - Majewski's

Merry Christmas wish from Nathan and Daniel to the Majewski's in Winnipeg.

Have fun and safe travels on your Hawaii trip!

Great Adoption News

No, not in our immediate family but I am ridiculously overjoyed to announce that my cousin, Karine, and my great Manitoba neighbours, Rhonda and Garth, have both welcomed new additions to their families.

As an adoptee myself I am one of their biggest cheer leaders - but am also over-the-top proud that I was able to write reference letters for both of them during their adoption processes to talk about how they were THE perfect candidates to be adoptive parents.

My cousin Karine has welcomed her first little girl, Beatrice, who arrived in early November from Haiti. She is doing so well with her new mommy - and her grandparents think the world of this little cutie. I am not sure when I will get to meet Beatrice but I am so happy that she has fit into her new life with her new mommy so perfectly!!!!




Rhonda and Garth, my great neighbours in Pinawa MB, welcomed home new little Zoey (their second daughter), also in early November. Big sister Andie looks very proud too! I have not met Zoey yet because I left MB before she arrived - but I am looking forward to meeting her in the spring when I return to MB.



I am SOOO happy for both families and can not express how proud I am that you have found these little girls that were truly meant to be yours.

More big fish from the big Peake boys

Well the boys have started a baracuda competition - who can catch the biggest... Steve is winning as of Nov 20th.

Going out of the canal for a late afternoon fishing foray just out on the reef within a mile of our beach house. Daniel got to sit up top with Uncle Jon.



Jon caught a nice one - tried to hold it in the water to clean it up before a nice picture with the two of them but the fish decided to take off while he could... so no pic of him holding it...



Steve's catch #1



Steve's catch #2 - current competition winner barucuda - estimated to be more than 15 pounds.

Fishing in Florida...

Well the boys (big boys - Steve and Jon) finally figured out how to catch some fish.

This is a sampler of Jon's haul from 19 Nov.

Yellowtail snapper



Grouper



Baracuda - about 15lbs

Florida Booking Calendar

I will repost the calendar so folks don't have to search for it if they need to see it.

Use the arrow buttons to move ahead to future months.

Feeding tarpon off the docks at Robbies

We heard about an Islamorada tradition - feeding the tarpon at Robbies (restaurant and tourist place). So I hooked up the bike trailer the little boys and I rode down there to check it out this morning.

So for those that might now know, tarpon are a BIG fish...

"tarpon are large coastal fish growing up to 8 feet in length. They are large-headed, relatively slender silver-sided fish with extremely large scales."(from Wikipedia)

Make sure to click PLAY on the videos below (2 bottom images).

More FL widlife - BIG iguana

A big iguana up in a tree... I had no clue they had big ones like that down here - it was about 2 feet for just the body and then the long tail - hard to tell up in the tree.



And yes that is Daniel chasing it with a stick when it came down from the tree... gosh where do they learn to be such boys!

Play park extraordinaire - Marathon FL

We found a great play park about 30min from us in the town of Marathon. That is where we go grocery shopping so I went to the park with the little boys while Steve and his brother Jon went shopping around town.

Manatees in the canal!

A neighbour across the road called us over to tell us there were some visitors in the canal. Three manatees - looked like mama, papa, and baby. The neighbour fed them some lettuce but then thought better of it since I think they are near sacred and you should not feed them (wasn't us!).

They like to stick their heads out and drink the freshwater from the hoses by the boat docks.

Here are some still pics of the same animals:

Islamorada FL

Alright - made it to Florida for our sabbatical adventure.

The little boys and Michelle made it late on Nov 3rd and the first day was hot and sunny - since then (this is now Day 5) it has been SUPER windy and now we are expecting to have some effects of Hurricane Ida - so even more wind.

Here are some pics from Day 1.



Gee do you think they are relaxed and enjoying themselves so far??



Daniel enjoyed a nice float around thanks to Dad - Nathan lasted 3min, Daniel lasted about 30min.



Steve helping Nathan with some binoculars to look at Jon (way out in the distance) fishing.

Winter sliding in the land of little-to-no-slope

Well the boys wanted to slide - so you gotta do what you gotta do... I built up a small track off of our deck - one of the largest elevation drops around us :). Daniel has a few trips but Nathan was the champion slider. Press PLAY and watch Nathan in action.

Thanksgiving Weekend

The Pinawa Fire Dept had an open house on Sunday so the boys got to meet some "real life" firepeople and even get a ride on the firetruck (they have a yellow firetruck so Nathan had to explain to the fireman that the ones he has at home are red!).

Fall - Manitoba-style

Well we did not plan on having to deal with SNOW at this point - we are packing for Florida (!). We got 10cm on Oct 10th - Thanksgiving weekend. Hopefully we get some sun and slightly warmer weather so the deck cushions dry off and can get packed away!

The boys thought it was fantastic and had lots of fun - I guess this might be their only chance this winter. Steve helped them build the ugliest snowman EVER - the snow was super sticky and picked up all of the leaves that recently fell to the ground (plenty of leaves are still in the trees!) - plus the snow balls were great at picking up the deer poop off of the lawn - yum! The last picture shows poor Frosty on Day 2 after some more mild weather - though it is now snowing again right now...

Nathan turns 4!

Nathan turned a whopping 4 today (Sep 28) - but we had a little party for him on Saturday.


His fancy Lightning McQueen cake - turns out it is impossible to make red icing yourself - I used many little bottles of red dye and got runny pink icing. Luckily 4 year olds don't notice these things.... :).


Some of his guests... Rhonda (mom) and little Andie. She loved the party hat!


And so did Brooklyn sporting the double party hat look!


Here is me putting the cake down for candles to be blown out - surrounded by the party guests - Daniel, Brooklyn, Cassidy, and Nathan.

We had lots of fun and then Nathan announced he was ready for his next party on his actual birthday date... ugh!

Road trip to the Winnipeg Zoo

Rhonda (my neighbour) and I felt brave and took our kids to the zoo in Winnipeg!

We had a great day - the kids were not totally into the zoo but liked the monkeys and the bears. Then enjoyed lunch at the McDonald's playland :).


These were our 3 little monkeys lined up in their car seats for the ride - we set up a DVD player that all 3 could see, so they were pretty happy for the journey.


Daniel grabbed my sunglasses at one point and thought he looked pretty cool...


Momma and baby peacock - I don't think I have ever seen a baby peacock before!


This was a snow leopard having a nap on his/her back with feet in the air.

Summer 09

More pictures from the summer in Pinawa MB.

Riding around on our golf cart - these are the boys with the neighbour girls from both sides of our house. From right to left (front) Brooklyn, Tia with Daniel on her lap, Jayde with Nathan on her lap, and Cassidy in the back.

Summer 09 - Daniel 1st haircut

Daniel before and after his very 1st haircut. He is now 21-months old and looks like he is 4!

Fall 2008

I have been HORRIBLE and have not posted forEVER but here are some update pictures.

These are fall 2008 pictures when Nathan was 3 and Daniel was about 10.5 months or so. I took the pics out in our yard in Fredericton.