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.

Florida booking calendar

Hi all - I created this so we can start tracking when people want to come and easily see when there are other folks down to see us. Book early :). Email me if you want to even 'book' some tentative times. We will be there from about 1 Nov 2009 - late April 2010. Just use the blue arrows to scroll ahead to see the right months.

Here is a link to see the house too:

http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/47242.html

NOW Daniel walks

We stated that Daniel was officially walking in November but he actually would only go a few steps alone and mostly insisted that he have someone's finger to hold to get around... but finally on Jan 4th he is 100% walking everywhere on his own - here is an early example.

Christmas time

We had my sister Angela (in the photo), her husband Nevin and their two kids Ella (3 years old) and Drew (19 months old) - Nathan is posing here too.

We had lots of fun with the older kids since they were really excited about Santa and understood it much better this year. We videotaped them entering the room with all of the presents in the morning (Daniel was still in bed, oblivious to the whole deal...).

Merry Christmas

Nathan and Daniel want to wish everyone a great Christmas and new year.

Happy 1st Birthday to Daniel

Daniel turned 1 on Dec 6th!!

Daniel had a great day and ate lots of birthday cupcakes - the sticker on his forehead in the last picture says "Birthday Boy" - Steve bought a label maker and so I have labelled everything (incl poor Daniel).

Nathan had a not so great day... he wanted all of Daniel's toys to himself even though we gave Nathan a new truck to keep him occupied :). But he made it through the day... so we are good until Christmas.

Daniel running away...

Daniel has decided to forego walking and went straight to running - we are calling it official today. This is the first day that he has consistently done more than 3 steps unaided. Woohoo for him and 'oh my goodness' for us... :)

Halloween pictures of the boys

Here are some pics of the boys in their Halloween costumes

New fall pics

I want to get these up before the snow falls... these were taken on Oct 13 (Nathan 3 years and a bit, and Daniel 10 months old), in our yard in New Brunswick. They did well to sit still long enough to get some good pics - though once the baby got a leaf it was all downhill as all he wanted to do was eat them...

Nathan bday video

Nathan asking about why there was fire being put on his cake...

Nathan bday pics

Nathan had his 3rd birthday on Sep 28th ... he got lots of great presents and had a good day despite having a cold.

Daniel hitting the bottle...

Daniel playing with his favourite Keith's bottle

Daniel working on crawling...

Daniel is certainly getting the idea about crawling - he just has to figure out what he needs to move at the right time.

Our favourite MB next-door neighbours

We are more than fortunate to have great next-door neighbours in Pinawa - Nathan has adopted them and vice versa - when they are in town, Nathan is there all day and then some.

To the right is Tia with Nathan - Nathan wakes up and asks where is Tia? can I go see her? when will she be awake?

Daniel also made sure he got a girlfriend out of the deal - here is Daniel with Jayde.

Two boys together

Nathan and Daniel playing well together.

Daniel trying to stand

Daniel is already working on his standing - he is pretty proud of his efforts!

Say "mama"

I have been working on Daniel since he spends most days babbling 'dada' and 'yaya'. This was all I could catch on video before the batteries went dead in the camera.

Daniel can sit... 8 months old

Big news, the little man went from not sitting at all... to sitting like a little champ. We spent only a couple of days putting cushions etc behind him and now we no longer bother since he is so solid. Way to go little man! :)

The deck is done!!

Steve and Jon had a hiatus when they had their little vacation but came back refreshed and finished the deck in no time at all. It is huge and great and we have spent most of our time out there.

Green Daniel

Daniel is proud that he is at least one half tree hugger...

Nathan ready for work

Nathan saw Daddy leave for the day so he thought he would get ready for work too... but he didn't have pants on... so he put his phones the only place left.. makes sense!

Attack of the black marker

Non-toxic of course! ... while Nathan was making a picture for his favourite friend Claire, Daniel decided to get in on the action - and since he is immobile, he had to draw on his face instead of the paper..

Daniel - two teeth as of Jun 23

Daniel just popped out his first tooth on June 11th and the second on June 21st. Hard to see here but squint and you might see them...