I have been lazy!

Haven't posted something in a while.

No reason other than I have been lazy!

Here is the last photo of all our snow, as it has slowly started to melt. The weather man said we got over 7 feet of snow since October... CRAZY! The most on record for the area! Thank goodness there is an end in sight!!

Because it has been so miserable out, Dann and I decided we needed to spend some money (a little winter therapy). We went to a closing out sale at a local furniture store. We had nothing in mind to purchase, just looking. We ended up buying Emma this leather chair and ottoman. We got it for a racy deal and it is so cute! She really likes it. It was a good thing Emma stayed home when we went shopping because we saw a huge Playhouse Bed and she would have loved it. Dann and I stewed over it for close to an hour, but decided to leave it in the store (it was hard to justify $1400 when she already has a bed)!

This is Emma putting on Ethan's jeans. It was quite amusing watching her wiggle her hips into 12 month old jeans!

Since my last post, Ethan has started rolling over! He is growing so fast. Hard to believe he will be 6 months soon!

I loved this photo.

Ethan is so fascinated with his big sister, he watches her every chance he gets!

Her is Emma imitating Dann and I.

She is putting eye drops in her dolly's eyes.

Ethan and mom hanging out!

That's all for now.

I will try not to be so lazy and post something a bit quicker than last time!

Hope this finds you all well!!

Daddy/Daughter Time

Last week Dann & Emma made a quick trip to Edmonton to visit family & friends, while Ethan & I stayed home fending for ourselves. I loved the fact that I did not have to get up @ 7:00 a.m. to watch Treehouse or make oatmeal. Ethan and I hung out in bed and watched Regis & Kelly. It reminded me of the days when Emma was a baby (the only difference was I watched repeats of Dawson's Creek with Emma).

Emma loves visiting her cousins, and when she gets back home all of her dolls and stuffed animals undergo name changes to "Natasha", "Taryn", "Courtney", "Jenna" etc. (she has so many to choose from).

Dann and Emma also spent some time with Jim & Kerry (old school friends of Dann's). Emma loves playing with their kids, Abbey & Max. Emma & Abbey went to West Ed to hang out for the day, while Max stayed home with his nanny.

The girls had a blast together and of course a visit to West Ed would not be complete without an afternoon @ Galaxyland play area.

It took Emma a little time to warm up to the idea of riding rides (2 hours) but after she saw how much fun Abbey was having, she jumped in with both feet. The girls really enjoyed themselves.


As I mentioned before, Dann & Emma's trip was quick (3 days) thus it hardly felt like they had left and they were back home. Emma was a normal 4 year old, and pushed every button of Daddy's on the trip home. She asked a zillion times "are we home yet?", "how much longer?", "can we stop and stretch, cause my bum hurts from sitting?" When Dann tried to make the trip a bit more enjoyable by putting on a movie for Emma, she would watch for a few minutes and then tell Dann that he could turn the DVD off as she wanted to play with her toys instead (hahaha, I knew I stayed home for a reason)!!



Even after trying times, Emma still knows how to win back our hearts by saying something sweet or doing something silly... refer to picture below!


Emma discovered how to cross her eyes.
Her comment to Dann was, "when I do this, I see two Daddies!"
Moments like that make being a parent all worth it...

... still love those little baby feet!

he's soooo cute!

While Dann and Emma were in Edmonton, I unpacked all of my old Barbies that my mom kept, including furniture, a baby nursery and many clothes. The kitchen and bathroom once belonged to a family friend, Carmel.

I decided to use a part of Emma's dresser for a Barbie apartment. The bathroom, bedroom, and nursery are on the top floor and the living room and kitchen on the bottom floor.

When Emma came home she could hardly contain herself. She has been playing "Barbies" ever since. Of course this means that Dann and I have spent our fair share of time in Emma's room playing Barbies too. One day Ethan was having his morning nap and Dann and I were both playing Barbies with Emma. Dann started to make funny adult comments about the dolls and their rooms, so I thought I would share...

Here is Teenage Barbie. She could not keep her legs closed and got knocked up. Now she spends her Friday evenings in the nursery with her triplets... dirty whore!

Here is Homo Ken cooking in the kitchen. His Speedo was in the wash, so he wore his new track shorts & white Army boots instead. He is auditioning next week for the Village People come-back tour!

Porno Barbie got herself a new pink scooter. She likes to wear her black leather coat with nothing else on. Hopefully she does not wipe out or there could be some serious road rash in unspeakable places!

Crack Whore Barbie (on the left) and Call Girl Barbie are hanging out exchanging stories.

Their work is very similar, the "Johns" are just different!

Genevieve Barbie is hangin' out while Ballerina Barbie takes a bath. I think Genevieve Barbie is hoping Ballerina Barbie asks her to wash her back. If that happens, maybe Porno Barbie will stop by to visit!

I'm a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie World...

HAHAHA!

Parenting Is Hard Work

The last few days have been rather trying around our house with Emma's pink eye. I think I am getting a head of myself, so I will back up and start from the beginning.

We took Emma to the doctor and he confirmed that she had a bacterial eye infection and would require some antibiotics (eye drops). Emma was very brave while the doctor examined her, and we congratulated her after the visit as she has been rather apprehensive in the past when it came to going to the doctor. We went for a special treat afterwards and got her prescription filled. We headed home and Dann immediately put some drops in her eyes, and Emma sat very still while he did it. Emma stated the drops did not hurt and she was very proud of herself and so were we! The following morning she needed the drops again (twice a day) and she asked me to do it rather than Dann. No problem, so she lied on the bed and I put them in. This is where the story takes a turn for the worst. That night I told Emma it was time for her eye drops and she stated she did not want them. Dann and I explained that she needed the drops twice a day so her infection would go away. "NOPE" was her answer, I do not want them!! We danced around a lot, trying to convince Emma that she needed the drops. No can do!! We had to resort to alternative measures... I tried to hold Emma down to put them in, which was not working (strong little girl), so Dann and I proceeded to both hold her down (legs, arms & head), while she screamed horrifically. I managed to pry her eyes open and put a single drop in each, not an easy task when "Lucifer" is squeezing her eyes shut. This behaviour was copied yesterday and this morning. It felt like Dann and I were wrestling with an uncooperative client. For those of you who have seen Emma have one of her "melt downs", I am sure you can in vision my story (I believe JL & Adam saw Lucifer come out one evening when I picked Emma up at their place after work... all because she did not want to get into her car seat)!!

Anyhoo....

I do not believe holding down a wild animal (aka: your child) to administer medication was in the parent manual when Dann and I signed up for it... hahaha, being a parent is rather difficult some days!!

bad indoor play park...

It has been snowing off and on the past week (actually it's been snowing the last four months but who's counting), so we thought we would take the kids to McDonald's on Friday for lunch. We invited the next door neighbour and her three kids as we thought they could all run around the indoor play park and burn off some of the built up energy which seems to be accumulating more and more each month.

The kids were having fun until this boy, who we will call "the devil" had a temper tantrum inside the play house. The kids just got out of his way and came back to the table to eat their hamburger. After lunch they went back to playing and so did the devil and his bad temper. The devil child came back into the play house screaming and started kicking & pushing all the kids around. This kid was about 5 years old and when Dann, Leanne and I asked who's kid it was, nobody claimed him. He ended up kicking Ryan (next door neighbour's boy) and then pushed Emma down to the ground on her bum. Dann had to go into the play tube, to get the kids out and away from this little boy (there was 7 kids trying to get away from the devil boy).

After all the kids were safe, Dann was walking back to our table and he said in passing, "who's kid is that anyway?" Then this mom who was sitting at the table across from us spoke up and said, "he's mine." She did not move from the table, just oblivious...

Hey, I know all kids have their moments and Emma has her fair share, but this stunned mom was not willing to address the problem, even when her son was hurting other children... that just makes me mad!!

Not only did Emma get pushed to the ground playing, I believe she contracted Pink Eye from the indoor play park too. We are off to the doctor this afternoon for some antibiotics....

Poor Chicken!

Even though Emma's eyes are ichy and sore, she still loves to play with Ethan and he enjoys all the attention.

Everyone keeps telling me that Ethan looks like me or my side of the family, but I do see some Dann in him too! If nothing else, they both enjoy being naked, even though this photo only has one boy in his Birthday Suit (I thought I would spare you the image of both of them)!

Back Home

Emma, Ethan and I packed up our bags 2 weeks ago and invaded my parents house while Dann finished some of our house renos.

Dann has wanted to build a play room in the basement since we moved in, thus he finally got around to it. Dann framed up our storage room and sided the room with panelling. He painted the panelling to match the rest of the basement (bluff), put down a foam floor and then used our old area rug for the final touch.

(Dann even framed in a plastic mirror on the wall so the kids can look at themselves - he thinks of everything)!

Emma was so excited to see the finished product! Dann moved the kitchen centre out of Emma's room and put it down in the "new" room. She has spent countless hours playing in her new play room already and we have only been home for a couple of days. Not sure if Emma will like sharing her new space with her baby brother, once he is on the move!

Dann painted the last wall in the kitchen (now the walls are all one color)...

and the stairs now have white painted risers instead of white paper risers.

I think the risers turned out great... I have such a handy husband!

Enough reno photos...
lets look at the kids now!


Ethan is now 4 months old.
He is 21 pounds and 27 inches long.

Those thighs are bought and paid for...

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Mom was excited to celebrate her special day with her grand kids.

While we were away, we spent some time with Great-Grandma.

She is going to be 93 this summer, and still lives on her own in her house.

I think she has more energy than humanly possible!

Holding Ethan brought a sparkle to her eye, which was nice to see.

Emma also got a chance to spend 4 days with her cousin, as Dean and Richelle came home for a quick trip while we were at my parent's (to meet Ethan and visit Great-Grandma). We all had a nice visit, even if it was short.

Great-Grandma with her two Great-Grand Daughters

I managed to make a quick trip to Calgary to visit my old roommate and some family. Kari's youngest son Jack could not get enough of Ethan. All Jack wanted was to get as close as possible to Ethan. Jack is a big boy, so we had to hold him back on a few occasions.

I also got a visit in with my friend Janice. Her youngest daughter Olivia and Emma had a ball together. They were attached at the hip and played like old pals.

My cousin Debbie stopped over to Mom & Dad's the last night we were there. Grandma Deb loved Ethan and was ready to take him home! Yup, I said Grandma!! This Foxy Granny has 3 grand kids of her own and one more on the way!

We will end this slide show with a pic of Ethan in his highchair.

Nothing New

I don't really have anything new to post, so I thought I would put on a couple new photos and call it good!

Emma loves using all of Ethan's baby things with her dolls...

and

A close up of our little guy!

Bye for now!!

Always something...

I swear, we are always changing something in our house... never happy with the way it is. I have seen some wood stairs in my designer mags with their risers painted white. I personally have never liked all wood (like it is now) and I think we should paint them white. We put white paper on all of the risers to see if we like it.

The above photo has 2/3 of the stairs done... what do you think?
Paint them white or keep them brown??

The photo below has all the risers done in white to give you a better idea.
Any input is welcomed!!

Emma and Dann got creative with her veggies!

We got out the exersaucer for a try. Ethan loved it... with a little help of some blankets to keep him from slouching over too far. He is pushing lots with his legs lately and holds his head up well.

Sisterly/Brotherly love!!

Ethan just hangin' out!