15 Months Old

It all started 8 years ago when Rachael was 15 months old. We went to Birch Bay with some friends and got some incredible pictures of Rachael and Joey on a little bench at the beach.When Kaitlyn came along, I needed to get some cute pictures for my wall of her at the same age.She is picking Forget-me-nots at Gram's house.

So now Jaden is 15 months old and I had to get some great pictures of him, too. He loves picking dandylions and buttercups, but that was too much like Kaitlyn's pictures (and also too girlie.) So I thought I'd get pictures of him popping bubbles, but this proved pretty difficult to take. Playing with rocks and sticks around the house didn't seem cute enough.

Then I remembered the Park I went to with Rachael on her field trip. It had a nice little creek in a grove of trees. So I packed him up and off we went for a photo shoot. A little boy throwing rocks in the creek. What could be more boy-ish than that?

Veggies

So I finally got around to making a VeggieTales name to hang on Jaden's door, like his sisters have. They sure have grown since I first made them!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

(Be sure to check out the House blog!)

Shoes

Jaden sure loves his shoes! He gets so excited and will start hissing like a snake, "Sssss, ssss," which is his word for shoes. If you listen closely you can hear him say it.

And when he can't have his shoes, he makes his own! I love the "blink" at the start of the video when he thinks the camera flash will blind him. So cute!

Easter Traditions

This year was the 10th year that Auntie Kendra put on an Easter Egg Hunt for the cousins. (Rachael was 3 weeks old at the first one!)It was a little rainy this year. Actually, it was pouring when it was time to hunt eggs, and right after it turned sunny! Figures. But the girls wanted to hunt in the rain, anyway.They got a little wet, but but they still had lots of fun.Jaden was very good at finding the shinny little chocolate eggs and putting them in his basket, but then he wanted to eat them, foil and everything! Not a good idea, seeing as they're choking hazards and all.This year instead of filling the eggs with goodies, they were filled with clues to find a big Easter basket full of fun stuff... like stringy paper! After the hunt the girls made

a sweet flower craft

while the boys just played.Thanks for another great Easter, everyone!

Rachael is 9!!!

Where has the time gone? I can hardly believe my little girl is 9 years old already. She must be growing up because for her birthday she wanted skinny jeans! She never wears jeans! It makes her look too grown up.This year she convinced us to have her birthday party "somewhere". As in, not at home. So we had her party at the pool. She had lots of fun with her friends splashing around for a whilebefore eating another Auntie Kendra masterpiece.(A Littlest Pet Shop seal at a pool party.) It was a splashing good time!

Pardise is Calling Me...

...see?(I got this in the mail from people wanting me to buy travel insurance. Sure is tempting...)

Bookworms

Jaden and Nadiya reading books together.

The Big-Kid Look

After trimming the hair out of Jaden's eyes more than once, it was time for a Big Boy Haircut. (Before)I wanted to wait until after his birthday because I knew it would make him look way too little-boyish. (After)And it does! The baby look is gone. And look, he even combs his hair!I think here he looks like his second-cousin Tim.

Kaitlyn's Drama Debut

Kaitlyn performed in her first play at school on Wednesday. She was Narrator #3 in "The Mitten" - en francais, of course. (That way we couldn't tell if the kids messed up their lines!)They were so cute and they did a very good job.

Jaden's Birthday Party

On Saturday we had a few friends and family come over to help celebrate Jaden's first birthday.There were presents of coursewhich his friends helped him open.As is tradition, Auntie Kendra made the birthday cake.Hobbes riding in the back of a dump truck. How cool is that?Jaden got to have his cake and eat it, too.(You don't want to know what his diaper looked like the next day!!!)

Jaden's First Birthday!

Hard to believe, but Jaden is a whole year old already. Little boys grow up just as fast as little girls.Since his birthday was on a Wednesday this year, we are having his party on Saturday, but we still had to celebrate on the actual day, too.Jaden was fascinated by the candle. He wasn't really sure what to do with the cake, so he mostly just mushed it between his fingers.When he did finally take a bite, he must not have really cared for it because he didn't take many more bites after that.He would rather share his cake with us than eat it. (Fine by Mom!)

Olympic Spirit

The Olympics have come to our town! Well, sort of. The Russian figure skaters are practicing at the local ice rink and on Saturday we went and saw two of the couples practice. Yuko Kavaguti and Aelxander Smirnov, and Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov practiced some of their jumps, spins and twists on the ice for us to see.Yesterday the Olympic Torch passed through our town, too. Being a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Olympic Torch, us girls decided we should go see it, while the boys stayed home watching the Super Bore, which is on every year.

The girls made their own torches, we got free flags and free Olympic Coke,we saw torches of Olympics-pastand our own Canadian Torchand we saw the Olympic Torch brought in to the stadium.A once in a lifetime sight.