February 2008

Here is the Dashingly handsome Sebastian!
I can't believe I ever thought those eyes might be brown.

Another little smile from our young man.
Here he is at his new favorite pastime the "Jumperoo"

Richard's Grandmother Vanda passed away on February 13th. It was a great loss to the family and time of sadness... with that brought the children together to spread a little JOY that only kids can.

Richard thought it would be nice for Rya to go with him to Ontario to say good bye and also to say hello to all her Ontario family. She has only seen her cousins once when she was just 4 months old. Mom and Sebastian were going to stay home. I was much more emotional about it than she was.

Rya loved the plane ride... and especially all the trets that came with it.
It was a long day and she fell asleep just before landing and stayed asleep until a few hours after making to to Mociute's house. She woke up a couple times in the night not knowing where she was and poor Teta Audra had to wake up old Dad both times. Somtimes its good to be Deaf!

The next day Rya met her cousins Ula, Sinead, and Liam. What a treat to have all these new friends to play with. From what I've been told... she stood back and watched more than played... She is sizing up everyone... this summer she will be right in the thick of the chaos and mayhem!

Teta Ramona was wise to bring new toys for the kids to keep them busy... even if only for a short while.

Rya's bath buddies Sinead and Ula

A nice post bath book with Uncle Damian!

Cousins Liam and Lachlan

Cousins Andrina, Sinead, Graydon, Aidan, Lachlan, Liam and Ula and great friend Meridian.

Rya speaks fondly of the "crunchie" snow. We don't get crunchie snow here... more like slooshie.

Saying goodbye to cousins Ula, Sinead adn Liam and Uncle Damian and Teta Audra.

The Paparazzi?

At her first hockey game with Mociute and Andrina watching cousin Graydon.

Hockey games are too long...

After the game at Andrina and Graydon's house for dinner and a little music?

Beanie Baby heaven?

Saying good bye to Teta Ramona and Uncle John and the boys.

It was a very busy, exciting 5 days but time to go home... someone needs a nap!!!
...And a face wash. I couldn't help but notice in most of the pictures Rya is in need of a face wash. Come on Dad!

Thanks for taking such good care of my family. It was so great to get them both home safely.

See you all in the summer!!!

January 2008

New Year's Eve 2007 party at the new neighbour's house. It was a mess, everyone ended up naked in the bath. Well, all the kids anyway. What a great welcome to the New Year in our new town with our new friends. The picture has been blurred to protect the guilty.

January 1st 2008 we went down to the beach and played on the rocks. It was a little chilly but the beach often is.

It was a little too exciting for some of us... slepping off the party from the night before.
Dad is sporting his Mountain Man winter beard... hurry up summer!

Rya said that Toby needed a cuddle in the soft blanket. She was feeling sad. Rya's big question these days is "Are you happy?" "Are you sad?" Toby was feeling "sad".

Sorry the video is a little dark.. we are kinda low tech. You get the jist tho.

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vLurPBklAsAuK7RcBEYuKlTgOO5L2aeHdKNlrgtcRjO9j7RdSdg8wcu7PIhPCabQ50I9AnjHfuszfA9ZE2VEko52fe0sQBRDwaNnAJtxuhy6fymCZUjHCpKjRhj9SvAJVRHj/s1600-h/PC290308.JPG"> We have a picture of Rya like this... somewhere. If you look back in the first month of this blog it should be there. They sure look like brother and sister.

Rya loves her new house coat from cousin Tynan!

One sticker mean a pee on the potty... two stickers mean...

Good Boy Sebastian... rip it off!!!

Mr. Happy!

Fauxhawk!

Couldn't be my kid!

First day of Daycare.

And a little ... SNL.

and a little science...

Christmas 2007

As much as I have complained about how busy it is in the house with two little ones... somehow I managed to do more baking than I ever have before! It is also super fun to bake with Rya and have somthing to do after nap time in the afternoon. We made three different kinds of Shortbread, Gingerbread men and ladies, and two Sweet Potato pies! (nummmy). For all those who may have wondered... yellow sweet potatoes are no sweeter than regular potatoes.. yes I bought the wrong kind. Thankfully I Googled "Sweet potatoes and yams the difference" and found out the truth before I made the pie. Yams are best if you want it sweet. Just so you know.

We had Christmas at my brother's house this year with our parents and also Jen's(Malcolm's future wife) parents. They live in Brakendale just passed Squamish. It is the Bald Eagle catitol of the world. This time of year there are so many we saw upwards of 20 just in and around the river walking distance from Malcolm's house. Pretty cool.

Rya loves the Christmas tree and all the ornaments. Notice the tiny little ranger outfit to the right. Grandma brought that back from her trip to the Grand Canyon... it is freakishly cute! It should fit Sebastian by the summer... there will be pictures forsure!

Rya is having Grandpa read her favorite story from the Berenstain Bears. We all read it several times on this trip. Rya loves the doctor story and talks about the stethoscope and autoscope and the "shots". She is very interessted in all things "Doctor" these days. We went for a checkup after Christmas because her cough seemed to be getting worse.. and well it was a good excuse for her to go while she is so into the Dr. Se blew our Dr. away by naming all the things he was to do to her while getting the check-up. Named the tools too! It was pretty funny. Then she said "don't forget the booster shots"! She didn't need any this time... hopefully she will be this easy when it is time for those shots!

This is the family Christmas Eve taking in a Danish tradition from Jen's parents Joan and Paul. They prepared a full 8 course Smorgasborg (sp?). Inbetween each course we toast and drink a full shot of shnapps(sp?) those who were breastfeeding were excused of course! By the 5th toast it was getting pretty funny!

We had a 5 dog Christmas. The dogs were almost as spoiled as the kids. Sorry about the allergies Mal.

Rya loved all the dogs... especially little Patches! When she first saw him she said "there is a teeny tiny dog!" It was love at first sight.

When we had had enough of the doctor story, Rya had to read it on her own.

Auntie Jen reading "The Night Before Christmas" to Rya.

Jen and Richard Christmas Eve... after the Shnapps.

Rya was pretty excited to get the last two characters from her fav. DVD The Little Einsteins.

Sporting her Christmas cracker crown and her Kinder eggs

Poor Sebastian... gotta sport teh darn reindeer antlers. Cute though... can't help it.

Merry Christmas little man!

Uncle Malcolm had to wear the reindeer antlers too.

This clip is of Sebastian rocking with his Maracas from Jen and Mal. I walked into it and could stop laughing.

Here is Rya opening her gift from cousin Tynan. It arrived late so we got to open it at home. For Rya Christmas just kept on giving. I filmed the first half of opening the box but for some reason I couldn't upload it. This was the best I could get.

Thanks again Tynan She loved the pressies! especially the toy camera... she slept with it last night. (sigh)

SNOW!

I heard on the radio that is was suppose to snow but I didn't believe it. This picture was taken in the morning before it REALLY started to snow. The flakes were huge and it piled up so fast. It was a great snow day. I am doing this the very next day and the snow is all gone it is 12 degrees and sunny. I do love this Sunshine Coast weather. Rya was a little disappointed this morning though when we went outside and the snow was GONE!

This is from the week before. Richard hung up all the lights. This was our first time decorating the house.

This is just outside our front door. We ended up with 20cm of snow by the end of the day!

Our Christmas card picture, not exactly Hallmark but good enough.

Here is Rya helping Richard shovel the driveway.

The finished product! I was secretly hoping for a Griswald Christmas. Perhaps we can build up to that. Or would that leave too big of a footprint for the "Green" folks.

This video clip was as close as we could get of our super smiley, and laughing boy. He just doesn't really perform for the camera.

Finally some proof of "LaughingBoy"