Sorry It's Been Soooooooooo Long

Okay, okay, okay, so I don't exactly get here very often. I think my hang-up is that we never download the camera and I like doing stuff with pictures, but I've decided to turn over a new leaf and blog anyway, adding pictures later (are you happy Juanita?).Well, June was busy (I somehow missed the whole month right) but I don't know why so I can't tell you about it. I'll start with July. On July 1st we went to Airdrie's Canada Day Parade in the morning (what else do you do on Canada Day?) which was only a block from our house. After lunch, a train ride at Iron Horse Park and then cute Canada Day photos of the girls at Superstore. On the 2nd we went to the zoo with Calvin, Monika & Rebecca who were visiting from Yellowknife. (I guess they were a June thing too, we went swimming with them the Friday before)
This past weekend we went camping for the first time in our new Tent Trailer (I guess that was a June thing...) We camped at Lion's park in Red Deer, near Nana & Papa to help us get it working and near the mall for the things we forgot. It was a ton of fun!!! When we got home Nathalie was sad that we couldn't go camping again 'tomorrow'. We are looking forward to our next camping trip on the 20th. Now we are just celebrating Grace's ability to sit alone and trying to get the house ready for Nathalie's 3rd birthday party on Sunday.

May Update

I realized that I haven't been here in a while and a whole month has passed and it's been a busy one, so let me get everyone up to speed. Grace started solid food once in a while and it has become more consistent. She spits much of it out, but is getting used to the texture and taste. On May 5 we went to "baby Ryan"s first birthday and Nathalie had fun. The Piniata was an intersting challenge for a bunch of kids age 7 and under. Thanks for a fun day "Aunt" Tanya and "Uncle" Lance! That Monday, Shannon started his new job and it was great for the first week but then they sent him away the following week and the week after that and that brings us to this weeek and..... he's gone again! We are glad he enjoys working at this job but all of us are getting tired of Daddy never being around. On Mother's day we had Grace dedicated to God at Church. So many of our friends and family were able to come to church and to our little party afterwards. It is a blessing to have people around us who love and support us. Mommy was bored one afternoon and showed Nathlaie how to build "Fort Couch", this was a great thrill and (although you can't see in the picture) Daddy was the first one in and would not come out so there wasn't much room for Nathalie on the inside. Needless to say, this was a hit at our house. This weekend was a busy one. On Friday night Mommy took Nathalie to The Fun Factory (a place in Wal-Mart) where they build a stuffed animal and dress it up, for a party. It was an hour and a half and there were games and a craft and of course the building of the animal and choosing the outfit. Saturday started with swim lessons and fun on the run at the Rec Centre for Nathalie. Then home to do some baking for our lifegroup family BBQ in the afternoon. Before we could go we had to saw off some branches from our 2 trees that got broken from the heavy wet snow we had on Wednesday. Sunday we tried to start digging out some of the landscaping disasters the last people put in and have decided to hire somebody. Anyone know a good landscaper in this area? On Sunday we also noticed that if we laid Grace on her back on her palymat and left the room, when we came back she was on her tummy. We finally saw her do it on Monday. She is rolling over much earlier than her big sister did and we thought Nathalie was ahead of the curve!!! Monday was a busy day too, but I'm going to save that for a seperate post, just as soon as I figure out how to download the camera by myself.....

Just a "Little" Accident

Today has been a long day. Nathalie was tired at the start of it so when she fell asleep on the way home from running errands around 4:30 we decided to just transfer her to bed and let her have her nap, albeit late in the day. Daddy put her to bed and we thought nothing of it until.... She woke up around 6pm and came into the living room and said "i think I had a little accident the other time when I was sleeping". We looked at Nathalie and started laughing hysterically. It was all we could do. She was soaking wet! From top to bottom and side to side! Her hair was wet and her white socks were yellow (especially the left as you can see). Not sure how part of the middle of her stayed dry as you can see in the pictures but Shannon wrung out her shirt before it went to laundry. I laughed so hard my eyes watered. It wasn't her fault so no reason to yell at her, what could we do but laugh? Her bed was SOAKED! The pillow acted a bit like a sponge but when I peeled back the wring-out-able sheets AND comforter the plastic mattress cover (thank you to whoever invented that!) had a very large (bigger than Nalie) pee puddle on it too. That was a little gross to cart to the laundry but I was still laughing so hard I barely noticed. I don't know what the last time she had peed today was, but I think it had been a while because that was one BIG accident. For some of our friends, just wait till you have kids!!!

It's a Gymboree Day!

Grace has started going to Gymboree on Monday afternoons. Nathalie hangs out with Auntie Heather so Mommy and Grace can go alone. Daddy is off school/work this week so he came yesterday and took a few pictures so I had to share. Grace really likes Gymboree. It is really different for the younger kids. We do tactile stimulation, songs/rhymes, baby massage, tummy time around the mirror and so much more. I'm really enjoying the one on one time to bond with Grace without Nathalie and Nathalie loves getting attention from Auntie Heather so this is a win-win set-up. They say babies have an 8 second memory at this age but Grace gets excited when we walk into Gymboree. It's like she may not remember what we are going to do, but she knows she likes this place. I'm so glad I have the chance to take her!

A Hiking We Will Go, A Hiking We Will go.....

We took the girls on their second hike this season on Saturday. We went to Big Hill Springs Provincial Park. There is a neat spring at one end led up to by a lot of waterfalls which Nathalie really liked. The nice thing about this hike is that Nathalie hiked the whole way by herself! We had lots of fun and it feels really good to fianlly be getting out in nature again.

Happy Birthday to Mommy!

Yes, it was my birthday yesterday (for those of you that forgot). We had a relaxing morning at home and then headed into Calgary for a bit of shopping and a nice dinner out. Daddy and the girls took me to The Olive Garden for a fabulous birthday dinner. Near the end of dinner Nathalie told our waiter that it was Mommy's birthday and of course the waitstaff had to sing to me. The best birthday song was by Nathalie of course. I had fun, and I really don't feel any older, but I'm sure that will come :^)

Easter Sunday

Nathalie got bunny ears for Easter and everyone had to try them on. We aren't sure what Grace thought of them, but at least she didn't rip them off. On Easter Sunday night Mommy and Daddy went with Nana, Papa, Great Granny, Great Aunt Vera and Uncle Blair, Uncle Darcy, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Trevor and Great Uncle Richard to Jubilations Dinner Theatre to celebrate Nana's 60th birthday. Nathalie and Grace went over to 'Grampa' Joe and 'Gramma' Jean's house for the evening. From what we heard, they had almost as much fun as we did! It has us looking forward to planning another trip to the theatre for Uncle Trevor and Papa's birthday in May. Hopefully we can find a babysitter again for the girls...... I hope everyone got to enjoy their families for Easter as we did.

A Beginning

Okay, so I finally decided to start one of these things so some of our friends and family can see what we are up to all the time and so I have somewhere to put down all the joys and frustrations I face daily. I hope my family actually reads this thing. I hope this will keep Papa from always asking me for pictures of 'his girls'....